Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #3
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 1/5/2002 9:03 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

    ------------------------------

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2002 : Issue 3
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Russian inventor of Radio             [ Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      Today in OTR History                  [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      MP3 CD track order                    [ Dan Hughes <danhughes@[removed]; ]
      DRAGNET ARTICLE                       [ "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; ]
      Re: Skippy                            [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      Re: My Favorite Husband               [ GOpp@[removed] ]
      NO MENTION OF DRAGNET ORIGIN          [ grayghost@[removed] ]
      Re: Dragnet article in NY Daily News  [ "Michael Hayde" <mmeajv@[removed]; ]
      Conelrad system                       [ Neal Ellis <bstenor@[removed]; ]
      Today in Radio History                [ dougdouglass@[removed] ]
      Actors Born [removed]                     [ "John edwards" <jcebigjohn41@hotmai ]
      RE: Actors and Roles                  [ Harlan Zinck <buster@[removed]; ]
      "born to play," and Harry Bartell     [ Gary McDole <gmcdole@[removed]; ]
      Let's [removed]                      [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
      Weird Circle                          [ JE Purvis <hqsouth@[removed]; ]

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 11:50:50 -0500
    From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Russian inventor of Radio

    One of the adjuncts to my interests in radio and records is postage
    stamps relating to these.  I just found a neat web site of a Russian
    stamp dealer, and since we have been discussing WHO invented radio, I
    thought you might want to see who the Soviets thought invented radio.
    At this URL you can see the first day of issue cover for the 1989 stamp
    commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Alexander S. Popov,
    picturing an 1895 demonstration of radio.
    [removed]   (usual
    disclaimers apply.)

    Unfortunately I can't seem to locate an web image of the 1995 stamp they
    issued for the 100th anniversary of Popov's invention (Scott 6258).  I
    wish someone had told me about this anniversary when I spent the Summer
    of 1995 in Moscow.

    Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 11:50:59 -0500
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: Today in OTR History

      From Those Were The Days --

    1928 - NBC radio debuted one of radio’s first variety shows. The Dodge
    Victory Hour starred Will Rogers, Paul Whiteman and his orchestra and
    singer Al Jolson. The cost to produce this one show was $67,600.

    1932 - NBC Red presented The Carnation Contented Hour. The show
    continued on network radio for 19 years as a showcase for top singers
    and musicians. Why The Carnation Contented Hour? Because Carnation
    evaporated milk comes only from contented cows, silly.  (It began as a
    west coast show on April 26, 1931)

    1935 - Bob Hope was first heard on network radio as part of The Intimate
    Revue with Jane Froman, James Melton and the Al Goodman Orchestra.

      Joe

    --
    Visit my home page:
    [removed]~[removed]

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 11:51:24 -0500
    From: Dan Hughes <danhughes@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: MP3 CD track order

    Greg asks why his MP3 play out of order in his DVD player:

    I think that DVD players play MP3 CD tracks in alphabetical order.  So if
    the naming method wasn't consistent when the CD was made, you will have
    problems.

    All of the tracks should be named by show and date:  "ASWT110547" would
    be All Star Western Theater, Nov. 5, 1947," for example.

    If you got your shows from different sources, the names are probably not
    uniform.  So if one show is named "ASWT110547" and another is
    "AllStarWT11-12-47," the latter one will play first because "Al" comes
    before "AS" alphabetically.

    ---Dan

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 12:08:29 -0500
    From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: DRAGNET ARTICLE

    In today's (Friday) posting Sean Daughtery said that the Dragnet artcle did
    nit mention Drgnet on radio. It does in the first paragraph (though very
    small mention).  What a pity!

    Owens

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 12:10:29 -0500
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: Re: Skippy

    Ron Vickery wrote:

>     "Here comes a true friend of every girl and boy
>     each day at 5:00 he brings the joy

    >from Monday through Friday, at this time we say

>     Here Comes Skippy."

    This was indeed "Skippy," a radio adaptation of Percy Crosby's comic
    strip that aired from 1932 to 1935. The original comic strip was one of
    the most unique of its era -- with a sophisticated point of view that
    foreshadowed "Peanuts" by twenty years. However, the strip fell out of
    favor by the end of the thirties as a result of Crosby's increasing
    preoccupation with ultraconservative political causes (and his eventual
    mental breakdown -- he died institutionalized) and is unfortunately
    little remembered today. His daughter has spent the last forty years in a
    bitter legal battle with the manufacturers of Skippy Peanut Butter over
    their use of the "Skippy" trademark.

    The "Skippy" radio program was loosely adapted from the strip -- both
    revolved around Skippy and his best friend Sooky, two young working-class
    boys who lived in a poor Depression-era neighborhood. Before it turned
    into a vehicle for Crosby's political views, the strip tended toward a
    very gentle sort of philosophical humor -- but the radio show was a
    conventional adventure series, revolving around smugglers, gangsters and
    the like: it was very close kin in this respect to "Little Orphan Annie,"
    and like "Annie" was occasionally condemned by Concerned Parents worried
    about its occasionally-violent content. The program was written by Robert
    Hardy Andrews, a former newspaperman turned out vast amounts of serial
    material for the Hummert factory in the thirties.

    No recordings are known to exist, although the program *was* recorded for
    extension spotting during the 1932-33 season. It's entirely possible that
    a disc or two may someday surface.

    Elizabeth

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 12:11:47 -0500
    From: GOpp@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Re:  My Favorite Husband

>     Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 13:42:22 -0500
>     From: "Bob Watson" <crw912@[removed];
>     To: <[removed]@[removed];
>     Subject: My Favorite Husband

>     I have been enjoying the My Favorite Husband entries on the I Love Lucy DVD
>     set.  Up until now, I haven't had much exposure to this series.  I would
>     like to know what episode was George and Liz's last name changed from Cugat
>     to Cooper.

    Dad changed the name from "Cugat" to the more waspish "Cooper" on January
    7, 1949, in the episode entitled "Over Budget/Beans", to coincide with
    the first show sponsored by General Foods (JELLO).

    [removed]

    It's just a coincidence (because the name Cugat was taken from Isobel
    Scott Rorick's book, "Mr. and Mrs. Cugat"), but isn't it ironic that in
    Lucy's radio sitcom her husband had the name of a famous Cuban
    bandleader, and when she moved to TV, her husband WAS a famous Cuban
    bandleader.

    - Gregg Oppenheimer

    [removed] Before someone corrects me, I know that Xavier Cugat was born in
    Spain. However, his family moved to Cuba when he was only three.

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 12:14:44 -0500
    From: grayghost@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: NO MENTION OF DRAGNET ORIGIN

    Being a new member of the Digest, and from "across the big pond," I hesitate
    to rebite a statement by Sean Daughty about the article on Drasgnet not
    mentioning the Vintage radio (as I like to call it), origins of the show.  In
    the very first paragraph it states that  Dragnet did get its start in radio.
    Hate to be pickey, but also hate to see such a little mention of its origins.

    Gray Ghost

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 12:22:53 -0500
    From: "Michael Hayde" <mmeajv@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Re: Dragnet article in NY Daily News

    Sean Dougherty wrote:

>     There is an article about Dragnet in today's New York Daily News that
>     doesn't mention the show's radio [removed]

    True, the article pushed "Dragnet" on television, but it DID mention the
    radio version, in the second paragraph:  "Like so many series during the
    formative years of TV, "Dragnet" came from radio, where Webb's no-nonsense
    narration as Sgt. Joe Friday had made it a distinctive hit since 1949."

    Even so, the piece was basically just fluff and contained a few errors, and
    since Joe would've wanted "just the facts," I submitted my own write-up to
    the Daily News message forum, just as you did.

    Michael J. Hayde

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 12:25:01 -0500
    From: Neal Ellis <bstenor@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Conelrad system

    Hi,

    I am an audio engineer at National Public Radio and an old time radio
    collector.  All Things Conisdered is about to do a piece on the old
    conelrad (I hope this is spelled correctly) system.

    Does anyone have any recroded [removed] etc.
    We would like to use them for the piece which is slated to air next
    week.

    Neal Ellis
    Audio Engineer
    National Public Radio

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 14:23:37 -0500
    From: dougdouglass@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Today in Radio History

    I want to thank Joe Mackey for "Today in Radio History".  He takes the
    time to search several sources each day to bring us the information
    which often creates very interesting discussions.

    ---Doug

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 15:07:15 -0500
    From: "John edwards" <jcebigjohn41@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Actors Born [removed]

    Hi, I though Harry Bartell makes a very good point about actors who were
    born to play a particuliar part on radio.  If an actor was the 1st & only
    one to play the part how could you know if another wouldn't have done an
    equally outstanding job in the [removed] just develop the character
    differently.  It does make it very difficult for a replacement to measure up
    to your expectations though.  I loved Mandel Kramer as an actor but as Yours
    Truly, Johnny Dollar I was always comparing him in my mind with Bob Bailey
    (my favorite Johnny Dollar)...certainly did not mean that Mandel was a very
    good [removed]  Thanks John Edwards

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 18:02:05 -0500
    From: Harlan Zinck <buster@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: RE: Actors and Roles

    My thanks to Harry Bartel for helping me clarify a thought that's been
    rolling around my head ever since this "born-to-play" thread started.

    Mr. Bartel wrote:

>     Has it ever occurred to those making selections that they have never heard
>     any other
>     performers play those roles? <snip> The characters developed over time as
>     the actors became more familiar with the scripts and the scripts with the
>     actors.

    I'll take this one step further: there are some roles that were "born" to
    be played by certain actors, not the other way around.

    Take, for example, Connie Brooks - played to perfection by Eve Arden on
    "Our Miss Brooks." Connie could have been played by any number of actresses
    and each would have played the part differently (for better or worse would
    be a matter of opinion). Examples might include Joan Davis, Lucille Ball,
    Lurene Tuttle, or even Verna Felton. But the fact is that Connie Brooks was
    *created* to be played by Eve Arden - meaning that Connie was born to be
    played by Eve, not the other way around.

    Same applies to Britt Ponset, who was created - or "born" - to be played by
    James Stewart. Perhaps the show would have sold had the part been played by
    someone else, but the series was created for Stewart and Ponset really only
    existed for Stewart to play the part.

    The same situation applies to Dan Holiday, born be be played by Alan Ladd
    on "Box 13," Amos Jones & Andrew H. Brown, born to be played by Freeman
    Gosden and Charles Correll, any of the well-known radio/TV characters
    played by Red Skelton over the years, Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, born to
    be played by Hal Peary, Fibber McGee, born to be played by Jim Jordan, and
    so on and so on.

    Now, in a slightly different and somewhat more convoluted way, the same can
    be said for Frankie Remley. Remley was originally a real person, of course
    - the guitar player in Phil Harris' band - whose name came to stand for
    every drunken, shiftless, layabout musician known to man via endless
    references to him on the Jack Benny programs. However, when the decision
    was made to turn Remley into a speaking part on the "Phil Harris/Alice Faye
    Show," the man actually born to *be* Frankie Remley turned out not to be
    the man born to *play* him. The real Remley wasn't very good as an actor so
    he personally recommended Elliott Lewis for the part and the rest is radio
    history. Thus, even in this case, it could be argued that the actual
    speaking role of Frankie Remley was "born" to be played by Elliott Lewis,
    not the other way around. Had he not existed, the writers may not have
    written the part at all.

    Now then, getting back to the original "born-to-play" string, I would add
    the name of one actor who was born to play *himself* - or, at least, the
    character that his name came to represent: Jack Benny, who is often spoken
    of as one of the nicest, most generous, gracious, and down-to-earth
    gentlemen ever to succeed in show business, was definitely born to play
    "Jack Benny," the cheap, vain, skinflint miser who'd do anything to save a
    buck.

    An hilarious, skillful, well-timed, and beautifully acted characterization
    that endured for well over 40 years.

    Harlan

    Harlan Zinck
    First Generation Radio Archives
    [removed]

    PS: The Archives has just released its latest newsletter, announcing the
    most recent first-generation, direct-from-disk additions to our CD
    libraries. Send your name and address to newsletter@[removed] for a
    free subscription.

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 18:40:45 -0500
    From: Gary McDole <gmcdole@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: "born to play," and Harry Bartell

    Harry Bartell <bartell@[removed]; wrote:

>     There has been a lot of discussion lately about "Born-to-Play"
>     Has it ever occurred to those making selections that they have never
>     heard any other performers play those roles?

    As someone who very seldom posts to the Digest, I was thinking the same
    thing but was reluctant to say it.  Also, sometimes when more than one
    actor has played a role, our idea of how the character "should" be played
    may be determined by who we first heard (or saw) in the role.  Not to
    mention that there's sometimes a fine line between "born to play" and
    "typecasting."

    Having said that, I'll add something, at the risk of sounding
    sycophantic.  When I began collecting OTR a little over a year ago, one of
    the first three series I started acquiring was "The New Adventures of Nero
    Wolfe."  During the 26 episode run of that series, five actors had played
    Archie Goodwin.  Harry Bartell was the third or fourth of those that I
    heard in the role.  By the time I heard him as Archie I'd already become
    fairly disenchanted with the show (among other things, as good as the idea
    may have seemed, it turns out that Sidney Greenstreet apparently was NOT
    born to play Nero Wolfe), but when I first heard an episode featuring Harry
    Bartell my reaction was "now THAT'S Archie Goodwin !"  True story, and at
    that time I had no idea who Harry Bartell was (though I'm aware now that I
    must have heard his voice on the radio many times during the 1950's) or
    that within a year or so I'd be able to publicly compliment him on what I
    realize was only one small part of a varied career, having been "born to
    play" Archie Goodwin.

    Gary in Berkeley

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2002 01:51:13 -0500
    From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
    To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: Let's [removed]

    Several weeks ago, someone on this list (I think her first name is Cynthia)
    asked about locating some LPs of "Let's pretend."  Not the radio programs
    but the recreations done especially for LP discs.  If you are the person,
    here is a replay from Norm Cohen copied from the 78-l:

    Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 21:46:10 -0800
    From: "Norm Cohen" <ncohen@[removed];
    Subject: Childrens records

    Could the person who inquired about old recordings of  the "Let's Pretend"
    series contact me (if still interested)?  I found the LPs that I had thought
    had been disposed of.
    Norm Cohen
    ncohen@[removed]

    Ted Kneebone
    1528 S. Grant St., Aberdeen, SD 57401 / 605-226-3344
    OTR:  [removed]

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2002 01:51:31 -0500
    From: JE Purvis <hqsouth@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Weird Circle

    Hi group,
    I'm sure I'm showing my ignorance here, but I ran across
    several MP3s of a series called Weird Circle.
    It isn't listed in Dunning's OTR encyclopedia. Could anyone
    fill me in?
    Thanks,
    Jerry

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #3
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