Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #93
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 2/28/2003 5:07 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2003 : Issue 93
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      2-28 and 2-29 Birthdays               [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      OTR Sound quality (again)             [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      Mostly William L. Shirer              [ Art Chimes <achimes@[removed]; ]
      The Lone Ranger's Horse(s)            [ "Jim Nixon" <ranger6000@[removed] ]
      Turner's New Lone Ranger Movie on WB  [ Paulurbahn@[removed] ]
      America's Town Meeting of the Air     [ "Stanford Shaw" <shaw@[removed] ]
      Off Topic: Free 78 records            [ "Dave Meredith" <dmkinetics@hotmail ]
      The Lone Ranger - premium             [ "Philip Chavin" <philchav@[removed] ]
      Re: Monkey's Paw                      [ Steven Kelez <otrsteve@[removed]; ]
      Re: Radio Reconditioning              [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      Detroit Memories                      [ "Bob & Lois Reynolds" <boblo1@allte ]
      Random follow-up thoughts             [ Derek Tague <derek@[removed]; ]
      The Monkey's Paw                      [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 13:51:32 -0500
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  2-28 and 2-29 Birthdays

    If you were born on the 28th or 29th of February, you share your birthday with:

    28th

    1893 - Ben Hecht - New York City
    1914 - Jim Boles - Lubbock, Texas
    1915 - Zero Mostel - Brooklyn, New York
    1923 - Charles Durning - Highland Falls, New York
    1928 - Louise Erickson - Oakland, California

    29th

    1904 - Jimmy Dorsey - Shenandoah, Pennsylvania
    1928 - Joss Ackland - London, England 29th.

    --
    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin
    Make your day, listen to an Olde Tyme Radio Program

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 13:57:05 -0500
    From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  OTR Sound quality (again)

    While I agree in general with George Coppen about not replacing the
    original parts of an old radio with new parts (with the exception of
    electrolytic capacitors and wiring which CAN be an important safety factor)
    I thoroughly disagree with him when he says:

>     some people take a tape of an OTR program, they clean it up by
>     taking all the hisses, pops, scratches and whistles out of [removed]
>     ....thats not OTR thats just plain entertainment and it most certainly
>     is not the way it sounded back when it was originally broadcast
>     60 and 70 years ago when I was listening,

    The hisses, pops, and scratches WERE NOT in the program when it was
    originally broadcast.  The programs generally were done LIVE, and were done
    with equipment so extraordinary that elements like the RCA 44 BX
    microphones they used are still considered high fidelity equipment, and
    modern recording engineers are crawling over each other in attempts to get
    one.

>     and do you know what?? I thought it was the living end then and I still

    do today.

    It probably sounded better than you think.  If you lived in NY or LA where
    the programs originated, the transmitters were fed with a full range audio
    signal.  If you had an FM receiver in the late 30s or early 40s the FM
    transmitters would give you static-free reception with response to at least
    15,000 CPS (15 KHz.)   Even the AM transmitters were capable of frequency
    response to well above 10KHz.   The major cities were interconnected with
    phone lines capable of 10 KHz response as early as 1934, so the stations on
    the main line also got a pretty good sounding signal.  Remember, the ONLY
    thing the radio stations had going for them was the sound, and they tried
    to get it as good as was possible.  For stations off the main interconnect
    lines they still had the possibility of syndicated programming, and the
    comments during the past week about the quality of the Little Orphan Annie
    recordings taken straight off of the original World Broadcasting System
    discs with their Western Electric Wide Range Vertical Recording which was
    capable of 14 KHz.  response as early as 1932 shows you how the programs
    REALLY sounded when they were originally broadcast.

>     Can you imagine listening to Fibber and Molly played on surround sound
>     ....forget it old Fibber would turn over in his grave.

    Remember that Fibber, or rather, Jim Jordan, was in the studio live during
    the broadcast and heard all the voices, music, and sound effects in full
    live fidelity fully surrounding him on all sides of the stage. He heard it
    in surround sound. And if he were to go into the control room to hear how
    the rest of the performers sounded, he would have heard sound quality out
    of the fantastic RCA wide-range monitor speakers that NBC used that would
    still blow today's hi-fi fanatics away.  And if he went down the hall to
    the recording room to hear a playback he would have been hard pressed to
    tell the difference between the live performance he just heard and the
    first playback of the lacquer disc.  I've actually held in my hands and
    heard some of the Fibber discs held up in the Wisconsin headquarters of
    Johnson's Wax, and in the 70s they still sounded terrific.  Unfortunately
    you have probably only heard copies of copies of copies of copies of copies
    that have had all sorts of noise and distortions added with each new
    generation of copying, filtering, mis-equalization, and other misguided
    amateur attempts to "improve" sound.

    A similar thing has been said about old silent movies.  Most of us were
    brought up seeing scratched multi-generation 16mm reduction prints shown on
    TV or 8mm prints on home projectors.  But, again, the only thing that
    silent films had going for them when they were new was the picture quality,
    and when the films were new the quality was GREAT.  If you get a chance to
    see a well preserved original nitrate print or a new print off an original
    negative,  you would be astonished at all of the minute details you can
    see, with all the subtle shadings of the faces and the sets and scenery.
    Sure, in small towns you might have gotten the well used prints that had
    plenty of scratches and splices--this still happens today--but that is not
    how the film left the production company, nor was it what the original
    stars, producers, and directors saw and strived for.

    And the crumby sound you seem to like on poorly made OTR copies is NOT how
    the programs sounded when they were new and live and fresh.  The only way
    old Fibber ever heard his program was as a sparkling crisp and clean gem.
    If he's been turning in his grave it is because of the crumby sound quality
    some of his programs have been distributed in.  And he is THRASHING at the
    thought that some of you LIKE hearing all the hisses, pops, scratches, and
    dullness of sound.

    Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 13:51:44 -0500
    From: Art Chimes <achimes@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Mostly William L. Shirer

    Bill Shirer was in Berlin for most of the year. His almost day-by-day
    recounting of this critical period early in WWII, "Berlin Diary," is a
    terrific read. I don't know if it's still in print, but it ought to be.

    Shirer was in Berlin until June 15, when he left for Paris. He returned
    on June 26.  He took a week's vacation in Geneva in early July but was
    back on July 8.

    He flew to Belgium on August 14, "flying low at about five hundred feet
    so as to be easily recognizably by German anti-aircraft crews. They
    shoot down altogether too many of their own planes." He was back in the
    German capital on the 18th. He remained there well into October save for
    a few days in Geneva in mid-September.

    Shirer had a newspaper background, but Ed Morrow, who hired him, was
    more interested in getting a solid journalist. He got one.

    Regards,
    Art Chimes

    Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 22:01:35 -0500
    From: Grams46@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  cbs in berlin in the summer of 1940
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    who was the cbs correspondent in berlin, germany in the summer of 1940?
       any other info on him would also be appreciated.
    thanks from kathy

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 13:57:40 -0500
    From: "Jim Nixon" <ranger6000@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  The Lone Ranger's Horse(s)
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
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    I'm new to this digest business.  But I can answer the question.  In the Lone
    Radio radio series, episode No. 401, broadcast Aug. 26, 1935, the story of how
    the masked man finds Silver was first told.  No recording exists of this
    broadcast, but it was later re-broadcast as No. 141 of the transcription
    series on December 9, 1938 (with Brace Beemer narrating!). In this episode,
    Earle Graser rides a horse called "Dusty", and is heard to shout, "Hi Yo
    Dusty" before Dusty meets his untimely demise at the hands of the crooks.
        But that isn't all. According to Dave Holland, who has researched this
    better than I, during the seven-part Silvercup Bread series, "How the Lone
    Ranger Captured Silver", broadcast in 1936, again before the transcriptions
    began, the Ranger was riding a horse named "Nellie", and had occasion to
    shout, "Hi Yo Nellie" during one program.  So there you are!
        You can get a decent recorded cassette of Program 141 from Jerry Haendiges
    in Los Angeles.  Contact him at JHaendiges@[removed]

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 14:25:35 -0500
    From: Paulurbahn@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Turner's New Lone Ranger Movie on WB

    I'll be the first to stand up so you take shots at me.
    I liked the new movie on the WB network tonight for production value (It
    wasn't cheap), casting and yes story. The only problems I had was changing
    the Lone Rangers name, and the casting of a Titanic type hero in the LR role.
    But that was obviously a business decision to appeal to the girls. There's
    action for the guys and a love story for the girls.
    I wouldn't watch it every week if it was on, but it was a lot better than the
    Klingdon Spilby (probably misspelled) film of thirty years ago.
    I noticed that this Lone Ranger is more like The Green Hornet. His sidekick
    Tonto fights like the TV Kato and the [removed] Lone Ranger lives a normal
    life when not chasing bad guys.
    Worth watching at least once.

    Paul Urbahns
    A Green Hornet/Lone Ranger fan

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 14:28:32 -0500
    From: "Stanford Shaw" <shaw@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  America's Town Meeting of the Air
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    Can anyone tell me where one can find downloadable files of 'America's Town
    Meeting of the Air,' moderated in the 1940's by George V. Denny. His son is
    very interested in listening once again to the voice of his father in programs
    at Town Hall New York which he sometimes attended as a small boy.

    I have discovered that the original transcriptions of the program are in the
    National Archives (NARA), but these are not [removed]

    Stanford J. Shaw, Ankara, Turkey

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    Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 15:27:11 -0500
    From: "Dave Meredith" <dmkinetics@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Off Topic:  Free 78 records

    Please forgive this one-time off topic posting, but in a minute you'll see
    why.

    I have discovered about 35 or so 78 rpm records dating (I think) to the
    '40's and '50's which are destined to the dumpster within a few days due to
    a clean-out.  Artists include such as Sammy Kaye and Orch., Phil Harris and
    Orch, and others.  I sure hate to see these tossed, but have absolutely no
    need nor interest myself in them.  I will send the lot to anyone FREE who
    simply reimburses me the UPS charges to get them from Ohio to your door.
    (Keep in mind they're sort of heavy!)

    The reason for the off-topic post here on this Old Radio forum is that I am
    simply trying to avoid their needless destruction, and I figured that some
    one out there in Old Radio Land might also enjoy a similar hobby in
    collecting 78's.

    Please contact me off-list at dmkinetics@[removed] if interested.

    Thanks and sincere apologies for the topic diversion ... and now, back to
    our regularly scheduled program ...

    Dave Meredith

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 15:27:31 -0500
    From: "Philip Chavin" <philchav@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  The Lone Ranger -  premium

       The Lone Ranger is a hot topic on the Digest, so please let me ask:

       In 1945, on the "Lone Ranger" radio program, General Mills (advertising
    their Kix and/or Cheerioats cereals) offered the WAR ALBUM OF VICTORY
    BATTLES, a 16-page booklet and 20 poster stamps for sticking onto the proper
    spaces in the booklet. (Its cover pictured GIs storming a tropical beach.)

       ** Would anyone have the premium's original MAILER (envelope) or have a
    picture or xerox copy of that mailer (both sides of it, preferably) -- or
    know who might have one?

       ** Would anyone know if any separate *instructions* came with this
    premium?  If they did, do you have them or a picture of them or xerox copy?

       Thanks,
        -- Phil C.

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 15:27:53 -0500
    From: Steven Kelez <otrsteve@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Monkey's Paw

    A recording of this story can be found at the Radio Showcase web site. It's
    from
    the Favorite Story series.

    D-306: FAVORITE STORY
    Side 1- The Monkey's Paw 6/4/49 (William Conrad) (Very Good, Syndicated,
    Horror)
    Side 2- The Bet 3/5/49 (William Conrad, John Beal) (Very Good, Syndicated,
    Drama)
    Cassette Length: 60 Min.

    I thought there were more radio adaptions of this story, but this is the only
    one
    I can find.

    Steven Kelez
    RADIO SHOWCASE

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 16:33:53 -0500
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Radio Reconditioning

    I want to second the comments that have been made here about the
    importance of replacing capacitors in antique radios if you have any
    intention of using them -- or even of plugging them into the wall at all.

    I have a Philco 37-10 console in my living room that I bought in a
    second-hand store back in the mid-1980s for $5. It was in "working
    order," or so I was told. I put it in my living room, and enjoyed it for
    several weeks. Then one afternoon, the audio suddenly quit -- and there
    was severe, burning stench coming out of the back. I yanked it away from
    the wall, pulled the plug, and looked inside. The plates of the rectifier
    tube were still red hot, and there was melted wax dripping onto the
    floor. One defective paper capacitor had popped, and created a  short
    circuit. Had I not yanked the plug when I did, the power transformer
    would have burned up, and there would very likely have been a fire.

    No one in my town fixed vintage electronics, or was willing to try, or
    was even willing to talk to me when I asked about it -- so I got some
    books from the library and taught myself to do it. I replaced every
    single paper capacitor in that set -- it took weeks to do it, and it was
    extremely difficult to get at some of them. But I did it.

    And I'm glad I did -- because when I looked at the diagram for that set,
    I noticed that there were two paper bypass capacitors across the AC line
    -- *BEFORE* the power switch. Had these capacitors failed, it would have
    created a dead short across the house wiring -- and that almost certainly
    would have caused a fire. If your own Cool Old Antique Radio has this
    particular design flaw -- a lot of mid-1930s Philcos do -- and hasn't
    been re-capped -- and you leave it plugged into the wall, even if you
    never turn it on, you're very literally Playing With Fire.

    Don't take chances. Nostalgia isn't worth it.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 16:51:25 -0500
    From: "Bob & Lois Reynolds" <boblo1@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Detroit Memories

    All of the talk about The Lone Ranger brings back alot of memories.

    The old WXYZ studios used to be on E. Jefferson Ave. across from the
    Whittier Hotel.  When they moved to The Macabees Building on Woodward Ave.
    The building became home for BSF&D Advertising Agency.  The first job my
    wife had was as secretary for the firm.

    I worked at a drug store in Grosse Pointe across from the high school.  One
    of my fellow clerks was Fran Striker,Jr.  Met his father several times and
    remember him as a fine gentleman.  In my collection I have a tape where F.
    S. Jr. retells stories about his father and [removed]  Bob Reynolds  FOND
    MEMORIES

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 18:24:19 -0500
    From: Derek Tague <derek@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Random follow-up thoughts

    Hi Gang:

    NEVER STOPS BEING FUNNY: I'd like to thank all you Digest-ers--both on list &
    off-- for carrying on this thread.  It's good to see  that
    well-crafted humour never gets old. However, my original Top Ten was comprised
    of RECURRING bits. Most respondants wrote about one-time sketches. If that's
    the case, the funniest thing I've ever heard on an OTR sprogramme is this:

    "Duffy's Tavern"... Archie, the Bartender [Did he ever have a last name?]
    decides he wants to "class up the jernt" by writing and staging an opera.
    Jascha Panislavsky {spelling?], [removed] "The Mad Russian" is hanging around the
    tavern and suggests a title for Archie's inaugural effort, viz. "The Barber of
    Seville."

    Archie: "'Barber of Seville?' That's already been wrote--"
    Jascha: "A city the size of Seville--there's only one barber?"

    This  has become my all-time favourite joke, bar none. It's on the Radio
    Spirits "Duffy's Tavern, Volume 1" six-tape white bookshelf edition.

    DRAGNET/COMPLICATED CARD GAME: In my original "never stops being funny" list,
    I had mentioned the times  when Sgts. Friday & Romero get a suspect to break
    down & talk by annoying said suspect while playing an incredibly complicated
    card game with obnoxiously extraneous
    rules. Subscriber Donald DuBrule suggests checking out an early "Dragnet"
    outing from  09/17/1949 titled "James Vickers Kills an Officer" if anybody
    wants  to hear this routine AND some brilliant writing.  Thanks, Donald.

    TWO IN A BED: Every so often, some modern-day wiseguy will make some sort of
    comment that Laurel & Hardy were gay because filmgoers always saw them
    sleeping in the same bed. I just want to accentuate that A) it was the
    Depression, & this was a common practice during tough times; and B) IT'S
    [removed] comedic possibilities are [removed]

    THE LONE RANGER'S HORSE: Noted [removed] historian Jim Nixon has just joined this
    list, and I'm sure everybody is going to enjoy his future postings.
    However, he's away from home visiting old friends in Massachusetts at this
    time, so he's asked me to answer the question about the Ranger's original
    horse "Dusty," brought up by subscriber William Halbe. Anybody interested in
    learning about the transition from Dusty to Silver is urged by Jim to check
    out [removed] episode 141, "The Origin of Silver," which orig'ly aired on
    12/09/1938. Jim recommends contacting Jerry Haendiges's
    offerings for the best copy <JHaendiges@[removed];.

    SENIOR MOMENT: A new buddy of mine from this here Digest, Don Frey, recently
    used the term "senior moment."   I guess that's better than a "CRAFT moment,"
    with "CRAFT" being an acronym for "Can't Remember A
    F------  Thing!"  Let's save the foul language for the W-B network.

    LOAN ARRANGER: Jay Rannellucci beat me & Hal Stone to the punch-line
    by invoking the old scenario of John Reid  [or whatever his alter-ego is!]
    working in a bank so that he could be a "loan arranger;" actually my sister
    Gwen is a "loan arranger"...she works as a loan officer in Holland, Michigan.

    BABE RUTH: With all this talk about Babe Ruth's   radio show, I'd like to
    point out that it was sorta because of the "Sultan of Swat"  that I became
    obsessed with  the term
    "ether," the old
    trade-paper term for "radio."  Here's how in a round-about way:
    I've always been a fan of cartoons from the 1920s-1950s. Throughout the early
    1980s, the Thalia, a run-down NYC "revival house" played programmes of
    theatrical cartoons once a week during the summer.  On "George Pal" night,
    they played an early "puppetoon" of his produced in Europe. Its title was
    translated  in English as "The Ship of the Ether" & it was about a ship-- full
    of radio singers of different musical genres--
    that floated through the  stratosphere.  This cartoon ended up being a
    commercial for Philips radio receivers.  This was my first encounter with this
    beloved term.

    Flash forward to the late 1980s when the TNT [Turner Network Television} cable
    channel started up. Back then TNT played the same old movies and one-reel
    shorts that now comprise  the programming on its sister station TCM [Turner
    Classic Movies]. I remember seeing a short subject starring Babe Ruth and
    songwriter Zez Comfey {spelling?], best remembered for having had written
    "Stumbling" (Felix Unger's favourite song) and "Kitten on the Keys" (lately
    the basis for that infernal Meow Mix catfood commercial). In the film, the
    Babe inspired Comfey  to write a song for him titled "Home Run on the Keys,"
    an instrumental tune accentuated by the original  Mr. #714 making umpire
    calls like "Strike One!, "Strike Two!," and "Home Run!"
    Between the scene where the song is written and the one where the two new
    partners debut the song on live radio,  there's a bridging scene of a
    newspaper headline that read something to the effect of "BABE RUTH TO PREEM
    NEW SONG ON ETHER TONIGHT."

    And that's where I picked the term up.

    Yours in th-, aw! you know the rest!

    Derek Tague

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 18:59:38 -0500
    From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  The Monkey's Paw

    Dixon remarked:

>     Probably this was an adaptation of the story, "The Monkey's Paw," a bitter
>     tale of wish fulfillment.  I don't know where it ran, but both Suspense and
>     Inner Sanctum *could* have adapted it.

    I distinctly remember an "Inner Sanctum" episode by that name being
    advertised in a tape catalog but I don't know much more about it.

    Actually, "The Monkey's Paw" was a short story written by [removed] Jacobs and
    has been adapted for television and radio so many times it's not funny - Lee
    Majors made his television debut in a modernized version of the story in
    1964 or 1965.
    The story itself has been dramatized on tons of radio programs such as MOLLE
    MYSTERY THEATER, television's SUSPENSE, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and so
    on.  Sadly, it was never done on INNER SANCTUM - one of the misconceptions
    that collectors many years ago would take the AFRS rebroadcasts and label
    them as other programs.  Waxworks was a famous story (done on radio's
    SUSPENSE three times) and an AFRS recording of that is also being labeled in
    catalogs and mp3s as an episode of INNER SANCTUM and that too was never done
    on INNER SANCTUM.

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #93
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