Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #115
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 3/25/2002 9:17 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2002 : Issue 115
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Re: Recreations                       [ hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed]; ]
      Arsenic and Old Lace body count       [ Allen Lingley <af417@[removed]; ]
      CD offer                              [ Ron and Carol <rlmartin10@[removed] ]
      The most important piece of furnitur  [ Jer51473@[removed] ]
      Re: Today in radio history            [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      Donora Fog                            [ Gerald Serrino <gserr@[removed]; ]
      otr                                   [ "" <cooldown3@[removed]; ]
      "Arsenic and Old Lace" answer         [ Kenneth Clarke <kclarke5@[removed]; ]
      NBC Experience                        [ "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed]; ]
      RCA Studio Pictures                   [ "Scott Eberbach" <seberbach@earthli ]
      Re: How many radios?                  [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
      The Ultimate Confusion!               [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
      How many radios                       [ "Richard Carpenter" <sinatra@raging ]
      Coincidence                           [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      Donora Fog                            [ David Easter <DavidEaster@[removed] ]
      Possession of Scripts                 [ "welsa" <welsa@[removed]; ]
      Re:Massey, Gunsmoke, Archie, NYC      [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 13:59:40 -0500
    From: hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: Re: Recreations

    Oh Good1e! A controversy!

    Charlie Summers (you all know who that guy is, right?), finally came out
    from hiding behind his "Administrivia" mask, and publically disagrees with
    Michael Beal and me. Sic 'em Michael! :)

>     Of course they don't "get it right" - they aren't _trying_ to get it
>     "right," they are trying to present visually something that was originally
>     aural.  <SNIP>

>     The actors work around the problems gracefully,

    Easy for you to say! :)

>     and the audience enjows the performances more than if they were maneuvering

    around trying to face each other on those flimsy risers.

    OTR [removed]! Down with flimsy Risers! :)

    Besides,  I sort of feel obligated to work close to Bob Hastings. I'm there
    to help him find his place in the script when his mind wanders. :)

>     Hal's been a guest of other conventions before and has performed in
>     recreations, specifically the Newark FOTR [removed] have video evidence of him
>     walking out of a recreation because someone insulted him. (I think someone
>     called him [removed]  ;)

    We got him Michael! We caught him in an gross exaggeration! Or at the very
    [removed] lapse of memory. (Charlie's getting up there in years, so we have
    to be understanding).

    I need to set the record straight, lest you "Digesters" think I'm some sort
    of "Prima Donna". What actually [removed] (And Charlie does have a
    videotape to document it exactly)... was as follows;

    The "Archie Andrews" cast had already assembled on stage, and were quietly
    seated in chairs waiting to be introduced. The Convention "host" responsible
    for introducing that evenings Recreation, and introducing the "Stars", began
    by [removed]"welcome Everyone, to this evenings featured [removed]
    "Henry Aldrich". At which point, Bob Hastings and I threw our scripts down
    on the floor and walked off the stage.

    An instinctive and Spontaneous gag. But now I wonder? Did Charlie pay the
    guy to screw up, just so he could videotape our [removed] :)

    Then Charlie ended his posting thusly:

>     [removed] Truth-In-Advertising, he came back. Eventually.

    To that I [removed] We came back [removed]
    Eventually.  :)

    Hal(Harlan)Stone
    Jughead

    [ADMINISTRIVIA: Ok, ok, so Hal is a _little_ closer to the truth than I
    [removed] not completely accurate, either. It seems that way back on October
    22, 1994, our own Gary Yoggy, the recreation director, introduced John
    Rayburn (who used to be active on this list) in the role of "Mr. Aldrich."
    Bob and Hal then wandered [removed] in an exagerated huff, or more
    likely because they forgot where they were and what they were doing. After
    all, they are, "getting up there in years" too, you know?

    So there can be no confusion, I placed a hastily-cobbled together RealMedia
    video of the event on the RealServer, accessable at:

    [removed]

    ...please forgive the lousy quality, and remember that we only have a
    25-stream license, so let's not all go there at once.  ;)   Maybe I'll get a
    better copy on the web site sometime later this week with some stills from
    that recreation. But then, we don't want to see these guys _too_ clearly, now
    do we?  --cfs3]

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

    Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 13:59:42 -0500
    From: Allen Lingley <af417@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Arsenic and Old Lace body count

    In the 2/3/49 Theater USA broadcast with Boris Karloff, the final body
    count was [removed] 12 and 12.  Jonathan claimed 13, but the disputed victim
    from South Bend died of pneumonia.

    His brother Mortimer narrates the story, and did not make number 13.

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

    Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 13:59:49 -0500
    From: Ron and Carol <rlmartin10@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: CD offer

    Thanks to all who responded, the first fifteen people have been notified and
    the Lone Ranger CDs will be mailed this week.

    Thanks in advance
    Ron Martin

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

    Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 13:59:44 -0500
    From: Jer51473@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: The most important piece of furniture in my

    life- - -
    Approved: ctrn4eeWlc

     was our first radio. Actually, it was our only radio during my chilhood. I
    have an uncanny memory of times when i was only two years old most of which
    was later verified by my parents who have since passed on. We moved from one
    house to another right before i turned three in 1939. Although the move was
    only about a quarter of a mile away, it seemed much further in those days
    because there were woods separating the two areas. I remember the move
    vividly, but dont remember the later tale of my father moving his prize
    possession, a new Philco console radio. He moved it in a wheel barrow and
    dropped it while traveling through the woods. It was damaged slightly and he
    was brokenhearted about it. Its operation, however was not affected and i
    grew up with that radio never remembering being without it during my entire
    childhood. We never had another radio in our house until the mid fifties when
    i bought my mother a table model that she kept in the kithchen. By that time
    the Philco was used very little as tv had replaced it in our home as our
    primary source of entertainment, but during the forties and to some extent
    the early fifties, it was radio and the 4 of us shared the Philco. There were
    no rules and no disagreements, but our parents controlled the programing at
    nights and my older brother and i had control during the days. We grew up
    listening to Yankee, Notre Dame, and Army ballgames. In the late evenings it
    was Sea Hound, Terry and the Pirates, Dick Tracy, Jack Armstrong, Don
    Winslow, and Tom Mix. Both parents worked so there was no conflict with soaps
    unless we stayed with our grandmother and then it was nothing but soaps until
    we got back home. The old Philco is, i think, a 1938 or 39 model with
    shortwave and was still working when we discarded it in the late fifties to
    the "backroom" at my parents home. Its still sitting there and we have
    procrastinated for years about reviving it, but never have. The house is now
    rental property and as i sit here, i hope its still there. We were not rich,
    in fact as i look back, we were actually poor according to todays standards,
    but most people lived similar to us: never hungry with all the essentials as
    we knew them. That old radio was a big, big part of our lives.

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

    Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 14:00:37 -0500
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: Re: Today in radio history

      I wrote --

> >      Barker also was the show's host ont--------n more than a decade later

      Charlie replied --

>     television is NOT a dirty word around here.

      Ah, but it does seem a word to be carefully used in mixed company.  :)
      Joe

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

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

    Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 14:01:08 -0500
    From: Gerald Serrino <gserr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Donora Fog
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    David Easter's account is correct. I was ten at the time and lived in Donora.
    They called it smog though not fog. There was a steel making plant and large
    zinc plating plant as [removed] latter was probably the biggest contributor to
    the air pollution. There were two TV specials concentrating on air pollution
    that referenced it but I am not aware of any radio programs.

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    Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 14:00:01 -0500
    From: "" <cooldown3@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: otr

    are you able to post a list of shows that are absolutely public domain?
    Patrick

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

    Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 14:07:07 -0500
    From: Kenneth Clarke <kclarke5@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: "Arsenic and Old Lace" answer

              There seems to be some question as to the
    validity of the answers I gave to the trivia question a few
    days ago.  This should clarify where I got my answers
    and how they can be verified:

    --------- Forwarded message ----------
    From: Kenneth Clarke <kclarke5@[removed];
    To: wgaryw@[removed]
    Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 12:41:47 -0800
    Subject: "Arsenic and Old Lace" answer
    Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed];

    Gary,

              The answers I provided for the trivia question I got
    from "Information Please" dated 01/24/41.  Karloff was
    the guest panelist and was asked by the host to clarify
    the point regarding the 'body count' at the final curtain.
    Both Clifton Fadiman and Franklin Adams said it was
    25 (13 for the old ladies and 12 for Jonathan Brewster).
    Karloff himself said that it was 26 (13 for the old ladies,
    and 13 for Jonathan Brewster--the last body being that of
    Mr. Witherspoon).  Since they referred to 'the final curtain',
    I believe this was the Broadway play, not the film adaptation
    of the play.

              Various adaptations have been done of "Arsenic and
    Old Lace" over the years.  Of course there was the one with
    Boris Karloff as Jonathan Brewster, as well as Raymond
    Massey and Cary Grant.  The film versions of this classic
    varied somewhat from the original stage version.  As I recall,
    there was a version a few years ago in Washington (possibly
    New York) where the gentlemen callers were all played by
    some politicians (Congressmen and Senators).  It was just a
    special one night performance, but their final bow was telecast
    on the news.  It must have been quite an experience for anyone
    who attended.

    Kenneth Clarke

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

    Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 14:07:47 -0500
    From: "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: NBC Experience

    hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed]; wrote:

>     Well, since your going to to the Rainbow Room at "30 Rock", (What we called
>     the RCA Building back then), be sure to go to the NBC Studios' section
>     (Middle of the bldg.) and take the Guest Relations Tour.

    The NBC Studio Tour is now part of "The NBC Experience," which is explained
    at [removed].  Admission is a lot more
    expensive than it used to be -- $[removed] for adults, $15 for children and
    seniors.

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

    Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 14:38:49 -0500
    From: "Scott Eberbach" <seberbach@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: RCA Studio Pictures

    Dr. Biel, Is there a web-site where we can see pictures of what the studios
    looked like before the visually impaired television people *renovated* them?

    Scott

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

    Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 10:06:47 -0500
    From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Re: How many  radios?

    Jim Yellen had inquired about the number of radios per household. This,
    of course, depended largely on the individual family's resources. We
    were quite poor and had only one small, white, plastic (probably just
    post-bakelite) tabletop radio. It usually set on a table in the kitchen,
    which was the center of our family life, especially in the winter when
    the two bedrooms were closed off to conserve heat. However, the sound
    was very good and I don't recall ever feeling deprived that we did not
    have one of the fancy consoles. Our house was so small that the radio
    could be heard pretty well from any room, and I heard many of my
    favorite grown-up shows lying in bed and pretending to be asleep so my
    parents wouldn't turn down the volume, making listening more difficult.
    That is to say, we could hear the radio from any room except the
    restroom, which was quite a ways from the house.

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

    Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 10:11:17 -0500
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: The Ultimate Confusion!
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    I was browsing eBay the other day.  With all the mythology about "decoder
    rings," I was rather nonplussed to see someone offering a Captain
    Midnight 1945 "Decoder Ring Badge"!  I'm sure that the seller had heard
    of the mythical "Captain Midnight Decoder Ring," and saw an item  that
    was clearly a badge, and just ... err ... put one and one together.

    Before I leave the subject, a memory: a cryptologist who'd broken a
    rather complex cipher that was written by the late psychologist, Robert
    Thouless,  using a twice-enciphered message [for the morbidly curious, it
    was a double Playfair using the keywords "black" and "beauty"].  There
    was a news story on his achievement, and a reporter had a picture of him
    taken holding a [Captain Midnight] Mystery Dial Code-O-Graph.  The
    caption of the photo was, "Cryptologist James J. Gollogly with a Captain
    Midnight decoder ring."  (Actually, it was the Klutz replica of the
    Mystery Dial Code-O-Graph, but that's a quibble.)  How anybody looking at
    what's obviously a badge could call it a "ring" is one of those mysteries
    best addressed by theologians rather than logicians: for some people,
    it's a matter of belief that a Captain Midnight Decoder Ring existed, all
    facts o the contrary.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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    Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 10:11:29 -0500
    From: "Richard  Carpenter" <sinatra@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: How many radios

       I believe that when I was growing up in the '40s and
    '50s, we had two radios, one at either end of the
    house. But times have changed: I just couted 23 radios
    (almost all of them replicas of old ones) in my
    computer room alone. Maybe it's time for me to stop
    buying radios.

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

    Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 10:11:57 -0500
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: Coincidence

    Just the other day as I was reading the latest OTR Digest I was listening to a
    broadcast of "Broadway Is My Beat" with Larry Thor. Just when I started
    reading the entry by Harry Bartell the closing credits came on and who do
    suppose was one of the players? Harry Bartell! Means nothing, but I thought
    that I would pass this little coincidence along.

    Harry, I admire the work of Jack Kruschen very much. I enjoyed him on radio,
    but
    I truly enjoyed him in "The Apartment." How is this for a cliché, what was he
    really like?
    --
    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

    Make your day just a little better,
    Listen to an Old Time Radio Program.

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

    Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 10:12:22 -0500
    From: David Easter <DavidEaster@[removed];
    To: "Old-Time Radio Digest (E-mail)" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: Donora Fog

    I did not want to bring up the "Communist system of Mind Control" aspect
    since anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of chemistry pretty much dismissed
    that hype back then. Although, come to think of it, a simple search of the
    web, or perusal of "please forward this to everyone you know" type email
    indicates that, that type of mentality is alive and well in the twenty-first
    century.

    David L. Easter

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

    Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 10:12:56 -0500
    From: "welsa" <welsa@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: Possession of Scripts

    Kevin Michael wondered about the ownership of scripts.  I'm no expert here,
    but my first guess is that most scripts were not the property of the
    networks, but of the advertising agencies that represented the sponsors.
    So, by extension, they belonged to the sponsors.

    In our state historical society archives there are many, many scripts.  Most
    bear the stamp on the front page of an advertising agency.  Exactly how most
    of the scripts got there, I am not sure.

    But there is one I know little about as I have read the "findings" at the
    archives. For about 15 years or so Johnson's Wax of Racine, Wisconsin
    sponsored "Fibber McGee and Molly".  A number of years ago Johnson's loaned
    its entire script collection to the Wisconsin Historical Society to copy.
    They were then returned to Johnson's.  The company also provided the funds
    to micro film these scripts.  It was a massive project taking almost 8 years
    to complete.  Thus, they are available to the general public today.  No
    where on any script I've read has there been a Copyright notice.

    Ted

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

    Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 10:13:49 -0500
    From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: Re:Massey, Gunsmoke, Archie, NYC

    Re:  Lee Munsick and Massey and Karloff

    I just saw the film "Reap the Wild Wind" on TNC made in 1942, directed by
    Cecil B. DeMille,  in which Raymond Massey's character, King Cutler,  was
    villainous in spades.   [removed]  (Even John Wayne turned into a temporary
    villain in this campy movie.)

    Re:  Robert Paine on Gunsmoke

    I strongly agree with Robert Paine in his take on Jim Arness and Robert
    Conrad.    To me the TV Gunsmoke was a whole different animal.   I bought
    the Radio Spirits box of 20 cassettes at Costco for considerably less then
    its retail price of $60 or $70 and agree that the soul of Matt Dillon is
    very complicated and layered, unlike the TV Matt Dillon.    Arness seemed
    too heroic.

    Re:  Archie
    I just want to join the chorus of Archie and Jughead fans.  I am absolutely
    thrilled to read Harlan Stone's messages as I was a major Archie fan in all
    genres, starting with comic books and loved the radio shows.   Thanks for
    the priceless information and memories, Jughead.

    RE:  NY City
    I grew up in the suburbs of NYC and still consider myself a New Yorker even
    though I've lived in California since my college years.

    Grand Central Station was a program I liked and listened to.  I take it it's
    not everyone's cup of tea but I'm 63 which puts me at an age then where I
    was not very critical.   I liked almost everything.

    And Grand Central Station was where my 1/2 hour trip from the suburbs
    landed.   The restoration is awesome.  It has always been a big part of my
    memories in general.   I've been there when movies were being filmed, sang
    Christmas music with my HS A Cappella Choir on the upper level at Xmas time,
    for the benefit of travelers, spotted many celebrities (even rode on the
    same train to or from the suburbs with some, [removed]  Durward Kirby, Art Carney,
    [removed] Handy and Jack Paar), eaten at the Oyster Bar (once, since I don't
    really like oysters).   And I made many fast roundtrips there for my Dad,
    arriving at GCS, going to the NY Giants (baseball) downtown box office, one
    block away, buying tickets and heading right back home.

    On one of my visits back to NYC I went to the original Museum of Radio which
    was absolutely wonderful.    The addition of TV obviously brought them more
    money but it has diminished the radio side of things, in my opinion.   Am I
    wrong?

    Irene Theodore Heinstein
    IreneTH@[removed]

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #115
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