Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #66
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 2/12/2003 8:25 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2003 : Issue 66
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      "Bit" Players                         [ Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed] ]
      Walter Winchell show                  [ Alan/Linda Bell <alanlinda43@yahoo. ]
      Let's Hear it for Big Little Books !  [ Conrad Binyon <conradab@[removed] ]
      PBX                                   [ "George Tirebiter" <tirebiter2@hotm ]
      Are these Bob Hope shows in circulat  [ "Bob Watson" <crw912@[removed]; ]
      ITTA reviews                          [ bloodbleeds@[removed] ]
      Re:Phony Tonto                        [ "jameshunt" <jameshunt@[removed] ]
      Re: Radio Mystery Sreies "Nightfall"  [ "jameshunt" <jameshunt@[removed] ]
      #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Nig  [ lois@[removed] ]
      Re: Grapefruit Spoons                 [ Fred Berney <berney@[removed]; ]

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    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 22:44:36 -0500
    From: Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed];
    To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  "Bit" Players

    Mark Cuccia's always informative posts leave little to criticize.  He did
    well while sketching Joseph Kearns' career in answer to Derek Tague's PBX
    question.  Yet, I have a minor quibble.  Mark refers to Kearns and Gale
    Gordon as "bit" players.  Since he surrounded the word "bit"  with
    quotation marks, that word can mean anything he chooses it to mean.

    However, a "bit" player to me is a "third banana," the artful description
    coined by Robert Bruce who privately recorded in 1991 a two hour
    autobiography---- LIFE AS A THIRD BANANA THRU THE GOLDEN YEARS OF RADIO AND
    BEYOND.  "Bit" players, in my view, are crowd people, passersby, walk-on
    parts with perhaps a few words of dialogue.  Gordon and Kearns during the
    majority of their careers were major character players (sometimes even
    stars).  As Mark points out, Kearns greatest and most visible success was
    as "Mr. Wilson" in the "Dennis the Menace" television series. And, Gale
    Gordon was given a credit line right after Lucy in her three series after
    "I Love Lucy."

    And, lest we forget, there is one major  Kearns credit Mark doesn't
    mention--- Kearns' legendary role as the  "Crazyquilt Dragon" in "The
    Cinnamon Bear."  He appears in most of the episodes and was the dastardly
    villain who stole the silver star in the first place.

    Dennis Crow

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    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 22:44:50 -0500
    From: Alan/Linda Bell <alanlinda43@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Walter Winchell show

    A book club that I'm in is reading Dunning's "Two O'clock Eastern
    Wartime" this month, on my recommendation. When it comes time to
    discuss it, I'd like to play a couple of excerpts of OTR that are
    featured in the book. What I DON'T have is a particular episode of
    Walter Winchell from May 3, 1942, in which Winchell apparently
    mispronounces Baedeker. Does anyone have it or can someone point me
    to a dealer or club that might have it? (I know that RHAC does not.)

    Alan

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    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 22:45:38 -0500
    From: Conrad Binyon <conradab@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Let's Hear it for Big Little Books !

     OldRadio Mailing List's Elizabeth McLeod wrote: ...

>     this is like assuming that Big Little Books are an
>     appropriate standard against which to judge the
>     quality of twentieth-century literature.

    Such may be the case, Elizabeth, but please don't
    negate the value BLB's played in the lives of
    thousands of kids in the days before babysitter TV
    sets came into being.  I had a whole collection of
    BLB's and I read them voraciously.  I liked to buy
    them new and keep them oh the shelf for a second,
    third, and even a fourth reading.  I also bought hard
    cover youth oriented books from the Broadway
    Department store on Hollywood Boulevard at Vine.  The
    Hardy Boys series type books.  Possibly other of the
    list can recall a whole series of WW I books about Lt.
    Rexford Riley, an army air corps pilot who flew in the
    squadron commanded by the "Mad Major." Can't seem to
    find books much anymore as were present in the old
    days prior to TV.
    ---
    conradab@[removed] (Conrad A. Binyon)
       From the Home of the Stars who loved Ranches and Farms
         Encino, California.

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 22:45:43 -0500
    From: "George Tirebiter" <tirebiter2@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  PBX

    Hello All:

    Derek asked about the meaning of "PBX".  The initials stand for "private
    branch exchange", the internal telephone system of a business or other
    organization.  The term as used in the "Lucy" episode and Allan Sherman song
    you reference is a synonym for "switchboard".  I first came across this term
    in a Raymond Chandler novel and had a hard time finding out what it meant.

    George

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    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 22:45:54 -0500
    From: "Bob Watson" <crw912@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Are these Bob Hope shows in circulation?

    Several years ago, I purchased a Bob Hope show from Radio Spirits that was
    broadcast on Oct 17, 1944.  This was broadcast from Camp Wheeler near Macon,
    Georgia (not Atlanta, Georgia as the cover notes on the cassette box
    indicated).  Since I live near Macon myself, I thought the episode would be
    very interesting to hear, which it was.  But during the show, they mention
    that they had been in Milledgeville, Georgia the previous week.   At the
    time, Milledgeville had a women's college there.  I know there is a military
    college also located in Milledgeville now, and probaby was back then, too.
    There were references made to how much fun Bob and Jerry had and all.  I was
    wanting to know if the Milledgeville show was in circulation, and if it is
    available.  Or if Radio Spirits has the show in there archives, are they
    planning to release it?  And while I'm wishing, the Camp Wheeler show was an
    AFRS show.  Does the sponsored version exist out there too??

    Thanks,

    Bob

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 22:46:20 -0500
    From: bloodbleeds@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  ITTA reviews

    I thought I'd share parts of all the rave reviews that It's That Time Again! The New
    Stories of Old-Time Radio has been racking up over the last 2 months:

    As you read the stories, you will HEAR many familiar characters. I recommend it. [Jay
    Hickerson in Hello Again]

    The book features 20 newly written stories that read like OTR sounded. The
    writers include an impressive array of folks with theater, academic, and OTR
    enthusiast credentials who have contributed to a 200-plus page volume
    brilliantly edited by Ben Ohmart. [Dick Williamson for Return With Us Now – OTR
    newsletter]

    It would be impossible to comment on each of the stories in this collection, but the
    reviewer found the whole group to be compelling, absorbing, skillfully plotted, and often
    surprising. [Dennis W Crow for Radio Recall]

    There are twenty short stories to be found in this book, and honestly, I can say
    that all of them are quite good, and they all impressively capture the flavor of the
    original programs. [SPERDVAC's Radiogram January 2003]

    Not bad, eh? The full reviews are even better. If I've now made anyone hungry for the
    book, go to [removed] and check out the list of stories. Your support
    will pave the way for future volumes.

    Ben

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 23:02:56 -0500
    From: "jameshunt" <jameshunt@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re:Phony Tonto
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
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    Ray Durian comments in his post in the last OTR Digest that the voice of Tonto
    that he was hearing in the Lone
    Ranger episode "Doug's  Great Adventure" as part of KNX's latest otr webcast
    was not that of John Todd.
    He also wanted to know the name of the substitute actor, if Todd had passed
    away before the end  of the series'
    original run or if another cast member replaced Todd when he went on
    vacation.

    I have just heard the episode in question from the KNX site.

    The actor portraying Tonto is Rollan Parker who joined the WXYZ Reperatory
    company in 1936 0r 38(?), by his own admission
    on "The Brace Beemer Memorial" special aired on Detroit Radio the week of
    Brace Beemer's death in 1963.

    He comment's that he alway's considered his performance as  "Tonto" as being
    "Lousy". Parker adds that he never
    understood why he was chosen to fill in for Todd while the latter was on
    vacation/doing, probably, a shakesperian
    stage play for which he was noted.

    John Todd was up in his eighties when the last live broadcast of LR was done.
    He passed away some two or three years later.

    Incidentally, if The KNX episode 1955 air date is correct then this would have
    been a rebroadcast.

    Don Hunt

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    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 23:03:30 -0500
    From: "jameshunt" <jameshunt@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Radio Mystery Sreies "Nightfall"
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
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    Yesterday I was listening to one of my "preset otr" stations on Live 365,
    taglined "Mystery Play-The Very Best In
    OTR on The Internet <Steaming 24/7 365  days a year>.

    I listened for two-three hours, enjoying "Sam Spade", "Authors Playhouse",
    "The Sealed Book" and at least one I
    was unfamiliar with and in my definition does not belong in this catagory for
    a couple of reasons.

    It was a CBC production emanating from a station in Calgary whose call letters
    i missed.

    The second reason I thought this show was wrongly catagorized was that one of
    the main characters uttered a common
    four letter word.

     The series Banner title was "Nightfall". This particular episode title was
    something like < "The House Of Dark Death">.
    Very well done from all aspects, acting, scripting, music, etc, i would call
    it a blatant reworking of Suspense's classic
    "The House In Cypress Canyon".

    On second thought, if you removed the mild profanity It does work quite well.

    If anyone can give me some info on this series and if any episodfes are
    available I would be very grateful.

    Thanks.

    Don Hunt

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

    Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 04:52:03 -0500
    From: lois@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Night!

    A weekly [removed]

    For the best in OTR Chat, join IRC (Internet Relay Chat), StarLink-IRC
    Network, the channel name is #OldRadio.  We meet Thursdays at 8 PM Eastern
    and go on, and on! The oldest OTR Chat Channel, it has been in existence
    over six years, same time, same channel!

    Our numerous "regulars" include one of the busiest "golden years" actors in
    Hollywood; a sound man from the same era who worked many of the top
    Hollywood shows; a New York actor famed for his roles in "Let's Pretend" and
    "Archie Andrews;" owners of some of the best OTR sites on the Web;
    maintainer of the best-known OTR Digest (we all know who he is)..........

    and Me

    Lois Culver
    KWLK Longview Washington (Mutual) 1941-1944)
    KFI Los Angeles (NBC) 1944 - 1950
    and widow of actor Howard Culver

    (For more info, contact lois@[removed])

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

    Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 00:04:24 -0500
    From: Fred Berney <berney@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Grapefruit Spoons

    I think I must have phrased my remarks the wrong way on my grapefruit spoon
    posting. I was trying to be a little humorous about this who thing. I saw
    the commercial and thought, could this product be purchased today. Toys
    that we use to play with as kinds are considered lethal and have been taken
    off the market.

    Organizations have come into being that feel they must protect people from
    just about everything. Don't get me wrong, many safety issues save lives
    and prevent injuries, but sometimes I think they get out of hand.

    So, when I saw this spoon being advertised, I thought, a spoon with edges.
    Put that ad on the air today and every safety organization in the world
    would jump up and yank it off the market. Since I had never seen this
    spoon, I had no idea how sharp or not sharp the edge was. But, I was just
    trying to make a point that a simple product that was accepted without
    another thought 30 years ago, would be highly scrutinized today.

    I think some people missed my subtle point and thought that I said that the
    product was no longer available because of safety issues or other issues. I
    was just remarking about ads that ran 30 years ago.

    Remember the cigarette ads that had actors dressed as doctors telling the
    public how good one cigarette was over another? That is all I was trying to
    say.

    Hey, Hal Stone. Jump in here and help me out. I'm reading your book. I know
    you have a dry sense of humor. You've made commercials. You know how things
    are. I remember working on a toy commercial and the director had a book
    that looked like a phone book that was a guide to what you could and could
    not say in a commercial. And that was back in the 70's. I can image the
    size of that book today.

    Fred

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #66
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