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

[removed] Digest				Volume 96 : Issue 402

Table Of Contents: 

	 Re: 50th Anniversary WAR OF THE WORLDS
	 Still looking for radio/cassette recorder with input controls!
	 Re: THE SHADOW'S "SPIDER BOY"
	 Re: MASON ADAMS' radio roles
	 Audio Cassettes Rule!
	 More Music 'til Dawn
	 Fantastic Old Time Radio Show
	 Keebler Elf
	 OTR sources?
	 OTR actors
	 Dick Beals & Parley Baer
	 OTR Movie on Turner Classic Movies

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

Date: Mon, 21 Oct 1996 20:29:02 -0400
From: SanctumOTR@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: 50th Anniversary WAR OF THE WORLDS
Message-ID: <961021202746_1912629555@[removed]>

George Lucas' connection with the 50th anniversary "War of the Worlds"
broadcast is that it was recorded at his Skywalker Ranch.  Much was made at
the time of the realistic sound recording "on location."  Actually, the sound
was too realistic: [removed] not exaggerated or dramatic enough to really trigger
the imagination.  Similarly, the show featured real newsman 
Douglas Edwards in the "Carl Phillips" role originally played (brilliantly)
by Frank Readick.  The "Carl Phillips" role did not need a real newsman in
the role but a real actor (like Readick) who could play to the feelings and
imaginations of the listeners, just as the original sound effects artist Ora
Nichols had.  The new NPR version was a pale and uninspired rehash of the
Welles original.  Someone should have realized that real "theatre of the
mind" radio didn't need real "on location" sound.  --ANTHONY TOLLIN

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

Date: Mon, 21 Oct 96 17:19:57
From: cmarvel@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Still looking for radio/cassette recorder with input controls!
Message-Id: <m0vFUkb-0000NRC@[removed]>

All:
    Well, I think that I am getting a better handle on what I want.  Some
time ago, I mentioned that I was looking for a special type of portable
radio/cassette (recorder and player).  It had special input controls that
would override the automatic level controls (ALC) and allow the user to
control the input recorded on the cassette.  Before, I thought that I was
looking for a portable DUAL cassette but now I realize that I am looking
for a portable SINGLE cassette/radio recorder.  I heard that Sears used to
sell the LXI model 9280 about thirteen years ago and it was perfect.  If
anyone hears of a WORKING copy of this type of portable radio/cassette
(recorder/player) mini-system, please email me ASAP.

Thanx,
Keith

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

Date: Mon, 21 Oct 1996 20:36:52 -0400
From: SanctumOTR@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: THE SHADOW'S "SPIDER BOY"
Message-ID: <961021203637_1879075159@[removed]>

The Title role in the classic Shadow horror episode "Spider Boy" was played
by the late, great Joe Julian, who later wrote a hardcover book on his radio
career.

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

Date: Mon, 21 Oct 1996 20:51:50 -0400
From: SanctumOTR@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: MASON ADAMS' radio roles
Message-ID: <961021205128_1645014932@[removed]>

Mason Adams' most famous radio role was certainly as the title character in
PEPPER YOUNG'S FAMILY.  He also portrayed "Harry the Hack" on BIG TOWN and
recreated that role at the 1987 FOTR convention.   

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

Date: Mon, 21 Oct 1996 18:13:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: ronhare@[removed] (Ron Hare)
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Audio Cassettes Rule!
Message-Id: <v02130503ae910db220f9@[[removed]]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

You need an expensive server license to be able to record to disk using the
Real Audio 3 compression algorithm. This really discourages its
consideration for us amateurs. And, what happens next week when RA4 is
released?

8-bit digital without an intelligent compression routine is definitely
inferior to analog audio cassettes, so it's not a good archiving medium
either. But at least it's a standard format.

Back to C-120 audio cassettes! There's no end in sight to this format
remaining a standard. And the audio quality is terrific if you use good
equipment. Dolby HX-PRO enhances the sound without requiring a decoder, so
there are no standards problems.

Ron Hare
ronhare@[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 21 Oct 1996 21:12:47 -0400
From: bilj@[removed] (Bill Jaker)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: More Music 'til Dawn
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

       I'm amazed at how many people have recollections of "Music Til' 
Dawn", though I'm not surprised that they're fond memories.  A soft and 
intimate program like that, literally spending the night with you, is apt to 
become special.
        Bob Hall of WCBS was supposed to be the model for all the other 
announcers around the country presenting their own "Music 'til Dawn" for 
American Airlines, and they all were supposed to study tapes sent from New 
York.  However, during my college days in North Carolina I could listen to 
MTD on several stations during many many academic vigils, and each announcer 
had an individual style.
        But it was Bob Hall who left me with the most enduring memory of 
"Music 'til Dawn", and it was a very unmusical moment.  At around 3:00 AM 
Hall was reading the news, very sotto voce as always.  Suddenly there was an 
awful noise, a combination of Inner Sanctum's squeaking door and Fibber 
McGee's closet: a crash in the night, then a muffled voice of Bob Hall 
saying "Are we on the air?" and then silence.
        About ten seconds later Hall returned.  "I'd better explain what 
happened," he began, his voce a little less sotto than before.  "The 
microphone is hanging on a boom in the studio.  The boom just loosened up 
and the mike fell down and landed on the table."  I've never heard that 
happen on the air before or since, but it really happened at a quiet hour on 
the softest show on the air.

        "...and whether your day is beginning or ending, may your work or 
your rest be pleasant."

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

Date: Mon, 21 Oct 1996 22:16:38 -0400
From: Kubelski@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Fantastic Old Time Radio Show
Message-ID: <961021221041_548317842@[removed]>

Just returned from Friday's Friends of Old Time Radio, Newark, Convention and
have another great day to report.

Arthur Anderson got things rolling by playing the uke (actors were so
versatile [removed]) and starting a sing-along of famous commercials and theme
songs to open the day.  Tribute this master showman, you didn't want him to
be singing alone, no matter how little you wanted to sing yourself.

Jack French and Don Maris presented radio premiums before an off-beat
presentation on Canadian radio moderated by Dave Zwengler.  Famed "Ed
Sullivan" guests Wayne and Shuster were the featured performers, including an
airing of Jerome Shuster's Jack Benny guest on their Canadian show.  In the
sketch, Jack goes to Canada to join the Canadian armed forces as an enlistee
and is introduced to their new officer -- Rochester!  (I can just call you
Benny because I outrank you, Mr. Benny).

Also, this hockey fan's heart was warmed by clips of the immortal
sportscaster Foster ("He Shoots, He Scores!") Hewitt, the Mel Allen of
Canada, calling the first radio broadcast hockey game, pre-dating the NHL by
several years.

Garry Yoggy, whose program on politics in radio was finally promoed in the
New York Daily News on Tuesday, spoke next on the impact of radio on
Presidential elections in '32, '36, '40 and '44 (featuring the all-star
salute to Roosevelt which aired on all four networks on election eve).
 Archival footage proved that Republicans did run Candidates against
Roosevelt during most of these four elections.

All this talking lead up to the main event of the daytime program at 1:00
[removed] when Steve Lewis and the Gotham Radio Players took center stage for
presentations of "The Bickersons" and "Dick Tracy."  The Bickersons found
themselves at sea in separate beds (with Blanche sharing hers with a Sea Bass
by the end of the skit), in 1946 episode.  George Cole and Matt Bush provided
the sounds of various fallings in and out of beds, slapping sea and so forth,
while an excellent Fran Taramina (sp?) and Ron Weitz played out the verbal
shootout that was the Bickersons.  Needless to say, John didn't get to sleep
and Blanche was sorry she ever left home.  Jack May announced.

Two dynamite performances headlined Dick Tracy, as the versatile "pro" of the
Amatuer Gotham Players, Lesilie Fagan lent his barritone to the steadfast,
square jawed Detective lead character and flambouyant Bob Madison, perfectly
cast as a ham actor, brought the egotistical but well meaning Vitamin
Flintheart (nearly blackmailed into betraying Tracy by a villian who held bad
reviews of a play he had opened 26 years earlier!) to life.  "The Case of The
Blackmailing Swami," whose name turns out to be Rivers (think about it),
finds Dick reliant on Flintheart to get information on a blackmail scheme
against unstable but basically good-natured Crystal Vanderguilt (not her real
name as it turns [removed]), played with an anxious, aristocratic flourish by Ms.
Taramina.  Flintheart's "disguise" of a false beard and wig are so
transparent they fail to fool even Slippery Slew, played by Ted Ferber, and
allows Ron Weitz's Swami (alternating between Brooklin and Bombay in a comic
twist on the fake Swami's origins), to get the drop on Tracy in the second
act.

Lewis lent his own deadpan style to the announcer's role, gratefully (it
seemed) allowing himself to be "interupped" and "upstaged" by Madison's
Flintheart during the commercials for Tootsie Rolls.  Valerie Thompson
brought an appropriate low-key delivery playing opposite Madison as Mrs.
Flintheart, Snowflake, and Jack May ably filled the role of Tracy's not quite
as smart as the audience assistant Jim (who saves Tracy in the final scene).

Like last year's Gotham offering, "The Day it Rained Blood," a Light's Out
show, Lewis managed the goofy plot deftly, holding the unintentionally funny
parts to the proper level of respect from his cast, so the audience could
appreciate the irony without being bludgeoned by overacting.

After that I went shopping and missed the best panel of the day, so we're
going to have to trust Jim Widner (on hand with his laptop and modem) to post
on Science Fiction and Radio.  I obtained several Benny and Fred Allen shows
during that time (sorry Anthony).

Two author's panels followed, introducing a new book on Burns & Allen among
other offerings.  Again, I'll trust more knowledgable people to post here.

The evening program led off with an emotional acceptance of a NBHF Award to
Eddit Bracken, and then followed with an all-star recreation of Bobby Benson,
with both Clive Rice and Ivan Curry as Bobby, AFTRA's Ruth Last as Grandma
Wales and Bob Hastings as the evil escaped convict Luke.  Fred Foy announced
and played Tex. Last stole the show from the intimidating cast of leading men
surrounding her by playing the grandmother as a woman who just didn't have
patience for the man threatening her with a gun.  She is so aghast he
criticized her new French hat, that she poisons him with hot peppers and
saves everyone.

An an even-more impressive display of recreation followed as Anthony Tollin
brought together the two original 1949 leads of "The Last Survivor," a
Mysterious Traveler offering, Ralph Bell and Bob Dryden for a cautionary tale
of the uses and misuses of nuclear energy.  Writer Dave Kogan was also on
hand, and revealed to all that the reason there were so few actors on TMT was
that he and his co-author got to keep any extra budget money they didn't
spend!  Lon Clark (Knock Knock, it's Nick Carter), played the Traveler,
Arthur Anderson stepped in as a wounded crewman, and George, "Golden Throat"
Ansboro announced.

That's when I had to leave to get home and file this post.

If you are within driving distance of Jersey, you should be at Holiday Inn
North in Newark tonight (Saturday) for John Hart, Dick Beals, Fred Foy,
Jackson Beck and others recreating the Lone Ranger's 20th Anniversary Show,
"The Return of Butch Cavendish." 

Or you can just read about here.  Attendance is way up for this year's show,
with record numbers for Thursday's dinner session, and probably for Friday's
as well.  That didn't stop me from winning three tapes from Max Schmid's
catelogue in the raffle.  Opinions are split with many crediting my publicity
efforts for the turnout, and me crediting the star power of John Hart's Lone
Ranger character.

Best, Sean Dougherty

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

Date: Mon, 21 Oct 1996 22:24:22 -0400
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Keebler Elf
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>The same person also told me that Parley Bear, I hope I am spelling that 
>right, is the Keebler elf on television, but the other day in the digest 
>someone mentioned Arthur Anderson as being the elf.
>

I believe I said Keebler Elf in one of my reports. Bad night for me at that
time - I meant Lucky Charms Elf.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Widner                      INTERNET: jwidner@[removed]
Dayton, OH                      WWW: [removed]
COMPUSERVE: 74566,3041          
AOL: JimWidner                            

                                                 

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

Date: Mon, 21 Oct 1996 21:37:23 -0500
From: "Robert M. Bratcher Jr." <bratcher@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: OTR sources?
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I've got some old cassettes from Radio Reruns plus some new titles from
Radio Spirits I bought recently. Other than looking in local stores for slim
pickings where can I find OTR tapes? Someone please give me all the radio
related web sites? Also need lists of what other collectors have for sale.
Where can I D/L these lists?
I've been taping all the When Radio Was shows for the last year off local
KTRH then cutting out the commercials, news, Stan Freeburg ect using my reel
to reel and editing the tape by hand instead of dubbing to another machine.
I don't edit out the non OTR on every show, just the ones I like. Tape not
edited gets reused meaning I don't keep every show. But then my RTR
collection is all recorded on one side only at 3&3/4 ips. Wind up with 3
shows on one 1800 foot tape. Too bad I can't find scotch leader & timing
tape anymore. Have to use the Rat Shack red plastic kind which is harder to
see in the reel. Even getting hard to find splicing tape. Anybody have
supply places for these items? I have yet to hear the "famous FG&M" closet
scene on these When Radio Was rebroadcasts though I have one on a Jack
Benny's Golden Memories Of Radio lp set I found in a resale shop used record
hunt. "Now don't open the door Mcgee! CRASH" You know what I mean. Saw an
OTR video of that once. Effects man used real dishes and all. Really fun to
watch! Now if only this 37 year old had taped Radio Mystery Theater when it
was playing years ago.
Final thought, I'm also looking for 16" transcription disks. Anything radio
related. Can be pressed for the stations to play or recorded on acetate
blanks by the station themselves. Condition doesn't matter as long as it's
playable all the way through without skipping ot getting stuck in the
grooves. I don't care if the disks are worn or scratched. Just looking for
the records themselves. Good or better would be nice. I don't know how easy
it is to find VG or mint transcription disks so any playable condition would
be fine. Where do I advertise for these disks other than our OTR list? Any
transcription disk collectors on the list?

Robert M. Bratcher Jr.
E-mail to:
bratcher@[removed]
Record collector, 8mm, super 8, 16 and 35mm Film collector.
I like old radio's too.
Collins, Hallicrafters, National & Hammurland are my Favorites!

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

Date: Mon, 21 Oct 96 20:03 PDT
From: lois@[removed] (Lois Culver)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: OTR actors
Message-Id: <m0vFX7u-0009AlC@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>I need to get something cleared up.  A friend of mine told me that Dick 
>that true?  

>The same person also told me that Parley Bear, I hope I am spelling that 
>right, is the Keebler elf on television, but the other day in the digest 
>someone mentioned Arthur Anderson as being the elf.

I believe that that Dan Reid was played by by John Lipton.

Parley Baer has for years been playing the head Keebler elf, with the red
hat.  If there has been a change lately, I do not know.  Parley will always
be my favorite elf, and is always introduced as the Keebler elf at the
Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters luncheons. Perhaps the other gentleman is one
of the lesser elves.

Lois Culver

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

Date: 21 Oct 96 23:11:17 EDT
From: Steve Lewis <[removed]@[removed]>
To: Dewana Burnham <dburnham@[removed]>
Cc: Old Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed]>
Subject: Dick Beals & Parley Baer
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

>>I need to get something cleared up.  A friend of mine told me that
>>Dick Beals was one of the actors that played Dan Reed on the Lone
>>Ranger.  I that true?  

Yes it is.  In fact, Dick Beals was just at the FOTR Convention, and
recreated that role in the Lone Ranger 20th Anniversary "Return of Butch
Cavendish" episode.  (Which, incidentally, was one of the highlights of
the convention for me.  Way to go director Anthony Tollin!)

>>The same person also told me that Parley Bear, I hope I am spelling
>>that right, is the Keebler elf on television, but the other day in
>>the digest someone mentioned Arthur Anderson as being the elf.

Your friend is right.  Parley Baer was the Keebler elf.  Arthur Anderson
voiced the Lucky Charms Leprechaun.

Steve Lewis
 

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

Date: Mon, 21 Oct 1996 23:09:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: radbond <radbond@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: OTR Movie on Turner Classic Movies
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

The Turner Classic Movies November schedule released today shows that the
1946 movie "Radio Stars On Parade" will be shown at 3AM on Thursday,
November 7th. 

I can't find it in any of the reference books I have so I have no idea who is 
in it. 




--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #402
*******************************************

