Subject: [removed] Digest V01 #69
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 3/2/2001 9:10 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                          The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                             Volume 01 : Issue 69
                       A Part of the [removed]!
                               ISSN: 1533-9289

                               Today's Topics:

     Cincy convention                     ["Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm]
     Re: Video Sources?                   ["Susan Olson" <susolson@[removed];  ]
     Radio tube warm-up                   [Al Girard <agirard@[removed]]
     Jumping the Shark                    ["Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@worldnet.]
     W47NV                                ["Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed];    ]
     Yukon Land                           ["Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@]
     (Ivan) Shark Jumping                 ["Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@]
     First Piano Quartet                  [Joe Salerno <salernoj@[removed];  ]
     "Jumping the Shark"                  [Rick <doolin@[removed];      ]
     Land in the Yukon                    ["David L. Easter" <david-easter@hom]
     Two OTR deaths                       ["Richard Pratz" <[removed]@home]
     "Jumped the shark"                   ["Lee, Steve (DEOC)" <slee@[removed].]
     Reply                                [William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];]
     shark jumping                        [chris chandler <christopher_c@email]
     Re: Fibber & Molly                   [Cnorth6311@[removed]                 ]
     Jack Benny chat, Sunday 3/4 at 7:00P [JackBenny@[removed]                  ]
     jumping the [removed]              ["Rodney w bowcock jr." <rodney-self]

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

    Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 23:02:21 -0500
    From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Cincy convention

    My girlfriend just told me that she has no interest in OTR and won't be
    coming to the convention - and I'm not talking about Jessica.

    If anyone is interested in spliting a hotel room, and have not booked yet, I
    have a double bed suite - non smoking - that I don't mind sharing.  It's a
    sure fire method of being cost-effective.

    If anyone has not been to the Cincy convention and has always meant to go, I
    highly recommend it.  It's lots of fun and worth the trip!

    Martin
    mmargrajr@[removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 23:55:17 -0500
    From: "Susan Olson" <susolson@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Video Sources?

    Bryan,

    I have had luck finding old B-movies and serials at [removed]  Anyone
    else with sources, I'd like to hear about as well.

    Susan Olson
    kennybakerfan@[removed]

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

    Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 00:25:06 -0500
    From: Al Girard <agirard@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Radio tube warm-up

    I thought I'd pass on a story that my mother
    used to tell about a time when I was a youngster.
    Apparently I was about three or four years old at the
    time, and as I turned the radio on, my mother
    cautioned me "be careful, you might break something".
    As soon as she finished saying that, the tubes had
    warmed up and a man's voice said "yes, and I'm not
    going to fix it for you, either!"

    -Al Girard

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

    Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 00:53:11 -0500
    From: "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Jumping the Shark

    Much as I ever hesitate to disagree with Miss Elizabeth, the moment Fibber
    and Molly ceased to be the same is the moment SC Johnson dropped it's
    sponsorship. With the coming of "The Pet Milk Program," Harlow "Milky"
    Wilcox lost some of that warm luster that only cream wax can give. The cast
    no longer seemed able to pour it on and spread it around the way they used
    to.

    As for the brief change of Gale Gordon's character from Mayor LaTrivia to
    Foggy Williams, that was but a brief bump in the road. The folks at FM&M
    showed great sensitivity to the passing of NY Mayor LaGuardia, the original
    satiric target of the character's name.

    Time to treat the car with [removed]

    'Night All!

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

    Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 08:04:16 -0500
    From: "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  W47NV

    Charlie (Cnorth6311@[removed]) wrote:

    "1941 - 1st US commercial FM radio station (W47NV) goes on the air,
    Nashville, Tenn.  W47NV operated with 20,000 watts on a frequency of 44,700
    kilocycles."

    That was the FM sibling of WSM, though it often programmed separately.  The
    antenna was on the top of the WSM AM tower -- and still is, from what I've
    been told, because removing it would be a lot of trouble for nothing and
    would change the characteristics of their AM antenna system.

    The old FM band was 42-50 MHz, with the 42-43 segment reserved for
    noncommercial educational stations (as 88-92 MHz is today).  The "47" was a
    channel number representing the station's frequency; companies like Philco,
    who introduced FM radios in 1941 after commercial service began, often
    marked the dials with channel numbers (21 through 99) instead of
    frequencies, while makers like GE and Scott that had started selling FM
    radios in 1939 or 1940 continued to use frequencies rather than channel
    numbers.

    This unusual FM call sign scheme was dropped in 1943, and FM broadcasters
    then were required to choose conventional three- or four-letter call signs.

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

    Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 08:04:14 -0500
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Yukon Land

    J. Randolph  Cox, speaking about the Yukon Land deed, observes,

>     I remember this offer of land in the Yukon ... not only did you get a
>     dee to your 1 square inch, but (if memory serves) a pouch with a few
>     grains of dirt in it.  Since the parcels were numbered I considered
>     ordering enough of them so I could actually get a square foot and have
>     enough space to stand on!

    The certificate indicated that it was a "general quitclaim" for a square
    inch of land.  As I recall (I had one of those deeds once) there were no
    fine geographic data on those inches, so it would have been difficult to
    build a lot by collecting a bunch of them.  Of course, these deeds were
    nullified by some technicality, so if someone had a million of them now
    (presuming a million were issued), they'd make nice wallpaper for those
    into peculiar decor.

    These deeds pop up from time to time on various auctions.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 08:03:57 -0500
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  (Ivan) Shark Jumping

    Elizameth McLeod defines,

>     the intriguing concept of "jumping the shark." This is a term used by
>     the site's creators to describe the specific moment in a given TV series
>     where it becomes all too obvious that the show has passed its creative
>     prime

    And asks to apply the concept to radio shows.  After listing a few OTR
    examples, she asks,

>     anyone else care to suggest the moment where their favorite shows
>     "jumped the shark?"

    In the case of Captain Midnight, it's simple: when the show shifted from
    15-minute to half-hour format.  This is why I cannot consider those shows
    Canonical.  Not only did the lead actor change (Ed Prentiss was replaced
    by Paul Barnes -- from what I understand, without checking with the
    sponsor, who was Not Pleased) but the show's writers lowered their sights
    considerably.  The writing was considerably more juvenile, and the plots
    were simplified.  It's worth noting that in half-hour format, the Captain
    Midnight show was broadcast only twice weekly -- Tuesdsays and Thursdays,
    alternating with the half-hour Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters program.

    To give an idea on how far the show declined, one story had to do with an
    identification symbol.  During the 15-minute-serial version of the show,
    being a Secret Squadron member required that listeners have a
    Code-O-Graph.  The last of these devices was the 1949 model.  When the
    show transitioned to half-hour format, somebody decided that cipher
    messages at the close of the show were no longer necessary, so the new
    membership symbol was an iron-on transfer.  The show's pitch for the
    premiums suggested that the best place to place the symbol was on a
    handkerchief, which could be folded so that the transfer -- a picture of
    "Captain Midnight" surrounded by "Secret Squadron member" lettering --
    could be concealed, but unfolded to show other Squadron members.  well,
    in the show in question, some baddies captured the real Chuck Ramsay, and
    had an imposter who looked like Chuck, and who had studied his mannerisms
    and speech sufficiently to pass as Ramsay, take his place.  However,
    quick-thinking Chuck had feigned having a cold, and managed to retain his
    identifier handkerchief by blowing his nose in it.  (What a great image
    for other Secret Squadron members: soiling one's hero's image by covering
    it with mucous!)  Of course, without the handkerchief, the replacement
    was quickly identified as a fraud ("Yes, Chuck ... just what was on your
    handkerchief?"), and the plot was foiled.  In the only half-hour Captain
    Midnight program in general circulation, "The Flying Ruby," even the most
    dimwitted listener could determine who the guilty party was in the
    disappearance of a valuable ruby long before our heroes could.  It was
    enough to drive a true Secret Squadron member to drink ... something
    other than Ovaltine.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 09:36:25 -0500
    From: Joe Salerno <salernoj@[removed];
    To: OTR List <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  First Piano Quartet

    Tyrone inquired about the FPQ. I have in my collection somewhere - can't lay
    my hands on it at the moment - one installment of their program, 30 minutes.

    According to Mackenzie, they also had an AFRS series, derived from NBC
    broadcasts. It appears to have run 31 installments and ended in 1951. The
    example given is AFRS 24, summer 1951. The series designation is END 179.
    The pianists names through out the series are: Adam Garner, Vee Padwa,
    George Robert, Frank Mittler, and Edward Edson. I don't recall ever seeing
    the name Frank Robert on any of their 78 rpm recordings of which there were
    quite a few. There were also some LP reissues.

    Joe Salerno

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

    Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 11:01:44 -0500
    From: Rick <doolin@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  "Jumping the Shark"

    Elizabeth [removed]

>     One of the most fascinating sites on the web for those of us who don't
>     object to the word "television" is [removed] ...
>     You get the idea -- anyone else care to suggest the moment where their
>     favorite shows "jumped the shark?"
>     Elizabeth

    I chime [removed]
    I always feel like you can tell when a show is "jumping the shark" (GREAT
    term by the way) when one of the main characters has a baby. It seems that
    the idea of throwing a cute little critter in the mix is a common device.
    One example that sticks out is Mork and Mindy giving birth to Jonathan
    Whinters. I guess it was hard to pull off such sight gags on radio.
    Rick

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

    Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 11:01:50 -0500
    From: "David L. Easter" <david-easter@[removed];
    To: "Old-Time Radio Digest (E-mail)" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Land in the Yukon

    If I remember correctly, there was a item in the news about 20 or 30 years
    ago having to do with those 1-in. sq. properties. Some people were trying to
    buy them up. However, I believe the deeds did not include the mineral rights
    (which made them pretty worthless). I also think that the final blow came
    when it was found that no one had paid property taxes and all the land had
    reverted to either the government or whomever.

    David L. Easter
    Fallston, MD 21047
    Email: David-Easter@[removed]

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

    Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 11:11:51 -0500
    From: "Richard Pratz" <[removed]@[removed];
    To: "OTR (Plain Text Only)" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Two OTR deaths

    Although they never reached "star status" in OTR, it should be noted for the
    record that two OTR actresses have passed away. Their obituaries
    reveal - - -

    89-year old Helen Bennett,  beauty queen, model and character actress known
    for her blond coiffure, died Feb. 25 in Santa Monica, California.  Best
    remembered for her B-movie serials, she had also worked in radio and was a
    founding member of the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters.

    77-year old actress Sally Mansfield, best known for her role as Vena in the
    1950's syndicated TV series "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger", died Jan. 28 in
    Westlake Village, California. Her career began in NYC in 1945 on radio. Her
    voice was heard on several soap operas and in plays and commercials.

    Neither are listed in Dunning.

    Rich

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

    Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 14:57:41 -0500
    From: "Lee, Steve (DEOC)" <slee@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  "Jumped the shark"

    "Our Miss Brooks" I can never get quite used to Robert Rockwell playing the
    role of Philip Boynton. His hesitancy and genuine sheepishness did not match
    those characteristics as played by Jeff Chandler. However, this was such a
    great show on radio and TV, that Rockwell is a "fin appearance" rather than
    a shark jump.

    "Henry Aldrich" The war years were very hard on the "teen-aged" cast
    members. For me, the shark appears whenever the various replacement
    combinations are sans Ezra Stone as Henry, or Jackie Kelk as Homer.

    Steve Lee

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

    Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 15:02:04 -0500
    From: William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Reply

    Phil Chavin asked about "Fun for All" which he listened to. So he was the
    one!. I was the engineer on that "dog". We recorded it on Friday evening
    for playback on Saturday. It originated from Studio 21, the Godfrey
    studio, in the basement of the new studio building and should have been
    called "Fun For Nobody". . The director was a young fellow with little
    experience who worked out in the studio so the audience could see him
    direct. He originated the show. One day he got rattled and threw a hand
    cue to each one of the participents. The sound effects man rang a bell,
    the announcer announced, and the effeminate and nervous organist  jumped
    causing the volume pedal to go wide open as he played a chord. The din
    was tremendous. I got on the talkback mike and called a halt to the
    fiasco  and had them go back to the beginning of the segment where an
    edit could be made. Later the agency rep chided me for interupting the
    show. I asked him what he thought I should have done. End of discussion.
    Another evening the director came in and went into a long harangue. I
    finally asked him if he was trying to tell me that he wanted a second
    cast mike. The producer saw what was going on and realized that the guy
    was upsetting me, so he came in, grabbed the director by the collar and
    bodily threw him down the control room steps. He then handed me some
    money and told me to go have dinner on him and calm down. My boss, who
    was sitting behind me, said that he thought I handled the situation very
    well. So much for "Fun For All". By the way, I worked alone in the
    control room. A crowded control room was a figment of the movie makers
    imagination. The studios had clients booths for the sponsors.

    As for "Our Gal Sunday", it came from New York during my time. Earlier
    soaps came from Chicago. There was a period while I was at CBS Hollywood
    that we originated a couple of "soaps". I don't recall what they were,
    however, and I think that it was a very short era.

    About repeats of network shows for western portions of the network. I was
    at CBS-Hollywood from 1945 to 1951. It was during that time that KNX
    installed turntables in two small studios (5 & 6) to accomodate this
    procedure. Untill then recordings on the network were taboo.

    Bill Murtough

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

    Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 15:02:05 -0500
    From: chris chandler <christopher_c@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  shark jumping

    Elizabeth talked about "Jumping The Shark"...the moment it becomes obvious a
    series is past its [removed] are a couple more you might add to the
    list:

    Bob Hope --  the shark reared its head the day World War Two [removed]
    no fighting men to entertain, Hope lost what had gradually become his
    series' central feature.  A post-war tour of college campuses didn't
    recapture the magic, and Korea came along too late in the radio game to give
    the series a boost.  By 1950, Hope had been forced out of his longtime
    post-McGee Tuesday night time slot by the upstart CBS sitcom "Life With
    Luigi".

    Burns and Allen --  The shark had jumped by the time the duo started
    protraying a married couple on the air in 1941.   They were still doing
    their "Lamb Chop"-type vaudeville humor a couple a couple years after the
    "second wave" of big radio performers (Skelton, Hope, Bergen)had relegated
    the B&A schtick to quaintness. Then, after the revamp (in fact up to the end
    of their TV career in 1958), Burns populated his program with a
    disconcertingly large assortment of characters and devices blatantly ripped
    off from other series.  Whether it was a Friars' Club in-joke, or shameless
    plagiarism, the shark-jumping result was the same.

    The Whistler --  This is one my pet peeves, and proof that I have tooooo
    much time on my hands.  Listen to Bill Foreman's [removed]"Yes, I know the
    nameless terrors of which they dare not speak".  If there's a falling
    intonation on the "Yes", you're in good [removed] it's more of a rising
    exclamation--"Yes!"--the shark has jumped.  Once the series moved from
    west-coast upstart to Radio Institution, it never "felt" quite the same.

    I do disagree a bit with Elizabeth's notion that Jack Benny's shark had
    permanently jumped by the time he signed with American Tobacco in 1944.
    Jack was on the way down, make no [removed] were slipping badly, and
    his series never quite adapted to the necessities of wartime
    troop-entertining (a louder speaking voice and a few risque cracks seemed to
    satisfy the servicemen, but it practically killed Benny's radio show).  But
    the arrival of the Ronald Colmans quite reinvigorated the series,
    symbolically as well as [removed] writers realized began setting up the
    series--even the "show within a show" segments--as straight situation
    comedy, audiences responded, the peformers seemed rejuvanated, and the
    ratings headed north once again.  True, a Benny show circa 1952 is in some
    ways *outwardly* identical to a Benny show circa [removed] I think you'd
    have to say Benny actually wrestled the shark back into to the water and
    allowed his series to enjoy a fine, creative midlife.  But Elizabeth's
    [removed] Phil Harris left, bring on the sharks.  :-)

    In fact, we may need a separate category [removed] that undeniably hit
    the shark-jumping skids, but recovered.  Jack Benny fits into this
    [removed]'d say "Suspense" does [removed]
    it was in some ways three or four "different" series over the years, under
    different producers.

    And "One Man's Family" certainly falls into this [removed] was
    essentially past its prime by about 1940, Morse using a couple of
    high-profile devices to coast through the war [removed] the immedidate
    post-war period was a [removed] political polemic disguised as
    international intrigue, and tired soap devices including a dreaded case of
    amnesia.  But when Morse and writer Harlan Ware hit upon the idea of subtly
    bringing the grandchildren to the forefront of the [removed]  By the
    time the series switched to its 15-minute nightly format in 1950, the
    stories were stronger than they'd been in [removed] characters more
    involved, the series managing to reconstitute itself, even if its glory
    years were past.

    chris

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

    Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 15:02:07 -0500
    From: Cnorth6311@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Fibber & Molly

    Could any one please tell me what happened to Alice Darling on the Fibber and
    Molly show? I think she was a definite asset. The way she screwed up her
    sentences was very funny. Why did she suddenly disappear? Also, what happened
    to Mayor LaTrivia? I know Gale Gordon played the Mayor and also "Foggy"
    Williams, the weather man. Why was the change made from the mayor to the
    weatherman? I don't think "Foggy" was ever as funny as LaTrivia. Was it
    perhaps the fact that Gordon was able to dictate which character he wanted to
    play on the show? Thanx for your help.

    Charlie

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

    Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 18:59:55 -0500
    From: JackBenny@[removed]
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Jack Benny chat, Sunday 3/4 at 7:00PM Central

    Just a reminder that our monthly Jack Benny chat is this Sunday, 3/4 at
    7:00PM Central (8:00PM Eastern, 5:00PM Pacific).  For more information,
    please check out our Web site at [removed].

    Hope to see you there.

    --Laura Leff
    President, IJBFC
    [removed]

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

    Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 20:32:00 -0500
    From: "Rodney w bowcock jr." <rodney-selfhelpbikeco@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  jumping the [removed]

    Elizabeth [removed]
    Jack Benny -- My first impulse is to suggest that the shark's fin first
    broke the water with the beginning of the Lucky Strike series --

    I [removed]

    I think that the Benny show really hit it's prime during the Lucky Strike
    years.  My favorite episodes are all from around 1949.  And yeah, it
    wasn't the same with Bob Crosby, but it sure beat the quality of most
    other comedies from the mid-50's era.  Anyone else agree with me?

    Rodney Bowcock
    Self Help Bike Company
    "No [removed] a rider with a dream."

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V01 Issue #69
    ******************************************

    Copyright [removed] Communications, York, PA; All Rights Reserved,
      including republication in any form.

    If you enjoy this list, please consider financially supporting it:
       [removed]

    For Help: [removed]@[removed]
    To Unsubscribe: [removed]@[removed]

    For Help with the Archive Server, send the command ARCHIVE HELP
      in the SUBJECT of a message to [removed]@[removed]

    To contact the listmaster, mail to listmaster@[removed]

    To Send Mail to the list, simply send to [removed]@[removed]