------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2006 : Issue 121
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
WMAQ Chicago Photos [ Don Shenbarger <donslistmail@sbcglo ]
Re: A&A and the NAACP [ Jim Widner <widnerj@[removed]; ]
Herb Morrison [ "Frank McGurn" <[removed]@sbcgloba ]
Correction on My Morrison mail [ "Frank McGurn" <[removed]@sbcgloba ]
OrsonWelles on radio [ Michael Berger <makiju@[removed]; ]
5-2 births/deaths [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
"The Gestalt Gildersleeve" [ "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed]; ]
Herb Morrison [ "Bill Knowlton" <udmacon1@[removed] ]
Radio Days and Radioland Murders [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
Johnnie Dollar Auto [ "John Abbott" <mraastro@[removed] ]
Radio Theatre Before Radio [ Richard Fish <fish@lodestone-media. ]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 23:22:08 -0400
From: Don Shenbarger <donslistmail@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: WMAQ Chicago Photos
There is a nice collection of WMAQ 1920's era photographs from the film
files of the Chicago Daily News at -
[removed]
Don
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 23:23:46 -0400
From: Jim Widner <widnerj@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: A&A and the NAACP
While I grew up watching the A&A television series (and always had fond
memories of it), I think given the state of race relations by 1951 when
the series premiered the series was doomed to failure and was probably a
necessary victim of the times.
As Elizabeth pointed out, Walter White was the head of the NAACP by the
time the show began its run on TV. By the time the series was several
episodes into its first season, Mr. White was vilifying the show in the
pages of the "Chicago Defender," a leading Negro publication of the
time. Through his organization, they were appealing to the sponsors
Blatz Beer and Schenley to remove their sponsorship and thus possibly
removing the series from the air. White even adopted a slogan "Swallow
Blatz Beer and Swallow your pride. Sip Schenley and scuttle your
self-respect."
By July, 1951 other organizations both black and white were mounting
protests following the lead of the NAACP including the Students for
Democratic Action, the United Auto Workers and the Congress for Racial
Equality (CORE).
Elizabeth, the recognized expert on Amos 'n' Andy radio mentions that
the NAACP never involved itself in any protest of the radio series.
And while the radio series certainly had its detractors despite
Elizabeth's defense of the series as not one of black stereotypes, but
rather one of unique appeal to radio audiences of the time. I, for one
am glad for her studies into the social history of the series, but I
think it is a different story when the spoken word and one's imagination
becomes something real in the visual medium of television. Listening to
Amos 'n' Andy on the radio - especially those pre-1943 episodes, one can
find much enjoyable comedy and almost forget that it is a comedy of
black folk. But when the same characters are made flesh in the the
visual medium of television, suddenly, it begins to take on the aura of
stereotype.
Walter White seemed to always argue that it was the "way" they spoke
that he found most offensive. He wrote: "Where one white American has
the opportunity to meet and listen to correctly spoken English by a
Negro lawyer like William Hastie [race relations adviser to Roosevelt],
ten thousand or maybe more have contact with a colored lawyer only
through television. As a consequence many of them would be led to
believe that even a law school graduate if he be a Negro would speak
only in the most outlandish [removed]"
While I cannot fully buy into that argument, I can certainly understand
that there would indeed be many who would fall into that latter category.
At the same time, there was the employment picture and groups such as
the Coordinating Council for Negro Performers were lauding the series
knowing full well that this was employment despite the depictions.
During this same time there were protests against the television
"Beulah" with Ethel Waters and another lesser known series : Harlem
Detective from 1953.
The fifties were the beginning of the end of segregation and my own
feeling is that for this advancement in racial equality to have moved
forward shows such as Amos 'n' Andy would ultimately have to be
sacrificed. Even though I look back fondly at the television show, and
still enjoy listening to the radio series, I must argue that despite our
need to look at the social history as Elizabeth suggests, we still
needed to be very cognizant of the political one as well.
Jim Widner
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 00:19:13 -0400
From: "Frank McGurn" <[removed]@[removed];
To: "The Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Herb Morrison
B. Ray wrote about Morrison's reporting of Hindenburg at Lakehurst, NJ
disaster. Here some info from my memory. Herb was crying at what he was
seeing.
Morrison was a staff announcer who worked at WENR Chicago; he was assigned
to do a remote broadcast, for his station, of the arrival of the Hindenberg
completing a historic Trans -Atlantic flight. He had an engineer with him
and the radio equipment was big and heavy.
I suggest that if you want the whole story contact Chuck Schaden a 35 year
broacaster of OTR has interviewed Herb Morrison, I believe. His e-mail
address is twtdchuck@[removed].
Chuck is the publisher of "The Nostaliga Digest" I remember he had an
article about that historic broadcast. Check it out
[removed] It's great.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 07:51:17 -0400
From: "Frank McGurn" <[removed]@[removed];
To: "The Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Correction on My Morrison mail
I made a mistake, Morrison worked fo WLS, Chicago not WENR. I believ it's
the first mistake I ever made - today. WLS was owned by W ORLDS L ARGEST S
TORE = Sears Robuck
The record that Morrison made [May 5, 1937] was flown to New York where it
was became the first recording broadcast on NBC in its ten year history.
Accoring to Schaden's Nostial Digest in March of 1985. The loss of live was
36.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 07:52:57 -0400
From: Michael Berger <makiju@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: OrsonWelles on radio
The other day, reading a New Yorker dated Dec. 11,
1937, I came across a brief report about Orson Welles'
early days in radio. Here's an edited version that I
thought would be of interest to the group.
Michael Berger
Under a headline- "Et Tu, Shadow?"
Moiling through the Sunday paper last weekend, we came
upon a notice of a radio program scheduled for 5:30 by
WOR: "The Shadow, with Orson Welles." "Orson Welles!"
we murmured, astonished. "The same Orson Welles whose
modern-dress production of 'Julius Caesar' is now
playing to packed houses!" Deciding that it must
indeed be he, we tuned in on WOR at 5:30. What we
heard was a fiendish laugh, the words "The Shadow
knows," in a quavery, gloating voice, then more
fiendish laughter. Followed a chilling half-hour
(sponsored by a product called Blue Coal) in which a
masked maniac named Anton Spivak, who was plotting to
blow up people with dynamite, was frustrated by The
Shadow. And this Shadow, played to the hilt by Mr.
Welles, was a rich playboy named La Monte Cranston,
who, by night, became invisible and foiled evil-doers.
You can believe me or not.
The next evening we went backstage at the Mercury
Theater, after the final curtain, to interview Mr.
Welles and find out how LaMonte Cranston jibed with
Brutus. "Did you have to listen to that?" said Mr.
Welles. He had just come from the stage and was still
in costume, a blue serge business suit. Offstage, he's
still a tall, moon-faced youngster with a baby's
complexion and a mopy of brown hair. . .
Back in New York (after a sojurn in Africa during
which he wrote 'Everybody's Shakespeare' - 90,000
copies sold so far - he married and cast about for
something to work at. Radio turned out to be his
first dish; three months after he was first inside a
studio, he had a finger in the production of about
twenty big-time programs and some weeks was making as
much as $800. . . ."Honestly," we said, "what do you
think about the radio?" "I think it's a lovely
medium," he said. . .
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 07:53:09 -0400
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 5-2 births/deaths
May 2nd births
05-02-1878 - Roy Atwill - Syracuse, NY - d. 2-6-1962
actor, comedian, composer: "The Fred Allen Show"; "The Fred Waring Show"
05-02-1885 - Hedda Hopper - Hollidaysburg, PA - d. 2-1-1966
actor, columnist: Portia Brent "Brenthouse"; "Hedda Hopper Show"
05-02-1892 - Bruno Wick - Krefeld, Germany - d. 11-xx-1979
actor: Ming the Merciless "Flash Gordon"; Mr. Fowler "The Goldbergs"
05-02-1895 - Lorenz Hart - NYC - d. 11-22-1943
lyricist: "Jumbo Fire Chief Program"; "Chase and Sanborn Hour";
"Railroad Hour"
05-02-1902 - Brian Aherne - King's Norton, England - d. 2-10-1986
actor: Simon Templar "The Saint"
05-02-1902 - Erin O'Brien-Moore - Los Angeles, CA - d. 5-3-1979
actor: Elsa Banning "Big Sister"
05-02-1903 - Sylvan Levin - Baltimore, MD - d. 8-10-1996
conductor: "Sinfonietta"; "Brownstone Theatre"; "Let's Go to the Opera"
05-02-1904 - J. Anthony Hughes - NYC - d. 2-11-1970
actor: Bob Drake "Betty and Bob"
05-02-1905 - Sidney Skolsky - NYC - d. 5-3-1983
newspaper columnist: "Songs by Arlen, Stories by Skolsky"; "Bromo
Seltzer Program"
05-02-1907 - Pinky Lee - St. Paul, MN - d. 4-3-1993
comedian: "Hoagy Carmichel Show"; "Carefree Carnival"
05-02-1911 - Myron Niesley - d. 11-xx-1985
singer: "Carefree Carnival"
05-02-1916 - Robert Grapperhaus - d. 12-xx-1960
sound effects: "One Man's Family"; "Fitch Bandwagon"; "Duffy's Tavern"
05-02-1916 - Two Ton Baker - Chicago, IL - d. 5-xx-1975
singer, pianist: "Tip Top Lunch Program"
05-02-1918 - Frank Milano - d. 12-15-1962
animal sounds: "Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders"
May 2nd deaths
01-21-1902 - Smith Ballew - Palestine, TX - d. 5-2-1989
singer: "The Ipana Troubadors"; "Shell Chateau"
01-30-1911 - Hugh Marlowe - Philadelphia, PA - d. 5-2-1982
actor: Ellery Queen "Advs. of Ellery Queen"; Jim Curtis "Brenda Curtis"
02-01-1908 - George Pal - Cegled, Austria-Hungary - d. 5-2-1980
film producer, director: "Bud's Bandwagon"
02-25-1910 - Wini Shaw - San Francisco, CA - d. 5-2-1982
actor: Air Trailers "Good News of 1935 and In Caliente"
03-20-1918 - Jack Barry - Lindenhurst, NY - d. 5-2-1984
actor: "It's the Barrys"
04-30-1926 - Lou Cioffi - d. 5-2-1998
news reporter: "The Warning Bell"; "Big News of 1957/58"
08-17-1909 - Larry Clinton - Brooklyn, NY - d. 5-2-1985
bandleader: "Larry Clinton's Musical Sensations"; "Tommy Riggs and
Betty Lou"
09-15-1899 - Dr. Milton Eisenhower - Abilene, KS - d. 5-2-1985
doctor: (Brother of Ike) "Second Seagram's Symposium"; "Meet the Press"
10-03-1911 - Michael Hordern - Berkhamsted, England - d. 5-2-1995
actor: Gandolf "The Lord of the Rings"
10-28-1895 - Herb Butterfield - Rhode Island - d. 5-2-1957
actor: Clarence Wellman "Halls of Ivy"; Hunter Glenn "One Man's Family"
11-14-1908 - Joseph McCarthy - Appleton, WI - d. 5-2-1957
despotic senator: "Meet the Press"
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 08:33:13 -0400
From: "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: "The Gestalt Gildersleeve"
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
Jim Harmon wrote:
In "It's That Time Again, Vol. 3" there is a story by Justin Felix headlined
"Gildersleeve meets Honest Harold". A number of people have asked where is
Honest Harold? Somehow, in the offices of BearManor Books, NOT in the
office of Jim Harmon, an earlier story by Mr. Felix was used, one only about
Gildersleeve. The story involving Honest Harold is yet to be published,
perhaps in a Vol. 4. I haven't the least idea how this could have
happened, anymore than I know how the excellent story involving Cisco Kid at
Fort Laramie by Jack French was not used.
Steve Thompson,whose "Johnny Dollar/Duffy's Tavern" cross-over is included in
ITTA3, pointed out to me the Hatold-less "Gildy" story. I surmised that maybe
Mr. Felix was making a comment that "Honest Harold" was such a clone of "The
Great Gildersleeve," that maybe not including Harold was a point being made
and that the two characters actually co-incided
in a non-separateable "gestalt" kind of way. Steve thought my supposition was
a way bit too philosphical & thanks to Mr. Harmon's clarification, I now
concede Mr. Thompason was right.
James Thurber once wrote about a woman who preferred classical poetry to
philosophy as she liked to "put the Horace before Descartes."
I. Kant think of a clever exit-line here in the ether! There, I said it and
I'm glad!
Derek Tague.
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 09:27:14 -0400
From: "Bill Knowlton" <udmacon1@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Herb Morrison
I have a fairly complete run of "Stand By," the weekly publication of WLS,
Chicago between 1935 and 1938. There are many articles and news items about
the work of staff announcer Herb Morrison, both before and aftert the
Hindenberg event.
Morrison was used quite often by WLS for covering live events such as train
rides and airplane flights in addition to routine staff announcer chores.
The issue after the Hindenberg crash includes a terrific feature artlcle on
Herb's performance and the process of getting the recording back to WLS.
Several issues later there's a "grip and grin" photo of Morrison and his
recording engineer receiving an award from the WLS/Prairie Farmer poobahs.
BILL KNOWLTON
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 11:12:07 -0400
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Radio Days and Radioland Murders
I enjoyed RADIO DAYS. It was truly a comedy set during the time period when
people used the radio as a means of popular entertainment. Allen has done a
number of movies about movies (and going to movies) so he wanted to touch on
the other aspect of his childhood he recalled fondly. I doubt it was
intended to be a historical approach to the subject and certainly wasn't
made for the OTR hobby. It was merely a childhood fantasy. Below I am
reprinting from WOODY ALLEN ON WOODY ALLEN by Stig Bjorkman to give insight
to the movie which I am sure everyone will appreciate. Please forgive any
typos.
SB: How close is the story in RADIO DAYS to your own childhood?
WA: Some things are very close and some things are not. But a lot of it is
based on an exaggerated view of my childhood. I mean, I did live in a
family with many people present in the house; grandparents and aunts and
uncles. And a certain period of my childhood I did live in a house by the
water. In Long Beach. But I didn't want to travel all the way to Long
Beach to shoot the film. Yes, many of the things you see in the film did
happen. My relationship to the school teachers was like that. My
relationship to radio was like that. The same with the Hebrew school. And
we used to go out to the beach and look for German aircraft and German
boats. And I did have an aunt who was forever getting into the wrong
relationships and unable to get married. My cousin lived with me. She
never did get married. And we did have those neighbors who were communists.
We did have a telephone line where we listened in on the neighbors. All
these things occurred.
SB: Was RADIO DAYS a story you'd been planning to make for a long time?
WA: It originated from an idea that I wanted to pick out of a group of
songs that were meaningful to me, and each one of those songs suggested a
memory. Then this idea started to evolve: how important radio was to me
when I was growing up and how important and glamorous it seemed to everyone.
SB: Did you then pick out the songs before you wrote the script for the
film?
WA: Yes, I did. many of them.
SB: Did you discuss this part of the job with Dick Hyman, the composer, as
well?
WA: No, not that part. The only thing I needed from Dick was a couple of
arrangements of the songs. And I wanted him to create the music for the
pretend commercials and things like that. But basically the songs were
songs that i chose from my childhood. Songs that were significant for me.
SB: It's a very elaborate script, considering all the elements in it: the
family, the school, the radio events, the radio personalities . . .
WA: A film like RADIO DAYS presents a particular type of problem. When you
don't have a 'What happens next?' story, when you're working with anecodtal
material, the trick, I feel, is that you have to sustain each thing on its
own brilliance, on its own rhythm, on its own style. It's a difficult kind
of film to do, a non-plot, a non-conventional plot film. I think of RADIO
DAYS basically as a cartoon. And I picked out the actors for their cartoon
quality. If you look at my Uncle Abe, my mother, my schoolteacher, my
grandparents, they were supposed to be cartoon exaggerations of what my
real-life people were like.
SB: There is quite a lot of Glenn Miller music in RADIO DAYS.
WA: Sure. Glenn Miller was one of the giants of my childhood.
SB: In one scene, your sister and her boyfriend are caught in the fog and
they hear Orson Wells' famous version of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS over the
radio in the car. How did you get the idea for this scene?
WA: I was a little too young for it, but my parents told me about the Orson
Welles broadcast. And I wanted to do something about this incident. So I
invented this anecdote, but it seemed to me that this might have happened.
And I wanted to set it in an atmosphere which was frightening. You couldn't
see too much around you. Also that helps in a studio.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 14:44:44 -0400
From: "John Abbott" <mraastro@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Johnnie Dollar Auto
Subject: Johnnie Dollar Auto
This is just a coincidenct, but one of the Edmund O'Brien episodes (I can't
remember the name) took place in Farmington, New Mexico. It was one about a
rancher who was killed in a riding accident, and one of the few where the
wife, the beneficiary, was innocent.
John C. Abbott
Note:
No Trees were harmed in sending this message.
However, some electrons along the way were inconvenienced.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 18:15:35 -0400
From: Richard Fish <fish@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Radio Theatre Before Radio
Many thanks to Barbara Watkins for posting the link to Pat Feaster's
collection of early audio theatre cylinders:
[removed]
Just about my favorite from this list is "Zep Green's Airship" (1909),
and I recommend it heartily. It uses all the radio theatre techniques,
including music, sound effects, crowds and characters, approaching the
mic from a distance, etc. etc. -- and it's pretty funny, too!
There's a cylinder recording I've heard, which doesn't seem to be up on
the site, from 1897 -- and it's a remake of a hit recording from 1894.
It's a march-past by George Washington and his troops. A fife-and-drum
outfit is heard approaching, passing by, and marching off into the
distance (playing "Yankee Doodle," of course!) while a smallish crowd
near the listener cheers, and a voice cries "Three Cheers for General
Washington!" as the marchers pass by. Obviously, it's theatre.
When you consider no sound was sent over the radio until Reginald
Fessenden started fiddling around at Christmas, 1906; Marconi only
started experimenting in 1894; Heinrich Hertz got his work underway in
1887; and Edison invented the phonograph in 1877 -- it seems clear that
the art form we all love was first invented on recordings.
When regular, public, commercial broadcasting came along after World War
I, radio theatre caught on and flowered like a hothouse plant sitting in
pure Miracle Gro.
That phenomenon is what this group is all about.
Today, the art is alive and well, but the most important medium is no
longer radio broadcast - it's being produced on recordings, distributed
in a variety of ways.
So there's a difference in the terminology. Radio Theatre is audio
theatre broadcast on the radio, and the programs we discuss here, from
the OTR era, are most definitely Radio Theatre. "Audio Theatre," though,
is a wider term, referring to the whole artform regardless of the medium
of transmission.
Even when radio theatre is heard over the radio today, it's most likely
to be a playback of a recording. And even when there is a live broadcast
of a live performance, it's likely to be recorded and further
distributed that way. ([removed], the live shows at the annual NATF workshop
in Missouri: [removed] )
Here are a couple of draft-definitions:
Radio Theatre: an audio theatre presentation created for broadcast on
radio, or any audio theatre presentation while it is being broadcast on
radio.
Audio Theatre: a play, story, or theatrical presentation which has been
written, or adapted, for presentation using sound alone.
What do y'all think?
Richard Fish
[ADMINISTRIVIA: Please contact Mr. Fish directly with your comments. --cfs3]
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2006 Issue #121
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