Subject: [removed] Digest V2005 #145
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 5/10/2005 6:08 AM

To: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2005 : Issue 145
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      5-9 births/deaths                     [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      Re: Triumph                           [ "Paul Adomites" <padomites@ccyberne ]
      Least Favorite Shows?                 [ skallisjr@[removed] ]
      Bob & Ray                             [ Bhob <bhob2@[removed]; ]
      One Man's Family                      [ HET13@[removed] ]
      Re: Johnny Dollar                     [ "Kirby, Tom" <Kirby@[removed]; ]
      Worst OTR Shows IMHO                  [ "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@juno. ]
      Re: ONE MAN'S FAMILY & Vic & Sade     [ John <JOHN007@[removed]; ]
      Fred Allen                            [ "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed]; ]
      Mary Margaret McBride                 [ "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed]; ]
      Best shows I never heard as a [removed]  [ Jim Widner <widnerj@[removed]; ]
      Tennessee Jed                         [ Melanie Aultman <otrmelanie@[removed] ]
      Fred Allen recordings                 [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]

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

    Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 08:55:25 -0400
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  5-9 births/deaths

    May 9th births/deaths

    05-09-1860 - James M. Barrie - Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland - d. 6-19-1937
    author: "Great Plays"
    05-09-1887 - William P. Adams - Tiffin, OH - d. 9-29-1972
    actor, announcer: Uncle Henry "Collier's Hour"; Uncle Bill "Let's Pretend"
    05-09-1895 - Richard Barthelmass - NYC - d. 8-17-1963
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    05-09-1901 - Fuzzy Knight - Fairmont, WV - d. 2-23-1976
    actor: "Screen Guild Theatre"
    05-09-1911 - Harry Simeone - Newark, NJ - d. 2-22-2005
    arranger, choral director: "The Fred Waring Show"; "Columbia Presents Corwin"
    05-09-1914 - Hank Snow - Liverpool, Novia Scotia, Canada - d. 12-20-1999
    country singer: "Grand Ole Opry"
    05-09-1918 - Mike Wallace - Brookline, MA
    announcer, actor: "Spike Jones Show"; Flamond "Crime Files of Flamond"
    05-09-1919 - Eddie Manson - d. 7-12-1996
    harmonica player: "They Shall Be Heard"
    05-09-1923 - Byron Kane - VT - d. 4-10-1984
    actor: "Gunsmoke"; "Broadway is My Beat"; "Escape"
    05-09-1930 - Joan Sims - Laindon, Essex, England - d. 6-28-2001
    actress: "Round the Horne"; "Stop Messing About"
    05-09-1936 - Glenda Jackson - Cheshire, England
    actress: Stevie Smith "Stevie"; Guest Panelist "[removed]"

    May 9th deaths

    01-20-1878 - Finlay Currie - Edinburgh, Scotland - d. 5-9-1968
    actor: John H. Watson "BBC Home Theatre"
    01-20-1894 - Harold Gray - Kankakee, IL - d. 5-9-1968
    cartoonist: Creater of "Little Orphan Annie"
    02-13-1906 - Pauline Frederick - Gallitzin, PA - d. 5-9-1990
    newscaster: "News of Tomorrow"; "Pauline Frederick News"; "Second Sunday"
    02-15-1908 - Hartzell Spence - Clarion, IA - d. 5-9-2001
    writer: "Cavalcade of America"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
    03-03-1907 - Canada Lee - NYC - d. 5-9-1952
    actor: "New World A' Coming"; "Lest We Forger"; "The Free Company"
    05-05-1912 - Alice Faye - NYC - d. 5-9-1998
    singer, actress: "Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show"
    05-18-1892 - Ezio Pinza, Rome, Italy - d. 5-9-1957
    singer: "Telephone Hour"; "Ezio Pinza's Children Show"; "Stagestruck"
    07-10-1889 - Graham McNamee - Washington, [removed] - d. 5-9-1942
    announcer: "Fleischmann Hour"; "Fire Chief"; "Treasury Hour"
    07-20-1910 - Bill Goodwin - San Francisco, CA - d. 5-9-1958
    announcer, actor: "George Burns and Gracie Allen Show"; Johnny Fletcher
    "Johnny Fletcher"
    09-10-1915 - Edmund O'Brien - Brooklyn, NY - d. 5-9-1985
    actor: Johnny Dollar "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar"
    10-30-1923 - Hershel Bernardi - NYC - d. 5-9-1986
    actor: "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar"
    10-31-1926 - Shirley Dinsdale - San Francisco, CA - d. 5-9-1999
    ventriloquist: Judy Splinters "Judy in Wonderland, The Eddie Cantor Show"
    11-09-1895 - George D. Hay - Attica, IN - d. 5-9-1968
    host: (The Solemn Old Judge) "Barn Dance"; "Grand Ole Opry"
    --
    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

    Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 11:52:26 -0400
    From: "Paul Adomites" <padomites@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Triumph

    My wife (who is not a huge OTR fan) and I listened to the Norman Corwin play
    yesterday on NPR, and I had a copy of the script to follow along with, and
    we both thought it was utterly marvelous. Your reactions?

    Paul Adomites

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

    Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 11:53:58 -0400
    From: skallisjr@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Least Favorite Shows?
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Al Ragonnet notes, anent peoples' least favorite OTR shows.

>     when listening to the shows it is impossible  (yes, I really think it
>     is impossible) to judge them by the standards of the  times they were
>     broadcast.  We hear them with all the modern thought  patterns we now
>     deal with.

    Having grown up in the OTR period, I have an even simpler explanation for
    why such a judgement would be teetering on the brink of impossibility.
    That's simply that if I didn't like a show, I generally didn't tune it
    in.  Those shows I heard later weren't part of my experience in OTR
    listening.  If a show didn't catch my interest, I didn't tune it in
    again.

    Indeed, my perspective has shifted over time, and some things that passed
    over my head when the shows first aired I picked up as age improved me.
    Some of the shows I liked as a child were even better as heard as an
    adult.  The Phil Harris-Alice Faye show is a good example of this.  (The
    wartime Captain Midnight showed greater aviation depth than I'd have been
    able to understand.

    It's probably enough to say that there weren't any "least liked" shows; I
    didn't listen to any.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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    Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 11:55:15 -0400
    From: Bhob <bhob2@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Bob & Ray

    Speaking of Bob & Ray, why is there no listing of their many different
    shows? Haendiges has a short log. Dunning has a very general overview.
    Goldin has a gap in the mid-1950s. The Museum of Television & Radio has
    dozens (hundreds?) of uncataloged Bob & Ray shows.

    I'm interested in seeing a chronological list of their shows under
    different names. I never see PICK AND PLAY WITH BOB & RAY, their 1953
    (?) game show before a live audience mentioned anywhere. I used to
    listen to their hour-long late night radio series in 1954 (?), but what
    was the title of that series, the network and exact dates? (As I recall,
    this show did not have "Mention My Name in Sheboygan" as a theme but
    instead used Ben Bernie's theme, "It's a Lonesome Old Town." Yes? No?)

    I'm also curious to know about the  newsletter they once mailed out to
    listeners who requested it. What was the title? How many issues? Larry
    Josephson was unable to answer this for me.

    Bob & Ray were influenced by Raymond Knight's CUCKOO HOUR. Goldin lists
    two of these from 1937. Are tapes of these two available anywhere?

    Bhob @ FUSEBOX VINTAGE NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIPS
    @ [removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 13:48:57 -0400
    From: HET13@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  One Man's Family

    With regard to Jim Cox's comments in the May 9 Digest suggesting that One
    Man's family ended on April 24, 1959, I should like to offer the following:
    One
    March 23, 1959 Carlton E. Morse notified the cast of OMF by letter "NBC,
    without previous notice, has canceled One Man's Family as of April 27, of
    this
    year" (I have a copy of one of these letters in my collection).  Most of us
    are
    aware that the April 24, 1959 broadcast included a painfully brief concluding
    statement appended to the very end of the broadcast.  Based on this evidence,
    I
    have to agree with Cox that One Man's Family ended as a network show as of
    April 24, 1959.  However, it is also true that in the final years of the show
    the cast gathered every two weeks for recording sessions which produced
    succeeding sets of ten chapters for the series.  Material in Morse's personal
    files
    which are housed at the Temple University library show that the cast had, in
    fact, recorded the shows intended to be broadcast through May 8, 1959.  I have
    examined and read Morse's personal copies of those final 10 chapters.  While I
    have no concrete proof, I have been let to believe (as apparently Morse did
    too) that some NBC affiliates chose to broadcast the remaining chapters that
    had
    already been produced.  I have tried, over the years, to find someone who may
    have heard some of these broadcasts, but have not succeeded in finding anyone
    who can recall them.  I would be eager to know if anyone reading the Digest
    recalls such broadcasts.

    Ed Titus (Historian for One Man's Family Family)

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

    Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 13:49:18 -0400
    From: "Kirby, Tom" <Kirby@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Johnny Dollar

    After my posting that I didn't bother with Johnny Dollar because it was
    in a 5-episode/story format, I received word that it was in that format
    only for a season or two, and that most of the time, it was in the more
    popular 1/2 episode format.

    Therefore, I ordered a set on CD and I will give it a try. I made sure
    that the CD set didn't cover the 5x15 minute period of time. I think
    that Bob Bailey was the star in the set I ordered.

    Thanks for the info,

    -- Tom Kirby

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

    Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 13:51:34 -0400
    From: "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Worst OTR Shows IMHO

         When it comes to my opinion for worst OTR shows,
    I'd have to say "The Bob and Ray Show", "Casey Crime
    Photographer", "Pat Novak, For Hire","Quiet Please"
    and "Meet Miss Sherlock".

         When it comes to favorites, however, the list would
    be much too long. Other than these shows, everything else
    (despite how long it was on the air) seem to fare alright.

         BTW, I never did get an answer to my questions
    regarding "Meet Miss Sherlock". They were:

    1)Did lawyer Peter Blossom and his girlfriend Jane Sherlock
    ever get married? (ala the final eps of "Candy Matson")
    2)In Jack French's book, "Private Eyelashes", he said that
    that the man who portrayed Peter Blossom was never
    identified on the shows, but that the woman who was the star
    of the program (Monty Margetts) remembered that his name was
    also Peter, but she couldn't remember his last name. What
    was it? (BTW Jack, congratulations on this book getting
    translated into Japanese. Bravo!)

    Another OTR Fan,

    Kenneth Clarke

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

    Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 15:57:02 -0400
    From: John <JOHN007@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:  ONE MAN'S FAMILY & Vic & Sade

>     -One Man's Family - I love ILAM but this really was
>     BAD.

    As a ONE MAN'S FAMILY FAN I'd like to chime in on this.  Of course
    everyone has differing tastes, but I find that many (perhaps most) OTR
    fans do not give OMF a fair enough chance.  That is, they do not listen
    to *ENOUGH*  **consecutive** episodes (two qualifiers there!) for the
    program to work for them.

    You cannot get a good sense of ONE MAN'S FAMILY by listening to merely
    two or three consecutive episodes, or even a whole slew of
    non-consecutive ones.

    In Dunning's first book (Tune In Yesterday), under the OMF listing, he
    said something to the effect that it is necessary, in regard to OMF,  to
    listen to a whole string of episodes and THEN the wonderful
    characterizations of Carlton Morse spring to life and begin to really
    work for the listener.

    I think that was a very astute and crucial observation on the part of
    Mr. Dunning.    I have observed that OMF is one of those shows that is
    consistently "under auditioned" by listeners, and unfairly rejected
    forthwith.   (It is what we would today call a "slice of life" show and
    it's plots and climaxes build slowly, sometimes subtly, and derive from
    PEOPLE -- just like life).

    For those who make the effort to obtain and listen to, say, 7 to 10
    consecutive episodes, I'd guess there will be an excellent chance of
    them being "hooked" by Morse's masterpiece, just as audiences were
    frequently glued to their radios during the golden years of OTR to
    listen to this series.

    After all, ONE MAN'S FAMILY didn't run for 27 years for nothing!  :-)
    That alone speaks volumes.

    Happy Listening!
    John

    (PS:  I found the same thing to be true of VIC & SADE.   For years I
    myself rejected V&S because of this very thing---I'd only heard a few
    isolated episodes, and frankly found the whole experience very flat and
    dull.  "Just people talking" would have been my comment about V&[removed]!

    But one day it occurred to me that I should really give V&S the same
    chance that Dunning said was required for OMF.  So, I determined that I
    would listen to at least ten or twelve hopefully consecutive episodes
    and THEN make up my mind.  And, of course, by about the seventh or
    eighth [removed]  :-)  )

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

    Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 19:25:48 -0400
    From: "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Fred Allen

    Hi Everybody,

    when I talk to the people at the Boston Public library about Fred  Allen,s
    radio show, they that the Library Congress has better sounding copies of all
    of there shows.  I was led by them they if a new set of Fred Allen shows
    should be made from the masters from the Library of Congress     rather than
    there copies.    Take care,

    Walden Hughes

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

    Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 19:26:01 -0400
    From: "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Mary Margaret McBride

    Hi Everybody,

    I interviewed Susan Ware today about her new book on Mary Margaret McBride,
    and she told me that the Library of Congress has 1200 recordings of Mary
    Margaret McBride shows.  I hope some day that,s a person can arrange a box
    set of her shows to be release to the public.  Take care,

    Walden Hughes

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

    Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 19:26:49 -0400
    From: Jim Widner <widnerj@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Best shows I never heard as a [removed]

    Ted Kneebone wrote about "Quiet, Please":

>     What a delightful mix of horror, science fiction, comedy, and even
>     religion!
>     The acting by Ernest Chappell and the writing of Wyllis Cooper were superb.

    Ironically, the very discussion about hating certain shows because of
    the "radio minimalism" Elizabeth noted can be applied to this very series.

    This was in my opinion what made Cooper the superb writer-as-artist that
    he was. I often imagined his audio as on a bare stage with various
    people located in isolated spotlights that came on and off as they
    interacted with an audience. Listen to episodes such as "Nothing Behind
    the Door" or "Adam and the Darkest Day" etc. He is at his best when the
    protagonist is speaking to the listener, which Cooper often did even in
    some of his works which are not part of QUIET, PLEASE such as "The
    Signal Man" from LIGHTS OUT.  Cooper's use of the inner voice is
    superb.  He has a way of sending chills up and down your spine with
    minimal use of audio effect. Like Hitchcock with his video minimalism,
    Cooper knew how to use this technique in an audio format.

    Jim Widner
    [removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 19:45:15 -0400
    From: Melanie Aultman <otrmelanie@[removed];
    To: OTRDIGEST <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Tennessee Jed
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    I've just been made aware of a show called Tennessee Jed on ABC from 1945-1947.

    He was an undercover agent for General Grant in the period just after the
    Civil War?

    Was the script factual?

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    Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 07:50:13 -0400
    From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Fred Allen recordings

>     Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 23:14:22 -0400
>     From: "thomas heathwood" <HeritageRadio@[removed];

>     Re: The Question about FRED ALLEN SHOWS at The Boston Public Library:
>     I (and others) have been working on the problem of the NBC programs
>     held "hostage" at the Boston Public Library for many years.

    The important question is who currently holds the copyright in those programs
    and whether
    the BPL could legally release them if it wanted to.  Just because the BPL has
    recordings
    doesn't mean they own the intellectual property rights.

    --
    A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                           [removed]
     15 Court Square, Suite 210                 lawyer@[removed]
    Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         [removed]

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #145
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