Subject: [removed] Digest V2010 #89
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 5/17/2010 9:28 PM
To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to:
[removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2010 : Issue 89
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Rosa Rio Dies                         [ "Bob Scherago - Verizon" <scherago@ ]
  5-17 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Sun, 16 May 2010 22:15:29 -0400
From: "Bob Scherago - Verizon" <scherago@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Rosa Rio Dies

I'm sorry to report that Rosa Rio, organist, has died at 107.

The following is an excerpt from the obituary by Matt Schudel that appeared
in today's Washington Post.

Rosa Rio, the last of the original silent-movie organists, gave her first
professional performance in 1912, when she was 10. William Howard Taft was
president.

In August, at the age of 107, she was still at the keyboard in Tampa,
providing accompaniment for a screening of Buster Keaton's silent film "One
Week." The movie was made in 1920, when Miss Rio was already a seasoned
musician of 18.

Miss Rio's 97-year career in show business came to an end May 13, when she
died at her home in Sun City Center, Fla. She was less than three weeks shy
of her 108th birthday. She had broken her hip in March and developed an
infection and influenza, but in the past week, she was still practicing at
home on her nine-foot concert grand piano.

Miss Rio continued working at the Fox Theater in Brooklyn, [removed], and at the
Loews Burnside Theater in the Bronx before becoming the staff organist for
NBC in 1938. She was the only woman working in an orchestra with 100 men. At
times, the hazing went overboard, and one time an announcer unbuttoned Miss
Rio's blouse while she was playing. Undaunted, she got even by pulling down
the broadcaster's trousers as he read a commercial on live radio.

At her busiest, Miss Rio performed on 13 separate programs, dashing from one
studio to another to perform the themes and incidental music for programs
that included "The Shadow" with Orson Welles, "The Bob and Ray Show," "The
Goldbergs" and no fewer than 24 soap operas.

"Rosa was an absolute dynamo," Skitch Henderson, the former NBC music
director, said in 1999. "She was the only organist I ever knew who could
really improvise . . . and had a fantastic knowledge of the instrument."

Between radio jobs, Miss Rio was the accompanist for singer-actress Mary
Martin, had her own radio show and was friends with many musicians and
composers, including Cole Porter. But by 1960, radio and television studios
no longer needed orchestras and organists to provide incidental music, and
she moved to Shelton, Conn., where she taught piano, organ and voice.

It was at her home in Shelton in 1971 where WTIC's Dick Bertel and Ed
Corcoran interviewed Ms. Rio, and I recorded the interview and her music, as
she performed for us on the piano and organ. You can hear that entire
program, Number 11, from February, 1971, just as it was broadcast, at
[removed]

You can also hear interviews with Peg Lynch, Jan Miner, Rudy Vallee, Goodman
Ace - in all, every one of the 84 programs in the series, along with other
interesting programs and features, as well as "A One Night Stand with the
Big Bands," with Arnold Dean.
--
Bob Scherago
Webmaster and former WTIC engineer
[removed]

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

Date: Sun, 16 May 2010 22:25:44 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  5-17 births/deaths

May 17th births

05-17-1878 - Conway Tearle - NYC - d. 10-1-1939
announcer: "Streamlined Shakespeare"
05-17-1883 - Ethel Intropidi - NYC - d. 12-18-1946
actor: Phyllis Welby "Pretty Kitty Kelly"
05-17-1889 - Harriett Gustin - d. 4-xx-1975
co-host of a children's amateur hour on WEEI, Boston, Massachusetts
05-17-1890 - Harry Balogh - d. 8-16-1961
boxing ring announcer during the 1930s and 1940s
05-17-1890 - Philip James - Jersey City, NJ - d. 11-1-1975
conductor, composer: "Bamberger Little Symphony"; "Wellsprings of Music"
05-17-1895 - Gayelord Hauser - Tubingen, Germany - d. 12-26-1984
nutritionist: "Look Younger and Live Longer"
05-17-1896 - Ruth Donnelly - Trenton, NJ - d. 11-17-1982
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
05-17-1897 - Fletcher Wiley - d. 1-26-1966
commentator: "Your Home Front Reporter"
05-17-1902 - Fausto Cleva - Trieste, Italy - d. 8-6-1971
conductor: "NBC Symphony Orchestra"; "Metropolitan Opera Auditions"
05-17-1903 - Artie Auerbach - NYC - d. 10-3-1957
actor: Mr. Kitzel "Jack Benny Program"
05-17-1905 - John Patrick - Louisville, KY - d. 11-7-1995
writer, actor: Cecil "Cecil and Sally"
05-17-1906 - Carl McIntire - Ypsilanti, MI - d. 03-19-2002
evangelist: "Twentieth Century Reformation Hour"
05-17-1906 - John Cannon - Chicago, IL - d. 6-22-2001
announcer, actor: "City Hospital"; "Jack Armstrong, the All-American
Boy"
05-17-1907 - Horace McMahon - South Norwalk, CT - d. 8-17-1971
actor: "Crime Does Not Pay"
05-17-1907 - Jack Petruzzi - Cleveland, OH - d. 3-1-1967
actor: "Ann Worth, Housewife"; "The Lone Ranger"; "Joe Palooka"
05-17-1908 - Joe Grant - NYC - d. 5-6-2005
writer: "Lux Radio Theatre"
05-17-1911 - Maureen O'Sullivan - Boyle, Ireland - d. 6-23-1998
actor: "Dreft Star Playhouse"; "Family Theatre"
05-17-1912 - Grant Turner - Abilene, TX - d. 10-19-1991
announcer: "Grand Ole Opry"
05-17-1916 - Jameson Brewer - Sentinel Butte, ND - d. 9-11-2003
writer: "The Hardy Family"
05-17-1918 - Birgit Nilsson - Vastra Karup, Skane Ian, Sweden - d.
12-25-2005
singer: "The Metropolitan Opera"
05-17-1920 - Harriet Van Horne - Syracuse, NY - d. 1-15-1998
newspaper columnist: "Advs. of Ellery Queen"
05-17-1923 - Alice Backes - Salt Lake City, UT - d. 3-15-2007
actor: "This Is Your FBI"; "The Whistler"; "Family Theatre"
05-17-1925 - Ira Tucker - Spartanburg, SC - d. 6-24-2008
gospel singer: (The Dixie Hummingbirds) WCAU Philadelphia, PA
05-17-1926 - Tenniel Evans - Nairobi, Kenya - d. 6-10-2009
actor: Leading Seaman Goldstein "The Navy Lark"

May 17th deaths01-08-1903 - Roger Bower - NYC - d. 5-17-1979
announcer, emcee: "Can You Top This?"; "Stop Me If You Heard This One"
01-09-1886 - Arthur "Bugs" Baer - Philadelphia, PA - d. 5-17-1969
writer: "The Eveready Hour"
01-12-1920 - Theodor Uppman - San Jose, CA - d. 5-17-2005
operatic baritone: "Bell Telephone Hour"
01-15-1911 - Cy Feuer - NYC - d. 5-17-2006
music: "Escape"; "Ford Sunday Evening Hour"; "Shorty Bell"
01-15-1922 - Thelma Carpenter - Brooklyn, NY - d. 5-17-1997
singer: "Eddie Cantor Show"
02-26-1920 - Tony Randall - Tulsa, OK - d. 5-17-2004
actor: Reggie York "I Love A Mystery"
03-11-1903 - Lawrence Welk - Strasburg, ND - d. 5-17-1992
bandleader: "Lawrence Welk Orchestra"
03-15-1877 - Montague Love - Portsmouth, England - d. 5-17-1943
actor: "Screen Guild Theatre"; "Suspense"
05-29-1897 - F. Hugh Herbert - Vienna, Austria - d. 5-17-1958
writer: "Meet Corliss Archer"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
06-30-1900 - Frank Gallop - Boston, MA - d. 5-17-1988
announcer: "Milton Berle Show"; "Gangbusters"; "Stella Dallas"
07-06-1910 - Alexander Kendrick - d. 5-17-1991
correspondent: "Years In Crisis"; "As Europe Sees the Marshall Plan"
07-10-1877 - Caroline Crockett Ellis - d. 5-17-1963
actor: Mary Ward "Travels of Mary Ward"; "Caroline's Golden Store"
07-26-1921 - John de Lancie, Sr. - Berkeley, CA - d. 5-17-2002
principle oboist: "Phildelphia Symphony Orchestra"
10-18-1920 - Willis Conover - Buffalo, NY - d. 5-17-1996
jazz producer: "Voice of America Music USA"
12-06-1898 - Gunnar Myrdal - Gustafs, Sweden - d. 5-17-1987
1974 nobel prize winner in economics: "United Nations Today"
12-18-1910 - Abe Burrows - Brooklyn, NY - d. 5-17-1985
writer: "Abe Burrows Show"; "Danny Kaye Show"; "Duffy's Tavern"
xx-xx-1916 - Gary Stevens - d. 5-17-2004
broadcast executive: Produced 20 Questions

Ron

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2010 Issue #89
********************************************

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]

To Subscribe: [removed]@[removed]
  or see [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]

In the event of a major mail problem, please contact the listmaster via
  the web-based contact form available at [removed]
  (on the sidebar) or follow/DM CFSummers on Twitter

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