Subject: [removed] Digest V2005 #32
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 1/29/2005 12:02 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2005 : Issue 32
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Jerry Belcher at KGNC                 [ <mlhenry@[removed]; ]
      1-29 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      re: Jo Stafford I'm My own Grandmaw   [ Steve Salaba <dangerdanger@sbcgloba ]
      Never Heard Character                 [ "Marty" <martyd@[removed]; ]
      Re: Easy Aces with Audience (mr ace   [ "W. Gary W." <wgaryw@[removed]; ]
      OTR conventions                       [ Bagleyfan <bagleyfan@[removed]; ]
      Carson as robot on Benny?             [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
      Jack Benny on radio in 1929           [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
      1-30 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 15:30:01 -0500
    From: <mlhenry@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Jerry Belcher at KGNC

    I am researching the career of Jerry Belcher, the first
    co-host of "Vox Pop". According to Broadcasting Magazine, he
    was with the sales and promotion department of radio station
    KGNC in Amarillo, Texas from April 1941 to September 1941.
    Unfortunately, I haven't had much luck getting the local
    newspapers through inter-library loan. Is there anyone in
    Amarillo or other parts of Texas who might have access to
    those papers and could help me find references to Belcher or
    the station? If so, please contact me directly and I can give
    you more information.

    Thanks.

    -Michael Henry
    Library of American Broadcasting

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 16:14:55 -0500
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  1-29 births/deaths

    January 29th births

    01-29-1880 - W. C. Fields - Philadelphia, PA - d. 12-25-1946
    comedian: "Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy Show"
    01-29-1911 - Bryan Coleman - London, England
    actor: John H. Watson "BBC Light Programme"
    01-29-1913 - Daniel Taradash - Louisville, KY - d. 1-22-2003
    film writer: "Lux Radio Theatre"; "Cavalcade of America"
    01-29-1915 - Victor Mature - Louisville, KY - d. 8-4-1999
    actor: "Hollywood Star Playhouse"
    01-29-1917 - John Raitt - Santa Ana, CA
    actor, singer: "MGM Musical Comedy Theatre"
    01-29-1918 - John Forsythe - Penns Grove, NJ
    actor: "NBC Star Playhouse"; "Best Plays"
    01-29-1923 - Paddy Chayefsky - The Bronx, NY - d. 8-1-1981
    writer: "Theatre Guild On the Air"
    01-29-1942 - Robin Morgan - Lake Worth, FL
    actress, Former president of National Organization for Women: "Cavalcade of
    America"
    01-29-1943 - Tony Blackburn - Guildford, England
    disc jockey: "Midday Spin"; "Junior Choice"

    January 29th deaths

    01-14-1914 - Harold Russell - North Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada - d. 1-29-2002
    world war II hero, actor: "A Salute to the [removed]"; "NBC University Theatre"
    01-22-1899 - Anne Elstner - Lake Charles, LA - d. 1-29-1981
    actress: Stella Dallas "Stella Dallas"; Mary Weston "Wilderness Road"
    02-02-1875 - Fritz Kreisler - Vienna, Austria - d. 1-29-1962
    violinist, composer: "Telephone Hour"; "Concert Hall"; "Gospel In Song"
    02-10-1893 - Jimmy Durante - NYC - d. 1-29-1980
    comedian: (Da Schnozz) Claudius 'Brainy' Bowers "Jumbo Fire Chief Program"
    02-22-1925 - Stratford Johns - Pietermaritzburg, South Africa - d. 1-29-2002
    actor: Pennington "Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile"
    03-12-1916 - Mandel Kramer - Cleveland, OH - d. 1-29-1989
    actor: Johnny Dollar "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar"
    04-11-1912 - John Larkin - Oakland, CA - d. 1-29-1965
    actor: Perry Mason "Perry Mason"; "Dimension X; " Ford Theatre"
    09-03-1913 - Alan Ladd - Hot Springs, AR - d. 1-29-1964
    actor: Dan Holliday "Box 13"; "Lux Radio Theatre"; "Proudly We Hail"
    09-09-1930 - Martha Steinberg - d. 1-29-2000
    detroit radio: WQBH-AM
    10-27-1911 - Leif Erickson - Alameda, CA - d. 1-29-1986
    actor: Richard Rhinelander III "My Friend Irma"
    xx-xx-1885 - William Steinke - Slatinton, PA - d. 1-29-1958
    host: "Jolly Bill and Jane"; "No School Today"
    --
    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 16:15:15 -0500
    From: Steve Salaba <dangerdanger@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  re: Jo Stafford I'm My own Grandmaw

    At 3:40 PM -0500 1/28/05, Ed Kindred wrote:

>     Inspired me to look up Darlene and Jonathan Edwards

    Are these the same folks whose deliberately horrible version of "The
    Carioca" was used as the theme in the movie "Kentucky Fried Movie"? I'm
    ashamed to admit - I have that record album.
    --
    Steve Salaba

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 19:35:49 -0500
    From: "Marty" <martyd@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Never Heard Character

    One character I thought of that was never heard of (at least I don't
    remember hearing) is the wife of Wallace Wimple, affectionately called
    "Sweetie Face".   She is always referred to as Wallace's "Big Old" wife.

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

    Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 19:42:30 -0500
    From: "W. Gary W." <wgaryw@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Easy Aces with Audience (mr ace and JANE)

>     I listened for the first time today to the WTIC 1970s
>     interview with Goodman Ace that included some
>     marvelous excerpts from Easy Aces shows, including
>     some done in front of a live audience. Anyone have
>     approximate dates of such shows?

    that was a great interview-- i heard it recently
    myself.  and despite the fact that all you asked for
    was apporximate dates for the series, i'm going to
    nonetheless take this as an opportunity to drone on
    about goodman ace for a few hundred thousand words.

    these clips are from the 1948 revival of the series,
    entitled "mr ace and JANE" (that's goodman ace's
    capitalization, not mine. . . )  i don't have exact
    dates for the series handy, but i know it debuted in
    early 1948 (februrary, as i recall) and lasted for
    around a year.  there are about 14 episodes in common
    circulation, though my frustrating suspicion is that
    most, if not all, the shows do survive as recordings.

    the prevailing opinion on this series is that the aces
    were better in the 15 minute format without the
    audience and the studio orchestra, but i think it's
    much more a matter of taste than is gnereally
    acknowledged.  goodman ace actually made some major
    changes to the show's format to accomodate the new
    form, in some cases to the show's benefit.

    for instance, he changed his own character's
    profession from real estate in the easy aces series
    (rather bland, in my opinion, leading to lots of
    storylines about protracted land deals) to the
    advertising business.  this gave him the opportunity
    to take a lot of satirical potshots at radio itself,
    which was rarely, if ever, an element of the humor on
    easy aces.

    he also changed the setting of the program from an
    unspecified small town in anywhere, USA to what he
    referred to as "a typical small eastern town called
    new york city."

    both ace's profession and the setting of the show are
    almost *always* gotten wrong by books and articles
    about the 15 min easy aces, in that they generally
    ascribe ace's advertising position and the NYC setting
    to the first series, not the the revival (which is
    always referred to only in passing).  this is the kind
    of error that makes one wonder if the authors of these
    pieces ever listened to a single episode of the
    series.  (the wonderful-- on the whole-- recent BBC 6
    part series, "who wears the trousers?", makes the same
    mistakes).  this is akin to describing "i love lucy"
    as a show set in rural connecticut, just because that
    was the setting of the show's final season.

    i suspect the cause of these errors is that ace
    published a book in 1970 (the one which he was
    plugging in the WTIC interview) called "ladies and
    gentlemen, easy aces", which purported to be a
    collection of easy aces scripts. in fact, it was
    comprised *exclusively* of scripts from "mr ace and
    JANE" (many of which were admittedly based on easy
    aces scripts.)  the matter is even more confused when
    you listen to the flimsy square plastic record
    included with the book, in which the opening from
    "easy aces" is used as an opening cue for an audio
    clip from an episode of "mr ace and JANE"!

    most of the time, the revival series is also
    erroneously referred to as a "variety" format with
    musical numbers, which is absolutely false.  this was
    a pure sitcom, with no musical interludes except the
    linking themes between scenes.  in fact, the only "mr
    ace and JANE" show i've heard that had a musical
    number included it only because it was part of the
    show's plot, not as a stand alone, separate segment.

    the most important change, though, and the one which i
    really wish goodman ace received more (or any) credit
    for, was that he made his own character a narrator who
    speaks directly to the audience, two years before
    george burns used the same technique to much critical
    applause when moving burns and allen to TV (george
    never acted as narrator in the radio series.  as a
    side poin t, it's even less acknowledged that the aces
    were the first to portray a ditsy female character in
    the context of a domestic marriage situtation
    comedy/serial, as burns and allen didn't play
    themselves as a married couple until 1941.  up until
    then, theirs was a vaudeville-style "flirtation" act,
    very hard to swallow once you're familiar with their
    later work.  easy aces, however, employed the domestic
    comedy format since the very early 1930s).

    in fact, ace introduced several very novel "surreal"
    touches in the 30 minute show.  he turned his ulcers
    into hilarious voiced characters who make repeat
    appearances throughout the series.

    in most of his opening monologues, he alternates lines
    of his narration with lines spoken by the characters
    he's describing, who respond in some humorous way to
    what he just said (you have to hear this, perhaps, to
    understand what the heck i'm talking about from this
    poor description).

    in one case ("jane wants a mink coat"), he split an
    episode into six separate but connected
    mini-storylines which all affected the others in
    series, an unconventional narrative structure for a
    radio sitcom to say the least.

    on the negative side, most of the humor does seem to
    go over the audience's collective heads, which throws
    the aces' timing too often (ace always claimed that
    the audience from the 30 min shows was comprised
    mostly of people who wanted to get into a quiz show
    but couldn't, not exactly the ideal audience
    demographic for such sophsticated humor.)  but when
    the audience *does* get it, as in the "jury duty"
    episode, the laughter energizes the performances in a
    novel way not to be found in easy aces, which was
    performed at a very relaxed pace.  in fact, ace had
    the actors on easy aces play their parts sitting
    around a card table with a concealed microphone to
    achieve this effect.

    also on the negative side, there is a "cartoonish"
    feel to the characters which is not the case with easy
    aces, where the relaxed 15 minute serial format
    allowed the characters much more room for development
    and depth.  all of the characters on "mr ace and JANE"
    are pretty much cardboard one-joke setups, such as mr.
    norris, ace's boss, who speaks only in proverbs (an
    occupational hazard for an ad executive).  then there
    was the aces' maid mrs. bell, who paid no attention to
    ordinary social boundaries and always referred to
    everyone *else* by first name.  jane's brother-in-law,
    the only "carry-over" from "easy aces" other than the
    aces themselves (though his name has been changed from
    johnny to paul) is here a one dimensional lazy
    sponger, where in easy aces his character was much
    more complex and interesting.

    forgive my ranting on this subject, but "mr ace and
    JANE" has been, i feel, cruelly overlooked by even
    radio comedy afficionados, so i welcome any
    opportunity to sing its praises.  this is, in fact,
    one of the very few occassions on which i differ with
    elizabeth mcleod's stated personal take on a series
    that i love, in that she's said she vastly prefers the
    15 minute format.  as i said, i think it's a matter of
    taste, but i also think that in general the revival
    series is all but completely dismissed, perhaps
    because it wasn't very successful and came at the tail
    end of the OTR era.  at least in elizabeth's case, you
    know full well she's *listened* to the shows in
    question before forming an opnion!

    i would give my eye-teeth to hear the rest of the
    series.  i don't really know what eye-teeth are, so
    maybe that's why i'm so willing to sacrifice them.
    but i always hold out some small hope that someone out
    there with more of these programs than the commonly
    circulating 14 will make them available.

    if you're interested in hearing these shows, they're
    pretty readily available from OTR vendors such as
    jerry haendiges.  there are also mp3s on e-bay, though
    if you abolustely *must* go this route, at least do me
    the favor of sarcastically thanking whoever you order
    them from for selling my encodes (for which i have
    *never* received money from anyone, nor would i want
    to. . . )

    regards,
    w. gary w.

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

    Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 09:56:22 -0500
    From: Bagleyfan <bagleyfan@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  OTR conventions

    Somebody wrote that a list of OTR conventions could be found at
    [removed]
    I saw no conventions listed there, just a form for providing listings. Am
    I missing something?

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

    Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 09:55:32 -0500
    From: JackBenny@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Carson as robot on Benny?

>     Carson appeared on a Jack Benny TV show in the late 1950's or early  1960's,
>     playing a robot that is taken apart (Broken-down) at night and then

    reassambled in the

>     morning.

    Not quite.  Johnny compliments Jack on his continuing youthful  appearance
    considering his age.  At the end of the show, it is revealed  that Jack is a
    robot who is then disassembled by two stagehands.

    --Laura Leff
    President, IJBFC
    [removed]

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

    Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 09:57:00 -0500
    From: JackBenny@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Jack Benny on radio in 1929

    Bobb Lynes writes:

>     "In 1929 the Mann Brothers
>     made their radio debut with Jack Benny over  KFI on the RKO Hour at the
>     Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles.  This also was Jack's first radio
>     appearance."  Had you heard about that,  Laura?

    I've heard various reports of people finding snippets and listings of Jack
    on various broadcasts before the vaunted March 1932 Ed Sullivan broadcast.
    Jack had played on the Orpheum circuit for many years (although he was also
    on
    Keith at some points), so it's a definite possibility.

    --Laura  Leff
    President, IJBFC
    [removed]

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

    Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 13:52:38 -0500
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  1-30 births/deaths

    January 30th births

    H A P P Y  B I R T H D A Y  C O N R A D ! !

    01-30-1862 - Walter Damrosch - Breslau, Germany - d. 12-23-1950
    conductor, commentator: "Baulkite Hour"; "Music Appreciation Hour"
    01-30-1882 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Hyde Park, NY - d. 4-12-1945
    [removed] president: "Fireside Chats"
    01-30-1907 - Lois Wilson - IA - d. 1-8-1983
    actress: "Jack Benny Program"
    01-30-1911 - Hugh Marlowe - Philadelphia, PA - d. 5-2-1982
    actor: Ellery Queen "Advs. of Ellery Queen"; Jim Curtis "Brenda Curtis"
    01-30-1914 - David Wayne - Traverse City, MI - d. 2-9-1995
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre" ;" Eternal Light"; "Stars in the Air"
    01-30-1914 - John Ireland - Vancouver, Canada - d. 3-21-1992
    actor: "MGM Theatre of the Air"; "[removed] Steel Hour"
    01-30-1915 - Dorothy Dell - Hattiesburg, MS - d. 6-8-1934
    actress: "Stars of Tomorrow"
    01-30-1925 - Dorothy Malone, Chicago, IL
    actress: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    01-30-1931 - Conrad Binyon - Hollywood, CA
    actor: Chester A. Riley, Jr. "Life of Riley"; Henry Herbert Murray "One Man's
    Family"
    01-30-1934 - Tammy Grimes - Lynn, MA
    hostess, actress: "CBS Mystery Theatre"; "Cavalcade of America"

    January 30th deaths

    01-05-1911 - Jean-Pierre Aumont - Paris, France - d. 1-30-2001
    actor: "Hallmark Playhouse"; "Philip Morris Playhouse"
    06-25-1918 - Ken Mayer - CA - d. 1-30-1985
    actor: Robbie Robertson "Space Patrol"
    06-27-1907 - John McIntire - Spokane, WA - d. 1-30-1991
    actor: Benjamin Ordway "Crime Doctor"; Lt. Dundy "Advs. of Sam Spade"
    07-03-1890 - Herbert A. Bell - Rock Valley, IA - d. 1-30-1970
    radio manufacturer: Co-founder of Packard-Bell in 1945
    07-09-1894 - Dorothy Thompson - Lancaster, NY - d. 1-30-1961
    commentator: "Commentary"
    08-08-1887 - Malcom Keen - Bristol, England - d. 1-30-1970
    actor: "Cavalcade of America"
    08-14-1909 - Ed Herlihy - Dorchester, MA - d. 1-30-1999
    announcer: "Advs. of the Thin Man"; "Just Plain Bill"; "Vic and Sade"
    08-15-1919 - Huntz Hall - NYC - d. 1-30-1999
    comedian: (The Dead End Kids) "Texaco Star Playhouse"
    10-01-1890 - Stanley Holloway - London, England - d. 1-30-1982
    actor, singer: "Music As You Like It"
    11-09-1895 - Lou Lubin - Pittsburgh, PA - d. 1-30-1973
    actor: Shorty "Amos 'n' Andy"
    11-24-1910 - Pegeen Fitzgerald - Norcatur, KS - d. 1-30-1989
    host: "Fitzgeralds"
    --
    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #32
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