Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #41
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 1/28/2003 8:26 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2003 : Issue 41
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Re: Harry Potter, "Henry Eldrich & C  [ SanctumOTR@[removed] ]
      Re: Radio Couples                     [ SanctumOTR@[removed] ]
      Read slower!                          [ danhughes@[removed] ]
      Supporting N - TR                     [ wich2@[removed] ]
      Harry Potter's OTR Roots              [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
      Re: accents on radio                  [ "Maureen O'Brien" <mobrien@[removed] ]
      Edgar Bergan                          [ ralph larson <clockglass@[removed]; ]
      The Shadow's popularity               [ "Ryan Osentowski" <rosentowski@neb. ]
      re: accents, etc.                     [ bloodbleeds@[removed] ]
      United Radio Network                  [ JACKGP20@[removed] ]
      Lum and Abner mix-ups                 [ "Michael Leannah" <mleannah@charter ]
      Broadway Is My Beat                   [ "Scott D. Livingston" <sdl@[removed] ]
      Fred Allen                            [ JayHick@[removed] ]
      i know not the longest [removed]        [ Ronald Staley <mrvintageradio@earth ]
      let's hear it for Dick Cole           [ Ronald Staley <mrvintageradio@earth ]
      Actors on Radio & TV                  [ "Harlan Zinck" <preservation@radioa ]

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 16:22:00 -0500
    From: SanctumOTR@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Harry Potter, "Henry Eldrich & Chandu
     the Magician

    In a message dated 1/25/03 11:09:48 AM, my friend Derek Tague writes:

>     Being that Harry Potter deals in "magicks unholy" (to use one
>     of Alistair Crowley's turns of phrase), would that make him  "Henry!...Henry
>     Eldritch!"?

    And in a message dated 1/25/03 6:09:25 PM, Stephen A. Kallis, Jr. writes:

>     Actually, Harry and Friends don't do that.  They deal with "magicks
>     nonholy," if anything.   Aleister Crowley, then or now, is not a reliable
>     one to cite.  Stick with Chandu, the Magician.

    ***Well, I recall that Derek Tague once told me that Crowley had a penchant
    for rhyming his own name with "unholy."  Derek discovered such while
    researching the pronunciation of Crowley's last name at his job for a
    recording for the blind.  (BTW, I first came across Crowley's name while
    staying at Walter Gibson's home the weekend of his 80th birthday.  The
    creator of The Shadow was a sweetheart of a guy who had known Sir Arthur
    Conan Doyle and Houdini and interviewed a [removed] president, but the one person
    he really wished he had met during his lifetime was the infamous Crowley.)

    I'd agree with Stephen Kallis that Aleister Crowley is certainly not a
    particularly valid source for Harry Potter (or Sabrina the Teenage Witch, for
    that matter). However, Crowley is certainly a more reliable reference point
    for Harry Potter's practices than Chandu the Magician.  Harry's studies grow
    out of a Western occult tradition, while Chandu's abilities have far more to
    do with the Eastern practices of Buddhism and Hinduism, the same traditions
    that inspired The Shadow and Jethro Dumont, [removed] the Green Lama.
    Considering that CHANDU THE MAGICIAN debuted October 10, 1932, the character
    of Frank Chandler is almost certainly inspired by Alexandra David-Neel's 1929
    book MAGIC AND MYSTERY IN TIBET, first translated into English and published
    in America in 1932.  David-Neel was a Frenchwoman who lived in Tibet for more
    than 14 years and became the first Westerner to be initiated as a Buddhist
    lama.  Her real-life experiences (and descriptions of Tibetan invisibility)
    inspired the creation of both the Green Lama and the mind-clouding abilities
    of radio's Lamont Cranston.  (BTW, her book is still available in an
    inexpensive Dover reprint.)  The practices and teachings she describes from
    Buddhist Lama traditions are certainly holy, often requiring years of
    monastic life.*

    Behind Crowley, there's the Golden Dawn, alchemy, Hermeticism and Rosicrucian
    and Masonic rituals (which were in turn based upon earlier Gnostic Christian
    and Templar beliefs and practices), and of course Egyptian and Hebrew
    Kaballa.  And despite Crowley's penchant for rhyming (and anti-Christian
    prejudice), most of those mystic traditions would also be better termed
    "holy" than "unholy." ***

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 17:09:05 -0500
    From: SanctumOTR@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Radio Couples

    In a message dated 1/27/03 3:30:53 PM, Don Frey writes:

>     The talk of Lucille Fletcher reminded me that she was married to Bernard
>     Herrmann, the great music man. So, then I started thinking of married folks
>     who were both in radio: <SNIP> ......help me out and name some more.

    ***How about Claire Trevor and BIG TOWN-producer Clark Andrews, Veola Vonn
    and her first husband Hanley Stafford, and Frank Readick and Dorothy Randall
    Readick?***

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 17:44:52 -0500
    From: danhughes@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Read slower!

    Ed asks how actors keep themselves from reading too [removed]

    I teach radio broadcasting, and the most common problem for beginning
    newscasters is that they read too fast.  I tell them (over and over I
    tell them) to pretend the person they are talking to is a little hard of
    hearing and a little slow mentally.  So speak slowly, distinctly, and
    just a little bit louder than normal.  I also explain to them that when
    listeners can't see your mouth they have a much harder time understanding
    your words.  Eventually, most of them get it.

    I once had a student with dyslexia.  She was afraid she would not be able
    to read a live newscast.  She turned out to be one of the best
    newsreaders to ever take my class.  She HAD to read slow to get the words
    right, and she sounded great.

    ---Dan

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 18:30:03 -0500
    From: wich2@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Supporting N - TR

    Folks-
    To make a long story short - Quicksilver Radio Theater was commissioned over
    the holidays by the New Jersey Theater Alliance, through the East Lynne Co.,
    to put together a new Sherlock Holmes piece.
    I feverishly began a draft script, and we had a great first reading -
    immmediately after which, WBGO got cold feet & pulled the rug out from us.
    [removed] my wife Bernadette & I are saving our lunch money, to put the thing
    together ourselves. AND - I'm looking high & low for a decent engineer &
    studio, at a decent rate. Here in NYC, Sat. Mar. 1 or 8?
    Any leads, please email.
    Thanks.
    Craig Wichman

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 18:56:01 -0500
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Harry Potter's OTR Roots

    Anthony Tollin, while agreeing that Aleister Crowley isn't a
    "particularly valid source" for Harry Potter, noted,

>     However, Crowley is certainly a more reliable reference point for Harry
>     Potter's practices than Chandu the Magician.  Harry's studies grow out of
>     a Western occult tradition, while Chandu's abilities have far more to do
>     with the Eastern practices of Buddhism and Hinduism, the same traditions
>     that inspired The Shadow and Jethro Dumont, [removed] the Green Lama.

    However, to bring this back solidly to OTR, Harry's magical practices are
    closest to those of the radio version of Mandrake the Magician.  To cast
    a spell, Mandrake would call out, "Invoco legem magicarum," which is
    Latin for, "I invoke the laws of magic."  All the magical phrases in the
    Harry Potter tales are just Latin for what's being spellcast.  So the
    closest "tradition" that Harry follows was an OTR tradition.  (This
    technique was also used in the 1981 film, Dragonslayer, but that was
    *long* after the OTR Mandrake.)

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 19:10:33 -0500
    From: "Maureen O'Brien" <mobrien@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: accents on radio

    Bob Keldgord said:

>     My theory is that America is rapidly losing its accents, whether on
>     the air or in everyday speech, and that broadcasting is merely a

    I'm happy to say this isn't true. In fact, accents are still deepening
    and becoming more and more different from each other; if anything,
    such changes are accelerating. The major difference is that people are
    able to "code switch" easily from the way they talk at home to a more
    bland way of talking learned from TV and radio.

    For proof, check out the Telsur Project, which produced a new linguistic
    atlas of the United States by telephone survey. :) Some of
    the maps and info are available online.

    I saw Dr. Labov speak in 2000. It was very informative. It also
    allowed me to prove to my American Dialects teacher that I _had_ been
    answering the questions about my local dialect correctly, as people in
    Dayton really do pronounce things two or three different ways. (The
    collision of different dialects produced by GM and the Air Force
    hasn't destroyed differences; it incorporates them all! Mwahahaha!
    I can worsh clothes and wash them too!)

    And if you want to hear where your local dialect is headed
    (phonetically), listen to how teenage girls talk. They are the
    vanguard of phonological trends. ;)

    Maureen O'Brien

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 20:40:47 -0500
    From: ralph larson <clockglass@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Edgar Bergan
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Edgar Bergan and Charlie McCarthy was on the radio for some 20 years, but not
    many of these shows seem to be available. Are there shows that are lost, or
    being held out of circulation? Also, I wonder if anyone knows the name of a
    daytime radio program in the mid 1940's whose theme song was Finiculi,
    Funicula? Thanks for the help.

    Chuck

      *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
      ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 20:41:02 -0500
    From: "Ryan Osentowski" <rosentowski@[removed];
    To: "old time radio" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  The Shadow's popularity

    Hi all:
    Today in my Broadcasting class, my instructor was discussing the rise of
    radio in the 1920's and 30's.  He mentioned that the Mutual Broadcasting
    System tried to be a major player in the game, but they never really
    attained status until 1941.  He said the only major program they carried
    throughout the 1930's was The Lone Ranger.  I wanted to jump up and yell,
    "what about The Shadow?"  I know that it was a popular program, but then I
    wondered how long it took the program to gain fame in the country.  Was the
    show only a regional program when Orson Welles and Bill Johnstone were in
    the role?  When did it go national?
    Hope someone can answer these questions for me.
    RyanO

    "Eagles may soar, but a weasel never got sucked into a jet engine."

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 20:41:41 -0500
    From: bloodbleeds@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  re: accents, etc.

    Some of you interested in accents & voices might be interested in Scenes For Actors
    and Voices by Daws Butler which I'm putting out in June. It contains exercises for voice
    actors, plus reprints the booklet How To Do Dialects which was popular in Los Angeles
    acting classes in the 1970s. The cover's not quite ready yet, but you can find out a little
    more at

    [removed]

    Ben

    It's That Time Again!
    [removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 20:41:49 -0500
    From: JACKGP20@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  United Radio Network

    Hi Gang:

    I was listening to a 1946 Fred Allen show tape. When the show ended, a studio
    announcer cut in and stated the guests on the next show. He was talking in
    present (1946) tense. Then he announced "This is the United Radio Network."
    This was the time that NBC carried the show. Was this United a pirate
    network?

    Cheers,

    Jack Grasso

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 22:34:09 -0500
    From: "Michael Leannah" <mleannah@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Lum and Abner mix-ups

    Andrew Steinberg asks if there are any Lum and Abner episodes in which the
    two performers are doing multiple voices and get mixed up. I know it
    happened but it would be hard to pinpoint the date on a show when it
    occurred. Amazingly, it didn't happen often and when it occurred it was
    corrected quickly. Worth listening for are the shows in which Lauck and Goff
    crack up on the air and carry on with the show, trying to contain their
    giggles all the while. Something gets them going and it's hard to stop. It's
    a joy to hear how well these two men worked together and got along with each
    other.

    Mike Leannah

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 23:02:29 -0500
    From: "Scott D. Livingston" <sdl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Broadway Is My Beat

    My favorite OTR show, without a doubt is "Broadway Is My Beat." I have a
    collection of all of the shows that are is circulation with the exception of
    one I just saw sold on ebay.
    I'm writing to solicit some help from the faithful readers of the list. A
    sixteen inch transcription disk of episode 89 from 12-1-1951 entitled
    "Clinton Pace" was recently sold at auction. I sent an email to the buyer
    through ebay asking to purchase a copy of the program. I have not heard back
    and was hoping that someone reading the list was the buyer or knows who
    "orthacoustic" might be so I can try and make a deal for an audio copy of
    the program.
    I love this list and all the knowledge and experience that repose here and
    know that the spirit of love of Old Time Radio might again be demonstrated
    with help in this matter.
    Scott D. (Fibber) Livingston

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

    Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 00:03:46 -0500
    From: JayHick@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Fred Allen

    My brother Joe Hickerson is seeking two items from the old-time radio corpus.
     The first is a Fred Allen routine concerning a request to his insurance
    company for recompence for an accident involving transferring a load of
    bricks from an upper floor of a building to the ground, with numerous
    injuries in the process.  Does anyone know what program this was one, and
    does anyone have a recording thereof?
    Joe's other request is for a performance of "Kum Ba Yah" by a gospel group on
    Don McNeil's "Breakfact Club," perhaps in the late 1940s or early 1950s.
    Again, when did this occur, and does anyone have a recording?
    Joe will be happy to reciprocate with any song search you would like to pose.
     Respond to Joe Hickerson, 43 Philadelphia Avenue, Takoma Park, MD 20912;
    301/270-1107; jhick@[removed]; [removed]

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

    Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 00:04:41 -0500
    From: Ronald Staley <mrvintageradio@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  i know not the longest [removed]

    Well, for the same host, there is a show from chicago that began in
    1950--The Unshackled, and while not the longest it does qualify as one of
    the longest.

    The World Tomorrow, announced by Art Gilmore was one of the longest running.

    I believe Grand Ole Oprey qualifies, though not with the same announcers.
    It started on WSM in 1926, and still runs on radio and tv today.

    ron staley

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

    Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 00:04:35 -0500
    From: Ronald Staley <mrvintageradio@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  let's hear it for Dick Cole

    I am looking for anyone who may have discs or extremely good tapes of
    "The Adventures of Dick Cole.

    I'd like to know a little more about that one. It seems to me Elspeth Eric
    and Robert Readick both were on that one, can anyone fill in?

    It's one of those 1930's shows that to me represents the all american side
    of radio. I believe it to be as good as Frank Merriwell.

    While on the subject of good sounding shows. I would like to put on cd once
    and for all "good clean copies of The Avenger. anyone got any discs of the
    entire 26. I know two persons who have tape recordings, and I'd rely on
    them in a final analysis, but surely when Charlie Michelsen was throwing
    discs away, someone got the avenger in their hot little hands.

    I was friends with Charlie for years, just at the wrong time--as he said,
    fide known you were here Id just filled your trunk full of stuff.

    Seriously, Charlie said that once at a dinner, after we had been shewed out
    by Harry Allen Towers, who had invited us to drinks and dinner, only to
    have a better offer come along.

    ron staley

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

    Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 10:21:01 -0500
    From: "Harlan Zinck" <preservation@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Actors on Radio & TV

    "Andrew Godfrey" <niteowl049@[removed]; writes:

>     These warmup shows give listeners a chance to really get to
>     know people like Phil Harris. Didn't know he was a bandleader until
>     listening to the Jack Benny shows. Always thought of him as a comedian that
>     sang and liked to hunt.

    Ah, the "American Sportsman"! Until Andrew brought this up, I had forgotten
    about that ABC TV series of the [removed], Phil Harris liked to hunt, so did
    Crosby. Like you, Andrew, I had no idea that Harris was anything more than a
    convivial hunting companion for Curt Gowdy until I later started hearing
    Jack Benny shows being rebroadcast on my local AM station in the 1970s.

    Being born in 1960, I never knew OTR when it was simply radio - aside from
    my grandmother occasionally listening to Arthur Godfrey on her desk model
    RCA Victor bakelite radio in the mid-1960s - and it was years before I found
    out that radio used to be different than the disk jockeys, news, sports, and
    weather reports I grew up with.

    This memory got me to thinking about all of the radio stars whom I only knew
    through TV until I discovered OTR in 1971. A few of them come to mind:

    * Eve Arden, whom I knew only through "The Mothers-In-Law" (1967-69) until I
    discovered "Our Miss Brooks" years later. Even in this sit-com series,
    though, I knew that she was someone I wanted to know more about. No one
    could deliver a dry respost with more well-phrased sarcasm -- and the series
    was very, very funny, too!)

    * Olan Soule, who seems to have spent the majority of his TV career playing
    scientists, doctors, various Madison Avenue-type executives, and the guy who
    lived next door. His voice was always familiar to me, but it was a delight
    to later discover that his TV versatility was matched and exceeded by his
    radio work. He could truly portray an "every man" as well or better than
    anyone else I've ever heard. (Apologies to Elliott Lewis, an equally
    talented actor with an equally impressive ability to be an outstanding
    likeable guy - him I guess I never saw on TV!)

    * To me, Hans Conried was Uncle Toonoose on the Danny Thomas Show - and I
    remember always looking forward to his appearances because they were always
    hysterically funny. Such timing - and such a dialectitian, too! Oddly
    enough, I also knew him from a very early age as Snidley Whipflash in the
    Dudley Doo-Right cartoons. I don't suppose it's all that odd that a kid
    would know and like cartoons, but even then I remember thinking that this
    was an extremely unique and talented fellow - though some of this
    recognition may have come from seeing him as a wildly funny and intelligent
    guest on daytime game shows, too.

    * Gale Gordon, of course, I knew from all those Lucy shows that we watched
    religiously throughout the 60's and 70's. Who knew then that had previously
    enjoyed a career as a sophisticated dramatic radio actor or spent all those
    years as Mayor LaTrivia and Osgood Conklin? In retrospect, of course, both
    make sense; Lord knows no one could be as imperious as Mr. Mooney could be -
    or could have been portrayed as well for so many years as Gordon played him.

    (Conried and Gordon, by the way, bring to mind the thought that both actors
    were well versed in playing imperious characters that, in the hands of other
    actors, could quickly have become either tiresome or obnoxious: the
    demanding boss, the snooty neighbor, the stuffed-shirt politico, the
    Shakespearean thespian, etc.  Both of these men could play parts like this
    in such a way that they could be taken seriously as real or at least
    believeable people, but played them with an edge that implied that they knew
    and understood the undeniable faults of their characters. As a result, both
    could make hilarious comedy out of characters that you could literally never
    stand in real life.)

    * Growing up, I knew the real "greats" of entertainment primarily as either
    guests on Ed Sullivan's show or that week's host on the Hollywood Palace.
    However, even at the age of six, I remember very distinctly thinking that
    Jimmy Durante must have been a very nice guy in real life - that warmth came
    through to me even then. What a pleasure to find all of his radio work
    existed later on. Groucho Marx I knew from "You Bet Your Life" re-runs -
    which I didn't care for much then because I never got the jokes. (I doubt
    Groucho ever thought to gear the show for the 4-7 year old crowd.)

    * Henry Morgan and Garry Moore I knew from game shows. Who knew then what
    careers they had before or what I was missing?

    * Art Linkletter I knew from "House Party" and all those "Kids Say the
    Darndest Things" bits.

    * Bill Thompson I knew from "Touche Turtle" and Kenny Delmar I knew from
    "The World of Commander McBragg" cartoons. It was a delight to find out
    later on that "Touche Turtle" was really Wallace Wimple on Fibber McGee and
    Molly and that Kenny Delmar had spent time as Fred Allen's announcer.

    I'm sure there are lots of you "boomers" out there with similar memories of
    TV performers whom you had no idea had previous radio careers. Any
    additional people come to mind, folks?

    Oh, yeah, one more - Mel Blanc. There were the much-anticipated Warner Bros.
    cartoons that my local kids show host, [removed] Patches, played only once each
    program at straight-up 8 AM. But I also remember him on the Dick Cavett show
    once doing some of his cartoon voices - then following it all up with a big
    finish: Jack Benny's Maxwell. I flash on the memory of the way his sad-eyed
    rubber face looked when he did it: eyes popping, lips spluttering, his whole
    body vibrating like the engine of that ancient, crumbling rattletrap.
    Amazing. I remember thinking then that you couldn't help but love a guy who
    could literally and believeably impersonate a car - and, like every
    eight-year-old kid, the minute he finished (to wild applause, of course), I
    wish I could have been sitting right next to him so I could ask him to do it
    again.

    Heck, if Mel were with us today, I'd ask him to do it again right now!

    Harlan

    Harlan Zinck
    First Generation Radio Archives
    [removed]

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #41
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