Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #351
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 9/8/2002 8:20 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2002 : Issue 351
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Re: racial epithets                   [ Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed] ]
  Best of the 20th Century Collection   [ MAGICIN95@[removed] ]
  CHICAGO DJ'S                          [ Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed]; ]
  Amos N Andy and Responding            [ "George M. Kelly" <gkelly1@[removed] ]
  sunday , september 15,2002-louisvill  [ "e ginsburg" <edginsburg@[removed] ]
  Re: An Archie fan                     [ hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed]; ]
  Internment Camps, WW II, and OTR      [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  Equalizers                            [ RICFAS@[removed] ]
  FDR & internment camps                [ Howard Blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
  Re: Hope and Crosby (and Benny)       [ "Michael Hayde" <mmeajv@[removed]; ]
  Hans Conried                          [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
  Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  Re: Martin/Lewis & M. Hayde           [ "Clyde J. Kell" <cjkell@[removed] ]
  Book                                  [ nicoll <nicoll@[removed]; ]
  Words and meaning                     [ "Danica L. Stein" <danicas@baymoon. ]
  The Best Broadcast Ever               [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  Bill Farrell                          [ "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed]; ]
  segregation in the south and in the   [ Jer51473@[removed] ]

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 12:06:21 -0400
From: Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: racial epithets

A couple of comments in response to John Mayer <mayer@[removed];'s post
of 9/7/02:
1. I don't remember reading any posts here that reflected "the notion that
racism in any of its forms was restricted to the South".
2. Elizabeth did not say that "all the complaints came from the Deep
South". Probably most did, but we can assume that Allen received hate mail
from all parts of the country.
3. The "largest KKK rally and march ever held <that> took place in DC" was
on August 8th, 1925, not "1929, I believe". Historians estimate the number
of marchers as 40,000. Klan contingents from many states participated, but
there is no evidence that "ninety percent of them were from the North". By
1929 the KKK movement was in disarray, as many of its local and national
leaders had been exposed as crooks - out to enrich themselves by stealing
members' dues; selling members "official robes" made by the officers'
companies; etc.
4. Maybe "the South had little direct control over the racial stereotypes
that appeared in magazines, syndicated comics, movies and the radio", but
the economic power of its consumers' buying decisions was important to the
producers & sponsors/advertisers of the media. In the event a movie
studio/radio network/magazine executive wanted to run something that
countered the "racial stereotypes" of the era, he had to consider the
probability that his product would be boycotted by "the powers-that-be" in
the South. (This does not excuse those who acceded to racial
discrimination, no matter the market for their products, but it does
explain it, to a certain extent.)

Herb Harrison (who ain't no saint, hisself)

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 12:09:38 -0400
From: MAGICIN95@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Best of the 20th Century Collection
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X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

I'm reviewing my collection and updating my web site and came across a Radio
Spirits collection put together with (?) Walter Cronkite.  I'm curious to
find out what other folks thought about the material collected on it.
(Surely I'm not the only one here who has a copy?)

Janet

[removed]

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 12:09:32 -0400
From: Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  CHICAGO DJ'S

In the 1950's there was a feud between two morning DJs on different
Chicago stations. I do not remember their names or the stations.

Howard Miller, WIND and Ernie Simon, WJJD.

      [removed]
      A DATE WITH SINATRA

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 12:07:36 -0400
From: "George M. Kelly" <gkelly1@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Amos N Andy and Responding

Herb Harrison wrote:

Why bother to respond?
If it's a local paper with a "general" readership, most readers won't
know what the writer of the original letter was talking about.
If it's a paper with a more specific audience, like an in-house
retirement community publication, you might just be adding fuel to the
fire of a political feud.

I live in a suburb of Jackson, Miss. and a few years ago the Jackson
paper absorbed our local paper and now publishes it as a supplement on
Thursday.  The paper serves a community of over thirty thousand, many of
whom are very familiar with Amos n Andy (I've made several presentation
on otr at the local library), but mostly with the last few years of the
radio show and the television show.  The political feud involves a tree
house, which made national news, but since that's off topic I won't go
into details.
    BTW, I'm confused, what's wrong in a free country with "adding fuel
to the fire of a political feud"?  Love the alliteration, Herb.
Shouldn't our voices be heard?

George Kelly

Clinton, Mississippi

Home of a Fortune 500 company but we dare not speak its name

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 14:53:24 -0400
From: "e ginsburg" <edginsburg@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  sunday , september 15,2002-louisville,
 kentucky

the september meeting of the louisville radio addicts will
occur at 9:30 am at
the Dillons steak house at the corner of hurstbourne lane and taylorsville
road
please feel free to bring in OTR tapes, pictures, videos or anything else
pertaining to the love we all share for old time radio
any question,coffee and sweetrolls will be served
$5 admission fee
please feel free to email me
or call me @ 502-451-0071
thanks again
ed

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 14:52:35 -0400
From: hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: An Archie fan

Hi "rcg".

Thanks very much for the kind words.

I'm so glad to see so many posts concerning the Archie Andrews show. It was,
by far, my favorite Saturday morning program and I awaited each weekly
episode
with great anticipation.

You obviously were a child with incredibly good taste. :)

One of my most vivid recollections concerns the period when the show was
sponsored by Swift & Co. I loved hearing the kids in the audience sing the
Swifts Premium Franks theme. I always wondered if they were rehearsed before
air time.

No, rcg, there was no need to rehearse them. At least not after the first
few episodes during the period of the Swifts sponsorship. I suppose that in
the initial weeks of that sponsorship, Bob Sherry, during his audience
warm-up, probably taught them the words, and our organist, George Wright,
played the simple melody for them. But after that, the theme caught on with
the home audience, and when they finally got tickets to see the show, they
knew it by heart.

After Bob Hastings and I delivered our standard opening, we would remain
down at the front of the stage and clown around and act like musical
conductors when the theme was played. (Or maybe it was more like cheer
leaders). Of course we would sing along at the top of our voices while doing
so.

No matter, everything about the program instills fond memories for me.

Me too! :) And boy! Were my memories ever honed and sharpened by the time I
finished writing about those days.

Hal(Harlan)Stone
Jughead

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 14:55:00 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Internment Camps, WW II, and OTR

In Digest 350, Jer51743 notes,

Roosevelt gave the ok and even though im not a big fan of his, i
believe he did what he thought he had to do to protect this country. For
those who were not here, believe me these were serious and scary times.
People were frightened much more than they were to  the debacle of 9/11
<snip>  I was only 5 when we got into ww2 but remember the times very
well. I used to have nightmares as a kid about the "japs" getting me

To understand the United States' experience during World War II, you
kinda had to be there.  In some respects, though, my situation was
different, having both lived through the Pearl Harbor attack, and living
under military restrictions until my mother, sister, and I were evacuated
to the mainland.  So for us personally, living in the Mainland wasn't
scary.  However, for most people of the time, it was the first time the
country had been really attacked by a major power.  Prior to the attack,
there was a certain sense of security because the country was buffered by
two oceans (the distance between even Hawaii and the Far East was more
than comparable to the East Coast and continental Europe).  The
devastation of the attack was scary for a lot of people, including those
who previously  were isolationist.

But those early days of the war were frightening and whose to say that
there wasnt someone, if not interned, was a spy and could have killed
thousands of citizens including japanese citizens.

My father was Battery Commander of Battery B, 41st Coast Artillery, with
Battery Hasbrouk as his command post.  Years after the war, when I was
old enough to understand it, he told me that after the attack, every
night someone would take potshots at the artillery emplacement.  This
happened nightly until some soldiers were dispatched, though precisely
how they stopped it my father never told me.  So such fears were not
completely groundless, though the resulting solution of internment was
rather Draconian.

To steer this back to OTR, though, I've noticed that much of the
"Japanese" being spoken in various World War II OTR episodes was
meaningless jabber that doesn't sound very Japanese.  Now someone
listening to it today might suspect that this would be some sort of
insult/slur, but I rather suspect that it's because there were few
available actors who could speak Japanese.

There were, to be sure, commentaries on how the enemy was barbaric.  But
that's only to be expected in the middle of a war.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 15:03:46 -0400
From: RICFAS@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Equalizers
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A question; I have always felt that when trying to better the sound of old
time radio shows (from transcritions, reel-to-reel tape, etc.) a parametric
equalizer is better than a graphic.  I would be interested in what other OTR
collectors think in preserving OTR to a digital median without using a
computer.

Ric Ross

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 15:13:15 -0400
From: Howard Blue <khovard@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  FDR & internment camps

Some responses to at "Jer's" posting (Jer51473@[removed]) about internment
of Japanese-Americans. (Sorry, he/she did not provide their name)

 Jer:  "they were NOT concentration camps."

HB: They were not the same as the Nazi death camps (Auschwitz etc.)  And
they were certainly not as bad as the Nazi concentration camps (Dachau
etc.) as distinct from the death camps. But they were detention camps
into which people were forcibly put without a trial.

Jer: "whose to say that there wasnt someone, if not interned, was a spy
and could have killed thousands of citizens including japanese citizens."

HB: That's a good rationale for interning all Arab-Americans and all
Muslims right now. And all young male American Christians and Jews who
might become John Walker Lind's (?)

We can asked too, why there was no mass detention of German-Americans on
the scale of the detention of Japanese-Americans. Many [removed] born
Japanese-Americans were detained, whereas many German born
German-Americans  lived and worked as free citizens  during the war.
Hundreds of German-Americans who had been active in the pro-Hitler
German-American Bund were allowed to go free during the war. There was no
comparable pro-Japan organization before the war among Japanese American.

 So the question remains, why Japanese Americans and not  German
Americans? Why a Japanese-American farmer and not a pre-war pro-Hitler
German American immigrant?

Jer:  " the japanese population in hawai was made up mostly of good
american citizens and/ or allies too, but its a known fact that there
were many spies among them and they did indeed play a part in the
planning of the bombing."

HB: The term "known fact" is a dangerous one. What's the difference
between a "known fact" and a rumor. Historians base their work, their
claims, on primary sources, meaning the written and verbal statements of
eyewitnesses. They  use information from secondary sources when the
secondary sources can accurately refer readers to the primary sources.

I would be very interested to see Jer provide evidence that's there was
one Japanese-American spy, let alone "many spies among them."  I can tell
you, that
immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor there were rumors alleging
sabotage by Japanese Americans. In my own research concerning the Lux
radio theater show "Air Forced" for "Words at War," ( [removed]
) I  discovered a report written by the chief of police of Honolulu s and
the Office of Military Intelligence which concluded that the rumors were
unfounded.

Howard Blue

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 15:13:27 -0400
From: "Michael Hayde" <mmeajv@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Hope and Crosby (and Benny)

Bill Harris wrote:
NBC had Hope and CBS had [removed] said NBC stood for "No Bing
Crosby"

He also said CBS stood for "Crosby and Benny's Strongbox," in honor of the
fortune that network was paying them.

Michael

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 15:42:48 -0400
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Hans Conried

I just received in the mail this weekend, a new book recently published.
HANS CONRIED: A Biography; With a Filmography and a Listing of Radio,
Television, Stage and Voice Work.  Written by Suzanne Gargiulo and with a
foreward by Leonard Maltin.  The book was released through McFarland and
although I have yet to agree on their productions (they charge WAY too much
for their books), the book is both an entertaining read, and a wonderful
reference work on Conried's work.  Notably, the entire first half of the
book, dealing with Conried's radio work, and a lengthy appendix at the end
of the book, listing hundreds of his appearances beginning with his 1936
KECA Shakespeare Series to the early 1980s when he was doing CBS RMT, Sears
Radio Theater, Same Time-Same Station, etc.

There is even a wonderful chapter about his film work such as starring in
Arch Oboler's THE TWONKY.
I am not sure how much the book is available for from Mcfarland but they do
have a paperback edition available.  (If anyone wants to save postage fees,
you can visit the local Barnes and Noble and Borders bookstore and request
to have a copy through special order.  Even though the book may not be on
their shelf, they can special order and you don't have to pay postage.)
This is a refrence book worth owning.
Martin Grams, Jr.

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 15:42:58 -0400
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Today in radio history

  From Those Were The Days --

1935 - The Hoboken Four, featuring Frank Sinatra as lead singer,
appeared on Major Bowes Amateur Hour on WOR radio. The group won the
competition held at the Capitol Theatre in New York City.

1944 - Ed Wynn resumed his radio career after seven years off the air.
Wynn starred in Happy Island on the NBC Blue network.

  Joe

--
Visit my home page:
[removed]~[removed]

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 15:46:56 -0400
From: "Clyde J. Kell" <cjkell@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Martin/Lewis & M. Hayde

Hello,
I really enjoyed reading Michael Hayde's comments in issue
Vol 2002: Issue 350, about the Martin & Lewis feud.

Long, but very nice reading! I never knew much about
the feud.

It's good to be back on the Radio Digest mailing lists. I was a
subscriber about a year ago under a different e-mail address.
But then my mail server died and I lost the Radio Digest info until
a fellow OTR friend pointed me here.

Regards,
Clyde J. Kell
Mystery Play Internet Radio  OTR 24x7 mp3 stream
[removed]

[ADMINISTRIVIA: [removed] subscribers can get lost. Don't assume your
friends know about the Digest, or how to [removed] 'em!  --cfs3]

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 18:28:19 -0400
From: nicoll <nicoll@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Book

	I bought a book at an estate [removed]"Stranger Than Fiction" by The
Voice
of Experience.  The book was printed in 1934 and apparently has an OTR
connection.
	The FOREWORD begins "When I signed off at noon, Friday, July 13,
1934, for
my last current broadcast over the coast-to-coast network to go on
vacation, I had completed a little more than eight years on the air
conducting a radio forum of questions and answers."
	I would like to know more about this program.  Anybody??
Will Nicoll

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 18:28:53 -0400
From: "Danica L. Stein" <danicas@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Words and meaning

However, times can change the meaning of a word: perhaps the best example
is the word "gay," which used to mean carefree and happy rather than a
sexual orientation.

It still does. The meaning hasn't changed. The word was put to another use
as well, not unlike many other English words. For example, the word "wicked"
-- which means evil, but if you listen to someone under the age of 18, it
also means "very, very cool." That is different from a situation like Ron
described, where a perhaps-once-descriptive word became pejorative. "Gay" as
describing a sexual orientation is not pejorative, I might add.

To bring it back to OTR, I like when I'm listening to a show and hear words
or phrases that we just don't use anymore. My favorite is when someone is
introduced to someone else, and everyone says "how do you do," or even
"how-do." (Now, I think the proper response is "Hey.") Well, maybe people
still say "how do you do" somewhere, but not in my part of the world, on the
Central California coast.

Danica

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 20:18:47 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  The Best Broadcast Ever

Over the last couple of Digests, talk has again surfaced about the best
broadcast ever aired.  IMHO, there ain't no such animal.  That's because
OTR, or any art-form, for that matter, is inherently subjective.  Which
is another way of saying "tastes vary," or "to each his own."

There are many great programs that have graced the airwaves.  But is,
say, Grand Central Station or The Mercury Theater any "better" than
Fibber McGee and Molly or The Jack Benny Show?  Many of us have opinions
as to which show best captures the spirit of OTR (my pick is a Lone
Ranger story, "The Transcontinental Telegraph," yet I could see someone
else going with Oboler's "The Chicken Heart"), but I doubt there would be
across-the-board agreement for any one show.

My "special" show is Captain Midnight; the scholarly Elizabeth McLeod's
is Amos and Andy.  Others have their own "specials."  However, I doubt
that, save to ourselves, any of us would characterize our shows as _the_
greatest.

There are two other factors to consider.  One is that when I was first
listening to the shows over the air, I was rather young.  Now tastes
change over time ([removed], my reactions to The Challenged of the Yukon and
Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons, are far different now than when I first
heard them), and many previously "great" shows are now merely
entertaining.

Second and worse:  we missed more than we heard.  Shows were opposite
each other, and thus in hearing one show, we may have missed an even
better one.    I'm painfully aware that I missed more than I heard, and
neither I nor anyone else can comment on what they haven't heard.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 21:31:54 -0400
From: "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Bill Farrell

Hi Everybody,  Bill Farrell who was Bob Hope singer on radio in 1948, and
1949 is going to be at the Friends of Old Time Radio Convention.  Bill is
still performing in Palm Spring and is selling two of his CD there too.
Bill would like to make contacts with radio personalities who might be
whilling to play his music on there show.  Please get in touch with me off
list if you can help,

Walden Hughes

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 21:32:35 -0400
From: Jer51473@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  segregation in the south and in the north

<PRE>Everyones aware of this in the south, but some probably think it didnt
exist
in the north. Not so. As far as schools go there may not have been laws
prohibiting intergration, but it took place and still does to some extent in
the north, although not by law. Generally speaking, the vast majority of the
black population in the north was and is in the large cities with a very
small portion in the small towns. In the south the black population has
always been spread more evenly among big cities, small towns, and the rural
sections of the south. I lived in illinois for a short while when i was 7
years old and i will never forget that in the small town we lived in, blacks
were not allowed to reside. I wont name the town, but as i understand it,
this was not unusual at all back in the forties. For what its worth, i am a
white southerner and although during my childhood the schools were segregated
by law, the two races grew up together in spite of segregation and got along
very reasonably well in our small town. Things have changed for the better
since then in the south, but needed positive changes have also taken place in
the north. Most of the black population in the north is still centered in and
around the large cities, but at least all people have the freedom to live
where they choose.

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #351
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