Subject: [removed] Digest V2004 #407
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 12/26/2004 10:30 AM

To: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2004 : Issue 407
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Deaths at 100                         [ JayHick@[removed] ]
      re: The Bickersons                    [ benohmart@[removed] ]
      Danny Kaye Show                       [ "jazmaan@[removed]" <dmf273@ya ]
      Chandu, The Magician                  [ skallisjr@[removed] ]
      Re: My Friend Irma; Best, Worst Radi  [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
      whistler movies                       [ Ruk77@[removed] ]
      oldest radio star                     [ "Louie Johnson" <ljohnson@[removed]; ]
      Claude Rains                          [ "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@juno. ]
      Re: Worst radio program               [ mbiel@[removed] ]
      Oldest OTR Star                       [ "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@juno. ]
      Oldest Radio Star                     [ "Don Belden" <[removed]@[removed]; ]
      I Never Sausage a Thing Wurst         [ skallisjr@[removed] ]
      per the worst shows                   [ Chargous@[removed] ]
      Re: The Worst OTR                     [ "Penne Yingling" <bp_ying@[removed] ]
      Paul Sorensen                         [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
      question about availability of cd/mp  [ "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed]; ]
      Anybody have Amos & Andy [removed] Whi  [ Chad Palmer <historyvids@[removed] ]
      On The Subject of Radio Content       [ <cooldown3@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 14:43:33 -0500
    From: JayHick@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Deaths at 100

    Looking over my Necrology lists, I came up with the following:
    Eubie Blake, [removed] Gremmer, [removed] Roach, [removed] Kitchell,
    [removed] Berwin, [removed] Davis, [removed] Nathan Kane,
    [removed]
    Burns, [removed] St. John, [removed] Hope, 100

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

    Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 14:45:14 -0500
    From: benohmart@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  re: The Bickersons

>     After years of being a Bickersons fan, I was astounded to learn
>     recently that the show was on for only two seasons in the late
>     1940s (at least with Ameche and Langford; apparently, there was
>     a short-lived TV version in the early 1950s with a different actor
>     playing John).

    Lew Parker played John in a few episodes that never found a home on a tv
    network.  These are now on dvd from [removed] He also played John on
    the very good 1951 radio show, the first show to have the Bickersons play for
    a half hour at a time.

>     Did Philip Rapp do all the writing?

    Yep. Even the radio and tv commercials.

>     One complaint I have is that many of the shows I've run across
>     in OTR collections at the library are not dated

    It's a difficult question because Phil reused a Lot of material. For the
    complete history  of the bickering couple, see my book at
    [removed] Phil Proctor of The Firesign
    Theatre called it "a fascinating read."

    Ben Ohmart

    Old radio. Old movies. New books.
    [removed]

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

    Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 14:45:26 -0500
    From: "jazmaan@[removed]" <dmf273@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Danny Kaye Show

    I guess I'm one of the few who really enjoys the Danny Kaye Show!  I
    appreciate the fact that
    Butterfly McQueen was a regular.  And of course I always enjoy Danny's
    singing.   I like the way
    he's always putting his own show down.  That kind of self-deprecating humor
    reminds me of the
    Conan O'Brien TV show.

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

    Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 14:46:03 -0500
    From: skallisjr@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Chandu, The Magician

    Corganoid, speaking of his "top worst 5" OTR shows, includes,

>     "Chandu, the Magician"  A sure cure for the insomniac.

    IMHO, Chandu was for the esoteric what Jack Armstrong was for
    travelogues.  When Jack and companions were in distant climes, one
    character would describe the local fauna, culture, or topography
    relentlessly to others in the party, while the plot doesn't move a
    nanometer.  Likewise, Chandu would often describe some paranormal
    technique or manifestation to another character or group with a similar
    pedagogical intensity.

    Chandu was a hoot, invoking "the power of the three times three" to
    effect his occult actions.  Loved that gong!

    Stephen A. Kallis. Jr.

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

    Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 14:47:39 -0500
    From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: My Friend Irma; Best, Worst Radio

    Andy Blatt of "[removed]" <asajb2000@[removed]; wrote:

>     I'm sure there are more, like My Friend Irma and Meet
>     the Meeks, etc.

    Just goes to show, as Elizabeth said, in effect, The best and worst
    OTR is all in the ear of the beholder. And it illustrates the
    difficulty in separating quality from fond nostalgia. _My Friend
    Irma_ is one of my most fondly remembered shows. I can't remember the
    gags, of course, after all these decades, just how much I liked
    Irma's voice. I've only found a couple of the shows in circulation,
    but I didn't think them any worse than any of the other comedies of
    the day, better than many.

    For example, while I find it pleasantly nostalgic, I almost never
    find any real laughs in _Fibber McGee and Molly_; Fibber's closet is
    pretty much it as far as humor goes on that show, I fear. (I was so
    young when I first heard this show I thought it was about a key and a
    hot tamale who had married across inanimate object lines; my mother
    also would call me in from play to hear Betty Crocker's cooking show,
    as she was aware of my fascination with the existence of a talking
    saltine cracker [little did I know, as a toddler, that I, myself, was
    actually considered a cracker in some parts of the country]. I'm sure
    this is much more amusing to me than anyone else still living, but it
    says something about what the listener, at any age, brings to audio
    entertainment.)

    One of my favorite shows has always been _Suspense_; I am now working
    my way through pretty much all the shows, and I confess I'm a bit
    disappointed at how lame many - most - of the plots are (I used to
    think John Dickson Carr a good writer). Yet they are still more
    effective, I think, than most TV dramas at pulling the listener into
    the show early on keeping you hooked, at least for a while. In
    calculating the merits of a program we may tend to consider only
    certain best or worst aspects of shows that were, overall, neither.

    Some shows are remembered not for individual shows but as compelling
    concepts, like _The Shadow_. I don't remember any individual
    _Challenge of the Yukon_ shows from my childhood, but I'll never
    forget the chill that I felt when the first strains of the Donna
    Diana overture sounded over our little table radio, nor the image of
    the wind-swept reaches of the great Northwest, the stark grandeur of
    the Yukon and the ongoing struggle of one decent man - and his loyal
    dog - against an unforgiving Nature and the worst nature of his
    fellow man. These were not great literary works, but they left a far
    more indelible impression on me than all of Jack London's work.
    Again, all in the ear of the beholder.

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

    Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 14:47:52 -0500
    From: Ruk77@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  whistler movies
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    thanks for your VAST knowledge, Martin. Can you or anyone else supply the
    names of any of the whistler movies or any of the Inner Sanctum movies for
    that
    matter as well. Thanks a million. Happy holidays everyone. And may we stumble
    upon a cashe` of new OTR shows this year!

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

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

    Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 15:56:42 -0500
    From: "Louie Johnson" <ljohnson@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  oldest radio star

    Arlene Osborne wrote:

>     I thought it might be interesting to see if
>     digesters can come up with OTR candidates who
>     lived the longest before they passed
>     on.  Has any OTR person made it to 100?

    I have one that comes pretty close, Arlene:
    Penny Singleton, Dagwood's much better half ;-)  died November 12, 2003,
    age 95

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

    Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 16:35:43 -0500
    From: "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Claude Rains

         Didn't Claude Rains play the part of the Invisible
    Man in the movies?  Somehow I always equate his name
    with that role.

    Another OTR Fan,

    Kenneth Clarke

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

    Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 16:36:54 -0500
    From: mbiel@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:  Worst radio program

    James Nixon nominated the Hartz Mountain Canaries program, with a chorus of
    birds chirping away as accompaniment to some of the worst music ever
    broadcast" as the worst ever radio program.  Along those lines I'd like to
    nominate a program which had that idea before Hartz did, but it is a program
    that probably none of you have ever heard.  It is the very long running NBC
    morning program run in the 1920s and 30s by a guy, Charles K. Field, who went
    under the name "Cheerio."  As far as I know there are no existing recordings
    of a broadcast despite the fact that it was on the air both local and network
    for perhaps 15 years, and that one of the easiest OTR books to find is "The
    Story of CHEERIO."  The reason why I have an idea what the program sounded
    liike is that the Cheerio cast made a set of records in 1930 for The
    Roycrofters, and I own one of the very few existing sets of this album.
    Sappy, syrupy poetry, old timey songs, wheezy pump organ music, and those
    DAMN BIRDS.  Where is Sylvester when you need him?

    In second place for the worst program is another one that practically nobody
    has ever heard, (and he is listed in the Dec 26 birth list)
    Tony Wons' Scrapbook.  And again by coincidence, the long running annual set
    of books by that name are among the easiest OTR books to find, but any
    recording of Tony is very hard to find, let alone a full broadcast.  A sappy,
    syrupy voice, but a very thin syrup.  But maybe you could drown the Cheerio
    birds in the syrup, or throw those Wons scrapbooks at them.

    Sometimes programs are rare for GOOD reasons!

    Michael Biel   mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 18:45:34 -0500
    From: "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Oldest OTR Star

         Well Arlene, the two OTR stars which come immediately
    to mind for me are George Burns ("Burns and Allen") and
    Bob Hope ("The Bob Hope Show").  I know that George Burns
    was at least 100 years when he passed away and Bob Hope
    was close to, or at least, that old.  There might have been
    others.  Maybe others on this list can assist with the
    actual dates and ages.

    Another OTR Fan,

    Kenneth Clarke

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

    Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 18:45:41 -0500
    From: "Don Belden" <[removed]@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Oldest Radio Star

    George Burns was born in 1896 and died in 1996. He most be one of the
    oldest.

    Don in Denver

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

    Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 18:47:19 -0500
    From: skallisjr@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  I Never Sausage a Thing  Wurst

    The scholarly Elizabeth McLeod, commenting on the question of what the
    worst OTR show was, observed,

>     I don't know as it's really possible to come up with such a list,
>     because "worstness" is totally subjective. For example, I can't stand
>     most adventure shows -- but forty-one-year-old women aren't the target
>     audience for such programs, so any opinion I might have on that genre
>     means exactly squat.

    Then there's a different point: "worst" in one field might be superior in
    another.  For instance, as a straight drama, "Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost
    Persons," is ... well, not Pulitzer material, to say the least.  But as
    high camp. I find it nearly irresistible.  The dialogue is priceless
    ([removed], "Mike.  Look on that desk.  What do you see?"  "It looks like a
    pencil and a piece of paper, Mr. Keen, sir."), the plots are often based
    on wild coincidences, and the "solutions" to the mystery are sometimes
    dragged in, kicking and screaming ("I looked up the record of Mr. Loring,
    Mike, and found that he did time in prison for a fraud exactly like the
    one we've been investigating.").. But I've yet to hear a recording where
    I didn't smile, if not laugh out loud.

>     I've been listening to radio from a historical/critical perspective for
>     twenty-seven years now, and I think it's safe to say from what I've heard
>     that most radio of the OTR era was neither bad nor good. It was simply
>     *there,* a product ground out according to standard formulas to meet the
>     entertainment needs of the moment.

    This reminds me, though I momentarily stray off-topic, that I've often
    heard people say about motion pictures, "They don't make them the way
    they used to," implying that films of the 1930s through 1940s were of
    inherently superior quality to the current crop.  That is simply
    inaccurate.  There were plenty of less than stellar films produced back
    then, but those who choose to recall them forget the real turkeys.
    Likewise, those who lived through the OTR period recall "the best" shows
    they remember; that is, their favorite shows  or those that had a special
    impact.

    Some of us have specialized on various OTR programs, and here the whole
    idea of "best" invariably goes out the window.  Our biases get too
    strong.  But perhaps a better question might be, what's the best (or
    worst) program to introduce to a newcomer to OTR?

    I've found one of the best to be Pat Novak For Hire.  The pulp-fiction
    similes, the situations, and the storylines form an excellent
    introduction to someone not familiar with OTR.  Alternatively, the later
    Brace Beemer programs of The Lone Ranger are good fodder for newcomers.

    James Nixon notes,

>     I'd like to nominate the Hartz Mountain Canaries program, with a chorus
>     of birds chirping away as accompaniment to some of the worst music ever
>     broadcast

    When I was very little, I used to listen to the program, which some adult
    in the house tuned to.  As a child, it seemed amazing that the birds
    would sing with the music.  Looking back on it, I suspect the music was
    chosen to it would sound natural mixed with canary chirps.  But "worst"
    is a little harsh.  "Inane," though, might make more sense.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.
    Happy Boxing Day.

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

    Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 19:54:26 -0500
    From: Chargous@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  per the worst shows

    Hi,

    My vote's for "Detectives Black and Blue".  The socially-themed late
    episodes of Ellery Queen '47/48 are pretty bad, also.

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

    Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 21:05:38 -0500
    From: "Penne Yingling" <bp_ying@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:  The Worst OTR

    Someone said in a recent post (regarding worst OTR) , "In two, or is it
    three words?  AMOS 'N' ANDY".  I never was too familiar with the Amos 'n
    Andy show, but I'm just curious.  Did I hear somewhere that during some
    period when Amos 'n Andy were on air, that the whole country was listening
    to them and that during the 15 minutes (7 to 7:15PM) when they were on,
    there were more cars stolen because everyone but the car thieves were glued
    to their radios?!    Perhaps it was because there was not much in the way of
    competition at that particular perid??!!!   My personal favorite, by the
    way, is a tie between Gildie & Fibber, but I also like J Benny quite a lot.
    Oh, I forgot, this is supposed to be "worst", but I can't nominate a worst -
    I simply like them all.  Penne

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

    Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 10:34:58 -0500
    From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Paul Sorensen

    Does anybody know of any radio programs that featured Paul Sorensen?
    My lady friend is a Brady Bunch fan for some reason and while
    watching some old shows she has on DVD I thought the voice of one of
    the minor characters, played by [removed], sounded a bit familiar.
    I see on the web that he was born in 1926 and was in a lot of early
    TV and in movies in the 50's and 60's, but no mention of radio work.
    Of course, we all know that doesn't mean there wasn't any. Thanks for
    any info.

    John Mayer

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

    Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 10:35:22 -0500
    From: "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  question about availability of cd/mp3 player

    I used to have and wanted to replace my iRiver ChromeX iMP-150 CD/MP3
    Player, but Amazon no longer supports it.  Does anybody else make a
    similar walk-man type player with true resume over multiple disks even if
    you open the lid?  I know this question has come up before, and I am
    really surprised Amazon has stopped carying this item, although it has
    been over a year since I ordered mine.  I am loking for one that will be
    just as good, so if anybody has any ideas please let me know.  Thank you.
     Kurt

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

    Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 10:36:05 -0500
    From: Chad Palmer <historyvids@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Anybody have Amos & Andy [removed] Which are
     better?

    I know we've had long threads here before about the Amos & Andy radio
    series and its' availability but I have a question about the TV series.

    If you look on the web and on eBay there are countless sets of Amos & Andy
    DVDs available and I've been considering springing for a set.  My question
    to those of you out there who have seen these is [removed] which  version is
    "best"?

    Most of the sets are earmarked as "budget" or "platinum" edition and seem
    to be different versions of each [removed] these run around $40 and have 16
    discs packaged in a small disc "wallet" type hard case made by unikeep.

    The other two versions are priced well into the [removed] both have 18
    DVDs.  One set is packaged in three of the large six disc cases and the
    other appears to use smaller cd sized cases, both appear to be sold by the
    same vendor.

    The only difference I see is this later set doesn't have their movie,
    "Check & Double Check" included.

    Any advise/suggestions from those who have seen or own these would be
    appreciated.

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

    Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 10:36:32 -0500
    From: <cooldown3@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  On The Subject of Radio Content

    Doing fome follow-up reading on the subject of radio content I found this
    site by Stephen D Perry [removed], Assistant professor of Communications at
    Illinoise State University.

    An interesting read.
    Patrick

    [removed]

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #407
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