Subject: [removed] Digest V2001 #284
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 8/31/2001 8:18 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2001 : Issue 284
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Rhapsody in Blue                      [ Grbmd@[removed] ]
      Re: Arthur Treacher                   [ Grbmd@[removed] ]
      Age and All That                      [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
      Re:OTR members ages                   [ Kenneth Clarke <kclarke5@[removed]; ]
      Black Jack Gum                        [ Vntager8io@[removed] ]
      OTR product                           [ "jstokes" <jstokes@[removed]; ]
      Perfect Song                          [ Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]; ]
      Re: Slogans                           [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      "The Perfect Song"                    [ Udmacon@[removed] ]
      Re: "The Perfect Song"                [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      Re: Crisco                            [ "Jan Bach" <janbach@[removed]; ]
      how old are we?                       [ htraxler@[removed] ]
      Re: Slogan                            [ Ken Dahl <kdahl@[removed]; ]
      two queries                           [ michael berger <intercom1@attglobal ]
      demographics                          [ SacChief@[removed] ]
      First Radio Commercial                [ Udmacon@[removed] ]
      The Goverment and Coca Cola           [ George Aust <austhaus1@[removed] ]
      HOW OLD ARE WE?                       [ "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; ]
      Radio themes                          [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
      JB & Treacher                         [ "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@worldnet. ]
      Demographics                          [ "Philip Railsback" <philiprailsback ]
      First commercial-- NOT.               [ Donna Halper <dlh@[removed]; ]
      NOT ORIGINAL                          [ Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 18:10:51 -0400
    From: Grbmd@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Rhapsody in Blue

    Art wrote:

>      Finally, with the deadline
>      approaching, so the story goes, and under pressure from brother Ira,
>      Gershwin jotted down some melody lines and gave them to Grofe to flesh
>      out (orchestrate).  The result was the Rhapsody in Blue which is
>      credited to Gershwin but was actually more of a collaboration between
>      him and Grofe.

    Many years ago I read another story about Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."  I
    don't have the original article, so this is strictly from my memory, such as
    it is.

    The story was that Gershwin's orchestra was preparing to rehearse the number
    shortly before its debut in concert.  All the musicians were warming up,
    playing various notes and runs on their instruments.  One clarinetist, in a
    playful mood, blew a low note and then seamlessly swept up the scale to a
    high note and launched into the main melody.  It sounded so good, the story
    goes, that Gershwin incorporated it into his piece, and it became that
    distinctive beginning that is now so familiar to audiences today.

    More musically knowledgeable members of the Digest may be able to identify
    the range of that "sweep," and give us the exact terminology for it, but I
    just wanted to pass on a story that I thought was interesting.

    Spence

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

    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 19:24:40 -0400
    From: Grbmd@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:  Arthur Treacher

    In a message dated 8/30/01 12:23:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
    [removed]@[removed] writes:

>     I seem to remember him as a regular for a time on the Jack Benny program. I
>     own many tapes of the program, but none have him in them. Wasnt he Bennys
>     butler or something or am i thinking of another show? Didnt Benny refer to
>     him as "Treacher"? If so when were these shows aired? Anybody?

    Benny's valet was named Rochester, played by Eddie Anderson.

    I recall Treacher being on Jack Carson's show in the Forties.

    Spence

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

    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 19:25:14 -0400
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Age and All That

    There are enough newcomers so that I might as well refresh the
    demographic base.  To begin with, I'm 64 years of age, and my first
    interest in OTR was when I was growing up: I used to listen to it.  I had
    two collecting phases.  One was in the late 1960s, when I found out there
    were collectors and collections.  With a lot of help, I built up a fair
    collection; then in a move, I lost a lot of it.  I'm rebuilding some of
    what I've lost, my second phase.

    Now there's an interesting sidelight: as I've mentioned before, we could
    only listen to one station at a time, so everyone who lived through the
    age missed more than they heard.  Sometimes some really good shows went
    back to back; now I can revisit those I used to hear and listen in on the
    "competition," too.  Also, age and experience alters perspective: I used
    to "buy" Mr. Keen as straight drama; now I enjoy it even more as ...
    well, camp.

    Some shows work better now: Pete Kelly's Blues (which few are available),
    Phil Harris-Alice Faye, and the gentle Halls of Ivy, among others.  I
    never heard Pat Novak for Hire when it first aired; I'm thankful that
    some survived.

    All of us who listened to shows back then had favorites.  The Lone
    Ranger, Nick Carter, Jack Benny, were all among ours, and, of course, my
    one special show, Captain Midnight, I'll always remember.

    The big thing is that although memory is fallible, the recollections are
    still sweet.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 19:43:36 -0400
    From: Kenneth Clarke <kclarke5@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:OTR members ages

    Well,  I'm 44 years old and have been a fan of OTR for most
    of my life.  My mother and grandmother use to speak about
    the OTR programs they use to listen to and it got my
    curiosity going.  While in college, I dated a girl who collected
    A & A (Amos & Andy).  She provided me with several contacts.
    That was back in 1985 and I've been collecting OTR programs
    ever since.

    While most of my collection consists of mystery programs, I also
    have several comedy, drama, some westerns, and music
    programs.  I'm attempting to get some of the quiz shows added
    as well.  Some of the ones I have are "You Bet Your Life", "Double
    or Nothing", "The Bob Hawks Show", "Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical
    Knowledge", "Quiz Kids", "One For The Money", "Can You Top This?",
    "Which Is Which?" and "Information Please".  (If anyone knows where
    I can get some other quiz shows, please write me off list.)

    I've bought most of the tapes I now have and received the rest as gifts.
    I have over 200 hours of programs currently and am looking to expand.
     I got most of my tapes from some of the major dealers, but they
    were quite costly.  I wouldn't mind so much, but each of the programs
    listed in their catalog seems similar to the previous month's selections.
    Why can't they differ their selections from catalog to catalog?  Showing
    more of their inventory could get them more customers.

    Kenneth Clarke
    kclarke5@[removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 23:53:59 -0400
    From: Vntager8io@[removed]
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Black Jack Gum

    Hi, folks.

    Sorry to get a little off-topic for OTR, but as long as it keeps popping up,
    I wanted to put in my two-cents worth. For the record, I am 18 years old and
    have been collecting and listening to OTR for about eight years. No one else
    in my family is interested in OTR, but I discovered it through our local
    library and was hooked immediately. For a while, I taped "When Radio Was"
    every night, and used that to discover new shows. I now have about 5,000
    shows on cassette, reel, LP, and audio CD.

    Black Jack gum is sadly no longer being manufactured. As Glen mentioned in
    the last digest, for about 15 years from the mid-1980's-late 1990's, Black
    Jack and Adams Clove were maufactured in small runs and sold mostly at
    Halloween. Unfortunately, 1998 was the last year Black Jack was made, and
    there are no plans to continue production, although there may eventually be
    another run. I was introduced to Black Jack about ten years ago and liked it.
    In 1999, I found a couple packages of the final 1998 production in a small
    store in Walton, NY, and purchased them for 50 cents per pack of five sticks.
    I still have two packs stashed away, along with a couple packs of Clove.
    Earlier this month I was back in Walton, NY (I live in VA) and went to the
    same store where I had purchased the Black Jack two years ago. They no longer
    had any (no surprise after three years of no production). I've been away from
    the digest for a few weeks, but can anyone tell me, did Black Jack or Clove
    ever spon!
    sor an OTR show? BTW, I saw Clar
    k's Teaberry regularly in a loal drugstore until about three years ago. It
    may still be made, but the drugstore was demolished to make was for a
    clothing store.

    Bryan

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

    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 23:54:08 -0400
    From: "jstokes" <jstokes@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  OTR product

    Here's another product that's still around.

    "Camay, the soap of beautiful women, presents 'Pepper Young's Family.'"   It
    was the most who-cares, drag-a*s  radio show I ever heard.   :)

    Jim Stokes

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

    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 23:54:27 -0400
    From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Perfect Song

    It was mentioned in reference to music composed specifically for a radio show:

>     How about 'The Perfect Song', the theme for 'Amos and Andy" in the 40's and
>     '50's?

    Sorry, but the Perfect Song was composed in 1915 by Joseph Carl Breil for
    DW Griffith's film epic "Birth of a Nation."  The sheet music copy I have
    is subtitled "The Love Strain from DW Griffith's Gigantic Spectacle, the
    Birth of a Nation."

    Jim Widner
    jwidner@[removed]
    [removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 23:54:42 -0400
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Slogans

    Randy Watts and Neil Crowley are correct in identifying Woodbury Facial
    Soap, "for the skin you love to touch."

    That accounts for all of them on my list except for

    8. "XXXXXX -- what a XXX XX XXXXX for five cents!"

    Here's a hint:

    8. "XXXXXX -- what a bar XX XXXXX for five cents!"

    This product was often a sponsor of local newscasts in the mid-1940s,
    especially over WEAF in New York, where it alternated sponsorship of Don
    Hollenbeck's 6pm newscast with another product.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 23:54:56 -0400
    From: Udmacon@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  "The Perfect Song"

    I believe Amos & Andy's "Perfect Song" theme, ironically, was from the
    written musical score to "Birth Of A Nation!"

    Bill Knowlton, "BLUEGRASS RAMBLE," WCNY-FM: Syracuse, Utica, Watertown NY
    (since Jan. 1973). Sundays, 9 pm est: [removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 23:56:07 -0400
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: "The Perfect Song"

    On 8/30/01 6:16 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:

>     How about 'The Perfect Song', the theme for 'Amos and Andy" in the 40's and
>     '50's?

    Not an original, sorry to say -- it was composed in 1914 by Joseph Carl
    Briel, a middlebrow composer of light opera and film-score music, as part
    of a score commissioned by D. W. Griffith for the initial release of
    "Birth of a Nation." In the film, the song provided the love theme for
    the characters of Elsie Stoneman and Benjamin "The Little Colonel"
    Cameron.

    The piece was selected as the theme for "Amos 'n' Andy" by Joseph
    Gallicchio, the musical director of station WMAQ in Chicago, with input
    from Harlow P. Roberts, advertising manager of the Pepsodent Company,
    A&A's sponsor, just before the series made its network premiere in August
    1929. (During its era as a syndicated program in 1928-29, no theme music
    had been used.)

    Prior to entering radio, Gallicchio had been concertmaster for a Chicago
    movie theatre, and was very familiar with the score from "Birth," pieces
    of which had since entered the standard stock repertoire of film music.
    Between fourteen and sixteen pieces of music had been suggested before
    "The Perfect Song" was chosen, most of them either blues selections or
    spirituals, but none of them had the wistful,
    familiar-but-not-too-familiar quality that was wanted for the theme.
    Correll and Gosden, for their part, were hesitant about the music at
    first -- but they eventually warmed to "The Perfect Song", realizing that
    whatever its history, the piece perfectly suited the quiet, sentimental
    tone of the A&A serial. Indeed, by 1930, public memory of the song's past
    association with the film had all but been obliterated by the success of
    its use on radio.

    "The Perfect Song" seems to have had little public success outside the
    context of film scoring before it was adopted by Correll and Gosden. A
    lyric was added by Clarence Lucas after the release of the film, and it
    was published as sheet music by Chappell-Harms -- but it didn't become a
    big seller until it began to be used on "Amos 'n' Andy." In late 1929,
    the Pepsodent Company began getting letters from listeners wondering what
    the music was, and this led Chappell to reissue the sheet music with a
    picture of Correll and Gosden in character on the front, and a credit
    identifying the composition as the theme music of "The Pepsodent Hour."
    This "Amos 'n' Andy" edition remained the standard sheet music for "The
    Perfect Song" well into the 1970s. As for Joseph C. Briel, he died in
    1926 -- never knowing that one of his compositions would become one of
    the most enduring theme songs in broadcast history, and never collecting
    the substantial ASCAP royalties that would result.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 23:56:38 -0400
    From: "Jan Bach" <janbach@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Crisco

    Hello again--
    In Vol. 2001, #282, Cynthia remarked:

>     when I started watching daytime TV
>     in the late 1970's and early 1980's the slogan was "it's digestible,
>     it's all vegetable" and the product was Crisco.

    True, and when I listen to my old Vic and Sade audiotapes, also sponsored by
    Crisco in the early forties, Ed Roberts mentioned that the product was "self
    digestible." What on earth did that mean? Has anyone heard that phrase for
    any product lately?

    Jan Bach
    Age 63
    Listening to OTR the second time around to catch the missed programs
    that were broadcast while I was listening to other networks!

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

    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 23:57:20 -0400
    From: htraxler@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  how old are we?

    Hi Folks,
    I'm Howard and I'm very new here; been wanting to subscribe for a long time.

    I was born in 1944 and caught about the last fourteen years of the
    OTR--missed lots of good stuff but glad I can hear it now.  I mostly enjoyed
    the mysteries and thrillers, and a few of the comedies.  I've been collecting
    for the last thirty years or so.

    My Friend Glen in Madison turned me on to this mailing list and I'm glad to
    finally be here.  Thanks Glen.

    <HT>

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

    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 23:57:32 -0400
    From: Ken Dahl <kdahl@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Slogan

    I need help on this one.  I have been listening to radio comedy programs from
    the late 40's and a few times someone will say "East and Columbia, Broadway
    at Night" which is then followed by laughter.  Was this a slogan for a
    product or service?  My memory fails me.  Any answers out there?  Thanks, Ken
    Dahl

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

    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 23:58:02 -0400
    From: michael berger <intercom1@[removed];
    To: otr <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  two queries

    1. Listening to a Command Performance the other night, I
    suddenly wondered: how did the troops hear it?
    Shortwave? From a transcription rebroadcast from a
    local transmitter? Sitting around a phonograph?

    2. Heard a Crosby Philco show from 1947 that went
    humming along as usual for about 25 minutes and then
    suddenly Bing was stopping in the middle of a tune that
    he admitted he hadn't rehearsed, asked the orchestra to
    fill a place where the lyrics were awkward, kidded
    around with guest Les Paul, and suddenly the sound cut
    off.

    Obviously a rehearsal disk, but I wonder: many of those
    around? The one referred to above was downloaded from a
    Usenet group site.

    Michael Berger

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

    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 23:58:20 -0400
    From: SacChief@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  demographics

    If folks are interested in the demos of folks who follow this thread, why not
    design a brief questionnaire, publish it on the net and have us respond. Be
    sure to tell us precisely the URL for the questionnaire. You could not only
    determine ages, but also geographic representation, number of yrs (if any) in
    broadcasting, and in what capacity,etc. Obviously, responses would be
    anonymous. bob keldgord (an old guy who spent only 4 yrs in broadcasting - in
    the '50's, as an announcer on the West Coast)

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

    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 23:59:22 -0400
    From: Udmacon@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  First Radio Commercial

    Quoth Joe Mackey:

     " In 1922, a New York City realty company paid $100 for the first
    radio commercial, on station WEAF".

    It was the Queensboro Corporation offering cooperative apartments in
    Hawthorne Court, Jackson Heights. I grew up there in the "Greystones"
    apartments just a few blocks away. My apartment building was already five
    year old when the WEAF commercial was aired!

    Lots of pioneer radio personalities, including Uncle Don Carney, once lived
    in Jackson Heights, whose center area is now on the National Register of
    Historic Places, including Hawthorne Court.

    Incidentally, NPR did a nice piece on this anniversary just a few days a go
    and it's archived on the NPR website

    Bill Knowlton, "BLUEGRASS RAMBLE," WCNY-FM: Syracuse, Utica, Watertown NY
    (since Jan. 1973). Sundays, 9 pm est: [removed]

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

    Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 00:18:05 -0400
    From: George Aust <austhaus1@[removed];
    To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  The Goverment and Coca Cola

    A. Joseph Ross asked  the question as to whether or not Coca Cola once
    contained cocaine until the goverment forced them to take it out.
    As others have posted before me it was not the goverment who caused Coca
    Cola to take out the tiny bit of cocaine in the drink, but rather public
    opinion.

    The Goverment on the other hand went after Coca Cola with a vengence not
    for cocaine but for caffeine! A Dr Harvey Wiley who was a member of the
    Board of Food and Drug Inspection ,then a part of the Dept. of
    Agriculture went on a personal vendetta against the soft drink company
    and begining in 1909 investigated the company finally deciding that he
    could get them for adulterating the drink with a drug.( caffeine)

    It went to trial in 1911 and the goverment made outrageous and
    outlandish charges against Coca Cola not to mention many outright lies
    which the companys attorneys had little trouble knocking down. The trial
    lasted 3 weeks after which the Judge basically ruled that the goverment
    didn't have a case. However the goverment intended to appeal and it
    dragged on for years until a compromise was reached which saved face for
    the goverment, in which Coke agreed to lower the caffeine content in the
    drink, even though it previously had contained just about the same
    amount of caffeine as a cup of tea or a cup of coffee.

    Dr Wiley however did not give up his crusade against the company which
    continued into the 1920's. Other battles with the goverment included the
    rationing of sugar to the company during WW1 which almost did the
    company in. Also the goverment was involved in the famous trade mark
    fight, and a ban of Coke by the US Army.

    All of this before a more enlightened goverment in the 1930's and 40's
    actually subsidized bottling equipment and shipped it to the war zones
    during WW2. Anywhere there were servicemen the goverment made sure that
    there was Coca Cola. And of course as a result, the local population was
    introduced to the drink, so that a permanent worldwide market was
    created for Coke.

    An interesting OTR connection to Coca Cola was that despite their
    marketing know how and great innovation in advertising was that they
    were never successful in radio advertising. At least by other standards
    of measurment they never acchieved the same kind of marketing success
    that theyhad achieved by all other means.

    George Aust

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

    Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 00:18:00 -0400
    From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  HOW OLD ARE WE?

    Well, I was waiting for someone to post an age older then mine, so until one
    of the posters does, I guess I am the Senior member of the Digest, having
    just turned 72 this past Monday.

    Owens Pomeroy

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

    Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 06:02:27 -0400
    From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Radio themes

>     Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 15:58:12 -0400
>     From: Partridge <rpartrid@[removed];

>     Did radio give us any original theme music? The themes most familiar to me
>     are all "borrowed" - Love in Bloom; Love Nest; Street Scene; William Tell;
>     Flight of the Bumble Bee etc.  I can't think of one enduring original radio
>     theme. Can anyone?

    Well, the original radio Superman theme hasn't endured, but it clearly
    inspired the 1950s TV version, as well as Jon Williams's 1980s movie
    theme.

     A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                           [removed]
     15 Court Square, Suite 210          lawyer@[removed]
     Boston, MA 02108-2503           [removed]

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

    Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 06:06:21 -0400
    From: "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  JB & Treacher

    Arthur Treacher was, for at least a half-hour, Jack Benny's butler. I don't
    have a date but I do have an episode - #87 in the series "[removed] Journal"
    (AFRS). In it, Treacher is subbing for Rochester, who after nine years with
    Jack has decided to take a three month vacation. The show co-stars Paulette
    Goddard and Mel Blanc.

    Brj

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

    Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 06:06:32 -0400
    From: "Philip Railsback" <philiprailsback@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Demographics

    I'm 50, just old enough have actually listened to some OTR when it was still
    being broadcast, though I never did.  I don't think I was even aware that
    radio drama was still being broadcast when I was a kid until a few years
    ago.

      - Philip

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

    Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 06:08:33 -0400
    From: Donna Halper <dlh@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  First commercial-- NOT.

>     it was written--

>       From the AP for Tuesday, 29 August --

>       > In 1922, a New York City realty company paid $100 for the first
>     radio commercial, on station WEAF.

    Well, there they go again.  This is yet another example of how history is
    written by the winners (or the survivors).  Believe me, WEAF was not the
    first station to air a paid radio commercial, but AT&T (and later NBC)
    spent large sums promulgating this version of broadcasting history, and I
    commend them for their very effective efforts.  But while WEAF may be the
    first "all toll" broadcasters, in that they used commercials to pay for
    some of their expenses, other stations had received payment for air time
    before August of 1922.  Here's the [removed] of the story.

    First, at the risk of beating the proverbial dead horse, we have discussed
    on this list numerous times that much "history" is actually myth and legend
    (no, Uncle Don never said "that oughta hold the little bastards"; no, KDKA
    was not the "world's first radio station," etc etc).  In the matter of the
    first commercial, since programs back in 1920-2 were not usually recorded
    (although the radio magazines would mention occasionally that a fan had
    managed to record a few minutes of a favourite show by using a dictaphone),
    we are at the mercy of oral histories and whatever logs/paperwork/memos
    might still exist.  But we do know that by mid-1921, several stations (1XE
    in Medford Hillside MA among them) were using barter to get phonograph
    records to play on the air ("This concert is brought to you by [insert name
    of local record store], who provided the records you are hearing
    tonight."), and some newspaper ads certainly indicate that there were
    tie-ins between record stores and radio:  by early 1922, a station in
    Seattle, KFC (no relation to fried chicken-- some of the early call letters
    are amusing to look at [removed]), was doing a Tuesday night "Remick's Radio
    Concert" and the newspaper copy reminded people that after they heard the
    songs on the air, they should go into their Remick's Song Shop and buy
    them.  Also in spring of 1922, WJZ and [removed] Conn Musical Instruments
    offered the "Conn Radio Concert", featuring performers such as the Irving
    Berlin Singing Trio and Joseph C. Smith and his Orchestra, who, according
    to the ad copy in the newspapers, "will demonstrate the wonderful tone
    values of [removed] Conn musical instruments in a concert [removed]"

    But for those who don't think these are commercials, there is documented
    evidence that WGI (formerly 1XE) accepted money from a car dealer, Alvan
    Fuller, and broadcast advertisements for his company during the week of 4
    April 1922.  How do I know this is not a legend?  Well, I have copies of
    the cease-and-desist letters from the Radio Inspector, Charlie Kolster, and
    later on, in an oral history, Harold Power (who owned WGI as well as its
    parent company, the receiver manufacturer AMRAD) told a historian that he
    was told by AT&T that they and only they would be authorised by the
    Department of Commerce to broadcast "direct advertising".  Power recalls
    being very annoyed that other stations (his among them) were told not to do
    it, but WEAF was given permission.  SO, it's a tale of intrigue, politics,
    and who knows what else, but since April comes before August on every
    calendar I have ever seen, it is not accurate to say that WEAF ran the
    first commercial.  And now you [removed] the REST of the story.

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

    Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 07:02:41 -0400
    From: Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  NOT ORIGINAL

    <And of course there's always the four-note signature from [removed];

    Walter Schumann originally penned these infamous four notes for the 1948
    Abbot &
    Costello flick, The Noose Hangs High.

                      Sandy Singer
              A DATE WITH SINATRA

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2001 Issue #284
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