------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2005 : Issue 129
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
This week in radio history 23-30 Apr [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
Joe Bolton pre WPIX [ Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@earthlin ]
More border radio [ Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@earthlin ]
OTR Poker [ Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@erols ]
Clarence Hartzell [ "dennis townsend" <dltnkt@[removed] ]
OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK [ "Jerry Haendiges" <Jerry@[removed] ]
James Burns at the Billy Rose. Museu [ Conrad Binyon <conradab@[removed] ]
4-24 births/deaths [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2005 20:48:41 -0400
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otrd <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: This week in radio history 23-30 April
From Those Were The Days --
4/24
1949 - Dick Powell starred in Richard Diamond, Private Detective on NBC.
The show stayed on the air for four years.
1955 - X-Minus One, a show for science fiction fans, was first heard on NBC.
4/25
1938 - Your Family and Mine, a radio serial, was first broadcast.
4/27
1921 - Weather broadcasts were heard for the first time on radio when
WEW in St. Louis, MO aired weather news.
1931 - NBC presented Lum and Abner for the first time.
1932 - The Texaco fire chief, Ed Wynn, was heard on Texaco Star Theater
for the first time. Wynn, a popular vaudeville performer, demanded a
live audience to react to his humor if he was to make the switch to
radio. The network consented and Wynn became radio's first true superstar.
1937 - The initial broadcast of Lorenzo Jones was heard over NBC.
4/28
1947 - Studio One on CBS was first broadcast. The show was full of great
stars, but no sponsors. CBS dropped Studio One after a year on radio.
4/30
1945 - "How would you like to be queen for a day!" That opening line,
delivered by host, Jack Bailey, was first heard on Mutual on this day.
The first Queen for a Day was Mrs. Evelyn Lane.
1945 - Arthur Godfrey began his CBS morning show. His theme was Seems
Like Old Times. Arthur Godfrey Time ran until this very same day in
1972. Godfrey's show used live talent and not records. His popularity
with listeners was the major reason that several sponsors gave Godfrey
the freedom to ad-lib their commercials and, from time to time, joke
about the products as well.
Joe
--
Visit my homepage:
[removed]~[removed] No trees
were killed in the sending of this message. However a large number
of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2005 20:48:55 -0400
From: Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Joe Bolton pre WPIX
May I join Derek Tague and others waxing reminiscent about Joe Bolton. I
referred to the oft-mentioned "Golden Throats and Silver Tongues" by Ron
Poindexter, discussing broadcasting awards in the 1930s. I wasn't there
then, but I was here, so to speak - just!
According to friend Poindexter, twenty-five announcers were honored with a
1936 dinner given by the New York Advertising Club. Chosen from NBC were Ben
Grauer, Ford Bond, Graham McNamee, Milton Cross, Don Wilson, Howard Claney,
George Hicks, and Howard Petrie. CBS was represented by David Ross, Paul
Douglas, and Robert Trout. Attending for WOR were Arthur Hale, Joseph R.
Bolton, Roger Brown, Floyd Ned, John Gambling, and Joe Bier. Others at the
dinner were [removed] WMCA, Tommy Cowan from [removed] Harry von
Zell from the Young& Rubicam Agency.
Just to expound on a few of Joseph R. Bolton's colleagues: Milton Cross of
fond memory on the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. Don Wilson from later west
coast duty with some guy named Benny Kubelsky. George Hicks and Robert Trout
of WWII fame. Paul Douglas who later became a well known film actor cited
with a Special Jury Prize at the 1954 Venice Film Festival for his part in
"Executive Suite", and is memorialized with two stars on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame. John (B.) Gambling, the first of the three Johns of "Rambling With
Gambling" fame, still airing in New York City. And Harry von Zell of so many
west coast programs. Joe Bolton ran with a pretty great crowd! And learned
meteorology too!
Bestus, Lee Munsick
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2005 21:49:01 -0400
From: Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: More border radio
Another character in the Mexican shouter registry was one Norman Baker, of
Muscatine, Iowa.
With a background of a sort of carnival fake "mind reader ' act, Baker was
incredibly adept at promoting himself. Like the "goat gland" doctor whom he
admired and emulated, Baker operated a "cancer cure" hospital in Muscatine.
People I met while doing research there about 25 years ago remembered seeing
patients wandering around town with the top of their skull missing so that
their brains could actually be seen! I heard worse tales, which I shall not
repeat here.
Feuding with the local Muscatine newspaper, Baker started his own in
competition. While the established paper settled on a rule never to mention
Baker's name in any story and banned his advertising, he used his own rag to
lambaste the original paper in every possible way. He founded radio station
KTNT, no relation to the later-day KTNT of Tacoma, Washington. He owned a
chain of gas stations which sold KTNT gasoline, a dry goods store, and
various other businesses in addition to the large hospital, many of which
capitalized on the KTNT signature. Of course, all his enterprises advertised
heavily over his station, as did other businesses.
I have been at the site of KTNT on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.
Just barely on the WEST side, as the call indicates. It had probably one of
the most effective ground planes around: a copper grid laid out into the
famed Mississippi River Mud. Baker had invented the first compressed air
calliope which he dubbed the Tangley Calliaphone. He got the idea listening
to the steam calliopes on he show boats cruising on the Mississippi, which
could be heard frequently as they approached Muscatine and docked at the city
piers.
This was before his major businesses, when he was just a local entertainer.
He wanted something that would attract crowds to his show, and the steam
calliope's success in doing just that for the show boats inspired him. But
they could be heard from miles away, and Baker realized that was too much.
They also tended to get out of tune, and the operator wound up with steam
burns and deafened ears.
Readers who are familiar with steam circus calliopes may wonder why they
always sound out of tune. It's because the tuning plugs tended to get welded
into place by the heat, and in time their operators just stopped tuning them.
The fact that many steam operators wore gloves to protect their hands added
to their off-note performances, accepted in time as normal for the
instruments. Most steam calliope keys are metal, operating the valves on the
hot steam whistles. Everything connected with the steam beasts got hot
including the musicians, which also explains why the players did quick
patter-like, dit-dit-dit performances. Holding a note on a steam calliope
caused that pipe to get hotter and therefore larger, which caused a sort of
Doppler effect of a careening note. I owned one of Baker's products which
had a very fine sound. I was constantly approached by people asking how come
mine was in tune! They didn't think calliopes were supposed to be, having
been brainwashed with the cacophony of "Entry of the Gladiators" and the like.
Baker got together with his tinkerer and musician father-in-law to work up
the compressed air version, which could be heard a couple of blocks. When
the first one was finished, he set it up in a vacant lot and wandered off in
various directions to see how far the sound would travel to attract
[removed], listeners. When he got back to the machine, there was a
different kind of salesman there who admired the machine, wanted it for his
traveling business, and bought it on the spot for what Baker thought was an
inflated amount. Baker immediately made another, and much the same thing
happened. Realizing he finally hit on a money maker, he forgot his minor
show biz efforts and went into business mass-producing the machines, both
manual- and automatically-played.
I've also been at the building which was the Tangley factory. No-one is
quite sure where the name Tangley came from, although many people incorrectly
thought they did. Locals confused Tangley with Canadian-born actress Eva
Tanguay, who at the time was one of the most famous and well-paid
entertainers in the world, known as "The girl who made vaudeville famous".
It got around Muscatine that the famous Miss Tanguay was Norman Baker's wife,
and that's why he named his air calliope after her. Except that it wasn't
true, but Baker was delighted. True to form, he did nothing to set the
matter straight.
His calliope was used to sign KTNT on the air every day, musical interludes
during the day, and played again at signoff. It was such a major a part of
the broadcast day that the radio log showed times when the station did
remained off the air, delayed until the inoperative Calliaphone was repaired
(obviously as quickly as possible). Basically miserly, it never occurred to
him to have two on hand just in case, when he could always sell the extra.
Baker routinely operated his radio station at many times the allowable power
level. Entrance to the property was by a driveway which went up a long hill
toward the studio/transmitter building. The engineer's window looked out
down the driveway. Engineers were ordered to keep an eye on the hill.
Whenever a strange vehicle started the uphill drive, the xmtr power was
immediately cut down to the legal limit. His violations got him in trouble
with federal authorities, and finally Baker moved the operation to just
across the Rio Grande in Nuevo Laredo - the SOUTH side of that river, where
he emulated fellow cancer quack "goat gland doctor" John Brinkley by
hammering the airwaves at 100,000 watts and much more, blanketing the central
and souhwestern [removed] The combination of these two and other violators
resulted in the international radio broadcasting laws which governed the
location, initial call letters, frequency, hours of use, and power of radio
stations. Those laws were delayed for years by a recalcitrant Mexican
government, which was delighted with the power of its radio voices and saw no
reason to be reasonable in dealing with its northern neighbor. Hmm.
What really brought Baker's downfall was his fight with the American Medical
Association, which criticized him for his cancer "hospital" operation in
Muscatine and ordered him to shut down. Baker was not a medical doctor, and
the AMA came down hard on his unorthodox practices. He fought back, but
found this time that he had picked the wrong enemy. The powerful AMA
persuaded the G-men to get into the battle. He was convicted of tax
conniving and other fiscal wrongdoings, and sent packing off to the
penitentiary.
Baker was flamboyant in every way. He loved violet, yellow and green in
combination, wore lilac colored shirts and flowing violet capes. Drove a
lavender colored Hupmobile, which I nearly bought some years back, only to
find that it had been sent to the crusher just 2 days before! Fan windows
over KTNT's doors boasted purple, yellow and green glass, one of which I have
in my collection. Norman Baker was indeed a character in every way.
Norman, is that you? Bestus, Lee Munsick
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2005 23:30:52 -0400
From: Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: OTR Poker
Derek Tague wrote:
As you can see, we still need names for cards 2 (or deuce), 4, 5, 9, &
10. Similarly, two of the suits are called "Sam Spades" & "Richard
Diamonds." We still need names for the Hearts and the Clubs
Crime Clubs would be my first choice; Cliche Clubs (based on the quiz
show) would not be as well known. There are many "hearts" in OTR
titles, including "Heart Strings", "Heart Throbs" and even "Heart's
Desire", a game show with Ben Alexander. Probably the most familiar is
"Hearts in Harmony" (with Jone Alison) with over 900 episodes in
circulation.
"Two" is an equally common word in show titles, [removed] "Two for the
Money", "Two Lives Have I", "Two Ton Baker", and "Two on a Shoestring."
My favorite is "Two on a Clue", a lively detective mystery with a
married couple solving murder cases.
"Four" appears in a dozen OTR show titles, "Four Belles", "Four
Corners", "Four Showman", "Four To Go", "Four Polka Dots", etc.
There are an equal number of shows containing "Five", in fact if even
we only picked those with "Five Star" in combination, we'd find seven
of them. My nomination would be "Five Minute Mysteries."
"Nine" is tougher, only one I can think of, "Nine To Five," which could
not be used since it also has "five" in the title.
"Ten" gives us very few [removed]"Ten From Tokyo" and "Ten to Four
Ranch" (with Son of the Pioneers.) I'd be tempted to go with
"TENnessee Jed."
Jack French
Editor: RADIO RECALL
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:50:33 -0400
From: "dennis townsend" <dltnkt@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Clarence Hartzell
A man with a distinctive voice. I was familiar with him as Uncle Fletcher on
Vic and Sade and just discovered him on Lum and Abner as Doc Withers. Anyone
know anything about him? The imdb shows a couple of TV credits but not even a
birth or death date. What other radio programs might one find him on. Thanks
for any help. Dennis
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:50:40 -0400
From: "Jerry Haendiges" <Jerry@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK
Hi friends,
Here is this week's line-up for the week of 4-24-05 on my Olde Tyme
Radio
[removed] Featuring Tom Heathwood's "Heritage Radio Theatre," Big John
Matthews and Steve Urbaniak's "The Glowing Dial" and my own "Same Time, Same
Station" broadcasts, being broadcast on demand 24/7 in high quality
streaming RealAudio at [removed]
Past archived broadcasts are also available there.
We look forward to having you join us!
Jerry
Here's this week's lineup:
SAME TIME, SAME STATION with Jerry Haendiges
WE CAME THIS WAY
Episode 1 10-6-44 "The Magna Carta"
"NBC UNIVERSITY THEATER" production
NBC SUSTAINED
Fridays 11:30 - Midnight
NARRATOR: John W. Van Der Cook
ESCAPE
Episode 131 11-5-50 "Earth Abides" Part 1
Stars John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Lou Krugman, Michael Ann Barrett, Parley
Baer, Paul Frees, Peggy Webber, Ron Brogan
Author: George Stewart
ESCAPE
Episode 132 11-12-50 "Earth Abides" Part 2
Stars John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Lou Krugman, Michael Ann Barrett, Parley
Baer, Paul Frees, Peggy Webber, Ron Brogan
Author: George Stewart
CRIME AND PETER CHAMBERS
Episode 17 7-27-54 "Nursemaid To Three Beautiful Women"
NBC SUSTAINED Tuesdays 9:30 - 10:00 pm
Stars: Dane Clark
ANNOUNCER: Fred Collins
=======================================
HERITAGE RADIO THEATRE with Tom Heathwood
THE ADVENTURES OF ELLERY QUEEN
(Australian/Synd) 3/5/47 "The Adventure of Nikki - Suspect"
THE GENERAL MILLS RADIO ADVENTURE THEATER
4/24/77 "Journey To The Center of the Earth" by Jules Verne - Host: Tom
Bosley.
RED SKELTON EXTRA
skit: Junior, The Mean Widdle Kid "Going Through Customs"
========================================
THE GLOWING DIAL with Big John Matthews and Steve Urbaniak
Red Ryder - "The Range War"
originally aired February 26, 1942 on the Blue Network West
Starring: Reed Hadley, Franklin Bresee, Art Gilmore announcing.
Possible Sponsor: Langendorf Bread (no commercials or sponsorship heard)
Gunsmoke - "The Buffalo Hunter"
originally aired October 24, 1953 on CBS
Starring: William Conrad, Parley Baer, Richard Beals, Tom Tulley, John
Dehner, Jack Edwards, Ken Peters announcing.
Sponsors: Sugar Krinkles and Post Toasties
The Six Shooter - "Red Lawson's Revenge"
originally aired October 25, 1953 on NBC
Starring: James Stewart, Shirley Mitchell, Leoni Ledoux, Paul Richards,
Barney Phillips, Hal Gibney announcing.
Sustained
Frontier Gentleman - "The Cat Man"
originally aired August 10, 1958 on CBS
Starring: John Dehner, Martha Wentworth, Charlotte Lawrence, Joseph Kearns,
Barney Phillips, Harry Bartell, Bud Seawell announcing.
Sustained
Have Gun, Will Travel - "The Monster Of Moon Ridge"
originally aired March 8, 1959 on CBS
Starring: John Dehner, Ben Wright, Lawrence Dobkin, Virginia Christine, Jess
Kirkpatrick, Jeanne Bates, Hugh Douglas announcing.
Sponsors: Fitch Dandruff Remover Shampoo and the Rambler Ambassador V-8
====================================
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or requests for upcoming
shows.
Jerry Haendiges CET <Jerry@[removed]; 562-696-4387
[removed] The Vintage Radio Place
Largest source of OTR Logs, Articles and programs on the Net
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:51:04 -0400
From: Conrad Binyon <conradab@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: James Burns at the Billy Rose. [removed]
jameshburns@[removed] wrote:
And I read his entire report about his visit to
the Billy Rose Museum to the very bottom fully
expecting Jsmes to reveal seeing in one of the
exhibits displayed a box of Rose's Stork Club
Sortiledge Soap portrait examples featuring molded
likenesses of Billy Rose himself, Arthur Godfrey, and
Morton Downey. Alas no, Lee Munsrick would have been
beside himself knowing where to once again go to see
them.
Conrad Binyon
---
conradab@[removed] (Conrad A. Binyon)
Encino, CA
Home of the Stars who loved Ranches and Farms
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:51:58 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 4-24 births/deaths
April 24th births
04-24-1905 - Robert Penn Warren - Guthrie, KY - d. 9-15-1989
author: (All the King's Men) "NBC University Theatre"
04-24-1906 - William "Lord Haw Haw" Joyce - Brooklyn, NY - d. 1-3-1946
propagnadist for Nazi Germany during World War II: Hung for treason
04-24-1910 - Albert Zugsmith - Atlantic City, NJ - d. 10-26-1993
film producer/director: "Bud's Bandwagon"
04-24-1924 - Marilyn Erskine - Rochester, NY
actress: Gail Carver "Lora Lawton"; Janey Brown "Young Widder Brown"
April 24th deaths
02-03-1924 - Leslie Stevens - Washington, [removed] - d. 4-24-1998
film director: "Stagestruck"
02-13-1908 - Lennie Hayton - NYC - d. 4-24-1971
conductor: "Your Hit Parade"; "Ipana Troubadors"
03-06-1885 - Rosario Bourdon - Longuereil, Quebec, Canada - d. 4-24-1961
conductor: "Cities Service Concert"; "Great Personalities"
07-17-1906 - John Carroll - New Orleans, LA - d. 4-24-1979
actor: "Hello Mom"; "Suspense"
08-21-1890 - Bill Henry - San Francisco, CA - d. 4-24-1970
commentator: Chief CBS Correspondent
10-02-1898 - Bud Abbott - Asbury Park, NJ - d. 4-24-1974
comedian: "Abbott and Costello Show"
10-29-1897 - Hope Emerson - Hawarden, IA - d. 4-24-1960
actress: Henrietta Topper "Advs. of Topper"; Elsie the Cow "Happy Island"
--
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #129
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