Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #476
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 12/8/2002 7:47 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2002 : Issue 476
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Hal's book                            [ "Rodney w bowcock jr." <rodney-self ]
      Hal to [removed]!                [ hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed]; ]
      Re: A&A -- Correct Titles             [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      My Little Margie                      [ otrbuff@[removed] ]
      Six Napoleons                         [ "Phil Watson" <philwats@[removed]; ]
      On The Buses                          [ "Phil Watson" <philwats@[removed]; ]
      Re: Six Napoleons                     [ Thomas Butts <trbutts@[removed] ]
      Anyone recommend a mp3/CD player sol  [ James <Active@[removed]; ]
      Funny fella on Kay Kyser              [ "Philip Chavin" <philchav@[removed] ]
      OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK SCHEDULE for  [ HERITAGE4@[removed] ]
      Hal Stone                             [ William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed]; ]
      Secret Agent, Men -- And Women        [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
      reeves again                          [ "randy story" <bygeorge@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 15:11:20 -0500
    From: "Rodney w bowcock jr." <rodney-selfhelpbikeco@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Hal's book

    Just finished up Hal's book yesterday, and I must echo the words of
    praise for it.  If, like me, you've spent alot of time wondering what it
    was like to be working on all of those wonderful shows in the 1940's,
    then this is sure to be a very interesting read for you.

    The book is literally just like sitting down to dinner with Hal and
    asking him to start at the beginning.  Just like talking to someone he
    sort of starts off at one place, loops around, gets lost a couple of
    times and gets back to the original subject at hand.  What's great about
    this book is that you don't notice.  It's that flowing and
    conversational.

    I really liked it and have recommended it to several people with only a
    slight/casual interest in OTR, simply because I think it's very
    interesting.  I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't have a copy of this
    book yet, but if you don't, buy it or ask for it for Christmas.  It's
    really, really good.

    Rodney Bowcock
    Past Tense Productions "Classic movies and TV for $7"

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 15:11:33 -0500
    From: hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Hal to [removed]!

    Howard Blue posted

>     Subject:  JAPANESE "PEARL HARBOR" ADMIRAL SECRET

>     The Demise of the Japanese Pearl Harbor Admiral: an Aborted Radio Show

        >The following story is paraphrased from  "Words at War," a new book

>     from Scarecrow Press by Howard Blue:

    Permit me a few musings Howard.

    If you keep posting excerpts from your book, you'll give away too much
    information and no one will need to buy it. As the late Kenny Delmar often
    proclaimed in his Claghorn [removed]"That's a Joke, Son"

    You discuss a script about an aborted radio show written by Allan Sloane.
    That was squashed because of Military secrecy. Sounds logical to me.

    Was this script written by the same man named "Sloane" that you talked about
    in a separate posting in the same Digest issue. You said;

>     In doing research for " Words at War" I interviewed a writer whom I
>     discuss in the book, a former member of the American Communist Party,
>     who admitted before a congressional committee that he tried to insert
>     Communist language into a radio play in "The Sailor Takes A Wife," in the
>     "Cavalcade of America" series.

>     What was the insidious nature of the propaganda? Sloane explained that
>     he tried to show that the men who served in the armed forces came from a
>     wide variety of social, economic and ethnic backgrounds .  .  .

    I assume that's a direct Quote from him? Can we assume that Communists
    always tell the truth? :)

>     What Sloane did was simply name one character "Pop Silverman." Instead of
>     using "all-American" names such as "Trent," "Tucker," "Rogers," "Shield,"
>     "Wiley," or "Brooks" (all of them used in the titles of various radio
>     shows of the era), Sloane who had changed his name from Silverman, named
>     a character after his own Jewish father.

    No problem

>     Besides carrying out the party's work, he explained, his motivation, was to

    honor his father.

    So there was "party work" going on as well? Interesting?

>     In the end, however, he failed. His attempt was spotted. "Ah ha! That old
>     Communist line." commented the Cavalcade's director, in the process of
>     pointing out several changes that he wanted made. "Everybody has to have a
>     Jewish name in the script, or an Italian name--why do you have to do that?
>     Fix
>     that." And Sloane did. "Pop Silverman" became simply "Pop."

    Howard, maybe you can help me understand something. In all your years of
    research on the subject, Do you think one's religious, cultural or ethnic
    background entered into the Communist "witch-hunt"? Remember now, I was just
    a young man when all this was going on, and my "research" on the subject is
    absolutely nil. But I seem to recall that quite a few Communist sympathizers
    were of the Jewish faith, as was Mr. Sloane. (For whatever reason or well
    intentioned rational.) God knows, after years of persecution of their
    culture, (The Russian pogroms and hideous Nazi atrocities) obviously made
    people of the Jewish culture despise tyranny of any sort. But then too, the
    pogroms were carried out during the czarist regimes, right? Is that why
    Communism was so appealing to those of the that faith and why they may have
    embraced the cause? Or was it just embracing liberalism ,socialism and
    equality for all due to injustices suffered in the past? I hope I am not
    being accused of a stereotype here, (like the director you mentioned above).
    But obviously, that's a significant, point, or you wouldn't have made it.

    Howard, can I get you to agree (even in hindsight) that Communism, as
    practiced by Soviet Russia, Chairman Mao, North Korea and the Viet Cong, was
    every bit as tyranical and brutal as that of nazi Germany? I for one am glad
    that we attempted to root it out in this country. But I am not about to
    apologize or excuse some of the excesses that may have occurred. But my
    friends in the OTR business, who were outspoken critics of that ideology and
    who zealously did their part to "stamp it out", must have had a crystal ball
    and saw the evils that Communism represented.

    Tell me more.

    By the way. I applaud your spending eight years researching material for
    your book. You did much better than I did. It took me 25 years accumulating
    the material for mine. :) I say [removed]'s a Joke, Son.

    Regards

    Hal(Harlan)Stone

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 16:20:15 -0500
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: A&A -- Correct Titles

    On 12/8/02 3:11 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:

>     Amos 'n' Andy -- Which is the correct title: "Amos 'n' Andy" or "The Amos
>     And Andy Show"?

    "Amos 'n' Andy" properly refers only to the 3/19/28 thru 2/19/43 nightly
    serial. The title appearing at the top of page one on each serial script
    is "AMOS AND ANDY," but the title registered as a trademark with the U.
    S. Patent Office in 1928 is officially "Amos 'n' Andy," with two
    apostrophes, and all of the scripts were copyrighted under this title.

    "The Amos 'n' Andy Show" is properly used only in referring to the
    10/8/43 thru 5/22/55 weekly half-hour sitcom, or to the 1951-53 TV
    series. Although newspaper schedules sometimes abbreviated the series
    title to "Amos 'n' Andy," and it was popularly referred to as such, the
    actual half-hour scripts are all titled "THE AMOS 'n' ANDY SHOW," and
    were copyrighted under that title.

    These were two very different series in terms of both format and content,
    and Correll and Gosden themselves did not consider the two series as one
    continuous run: in their own record-keeping system, the serial and the
    sitcom scripts had entirely seperate numbering sequences. OTR writers
    discussing A&A would do well to bear these facts in mind -- the two
    titles do not properly refer to the same program.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 19:13:00 -0500
    From: otrbuff@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  My Little Margie

    A. Joseph Ross asks:  "Was this [My Little Margie] one of the handful of
    shows that
    started first on television and then went to radio? Or did the radio and
    TV versions start
    simultaneously?"

    Answer:  Beginning on CBS-TV on June 16, 1952, My Little Margie added a
    radio counterpart on CBS on December 7 of that year.  The aural series,
    which ran concurrently though was not simulcast (there were different
    original episodes for each medium) played through June 26, 1955, a couple
    of months before it left the tube (August 24), at that time on NBC-TV.
    [From "Say Goodnight, Gracie:  The Last Years of Network Radio," p. 124.]

    Jim Cox

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 19:43:56 -0500
    From: "Phil Watson" <philwats@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Six Napoleons

    There were other versions of "The six Napoleons" than those listed by Jim
    Arva, that may not be strictly OTR but perhaps Charlie will indulge me. Then
    again, neither was Jim right to include Jeremy Brett in an OTR digest !

    I have one by Roy Marsden as Holmes as John Moffatt as Watson, from 1989,
    dramatised by Grant Eustace, and directed by Michael Bartlett for Daedalus
    Productions. Moffatt may be better known to BBC fans as Hercule Poirot, whom
    he has been portraying for many years. This was part of a series of 24
    episodes bought by British Airways for "broadcast" in-flight, and later
    released on six twintapes in the UK in 1990.

    There have been several audiobooks of the story - I have versions by Ben
    Kingsley and John Wood in my collection.

    Regards to all from a cold, chilly England.
    Phil

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 19:45:31 -0500
    From: "Phil Watson" <philwats@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  On The Buses
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    My friend Don Frey queried whether the old British TV sitcom "On The Buses"
    was ever on radio. No, Don, it wasn't made by the BBC, it was an Independent
    TV production in the 1960's & 70's.

    At that time the BBC wouldn't have ever considered making a radio version of
    an ITV TV series - and ITV had no radio stations of their own, they were
    strictly a chain of TV production & regional broadcast companies affiliated to
    the ITV banner.

    I can't think of an ITV series that later made it to BBC radio.

    I guess an American equivalent would be CBS making a TV version of an NBC
    radio series - now that's not an invitation for you knowledgeable digesters to
    tell me there were hundreds of examples ...... (?)

    Regards from a still cold & chilly England
    Phil

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

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 19:45:47 -0500
    From: Thomas Butts <trbutts@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Six Napoleons

>     involving radio, silver-screen,
>     and television versions of the Sherlock Holmes story, "The Six
>     Napoleons".

    It is also the basis of the 1944 Rathbone-Bruce film "The Pearl of
    Death" which, I think, is still readily available on video.

    Tom Butts
    Dallas, TX

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 19:45:55 -0500
    From: James <Active@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Anyone recommend a mp3/CD player sold in UK
     please.

    Hi everyone,
            My audio collection is based on tapes and CD's but in order not
    to miss anything and increase my collecting ability I was also going to
    consider getting mp3 collections. Obviously I need a player to enjoy
    them but from recent postings on the list it doesn't seem a good idea to
    buy one cold. -- I was just going to go into Argos and buy a mp3/CD
    portable.
    Are there any UK lurkers who could please recommend a system they are
    using? Thanks.
    I know some US Boom boxes have been described on the list, helping me
    get an idea of what I should look for. But I assume the power / voltage
    differences between our countries means I can't use them. Has anyone
    heard of equivalent UK models to those previously described by people
    like Don?
    Thanks again from an OTR / mp3 newbie!
    --
    -
    Jim

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 19:46:06 -0500
    From: "Philip Chavin" <philchav@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Funny fella on Kay Kyser

        Ed Howell (in #474) responded to a posting asking about OTR's "The Mad
    Russian" (Bert Gordon, as some have correctly responded) by mentioning the
    funny fellow with a funny hairdo on Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical
    Knowledge.  It seems Ed was probably thinking of 'Ish Kabibble' (Merwyn
    Bogue).

      -- Phil C.

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 19:46:10 -0500
    From: HERITAGE4@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK SCHEDULE for week
     starting: 12/08/02

    Hi All --  Here's the program listings for this week, as we get more and more
    into the
    great old Christmas programming of long ago.  Our shows are new every week,
    and are put on the Network on Sundays in high-fi streraming audio at:
    [removed]

    SAME TIME, SAME STATION with Jerry Haendiges:
    1. EXPLORING THE UNKNOWN   12/21/48  stars More Amsterdam in
        "Charlie Chuckles and the Christmas Cloud"
    2. THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER  12/25/51     Maurice Tarplin is the "Traveler"
        in "Christmas Story"
    3. STAN FREBERG  "Green Christmas"
    4. BEST OF ALL    12/20/54   "The Small One"  with Bing Crosby,  Jack
    Haskell,
        Shannon Bolin and The Texture Singers

    HERITAGE RADIO THEATRE with Tom Heathwood
    1. GUNSMOKE   CBS  12/20/52    "Christmas Story"  Dedicated to the memory.
        of Parley Baer.
    2. SUSPENSE   CBS    12/21/50   "Christmas For Carol" stars Dennis Day.
    3. COLGATE SP[ORTRS NEWSREEL with BILL STERN    NBC #521  10/28/49
        Special Guest:  Red Grange - Football immortal.

    Enjoy --         Tom & Jerry

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 19:47:16 -0500
    From: William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Hal Stone

    Hal Stone asked some questions on the net so I will answer them likewise.
    First of all about Joan Shea. Due to WW-ll  I left New York radio (and
    Joan) to work for the War Department in Washington. However I did attend
    one of her famous parties (Elsa Maxwell, eat your heart out) at Joan's
    apartment. I do recall that Jim Ameche, Don's brother, was one of the
    guests. Before going to Washington I lived at the Hotel Sutton on New
    York's East side. Joan would join me there for dinner in the dining room
    or for cocktails in the bar. The staff there adored her (who didn't?). I
    recall her throwing one of her parties at the roof garden of the Sutton,
    a great affair.

    How we met was another story. I was dating a girl singer who I worked
    with at WHN. One night I had a date with her. A buddy of mine, a
    broadcast engineer from Cleveland, showed up unexpectadly. I asked my
    date to to get a date for my friend. The date was Joan. Sparks flew and
    Joan and I started dating. Shortly after Pearl Harbor I was offered a job
    with the War Department in Washington and my "theater of operations" and
    my life changed considerably, working in Washington, Iceland, Greenland,
    and New Jersey. I think that I did see Joan once when I was invited to a
    party at her apartment.

    I did run into her at FOTR a couple of years ago. John Rayburn cornered
    me in the lobby and took me into the large room where a re-creation was
    about to begin. There was Joan in the front row. I think that the
    audience was far more entertained by our performance than by the ensuing
    re-creation. A wonderful, as well as very good looking gal, is Joan Shea.
    As far as I knew she never married.

    I might answer the question about Joan's political views. I have no idea
    what they were as we never discussed politics. Who talks about politics
    when you are dating a stunning lady?

    About the term "NEMO". I haven't heard that word in many years. A remote
    broadcast, such as dance bands, were referred to as a "NEMO".   When I
    first heard the expression was  in the thirties. When I inquired I was
    informed that it pertained to a comic strip character by the name of Nemo
    who imbibed a bit and was usually under the influence. In that the night
    spot dance remotes were known for for providing drinks for the
    announcers, by the end of the evening many of them "felt no pain". Sounds
    like a logical explanation. One time when I was the engineer on a show
    from one of the CBS Playhouses in the TImes Square area, I asked the "old
    fart" in master control to "patch" an echo chamber up on one of my tie
    lines referring to it as a nemo line. He got nasty, refused to patch up
    the line saying that "nemo" was an NBC term. They did use it on the
    "idiot boxes" in their studios to identify the push button to switch up a
    remote origination. These boxes were in the studio  on a shelf and were
    operated by the announcers. He could select his mike, the remainder of
    the studio mikes, or a remote.

    Bill Murtough

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 21:28:33 -0500
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Secret Agent, Men -- And Women

    Some time ago, I was in correspondence with a friend of mine in the UK
    who once had a tangential association with Cloak and Dagger activities.
    I sent him an image of the Sky King Spy-Detecto Writer radio premium, and
    he remarked, "That's almost good enough to be standard issue."  The Sky
    King premium incorporated a measuring scale, a magnifier, a cipher disk,
    and a printing mechanism, all in a compact package that could fit in a
    boy's pocket or a girl's purse.

    But this led me to think: what radio premiums would work well for secret
    agents?  One could make a case for the "decoders" offered on the Captain
    Midnight and Little Orphan Annie shows.  Also, there were various Secret
    Compartment Rings, with enough volume for a postage stamp or two, or a
    bunch of microfilm frames.  But what else?

    Well, there were telescopes.  The Jack Armstrong 'scope was a
    conventional one, but Captain Midnight had one made of aluminum and blued
    like a gun that had the diameter of a lead pencil and collapsed enough to
    be carried in a shirt pocket.  If it had better optics, it would have
    been a nifty espionage gadget.  But the same Sky King folk who came up
    with the Spy-Detecto Writer came out with the Teleblinker Ring, which had
    a telescope built into an oversized crownpiece.  It was about as
    inconspicuous as a giraffe in a herd of zebras.

    Radio premiums like magnifiers, compasses, and other aids really don't
    apply specifically to the spy business, but Buck Rogers and Tom Mix both
    offered invisible inks.

    However, perhaps the strangest item was the Look-Around Ring.  In the
    crownpiece was a tiny mirror so that holding the ring up to one's eye, a
    person could view things at right angles to where they might appear to be
    looking.  The Lone Ranger, Captain Midnight, Little Orphan Annie, and Tom
    Mix shows all offered versions of this premium.  However, while it was
    suggested that the ring could be used for covers surveillance, it's worth
    pondering just how inconspicuous a person might appear with his or her
    fist jammed up against their faces.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 21:29:05 -0500
    From: "randy story" <bygeorge@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  reeves again

    Greetings, Gates!
    I just saw George Reeves on "From Here to Eternity". That reminded me of a
    story that I heard about his role in that film some time ago.
    It seems that Reeves had a vry sizeable role in that film and was very proud
    of the work he had done; furthermore, studio execs were considering him for
    several larger roles based on his work in this particular [removed],
    during several preview screenings, attended by director Fred Zinneman as
    well as top studio brass, audience members would yell "Hey! It's Superman!"
    when Reeves would appear on screen. One version of this story even recounts
    a woman walking when her young son asks her why 'Superman' was smoking and
    standing in his underwear. Te result: lots of scenes of 'Superman' on the
    cutting room [removed] more major studio roles for the actor. TV claimed
    what could have been a lucrative film career for George Reeves, it seems.

    On OTR again, though. I am still looking for ANY OTR shows with Reeves,
    Richard Boone, or Chuck Connors. Please let me know if you can help me in
    any way.

    Thanks,
    Randy Story

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #476
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