------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2003 : Issue 348
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Amos and Andy Christmas Shows [ "Steven Domingue" <domingue@[removed] ]
Penny Singleton [ "Bill and Sue-On Hillman" <hillmans ]
INNER SANCTUM FRAUD [ PURKASZ@[removed] ]
Help: horse racing aficionados [ Howard Blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
Re: CBS's 75th? [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
Inner Sanctum Hoax Unvealed! [ Doug Berryhill <fibbermac@[removed] ]
CBS-50th Anniversary? [ "Tim Lones" <timl2002@[removed] ]
When Housewives Had The Choice Looki [ "Merlin" <merlin7@[removed]; ]
WORDS AT WAR: another review [ Howard Blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
Life of Riley date mystery [ Osborneam@[removed] ]
9-24 birth/deaths [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 18:52:45 -0400
From: "Steven Domingue" <domingue@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Amos and Andy Christmas Shows
I have a preacher friend that is always looking for new ideas for a
Christmas sermon. I know that Amos and Andy did a very touching Christmas
show and basically repeated it for a number of years. I have listened to
some of them but certainly not all. Obviously some of the performances were
better than others. I am looking for the best example so that I may give my
friend a copy. Elizabeth (or others), would you please give me your opinion
on which of the Amos and Andy Christmas show is considered the best.
TIA.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 16:54:52 -0400
From: "Bill and Sue-On Hillman" <hillmans@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Penny Singleton
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Happy 95th Penny!
The Official Penny Singleton / Blondie Website is at:
[removed]
Bill Hillman
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Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 19:49:48 -0400
From: PURKASZ@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: INNER SANCTUM FRAUD
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In a message dated 9/21/2003 3:14:08 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[removed]@[removed] writes:
Inner Sanctum Fraud
The so-called 'fraud' in Inner Sanctum you speak of is actually an
episode of Suspense from September of 1948 and is called "Hitchhike Poker" and
stars Gregory Peck.
While we're on the Inner Sanctum subject is there any news about any
recently uncovered episodes?
Gwynne
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Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 20:04:37 -0400
From: Howard Blue <khovard@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Help: horse racing aficionados
For a biography of an old-time radio actor who was a jockey in his youth,
I would appreciate hearing from anyone knowledgeable about the procedure
by which jockeys mounted their horses at the starting gate. What did
they climb onto first in order to then get onto the horse? Was the
procedure any different in the early 1920s (which is the period of my
concern) from now?
Thanks,
Howard Blue
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 21:18:10 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: CBS's 75th?
Well, officially I'm taking a break from OTR activity to recover from
recent surgery, but this is too haze-worthy to [removed]
On 9/22/03 7:05 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:
"The Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting Co. (as the radio network was then
called) actually launched on Sept. 18, 1927, as a merger between nascent
network United Independent Broadcasters and the Columbia Phonograph Co.,
according to the Museum of Broadcast Communications.
No No No No No.
The only involvement Columbia Phonograph had in the formation of CBS was
the fact that UIB co-founder George Coats convinced them, thru
Kingfish-like machinations, to buy $163,000 worth of air time on a
network which didn't exist, and then used the money to set up a network.
Columbia Phonograph in turn handed the time over to a newly-formed
corporation called "The Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting Company," which
would then resell it to other sponsors at a marked-up rate, with the
profit from the sale passing thru to Columbia Phonograph. Columbia Phono
provided operating capital for this new corporation, but had no say in
its operation.
This scheme failed to produce any results at all -- and within a month of
the first CBS broadcast (there's no contemporary evidence to prove that
"Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System" was ever used on the air, and
much to indicate that it was not) Columbia Phonograph decided to drop out
-- keeping 10 hours worth of air time for itself, and leaving CPBC to
basically twist in the wind on its own as, basically, a sales department
with no legal connection to the network for which it was selling. This
entity became the Columbia Broadcasting Company, as distinguished from
the Columbia Broadcasting System, which was the actual on-air network,
and from United Independent Broadcasters, which was the corporate entity
controlling the network, and from Judson Radio Program Corporation, which
handled the production of programming heard over the network.
If it sounds confusing, that's because it is. Few companies were so
hopelessly inept during their first year of operation than CBS, and maybe
that's why Paley went to such lengths during his lifetime to erase any
public consciousness of that period.
"CBS instead is recognizing January 1929 as its start date, when William
Paley bought the company and renamed it the Columbia Broadcasting System."
Well, here's where we get into the whole "well, yeah, but" business. What
they're talking about here is purely corporate structure -- it had
nothing to do with the actual day-to-day operation of the network, which
began service on 9/18/27. And that's the only proper anniversary date for
calculating the age of CBS.
Paley bought into the company in the fall of 1928, on the advice of his
brother-in-law -- taking it off the hands of a disgusted Philadelphia
millionaire named Jerome Louchheim, who was the last in a long string of
George Coats's patsies. The first thing he did was restructure it --
dissolving Columbia Broadcasting Company and absorbing its functions into
UIB, which changed its name into Columbia Broadcasting System Inc,
effective 1/3/29. And that name change is apparently what's being
commemorated here -- a name change which would have gone completely
unnoticed by anyone but industry insiders, since the name adopted was the
name the network had been using on air for the past fifteen months.
None of this had any effect that listeners would have noticed -- the
radio network continued along unchanged thruout this period. All it
amounts to is paper shuffling -- very important paper shuffling, from a
corporate point of view, and certainly necessary for the long term
survival of the network, but still paper shuffling.
However, I'm sure the wine-and-cheesers who attend Prime Time Black Tie
Celebrations won't be thinking of any of this, so why spoil their fun?
Elizabeth
(who once nearly broke her toe attending a Media Event at the Hammerstein
Ballroom, and has nursed a bitter and bottomless resentment of such
functions ever since.)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 22:19:03 -0400
From: Doug Berryhill <fibbermac@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Inner Sanctum Hoax Unvealed!
Thanks to all who helped me solve this question, on
and off this list. The episode in question was, in
fact, "Suspense" episode #307 "Hitchhike Poker" from
48-09-16 starring Gregory Peck and Ed Begley.
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the armpits
of the perpetrator of this hoax!
-FIBBERMAC-
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 09:29:37 -0400
From: "Tim Lones" <timl2002@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: CBS-50th Anniversary?
My guess would be for their "50th" anniversary CBS would have referred to
strictly their history as a television network which would have begun in
1948. As far as their 75th, I thought that Paley bought the network in '28
rather than '29 which would make the date somewhat [removed]
Tim Lones
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 09:29:51 -0400
From: "Merlin" <merlin7@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: When Housewives Had The Choice Looking for
episodes
I`ve recently acquired some of the programme mentioned below , but they are
incomplete and I wondered if anyone had the full programmes?
I`m willing to pay all costs so I can listen to the whole shows
Alison
Broadcast on the BBC
89-12-?? When Housewives Had The Choice -1951
89-11-21 When Housewives Had The Choice - 1948
90-01-09 When Housewives Had The Choice - 1954
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 11:48:53 -0400
From: Howard Blue <khovard@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: WORDS AT WAR: another review
I'm pleased to inform you of another review of WORDS AT WAR about
American radio during World War II. Writing in the journal of the
National Audio Theater News, Jim Mundy joins a growing list of reviewers
and others (Norman Corwin, David Hinckley of the New York Daily News,
Theodore Bikel, Christopher Trumbo, Professors Paul Buhle (Brown
University) Paul Heyer (Wilfrid Laurier University) and Tim Crook
(University of London), Maury Cagle of the MWOTRC etc. who have lauded
the book.
Mundy writes that "Blue has compiled a fascinatingly thorough narrative
of the changing role of American radio drama from the late 1930s through
the mid-1950s. . . . Blue is not content to present a one-sided view of
these years as they relate to radio, but instead delves rather deeply
into the moral agendas of the creators as well .. . . WORDS AT WAR [is]
an especially thought-provoking study of a time when technology and
creative brilliance merged to unite a nation through broadcast fiction."
Howard Blue
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:03:24 -0400
From: Osborneam@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Life of Riley date mystery
A friend and I are trying to correctly date a Life of
Riley program. The title of the show is "Riley
the Bookie". My copy and all the listings
in the 5-6 logs I've checked so far show it was broadcast
on 12/2/49 (show 256). The sponsor is Pabst Blue
Ribbon beer but Pabst didn't take on sponsorship
of the show until 3/10/50 with show 270! So this
date must be wrong!
Any ideas?
Arlene Osborne
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 15:48:08 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 9-24 birth/deaths
September 24th birth
09-24-1906 - William P. Bardo
bandleader: "One Night Stand"
September 24th deaths
01-12-1910 - Patsy Kelly - Brooklyn, NY - d. 9-24-1981
comedienne: "MGM Musical Comedy Theatre"; "Screen Guild Theatre"
03-12-1900 - Harlow Wilcox - Omaha, NE - d. 9-24-1960
announcer: "Fibber McGee and Molly Show"; "Suspense"; "Amos 'n" Andy"
06-13-1900 - Ian Hunter - Kenilworth, South Africa - d. 9-24-1975
actor: "Hollywood Hotel"; "[removed] Steel Hour"
07-16-1887 - Floyd Gibbons - Washington, [removed] - d. 9-24-1939
commentator: "Headline Hunter"; "World Adventures"; "Nash Program"
11-23-1896 - Ruth Etting - David City, NE - d. 9-24-1978
singer: "Music That Satisfies"; "Oldsmobile Show"
12-02-1895 - Warren William - Aitkin, MN - d. 9-24-1948
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Hometown of [removed] Kaltenborn and Mr. District Attorney
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #348
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