Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #151
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 4/10/2003 3:03 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2003 : Issue 151
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Re: Who's A Buffoon?                  [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      Re: A&A Cast Photo                    [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      Sony Discman - 100 file limit?        [ otrdigest@[removed] ]
      April 10th Birth Dates                [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      RE: Mrs. Miller & audience mikes      [ "D. Fisher" <dfisher@[removed]; ]
      April 11-12-13-14                     [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      Free Agent and OTR                    [ "Captain Spiffy" <captspiffy@hotmai ]
      Elizabeth's joke                      [ "Michael Hingson" <MHingson@guidedo ]
      Elizabeth's Amos & Andy research      [ Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed]; ]
      kicking myself                        [ "Roby McHone" <otr_alaska@[removed] ]
      Richard Crenna on Judging Amy on Apr  [ "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@hotmail. ]
      "Noisy" Radio scripts                 [ Conrad Binyon <conradab@[removed] ]
      Quiet village                         [ otrbuff@[removed] ]
      Guide to actors on Suspense           [ Carolie Minuscule <daggerofthemind2 ]

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

    Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 14:54:05 -0400
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Who's A Buffoon?

    On 4/9/03 1:02 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:

>     I know Im probably sticking my foot in my mouth, but to say in the early
>     episodes they are not "inempt buffoons", Im not sure I would agree with that.

>     When I listen to their sketches about not being able to spell or not being
>     able to add, or not being able to read a letter, they seem pretty much like
>     "inempt buffoons" to me. Even Andy's very slow speech and Amos's also
>     exagerated voice in the early ones tends to reinforce this also.

    There was some of this type material in the first two years of the
    program -- but I don't know as I'd call it "buffoonery." That term to me
    calls to mind characters who have no inner life, no other function than
    as bumbling, fumbling clowns. In this sense, Moe, Larry and Curly were
    buffoons -- you never had the sense that these characterizations had any
    inner life, any *souls* aside from their function as comedians.

    But neither Amos nor Andy *ever* fit that role, not even in the very
    earliest stages of the program's development. Correll and Gosden used
    scenes about poor spelling and poor reading skills to make a point: Amos
    and Andy grew up semi-literate in a small town in the Deep South, and
    were trying to come to terms with the culture shock of life in a large
    Northern city, and the central focus of the program was the contrast
    between their respective approaches to this problem. Amos was painfully
    conscious of his own limitations and tried in every way he could to move
    beyond them, as depicted in this scene:

    Andy---If you say "is -- is" one mo' time, I goin' knock yo' head off.

    Amos---Alright den, I'll just shut up Andy.

    Andy---Now, lemme tell yo' whut "is" is. You know I is been to school.
    When I finished de day school I went to night school. I been to mornin',
    afternoon, an' night school.

    Amos---I ain't arguin' 'bout dat. I a-mits dat I ain't been to school
    much.

    Andy---Dat's de trouble wid yo' now---comin' 'round heah is-is'in---yo'
    just ain't been to school.

    Amos---I didn't git de CHANCE to go to school.

    Andy---Well, dere you IS.

    Amos---But if I ever have any chillen, I goin' send dem to school an'
    give dem more schoolin' dan I had a chance to git if I kin.

    -- Episode 727, 7/21/30

    In this sense, "Amos 'n' Andy" was every bit as much a story of cultural
    assimilation as "The Goldbergs." Amos grew, evolved, learned from his
    experiences, married, and raised a family -- epitomizing the American
    middle-class success model in a way no other African-American character
    in popular culture had ever done before him. And, as noted, his dialect
    evolved with him: the Amos of 1939 had noticeable speech differences from
    the Amos of 1928.

    Andy, however, was a different type of character -- he might seem on the
    surface to be a "buffoon," but there's much more to him than that. Andy's
    whole life was one of pretentious arrogance and self-delusion stemming
    from his own essential insecurity: unlike Amos, he was *afraid* to
    acknowledge his weaknesses, and was therefore doomed to be a prisoner of
    those weaknesses.

    Andy---Ain't no bankeh goin' tell me how to run my bizness

    Amos---De man wasn't tryin' to tell yo' how to run yo' bizness. All de
    man told you was---you was 'spectin' to git back too much money.

    Andy---If I keeps $[removed] in de bank dat man is takin' my $[removed] an'
    playin' 'round wid it an' makin' hundreds o' dollahs on it---why ain't I
    got a right to tell de man dat I wanna git some o' dat money myself?

    Amos---Go ahead, tell him---but de man told yo' dat you couldn't git it.

    Andy---If I take dat $[removed] an' play it on de stock market, I'se liable
    to be a millionaire tomorrow.

    Amos---I don't know nuthin' 'bout de stock market. De best thing fo' us
    to do though is let de $[removed] stay down at de bank.

    Andy---Listen Amos---de trouble wid you is---you think de man down at de
    bank is got mo' sense den I is. I knows things. I'se doin' dis fo' you as
    much as I is fo' myself. I'se just as big as anybody is.

    Amos---Yo' want me to tell yo' sumpin'?

    Andy---Go ahead.

    Amos---De trouble wid you is Andy---ev'vy since you was a little
    boy--ever since I done known yo', you is done done a lot o' talk---even
    de boys down in Georgia dat you used to play around wid---dey used to
    listen to you talk an' den laugh at yo' after you was gone. You is de
    kind o' fellow dat thinks you is sumpin' dat yo' ain't. No matter whut
    somebody else tell yo', you think dey is wrong. Now dat man at de bank is
    done been down dere all his life. He knows more about de bankin' bizness
    in one minute dan you'll EVER know. De thing fo' you to do is to listen
    to somebody sometime an' you'll git a-long better. Just 'cause you is
    president o' de Fresh Air Taxicab comp'ny don't think dat you is de
    president of de United States---an' de sooner you find dat out, de better
    it's goin' be fo' ev'vybody.

    Andy---I'se re-gusted.

    --Episode 73, 6/18/28.

    Amos learned from his mistakes, acknowledged his failings, and tried to
    improve himself --- Andy did not. This was the basic framework upon which
    the entire serial was constructed, and all of the early wordplay scenes
    -- which pretty much disappeared from the series by 1931 -- have to be
    understood in the context of that framework. Unfortunately, they are
    rarely presented in that manner.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 14:54:18 -0400
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: A&A Cast Photo

    On 4/9/03 1:02 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:

>     Should anyone out there know of an Internet site that offers the chance to
>     view the cast photograph I mention, I'd appreciate you posting the URL to
>     the list. I'm certain that it exists somewhere.

    I believe you're referring to:

    [removed]~[removed]

    Visible in this April 1948 image are James Baskett (in one of his final
    performances before his death), Wonderful Smith, Ernestine Wade, and
    Eddie Green, along with the members of the Jubilaires quartet.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 14:54:24 -0400
    From: otrdigest@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Sony Discman - 100 file limit?
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    I have a Sony Discman that plays MP3s, however it will only play up to the
    100th MP3 on a disc. Does anyone else out there use the Sony Discman, and
    have you found a way around this problem?

    Andrew Steinberg

    ---------------------------------
    Do you Yahoo!?
    Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more

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

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

    Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 15:14:32 -0400
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  April 10th Birth Dates

    If you were born April 10th, you share your birthday with:

    04-10-1868 - George Arliss - London, England - d. 2-5-1946
    04-10-1885 - Sigmund Spaeth - Philadelphia, PA - d. 11-11-1965
    04-10-1891 - Tim McCoy - Saginaw, MI
    04-10-1902 - Mark Warnow - Monastrischt, Russia - d. 10-17-1949
    04-10-1915 - Harry (Henry) Morgan - Detroit, MI
    04-10-1921 - Sheb Wooley - Erick, OK

    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin
    Make your day, listen to an Olde Tyme Radio Program

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

    Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 15:14:25 -0400
    From: "D. Fisher" <dfisher@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  RE: Mrs. Miller & audience mikes

    I'm running a little behind on my email so this thread may have already run
    out, but thought someone might be interested in some more info regarding
    these two subjects.
    When I was a Page at CBS Radio in the 50's in New York we all knew Mrs.
    Miller (but if I remember I think it was really Miss Miller). One of the
    reasons she always got tickets to shows is she was usually the first person
    in the line. I have no idea what she did for a living but my guess would be
    that she was either retired or living on some sort of pension. She seemed to
    be at shows all the time. She was really a nice little old lady & everyone
    knew her, including the talent on the various shows. In fact, if she didn't
    show up we'd be kinda worried that maybe she was sick. She was an
    institution.
    Regarding audience mikes (or mics): The 2 big audience studios in the 49
    building (49 W 52nd St.) had a small open control booth in the back of the
    studio with a control board that one of the sound engineers would sit at
    during a live production & control the audience sound from there.
    One other thing that might be of interest is, as some of you might know,
    when Arthur Godfrey did his radio/tv simulcast of his morning show he did it
    from the radio studio in the 49 building. But he would not let the cameras
    move around (and there really wasn't any room for them to move anyways)
    because his theory was that he was really doing a radio show that just
    happened to be televised. The cameras were up on platforms about 4 feet
    high, just about the same height as the stage, one on each side near the
    front & one along the back wall in the middle. The camera in the back was
    one of the first cameras to use a zoom lense (a rather crude thing at the
    time).

    Don Fisher

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

    Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 15:15:38 -0400
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  April 11-12-13-14

    Because I will be participating in, according to the Guinness World Book of
    Records, the largest trivia contest in the world in Stevens Point, Wisconsin
    this coming weekend, I am sending several days of birth dates at once. I will
    be back on Monday to continue the normal procedure. Thank you for your
    indulgence.

    So, if you were born on the 11th, 12th, 13th or 14th of April, you share your
    birthday with:

    04-11-1893 - Lou Holtz - San Francisco, CA - d. 9-22-1980
    04-11-1904 - Paul McGrath - Chicago, IL - d. 4-13-1978
    04-11-1907 - Paul Douglas - Philadelphia, PA - d. 9-11-1959

    04-12-1899 - Boake Carter - Baku, Russia - d. 11-16-1944
    04-12-1904 - Lily Pons - Draguignan, France - d. 2-13-1976
    04-12-1912 - Herbert B. Mills - Picqua, OH - d. 4-12-1989
    04-12-1919 - Ann Miller - Chireno, TX
    04-12-1926 - Jane Withers - Atlanta, GA

    04-13-1899 - Larry Keating - [removed], MN - d. 8-26-1963
    04-13-1917 - Howard Keel - Gillespie, IL

    04-14-1904 - Sir John Gielgud - London, England - d. 5-21-2000
    04-14-1913 - John Howard - Cleveland, OH
    04-14-1925 - Rod Steiger - Westhampton, NY - d. 7-9-2002
    04-14-1930 - Bradford Dillman - San Francisco, CA
    04-14-1935 - Loretta Lynn - Butcher Hollow, KY

    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin
    Make your day, listen to an Olde Tyme Radio Program

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

    Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 16:39:32 -0400
    From: "Captain Spiffy" <captspiffy@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Free Agent and OTR

      Joe Salerno,

        You are correct but I wouldn't let any of these folks know that there
    are about 6 to 8 groups in the newsgroups where you can download OTR, both
    american and british. This should be kept as one of the best keep secrets
    between just you and me!
        Don't tell them that they can even request certain series and episodes
    to be posted and they appear within a few [removed]
        Being a frustrated librarian who needs to acquire and catalog, just for
    something to do, I go to the newsgroups 2 or 3 times a week just to
    accumilate more!
        Oh, BTW, the place to get Free Agent is [removed] .
        Enjoy [removed] ahhhhh another place to get more!

    Mike
    Castle Rock, Colorado

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

    Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 16:39:43 -0400
    From: "Michael Hingson" <MHingson@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Elizabeth's joke

    I loved it!  It goes to show that we haven't become too serious since
    1938.

    My question to Elizabeth is this.  Was Maurice Wetzel forward looking
    enough to put Braille labels on his disks to make them accessible to
    everyone?

    Mike Hingson

    Guide Dogs for the Blind creates lifelong partnerships that celebrate the
    human/animal bond.
    Visit us on the Web at: [removed]

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

    Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 16:54:30 -0400
    From: Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Elizabeth's Amos & Andy research

    Just to refresh my memory, has Elizabeth's Amos and
    Andy research been published in book form? If not,
    then based solely on the tidbits she sometimes imparts
    here, it should be. After all, the best way to correct
    false impressions of the program, based solely on the
    later scripts, is to publish, for as wide an audience
    as possible, the actual facts. A website and a mailing
    list won't necessarily reach that wide an audience.

    Also, am I correct in understanding that NONE of the
    serialized stories still exist, just the half hour
    "sit-com" versions?

    Rick

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

    Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 17:42:51 -0400
    From: "Roby McHone" <otr_alaska@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  kicking myself

    Andrew Godfrey wrote:

    When Spike Jones died, most of his stuff (excluding radio and TV
    shows)--scrapbooks, photos, personal papers, memorabilia etc--ended
    up in the dumpsters at St. Vincent de Paul thrift store in Los
    Angeles. By pure chance a couple of guys who happened to be rapid
    Spike Jones fans stumbled on it and rescued much of it.

    In 1965 I had two friends who worked at the AFN radio station at Ft. Greely,
    Alaska.  I used to go to the station, while they were working, and watch
    them work, they were always playing practical jokes on each other.  One day
    I opened a door and found that it was to a room the size of a large walk in
    closet and in it were huge stacks of records.  I asked my friends about the
    records and was told that those were radio shows, from AFN, that had been
    played by the station.  They said that nobody knew what to do with them so
    they just put them in the room after using them and there they sat, they
    went back to when the station first went on the air.  No one gave it a
    second thought then, but every once in a while I think about that room and
    kick myself for not liberating them.  If only I knew then what I know now,
    sigh.

    Roby McHone
    Fairbanks, Alaska

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

    Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 17:56:31 -0400
    From: "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Richard Crenna on Judging Amy on April 15

    Thanks to jhcollins for the preview. I've been wondering how they would
    handle his death. I'm a big fan of both Judging Amy and Richard Crenna. I
    enjoyed the story line of his romance with Maxine (Tyne Daly).

    After the first season I talked with Richard and told him I enjoyed his
    appearances and asked if he would be back in the fall. He said he thought he
    was going to be killed off in a plane wreck.

    That fall when his plane was reported missing, I "knew" that he was dead.
    Much to my delight, and I'm sure his, the writers apparently had had a
    change of heart.

    Since he passed away in January I waited for news of Jared but nothing was
    said. I was surprised that I did not see a "in memory of" picture at the end
    of the next episode, or did I miss it?

    Next week's show must have been very hard on the actors. Many of the cast
    attended his memorial and were very fond of him and quite shaken by his
    death.

    This will be a chance for all of us fans to say a last goodbye to a
    wonderful actor and person.

    Barbara

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

    Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 18:38:30 -0400
    From: Conrad Binyon <conradab@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  "Noisy" Radio scripts
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    Andrew Godfrey wrote on the subject of  Radio scripts

>     I was wondering how the OTR actors were able to be holding scripts
>     next to mike and for the listeners not to hear the papers being handled.
>     Was a special kind of noiseless type paper used? Would enjoy hearing
>     the comments of those who might know how this was handled.

    Andrew undoubtedly missed the "noisy script" paper thread comments months
    back in the Digest  which included commentaries about "script page 'dropping'
    " as well.  Andrew, would I'll bet be astonished at watching a professional
    of say Harry Bartell's experience shift script pages from front to back with
    nary a 'whisper' of rustle.  It's not difficult to do.  Even I, at age eight
    years-old got the hang of it upon my initiation into radio broadcasting as
    part of the cast of "One Man's Family, "  although it was a concern of mine
    prior to my  first broadcast, the date of which I have no idea.   For that
    broadcast I used what I'll term a 'script folder."

    I assume everyone has an idea of a script format, 8 & 1/2 by 11 inch letter
    page paper in a stack of approximate 28 some pages.  One Man's Family offered
    their cast members two types of script copies.  The first was the usual
    numbered stack of pages with the script text printed in black upon white
    ordinary letter paper.  (God forbid it being the old purple colored
    mimeograph copies seen so much during early office days of the thirties and
    early fourties.  I never saw that method used in broadcasting. )   The second
    'script folder' was that same stack inserted  and stapled into an Oxford file
    cover so that when holding the cover folder  with its fold to the reader's
    left the front page of the cover folder could be opened and folded to the
    back of the script which pages were stapled at the bottom to the Oxford cover
    folder's back.   This presented the performer with a "book-like" script
    whereby opening the cover presented all its pages ready to be read and then
    folded down and back revealing each following page.  Most of the OMF cast
    regulars used the script folder, except Page Gilman, who used the regular
    stack script.  My mother even put tiny circular paper clips on the upper
    right hand corners of my script folder pages so I would grap two pages at
    once.  A pretty involve process I thought to go through, so I rapidly got the
    hang of working my script while standing at the microphone.  When I started
    working other radio shows and learned they did NOT use script folders, using
    regular stack scripts came for me to be the 'norm.'
    Paper noise was not a part of the problem for when one is careful in changing
    pages, especially unattached pages, it's just a lifting of the page on top
    and placing it back behind the stack.  I have no doubt Ray Earlenborn can
    make a comic routine out of what he has to do to create paper rustling
    sounds.

    ---
    conradab@[removed] (Conrad A. Binyon)
       From the Home of the Stars who loved Ranches and Farms
         Encino, California.

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

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

    Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 19:37:36 -0400
    From: otrbuff@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Quiet village

    Andrew Godfrey asks how OTR actors kept listeners from hearing them turn
    the pages of their scripts.  Ingrid Meighan Waldron shared with me how
    her father, James Meighan, handled it and said she saw a number of other
    aural thespians do the same as she attended radio rehearsals and
    performances while growing up.  James Meighan, who portrayed Bill
    Davidson's son-in-law Kerry Donovan in Just Plain Bill, the masculine
    lead Larry Noble in Backstage Wife and recurring roles in numerous other
    daytime soap operas and nighttime crime thrillers, set a music stand
    before him and raised it about chest high.  He removed the staple from
    his script and laid it on the music stand.  Very quietly he shifted the
    pages from one side to the other as he waited for his cues.  I included
    this incident in a forthcoming book completed just last week.

    Jim Cox

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

    Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 22:13:18 -0400
    From: Carolie Minuscule <daggerofthemind2000@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Guide to actors on Suspense

    Check out:

    [removed]

    If you can ignore the popups (and I can) this is a
    great site.  Each actor has a page with episode titles
    and air dates.  Some have photos and brief bio info.

    It seems to be a new site - lots of TBA's when it
    comes to bios, but the episodes are all there.

    I got a shock seeing the picture of Barney Phillips.
    He's got a very distinctive voice and I always
    recognize him, but I never knew he played the three
    eyed Venusian on that Twilight Zone episode (with John
    Hoyt as the threee-armed martiam).

    Suspense fans will find this site invaluable!

    [ADMINISTRIVIA: Pop-ups are VERY easy to eliminate completely;
    simply turn Javascript OFF in your browser preferences. If you
    visit a site you trust that requires it, simply turn it on
    temporarily, then turn it off when you leave.  --cfs3]

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #151
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