Subject: [removed] Digest V2004 #72
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 2/28/2004 6:09 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2004 : Issue 72
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      OTR soaps                             [ Jeff Weaver <jweaver@[removed]; ]
      car radios for home use               [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
      Car radios a luxury?                  [ "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed] ]
      Car radios                            [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
      Radio and heater                      [ danhughes@[removed] ]
      AM DX                                 [ danhughes@[removed] ]
      who really invented the transistor a  [ "ellsworth o johnson" <eojohnsonww2 ]
      Car Radios                            [ "Bruce Williams" <deltaskipper@hotm ]
      Cornball sitcoms                      [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
      Horse radios                          [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
      Hubert Updyke's Need for a Car Radio  [ Conrad Binyon <conradab@[removed] ]
      Car Radios                            [ "Don Belden" <[removed]@[removed]; ]
      Re: Garland and Henning               [ Christopher Werner <werner1@globalc ]
      Harry Bartell                         [ Larry Gassman <lgsinger@[removed] ]
      Re: Paul Henning's TV work            [ Dixonhayes@[removed] ]
      Speaking of Pearl [removed]           [ "Bob Watson" <crw934@[removed]; ]
      Harry Bartell                         [ William Brooks <webiii@[removed]; ]
      Harry Bartell                         [ "Katja and Tom" <kattom@[removed] ]
      #oldradio chatroom                    [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 17:11:31 -0500
    From: Jeff Weaver <jweaver@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  OTR soaps

    I am hoping I can get some help. I am looking for some shows that I
    am interested in. I loved the book King's Row and its sequel Parris
    Mitchell of King's Row. Are there any surviving episodes? I am also
    looking for samples of Family Skeleton and Woman in My House, both
    Carleton E. Morse shows. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Jeffrey

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

    Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 17:19:31 -0500
    From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  car radios for home use

    Here is a project that I have long contemplated but haven't done.  Perhaps
    it would be of interest to people here.

    I think most of us who can't receive OTR programs locally know that the AM
    section of most radios/receivers is pretty lame.  But many automobile radios
    have exceedingly sensitive AM reception.

    So the plan would be to salvage a car radio from somewhere.  I would favor
    an analog-tuned solid-state AM-only set, but that's a bit of speculation on
    my part, and I don't know how well these sets age.  I have found that in
    this area, they're typically available at local charity resale shops for
    very low prices (I paid 99 cents at Goodwill Industries for the Chrysler
    digital stereo radio that's now in my little car) because nobody knows how
    to test them.  These are stock car radios that are removed from cars when
    people put in fancier audio systems and then languish forever.  An
    auto-audio installation outfit might also have some for sale.

    In any case, you figure out where the speaker and power connections are and
    connect up a speaker and an appropriate jack to get the audio to a tape
    recorder.  The power is provided by either a fairly heavy 12v DC power
    supply (the one you used with your CB radio will do) or an old car battery.

    Now, this last tip sounds rather bizarre, but I've used nominally-dead car
    batteries in my science demonstrations for years.  It turns out that a
    battery which can no longer start a car usually works just fine for
    low-drain (which for a car battery might be fifty amperes!) applications.
    It can be kept charged with a trickle-charger or any 12v DC power supply as
    necessary, but depending on the health of the battery, they can maintain
    their charge for many, many hours of solid-state radio operation.

    It's a good idea to keep the battery inside a plastic enclosure.  I've used
    a plastic garbage can in my work, but there are more elegant solutions.
    Any wire stuck into the hole at the base of the Motorola antenna jack will
    serve nicely as an indoor antenna.

    I came upon this idea whilst in the car radio repair business.  I'd often
    listen to distant AM stations on whichever radio I was fixing, using just a
    random wire clipped to the appropriate terminal
    as an antenna.

    M Kinsler
    512 E Mulberry St. Lancaster, Ohio USA 43130 740-687-6368
    [removed]~mkinsler1

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

    Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 17:19:39 -0500
    From: "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Car radios a luxury?

    In #70, Alec Cumming wrote:

>     At what point did car radios stop being a
>     novelty/luxury, and became omnipresent?

    When I was young, my father purchased a 1983 Dodge Aries K-Car that didn't
    come with a radio (it also didn't come with a rear window defrost).  I was
    nine at the time, so I assume that this means it wasn't standard equipment.
    He purchased an aftermarket sparkomatic or something, and tried installing it
    himself.  From that point on, the radio worked fine, but the dashboard never
    lit up again.  Still, we did listen to a lot of Orioles games in that car.

    Why do I remember all this?  Well, when I turned sixteen in 1990, I inherited
    that crappy car.

    -chris holm

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

    Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 17:20:41 -0500
    From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Car radios

    Alec Cumming <arack@[removed]; wrote:

>     I'm abashed to find out I was so far
>     off in the beginnings of automotive radio. I guess I think of listening in
>     cars as typical modern-day "multitasking"...

    We listened to radio when we happened to be in the car going
    somewhere, of course, pretty much as people do today. Since I was a
    kid back then and thus an idle passenger the radio was a great
    boredom reliever. And hearing a show like "On a Lonely Road" while
    riding in the back seat through the woods coming back from Grandma's
    house would have been a special thrill. If we happened to arrive home
    in the midst of a show, we were likely to sit in the driveway until a
    commercial came on; otherwise we'd miss too much of the plot waiting
    for the table radio inside to warm up.

    I think I probably heard most of the Cinnamon Bear in the car on the
    way home from school, riding with my mother when she picked me up
    after her job at the textile mill (any oldtimers here remember when
    there were still textile mills right here in the good ole US?). I
    would always miss a few episodes that way, and it took probably three
    Christmases to piece the whole story together. Fellow lister Dennis
    Crow may have some similar memories.

    One year after a heavy blizzard our part of Knoxville - actually just
    outside; we'd not yet been incorporated - was without power for two
    weeks; during that time the ONLY way we could listen was to go
    outside and sit in the car for a special treat. The loss of radio was
    pretty much the only difference being without power made in our daily
    lives, other than the fact that our coal oil lamps didn't provide as
    much illumination; our cooking, heat and hot water were provided by a
    coal range. In fact the coal range also sometimes provided us with
    quite audible, and sometimes startling, radio broadcasts, but that
    was not something we could count on to hear our favorite shows.

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

    Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 17:21:09 -0500
    From: danhughes@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Radio and heater

    Jer says,

>     all new cars in the fifties and sixties had heaters i would think, and

    most had radios.

    It's my impression that automobile heaters weren't standard equipment in
    the deep south.  I lived in Indianapolis in 1960, and my best friend's
    father was a car dealer.  He bought six used cars from a Florida dealer
    and had them shipped to Indianapolis, and when they arrived he found that
    none of them had heaters!  (He said that when he made the deal he thought
    he was getting an awfully good [removed])

    ---Dan

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

    Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 17:21:39 -0500
    From: danhughes@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  AM DX

    James says,

>     At nights, from North Carolina, I could get stations as far west as
>     Phoenix, Arizona and way into Canada and even Cuba!  No modern day radio
>     is as powerful, unless it is shortwave.

    James, more than the "power" of the radio, the fact is that there is are
    tons of electronic hash in the air nowadays that didn't exist 20 years
    ago, and that more than anything else limits our reception.  I could pick
    up faraway stations back then on my favorite radio; now I can't.
    WBZ-Boston made it into Indianapolis at night like it was a local; now I
    can barely get it at all.

    ---Dan

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

    Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 17:35:02 -0500
    From: "ellsworth o johnson" <eojohnsonww2@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  who really invented the transistor and
     integrated circuit.

    Elmer-- hi --

    Take a look at this website where you can purchase this book--dirt cheap.
    ( $ [removed] ) The Day After Roswell by Col. Philip J. Corso --et al .

    He had a high level job in the Pentagon. He says he fed the info to companys
    like the ones that patented the transistor and integrated silicon circuits
    for reasons explained in the book.

    [removed]

    I own the book--- in fact bot several copies so as to give one each to my 3
    sons. I spent a lifetime dating back to 1935 in many facets of electronics.
    In fact Col. Corso and myself were both stationed in Italy in WW2 at the
    sametime. Wish I had run into him personally  then. He is deceased since
    writing the book.

    I was into early warning radar in those days.

    Ellsworth Johnson
    Spokane, Wa
    former Capt USAF and Signal Corps

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

    Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 17:35:14 -0500
    From: "Bruce Williams" <deltaskipper@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Car Radios

    The early car radios were pretty good. The first ones were AM as were
    all radios. They were very susceptible to noise. From my
    understanding the resistor spark plug was one of the ways to combat ignition
    noise. Driving along the highways, such as they were, or any road for
    that matter, if you were under power lines forget any sort of reception. The
    hum from the power lines would drive you out of the car. Try it today
    with your car radio set on AM. The same with weather, electrical storms
    and the like. What we call OTR programs today were the main stream
    broadcasts then. Of course we listened to them with as much enjoyment
    as now. It was a real treat when all the atmospheric skips were in
    place and we got a distant station it was a big event.

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

    Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 18:19:30 -0500
    From: JackBenny@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Cornball sitcoms

>     ... Notorious network programming chief James T. Aubrey, the man who fired
>     Jack Benny and turned CBS into a network of gimmick-ridden and cornball
>     sitcoms ...

    Well, also remember that Jack was ultimately knocked off the air, in part, by
    competition [removed] Pyle.  Although I haven't seen a lot of Gomer Pyle,
    I think that could fall into the classification of a gimmick-ridden cornball
    sitcom on CBS (Gawwww-lee).  So some people may not favor such comedies today,
    but they were very popular in their time.

    Also, even the Benny show was getting into some rather corny gags by the last
    season.  Some will recall his show with the Kingston Trio, which ends (going
    by an old [removed]'t seen it in a while) with a skit where Jack plays
    his violin in the Tijuana Jail.  I also have a script of a show where Abbe
    Lane
    appears, which includes a skit about a scientist who's working on some sort of
    hair tonic, which is then over-administered to Dennis Day's character.  The
    close has Dennis coming on in a gorilla suit and taking Lane away.

>     It also should be remembered that James T. Aubrey (apparently the "T" stood
>     for "The smiling cobra") also dumped the "cornball sitcoms" in 1971 when
>     demographics began to mean more to advertisers than ratings.  No sense of
>     loyalty, that guy.

    Also interesting to note that Aubrey's right-hand-man was Keefe Braselle, who
    later wrote "The CanniBalS" as a scathing indictment of CBS, including a
    reference to (again going from memory) "a washed-up old comedian who didn't
    know
    enough to lay down and die."  Supposedly Braselle fired Jack with words along
    the lines of, "You're THROUGH, old man!"  Paley had wanted to drop Jack's
    weekly show but keep him on for the specials, and was mightily upset when he'd
    heard that Braselle had dismissed one of his "diamonds" in such a manner.

    --Laura Leff
    President, IJBFC
    [removed]

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

    Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 21:30:17 -0500
    From: JackBenny@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Horse radios
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    Alec Cumming wrote:

>     Imagine, in 1935, a man in his seventies being driven around by his
>     gadget-loving grandson, listening to the wireless in a horseless carriage!

    In one of the Buck Benny skits in early 1937, Buck and Andy Devine are riding
    to Ensenada, Mexico.  Andy mentions that he "had a radio installed in his
    horse" and proceeds to tune in a musical number.

    --Laura Leff
    President, IJBFC
    [removed]

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

    Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 21:33:10 -0500
    From: Conrad Binyon <conradab@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Hubert Updyke's Need for a Car Radio

    [removed]@[removed] wrote:

>     Motorola is considered the first company to
>     successfully commercialize car radios in the 1930's

    Jim Backus, in his role of Hubert Updyke III, richest
    man in the world, on the Alan Young show asks Alan if
    he wants to accompany him and Betty, Alan's girl
    friend, to whom Hubert is also playing suitor, for a
    ride in his limosine.

    He continues to say to Alan, "We can listen to Guy
    Lombardo and his Royal Canadians Orchestra."

    "Oh, Hubert," says Alan,  you have a radio in your
    car?"

    "No, Alan I have in the back of the limo Guy Lombardo
    and his Royal Canadians ."

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

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

    Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 22:49:08 -0500
    From: "Don Belden" <[removed]@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Car Radios

     The 1940 Ford that I purchased from my grandparents in 1950 had a radio.
    Unfortunately, I have no idea when it was installed.

    Don in Denver

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

    Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 23:50:30 -0500
    From: Christopher Werner <werner1@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Garland and Henning

     >The majority of those "cornball sitcoms" were created and/or produced by
     >Paul Henning, an OTR vet who began as an assitant writer for "Fibber McGee
     >and Molly," moved on to "The Rudy Vallee Show" and joined "Burns and Allen"
     >in 1942 where he stayed for 10 years before moving to TV.

    Thank you Mr. Hayde, for that fine segue

    As I was just reading in the Steven Cox book on "Green Acres", Mr. Henning
    was so successful with Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction that he
    was given a half-hour time slot to fill with no pilot required by Mr "The
    smiling Cobra" Aubrey. He contacted the talented writer Jay Sommers who had
    been successful as the writer of "Granby's Green Acres" in the early 50s
    and was preparing the show for TV. And so the OTR program paved the way for
    the Green Acres series that ran for 5 years.

    One of the actors, Tom Lester, who had the part of Eb left a career as a
    high school chemistry teacher to study with Lurene Tuttle for two years
    prior to landing the roll. In the OTR version (Granby's Green Acres) the
    roll of Eb the farmhand was played by Parley Baer. They wanted a younger
    farmhand for the TV version, but Parley did play several bit parts in
    several shows produced by Henning.

    Gale Gordon had the Granby part that later was done by Eddie Albert.

    How common was it for OTR actors to be teaching in the 60s?

    One of the writers for Green Acres was Mark Tuttle. Was this Lurene's son?
    (duh, too lazy to look it up in the [removed])

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

    That being said, the thread began with a post about Judy Garland and a
    Washington Post article. The title provided for the article coincides with
    a multi-DVD release of many of her TV programs with an index to all the
    songs sung. Was this just coincidence or was the article also talking about
    the DVD release?

    Chris

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 07:08:55 -0500
    From: Larry Gassman <lgsinger@[removed];
    To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Harry Bartell

    		Hello,
    By now, the news will have spread.  I was so sorry to have heard earlier
    today from his son and daughter, about Harry's passing.
    Harry was a true gentleman.  Many of us first met Harry at SPERDVAC in
    1982.  I called him and asked if he would participate in a CBS Actors
    workshop of the fifties in OTR.  He was delighted to join us.
    Over the years, I received countless Christmas cards, phone calls, and
    e-mails, up until the last few months or so.
    I will miss his genuine down to earth demeanor.  He was so very classy and
    will be missed by our hobby, and by everyone who knew him.
    Larry Gassman

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 07:56:18 -0500
    From: Dixonhayes@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Paul Henning's TV work
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
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    In a message dated 2/27/04 2:15:48 PM Central Standard Time,
    [removed]@[removed] writes:

>     It also should be remembered that James T. Aubrey (apparently the "T" stood
>     for "The smiling cobra") also dumped the "cornball sitcoms" in 1971 when
>     demographics began to mean more to advertisers than ratings.  No sense of
>     loyalty, that guy.

    It wasn't Aubrey, because he was already gone long from CBS in '71, having
    left (been fired, IIRC) in 1965.  At that point, Aubrey headed MGM.  Someone
    else at CBS (Bob Wood perhaps?) cancelled "everything that had a tree in it"
    (as
    "Mayberry RFD" star Ken Berry once put it).  As for "The Beverly Hillbillies,"
    a 1964 episode called "The Giant Jackrabbit" is *still* supposedly the
    highest rated half-hour single broadcast in television history.

    Dixon

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    Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 07:56:45 -0500
    From: "Bob Watson" <crw934@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Speaking of Pearl [removed]
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
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    Does anyone out there know if any of Deems Taylor's commentary from the New
    York Philharmonic survives, or maybe a script of his commentary before the
    first classical selection began??  Also, my copy of the bulletin at the middle
    of the program is "doctored" to include an announcement that Pearl Harbor had
    been bombed, which, I believe, is the infamous Hear It Now recreation.  Does
    an undoctored copy exist that anyone is aware of??

    And on more question on the subject.  The announcements on my copy of the Jack
    Benny Program seem to be local, instead of national announcements.  Was this
    program the west coast program or are the announcements actually for the east
    coast??  Although, it does seem unlikely to me that the announcements are
    meant for the east coast, I could be wrong.  Which probably means that the
    copy I have is a west coast program, but would like to have some
    confirmation.

    Thanks,

    Bob

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 07:57:43 -0500
    From: William Brooks <webiii@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Harry Bartell

    By now most of you have heard of the passing of Harry Bartell. As
    fans of Old Radio you have heard his voice and enjoyed his great
    radio acting. Most on the digest have read Harry's postings here in
    the past, and a lucky few of you might even have met him at various
    conventions in the past several years. Count yourselves among the
    blessed to have shared some form of time with Harry.

    Myself, well all I can say is that I got to know Harry, his wife Bev,
    and daughter Judie. I loved them all. Harry and Bev put me up at
    their house in Ashland Oregon for a night when I first drove from
    Seattle to a SPERDVAC convention in [removed] The hospitality was
    unexpected, but warm and wonderful. Over the past 10 years or so I
    saw Harry as often as I could and loved every minute of it. An
    extremely bright man, and a great talent in several areas, acting,
    photography, politics etc., he inspired and encouraged my acting
    career, such that it is, and was a critic that helped me with his
    crusty but warm way.

    I truly love the hobby of OTR, but it has one dramatic draw back.
    That is getting to know the Harry Bartell's, Parley Baers, Larry
    Dobkins, Peter Leeds etc. and enjoying there friendship only to have
    them leave. It is a
    sad part of our hobby not to have them with us still, yet wonderful
    to have the memories of their friendship.
    Please, if you have the chance, go to a convention, get to know these
    folks, and enjoy just talking to some wonderful people. Do yourself a
    favor. You'll treasure the experience.

    In closing I wish Harry God's blessing and I know that he's at peace
    to be with Bev again.

    God Bless You Harry, and so long for now.

    Bill Brooks

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 07:58:13 -0500
    From: "Katja and Tom" <kattom@[removed];
    To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Harry Bartell

    It is with great sadness I read about the death of Harry Bartell.

    For what it's worth, he became sort of my personal connection to the world
    of OTR as it actually happened. When I asked some questions on the list
    (particularly about Gunsmoke) he responded both on the list and directly to
    me. I still have those emails and I'll keep them.

    I knew he must be a terrific guy to take time to personally email a dub like
    me with my silly questions.

    I, along with thousands of others, will miss him.

    My thoughts are with his family.

    Tom Z.
    Wolfeboro, NH

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 08:09:51 -0500
    From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  #oldradio chatroom

    Folks;

       The #oldradio chatroom on Starlink-IRC ( [removed] )
    will be open this evening; I'll be in around 8:00pm EST (5:00pm PST) for an
    informal get-together celebrating the life and work of Harry Bartell.

             Charlie

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #72
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