Subject: [removed] Digest V2004 #41
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 1/28/2004 4:32 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2004 : Issue 41
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Nig  [ charlie@[removed] ]
  Re: Lyle Talbot                       [ Rob Chatlin <rchatlin@[removed] ]
  Jack Paar on radio                    [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
  As Others Hear Us                     [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  Re: OKeh Laughing Record              [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Re: Laughing Record                   [ Fred Berney <berney@[removed]; ]
  "Say the Secret Woid?"                [ Wich2@[removed] ]
  Laughing Song                         [ "RBB" <oldradio@[removed]; ]
  RE: Laughing track                    [ "Michael Hayde" <mmeajv@[removed]; ]
  Flubs                                 [ "Jay Ranellucci" <otrfan3@[removed] ]
  OTR Relics                            [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  The Big Story                         [ howard blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
  1-29 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  Re: Laughing Record/"Pipsies"         [ Udmacon@[removed] ]
  orators                               [ "Roby McHone" <otr_alaska@[removed] ]
  freewheeling?                         [ RickEditor@[removed] ]
  TV Stuff -- Fading Dots and Talk Sho  [ "Druian, Raymond B SPL" <[removed] ]

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 02:12:00 -0500
From: charlie@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Night!

For the best in OTR Chat, join IRC (Internet Relay Chat), StarLink-IRC
Network, the channel name is #OldRadio.  We meet Thursdays at 8 PM Eastern
and go on, and on! The oldest OTR Chat Channel, it has been in existence
over six years, same time, same channel! Started by Lois Culver, widow
of actor Howard Culver, this is the place to be on Thursday night for
real-time OTR talk!

Our numerous "regulars" include one of the busiest "golden years" actors in
Hollywood; a sound man from the same era who worked many of the top
Hollywood shows; a New York actor famed for his roles in "Let's Pretend" and
"Archie Andrews;" and owners of some of the best OTR sites on the Web.

For more info, contact charlie@[removed]. See you there!

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 03:05:52 -0500
From: Rob Chatlin <rchatlin@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Lyle Talbot

Lyle Talbot also holds the honor of the being the first to
portray Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor on film.
in the serial Atom Man V. Superman,
as well as Commissioner Gordon in the Batman and Robin serial.

rob

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 10:43:42 -0500
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Jack Paar on radio

I have 6 episodes of the 'Jack Paar Show' which was broadcast from [removed] in
the summer of 1947 from June 27 to Sept 28 as a summer replacement for Jack
Benny.

Hy Averback introduced him as 'America's Young New Humorist.'

Sponsor:   Lucky Strike
Announcer:  Hy Averback
Music:   Trudy Erwin, Page Cavanaugh Trio,  Jerry Fielding Orchestra

One good line from the first show - he was commenting that he couldn't
afford 14 writers like Bob Hope.  In fact he said, he saw Bob Hope and his
writers coming out of their  office the other day and it looked like recess
at UCLA.

-Irene

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 10:44:29 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  As Others Hear Us

Mark Kinsler, explained why one's voice sounds different in recordings,
notes,

Yup.  I read that the bones and sinuses in the head provide an alternate
means of sound conduction from the larynx to the ears.  This extra path
makes the voice sound deeper and more resonant to the speaker than it does
to the speakee.

When I has in high school, I got my first tape recorder.  The first time
I heard my voice, I was a bit puzzled, because it sounded different from
what I thought it was.  But I heard the other members of my family, and
they sounded about what I was used to, so my immediate reaction was "so
_that's_ how I sound to other people!"  Less pleasant than I sound to
myself.

However, I'd already experimented with hearing by bone conduction (I
_was_ a nerdy kid), so I figured that something like that made me "hear
myself" in the way I did.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 10:45:24 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: OKeh Laughing Record

On 1/28/04 2:12 AM [removed]@[removed] wrote:

Spike Jones and his City Slickers made a 78 rpm record called
"The Jones Laughing Song" or "..Laughing Record"...I forget which -  which,
began with the playing of The Flight of the Bumble Bee, then the trumpet
player sneezes twice and fluffs,then someone starts to laugh, then another,
then the trumpet player resumes briefly, fluffs again and wild laughter
breaks out and continues, once or twice more the music attempts to resume,
cut off by loud laughing, another sneeze, more laughing - this continues for
3 minutes until it fades out.  It was, indeed, infectious, and is probably
available on some Spike Jones collection or other.

This was an imitation of much earlier and extremely famous novelty
recording, the original "OKeh Laughing Record," released by the General
Phonograph Company in 1922 on OKeh 4678. This was an anonymously-made
German recording, reissued for the US, in which a mournful cornet solo
was interrupted by a woman laughing. The cornet player keeps going until
he begins to fluff, and then he too joins in on the laugh until the
entire record dissolves into hysterical laughter. The recording was
extremely popular during the 1920s, and copies are still very easy to
find today.

The OKeh Laughing Record was reissued several times over the years, and
imitated by other performers on other labels -- Edison's 1923 version,
for example, was called "Henry's Music Lesson," The original record also
inspired a cartoon short, "Sh-h-h-h!," directed by Tex Avery for
Universal in 1955. One might also suggest that the laughing couple on the
record bears a rather close aural resemblance to Vic and Sade's annoying
friends Chuck and Dottie Brainfeeble.

My niece fell in love with the OKeh Laughing Record the first time she
heard it, and she is most likely the only nine-year-old in the Northeast
with a copy of this recording on her own custom-made CD.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 10:45:39 -0500
From: Fred Berney <berney@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Laughing Record

Spike Jones did a record of laughter. It starts out with one person
laughing and then goes into the entire orchestra. I think I have the album.
If not then it is at my brothers house and I'll have to get it in about 6
months.

Just as an aside, about 20 years ago, I was asked to record the sound of a
woman laughing. People told her that she had a great laugh and should
record it. So she hired me to record her laughing for about an hour. I
think I can find that recording if anyone is interested.

Fred
[removed]

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 10:46:39 -0500
From: Wich2@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  "Say the Secret Woid?"

From: PURKASZ@[removed]

The script says, "Lake Maracaibo" but you feel that warm chuckle looming

If I hear Michael aright, I agree that the quoted "marijuana" remark was
intentional. I'd have to disagree with responders who implied, "that word
would never be used in the media Back Then!" Long ago, I was pretty amazed
when I dug out the imbedded "marijauna que fumar" lyric in the 50's "Speedy
Gonzales" [removed]

"freewheeling." Hey there's another phrase from the past. Know where it's
from?

"FREEWHEELING - 1903, from free + wheel; originally of bicycle wheels that
turned even when not being pedaled, later from the name of a kind of
automobile drive system that allowed cars to coast without being slowed by
the engine."

Best,
-Craig W.

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 12:45:00 -0500
From: "RBB" <oldradio@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Laughing Song

My good friend, Sam Levene, posted about Spike Jones' "Laughing Song"...

The tune, "Flight of The Bumble Bee" I think was, rather, the David Rose
classic composition, "Holiday For Strings," nes pa?  Harry James' trumpet
played "The Bee"  (....without laughter!)

Russ Butler  oldradio@[removed]

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 12:48:19 -0500
From: "Michael Hayde" <mmeajv@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  RE: Laughing track

Kathleen Perry queried:

I am looking for a record My dad used to play "The Laughing Record" was
it's actual name. Don't remember by who tho.  It may have been one of those
cylinder records, because at the time Dad had a Victrola that you had to
open the front door to hear, I guess they were the speakers.

I don't know why Mike Biel hasn't rung in on this one.  With all due respect
to the previous suggestions, I believe Kathleen is referring to "The Okeh
Laughing Record" from around 1922 (Okeh being the label that issued it).  No
artist was credited, and it was actually recorded - if my memory isn't
failing me - in Germany.  It's not a cylinder; just a standard 10" 78 rpm
highly fragile disk (which is what the "Victrola" [here we go again, folks!]
as described above would have played).  Latter-day radio personality Dr.
Demento re-issued it on LP (and probably CD) back in the 1980's on a
"Greatest Novelty Records" collection.  The good "Doctor" took pains to
point out that the Spike Jones Laughing record was something of a remake,
and that the original was incorporated into the soundtrack of Tex Avery's
final theatrical cartoon "S-h-h-h-h-h-h" (1955).

Michael

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 14:04:50 -0500
From: "Jay Ranellucci" <otrfan3@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Flubs

Someone the other day mentioned flubs.  Here's one I heard the other day on
Suspense, In the episode titled "Blue Eyes" 8-29-46 starring Hume Croyn.  At
the end of the show the announcer says "Hume Croyn appeared through the
courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayo"
Another flub also heard on Suspense, was duing the years it was sponsored by
Autolite.
During the middle commercial Harlow Wilcox is talking to another actor "Gil
Stratton, Jr"
Gil is supposed to say as best as I can recall, "Autolite spark plugs are
used worldwide in trucks and tractors"  However what came out was "Autolite
spark plugs are used worldwide in TRACKS AND TRUCTORS" I don't remember
which episode this was but some where I have it on tape.    Jay

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 14:50:34 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR Relics

Every so often I'll see a listing on eBay for some radio premium with an
identification that's _miles_ off base.  Most recently, I saw a ring
identified as either a Captain Midnight or Buck Rogers ring.  It was
neither.  It was a Kix (or "Lone Ranger") Atomic Bomb Ring less its rear
"finned" cap. But to the uninitiated, it _could_ have been a Captain
Midnight ring: the retaining band on the "bomb" has an impression that
looks similar to a winged clock, the Secret Squadron symbol.  It takes
fairly good magnification to see that the impression is really a
reproduction of a pair of Bombardier Wings from the [removed] Air Force.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

I once saw a Jack Armstrong Egyptian Whistle Ring presented as a Tom Mix
ring, despite the lack of the TM-Bar brand and sides and top festooned
with ancient Egyptian symbols (how genuine I can't tell until I get my
hands on one someday, but they look superficially authentic).  I've seen
Jimmy Allen Wings presented as from other programs, and Sky King items
presented as Tom Mix.

Worse, I've seen nonradio items presented as radio premiums.

One might ask what difference it might make.  In one sense, it doesn't.
If someone buys a brass Tom Mix compass-magnifier as an item from a Dick
Tracy Crimestoppers Detective Kit, and believes it to be so until the end
of that person's life, the collector is happy with the false knowledge.
But the person would have been treated fraudulently.  And there's
something troubling about that.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 14:50:51 -0500
From: howard blue <khovard@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  The Big Story
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In connection with some writing that I'm doing, I'm trying to locate an
episode of "The Big Story" which dealt with a black man who was
wrongfully imprisoned. The show was broadcast sometime between May and
August of 1949, probably in June.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has information about this
show. Also, there were plans for the sponsor to do a television version
of the same show. Did those plans ever materialize?
Thanks,

Howard

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Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 15:39:37 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  1-29 births/deaths

January 29th births

01-29-1880 - W. C. Fields - Philadelphia, PA - d. 12-25-1946
comedian: "Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy Show"
01-29-1913 - Victor Mature - Louisville, KY - d. 8-4-1999
actor: "Hollywood Star Playhouse"
01-29-1917 - John Raitt - Santa Ana, CA
actor, singer: "MGM Musical Comedy Theatre"
01-29-1918 - John Forsythe - Penns Grove, NJ
actor: "NBC Star Playhouse"; "Best Plays"
01-29-1923 - Paddy Chayefsky - The Bronx, NY - d. 8-1-1981
writer: "Theatre Guild on the Air"
01-29-1942 - Robin Morgan - Lake Worth, FL
actress, Former president of NOW: "Cavalcade of America"

January 29th deaths

01-22-1899 - Anne Elstner - Lake Charles, LA - d. 1-29-1981
actress: Stella Dallas "Stella Dallas"; Mary Weston "Wilderness Road"
02-10-1893 - Jimmy Durante - NYC - d. 1-29-1980
comedian: (The Schnozz) "Durante-Moore Show"; "Jimmy Durante Program"
03-12-1916 - Mandel Kramer - Cleveland, OH - d. 1-29-1989
actor: Johnny Dollar "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar"
04-11-1912 - John Larkin - Oakland, CA - d. 1-29-1965
actor: Perry Mason "Perry Mason"; "Dimension X; " Ford Theatre"
09-03-1913 - Alan Ladd - Hot Springs, AR - d. 1-29-1964
actor: Dan Holliday "Box 13"; "Lux Radio Theatre"; "Proudly We Hail"
10-27-1911 - Leif Erickson - Alameda, CA - d. 1-29-1986
actor: Richard Rhinelander III "My Friend Irma"

Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 15:41:18 -0500
From: Udmacon@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Laughing Record/"Pipsies"

It was the "Okeh Laughing Record," reprtedly made in Germany in the 1920s
(acoustic, of course). It really is FUNNY. Just a man and woman; him trying
to play "When You And I Were Young, Maggie" on a sax, hitting bad notes
resulting in both of them breaking up for the next three minutes. There also
was a "Gennett Laughing Record."

I thought the man who introduced "The A&G Pipsies" was Milton Cross (not half
as bad as a WLS Barndance announcer's "Mr. Playbody will now pee for [removed]").

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 17:50:00 -0500
From: "Roby McHone" <otr_alaska@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  orators

Christian Goller" ich@[removed] (via Thomas Martin245@[removed])
wrote,

I am currently writing my master thesis on American Radio and I am
thinking about focusing on OTR combined with the Roosevelt Fireside
Chats, since this was probably the most important time in Radio history.

I have often thought about this, not only the most important time in Radio
history, but the most important time in modern history.  It seems to me that
the popularity and availability of radio coincided with the rise of some of
the greatest orators in modern history.  Adolph Hitler and Franklin
Roosevelt both came in to national power about the same time--1932 and 1933,
Winston Churchill came to national power just a few years later.  All three
men could, and did, use their voices and spoken ideas to sway their
countrymen to follow and support their ideas and agendas.  I believe that if
  Mr. Churchill had not been Prime Minister during this time that Britain
may have very well given in to Germany during Britain's darkest days of the
war. His speeches, comments and encourgement, broadcast on radio, encouraged
the public to endure the hardships and continue to resist.  I felt that
Winston Churchill should have been named "man of the century" instead of
Einstein.  I know that Hitler had his bully boys to weed out dissenters, but
his public orations made millions of German speaking people believe that
they were superior, unbeatable and should rule over inferior people around
them.  FDR in his firm grandfatherly way gave hope to and kept the American
people together through the depression and later through the war.  All three
men used this newly popular technology, radio, masterfully.
Just thought I would throw this out for comment.

Roby McHone
Fairbanks, Alaska

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 18:10:59 -0500
From: RickEditor@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  freewheeling?
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If only the movies were conducive to such "freewheeling."
Hey there's another phrase from the past. Know where it's from?
Michael C. Gwynne

I don't know where that one came from ... but how about this one:
"I'll just "wing it."
rick selvin
philadelphia

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Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 18:11:40 -0500
From: "Druian, Raymond B SPL" <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  TV Stuff -- Fading Dots and Talk Shows
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That business with the TV picture collapsing to a dot, and then finally
fading away on old Muntz and, in my case, Zenith sets, probably still
exists, but it can't be seen. As someone pointed out, the electron beam
continues to be sent to the screen until all tube cools down, while the high
voltage that causes the beam to sweep from top to bottom and side to side
has already been shut off. Thus the beam continues, but it just isn't
diverted away from the center of the screen any longer. It shouldn't be all
that difficult to run that fading voltage in such a way that instead of
projecting a white dot, it projects a black dot. That way it could still be
there, but viewers in Roswell, NM, no longer have to worry about their TVs
being invaded by LGM.

We can probably have another lengthy free-for-all about who actually began
the late night talk show and when. I would imagine that before it became a
national phenomena, many local stations had a show with that kind of format.
In Chicago, sometime in the fifties, Sun-Times columnist Irv Kupcinet began
a show called "At Random," late on Saturday nights. The producers would
invite whatever celebrities of note were in town that night, and whoever
showed up would sit around a round table, and discuss whatever came to mind.
Kup would have a list of questions to start the ball, or stir the brew if
the conversation lagged. After a couple of years, Kup decided that the show
would be better if the guests at any particular time had something in
common, and this begat a feud with the producers about the format. The
upshot was that Kup moved to another station with a new show, called "Kup's
Show," while the previous station continued to run "At Random" in
compitition, with a new host.

After all these years, I can no longer remember which show had what I
considered to have been the all time greatest,[removed], I can't remember which
show Kup was hosting, but I do remember that he was the host. CBS had a
series of meetings in Chicago, with their entire news staff from around the
world in town, including Ed Murrow and that entire crew of world-wide
reporters that had made CBS News the finest of the era (if not the finest of
all time). I think Douglas Edwards, Walter Cronkhite, and Harry Reasoner
were there, but it's so long ago that I can't remember for sure just which
reporters appeared. Kup stood in front of the camera and introduced them
all, with the guests sitting around the table several feet behind him,
chatting up a storm. As Kup read each name, another camera picked up a head
shot of the individual cited. Then Kup want back to the table, carrying his
question cards, and seated himself. He said "hello" to them and started the
ball with some very long, convoluted question about the Cold War. The camera
panned around the table as each guest gave some short, two or three word
answer, like "Gee, I don't know," or "I never thought about that," or "Could
be." Kup, slightly abashed, then asked another very convoluted question, one
designed to create discussion, perhaps controversy, and maybe an argument.
Again the guests answered with a short, unrebuttable answer. Now Kup was
visibly shaken, as he started to ask another [removed] one of the guests
began to titter, another snorted, and finally the entire table broke up in
raucous laughter; it seems that while Kup was introducing them, these
legends of CBS News had concocted a plan to purposely give those short,
worthless answers to the questions, just to see if they could shake Kup.
There followed between an hour and an hour and a half of some of the most
intelligent discussion of the world situation as it was then. The time
seemed to pass in just five minutes, and when they left, I was begging for
more . . .

Today, similar settings, like "The McLaughlin Group," and several others,
limit their guests answers to ten or twenty seconds. Only "Washington Week
in Review" seems to stir intelligent debate among the reporters present. Too
bad most viewers no longer have an attention span.

[removed]

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End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #41
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