------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2002 : Issue 184
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Lum & Abner Catalog [ Mleannah@[removed] ]
Book wanted [ otrbuff@[removed] ]
Lucy On Radio [ gad4@[removed] ]
Re: Arch Oboler and Bill Cosby [ StevenL751@[removed] ]
Re: Why A&A? [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
Fwd: Bernice Berwin, "Hazel", April [ HRRMIKES@[removed] ]
Re: A&A as Actors [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
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Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 10:51:12 -0400
From: Mleannah@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Lum & Abner Catalog
I am looking for someone who has an accurate
list, or so called, of shows for Lum and Abner. There seems to be a couple
of different versions of logs for this show, are any of them accurate?
As a long-time member of the National Lum and Abner Society, I can tell you
that this organization has an extensive catalog which has been updated
several times over the years as newly-discovered shows become known. Perhaps
it's because the catalog has been revised so often that you have found
different and confusing logs. There are still a number of holes in the
collection as well as lots of hope that more recordings will yet surface.
For information on this club and their catalog, contact: Tim Hollis,
Executive Secretary, National Lum and Abner Society, #81 Sharon Blvd., Dora,
AL 35062.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 10:51:29 -0400
From: otrbuff@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Book wanted
For radio research, I'm seeking to purchase a copy of Robert Hardy
Andrews' 1949 novel "Legend of a Lady: The Story of Rita Martin"
(Coward-McCann) at a reasonable sum. Please, if you own this book and
are willing to part with it, contact me offline and let's work out a fair
transaction. You will be making an important contribution to a future
volume in the annals of vintage radio history. Would you kindly check
your bookshelves now?
Jim Cox
otrbuff@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 12:12:30 -0400
From: gad4@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Lucy On Radio
Believe it or not but there was even a try at getting "I Love Lucy" on
radio after the video version was a hit. But there was only one episode
produced and there were none after that. The one episode was narrated by Desi
Arnez.
I have heard this program. Maybe someone might be able to clarify more, but
after watching a particular tv episode, I got the impression that the
alleged radio show is merely the soundtrack of a tv episode. I didnt record
the episode in question and compare.
If any one else has any other information, it would be appreciated.
George
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 12:36:53 -0400
From: StevenL751@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Arch Oboler and Bill Cosby
In a message dated Fri, 24 May 2002 11:02:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
OldRadio Mailing Lists <[removed]@[removed]; writes:
I was doing web searches on Arch Obler and discovered that Bill
Cosby's "Giant Chicken Heart that Covered the World" was inspired by a
Lights Out episode about a chicken heart. I do not have this episode and
have searched for it to no avail. Could someone please help me?
The LIGHTS OUT presentation of "Chicken Heart" has not survived, or at least
has not yet turned up.
In the last 1960's or early 1970's Arch Oboler recorded a record album called
DROP DEAD! that includes a new production of a much cut-down version of
"Chicken Heart", but the first third of his original script was totally
discarded and the rest of the show is abbreviated. Copies of this album show
up on e-bay from time to time, or you may be able to find it in used record
shops.
Several years ago I directed the Gotham Radio Players in a recreation of the
full-length "Chicken Heart," using the original LIGHTS OUT script. As far as
I know this is the only full-length version of the show available for
listening.
Steve Lewis
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 12:38:21 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Why A&A?
Ron Sayles wonders,
This gets me to my question, why was "Amos 'n' Andy" so popular? Was it
because the medium was new and people would listen to anything until
something better came along?
That's the same question I asked myself in 1977 -- and the answer depends
on a single basic point.
The key to understanding the A&A phenomenon is to understand that the
half-hour sitcom A&A that most OTR collectors are familiar with is in
every meaningful way a corrupted offshoot of the A&A that dominated
broadcasting in the early 1930s -- they were two completely discontinuous
series linked only by the same lead characters and the same principal
actors. But the format and tone of the series heard prior to 1943 were
radically different from that heard after 1943.
It's safe to say that most OTR enthusiasts have never heard the *real*
pre-1943 A&A -- because very little survives of it in the way of
recordings. For the majority of the episodes, all that survives is the
scripts. And that's where you have to go to find a complete answer to
your question. Since most people understandably don't have the time or
patience to go to USC or the LOC to read 10,000 pages of scripts, you'll
find a full-length discussion of the original 1928-43 series, based on a
close reading of those scripts, at my website,
[removed]~[removed] -- a discussion amply illustrated
by script excerpts that have never before been published.
At the very least, you'll see that there *is* a reason why I've spent
twenty-five years studying this one program.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 13:39:48 -0400
From: HRRMIKES@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Fwd: Bernice Berwin, "Hazel", April 4, 1902 -
May 22, 2002
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/mixed
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
Some of you may have received this information, but just in case. I suspect
that everyone receiving this will feel a loss almost like someone in the
"family."
Mike Sprague
Subject: Bernice Berwin, "Hazel", April 4, 1902 - May 22, 2002
Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 07:25:38 -0600
To the One Man's Family Family-
This is to let you know that Bernice Berwin, "Hazel", passed away
peacefully yesterday at her residence in Alamo, California with her son and
her two grandchildren at her side.
Funeral services will be held in the mausoleum chapel at Mountainview
Cemetery in Oakland, California on Thursday, May 30, 2002 at 11:00 am.
If you would like to make a donation in her memory, please do so in the
name of Mrs. Bernice H. Berlin to either the Children's Hospital Foundation,
747 Fifty Second Street, Oakland, California at (510)428-3814/(800)922-9879
or to the Merola Opera Program of the San Francisco Opera, 301 Van Ness
Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102, (415)565-6427.
Messages of condolence may be sent to the family via [removed] Post to:
Karen Sherwood (her granddaughter)
14 Dupree Court
Petaluma, CA 94954-6844
Or via e-mail to: Karen_Sherwood@[removed]
We are so grateful she was part of all our lives for so many years and for
your appreciation of her role in OMF.
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 13:59:38 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: A&A as Actors
Craig Wichman observes,
Oh, [removed] It breaks my Stella Adler-trained heart to hear this kind of
talk.
And, it is yet more proof of my contention that most modern New Time Radio
actors, and many OTR re-enacters, simply aren't qualified- or worse, just
don't get it. If I ever hear another variation of, "Hey- it's just reading
lines, isn't it?" (NO, IT IS NOT, IF YOU'RE REALLY DOING WHAT'S REQUIRED), I
think I'll retch.
One of the elements that I find most fascinating about Correll and
Gosden's 1928-43 work is that they seem to have instinctively understood
certain theoretical principles that have become essential to modern
acting techniques. Neither one of them had any formal training as an
actor, neither one of them was particularly well-read, and they were both
a long, long way from being coffee-house-frequenting Group Theatre
intellectuals. But nonetheless, they understood -- and practiced -- the
most basic techniques of "method" acting years before the
Stanislavsky/Strasberg theories were widely taught in the US, and they
apparently worked out these techniques entirely on their own.
In looking over interviews they gave during the 1929-31 period, you'll
find repeated references to how "they become the characters they play,"
and when this is mentioned, it's always mentioned as being something
unusual. This may sound like hype, but it actually is a simplified
description of their basic working method, as both actors and writers.
Consider this 1934 comment from their secretary, Louise Summa:
"They are four distinct people, not two. You see, Charlie and Freeman
usually come into the office about noon. From the minute that door closes
behind them, they stop being Gosden and Correll and become Amos and Andy.
Sometimes they write a script in an hour, sometimes it takes four, but
during that time they never for a moment step out of character. They
usually take off their shirts, collars, and ties, and often when they get
through they're wringing wet. They live everything that goes into those
scripts."
Anyone who's ever seen a "method actor" preparing for a role thru
improvisational exercises will instantly recognize what was going on
behind that closed door. "A good actor *becomes* the character
through-and-through," Gosden once declared. "A good character portrayal
is when the character consumes the actor entirely." This is a common
theory today -- and may even seem a little trite -- but it was breakthru
thinking in 1929, when old-fashioned "representational acting" still
dominated the American theatre. The fact that Correll and Gosden
practiced an internalized "presentational" style of acting that few
people in that era had ever seen or heard helps to explain just why A&A
made the impact that it did.
C&G practiced this technique for the duration of their 1928-43 run: when
the studio door closed, Gosden and Correll effectively ceased to exist
for ten minutes, and there were only Amos and Andy and their friends.
Each character had a detailed backstory, and a specific set of
psychological and emotional motivations influencing their behavior at any
given moment -- and these personal histories and motivations in turn
drove the action in the continuing storylines. Because the actors knew
and fully understood these motivations -- even when those motivations
weren't being specifically discussed in the lines they were reading --
the characters came to life. They *weren't* just two guys sitting at a
table reading lines and doing voices.
One of my favorite surviving examples of this is found in the 6/10/29
episode of A&A, a recording from the late chainless-chain period held by
the Library of Congress. Amos is heard preparing for a date with Ruby
Taylor, who is finally back from school for the summer - while Andy sits
on the bed and picks at him in one of the best representations of passive
aggression I've ever heard depicted in a radio program. Regular listeners
knew that ever since Andy's failed romance with Lulu Parker, he'd been
jealous that Amos could sustain a meaningful relationship with a woman
and he couldn't, and Correll does an excellent job of projecting this
subtext thruout the episode -- he plays the scene in a low, grumbling
voice, pestering Amos for getting the towels all wet or for wasting
gasoline in the taxicab, or for wearing too much grease on his hair, even
as it's very apparent that he isn't really talking about gasoline or
towels or hair grease at all. There is no comedy in this episode at all
-- it's a pure character sketch, beautifully written and extremely
well-acted.
Another good example, which survives only in script form, is the
September 1934 death of Amos's mentor/father-figure Roland Weber in a car
accident -- an incident with strong parallels to the deaths of Gosden's
own mother and sister. Given what is known of Gosden's philosophy of
acting and writing, it's reasonable to conclude that this whole scene is
drawn from, and was played as, a sense memory of what he had felt at the
time of the actual accident. This is the most basic principle of "method
acting" -- to find the character's emotions in your own.
Given that A&A lost this sense of realism when it switched to a half-hour
live-audience sitcom format and the performers started working to the
crowd instead of to each other, maybe the solution for modern radio drama
is to go back to Correll and Gosden's original technique -- and try
working in a locked studio with no audience and the windows draped over.
Elizabeth
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #184
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