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[removed] Digest				Volume 96 : Issue 278

Table Of Contents: 

	 Temporary Halt
	 Kovacs Theme
	 More on Ellery Queen
	 WENN/KFI
	 Speed Gibson

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Date: Sun, 11 Aug 1996 14:42:56 +0900 (JST)
From: ROY WAITE <rwaite@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Temporary Halt
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Can someone tell me how to temparily halt these postings while I'm on
vacation? Thanks.

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Date: Sun, 11 Aug 1996 02:25:54 -0400
From: JackBenny@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Kovacs Theme
Message-ID: <960811022553_596818598@[removed]>

In a message dated 96-08-09 11:19:01 EDT, you write:
>To laura Lee, I believe Ernie Kovacs' theme was "Oriental Blues" by the Tony
>DeSimone trio. I have a 78 of it; it was later released on a Decca 45 when
>Ernie was getting bigger.
>
As I am not an authority on Ernie Kovacs, I'll bow to your knowledge.
 However, I have heard "Rialto Ripples" used at the beginning of at least one
or two Kovacs shows.  Wouldn't be suprised if both were used at one time or
another.

>Incidentally, L; we had two four-hour Jack Benny marathons; July 30th and
Aug
>1st on WRVO-FM, Oswego NY. Eight shows each evening! Well!!
>
Great!  Always good to hear that Jack is alive and well on radio!

--Laura Lee
International Jack Benny Fan Club

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Date: 11 Aug 1996 01:53:57 GMT
From: kg@[removed] (KEN GREENWALD)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: More on Ellery Queen
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

In the past few issues of the OTR Digest it has already been verified that
there was, indeed, an Ellery Queen mystery radio show. And it is correct that
the show began in 1939 (to be exact, the first broadcast was on June 18,
1939) and continued until May 27, 1948. Nine years at 39 broadcasts a year.
Lots of shows, and few of them are available. 
I heard this story, though I have not been able to verify it, so take it for
what it is: Frederick Dannay and Manfred B. Lee wanted to find a name for
their newly created sleuth. But what to name him. The two were having a meal
in a delicatessen and they ordered a celery tonic carbonated drink. While
they were continuing to search for the name, the two men noticed the name on
the label of the celery tonic drink: "Celery Queen." The two men decided to
drop the "c", add and "l" and Ellery Queen was invented. 
For those of you who want a complete history of Ellery Queen, there is no
better book than "THE SOUND OF DETECTION: Ellery Queen's Adventures in
Radio," by Francis M. Nevins, Jr. and Ray Stanich. The small paperback book
(running 108 pages) was published in 1983 by Brownstone Books. Though I
believe the book is now out of print, you certainly can contact the publisher
and see if there are any copies left. I got mine from Ray Stanich in 1991. 
Write to: Brownstone Books, 1711 Clifty Drive, Madison, ID 47250. The ISBN
number for the book is 0-941028-01-1.
I met Ray Stanich at the 1991 Old Time Radio convention in Newark, NJ back in
'91 and found him to be a very erudite and warm person who was willing to
share any information on EQ. As a note of interest, my small company which
produces the Sherlock Holmes cassette series, tried to negotiate with Richard
Dannay for the release of a full season of the radio shows (which we have
access to), but the deal fell through simply because Ricahrd Dannay (son of
one of the original authors) wanted complete control, leaving little for our
company. We regretfully had to back out of the deal, but we will shortly be
re-opening negotiations again as Mr. Dannay has shown more interest in our
efforts at this time. Hopefully we will be able to release at least most of
the season of shows. By the way, almost all the radio broadcasts were written
by Anthony Boucher and Manfred B. Lee. Boucher was prolific as a writer, as
he was not only writing the EQ shows with Lee, but was also writing the
Sherlock Holmes mysteries for Rathbone/Bruce and Conway/Bruce all with Denis
Green. (And, yes, Denis Green's name is spelled with only one "n" in Den is).
Take care. 
Ken G.

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Date: Sun, 11 Aug 1996 12:05:26 -0500 (CDT)
From: Railbuff <railbuff@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: WENN/KFI
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

1. What has happened to the actor playing Victor Comstock (WENN's boss)? 
He has been written out of at least two new shows recently, ostensibly 
being in Europe covering the war.

2. Does anyone know why NBC never had an owned-and-operated radio station 
in Los Angeles, as did the other three networks? Considering the amount 
of hours the network must have been providing its affiliates during the 
Golden Age of Radio, KFI must have had precious few hours it could call 
its own--hardly an ideal situation for an independent.

Richard Kunz

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Date: Sun, 11 Aug 1996 11:34:15 -0700
From: Jack Mann <jmann@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Speed Gibson
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hello Digest: Regarding who played who on Speed Gibson, the general
consensus is that John Gibson played Barney and Howard McNear played
Clint Barlow. Steve Kelez of Radio Showcase offered up the theory
that the Octopus may have been played by Gale Gordon doing a Bela
Lugosi imitation. Marc Antonsson said someone told him that Speed
was played by John Gibson as well, but he didn't believe it (and I
don't either).
Any more input, fellas and gals? Who played Speed and the Octopus?
Any and all theories most welcome.

Jack




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End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #278
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