Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #101
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 3/4/2003 8:57 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2003 : Issue 101
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Old Radios                            [ Grbmd@[removed] ]
      NBC Love Song                         [ "Russ Butler" <oldradio@[removed] ]
      Re: Gay Radio Characters / Marx Brot  [ Wboenig@[removed] ]
      Do you have funny OTR stories?        [ "Scott L Lindquist" <potluckplayers ]
      Re: gays on radio                     [ StevenL751@[removed] ]
      Captain Midnight                      [ JimInks@[removed] ]
      Old Frothingslosh                     [ Gerald Serrino <gserr@[removed]; ]
      Pro-Tee-In and Jean Shepherd          [ KENPILETIC@[removed] ]
      Re: Talk Radio in the 1950's          [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      Has anyone heard of Buddy Clark?      [ Larry Jordan <midtod@[removed]; ]
      pittsburgh radio info                 [ "Robert Angus" <rangus02@[removed]; ]
      old DANGEROUS radios                  [ Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed] ]
      Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      Jack Eigen                            [ "rcg" <revrcg@[removed]; ]
      March 4th Birthdays                   [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 00:31:46 -0500
    From: Grbmd@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Old Radios

    Mark said:

>     A good many el-cheapo radios from The Golden Age Of also featured painted,
>     stamped metal cases *and* a power supply that had one end of the power cord
>     connected to said case.  If you plugged the power cord in upside down (and
>     the plugs were symmetrical) you'd have a metal case connected to the hot
>     side of your power line, 120 volts with respect to ground.  Later sets with
>     plastic cases had the same sort of power supply, but were harder to kill
>     yourself with.

    I remember when I was a kid of about 11 my family moved to a new home in
    1941.  We continued our same radio habits and put our table-model radio on
    the nearest platform, which happened to be the heating-radiator in the living
    room.  (What did I know?!  I was a just dumb kid.)

    Well, it happened that there was a metal screw on the bottom side of the
    radio, and it happened to contact the metal radiator that was our new
    platform.  Guess what!  Turns out the screw was attached to the radio
    chassis, which was attached to the electrolic circuitry, and the radiator was
    a ground.  So guess what happened.  SPARKS!

    It was the last time we put the radio there without some insulation.

    Spence Coleman

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

    Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 00:31:52 -0500
    From: "Russ Butler" <oldradio@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  NBC Love Song

    Here is the song, "I Love You" composed with the three, NBC Chimes notes, a
    novelty tune from the 1930's that was probably recorded by Rudy Vallee (it
    sounds like Rudy):

    [removed]

    Or use this link for the NBC song web site:

    [removed]

    Anyone have any further information?  Thanks.

    Russ Butler  oldradio@[removed]

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

    Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 00:31:59 -0500
    From: Wboenig@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Gay Radio Characters / Marx Brothers
     Plagiarism Suit
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    I should know better than to jump into such a potentially controversial
    subject, but I'll do it since I'm only quoting someone else!

    The question was recently asked about gay characters in any radio shows.  In
    his book "Raised On Radio", Gerald Nachman addresses this topic first by
    saying "Radio, needless to say, had no gay characters ... " but then he goes
    on to cite a few examples of those whose vocal inflections toed the line,
    specifically Joe Besser (better known for his later work with The Three
    Stooges), Ercil Twing (a bit character played by Pat Patrick on The Edgar
    Bergen - Charlie McCarthy Show), and even Joe Penner, especially in his
    trademark line "Oh, you na-a-a-a-sty man!"  (Nachman, pp. 241-242)

    On a totally different subject, Elizabeth recently cited Groucho and Chico
    Marx as an example of radio entertainers who were sued for plagiarism.  While
    I cannot hold a torch to her research in general, I have done a bit of work
    in compiling information on the radio careers of the Marx Brothers, and I
    would like to provide some additional detail.  The circulating recording
    titled "Hollywood Agents" often carries with it the erroneous date 1938; in
    reality, the show dates to late 1935.  We know or infer this for three
    reasons: 1) Groucho makes a joke about Jean Harlow, who died in 1937; 2)
    singer Hollis Shaw is introduced as an up-and-coming protege of Chico, but by
    1936 Ms. Shaw was a regular singer on CBS' "Saturday Night Serenade"; and 3)
    the song she sings is "Alone" from the 1935 Marx Brothers movie "A Night At
    The Opera"; this part of the broadcast was clearly a plug for the movie.
    While it cannot be proven for certainty unless a copy of the whole show
    surfaces someday, I strongly suspect that this entire recording is an excerpt
    from Louella Parsons' "Campbell Soup Hollywood Hotel" broadcast of October
    25, 1935, on which Groucho and Chico were known to appear, ostensibly to
    promote ANATO.

    The Kansas City Star edition of October 31, 1937 covered the final verdict of
    the plagiarism trial, and it specifically cites the broadcast in question to
    have taken place "in a nation-wide broadcast" on September 1, 1936.  The
    Atlanta Constitution of the same day identifies the skit as "Mr. Dibble and
    Mr. Dabble."

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    Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 00:32:06 -0500
    From: "Scott L Lindquist" <potluckplayers@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Do you have funny OTR stories?

    I am going to write a play about Old Time Radio. It will be a comedy like
    Noises Off, but about a radio station. If you have any funny stories that
    you've heard about OTR, whether it be about mistakes, sound effects,
    commercials, actors, anything that I could use, I would be most grateful.

    Scott Lindquist
    Pot Luck Players

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

    Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 00:32:23 -0500
    From: StevenL751@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: gays on radio
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    In a message dated 3/2/2003 8:09:32 PM Eastern Standard Time,
    [removed]@[removed] writes:

    This got me to wondering if and how gays were portrayed on radio.

    For an interesting read on the subject, I can recommend the book "Alternative
    Channels: The Uncensored Story of Gays and Lesbian Images on Radio and
    Television, 1930's to the Present", by Steven Capsuto. (Ballatine Books,
    2000)

    To quote the book, "From the start of network radio in the 1920's until 1952,
    Theatre Guild's 'Lady in the Dark' was the only known broadcast to feature an
    explicitly gay character."  Yes, you had the expected slew of jokes from
    comics like Bob Hope and the others, but actual identifiable gay characters
    were few and far between.   The book does also cite several characters who
    were implicitly gay, such as Clarence Tiffingtuffler on 'Myrt and Marge' and
    Rembrandt Watson on 'Candy Matson'.

    Steve Lewis

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    Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 00:32:55 -0500
    From: JimInks@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Captain Midnight

    For the Captain Midnight fans <and I assume that includes some fellow named
    Stephen Kallis!! ;) >, Alter Ego #22, which will in comic book shops in a
    week or so, has an extensive 15 page article about Captain Midnight, with
    lots of art from the comic books and the newspaper strip.  The radio series
    is discussed in some detail.  The writer is old time radio fan, Jim Harmon.
    Also in this issue is a look at the Tom Mix comics, among other things about
    the golden age of comics.  If you can't find it in your comic shop, try
    [removed]

    Sorry for the shameless plug, but I thought some here might be interested in
    knowing about it.

    Hey, Hal Stone!  I'm inking another Archie story with some character named
    Jughead.  You ever hear of him?

    -Jim Amash (who also happens to be associate editor of Alter Ego and
    remembers a fun dinner in San Diego, talking radio with Tony Tollin)

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

    Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 01:10:20 -0500
    From: Gerald Serrino <gserr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Old Frothingslosh

    Old Frothingslosh Beer, the pale stale beer with the
    foam at the bottom was actually brewed for awhile by
    the Pittsburgh Brewing Company. The labels on the cans
    were printed upside down and had a picture of a plain
    fat girl who was the Brunhilda character on Regis
    Cordic's Cordic & Company that aired mornings on KDKA.
    Cordic's skits during his programs with characters
    such as "Louie the Garbage Man" who spoke with a
    middle european accent, Omicron and Nutnicron his
    visitors from outerspcae, the dim witted Perrywinkle
    to name a few, made mornings much more palatable. I'd
    love to get a recording of his skits.

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

    Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 01:29:36 -0500
    From: KENPILETIC@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Pro-Tee-In and Jean Shepherd

    Hi Gang -

    In issue 99, Chris Holm inquired:

>      ...So my question is, was pro-TEEN-un the accepted pronunciation back
>      then, or was it an affectation of the announcer?  If it was the typical
>      pronunciation, when did it change?  ...

    In the 1970's, Jean Shepherd did a broadcast on this very topic.
    According to Shepherd, if you look at the way the word is spelled,
    PROTEIN, the correct pronounciation is with three syllables,
    PRO-TEE-IN.  If it were spelled PROTIEN, it would be pronounced
    PRO-TEEN, with two syllables.

    Older dictionaries show the THREE syllable pronounciation.  Newer
    dictionaries show both pronounciations with the TWO syllable version
    first.

    Shepherd's broadcast is a humorous approach to the discussion, and
    he goes into a story where he (as "Ralph") gets into trouble in school
    trying to defend the three-syllable version with a dictionary.

    Personally, I have always spoken the word 'protein' with three syllables,
    because that's the way the old-time announcers with perfect diction
    always said it.  Apparently the pronounciation changed sometime
    between 1960 and 1975.

    Happy Taping -- Ken Piletic - Streamwood, Illinois
    kenpiletic@[removed]

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

    Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 10:43:46 -0500
    From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:  Talk Radio in the 1950's

    From: KENPILETIC@[removed]

>     One last thing - Nobody has yet mentioned Jack Eigen in this current

    thread.

    Actually I was going to bring up Eigen and the Chez Show from the Chez
    Paree in Chicago on WMAQ.  He was taking calls on the air back as far as
    1952 I believe.  (I also have the tape of Eigen's final program, which I
    attended.)  The first hosts of the program were Mike Wallace and his
    then-wife Buff Cobb, and in the premiere program on June 2, 1950 Dave
    Garroway reminds them that the callers are not allowed to be heard on the
    air and that they have to repeat what the caller has said.

>     In a recent digest, a poster (paraphrasing a magazine article) wrote:

> >     ... it was said that putting a caller on the air really sounded

    horrible--

> >     there was just no easy way to make it sound as if the person were
> >     right there in the studio

    I don't understand why there would be any need to make it sound as if the
    person was right there in the studio.  The whole point of taking a phone
    call is that you are taking a phone call from a listener at home!  All that
    was necessary would be that the caller's words be intelligible.  And as Ken
    indicated in his posting, there was no real technical problem in making a
    "phone patch" to connect the caller to the broadcast equipment.  But as had
    also been indicated, there was a LEGAL problem until the early 1950s.

    The phone company provides a service of supplying special broadcast lines
    to stations, and they make money from this service.  They did not want
    radio stations to get around the need to pay the phone company for these
    special lines, so it was written into the FCC telephone tarriffs that only
    specially supplied broadcast lines could be used to supply program material
    for broadcasts.  I don't know the exact date, but it was somewhere around
    1951 or 52 that this tarriff was changed to allow the broadcasting from
    regular dial telephone lines if broadcast lines were not available.  In
    other words, they could take telephone calls but would still not be allowed
    to broadcast an entire sporting event from a dial phone line.  Rick Sclar
    had a recording of a 1950s game being phoned in from Philadelphia to WINS
    in NYC which was interrupted on the air by an operator when the phone
    company discovered that a regular phone line was being used for the
    broadcast.    He wrote about it in his book, but I have also heard the
    recording.  It's rather funny hearing the announcers trying to keep the
    game going and the operator telling them to stop the broadcast.

>     . The main problem with putting a caller on the air "live" was that you
>     could not be assured what the caller would say. The seven-second
>     delay was not perfected until reliable use of magnetic tape delay
>     became available. Later, of course, it was done electronically. The
>     idea was to be able to cut the caller off-the-air before certain words
>     were broadcast.

    Most people do not realize that there never has been any law or regulation
    requiring delays of phone-in programs.  It was always up to the station.
    It would be a prime subject for research to find out the early history of
    phone in programs and just when the idea of delays began.  As we've seen in
    these postings, it would not be an easy job to find reliable first-hand
    information on this subject.  It would mean searching thru a lot of local
    newspapers for elusive descriptive articles because not too many recordings
    exist of these types of programs.

>     Even after the delay circuitry became available, an annoying "beep" was
>     required by law to indicate to the caller that a recording was being made.
>     Ken Piletic, Streamwood, Illinois kenpiletic@[removed]

    Quite true. The beep was required by the FCC tarriff that permitted the
    broadcasting and/or recording of phone calls.  The beeper was built into
    the required interconnect box provided by the phone company.  In the late
    1960s the phone company came out with a new interconnect box that was able
    to filter out the beep from the signal that went to the broadcast board,
    but still kept the beep on the phone line so that the caller could hear it.
    I'll never forget the day that the phone man came to our station at
    Northwestern, probably in 1969, to fix some line problem, and said that he
    would give us new line interconnect boxes for our two dial phone lines.  We
    were amazed when he demonstrated the filtering out of the beep that we
    could still hear on the phone receiver itself.

    The first time I remember hearing the beeper was for phone stunts on
    "People Are Funny" probably around 1954.  Occasionally they would have a
    stunt where the contestant had to keep a person on the line for two minutes
    or five minutes in order to win a prize.  Even as a kid under ten years old
    I understood that the beep had something to do with the phone call being on
    the radio, so even then I figured that anyone getting a crank call like
    this WITH A BEEP would realize that this might be "People Are Funny" and
    not hang up on the crank caller.  (The person who stayed on the line also
    won a prize.)  So I explained to my family that if they ever got a weird
    WITH A BEEP, they should no t hang up on the guy.  Never happened, of
    course.

    Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 10:44:12 -0500
    From: Larry Jordan <midtod@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Has anyone heard of Buddy Clark?

    I recently discovered some old recordings by Buddy Clark. His claim to
    fame was as featured "Boy Vocalist" on the "Lucky Strike Hit Parade." He
    also sang with Benny Goodman's band on the radio, and then became a
    staff singer for CBS, which lead to his own show in the mid 1930s. His
    voice was also overdubbed for Jack Haley in the film musical "Here's to
    Romance" and several other movies. In 1945 Clark  hosted "The Contented
    Hour". Tragically, he was killed in a plane crash in 1949, just as his
    star was in its ascendency and he was giving ole Bing a run for his
    money.

    I recently purchased a wonderful CD called "The Best of Buddy Clark,"
    thinking it was probably derivative of studio masters. Although the
    packaging does not indicate otherwise, it is obvious these are radio
    performances. But I have to admit they are exceedingly well done.
    Buddy's voice is superb and the full orchestrations are very lush. I
    don't know of many singers today who would be as adept at performing
    such sophisticated material "live".

    I am wondering if any OTR collectors out there might happen to have any
    of Buddy Clark's radio shows? What I have are just the songs, but I'd be
    interested in hearing him in the context of his broadcasts.

    Thanks!
    Larry Jordan

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

    Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 10:44:32 -0500
    From: "Robert Angus" <rangus02@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  pittsburgh radio info
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    I'm delighted to see that there are so many present and former Pittsburghers
    on the list.  Perhaps one of you can help me with this one: my wife had a
    brother named Kieran Balfe, who did a morning show on one of the lesser (not
    KDKA) Pittsburgh stations back in the 1940s.
    The butt of much of Kieran's material was an oaf named (she thinks) Prad
    Heffelfinger.  Any information about Balfe, the station or the show would be
    very welcome---and any extant tape of Balfe in action would be extremely
    appreciated.

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    Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 10:44:50 -0500
    From: Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  old DANGEROUS radios

    Mark Kinsler told of the potential dangers of fooling with the innards of
    some old radios. I've never done so; now I never will!
    I'm curious:
    Nowadays we look for the Underwriters Laboratories seal to assure us that
    the appliances we buy are relatively safe. Were any of the radios that Mark
    discussed "UL Listed"?
    As a matter of fact, when did Underwriters Labs begin testing radios, and
    did they give failing grades to some of the technology that Mr. Kinsler
    discusses?

    Herb Harrison

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

    Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 10:44:57 -0500
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Today in radio history

>     >From Those Were The Days --

    1877 -- Emile Berliner came up with a thing called the microphone.

    1925 - Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office in Washington DC. The
    presidential inauguration was broadcast on radio for the very first
    time.

    1930 - 'The Redhead', Red Barber, began his radio career this day.
    Barber broadcast on WRUF at the University of Florida in Gainsville. He
    soon became one of the best known sports voices in America.

    1942 - Shirley Temple had a starring role in Junior Miss on CBS. The
    show, heard for the first time, cost $12,000 a week to produce and
    stayed on the airwaves until 1954.

    1951 - Sir John Gielgud, starring as Hamlet, was heard on The [removed] Steel
    Hour on the NBC.

    1952 - President Harry Truman dedicated the Courier, the first seagoing
    radio broadcasting station, in ceremonies in Washington, DC.

      Joe

    --
    Visit my home page:
    [removed]~[removed]

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

    Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 10:46:03 -0500
    From: "rcg" <revrcg@[removed];
    To: "Otr Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Jack Eigen

    Ken Piletic mentioned Jack Eigen in an earlier post. The name really hit a
    responsive chord with me.

    In 1965 NBC Radio transfered me from Philadelphia to Chicago. My main
    assignment was to do local college football and basketball PBP on WMAQ. In
    the months from April to September, when I had no sports assignments I was
    used as a fill-in announcer on Radio & TV.

    At that time, the Jack Eigen radio program was being broadcast Mon-Fri
    starting at 10:30PM local time and ending at 1 AM. The first half hour
    consisted of Jack doing a monolog with no interruptions for commercials or
    guests. He would ramble on, talking about anything and everything. One of
    his favorite lines as that portion of the show was about to end would
    usually go something like this: "you've just heard the first half hour of
    the show. After the news I'll be back with my guests. And, by the way, who
    else do you know who can talk non-stop for a half hour and not really say a
    d- - - thing?" The line always got a laugh from the live audience. Then,
    after the 11 PM NBC network news, Jack would commence interviewing his
    guests for the evening and there were two commercial breaks during each half
    hour.

    On some occasions I filled-in for his regular announcer. At 10:30PM I simply
    introduced Jack and then sat back and did nothing until I introduced the
    second segment starting at 11PM. Then I read live commercials during the
    breaks. The first time I worked with Jack he interrupted his normal monolog
    and motioned for me to step over to my microphone. He mentioned that tonight
    he had a different announcer who was new to WMAQ. He asked me my name and
    how long had I been with NBC. Then he said, "have you had a salary increase
    since you started?" That line cracked me up and I was only able to meekly
    reply that "I think so". That silly answer, of course, led to further on-air
    probing by Jack, who was a master of the art.

    WMAQ had overall ratings that the NBC honchos in New York were not happy
    with. So, no big surprise, they decided to change formats. As part of that,
    they cancelled Jack's celebrity interview show but asked him to stay on as a
    sort of combination DJ and story teller. He decided that he wasn't cut out
    for that type of program so he opted to retire. When he passed away a few
    years later I cried some real tears because he was definately a nice guy who
    really knew his craft.

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

    Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 10:46:11 -0500
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  March 4th Birthdays

    If you born on March 4th, you share your birthday with:

    1896 - George Shelton - New York City
    1913 - John Garfield - New York City
    1921 - Joan Greenwood - London, England
    1934 - Barbara McNair - Racine, Wisconsin
    --
    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin
    Make your day, listen to an Olde Tyme Radio Program

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #101
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