Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #2
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 1/4/2002 9:03 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2002 : Issue 2
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Today in Radio History                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      Dragnet in Daily News                 [ Kubelski@[removed] ]
      Fibber McGee & Molly/Charlie McCarth  [ "Ron Vickery" <RVICKERY@anchorwall. ]
      Born for the Role                     [ "William Harper" <whhsa@[removed] ]
      One more "Born to Play the Role"      [ Clifengr3@[removed] ]
      speaking of copyrights                [ Ben Ohmart <bloodbleeds@[removed]; ]
      My Favorite Husband                   [ "Bob Watson" <crw912@[removed]; ]
      Re: Today in Radio History for Janua  [ Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      Actors and Roles                      [ Harry Bartell <bartell@[removed] ]
      DVD/CD/MP3 Players                    [ luckycowboy@[removed] (Gregory Robe ]

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    Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 11:08:28 -0500
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: Today in Radio History

      From Those Were The Days --

    1938 - The first broadcast of Woman in White was presented on the NBC
    Red network. The program remained on radio for 10 years and was one of
    the first to feature real, honest-to-goodness doctors and nurses in
    leading roles.

        Joe

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

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    Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 11:08:43 -0500
    From: Kubelski@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Dragnet in Daily News

    There is an article about Dragnet in today's New York Daily News that doesn't
    mention the show's radio origins, doesn't mention Michael Hayde's book or
    quote anyone involved in the show.

    But it is about Dragnet.

    Interested readers can check in here,

    Sean Dougherty
    Kubelski@[removed]

    [removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 11:16:53 -0500
    From: "Ron Vickery" <RVICKERY@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: Fibber McGee & Molly/Charlie McCarthy/Search

    for show
    Approved: ctrn4eeWlc

    Hi and Happy New Years to all!!

    I'm a long time reader, but a first-time poster, so bear with me, I've
    been saving questions up for a while.  First, I've been listening to
    some of the Fibber McGee and Molly Christmas episodes I downloaded from
    Al Girard's site (Thanks, Al!!!, love your site!), and have a question
    about the hall closet.  Did the running gag with the hall closet get
    used less in later years?  If so, why?  Were people just getting tired
    of it?  Also, what ever happened to the characters of Horatio K. Boomer
    and Nick Depopoulous?  Bill Thompson also did Wallace Wimple and The Old
    Timer, so it wasn't like he wasn't part of the cast.  Did the shows ever
    explain their leaving?  Did they disappear about the same time that
    Gildersleeve moved to Summerfield?

    Second, was the Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy show done before a
    studio audience?  Charlie (in "body") wasn't really required for the
    radio audience, but he would be for the studio audience.  If he was
    there, did Edgar operate the mouth?

    Finally, I'm looking for a 15-minute serial show that my Mom used to
    listen to when she was a kid.  Mom is one of those people who listened
    to the radio and remembered listening, but didn't really pay attention
    to the details, so I'm surprised she remembered as much as she has.  (My
    Dad, on the other hand, has specific favorite shows he remembers, so he
    is easier to give shows to.)  Anyway, Mom was born in 1925, and
    remembers listening to this after her and her siblings finished their
    chores after school each day.  They lived in Howard Lake, Minnesota
    (about 1 1/2 hour west of Minneapolis, today.  Her Dad spent 3 days on
    trips to and from Minneapolis with the horse and buggy).  She said she
    can't remember many of the details, but she thinks it was between 1932
    and 1943, as she only associates it with listening after school.  The
    opening credits, as best as she can remember, are:

    "Here comes a true friend of every girl and boy
    each day at 5:00 he brings the joy
    from Monday through Friday, at this time we say
    Here Comes Skippy."

    She can't remember if Skippy was the name or not.  Does this sound
    familiar to anyone?  Please let me know if any shows are available for
    download, trade, or purchase.  I prefer MP3, if possible, but cassette
    tapes are ok, too.  Sorry, I don't have the equipment for reel to reel.

    Thanks,

    Ron Vickery
    rvickery@[removed]
    (btw, collecting since my then future brother-in-law gave me "Who's On
    First" about 22 years ago)

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

    Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 11:48:31 -0500
    From: "William Harper" <whhsa@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Born for the Role

    Dear Radio Buffs, Pro and All;
    Peace and joy in 2002.
    Howard Culver was born to be Straight Arrow.  Listening to the first show
    and then to later shows one relizes how Howard made Straight Arrow the hero
    of our memories.
    Manituwah,
    Bill
    PS Howard was born for the role of friend, lover, husband to Lois, but that
    was on another network.

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

    Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 12:07:15 -0500
    From: Clifengr3@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: One more "Born to Play the Role"

    Here's one more "Born to Play the Role" (in my humble opinion)

    Frank Nelson as the Department Store Floorwalker

    JIm Yellen

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

    Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 12:07:52 -0500
    From: Ben Ohmart <bloodbleeds@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: speaking of copyrights

    I've spoken to Paul Rapp, son of Philip Rapp, and the
    Bickersons are copyrighted well into the next century.
    I've even seen the legal forms, and yep, it's true. Of
    course Bickersons started in the late 40s, so the
    works aren't as old as some things.

    TV & film stills western & nostalgia books
    [removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 13:42:22 -0500
    From: "Bob Watson" <crw912@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: My Favorite Husband

    I have been enjoying the My Favorite Husband entries on the I Love Lucy DVD
    set.  Up until now, I haven't had much exposure to this series.  I would
    like to know what episode was George and Liz's last name changed from Cugat
    to Cooper.

    Thanks,

    Bob

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

    Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 13:43:01 -0500
    From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Re: Today in Radio History for January 1

    Joe Mackey passed along from Those Were The Days:

> >     Jan 1, 1925 - Lucrezia Bori and John McCormack of the famous
> >     Metropolitan Opera in New York City made their singing
> >     debuts on radio this day. The broadcast over what was WEAF
> >     Radio ... encouraged others to sing on radio.

    From: "Dave Walter" <fredallenfan@[removed];

>     I find it odd that a 1925 broadcast would have "encouraged others
>     to sing on radio" ... as the very first station in Chicago, KYW,
>     initially did nothing but broadcast opera performances in 1921.
>     1925 seems a bit late for the "encoragement" to be needed.

    Whenever a new technology is introduced, established stars are usually
    very hesitant to test it out.  Very few established performers made
    records before the brash young newcomer Enrico Caruso showed it could
    help their careers.  Most early movie stars were newcomers, and the film
    studios at first attempted to keep their names unknown.  It was
    difficult to find anybody famous to perform in talking movies.  Warners
    got Al Jolson only after Georgie Jessel backed out.  The biggest early
    TV successes were either newcomers like Gleason, Caeser, Coca, Martin &
    Lewis, etc; those who had not done well in radio like Sullivan and
    Berle; or those whose careers were sliding downward like Ed Wynn.

    But with radio there was one other factor: many of the major record
    companies strictly forbid their performers from appearing on radio
    during the early 20s.  The record companies were scared stiff about
    radio because it was free entertainment in the home which might
    discourage people from continuing to buy records--they had seen a big
    slump in sales in 1923.  Although KYW in Chicago was broadcasting opera,
    most of the major opera singers were at the Met in New York, and the
    best of them recorded for Victor.  Some of the secondary rank of singers
    in Chicago and NY were recording for Brunswick which had its major
    recording studio in Chicago, and indeed, it was Brunswick which beat
    Victor to the punch by broadcasting a program of its major opera
    performers, minor Met performers Florence Easton and Mario Chamlee, on
    the WJZ chain December 9, 1924.  Note that the Met itself did not
    broadcast until Dec 25, 1931--ten years after KYW's Chicago opera
    broadcasts.

    Billy Jones and Ernie Hare were notable exceptions of performers who
    were enormously popular broadcasters and prolific recording artists
    simultaneously during the early 20s.  But they fall under the category
    of newcomers, and they did not start making any duet recordings for
    Victor or Columbia until 1925.  Vincent Lopez was a bandleader who did a
    lot of early radio and recording, but almost all of his pre-1925
    recordings were for OKeh.  There were notable performers like Eddie
    Cantor who made one or two special broadcasts in the early 20s, but
    recordings were a minor part of his career at that time and he was not
    doing regular broadcasts then.

    There's an interesting article from Radio News around 1924 that spells
    out the attitudes of the different record companies, but things changed
    drastically in 1925 as the two industries became more aligned.  Both
    Victor and Columbia licensed AT&T's Western Electric recording process
    (Victor Orthophonic and Columbia Viva-Tone) and Brunswick licensed RCA's
    Pallophotophone electrical recording process.  It is notable that AT&T
    owned WEAF and RCA owned WJZ--and those were the stations that Victor
    and Brunswick respectively broadcast on at the time of the introduction
    of electrical recording in early 1925.  (Victor's programs switched over
    to WJZ in the fall of 1925, AT&T sold WEAF to RCA in 1926, and in 1928
    the arrangements were made for RCA to buy Victor in 1929.  In 1927
    Columbia put money into United Independent Broadcasters which became CBS
    after the record company had pulled out of the deal.  CBS ended up
    buying Columbia Records in 1939, but did have loose ties before then.
    Although both Victor and Columbia participated in syndicated radio in
    the 1930s, both NBC and CBS blew their chances to sew up the market in
    the late 20s and early 30s despite their ties with these record
    companies.  They were too committed to their wireline networks to see
    how syndicated recordings could compliment the wireline network business
    until it was too late.

    Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 16:16:18 -0500
    From: Harry Bartell <bartell@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Actors and Roles

    There has been a lot of discussion lately about "Born-to-Play"

    Has it ever occurred to those making selections that they have never
    heard any other performers play those roles? Who besides Elliott Lewis
    played Frank Remly? Suppose Frank Nelson had been cast in the part
    originally. It would have been a completely different character and it
    might very well be said that Nelson was born-to-play. Or suppose Parley
    Baer had first been cast as Digger O'Dell. Same
    situation.

    The characters developed over time as the actors became more familiar
    with the scripts and the scripts with the actors. This is not to demean
    Elliott Lewis or John Brown. It is simply to point out the vagaries in
    the careers of actors.

    Harry Bartell

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

    Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 16:36:02 -0500
    From: luckycowboy@[removed] (Gregory Robert Jackson, Jr.)
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: DVD/CD/MP3 Players

    Does anyone know if there is a brand of DVD players that plays MP3s in
    the order they were recorded on the MP3 CD?

    My new Philips DVD 953 plays MP3s out of order. For example, when
    playing my MP3 CD of All Star Wesern Theater, the first 9 shows played
    are [removed], [removed], [removed], [removed], [removed], [removed],
    [removed], [removed], and [removed]

    I'll return my Philips DVD player if I can find another brand that does
    not have this problem.

    Greg

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #2
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