Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #314
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 8/16/2003 3:29 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2003 : Issue 314
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Re: "Smoke Dreams" (was Smoke Rings)  [ "J. E. Knox" <rojoknox@[removed]; ]
      guess what!                           [ "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@hotmail. ]
      Suspense, later episodes              [ martyd@[removed] ]
      German Radio Archives                 [ Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]; ]
      Eliott Lewis                          [ "Mike Mackey" <[removed]@[removed] ]
      Smoke Dreams                          [ Kenneth Clarke <kclarke5@[removed]; ]
      otr records and book search & Spike   [ revelation206jm@[removed] ]
      German Radio Broadcasts               [ "lance" <lancepawl@[removed]; ]
      Commercials                           [ "William Schell" <bschell@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 14:39:17 -0400
    From: "J. E. Knox" <rojoknox@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: "Smoke Dreams" (was Smoke Rings), etc.

    Greetings from FixitLand! (and a first-time poster)

    Lee Munsick responded to a post regarding a Chesterfield "theme song":

>     "Smoke Dreams" was written by John Klenner, Lloyd Shaffer and Ted
>     Steele, published in 1947. ... On the Chesterfield programs the words
>     were slightly altered to include "While a Chesterfield [removed]".

    For those wanting to hear the melody, Ralph Flanagan and his Orchestra
    recorded this tune June 20, 1950 (vocal by Harry Prime); it was issued on RCA
    Victor LPM-3190, EPA-538 and latterly on Jasmine CD JASMCD 2582 "A Tribute To
    Glenn Miller." The full lyric as recorded by RF:

    Smoke dreams from smoke rings
    While a cigarette burns
    I keep yearning for you

    Through smoke dreams from smoke rings
    That old feeling returns
    Can't believe that we're through.

    I try to pretend our love is ended
    But my heart tells me no;
    The dreams I resist won't be dismissed
    Though I try to forget with each cigarette

    Still smoke rings bring smoke dreams
    And although you are gone
    Our love story goes on.

    I am assembling a "Complete Ralph Flanagan" project and rewriting the RF
    discography published by Metolius Music. As part of this I am seeking any and
    all information (and media, if available) on Flanagan's broadcast/telecast
    appearances. The current edition of the discography (last updated October
    2000) has only sketchy info on broadcasts. I am in process of scouring Down
    Beat and other magazines on microfilm; have found many details, but all
    information is welcomed. Any Flanagan fans on the list? (that I haven't
    already contacted <grin>)

    Take care,
    --
    J. E. Knox
    "The Victor Freak"
    Engineer, Multnomah Community Television

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

    Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 14:51:24 -0400
    From: "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  guess what!

    The other day I was watching a video tape of a movie and after it ended and
    before I stopped the tape, the next movie started. It was a movie I
    ordinarily wouldn't have watched but I saw the opening credits and was
    hooked. In the cast were Archie Andrews and Henry Aldrich together!!! Well
    actually, they were Bob Hastings and Ezra Stone. Can anyone guess the title?
      (Obviously I know the answer.)

    Barbara

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

    Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 16:59:01 -0400
    From: martyd@[removed]
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Suspense, later episodes

    Is it me, or does anyone else notice that opening music on the later
    episodes of Suspense all seem distorted?  Maybe it's when the announcer
    says, "SUSPENSE" that I hear the distortion.  Maybe it was my sources, but
    I've heard different episodes from various sources and they all have that
    low-end distrotion when the announcer says, "SUSPENSE" at the opening.

    Marty

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

    Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 17:45:57 -0400
    From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  German Radio Archives

    I was asked to post this by my friend in Germany - Bernhard Wichert, who
    emails to the digest have been bouncing for some reason. If you have
    questions for him, his email address is b_wichert@[removed]
    :
    +++++++++++++++
    Digest #305 and #310 :

    Perhaps I may add some info on those: the definition of "significant
    quantity" should be specified.
    The Reichsrundfunk (Reichs-Broadcasting [removed]) that combined all the
    single radio stations -Berlin,
    Breslau,Frankfurt,Hamburg,Cologne,Königsberg,Leipzig,Munich,Saarbrücken,Stut
    tgart,
    Vienna,Danzig - suffered a great loss during and after the war. Most
    stations had been damaged
    during the Alliied air attacks and destroyed parts of the archives. The
    second loss came after
    the surrender when US, British and Russian troops looted the buildings,
    sometimes as part of an
    official order.

    When in the early 1950s the German Radio Archive in Frankfurt (DRA) was
    founded only "a handful" of
    fragments formed the basis. Meanwhile the Archive has grown: about 2,200
    sound recordings are
    preserved for the time 1933-1938; the exact number of the following years may
    be around the same.
    They are basically German language recordings, but ,to fill gaps, some
    English language material
    was added.

    MANY of these original RRG documents came as dubs from the USA and the BBC.
    The DRA paid
    a fortune for that service because the foreign archives don't give away what
    they had taken and
    don't give copies for nothing. I have read the correspondence while with the
    DRA and seen the
    costs. And I have read some of the lists of recordings in British hands that
    German PoWs had
    to make out giving detailed information on contents and disc numbers etc.
    And what was good for the BBC was good for the Czech Archives.

    After the German Unification the former GDR Radio Archives became part of
    the DRA. The discs till 1945
    are now housed in the Frankfurt archives, the GDR-related ones in Berlin. As
    it turned out the GDR
    had some, not too many, discs of the NS period, probably been given back by
    their "friend", the SU.
    (We do know that the Soviets still hold back hundreds of TAPES , esp.
    classical recordings, of the
    RRG!!! A few were given back to the German archives in 1990 to say "thanks"
    for the food supplies
    the Federal Republic had generoulsly given to the Soviet people in that
    year.

    Back to Dominick's question:
    The RRG first recorded on thick, heavy wax discs (1929- [removed] 30s). Then the
    flexible Decelith discs were
    used (30 cm) that could cut 4 1/2 mins per side at 78rpm.( The method of
    33rpm was not used here
    although experiments in the USA were made, I think, already in 1933.)
    Decelith was used during the
    Nazi period and even in the early years after in the GDR (must have been
    rests of stocks).
    In January 1934 the AEG made the first experimental tape recording. In
    November 1942 the first "big"
    recording experiment was the recording of Wagner's "Meistersinger" in the
    RRG building, Masurenallee,
    Berlin, which must have been the break-through. In an RRG-propagandafilm of
    about the late 30s they
    show a woman taping a radio speaker and also how the reporters used it as
    out-door equipment.
    I know for sure that from July 1944 on Hitler's speeches were recorded on
    tape only (speed 75).
    Besides these sources the Nazi Party had a special recording unit called
    "Reichsautozug" (Reich Car Train)
    that was used to record special -mostly inoffical- Party meetings. They had
    probably recorded the
    "trials" against the men and women involved in the plot against Hitler of
    July 20, 1944.

    Last point: the two RRG-catalogues that were printed in 1936 (recordings
    1929- mid 1936) don't have any
    wire recordings listed! Shellacs and foils only.

    The German recordings are as hard to get as copies from your Library of
    Congress or the National Archives.
    It must be a sort of Archives policy not to give away any to private
    [removed]

    I hope I could answer your questions a bit.

    Bernhard Wichert, Germany

    Jim Widner
    jwidner@[removed]

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

    Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 18:36:51 -0400
    From: "Mike Mackey" <[removed]@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Eliott Lewis

    Eliot Lewis' radio-ography is so extensive, I am surprised at the
    difficulty I've had in locating biographical information on him and
    pictures of him. Can anyone help me in this area? I am attempting to
    research the careers and lives of many of the great OTR
    acting/directing/producing/writing journeymen and masters.

    Mike M

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

    Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 20:00:03 -0400
    From: Kenneth Clarke <kclarke5@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Smoke Dreams

              I remember hearing Penny Singleton sing a
    song titled "Smoke Dreams" in the first "Thin Man"
    movie.  This wasn't the same song, was  it?

    Kenneth Clarke

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

    Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 20:03:53 -0400
    From: revelation206jm@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  otr records and book search & Spike Jones

         I'm just now responding to this because I caught the blast worm virus
    and just today got my computer fixed. If you have the blast worm virus that
    keeps shuting down your computer every few minutes you can download a "patch"
    at [removed] but you need to do it no later than Saturday because the
    virus is supposed to launch an assualt against that website on Sat. the 16th.
    If you keep gettting a message with something about "NT AUTHORITY SYSTEM is
    shuting down your computer" or "Remote Procedure Call service terminated
    unexpectedly" then you have the virus. (The quotes aren't exact.)
         Just click on the proper link for your operating system ([removed] Windows XP
    or 2000)to download the fix to keep from getting the virus. And if you
    already have the virus you can get the patch and then download a cleansing
    program at one of the sites they list at Microsoft. I'm glad I got all of
    this done and it didn't cost me anything.

        Someone was asking about records to buy of OTR. I came across a few of
    them on [removed] accidentally at first and then found another of
    Superman.

         Someone was also trying to find out info on a book about Jack Armstrong.
    Well, the reason I first heard of [removed] is because the US Library
    of Congress referred me to it since I was trying to find something out about
    a book. Just go to the site then click on "Reading Room". Then click on "Book
    Sleuth" and submiy the info you already know and ask for the tile and author.
    Maybe someone on the site will reply and give you the info you want.

        There was also some talk of Spike Jones. I hesitate to mention this, but
    when I was stationed in Germany in the mid-eighties there were still some
    arrogant old Nazis and others around. Once an old woman flipped me the bird
    while I was sitting at a bus stop in my Army uniform. Another time this guy
    probably in his late forties or fifties was basically berating Americans (and
    the Polish too) and he said the Holocaust wasn't real. Well, I couldn't
    resist, so I asked him if he would allow me to sing a song in honor of the
    American soldiers who died in World War II. As he stood about a foot away
    from me, I sang "Seig Heil- brrrrrp! Seig Heil- brrrrrp! Right in the
    Feurher's face!"
         Needless to say, he wasn't very happy about the raspberries I gave him
    spraying saliva in his face. Sometimes I'm ashamed of that little episode.
    Other times, I laugh or smile about it.

    James

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

    Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 20:56:48 -0400
    From: "lance" <lancepawl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  German Radio Broadcasts

    Hello,

    With the recent mails about German radio broadcasts, I'm wondering if
    Germany also had an extensive lineup of radio shows (comedy, mystery,
    theater, adventure, etc.) as the US did before the advent of television. If
    so, any idea if they are available anywhere?

    Thanks & Regards,

    Lance

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

    Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 21:38:16 -0400
    From: "William Schell" <bschell@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Commercials

    I'm sure there is no one on this list old enough to have experienced
    [removed], when the commercials came on such as the Jack Benny Program
    cigarette spots, were they done in front of the audience or from a booth
    somewhere? I notice no audience noises are present.
    Thanks
    Bill
    Magalia, Ca

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #314
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