Subject: [removed] Digest V2007 #353
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 12/18/2007 10:18 AM
To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to:
[removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2007 : Issue 353
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  a few more articles on the AFRTS      [ "joe@[removed]" <jsalerno@earthli ]
  Re: Dragnet questions in previous di  [ Michael Hayde <mikeh0714@[removed]; ]
  12-17 births/deaths                   [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
  Fountain of Fun                       [ Andrew Steinberg <otrdig2@[removed] ]
  Benny's theme                         [ "Laura Leff" <president@[removed] ]
  Badges, Bing, Bowie and Benny         [ Brian Johnson <chyronop@[removed] ]
  Re: Bing and Bowie                    [ Dixonhayes@[removed] ]
  A "Suspense" Novelty?                 [ Joseph Webb <drjoewebb@[removed]; ]
  reels and machines                    [ EDWARD CARR <edcarr@[removed]; ]
  Joe Friday badge number               [ "Holm, Chris " <[removed]@[removed] ]
  12-18 births/deaths                   [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
  Re: Radio in Cinema                   [ Don Shenbarger <donslistmail@sbcglo ]

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

Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:42:38 +0000
From: "joe@[removed]" <jsalerno@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  a few more articles on the AFRTS

or postwar activities of the AFRS

[removed]

Also interesting to Trek fans, see the reference on Mr. Spock.

(it's actually on topic!)

joe salerno

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

Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:42:46 +0000
From: Michael Hayde <mikeh0714@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Dragnet questions in previous digest

My friend Derek Tague asked about the origin of the
"case" used in "The Big Little Jesus," aka "The
Dragnet Christmas Story," where the baby Jesus is
"stolen" from a Los Angeles church by a child who
wished to give the baby Jesus a ride in his brand new
red wagon.

Derek, I'm sure you've read "My Name's Friday" and not
simply admired the credit you received for the images
you provided. (Insert smiley emoticon here.)  As you
apparently have forgotten, I wrote that the incident
occurred in San Francisco in 1930.  If you ever see
the original 1953 TV episode (the soundtrack of which
is 90% of the radio version), you'll see that the
Pastor of the SF church in question is the credited
Technical Adviser.

Another DRAGNET query came from "origami" - he'd asked
if the radio show ever mentioned Sgt. Friday's badge
number 714.  I don't believe so.  Friday did mention
his badge number on the (lost) debut episode from June
3, 1949.  I saw it in the script, but I've donated all
my notes to the Library of American Broadcasting, and
do not recall what it was.  I know it wasn't 714,
though.  It was a four-digit number, more in line with
the type actually used by the LAPD (there was no "700"
series, which is why that number was used when DRAGNET
went to TV).

Michael

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

Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:42:53 +0000
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  12-17 births/deaths

December 17th births

12-17-1895 - Rudolph Anders - Germany - d. 3-27-1987
actor: Dr. VanMeter "Space Patrol"
12-17-1896 - Arthur Fiedler - South Boston, MA - d. 7-10-1979
conductor: "Robert Merrill with the Boston Pops Orchestra"; "Boston
Pops"
12-17-1900 - Katina Paxinou - Piraeus, Greece - d. 2-22-1973
actor: "Suspense"; "Hallmark Playhouse"
12-17-1900 - Norman Cloutier - Hartford, CT - d. unknown
orchestra leader: "Cloutier Calling"; "Cosmopolitan Melodies"
12-17-1902 - House Jameson - Austin, TX - d. 4-23-1971
actor: Sam Aldrich "Aldrich Family"; Inspector Douglas Renfrew
"Renfrew of the Mounted"
12-17-1903 - Erskine Caldwell - Morland, GA - d. 4-11-1987
playwright: "Information, Please"; "Short Story"
12-17-1905 - Stella Unger - NYC - d. 2-15-1970
commentatoe: "Hecker's Information Bureau"; "Your Hollywood News Girl"
12-17-1906 - Martin Skiles - d. 5-1-1981
music: "Mr. Aladdin"
12-17-1907 - Frank Gill - d. 7-11-1970
writer, comedian: "Joe E. Brown's Post Toasties Show"
12-17-1910 - Spade Cooley - Oklahoma Territory - d. 11-23-1969
western singer: (Rider's of the Purple Sage) "Spade Cooley Show"
12-17-1911 - Jennie Land - St. Louis, MO
singer: "Dramas of Youth"; "Musical Grocery Store"
12-17-1911 - Richard Sale - NYC - d. 3-4-1993
screenwriter: "Lux Radio Theatre"
12-17-1913 - Herbert Nelson - Stillwater, MN - d. 7-19-1990
actor: Ralph Fraser "Dan Harding's Wife"; George Lawlor "Romance of
Helen Trent"
12-17-1919 - Edward "Shrimp" Wragge - NYC - d. 12-22-1992
actor: "Gold Spot Pal"
12-17-1926 - Patricia Brooks - Chicago, IL
announcer, scriptwriter: "Weekly Women's Magazine"
12-17-1927 - Richard Long - Chicago, IL - d. 12-21-1974
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"; "Proudly We Hail"
12-17-1928 - Julia Meade - Boston, MA
actor: 'Your Hit Parade"; "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
12-17-1930 - Bill Beutel - Cleveland, OH - d. 3-18-2006
news reporter: "New York 1960"

December 17th deaths

01-01-1909 - Dana Andrews - Collins, MS - d. 12-17-1992
actor: Matt Cevetic "I Was A Communist for the FBI"
03-01-1914 - Gil Doud - Minnesota - d. 12-17-1957
writer, director: "Sam Spade"; "Escape"; "One out of Seven"; "Pat
Novak for Hire"
07-04-1895 - Irving Caesar - NYC - d. 12-17-1996
lyricist: "Biography In Sound"; "Perspective"
07-10-1889 - Noble Sissle - Indianapolis, IN - d. 12-17-1975
songwriter, orchestra leader: "Freedom's People"
07-11-1892 - Thomas Mitchell - Elizabeth, NJ - d. 12-17-1962
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"; "Cavalcade of America"
08-28-1907 - Sam Levene - NYC - d. 12-17-1980
comedian: "Fred Allen Show"
11-14-1894 - James Van Dyk - Brooklyn, NY - d. 12-17-1951
actor: Clyde Houston "Lora Lawton"; Dick Phillips "Rosemary"
12-31-1921 - Rex Allen - Wilcox, AZ - d. 12-17-1999
country/western singer: "Country Music Time"; "Country Hoedown"

Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:43:03 +0000
From: Andrew Steinberg <otrdig2@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Fountain of Fun
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An episode of Fountain of Fun (broadcast on WLW Cincinnati) was recently 
broadcast
on Jerry Haendiges' OTR program. He gave a date of 42-12-20 and said the 
show was
only broadcast 12 times and all were in 1942. The episode is known as either "A
Visit to Santa's Workshop" or "First Joke - The Christmas Tree". On the 
episode,
someone says it is the 19th of December. I have also seen this episode dated as
43-12-19. Does anyone know if Fountain of Fun was broadcast in December 1943
and/or what day of the week the program aired in 1942 or 1943?

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Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:43:16 +0000
From: "Laura Leff" <president@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Benny's theme

Ted asked:

 > We all know (I presume) that Jack Benny's theme song was "Love in Bloom."
 > But listening to several shows recently, I have concluded that there are
 > actually two theme songs. If you listen carefully, the music starts out
 > with one or two bars of George M. Cohan's "I'm A Yankee Doodle Dandy"

At the risk of sounding glib, that's how Mahlon Merrick arranged it. And
"Yankee Doodle Dandy" is a much brighter, peppier tune to come tooting out
of your speaker to catch your attention than the slightly sappy "Love in 
Bloom".

--Laura Leff
President, IJBFC
[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:43:22 +0000
From: Brian Johnson <chyronop@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Badges, Bing, Bowie and Benny

There was a real cop behind Badge 714 and he was Sgt. Dan Cooke, who served 
as the LAPD's
technical adviser on the original Dragnet tv series. It was retired and is 
on display at the LAPD
Museum at their training academy. It was then re-retired on the occasion of 
Jack Webb's death in
1982.

As for the Bing-Bowie duet it was held up for legal issues and finally 
released by RCA (also in
'82) According to a 2006 story in the Washington Post, the original idea 
was to have the two just
duet on "Little Drummer Boy" but Bowie hated the song. Buz Kohan, who 
scripted the special,
huddled with musical director Ian Fraser and arranger Larry Grossman and 
came up with the counter
melody song in about 75 minutes. The stars rehearsed it for less than an 
hour and nailed it. Said
Kohan, "We never expected to hear about it again."

As for Jack Benny's "Love in Bloom," it was said Jack hated it as a theme 
song. He would often
recite the lyrics (Can it be the trees/that fill the breeze/with rare and 
magic perfume?) and then
ask, "Now what the hell has that got to do with me?" But it attached to him 
whether he liked it or not.

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

Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:43:28 +0000
From: Dixonhayes@[removed]
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Bing and Bowie
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I always understood that Bing Crosby/David Bowie cover of "Little Drummer
Boy" came straight from the videotape when they performed it on what turned 
out
to be Bing's last CBS Christmas special.  It was taped before his death in 
1977
and shown afterward, during the Christmas season, a rather sad special that
year.

Dixon

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Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:43:33 +0000
From: Joseph Webb <drjoewebb@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  A "Suspense" Novelty?

On the Suspense broadcast #521, "The
Shot," aired on 10/12/53, there is a curious announcement. At
approximately 1:40 of this show, as Harlow Wilcox closes the Autolite
commercial, he says that because of a "failure in our technical
facilities" many of the listeners were not able to hear the end of
the prior week's program. He does not give details of the regions of
the country or the stations involved or the exact cause. It must have
affected a large number of listeners, prompting a sizeable number of
complaint letters. He says that they were "mimeographing the last
five minutes of the show and mailing them to you as quickly as we
can." I wonder if it was in script format, or as a narrative
summary.

The show in question would have been
#520, "Action," aired on 10/5/53.

Does anyone have an original or a copy
of this keepsake? I've never seen it in my OTR travels.

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

Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:43:09 +0000
From: EDWARD CARR <edcarr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  reels and machines
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hi
anyone interested in reels or reel machines? machines will need some work
edcarr@[removed]

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Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 05:18:01 -0500
From: "Holm, Chris " <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Joe Friday badge number

It was recently asked if Friday ever used the badge number 714 during
the radio show.  As far as I can remember, I don't think the badge
number was ever used on the radio Dragnet.  However, I do seem to
remember him using a serial or employee number.  He's with the
department doctor for an annual police physical, and filling out some
forms, and I believe he uses some sort of ID number there.  Definitely
not a badge number, but a number none the less.

It's all a little hazy though.
-chris holm

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

Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 05:18:44 -0500
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  12-18 births/deaths

December 18th births

12-18-1864 - S. Parkes Cadman - Wellington, Shropshire, England - d.
7-12-1936
preacher: "National Radio Pulpit"
12-18-1885 - J. Anthony Smythe - San Francisco, CA - d. 3-20-1966
actor: "Carefree Carnival"; Henry Barbour "One Man's Family"
12-18-1886 - Ty Cobb - Narrows, GA - d. 7-17-1961
baseball great: "Coca Cola Top Notchers"; "Baseball: An Action History"
12-18-1888 - Gladys Cooper - Lewisham, England - d. 11-17-1971
actor: "Fleischmann's Yeast Hour"
12-18-1890 - Edwin H. Armstrong - NYC - d. 1-31-1954
inventor: FM radio
12-18-1891 - Edward Reese - Baltimore, MD
actor: Spencer Dean "Eno Crime Clues"; "Just Plain Bill"
12-18-1895 - Harry Kogen - Chicago, IL - d. 12-xx-1985
violinist: "The Bobby Doyle Show"; "The Breakfast Club"
12-18-1897 - Fletcher Henderson - Cuthbert, GA - d. 12-29-1952
jazz orchestra leader: "Jubilee"; "Magic Carpet"
12-18-1904 - Montana Slim - Guysborough, Novia Scotia - d. 12-5-1996
singer: Had his own show on CBS
12-18-1908 - Celia Johnson - Ellerker Gate, Richmond, England - d.
4-26-1982
actor: "Desert Island Disks"; Read poetry and short stories during WWII
12-18-1909 - George Fisher - d. 12-9-1987
hollywood reporter: "Hollywood Whispers"; "Hollywood Gossip"
12-18-1910 - Abe Burrows - Brooklyn, NY - d. 5-17-1985
writer: "Abe Burrows Show"; "Danny Kaye Show"; "Duffy's Tavern"
12-18-1911 - Jerry Lawrence - Rochester, NY - d. 9-24-2005
host, announcer: "laugh 'N' Swing Club"; "Tom Power's Life Stories"
12-18-1913 - Alfred Bester - NYC - d. 9-30-1987
writer: "Charlie Chan"; "Nick Carter, Master Detective"; "The Shadow"
12-18-1913 - Lynn Bari - Roanoke,  VA - d. 11-20-1989
actor: "Dan Carson"
12-18-1915 - Bill Zuckert - NYC - d. 1-23-1997
actor: Detective. Lieutenant. Parker "Crime and Peter Chambers"
12-18-1916 - Betty Grable - St. Louis, MO - d. 7-2-1973
actor: "Hollywood Showcase"; "Screen Guild Theatre"; "So You Want to
Lead a Band"
12-18-1917 - Ossie Davis - Cogdell, GA - d. 2-4-2005
actor: "Cavalcade of America"; "Story Hour"
12-18-1918 - Danny Simon - The Bronx, NY - d. 7-26-2005
writer: (Brother of Neil)  "The Milton Berle Show"
12-18-1918 - Hal Kanter - Savannah, GA
writer: "The Beulah Show"
12-18-1919 - Ralph Levy - Phildelphia, PA - d. 10-15-2001
director: "Burns and Allen"

December 18th deaths

01-14-1915 - Mark Goodson - Sacramento, CA - d. 12-18-1992
producer, director: "Portia Faces Life"; "Stop the Music"
03-08-1919 - Mavor Moore - Toronto, Canada - d. 12-18-2006
actor: Nero Wolfe "Advs. of Nero Wolfe"; "The Crusoe Boys"
03-12-1908 - Eugene Conley - Lynn, MA - d. 12-18-1981
operatic tenor: "NBC Presents Gene Conley"; "Voice of Firestone"
03-15-1910 - Nick Stewart - NYC - d. 12-18-2000
actor: "Hollywood Newsreel of the Air"
03-17-1902 - Bobby Jones - d. 12-18-1971
renowned golfer, did a 15 minute show on golf
05-09-1923 - Connie Russell - NYC - d. 12-18-1990
vocalist: "The Dave Garroway Show"
05-17-1883 - Ethel Intropidi - NYC - d. 12-18-1946
actor: Phyllis Welby "Pretty Kitty Kelly"
06-14-1919 - Sam Wanamaker - Chicago, IL - d. 12-18-1993
actor: Ellis Smith "The Guiding Light"; "Lone Journey"
06-25-1903 - Anne Revere - NYC - d. 12-18-1990
actor: "Cavalcade of America"
08-30-1916 - Herman Klurfeld - The Bronx, NY - d. 12-18-2006
ghostwriter for Walter Winchell
10-01-1885 - Louis Untermeyer - NYC - d. 12-18-1977
writer: "Information Please"
10-04-1880 - Homer Rodeheaver - Union Furnace, OH - d. 12-18-1955
singer/composer: "Come On. Let's Sing"
10-07-1926 - Diana Lynn - Los Angeles, CA - d. 12-18-1971
actor: "Theatre Guild On the Air"
10-11-1897 - Leo Reisman - Boston, MA - d. 12-18-1961
conductor: "Sheaffer Revue"; "Johnny Presents"; "Your Hit Parade"
12-01-1898 - Cyril Ritchard - Syndey, Australia - d. 12-18-1977
actor: "Best Plays"; "United States Steel Hour"; "NBC Star Playhouse"
12-07-1888 - Heywood Broun - Brooklyn, NY - d. 12-18-1939
theatre critic: "Author, Author"; "Fleischmann's Yeast Hour"

Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 05:18:38 -0500
From: Don Shenbarger <donslistmail@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Radio in Cinema

On 12/16/2007Jim Hilliker wrote:
I learned about a 1925 Our Gang film called "Mary, Queen of Tots"
which featured a short scene showing Uncle John Daggett of KHJ radio
in Los Angeles, with the radio station as part of the plot of the
movie, after the kids turn on a radio. in somebody's home.

I'm wondering if this may have been the first Hollywood movie to
feature radio or radio broadcasting as part of the
storyline.  Anybody know the answer?

A related topic would be the use of radios as props.

"Zenith Radio, The Glory [removed]" says the first Zenith radios
placed with studio property managers for use in films was in
"Broadway Babies" released in 1929. Film companies probably used
Zenith radios on their own in earlier films.

Zenith had a policy of offering a pair of identical radios to
property managers with the understanding one of the sets would be
delivered to the home of the property manager and that Zenith would
receive several 8 x 10 photos with stars admiring the radio in the
film. The radio used in a film was usually a non-working mock-up.

Don

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #353
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