------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2007 : Issue 101
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Fred Foy will be live to take calls [ "Walden Hughes" <walden1@yesterdayu ]
La Rosa coda [ "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed]; ]
Command Performance [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
ILAM [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
Damon Runyon [ "wayne_johnson" <wayne_johnson@mind ]
anne of the air lanes [ Grams46@[removed] ]
ILAM Lost [ "Paul Thompson" <beachcrows@sbcglob ]
3-29 births/deaths [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
Godfrey and La Rosa [ "Irene Theodore Heinstein" <IreneTH ]
Re: Arthur Godfrey [ Dixonhayes@[removed] ]
Off Topic: XM Radio Activation Certi [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:46:32 -0400
From: "Walden Hughes" <walden1@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Fred Foy will be live to take calls on
Yesterday USA
Hi Everybody,
if you like to talk to Fred Foy live, call during the special broadcast on
Yesterday USA this Friday night starting at 9 PM Eastern time at (714)
545-2071. You can hear the show at the web site at [removed] and
click on 24k audio player if you have high speed internet, or 16k audio
player if you have slow speed. Take care,
Walden Hughes
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:29:55 -0400
From: "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: La Rosa coda
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So, Lee Munsick has abundantly and overwhelmingly stated his case that Julius
La Rosa WAS NOT fired live on-air by Arthur Godfrey. Since today's kids don't
dig Julius La Rosa and don't know from Arthur Godfrey, maybe one can say, to
put it all euphemistically into modern parlance, that La Rosa was "voted out
of the Little Godfreys."
But, then again, what's "American Idol," but a modern-day/modern technology
version of the "Major Bowes/Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour" and Godfrey's own
"Talent Scouts" programmes? Instead of applause-o-meters, we have
text-messaging.
America has spoken.
Derek Tague,
Mayor of Etherville
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------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:31:39 -0400
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Command Performance
Bill mentioned:
The Betty Hutton CP clip on Youtube got me to thinking, are there any films
of Command Performance available?
Oh yeah, and just how many CP shows are available?
Any suggestions for places to grab the best coppies of the most shows?
An answer to Bill's queries, I know of only two Command Performance episodes
on film. The AFRS produced a series of 26 (I believe it was 26) short films
of various programs they produced. Two were of Command Performance. I have
seen MAIL CALL, JUBILEE, [removed] WEEKLY, HOLLYWOOD CANTEEN and others as part
of that series.
There's a popular myth that the studios produced TONS of film shorts of
radio programs being acted out behind the microphones. Why I do not know.
The studios rarely did any of the sort. Usually a film producer or
production company thought it was a novel idea for theater goers to watch a
radio program in production, and got permission from either the radio
studios or the producer of the radio programs to film an episode and rarely
are the films of a complete show - usually it's part of the program. And
almost always for some publicity purpose.
Another point to note is that those films are not many at all. And they
were NEVER filmed when the programs were actually airing on the network.
They were actually filmed during a set time, agreed in advance with the
radio producers, and what you saw was actually the rehearsals. They would
NEVER have filmed when the show actually aired over the network "live."
Regarding the last question, films shorts like these are few and far
between. There are plenty of sources that specialize in film shorts but
they rarely custom so if you want a film short of Mel Blanc doing Private
Sad Sack with Lucille Ball, the rest of the shorts on the same DVD or VHS
are not all radio related. I myself have compiled DVDs editing clips from
various videos (I spent about $100 worth on videos to gather enough material
from each and every video to compile a 2 hour DVD with nothing but film
shorts pertaining to old-time radio but they never sold at the OTR
conventions so I stopped spending the money and time to compile such DVDs).
There is a fella at Cinevent in Columbus Ohio who usually has VHS videos (he
hasn't made the switch to DVD) for $[removed] a pop and each VHS has three or
four film shorts and if you browse long enough you can find a video that
happens to have a film short with an OTR-theme.
The question of "best quality and most shows" is a matter of how much you
are willing to pay. The old saying "you get what you pay for" is accurate.
Jay Hickerson says that 264+ radio programs are available in circulation,
and that Audio Classics ([removed]) has the entire run in their
archives. A friend of mine lent me an MP3 that contained 60+ radio
broadcasts of COMMAND PERFORMANCE last year and the sound quality was not
great. I ended up handing it back to him and have since been buying regular
CDs of that series from various vendors and have been extremely pleased with
the episodes I have listened to so far.
Martin Grams Jr.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:32:52 -0400
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: ILAM
I read Barbara's posting. Sorry about the confusion. Apparently I did not
make it clear enough for everyone. When I used the word "suck," I was
referring to the fact that I read all 1,600+ radio scripts from the
Hollywood run and most of the stories "suck." I was not referring to the
sound quality of recordings when I used that word. Travis Conner caught
what I was referring to and agreed with me about the serials he's read in
script form. (Incidentally, Travis, I too found STAIRWAY TO THE SUN one of
the worst serials ever written.)
John Dunning once commented in his book that BATTLE OF THE CENTURY was one
of the best serials of the series. Apparently he was taking this "fact"
from a periodical (probably a radio reviewer's review) because had he read
the script, he would have found it absolutely boring. Jack, Doc and Reggie
actually hide in a grain silo (with a girl) for about five consecutive
episodes talking and whispering, while hiding from the villains on the
ground outside. Not only are they NOT heroic by hiding, but like half of
the cliffhanger serials filmed for the movie theaters, what they talked
about in five episodes they could have done in one.
Of all the ILAM serials written, only one was a truly clever mystery (and
faithful enough that listeners could have figured it out too), and eight or
nine along the horror realm. Most of the horror serials, (the good serials)
exist in recorded form so again, if any lost episodes surface, most likely
the odds are they would be from the 40 or so serials that are not
entertaining, not well written, and carry very little plot (such as THE CASE
OF THE NEVADA COUGAR, MYSTERY OF THE LAZY K RANCH, THE TEXAS BORDER
SMUGGLERS, EIGHT KINDS OF MURDER, THE KILLER OF THE CIRCLE M, I AM THE
DESTROYER OF WOMEN and we cannot forget the five-part THE CORPSE IN
COMPARTMENT C, CAR SEVENTY-SIX). They suck.
Martin
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:54:52 -0400
From: "wayne_johnson" <wayne_johnson@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Damon Runyon
Anyone ever notice that "Broadway" and the other characters of The Damon
Runyon Theater never use contractions. Even when William Conrad guests ...
no contractions. Instead of " If you'll call her, she'll be here" they
state "If you will call her then she will be here".
Any idea why? Does anyone know of other shows that don't ue contractions?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 19:41:07 -0400
From: Grams46@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: anne of the air lanes
bill nadel has identified three of the actors in anne of the air lanes.
gerald mohr was arthur morrison and t. s.,
sam edwards was bobby,
and john gibson was pete.
bill believes the four programs he listened to were broadcast late 1938 or
very early 1939
and that it was a west coast syndication.
peace from kathy
support our troops; end the war
john 3:16
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 19:42:16 -0400
From: "Paul Thompson" <beachcrows@[removed];
To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: ILAM Lost
Martin Grams said in a recent post:
Fact remains, most of the "lost" I LOVE A MYSTERY shows are not
great episodes anyway. The scripts suck. I still believe that if 100
lost shows surfaced in circulation, only a couple would be noteworthy,
leaving everyone to question "so what was the big stinkin' deal?"
Martin Grams has made many contributions to the research and our
enjoyment of radio past. In my opinion, his 2003 "I Love A Mystery
Companion" is the definitive study of Carlton E. Morse and ILAM and
will no doubt remain thus for many years to come. Overall, his recent
post on the lost ILAM shows made some good points and provided some
interesting facts. However, his comments that the lost ILAM shows were
not great episodes, that the scripts suck and if found only a few
would be noteworthy were a bit harsh and, to say the least, surprising
to me and sure to rankle most die hard ILAM fans. In his defense, it
appears that Martin was trying to put the subject of the missing
episodes in perspective considering a digester had said he would give
up a kidney to hear some of the missing shows and Martin so commented
in his closing lines.
I think Martin and others of a younger generation overlook an
important point in assessing the ILAM scripts. Morse's written words
by themselves are not exactly works of prose nor are most of the plots
clever or deftly woven but to we dwindling few geezers left here on
the digest who grew up listening to the original ILAM stories
[removed] there is a magic in those episodes that defies a definitive
description. That magic is, for the most part, a result of the
Hollywood cast of Jack, Doc and Reggie whose own personas were
embraced when Morse scripted his stories. Anytime I read a synopsis or
excerpt of a script I don't just see words on paper I HEAR Michael
Raffetto, Barton Yarborough and Walter Paterson and their flawless
deliveries which brought ILAM to life those many years ago. To say
that if lost shows were to surface today that I and others would be
less than satisfied is simply not true. We geezers and without a doubt
many younger fans would be ecstatic.
Interestingly, as an aside, I have found that many of a younger
generation prefer the Mutual cast and versions of ILAM over that of
the Hollywood production. Perhaps it's because they have been able to
hear complete or near complete runs or perhaps that is all they were
exposed to in the beginning. Like taste in anything, it's purely
subjective but to me the magic is in the voices and inflections of the
original cast and that is what I hear when I read the those written
words and the magic begins. [removed] to hear them for real once again.
Paul Thompson
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:43:28 -0400
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 3-29 births/deaths
March 29th births
03-29-1867 - Cy Young - Gilmore, OH - d. 11-4-1955
baseball pitching great: "Feature Project: This Game of Baseball"
03-29-1878 - Frank Tinney - Philadelphia, PA - d. 11-28-1940
comedian, monologist: WWJ and WJR Detroit, Michigan
03-29-1888 - Earle Ross - Illinois - d. 5-21-1961
actor: Judge Horace Hooker "Great Gildersleeve"; J. R. Boone, Sr.
"Meet Millie"
03-29-1889 - Howard Lindsay - Waterford, NY - d. 2-11-1968
writer, host: "The Ford Theatre"
03-29-1890 - Joe Cook - Evansville, IN - d. 5-16-1959
comedian: "House Party"; "Shell Chateau"
03-29-1891 - Warner Baxter - Columbus, OH - d. 5-7-1951
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
03-29-1899 - Clifford Goldsmith - Aurora, NY - d. 7-11-1971
writer: Created "The Aldrich Family"
03-29-1902 - Onslow Stevens - Los Angeles, CA - d. 1-5-1977
actor: "Great Plays"
03-29-1905 - Philip Ahn - Los Angeles, CA - d. 2-28-1978
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
03-29-1906 - E. Power Biggs - West Cliff, England - d. 3-10-1977
organist: "Organ Program"
03-29-1908 - Dennis O'Keefe - Fort Madison, IA - d. 8-31-1968
actor: Treasure Agent Larsen "T-Man"
03-29-1912 - Fred Brady - NYC - d. 11-11-1961
actor: Himself "The Fred Brady Show"
03-29-1912 - Nancy Douglass - Bloomington, IL
actor: "My True Story"; "Brave Tomorrow"
03-29-1914 - Phil Foster - NYC - d. 7-8-1985
actor: "What's With Hubert"; "Baseball Round Table"; "Big Show"
03-29-1916 - Eugene McCarthy - Watkins, MN - d. 12-10-2005
[removed] senator: "Meet the Press"
03-29-1918 - Pearl Bailey - Newport News, VA - d. 8-17-1990
singer: "Kraft Music Hall "; "Tribute to Glenn Miller"
03-29-1919 - Eileen Heckart - Columbus, OH - d. 12-31-2001
actor: "Cloak and Dagger"; "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
03-29-1923 - Bob Stanton - White Plains, NY - d. 1-28-1989
vocalist: (Brother of Dick Haymes) "The Sealtest Village Store"
03-29-1924 - Ginger Dinning - Braman, KY
singer: (Dinning Sisters) "Dinning Sisters-Songs"; "Eddy Arnold Show"
03-29-1924 - Jackie Vernon - NYC - d. 11-10-1987
comedian: "Bill Stern Show"
03-29-1924 - Jean Dinning - Braman, KY
singer: (Dinning Sisters) "Dinning Sisters-Songs"; "Eddy Arnold Show"
March 29th deaths
01-10-1908 - Paul Henreid - Trieste - d. 3-29-1992
actor: "Suspense"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
05-03-1920 - John Lewis - LaGrange, IL - d. 3-29-2001
co-founder of "Modern Jazz Quartet": :Modern Jazz Quartet";
"Listener's Digest"
05-22-1906 - Harry Ritz - Newark, NJ - d. 3-29-1986
comedian: (The Ritz Brothers) "Hollywood Hotel"
06-15-1918 - Hal Roach, Jr. - Los Angeles, CA - d. 3-29-1972
producer, director: "My Little Margie"
08-06-1888 - Arthur Fields - Philadelphia, PA - d. 3-29-1953
singer: "Old Man of the Mountains"; "Pipe Smoking Time"
08-30-1902 - Ray Bloch - Alsace-Lorraine, France - d. 3-29-1982
conductor: "Milton Berle Show"; "Take It or Leave It"; "Johnny Presents"
10-03-1897 - Vincent Sorey - Turin, Italy - d. 3-29-1977
conductor/violinist: Musical director for WOR New York
11-01-1908 - Harry Ellis Dickson - Cambridge, MA - d. 3-29-2003
first violinist: "Boston Symphony Orchestra"; "Boston Symphony
Rehearsal"
11-05-1905 - Annunzio Paolo Mantovani - Venice, Italy - d. 3-29-1980
orchestra leader: "Music In the Air"; "Of These We Sing"
11-24-1906 - Willard P. Farnum - Mankato, MN - d. 3-29-1994
actor: Harold Teen "Harold Teen"; John Adams "Woman in White"
12-12-1918 - Joe Williams - Codele, GA - d. 3-29-1999
blues singer: "Count Basie and His Orchestra"; "Stars for Defense"
Ron Sayles
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:45:39 -0400
From: "Irene Theodore Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Godfrey and La Rosa
In the Sept 28, 1987 issue of The New Yorker there is a Profile of Julius
LaRosa written by Whitney Balliett (who died in Feb 2007 at age 80 and who
had been with The New Yorker for 44 years when he retired in 2001). This
Profile contains yet another of Julie's comments about his leaving the
Godfrey show, which is a very small part of an excellent Profile. I have
always trusted the standards of The New Yorker under which every contributor
worked. Whitney Balliett was a prestigious, highly regarded writer and I
doubt if he just sat there taking notes. This is one of the reasons I find
this segment convincing. I accidentally found this profile when browsing
through the index of the 8-DVD set of ' The Complete New Yorker' (through
2005 when the set was released) while looking through the archival list of
Profiles.
I've been following the Godfrey-La Rosa discussion for which I don't feel
there is or will ever be a definitive truth. I didn't plan to add to this
discussion. I was a very big fan of Arthur Godfrey both on the radio and
TV; I still don't dunk my teabags up and down because of Godfrey. I was
15 at the time of Julie's last show and a fan. I watched it, was confused,
disappointed and surprised. I became convinced he was fired because of
what I read in all the NY papers the next day and was very upset with
Godfrey's 'humility' comment. Did Julius La Rosa know it was his last
show? In all I've read I can't find verification that he did know. If he
didn't know, then how can we say he was not 'fired'. Regardless of his
desire to leave the show, if that was the case, the professional and
respectful way to handle it would have been to resolve it privately, not
let him loose publicly on a broadcast. Unprofessional and paternalistic at
best.
>From The New Yorker:
*Everything went well until the fall of 1953. A notice had been put on our
bulletin board to the effect that the cast of the TV show was to take some
sort of dancing lessons. I had a family emergency, and I asked to be
excused, and was. When I got back, I discovered I would be punished for
missing the lessons. Perhaps I had become a little smart-ass. I was
getting six or seven thousand fan letters a week, and I was only
twenty-three. But it was a red flag to me. to be treated arbitrarily, so I
got myself an agent-which was strictly against the Godfrey house rules. He
was Tommy Rockwell, of General Artists, and he wrote Godfrey a letter. I
knew something would happen, and it did---on October 4, 1953. I had been
waiting an hour and fifteen minutes to do my song on the television
show---it was 'Manhattan'---and after I did it Godfrey said, 'That was
Julie's swan song with us. He goes out on his own now, as his own star,
soon to be seen on his own program, and I know you wish him Godspeed, the
same as I do.' Somebody recently sent me a kinescope, and I think those are
Godfrey's words. He projected a kind of Peck's-bad-boy image, and had
turned malicious, because I---the little boy next door who happens to
sing---had supposedly lost my humility. There were headlines, and the press
came down hard on Godfrey, and what did I do but go and apologize to him for
what was happening-guilty because I had done what Daddy didn't want me to
do! I now understand that he was an imperfect man, not a nice man. He had
that fever of the successful which makes you become the inflated thing you
think you are. The Godfrey experience was central to my life. I'm the man
Arthur Godfrey fired, the man who lost his humility.*
~~Irene
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 10:05:00 -0400
From: Dixonhayes@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Arthur Godfrey
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In a message dated 3/27/07 8:33:28 PM Central Standard Time,
[removed]@[removed] writes:
all of them so
eager to tear down some idol they previously put up on a pedestal, as was
surely the case with Mr. Godfrey.
This appears to be one of television's earliest accounts of "spin" (I know,
the "swan song" happened on the radio-only portion of the feed). It certainly
would've been a lot easier for Godfrey to go to the media and say "Look, I
like Julius, but he wanted to be released from his contract and we already
discussed it. I would never do anything so shoddy and unprofessional as
pink-slip
someone on the air. I care about my performers and my viewers and listeners to
do anything like that. I wish him the best." The most negative thing Godfrey
should've said was "Julie and I didn't see eye to eye on anything but then
again, who does?" The phrase "lack of humility" should've never left his lips
that day. This would've robbed anyone of the chance to stretch this into
anything more. I know it sounds simplistic, that Godfrey is simply guilty of
bungled public relations, but this story wouldn't have survived that week in
1954 if
he handled it right and as we can clearly see here, it has survived Godfrey's
own lifetime by years and years. It's possible La Rosa did this on purpose
to put his name in the news but Godfrey didn't seem like the type of guy to
sit back and let it happen at his expense and could've defused it very easily
with the same kind of wit he used to sell Lipton Soup.
And for the record, when I hear all the negative stories are recapped all at
once about Godfrey (right or wrong), I still never hear that anti-semitism
allegation lumped in. I have to believe there is even less evidence of that
one
than any other one.
Dixon
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
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------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 10:11:38 -0400
From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Off Topic: XM Radio Activation Certificate
Folks;
If anyone is planning on activating an XM Satellite Radio in the next two
days (on or before the 31st of this month), please contact me directly. I
have a certificate for free activation (saves $10 on the web, $15 by
telephone) that expires on the 31st of this month and I can't use it. I'd
hate to see it go to waste.
Charlie
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #101
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