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	  	         === Last Update 1/17/95  ====





	    [removed]   Volume 96 : Issue 162


Articles in this issue of [removed]:

	 Shows that run long
	 technical question
	 ADMINISTRIVIA: WWW page notes
	 15 minutes equals 14:30
	 Blue Network
	 Re: Hoppy, Cambridge Ohio & Other Great Issues
	 What is or is not OTR
	 JOHNNY MERCER
	 Blue Network
	 Jack Benny Si/Sy/Sue/Sew
	 Correction - Jack Benny Si/Sy/Sue/Sew
	 The Eternal Light
	 Network cutoff, Blue Network, Baby Snooks

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

Date: Fri, 3 May 1996 14:45:59 -0500
From: vintage@[removed] (Andy Blatt)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Shows that run long
Message-Id: <v01540b03adb0115df502@[[removed]]>

A common complaint of mine regarding a show that obviously ran way over
(too long even for a conventional C-62 (even C-64) cassette is [removed]
Radio Theater ran long.  I don't know if these were from discs or not, but
here is an example of a show that was longer than 58, 59 or even 60
minutes.  And the big question is, with the middle break not coming halfway
through the program, where do you break it in half to put on a C-64 or
C-65?

The Blue Network (this will be a big question as far as responses) was
NBC's other Network (as opposed to the main network, the Red).  I know
we've come full circle in this country, but RCA/NBC owned two stations in
NY (as I recall) and was forced to sell one so they unloaded the Blue one
and the Blue Network as [removed] the FCC could care less and GE/RCA/NBC
is even out of the radio business altogether.  NBC Radio is owned/run by
Mutual/Westwood One and leases the name "NBC Radio" (notice radio is
prominent) from the NBC folks until the year 2000 or thereabouts.

Max:  [removed] spoiled it for me!  I never got to the part about who
(what) Rosebud was!

Andy Blatt

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

Date: Sat, 04 May 1996 15:07:39 -0500 (EST)
From: MORTN2HHC@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: technical question
Message-id: <01I4B8YMFYNM9D6G0T@[removed]>

Hi gang,

This is for all you techies out in radio land.  I have a typical
setup, a receiver, an open reel machine and a cassette deck.  I
am going to add another deck to  the system.  

Now, here is the problem.  I want to be able to record from any
of the three machines to any of the other machines.  Many years
ago I had a passive box that would allow me to do this in any and
all combinations. 

Does anyone know of a place where I could order such an animal? 
I live in New York and am amazed how many electronic outlets have
closed down.

 Thanks in advance for any help.

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

Date: Sat, 04 May 1996 15:31:40 -0500
From: Lou Genco <lgenco@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: ADMINISTRIVIA: WWW page notes
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Recent additions to my OTR WWW page include short sound samples from three
of Jack Webb's radio shows:  Dragnet, Jeff Regan, and Pat Novak for Hire.
Also added two Sherlock Holmes soundbytes, one from 1939, the other from 1945.

Here are the top ten sub-pages, with the number of visits between May 1 and
noonish, May 4.

   609 OTR Entry Page Only
   574 Table of Contents
   132 Reference Menu
    91 OTR Sound Snippets
    85 Online Logs
    74 Commercial Catalogs
    64 General Info
    60 Stars of Yesteryear PCX
    52 OTR Bulletin Board
    50 Humongous Database Search Engine

The ten most popular sound bytes during the same period are:

    22 [removed]    1939 Shadow
    19 [removed]  Beechnut gum commercial
    16 [removed]   Carters Little Liver Pills commercial
    13 [removed]   Phillip Morris commercial
    13 [removed]    Green Hornet Intro
    12 [removed]  The Whistler intro
    12 [removed]    Ovaltine commercial (Little Orphan Annie)
    12 [removed]  Lone Ranger intro
    11 [removed]    1948 Shadow
    11 [removed]    Pepsi-Cola commercial

You are welcome to stop by and leave a note in the OTR Bulletin Board.

We are on the Internet 24 hrs/day, for your viewing and listening pleasure.
"Tune in" anytime, to [removed]        ;-)

Lou
------------------------------------------------------------------------
WWW page on "Old Time Radio":                   [removed]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Sat, 4 May 1996 17:50:57 -0400
From: Ted McKay <tmckay@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: 15 minutes equals 14:30
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Standard times for network shows were 14:30 and 29:30 until sometime in
the mid to late 50's, when the networks, in an attempt to pacify
affiliates who were clamoring for more local commercial time, started
breaking at 13:50 and/or 28:50.  This allowed the local station to do a
:10 and a :60, or two :30's and a :10 at the break. Most 15 minute shows
had two :60 commercials plus open and close billboards plus all the
little freebies that could be packed in along the way  [removed] The Hit
Parade "....and now, a Lucky Strike Extra!" or "Jello again, this is
Jack Benny."  Half hour shows usually had three :60's plus billboards.

Ted McKay Cincinnati, OH

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

Date: Sat, 04 May 96 16:34
From: "bill harris" <billhar@[removed]>
To: "otr digest" <otr@[removed]>
Subject: Blue Network
Message-Id: <m0uFpwx-000YAwC@[removed]>

chris holm writes:


>A quick question:
>Was the Blue network an independent network, or was it a part of a 
>bigger network?

The Blue Network was a part of NBC. NBC was formed in 1926 with 
twenty-one affiliate stations. WEAF was purchased from AT&T and this
became the base station for the Red Network. WJZ in New York became
the base station for the Blue Network. Exactly why they were called
the Red and Blue Networks in not clear, but it is believed that the
network engineers used red and blue lines on a map to designate the
network routings.
A third NBC network was begun in April of 1927, the Pacific Coast 
Network which stretched for Los Angles to Settle and was based on 
stations KGO and KPO in San Franscisco. This network only lasted a 
little over year and then NBC began fulltime coast-to-coast programming
on both the Red and Blue networks.

Bill Harris

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

Date: Sat, 4 May 1996 22:02:46 -0400
From: PDKinder@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Re: Hoppy, Cambridge Ohio & Other Great Issues
Message-ID: <960504220245_484466645@[removed]>

Now I'll admit that "Cousin" Bill Boyd wasn't the world's best actor, but of
the kid westerns on radio -- Gene Autry aside -- his was the best.  The Cisco
Kid was singularly witless compared to Hoppy, and its production values were
certainly lower.

I just finished listening to a Burns & Allen w/Boyd as the guest.  He more
than held his own w/Gracie, and his delighted laughter at her lines comes
across loud and clear, though he managed to get his off just right.

Having grown up 30 miles east of Cambridge on US 40, I can hardly fault the
town for wanting to celebrate its connexion with Bill Boyd, though he came
from Boydsville, a village a few miles away which I-70 killed.  There's not a
hell of a lot to celebrate in Appalachian Ohio.  With the mines and the mills
closed, the football teams aren't even as good as they used to be.

BTW, does anyone have tapes of Bob Prince doing Pirates games between 1958
and 1960?  Also, Rege Cordic at KDKA 1958-1964?

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

Date: Sat, 4 May 1996 22:33:39 -0400
From: "Robert M. Connelly" <rush@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: What is or is not OTR
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

I have only had time for lurking for the past couple/three months or so and as
a result I am woefully behind in my reading, but am rapidly catching up.

I have been particularly interested in the discussion of what is or is not Old
Time Radio. since I know Bruce Rudesill personally (we visit in each other's
homes), his comment that the one, the only the unique Stan Freberg was not OTR
rather startled me. I can uncerstand why he says that, but must heartily
DISagree with him.

I grew up with radio - I was born in 1926 - and remember our first radio: an
old RCA slant-front 3-dial tuner with the speaker sitting on top and the
amplifier on the next shelf down and the combination of storage battery/dry
cells on the bottom shelf and how difficult it was, at times, for my father to
tune in to the proper station to get Amos 'n' Andy and Lum and  Abner without
missing anything.

It never occurred to me - even well into the forties and early fifties - that
anyone was saving any of this stuff. some of it was absolutely marvelous such
as the two shows above plus Vic 'n'Sade (the Oasis in the desert of soap
opera), Lowell Thomas and the Blue Sunoco News and jack Benny and Fred Allen
and and and. As a matter of fact when I did start to collect OTR approximately
20 years ago, I was simply amazed to discover anyone had actually kept any of
those lousy soaps - they were all bad IMNSHO.

Because of a multitude of factors, I pretty much had forgotten about listening
to the radio except in the car between stops during my selling days. Thus I
did not know about Stan Freberg's summer replacement show which was, as it
turned out, just about the last gasp of Old Time Radio. When I saw it in
Nostalgia's catalogue some years ago, I bought the twelve shows they had on
R/R tape and I broadcast them when I was host of a 4 1/2 hour Saturday
afternoon show that featured OTR that included big band remotes by such as
Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, etc., etc. They are
hysterically funny - every single one of them.

Perhaps it is for that reason that I use that summer (I do not remember the
year) as the cut-off date in my own mind as to what separates OTR from the
current material which mostly, I gather, comes from the BBC. Thus Stan Freberg
barely fits into the OTR frame. FWIW, them's my sentiments. I would like to
thijnk I am in the majority! <g>

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

Date: Sat, 4 May 1996 19:49:34 -0700
From: bigbands@[removed] (bigbands )
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: JOHNNY MERCER
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

I am quite a fan of Johnny Mercer. I recently completed an 18 page list 
of recordings/music that I have in my collection. If you would like an 
e mail copy please [removed] of this is readily available in a music 
shop.

bigbands@[removed]

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

Date: Sat, 4 May 1996 23:03:17 -0400
From: "Robert M. Connelly" <rush@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Blue Network
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Chris Holm asks about the "Blue Network". 

There were four major networks in the days up til near the end of World War
II: Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS) and
the Red Network of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) which carried the
top ranked shows on NBC. The Blue Network was the other NBC network carrying
the less-rated shows such as the Metropolitan Opera, NBC Symphony, and those
comedy and/or drama shows which did not have the highest ratings. 

Parenthetically there was only one show that ran on all four networks at the
same time: Vic 'n' Sade. It was broadcast live and simultaneously transcribed
at 8am CST (or CDT) from Chiago for NBC Red. The three transcriptions then
were couriered to the other three networks for broadcast at later times in the
day.

BTW, NBC Blue became American Broadcasting Co and once again this was due to
governmental interference in private business. It was, you see, "unfair" for
NBC to own TWO networks!

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

Date: Sun, 5 May 1996 00:07:34 -0400
From: OTRadio2@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Jack Benny Si/Sy/Sue/Sew
Message-ID: <960505000733_106842761@[removed]>

Hi,
In digest no. 157, Marty was asking for the Jack Benny program in which the
famous "Si/Sy" routine involved Si's sister Sue who Sews.  The show you're
looking for Marty is dated March 15, 1953.  The routine occurred during a
skit of "High Noon".

Hope this helps.

Darrell Boomgaarden

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

Date: Sun, 5 May 1996 00:45:50 -0400
From: OTRadio2@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Correction - Jack Benny Si/Sy/Sue/Sew
Message-ID: <960505004550_528483514@[removed]>

Hi again,

I'm terribly sorry.  I resonded a few minutes ago to Marty's question on the
date of the Jack Benny show in which the routine between Jack and Mel Blanc
"Si/Sy" exchange included the reference to Mel's sister Sue who Sews.  I gave
the wrong date of the show.  I indicated that it was March 15, 1953 and
that's wrong.  That's the date of the AFRS transmission.  The original show
aired on September 28, 1952.

I don't know how many of these "Si/Sy" routines there were but I can think of
at least 5 or 6 off hand.  One of my favorites was the show which aired on
October 18, 1953.  The show's skit was "Wings of the Hawk" and Mel included
his son in the "Si/Sy" routine.

Again, sorry for the confusion

Darrell Boomgaarden

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

Date: Sun, 5 May 1996 00:49:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: "'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: The Eternal Light
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

> Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 20:57:38 -0700 (PDT)
> From: roy547@[removed] (Roy Trumbull)
> To: [removed]@[removed]
> Subject: The Eternal Light
> Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
> 
> I was wondering if there is a site which has a complete archive
> of the Eternal Light which was narrated by Alexander Skorbey.
> In the early years of the program they were dramas and later on
> the got quite talky. The early period I believe coincided with 
> the founding of the State of Israel. I recall them as being
> first rate with good scripts and fine acting.
> I think it was carried on NBC.

It was, and to this day, NBC uses the title for occasional Sunday 
specials of Jewish content.

I don't know what the dates were of the original radio show, but I 
remember it, with dramatic productions, in the early 1960s.

An amusing story I once heard was that when they were doing a 
dramatization of the story of Joseph, at the point where Joseph's 
brothers have captured him in a pit and are about to sell him, the 
director told the actor playing Joseph to ad lib for his brothers to let 
him out of the pit, rather than reading the words in the script, in order 
to sound more spontaneous.  So, on live radio, Joseph said, "Jesus 
Christ, get me out of here!"

======================================================================
A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                                      617/367-0468
15 Court Square                                   lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2573                    [removed]~lawyer/
======================================================================

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

Date: Sun, 5 May 1996 11:36:10 -0400
From: KENPILETIC@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Network cutoff, Blue Network, Baby Snooks
Message-ID: <960505113609_484665237@[removed]>

Hi Gang -                           May 5 - 1996 -- Sunday 9 AM cdt 

I, too, misunderstood Max Schmid's question regarding network programs
that "ran long".   I would have answered the same way that Hank Hinkel
did (speed problem with the tape).   However, now that Max clarified 
the question, the answer is THE NETWORK CUT THEM OFF !
There is one classic Fred Allen program where he was cut off because he
was running long.  The following week he started his program with the
ending of last week's show.  Sorry, I don't remember the dates, but they
are in common circulation.  When Fred's show starts it sound like the 
end.  Then he explains.  If you go back and play the end of the previous
week's show it becomes clear.  I guess Fred Allen didn't like getting 
cut off.  --  By the way, few network programs ever ran over. 

-----  New Topic  -----  The Blue Network   

Chris Holm asked about the Blue Network. 
The National Broadcasting Company had two networks, and they were 
connected by telephone wires.  On their "telephone map" they used a blue
pencil to connect one group of stations and a red pencil to connect the
other group of stations.  They were called the "red" and "blue" networks.  
Although they both belonged to the National Broadcasting Company, they 
were usually refered to as either the "Red" or the "Blue" network.  The
two networks did not broadcast the same material as a rule.   The Federal 
government said that The National Broadcasting Company could own only 
one network, so they split, and started calling the "Red" network the 
National Broadcasting Company and the "Blue" network became the American 
Broadcasting Company.  Some years later they called them NBC and ABC. 

------  New Topic  ----  Baby Snooks 

In a previous issue a poster said that Baby Snooks was played by 
"Some Woman".   That woman was the great Fanny Brice.  She started the
Baby Snooks routine in vaudeville in 1912, although the character was
not called Baby Snooks at that time.  Brice used the baby character 
off-and-on for several years and finally BABY SNOOKS appeared in 1936. 
By the way, Fanny Brice's real name was Fannie Borach.  She changed 
both her last name and the spelling of her first name.  John Dunning 
has 2 full pages devoted to Baby Snooks in TUNE IN YESTERDAY.  It's
surprising how fleeting is fame.  "Some Woman".   If you are not
familiar with Fanny Brice, see if you can catch the movie "Funny Girl" 
on one of the Movie Classics channels.  It's fiction, but based on fact.

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

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

    


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---- 
End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #162

