Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #64
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 2/11/2003 9:44 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2003 : Issue 64
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Re: Joe Friday's partners and writer  [ Ray Druian <bray@[removed]; ]
      Phony Tonto                           [ Ray Druian <bray@[removed]; ]
      DVD MP3 Update                        [ philipmarus@[removed] ]
      Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      PBX                                   [ "Joe Cline" <[removed]@[removed] ]
      P B X                                 [ dougdouglass@[removed] ]
      Re: PBX Operator                      [ Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed]; ]
      NOT Kearns (re PBX Operator)          [ Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed]; ]
      Re: 1930's radio                      [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      Rajput Hindu Secret Service Agent     [ "Don Frey" <alanladdsr@[removed] ]
      Actor Montgomery Cliff on OTR!        [ Trinapreston3@[removed] ]
      Two questions, two answers            [ Richard Carpenter <sinatra@ragingbu ]
      PBX                                   [ Dan Hughes <danhughes@[removed]; ]
      What is a PBX                         [ "Penne Yingling" <bp_ying@[removed] ]
      gunsmoke-frist year??                 [ michael chatterton <chat51@comcast. ]
      Ray Erlenborn silent actor            [ leemunsick@[removed] ]
      PBX                                   [ Bob Scherago <rscherago@[removed]; ]
      Tito Guizar                           [ Robert Griffin <griffinr@[removed]; ]
      Dumb Husbands, Etc.                   [ skallisjr@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 06:17:52 -0500
    From: Ray Druian <bray@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Joe Friday's partners and writer

    I was surprised to see that Joe Friday had so many different partners on
    TV between Ben Romero and Frank Smith, and that Frank Smith was played
    by more than one person. I can only remember a statement in the paper,
    that an original replacement for Barton Yarborough on radio, sounded so
    much like Joe Friday that people couldn't tell them apart, and so he was
    replaced.

    Many of the names listed as sidekicks on TV are names I keep hearing on
    the radio, on all sorts of shows. Does anyone know if tapes are
    available of those TV shows? After hearing the voices of Barney Philips,
    Herb Ellis, and so many others on the radio for so many years, I'm
    curious to see what they looked like.

    Thanx,

    Ray Druian

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 06:18:14 -0500
    From: Ray Druian <bray@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Phony Tonto
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
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    As I write this, I'm listening to "The Lone Ranger" on KNX. The particular
    episode is

    Doug's Great Adventure, Original airdate: 11-8-55.

    The voice of Tonto is not that of John Todd. Does anyone know if Todd
    either retired or passed away before the show completed its run? This
    Tonto's voice is a familiar one, that of an actor who usually plays the
    part of a rancher or henchman. As you're all probably aware, on the
    original radio series, none of the actors was ever named, except for the
    Brace Beemer, The Lone Ranger himself.

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 06:18:42 -0500
    From: philipmarus@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  DVD MP3 Update

    I recently discovered that not all DVD players support DVD data disks for
    playing back OTR mp3 files. My Philips DVD receiver is unable to read mp3
    files burned to blank DVDs but the same disc put in the APEX ($55) dvd player
    has no problems playing these mp3 shows burned on on DVD.

    Mike Kerezman

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 06:19:13 -0500
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Today in radio history

>     >From These Were The Days --

    1940 - NBC presented The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street for
    the first time. The famous Blue network series included several
    distinguished alumni -- among them, Dinah Shore and Zero Mostel. The
    chairman, or host, of The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street
    was Milton Cross. He would say things like, "A Bostonian looks like he's
    smelling something. A New Yorker looks like he's found it." The show
    combined satire, blues and jazz and was built around what were called
    the three Bs of music: Barrelhouse, Boogie Woogie and Blues.

      Joe

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

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 10:03:08 -0500
    From: "Joe Cline" <[removed]@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  PBX

>         So, what precisely is a "PBX"?

    Private Branch eXchange -- basically a small office switchboard.

    Joe Cline
    Charlotte

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 10:03:28 -0500
    From: dougdouglass@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  P B X

    PBX stands for Private Branch Exchange,  a telephone system on a
    customer's premises.  Back in the Lucy and BBDO days all PBX's were
    "cord boards". BTW, BBDO was ELdorado 5-5800 at 383 Madison Avenue.

    Doug Douglass

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 10:03:51 -0500
    From: Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: PBX Operator

    Derek Tague wrote:

>     ... the "classic" "I Love Lucy" episode "Job Switching," in which Lucy
>     and Ethel acquire jobs in a candy factory. When the duo were consulting
>     an employment agency, the agent asked them a battery of questions
>     dealing with work experience. One of these was "have you ever worked a
>     PBX?"

>     So, what precisely is a "PBX"?

    First, I *think* (it's been a while since I've seen the episode) that the
    interviewer at the employment agency was played by Joseph Kearns. It might
    not have been (I'd have to see the tape again), but Joseph Kearns was a
    LONG TIME REGULAR "bit" player in Old Time Radio, old TV, and old movies.

    He was "the man in black" who opened up most CBS Suspense epsidoes during
    the Roma Wines years, and he did numerous appearances in (mostly CBS)
    radio programs from Hollywood in the 1940's and 50's. He also popped up in
    numerous 1950's era TV shows (produced by various production companies,
    airing on any of the networks), playing this or that character, sometimes
    even as a "semi-regular". His final *regular* TV part was George Wilson in
    (with child actor Jay North as Dennis) in Screen Gems' "Dennis the
    Menace". He played George Wilson from 1959-62, until he got sick and died,
    the story has George Wilson moving away with brother John Wilson moving in
    to take over his brother's affairs. The part of John Wilson played by
    ANOTEHR long-time radio/TV/movies regular "bit" player, Gale Gordon!

    [removed] so as not to keep you in ....  susssss-PENSE any longer, the
    emplyement agent interviewing Lucy and Ethel (who I seem to think was
    played by perennial radio/TV/movie actor Joseph Kearns) is asking the
    girls about any previous job experience from a long list, one of the
    positions being "PBX Operator?"...

    P-B-X means "Private Branch eXchange" -- a private telephone exchange for
    a large (or medium sized) business. Back in the days of "I Love Lucy",
    most businesses with their own in-house telephone/intercom system needed
    *OPERATORS* to connect callers from outside into specific departments or
    to specific individuals at the company. Sometimes, those operators were
    needed to handle *ALL* outgoing calls from that business to "the rest of
    the world", even for local calls in that city. USUALLY, internal calls
    within the company were dialable by the employees themselves, just by
    dialing two, three, four, or five digits of the other "extension" within
    that company.

    These PBX Operators were *switchboard* operators on a "private" or
    "company" (internal) telephone switchboard with cords, jacks, plugs.

    You've heard the terms such as "during Orson Welles 'War of the Worlds',
    the CBS switchboard lit-up like a Christmas Tree" and [removed] the techie
    term for the CBS switchboard was the CBS "PBX".

    Today, businesses still have their own PBX internal telephone systems,
    sometimes even with attendants (girls) to answer, but there are no more
    cord-and-plug switchboards. The live "girls" sit at consoles or computer
    terminals, and everything in the system's electronics is fully
    computerized and automated for dialing, voicemail, and such. The term
    'PBX' (for Private Branch Exchange) is still used to this day for
    referring to such medium-to-large "internal" telephone systems in
    medium-to-large businesses.

    Mark J. Cuccia
    mcuccia@[removed]
    New Orleans LA

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 10:04:19 -0500
    From: Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  NOT Kearns (re PBX Operator)

    Derek Tague wrote:

>     ... the "classic" "I Love Lucy" episode "Job Switching," in which Lucy
>     and Ethel acquire jobs in a candy factory. When the duo were consulting
>     an employment agency, the agent asked them a battery of questions
>     dealing with work experience. One of these was "have you ever worked a
>     PBX?"

>     So, what precisely is a "PBX"?

    And then I replied (off the top of my head) regarding how I thought the
    emplyment agent was probably played by Joseph Kearns:

>     First, I *think* (it's been a while since I've seen the episode) that
>     the interviewer at the employment agency was played by Joseph
>     Kearns. It might not have been (I'd have to see the tape again), but
>     Joseph Kearns was a LONG TIME REGULAR "bit" player in Old Time Radio,
>     old TV, and old movies.

    Well, I should have checked other sources first, rather than relying on
    "faulty" memory (maybe I'm beginning to have "senior moments"?).

    Joseph Kearns did pop up in some "I Love Lucy" episodes in the 1950's, but
    according to Bart Andrews' "I Love Lucy" book, the Acme employment agent
    who interviewed Lucy and Ethel was "Mr. Snodgrass", played by Alan deWitt.
    It is also mentioned that the slogan of the employment agency is "People
    we place stay put".

    In Lucy's third TV series, "Here's Lucy", from 1968-74, she played widow
    Lucy Carter, and Gale Gordon played Harrison (Harry) Otis Carter, her
    brother-in-law and employer at the Carter Unique Employment Agency. She
    was his [removed] the slogan for the employment agency was "Unique jobs
    for unique people".

    Sorry for any mis-facts in my previous [removed] but I was visualizing
    Joseph Kearns in my mind. But I thought I'd still check what Bart Andrews
    had in his book. Maybe I should have checked his book BEFORE starting to
    write off the top of my head with my increasingly aging memory! :)

    Mark J. Cuccia
    mcuccia@[removed]
    New Orleans LA

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 10:05:14 -0500
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: 1930's radio

    On 2/11/03 6:25 AM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:

>     Even though it's been said that the very best of 1930's radio programs
>     were only mediocre, I really enjoy them (what I can find of them!).

    That's because most of those who say that have never actually had any
    real exposure to the very best of 1930's radio programs. It's unfortunate
    that bottom-of-the-barrel syndicated  serials are considered
    representative of the era by many OTR enthusiasts -- this is like
    assuming that Big Little Books are an appropriate standard against which
    to judge the quality of twentieth-century literature.

    In my own examination of 1930's radio I've found the the high points to
    be extremely high. For me, there is nothing in later decades to compare
    with the spontaneous excitement of hearing someone like Libby Holman
    performing live on the Vallee hour, or the fascinating sense of creative
    discovery you find in the earliest Columbia Workshop programs, or the
    pure depth of character development in an "Amos 'n Andy" serial
    storyline, or the anything-goes sensibility of Fred Allen's early work.

    Sure, there's also a lot of schlock out there -- but let's face it,
    there's also a lot of schlock to be found in the productions of later
    decades. The difference, for me, is that in the 1930s radio was still
    willing to take real chances -- formats were not so rigid, ideas were not
    so formulaic as they would become in the 1940s. As a result, even the
    decade's misfires can be fascinating.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 10:05:38 -0500
    From: "Don Frey" <alanladdsr@[removed];
    To: "otr message" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Rajput Hindu Secret Service Agent

    A subscriber was asking about this series, I started trying to find out
    about it, too, and ran across a website that puzzled me. I, using Google,
    put in Rajput Hindu Secret Service Agent and got some responses. The second
    listing was untitled document, clicked on it, and got a list of radio shows
    from a catalog, apparently, including Rajput.
    But I couldn't figure out whose site it was or anything about it. It was
    well done, large list of shows, but does anyone know where it comes from.
    "Steve" is apparently in the site name. Thanks in advance for any help.

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 10:05:51 -0500
    From: Trinapreston3@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Actor Montgomery Cliff on OTR!
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
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    Can anyone tell me if Actor Montgomery Cliff ever perform on the radio?  Is
    there any radio show listing you can find on the web about his radio career?

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 10:06:28 -0500
    From: Richard Carpenter <sinatra@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Two questions, two answers

      I am so proud: I can answer two questions raised by
    readers.

      First, did Algonquin J. Calhoun ever say that his
    client resents not only the allegation but also the
    alligator? I'm sure Elizabeth M. will have a more
    complete answer, but I distinctly remember the
    Kingfish himself uttering that immortal remark on the
    Amos 'n' Andy TV show. Of course, that doesn't mean
    that Calhoun or other sleazy lawyers didn't also make
    the remark on other shows. (Another Kingfish remark
    that is a favorite of mine: "Hmmmm ... I think I got a
    Cadillac in my eye.")

       Second, what was the name of Harold Peary's
    non-Gildersleeve show? I put my MP3 disc into my
    computer and checked the start of several shows. Each
    was called "The Harold Peary Show." (BTW, that disc is
    virtually my only one that repeatedly causes my
    computer to crash. Even my computer protests the
    quality of that show!)

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 10:07:59 -0500
    From: Dan Hughes <danhughes@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  PBX

    Derek wonders what a PBX is.

    A 10-second Google search gave me this:

     A PBX (private branch exchange) is a telephone system within an
    enterprise that switches calls between enterprise users on local lines
    while allowing all users to share a certain number of external phone
    lines. The main purpose of a PBX is to save the cost of requiring a line
    for each user to the telephone company's central office.

    The PBX is owned and operated by the enterprise rather than the telephone
    company (which may be a supplier or service provider, however). Private
    branch exchanges used analog technology originally. Today, PBXs use
    digital technology (digital signals are converted to analog for outside
    calls on the local loop using plain old telephone service).

    ---Dan

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 11:03:33 -0500
    From: "Penne Yingling" <bp_ying@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  What is a PBX

>     So, what precisely is a "PBX"?

    Ah, a question that I can associate with.  Anyone who has listened to Fibber
    McGee will remember Fibber McGee's phrase (when he picked up the phone),
    "Oh, is that you, Myrt?".  Myrt was one of the gals (excuse the slang term
    "gals" please, but that's what they were called then) in charge of operating
    the telephone company's PBX switchboard.  As we've all seen in old movies,
    Myrt sats at a switchboard, answers calls, and "switches" them, by placing
    one of those cables (a multitude) in the right connection hole.  The PBX
    behind the switchboard was a huge monster of a machine in charge of passing
    all those calls to the right location.  The "gals" at the switchboard all
    became friends on a first-name basis with all the people in town.
    Sometimes, the chats with the operators were a big part of the show.  I
    believe Jack Benny's main operator was "Mabel".  When Jack made a call, you
    could hear Mable (if I'm recalling the name correctly) talking with another
    operator about Jack's current situation.  Funny!     Penny

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 11:03:44 -0500
    From: michael chatterton <chat51@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  gunsmoke-frist year??

      does anybody know where i can find where i buy  frist year of
    gunsmoke i cant seem to find them anywhere?
       i really love that show ,i have one set on cassites and would love
    to get others!

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 11:05:23 -0500
    From: leemunsick@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Ray Erlenborn silent actor

    Bryan Wright came across a listing for Ray Erlenborn as an actor in silent
    movies.  Thanks for bringing this up, Bryan!

    Those who know Ray now may be startled that he was fully silent at any
    time!  But then of course except for barking, whinnying and the like, most
    of his work in radio and TV required him to be silent.

    I have a video of a Red Skelton program where he kibitzes with Red (with
    whom Ray worked for years),  even engaged in a bit of one upmanship and
    cracked up the star of the program.  I've another where Ray and a colleague
    demonstrate radio sound effects for Art Baker on "You Asked For It".  Here
    they saluted Mel Blanc's treatment of Jack Benny's Maxwell car, and a
    smaller version of Fibber McGee's closet.  Both are from around
    1950-51.  In these, Ray looks like the picture of him on Bob Mott's
    excellent book about [removed] like he looks now, the handsome devil!

    Ray and Meridy and I Email back and forth a lot.  He was in a lot of silent
    movies as a very young and undoubtedly precocious child actor, going all
    the way back to the original Ramon Novarro 1925 "Ben Hur" with Francis X.
    Bushman.  There, Ray was one of thousands of extras, but he wrote me how to
    pick him out in the crowd in the chariot race scene.  It seems virtually
    everyone in Hollywood was in that [removed] list of names both credited
    and not, reads like a who's who from that day and afterwards.

    A number of Ray's credits are indicated on [removed], but by no means
    all.  He was in many other films, up to 1949, when he appeared as a
    cameraman in "The Story of Seabiscuit", with Shirley Temple, Lon
    McCallister, and Barry Fitzgerald.

    By the way, I should take this opportunity to correct an error I made some
    weeks back, when I said that Barry Fitzgerald and his brother Arthur
    Shields never appeared together in a film.  That's according to [removed]'s
    system of calling up data for two or more performers working together in
    one film.  They missed that way, although both are listed in the cast for
    what I at the time had forgotten, one of the favorite films in our John
    Wayne collection.  In "The Quiet Man", Shields steals the clergyman role
    usually played by his brother, while Fitzgerald plays the town bookmaker!

    I've managed to get prints of several Erlenborn movies, including
    "Criminals Within" (1943), a story of spies in the [removed] Army (he wasn't one
    of them, he helped track down and capture them).  In another story, his big
    establishing scene right in the beginning of the film is
    missing.  Drat!  There are yet others I'm still seeking.

    Ray and Meridy recently moved into the SAG/AFTRA/Motion Picture Actors Home
    on Mulholland Drive in LA's Woodland Hills community.  We wish them the
    best in their new digs!

    Lee Munsick

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 11:05:57 -0500
    From: Bob Scherago <rscherago@[removed];
    To: Old Time Radio <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  PBX

    Derek Tague <derek@[removed]; asked:

>     So, what precisely is a "PBX"?

    A PBX was one of those old telephone switchboards, where
    the receptionist/operator would insert patchcords into jacks
    in the vertical "board" to connect the phone lines to the
    appropriate extensions.

    --
    Bob Scherago
    [removed]

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 11:06:04 -0500
    From: Robert Griffin <griffinr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Tito Guizar

    Can anyone tell me if there are recordings of the "Tito Guizar and His Guitar"
    radio program? And if they exist, is there some way to acquire copies?
    Thank you. -- Bob Griffin

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 11:06:25 -0500
    From: skallisjr@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Dumb Husbands, Etc.

    Michael Biel, commenting on Ted Kneebone's observation on parents on OTR
    sitcoms being "dummies," notes,

>     I've never felt that the parents in these two shows were dummies.  The
>     family where the father REALLY was a dummy was The Life of Riley.  But
>     Peg was never really a dummy--she had to have the brains for both of
>     them.

    There is something of a comedic tradition in situation comedies that, if
    not a dummy, the male head of household is somewhat impractical.  In one
    of my favorite programs, the Phil Harris - Alice Faye show, Phil is
    always being talked into strange adventures by Frankie Remley.  Alice is
    the one with her feet firmly planted on the ground.  As Michael Beil
    pointed out, Peg was the smart one on The Life of Reilly.  Molly was more
    grounded than Fibber on their show, and the like.  The male usually
    drives the situation into whatever humor is generated, and it's up to the
    lady to keep a clear head.

    I suspect that a part of this derives from a culture that didn't want to
    pick on its women, so the male had to be the one whom they saw as the
    buffoon, to a greater or lesser degree.  There were exceptions, but
    usually outside of family.  Thus, My Friend Irma had a ditzy central
    character, but her friend was practical, etc.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #64
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