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

[removed] Digest				Volume 96 : Issue 414

Table Of Contents: 

	 Ray Bradbury's OCTOBER COUNTRY
	 VHS HiFi
	 The Bickersons / Baby Snooks
	 Larry Stevens
	 Re: Scariest radio horror
	 Typing and Stereotyping
	 Falcon/Avenger & more

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Date: Sun, 27 Oct 1996 01:43:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: JSEXTON@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Ray Bradbury's OCTOBER COUNTRY
Message-id: <01IB4C095T028WW5UD@[removed]>
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT

  Ray'
  Ray Bradbury's OCTOBER COUNTRY is one of my favorite collection of his
works and HOMECOMING is the favorite story in the [removed] anyone
know if this great little tale has been available on OTR??Thanks,John Sexton
(JSEXTON@[removed])

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

Date: Sun, 27 Oct 1996 06:40:03 -0800
From: dabell@[removed] (Alan Bell)
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: VHS HiFi
Message-Id: <v01520d00ae979ec20f89@[[removed]]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I ruefully must agree with Ron Hare when he writes:

>Also, VHS HIFI problems are not expected to occur with only a few machines.
>It's a delicate process using such a small portion of that half-inch tape
>that any monor error anywhere is likely to bite you in the future.
>Archivists don't like the odds.

I filled 8 VHS tapes with OTR and was delighted with the quality and
economy. All at the slow speed, they sounded great. Then my VCR finally
gave out and I discovered that these tapes do not track well with *ANY* of
the VCR's I play them on. At least not reliably. I've tried our new one,
and others from friends and family. It's definitely a crap shoot. I believe
I will be dubbing them off to cassette eventually.

It did seem almost too good to be true, and evidently it was.

>The 8mm tape audio format is far better even though the tape is narrower.
>In a good deck, the process is PCM and 1/6 of the helical scan is devoted
>to stereo audio.

I presume you're referring to Hi-8? (Sorry, I don't know what PCM means.)

_____________________________________________________________________
ALAN BELL  3768 Sonoma Avenue  Santa Rosa, CA 95405  dabell@[removed]
=============================707-546-6988============================

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

Date: 27 Oct 96 10:13:33 EST
From: Steve Lewis <[removed]@[removed]>
To: Old Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed]>
Cc: Donald Dortmund <[removed]@[removed]>
Subject: The Bickersons / Baby Snooks
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

> Can anyone please give me some information about two shows: The >Battleling
Bickersons and The Baby Snooks Show.
>I have heard all sorts of stories that they were parts of other shows >and then
became their own shows, and went from short sketches to a >full 30   minutes. 

THE BICKERSONS started off as a sketch on the hour-long CHARLIE McCARTHY SHOW in
the mid-1940's, where Don Ameche and Francis Langford were regular supporting
players.  In 1946 THE BICKERSONS graduated to their own show, DRENE TIME.  The
format of the DRENE TIME was a 15-minute comedy monologue by Danny Thomas,
followed by a 15-minute BICKERSONS sketch.  In 1947 the sponsor became Old Gold
Cigarettes and the comedy monologue segment was taken over by Frank Morgan.  The
show then left the air, returning for 1 season in 1951, starring Francis
Langford and Lew Parker.  THE BICKERSONS was written for it's entire run by
Philip Rapp, who just passed away a few months ago.

BABY SNOOKS started off as a regular sketch on the ZIEGFIELD FOLLIES ON-THE-AIR
in 1936.  The character was next heard weekly on the hour-long GOOD NEWS OF 1937
(also 1938 and 1939).  SNOOKS star Fanny Brice was a regular on both of these
series, playing other roles in addition to Snooks.  In 1940 GOOD NEWS turned
into MAXWELL HOUSE COFFEE TIME, which paired a 15-minute monologue by Frank
Morgan with a 15-minute BABY SNOOKS sketch.  In 1944 THE BABY SNOOKS SHOW
started airing as a 30-minute sitcom, and lasted until Fanny Brice's death in
1951.

Steve Lewis   

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

Date: 27 Oct 96 10:13:19 EST
From: Steve Lewis <[removed]@[removed]>
To: Old Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed]>
Cc: Bruce Toews <toews@[removed]>
Subject: Larry Stevens
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

>Who was Larry Stevens? Am I right in assuming that he subbed for Dennis
>Day on Jack Benny while he was in the service? And was it always 
>understood that Dennis would be back?

Yes, Larry Stevens was Dennis Day's replacement while Dennis was serving
his country.  On Dennis' last show, Jack wished him luck and told him
on-air that his job would be waiting for him when he returned.

>Also, can someone give me the date of the Jack Benny episode where the 
>broadcast was from the [removed] Saratoga? Finding this episode appears to
>be the only way I'll ever be able to get a copy of Mr. Kitzel singing 
>"Pickle in the Middle with the Mustard on Top".

I think you may mean the broadcast of 4/21/46, though I'd have to listen
to it to be sure that Kitzel (played by Artie Auerbach) appears on the
show.  I'm sure that Mr. Kitzel sings the "Pickle" song on more than on
episode, however.  And I think he also sings it on episodes of the
ABBOTT & COSTELLO SHOW, where the character was also a regular for a
short time.

Steve Lewis
 

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

Date: Sun, 27 Oct 1996 10:24:08 -0500 (EST)
From: Room 237 <room237@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Scariest radio horror
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

> From: Joe Oliver <joliver@[removed]>
>         Before we fully gear up into our seasonal habit of nominating our
> all-time favorite scary radio shows, I just have to tell you that it's
> really no contest.  

[removed] beg to differ.  ;)  I still think that "The Debt" & "The Porch 
Light" from the Canadian horror series Nightfall are the 2 scariest 
programs I've ever heard.

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

Date: Sun, 27 Oct 1996 12:29:57 -0500
From: Bigkids@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Typing and Stereotyping
Message-ID: <961027122956_1913255123@[removed]>

Tom Heathwood's mention of "The Goldbergs" reminds me of my wonderful
Austrian-born grandmother, the repository in her day of family history. She
used to tell stories about "the poor old man." ("Which poor old man?" I asked
her. "The emperor," she replied, without batting an eye.) . . . and of "your
cousin Aaron" who served in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, and died in Spain
fighting the Fascists. 

I searched for someone who had known Aaron, for 50 years -- and found him,
three years ago, living within half an hour's drive of my house. Ain't life
peculiar?

Anyway, my grandmother's favorite radio show was "The Goldbergs," created by
and starring Gertrude Berg. (Her other idol was Molly Picon, a Yiddish stage
star.) She loved "The Goldbergs" because it reflected the life of a poor (or
lower middle class) Jewish immigrant family surviving in the urban rush of
New York. She didn't resent it, she didn't consider it "ethnic stereotyping,"
she laughed at its amusing *truthfulness*.

Her other favorites -- which I heard for many hours in her kitchen --
included Kate Smith and Mary Margaret McBride. I must confess that "MMM"
bored me, but I enjoyed the Kate Smith show -- it was a combination of banter
and discussion of the day's events (her partner was Ted Collins) interspersed
with music. And could Kate Smith ever sing!

I imagine that Kate Smith's popularity in her day was as great as that of
Oprah Winfrey today. An example of OTR that doesn't seem to warrant much
discussion nowadays, but I think she was great.

My grandma was also a great admirer of the novel and film, "A Tree Grows in
Brooklyn," which reflected the life of a poor immigrant Irish family. The
similarities of the immigrant experiences far outweighed the differences
caused by different ethnicities (and religions). If she were alove today, I
suspect that my grandmother would empathize with Puerto Ricans, Chicanos,
Haitians, Vietnamese, Laotians, whoever else arrives in this country with
nothing but the clothes on their backs and have to struggle to make a new
life for themselves.

I think we've lost something by deciding that ethnic portrayals are (almost)
automatically negative and therefore objectionable. I don't think anybody
thought that "The Goldbergs" was offensive to Jews, or "Life with Luigi" to
Italians, or "Amos 'n' Andy" to blacks, or "Abie's Irish Rose" to Jews *and*
Irish . . . *at the time*.

It's only our historical revisionism that makes them into "bigoted and
demeaning stereotypes."

On the other hand, characters like those portrayed by Stepin Fetchit, Mantan
Moreland, etc., on the radio and in films, were indeed objectionable
stereotypes. "Foots do yo' stuff" and such lines, are painful to listen to.

But still, there was the famous line variously attributed to Hattie McDaniel,
Louise Beavers, and other black actresses of the 1930s and '40s: "It's better
to earn $7000 a week for portraying a maid than $7 a week for being one."

You betcha!

Dick Lupoff

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

Date: Sun, 27 Oct 1996 14:00:36 -0500
From: JRayb71827@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Falcon/Avenger & more
Message-ID: <961027140035_1582328440@[removed]>

In re: kestrell1 question about similar voices on "The Falcon" and "The
Avenger," I could find only one name for the lead role on "The Avenger, "
which was a pretty direct take-off on "The Shadow."  The part was played by
James Monks.  On the other hand, there were several "Falcons" -- Les Damon,
George Petrie, Les Tremayne, James Meighan and Barry Kroeger.  So apparently,
the voice similarity was just a coincidence.
   A passing thought on the "Amos 'n' Andy" conversations.  I may be the only
one (certainly one of the few) on the Digest who interviewed Charles Correll
and believe me, they never onc e had a racial slur in mind.  It might be
interesting to point out that a black writer on a Kansas City newspaper once
wrote a highly positive review of the program.  His name was Roy Wilkins and
he didn't change his viewpoint until he became executive director of the
NAACP.  Reminds of General Colin Powell's comment in his book that he
listened to and enjoyed
A 'n' A.  He said it was only later that he found out that he wasn't supposed
to enjoy it.  And, yes, I play the program on my radio show as an important
part of broadcasting history and have had no complaints.  As to someone's
comment that it might not be fitting at the FOTR convention in Newark, a few
seasons back, I portrayed Andy in a brief skit there and received nothing but
favorable reaction.




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End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #414
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