
 SEE INFO SECTION AT END OF THIS DIGEST FOR UNSUBSCRIBE AND OTHER INFORMATION. 
	  	         === Last Update 1/17/95  ====





	    [removed]   Volume 96 : Issue 196


Articles in this issue of [removed]:

	 Marc/Craig Stevens
	 Re: Joe Penner and the Marx Brothers
	 John Brown; Desilu
	 Multi-grooved records
	 Falstaff Openshaw/Martin Kane
	 Philadelphia OTR Request
	 Fear That Creeps?
	 Gildersleeve Movies
	 A1 Gazette
	 Joe Penner and "Wanna Buy a Duck?"
	 Why-a no chicken?
	 Viaduct
	 Re: "Why a duck?"/Princess Pet Program
	 June Timelines
	 Nichols and May
	 Joe Penner and the Marx Brothers
	 Janet Waldo
	 Don McNeill
	 ADMINISTRIVIA: OTR WWW Page Updates
	 Re: Martin Kane
	 Rathbone & Bruce before 1945

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

Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 09:47:32 -0800
From: dabell@[removed] (Alan Bell)
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Marc/Craig Stevens
Message-Id: <v01520d00add4d5d3dcc9@[[removed]]>

Alan Chapman <[removed]@[removed]> wrote:

>Marc Stevens took over the part briefly in '53 (Stevens later gained >fame
>as TV's Peter Gunn).

Uh, make that CRAIG Stevens who played Peter Gunn.

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

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

Date: Fri, 31 May 96 14:36:27 EDT
From: filfeit@[removed] (Fil Feit)
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Re: Joe Penner and the Marx Brothers
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Bigkids@[removed] wrote:
>When I was a kid my father explained the Joe Penner line to me: "Anybody
>wanna buy a duck?" Indeed!
>
>I believe that Groucho Marx responded with "Why a duck?" which involved some
>sort of elaborate pun on _viaduct_.
>
>But I never got the full sequence and connection. Wasn't there even a book
>called "Why A Duck," about Groucho and/or the Marx Brothers?
>
>Can you clarify this, or will it remain a mystery forever?
>
>Thanks!
>
>Dick
>
No relation between Penner and Marx, at least wrt this duck business.

In one of the first Marx Brothers movies (Cocoanuts), Groucho is
trying to explain to Chico how to get to the place where an auction
will take place.  When G says that there is a 'viaduct,' C asks,
'why a duck?'

This sort of nonsense goes on for several minutes.  And, yes, there is
a book called 'Why A Duck.'

--f2

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

Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 13:43:51 -0500
From: John Henley <jhenley@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed], JanBach@[removed]
Subject: John Brown; Desilu
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Jan Bach said:
>If memory serves me correctly, on the Fred Allen Show Brown also played a
>poet named Falstaff [removed]

    That was Alan Reed.  I don't recall hearing Brown as Openshaw, but he
was all over the Allen show earlier, especially when it was Town Hall
Tonight.

>Desilu employed several
>radio actors on their program in the fifties 

     And that's not all:  One episode featured a "friend" of Lucy's who was
an attractive, pleasant fifty-ish woman, and at the end, the announcer said
"The part of [Lucy's friend] was played by Edith Meiser."  The same Edith
Meiser who, except for the 1945-6 season, wrote practically every American
radio episode of Sherlock Holmes.





John Henley
jhenley@[removed]
ph  (512) 495-4112
fax (512) 495-4296

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

Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 16:00:37 -0400
From: Udmacon@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Multi-grooved records
Message-ID: <960531160036_404659045@[removed]>

To Andrew Green & Mark Kinsler: there's nothing new under the sun, I
[removed] first multi-grooved record I've ever heard of was a Victor 78
from the phonograph-distressed thirties: "The Jimmie Rodgers Puzzle Record."
It had two or three songs on it; your phono stylus picked it for you! This is
a very rare recording now, by the "Singing Brakeman/Blue Yodeler."

BILL KNOWLTON, "BLUEGRASS RAMBLE", WCNY-FM, SYRACUSE, UTICA, WATERTOWN NY
(since 1973) 

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

Date: 31 May 96 16:05:08 EDT
From: Alan Chapman <[removed]@[removed]>
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed]>
Subject: Falstaff Openshaw/Martin Kane
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

Jan Bach wrote:
>If memory serves me correctly, on the Fred Allen Show Brown also played a
>poet named Falstaff Openshaw

Alan Reed (aka Teddy Bergman) played Falstaff Openshaw, the poet-laureate of
Allen's Alley.  John Brown did several other characters on the Fred Allen show
pre-Allen's Alley.  
Brown also played neighbor Harry Morton for one season (1951) on the Burns &
Allen TV show.

Re:  MARTIN KANE
Oops -- I goofed.  Y'all are right -- Craig Stevens was Peter Gunn, not Marc
Stevens.  Marc was the one who played Martin Kane in '53. 

Alan

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

Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 16:27:21 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Kathy O'Connell" <oconnell@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Philadelphia OTR Request
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

I'm forwarding this request to the otr mailing list.  I received 
this from Merilee Kelly of KSCA in Los Angeles, who is looking for 
information about the show her grandfather appeared on.  If anyone 
can help her, please e-mail her directly or e-mail me at 
oconnall@[removed]
Thanks for any help you can provide.

Forwarded message: > From 
KSCA1019MD@[removed] Tue May 28 01:41:43 1996 > From: KSCA1019MD@[removed]
> Date: Tue, 28 May 1996 01:40:16 -0400
> Message-ID: <960528014015_543804749@[removed]>
> To: Oconnell@[removed]
> Subject: old time radio
> 
e I just found out
> that my grandfather was a radio actor in Phil. in the 1930s [probably
> 1932-35] and Vinnie said you were an old time radio nut.  I'm trying to find
> out ANYTHING I can about the show he was on, press clippings, TAPE! etc.  I
> think the other actor on the show was John Frizenda or something - some big
> deal Philly radio guy?  I think the show was on WCAU and it was called
> "Father Kelly's Family".  My grandfather's name was Leo Kelly [no relation to
> character on show].  He also was involved with the Hedgerow Theatre Group.
>  If you can't help me, can you point me in the right direction?  Tried
> contacting an old-time radio web site, they knew nothing.  Thanks in advance!
> - merilee
> 

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

Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 13:44:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: Barbara Kliene <seabird@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Fear That Creeps?
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Is there more than one title for the ILAM series, "The Fear That Creeps Like
a Cat," or is this possibly one I have never heard, I hope, I hope, I hope.  

Incidentally, the above phrase does indeed come from the Al Pearce Show.
Does anyone else remember Elmer Blurp, the reluctant door-to-door salesman,
who would ring the doorbell and then mutter under his breath, "Nobody home,
I hope, I hope, I hope!"

Barbara Kliene

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

Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 21:49:33 GMT
From: richrw@[removed] (Richard Weil)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Gildersleeve Movies
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Could someone list what the names of the Gildersleeve movies were? Thanks.

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

Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 16:13:22 -0400
From: Frank_Mallory@[removed] (Frank Mallory)
To: "otr@[removed]"@[removed]
Subject: A1 Gazette
Message-ID: <MSGID_1=3A109=[removed]@[removed]>

 o>From: Bill Slankard <[removed]@[removed]>
 o>Subject: I Love A Mystery

 o>What's the "A1 Gazette"?

 o>Is there an ILAM fan club?

There is/was one that started in 1991 under the leadership of James O. Mayor. I
have 6 issues of their publication, the last one dated January, 1993. Either
it's dead or seriously overdue, or my subscription somehow got lost. 

The "A-1" in the title is a reference to ILAM and ILA, but the publication
eventually expanded to include all of [removed]'s radio series. Carlton supported
the club financially, but unfortunately not to the extent of bestowing any
previously uncirculated recordings on it (possibly because he had none to
contribute?).

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

Date: Sat, 01 Jun 1996 00:36:09 GMT
From: rwright@[removed] (Richard Wright)
To: [removed]@[removed], Bigkids@[removed]
Subject: Joe Penner and "Wanna Buy a Duck?"
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

Date: Thu, 30 May 1996 18:33:19 -0400
From: Bigkids@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Joe Penner and the Marx Brothers
Message-ID: <960530183318_545951032@[removed]>

When I was a kid my father explained the Joe Penner line to me:
"Anybody wanna buy a duck?" Indeed!

I believe that Groucho Marx responded with "Why a duck?" which
involved some sort of elaborate pun on _viaduct_.

But I never got the full sequence and connection. Wasn't there even a
book called "Why A Duck," about Groucho and/or the Marx Brothers?

Can you clarify this, or will it remain a mystery forever?

Thanks!

Dick Lupoff


According to John Dunning's book, _Tune In Yesterday_, the story was:

As part of Joe Penner's comedy stage act in a 1931 Birmingham, AL
revue, he constantly interrupted people with such absurd phrases as
"Wanna buy an ashcan?" or "Wanna buy a rhinoceros?" On this particular
evening, he used "Wanna buy a duck?" and got a big response from the
audience for some unknown reason. Penner used the same phrase in other
places and got similar responses. The head of the agency handling the
Rudy Vallee show, J Walter Thompson, put Joe on the Vallee show with
great results. Joe got his own show in Oct 1933 with music by Ozzie
Nelson's Orchestra and songs by Ozzie'e new discovery, Harriet
Hilliard ( and we all know where that relationship went). Penner began
to pose for publicity pics with a duck in a basket. He named the duck
"Goo-Goo" and Mel Blanc gave the duck a voice on the air. 

There indeed was a book about the Marx Brothers entitled _Why a Duck?_
.(verbal and visual gems from the Marx Brothers movies).The copy in my
library was published Nov 1972 by Avon. The editor was Richard J
Anobile. The phrase was in a scene with Groucho and Chico in
_Cocoanuts_ and was a word play on "viaduct."
-------------
Richard
aka rwright@[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 12:56:47 -0600
From: Chet Cox <CHCOX@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Why-a no chicken?
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Dick Lupoff asks (after this opening preamble):  When I was a kid my
father explained the Joe Penner line to me: "Anybody wanna buy a
duck?" Indeed!

I believe that Groucho Marx responded with "Why a duck?" which
involved some sort of elaborate pun on _viaduct_.

But I never got the full sequence and connection. Wasn't there even a
book called "Why A Duck," about Groucho and/or the Marx Brothers?

Can you clarify this, or will it remain a mystery forever?

Thanks!

Dick Lupoff

Good ol' Chet replies:  Strange as it seems for me to be supplying
information to Dick Lupoff, I'll respond that the "viaduct/why a duck"
sequence from _the Cocoanuts_  was writer George Kaufman's line,
and probably pre-dated Penner.  So it likely had nothing to do with
Penner's nonsensical line.

The book _Why a Duck?_ was one of many photo-books of movies
which were being tried (again) around 1972.  For the life of me, I really
thought I remembered your name being attached to it or a similar book. 
That was around the time that _All in Color for a Dime_ came out in
paperback, and it seemed your name was on every third genre book I
picked [removed]

*jeep!
~~~~Chet-EL

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

Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 22:07:01 -0400
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Viaduct
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

>I believe that Groucho Marx responded with "Why a duck?" which involved some
>sort of elaborate pun on _viaduct_.
>

The viaduct routine I recall involved Chico and Groucho looking over
blueprints. Groucho explains something like "here is a viaduct" and Chico
responded something like "Why a duck" etc.

Not sure if that was a repeated pun, or if it was original in this film.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Widner                      INTERNET: jwidner@[removed]
Dayton, OH                      WWW: [removed]
COMPUSERVE: 74566,3041          
AOL: JimWidner                            

                                                 

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

Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 22:54:39 -0400 (EDT)
From: jack312@[removed] (Bob Jackson)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: "Why a duck?"/Princess Pet Program
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

>Date: Thu, 30 May 1996 18:33:19 -0400
>From: Bigkids@[removed]
>To: [removed]@[removed]
>Subject: Joe Penner and the Marx Brothers
>Message-ID: <960530183318_545951032@[removed]>
>
>When I was a kid my father explained the Joe Penner line to me: "Anybody
>wanna buy a duck?" Indeed!
>
>I believe that Groucho Marx responded with "Why a duck?" which involved some
>sort of elaborate pun on _viaduct_.
>
>But I never got the full sequence and connection. Wasn't there even a book
>called "Why A Duck," about Groucho and/or the Marx Brothers?
>
>Can you clarify this, or will it remain a mystery forever?


The bit about "Why a duck" comes from 1929's "The Cocoanuts", the Marx's
first successful film.  Groucho is giving Chico directions to the real
estate auction; Chico is the one who turns "viaduct" into "Why a duck?"
Groucho wants Chico to act as a shill; Chico ends up bidding against
himself; it's all set in the Florida land boom of the 1920's.

Why A Duck was the title of a book featuring frame blowups and dialogue of
some of the Marx's better films.  When I was a kid, this book is what got me
interested in old movies, old cars, big band music, and all the rest of this
"old fun stuff," which, as a matter of fact, includes this wonderful thing
called the "golden age of radio."

By the way, is anyone familiar with the Princess Pet radio program?  It
probably ran in the early 50's.  It featured the adventures of Princess Pet;
and it included, naturally enough, a brown mule and a brown bear as
characters.  Any information will be appreciated. 

Bob
Your Ole Cyber Pal,
Bob
(aka Djack82255@[removed])

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

Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 23:55:13 -0400
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: June Timelines
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Just updated to the June Timelines at my radio web site:

[removed]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Widner                      INTERNET: jwidner@[removed]
Dayton, OH                      WWW: [removed]
COMPUSERVE: 74566,3041          
AOL: JimWidner                            

                                                 

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

Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1996 00:07:38 -0400
From: Mccomedy@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Nichols and May
Message-ID: <960601000737_315508457@[removed]>

I don't know if anyone's talked about it, but I just want to mention that
anyone who's a fan of Elaine May and Mike Nichols should watch the "American
Masters" documentary on the duo when it airs on your local PBS station.  I
know they came around too late to be part of OTR but their routines rival
anything that the greats performed during the 30's
and 40's.  Any other Nichols and May fans out there?  I'd love to know.
 

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

Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 21:50:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: ulrich@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Joe Penner and the Marx Brothers
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

In OTR Digest #195, Bigkids@[removed] wrote:

>When I was a kid my father explained the Joe Penner line to me: "Anybody
>wanna buy a duck?" Indeed!
>
>I believe that Groucho Marx responded with "Why a duck?" which involved some
>sort of elaborate pun on _viaduct_.

The "why a duck?" routine is in The Cocoanuts (1929), the Marx Brothers'
first film. Groucho is showing Chico a map, and he points out a viaduct.
Chico asks, "Why a duck?" They go around and around on this. Later in the
scene, Groucho points out a wire fence. Chico asks, "Why a fence?"

I don't think the Marx Brothers routine was a response to Penner. For one
thing, there's nothing about buying a duck. For another, according to
Terrace's Radio's Golden Years, the Joe Penner show didn't start until
1933. Is that correct?

>But I never got the full sequence and connection. Wasn't there even a book
>called "Why A Duck," about Groucho and/or the Marx Brothers?

I think this was a book of stills and dialogue from their films, but I may
be remembering wrong.

--Charles

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

Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 21:50:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: ulrich@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Janet Waldo
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

In OTR Digest #195, JanBach@[removed] wrote:

>Steve's other comment about John Brown showing up on the I Love Lucy Show is
>interesting and I will have to watch for that one; Desilu employed several
>radio actors on their program in the fifties (assuming, I am sure, that they
>would make the switch to television more easily than movie actors -- and
>worked cheaper!); my favorite is when Janet Waldo (of Meet Corliss Archer and
>Ozzie and Harriet) appeared as a teenager on the show, and her boyfriend was
>played by Dick Crenna (Walter Denton on Our Miss Brooks). It was strange
>hearing these teenage voices -- that sounded so right for the radio roles --
>attached to bodies that were long out of their teen years!

Janet Waldo was playing a teenager a lot more recently than that. She was
the voice of Judy Jetson in the Hanna-Barbera cartoons. I believe she even
recorded as Judy in the 1990 Jetsons feature film, but her lines were
replaced by Tiffany, who provided Judy's singing voice and insisted on
doing the speaking voice too.

--Charles

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

Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1996 01:03:04 -0400
From: PDKinder@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Don McNeill
Message-ID: <960601010303_546961330@[removed]>

It's a real privilege to participate here.  Both on line and off line, I've
found this to be a most friendly and generous group.  So, I feel a bit
awkward being critical. But, I've been saddened to see so little here about
Don McNeill, who died a few weeks ago.  I suppose it's because we're
predominantly male and didn't listen to him or the soaps.  I'm the exception,
I guess.

Don McNeill played a large role in my life from the ages of 5 to 8.  I was a
very sickly child, spent a large part of 1951-54 on my back.  For
considerable periods of the day, the radio was my only companion.

How I looked forward to The Breakfast Club!  Aunt Franny, Sam, and the whole
gang.  The exchanges with the audience seemed to link me to thousands of
farms and small town homes like mine.  There was something about The
Breakfast Club that seemed to invite me in, like a neighbor's unlocked
kitchen door.  I never felt the tenseness or meanness that seemed to radiate
from Arthur Godfrey, only warmth and good humor came from the speaker.

"From the Clouds Room of the Hotel [removed]"  The Hotel Allerton's still
there.  I found it on my last trip to Chicago.  It even has signs
memorializing its days of fame w/Don McNeill.  But, I couldn't go in.  I
wouldn't rearrange 45 years of recollections and images to fit reality.

Requiescat in pace, Don McNeill.  And, thanks.

Peter D. Kinder

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

Date: Sat, 01 Jun 1996 00:25:11 -0500
From: Lou Genco <lgenco@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: ADMINISTRIVIA: OTR WWW Page Updates
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Recent updates to my WWW site:

Added another search engine.  This one searches my sub-pages for a word or
phrase.  Just in case you forgot where you saw something, you can enter a
word or phrase, and all pages containing that word or phrase will be
HTML-ized and listed for your clicking pleasure.

Updated the text version of the OTR FAQ

Updated the vendors page.  Some new listings of folks who sell OTR tapes.

Added a few new links to other sites.

Added a random graphic as a station break sign.

Added a jump to another hardware site, to test if that site is faster than
the current site.  Click on the appropriate prompt, and let me know which
site seems faster to you.

I hope to add more vendors catalogs soon, soon after I can convince some of
the guys to use a word processor and disk rather than a typewriter and
mimeograph machine (grin).  

Don't forget to tell your favorite OTR tape vendors of this newsletter, as
well as the fine OTR WWW pages that exist on the net.  The more the merrier!

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

Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1996 01:47:36 -0400
From: Lynchmob17@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Martin Kane
Message-ID: <960601014735_404986964@[removed]>

William Gargan played Kane from 9/1/49 till 8/23/51.  Lloyd Nolan
played him from 8/30/51 till 5/22/52.  Next came Lee Tracy (5/29/52).
The last of the original series was Mark Stevens(7/2/53-6/17/54). 
A new series entitled The New Adventures of Martin Kane  starred
an older William Gargan in 1957.  It disappeared quickly.  By the
way, it was CRAIG Stevens who went on to become Peter Gunn,
NOT Mark Stevens.

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

Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1996 12:32:31 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Marcus Antonsson <marc-a@[removed]>
To: Old time radio digest <otr@[removed]>
Subject: Rathbone & Bruce before 1945
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

Hi Friends,
Sherlock Holmes has always been one of my favorite p i's. Both in books
and on radio. Rathbone and Bruce are my favorite constellation and I know
that most of there late shows (1945-46) are available. But I've found very
few from 1939-44. Were those not recorded? Are the Masters missing, or
what? If anyone of you knows what happened to these programs. please tell
me.

Best
Marc

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

    


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---- 
End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #196

