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The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2002 : Issue 394
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Struts and Frets: On Recording [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]
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Date: Mon, 07 Oct 2002 23:00:23 -0400
From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Struts and Frets: On Recording
STRUTS AND FRETS
by Harry Bartell
++++
On Recording
The influence of my mentor Sylvester Gross extended all the way to Los
Angeles and it is a very fortunate thing that it did. When all the glowing
notices and introductions from Houston had failed to impress the Hollywood
moguls and I was toiling away at the Pasadena Playhouse I used my last
intro. I went to see Jack Gross, Sylvester's older brother. Jack was either
Program Director or Sales Manager, I can't remember which, at KEHE the Blue
Network outlet in Los Angeles.
I say that as though one just hopped over to Los Angeles from Pasadena but
it wasn't quite that simple. This was before two things: a car and a
freeway. I didn't have access to either. One reason was that there was no
freeway. The Arroyo Freeway from Pasadena to Los Angeles was the first in
Southern California but it didn't open until several years later. In 1937
the pilgrims made their tortuous way through the metropolises of Eagle Rock
and Glendale by car or took The Red Car, an interurban trolley to downtown
LA. Then there was another trolley to Vermont and First streets where the
combined facilities KFI and KEHE were located. Later, but before we were
married, Bev and I did form a partnership. She provided the purchase funds
and I managed the upkeep on the car we bought for $75. It was a 1930 Model
A Ford touring car we naturally named The Bathtub. There was no top. It
worked fine until the rains came. Then, discretion became the better part
of valor and we traded it in for a 1931 Model A Ford coupe. It cost $150
but we got our original $75 for the Bathtub in the trade-in. When I went to
New York we sold the coupe to a friend for $75 because Bev didn't drive.
For the next 63+ years if we went anywhere by car I did the driving. I was
used to it. When I grew up in Houston, Texas didn't require a driving
license and I started driving at age 13.
It was still trolley time when I first went to see Jack Gross. Jack was
very kind. He introduced me to a man named Howard Esary who was one of the
associates at Allied Advertising Agency, a local outfit which had offices
about a block away from the station. At this stage of my life I was still
possessed of a marked Texas accent. Falling back on it years later on
Gunsmoke was quite an asset but at the time stage directors kept insisting
that the word was not "keeyow" it was "cow" and things like that. At the
moment it was a handy tool. I was hired (a wonderful word) to do spot
announcements for a furniture outfit calledand you have to believe thisThe
Dixie Hospitality Store. I was paid $[removed] a session and I was now a
professional actor. Needless to say, this was before AFRA.
And there was more. Howard was also involved in making electrical
transcriptions of dramatic programs. They were recorded at the Macgregor
studio and the process was really something. So was Mr. Macgregor. He had a
certain reticence about paying actors who worked there. The recording
turntable was big. The recordings themselves were done by a stylus head
cutting grooves in a big plate of wax at the speed (if I remember
correctly) of 33 1/3 rpm. Each wax plate was about an inch or so thick and
polished absolutely smooth. After the sound was recorded on wax it was
transferred to a metal negative and pressings were made from that for
distribution. The first show that I did had a large cast. There must have
been about ten of us including at least two names I remember: Jack Mather
and Bob Lemond. The reading went smoothly and the recording went smoothly
with one small exception. It ran 14 minutes and 45 seconds. We had 15
seconds more show than we were supposed to have. That meant hauling out a
new wax and starting over again . We were going great guns until one of the
actors blooped. New wax. Next time we went perfectly for 14minutes and 15
seconds before a different actor fouled up. There was a little harsh
language from the director, Mr. Esary, and we started again. By now a sort
of hysteria had attacked the cast. Different actors made mistakes and
everybody got a little tense. It took fourteen tries before we finally got
a clean recording. Through it all the recorder, Paul Quan, was wonderful.
We ran out of clean waxes and had to stop while they were resurfaced. He
never made a complaint. At the end of the day we had each earned $[removed]
including rehearsal time. That was very good because with a large cast like
that the budget sometimes offered only $[removed] per head.
Electrical transcriptions had an important place in my life. Years later,
when I was on staff at KWKW an ET was involved in a big decision. During
the time I had been with the station I had some differences of opinion with
the owner. I think he was a candy manufacturer and the radio station was
either a hobby or a tax deduction. This was 1943, right smack in the middle
of World War II and there were warnings all over about loose lips and other
dangerous statements. It was my job to open the station at 6 or 6:30 in the
morning and after making a station identification, connect to Radio
Central. That was a broadcasting center that could simultaneously release
programs by wire to the small local stations in the Los Angles area. We
certainly qualified under the small heading. I don't know the exact wattage
of our signal but the studios were in the basement of the Pasadena
Athletic Club and I think we could be heard all the way to the top floor.
Radio Central was very big on "religious" programs most of which featured
frequent requests for funds to keep their great mission moving forward.
One morning the speaker lumped Russia with Germany and Japan as beastly
enemies of the US of A which was all right except for the fact that Russia
was our ally. I put a disclaimer on the program: Opinions expressed on the
preceding program are not necessarily those of the management.
I didn't think anybody listened to those broadcasts but at least one person
did. I had hardly switched programs when the phone rang and some madman was
screaming about the idiot who had said that bit about "not necessarily." I
allowed as how it was station policy and he should speak to the manager
later. Which he did. Apparently at some length. Which involved a conference
with the manager. It has been so long ago that I don't recall the owner's
name but I do remember that he gave me the impression of being politically
somewhere right of Genghis Khan. I retained my job by pointing out that
even if he agreed with the "pastor" that it wasn't expedient to put
station sponsors in that camp.
It was some weeks later that I was on an afternoon shift, sitting in the
small announce booth. I was almost listening to the electrical
transcription I had started but was essentially just sitting. As I
mentioned, the studios were in the basement. The announce booth was placed
directly in front of the parking lot. This also made the air conditioner
strategically located to access exhaust fumes. Before the end of the ET I
had gone into the owner's office and given two weeks notice.
It was all very exhilarating to have taken advantage of Mr. Lincoln's
Emancipation Act but on the way home it occurred to me that my three-year
job as a DJ had ended; I had terminated my connection with an advertising
agency and actually I was without a source of income. This was in July and
our baby was due in November. Great planning! How do I tell Bev?
When I got home, I kissed my wife and then in a very bright, cheerful voice
said, "Guess what!" And she said, "You quit your job." Aren't women wonderful?
- ------------------
Harry Bartell maintains that his major accomplishment as a professional
actor for forty years was to survive with his mind, morale and marriage intact.
Born in 1913 in New Orleans, he grew up in Houston and graduated Phi Beta
Kappa from Rice University in 1933. After a stint at Harvard Business
School and a couple of years forced labor in a department store he moved to
Hollywood and stayed there for the next fifty-one years. Three seasons at
the Pasadena Playhouse led to work in 185 radio series and 77 TV series
plus a dozen or so properly forgettable motion pictures.
This article will be archived at:
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End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #394
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