Subject: [removed] Digest V2005 #181
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 6/14/2005 10:14 AM
To: [removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2005 : Issue 181
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Scariest Show                         [ Froggievilleus <froggievilleus@yaho ]
  re: Scary moments                     [ Dan <teac35@[removed]; ]
  Re: Radio Friendly? TV friendly, too  [ Martin <watchstop@[removed]; ]
  Arlene Harris                         [ "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@juno. ]
  Re: Actual Cases?                     [ "Michael J. Hayde" <michaelhayde@ea ]
  Mystery ads                           [ Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@erols ]
  "based on actual cases"               [ "Joseph" <drjoewebb@[removed]; ]
  Dragnet actual cases                  [ Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed]; ]
  RE: Jack Benny and Pork               [ "Druian, Raymond B SPL" <[removed] ]
  Origin of Johnny Dollar?              [ Alan/Linda Bell <alanlinda43@yahoo. ]
  Last Day of Radio Drama               [ Art Chimes <[removed]@[removed]; ]
  Re: Gunsmoke                          [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  Re: Scary Shows                       [ LBohall@[removed] ]
  6-14 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  How quickly they forget               [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
  Nana Clute                            [ yoggy <yoggy@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 12:42:58 -0400
From: Froggievilleus <froggievilleus@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Scariest Show

Hi,

Been playing catch up with my emails from the weekend
and have been enjoying other's scariest shows entries.
 Here is mine.

Back in 1995, when I was living for a short time in
Iowa, one dark night I was in the mood for something
spooky.  I popped in a cassette in my player and
decided on an episode of Cape Cod Mystery Theater.
The episode was "The Caller On Line One".  The longer
the show went on, the more creeped out I got.  At the
end of the show, I couldn't help but look at the phone
on the wall, hoping that it would NOT ring.  I ended
up sleeping with the lights on that night.

:)

Elizabeth S.

[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 12:43:15 -0400
From: Dan <teac35@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  re: Scary moments

"The Wailing Wall" from Suspense
the other two have been mentioned already
Dan

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

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 14:51:17 -0400
From: Martin <watchstop@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Radio Friendly?  TV friendly, too!

A tardy response after Michael Biel's good message in Issue 175.

It makes sense that often the presence or absence of a friendly
closing could be determined by the particulars of when a program
might be aired.

This brings me to think again about Alistair Cooke, who would open
his weekly Letter from America with "Good evening," and his final
words at the end of each program, "Good night."  However, both of
those friendly elements were actually retained on a limited basis by
the BBC, because the program was broadcast at various time around the
clock. especially during the years when short wave was used much more
than today.

There were slipups however, and now and then those special words
would come through, even at ten o'clock in the morning.  I like to
think that sometimes engineers intentionally allowed the cordial
salutation and closing (it is amazing what Mr. Cooke could do even
with two words) to reach the listener.

--Martin

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

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 14:53:47 -0400
From: "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Arlene Harris

       Yes, I remember Arlene Harris alright. I never got
to hear her perform on OTR, but seem to recall a guest spot
she did on the old "Dick Van Dyke Show". The writers of the
show decided to have radio performers do their acts during a
time when new skits were hard to come by. It was a very good
performance, and if that was, indeed, indicative of the type
work she did on OTR, she must have been quite good.

Another OTR Fan,

Kenneth Clarke

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

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 14:54:20 -0400
From: "Michael J. Hayde" <michaelhayde@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Actual Cases?

"RadioAZ" asks:

Many of the crime shows on radio such as Dragnet, Gangbusters and the FBI
shows all indicated that the stories were based on actual [removed] <snip>
I
just wondered if anyone knows for a fact that those shows were reality-based?

I'll let my friend Martin Grams Jr. speak for "Gangbusters."  As far as
"Dragnet" is concerned: yes, Jack Webb and his team of writers had access to
LAPD cases.  In the early radio days, this was via the show's two technical
advisors: Sgt. Marty Wynn and Det. Vance Brasher.  Later, a system was set up
by which officers from any division could submit a likely case, and these
were filtered through the LAPD's Public Relations department (at one time,
then-LAPD cop Gene Roddenberry worked there).

The Department set limitations on which cases could be used; and, of course,
what you heard (and later saw) on "Dragnet" was never exactly what
transpired.  The whole thing is spelled out in my book "My Name's Friday,"
which also includes descriptions of two cases as they actually happened,
versus their "Dragnet" adaptations.

Michael

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

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 14:55:57 -0400
From: Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Mystery ads

On Monday, June 13, 2005, at 12:18 PM, Bill Harker wrote:

Can someone tell me if there were ever _Yours Truly Johnny Dollar_
advertisements in newspapers or trade magazines.
To make this complete, how about ads for any other mystery-oriented
shows?

In the RADIO RECALL archives, we have copies of advertisements for True
Detective Mysteries, Stories of the Black Chamber, The Whistler,
Calling All Cars, Dick Tracy, Crime Photographer, Attorney at Law,
Perry Mason & Mr. Keen, Phillip Marlowe, Ken-Rad Unsolved Mysteries,
and Murder at Midnight.  Also included is an undated ad from WHEC in
Rochester, NY for Johnny Dollar and Mr. Chameleon.

Jack French
Editor

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

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 17:33:47 -0400
From: "Joseph" <drjoewebb@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  "based on actual cases"

one doesn't need to have access to police records to "base" something on
actual cases. it could be anything. a collection of newspapers, a history
book, a chat over coffee with a cop friend. this was actually quite flexible.
just like today's law & order tv show "ripped from the headlines" is about as
far as it gets when it has a murder that looks like something but then is
something quite different in the end when the episode is concluded. while
some shows may have involved cooperation, like dragnet often did, the reason
would be for public relations purposes. the names would be changed so they
could play fast and loose with the facts so they could fit everything into a
30 min show with commercials, but still retain the core of the story. the
news is a great source for plotlines.

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

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 17:35:19 -0400
From: Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Dragnet actual cases

The question was asked of Dragnet and other shows:

"But, were these shows based on real situations?"

>From all reports, "Dragnet" was based on real cases.
The key words, of course, are "based on." Obviously,
the stories were fictionalized to some degree. Not
only with the name changes, but also with some of the
dialogue. If you listen to "Dragnet" long enough,
you'll note a [removed] style in how people deliver
not only their lines, but the information contained
within them. In many cases, for example, a witness
will describe things they saw and/or heard, and/or
will comment/complain about something totally
unrelated to the case (in a just making conversation
way). Some of this will appear to be useful to the
investigation, and some of it won't, but at the end of
the conversation, there's always that last bit of
information- that coda, that either solidifies what
the person has said, or renders it all worthless.

Case in point, in one episode I listened to recently,
Friday and Smith are interviewing the neighbor of the
owner of a car which may or may not have been used in
a crime. They want to see if the owner matches the
description of the criminal in question. The neighbor
offers her criticisms about the car's owner (about a
variety of things), and while some of it appears to be
petty jealousies unrelated to the crime, it starts to
look like they've got the right guy.

Then she describes the neighbor, physically, and he
doesn't match up with witness reports in even a vague
way. Friday and Smith thank her and are about to
leave, when she suddenly volunteers that the neighbor
is actually away, and that his brother, who _does_
match the description is driving the car.

There are other examples, not all ending with key
information like that; but every "Dragnet" episode has
a conversation ending with a "punchline" of sorts.

Now, you know that the real life cases aren't going to
have those dialogue quirks. Not _all_ of them, at any
rate. Likewise, the real life version of the cases
investigated by Joe Friday and his various partners
were very likely investigated by a variety of actual
cops over the years, not the same two or three.

As to the cases themselves, I imagine Jack webb and
the writers took the basic information ([removed] known
Cleveland-based forger John Jacob Jingleheimer-Schmidt
left town in violation of parole and resurfaced in
[removed], where he began a running a bad-check ring. The
police got the goods on him when an underling caught
passing bad checks agreed to take part in a sting
operation) and tweaked it a bit. They would doubtless
add some minor characters who didn't exist in the
actual case, and maybe change the locations where the
hypothetical bad checks were passed in LA from a
hardware store to a grocery store, etc.

Again, the basic _story_ was true, but I'm sure
certain details were tweaked above and beyond the name
change and the "Dragnet"-style dialogue.

As to why the police would cooperate, the primary
reason is obvious. Good publicity. Jack Webb was known
and respected as someone who wouldn't make the police
look bad or incompetent. Instead, through "Dragnet",
he gave the average listener (and later, viewer), an
idea of the hard work that police officers go through.
He also depicted the cops as ordinary people. Witness
Frank Smith's complaints about his brother-in-law, or
other issues at home.

Webb's depiction of police life and work is a bit
idealized, of course, as the cops on "Dragnet" always
eventually get their man. On the other hand, it isn't
100 percent ideal. one episode covered a case that
actually took more than a year to solve, so Friday, et
al., weren't depicted as perfect.

Rick

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

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 17:36:05 -0400
From: "Druian, Raymond B SPL" <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  RE: Jack Benny and Pork

Sad to say, but pork, in the instance of the Jack Benny statue, is actually
PORC, an acronym for "Project of Regional Concern." Considering the nature of
many of those projects around the nation, it's no surprise that the acronym
has been replaced in most folks' minds, with "pork."

 B. Ray
 W9KEE (ex W7KVW)
 [removed]@[removed]
 bray@[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 17:36:31 -0400
From: Alan/Linda Bell <alanlinda43@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Origin of Johnny Dollar?

I recently watched the old B&W version of The Killers starring Burt
Lancaster and Ava Gardner, and noticed an interesting thing. Edmond
O'Brien played an insurance investigator trying to figure out why
"the Swede" got knocked off. Just a coincidence that not too much
later he played an insurance investigator on the radio? Could that
have been the germ of an idea that developed into YTJD?

Also I notice on IMDB that he is credited with being the SECOND
person to play JD on radio. I'd always thought he was the first,
unless of course they're counting a pilot show that have featured
someone else. (Or IMDB is [removed])

Alan
--
_______________
Alan/Linda Bell
Grand Rapids, MI

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

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 20:21:06 -0400
From: Art Chimes <[removed]@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Last Day of Radio Drama

Given the recent posts on the final broadcasts of the last surviving CBS
dramas in 1962, I'll modestly use this opportunity to mention the
commentary I did on All Things Considered a few years ago on the 40th
anniversary of that occasion. It's still online at
[removed]

-Art-

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

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 21:30:25 -0400
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otrd <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re:  Gunsmoke

   In #179 Joseph Ross questioned re: my weekly "this week" items --

 >> 1961 - Gunsmoke was broadcast for the last time on CBS.

 > Is this right?

    According to Dunning, pg 302, yes it is.  :)
    Joe

--
Visit my homepage:
[removed]~[removed]  No trees
were killed in the sending of this message.  However a large number
of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

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

Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 00:56:18 -0400
From: LBohall@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Scary Shows

In a message dated 6/13/2005 11:19:20 AM Central Standard Time, John  Mayer
writes:

_Suspense_'s "On a Lonely Road" was another that made an  impression
on me. And I remember I was often unsettled by _X-1_, though the  only
scary story I remember clearly from that show was "Tunnel Under  the
World," which frightened by placing the protagonist in a position  of
absolute powerlessness. Appropriately, it was about advertising.

I'm not sure it qualifies as "scary," but wasn't there an X-1 episode  called
"Cold Equation" or something similar about a woman who stows away on a  space
ship which depletes the crew's oxygen, and in the end the captain has to
dump her out into space? If I'm remembering that right, I found it pretty
scary.

One night I was listening to "When Radio Was" (I know that's not the best
thing to admit here) and they were playing an episode of "The Hermit's Cave"
in
which a guy is lost in the desert, desperately searching for water. I was
working late at the office, and it was almost midnight, and someone started
banging on the outside door. I went out and there was this hitchhiker who
wanted
some [removed] was a scary (and funny) [removed]

And when CBSRMT was on, our local affiliate used to play it at 4 am, and I
was working in those days as a janitor at McDonald's, all alone in the
building,  cleaning through the night, and some of those shows, lame as they
often
were,  were pretty scary, too. Mostly, though, it was that creaking door and
the
ominous music that went with it.

Larry
My novel, Martyr's Cry, is  available now! Go to: [removed]
for more [removed]

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

Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 08:37:40 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  6-14 births/deaths

June 14th births

06-14-1884 - John McCormack - Athone, Ireland - d. 9-16-1945
singer: "The Atwater-Kent Hour"; "The Vince Program"
06-14-1891 - Elaine Sterne Carrington - NYC - d. 5-4-1958
creator-writer: "Pepper Young's Family"; "Rosemary"; "When a Girl Marries"
06-14-1893 - Joe Forte - England - d. 3-11-1967
actor: Osgood Conklin "Our Miss Brooks"; Horowitz "Life with Luigi"
06-14-1894 - Benny Fields - Milwaukee, WI - d. 8-16-1959
actor: "The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air"
06-14-1895 - Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards - Hannibal, MO - d. 7-17-1971
singer: Jiminy Cricket "Fun and Fancy Free"; "Cliff Edwards, Ukulele Ike"
06-14-1906 - Gil Lamb - Minneapolis, MN - d. 11-2-1995
actor: Homer Clinker "The Rudy Vallee Show"
06-14-1907 - Nappy Lamare - New Orleans, LA - d. 5-19-1988
jazz guitarist: "The Bob Crosby Show"
06-14-1908 - John Scott Trotter - Charlotte, NC - d. 10-29-1975
conductor: "Kraft Music Hall"; "Philco Radio Time"
06-14-1909 - Burl Ives - Hunt Township, IL - d. 4-14-1995
singer: "Columbia County Journal"; "Radio Reader's Digest"
06-14-1914 - Nat Polen - NYC - d. 5-3-1981
actor: Edward McCormick "Indictment" "CBS Mystery Theatre"
06-14-1915 - Kay Sutton - Irvington, NJ - d. 3-1-1988
actress: "Lux Radio Theatre"
06-14-1917 - Paul Monash - NYC - d. 1-14-2003
writer: "Molle Mystery Theatre"
06-14-1918 - Dorothy McGuire - Omaha, NE - d. 9-13-2001
actress: Sue Evans Miller "Big Sister"; "Joyce Jordan, [removed]"
06-14-1919 - Gene Barry - NYC
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
06-14-1919 - Sam Wanamaker - Chicago, IL - d. 12-18-1993
actor: Ellis Smith "The Guiding Light"; "Lone Journey"
06-14-1929 - Cy Coleman - NYC - d. 11-18-2004
jazz pianist, composer: "Cy Coleman at the Piano"; "Voices of Vista"
06-14-1930 - David Leeson - d. 2-xx-1971
writer: "Young Doctor Malone"

June 14th deaths

04-16-1924 - Henry Mancini - Cleveland, OH - d. 6-14-1994
orchestra leader: "Family Theatre"; "Voices of Vista"
04-27-1907 - Matty Matlock - Paducah, KY - d. 6-14-1978
jazz musician: (Member of the Big 7 Band) "Pete Kelly's Blues"
05-29-1874 - G. K. Chesterton - London, England - d. 6-14-1936
creator: "Advs. of Father Brown"
06-18-1910 - Betty Mandeville - Minneapolis, MN - d. 6-14-2001
producer, director: "The FBI in Peace and War"; "Take It or Leave It"
07-09-1878 - Hans Von  "[removed]" Kaltenborn - Milwaukee, WI - d. 6-14-1965
commentator: "Current Events"; "Editing the News"
08-20-1907 - Alan Reed (aka Teddy Bergman) - NYC - d. 6-14-1977
actor: Falstaff Openshaw "Fred Allen Show"; Pasquale "Life with Luigi"
08-31-1918 - Alan Jay Lerner - NYC - d. 6-14-1986
writer: "Victor Borge"; "Raleigh Room"; "Philco Hall of Fame"
10-10-1926 - Richard Jaeckel - Long Beach, NY - d. 6-14-1997
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
12-22-1907 - Peggy Ashcroft - London, England - d. 6-14-1991
actress: BBC "Queen Victoria"
--
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 10:22:44 -0400
From: <otrbuff@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  How quickly they forget

Here's an interesting news item:

CHICAGO (AP) - An American Airlines jet flying from New York to Seattle was
diverted to Chicago on Monday evening after a suspicious item was found on
board, authorities said. It turned out to be a radio.

Security matters aside, has it been so long since some people heard one that
they've forgotten what a radio looks like?  If so, vintage radio must have
been further back than we are remembering.

Jim Cox

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

Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 12:13:15 -0400
From: yoggy <yoggy@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Nana Clute

      I have some sad news to communicate and this seems to be the fastest
way.   Many of you know Ed and Nana Clute and also know that Nana has been
very ill for the past 2 years.  Well, she passed away yesterday.  She was
always (when healthy) at Ed's side and the two were very devoted, so this has
hit Ed quite hard.  As of now Ed does not feel up to having a funeral service
but in a few weeks I think he will hold a memorial service for Nana at their
church in Watkins Glen, NY.  In the meantime, I know he would appreciate any
prayers and best wishes that you might care to send him.  His mailing address
is :  4 Orchard Ave., Watkins Glen, NY 14891.  His phone number is (607)
535-2010.  thanks to everyone for your concern,  Gary Yoggy

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #181
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