------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 01 : Issue 149
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Whatever became of Arlene Francis? [otrbuff@[removed] ]
Radio sets ["John Sloan" <jdsloan@[removed]; ]
WJJD in Chicago [Davidinmemphis@[removed] (David) ]
Re: Archival Attitudes [Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed]]
Hemingway [Michael Berger <intercom1@attglobal]
short wave radio ["Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed]]
Re: BBC/SHORT WAVE [BH <billhar@[removed]; ]
War of Worlds ownership ["David L. Easter" <david-easter@hom]
Re: KDKA vs. WWJ [Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed]; ]
Re:BBC/SHORT WAVE [Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed]; ]
Hello From Canada! [franciswalker62@[removed] ]
KQW-San Jose? [SacChief@[removed] ]
Mutual Broadcasting System ["Dale Slack" <dslack@specialty-risk]
Australian Radio Books ["Bruce Guthrie" <BruceGuthrie@bigpo]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 22:27:02 -0400
From: otrbuff@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Whatever became of Arlene Francis?
Those who remember Arlene Francis will probably be interested in a
website honoring this distinguished lady: [removed].
Aside from the popular What's My Line? television show, she was a radio
performer of the first magnitude. She appeared with her future husband,
Martin Gabel, on Big Sister in the 1930s and early 1940s, was a hostess
on Monitor, presided with Bill Cullen on It Happens Every Day, was the
"private eyelash" (her words) of The Affairs of Ann Scotland, hosted Fun
For All and so many, many other audience participation venues, and turned
up as hostess of early TV's daily Home show.
She has suffered with Alzheimer's Disease for quite some time, according
to son Peter Gabel, now at 54 a college president in San Francisco. The
"love of her life," Martin Gabel, died May 22, 1986.
You'll enjoy the sterling tributes to this lovely lady at the website
bearing her name.
Jim Cox
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 22:39:38 -0400
From: "John Sloan" <jdsloan@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Radio sets
A lodge brother has been telling me about a radio his parents had that had
a small viewing screen built in. This screen was there so tv could be
added when it was available. My question is, was there such a set or is my
leg being pulled.
John Sloan
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 22:39:40 -0400
From: Davidinmemphis@[removed] (David)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: WJJD in Chicago
I have fond memories of listening to WJJD and the "Suppertime Frolic" as
a youngster. I would dearly love to have just one recording of this
show for reasons of nostalgia. Could anyone direct me to a possible
source for excerpts from this program or possibly a full evenings
program from the 40's ? Thanks.
David Chamberlain
Memphis, TN
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 23:58:29 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Archival Attitudes
Mike Biel observes,
I mentioned at how embarassed BBC
Records was when they drew up their plans for their initial releases and
discoverd that much of what they wanted to release didn't exist. And
how many popular programs had almost totally disappeared. Yes, he said,
there were different priorities--and "light entertainment" was not one
of them. Political talks and cultural events were more important. But
they would try to keep at least one sample of a program series, but even
that was not always possible.
It's interesting how closely this attitude follows that which seems to
have been held by NBC during the early years of its own archival
activity. When you examine the year-by-year holdings of the NBC-New York
archives now held by the Library of Congress (using the SONIC database),
you'll note that between mid-1935, when the network began making
recordings, and May of 1942 -- when they started to record various
Hollywood shows off the line in New York -- the overwhelming majority of
the programs held by the network for preservation seem to have been
exactly the sorts of things primarily preserved by the BBC: news
coverage, actuality broadcasts, and political talks.
There are very few well-represented entertainment series in the
collection before May 1942, notably the programs of Fred Allen and Rudy
Vallee, and random samples of many other series -- but the bulk of the
material appears to have been preserved on the basis of what they thought
the future *should* hear rather than any effort toward documenting what
the people of their own time were *most interested* in hearing. Given all
the high-toned "public service" pronouncements that came out of the NBC
publicity office during the 1930s, it's no surprise that such an attitude
would govern what ended up being saved for posterity in the Central Files.
NBC was of course recording a lot more than ended up being preserved, and
one must also factor in the petty pilferage and other forms of attrition
that affected the collection over the years -- but even so, there does
appear to be definite "We Take Ourselves Oh So Very Seriously" attitude
behind what they chose to keep.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 00:43:04 -0400
From: Michael Berger <intercom1@[removed];
To: otr <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Hemingway
Frank Hemingway was well known for his off beat way of reading
the news, sponsored by Folger's [When I say coffee, I mean
FOL-gers!!-was his signoff line].
I remember hearing him via KFRC in San Francisco, which indicates
that it was a Mutual network hookup, but perhaps only the west,
as the earlier post suggests.
Don't want to overdo the offbeat bit, because most of the news he
read was straight stuff, but he had a marvelous gift, and used
it, without distorting the actual news he was reading.
And unlike the evolution of Paul Harvey, Hemingway had no
political agendas.
Michael Berger
who also remembers such KFRC characters as Dean Maddox, who
called himself Buddha and did a man in the street interview show
from in front of the old Owl Drug store at the corner of Powell
and Market, Max Baer's Sunday interviews from the Cliff House,
and Mel Venter and the Breakfast Gang
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 00:45:57 -0400
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: short wave radio
From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
Even if the UK stops world broadcasting, if any one is fortunate enough
to still own one of those great floor model radios (in working condition,
mine needs two main power tubes that today would cost an arm and a leg)
with the 3 bands (Broadcast, Ship to Shore and Short Wave),
need not worry.
You can buy a modern radio that will receive all these frequencies, plus
quite a few more, with considerably better performance than your old console
had. I have no idea whether "ship-to-shore" frequencies are still used for
that purpose. Some ship communications used low frequencies, in the
30-->300kHz range. This required a very long antenna for efficient
transmission and reception. If you look at pictures of old ships, you'll
see this long antenna stretched from one end of the ship to the other.
The frequency settings are there on the dial for what ever
country you want (mine had Germany,Australia, UK, Hawaii, Canada, Sweden and
Hong Kong).
These frequencies change fairly often as weather and politics dictate.
Short-wave listeners trade information on who broadcasts where and when in
magazines and, I suppose, newsgroups.
Of course, now you would need an outside (CB? HAM?) audio
antenna. (In the 30's all we did was take the ground wire and attach it to
a water pipe).
If a water pipe worked in the 1930's, it would work now. Chances are you
were in fact using a big loop antenna that was strung inside the radio
cabinet. The length and type of antenna largely depends upon the frequency
to be received. You can make efficient short-wave receiving antennas from
lengths of wire. Radio Shack sells long-wire antenna kits to this very day,
but it's just as easy to build them yourself.
There must be some company that still manufactures these State - Of - The -
Art 3 band short wave radios somewhere.
Well, of course. But they aren't console radios with impressive tuning
dials. There are several highly-efficient radio receivers in which the
exact station frequency is entered from a keyboard. These receivers, which
are small and generally battery-powered, are also capable of scanning an
entire band to search for signals. Again, Radio Shack has several rather
good short-wave radios of this type, as do other vendors.
(Side note: Are there any Ham operators on the list that have pulled in
some of these UK stations direct from the UK without the "sideroad" through
the US?)
It would be rather difficult to tell, because a great deal of short-wave
broadcasting was relayed to North America through stations in various
Carribean islands. I believe that the BBC would have been relayed through
the old British West Indies.
Short-wave listening has lost a great deal of its popularity due to the
availability of instant, two-way communication that's free of government
control over the Internet. It's sad to see a great tradition so quickly
discarded, but the Internet itself has provided far greater international
understanding and communication than the old short-wave stations ever could.
M Kinsler
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 09:16:15 -0400
From: BH <billhar@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: BBC/SHORT WAVE
"Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; commented:
Even if the UK stops world broadcasting, if any one is fortunate enough
to still own one of those great floor model radios (in working condition,
mine needs two main power tubes that today would cost an arm and a leg)
with the 3 bands (Broadcast, Ship to Shore and Short Wave),
Most tubes for these old radios are still reasonably priced. If you know
which tubes need to be replace, reply via email with the tube numbers
and I can tell you where to get them and prices.
(Side note: Are there any Ham operators on the list that have pulled in some
of these UK stations direct from the UK without the "sideroad" through the
US?)
Not sure what you mean by "sideroad through the US", but I can pull in
the BBC and all those other countries you mention on my Zenith
TransOceanic receivers (I have all the tube type and solid state models
- from the first in 1941 to last in 1981), and that is using only the
internal telescoping whip antenna. No "sideroads", directly from the UK
and other countries.
Bill Harris
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 09:16:12 -0400
From: "David L. Easter" <david-easter@[removed];
To: "Old-Time Radio Digest (E-mail)" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: War of Worlds ownership
<Fred Owens asked: Could somebody suggest who might own performance rights
to War of Worlds? Students are interested in doing a recreation. [removed];
Science Fiction Weekly ([removed]) reports that Pendragon
Pictures will begin production of an independent-movie version of [removed]
Wells' SF novel War of the Worlds in September using the same digital system
George Lucas used for his upcoming Star Wars: Episode II.
This implies that Pendragon Pictures must own, at least, the screen rights.
David L. Easter
1900 Angleside Rd.
Fallston, MD 21047
Email: David-Easter@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 12:16:59 -0400
From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: KDKA vs. WWJ
From: Donna Halper <dlh@[removed];
Their [KDKA] web-site even has what they used to claim was
that first 1920 broadcast-- a neat trick given that nobody
had invented audio-tape yet and to my knowledge, they could
only have transcribed it with maximum difficulty, perhaps
on a dictaphone disk. Some of the members of this list
took the web-master to task, and now I think they admit
it's a re-creation, not the actual broadcast.
Although it is obviously a re-creation--as are all the others that claim
to be that broadcast--it is not because it could not have been
recorded. While tape recording as we know it had not yet been
invented--that came in the 1930s--wire recording had existed for 20
years and had already been used in radio-telegraph recording.
Dictaphones used cylinders at that time, not discs, and also had already
been used to record a radio transmission--that radio-telegraph wire
recording that was being transmitted high-speed by a German spy station
on Long Island! German ships would record that transmission on their
own wire recorders and slow it down to decode it. An American
experimenter, Charles Apgar, did the same thing using a Dictaphone.
There's a nifty quote in the New York Times of the station manager
saying that this was impossible to do!
Michael Biel mbiel@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 12:17:01 -0400
From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re:BBC/SHORT WAVE
From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
Even if the UK stops world broadcasting, if any one is fortunate
enough to still own one of those great floor model radios ...
need not worry. The frequency settings are there on the dial for
what ever country you want (mine had Germany,Australia, UK, Hawaii,
Canada, Sweden and Hong Kong).
You're pulling our leg on this, aren't you??? Those dial notations are
now 60 years out of date, were not too accurate even then, and were and
are no guarantee of receiving stations from those countries at those
points--or ANY points--on the dial!!!
Michael Biel mbiel@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 14:24:50 -0400
From: franciswalker62@[removed]
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Hello From Canada!
I'm so glad to find a mailing list of people with the same love of otr as I
have!
After getting a computer a couple of years back I first discovered this
media.
It's ironic that it took modern day technology for me to discover something
that's been around for seemingly forever. After finding Mediabay I was
hooked
and would go to sleep every nite listening to things like The Whistler and
Suspense. One
program that intigued me most was The Shadow. I have
been collecting episodes from the program and decided to put them to use by
creating a website dedicated to fans of the [removed] can find it here:
[removed]
Once again I'm glad I'm glad I found this list and look forward to
learning so
much more of this interest.
Francis Walker
Ontario, Canada
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 15:32:44 -0400
From: SacChief@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: KQW-San Jose?
First of all, many thx to those who responded to me earlier query re. Frank
Hemmingway. It's good to know that my memory is still somewhat intact.
Question: I read WSJ article on KDKA, and, of course, am familiar with the
legend that they were the first station on the air. However, many years ago
there was a station with call letters KQW. It was the predecesor to KCBS-San
Francisco, However, I believe that KQW was licensed to San Jose and that KQW
used also claim credit as the first station on the air/ Anybody know anything
about this? bob
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 18:46:58 -0400
From: "Dale Slack" <dslack@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Mutual Broadcasting System
Could someone please let me know what became of Mutual. It seems like just
a few years ago that Larry King broadcast a late night show over Mutual.
Even more recently I remember hearing Mutual Radio news on the hour on a
regular basis.
Thank you.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 21:38:36 -0400
From: "Bruce Guthrie" <BruceGuthrie@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Australian Radio Books
Ian Grieve listed some books on Oz OTR for me.
Thanks Ian, I'll chase those up.
By coincidence I had already ordered "Out of the Bakelite Box" from
the ABC shop, so that's a start.
I'll go and 'haunt' Screensound next time I'm in Canberra (the
building is already reputedly haunted, I understand) and check out
their web site in the meantime.
cheers
Bruce
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V01 Issue #149
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