Subject: [removed] Digest V2007 #31
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 1/26/2007 9:26 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2007 : Issue 31
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Re: radio shows on tv                 [ wgaryw@[removed] ]
      Re: original Olive Oyl                [ Grams46@[removed] ]
      Aunt Bethany                          [ Ljk2476@[removed] ]
      Olive Oyl                             [ "Karen Lerner" <[removed]@[removed] ]
      Re: Commercials for Harry Lime        [ Gregg Oppenheimer <gopp@[removed]; ]
      Olive Oyl and CBS color TV            [ <verotas@[removed]; ]
      Lost OTR shows                        [ "D. FISHER" <dfisher052@[removed] ]
      Olive Oyl                             [ Dan Hughes <danhughes@[removed]; ]
      1-27 births/deaths                    [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 22:53:05 -0500
    From: wgaryw@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: radio shows on tv

    Jay Sweet writes:

>     What  television shows  based on OTR do you think did a good job?

    i've always felt that burns and allen got better and better as they got older
    (up till the point, perhaps, of adding ronnie to the tv show), and that the
    tv show was a thousand times better than their radio work.

    jack benny, on the other hand, as successful as he was on tv, and as
    wonderful as his facial expressions and gestures were, was, i think, much
    funnier on radio.  too often on tv the writers resorted to the cheapest of
    gags, like "funny" costumes.  also, too often the tv shows were simply
    retreads of ideas that were created originally for radio, and worked better
    on radio, where burns and allen substantially changed the nature of their
    show in the transaition from radio to tv by having george break the fourth
    wall as narrator/monologist, and generally giving george a lot more to do
    than he ever had on radio.

    it's interesting to me that it seems the more the radio performers stuck to
    the original conception of their shows when moving to tv, the less successful
    they were.  fred allen's failed attempts to recreate "allen's alley" are
    another good case in point. . .

    --wgw

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

    Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 08:30:36 -0500
    From: Grams46@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: original Olive Oyl

    dm4yeshua@[removed] writes:

>     charactor name  is Aunt Bethany.

    her name was Mae Questel / Mae Questal / Mae  Questelle.
    her extensive list of credits including olive oyl in the popeye  cartoons can
    be found at [removed]

    peace from  kathy
    support our troops; end the war
    john 3:16

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

    Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 08:34:05 -0500
    From: Ljk2476@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Aunt Bethany

        Hola!      David B. asked about the actress that  played the old aunt in
    the Chevy Chase comedy, 'NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS  VACATION. Yes, the
    woman was played by Mae Questel, the best known of the  actresses that played
    "Betty Boop" for Max Fleischer's great cartoon series.  (She also made "Olive
    Oyl" on Fleischer's classic POPEYE cartoons her own,  although, there too,
    other actresses did the voice as well.) - Lenny  Kohl

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

    Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:07:26 -0500
    From: "Karen Lerner" <[removed]@[removed];
    To: "OTR Digest (E-mail)" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Olive Oyl

    In response to David B.'s inquiry:

>     I would guess that most would be familiar with the Chevy Chase Christmas
>     Vacation movie from the 80s.  There is an elderly woman on the
>     movie whose charactor name is Aunt Bethany.  I recently heard it stated
>     that she was the original Olive Oil on the Popeye OTR show."

    David, the actress who plays Aunt Bethan in Christmas Vacation is Mae
    Questel.  She was involved with the radio version of Popeye, but did not
    voice Olive Oyl (that was Olive Lamoy).  She WAS on the show, though!  She
    did the voice of Sweetpea.  HOWEVER, on the CARTOON version, she gave voice
    to both Olive Oyl AND Sweetpea.  In addition to her involvement with Popeye,
    Mae was a vaudeville performer, and the voice of Betty Boop from 1931 - 1939.
    Also, according to [removed], her recording of "On The Good Ship Lollipop"
    sold more than 2 million copies during the Depression.  On film, she did
    appear in a Woody Allen picture (New York Stories).  Her film credits also
    include Who Framed Roger Rabbit (reprising her 30's character Betty Boop),
    and Funny Girl, among others.

    I don't know much about the Popeye radio series except that it was fairly
    short-lived (1935 - 1938) and that on radio the sailor became mighty after
    eating the sponsors product WHEATENA - not spinich like on the comic strip
    and television program.  "Wheatena's me diet, I ax ya to try it, I'm Popeye
    the sailor man!  Beep-beep."

    Karen Lerner
    Radio Spirits

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

    Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 12:32:37 -0500
    From: Gregg Oppenheimer <gopp@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Commercials for Harry Lime

    I'm planning a re-creation of the BBC radio program "The Lives of
    Harry Lime", which was syndicated in the [removed] in the early 1950s. The
    only recordings I have are minus commercials (which were added
    domestically).

    To make my re-creation more complete, I'd like to add commercials --
    ones from the early 1950s, and preferably ones that are humorous
    (whether or not the humor was intentional).

    Can any of you recommend some specific commercials for me to use in
    my re-creation?

    Alternatively, if anyone has an aircheck of a "Harry Lime" broadcast,
    it would be great to go with commercials that actually aired
    (somewhere) with the show.

    Thanks.

    - Gregg Oppenheimer

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

    Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:18:18 -0500
    From: <verotas@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Olive Oyl and CBS color TV

    Re the Chevy Chase Christmas Movie, Aunt Bethany was played by Mae Questel.
    To describe all the things with which she is identified would take a very
    long posting here, and I defer to others with more expertise on this great
    character singer/actress.  Boop Boop a Doop!

    Now to CBS color TV:  When I was in my teens I was most fortunate to have
    developed friends in radio and TV - especially at CBS - who were very kind to
    me, sending me pictures and other material, tickets, etc.  One perk I
    received was to be invited to a special press premier showing of the new CBS
    Color TV system.  If memory serves, I believe it was in a function room at
    the Waldorf Astoria.  It was a fairly large room in which were set up a
    number of fairly large floor-model TV sets - perhaps half a dozen - each
    complete with the cumbersome, large color wheel, whose radius had to be
    slightly larger than the width of the screen in front of which it rotated.

    A rather small number of chairs was placed straight out from the front of
    each set, because viewing through the framing on the color wheel created a
    tunnel effect between the wheel and the screen, some distance behind it.
    One chair in each group was occupied by an engineer whose job was to operate
    a control which made sure the wheel rotated in proper synch to keep the
    correct colors showing at the correct time.  Somewhat like the original
    Cinerama theatrical showings which actually had 3 screens with two fuzzy
    areas in between, and an engineer had to make sure the 3 projectors were in
    synch with each other.

    But that's another story on another technology.  Cinerama eventually avoided
    their problem; CBS color TV would have done so with theirs also, had not
    'General' Sarnoff ridden roughshod over the FCC, pressuring  them to dub
    knighthood on the RCA 'compatible' system of color TV without giving CBS a
    chance to come up with compatibility and no color wheel, which they were
    working on.  For further enlightenment on this and related issues I recommend
    the excellent book and documentary  "Empire of the Air", both of which should
    be in the library of everyone reading these Digests.

    Present in the aforementioned room were all the NYC and other radio-TV
    columnists, and I was ga-ga meeting some and staring at all.  John Crosby,
    Dorothy Kilgallen, Ben Gross, and many more.  Everyone that mattered in that
    tiny but important community of onlookers, watchers, molders, and muckrakers.

    For this stellar event, the network brought into its one new color studio
    many of its very biggest CBS stars, including my favorite Arthur Godfrey who
    would be seen for the first time with his resplendent freckles and red hair
    (actually more auburn).  But the sustained positive response came from the
    series of sponsors' products (probably present and anticipated) which showed
    up so spectacularly on the color sets:  Pall Mall and Lucky Strike
    cigarettes, Prestone AntiFreeze, and many others chosen for their brilliantly
    colored packaging.   Didn't that make the Madison Avenue gray flannel suits
    sit up and take notice.  You don't suppose that's what CBS had in mind?

    The most impressive moment came right at the get-go.  The black screens
    suddenly came to life, and we were impressed that the usual gray blankness
    became the blueish tint with which we are now all so familiar.  There
    appeared a white background which wasn't quite just a white background.  As
    it turned out, a camera was above a crystal glass bowl filled with water,
    sitting on a white tablecloth.  As the color camera lifted up slightly this
    became obvious.  Then a hidden hand bumped the table which rippled the water,
    and we became aware of fleeting sparklets dashing about, reflections from the
    multi-colored overhead lights in the TV studio.

    SUDDENLY a beautiful red rose with a few green leaves dropped from above and
    plopped down into the agitated liquid, causing more colorful waves in the
    water, and excited ripples among the stunned onlookers.  The effect was
    electric - or should I say electronic.  It got everyone's attention for all
    that followed, and produced rave reviews the following day in newspapers, and
    shortly after in trade and general magazines.

    What kind of a day was it?  A day - like all days - filled with those events
    that alter and illuminate our times.  And (thankfully)  - "I Was There!"
    And never shall forget!

    Lee Munsick

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

    Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:18:26 -0500
    From: "D. FISHER" <dfisher052@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Lost OTR shows

    I've been collecting since the mid '60's & still looking for "Island
    Venture" from 1945 -1946.
    I fondly remember listening when I was a kid.

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

    Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 19:17:57 -0500
    From: Dan Hughes <danhughes@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Olive Oyl

    David B. asks about the voice of Olive Oyl and her role in the movie
    Christmas Vacation.

    David, I went to [removed], looked up Christmas Vacation, found
    that Aunt Bethany was played by Mae Questal, who was the voice of Olive
    Oyl but also and more famously, the voice of Betty Boop.  The Betty Boop
    character was modeled after Mae.  Read about her here:
    [removed]

    ---Dan

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

    Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 23:26:58 -0500
    From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  1-27 births/deaths

    January 27th births

    01-27-1885 - Jerome Kern - NYC - d. 11-11-1945
    composer: "Railroad Hour"; "Show Boat"
    01-27-1888 - Harry "Singin' Sam" Frankel - Hillsboro, OH - d. 6-12-1948
    singer: (The Barbasol Man) "Reminiscin' with Singin' Sam"
    01-27-1895 - Harry Ruby - NYC - d. 2-23-1974
    songwriter: "Thirty Minutes in Hollywood"; "Great Moments to Music"
    01-27-1895 - Violet Heming - Leeds, Yorkshire, England - d. 7-4-1981
    actor: Connie Wakefield "Right to Happiness"
    01-27-1899 - Milton Rettenberg - NYC - d. 12-24-1986
    pianist/conductor: "Chesterfield Presents"; "Cities Service Concerts"
    01-27-1904 - Frankie Marvin - Butler, Indian Territory, Oklahoma - d.
    1-18-1985
    actor: "Gene Autry's Melody Rance"
    01-27-1905 - Howard McNear - Los Angeles, CA - d. 1-3-1969
    actor: Doctor Charles Adams "Gunsmoke"
    01-27-1908 - "Hot Lips" Page - Dallas, TX - d. 11-5-1954
    jazz trumpeter: "Milt Herth Trio"; "Eddie Condon's Jazz Concert"
    01-27-1912 - Benay Venuta - San Francisco, CA - d. 9-1-1995
    singer: "Benay Venuta's Program"; "Shell Chateau"
    01-27-1914 - Alexander Albert Avola - Boston, MA - d. 1-20-2000
    guitarist/arranger: Artie Shaw Orchestra; Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
    01-27-1916 - Merrill Mueller - NYC - d. 11-30-1980
    reporter: "NBC Stands By"; "Morning News Roundup"; "The Navy Hour"
    01-27-1918 - Skitch Henderson - Birmingham, England - d. 11-1-2005
    bandleader: "Philco Radio Time"; "Songs by Sinatra"
    01-27-1921 - Donna Reed - Dennison, IA - d. 1-14-1986
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"; "Star and the Story"; "Silver Theatre"
    01-27-1924 - Sabu - Mysore, India - d. 12-2-1963
    actor: "Confidential Close-Ups"

    January 27th deaths

    01-21-1904 - Allen Prescott - St. Louis, MO - d. 1-27-1978
    host: "Wife Saver"; "Prescott Presents"
    02-08-1915 - George "Doc" Abraham - Wayland, NY - d. 1-27-2005
    gardner, host: "The Green Thumb"
    02-20-1919 - Dick Wesson - Idaho - d. 1-27-1979
    announcer: "Space Patrol"
    03-16-1901 - Edward Pawley - Kansas City, KS - d. 1-27-1988
    actor: Steve Wilson "Big Town"
    05-01-1918 - Jack Paar - Canton, OH - d. 1-27-2004
    comedian: "Jack Paar Show"; "Take It or Leave It"
    06-13-1887 - Edward 'Senator' Ford - Brooklyn, NY - d. 1-27-1970
    panelist: "Can You Top This"
    06-23-1910 - Edward P. Morgan - Walla Walla, WA - d. 1-27-1993
    newscaster: "News and Commentary"
    06-27-1908 - Bill Kennedy - Cleveland Heights, OH - d. 1-27-1997
    announcer: "Nobody's Children"
    08-12-1898 - Oscar Homolka - Vienna, Austria - d. 1-27-1978
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    08-22-1887 - Julia Sanderson - Springfield, MA - d. 1-27-1975
    singer, emcee: "Blackstone Plantation"; "Battle of the Sexes"; "Let's
    Be Charming"
    10-13-1900 - Gerald Marks - Saginaw, MI - d. 1-27-1997
    tin pan alley composer: "Great Days We Honor"
    10-26-1911 - Mahalia Jackson - New Orleans, LA - d. 1-27-1972
    gospel singer: (The Angel of Peace) "Mahalia Jackson Show"
    xx-xx-1911 - Lou Crosby - Lawton, OK - d. 1-27-1984
    announcer: "Rise Stevens Show"; "Gene Autry's Melody Ranch"; "Lum and
    Abner"

    Ron Sayles

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #31
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