Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #341
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 8/31/2002 9:03 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2002 : Issue 341
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Holiday For Strings                   [ JPurc64093@[removed] ]
      Re: Reading Letters                   [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      Customs of the 40's                   [ "Dandrea, Chris" <ChrisD@[removed] ]
      Car Sound Effect                      [ "Scott Eberbach" <seberbach@earthli ]
      Boombox alternative                   [ Frank Kendall <efkendall@[removed]; ]
      Jerry Haendiges                       [ "Scott Eberbach" <seberbach@earthli ]
      Re: Archos Jukebox                    [ Michael Mewborn <mmewborn@designgro ]
      Shamrock Hotel in Houston             [ JamesAltenburg@[removed] ]
      free old-time movie poster            [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
      Advertising brand names               [ "jay ranellucci" <jayran33@hotmail. ]
      Standard School Broadcasts            [ "jay ranellucci" <jayran33@hotmail. ]
      More on Robert Q.                     [ otrbuff@[removed] ]
      John and Martha                       [ loviglio <loviglio@[removed]; ]
      Re: Influence of advertising          [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 11:18:39 -0400
    From: JPurc64093@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Holiday For Strings

    There are two items I would like to list: 1. I would love to contribute to
    the cause with money but I hate PayPal and the feeling seems mutual. Please
    advise as to how another way I can sent money. You (and other web vendors)
    should have a talk with PayPal about their site, It is NOT usuer friendly!.
    2. There was piece of music written by David Rose entitled "Holiday fro
    Strings." I know it was used as the theme for the old day-time Gary Moore
    Show and for the Red Skelton TV show, but it was used on other shows also.
    Does anyone know what shows?

    John Purchase
    John Purchase

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

    Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 11:19:38 -0400
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Reading Letters

    On 8/30/02 10:37 AM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:

>     My question is who originated this device of reading letters on
>     the air?

    This is an ancient comedy device, and was widely used in vaudeville long
    before radio -- it was a favorite format for comic monologists around the
    turn of the century, and probably has its antecedants in literary humor
    that used the letter form -- the "Letters of Artemus Ward" and similar
    sorts of humorous essays.

    Because it's such an old gimmick, it's hard to say who was the first to
    do it on radio -- but Correll and Gosden were certainly using this device
    as early as 1926, when Sam's frequent letters from his girlfriend Liza
    down in Birmingham were a regular feature of "Sam 'n' Henry." Correll and
    Gosden used the letter-reading device not simply for comedy, but as a way
    of expounding plot developments -- Liza only appeared on mike once during
    the entire two-year run of S&H, but she was still a regular character
    thru the medium of her letters -- thru her correspondence with Sam,
    listeners heard her eventually throw Sam over for a smooth-talking
    Pullman porter, leaving Sam determined to win her back.

    The use of letter-reading in "Sam 'n' Henry" prefigured its later use in
    "Amos 'n' Andy," in which letters were often used as a way of giving
    direct voice to female characters, allowing them to deliver speeches that
    could not easily be conveyed thru third-person exposition or one-sided
    telephone conversations. In this way, the "reading letters" technique was
    already well established in radio long before the Broadway/vaudeville
    school of comedians found their way into broadcasting.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 11:30:12 -0400
    From: "Dandrea, Chris" <ChrisD@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Customs of the 40's

    Hello all,
    I was playing a Great Gildersleves from sometime in 1948. In the show it was
    stated that a woman could ask a man for his hand only in a leap year. I also
    ran into this Burma Shave ad from 1949

    Leap year's over
    You're safe, men
    All you cowards
    Can shave again
    With brushless
    Burma-Shave

    My question is how long was it a custom and about when did it stop??

    Thanks

    Chris

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

    Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 11:50:49 -0400
    From: "Scott Eberbach" <seberbach@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Car Sound Effect

    Hi All!
    I too have wondered what that little sound is right before the sound of the
    [removed] repeated listening what it sounds like is the skid/blowout of a
    [removed] the [removed] sound is sort of a "burp" similar to the sound
    of airplane when the tires of the landing gear first hit the deck when
    coming in for a landing.  Just my 2 [removed]

    Scott

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

    Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 11:50:37 -0400
    From: Frank Kendall <efkendall@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Boombox alternative

    For those of you looking for a way to hear OTR on a
    boombox I have found the perfect, I think, alternative
    and it is way less expensive. Best Buy sells an item
    called the SOUNDFEEDER from Akron Resources, Inc.,
    Arcadia, CA. in their CD player section. The model #
    is sf120 and it sells for $[removed] You connect it to
    your MP3 player (any type)through the headphone port
    and adjust your FM receiver (home, car, boombox,
    etc.)to hear the resulting signal. The instructions
    are simple and my experience so far has been great
    having listed to OTR through my home, my car and a
    non-MP3 playing boombox I already owned.

    If you are not fortunate enough to have a Best Buy
    near you, Radio Shack sells a similar item for $[removed]
    I have no experience with it though.

    Frank Kendall

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

    Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 12:16:24 -0400
    From: "Scott Eberbach" <seberbach@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Jerry Haendiges

    I too would like to comment on Jerry's [removed] have done business with
    him in the past and always found his service swift and reliable.  I am also
    pleased with his play then pay policy.  In fact that was the deciding factor
    when considering him as a source for OTR.  On one order he advised me after
    I placed it that it would take him a little longer than the usual week as he
    was backed up with [removed] believe the order arrived in only two weeks!
    I haven't done any business with him (or any other dealer) recently due to
    my un-employed status; however, as soon as that issue is resolved you can
    rest assured that I will being doing business with Jerry again!

    Best [removed]

    Scott

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

    Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 12:17:36 -0400
    From: Michael Mewborn <mmewborn@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Archos Jukebox

>     Popular Mechanics magazine has an article in the Sept. issue about a MP3
>     player called the Archos Jukebox that has a 20 GB hard drive  that will
>     hold several hundred hours of mp3's.  Does anyone know if this machine will
>     work for our purposes  of playing OTR?  The magazine article was not clear
>     on that.         Keith

    I have had an Archos Jukebox for nearly a year now and it works extremely well for
    OTR. The USB interface is slow to transfer the programs to the device, but then it
    plays them without a hitch usually. I started with the 6GB model but soon got the
    20GB model and gave the other to my wife for audiobooks and the like. It also works
    very well for music.

    I load hundreds of programs on it, put it on scramble play and have many hours of
    effortless listening. My primary complaint is that when you stop a program in the
    middle and want to resume at a later time, you must start from the beginning. It
    remembers where you were but not the precise location within the program.

    I haven't found any bitrate or sample rate it won't handle.

    Michael

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

    Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 12:17:53 -0400
    From: JamesAltenburg@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Shamrock Hotel in Houston
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    The Shamrock Hotel was built in 1948-49 and had it's grand opening on St.
    Patrick's Day in 1949.  That was the date of the infamous remote of The
    Sealtest Variety Theater, a weekly half hour program with Dorothy Lamour as
    it's singing hostess that journeyed from Hollywood to Houston for the event.

    Far more guests for the audience showed up than there was room for and the
    result was sheer chaos -- all heard by millions across the country. An
    apparent foul up in the control room caused a muffled distant program to go
    out over NBC's national network although you can hear clearly an
    engineer/producer's phone conversation with a telephone operator repeating
    over and over again, "He isn't here, I'll take the call operator," which
    includes a burst of profanity to override the actual broadcast.

    Finally, the network cut back to New York or wherever and played recorded
    music for a few minutes and when they returned Dorothy Lamour was in the
    middle of a short sketch with guest Van Heflin.  I found it interesting that
    the next week when the show returned to California they repeated the sketch
    in its entirety, this time with guest
    David Niven reading the part that Van Heflin had the previous week.

    But back to Houston on that fateful March 17th evening.  The audience
    clamored loudly throughout the broadcast and it tuned into sheer bedlam with
    guest Ed Gardner of Duffy's Tavern interrupting Dorothy Lamour's line in
    their sketch "Van, you were going to ask Archie something weren't you?"  Ed
    Gardner (Duffy) replies, "Wait, just a minute Dottie, you know somebody's
    going to ask me something, nothing is going on.  People are milling around
    here, the PA system don't work -- "  Lamour interrupts, "Well, the people on
    the air will hear us."  Back to Gardner -- "They're not going to laugh anyhow
    because they're all looking at all the big movie stars around here."

    It is a classic of what can and did go wrong with live broadcasts.  And that
    is what I think of when I hear about the Shamrock Hotel.

    Jim Alton
    WKAT Miami 1964-1979

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    Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 12:31:44 -0400
    From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  free old-time movie poster

    Although this is not directly linked with OTR, it is nostalgic so I figured
    to pass this on to any interested parties.

    MGM Studios is taking an on-line poll so they can have an idea of what to
    release in the future, primarily old horror/sci-fi films.
    They are giving away a free movie poster to anyone who takes three minutes
    to answer their questions (such as how many DVDs you own, what magazines you
    subscribe, if you have any MGM films on video at your house, etc.)

    [removed]#

    The movie poster depicts images of old horror movies from the fifties, and
    it's free!
    (There is one note of interest - there is a section that asks what magazines
    you read - if anyone has ever browsed the pages of SCARLET STREET or
    FILMFAX, please mention so.  By no means, don't lie if you have never read
    those two magazines, but if you have or occassionally glance through the
    issues, please don't forget to mention [removed])

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

    Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 13:30:41 -0400
    From: "jay ranellucci" <jayran33@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Advertising brand names

    Hi again,

    How about Vaseline for (petroleum jelly or petrolatum)?

    jay

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

    Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 14:00:18 -0400
    From: "jay ranellucci" <jayran33@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Standard School Broadcasts

    Hi All,

    Does anyone remember the Standard School Broadcasts?  In the 40's at our
    school in Pasadena we used to listen to these every thursday morning at 10
    [removed] of KFI in [removed]  In the 60's I had the pleasure of recording these shows
    for Standard Oil with Carmen Dragon conducting the music.  These were very
    interesting, informative and educational shows on many different topics.
    Are any of these still in existence and were these only heard in California?

    Jay

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

    Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 15:26:55 -0400
    From: otrbuff@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  More on Robert Q.

    Fred Berney remembers when the subbing Robert Q. Lewis featured a
    character whom he called Robert Rosebusy on his stints as Godfrey's
    replacement every summer.  I thought I must be the only one alive still
    remembering that.  Actually, Lewis would turn it into a freelance
    commercial for a mythical "rosebushes" product and drag out every mention
    of that as "rosebusheses."  He would do it every single day!  It was so
    comical that my whole family picked up on it and for years and years
    beyond that time we referred to the "rosebusheses" out in our yard!  What
    powerful influence Robert [removed] radio--had on our lives!

    Jim Cox

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

    Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 16:13:45 -0400
    From: loviglio <loviglio@[removed];
    To: OldRadio Mailing Lists <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  John and Martha

    I am writing with a query.  A friend of mine asked me if I had ever heard of
    a radio program the consisted entirely of a woman saying the name "John" and
    a man responding with the name "Martha" in varying tones and moods.  He
    thought this might have been a spoof on otr soap operas, but wasn't sure. If
    none of you have heard of this, then I can be reasonably certain that it
    never existed.
    Thanks.

    Jason Loviglio
    Loviglio@[removed]

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

    Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 19:11:43 -0400
    From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
    To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re:  Influence of advertising

    Jer51473@[removed] asked:

>     Along these same lines does anyone recall
>     products that were marketed so well that people actually replaced the type
>     of product with a companys brand name?

    To this day vacuum cleaners in England are referred to as "Hoovers"

    Meanwhile, back home in the USA . . . .
    Band-Aids
    Jello
    Scotch Tape
    Jacuzzi
    Kitty Litter

    ~~Irene

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #341
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