Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #255
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 6/28/2003 5:01 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2003 : Issue 255
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Frees signature                       [ benohmart@[removed] ]
      dogs on old-time radio                [ Howard Blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
      Soviet old-time radio THEFT           [ Howard Blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
      tube radios                           [ "Frank Phillips" <frankphi@hotmail. ]
      converting real to mp3                [ "Bh420" <bh420@[removed]; ]
      50 KW and Other Powerhouse AMs        [ Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed]; ]
      Herb Shriner                          [ danhughes@[removed] ]
      Real to mp3 converters                [ "Phil Watson" <philwats@[removed] ]
      June 29th births                      [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      WWL - Blue Room                       [ Jerry0944 <jerry0944@[removed]; ]
      Re: Converting Real Aduo to MP3       [ "Rob Muir" <rmuir@[removed]; ]
      Blind detectives                      [ "Marcus Antonsson" <[removed] ]
      Twilight Zone on WGN Radio            [ Marty <martyd@[removed]; ]
      Any AM stations playing OTR today?    [ "Robert M. Bratcher Jr." <bratcher@ ]
      Two For the Money on Radio            [ "Tim Lones" <timl2002@[removed] ]
      american printing house?              [ "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed]; ]
      Name-Dropping at the Billy Rose       [ Derek Tague <derek@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 11:56:09 -0400
    From: benohmart@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Frees signature

    It looks enough like Paul's signature to certainly Possibly be genuine. He
    did answer fan
    mail now and then, so it's more than likely his work. However, his kind of
    signature
    looks like it could also be easy to forge. Sorry for the inconclusive answer.
    But it's very
    possible. And I know. I'm writing the book on Frees.

    Ben

    Books on old time radio:
    [removed]

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 11:56:51 -0400
    From: Howard Blue <khovard@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  dogs on old-time radio

    Just for the record-- a guy named Arthur Miller (yes--THE [removed]) wrote a
    radio play during World War II about a dog in the canine corps.

    Howard Blue

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 11:56:40 -0400
    From: Howard Blue <khovard@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Soviet old-time radio THEFT

    	The latest chapter in the saga of my attempts to get copies of some
    Soviet World War II era radio plays--

    	I just learned that the Moscow archivist who once showed me three
    scripts of such plays (but would not let me take them home until we had a
    contract) has begun an anthology of Soviet World War II era radio plays.
    I won't even begin to protest that she's stolen my idea--since she's over
    3000 miles away.

    	Anyway, since there's nothing I can do about it, I plan on sending her
    my best wishes on the project. Don't be surprised if someday you see my
    English translations of at least a couple of them.

    Do Svidanja

    Howard Blue
    [removed]

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 12:04:38 -0400
    From: "Frank Phillips" <frankphi@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  tube radios
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    I think tube radios give better sound, but that may be due to other factors,
    such as larger speakers.

    As far as sensitivity, please remember there are many more stations on the air
    today that before 1950. [removed] my home town am station, wnil-am, niles, mich.,
    where  I worked in 1973, went on the air in 1956.

    Frank Phillips

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 12:08:24 -0400
    From: "Bh420" <bh420@[removed];
    To: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  converting real to mp3

    hello,

    look for a program on the net called streambox ripper 2009

    scott

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 12:46:33 -0400
    From: Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  50 KW and Other Powerhouse AMs

    In Old Time Radio Digest [removed] [removed], Ed Kindred wrote in his post,
    "WWL New Orlean":

>     I don't know if WWL in Gnawlens is a clear channel station but I could
>     pick it up in Phoenix in the 50's. It wasn't strong but it was
>     understandable. WCCO, WHO, KMOX and WWL were about as far east as I
>     could go consistently from Phoenix. It is almost as if Ol' Man River
>     was a barrier.

    Living here in New Orleans for most of my life (BTW, WWL-870 is 50,000
    Watts, clear channel -- power-wise that is, *NOT* the name of the
    owning company! :) ... I will reciprocate that it seems that the Rocky
    Mountains were about as far west as I have ever been able to pick up
    DX'ing at night, when I used to do a great deal of DX'ing in my High
    School and College years of the 1970s/80s. I had picked up KSL Salt Lake
    City UT and KOA Denver CO on a few occasions, but I was *never* able to
    pick up KGA Spokane WA, KNX Hollywood CA, nor anything else up and down
    the Pacific Coast in CA/OR/WA.

    Eastward, I did pick up WNBC-660 and WABC-770 New York and WCAU
    Philadelphia PA, on some *extremely rare* occasions (I think the weather
    and other atmospheric conditions had to be "just right"). It seems that
    the Appalachans were my eastern barrier.

    I never remember receiving anything from Canada though, from this far
    down South.

    The stations that I would regularly pick up in addition to the ones
    mentioned above included most of the 50-KW and other powerhouse stations
    in Chicago IL: WMAQ-670 (NBC), WGN, WBBM-780 (CBS), and (with a lot of
    crossover interference from WWL-870 locally) WLS-890 (ABC)...
    WJR Detroit MI, and I *think* also WWJ at [removed] WWWE Clevland OH,
    WLW Cincinnati OH, KMOX [removed] MO, WOAI San Antoinio TX, WHAS Louisville
    KY, WHO Des Moines IA, WSB Atlanta GA, WSM Nashville TN, and so
    [removed] mostly things throughout the Mississippi River Valley area.

    I would *never* have been able to receive WCBS-880 New York, because it
    was "right next door" on the dial to WWL-870 locally. And as I mentioned
    it was even only a rare occaion when I could barely tune in to WNBC-660
    or WABC-770.

    In Fall 1979, our ROTC unit took a field trip to Tucson AZ, and I brought
    my AM radio to see what I could DX at night. Of course, I received 50-KW
    stations all up and down the Pacific Coast (KNX Los Angeles!, and some
    San Francisco based network O&Os), and I remember being able to barely
    tune in WWL New Orleans, KMOX [removed], and even WBBM Chicago. But as you
    mentioned, I don't think that anything of significance east of the
    Mississippi River was able to be pulled in.

    In 1980/81, I lived in Spokane WA, and the stations I could DX included
    two stations in Alberta (CANADA), one in Calgary, another in Edmonton --
    I remember one or both carried the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, but not the
    episode that (most) CBS Radio affiliates aired that night -- even the
    initial reference to 'CBS' by [removed] Marshall was edited out of their tapes.
    But one or both of those Alberta stations even used the CBS Radio hourly
    news jingle of the 1968-83 period as their local news jingle (the one that
    sounded like a *real* organ), but neither station seemed to carry any
    regular news/info programming of the CBS RAD))|((O NETWORK. But I don't
    think that either station carried much from the CBC (Canada) though.

    Also during the year I lived in Spokane, I did occasionally pull-in KSL
    Salt Lake City UT, KOA in Denver CO, KCBS San Francisco CA, and even on a
    rare occasion I tuned in to KNX Hollywood. But I *never* seemed to be able
    to pull-in WWL, KMOX, nor anything from Chicago.

    My years of doing a lot of DX-ing was to tune in mostly network affiliates
    in distant cities, to hear the short and long form news/info programming
    that wasn't necessarily picked up by the local affiliates in New Orleans.
    Some out-of-town stations (usually the Chicago based network O&Os) seemed
    to carry just about *everything* the network fed, and would repeat many
    of these network programs in the overnight or weekend period. Again, this
    was mostly in the 1970s/early 80s timeframe, well after the heydey of OTR,
    but some of these distant powerhouse AM stations did run a good deal of
    OTR, especially if they were a CBS affiliate carrying CBS Mystery Theater
    (and in 1979, the CBS-fed Sears Radio Theater).

    Mark J. Cuccia
    mcuccia@[removed]
    New Orleans LA

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 12:47:27 -0400
    From: danhughes@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Herb Shriner

    A bit of Herb Shriner trivia--he bought Elvis Presley's tour bus in 1968.

    Herb died April 23, 1970, at the age of 51.  I seem to remember an auto
    accident but I may be thinking of someone else?

    By the way, Fred Allen did the pilot of Two For the Money--the show was
    written for him--but he became ill and Shriner took his place.

    Here's more about Herb:

    [removed]

    And from another web site:  Humorist Herb Shriner was known as the
    "Hoosier Hot Shot." He become popular on radio in the late 1940s for his
    backwoods stories about rural country life in Indiana (the land of the
    Hoosiers). His easygoing jokes and philosophizing was likened to the
    legendary Will Rogers. He starred on the comedy variety series THE HERB
    SHRINER SHOW/CBS/ABC/1949-52 & 56 and hosted the quiz audience
    participation series TWO FOR THE MONEY/NBC/CBS/1952-57. When Herb first
    started in show business he played a harmonica in a vaudeville house.
    When his lips got tired, he'd start to tell stories to the audience.
    Eventually, his stories became the main focus of his act. Herb Shriner's
    son, Wil Shriner Jr., a successful humorist in his own rite, had his own
    syndicated talk show THE WIL SHRINER SHOW from 1987-88. TRIVIA NOTE: The
    "Hoosier Hot Shots" was the name of a country western music combo
    originated by Rudy Trietsch that debuted on radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana
    and later became regulars on the radio program THE NATIONAL BARN DANCE in
    1935. Their trademark oponing was "Are you ready, Hezzi?"

    ---Dan

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 13:44:27 -0400
    From: "Phil Watson" <philwats@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Real to mp3 converters

    There have been a couple of requests about software to convert Real Audio
    files to mp3 format. You can get a program called [removed] that converts
    RealAudio files to  WAV, available at [removed].

    If you have a WAV editing program you can check the volume, leading and
    trailing blank time etc and edit them to your preferences.

    Then to convert the WAV file to mp3 try
    [removed].

    Both downloads are free. I've not used re2wav but RazorLame is excellent, I
    use it all the time.

    Regards from England
    Phil

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 13:44:38 -0400
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  June 29th births

    June 29th births

    06-29-1893 - Alma Kitchell - Superior, WI - d. 11-13-1996
    singer, commentator: "Melody Hour"; "Brief Case/Streamline Journal"
    06-29-1901 - Ed Gardner - Astoria, NY - d. 8-17-1963
    comedian: Archie "Duffy"s Tavern"
    06-29-1901 - Nelson Eddy - Providence, RI - d. 3-6-1967
    singer: "Voice of Firestone"; "Vicks Open House"; "Chase & Sanborn Hour"
    06-29-1907 - Joan Davis - St. Paul, MN - d. 5-22-1961
    comedienne: "Sealtest Village Store"; "Joan Davis Show"
    06-29-1911 - Bernard Herrmann - NYC - d. 12-24-1975
    conductor, composer: "Columbia Workshop"; "Mercury Theatre on the Air"
    06-29-1915 - Ruth Warrick - St. Joseph, MO
    actress: "Joyce Jordan, [removed]"; "Myrt and Marge"

    June 29th deaths

    02-08-1920 - Lana Turner - Wallace, ID - d. 6-29-1995
    actress: "Abbott and Costello"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
    03-10-1918 - Pamela Mason - Westgate-on-Sea, Kent, England - d. 6-29-1996
    actress: "The James Mason and Pamela Mason Show"
    05-23-1928 - Rosemary Clooney - Maysville, KY - d. 6-29-2002
    singer: "Rosemary Clooney Show"; "On the Sunny Side"
    08-29-1882 - Richard Legrand - Mount Tabor section near Portland, OR - d.
    6-29-1963
    actor: Richard Q. Peavy "Great Gildersleeve"; Ole "Fibber McGee and Molly"

    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin
    Hometown of [removed] Kaltenborn and Spencer Tracy

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 13:44:50 -0400
    From: Jerry0944 <jerry0944@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  WWL - Blue Room
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    Having been a lurker for ages, this is my first submission!
    WWL was (and is?) a clear channel station at 50kw power.  In the late '40s
    and at least part of the '50s WWL broadcast music nightly "from the Blue Room
    at the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans".  I recall that the music was live and
    from a variety of bands and orchestras.
    I have no confirmation of these details except my own memories.  Perhaps
    someone else can share more details.  I wonder who announced the program -
    and if a single, regular announcer or did it vary?  When did the Blue Room
    broadcasts first and last air?
    Jerry Maddux

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 14:58:53 -0400
    From: "Rob Muir" <rmuir@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Converting Real Aduo to MP3

    I have been using a program called Streambox Ripper for quite a while now.
    Excellent results. The program, however, has been illegal since RealMedia
    found out about it. A quick Google search revealed a number of sources for
    the legal version (no RealAudio conversion possible), and some articles on
    the older hard to find (but not impossible) ripper. According to a number of
    the sites I visited, there is no "official" RealAudio to mp3 converter on
    the market.

    Rob
    [removed]

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 14:59:13 -0400
    From: "Marcus Antonsson" <[removed]@[removed];
    To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Blind detectives

    Hi Gang!
    The show Mark Kinsler refers to is probably "sounds of darknes" a south
    African show about an FBI man who's gone blind and switched to private
    detective work. quite an interesting show, but not very realistic if you ask
    me. Are there other shows like this perhaps?

    Regards:

    Marc Antonsson (who's blind himself)

    How you look means nothing!
    Who you are means everything!

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 15:11:38 -0400
    From: Marty <martyd@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Twilight Zone on WGN Radio

    Starting on July 5th at Midnight (Saturday Night), WGN radio, 720kHz AM,
    will be airing The Twilight Zone radio dramas.  Further details and an
    episode guide are available at the WGN Radio website
    ([removed]).  Just click the link below:

    [removed]

    WGN is a 50,000 watt "clear" channel radio station heard in many many
    states at night.  They broadcast in AM Stereo, too, for those who might
    have an AM-stereo (C-Quam) capable receiver/tuner.

    Just passing on this information for those who might be interested!

    Marty
    Schererville, IN

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 18:37:03 -0400
    From: "Robert M. Bratcher Jr." <bratcher@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Any AM stations playing OTR today?

    I am NOT looking for When Radio Was as my local 50KW KTRH plays that.
    Rather I'm looking for stations playing whole shows from the OTR days
    preferably at night. Does anybody know of any? Frequency & power would be
    great if you can provide it.

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 18:37:20 -0400
    From: "Tim Lones" <timl2002@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Two For the Money on Radio

    A few years back, Game Show Network ran Two for the Money in what was then
    Black and White Saturday/Sunday night, And there was reference to Two for
    the Money also being on Radio (i think simulcast)
    The Best part of the show was Herb interacting with the contestants very
    similar to Groucho on You bet Your Life.  He was an extemely funny comic in
    my opinion.  His son Wil (one l) became known as an actor-comedian in his
    own right who had his own talk show for a while.

    Tim Lones

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 18:38:17 -0400
    From: "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  american printing house?

    In OTR digest it says

>     Library of Congress loans phonographs?
>     It is possible that the Library of Congress loaned out phonographs, but I'm
>     wondering if our poster might have been thinking of the American Printing
>     House for the Blind, in Cincinnati.  They were in the talking-book
>     business through the 1980's, and probably still are.

      I thihnk that was the
    Clovernook Printing House for the
    Blind, since the American Printing House for the Blind is in Louisville
    KY around WHAS where Milton Metz and I guess a number of readers of
    talking books for the blind used to work.  I'm not picking, just passing
    information along.  Kurt

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

    Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 18:39:39 -0400
    From: Derek Tague <derek@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Name-Dropping at the Billy Rose

    It's me again, Gang!

         I  wanted to thank my buddy Martin Grams for his addendum to my previous
    posting about doing research at the Billy Rose Theatre Collection in NYC. That
    was a lot of fun playing host to the Grams family
    on a research vacation--during a snowstorm, I might add.
         As for providing a female liberrian, er, librarian with a box of candy,
    I've found that a family-size bag of M&M's will do the job just as nicely.
    There's no need to spend your reearch money on a Whitman's Sampler, or a
    package courtesy of Ms. Farmer or Mr. Stover.  Let's move on from this point
    lest we be accused of sexism.
         But funny things do happen there at Mr. Rose's file emporium. I recently
    had to ask a couple of over-enthusiastic guys doing research on Ben Selvin to
    quiet down. [If somebody publishes a book about Ben Selvin & the author(s)
    writes in the introduction about some guy who told him/them to "shut up"  at a
    library, it was me].
         As many of you know, my good buddy Gary Yoggy is working on a book for
    McFarland tentatively titled "House Calls," which will chronicle the history
    of medical themed TV programmes. One time, when the Professor  was in town on
    a research jaunt, I took a  coupla days off from Talking Books to assist him
    in tag-team [or, in my case, Tague-team] research. Things went just as
    smoothly as Martin had rejoindered. Even one extra person to help photocopy &
    co-ordinate makes the world o' difference and saves ;otsa time.
         Gary was photocopying articles from several file folders looking for
    great quotes from shows such as "Marcus Welby,"  "Ben Casey," "Dr.
    Kildare," and three similarly titled shows "Nurses" [from the 1990s with
    Swoosie Kurtz], "Nurse" [from the early 1980s starring Miss Michael Learned],
    and "The Nurses [from the 1960s starring Zina Bethune]. I helped Gary sort the
    photocopies into different piles verbally labeling each respective stack:
    "Here's 'Medic,' here's 'Temperature's Rising'...here's 'Nurses'/Swoosie
    Kurtz, here's 'Nurse'/Michael Learned,
    here's 'The Nurses'/Zina Bethune."
         Over dinner that night, I had reached a point of research fatigue &
    blurted out to Gary, "Y'know, Gary, I have said Zina Bethune's name aloud more
    in the last 36 hours than I have ever said it my entire life!"
         [Of course, if Michael Learned married  singer Tommy Roe, divorced him
    and married singer Joey Dee, & then in succession divorced & married former
    South African premier [removed] Botha, comedian Pauly Shore, TV personality Arsenio
    Hall, baseball manager Felipe Alou, & finally Teletubby La-La, she's be
    Michael Roe-Dee-Botha-Shore-Hall-Alou-La. I wrote that one].
         Back to Billy Rose. It's amazing what one learns while looking through
    microfilms of VARIETY  from the mid-1920s while trying to track down the
    little coverage this austere "Bible of Sow-Biz" accorded the ether at that
    time. As far as I could ascertain, the first time VARIETY devoted an entire
    page to radio was in August 1924 & it was deeply entrenched in the paper after
    the pages devoted to "Circuses," "Outdoor Amusements," and "Chatauqua."
         However, while traipsing through the "Circus," pages, I was absolutely
    dumbfounded to learn that the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan sponsored their own
    circuses, and that Variety  unbiasedly tracked their peregrinations through
    the South. Geez, what were the circus tents shaped like?
         My favourite front-page "below-the-fold" headline from some issue of
    Variety circa 1923-24 was "Minstrel Opposition on B'way." Naturally, my
    curiosity was aroused. I mused to myself, "Wow, people were opposed to
    blackface 'back in the day'?" Upon further reading, I learned the thrust of
    said  article was a report that Al Jolson was in one show on Broadway & that
    Eddie Cantor was across the strret in another show. Hence, the "opposittion."
         Which leads me to my final bit of advice regarding research: STAY
    FOCUSSED. If you're looking through issues of show-biz trade papers (or any
    other publication, for that matter), try not to read about circuses when
    you're supposed to be doing research on radio.  If you're supposed to be
    chasing down articles about "the Shadow" for Anthony Tollin, and you
    serendipitously stumble upon articles about "Vic 'n' Sade,"  make note of the
    publication & its date & save "V'n'S" for another time [my advance apologies
    to Barbara Schwarz].

    Yours in the  microfilm,

    Derek Tague

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #255
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