Subject: [removed] Digest V2007 #305
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 10/26/2007 9:11 PM
To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to:
[removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2007 : Issue 305
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Lost "Lights Out" recreation          [ StevenL751@[removed] ]
  Empire Builders' Armistice Day episo  [ "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed]; ]
  10-27 births/deaths                   [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]

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

Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 23:19:40 -0400
From: StevenL751@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Lost "Lights Out" recreation

For those of you who missed it at the Friends of  Old-Time Radio convention
last Saturday, a recording of the Gotham Radio  Players' recreation of a lost
1939 episode of LIGHTS OUT will be broadcast twice  on WBAI this coming week.
The episode is called "Reunion", by [removed]  Persons, and it's a blood-curdling
tale of violent death (and what comes  after).

"Reunion" can be heard this coming Sunday between 7:00 and 9:00  PM on "The
Golden Age of Radio",  and again on "The Moorish Orthodox Radio  Crusade" on
Halloween morning (Tuesday/Wednesday overnight), October 31, at  midnight.
(All
times are Eastern).  If you're in the NYC area you can  tune us in at [removed]
FM, and everywhere else you can hear us on your computers at  [removed].
Both programs will then be available in WBAI's archive for 2  weeks for
on-demand
listening.

I hope you'll tune in for our little  Halloween treat.  Don't forget to close
your [removed] if you  dare!

Steve Lewis
director, Gotham Radio Players

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Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 18:47:05 -0400
From: "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Empire Builders' Armistice Day episode

Found a couple of newspaper clippings about the 1930 Armistice Day
episode of "Empire Builders," which was actually broadcast on November
10, the day before the holiday. It's one of the earliest surviving
recordings of a network radio drama in circulation and features a
script by Wyllis Cooper and sound effects by Fred Ibbett. The first
clipping is from the November 10, 1930 The Capital Times (Madison,
WI):

***
EMPIRE BUILDERS

A story of the first Armistice Day in France, by one who was there
when it happened, will be dramatized in the Empire Builders episode to
be heard from the NBC Chicago Studios tonight at 9:30. The author, W.
O. Cooper, was with the A. E. F. and F. G. Ibbett, sound technician in
charge of producing the wartime noises, was with the British Air
forces on the Western Front at the close of the war. Many
complications follow when the Old Timer, played by Harvey Hays, is
mistaken for a German spy, and the end of the drama is packed with
surprises and thrills.
***

The second clipping appeared in the November 23, 1930 San Antonio
Express:

***
BATTLE EFFECTS IN THIS BROADCAST

Probably the most complete sound effects equipment ever used in
broadcasting, including battle effects in which two machine guns, a
score of rifles, and several other actual instruments of warfare were
used, were heard in the Armistice eve program of the Great Northern
Railway's "Empire Builders" series, presented from the Chicago Studios
of the NBC.

Special equipment for the sound effects of this production alone cost
almost a thousand dollars. In order to set the proper battle effects
for the war-time story to be dramatized, two machine guns were mounted
on the roof of the building outside the NBC studios, and fired volley
upon volley of blank cartridges in order to feed the actual noise of
the firing into the microphones. A squad of rifle and pistol men were
present and rockets and flares of the type used during the war were
discharged at intervals from the flat top of the Merchandise Mart.

An all-male cast of 53 actors took part in the production, in addition
to Josef Koestner's orchestra of 14 pieces. Other special equipment
installed at great expense for this and other Empire Builders
broadcasts, include two gigantic engine bells of the type actually in
use on the Great Northern railway engines, a specially constructed
apparatus 15 feet in height for the production of the noises of
explosions and other loud noises, a regulation engine whistle, and
many other innovations in the production of sound effects for radio
broadcasting.

The story, which was written by a member of an A. E. F. combat
organization stationed on the Western Front at the conclusion of the
war, had for its climax the first Armistice Day in France. Harvey
Hays, as "The Old Timer," and Don Ameche, youthful juvenile lead,
shared dramatic honors in the production.
***

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

Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 23:00:41 -0400
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  10-27 births/deaths

October 27th births

10-27-1890 - Bob Becker - Terryville, SD - d. 8-10-1962
commentator: "Fireside Chats About Dogs/Pet Parade"
10-27-1896 - Eric Dressler - NYC - d. 8-xx-1978
actor: "Scattergood Baines"; "Young Widdr Brown"
10-27-1898 - Kathryn Cravens - Burkett, TX - d. 8-29-1991
newscaster: "News Through a Woman's Eye"
10-27-1898 - Richard Carroll - Cambridge, MA - d. 3-11-1959
writer: "Shorty Bell"
10-27-1901 - David Stone - Savannah, GA - d. 8-31-1995
announcer: "Grand Ole Opry"
10-27-1907 - Mignon Schreiber - Chicago, IL - d. unknown
actor: Jennie Fox "Foxes of Flatbush", Mrs. Kransky "Guiding Light"
10-27-1908 - Josephine Antoine - Boulder, CO - d. 10-30-1971
singer: "Contented Hour"
10-27-1910 - Jack Carson - Carmen, Canada - d. 1-2-1963
comedian: "Jack Carson Show"; "New Sealtest Village Store"
10-27-1911 - Leif Erickson - Alameda, CA - d. 1-29-1986
actor: Richard Rhinelander III "My Friend Irma"
10-27-1914 - Dylan Thomas - Uplands, Swansea, Wales - d. 11-9-1953
writer: "Life of the Modern Poet"; "Modern Muse"
10-27-1915 - Albert Albinger - d. 1-xx-1982
newscaster: WKWK Wheeling, West Virginia
10-27-1918 - Bill Ballance - Peoria, IL - d. 9-23-2004
talk show host: "Feminine Forum"; "Bill Ballance Show"
10-27-1918 - Teresa Wright - NYC - d. 3-6-2005
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
10-27-1920 - Nanette Fabray - San Diego, CA
singer, actor: "Advs. of Ellery Queen"; "MGM Musical Comedy Theatre"
10-27-1924 - Ruby Dee - Cleveland, OH
actor: "Story of Ruby Valentine"; "Story Hour"
10-27-1933 - Floyd Cramer - Samti, LA - d. 12-31-1997
country pianist: "Country Music Time"; "Country Style [removed]"
10-27-1939 - John Cleese - Weston-Super-Mare, England
comedian: Basil Fawlty "Fawlty Towers"

October 27th deaths

01-01-1900 - Xavier Cugat - Tirona, Spain - d. 10-27-1990
bandleader: (King of the Rhumba) "Camel Caravan"
01-12-1894 - Georges Carpentier - Lens, France - d. 10-27-1975
boxer: Dempsey vs. Carpentier first boxing match broadcast
02-13-1917 - Clara Antonetti - d. 10-27-1995
broadcaster on WTSA Brattleboro, Vermont
03-05-1900 - Sam Hearn - Jersey City, NJ - d. 10-27-1964
comedian: Schlepperman "Jack Benny Program, Glamour Manor"
03-21-1919 - Lois Collier - Salley, SC - d. 10-27-1999
actor: Carol Chandler "Dear John"
04-22-1921 - Vivian Dandridge - Cleveland, OH - d. 10-27-1991
writer: "The Beulah Show"
05-11-1884 - Alma Gluck - Lasil, Romania - d. 10-27-1938
opera singer: made on radio appearance in 1929
05-26-1910 - Larry Rhine - San Francisco, CA - d. 10-27-2000
writer: "Duffy's Tavern"
05-29-1923 - Winifred Wolfe - San Francisco, CA - d. 10-27-1981
writer: "Cloak and Dagger"
08-26-1907 - Lester Lanin - Philadelphia, PA - d. 10-27-2004
bandleader: "Lester Lanin and His Orchestra"; "Here's to Veterans"
09-20-1911 - Frank De Vol - Moundsville, WV - d. 10-27-1999
conductor: "Rudy Vallee Drene Show"; "Sealtest Village Store"; "Dinah
Shore Show"
09-23-1910 - Elliott Roosevelt - NYC - d. 10-27-1990
commentary for the Mutual Network (Son of FDR) "Information Please"
09-24-1929 - Alfred Hudgins - d. 10-27-2004
disc jockey: "Blues in the Night"
10-25-1891 - Father Charles Coughlin - Hamilton, Canada - d. 10-27-1979
commentator, preacher: (The Radio Priest)
10-29-1910 - Lew Parker - Brooklyn, NY - d. 10-27-1972
actor: John Bickerson "The Bickersons" "Mennen Shave Time with Lew
Parker"
11-30-1914 - Charles Hawtrey - Hounslow, Middlesex, England - d.
10-27-1988
actor, comedian: Hubert Lane "Just William"
12-01-1886 - Rex Stout - Noblesville, IN - d. 10-27-1975
author: (Creator of Nero Wolfe) Debunker of Axis Propaganda "Our
Secret Weapon"
12-01-1911 - Randy Merriman - Minneapolis, MN - d. 10-27-2005
actor: "Doctor [removed]"
12-13-1912 - Herb Sheldon - Connecticut - d. 10-27-1964
announcer, host: "Honeymoon in New York"; "Luncheon at the Latin
Quarter"

Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #305
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