Subject: [removed] Digest V01 #151
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 5/20/2001 3:04 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                          The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                             Volume 01 : Issue 151
                       A Part of the [removed]!
                               ISSN: 1533-9289

                               Today's Topics:

     short wave radio and Singing Lady    [JimInks@[removed]                    ]
     Re:Video to computer                 [Brent Pellegrini <brentp@[removed]]
     Amos 'n' Andy                        [DIANEK9331@[removed]                 ]
     Mutual news                          ["Art Shifrin" <goldens2@[removed]]
     War of the Worlds                    ["David L. Easter" <david-easter@hom]
     seeking Paul Frees                   [Ben Ohmart <bloodbleeds@[removed]; ]
     MP3 files                            ["John Sloan" <jdsloan@[removed]; ]
     Mary Lee Robb                        ["Kristine Stone" <kristinestone@hot]
     TV-Ready Radio?                      ["Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@]
     Re: Radio sets                       [Bill Harris <radioguy@[removed];   ]
     Re: Pre-war TV                       [Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed]]
     Re: Radio Sets and Television        ["James B. Wood, [removed]" <woodjim@]
     Mutual                               ["Frank Phillips" <frankphi@hotmail.]
     Bob & Ray Project--Another Nudge     [Sheryl Smith <sheryllsmith@earthlin]
     NEW OTR on the Internet?             [Sheryl Smith <sheryllsmith@earthlin]
     Orson Welles' Black Museum           [Paulurbahn@[removed]                 ]
     Greetings                            [Conrad Binyon <conradab@[removed]]

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

    Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 10:20:20 -0400
    From: JimInks@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  short wave radio and Singing Lady

    Okay.  I'm confused (which is not a rarity).  I'm getting the impression that
    it'd still be possible to pick up the BBC broadcasts once they quit beaming
    to the [removed]  Is that right?

    I was listening toa  tape of the Singing Lady the other day.  For those who
    don't know, this was a fifteen minute show in the late 1930's and was for
    little kids.  So imagine my surprise when I heard the guest talk about how
    the war was being won against Syphillis.  I'm not a prude but I was shocked
    that subject would be discussed on a little kids show in the 1930's.  I
    always thought that type of subject wasn't discussed much in public, not to
    mention on a kid's show.  Have I misjudged those times?

    -Jim Amash

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

    Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 10:20:25 -0400
    From: Brent Pellegrini <brentp@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re:Video to computer

    This is off subject but I was wondering since we can copy our old time
    radio tapes onto a computer is there a way to copy video tapes and make a
    cd out of them. I know there is a product called Terrapin that does this.
    I think it is a separate unit that has a cd recoder on it and you patch it
    to the VCR  But I wonder if you can copy direct from the VCR onto the
    computer?

    +++_SI^@)y
    TLUFp<1pyN4&

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

    Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 17:00:41 -0400
    From: DIANEK9331@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Amos 'n' Andy

    Does anyone know of a log for Amos 'n' Andy?
    Thanks,
    Diane

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

    Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 17:00:43 -0400
    From: "Art Shifrin" <goldens2@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Mutual news

    I recently transferred about 4 hours of the coverage of Howard Hughes'
    Worlds Fair flight of July, 1938.  Interestingly, the coverage coming from
    short wave foreign sources throughout the week was announced as being
    jointly by Mutual and NBC.  The disks were cut by WOR.

    It's so sad to see Floyd Bennett field now (where the flight commenced and
    concluded): abandoned and derelict along Flatbush Avenue in  Brooklyn.  One
    of Hughes' hopes (as stated repeatedly to the press) was to foster
    comraderie amongst flyers internationally so that they'd be less inclined to
    regard each other NOT as "the enemy" during wartime.  This was so naive and
    tragically,  didn't have the intended effect.

    Best,
    Shiffy

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

    Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 17:01:19 -0400
    From: "David L. Easter" <david-easter@[removed];
    To: "Old-Time Radio Digest (E-mail)" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  War of the Worlds

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr. wrote:

>     David Easter, speaking of an upcoming film version of War of the Worlds
>     by Pendragon Pictures, notes,

> > >     This implies that Pendragon Pictures must own, at least, the screen

>     [removed];<

>     Possibly.  It might also be that the novel could be in the public domain.
>      I doubt anyone has screen rights to, say, Hamlet or King Lear.

    * **********
    Owens Pomeroy wrote:

>          To Fred Owens: Do not worry about performing WOTW for your school
>     group.  Our OTR Club has been doing it for many years as our Haloween Theme
>     Meeting. There are other clubs that use these scripts for their Meetings as
>     well, as does the FOTR Convention. We also just performed a Fred Allen Show
>     last Saturday Night.

    * **********
    Stephen:
    I agree, however, specific rights need to be considered. In this case,
    rights to the novel, performance rights(?), screen rights, and rights to the
    radio script.

    Fred Owens:
    While it is true that scripts are performed all the time, the fact that
    Owens and the GRB have not been "caught" does not mean that what they do is
    either right or legal. I suspect that the FOTR have done more research than
    Owens and the GRB.

    Bottom line probably involves who is performing, who the organization is,
    and if money is changing hands.

    David L. Easter
    Email: David-Easter@[removed]

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

    Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 17:01:50 -0400
    From: Ben Ohmart <bloodbleeds@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  seeking Paul Frees

    Seeking to trade for all the otr shows containing Paul
    Frees you can muster. Have a ton of otr and British
    shows to trade.

    Also, looking for articles, pictures, and contacts of
    people who have Frees material or contacts of his
    personal friends/family.

    Thanks.

    =====
    Check out Fibber McGee's Scrapbook, a new otr book!
    [removed]

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

    Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 17:12:26 -0400
    From: "John Sloan" <jdsloan@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  MP3 files

    I'm new to the list, tend to ask simple questions, but still enjoy the old
    radio shows.  I saw the note in the last digest asking about MP3 files of
    the  "Let's Pretend" shows.  Are  shows available as MP3 files?  If so, who
    offers them?

    John Sloan
    Dayton Ohio
    jdsloan@[removed]

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

    Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 17:12:28 -0400
    From: "Kristine Stone" <kristinestone@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Mary Lee Robb

    Does anyone out there know Mary Lee Robb's birthdate?  Also, when exactly
    did she leave the Great Gildersleeve cast?

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

    Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 19:00:36 -0400
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  TV-Ready Radio?

    Bill Harris, observing that John Sloan's lodge brother mentioned a screen
    on a radio console for later installation television later, notes,

>     As far as a built in viewing screen for television, I have never heard
>     of that. Perhaps what your lodge brother is referring to is a "movie
>     dial" set. The dial on these sets consisted of a small translucent glass
>     screen, the stations markings being on a circular celluloid strip that
>     was projected onto the screen.

    In the late 1930s, some of the early television sets were a lot like some
    of the large-screen "projection TV" color sets of today; that is, they
    used a tiny picture tube that, through an optical train, rear-projected a
    picture on a frosted screen.  One of these sets was immortalized in a
    Three Stooges comedy where they were trying to do home repairs for some
    upper-crust folk, and crossed electrical and water pipes: the hostess was
    showing her guests a televised image of Niagara Falls, and, of course,
    moments later the Falls' picture was replaced with volumes of water
    gushing from the set.  It is not beyond possibility that a pre-World War
    II console radio might have had provisions for installing such a
    projection system.  (I saw such a projection TV system in a London hotel
    in 1957, though it was designed to British TV specs.)

    It's one other possibility.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 20:02:53 -0400
    From: Bill Harris <radioguy@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Radio sets

    Ken Dahl <kdahl@[removed]; commented:

>     I can remember in 1940 my parents purchased a floor model Philco radio.  It
>     was beautiful and made of wood.  Remember real wood?  Anyway, the instruction
>     book said that if TV ever made an appearance we could contact a Philco dealer
>     and they would convert our radio to a TV set.  I assume they would remove the
>     dial plate and insert a picture tube.  Ken Dahl

    There were a lot of sales gimmicks used to push sets, I just wonder
    exactly what the Philco instruction manual really meant about converting
    the radio to a television set? It would be much more than just inserting
    a picture tube. Television frequencies are much higher in frequency than
    the standard broadcast or sw bands that the radio tuned, and a lot of
    supporting circuitry would have to be added to receive and display
    television signals, not likely anything that would be done by a dealer.
    Except maybe for the audio section, virtually none of the
    existing radio circuitry would work for TV signals. About the only way
    to do
    this would be to remove the radio chassis and replace it with a tv
    chassis. Sorta like trying to convert your car to an airplane by just
    adding
    a propeller. Perhaps the "conversion" was simply to take the radio in
    trade
    for a new tv set. :>)

    Bill Harris

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

    Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 22:13:41 -0400
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Pre-war TV

    Bill Harris observes,

>     If I remember correctly, I think either Zenith or Philco, maybe
>     both, had plans for tv sets that would not have an audio section driving
>     a speaker, but you would just feed the audio to the radio "television"
>     input. This was a cost reduction feature and I am not sure if any of
>     these were ever manufactured.

    There were quite a few models of these video-only sets produced between
    1939 and 1941 -- RCA Victor's TT-5 was the original, featuring a
    five-inch-diameter picture tube, and sold for $[removed] retail (about $2000
    in today's money.) Many of the RCA Victor radio receivers for the 1939-40
    model year were equipped with a "Television" push button, which was
    simply a selector switch which disconnected the RF unit from the radio
    and turned the set into a simple audio amplifier -- the TT-5 video unit
    would be plugged into the audio jack on the back of the set and the sound
    would be heard thru the radio speaker.

    In addition to RCA-Victor, a number of companies marketed knock-off TT-5
    sets under their own trademarks, including Westinghouse, General
    Electric, and Silvertone (the Sears, Roebuck house brand). There were
    also companies like Meissner, which offered such sets in kit form for
    advanced electronic hobbyists who weren't afraid to play around with
    lethally-high voltages.

    A five-inch round picture tube produced a screen with an image about the
    size of a playing card, so even though the price wasn't entirely out of
    line for a family determined to have television (that is, a family in one
    of the twelve cities where television stations were in operation in the
    pre-war era), the eyestrain resulting from such a tiny image probably
    convinced most of them to wait until the sets got bigger and cheaper.
    RCA Victor's files indicate that only 587 TT-5s were manufactured, and a
    disproportionate number of these little sets were sold to New York City
    bars, which used them as novelties to draw in curious patrons.

    RCA Victor sold three other models of television sets during the 1939-41
    era, both complete with audio and video. The TRK-5 ($295) was the TT-5 in
    a console cabinet, with sound. The TRK-9 ($450) was a larger console with
    a nine-inch-diameter picture tube, and the TRK-12 was a monstrous
    top-of-the-line console model which combined a standard-broadcast and
    shortwave radio receiver and a 12" diameter picture tube, and which sold
    for $600. The neck of the picture tube was so long that it had to be
    mounted vertically, and was viewed thru a mirror mounted to the underside
    of the console lid. Despite the hefty price tag, the TRK-12 (and its
    successor the TRK-120) proved to be RCA Victor's most popular prewar
    television set, and nearly 1800 units were manufactured over three years.
    A TRK-12 in a transparent Lucite cabinet was displayed in the lobby of
    the RCA pavillion at the 1939 New York World's Fair and was for thousands
    of fair attendees their first glimpse of television. This customized
    TRK-12 still exists, in working order, and is owned by the MZTV Museum of
    Television in Toronto.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 22:51:31 -0400
    From: "James B. Wood, [removed]" <woodjim@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Radio Sets and Television

    Bill Harris' explanation of the jack on the back of radios holds true in
    most cases, but some sets from the late '20s and early '30s did make
    provision to view the low definition TV services of the time.  In the
    case of one Stewart Warner set I purchased from Goodwill for $1 (this was
    in about 1954), the two cord-tip jacks labeled "Televison" bridged the
    primary of the output transformer, with capacitor/resistor coupling that
    applied a DC bias to the output as well.  When a neon bulb was connected
    to these terminals it flashed in time to the music, but, alas, I was born
    to late to tune in the experimental TV broadcasts that originally were
    broadcast on the standard AM band.

    Jim Wood
    Brea, CA

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

    Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 11:16:17 -0400
    From: "Frank Phillips" <frankphi@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Mutual

    Not too many decades ago, Mutual was up for sale. And I recall either Amway
    or Rich DeVoss, one of its founders, was considering buying the network.

    Supposedly, Paul Harvey was offered (begged?) a contract with Mutual. He is
    still at ABC, of course.

    [removed]

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

    Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 11:16:19 -0400
    From: Sheryl Smith <sheryllsmith@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Bob & Ray Project--Another Nudge

    It's me again.  Still looking for

    HELP WITH BOB & RAY PROJECT

    I'm trying to find and catalog all the complete Bob & Ray shows that
    still exist, since nobody seems to know.  I think it's important to find
    this out.  Bob & Ray were so inventive on the air, and they developed so
    much material over time,  that even Larry Josephson's grand collections
    of skits don't reflect everything they accomplished.

    I'm also looking for information on Bob & Ray, and hope to talk to
    people who might have worked with them.  Their work is still fresh and
    funny, absolutely timeless.  By this time one would expect to find
    critical studies of their work, and books with trustworthy information
    about them.  But what little I've found seems to exist only in
    periodicals, many of them decades old. I'm not even finding a reliable
    chronology of where they worked and when, and if one is to believe
    reference books, these two creative comedians were "boring."  If this
    isn't so, I hope that radio people who know better will help straighten
    things out.

    I'd also like to learn more about station WHDH.  That's where Bob & Ray
    met and got their start, and judging from the shows that survive, it
    must have been a special place to work.  I'm hoping to understand more
    about this from people who worked there.

    If anyone can help with this in any way, I'd appreciate hearing from
    them.

    Email:  sheryllsmith@[removed]
    Snail mail:  1915 Bellomy St., #2, Santa Clara, CA  95050]
    Phone:  send me a number and a time to call, and I'll call it

    Thanks, hanging by my thumbs in the meantime. :)

    Sheryl Smith
    Sillycon Valley Testing Geek

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

    Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 11:16:21 -0400
    From: Sheryl Smith <sheryllsmith@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  NEW OTR on the Internet?

    Yet another notion of mine: ;-)

    I heard the live OTR webcast on May 5, and was super-impressed by the
    amount of voice-acting talent in it.  The older professionals have such
    an
    effortless command of a craft that it seems should be passed down to
    younger performers before it's lost forever.

    Has anyone thought of getting a couple of older performers and younger
    performers together on a regular basis to put on a radio show with
    all-new material, in hopes of getting a new audience on the internet?
    I'm not sure that everybody wants to hear recreations of old scripts,
    but I do think that audio drama itself is still viable:  there are so
    many situations where the audience is free to listen to something, but
    not free to watch anything, and local commercial radio is too boring for
    at least some of us.  :-)  I've been talking to a lot of radio geeks
    lately (doing a Bob & Ray project), and they all seem to have enough
    equipment *in their house* to produce something like this.  All that's
    needed is to get the people together regularly and see if they can bond
    into a stock company.  There are many places to search for material:
    they can tell fairy tales, or improvise stuff, or you can check and see
    what Peg Lynch has in her closet--her low-key writing in _Ethel &
    Albert_ would be grand if she could do the same thing with a few more
    characters.  ;-)

    I wanted to drop this idea on somebody, and would be happy if
    it could be passed on to some professionals like Mr. Foy, Mr. Buka and
    Ms. Lynch.  Retired people are of course busier than anybody else!--but
    they seem to love their work so much that if younger people wanted the
    opportunity to learn what they can do so well, I would imagine that some
    of them would be able to find time to work with them.  Am I making sense
    at all?

    Thanks for listening.

    Sheryl Smith
    Sillycon Valley Testing Geek

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

    Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 13:56:51 -0400
    From: Paulurbahn@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Orson Welles' Black Museum

    Frank Passage has for several years tried to compile a log of all the Black
    Museum shows. His log is posted at:
    [removed]
    At this time we have only been able to identify 51 shows of a supposedly 52
    show series. If you collect this series please look at the log, if you have a
    program not listed please let either Frank or me know. Does anyone have
    advertising material listing the show titles from the syndicator during the
    1960s?
    Thanks,
    Paul Urbahns
    paulurbahn@[removed]

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

    Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 17:03:23 -0400
    From: Conrad Binyon <conradab@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Greetings

    Until [removed] figures out the idiosyncrasies of her newly acquired
    confuser I'm relaying for her:

    "[removed] Watkins" <kinseyfan@[removed]; wrote:

    I have been reading the Digest for about a month and figure it's
    time I check in.

    For those of you who have listened to our old-time radio show
    "Don't Touch That Dial" (with Bobb Lynes and Barbara Sunday)
    during the past 27 years on KCSN in Northridge, which was
    canceled in April, I'm happy to say that we can now be heard on
    KPFK [removed] FM in Los Angeles, [removed] on the first Monday of
    every month from midnight to 3 AM (Tuesday AM) Pacific time, as a
    part of Roy of Hollywood's "Something's Happening".

    Our new-time radio drama group, "30 Minutes to Curtain", canceled
    by KCSN in February after 17 and a half years of producing and
    airing new shows, presented two recreations at the Museum of
    Television and Radio in Los Angeles on May 12th for SPERDVAC.
    Performing with us were this Digest's own Conrad Binyon, along
    with Jeanne Bates, Art Gilmore, Gil Stratton and Larry Dobkin
    (whom someone was discussing here a few weeks ago) The shows will
    be available on video in the SPERDVAC library soon.

    And finally, I'm glad to report that Parley Baer attended the
    Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters luncheon this past Friday. It has
    been quite a while since he has appeared in public.

    I'm happy to see so many familiar names on this listing. It's
    nice to be back in touch with you.

    Spaceman's luck!
    Barbara
    --
    conradab@[removed] (Conrad A. Binyon)
       From the Home of the Stars who loved Ranches and Farms
         Encino, California.

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V01 Issue #151
    *******************************************

    Copyright [removed] Communications, York, PA; All Rights Reserved,
      including republication in any form.

    If you enjoy this list, please consider financially supporting it:
       [removed]

    For Help: [removed]@[removed]
    To Unsubscribe: [removed]@[removed]

    For Help with the Archive Server, send the command ARCHIVE HELP
      in the SUBJECT of a message to [removed]@[removed]

    To contact the listmaster, mail to listmaster@[removed]

    To Send Mail to the list, simply send to [removed]@[removed]