------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2005 : Issue 77
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Slightly OT: Dragnet 1967 series com [ "Ivan G. Shreve, Jr." <iscreve@comc ]
Sirius offer [ Al Girard <24agirard24@[removed] ]
the magic of radio [ David Loftus <dloft59@[removed] ]
"Good Ol Days of Radio"? [ jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns) ]
Re: "Excelsior!" [ Max Schmid <mschmid@[removed]; ]
3-10 births/deaths [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
Good Old Days of Radio [ Froggievilleus <froggievilleus@yaho ]
Eddie Carrol in Florida [ seandd@[removed] ]
Boring to watch? [ "bcockrum" <rmc44@[removed]; ]
OTR on Twilight Zone AND Alfred Hitc [ "Michael Leannah" <mleannah@charter ]
The Shadow Opening [ "Karl Schadow" <bluecar91@[removed] ]
Right series, wrong "Castle"; Chicag [ "Michael Ogden" <michaelo67@hotmail ]
otr comics [ "Jim Koski" <jim@[removed]; ]
more on ILAM castles [ jwoox@[removed] ]
Announcers [ "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@juno. ]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 19:21:58 -0500
From: "Ivan G. Shreve, Jr." <iscreve@[removed];
To: "Old-Time Radio Digest (Plain Text Only)" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Slightly OT: Dragnet 1967 series coming to DVD
The good folks at [removed] have announced that Universal Home Video
is releasing the first season of the 1960s Dragnet revival to disc on June
7th. The first seventeen episodes will be on 2 discs, and apparently there
will be a "bonus CD" included but details on that remain sketchy at the
present time.
Universal also announced this year that the original TV version of Dragnet
will also be made available--I'm just hoping that they follow through on
that promise. Here's the news item about Dragnet '67:
[removed]
Ivan
--
Classic movies, television and old-time radio at Thrilling Days of
Yesteryear! [removed]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 19:22:17 -0500
From: Al Girard <24agirard24@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Sirius offer
As a Canadian I am not allowed to subscribe to satellite radio. However I have
listened to the free sample of some of the channels via the computer. Sirius
has
an offer which ends in June; subscribe for the life of the radio for $500 and
receive
no more bills.
I just thought I'd pass that little tidbit on to the list.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 19:22:39 -0500
From: David Loftus <dloft59@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: the magic of radio
Michael Berger <intercom1@[removed]; recalled:
There's a marvelous Stan Freberg skit that's still
bouncing around on CDs or Mp3 files in which an old
lady
Correction: She only sounds old. I'm sure that's June
Foray doing one of her thousands of voices.
is asked by a young girl [actually Stan's
daughter] to describe listening to radio.
Well, she said, we used to sit around the living
room and look at the furniture, or just stare off
into [removed]
Wow, says the little girl, talk about your radical
ideas!
Was that the adjective? I can't remember.
Then Stan says radio had actors and live musicians
and sound effects people, and the girl replies: "You
mean like a television show when the picture blows
out?" Uh, something like that, yes, a chastened Stan
says.
All of this was merely a warm-up, of course, to the
sound effects extravangaza in which a 500-foot
mountain of whipped cream is pushed into Lake
Michigan, which has been drained and refilled with
hot chocolate, after which the Royal Canadian Air Force
appears overhead, towing a 10-ton maraschino cherry,
which is then dropped into the whipped cream and
chocolate to the cheering of 25,000 extras--
"Now, you wanna try that on television?" Stan asks.
It's a great moment, but unfortunately since the
advent of CGI in the past decade, you CAN do
that on television. It still wouldn't be the same,
though.
PS - Our one inside giggle was listening occasionally
to One Man's Family [located in our home city, San
Francisco]. The Barber family lived in a well to do
neighborhood called Sea Cliff, but on the show, I
never heard fog horns - which was a constant
background sound to our daily lives, especially from
June through August.
Sort of like the "cold" scenes in TV shows and movies
where no one's breath shows.
This reference reminds me of Henry Morgan's parody,
"One Man's Boredom" . . . .
David Loftus
Portland, Oregon
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 19:22:48 -0500
From: jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: "Good Ol Days of Radio"?
Okay, I have a feeling I'm going to feel stupid for asking this, but,
Rodney, what is the "Good Ol Days of Radio" dinner show?
Best, Jim
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 19:23:15 -0500
From: Max Schmid <mschmid@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: "Excelsior!"
At 12:18 PM 3/9/05, Derek Tague wrote:
My question about Shep is this: was he solely heard over powerhouse
WOR-AM out of NYC, or was he simulcast on other stations? It's
amazing how he acquired such a loyal fan base and later cult following
if, indeed, he was only heard exclusively un the New York metroplitan
area.
"Flick Lives!"
He does indeed - for proof, see the Jean Shepherd website [removed].
As to your question, Shep was mainly heard on WOR, which covered about
twenty states up and down the east coast and points west. I don't think
the show was ever simulcast (I could be wrong), but there were several
attempts at syndication.
The first one I'm aware of was in late 1965. These shows were recorded with
several places to insert commercials - the Shep portions came to about 45
minutes, so it seems to have been intended as an hour-long broadcast.
Several of these have surfaced on eBay in the last few years, and from the
numbering it appears that at least 60 were produced this way. Just the
other day someone found this
link: [removed]
This may be that series - I will have to give them a call.
It must have been quite an effort to create a second series of new
broadcasts, and by 1969 they started taking the WOR broadcasts and removing
the commercials for syndication. These were bicycled around the country to
non-commercial stations - before satellite distribution this was the way a
tape went around the country from one station to another - through the
mail. I have tapes from KPFK in LA, Albany NY, and stations in Boston and
Florida from this era. The Boston run is rather extensive, and the shows
got there within two weeks after the WOR broadcast.
These shows ran however long they were after the commercials were cut out.
The last version that was produced started in 1975-76, and continued after
Shep was removed from WOR on April 1, 1977. By that time, there were so
many commercials interrupting and ruining the show that is was rather easy
to cut them down to a half-hour format. There were probably a few hundred
of these produced. I recently acquired over fifty masters from a Florida
radio station, adding to the fifty-plus already on hand from a local
source. These were produced by one of Shep's engineers, Herb Squire, and
his wife. They drew on the few new shows that were done, as well as past
archives for this series. A great many of the WOR shows were reruns by this
time anyway, and old shows were edited down to squeeze in all the extra
commercials. I suspect that more than one copy may exist of the half-hour
shows, but as I clean up the tapes from Florida, it seems that they are the
original tapes, judging from the splices. There were even two WOR masters
in this lot, although how they got to Florida is beyond me.
One great thing about magnetic tape - these tapes survived a serious
dousing by a sprinkler system during a fire - many of the boxes are
disintegrated and the labels too smudged to read, but after cleaning the
tapes they play fairly well.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 19:23:24 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 3-10 births/deaths
March 10th births
03-10-1888 - Barry Fitzgerald - Dublin, Ireland - d. 1-4-1961
actor: Bernard Fitz "His Honor, the Barber"
03-10-1898 - Cy Kendall - St. Louis, MO - d. 7-22-1953
actor: Captain Tracy "Tarzan"; Fred Thompson "One Man's Family";
"Escape"
03-10-1900 - Peter DeRose - NYC - d. 4-23-1953
pianist, singer: "Sweethearts of the Air"
03-10-1903 - Claire Boothe Luce - NYC - d. 10-9-1987
correspondent: "University of Chicago Round Table"; "Wake Up America"
03-10-1903 - Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke - Davenport, IA - d.
8-7-1931
jazz musician: "Band Remotes"
03-10-1905 - Richard Haydn - London, England - d. 4-25-1985
actor: Professor Lemuel Carp "Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy Show"
03-10-1911 - Warner Anderson - Brooklyn, NY - d. 8-26-1976
actor: Patrick Ryan "Terry and the Pirates"
03-10-1918 - Heywood Hale Broun - NYC - d. 9-5-2001
cbs sports commentator: "Biography In Sound"
03-10-1918 - Pamela Mason - Westgate-on-Sea, Kent, England - d.
6-29-1996
actress: "James Mason and Pamela Mason Show"
03-10-1919 - Marion Hutton - Battle Creek, MI - d. 1-10-1987
singer: (Sister of Betty), (Glenn Miller Orchestra) "Moonlight
Serenade"
03-10-1920 - Kenneth C. Burns (Jethro) - GA - d. 2-4-1989
comedic singer: (Homer and Jethro) "Town and Country Time"
03-10-1921 - Paul Coates - NYC
writer: "Dragnet"
March 10th deaths
01-02-1904 - Bernardine Flynn - Madison, WI - d. 3-10-1977
actress: Sade Gook "Vic and Sade"; Mathilda Barker "Welcome Valley"
01-03-1905 - Ray Milland - Neath, Wales - d. 3-10-1986
actor: Ray McNutley "Meet Mr. McNutley"
01-13-1913 - Lloyd Bridges - San Leandro, CA - d. 3-10-1998
actor: "Suspense"; "Arch Oboler's Plays"
03-29-1906 - E. Power Biggs - West Cliff, England - d. 3-10-1977
organist: "Organ Program"
06-20-1904 - Matt Crowley - d. 3-10-1983
actor: Mark Trail "Mark Trail"; Buck Rogers "Buck Rogers"
06-23-1876 - Irvin S. Cobb - Paducah, KY - d. 3-10-1944
humorist: "Gulf Show"; "Paducah Plantation"
07-17-1920 - Helen Walker - Worchester, MA - d. 3-10-1968
actress: "Proudly We Hail"; "Suspense"; "Harold Lloyd Comedy Theatre"
08-03-1907 - Irene Tedrow - Denver, CO - d. 3-10-1995
actress: Janet Archer "Meet Corliss Archer"; Dorothy Regent "Chandu,
the Magacian"
08-08-1900 - Robert Siodmak - Memphis, TN - d. 3-10-1973
film director: "Screen Director's Playhouse"
10-25-1901 - Walter T. Butterworth - Wallingford, PA - d. 3-10-1962
emcee: "Molle Merry Minstrels"; "Vox Pox"; "Take a Card"
--
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 19:24:01 -0500
From: Froggievilleus <froggievilleus@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Good Old Days of Radio
Hi All,
A while back I got my hands on a series of mp3s called
'The Good Old Days of Radio'. It is a nice series
that has Jim Jordan doing his Fibber character,
discussing the different shows done on different days,
Monday, Tuesday, etc., with Chuck Shaedon (sp?). The
series sounds like it was done in the early 1970s and
these copies that I have were recorded off of a local
station in Arkansas, if I recall correctly. The first
few minutes of each episode is actually the news,
which talks about some proposed teacher's strike,
among other things. The sponsor for the program was
Chrysler air conditioners and that if customers went
to any of the local merchants that sold that product,
they could get a 'rib-tickling' album of OTR for a
small amount of money.
Does anyone have cleaner copies of this series,
preferably in mp3 format? I would love to get this
without the beginning being a news broadcast. Also,
most of the episodes I have, the ending is missing.
And, I am missing the last episode, which talks about
Saturday night, all together.
Anyone with any info about this, please email me
direct at froggievilleus@[removed].
Many thanx,
Elizabeth S.
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 19:24:23 -0500
From: seandd@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Eddie Carrol in Florida
A profile of imitation Jack Benny Eddie Carrol appears in the Charlotte, FL,
Sun-Herald today.
Apparently, his niece appeared on Baywatch.
You learn something new every day, whether you want to or [removed]
Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]
[removed];story=tp1
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 19:44:54 -0500
From: "bcockrum" <rmc44@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Boring to watch?
A question for Stuart Lubin, since he mentioned attending a radio drama
presentation as an audience member, and for the rest of you who have
attended radio show recreations at conventions or have participated in them
and know of the audiences' reaction and feedback.
In the replay of the 1970s interview with Parker Fennelly that's on now at
[removed], Fennelly makes a comment toward the
end of the show about how boring it is to watch a radio performance (and
he's saying that, I thought at first, as a veteran who went it in, rehearsed
and went on the air time after time so that it was second nature to him ...
no big deal). But then he backs it up with a story of a fan who was invited
to the studio one day to watch the broadcast, and her reaction, as she said
goodbye to him, was that it sure was boring.
Granted we on this list are not NORMAL people - we would be taking it all
in: voice inflection, how an actor otherwise plays to the microphone, what
the sound effects man is doing, etc. - so my question is ... how is a
general audience likely to perceive a recreation or original show? Does
there need to be "eye candy" of some type? For instance, you have the
announcer doing a commercial for Lux ... would it help to project on a
screen a scan of an old magazine ad from the 1940s showing the Lux logo or
package? During the drama, assuming it's a pretty big hall, do you have a TV
camera with at least a medium shot of the actor or actors or of sound
effects person being projected as well ... or would this ruin the
"atmosphere"?
I'm thinking, in the case of an old commercial, something projected might
help lend some context to the whole thing - especially younger audiences
could use an "image boost" to further appreciate that, yes, this was a real
product, etc. On the other hand, I think a continuing picture of the actors
might be distracting, but the sound effects interesting. The question is, if
the video isn't constant (on-off-on), does the whole thing become a
distraction?
Obviously, perhaps by now, I'm involved in a recreation in a medium-sized
auditorium. My inclination is to support the commercials with a limited
number of visuals, have the sound effects area visible at the front, but not
projected on screen ... and when there is no commercial, just have a still
picture of the dial of an old console (on stage) being projected.
Comments?
Thanks.
Bob Cockrum
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 19:45:21 -0500
From: "Michael Leannah" <mleannah@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: OTR on Twilight Zone AND Alfred Hitchcock
Interesting note on the Twilight Zone episode featuring old radio. It made
me think of a story involving Alfred Hitchcock's TV show.
When I was small I watched a horrifying Hitchcock show involving a murderer
after some nurses in an old mansion. My older brothers and sisters didn't
see anything wrong with a six-year-old watching such a show. It scared me to
death and I never forgot it.
Years later, after I became heavily interested in OTR, I sought out that
show on video and found it. (It's still scary.) Most interesting, though, is
that at the start of that particular show Hitchcock does his usual comical
introduction around a presentation of how radio sound effects were done.
My love for old time radio wasn't there when I was six, I guess, because I
didn't remember that part of the show. But what a nice surprise to find that
as the introduction to the show I did remember all these years.
Michael Leannah
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 19:45:44 -0500
From: "Karl Schadow" <bluecar91@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: The Shadow Opening
As a follow up to The Shadow Openings/Closings for the Welles seasons,
digesters may wish to listen to "The Shadow Challenged" from January 26,
1941. In the major supporting role, Frank Readick stars as an individual who
"masquerades" as The Shadow. This same voice opens and closes the Welles
episodes.
----Karl Schadow
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 10:21:32 -0500
From: "Michael Ogden" <michaelo67@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Right series, wrong "Castle"; Chicago Museum
Well, after Michael Leannah had had his question about the ILAM serial "The
Case of the Transplanted Castle" thoroughly and accurately answered, now the
issue's gotten muddied up again. Jim Harmon is confusing two different
"Castle" stories. The ILAM script sequence known as "Castle Island" (October
23-November 17, 1939) was re-done three times: in 1944 with an Tanganyika
setting as "The Fear That Creeps Like a Cat" (February 28-March 24), in 1949
again as "The Fear That Creeps Like a Cat" but with the original American
Northwest setting restored (October 3-28), and finally in 1952 the
Tanganyika version under the title "The African Jungle Mystery" (July
21-August 15). And this is the story that Jim produced for cassette release
in the '90s, NOT "The Case of the Transplanted Castle."
Concerning Art Chimes' posting of the news release about Richard Durham's
widow donating the DESTINATION FREEDOM tapes to the Museum of Broadcast
Communications in Chicago, I couldn't help thinking "Great! It's about time
they actually had a Chicago radio series represented in their collection!"
Not to engage in disparaging remarks (yeah, like I could help it! :), but a
few years ago I asked a friend who was going to be in Chicago during school
break to do some research for me at the Museum--specifically looking for any
materials on the Chicago-originating horror series LIGHTS OUT and THE HALL
OF FANTASY. I gave him a number of cross-references to aid him in his
research. He found nothing, and eventually confronted the person on duty
with the question, "Don't you have ANY Chicago programs!" To which the
Museum representative responded huffily, "We've got the first Oprah show!"
I'm sure the Museum has its defenders (and we may be shortly hearing from
them! :), but I think you can understand how a response like that wouldn't
set too well with an OTR researcher. We encounter all too many of these type
of library and archive people with--for whatever reason--hostile attitudes
toward independent researchers. (Or was it something I said? :)
Mike Ogden
("What do you mean all the radio shows at the Radio Museum are stored
off-site in a time capsule at the bottom of Lake Erie?!!")
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 11:27:51 -0500
From: "Jim Koski" <jim@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: otr comics
My wife has been researching the lives and deaths of soldiers from our
hometown killed during World War II, and while digging through local
newspapers, was kind enough to make me copies of a comic called "Side
Glances" that occasionally dealt with radio and the people listening to it
back in the 40's. I've stuck some of them up on my website to share with
everyone, so check 'em out if you feel like it--
[removed]
For those of us who are younger list members, it's actually interesting to
see how something we consider "nostalgia" was dealt with and joked about
during the time it actually occured. For those of you who were around during
that time, I'd hope they might bring back a chuckle or a memory or two.
Either way, enjoy them!
Jim Koski
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 13:03:53 -0500
From: jwoox@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: more on ILAM castles
"The Fear That Creeps Like a Cat" is not the same ILAM story as "The Case of
the Transplanted Castle", although they both involve a castle of sorts.
'Transplanted' (broadcast 1/6/41 thru 3/3/41 on NBC Blue and 1/9/51 thru
2/1/51 over Mutual) takes place near Hollywood.
'Fear' is the Mutual version (twenty 15-minute episodes broadcast from
10/3/49 [the beginning of the Mutual series] thru 10/28/49) of the story
"Castle Island" (hence the confusion?), set in the Pacific Northwest and
broadcast from 10/23/39 thru 11/17/39, again in twenty 15-minute episodes,
over the NBC Pacific Coast network. Scripts for 'Fear' can be found at
Temple U, and for "Castle Island" at Stanford.
"Castle Island" was re-written into another ILAM story, "The African Jungle
Mystery" (with the action moved to Uganda), broadcast (again 20 episodes)
over CBS from 2/28/44 thru 3/24/44 and over Mutual from 7/21/52 thru 8/15/52.
The CBS scripts have not been seen, but the Mutual scripts are at the Library
of Congress Manuscript Division.
John L Woodruff
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 14:23:31 -0500
From: "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Announcers
This may just be a crazy idea blooming here,
but wouldn't be great if any books would be written
about the announcers of the OTR programs we all
remember? I think so. It's not as if they just
announced the program and stood in the background
for the rest of the program. Some of them (George
Fenneman, Don Wilson, Kenny Delmar) also contributed
to the program they announced by playing various
roles (including themselves) which helped to make
the show work.
Many times the announcers were the targets of
the star performers wit, but every once in a while
could provide some 'off the cuff' zingers which would
take the star(s) by surprise and provide the audience
with some great laughs. Some of the announcers which
readily come to my mind are Harlow Wilcox ("Fibber
McGee and Molly"), Don Wilson (The Jack Benny Show"),
George Fenneman ("You Bet Your Life"), and Kenny
Delmar (Senator Claghorn, "The Fred Allen Show").
I'm sure that there were enough of them on OTR
to make a complete book, surely. They all did great
work on the programs on which they appeared and IMHO,
were a great source of talent which has largely gone
unnoticed. What does everyone think? Have any books
been written about the announcers on OTR. They were
equally as well known as some of the stars on whose
programs they appeared.
Sorry I got up on my soapbox, but it just occured
to me that their contributions were the ones which
set the tone for the programs they announced, yet aren't
mentioned as often on the mailing list as the stars
of these programs. Are any still alive?
What do you think?
Another OTR Fan,
Kenneth Clarke
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #77
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