Subject: [removed] Digest V2004 #373
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 11/22/2004 6:49 AM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2004 : Issue 373
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  This week in radio history Nov 21-17  [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  Rambling With Gambling                [ Udmacon@[removed] ]
  Laura Leff                            [ "Jim Harmon" <jimharmonotr@charter. ]
  Jack Benny was a generous tipper      [ Frank =?iso-8859-1?Q?Ros=EDn?= <fra ]
  Rochester                             [ Ken Dahl <kdahl@[removed]; ]
  Riddle?                               [ danhughes@[removed] ]
  Introducing young people to OTR       [ Richard Fish <fish@lodestone-media. ]
  re: future of the hobby               [ "David Kindred" <david@[removed] ]
  1968 Song INFO                        [ Roger Lorette <roger@[removed]; ]
  Norman Rose and others                [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
  OTR's present                         [ benohmart@[removed] ]

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

Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 14:55:45 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otrd <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  This week in radio history Nov 21-17

 From Those Were The Days --

11/21

1938 - WBOE in Cleveland, OH became the first school-operated radio
station (owned by a municipality) to receive a license from the FCC.
WBOE went on the air as a 500-watt AM station and later became an FM
station.

1938 - The first broadcast of Central City was heard. It was an
adventure-mystery show set at the newspaper in, you guessed it, Central
City. Elspeth Eric played the part of crime reporter Emily Olson; and
Van Heflin was crime reporter Bob Shellenberger (later, the part was
played by Myron McCormick). Central City aired until 1941.

1944 - "Happy trails to you, until we meet [removed]" The Roy Rogers
Show was first heard on the Mutual Broadcasting System. Singing along
with Roy (The King of the Cowboys'), were the Whippoorwills and The Sons
of the Pioneers.

11/22

1906 - Delegates attending the Berlin Radiotelegraphic Conference in
Germany voted to use SOS (...[removed]) as the letters for the new
international signal. The international use of "SOS" was ratified in
1908. Its meaning? No, not "Save Our Ship" or "Save Our Souls" as many
believe. Its only meaning was as a distress signal, quick to transmit by
Morse code and not easily misread. It is not an acronym. Incidentally,
how did SOS pads come to use the same initials? They're named after a
patented process, Soap on Steel.

11/23

1929 - Shirley Booth and Ed Gardner were married on this day. Miss Booth
was famous for her television acting role ("Hazel"); but we remember
when she and her husband played Miss Duffy and Archie on Duffy's Tavern.

1958 - One of the last drama programs on radio debuted. It was unusual
in that it followed the TV show of the same name. Have Gun Will Travel
was broadcast on CBS and starred John Dehner as Paladin.

11/24

1937 - Music from the Raymor Ballroom in Boston, Massachusetts was
beamed coast to coast on NBC. The special guests during this broadcast
were Glenn Miller and his orchestra.

11/25

1920 - The first play-by-play coverage of a football game was broadcast
by WTAW in College Station, TX. Texas University beat the Aggies of
Texas A&M, 7-3.

1944 - CBS presented The FBI in Peace and War for the first time. It
became one of the longest-running crime shows on radio -- lasting 14 years.

1945 - A spoof of the Gilbert and Sullivan classic, [removed] Pinafore, was
broadcast on The Fred Allen Show. The spoof was titled, The Brooklyn
Pinafore. Joining actress Shirley Booth in the skit was baseball great
Leo 'The Lip' Durocher.

1960 - Radio actors were put out of work when CBS axed five serials
(soap operas) from the airwaves. We said so long to The Second Mrs.
Burton (after 14 years), Young Doctor Malone, Whispering Streets (after
8 years), Right to Happiness (after 21 years) and Ma Perkins (after 27
wonderful years.) In 1940, the high point for these radio programs,
there were as many as 45 on the air each day!

11/26

1945 - The program, Bride and Groom, debuted on the NBC Blue network. It
is estimated that 1,000 newly-wed couples were interviewed on the
program before it left the airwaves in 1950.

11/27

1930 - Broadcasting from "...the little theatre off Times Square,"
according to the show's introduction, The First Nighter was first heard.
The program, which actually originated from Chicago, then from
Hollywood, aired for 23 years and featured dramas and comedies.

Joe

--
Visit my homepage: [removed]~[removed]

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

Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 14:56:32 -0500
From: Udmacon@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Rambling With Gambling

"Rambling With Gambling" went on WOR in the Spring of 1925. Nashville's
"Grand Ole Opry" (nee "WSM Barn Dance") started on WSM on Nov. 28, 1925 (79
years ago next Sunday, and I'm going to do a tribute on my radio program--see
below).

So, with the sad demise of "Gambling" on WOR, the "Grand Ole Opry" is now the
longest running US radio program on the same station.

Guinness Book Of World Records please copy <g>

BILL KNOWLTON: "Bluegrass Ramble," WCNY-FM ([removed]) Syracuse, WUNY ([removed])
Utica; WJNY ([removed]) Watertown NY. On the web: [removed]. Sundays: 9 pm to
midnight EST (since 1973)

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

Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 14:57:12 -0500
From: "Jim Harmon" <jimharmonotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Laura Leff
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

Hello -- Thanks to Laura Leff for her kind remarks on my moderating the radio
writers panel, and for correcting me about Eddie Carroll being one of the
Beverly Hills Beavers on his radio show.   Like President Bush, I hate to
admit my mistakes but I must here. I had heard some comments from Eddie about
working with Jack as "a kid" and I jumped to the assumption that he was one of
that club of kids.  Now by "a kid" Eddie may have just meant when he was a
younger man.  People say "I was just a kid back then" when they mean they were
young and inexperienced adults.  I thought he meant he had worked with Jack as
a child.
I should have asked Laura.  Everybody knows she knows everything there is to
know about Jack Benny.  --- Jim Harmon

  *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
  ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 14:58:06 -0500
From: Frank =?iso-8859-1?Q?Ros=EDn?=  <frankr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Jack Benny was a generous tipper

Jack Benny was a generous tipper. There was a reference to this in the
last post. My experience requires an explanation.
I was a representative for the school district I worked for at a
conference being held at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane Washington
during the World Fair being held there.
I was also in charge of our local Sea Scout group and took 4 of the
older fellows along so they could have a couple of days at the Fair.
When we got to the hotel, our room was too small so we were transfered
to a room on the top floor that was larger.
The next morning when we left the room for breakfast an elderly
gentleman dressed in a beautiful white suit came out of the room next
door at the same time alone and got in the elevator with us.  He
accidentally stepped on one of the young fellows toes in the elevator
and said he felt so bad about it, could treat us to breakfast.  It was
Jack Benny.  He had been scheduled for a couple of performances at the
Fair.
At breakfast he talked why he was alone and not with Mary and he also
talked about his friendship with other members of his cast. Mostly he
talked to the young fellows and asked about what they were doing in
school and what they intended to do in the future.  His conversation
seemed completely genuine.
Once during that breakfast at the coffee shop in the hotel someone did
come up and ask for an autograph.  He was a bit annoyed and told the
lady, no, not while he was eating with his friends, he would be in the
lobby later, see him then.
What a delightful breakfast and morning and to be called one of his
friends.  He was a gentleman of the first class and not only paying for
all our breakfasts, he left a most generous tip.  Sad to say he ate
very little and only took a sip or two of his coffee.  It was only a
couple months later that he died.

Frank Rosín

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

Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 14:59:28 -0500
From: Ken Dahl <kdahl@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Rochester

In recent weeks there have been postings of comments and questions regarding
Rochester.  I have a question that I hope someone can answer.  (Laura Leff
are you there?)  My question is about the way Rochester was "treated".  Let
me explain.  On a number of Jack's radio programs in the 40's and 50's he
would promote his upcoming stage show that would be touring primarily eastern
cities (Cleveland, Chicago, New York etc.)  Jack would bring many of his cast
members, including Rochester, on these tours.  On arrival in these cities,
was Rochester able to stay at the same hotels that the other cast members
stayed?  He was a black entertainer and those times were not the best when it
came to the treatment of minorities.  Did he have to seek out his own hotel
and dining accommodations because of discrimination?  Please tell me he was
treated as an equal with the respect and dignity that everyone deserves.

Regards,
Ken Dahl

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

Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 15:00:20 -0500
From: danhughes@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Riddle?

Deric asks,
What early 1968 song features a blue station wagon full of kids, ice
cream cones and the Baltimore Colts?

Is this a quiz, or are you searching for information?  Anyway the song
was called "1432 Franklin Pike Circle Hero", and it was a cute little
piece of fluff about a bedraggled husband who had to haul the kids around
all the time when he'd rather watch football on TV.  It was written and
performed by Bobby Russell, whose claims to fame are that he wrote the
Bobby Goldsboro hit Honey, and [removed] Smith's Little Green Apples, and Gary
Lewis' Sure Gonna Miss Her, and for his wife Vicki Lawrence he wrote The
Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia.  He was from Nashville, he died
several years ago, and his high school english teacher told me he was
brilliant but "he was just like his brothers--full of mischief!"

Hope this helps,

---Dan

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

Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 17:01:26 -0500
From: Richard Fish <fish@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Introducing young people to OTR

I've had a good deal of experience with younger generations and OTR, and
would like to try and summarize my thoughts. Comments very welcome!

When introducing people born later than, say, 1970 or so? to old-time
radio, here are three factors which seem to be the most important
diffculties to overcome:

First, the whole idea of radio theatre itself -- television with the
picture inside your brain. Younger people are, very often, encountering
this concept for the first time when they hear an OTR program.

Second, the technical sound. Younger people are used to full-fidelity
stereo sound, and the old AM-radio or 78-rpm transcription mono sound
tends to be a major turnoff, especially when there is a not-very-good
copy of something playing.

Third, cultural factors. Now I think Fred Allen is hilarious, but a
younger person has a harder time laughing at his shows, if the topical
jokes go right past him. ("Petrillo? Who's Petrillo?") It's a lot harder
to enjoy anything if you have to learn history to understand it.

I guess those are pretty obvious.

We all know what wonderful magic OTR programs have, and we know how much
of that can be truly enjoyed by younger listeners, once they open up to
the concept of radio theatre, and get past the other two factors. But
first impressions are important, and lasting. The three barriers
mentioned above can very easily turn a young person off, maybe pretty
much for good, when they encounter OTR for the first time.

The cultural-factors part can be dealt with by choosing programs where
it's not so important -- a science fiction show, for example.

But the older sound, the limited-fidelity mono, is a barrier OTR can't
really cross.

And the magic of radio theatre itself is hard to appreciate until one
can let one's mind focus on the scene; the other two factors are major
distractions for a young newbie.

One very good way to get round these problems is to introduce younger
people to new audio theatre productions first. Once they've found out
how wonderful the art form can be, OTR opens up as a fascinating avenue
to explore. The quality of OTR sound is then understood and accepted;
the unknown cultural references become intriguing instead of annoying or
off-putting. The first barrier is eliminated, and the other two greatly
reduced.

That's the key: use new productions to introduce the old ones. Hit 'em
with full-frequency, wide dynamic-range, stereo sound, to catch their
ears. Introduce comedy, or stories, that relate to the world they
already know, to hook their minds.

Once that's been done, an appropriately-chosen OTR program will get
responses like, "Wow! That was way cool! And they really did that all as
a live performance? Awesome!"

There's a very wide choice of new programs available today, in just
about any conceivable genre. Mystery, horror, drama, comedy, sci-fi,
(even romance novels, for cryin' out loud!). Some are modern remakes of
classic programs (Sherlock Holmes, The Twilight Zone), and some are
audio productions of stories younger people already know (Star Wars, The
Lord Of The Rings), some are productions of famous books and stories
they may well have read (Tom Sawyer, The Chronicles of Narnia) and there
are lots of brand-new originals, ranging from the staid to the really
rad, man!

"Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is one excellent example. It works
really well in this context, and they've just released a wave of new
episodes, as well as making all the original ones available on CD. I've
encountered many younger people who had read and loved Douglas Adams'
books, and were amazed to learn it all started on the radio.

I can now disclaim any financial incentive for myself -- but if you want
to find out more about new programs, try the websites at:

[removed]  and

[removed]

Finally, one superb method of catching young people's interest is to get
them involved in making radio theatre. I've done this a lot, and it
really works -- as an introduction to OTR -- very well. One good place
to find out more about this is:

[removed]

As Harlow Wilcox once said, "OK, I've pulled the plug. Now I'll get out
of the tub!"

Richard Fish

--
"Post proofs that brotherhood is not so wild a dream as those who profit
by postponing it pretend." -- Norman Corwin, 1945

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

Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 18:55:21 -0500
From: "David Kindred" <david@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  re: future of the hobby

Hope this might brighten some of your thoughts about the future of our
hobby. I am 37 and, just as my dad with me, I am sharing OTR with my
sons aged 9, 8 and 6--and they LOVE IT! They don't think of it as passé
or "boring". I've played them many shows, generally at bedtime, and they
are glued to them. I think it's safe to say that we're good for at least
another generation. ;-)

--David, who's about ready to start up Cinamon Bear in a week.

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

Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 18:56:04 -0500
From: Roger Lorette <roger@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  1968 Song INFO

In the last Digest, Deric [removed]

What early 1968 song features a blue station wagon full of kids,
ice cream cones and the Baltimore Colts?

I'll do my small part in answering his request.  The song is called "1432
Franklin Pike Circle Hero" by Bobby Russell.  Actually, this was one of my
favorites from that era.

Roger Lorette
[removed]

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

Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 20:17:15 -0500
From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Norman Rose and others

The comments about Norman Rose's passing brings to mind the untold third
part of a story I told at the FOTR  tribute to Jackson Beck.  In 1967 and
68 I worked for a company which had revolutionized the form of
advertisements for feature motion pictures.  At that time, Floyd L.
Peterson, Inc. did the radio & TV ads, and theatrical trailers for all of
the MGM, United Artists, and AvcoEmbassy films.  We employed as freelance
announcers all of the great voices in NYC like Fred Foy, Jackson Beck,
Norman Rose, Dan Ingram, and Bret Morrison.  Despite the fact that I had
built the recording studio they used, I never got to meet any of them.  So
a few years ago when I first met Fred Foy at the Cinc. convention I told
him that I used to work at the same place he did, Floyd L. Peterson's, but
that we had never met.  I also told him that I still use some of his ads in
my broadcasting classes to demonstrate production techniques.  His eyes lit
up and he said "You have RECORDINGS of the Peterson ads?!  That is a part
of my career that I have no examples of at all.  I'd LOVE to have some!"
And so I did send him about an hour and a half of recordings of his ads and
trailer narrations.  The following year at FOTR I had a chance to meet
Jackson Beck and I introduced myself the same way.  The reaction was quite
different.  In that extraordinarily deep voice of his he said "I was having
a good day till you mentioned that name.  Do you have any idea where
Peterson is?  That son-of-a-b***h owes me a thousand bucks!

Well, here's the Norman Rose part of the Floyd L. Peterson story that I
haven't told yet.  I never got to meet Rose, so I never got to mention the
connection to him.  He was not used too often by Peterson because most of
our ads were LOUD and EXCITING and BRASH.  Norman Rose was quite the
opposite.  But when we did do the ads for the beautiful soft movie "A Patch
of Blue" Norman Rose was a natural to do the ads.  He did a wonderful job
and I play those ads in my class.  But sometime later Floyd told all of the
producers in the company that they were not to use Rose again.  It seems
that he or his manager had sued the company or put in a grievance to the
union that he had not gotten paid for some alternate versions of the ads
for some movie or another.  They had heard an ad on a station that was a
different length than what was invoiced.  Floyd was easily able to prove
that he had gotten paid properly for all the ads they had produced of
different lengths.  The ads went out on disc, and if there are, lets say,
seven tracks on the disc and seven tracks listed on the union invoice, then
it was obvious that the payments were proper and complete.  But after the
recordings are sent to the stations they might modify them to fit their
format and we had no control over what one of hundreds of stations might do
the ads.

Actually, Norman was probably lucky that he wasn't called in to do more
work for Peterson's in the Summer of 1968 because he probably would have
ended up unpaid like Jackson Beck!!!  The company went out of business
several weeks after I left them to attend graduate school.  (Just a
coincidence, folks.)  Floyd had overextended the company trying to produce
a feature film, "Parachutes To Paradise."  If he stuck with what he knew,
they would probably still be in business.  His partner Don LaFontaine is
still active in the field.

Let me ask to clear something up.  NY Times obit and Art Chimes' posting
said, that Norman Rose was  "the voice of Juan Valdez in a gazillion
commercials."  From what I remember, he was the ANNOUNCER in the
commercials.  Juan did not speak, did he?

Since I had brought up Fred Foy, let me make a comment about something else
that was included in the digest a few days ago, the debate over the
placement of a historic marker by the home of the "first" Lone Ranger, Earl
Graser.   Paulurbahn posted:

Earl Graser, though not the first Lone Ranger but definitely
'the first popular Lone Ranger' or the one who was in the
role when it became a national hit. I read an article once
where the author wondered if the show would survive after
Grazer's death. That appears to be how identified he was
in the role. Of course that is a little hard for us now who best
remember Brace Beemer in the role."

My feeling about the program is a bit different.  It does not matter much
to me whether it was Graser or Beemer in the role of the Ranger, what
matters to me is who is the announcer of the program.  I find that none of
the announcers of the progam are satisfactory except Fred Foy.  As I listen
to the programs from the late 30s and early 40s I find that the announcers
seem to be sleepwalking thru the scripts.  Their voices are thin and reedy,
they rush thru the lines without any sense of excitement or meaning.  If
you analize how many of the scripts were written, the annoncer plays the
most important role.  He descirbes the scene, tells us what the Ranger,
Tonto, and the bandits are doing or have done since the previous scene, and
he is the one who does ALL of the fighting in the fight scenes.  The actors
just grunt or moan.  The announcer FIGHTS!  I wonder if someone has any
ratings data to back up my feeling that The Lone Ranger was just another
moderately popular kids program among many until Fred Foy came and LIFTED
the program to HIGH level that we all most remember it as.

Michael Biel   mbiel@[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 00:26:59 -0500
From: benohmart@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR's present

Regarding the comments about the future of OTR, I think the answer lies in something 
seldom talked about on this list: present radio. NEW comedies, dramas and panel 
games are still thriving in England. When teachers teacher history in school, their best 
illustrations are in connecting the past to the present by talking about what's going on 
Now. I think New radio needs to return to the USA, thereby sparking more interest in 
older shows. Buy the American rights to Just a Minute and have Robin Williams, Bill 
Clinton, Mel Brooks and John Updike try to speak for a minute without hesitation, 
deviation or repetition, and lay a link from the modern age back into the past. 

Ben Ohmart

Old radio. Old movies. New books.
[removed]

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #373
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