Subject: [removed] Digest V2006 #75
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 3/13/2006 5:18 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2006 : Issue 75
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Re: Baseball Game Recreations         [ Paul Gough <paulgough@[removed] ]
      Re: Fireside Chats                    [ Jim Widner <widnerj@[removed]; ]
      HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL LYRICS           [ "Deeann Neyhart" <deeatthedigitalde ]
      3-13 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      Bradley Barker                        [ Doug Leary <doug@[removed]; ]
      Re: Shell Chateau                     [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      Australian OTR                        [ "Austotr" <austotr@[removed]; ]
      "Golden Age of Radio" and "A One Nig  [ "Bob Scherago" <rscherago@[removed]; ]
      Re: Mr. Llewyn                        [ Cnorth6311@[removed] ]
      Norman Corwin film                    [ yoggy <yoggy@[removed]; ]
      OTR on film                           [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
      Paladin theme music                   [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]

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

    Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 19:19:32 -0500
    From: Paul Gough <paulgough@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Baseball Game Recreations

    I don't know about the sound effects used in the game
    recreations, but I do remember game reports on WHDH
    Boston, the Red Sox broadcaster in the late 50s and
    early 60s. If the scheduled game was rained out (I'm
    not sure if it was just local games or all games) they
    would use the teletype reports to give game
    play-by-play of another game. But, as I recall, there
    was no attempt to simulate the game. It was just a
    straight report. You could hear the teletype in short
    bursts in the background as a pitch or play came in.
    No actual sound effects or "creativity."

    Paul Gough

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

    Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 21:08:19 -0500
    From: Jim Widner <widnerj@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Fireside Chats

    The prolific Jim Cox stated:

>     Intending to take nothing away from a superior CBS newsman, Robert Trout, my
>     research indicates that some historiographers have gotten this wrong.  While
>     Trout introduced most of FDR's talks from the White House, actually it was
>     WJSV station manager Harry Butcher who proposed it because FDR spoke from
>     the Diplomatic Reception Room furnished with a fireplace.

    Robert Trout would agree with you 100%. In correspondence with Edward
    Bliss, Trout himself credits Butcher saying that the two (Trout and
    Butcher) discussed a couple of approaches to the introductory scripts of
    Roosevelt's speech (Trout was one of two "official" announcers for the
    talk): one was a cold statement of the facts and the second was more
    folksy saying that the talk was like one visiting the President and
    sitting down and having a fireside chat.

    Butcher took the concept they worked out and put it into the copy even
    though the discussion about what exactly to say was not intended to
    include the term. The copy was sent to the White House for a decision
    and Roosevelt chose the folksy version.

    Jim Widner

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

    Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 22:10:26 -0500
    From: "Deeann Neyhart" <deeatthedigitaldeli@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL LYRICS

    Have Gun Will Travel reads the card of a man.
    A knight without armor in a savage land.

     His fast gun for hire head's the calling wind.
    A soldier of fotune is the man called Paladin.

     Paladin, Paladin
    Where do you roam?
    Paladin, Paladin,
    Far, far from home.

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

    Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 22:44:35 -0500
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  3-13 births/deaths

    March 13th  births

    03-13-1873 - Nellie Revell - Springfield, IL - d. 8-12-1958
    commentator: "Neighbor Nell"; "Meet the Artist"
    03-13-1892 - Janet Flanner - Indianapolis, IN - d. 11-7-1978
    reporter: "Listen, The Women"
    03-13-1896 - Leona Powers - Salida, CO - d. 1-7-1970
    actress: Mrs. Bixby "My Son Jeep"; [removed] Brown "Aldrich Family"
    03-13-1898 - Donald MacDonald - Denison, TX - d. 12-9-1959
    actor: Willie the Weep "Big Town"
    03-13-1898 - Henry Hathaway - Sacramento, CA - d. 2-11-1985
    film director: "Screen Director's Playhouse"
    03-13-1900 - George Kondolf - d. 12-xx-1985
    producer: "Theatre Guild on the Air"
    03-13-1900 - Harry W. Flannery - Greensburg, PA - d. 3-10-1975
    newscaster: Foreign correspondent in Berlin for CBS during WWII
    03-13-1903 - Charles D. Livingstone - d. 7-28-1986
    producer, director: "Lone Ranger"; "Green Hornet"; "Challenge of the
    Yukon"
    03-13-1905 - Louis Roen - d. 2-15-1993
    announcer: "Today's Children"; "The Breakfast Club"
    03-13-1907 - Frank Wilcox - DeSoto, MO - d. 3-3-1974
    actor: Father "Central City"
    03-13-1908 - Paul Stewart - NYC - d. 2-17-1986
    actor: Gyp Mendoza "Life Can Be Beautiful"; Richard Rogue "Rogue's
    Gallery"
    03-13-1910 - Frank Gabrielson - New York - d. 1-24-1980
    writer: "The Cavalcade of America"
    03-13-1910 - Sammy Kaye - Lakewood, OH - d. 6-2-1987
    bandleader: (Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye) "Sunday Serenade"
    03-13-1911 - James T. Quirk - d. 1-18-1969
    announcer, station program director Philadelphia, PA
    03-13-1911 - L. Ron Hubbard - Tilden, NE - d. 1-24-1986
    science fiction writer: "Dimension X"
    03-13-1913 - Harold J. Stone - NYC - d. 11-18-2005
    actor: Sergeant Waters "21st Precinct"
    03-13-1914 - Bob Haggart - NYC - d. 12-3-1998
    bass: "The Bob Crosby Show"; "Eddie Condon's Jaxx Concerts"
    03-13-1914 - Bob Weiskopf - Chicago, IL - d. 2-20-2001
    writer: "The Fred Allen Show"
    03-13-1918 - Ina Ray Hutton - Chicago, IL - d. 2-19-1984
    bandleader: "Spotlight Bands"

    March 13th deaths

    01-13-1909 - Danny Barker - New Orleans, LA - d. 3-13-1994
    jazz guitar: "This Is Jazz"
    01-20-1898 - Tudor Owen - Wales, UK - d. 3-13-1979
    actor: Jocko Madigan "Pat Novak for Hire"; Editor "Alias Jane Doe"
    03-15-1907 - Jimmy McPartland - Chicago, IL - d. 3-13-1991
    jazz artist: "Doctor Jazz"; "Town Hall Concert"
    04-18-1857 - Clarence Darrow - Kinsman, OH - d. 3-13-1938
    lawyer: " Scopes "Monkey" trial, WGN Chicago"
    04-28-1911 - Lee Falk - St. Louis, MO - d. 3-13-1999
    cartoonist: "Mandrake the Magician"
    07-21-1895 - Ken Maynard - Vevey, IN - d. 3-13-1973
    cowboy actor: Ken Maynard Show"
    07-22-1898 - Stephen Vincent Benet - Bethlehem, PA - d. 3-13-1943
    writer: "Columbia Workshop"
    07-26-1918 - Stacy Harris - Big Timber, Quebec, Canada - d. 3-13-1973
    actor: Jim Taylor "This is Your [removed]"; Carter Trent "Pepper Young's
    Family"
    10-18-1910 - Annette Hanshaw - NYC - d. 3-13-1985
    singer: "Show Boat"; "Camel Caravan"
    11-24-1912 - Garson Kanin - Rochester, NY - d. 3-13-1999
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"

    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

    Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:42:12 -0500
    From: Doug Leary <doug@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Bradley Barker

    In an great old book called "Low Man on a Totem Pole" by H. Allen Smith,
    I ran across an interview Smith did with voice impersonator Bradley
    Barker. Barker provided animal effects for numerous jungle movies and
    radio shows, including Frank Buck's "Bring'em Back Alive," the MGM lion,
    the Pathe rooster, and the wolf howl that opens "Renfrew of the Mounted"
    (which he accomplished by howling at the strings inside a grand piano).
    For one job on a show called "Dream Dramas" he had to come up with
    convincing dinosaur sounds.

    According to Smith, Barker was a handsome, austere, thick-set man over 6
    ft tall. As a boy growing up on Long Island, he spent a lot of time on a
    farm in upstate New York, where he became interested in animals. His
    grandmother once won a $5 gold piece from the New York Sun for
    contributing a story about him; while watching a cow chew its cud, he
    had remarked to the farmer that it must be expensive keeping cows. The
    farmer replied that it wasn't all that expensive, and Barker asked him
    how he could afford all the chewing gum they chewed.

    Before taking up radio Barker had a brief movie career as a leading man
    opposite the likes of Marguerite Clark and Olga Petrova. He came by his
    radio specialty by accident while rehearsing a program about a shipwreck
    in the Galapagos. At one point where the script mentioned seals, Barker
    jokingly let out a burst of seal barks. The director loved it and
    decided to keep it in the show, and the next day they had him in front
    of a microphone doing other animal sounds.

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

    Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:43:07 -0500
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Shell Chateau

    On 3/12/06 5:58 PM [removed]@[removed] wrote:

>     I have read that this music variety show was originally designed as a vehicle
>     for Al Jolson but according to the logs I have seen, during the time
>     attributed
>     to him, Walter Wincell (one time) and Wallace Beery substituted for him,
>     Jolson
>     returned briefly then left again.
>     Just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this show as I am not finding
>     much
>     on the Internet, but one site said it was very popular for the two years
>     it was
>     on NBC.

    The series, heard on Saturday nights beginning in 1935, was originally Al
    Jolson's attempt at being Rudy Vallee -- basically cribbing Vallee's
    format of a parade of unrelated guest-star acts bridged by musical
    numbers. Jolson left the series in the fall of 1935 due to a movie
    committment, and after Winchell's one week stint. the
    master-of-ceremonies role passed to MGM star Wallace Beery, who carried
    the program until Jolson returned in January of 1936.

    Jolson was poorly served by the series, which saddled him with
    excruciatingly bad comedy material, and left for good in April 1936.
    Singer Smith Ballew carried the program for the rest of the year.

    In 1937, the program was reorganized around Broadway comic Joe Cook, with
    the "Chateau" title dropped, but the essential format remaining the same
    until the series ended in June 1937.

    In all of its incarnations, the Shell program followed the basic variety
    format established by Vallee  -- the guest performers would be drawn from
    a mix of established headline stars, rising newcomers, old favorites on
    the decline, and novelties. The program's most important contribution to
    radio was that it served as the vehicle for young Judy Garland's first
    network broadcasts -- with those appearances being examined in detail in
    Amanda Osborne's  article in the current issue of Nostalgia Digest
    (available at [removed]) -- it's a well-researched
    piece that I'd recommend even if Amanda wasn't my best pal!

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 08:28:54 -0500
    From: "Austotr" <austotr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Australian OTR

    G'Day folks,

    There are plenty of books being released about OTR these days.

    In Australia we are doing it a little differently.

    The Encyclopedia of Australian Radio Shows database (EARSdb) will be
    released in the first half of this year, a release date has not yet been
    picked, but it is not far away.

    We originally wanted to release a Dunnings style Encyclopedia, but as you
    can see from the following, it is just too big to release in paper form.

    The current statistics of the database are as follows:

    Over 5,400 Series/Serials documented.  Most with Start dates/year,
    Production House, Description, Episode Number, Episode Duration

    Over 23,900 characters documented

    Over 1,800 People involved in Australian Series/Serials documented

    Over 16,600 episodes logged

    In printed form, approximately 2,000 pages of text

    Close to 2,000 photos and reproductions of ads from the radio magazines of
    the time

    The database is not complete.  It will still take many years of hard work in
    order to log every episode and supply individual episode descriptions, but
    the basic Series/Serials listing is close to complete.

    When the database is released, there will be regular updates, regular
    newsletters and regular episode releases.  That leads me to the biggest
    announcement.

    EARSdb is being released on several DVDs, why?  Because it will be released
    with up to 1,000 fully licenced representative episodes for each surviving
    series/serials.  Australian Copyright Owners have agreed to licence the
    episodes to us for this release.  There are a lot of plans and projects for
    the future and EARSdb is the launchpad.

    The reason I have pre announced the release here, is that I am appealing to
    OTR Collectors who hold examples of Australian episodes which simply do not
    exist in Australia.  Australian Collectors and Researchers are driving this
    project and if you hold Australian Transcriptions or HiQ episodes in your
    collection, please contact me directly and let me know which representative
    episodes you are willing to supply/trade to us for this project.  We will
    acknowledge the asistance with the release, we will also discuss some of the
    projects we have clearence for from the Copyright Holders.

    This project is the biggest thing to have happened to OTR in Australia, it
    has been some 5 or 6 years in the making.  We are hoping to get EARSdb into
    secondary schools and retirement/nursing homes and other community
    organisations.  Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.  It is very
    close now!

    Ian Grieve
    Moris Sztajer

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

    Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 09:16:15 -0500
    From: "Bob Scherago" <rscherago@[removed];
    To: "Old Time Radio" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  "Golden Age of Radio" and "A One Night Stand
     with the Big Bands"

    The latest "Golden Age of Radio" programs with Dick Bertel
    and Ed Corcoran, and "A One Night Stand with the Big Bands"
    with Arnold Dean can be heard at [removed].

    Each week we feature three complete shows in MP3 format
    for your listening pleasure or for downloading; two "Golden
    Age of Radios" and one "One Night Stand." We present new
    shows every week or so. The current three programs will be
    available on line at least until the morning of  Monday, 3/20/06.

    Program 26 - May, 1972 - Fran Allison

    Born in Iowa, Allison began working as a songstress on local
    Waterloo, Iowa radio programs and eventually moved to
    Chicago in 1937, where she was hired as a staff singer and
    personality on NBC Radio. Audiences became familiar with
    her from numerous radio appearances, first as a singer on
    such programs as Smile Parade, The Ransom Sherman Show,
    and Uncle Ezra's Radio Station (also known as Station EZRA),
    and later on The Breakfast Club as the gossipy spinster Aunt
    Fanny--who loved to dish gossip about such fictitious towns-
    folk as Bert Beerbower, Orphie Hackett and Ott Ort--based
    on a character she first created for a local Iowa radio program.
    Allison appeared on both the radio and television versions of
    Don McNeill's The Breakfast Club for more than 25 years.
    The Aunt Fanny character was briefly spun off on her own
    1939 30-minute radio program, Sunday Dinner at Aunt Fanny's.

    Program 27 - June, 1972 - Donald Buka

    Donald Buka had a long and distinguished career as a character
    actor in films and television, but got his start as a child on
    programs such as "Let's Pretend."

    Let's Pretend was a children's program created and directed
    by Nila Mack (1891-1953). It had a long-run on CBS radio.
    The Peabody Award-winning program began March 24, 1934,
    running for two decades before the final show on October 23,
    1954. Adaptations included such classics and fairy tales as
    Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Arabian Nights, Beauty and
    the Beast and Rumpelstiltskin.

    "A One Night Stand with the Big Bands" With Arnold Dean

    George T. Simon and the Vocalists - February, 1974

    The subject tonight is Big Band Vocalists, with George T. Simon,
    author of The Big Bands and Simon Says: The Sights and Sounds
    of the Swing Era, and the foremost authority on the Big Band Era.
    Simon helped Glenn Miller organize his first band, played drums
    in it, and fostered Miller's reputation through his writing for
    Metronome, The New York Herald Tribune, and other leading
    publications. He went on to become a leading expert on the music
    of the swing era and the big bands. He wrote several other acclaimed
    books, including The Sinatra Report (1965), as well as copious
    articles, liner notes for recordings, and occasionally even song
    lyrics for the likes of Duke Ellington and Alec Wilder.

    In the 1970's WTIC decided that there was a market in
    the evening for long-form shows that could be packaged
    and sold to sponsors. Two of those shows were "The
    Golden Age of Radio" and "A One Night Stand with the
    Big Bands."

    Dick Bertel had interviewed radio collector-historian
    Ed  Corcoran several times on his radio and TV shows,
    and thought a regular monthly show featuring interviews
    with actors, writers, producers, engineers and musicians
    from radio's early days might be interesting. "The Golden
    Age of Radio" was first broadcast in April, 1970;  Ed was
    Dick's co-host. It lasted seven years. "The Golden Age
    of Radio" can also be heard Saturday nights on Walden
    Hughes's program on Radio Yesteryear.

    Arnold Dean began his love affair with the big band
    era in his pre-teen years and his decision to study
    the clarinet was inspired by the style of Artie Shaw.
    When he joined WTIC in 1965 he hosted a daily program
    of big band music.  In 1971, encouraged by the success
    of his daily program and "The Golden Age of Radio"
    series, he began monthly shows featuring interviews
    with the band leaders, sidemen, agents, jazz reporters,
    etc. who made major contributions to one of the great
    eras of music history.

    Bob Scherago
    Webmaster

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

    Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 11:55:20 -0500
    From: Cnorth6311@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Mr. Llewyn

    Listening to the Great Gildersleeve program for  12/7/1941, and there is a
    character called Mr. Llewyn. He sounds suspiciously  like Elmer Fudd. I
    believe
    I have heard him on more than this episode of The  Great One. Anyone know who
    played this character?

    Charlie

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

    Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 11:55:33 -0500
    From: yoggy <yoggy@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Norman Corwin film

      I don't know if this has come up before, but there is an EXCELLENT
    documentary film on NORMAN CORWIN in existance that was produced 10 or so
    years ago.  It is available from Martin Grams on dvd (or WAS when I purchased
    it).  I'm not suggesting this as a substitute for the recent Oscar-winning
    film, but it would be of interest to any CORWIN admirer (and is there ANY otr
    fan who is NOT?)  Gary Yoggy

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

    Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 13:55:24 -0500
    From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  OTR on film

    Bob Hicks' comment about LETTER TO THREE WIVES reminds me of a film short
    done through Paramount in 1933 called POPPIN' THE CORK.  It's a three-reeler
    (29-30 minutes long) and is a charming musical comedy wth Milton Berle as a
    brash college man who debates the repeal of Prohibition on the radio.  It
    was designed to be an educational short but proves tasteful.

    Movies were not the only films that dealt with radio or radio-related
    personalities.  In GETTING A TICKET (1929) Eddie Cantor is stopped by a cop
    for speeding and tries every trick in the book to avoid getting the paper
    slip.  Another is A BROADWAY ROMEO (1930) with Jack Benny who treats a poor
    woman to a dinner and then sets up another patron to pay their bill - all
    without Benny's later trademark stinginess.  This time it was done with
    class.

    I have these on DVD and they are funny but if you want to watch some clever
    deliveries, try some of the film shorts as well as feature-length movies.
    Even the Little Rascals (MIKE FRIGHT, 1930s) got into the act of radio
    barbs.

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

    Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 14:28:30 -0500
    From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Paladin theme music

>     2.  Were there ever lyrics for the theme music?  I think someone once sang
>     something to me like "Paladin oh Paladin, where do you roam" but I didn't
>     know if she was making it up on the spot or not.
>     Thanks -- Mike in Mountain View, CA

    It was "THE BALLAD OF PALADIN" written and sung by Johnny Western (who still
    owns his own radio stations, by the way) as a "thank you" to the producers
    of the TV series for allowing him to be a guest on an episode in the first
    season ("The Return of Dr. Thackeray").  The producers (Sam Rolfe being one
    of them) liked the ballad and arranged to have the song played during the
    closing credits of the TV series (NOT the opening theme which is the Bernard
    Herrman orchestral piece you hear all the time).

    The Ballad of Paladin was never featured in the radio program because the
    budget for the radio series was much lower than that of the TV.  What your
    friend remembers is the closing theme for the TV series.

    Three interesting pieces of trivia

    1.  The song charted on the [removed] charts at least three times. The LP record
    was very popular, and the 1962 release knocked Elvis off the charts in
    England and the British Crown Colonies.

    2.  The song began appearing during the closing credits with the second
    season of the TV series, NOT the first.  Though when episodes from the first
    season were rerun years later (especially between the second and third and
    fourth season episodes), the closing credits were altered to feature the
    now-famous "Ballad of Paladin" in the closing credits. Some commercial video
    releases offer episodes from the first season with the Ballad even though it
    wasn't really featured during the initial airing (which means CBS uses the
    syndicated rerun prints for commercial releases) instead of the initial
    1957-1958 airings.

    3.  In 1986, the Rob Reiner movie STAND BY ME featured a scene where the
    Ballad is sung (the film took place in the 1950s during the era when the TV
    show was popular.  Whoever did the research for the movie apparently
    purchased the rights to feature the ballad from CBS, not knowing at the time
    that there were two theme songs for the series.  The orchestral piece
    Bernard Herrmann composed and the Ballad of Paladin that Johnny Western
    sung.  Needless to say, they did have a legal issue after the movie came out
    but it was taken care of quickly (notice how you can find two prints of
    STAND BY ME, one with the closing credits acknowledging CBS/Bernard Herrman
    and the other acknowledging Johnny Western - the closing credits were
    changed after the theatrical release).

    Martin Grams Jr.
    Author of THE HAVE GUN - WILL TRAVEL COMPANION

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2006 Issue #75
    ********************************************

    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]

    To Subscribe: [removed]@[removed]
      or see [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]