Subject: [removed] Digest V2005 #313
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 10/11/2005 11:13 AM

To: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2005 : Issue 313
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Re: Assistant directors               [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      10-11 births/deaths                   [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      Re: Asst. DIrectors                   [ jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns) ]
      Ye Olde Tongue                        [ Wich2@[removed] ]
      Ends justifying Means?                [ Wich2@[removed] ]
      Ava Maria Hour                        [ [removed]@[removed] ]
      "Stand By"                            [ "Bill Knowlton" <udmacon1@[removed] ]
      Golden Age of Radio Interviews        [ Dick Bertel <dbertel@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 07:57:04 -0400
    From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:  Assistant directors

    Hal Stone wrote:

> >     In all my years as a radio [removed] NEVER SAW A
> >     DIRECTOR HAVE AN [removed] WHO WAS
> >     RESPONSIBLE FOR TIMING OTR PROGRAMS.
> >     NEVER! NEVER! EVER!

> >     [removed] the heck misled you about Assistant
> >     Directors in OTR ?

    Well, Hal, I will bow to your greater experience because you were there at
    the time, but since you asked,  maybe it was War of the Worlds, or possibly
    television directing, or some good books.

> >     Maybe the phony balonies on the west coast used them?

    From: "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@[removed];

>     Yep, Jug, that was the way some did out here on the
>     West Coast. In fact it was even demonstrated to us in
>     1982 when Fletecher Markle directed a re-creation of a
>     Suspense show at Columbia Records in Hollywood.
>     Ken McManus was his assistant director who did the timing.
>     Barbara

    Thanks for sticking up for me, Barbara.  Perhaps it was a West Coast thing,
    because one of the books I am about to cite was written by a West Coaster,
    Edgar Willis.  But the other book seems to be by East Coasters, Giraud
    Chester, and Garnet Garrison, the latter identified as Formerly, Production
    Director National Broadcasting Company, New York.

    In the Willis book, "Foundations in Broadcasting" published in 1951, he
    states on page 264:

    "In complicated productions the director often needs an assistant who takes
    over responsibility for such details as the timing of the show.  This
    person is usually called the production man."

    And over on page 286 is a control room photograph captioned:

    "George W. Allen, director of the 'Whistler,' 'throws a cue' while a
    production man checks the timing on the right, and an engineer 'rides gain'
    on the left."

    This is not to mean that he gives the director a pass, because as Sandy
    said, the director is ultimately responsible.  For example, Willis says on
    page 276:

    "An ever-present responsibility in radio production is the problem of
    timing, which must concern the director from the moment he first picks up
    the script until the program has been signed off the air."

    He then goes on to discuss how should be preparing for things like cuts
    long before the first rehearsal.  And then, at that table rehearsal that
    Hal describes, Willis writes:

    "The second check on timing comes at the beginning of rehearsal, when the
    cast reads a script through for the first time to get acquainted with the
    characters and situation.  By timing the spoken part of the script and
    estimating the time to be consumed by sound and music, the director can get
    an accurate check on the over-all length of the program. . . .

    "During the dress rehearsal the director or his assistant records the
    timing by marking the margin of the script at least every minute.  In
    situations requiring greater precision, the time may be indicated every 15
    or 30 seconds by placing a check over the word being said at the particular
    moment and adding a time notation in the margin. . . .

    "During the broadcast the director must constantly refer to the time marks
    on his script to see whether the show is falling behind or speeding up.
    Even though this task is delegated to an assistant, the director must keep
    himself completely up to date on the timing situation, since he is the one
    responsible for making adjustments."

    Later on in the book he discusses how additionally complicated the job of
    the television director is.  Here also he states on page 333:

    ""He must follow the script and keep a continual check on the timing.
    Sometimes an assistant takes over this latter task, but the director is
    ultimately responsible for correct timing."

    As confirmation, he includes a control room photo from KGO-TV with a
    caption that includes:

    "The director is in the foreground to the left, and next to him is the
    audio engineer, who also operates the turntables.  Below, left to right,
    are the video engineer, the technical director, and the timing assistant."

    Chester and Garrison's book "Radio and Television" published the previous
    year, 1950, further emphasized the desirability of having an assistant
    director for timing television programs by saying in the section for Dress
    Rehearsal on page 471:

    "Go through a complete performance.  Obtain a complete timing,  Unless you
    have an assistant, you will not be able to take notes because of the
    pressure of other duties."

    In the earlier section on directing radio programs they do not ignore the
    use of an assistant to the director, although they don't mention him during
    the table rehearsal:

    "Hold a stop watch on the read-through and mark the minutes in the margin
    of the script.  Allow time for sound and music bridges and program credits."

    But when it comes to the on-mic production rehearsal, Chester and Garrison
    say:

    "Forget timing during this rehearsal unless you have an assistant.  Work in
    the control room."

    For the dress rehearsal they return to timing, but note their dual
    suggestion:

    "Run through the complete performance.  Place the timings every thirty
    seconds in the margin at the right of the script.  Some directors prefer
    more frequent timings.  Unless you have an assistant, thirty seconds is
    recommended in order to permit you to listen carefully to the program.
    Individual habits vary, some like to put timing on the exact word in the
    script, but markings made to the right of the line are recommended for easy
    vision."

    For the final on-air performance they do not mention an assistant:

    "Be in control of the show.  Check the timings as compared to the dress
    rehearsal.  Mark the "as broadcast" times on the right margin, crossing out
    the dress rehearsal times."

    My response to this latter statement is to ask how many radio directors
    directed with a pencil in their hand?

    I have other sources, and I would wonder why there are mentions of
    assistant directors in these disparate sources if they did not exist at
    least in some parts of the field.  While I was not around to be in network
    control rooms during the OTR era, I had occasionally been in TV control
    rooms over the years.  In some programs they rely very heavily on the [removed]
    to call timing marks, call ready cues for lighting changes and scene
    changes so that they are there to be called by the director who is
    concentrating on the program that is on at that instant.  Back in 1970 a
    former college chum was Unit Manager at the NBC Brooklyn studios for the
    dual soap operas "Another World" and "Bay City" and my wife and I spent the
    whole day there from table rehearsal to final tapings.  These shows were
    still done live-on-tape  with expensive editing charges should any changes
    be needed to be made.  The program opens, bumpers, closes, and commercials
    all came from Tele-Cine control in Manhattan, so the [removed] was calling all
    the ready and pre-roll cues and count-downs to Manhattan and verbalizing
    them for the director.  There was hell to pay when Manhattan started one of
    the commercial breaks 15 seconds late which would require a re-insertion
    edit session at great post-production cost (this was in the days of Quad
    videotape.)  There were two directors as there were two separate shows
    being done from that joint studio with some cast cross-over, and there were
    some differences, but the pre-rolls, readys, and time calls were coming
    from the [removed] with the on-air calls coming from the director.  These were
    crews who had worked closely together for a long time, and it seemed almost
    as if the director and AD team was almost a two headed person with addition
    of the technical director's hands to that body.

    Perhaps as the 1950s went on there was more reliance on [removed] that leaked
    over into radio.  I do know that in the 1960s I was taught the potential of
    using [removed] in radio production although I personally don't recall ever
    using them in radio, I always did my own timing.  One year we were doing a
    team comedy program with both scripted and non-scripted elements, and I was
    the only one in the control room, directing and engineering.  Occasionally
    one of the cast members might be directing one of the segments from the
    studio -- especially if they neglected to give ME a copy of the script.
    Which brings me to my earlier mention of "War of the Worlds" which was
    essentially directed from the studio by Orson Welles who had not attended
    all of the rehearsals.  I know that the re-creation film "The Night That
    Panicked America" has a number of shortcomings which have occasionally been
    discussed here,  it does show the division of authority. Welles in the
    studio is throwing the cues to the actors, music, and sound, with another
    director, Paul Stewart, next to the engineer in the control room.  It is he
    who throws the cue to start the program at 8 PM as seen on the clock at his
    shoulder as well as the official clock on a scoreboard-like indicator board
    in the studio.  He is also holding a stopwatch and making occasional
    markings in the script that don't necessarily seem to be timings.  Unless
    he is using the stopwatch for timing segments within the program, that
    device is an unnecessary diversion because no matter what the guy's spring
    wound stopwatch says, it is the official clock in the studio that is
    controlling when the network says the program must end.   (The film has it
    ending at exactly 9:00, another mistake.  Or perhaps Paul's stopwatch was
    running a touch slow.)  (The real Paul Stewart is credited as a creative
    consultant to the film, by the way.)

    So, in that production, who is THE director?  Was it misleading to believe
    all these years that Welles was not the director because he was not keeping
    the running times?  Or was Welles keeping the running times at his podium
    in the studio and the film just misrepresented it because they are West
    Coast people.  (The close-up of the script shows it to be in film format
    rather than radio format -- so why not one other mistake based on film
    procedure?)

    So in the end, there is some evidence that some productions did use an [removed]
    even though Hal and Conrad say they never saw this.  We need to ask some of
    the surviving directors such as Hi Brown and Norman Corwin, both of whom
    covered a long period of time in the OTR and NTR eras, and who were
    involved in some very complicated productions.  It's good this question has
    come up while it can still be answered.  We also need to look closer at the
    surviving film of productions, not these re-creations.

    And next time I'll be more careful not to make any snide remarks about my
    pal Hal, who apparently is relishing this controversy as a way to get a
    drink out of me at FOTR.  Oooh  oooh oooh, I did it again.  No no, forget I
    said this.  I didn't mean it.  Daddradit, now he's really going to get me.
    Hal, we'll have it out during the YesterdayUSA broadcasts Walden and I are
    doing from FOTR.  It'll be RCA 44's at 20 paces.

    Michael (gulp) Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 07:57:40 -0400
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  10-11 births/deaths

    October 11th births

    10-11-1883 - Fritz Stiedry - d- 8-xx-1968
    conductor: "New Friends of Music"
    10-11-1884 - Albert Stoessel - St. Louis, MO - d. 5-12-1943
    conductor: Oratorio Society of New York, Chautauqua Symphony
    10-11-1884 - Eleanor Roosevelt - New York City, NY - d. 11-7-1962
    commentator: "Eleanor Roosevelt Chats/It's a Woman's World/Talks by Eleanor
    Roosevelt"
    10-11-1887 - Oscar Shaw - Philadelphia, PA - d. 3-6-1967
    singer: "Broadway Varieties"
    10-11-1897 - Leo Reisman - Boston, MA - d. 12-18-1961
    conductor: "Sheaffer Revue"; "Johnny Presents"; "Your Hit Parade"
    10-11-1902 - Leon Belasco - Odessa, Ukraine, Russia - d. 6-1-1988
    actor: Pagan Zeldschmidt "A Man Called X)
    10-11-1913 - Sherman H. Dryer - d. 12-22-1989
    producer, director: "Two Thousand Plus"; "Heritage"; "Exploring the Unknown"
    10-11-1914 - Buddy Twiss - d. 10-xx-1976
    producer: "I Love A Mystery"; "One Man's Family"
    10-11-1918 - Olive Deering - New York City, NY - d. 3-22-1986
    actress: Nita Bennett "Lone Journey"
    10-11-1919 - Art Blakey - Pittsburgh, PA - d. 10-16-1990
    jazz drummer: "Music for Moderns"
    10-11-1919 - George Rock - Farmer City, FL - d. 4-12-1988
    260 poind trumpet player: "The Spike Jones Shw"
    10-11-1919 - Jean Vander Pyl - d. 4-10-1999
    actress: Kathy Anderson "Father Knows Best"
    10-11-1920 - Ralph Paul - Denver, CO - d. 11-28-1987
    announcer: "Aldrich Family"; "True Detective Mysteries"; "Might Casey"
    10-11-1926 - Earl Hyman - Rocky Mount, NC
    actor: "Story of Ruby Valentine"
    10-11-1932 - Dottie West - McMinnville, TN - d. 9-4-1991
    country singer: "Country Music Time"

    October 11th deaths

    01-08-1910 - Richard Cromwell - Los Angeles, CA - d. 10-11-1960
    actor: Kit Marshall "Those We Love"
    02-02-1923 - Bonita Granville - Chicago, IL - d. 10-11-1988
    actress: "Continental Celebrity Club"; "Stars Over Hollywood"
    02-04-1904 - MacKinlay Kantor - Webster City, IA - d. 10-11-1977
    writer: "Lest We Forget"; "Author's Playhouse"
    03-22-1886 - Chico Marx - Yorkville, NY - d. 10-11-1961
    comedian: Emmanuel Revelli "Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel"
    03-27-1914 - Richard Denning - Poughkeepsie, NY - d. 10-11-1998
    actor: George Cooper "My Favorite Husband"; Jerry North "Mr. and Mrs. North"
    08-08-1895 - Nat Pendelton - Davenport, IA - d. 10-11-1967
    actor: "Dr. Kildare"
    10-03-1898 - Morgan Farley - Mamaroneck, NY - d. 10-11-1988
    actor: "Escape"
    11-07-1890 - Phil Spitalny - Odessa, Russia - d. 10-11-1970
    conductor: "Nestles Chocolateers"; "Blue Coal Revue"; "Hour of Charm"
    12-03-1907 - Connee Boswell - New Orleans, LA - d. 10-11-1976
    singer: (The Boswell Sisters) "Kraft Music Hall"; "Chesterfield Supper Club"
    12-19-1915 - Edith Piaf - Paris, France - d. 10-11-1963
    singer: "The Big Show"
    --
    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 09:19:33 -0400
    From: jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns)
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Asst. DIrectors

    Lee Munsick's post reminds me that Gordon and Sheila MacRae's late
    daughter, once pondered a run for the Virginia Legislature--

    Which, of course, would have made her, Burgess Meredith.

    Ahem.

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 10:16:46 -0400
    From: Wich2@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Ye Olde Tongue

    From: Lee Munsick  damyankeeinva@[removed]

>     Where I now live in Virginia, the old  term "House of Burgesses" for the
>     lower legislative house has been replaced  (I think sadly) by House of
>     Delegates

    Jeepers, Lee - next thing,  you'll want to be called "Laird of the Manor!"

    Best,
    -Craig

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 10:17:40 -0400
    From: Wich2@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Ends justifying Means?

    From: Elizabeth McLeod  <lizmcl@[removed];
    Subject:  Neil Gabler on Murrow/McCarthy  (ETC.)

    Dear Elizabeth-

    A wonderful post, with great citations and  solid commentary.

    So, in the broadest sense, McCarthy was hoisted by his  own petard - artfully
    honed character assassination.
    As you mention - though  the TARGET was eminently worthy! - those TACTICS can
    make one [removed] And, as  feared, that weapon has indeed been developed to
    the Hydrogen Bomb level, by  modern partisan talk radio.

    And yet, kudos again to Murrow for at least  recognizing the complexity of
    his action, rather than just preening over his  victory. If the B-----d
    Senator
    himself had had any such introspection, he might  not spiraled his own life
    down to the level of drinking himself to death in a  Government hospital.

    (By the by - it's rarely mentioned that another  element of Tailgunner Joe's
    eventual eclipse, was that he knew that his own  enemies had evidence of
    not-very-accepted-in-the-50's sexual escapades by  himself and his staff, and
    were
    poised to use it.)

    Of course, I heard of  the whole Red Scare mess in High School; but when I
    explored it in depth at NYU  in the 70's, my main feeling was that there were
    no
    real heroes in the whole  mess. Of course, McCarthy and his ilk were
    excreble. But the "defense" of most  folks on the other side - obfuscation at
    best,
    and bald-faced lying at worst  (read veteran of the fight Prof. Ronald
    Radosh's
    work) is hardly a shining  example of anything.

    This world is in many ways a very, very sad  place.

    Best,
    -"Radical  Middle" Craig

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:44:27 -0400
    From: [removed]@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Ava Maria Hour

    The Ava Maria Hour was on the air from 1935 to 1969 and was produced (as I
    understand it) by Columbia in New York, using professional New York actors. The
    program was funded by the Graymoor Friars at St Christopher's Inn, Graymoor NY.

    Has anyone on the list got any information as to what actors appeared on the
    shows? There were no cast credits given on the broadcasts and it may have been
    donation type work.

    Paul Urbahns

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:44:45 -0400
    From: "Bill Knowlton" <udmacon1@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  "Stand By"

    "Stand By," a weekly magazine published by WLS, Chicago, was published from
    1935 to 1938. It not only reported on the activities and programs of WLS and
    its staff, it also ran items about the radio world in general. I've been
    assembling a collection of "Stand By" and am enjoying the tidbits. As the
    [removed]

    "AD LIB, by Jack Holden:

    I have heard and read of heroes who have 'stuck to their post' in the face
    of grave danger and calamity that the outside world might get a story, but
    no one is due for more credit in that respect than Announcer Herb Morrison
    and Engineer Charlie Nehlsen who arrived here early this morning by plane
    from Lakehurst [removed], the scene of last night's zeppelin disaster. Completely
    worn out, showing signs of great strain, nervous and tense, they came to the
    studios with three recordings that are destined to make history in the field
    of radio recording.

    "You heard the records played Friday and Saturday on the air. Although your
    thoughts were with the crew and passengers of the ill-fated air liner, you,
    too, must have thought so many times of these two boys who 'stuck to their
    posts' in the midst of destruction that you might hear the story. Great
    work, Charlie and Herb. It's work like this that makes radio and station WLS
    so tremendously valuable to thousands".  -May 15, 1937.

    BILL KNOWLTON

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

    Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:53:41 -0400
    From: Dick Bertel <dbertel@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Golden Age of Radio Interviews

    Bob C. wrote on October 9 that he found a few problems with the Golden
    Age of Radio interviews.
    Bob is an astute observer and right on the mark with his observations.
    I thought you might be interested to know a bit more about the
    background of the program to understand why his criticisms are valid.
    In 1970, when the show first started, nighttime radio was absolutely
    dead commercially.  You couldn't give it away to a sponsor.  WTIC would
    use this wasteland to run NBC commercials that we had taped off the
    network during the day.  That was the payoff to the network for the
    hourly newscasts and other features they provided.
    The first Golden Age show we did (with writer Stanley Quinn) was
    sustaining.  However, the response in letters and phone calls was so
    great that our sales department was able to sell the program.  It was,
    after all, very prestigious for a sponsor to be associated with names
    like Rudy Vallee, Joan Fontaine and
    Don Ameche.  The show remained a commercial vehicle for the station for
    the next seven years.
    This meant that we had to produce a new show for the sponsors every
    month.  This was a daunting task, inasmuch as I had many other program
    responsibilities, including television as well.  Ed was a big help in
    lining up guests but the bulk of the task fell on my shoulders.
    Very often, we would grab someone who had come into the station to be
    interviewed about an entirely different subject - writers discussing a
    new book, actors promoting a local appearance, etc.  Robert Anderson,
    for example, was being interviewed by one of my colleagues one morning
    about his latest publication when he casually referred to radio writing
    in his earlier days.  When the interview was over I asked him if he
    would be interested in doing another interview with me about OTR and he
    graciously agreed.
    Many of these interviews were literally done, as Bob C. aptly described
    it, "by the seat of our pants." A guest would come in for the obligatory
    "promotional" interview and then be coaxed into doing one for us.  We
    were not always successful.  When we asked Ginger Rogers if she would
    stay for another interview she smiled and said "no."
    The Golden Age of Radio was like having a tiger by the tail.  We
    couldn't skip a show because of advertising commitments.  Therefore we
    had to go, very often, with what we had.  Martha Raye was a case in
    point.  Although she graciously consented to stay on after her publicity
    interview and do the show with us she obviously was reticent to talk
    about certain subjects.  We had a program to get out, though, and so we
    went with it.
    Bob C. asked why samples of programs, in some instances ran on and on.
    The answer is simple.  Many of our "on the fly" guests couldn't give us
    a whole hour. We knew that if we could get a minimum of 20 minutes with
    them, we had a show.  We simply filled the rest of the time with
    excerpts.
    Two things about then and now.  When we started this program in 1970 I
    don't believe there was a single reference book about OTR, certainly
    that I was aware of.  Therefore, it was difficult to challenge a guest
    if he or she had a fact wrong because we simply didn't know.
    Secondly, the program was designed strictly as entertainment for the
    benefit of our audience - not for OTR buffs who probably had more
    detailed knowledge of the subject than we did.
    As I indicated on our website, we never did these shows for posterity.
    Ed had the great joy of meeting his boyhood heroes and I was paid a
    talent fee by our sponsors.  It is simply a miracle that all of the
    shows have been preserved.
    If I am briefly remembered for anything it will probably be for this
    series.  Yet, after I wrapped up my career at WTIC I went on to bcome a
    newscaster, first for Mutual, and then for NBC radio here in Washington.
    Is anyone interested in one of my airchecks for their collection?  Just
    kidding.
    Dick Bertel

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #313
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