Subject: [removed] Digest V2005 #226
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 7/27/2005 8:03 AM

To: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2005 : Issue 226
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      7-26 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      "Mr Goodjohn and Mr Badjack"          [ absarka_prime@[removed] ]
      Filling in the Blancs                 [ "Mary L. Wallace" <mlwallace57@hotm ]
      Surprise! This Is Your Life!          [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      Kinescope Kovacs, Grainy Godfrey      [ Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@earthlin ]
      Arthur Anderson                       [ "[removed]" <asajb2000@ ]
      This Is Your Life                     [ Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed]; ]
      CBC Newsman David Halton Retires      [ Christopher Werner <werner1@globalc ]
      #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Nig  [ charlie@[removed] ]
      Another request for [removed]    [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 08:23:20 -0400
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  7-26 births/deaths

    July 26th births

    07-26-1856 - George Bernard Shaw - Dublin, Ireland - d. 11-2-1950
    playwright: "Wisconsin College of the Air"; "George Bernard Shaw Speech"
    07-26-1894 - Aldous Huxley - Godalming, Surrey, England - d. 11-22-1963
    writer: "Columbia Workshop"
    07-26-1896 - Charles Butterworth - South Bend, IN - d. 6-13-1946
    comedian: "Fred Astaire Show"
    07-26-1897 - Paul Gallico - New York City, NY - d. 7-15-1976
    writer: "Author's Playhouse"; "Keep 'Em Rolling"; "Radio City Playhouse"
    07-26-1899 - Danton Walker - Marietta, GA - d. 8-8-1960
    broadway columnist: "Forty-Five Minutes on Broadway"; "Twin Views of the News"
    07-26-1901 - Serge Koussevitzky - Vyshni Volocheck, Russia - d. 6-4-1978
    symphony conductor: "Boston Symphony Orchestra"
    07-26-1902 - Gracie Allen - San Francisco, CA - d. 8-27-1964
    comedienne: "The Adventures of Gracie"; "The George Burns and Gracie Allen
    Show"
    07-26-1903 - Donald Voorhees - Allentown, PA - d. 1-10-1989
    conductor: "Show Boat"; "Cavalcade of America"; "Telephone Hour"
    07-26-1907 - Galen Drake - Kokomo, IN - d. 6-30-1989
    commentator: "Galen Drake"
    07-26-1909 - Vivian Vance - Cherryvale, KS (Raised: Independence, KS) - d.
    8-17-1979
    actress: Ethel Mertz "I Love Lucy"
    07-26-1911 - Buddy Clark - Dorchester, MA - d. 10-1-1949
    singer: "Your Hit Parade"; "New Carnation Contented Hour"
    07-26-1914 - Erskine Hawkins - Birmingham, AL - d. 11-11-1992
    bandleader: "Apollo Concerts"; "Big Band Themes on the Air"
    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"
    07-26-1919 - Virginia Gilmore - El Monte, CA - d. 3-28-1986
    actress: "The Ford Theatre"
    07-26-1921 - Jean Shepherd - South Chicago, IL - d. 10-16-1999
    host: "The Jean Shepherd Show"
    07-26-1921 - John de Lancie, Sr. - Berkeley, CA - d. 5-17-2002
    principle oboist: "Phildelphia Symphony Orchestra"
    07-26-1922 - Blake Edwards - Tulsa, OK
    writer: "Lineup"; "Richard Diamond, Private Detective"
    07-26-1935 - Walter Winchell, Jr. - New York City, NY - d. 12-25-1967
    radio news writer

    July 26th deaths

    01-21-1921 - Manya Starr - New York City, NY - d. 7-26-2000
    writer: Allegedly fired by Anne Hummert for asking about God, "Who's going to
    play him?"
    03-18-1860 - William Jennings Bryan - Salem, IL - d. 7-26-1925
    lawyer: Scopes Monkey trial
    03-20-1913 - Kenny Gardner - Lakeview, IA - d. 7-26-2002
    singer: "Guy Lombardo Show"; "Lombardoland [removed]"; "Your Hit Parade"
    05-04-1927 - Terry Scott - Watford, England - d. 7-26-1994
    actor: "Junior Choice"; "Great Scott, It's Maynard"; "Hugh and I"
    05-07-1919 - Eva Peron - Los Toldos, Argentina - d. 7-26-1952
    actress, hostess: "Radio Argentina"; "Radio Belgrano"
    07-24-1911 - Jane Hoffman - Seattle, WA - d. 7-26-2004
    actress: "The Author's Studio"
    09-09-1887 - Raymond Walburn - Plymouth, IN - d. 7-26-1969
    actor: "That's My Pop"
    11-18-1901 - Dr. George Gallup - Jefferson, IA - d. 7-26-1984
    statistician: "Living 1948"
    xx-xx-1889 - Gene Byrnes - New York City, NY - d. 7-26-1974
    comic strip cartoonist: "Reg'lar Fellers" based on his comic strip
    xx-xx-1899 - Reed Brown, Jr. - Texas - d. 7-26-1962
    actor: Capt. Gordon Wright "Roses and Drums"
    --
    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

    Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 09:03:55 -0400
    From: absarka_prime@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  "Mr Goodjohn and Mr Badjack"
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    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

       A friend who knows that I collect OTR recently wrote me and asked:

       "Years ago someone in the UK sent me a reel-to-reel tape of a radio drama
    called "Mr Goodjohn and Mr Badjack" - very spooky and surreal. But lacking
    any data as to the source. Must have been BBC, but I have never been able to
    find out anything about it."

       Can anyone here identify this reference?  I've never heard of it myself.

    Curt Phillips

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    Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 14:09:59 -0400
    From: "Mary L. Wallace" <mlwallace57@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Filling in the Blancs
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
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    In the July 4 Digest (#201), Jordan Young answered Derek Tague's question
    about whether or not Mel Blanc wrote "Big Bear Lake" by saying that it was
    unlikely because Eddie Maxwell told him that Mel had put his name on "Ugga
    Ugga Boo Ugga Boo Boo Ugga" but had nothing to do with it.  Jordan further
    explained that many stars put their names on songs they didn't [removed] was
    "part of the game."

    With all due respect to Jordan, I emailed Noel Blanc about this and he told me
    that Mel was indeed a co-writer of "Ugga". (In fact, Mel told Walt Mitchell
    and myself that other people who didn't write it put *their* names on it!)
    Also, Noel happened to be vacationing at Big Bear Lake when I emailed him
    because he said that he and his mother watched Mel write "Big Bear Lake" "in
    this very cabin."

    I hope this is the definitive answer to Derek's question.

    Don't forget to order the Mel Blanc cd from
    [removed]<[removed];

    Mary Lou Wallace

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

    Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 16:47:59 -0400
    From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Surprise!  This Is Your Life!

    Lee Munsick reminded us that "Normally 'This is Your Life' guests were not
    told about their involvement in
    the program until escorted onto the stage of the program, already in
    progress."  There were only two instances where guests were informed in
    advance -- and the first time this happened Edwards cancelled the guest and
    put together a different show in three days.  But the other time a guest
    knew in advance was Edwards' decision, and was for a very good reason.   It
    was for Eddie Cantor who had a very serious heart condition, and the
    program opened with Edwards explaining to the audience why the guest was
    not going to be ambushed and was already sitting on stage.  The show was
    still being done live, and there was no advance publicity to the public.
    In later years when they attempted to syndicate the program, they
    discovered that pre-recording the shows would lead to the failure of the
    series.  Sure, the guests were surprised.  Perhaps even more surprised than
    during the live days because these shows could now be done at any time of
    any day of the week.  But because the individual local stations could not
    resist publicizing the identity of the guest in advance, the viewers lost
    the chance to play along in the suspense in the first few minutes.  They
    also were able to pick and choose whether to watch depending on whether or
    not they were interested in the guest.  Edwards had often said that the
    best programs were about non-celebrities who had led extraordinary lives.
    But since these non-names had no publicity drawing power, the syndicated
    series could not do this type of program.

    The most famous of the live programs with reluctant guests was the one with
    Lowell Thomas.  I saw the program live and thought it was hilarious.  When
    Edwards said "Lowell Thomas, This is your life" Thomas replied with
    something like "The hell it is" and tried to escape.  His sarcastic remarks
    continued throughout the program, not directed to his friends but to
    Edwards.  I would have thought Edwards would have been embarrassed and
    furious, and so I was astonished when I saw the program being re-run later
    that season.  It turns out that Edwards says that this is one of his
    favorite shows.  It is not in the first box set -- neither is Cantor -- but
    we all hope they will put these both in the next set.

    It had been my recollection that the Caesar's Hour take-off had been done
    the week after the Thomas program, but this might not be true.  What I DO
    know is that when Edwards saw the take-off, he immediately postponed his
    scheduled program and quickly put together a new one -- for Carl Reiner!
    They ambushed Reiner without his toupee, and I think his reaction was to
    say "If I knew you were doing this, I would have worn my hair!"   This
    shows what a great sport he was.  He had never appeared in public without
    his toupee but it didn't really bother him.  I remember that he loved doing
    the show, and, of course, he was able to milk the hair incident for one of
    the funniest episodes of "The DIck Van Dyke Show."

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

    Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 17:20:38 -0400
    From: Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Kinescope Kovacs, Grainy Godfrey

    My thanks to friend Joe Ross, who commented here that

>     Back in the days when many television markets didn't have as many stations
>     as there were networks, it was common to see network programs by kine in
>     those markets.  The delay was often for several weeks.  I remember seeing
>     Christmas shows in January.

    That wasn't the only reason for mixed-up programs - primarily it was because
    they weren't actually connected to their respective networks.  There are
    still many markets which do not directly receive all the networks, often even
    more than one station!  For us to get broadcast signals here in south-central
    Virginia would require a constantly available antenna turning rotor, with
    positions for each different network, as the network stations are to the
    west, north, east and south of us.  In fact, we can't get any!  Welcome to
    the 21st century! To cap it off, we're in some kind of black hole at our
    house, and don't even get the nearest station from Lynchburg, only around 35
    miles to the west, and at a higher elevation than we.

    Thank goodness for the time of the kinescope system, which allowed stations
    country to air programs before coaxial cable spanned the nation.  And before
    videotape came along, and made it possible for broadcasters to save programs
    presented live rather than on film.  Without them we would not today be able
    to watch such early shows as with Sid Caesar, Ed Sullivan, Ernie Kovacs,
    Arthur Godfrey, etc.   Also I Love Lucy,other Desilu programs, Dragnet, You
    Bet Your Life, and numerous others which were captured on film first, edited
    and then aired.

    Unfortunately, when I laughed myself silly c. late 40s watching Ernie Kovacs
    in his first early morning TV programs on Channel 3 in Philadelphia, there
    was no copying done by any system.  I've often felt that his improvisations
    then were far better than most of his later network shows, which is what we
    can see of Kovacs today.  It was there that he used the split-screen system
    to duel with himself, set up the tilted-table-and-camera skits which became a
    Kovacs hallmark over the years, and so many other things that hit him as he
    did his show, wandering around WPTZ's prop warehouse in Philly.  Ingenious!
    Marvelous!

    Arthur Godfrey's shows were kinescoped and sent round-robin across the
    country.  Thank heavens - every once in a while one pops up somewhere, and
    some dealer makes videos available, so that's the only way we today see his
    TV shows.  One just appeared on eBay and I've written the winner and asked
    for a copy.  Because the bidding got way past my budget, but I can give him
    back some of his cost, in return for adding another show to my archives - I
    hope!

    This is probably all technically illegal, just like the early, unlawfully
    imported Brit recordings by The Beatles, which of course in time made them
    hugely popular here, and even more hugely wealthy.  And like all the
    circulating OTR shows, without which we would not have our memorable hobby,
    there would be no OTR conventions, organizations and publications, and good
    folk like Charlie Summers and Jay Hickerson wouldn't know what to do with
    their spare time!  Hee hee.

    Like all broadcasters during that kinescope delay period, Mr. Godfrey was
    asked by the ubiquitous network vice-presidents not to mention things like
    "enjoy today's Easter Parade", "Erin Go Bragh today" (in a definite Irish
    brogue), or even "Happy Turkey Day", let alone "Merry Christmas".  I often
    wondered what the nets did about the Christmas programs virtually every show
    did every yuletide.  Godfrey didn't worry about it - just went ahead and said
    what came into his mind, because the shows were done on or just before their
    respective holidays.

    UN-like the other broadcasters, and as was his wont, Mr. Godfrey ignored the
    instructions from above.  Indeed, he would explain to his audience that the
    veeps had asked him not to mention "today is Hallowe'en", since some of the
    home lTV audience would be watching closer to Thanksgiving (which by those
    years had settled back into its former place).  So he would say something
    like, "I hope your kiddies have a wonderful time trick-or-treating today.
    But don't let them eat all that candy, or they won't have room for tonight's
    big turkey dinner".  Big laughs and applause from the studio audience.  All
    of this, of course, to the delight of that Godfrey audience and the larger
    one out in the hinterlands.  He rarely missed an opportunity to razz the
    network bigwigs.  However, he quite respectfully withheld such treatment when
    referring - often fondly and always with great deference -  to William Paley
    and Frank Stanton, whom he had on his programs on special occasions.

    In referring to the lesser-level network brass, Godfrey would frequently
    donate a "Bronx cheer".  Isn't that a wonderful appelation?  I have no idea
    where it came from, except perhaps baseball games?  I'm certain that someone
    here can inform us!      Bestus, Lee Munsick

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

    Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 20:10:21 -0400
    From: "[removed]" <asajb2000@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Arthur Anderson

    One of my favorite animated shows; Courage the
    Cowardly Dog was a show my oldest son and I watched
    together (along with The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter and
    Johnny Bravo).  I happened to watch read some
    biographical information about the Courage show.
    Halfway through, the guy who did the voice of Eustace
    died and giess who replaced him?
    Our own Arthur Anderson.  I would assume it's the
    Arthur Anderson we all know and love.  I realized the
    voice was different (like Grandpa on the Rugrats) but
    didn't know it was him.

    Andy

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

    Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 22:44:02 -0400
    From: Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  This Is Your Life

> >     Normally "This is Your Life" guests were not told about their
> >     involvement in the program until escorted onto the stage of the
> >     program, already in progress.  ...  One can understand why a lot of
> >     the unhappy guests truly did not like all this.

>     I wonder if anyone ever flatly refused to appear.  And I wonder what Ralph
>     Edwards would have done if they had.

    There was one instance I know of when the subject of a "This Is Your
    Life" program flatly refused to appear.  And what did Ralph Edwards do?
    He told his staff to drop their secret plan to present his life story.

    On the other hand, there was at least one instance of the victim -- er,
    subject -- learning in advance and showing up anyway.  I seem to
    remember some Hollywood actress coming on, exuding glamour and ready for
    the show of her life, in more ways than one.

                                                          --Bill Jaker

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

    Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 00:34:39 -0400
    From: Christopher Werner <werner1@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  CBC Newsman David Halton Retires

    Although a CBC TV newsman for over 40 years, David Halton began his career
    as a radio news reporter. In a brief interview on CBC Radio 2 today he
    recalled how the early tape recorders were battery operated and ran for 3
    minutes. One would be in the middle of an interview with someone to say,
    hold on a minute - as one furiously cranked the battery charger to prepare
    for another 3 minutes of recording.

    He is retiring from Newscasting (he has been the Washington DC
    correspondent in recent years, but was in Paris early on, and covered the
    first Isreali/Egyptian war (6-day war) in 1967 among other events.

    The CBC News program, The National will be featuring his career tomorrow
    night. One of the morning CBC radio programs will highlight his career as well.

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

    Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 02:12:00 -0400
    From: charlie@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Night!

    A weekly [removed]

    For the best in OTR Chat, join IRC (Internet Relay Chat), StarLink-IRC
    Network, the channel name is #OldRadio.  We meet Thursdays at 8 PM Eastern
    and go on, and on! The oldest OTR Chat Channel, it has been in existence
    over nine years, same time, same channel! Started by Lois Culver, widow
    of actor Howard Culver, this is the place to be on Thursday night for
    real-time OTR talk!

    Our "regulars" include OTR actors, soundmen, collectors, listeners, and
    others interested in enjoying OTR from points all over the world. Discussions
    range from favorite shows to almost anything else under the sun (sometimes
    it's hard for us to stay on-topic)...but even if it isn't always focused,
    it's always a good time!

    For more info, contact charlie@[removed]. We hope to see you there, this
    week and every week!

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

    Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 10:04:53 -0400
    From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Another request for [removed]

    Folks;

       Another request for OTR help came in this morning, regarding the great
    Studs Terkel:

>     We've got plenty of recordings from later in his career, but I was
>     hoping you could help us locate earlier recordings.  The earlier the
>     better.  I'm especially interested in "Studs' Place," but I'm not picky
>     at this point.

       If anyone has any early broadcasts of Studs Terkel (particularly in MP3,
    since it's too late to ship CDs or tapes), please contact me ASAP, since
    there's a real time crunch! Thanks!

             Charlie

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #226
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