Subject: [removed] Digest V2005 #42
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 2/8/2005 9:23 AM
To: [removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2005 : Issue 42
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  2-8 births/deaths                     [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  WTIC's Golden Age of Radio - new sho  [ "Bob Scherago" <rscherago@[removed]; ]
  Cincy Convention Food                 [ Paulurbahn@[removed] ]
  MEMORIES OF EDDIE BRACKEN             [ PURKASZ@[removed] ]
  "I Remember Mama" on Radio            [ dougdouglass@[removed] ]
  KNX, Los Angeles, 1953                [ Philip Chavin <pchavin@[removed]; ]
  Dylan Redux #12 & 35                  [ "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed]; ]
  Howard Hughes recording               [ Michael Berger <intercom1@attglobal ]
  Superman's Secret Identity            [ Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed]; ]
  Lum/Jed?                              [ "Michael Leannah" <mleannah@charter ]
  I Remember Mama                       [ Alan Chapman <[removed]@verizon. ]
  Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide  [ "Ivan G. Shreve, Jr." <iscreve@comc ]
  Arch Oboler                           [ Illoman <illoman@[removed]; ]
  Jack Benny Article                    [ Jordan Young <jyoung@[removed]; ]
  Karl Haas, RIP                        [ Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@erols ]
  Arch Obler                            [ "William Vest III" <tsukasasan@hotm ]

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

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 16:15:29 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  2-8 births/deaths

February 8th births

02-08-1828 - Jules Verne - Nantes, France - d. 3-24-1905
proneering science fiction writer: "Mercury Theatre"; "This Is My Best"
02-08-1886 - Charlie Ruggles - Los Angeles, CA - d. 12-23-1970
comedian: "Texaco Star Theatre"; "Suspense"; "This Is My Best"
02-08-1888 - Dame Edith Evans - London, England - d. 10-14-1976
actress: "Kaleidoscope"
02-08-1890 - Irving Kaufman - Syracuse, NY - d. 1-3-1976
singer: "Champion Sparkers"; "Broadway Vanities"
02-08-1894 - King Vidor - Galveston, TX - d. 11-1-1982
film director, screenwriter: "Screen Director's Playhouse"; "Hedda Hopper's
Hollywood"
02-08-1902 - Lyle Talbot - Pittsburgh, PA - d. 3-2-1996
actor: "Your Hollywood Informer"; "Calling All Cars"; "The Unexpected"
02-08-1905 - Truman Bradley - Sheldon, MO - d. 7-28-1974
announcer: "Easy Aces"; "Red Skelton & Co."; "Drene Show"
02-08-1907 - Ray Middleton - Chicago, IL - d. 4-10-1984
actor: Abraham Lincoln "Honest Abe"
02-08-1908 - Myron McCormick - Albany, IN - d. 7-30-1962
actor: Christopher Wells "Advs. of Christopher Wells"; Walter Manning "Portia
Faces Life"
02-08-1911 - Judith Allen - NYC - d. 10-5-1996
actress: Margo Lane "The Shadow"
02-08-1913 - Betty Field - Boston, MA - d. 9-13-1973
actress: Mary Aldrich "Aldrich Family"
02-08-1914 - Margot Stevenson - NYC
actress: Margo Lane "The Shadow"
02-08-1917 - Robert Dryden - d. 12-16-2003
actor: Doctor West "We Love and Learn"; Sergeant Maggio "Call the Police"
02-08-1920 - Robert Garnett "Buddy" Blattner - St. Louis, MO
announcer: Armed Forces Radio, Guam
02-08-1921 - Lana Turner - Wallace, ID - d. 6-29-1995
actress: "Abbott and Costello"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
02-08-1924 - Audrey Meadows - Wu Chang, China - d. 2-9-1996
actress: Alice Kramden "Honeymooners"
02-08-1925 - Jack Lemmon - Boston, MA - d. 6-27-2001
actor: "Dimension X"; "X Minus One"; " No Love Lost"
02-08-1931 - James Dean - Byron, IN - d. 9-30-1955
actor: "Hallmark Playhouse"

February 8th deaths

06-04-1917 - Helen Wood - Clarksville, TN - d. 2-8-1988
actress: Elaine Dascomb "Those We Love"
06-22-1916 - Johnny Jacobs - d. 2-8-1982
announcer: "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar"; "Frontier Gentleman"; "Granby's
Green Acres"
07-18-1913 - Marvin Miller - St. Louis, MO - d. 2-8-1985
actor: Ben Lyon "Jeff Regan, Investigator"; Gil Whitney "Romance of Helen
Trent"
09-10-1909 - Raymond Scott - Brooklyn, NY - d. 2-8-1994
conductor, composer: "Your Hit Parade"; "Chicago Theatre of the Air"
10-05-1905 - Harriet MacGibbon - Chicago, IL - d. 2-8-1987
actress: Lucy Kent "Home, Sweet Home"
10-07-1898 - Alfred Wallenstein - Chicago, IL - d. 2-8-1983
conductor: "Virtuosos"; "Voice of Firestone"
11-01-1919 - John Secondari - Rome, Italy - d. 2-8-1975
novelist: "As Europe Sees the Marshall Plan"; "Prologue"
12-22-1862 - Connie Mack - East Brookfield, MA - d. 2-8-1956
baseball manager: "The Shell Show"; "A Tribute to Lou Gehrig"
--
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 16:15:49 -0500
From: "Bob Scherago" <rscherago@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  WTIC's Golden Age of Radio - new shows posted

The current "WTIC's Golden Age of Radio" programs
with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran, featuring Jim Jordan
and Ed Rice, have been posted at

[removed]

Program 14
May, 1971
Jim "Fibber McGee" Jordan

>From April 16, 1935 to September 6, 1959 one of the
best-known addresses in the USA was the home of
Fibber McGee and Molly. They resided at 79 Wistful
Vista in a midwestern city where the popular shows
took place. Fibber was just that - a fibber, a braggart,
a man who stretched his stories and ideas to the limit,
often to the dismay of his patient spouse Molly. McGee
took telling tall tales to a fine art. His wild ideas and
schemes were the basis for the show which usually
took place in the living-room at their home. They didn't
enjoy quiet evenings alone because there was always
a steady stream of visitors, each a character in their
own way, who added to the confusion and hilarity of
the situation at hand.

Program 15
June, 1971
Ed Rice

Ed Rice - Writer, Producer, Director of "The
Fleischmann's Yeast Hour", "Believe it for Not"
and "Shell Chateau.

"The Fleischmann Hour," nationally known as the Rudy
Vallee Hour--the first-ever radio talk show--debuted in
1928 with 200 million listeners. One of OTR's most curious
oddities was the network series based upon the popular
daily cartoon, "Ripley's Believe it or Not." The program
features excerpts from these shows from Ed's collection.

In the 1970's Dick Bertel created the program for
WTIC in Hartford, CT. The idea came to Dick
after he interviewed radio collector-historian Ed
Corcoran a few times. It was first broadcast in April,
1970; Ed was his co-host.

For the next seven years the program featured interviews
with radio actors, writers, producers, engineers and
musicians from radio's early days. In addition, each
show featured excerpts from Ed's collection.

Bob Scherago
Webmaster

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

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 18:38:50 -0500
From: Paulurbahn@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Cincy Convention Food

Stephen Jansen stated <<  I always feel a bit trapped at the hotel, and the
whole area seems to close down about 9 pm!   >>

I live near Cincinnati (actually Ft Knox KY) and would suggest Rock Bottom,
it is a brewery type club off Fountain Square in downtown. Excellent food, and
relatively quiet. You can take a wife or girlfriend and not feel uncomfortable.

Paul Urbahns

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

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 18:38:58 -0500
From: PURKASZ@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  MEMORIES OF EDDIE BRACKEN
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   At the sight of Eddie's name in a recent post, I was moved to remember a
wonderful time back in 1983 when I was offered a small part in the first
"Vacation" movie starring my old pal Chevy Chase.
    I was getting ready to turn it down when I learned that I would be doing
a scene with John Candy and Eddie Bracken. I accepted it and spent a
delightful day at Ten Flags Amusement Park in LA.
    The company had bought it for the day so there we were, the only kids in
the park.
    The scene was unremarkable in my book. I had nothing to do really except
warn Mr. Walley that some lunatics were loose in his park and I, as a security
guard along with John and Frank McRae the other guards had done our duty in
arresting them.
    The real fun was later in the day when Eddie and I were chatting about
radio and the fact it was my first love and that I had missed the Golden era
of
drama shows that he had done so many of.
    At that point, Harold Ramis, the director came up to us and said to get
ready for the final scene in the movie which was to be run behind the end
credits of the film, featuring all the cast gripped with fear and horror as
they
rode the almost vertical down slope of the world's scariest roller coaster!
    Then he walked away.
    Eddie and I looked at each other in stunned silence because this was NOT
in the script and I could see by the look on his face that he was not looking
forward to this.
    Nor was I.
    He said to me with furrowed brow, "I've managed my whole life to avoid
going on one of those things and now here I am, an old man and I'm trapped."
    "Me too," I said. Then we both went silent. I was worried about our
recent lunch.
    Here we were, paid actors who had to submit to the whim of a director.
    I thought about asking for 'danger pay' but my part was so small they
would have just sent me home.
    I went to Harold and said that the audience would never see our faces
because I could see he was setting up for a long shot.
    He showed me four other cameras and said everyone would be seen.
    End of excuse list.
    Then I had an idea. I went to Eddie and said, "Listen, we own this park
today so what do ya say we go back into the control room of the Coaster and
see
how it's run and get ourselves hipped to the safety of the damned thing and
see that we're just being big babies?"
    He agreed and so we walked to the boarding area, crossed the tracks and
walked into the darkness behind to a door that said, 'Control Room Authorized
Persons Only' and knocked.
    The door was opened by the young daughter of the operator, she looked
about 15 or 16 and we introduced ourselves as actors who were a bit fearful of
the mighty ride and could we see how the thing worked to ease our fears.
    She smiled and said, "Sure. Come on in."
    We entered and saw that there was no one else in the room but her!
    Then she walked to the control board and sat in the big chair!
    She was the operator!!!!!!!!!
    Eddie and I looked at each other in horror.
    "Are you the operator?" he said
    "Ya," she said, chewing gum and grinning.
    I think I saw a missing tooth.
    He looked at me, winked and said, "Great idea" and we both fled.
    We both survived, Frank McRae was not happy and John Candy I found out
later at a bar in Universal City where we had repaired to do some 'calming
down'
drinking, was afraid for his life as well.
    It's all in the closing credits so you can't see much but know that the
fear on any faces that might be seen is real and as Robert Mitchum once told
me, "No acting required" but that's another story kiddies.
    A few years before he passed, I saw Eddie again at a voice-over audition
in New York and we laughed again at the memory of two cowards in the
seat-belted grip of a great mechanical monster controlled by a teenaged girl.
    Eddie Bracken.
    Nice riding with you pal.
                    Michael C. Gwynne

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

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 18:40:16 -0500
From: dougdouglass@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  "I Remember Mama" on Radio

The Hansen famiy was heard once on radio on "Cavalcade of America". The
episode was "Citizen Mama". The cast  thought it was an audition for a
radio series.

They later learned it was bought by Maxwell House for CBS television.
"Mama", minus the "I Remember", aired from 1949 to '57.

Iris Mann was Dagmar on "Cavalcade" and during the first television
season.

Doug Douglass

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

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 18:40:37 -0500
From: Philip Chavin <pchavin@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  KNX, Los Angeles, 1953

   Re the Hawthorne thread:

   I believe that in early 1953 Jim Hawthorne's
late-night KNX program was on Monday thru Saturday.
Starting at midnight (or possibly a few minutes
after).  I attended a Hawthorne broadcast on Saturday,
24 January 1953.  (Jim's guest was Desi Arnaz, talking
about his new child.)

   His program was followed by Bill Ballance, at least
in early '53, and I believe Ballance was on then until
5:30am.

   The above could possibly be checked by referring to
the LA Times radio pages from that period.

   By the way, I don't know about Hawthorne's health
condition, but I think it would be great if someone
could get him, if possible, -- and Gil Stratton, Jr.,
for example -- to join this OTR Digest mailing list.

-- Phil C.

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

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 18:39:50 -0500
From: "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Dylan Redux #12 & 35
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Richard Carpenter newsduck@[removed] posted:

In Bob Dylan's memoir "Chronicles," he reminisces
about growing up listening to radio. His memory is
faulty in a couple of places, <snip>Suspense always had
a creaking door  <snip>  Dragnet was a cop show
with the musical theme that sounded like it was taken
out of a Beethoven Symphony. <snip> Boliva Time <snip>

"How many shows must a man mix up, before tou can call him a fan?"
Maybe Mr. Zimmerman is "Tangled up in NBC Blue."Then again, didn't he
once have a minor hit called "Ballad of a Thin Man"?

And who could forget "Forever Young Widder Brown," "Like a
Harlan Stone" (my apologies, Hal), "Knockin' on Fibber's Closet
Door,"  "Quinn, the Clicquot Club Eskimo," "Positively 4th Street
& Smith,"  "It Ain't Me, Baby Snooks," "My Backstage Wife Pages"
(all [removed] one was really forced), and "Me & Molly McGee"
(incredibly [removed]'s by Dylan's buddy Kris Kristofferson)?

Yours in the ether,

Derek Tague

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

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 19:20:48 -0500
From: Michael Berger <intercom1@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Howard Hughes recording

A clip from the Hughes testimony is on vol. 2 of the
Murrow-Friendly Hear It Now record series. A longer
version of the testimony is around but cannot recall
the source.

Michael Berger

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

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 22:17:38 -0500
From: Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Superman's Secret Identity

Joe Mackey's almanac for this week noted:

1940 - Mutual presented the first broadcast of Superman. The identity of
the man from planet Krypton was unknown to listeners for six years. The
secret eventually leaked out that Superman's voice was actually that of
Bud Collyer.

I don't mean to brag, but as a little kid listening to "The Adventures
of Superman" every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5:00 o'clock on WOR I
recognized the voice as Bud Collyer's.  Collyer was on the air so
frequently that a regular radio listener (including a bright and
perceptive child  :-)  would find his voice familiar, even (and
especially) during that breathless metamorphosis when he said, "...off
with these clothes.  This looks like a job FOR SUPERMAN!"

Did anyone else who heard the series first time 'round also realize
without being told that Superman was Clark Kent was Bud Collyer?

By the way, to this day I feel a tingle down my spine when I listen to a
recording of how Collyer -- with no sound effects, no organ stings --
changed the mild-mannered reporter into the Man of Steel.  It's one of
the great moments in radio drama.
                                                               --Bill Jaker

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

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 22:18:13 -0500
From: "Michael Leannah" <mleannah@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Lum/Jed?

    I can't answer the question as to whether Jed Clampett was based on Lum
Edwards, although I see the similarities.
    Similarly, I still suspect that Andy Griffith and/or his writers were
influenced by the Lum and Abner radio show. I was listening to a L&A show
from 1942 the other day in which numbers were being drawn from a hat and the
"punchline" occurs when the winning number turns out to be six and
seven-eighths--the hat size tag was pulled from the hat. This same device
was used in an Andy Griffith TV show. And there are other plot twists TAGS
that seem to be taken from the annals of Lum and Abner.
    Beyond that, there were characters in Pine Ridge named Opie and Gomer.
Makes me [removed] it's true, at least I'm consistent. I consider both
shows personal favorites.

Michael Leannah
Sheboygan, Wisconsin

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

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 22:19:04 -0500
From: Alan Chapman <[removed]@[removed];
To: Old-Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  I Remember Mama

"I Remember Mama" or "Mama" did not air as a scheduled radio program,
although it may have been aired once as an audition show.  A radio
audition episode ("Mama's Citizenship") was made in 1948 , but when the
producers circulated the tape to ad agencies in search of a sponsor,
General Foods picked it up but only as a television program.  That
original radio script was reshot as the TV premiere and aired on CBS-TV
on July 1, 1949, kicking off a seven-year run.  (I was a 9-year-old when
"Mama" begin, and it kicked off, for me, a seven-year crush on Robin
Morgan.)

BTW, the show title was actually simply "Mama", but the opening intro by
Katrin (Rosemary Rice) which ended with "...but most of all, I Remember
Mama" became so popular that the program was better known by that name.

BTW-2, the first live recreation of that radio episode was done at Radio
Classics Live in Brockton, MA on March 30, 1996 (thanks to Rosemary
Rice, who still had the original script), featuring Rosemary and Dick
Van Patten. It was re-recreated at FOTR in Oct, 1996.

Alan Chapman
Coproducer, Radio Classics Live

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

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 23:15:22 -0500
From: "Ivan G. Shreve, Jr." <iscreve@[removed];
To: "Old-Time Radio Digest (Plain Text Only)" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide

Derek Tague, mayor and administrator of Etherville, mentioned last year on
the Digest that film historian Leonard Maltin was going to have to prune his
yearly Movie Guide to make room for newer and recent films, and that he
would do so by publishing a book devoted to pre-1960 movies.

Well, the book is out and I went leafing through it to see if there were any
more OTR-themed films listed, particularly those from the Great Gildersleeve
and Lum & Abner series.  Sadly, the only one I've been able to find is So
This is Washington (1943) (you'd think he'd be able to make room for the
last and best L&A film, Partners in Time).

But he's added a slew of silents and B-films (nearly 1,000), including
classic oaters from Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy (William
Boyd)--in case you were curious how I was to tie this to OTR.  The guide is
a bit pricey (it's not a mass-market paperback like his regular guide), but
if you're a classic movie nut (and I'm willing to make book there are more
than a few on the Digest) it's well worth the investment.

Ivan

Classic movies, television and old-time radio at Thrilling Days of
Yesteryear! [removed]

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

Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2005 07:19:16 -0500
From: Illoman <illoman@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Arch Oboler

I have been researching the life and work of Arch Oboler. I am finding
very little in the way of biographical data. I also realize the
difficulty in dates for radio shows, but I can't find anything close to
a comprehensive list of shows he wrote. The Goldin list is the closest
thing I've found so far, and is quite valuable.
If anyone can point me in a direction for this I would be very
grateful. I think Arch is extremely overlooked when it comes to writers
of merit from radio's golden era.
Thanks,
Mike
--
[removed]~illoman

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

Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2005 07:21:51 -0500
From: Jordan Young <jyoung@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Jack Benny Article

[removed]

Great article. But Benny also appeared at Melodyland March 21-23,
1969, when I fortunate enough to see him perform and meet him
backstage.

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

Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2005 09:48:13 -0500
From: Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@[removed];
To: OTRBB <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Karl Haas, RIP

Radio's genial host of classical music, Karl Haas, age 91, died
February 6th in Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, MI, a suburb of
Detroit. His syndicated program, "Adventures in Good Music", has been
broadcast on stations throughout the [removed] and Canada, plus AFRS.  The
series has been aired for a half century. A German native, who fled the
Nazi regime by coming to the [removed] in 1936, he taught piano in NYC,
founded the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, and served as president
of the prestigious Interlochen Academy of the Arts in Michigan.

His broadcast career began in Detroit in 1950, and within a few years
was hosting a classical music one-hour program. His syndicated
programs, still being aired today, are among the top ones in classical
music. Robert Conrad of WCLV-FM in Cleveland said this week that Haas's
series "is still our highest rated program." For over 50 years,
listeners have not only enjoyed the music Haas played, but also his
vast knowledge of the subject and his punning program titles, [removed] "The
Joy of Sax" and "Baroque and in Debt."

Jack French
Editor: RADIO RECALL

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

Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2005 11:21:59 -0500
From: "William Vest III" <tsukasasan@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Arch Obler
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I've got the collection of Light's Out. The show called "The Dark" (famous for
the story line of turning people inside out), however, only runs about 7 min.
and 55 seconds. After searching the net I found a few remarks that this was a
mini show. However, my copy ends with someone trying to say something. Does
anyone know if this was indeed a mini show and/or where I can get the whole
thing?
Wm. Vest III

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End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #42
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