Subject: [removed] Digest V01 #110
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 4/8/2001 3:10 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                      The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                         Volume 01 : Issue 110
                   A Part of the [removed]!
                           ISSN: 1533-9289


                           Today's Topics:

 "The Littlest Angel"                 [Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed]]
 A Dressing Down!                     ["Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@]
 Re: cordings of OTR programs         ["Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@]
 surface noise                        [Joe Salerno <salernoj@[removed];  ]
 [removed] Article: Preserving Book [kinsler@[removed]                ]
 Re: Fidelity of actual OT radio broa [Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];       ]
 Virginia Payne                       [HERITAGE4@[removed]                  ]
 Peek-A-Boo, I See You!               [Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];       ]
 Re: Worked in Radio                  [Fred Berney <berney@[removed];      ]
 Where's that Canadian website???     ["Michael Ogden" <michaelo67@hotmail]
 SCARY OTR                            ["stephen jansen" <stephenjansen@ema]
 Canadian shows                       [Peter Appleyard <pappleyard_ca@yaho]
 WLW  & "Two Consoles"                [GEORGE WAGNER <gwagneroldtimeradio@]
 Re: WLS "Happy Hank"                 [Udmacon@[removed]                    ]

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

Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2001 18:37:19 -0400
From: Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  "The Littlest Angel"

We have been talking about childrens records.  Probably my favorite --and a
record set I still have --is Decca's "The Littlest Angel" featuring Loretta
Young.

There is an interesting story about this recording in Joan Wester
Anderson's new book on Loretta --FOREVER YOUNG (Thomas More Publishing,
2000), pp. 135-138.

Apparently it was recorded, with full orchestra (Victor Young), on a
Saturday night in two takes -- one rehearsal and one final.  Loretta and
company arrived at 8:00 [removed] and left before 10:30 [removed]  As the author puts
it, "this project was graced." The script was given to Loretta, to do
anything she liked with it, by its author Charles Tazewell.

It was a  lean period for Miss Young, she needed the money, and apparently
Greer Garson had seen the script and wanted to do it herself.  Time was of
the essence.

The late actress's website still gets requests for this famous recording.

Dennis Crow

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

Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2001 19:34:41 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  A Dressing Down!

Rich Samuels, speaking of the show with a "dressing race," notes,

The show Richard Pratz is trying to recall is "Happy Hank"---which I
heard as a kid  on WLS in Chicago ca. 1946-1947. <snip>  The winner of
the race on any particular day was ascertained by a
"magic electric eye" which peered into the bedrooms of the contestants.

Imagine a kid today looking for the hidden TV camera!  I think that
nowadays the thought of a "magic electric eye" peeking into a kid's
bedroom would make him or her a bit edgy.  It just goes to show how
things have changed since Orwell penned 1984.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2001 19:34:26 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: cordings of OTR programs

Elizabeth McLeod, commenting on Dave Phanehuf's query on noisy recordings
of OTR, observes,

Most of the "surface noise and volume drops" mentioned by the famous
Radio Reruns disclaimer had nothing to do with the original discs. They
were artifacts created by generation on generation of tape-to-tape
dubbing, recorded quarter-track on consumer-grade machines usually
running at slow speed, and on tape stock of wildly-varying quality, and
compromised by generation after generation of attempted correction of the
defects by poorly-used equalizers.

In the 1970s, George Garabedian released a bunch of OTR shows on Mark 56
records.  These included The Adventures of Sam Spade, Terry and The
Pirates, Straight Arrow, Jack Armstrong - The All-American Boy, Nick
Carter, Master Detective, Chandu the Magician, and Captain Midnight (two
postwar shows), among quite a few others.  All the LPs I bought were
clear as a bell; they had to have been taken from masters or not more
than a generation removed therefrom, though neither the catalog nor the
record give any indication.  No static, surface noise, or the like.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2001 23:50:44 -0400
From: Joe Salerno <salernoj@[removed];
To: OTR List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  surface noise

Elizabeth wrote:

While digital formats promise to eliminate the problem of
multi-generation degradation,

Sorry but I can't agree here.

I've heard a lot of digital degradation - low rate MP3 encoding, noise
reduction, digital is in some ways much WORSE for sound quality, it doesn't
take nearly as long to ruin a recording as it did in analog days when it
could take a number of generations. Now it only takes one.

Joe Salerno

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

Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2001 23:50:46 -0400
From: kinsler@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  [removed] Article: Preserving Books? It's
 Easy on Paper

This article from [removed]
has been sent to you by kinsler@[removed].

I thought that the many preservationists in this group would be interested in
this New York Times article.

Mark Kinsler

/-----------------------------------------------------------------

Preserving Books? It's Easy on Paper

IDEAS
By ELAINE SCIOLINO

The practice of libraries destroying books to save them has stopped.
But it underscores a much larger crisis: how to preserve the
nation's vast library collections.

[removed];ei=1&en=2a4a8cae
e01628a1

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

Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2001 23:50:47 -0400
From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Fidelity of actual OT radio broadcasts

From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
I suspect that what you're hearing is the result of some
really wretched treatment of the transcription disks.
For what it's worth, I first heard a recording of the War of
the Worlds broadcast back when radio soap operas and One Man's
Family and Gildersleeve were still running.  I was shocked at
the high noise level and generally poor fidelity on that
recording, and I really doubted then and now that it could
have sounded anywhere near that bad when originally broadcast.

This would, of course, be back in the 1950s, and that would mean that
you heard the incomplete recording issued by Sidney Frey's Audio
Rarities records.  This is the one that is missing the opening, closing,
and station break announcements, as well as one or two sections in the
middle.  The condition of those discs was much worse than the complete
set now in circulation from Manheim Fox.  I might also add that some
unnessary noise reduction was used by Radio Spirits to degrade the sound
quality in the version in their Cronkite box set.  They didn't have
access to the original discs (where ever they are.)  They can do an
excellent job when they do have the original discs, such as in their
Superman boxes.

Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2001 10:31:17 -0400
From: HERITAGE4@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Virginia Payne

That was a nice picture Conrad referred us to of Virginia Payne as a very
young "Ma Perkins".  I imagine it came from RADIO ANNUAL or
a similiar publication. I'll bet Conrad could show us his too !!
Tom Heathwood - Herutage Radio Classics

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

Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2001 10:31:20 -0400
From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Peek-A-Boo, I See You!

From: Rich Samuels <richsam@[removed];
The show Richard Pratz is trying to recall is "Happy Hank" on WLS
in Chicago ca. 1946-1947. Highlight of the show (in my memory)
was the dressing race in which boys were pitted against girls.
The winner of the race on any particular day was ascertained by a
"magic electric eye" which peered into the bedrooms of the contestants.

From: HERITAGE4@[removed]
I recall a similar program feature on the Yankee Network outlet
in Boston, WNAC, in the 1940's.  At the conclusion, the host
implied that he was able to "see" who won - the boys or the girls.
I always wondered about the last line of his song, "we'll all begin" -
and whether that meant "Mr. Annoucer Man" was getting dressed in the
studio.  <<Tom Heathwood>>

I'm getting some weird vibes from these descriptions.  Is there a
generation of former kids out there who were tramutized by the idea that
some dirty old man was watching them get dressed thru their radio--or
else they became the hippie generation who didn't care who watched them
get dressed or undressed!!!  In the first Howdy Doody record on RCA
Victor Howdy sings a song about him being able to look at you while
you're looking at him, and I vaguely remember some early TV programs
discussing this.  There's an Ernie Kovacs show in existance where he
thanks us for welcoming him into our living room--then he looks around
and says that we could at least have straightened out the place.

When I lived in Columbia, Missouri in the early 70s there was a
discussion on a radio call-in program about the upcoming election that
included a question if the city should build a city-owned cable TV
system.  I nearly drove off the road when one little old lady called to
say she was voting against it because she didn't want the mayor to be
able to look at her in the bathtub!!!  The measure was defeated, by the
way.

And you think that believing there are little men inside your radio is
weird!!!

Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2001 10:31:22 -0400
From: Fred Berney <berney@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Worked in Radio

   HOW MANY OF YOU OUT THERE -- AND WHO ARE YOU -- ARE     ACTUAL
VETERANS OF [removed] -- YOU KNOW, WORKED IN THE MEDIUM?  I know Hal Stone,
and Lois,
of course, and Mike Biel, and Owens Pomeroy.  I think Shiffy.  I know I
missed a bunch of you.  Who else?

If you can count college radio drama in 1958, a summer as a record
librarian at WINZ and a staff announcer for a year at WAFM all in Miami,
then I worked in radio. Not OTR radio, but radio of the late 1950's.

Also produced a show of folk music live from a local coffee house for two
years. Tried to syndicate it and ended up selling it to a station in Singapore.

Fred
For the best in Old Time Radio Shows [removed]
New e-commerce page [removed]

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

Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2001 10:34:05 -0400
From: "Michael Ogden" <michaelo67@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Where's that Canadian website???

Recently there has been discussion of what books and other resources are
available which deal with the history of Canadian radio and the CBC. Back in
December I discovered a wonderful website, but I was in a rush then and
didn't take the time to properly notate what and where it was. [removed] have
not been able to locate it again. I can't even remember now whether I went
to it because somebody had mentioned it here in the Digest or whether I just
accidentally stumbled across it. I can't remember the name of the site or
the http address (which apparently I thought at the time would be EASY to
[removed]).

Anyway, this site had something like six or eight different Canadian
programs that could be listened to in their entirety. The dates of the shows
ranged from the 30s up to the 70s or 80s. Because of the season, all of the
shows were Christmas-themed, but there was supposed to be a change of shows
every month. There was an archives listed also, but, as I remember, it
couldn't be gotten into or else didn't have anything in it at the time. I
couldn't tell if the archives was already in existence or if they were going
to be creating and expanding it with the old monthly selections as they
yielded space to the new ones.

Does anybody know the site that I'm talking about? (No, it's NOT Scenario
Productions.) I believe they stated somewhere at the site that they had been
authorized by the CBC to make these programs available in this fashion. I
just need to determine if this is a real thing or simply too good to be
true. If the latter's the case, then I must just have been having a
pre-Christmas hallucination (while visions of sugarplums and shows from the
vaults danced round my head?).

Mike Ogden

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

Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2001 10:34:03 -0400
From: "stephen jansen" <stephenjansen@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  SCARY OTR

On Wed, 4 Apr 2001   "Bill in GA"  wrote:

I've been interested in OTR for about a dozen years, or so, and of course
have had programmed into my skull the fact that "Sorry, Wrong Number" and
"The War of the Worlds" was the scariest OTR ever done.  Then, the
discussion of Arch Oboler's wonderful "The Dark" came up and I got to
thinking ... what OTR program episode has scared you the most????

     Well, I've got a couple.  Of course, this is very subjective, so it
doesn't mean these shows are really scary, or even very good.  They just are
to me.  I think they're worth checking out, if you need a good shudder.
     Lights Out "The Story of Mr Maggs" 12/10/42 - every time I describe
this story to someone, they roll their eyes as if I am crazy.  I know the
synopsis sounds kind of funny, but the show itself is chilling.  The
character voices are PERFECT.  Mr Maggs buys a trunk at an auction, which
turns out to have been owned by a murderer - the trunk was his depository
for his victims.  The trunk is carted up to Mr Maggs attic, where his
stepson somehow ends up getting his head CAUGHT in the trunk.  Mrs Maggs
struggles with her son's body, Mr Maggs is just too frazzled to deal with
things and rushes downstairs.  After a while, he fears for his wife's life,
after calling upstairs and getting no answer from her.  But he is too
petrified to go up and look.  [removed] trunk
comes down the stairs, one at a time, slowly, BY ITSELF.   Don't laugh, it
IS scary.
     Quiet Please "The Thing on the Fourble Board" 8/9/48 - Not your usual
OTR, Quiet Please is told in first person, which can be a hack writer's
simple way to do a radio script.  Not the case with these great shows,
written by Wyllis Cooper, the man behind the original '30's run of Lights
Out.  This episode has an oil rig worker and a buddy examining a core sample
from the inside of the hollow oil drill.  The core has come from so deep in
the earth, that it is millions of years old.  Strange, then, that they find
a RING in the core sample.  Stranger still that there is still a (severed)
finger in the ring.  When they wash the dirt off the finger, they find that
it is INVISIBLE.  I can't hardly tell any more without ruining this
top-notch classic horror OTR episode.  This is usually at the top of the
scariest OTR lists - if you haven't heard it, YOU MUST.
     Nightfall "The Repossession" 9/26/80 - Nightfall is not OTR proper,
having been done in the 1980's, it is OSR.  It is also some of the most
frightening audio ever produced.  This episode has a man who is haunted by
the thought that his dead brother (the two were siamese twins separated at
birth, one sacrificed in order to save the other) is out to reclaim his
body, and regain the life that was taken away from him.  Strange things
begin happening that make the man believe this more and [removed] begins
using his left hand instead of his usual [removed] there IS that voice in
his [removed] out any Nightfall eps, they're really good.  Some adult
language and adult situations make it much more cutting edge than your
standard OTR.
     I look forward to seeing other people's choices in scary shows.  Hope
this helps somebody pick up some more OTR.

     Oh, and one other thing: for the educator using OTR in the classroom,
who needs suggestions to get them to "connect" with it better - have you
tried turning out the lights in the room?  This was the first thing that
came to my mind, but no one else has posted this simple solution.  It always
worked when I was in school.  It calmed everyone down, and made us more
receptive (even into my high school days - the '80's).  Maybe less visual
stimulus will increase their audio appreciation.  Keep trying, whatever the
outcome.  The innovative,unorthodox teachers are the ones that leave
wonderful indelible marks on the minds of their enriched students.  I would
have loved to have been fed some OTR in school!

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

Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2001 10:34:01 -0400
From: Peter Appleyard <pappleyard_ca@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Canadian shows

I have been trying to find a source where I might
purchase a program called " Nightfall " it used to be
broadcast on the CBC in Canada. I am also interested
in other Canadian shows that you might have. If you
dont mind I am using a friends computer but if you
e-mail any answers to  " pappleyard_ca@[removed] "
he says he will get them to me. I thank you for your
help.
Peter Appleyard

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

Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2001 10:33:59 -0400
From: GEORGE WAGNER <gwagneroldtimeradio@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  WLW  & "Two Consoles"

     All I really know about this one comes from a
discussion with a Shady Nook organist about 20 years
ago.
     I asked him if the Shady Nook pipe organ was "the
organ of Fats Waller and the gin bottles."
     "No," he answered, "that was a different organ in
a different WLW studio."
     He then complimented me on knowing about the gin
bottle story in the first place. Apparently being
aware of it it makes one part of the "in" crowd of
pipe organ fans!

     George Wagner
     GWAGNEROLDTIMERADIO@[removed]

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

Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2001 13:24:04 -0400
From: Udmacon@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: WLS "Happy Hank"

Unless I'm really losing it, I didn't see any mention of "Happy Hank" in
neither the 1946 or 47 "WLS Family Album." Sorry!

Bill Knowlton, "BLUEGRASS RAMBLE," WCNY-FM: Syracuse, Utica, Watertown NY
(since Jan. 1973). Sundays, 9 pm est: [removed]

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V01 Issue #110
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