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	  	         === Last Update 1/17/95  ====





	    [removed]   Volume 96 : Issue 221


Articles in this issue of [removed]:

	 Steely Dan and Cactus Jack
	 more on Fibber McGee Warmup
	 Ken's Ets
	 [removed]'s and Hi Fi.
	 Gunsmoke Date
	 Re: Garrison Keillor's WLT
	 The Saga continues; More on the Lone Ranger 

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

Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1996 11:53:40 -0400
From: Ted McKay <tmckay@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Steely Dan and Cactus Jack
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

I must have missed the posting on cactus phonograph needles, but that's
exactly what they were, one time use needles made of cactus thorns!  It
was sort of a cult back in the 1930's when the 78 RPM records were so
scratchy, and those of us interested in recorded music were trying to
boost the level of recorded material while attenuating surface noise. 
The thorn (cactus needle) was softer than the hard and usually abrasive
record material, so record scratch was reduced. Before the days of the
misnamed "permanent needle" of sapphire or diamond, one would buy a pack
of steel phonograph needles at any store where records were sold.  These
needles would literally cut into the record to allow the needle tip to
conform to the record grooves.  After the usual playing time of 3
minutes a side the needle was shot!  Cactus thorn needles wore in the
same way but reduced the surface noise because they were softer than the
shellac disc. One devoted to this art form used a small sharpener that
allowed the thorn to be inserted in a chuck (much smaller but similar to
that of an electric drill) and then rotated on a sandpaper disc to be
resharpened after each use. These needles required no special cartridge
since most of the cartridges in use at that time had set screws that
held the needles in place.  The "permanent" needles that came into use
in the late 30's damaged the records almost as much as the record
changers that spawned their development, because being harder than the
record material, a record could be destroyed in one playing if the
stylus had developed an imperfection. Most radio station playback styli
were not replaceable in the field so the head would have to be returned
to the factory for repair which took weeks at best.  At radio stations
vinyl ET's were damaged more than shellacs by back cuing with a bad
stylus, and that's the reason many of the OTR programs that have been
dubbed from syndicated ET's (like Boston Blackie and others) have noise
and scratch at the start and after what was originally one of the
several commercial positions. Truly responsible production people
frowned on back cuing and would count the turns from the start of the
cut to the point where the program or music began.  Some ET producers
printed arrows on the disc for this purpose and would indicate on the
label the number of turns to the start of program material.

When discussing so-called High Fidelity Sound everything is
[removed] attempts in the 30's and early 40's to improve sound
quality can not and should not be compared to the quality of todays
recorded sound.  Our standard in those days was the motion picture
soundtrack which was an optical/electronic process and not a
mechanical/electronic one.

Outside of vinyl electrical transcriptions, especially those that were
cut vertically, the early 78 RPM "white label" radio station vinyls
issued first by Majestic then later by Capitol, RCA, Mercury and
Columbia, brought a fidelity of sound to pre-FM radio that at the time
sounded fantastic!  The Majestic and Capitol 78's were especially good,
and all companies continued to release them well into the 1950's when
the 45 became the singles standard.

Ted McKay Cincinnati, OH

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

Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1996 10:51:52 -0700
From: [removed]@[removed] (Donald Dortmund)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: more on Fibber McGee Warmup
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

     In response to the following:
     
     Jim Jordan, makes a comment while ad-libbing in one of the episiodes 
     that he has the kind of a puss that if he just pokes it out of the 
     curtain he can get laughs. I also have a photo of him doing just that, 
     and screwing up his face "mugging" for the audience. It appears he did 
     that as part of the audience warm up.  In some of the episodes you can 
     heare him finishing a joke, or saying "oh we got plenty of time" then 
     the buzzer rings and Harlow trys to make the announcement while trying 
     not to laugh.
     
     ==============================================================
     Date: Tue, 18 Jun 1996 07:33:24 -0400 (EDT) From: elchurch@[removed]
     To: [removed]@[removed]
     Subject: Re:Fibber McGee and Molly
     Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
     
     >
     >My name is John and I am an avid listener and collector of old time 
     .radio >shows.  I have been collecting shows since I was 14 years old 
     and I am now >27.  My collection is getting quite large.  My favorite 
     shows are Fibber >Mcgee & Molly and Gunsmoke.  My question is, in the 
     beginning of the Fibber >Mcgee and Molly shows the audience is usually 
     laughing and sometimes you >can hear people talking.  This is even 
     before the announcer starts the >show.  Does anyone know what went on 
     before the show went on the air?  It >may be nothing, but it happens  
     in many of the shows.
      

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

Date: 21 Jun 1996 11:55:18 CST
From: [removed]@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Ken's Ets
Message-Id: <m0uX9Ra-000YVYC@[removed]>

Hi, all, Ken Greenwald's post raised my ears up as well. I also would
like to know if and where we could get hold of his recordings. I love
hearing restored programming so please, Mr. Greenwald let us know.

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

Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1996 13:13:10 -0400
From: acosentini@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: [removed]'s and Hi Fi.
Message-ID: <1cad9170@[removed]>

     I figured that I might as well chime in on 
     this discussion concerning the sound quality 
     of [removed]'s. One of the things that gets to me 
     is the idea that "all" old recordings 
     inherently sound bad. That philosophy has 
     given many inexperienced "engineers" the 
     excuse to make bad (real bad) recordings of 
     many great performances. As an engineer I 
     always figured that these old recordings have 
     some great sound in them and it's my job to 
     find it. In other words I better put as much 
     effort and talent restoring the record that 
     the performers and writers put into the 
     performance. 
     
     Through spectral analysis I've discovered 
     that many [removed]'s have a frequency response 
     from 35Hz to 17Khz. Now the signal to noise 
     ratio isn't CD quality but after some 
     conservative analog filtering and or 
     Cederazation these old recordings can sound 
     remarkable.
     
     Some evidence of this can be found on some of 
     the Toscanni reissues put out by BMG/RCA. 
     These broadcasts were recorded on aluminum 
     and glass based acetates. Just to name two of 
     the recordings that I worked on "La Boheme" 
     and "Otello" the sound was great. But that 
     great sound didn't come out and bite us we 
     had to get it out. And the only way to do 
     that is to use the best professional 
     equipment you can get your hands on and most 
     of all an experienced restoration engineer.
     
     As a rule the networks made the best sounding 
     [removed]'s. However there are a few independent 
     recording studios that produced quality 
     material. The ones that comes to mind are 
     Radio Recorders from [removed] and Empire from 
     NYC. Of course there are disks out there that 
     have been through the mill or just poorly 
     recorded. An extra special effort has to be 
     made with those. And of course you're not 
     going to get a Hi Fi sound out of those but 
     if one makes an effort they can become 
     listenable. 
     
     By the way, I've never used a cactus needle 
     on an aluminum disk. I'm limiting my little 
     message here strictly to acetate, disks 
     recorded off line. There are many "pressed" 
     [removed]'s that vary greatly in quality.
     
     Anyway, I'm just trying to say that just 
     because it's old doesn't mean its no good.
     
     Adrian Cosentini
     Chief Audio Engineer
     Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives, NYC

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

Date: Fri, 21 Jun 96 13:09 PDT
From: lois@[removed] (Lois Culver)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Gunsmoke Date
Message-Id: <m0uXCWe-0002hSC@[removed]>

-date on it. There's an episode where Matt and Chester go to the Hantree
>ranch and Matt has to amputate the man's infected leg in an unsuccessful
>attempt to save his life. Well, the date I have on that show is December
>18, 1952. (I got it from Don Maris about 20 years ago and that's the date

Alan, that's also the date (18Dec 1952) which I have for the "Mr Hantree has
an infected leg" episode.  Of course, mine could be in error also.

Lois Culver

>>

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

Date: Sat, 22 Jun 1996 02:56:40 -0400
From: Nevartb@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
cc: Nevartb@[removed]
Subject: Re: Garrison Keillor's WLT
Message-ID: <960622025638_222649232@[removed]>

In a message dated 96-06-15 21:31:22 EDT, you write:

>
>By the way, and again please pardon me if I'm raising a point that has
>already been dealt with -- I'm a recent arrival on the list -- has anyone
>noted that the setting, cast, and story-line of WENN bears a strong
>resemblance to a book called WLT?
>
>That book was written by Garrison Keillor (of Prairie Home Companion and
Lake
>Woebegone fame) and is actually a cycle of short stories that take place in
a
>radio station in the Midwest, from its founding in the 1920s to its takeover
>by a network several decades later.
>
>For some reason, I don't think the book ever quite caught on. Maybe the
>probem was its unusual format -- it's almost a novel, but not quite -- but I
>absolutely loved it, and I think any OTR fan will do the same.
>
>Dick Lupoff

If you liked the book, you'll love the recording. Keillor read an abridged
"books on tape" verson of "WLT" which seems to works better than the book for
some reason. A lot of Keillor's success, I think, is in his spoken delivery. 

Also, I'd like to comment on the Mackey "Great Lover" episode of REMEMBER
 WENN with Molly Ringwald. Personally, I think that show deserves a cable Ace
award. The characters came across as sincere, and the writing was tight, and
top notch.  The New York Times reviewd this episode, liked it very much and
remarked on how popular the series was on AMC.  Guess there are more of us
OTR'ers out there than I thought. 

The later story with Harold Rollins about black actors in an all white radio
industry was disturbing, but maybe not quite disturbing enough. As it stands,
the Rollins character rolled easily with the punches, and was easily written
out of the program. 

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

Date: Sat, 22 Jun 1996 09:03:27 -0700
From: [removed]@[removed] (Donald Dortmund)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: The Saga continues; More on the Lone Ranger 
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

     This listing of the Actors who played the Lone Ranger is from 
     "The Trivia Encyclopedia" 
     Jack Deeds, George Seaton (Stenius), Brace (Bruce) Beemer, Earle 
     Graser, John Todd. 
     OF course we all know that John Todd played Tonto on the radio, but I 
     have never seen him listed as playing the Ranger. And of course Fred 
     Foy is missing from the list.
     
     Fred Foy has recorded his memories of the series,(available on tape or 
     CD, called "Fred Foy Remembers The Lone Ranger, Meanwhile back at the 
     Ranch." On the tape Fred Foy give the date of March 29, 1954 as the 
     one time he played the Lone Ranger on radio, he says that Brace had 
     laryngitis.  I have heard different versions of the reason, too, but 
     this is on the tape. The title of the episode was not given, but an 
     excerpt was. ..... It involves a little girl Sally who has been 
     adopted by daddy Jack Fairfield, it is Sally's 12th birthday and she 
     meets the Lone Ranger and Tonto as they are riding past the Bar-F 
     ranch. Sally's mother has died, and she has a locket with a picture of 
     herself and her mother in it, and her biological father, is said to 
     have an identical locket. ..... Hopefully this will help someone track 
     it down!

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

    


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---- 
End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #221

