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





	    [removed]   Volume 96 : Issue 47


Articles in this issue of [removed]:

	 Overdubbing by Les Paul
	 Les Paul Multiple Recordin
	 What's the "Silvercup Award"?
	 A&A
	 Thanx Jan
	 Bradbury 13
	 Les Paul
	 Another "Ray Bradbury" show
	 Groucho Marx's show
	 Obits
	 The Littlest Angel
	 Shoelaces Show
	 Lone Ranger episode
	 Letter From America
	 Mini OTR File-by-email server under test

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

Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 19:39:42 -0500
From: Ted McKay <tmckay@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Overdubbing by Les Paul
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

While Les Paul is often credited with the development of the process of
laying track upon track in his early Capitol recordings, the process was
used earlier (either 1945 or '46) in a Disney cartoon featuring the
voice of Nelson Eddy as Willie the Whale.  Willie's claim to fame being
that he could sing all four parts of a quartet at one time!  The idea
was so unique that Columbia Records, the company Eddy recorded for,
released a 4 record 78 rpm 10" Columbia Masterworks album of popular
hymns with all parts done by Eddy.  I don't know for sure, but this was
probably done on acetates and not tape.  Since several on the list have
expressed some interest in the history of tape recording, I thought I'd
pass along the following:

Tape did not come into widespread use here ([removed]) until the very late
40's.  In the 1930's, German engineers developed a crude tape recorder
using paper tape.  Later, BASF substituted cellulose acetate film for
the breakable paper and developed a safe process for making tiny
particles of iron oxide non-flammable.  This led to the introduction of
the Magnetophon tape recorder in 1936, but its sound quality was barely
adequate for speech and certainly not for music. In 1939, German radio
network engineer Walter Weber discovered that adding AC bias to the
recording process was the key to high-fidelity magnetic recording. The
Nazi's were probably the first to "time shift" by broadcasting recorded
speeches by Hitler and Goebels and passing them off as "live" probably
fearing that the station's might be bombed.  In the [removed] because of the
inadequate fidelity of disc recordings, radio programs were broadcast
"live" to the eastern half of the [removed] and had to be performed again
later for the West coast.  Bing Crosby was, I believe, the first person
to pre-record a network show on 16 inch acetates.  I remember well the
drop in on-air quality when switching discs, even though it was done by
seguing in the middle of applause.  Faced with this, Crosby and the ABC
radio network backed the Ampex Corp. in California for the production of
the first true high-fidelity recorders.  Tape allowed Crosby's show (and
shortly thereafter almost every network show) to be prerecorded and
edited for broadcast without sacrificing sound quality. Ampex machines,
recording on 1/4-inch-wide tape moving at 30 inches per second, were
soon adopted throughout the recording and broadcast fields.  Because the
tapes of the 40's were anything but dependable, the networks were
running 2 machines in sync simultaneously just in case a tape would
break! My first personal experience with tape recorders was in 1947,
when we adapted a Brush machine for broadcast use.   The first
professional recorder at most stations was the Magnacorder, which,
although far better than disc, was satisfactory only at 15 ips, and was
a killer if you went from either FF or REW to stop!  In the 1950's AMPEX 300
series decks became the first true high fidelity machines.  Many of
these old tube-type machines are still in use today at some smaller
stations.  They've become the DC-3's of the broadcast business, and a
300 series in  pristine condition, like an old Mac MC-30 tube amp,
driving a Voice Of The Theatre speaker, produces a rich, full sound that
the best solid state can only hope to emulate.

Ted McKay Cincinnati, Ohio

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

Date: Sat, 03 Feb 96 20:08:06 
From: [removed]@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Les Paul Multiple Recordin
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

In reference to the tape question about Les Paul, actually Les Paul did begin
his multiple
recordings with disks.  He actually invented a dual head playing arm so that he
could set
up different tracks on the same disk, and later on multiple disks all playing
at the same
time.  I have some recordings (on the Jack Parr Show) of him explaining his
many tricks in
an apartment in New Jersey, long before the Mahwah days.  To listen to him he
had many
stars performing on his renegade radio station.  He tells he was eventually
raided by the
FCC because his signal was interfering with the airplanes coming into
LaGuardia.   In any
event the tape came much later.
 
Al Baggetta
  

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

Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 20:51:50 -0500
From: richrw@[removed] (Richard M. Weil)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: What's the "Silvercup Award"?
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

>>Anyway, what is, or was, the "Silvercup Award"? I assume that it's 
>>some sort of industry award -- something like the Oscars or Emmys, 
>>perhaps? Presumably the radio industry _did_ have some kind of award 
>>system to recognize talent in that area, but I have never heard any 
>>discussion about it. 
 
>-Silvercup bread- was one of -The Lone Ranger's- sponsors.  I leave the 
>conclusion to the gentle reader  ;-) 
 
The Silvercup Bakery building is still in existence and is located in Long
Island City, NY, on the eastern shore of the East River, with views of
Manhattan. It is now  Silvercup [removed] shows and movies are
made there. 

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

Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 22:30:26 -0500
From: Nicholas Coburn <coburn@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: A&A
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

    A well done to Ted McKay for reminding us of the often encountered human
need to be taught to hate. As the very controversial song from "South Pacific"
said so eloquently, "We have to be carefully taught".

NWC

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

Date: Sat, 03 Feb 1996 10:47:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: wmackey@[removed]
To: "otr@[removed]" <otr@[removed]>
Subject: Thanx Jan
Message-id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Jan, thanks for the dates on the logs in Remember Radio.  I plan to make 
a copy of that for my personal use just for reference.
Joe Mackey
Huntington, WV

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

Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 17:07:04 -0600 (CST)
From: "Craig A. Ryan" <cryan@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Bradbury 13
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Frank,
	I tracked down the last episode of Bradbury 13.  It was the seventh
episode, and it was called "The Screaming Woman."  I'm not sure of the
date, but it would appear to be 5-27-84.  Again, let me know if you'd like
to trade for these.  I also have an original tape from the 70s of Leonard
Nimoy reading the Bradbury story about the automatic house still operating
after the nuclear war.  I'd be willing to trade the original for tapes or
records or CDs of Suspense or the Shadow.

Remember to hang by your thumbs.
Craig

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

Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 15:35:23 -0800 (PST)
From: roy547@[removed] (Roy Trumbull)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Les Paul
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Les Paul's original multi-part recordings consisted of
playing the last composite and adding a new part and recording
the result machine to machine. The problem was that the earliest
takes sounded dull. So when he had some money, he had Ampex build
a machine known as the octopus. It did 8 tracks on a half inch tape.
The head assembly consisted of the standard erase, record, playheads.
The record head had to be used as a play head in order to monitor an
earlier track while laying down a new one. This was eventually called
"cel-sync". Les contributed a lot to the design and the debug of
this first true multitrack recorder. I may have some photos of it.

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

Date: Sun, 4 Feb 1996 01:04:46 +0001 (EST)
From: "'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Another "Ray Bradbury" show
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

There was an episode of Groucho Marx's quiz show, "You Bet Your Life" 
sometime in the early 1950s on which Ray Bradbury appeared as a 
contestant.  His category was film, and he (and his partner) didn't do 
well enough to make it to the jackpot question.  But there was some 
banter with Groucho over the fact that, like Jack Benny, he came from 
Waukegan, Illinois.

I have a videotape of this show, which I taped off the air when a local 
station was showing Groucho reruns about ten years ago.

======================================================================
A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                                      617/367-0468
15 Court Square                                   lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2573                    [removed]~lawyer/
======================================================================

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

Date: Sun, 4 Feb 1996 01:23:23 +0001 (EST)
From: "'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Groucho Marx's show
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

I appeared on a local cable TV show talking about otr this week.  The 
interviewer asked a question I hadn't heard before.  He said he had heard 
that Groucho Marx's "You Bet Your Life" was edited differently for radio 
and television, so that certain material appeared only on radio, while 
other material appeared on television.

Having often listened to both back in the 1950s, I never noticed this, 
and I said so.  But I wondered whether anyone out there ever heard of it.
The only difference I recall was in the show's opening where, in the 
radio version, where the duck was invisible, George Fenneman opened the 
show with "Ladies and gentlemen, the secret word is xxxx."  Groucho would 
say, "Really?" and Fenneman would reply, "You bet your life!"

The studio audience was mostly teenagers.  When, before the taping began, 
one of the kids mentioned that his birthday was Valentine's Day, I said 
that Jack Benny's birthday was Valentine's Day.  He replied, "Who's Jack 
Benny?"

But after the show, one of the kids asked me why Gummo and Zeppo weren't 
in the Marx Brothers' movies.  I explained how Gummo left the act during 
World War I to go into the service and, on his return, decided to go into 
the business end of the act.  And that Zeppo was in the earlier films, 
until he decided to leave the act and join Gummo in business.

I also was asked, in the interview, about local programming in the otr 
days, and I told about my father taking me to a live show at WBZ back 
around 1953.

======================================================================
A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                                      617/367-0468
15 Court Square                                   lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2573                    [removed]~lawyer/
======================================================================

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

Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 08:20:23 -0500 (EST)
From: MAX SCHMID <mschmid@[removed]>
To: airwaves <[removed]@[removed]>
Subject: Obits
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

	Add to Gene Kelly and Jerry Siegel (Superman creator) a few more
from the AP wire in the last 2 days:
	Burne Hogarth (84) Tarzan of the Apes Comic strips.
	??? Bailey - DC Golden Age Superhero illustrator (sorry I'm vague 
on this one, I got this from a comic fan on the phone).
	And from radio: Ward Byron, a producer and director of radio
programs that featured the Big Band sounds of the 1930s and 1940s.  He died
Sunday at 89.  Byron worked for the Music Corporation of America from 1938
to 1944 and produced its Fitch Bandwagon network programs. Their featured 
artists included Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Duke
Ellington, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, and Harry James.
	Byron also worked on TV shows including "General Electric Hollywood
Theatre" and produced and directed commercials as a free-lancer in the 
1960's.  (end AP copy).
	Ward Byron also appeared more than once at the Friends of OTR Con-
vention in NJ.

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

Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 03:03:25 -0500 (EST)
From: MAX SCHMID <mschmid@[removed]>
To: airwaves <[removed]@[removed]>
Subject: The Littlest Angel
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

	I don't know whether or not this story was done on Baby Snooks, but a 
copy exists starring Loretta Young.  I think I got it from Vintage 
Broadcasts.
	My impression is that this was a canned show that probably ran 
more than one year.  There is a reference to it, either at the end of an
episode of Inner Sanctum or in a log thereof, that it would be pre-empted 
the following week for The Littlest Angel. 
	-Max

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

Date: Sun, 04 Feb 1996 05:30:46 -0500 (EST)
From: JACKBENNY@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Shoelaces Show
Message-id: <01I0SYJS3YFM984N9Z@[removed]>

Just to reiterate what everyone else has said, I've had innumerable requests
for the 12/8/46 show, but have never found anyone with a copy.  Alas and 
alack.

--Laura Lee
International Jack Benny Fan Club

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

Date: Sun, 4 Feb 1996 01:27:41 +0001 (EST)
From: "'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Lone Ranger episode
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

> Date: Fri, 02 Feb 1996 14:21:40 -0600
> From: "Andrew C. Green" <acg@[removed]>
> To: otr@[removed]
> Subject: What's the "Silvercup Award"?
> Message-Id: <[removed]@dlogics>
> 
> This particular Lone Ranger episode is a Hughes Type "G" and has a
> fairly routine plot about bad guys threatening to swipe land from
> the Brave and Noble Settlers. Maybe they won an award for Outstanding
> Hoofbeats or [removed]
 
What is a "Huges Type 'G'"?
 
======================================================================
A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                                      617/367-0468
15 Court Square                                   lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2573                    [removed]~lawyer/
======================================================================

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

Date: Sun, 4 Feb 1996 08:53:04 -0500 (EST)
From: rjones@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Letter From America
Message-Id: <[removed]@mail>

Ken Piletic asked when Alistair Cooke's LETTER FROM AMERICA began. The 
1959 edition of CELEBRITY REGISTER (edited by Cleveland Amory) notes 
that the program began in 1947.
                                  Bob Jones

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

Date: Sun, 04 Feb 1996 18:49:19 -0600
From: lgenco@[removed] (Louis Genco)
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Mini OTR File-by-email server under test
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

OTR Digest subscribers with email-only access to the internet can now obtain
a few files from my www / ftp sites.  I am testing a weak-brained file
daemon, so it is up to YOU to follow the rules (otherwise you don't get the
files).

Currently, the following files are available:

[removed]   -  a list of AM, FM, Satellite and Shortwave stations
currently broadcasting OTR

[removed]   -    the current (and easily readable) file of Frequently Asked
Questions and answers about OTR.

[removed] - a short list of OTR newsletters available by snailmail

[removed]   -  a calendar of many of the larger OTR conventions

You can get these files by return email IF you follow these instructions:

Send email
     To: radio@[removed]
     Subject: send file filename

where "filename" is one of the files listed above.  Do not use quotes, just
type the full filename (*everything in lower case*).

Only one file can be requested in a single message.  The body of the message
is ignored, so don't send anything you expect a human to read.  If you
entered the info correctly, you will receive the file within a few minutes.

Please, if you have a WWW browser or FTP access, do NOT use this method!  If
you have only email access to the net, and would like more files added to
the list, send me a note.

Lou
------------------------------------------------------------------------
WWW page on "Old Time Radio":                   [removed]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

    


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---- 
End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #47

