Subject: [removed] Digest V2007 #357
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 12/22/2007 4:18 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2007 : Issue 357
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Benny and [removed]                   [ jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns) ]
      Mala Powers                           [ JayHick@[removed] ]
      12-22 births/deaths                   [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
      Re:Integrated Seating                 [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      And the Night lives [removed]             [ Wich2@[removed] ]
      Re: Pardon the Grammer/Benny "Wonder  [ Jordan Young <jyoung@[removed]; ]
      Jack Westaway                         [ jack and cathy french <otrpiano@ver ]
      This week in radio history 23-29 Dec  [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]

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    Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:59:40 -0500
    From: jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns)
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Benny and [removed]

    And, as I'm sure has been commented here at some point--

    Johnny Carson wrote his college thesis paper on timing in radio comedy,
    or timing in comedy, and used an episode of THE JACK BENNY SHOW, as his
    model.

    To his last days, Carson mentioned his debt to Benny, as one of his top,
    and maybe THE top, comedy heroes.

    Jim Burns

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    Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 21:19:04 -0500
    From: JayHick@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Mala Powers

>     Mala Powers I believe died either in late spring or early summer

    Mala Powers died June 11, 2007.

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

    Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 22:23:26 -0500
    From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  12-22 births/deaths

    December 22nd births

    12-22-1862 - Connie Mack - East Brookfield, MA - d. 2-8-1956
    baseball manager: "The Shell Show"; "A Tribute to Lou Gehrig"
    12-22-1885 - Deems Taylor - NYC - d. 7-3-1966
    commentator: "Deems Taylor Music Series"; "Prudential Family Hour";
    "RCA Victor Show"
    12-22-1891 - Mc Kay Morris - Fort Sam Houston, TX - d. 10-3-1955
    actor: Abe Lincoln "The Abe Lincoln Story"; Gregory Ivanoff "Ma Perkins"
    12-22-1901 - Andre Kostelanetz - St. Petersburg, Russia - d. 1-13-1980
    conductor: "Chesterfield Hour"; "Light Up Time"; "Pause That Refreshes"
    12-22-1907 - Peggy Ashcroft - London, England - d. 6-14-1991
    actor: BBC "Queen Victoria"
    12-22-1909 - Robert Barr - Glasbow, Scotland - d. 1-30-1999
    radio writer: "To Tell You the Truth"
    12-22-1911 - Bob Guilbert - Wisconsin - d. 10-19-1990
    actor: Don Winslow "Don Winslow of the Navy"
    12-22-1911 - Milton E. Drentz - d. 1-8-2000
    seminary producer: "The Eternal Light"
    12-22-1912 - Lady Bird Johnson - Karnack, TX - d. 7-11-2007
    first lady: owner of radio station KTBC Austin, Texas
    12-22-1912 - Myron Barg - d. 1-11-1994
    disk jockey: WJBC Bloomington, Indiana
    12-22-1917 - Gene Rayburn - Christopher, IL - d. 11-29-1999
    announcer, comedian: "Rayburn and Finch"
    12-22-1918 - Frankie Darro - Chicago, IL - d. 12-25-1976
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    12-22-1921 - Hawkshaw Hawkins - Huntingdon, WV - d. 3-5-1963
    singer: "Country Style [removed]"; "Country Music Time"
    12-22-1936 - Hector Elizondo - New York, NY
    actor: "We Hold These Truths"
    12-22-1948 - Noel Edmonds - Ilford, England
    presenter: Weekday Breakfast Slot replacing Tony Blackburn

    December 22nd deaths

    01-08-1911 - Butterfly McQueen - Tampa, FL - d. 12-22-1995
    actor: Oriole "Beulah"; Butterfly "Jack Benny Program"
    01-14-1904 - George McCoy - d. 12-22-1976
    1930's broadcaster: (Pioneered the radio talk show)
    01-30-1862 - Walter Damrosch - Breslau, Silesia - d. 12-22-1950
    conductor, commentator: "Baulkite Hour"; "Music Appreciation Hour"
    02-15-1908 - William Janney - NYC - d. 12-22-1992
    actor: Gary Haven "We are Always Young"; Howie Wing "Howie Wing"
    02-17-1871 - Donald Brian - St. John's, Canada - d. 12-22-1948
    singer, actor: "The Philco Hour"
    03-07-1878 - Percy Hemus - Auckland, New Zealand - d. 12-22-1943
    actor: Dr. Winslow "Road of Life"; Old Wrangler "Tom Mix"
    03-21-1869 - Vivia Ogden - Ohio - d. 12-22-1952
    actor: Mrs. Manners "John's Other Wife"; Annie "Orphans of Divorce"
    03-25-1887 - Raymond Gram Swing - Cortland, NY - d. 12-22-1968
    commentator: "Voice of America"
    04-13-1906 - Samuel Beckett - Dublin, Ireland - d. 12-22-1989
    writer: "All That Fall"
    04-23-1931 - Tom Pettit - d. 12-22-1995
    nbc reporter: "Meet the Press"
    04-24-1928 - Ted McKay - Raised in North Avondale, OH - d. 12-22-2005
    talk show host: "Party Line"; Created first talk show on WKRC
    Cincinatti in 1955
    04-30-1886 - Dick Elliott - Boston, MA - d. 12-22-1961
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    05-10-1914- Frank Martin - Oklahoma - d. 12-22-1994
    actor: Hashknife Hartley "Hashknife Hartley"
    05-24-1902 - Wilbur Hatch - Mokena, IL - d. 12-22-1969
    conductor: "Our Miss Brooks"; "Gateway to Hollywood"; "Screen Guild
    Theatre"
    05-25-1913 - Richard Dimbleby - Richmond onThames, England - d.
    12-22-1965
    BBC's first-ever radio news reporter: "Down Your Way"; "Twenty
    Questions"
    06-19-1902 - Ed Thorgerson - Elizabeth, NJ - d. 12-22-1997
    announcer/sportscaster: "A&P Gypsies"; "The Elgin Football Revue"
    07-04-1912 - Virginia Graham - Chicago, IL - d. 12-22-1998
    talk show host: "Cancer Can Be Cured"; "Weekday Theatre"
    07-05-1898 - Richard P. Condie - d. 12-22-1985
    director mormon tabernacle choir: "Music and the Spoken Word"
    08-20-1906 - Floyd Neal - Iowa - d. 12-22-1985
    announcer: "Uncle Don"; "Vienese Night"
    08-27-1901 - Al Ritz - Newark, NJ - d. 12-22-1965
    comedian: (The Ritz Brothers) "Hollywood Hotel"
    09-05-1902 - Darryl Zanuck - Wahoo, NE - d. 12-22-1979
    film director: "Jack Benny Program"; "Hollywood Hotel"; "Triburte to
    Irving Berlin"
    09-05-1907 - Jimmy Wallington - Rochester, NY - d. 12-22-1972
    announcer: "Chase & Sanborn Hour"; "Texaco Town/Star Theatre"; "Alan
    Young Show"
    09-22-1881 - Joe Parsons - Indianapolis, IN - d. 12-22-1947
    singer: Edelweiss Joe "The Sinclair Minstrels"; "The Yeast Foamers"
    10-11-1913 - Sherman H. Dryer - d. 12-22-1989
    producer, director: "Two Thousand Plus"; "Heritage"; "Exploring the
    Unknown"
    10-24-1901 - Gilda Gray - Cracow, Poland - d. 12-22-1959
    ziegfeld follies singer/dancer: WOO Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    11-27-1898 - Eddie Kay - NYC - d. 12-22-1973
    composer, conductor: "Those We Love"
    12-17-1919 - Edward "Shrimp" Wragge - NYC - d. 12-22-1992
    actor: "Gold Spot Pal"

    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

    Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:56:03 -0500
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re:Integrated Seating

    On 12/21/07 6:18 PM [removed]@[removed] wrote:

>     Would African-Americans attending broadcasts have had
>     to sit in a certain area? Would this have been an
>     unspoken arrangement, so to speak, similar to movie
>     theaters? Were some studios segregated and others not?
>     I wonder, also, if programs starring African-American
>     performers would have had special seating
>     [removed]

    Not in New York, Chicago, or Hollywood -- smaller stations might have had
    their own policies, but the major networks had no such policies, as far
    back as the mid-thirties. Photos of "Amos 'n' Andy's" first broadcast
    before a live audience -- a broadcast which featured both white and black
    performers at Chicago's Merchandise Mart in 1936, clearly show an
    integrated audience.

    However, NBC *did* segregate documentation of "Negro Radio Artists" in
    its record cards, keeping such performers in a seperate section. The
    reasons for this were never noted in any official records, but the file
    as such was preserved as found by the Library of Congress.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:17:25 -0500
    From: Wich2@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  And the Night lives [removed]
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    (...Ebenezer Scrooge's horrid one, of infamous memory, that [removed])

    Dear Folks-

    We've spoken recently of some of the many CHRISTMAS CAROLS that OTR  offered,
    chief of which is Lionel Barrymore's from 1939.

    As a Christmas gift to those of you whose horizons extend to contemporary
    audio drama as well, and in thanks for the pleasures this group yields, an
    off-list request to me will bring info about how to hear a "new" production
    of
    Dickens' timeless tale - for free!

    (My gift to those of you who think that the medium did indeed die in 1962,
    is the "let's talk elsewhere" form of this offer!)

    As far as OTR connections, this production was directed by FOTR '07's
    "Brooklyn Brain" director Jay Stern, and our own Bill Owen has called
    Quicksilver
    Radio Theater's work, "Not just good, but GREAT."

    The most wonderful of holidays to all of your & yours - belated  Good Yontif,
    Merry Christmas, and all else!
    -Craig Wichman

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    Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:17:59 -0500
    From: Jordan Young <jyoung@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Pardon the Grammer/Benny "Wonderful Life"
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
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    Although George Balzer had issues with Milt Josefsberg's Benny book,
    I agree, it's very much worthy of a reprint.

    And speaking of JB, seems there's a one-man show playing at Two Roads
    Theatre in Studio City (Hollywood area) called "It Could Have Been a
    Wonderful Life," with this intriguing premise:

    "What if the classic movie 'It's A Wonderful Life' had featured a
    Jewish family, the guardian angel was Jack Benny and it was set in
    Hollywood? Find out as former Tonight Show writer Fred Raker portrays
    twenty-five wildly entertaining characters in a solo comedy the SF
    Bay Guardian describes as 'nothing less than a wonderful 70 minutes.'
    "

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    Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 09:50:43 -0500
    From: jack and cathy french <otrpiano@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Jack Westaway
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Dick Fisher asks about a Jack Westaway Club drivers helmet pin. He
    could find out nothing about the radio show, nor does the pin appear
    in Tumbush. The full name of this club is "Jack Westaway's Under Sea
    Adventure Club."

    Malt-o-Meal created this club in the mid 30s, but it was not
    accompanied by a radio series. This was not uncommon to promote
    premiums (without radio backup) to sell cereals. There were several
    of these Westaway premiums offered back then and most are pictured in
    Official Hake's Price Guide to Character Toys (5th edition) which is
    far superior to anything Tumbush ever put out.

    The helmet pin, depending  on  condition,  is worth from $ 15 to $50.
    Other premiums include: "Under Sea Adventure Club" newspaper, club
    membership card, recruitment brochure with underwater map, and a
    letter explaining the shark tooth story (although apparently  no
    shark's tooth has survived to this day.) You may not be surprised to
    learn that the membership card, which spelled out the rules, required
    a kid to eat a bowl of Malt-o-Meal every day.

    Jack French
    Editor: RADIO RECALL
    <[removed]>

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    Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:55:07 -0500
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otrd <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  This week in radio history 23-29 December

     From Today in history, the NY Times --

    12/23

    In 1928, the National Broadcasting Company set up a permanent,
    coast-to-coast network.

     From Today's Almanac --

    In 1947, the transistor was invented, leading to a revolution in
    communications and electronics.

     From Those Were The Days --

    12/24 --

    1906 - It is said that Professor Reginald A. Fessenden sent his first
    radio broadcast from Brant Rock, MA. The program included a little
    verse, some violin and a speech.  (This is a disputed event according to
    some sources -ed).

    1928 - The first broadcast of The Voice of Firestone was heard. The
    program aired each Monday evening at 8. The Voice of Firestone became a
    hallmark in radio broadcasting. It kept its same night, time (in 1931
    the start time changed to 8:30) and sponsor for its entire run.
    Beginning on September 5, 1949, the program of classical and
    semiclassical music was also seen on television.

    1944 - The Andrews Sisters starred in the debut of The Andrews Sisters'
    Eight-to-the-Bar Ranch on ABC. Patty, Maxene and LaVerne ran a fictional
    dude ranch. George 'Gabby' Hayes was a regular guest along with Vic
    Schoen's orchestra. The ranch stayed in operation until 1946.

    12/25

    1931 - Lawrence Tibbett was the featured vocalist as radio came to the
    Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The first opera was Hansel
    und Gretel, heard on the NBC network of stations. In between acts of the
    opera, moderator Olin Downes would conduct an opera quiz, asking
    celebrity guests opera-related questions. The program's host and
    announcer was Milton Cross. He worked out of the Met's Box 44.

    1934 - The Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, was read by
    Lionel Barrymore on The Campbell Playhouse on CBS. The reading of the
    tale became an annual radio event for years to come.

    1937 - Arturo Toscanini conducted the first broadcast of Symphony of the
    Air over NBC.

    1942 - The longest, sponsored program in the history of broadcasting was
    heard on NBC Blue network. The daylong Victory Parade's Christmas Party
    of Spotlight Bands was heard over 142 radio stations. The marathon
    broadcast was sponsored by Coca-Cola.

    12/26

    1953 - Big Sister was heard for the last time on CBS. The show had been
    on the air for 17 years. Big Sister was the ongoing story of Sue Evans
    Miller and her relationship with her big sister, Ruth Evans. Actresses
    who played big sister Ruth over the years: Alice Frost, Nancy Marshall,
    Marjorie Anderson, Mercedes McCambridge. Little Sister Sue was played by
    Haila Stoddard, Dorothy McGuire, Peggy Conklin and Fran Carlon.

    1954 - One of radio's most popular programs, The Shadow, lurked around
    the airwaves for the last time. Vigilante crime-fighter Lamont Cranston
    battled greed and corruption since 1930. "Who knows what evil lurks in
    the hearts of men? The Shadow [removed]"

    12/27

    1932 - Radio City Music Hall, in New York City, opened. It was the
    largest indoor theatre in the world. The gala grand opening show was a
    six-hour extravaganza that lost half a million dollars within three
    weeks. The theatre has since been renovated to recapture its original
    decorative charm. An Art Deco cathedral of entertainment, it seats more
    than 6,200 people and is still a must-see for those visiting New York.
    During the holiday season, audiences continue to get a kick out  of
    seeing the world-famous Rockettes perform in precision on Radio City
    Music Hall?s nearly 10,000-square-foot stage.

    1939 - The Glenn Miller Show, also known as Music that Satisfies,
    started on CBS. The 15-minute, twice-a-week show was sponsored by
    Chesterfield cigarettes and was heard for nearly three years.

    1940 - Singer Al Jolson and actress Ruby Keeler were divorced after 12
    years of marriage. They had separated a year earlier; but Jolson talked
    Keeler into co-starring with him in the Broadway show, Hold on to Your
    Hats. She left the show before the opening and then left the marriage.

    1968 - The Breakfast Club signed off for the last time on ABC, after
    over 30 years on the air.

    12/28

    1941 - The Helen Hayes Theater, on CBS, was called the first casualty of
    World War II. Lipton Tea dropped sponsorship of the program as it
    prepared for shortages in tea imports from India.

    12/29

    1945 - The mystery voice of Mr. Hush was heard for the first time on
    Truth or Consequences, hosted by Ralph Edwards. The feature was intended
    as a spoof of giveaway shows. However, the idea was taken seriously and
    lasted five weeks before fighter Jack Dempsey was identified as Mr. Hush
    -- for a prize of $13,500.

    Joe (and a Merry Christmas to all)

    --
    Visit my homepage: [removed]~[removed]

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #357
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