Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #30
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 1/20/2003 7:22 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2003 : Issue 30
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  mutual net news                       [ chris chandler <chrischandler84@yah ]
  Basil Rathbone Scrooge                [ "Greg Przywara" <gmprzywara@hotmail ]
  Archie, Stretch, and Mack             [ danhughes@[removed] ]
  LP to CD                              [ "Don Belden" <[removed]@[removed]; ]
  Re: What does it mean?                [ Ehutchison@[removed] ]
  Optical Sound                         [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  Re: Eve Arden                         [ StevenL751@[removed] ]
  OMB phrases                           [ "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@worldnet. ]
  1940s laser disc                      [ "ellsworth o johnson" <eojohnsonww2 ]
  Mack LaBelly                          [ "Lois Culver" <lois@[removed]; ]
  Re: What was said?                    [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
  Re: Mack LaBelly??                    [ "Michael Ogden" <michaelo67@hotmail ]
  Changing Perspectives, Etc.           [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  sound recording with light            [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
  Bob Hope Pepsodent Show recordings    [ "Philip Chavin" <philchav@[removed] ]
  Rex Koury                             [ Bryan Wright <bswrig@[removed]; ]
  Richard Crenna and Janet Waldo        [ Clifengr3@[removed] ]
  Re: obscure line                      [ Dixonhayes@[removed] ]
  Leaving the network temporarily       [ otrbuff@[removed] ]

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 17:34:53 -0500
From: chris chandler <chrischandler84@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  mutual net news

Of Mutual's Pearl Harbor coverage, Elizabeth [removed]

one also has to keep in mind that where
NBC's Sunday night schedule was packed with
high->rolling sponsored programs, Mutual's certainly
was >not --

And indeed, much of the Mutual coverage is what TV
news executives 20 years ago referred to as
"nearly-news"--that is, talking ABOUT the news,
instead of relaying information.  This is the type of
thing that routinely fills the hours on today's cable
TV news.

What's interesting is the extent to which NBC copied
the Mutual model later in the war.  Mutual was alone
in its approach at Pearl Harbor, but by D-Day and V-E
Day, NBC practically sounded like a Mutual clone:
remotes from every corner of the country, commentators
filling odd time slots with whatever information
happened to be available, longish music fills, no
commercials, etc.

It reminds me just WHAT a coincidence it is that
somebody at CBS (we've been treated to several
versions of who it was) invented the wonderful World
News Roundup at JUST the same time Mutual began
squeezing excerpts from overseas shortwave broadcasts
into one fifteen-minute broadcast period, producing,
gosh, a world news roundup!  Gee!  It may be silly by
now to haggle over who was first by a few days (though
it would be fun to poke a hole in that famous CBS
tiffany), but both these cases are good reminders that
Mutual, while smaller and not as affluent, was very
creative--and obviously getting a careful listen in
the other network newsrooms.

chris

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 17:34:57 -0500
From: "Greg Przywara" <gmprzywara@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Basil Rathbone Scrooge

I have been following the recent postings in regards to the Basil Rathbone
Scrooge with a real sense of deja vu.
After seeing the latest posting, I went down to the basement and poked
around in the LP collection and I am pretty sure I have a shortened version
(about 30 min) of the Columbia Masterworks set that was described. It is
Columbia Harmony HL 9523 and was adapted by Edith Meiser and produced by Tom
McKnight with carols by the Lyn Murray singers. I grew up with this album,
listening to it frequently with pleasure even out of season and I had no
idea until now how many OTR stars besides Rathbone starred in this cherished
recording.
Unfortunately, a big chunkt of the album broke off when it was dropped about
a year or two ago.
Now that I know that this CD reissue exists I will  be looking for it on
Ebay.

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 17:35:20 -0500
From: danhughes@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Archie, Stretch, and Mack

Ted wants to know who Mack LaBelly is (after Archie's Stretch mentions
admiring his mind).

Stretch is trying to say Machiavelli.  (You know Stretch).

---Dan

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 17:35:34 -0500
From: "Don Belden" <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  LP to CD

I know that this has been on before.
If you have Easy CD Creator go to Sound Stream and then to Spin Doctor. Spin
Doctor allows you to transfer either records or tapes, in any format, to CD.

If you need specific information email me off list.

Don in Denver

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 17:35:40 -0500
From: Ehutchison@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: What does it mean?
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Ted asks the meaning of Stretch Snodgrass' mention of "Mack LaBelly."  In the
context stated, wouldn't "Machiavelli" be correct?

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Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 18:28:39 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Optical Sound

John Mayer asks,

a "record player" that was advertised around the late 40's as playing
sound with light rather than needles. I assume this was some variation of
the sound track on movie films rather than an actual
laser <snip>. Obviously, this technology never caught on. Does anyone
know anything about it?

I know something about optical sound on film, and since the laser wasn't
invented until around 1960, it would be that sort of technology.
"Optical sound" used one or another method of modulating the light
hitting a photocell by passing through an exposure-driven soundtrack on a
transparent medium(there were "variable area" and "variable density"
methods, but the practical effect was the same for the photocell that
transformed optical variations into electrical audio signals).

The optical recording of the time generally had a cutoff of around 8 KHz
for 16mm film and 10 KHz for 35mm, meaning that the higher frequencies
were absent in the recorded track.  Also, a photocell sound system of the
time had a built-in hiss.  There were okay for a film soundtrack, but
listened to alone were no improvement an audience.

According to The Audio Cyclopedia, by Howard M. Tremaine, RCA had a "film
phonograph" for sound recordings, which he labeled "now obsolete."  The
book was first published in 1959.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 18:28:45 -0500
From: StevenL751@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Eve Arden
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In a message dated 1/20/2003 4:45:43 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[removed]@[removed] writes:

 I'm a big fan of  the OTR program  "Our Miss Brooks".  There's
no one who could play high school teacher Connie Brooks better
than Eve Arden.  Was this the only OTR program on which she
appeared?  Surely, there were more!

Eve Arden replaced Joan Davis as the "manager" on the "Sealtest Village
Store" from 1945-1948.   She left this show to star in "Our Miss Brooks"

She was also a regular on Danny Kaye's radio show (1945-46), along with
Lionel Stander.

Steve Lewis

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Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 18:29:48 -0500
From: "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  OMB phrases

Welsa asked about the Our Miss Brooks lines:

STRETCH: Gee, Walter, you got a mind like Mack LaBelly.
At least, it sounds like he says Mack LaBelly.  Anyone know who or what this
refers to?

He says "Mack LaVelli" a take on the name Niccolo Machiavelli, Italian
politician (1469-1527) based on his writings in the pamphlet "The Prince."

MISS BROOKS: Wait'll you hear this. (Reading) "I readily admit that on many
occasions I have acted like a pompous, puffed-up, ill-tempered, avocated
[removed]"

Advocated is "addlepated," a word not used much anymore but meaning stupid
and confused. I doubt few over the age of 40 has heard anyone use it in
person.

Brj

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 18:30:04 -0500
From: "ellsworth o johnson" <eojohnsonww2@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  1940s laser disc

This product was marketed by Philco Radio in the early 40s.
It was similar to sound on film. Actually the stylus picked up the signal on
the phono record and modulated a light beam which was turned back into
electrical signal with a photocell. It was not much more than a gimmick but
it helped sell the Philcos. I was a dealer for
Philco in those days.

Ellsworth Johnson
Spokane Wa

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 18:30:11 -0500
From: "Lois Culver" <lois@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Mack LaBelly

Machiavelli? (1469-1527 Italian stateman and philosopher)

Lois Culver

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 18:48:03 -0500
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: What was said?

"welsa" <welsa@[removed]; asked of a quote from _Our Miss Brooks_:

 STRETCH: "Gee, Walter, you got a mind like Mack LaBelly."
 At least, it sounds like he says Mack LaBelly.  Anyone know who or what this
 refers to?

Without hearing the recording this is pure conjecture, of course, but
a reasonable guess would be Machievelli, referring to Niccolo
Machievelli, author of _The Prince_, a guidebook on using treachery,
deceit and subterfuge to gain and hold power. A representative quote:
"The man who seeks to do good in all he does will soon come to grief
in a world of men who are not good." We can observe the sad truth of
his observations today.

 Second, there is a scene where Osgood Conklin is being read a list of his
 shortcomings.  The line Connie Brooks has is this--

 MISS BROOKS: "Wait'll you hear this. (Reading) "I readily admit that on many
 occasions I have acted like a pompous, puffed-up, ill-tempered, avocated
 blowhard."

 Well, it sure sounds like "avocated", but that word doesn't get past my
 spell checker.  Any thoughts on what was really said?

That one's tougher and might be any pejorative that makes sense in
context and rhymes with "advocated," depending on how much audience
noise or slurring there might have been to confuse the listener. Some
possibilities: antiquated, antedated, unmitigated, dissipated,
incapacitated, opinionated, over-educated, or addlepated, the first
or the last seeming to me to sound the most like "avocated."
Sometimes actors or actresses simply blew a word or two and ignored
it if it wasn't critical. I have sometimes played a passage several
times without ever figuring out just what was said.

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 18:48:16 -0500
From: "Michael Ogden" <michaelo67@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Mack LaBelly??

Ted inquired about the meaning of a line from an OUR MISS BROOKS show:

Here is the line Stretch Snodgrass has.
STRETCH: Gee, Walter, you got a mind like Mack LaBelly.
At least, it sounds like he says Mack LaBelly.  Anyone know who or >what
this refers to?

Well, if the context of the quote concerns some clever scheme that Walter
has come up with, perhaps something somewhat insidious or underhanded, then
the name in question is probably Machiavelli, in reference to the Italian
Renaissance political theorist whose name became synonymous with the idea of
anyone who would seek and maintain power by any means whatsoever and without
any moral scruples. Thus Shakespeare has his crown-seeking Richard of
Gloucester declare that his own unbridled ambition is so great that he'll
"set the murderous Machiavelli to school."

In actuality, Machiavelli got a bum rap on this one. He was not evil
incarnate as he was portrayed, just a political realist who recognized (and
set down on paper in THE PRINCE) what it took in those strife-ridden times
to be an effective leader and ruler.

Mike

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 19:03:51 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Changing Perspectives, Etc.
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In discussing the changing perspectives of the times, I thought I'd share
something I found.  I was doing a search in on-line auctions, and ran
across a description about the contents of a Better Little Book published
in 1942.

The book was "Captain Midnight and the Secret Squadron Vs. the Terror of
the Orient."  This BLB was a novelization of the radio scripts of the
Fall 1941 season.  In the description, the seller notes, "WWII era
childrens book with Anti-Japanese slant and negative depictions. "

Now the story is interesting in that the chief villain, The Barracuda,
was a crime lord who had a private militia composed of mostly Japanese
members, and a criminal tong composed mostly of Chinese.  Although The
Barracuda seems to be working with the Japanese, he was never portrayed
as a Japanese.  (The story also includes discovery of plans for Pearl
Harbor well over a month before the 7 December attack.)

But all that aside, with the [removed] at war, is it surprising that a book
has "Anti-Japanese slant and negative depictions," particularly after the
attack on Pearl Harbor?  For that matter, many surviving dramas set in
World War II had negative depictions of Germans or Japanese.

Perspectives may change, but one hopes not beyond historical perspective.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 21:07:52 -0500
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  sound recording with light

There were a bunch of schemes like this.  I think the earliest attempts were
probably done with Alexander Graham Bell's 'photophone' with photographic
film.  In the 1920's and onward, there were various 'tape' recorders which
used a variable-intensity lamp to record a sound pattern onto movie film.  A
lamp plus a photocell reproduced the signal.

I distinctly recall reading the description of a pocket-sized version of
such a device: the film was mounted on reels and presumably driven at a
steady rate, instead of being grabbed one frame at a time as it would in
movie work.  I thought that the idea was way cool until I realized that
you'd need to develop the film to play back the signal.

Since I was born at about the same time as the tape recorder, I can only
assume that the device I saw was meant to somehow compete with magnetic
tape, and perhaps it was superior in audio quality to the small tape
recorders of the era.

Small lasers are indeed a recent development: I'd guess the first practical
devices appeared in the early 1980's.  However, while an intense light
source is necessary to reproduce any optically-stored data, a laser is not
the only intense source.  A bright incandescent(sp) lamp will do it , and in
extreme cases, you can use an arc lamp.

The Dead Media Project describes a 1932 audio optical storage system in
which the film didn't need to be photographically developed.  The film strip
wasn't photosensitive.  It was coated with an opaque gelatin which was
scraped by a fine blade.  The blade was mounted on a tiny linear motor which
was driven by the amplified audio signal from the microphone.

............................................................

[removed]

"Now if the cutter moves up and down in synchronism with the sound
vibrations to be recorded (perpendicular to the tape), a transparent
track on an opaque background will be produced on the moving tape whose
width will vary in synchronism with the sound vibrations.(...)
"The recorded sound is reproduced by the usual method employed in
optical sound-film technology. The film carrying the sound-track is
moved between a photo-electric cell and a small, brightly illuminated
slit (transversal to the direction of the motion of the film). The
intensity of the light falling on the photo-electric cell thus varies
with the variable width of the sound-track, and the resulting current
fluctuations in the photo- electric cell are amplified and passed to a
loudspeaker.

"The Philips-Miller system is thus a combination of a mechanical
recording method with an optical method of reproduction. This unique
association offers distinct advantages over the methods hitherto in
use.(...)"

(((The article claims a frequency response of 25-8000 cycles for the
apparatus, +-2 decibels.)))

David L. Morton (dmorton@[removed])
[removed]~[removed]

..................................................

I have also read about optical methods for playing existing phonograph
records without causing further wear from the stylus.  Probably helpful for
playing old tinfoil Edison cylinders.

M Kinsler
512 E Mulberry St. Lancaster, Ohio USA 43130  740-687-6368
[removed]~kinsler

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 21:08:12 -0500
From: "Philip Chavin" <philchav@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Bob Hope Pepsodent Show recordings

   There are recordings in circulation of broadcasts of the Pepsodent Show
Starring Bob Hope for every year EXCEPT 1940.  Even the latest
two Bob Hope Show releases (a 40-show set and a 24-show set), discussed on
this Digest recently, include 1938, 1939, then skip over to 1941.

   Can Anthony Tollin or anyone else tell us why 1940 Bob Hopes aren't in
circulation?

   Are any 1940 broadcast recordings of the show scheduled to be put into
circulation in the near future?

   Thanks,
     -- Phil C.

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 21:08:19 -0500
From: Bryan Wright <bswrig@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Rex Koury

Reading Harry Bartell's fascinating column today (thanks, Mr. Bartell!), he
mentioned Rex Koury and I was reminded of a question I've had for some time.

Over the summer I went to an organ recital in my hometown and since it was
near July 4th, the program consisted mostly of American music for organ. I
noted with great interest that one of the pieces performed was written by a
Rex Koury. Is this the same Rex Koury who wrote the music for Gunsmoke? It's
not a common name, so I assumed so. I spoke with the organist afterwards,
but he didn't know anything about the composer. As far as I know, it wasn't
any sort of transcription or arrangement, so it seems this Rex Koury wrote
it specifically for organ. I've forgotten the name of the work (it was
impressive, though) but if anyone could clear this up, I'd appreciate it!

Bryan Wright

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 21:08:33 -0500
From: Clifengr3@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Richard Crenna and Janet Waldo
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One of my favorite I LOVE LUCY episodes is the one in which both Richard
Crenna and Janet Waldo appeared. They played teenagers with crushes on Lucy
and Ricky respectively. What a hoot to see these two radio teenagers playing
their radio characters on TV! Both were a little "long in the tooth" to be
playing teenagers, but close you eyes and they both sounded 16.

Jim Yellen

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Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 21:09:30 -0500
From: Dixonhayes@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: obscure line

STRETCH: Gee, Walter, you got a mind like Mack LaBelly.
At least, it sounds like he says Mack LaBelly.  Anyone know who or what
this refers to?

Quite possibly this might be a reference to Niccolo Machiavelli, a
Renaissance political philosopher.  A form of his last name ("Machiavellian")
has become an adjective describing the tendency to wield power without
appearing to do so.

Dixon

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 21:10:12 -0500
From: otrbuff@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Leaving the network temporarily

While examining hundreds of scripts of Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons,
I ran across an interesting phenomena that I would appreciate comments
on.  During the program's first five years (1937-42) when it aired three
nights a week on the Blue network, the notation persisted on what the
Hummerts called the Dramatic Flyleaf (cover page) of each script:

CHAIN ANNOUNCEMENT:  All stations except WBRE, Wilkes-Barre.

Immediately following the opening epigraph, including the theme with the
announcer's introduction to the show over the music, the scripts called
for:

BUSINESS:  Theme 10 seconds up and out . . . Caution:  WBRE,
Wilkes-Barre, leaves network here for local announcement . . . START
RECORD HERE for WMT.

This is followed by the first commercial for Kolynos toothpaste or
Bi-So-Dol antacid remedy.  That's then followed by:

BUSINESS:  SHORT PAUSE . . . Caution:  WBRE, Wilkes-Barre, returns to
network here for dramatic script.

The same procedure continued during subsequent commercials at the close.
When the program transferred to CBS in late 1942 I noticed there was a
CBS station for which they pursued a similar arrangement.

My questions:  Was this procedure commonplace on other shows, and why did
the networks go to such trouble for a single station for so many years?

Anybody have definitive information or merely simple conjecture?

Jim Cox

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #30
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