rand’s esoteric otr

I'd like to thank everyone for their good words and well wishes over the past few months.  Many of you have been curious when the blog will be back.

I'm going through a major life-change right now, so it appears the blog won't be updated through 2012.  I'm in the process of looking for another job and possibly changing careers.  I'm lucky in one sense that my job is stable, but it's got me working very long hours and going nowhere - after having projects as my focus for the past decade, I'm being shifted into never-ending "help desk" work and basic computer instruction, a big step backwards for me and putting me in a place I was in my career almost twenty years ago.

I'm hoping to shift out of technical work and higher education altogether - the job I have now has soured me on the whole field.  So I'll be spending my free time making some changes that will hopefully allow me to have more free time for old time radio and for my family.

The existing blog posts will be up through 2012, so you'll have plenty of time to explore and download shows if you're new here.

In the mean time, if you have an opportunity ideas you'd like to pass along, here's my resume at LinkedIn.

As I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago, I have several things going on with my job and family.  So I'm going to be stepping away from the blog for a time.  I may be posting an occasional show or interesting recording, but not on a regular weekly schedule as I've done in the past.

I appreciate all the kind words, comments, and research folks have sent my way over the past couple of years.  I'm still interested in pursuing old time radio research, and I'm thinking about heading in a different direction with my old time radio work, so feel free to send an email, if you're so inclined and are interested in talking over some ideas.

It wasn't until the mid-1930s that instantaneous lacquers took off as a way to preserve live radio shows.  So recordings of radio's earliest years are quite rare.  "Sunkist Musical Cocktail" was a musical variety program that featured Hollywood stars as guests.  The sponsor, taking advantage of the Hollywood glamor, had some excerpts from the series recorded and released them as promotional items giving us a glimpse at this early radio effort.

In this mp3, we hear an excerpt from the broadcast of March 15, 1931, originally broadcast on CBS.  Guest Ann Harding discusses her career with Louella Parsons, including references to a screen test arranged by Rudolph Valentino and Harding's stage work.  According to Elizabeth Mcleod, the recording was originally made by Hollywood Film Laboratories.

The disc includes an introduction with a brief sponsorship message for Sunkist recorded especially for this release of the recording.  Our mp3 was transferred from an original 6" Flexo pink celluloid plastic 78 disc, matrix numbers 6-59 and 6-60.

I've put a fade out/in between side changes since I'm not sure if the sides are a continuous segment of the program.  It sounds a tad slow to me, but I double-checked the turntable speed with a strobe on this one; it may have been recorded slightly off speed.

Flexo may recorded and released other interview excerpts in this series that aren't circulating.  I've seen references to recordings in existence of broadcasts of April 8, 1931 (Louella Parsons and Ruth Chatterton) and March 25, 1931 (Louella Parsons and Norma Shearer, matrix number 6-81/6-81).

Flexo, by the way, tried to promote their unusual new plastic records for a variety of purposes.  According to one online discography, they even released some 16" radio transcriptions pressed on green celluloid.  Anyone ever see one or have a label photo?

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"Red Horse Ranch" was a fun early syndicated show distributed by World Broadcasters.  A continuing serial about a group of cowboys, the show was a mix of adventure, romance and great cowboy songs.

Ryan Ellett has been researching the show at the University of Missouri-KC collections and is assembling a log of the program, and has dug up extensive background information on the series.  The show was created by Arthur Church, the head of KMBC, Kansas City and started out on a contract basis for the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company for the first 26 episodes.  Church hoped to produce at least 104 shows, but only 65 were made.  Socony's contract is dated March 30, 1935 for the series and the episodes were delivered by April 15th.  The series was recorded in World Broadcasting's Chicago facilities and the program ran mainly in the midwest US.

The cast members of "Red Horse Ranch" were Gomer Cool, Doie Henlasey (Tex) Owen, Duane Swalley, Edward Cronenbold, Roderick May, Robert Crawford, Ruth Barth, John Preston, Paul Sells, Herbert Kratoska, Eddie Edwards, and Marion Folville.  You can see a photo of the cast at the University of Missouri-KC website and also read about the the Arthur B. Church KMBC Radio Portfolio Collection.

The show was transferred from an original red acetate World Broadcasting, Inc. transcription, matrix number C-2208-1L.

I'd like to thank the Old Time Radio Researchers Group for this disc and the others that comprise the first 26 episodes of the series in my collection.

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Earlier, we ran a rare early 1930s series in the blog, "Police Reporter", syndicated by Radio Release Productions.

Here's a another program the company produced, "Boulevard of Make Believe".  A "behind the scenes" Hollywood drama serial, the show features Anna Q. Nelson and Viola Dana.  In program 1, Nelson gives advice to a new starlet, Betty.  Dana talks with Anna about Wally, a married man who is in love with Anna.  Anna is approached by a publisher about her memiors, but, strangely, she hasn't actually written them.

The disc I have contains this show and program 20 in the series and I haven't found out much about it or the company that produced it.  The program was dubbed direct to digital from an blue Flexite Radio Release Productions transcription, matrix number A-1029, probably pressed by Columbia.

My special thanks to the Old Time Radio Researchers Group for adding this dic to my collection!

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In this post, a half-hour audition for potential sponsors of the show "The Mad Hatterfields".  Previously broadcast as a quarter-hour serial on WLW-Mutual, this was an attempt to turn the show into something for an evening slot. Announcements during the show highlight different aspects of the talent involved in the series and the show's run as a fifteen minute feature.

In the dramatic portion of the show, Edward arrives and is introduced to the different characters in the eccentric Hatterfield family.  A small group of strings and piano are used for the music, rather than the solo piano used in the fifteen minute version of the series.

The show, perhaps dating from circa 1939-40, was transferred from an original World Broadcasting two-sided lacquer.

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The "Mad Hatterfields" is a rather obscure fifteen minute serial from the 1930s originating at WLW in Cincinnati.  The program was written by Pauline Hopkins, whose other credits include radio's "First Nighter" and "Grand Hotel" and who played Meg on "The Mad Hatterfields".  The show was directed by Owen Vinson, later the director-producer of "Let George Do It".

The show is a fun serial that looks at an eccentric theatrical family.  The matron of the clan, Mama Hatterfield, struggles with her "glory days" being in the past; her brother Rolly is a pompous, free-spending thespian; one daughter who is flighty and falls in love with any man coming along while the other level-headed daughter tries to keep everyone in line.

I have eight episodes from the series on original WLW laquers from 1938 and 1939.  No other programs appear to survive in private collections or archives and it's never been circulated among old time radio collectors to my knowledge.  The discs came from the collection of Marty Halperin, the vice president of the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters.

I think these transcriptions only survived because they were used to assemble an audition disc for the series as a half-hour situation comedy.  (You can hear that audition in the next post.)  The discs included a handwritten sheet of notes on the different shows and the discs have some groove wear, indicating they were played several times as they prepared the audition show.

The program of January 11, 1938 has Nicki calling off his engagement with Meg and sailing for Paris.  Meg and the whole Hatterfield clan have rushed to the boat to find him.  Can Meg convince Nicki to stay and marry her?  The show is sponsored by Nestle's Lion brand irradiated evaporated milk.  The aives WLW id and states "This is the WLW line to New York."

A helpful blog listener dug up some infomration from newspapers on the show.  Mutual sent out a press release on July 3, 1938, noting that the program would premiere on Monday, June 27 from 4:45 to 500 pm.  The release also noted that "Midstream", a more serious serial, would premiere on the same date and was also written by Pauline Hopkins.

Another pr release from Januaruary 1, 1939 offered up praise for Pauline Hopkins:

"A MILLION WORDS WRITTEN FOR ONE RADIO PROGRAM For her 370 episodes of the “Mad Hatterfields,” Pauline Hopkins, author of the popular Mutual network serial, has written approximately 1,036,000 words. At 2,800 words per script, which in itself is above the average for air-dramas, but which is the result of an unusually fast pace set by the comedy, Miss Hopkins’ wordage is believed to be a near record. The author of “Mad Hatterfields” began writing at the age of seven, but gave up all hope of ever becoming a writer when her first novel, “The Scarlet Goods,” written before she was ten, brought nothing but hilarity from her family. Gathering material for her radio-drama, Miss Hopkins turns an eye to the members of her own family, and writes a story of artistic and lovably erratic people. “The Mad Hatterfields” originates in the studios of Mutual’s Cincinnati affiliate,, WLW, and is heard Monday through Friday at 3:45 p. m. over KBST."

A newspaper publicity photo from June 6, 1939 identifies some of the cast - Rolly was played by William Green, Meg by Pauline Hopkins, Nicky was Duane Snodgrass and Rita was portrayed by Betty Arnold.

Before airing on Mutual, the show appears to have been heard locally in July 1937 on WLW and left the air around June 1939.

Our mp3 was transferred direct from an original WLW lacquer.  It is previously uncirculated among otr collectors.

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We're at the mid-point of our collection of the 1940s show publicizing the film industry, "Behind the Scenes in Hollywood".

Program 9 of Series A looks at sound technician's role in making movies.  Everyone's getting their hair dyed at Warner Brothers.  With the paper shortage, studios are having trouble finding substitutes for flowers for Technicolor films.  Developing a new transparency screen for a Claudette Colbert film.  Includes personality profiles of Ronald Coleman and Lee Tracy, just out of the Army.  The recording includes a false start just before band three on the disc.

The show was transferred from an original vinyl transcription pressed by Allied in Hollywood; it is previously uncirculated among otr collectors.

Since the blog's going on hiatus, keep an eye on archive.org for the rest of the series - I've given copies to the Old Time Radio Researchers Group and they may be posting the whole set of discs in my collection at some point.

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Since you've made it through all of the episodes of "The Monticello Party Line" in my collection, I'd like to present you with a special premium offer, absolutely free.

In PDF form, you can download the 1937 edition of the series's giveaway recipe book.  This one's titled "Sara and Aggie's Memory Book" and includes background information on the show, publicity photos of the cast in character, and a collection of household hints and recipes.  You can see the 1936 edition of the giveaway cookbook in a previous post on the blog.

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And now, the last program in our ongoing series, "The Monticello Party Line"; at least, this is the last one I have in my collection at the moment.

Program 776 was originally heard February 13, 1939.  Curly calls on Cristy Warren to see if he can make amends for the horseshoe game bet.  Can he convince her to go with her heart and be friends with David?  The characters mention that tomorrow is Tuesday, Valentine's Day.

The show was transferred from an original vinyl Flexite transcription pressed by Columbia, matrix number 075-2.  It is previously uncirculated among otr collectors.

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