rand’s esoteric otr

Recently, the OTR Digest mailing list has been buzzing with a discussion about what, on the surface, sounds like an alternate performance of “The War of the Worlds” that has been unearthed on a tape.  Some conjectured initially that it might have been a repeat performance for the West coast feed of the “Mercury Theater” or a rehearsal recording.

Charlie Summer has made this “alternate” version available on his blog:

http://blogs.oldradio.net/archives/2009/11/05/podcast-the-war-of-the-worlds-program-2/

However, if you listen closely, it’s the well-known recording of the program that has been edited.

In the first few minutes, I can hear that the surface noise is the same, but there’s quite a bit of editing going on - the musical passages are shortened, pauses that Welles does in the intro are shortened, and the sound seems to be faded in and out to take out the discs surface noise in between phrases of speech.

Why in the world would anyone bother creating an edited version of the program?

I seem to recall, deep from the recesses of my brain, hearing WoW on some documentary or movie that was edited this way.

Was this prepared for use on a movie or tv production where characters were listening to the show?  That would make sense - the director might have wanted to give the impression of listening to the “live” broadcast, trying to eliminate as much of the surface noise as possible and to take out “dead” air or “flubs” that would have been distracting to the drama of the film?

That’s my new theory about this mysterious recording - it’s from some documentary or movie.  Editing the music would make sense in this situation, since the director or editor would have been trying to match narration or scenes with actors to timing of the “War of the Worlds” show or vice versa.

Anyone have a copy of Ken Burns’s “Empire of the Airwaves”, that tv movie about the “War of the Worlds” broadcast or other films where it was used to compare?

Well, I’m back and ready to roll with some new shows.  Thanks for your kind words during the break…

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me with some unexpected dental surgery and work with my “day job”.

The blog returns later this week when things start getting back to normal (whatever “normal” is)….

I’d like to give a big shout out to Frank, right here in my home state of North Carolina, for his generous donation to the blog this week.  Hope you continue enjoying the shows!

Also, a little update on one of last week’s posts.

If you’ll recall, I posted a 78 called “Forbidden Broadcast” in the memorabilia section by vaudeville and nightclub performer Ray Bourbon.  I’ve been researching his life and work for over a decade and I’m pleased to report a significant new find - Ray wrote and self-published a novel in 1932.  You can read about the book and download a copy of it in a page I posted at the site yesterday.

Now, on with this week’s shows…

Click here to see how the poll is going.

Thanks go out to Richard in Missouri for his generous donation to the blog this week.

Don’t forget to participate in the poll to let me know which series you’d be interested in hearing on the blog next.

For those of you that don’t know about some of the shows, here’s a little information on each.

“American Family Robinson” was a 15 minute serial distributed in the 1930s by the National Industrial Council that combines a drama about a newspaper owner and his family with propaganda against FDR’s economic policies.  It’s been written about by several scholars, but has had little exposure among otr circles.  The series was so successful, they produced a followup series following the same characters with the theme of how American businesses were preparing for the War-time economy.  You can see an example of each series in previous blog posts - I’ve got over 40 additional programs from the first and second series.

“Frontier Town” was a Western half-hour drama syndicated by Bruce Eells and Associates beginning in the late 1940s.  The star of the series was Jeff Chandler and the program followed his adventures as a lawyer on the frontier.  I’ve got almost the full run of the series.

“Lest We Forget” is a public service program about prejudice with each fifteen minute show done as a drama with a prominent guest star.  A sample episode was previously posted.

“The Grantland Rice Story” is a new acquisition I’m in the process of transferring.  It’s the full series of 52 fifteen minute shows based on the life of sports reporter Grantland Rice.  Each show consists of readings from his autobiography and many include famous guests from the world of sports.  The show was syndicated in the mid-1950s by RCA’s Thesaurus division.

And, of course, you’ve probably heard one of our episodes of “Singin’ Sam” - I have 20 additional programs in the series and can either spread them out, playing one or two each month, or run through them weekly on the blog.

Many thanks to David in California for his generous donation to the blog this week!

I finally made it through transferring all of the “Pick and Pat” discs.  You can see a pic below of a side of one of the discs to give you an idea of what I was working with.  I was able to play all the sides except the one below and came out with portions from nine episodes of the series that will go up on the blog over the next few weeks.

The “Pick and Pat” discs came from an estate auction and they were probably stored in a basement or something and got covered with mold and suffered some moisture damage.  It’s just a reminder to keep an eye out for these things - since lacquers deteriorate over time, especially when stored in less than ideal conditions, we’re probably reaching the last chances we have to get these things digitized so we can hear them in the future.

The next discs in the queue for transfer is a complete set of a Thesaurus syndicated series from the mid-1950s, “The Grantland Rice Story”.  Rice was a famous sports journalist and the show is based on his autobiography, a series of 52 fifteen minute programs, each with an interesting story about his encounters with famous sports personalities like Babe Ruth or Knute Rockne.

Are you interested in hearing some segments of the program?

Special thanks go out this week to Jason in North Carolina and Steven from parts unknown for their generous donations to the blog.  Also, a big “thank you” to Christopher McPherson for donating a couple of interesting transcriptions that will be posted soon.

Now, on with the show …

A tip of the hat to listener Erica for her generous donation to the blog!

I’m going back and retransferring a few discs in the collection and running some that have considerable surface noise through noise reduction filtering.  I’ll post updates periodically.

This week, I’m offering up a new mp3 version of the “Suspense” episode, “The Lost Special”.  David Kiner ran my original .wav file through CEDAR processing to improve the sound.

Also, I’ve made a brand new transfer of “Ma Perkins”, episode 423, from August 1935.  I obtained a new set of archival styli and finally found one that tracks this disc better, eliminating a great deal of the surface noise heard in the previous version.