rand's esoteric otr

Walkie-Talkie - June 22, 1945

Once in a while I run into a little mystery on ebay and take a chance on a disc.  This one popped up recently and I couldn’t figure out what the heck it was.  It’s a one-sided NBC Reference Recording  dated June 22, 1945 and titled “Walkie-Talkie”.  Looking through the Lantern database, Goldin, and other sources, I didn’t see any references to a show with this title and wondered if it was something done with or about walkie-talkies.

It’s actually a daily afternoon Blue-ABC network program carried on the West Coast.  Hosted by Don Norman, the show would travel to different locations each week for interviews.  This episode, the last in a week featuring Hollywood gossip columnists, is live from the Brown Derby in Hollywood with guest Jimmy Starr, a twenty-year veteran newspaper columnist covering the Hollywood scene.  Jimmy talks about what it takes to break into the movies, getting Gable started in the business and other topics (including the recent fall of the “H” in the Hollywoodland sign) and we briefly hear a vice president at Blue-ABC speaking from a nearby booth.

This was during the period when NBC Blue was transitioning into the American Broadcasting Company after NBC was forced to sell their second network.  In fact, this show was broadcast just a few days after the identity of the network was officially changed to ABC on June 15.  So, here we have an ABC show preserved on an NBC-labeled transcription.  The show is sustained and we hear a public service announcement for V-Mail and the ABC id at the end of the program.

Anyone else run into other episodes of this series?

Our mp3 was dubbed direct from a one-sided NBC Reference Recording lacquer numbered R-22370.  Incidentally, this lacquer looks rather odd - the lacquer itself is a forest green color.

Mercury Theatre on the Air - October 30, 1938 - alternative version

In this post, an alternative version of probably the most well-known broadcast of all time.

I recently picked up on ebay a six-disc, twelve-side lacquer recorded at 78 rpm of the Mercury Theatre broadcast of "The War of the Worlds".  The set is a dub, either from another 78 rpm set or from a 16" lacquer.

Although the set has some sound issues, it does include some very brief parts missing from all of the circulating copies.

Known copies of "War of the Worlds"

A bit of history is in order.  Several posts archived here sum up what we know and don't know about the provenance of existing copies of the program.  CBS, apparently, has an original lacquer of the show - it's unclear if they had transcription recording capabilities "in house" or if it was done "off-site" during the original broadcast.  Michael Biel, in one of the archived posts, talked with an engineer who said he recorded the original discs at CBS when he was new in his job there and was ordered to "smuggle them out" of the studio.

After the broadcast, there are indications that some copies were made for a Congressional committee and/or the FCC, but we don't know the format (16" or 12") or particulars of what discs were made and what happened to them.

We know that another 16" unlabeled lacquer surfaced at an auction in 2001 from the estate of old time radio collector Ralph Murchow.  This green label Presto disc set was not authenticated, but sold for $14,000.  It's not clear where the disc originated - it might have been one of the Congressional committee/FCC copies, another copy made at a local station or a dub made from CBS's archive copy.  The type of Presto lacquer was commonly used in 1938, so it could have originated from the period of the original broadcast.  (You can see more info on Presto's early years here.)

The Library of Congress has a set of four 16" lacquers of the War of the Worlds broadcast.  When they were obtained by LOC and the origin of the set isn't clear.  (Was it a dub from the CBS disc or another copy made for LOC?  One of the FCC or Congressional committee copies?)  LOC made a mono preservation tape master of the set at 7 1/2 ips in 1968.

By coincidence, about the same time, a reel to reel mono tape copy emerged among collectors of the broadcast.  Was it the CBS archive master, the Murchow green label Presto set, or another undocumented version?

Regardless, the copies of "War of the Worlds" circulating now all came from that same tape that surfaced in the late 60s, perhaps a dub of the Library of Congress tape.  The most common lp releases of this recording were on the Mannheim-Fox and Evolution labels, but different versions, some slightly edited from that version, appeared on other lp releases and with varying sound quality.  The cds in circulation, as well as the mp3 versions at archive.org and other Old Time Radio sites, originated from the lps of this tape that were released in the 1970s.  The various lp and cd releases of the tape also have noise gates or other analogue or digital tricks to minimize the surface noise of the original tape.

Background on this set

In this post is a new dub made direct from the 78 rpm 12-sided set that I recently obtained.

According to the seller, it came from a book dealer specializing in rare books and celebrity autographs in the City of Orange, about twenty minutes from Los Angeles.  The set originated in the estate of Jimmy Star, a reporter for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and "Film Daily", an industry magazine.

The set has the name "Paul Stewart" written on the cardboard container for the set.  Stewart was one of the Mercury actors who appeared on "War of the Worlds".  He was later a founding member of AFTRA and well respected "behind the scenes" in the Hollywood film community, working in films and television well into the 1980s.

Did Stewart have the set made for reporter Jimmy Star for some reason, perhaps as a gift, a souvenir, or for some story he was working on?

There's no documentation with the set to be sure.  Based on the sound quality, it sounds as if it came either direct from the 16" masters or a really well-done dub of one.

The discs themselves all have white paper labels just like the picture above.  One was a little loose and I peeled it back - the discs are aluminum based and are green label Presto brand.  The set came in Audiodisc "glass base" generic sleeves - the discs themselves could date from near the time of the original broadcast or after WWII.  The disc type - Presto green label - and the way they were cut leads me to think they were done in a professional facility.

The original recording that is the basis for the set appears to be taken directly from the CBS studio or a line from the studio - there's no local station ids, the program is complete, and I don't hear "line noise" indicating it was a "line check" from a local station.  The surface noise is different from the 60s era copy circulating now - perhaps this copy and the 60s tape came from the same disc, dubbed to 78 rpm before it became damaged, or perhaps they came from different copies.

Sound quality and extra material on this set

It's unfortunate that the sound quality of this disc set varies so much on each side, with bright clear sound at the beginning of each of the twelve sides and more muffled sound as the inner groove is reached at the end of the sides. The set also suffers from palmitic acid leaching - a white powder that comes out of the lacquer coating and causes surface noise.  Some parts sound better than the circulating copy; some sound worse.

Despite the varying sound quality, the set is the most complete version of "War of the Worlds" available and includes some brief segments not in the circulating copies.

• At the 30 minute mark, there's a short extra bit at the part where the announcer says "One moment please ladies and gentlemen … We've run special wires…."  This previously unheard part is some "behind the mic" fumbling by the announcer with another cast member - on circulating copies, this segment got lost in a side change. 

For some time, we've been puzzled by a couple of missing lines from the existing recording. 

 

• About 40 minutes into the piece where Welles as Professor Pierson says "I look down at my blackened hand…"  In the version that exists, part of the line is missing and sounds like Welles might have not said some of the lines in the published version of the script.  With the missing lines in this new copy, it sounds like the original master used for the circulating copies has a "skip" that was disguised with a bit of editing.

• At 57:25, there's also a line in the original script not heard on the circulating recordings where Welles says "Strange to see from my window the University spires dim and blue through an April haze."  This might have been another "skip" in the master used for the circulating copies.
• This new version also includes the original full-length CBS station break, which runs about 15 seconds.  In circulating versions, the silence for the original station break was edited out.

There might be other short bits not in the circulating version that I missed.

Wrapping up

If you have any thoughts on the possible origins of the disc set or other bits of the show you've never heard before, let me know in the comments.

Our mp3 was dubbed direct from this undated 78 rpm, 12", 12-sided lacquer.  Slight scratch removal was applied to the original file and the "side joins" were edited as closely as possible to the original - each side change of the disc had overlapping sentences or phrases, so you may notice a side change in the middle of a sentence.

Note - This file may take a bit to download.  I've encoded it at a max 128 kps bit rate with the highest quality option.  It's just over 50 mb.

Update, 8/5 - 

I added a link and some information on the LOC's lacquer set of "War of the Worlds".  I also talked with someone at the Pacific Pioneer Broadcaster's library - they suffered a fire a few years ago and the collection is in storage, so we're not able to see if the Welles copy located there was cut on green label Presto blanks and is similar to my set.  They're trying to see if someone might remember what the Welles set looked like or any particulars about it.

However, I did obtain a low-quality mp3 file that has circulated privately and _may_ have originated from the Welles set there.  It includes all the missing bits in my copy except one - at the 30 minute mark, the lines "One moment please ladies and gentlemen", the studio chatter, and some lines after that are omitted from that copy and sounds like they might have been lost due to a very noisy side change or some kind of disc damage.  That section of the Welles copy is missing more material than the commonly circulated copy.

Update, 2/4/2019 -

I've noticed some folks have been referencing this post recently.  Since I found this disc set and the post was made a few years, I found out a little more information about surviving versions of "War of the Worlds".

My set appears to have been made for the Mercury business files just after the original broadcast.  It appears to be a dub from a now-lost 16" or 78 rpm set.  There's another similar dub 78 rpm set owned by collector Sammy Jones in Georgia; that one was made for Orson Welles's files.

Both this set and Sammy's Welles set appear to be the most complete and earliest copies of the "War of the Worlds" broadcast.  The master discs they were dubbed from appear to no longer exist.

The common version of "War of the Worlds" that has been circulating for several years, missing the sections I outlined in this post, was probably a 16" dub made in the late 1940s at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, with other sets dubbed during the same sessions or from these dubs.

Sammy's Wells set, along with parts of my Paul Stewart set and a later dub, were used by Seth Winner a few months ago to assemble a complete restoration of the program.  Sammy presented about the restoration at a meeting of the Association of Recorded Sound Collections.  It has not been released - they're waiting for funding that would pay for copyright clearances for a cd release of the restoration.

 

Mercury Theatre on the Air - October 30, 1938 - alternative version

In this post, an alternative version of probably the most well-known broadcast of all time.

I recently picked up on ebay a six-disc, twelve-side lacquer recorded at 78 rpm of the Mercury Theatre broadcast of "The War of the Worlds".  The set is a dub, either from another 78 rpm set or from a 16" lacquer.

Although the set has some sound issues, it does include some very brief parts missing from all of the circulating copies.

Known copies of "War of the Worlds"

A bit of history is in order.  Several posts archived here sum up what we know and don't know about the provenance of existing copies of the program.  CBS, apparently, has an original lacquer of the show - it's unclear if they had transcription recording capabilities "in house" or if it was done "off-site" during the original broadcast.

After the broadcast, we know that some copies were made for a Congressional committee, but we don't know the format (16" or 12").

We also know that another 16" unlabeled lacquer surfaced at an auction in 2001 from the estate of old time radio collector Ralph Murchow.  This green label Presto disc was not authenticated, but sold for $14,000.  It's not clear where the disc originated - it might have been one of the Congressional committee copies, another copy made at a local station or a dub made from CBS's archive copy.  The type of Presto lacquer was commonly used in 1938, so it could have originated from the period of the original broadcast.

An engineer at CBS has said that copies of "War of the Worlds" were made and "smuggled out" of the network in 1948.  It's also documented that Orson Welles has a set of 12" 78 rpm discs of the program.  Were those made in 1948?

All of the circulating copies of "War of the Worlds" originated on a tape that surfaced in 1968.  By coincidence, a tape copy of the program was made for the Library of Congress that year, mono, running 7.5 ips - the source disc used for this tape copy isn't known.  Was it the CBS archive master, the Murchow green label Presto set, or another undocumented version?

Regardless, the copies of "War of the Worlds" circulating now all came from the same tape that surfaced in the late 60s, perhaps a dub of the Library of Congress copy.  The cps in circulation were copied from the lps of this tape that were released in the 1970s and many have noise gates or other digital tricks to minimize the surface noise of the original tape.

Background on this set

In this post is a new dub made direct from the 78 rpm 12-sided set that I recently obtained.

According to the seller, it came from a book dealer specializing in rare books and celebrity autographs in the City of Orange, about twenty minutes from Los Angeles.  The set originated in the estate of Jimmy Star, a reporter for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and "Film Daily", an industry magazine.

The set has the name "Paul Stewart" written on the cardboard container for the set.  Stewart was one of the Mercury actors who appeared on "War of the Worlds".  He was later a founding member of AFTRA and well respected "behind the scenes" in the Hollywood film community, working in films and television well into the 1980s.

Did Stewart have the set made for reporter Jimmy Star for some reason, perhaps as a gift, a souvenir, or for some story he was working on?

There's no documentation with the set to be sure.  Based on the sound quality, it sounds as if it came either direct from the 16" masters or a really well-done dub of one.

The discs themselves all have white paper labels just like the picture above.  One was a little loose and I peeled it back - the discs are aluminum based and are green label Presto brand.  The set came in Audiodisc "glass base" generic sleeves - the discs themselves could date from near the time of the original broadcast or after WWII.  The disc type - Presto green label - and the way they were cut leads me to think they were done in a professional facility.

The original recording that is the basis for the set appears to be taken directly from the CBS studio or a line from the studio - there's no local station ids and the program is complete.  The surface noise is different from the 60s era copy circulating now - perhaps this copy and the 60s tape came from the same disc, dubbed to 78 rpm before it became damaged, or perhaps they came from different copies.

Sound quality and extra material on this set

It's unfortunate that the sound quality of this disc set varies so much on each side, with bright clear sound at the beginning of each of the twelve sides and more muffled sound as the inner groove is reached at the end of the sides. The set also suffers from palmitic acid leaching - a white powder that comes out of the lacquer coating and causes surface noise.  Some parts sound better than the circulating copy; some sound worse.

Despite the varying sound quality, the set is the most complete version of "War of the Worlds" available and includes some brief segments not in the circulating copies.

At the 30 minute mark, there's a short extra bit at the part where the announcer says "One moment please ladies and gentlemen … We've run special wires…."  This previously unheard part is some "behind the mic" fumbling by the announcer with another cast member - on circulating copies, this segment got lost in a side change.

For some time, we've been puzzled by a missing line from the existing recording, about 40 minutes into the piece where Welles as Professor Pearson says "I look down at my blackened hand…"  In the version that exists, part of the line is missing and sounds like Welles might have not said some of the lines in the published version of the script.  With the missing lines in this new copy, it sounds like the original master used for the circulating copies has a "skip" that was disguised with a bit of editing.

This new version also includes the original full-length CBS station break, which runs about 15 seconds.  In circulating versions, the silence for the original station break had been cut out.

There might be other short bits not in the circulating version that I missed.

Wrapping up

If you have any thoughts on the possible origins of the disc set or other bits of the show you've never heard before, let me know in the comments.

Our mp3 was dubbed direct from this undated 78 rpm, 12", 12-sided lacquer.  Slight scratch removal was applied to the original file and the "side joins" were edited as closely as possible to the original - each side change of the disc had overlapping sentences or phrases, so you may notice a side change in the middle of a sentence.

If you've read this far and find this or other shows interesting on the blog, I'd like to draw your attention to the PayPal donation button on the right side of the screen.  I paid a bit more than I usually spend on transcriptions for this disc set - the seller couldn't play it and had no way to authenticate it more fully, so I was taking a bit of a chance on it.  Donations are appreciated.

Police Reporter - Pgm 26

Well, now we come to the end of our early to mid-30s "true crime" drama series, "The Police Reporter".  And we go out with a bang with "a story of gangsters, violence and bloodshed!"

Program 26 looks at a series of payroll robberies that occurred in Chicago in 1920.  A site on the mafia in America has some info on the real case.  This previously uncirculated show was transferred from an original shellac Radio Release, Ltd transcription, pressed by Allied Recording in Hollywood, matrix number A-1127.

Monticello Party Line - Pgm 674

Now we start digging into our syndicated serial "Monticello Party Line" in earnest this week with the next two episodes in the series.  Program 674 was originally heard April 28, 1938 and, as usual, is sponsored by Syrup Pepsin.  In the last show, Carlton Ross and his sister were shopping for a house; in this episode, Aggie is dying of curiosity to find out their decision and tries to get Clem out of the house so she can find out more.

This previously uncirculated program was transferred from the original Flexite syndication transcription pressed by Columbia, matrix number 341818.  The show date is noted in pencil on the label.

Early Television clips

We don't talk much about that young upstart - television - on the blog, but I thought you might be interested in what the boys in the research and development department have been up to. The Paley Center has online a very early attempt at creating a kinescope.  It's a silent reel of clips from a 1939 live drama, "The Streets of New York, broadcast by WNBT.  A very young Lloyd Nolan is featured in the cast. This is probably one of NBC's tests of how to record a broadcast for later viewing.  Someone posted a curious film from NBC demonstrating how kinescope technology had advanced by 1939 - that film includes a clip from a 1938 television broadcast, comparing it to kinescopes created in 1946 and the present day. Think anything will come of this television business? You might also want to check out a clip I found on YouTube of a color lenticular kinescope excerpt from Ernie Kovac's 1956 "Silent Show" and the 1958 dedication of a Washington, DC television station, the earliest color videotape to survive, streaming in it's full original 30 minute running time on Veoh.

American Cancer Society - 1948 Fund Drive - Square Moon

Michael Utz recently donated another curious little disc to my collection, this one from the American Cancer Society's 1948 Fund Drive.

Cancer, along with mental illness, and several other health issues, used to be very taboo subjects - the disease could be so devastating that it wasn't something that was talked about in polite company.  This little drama "Square Moon", attempts to combat this attitude and the resulting fear and misinformation that can result. In the show, a man goes to his doc with a sore on his lip and deals with the prospect that he might have cancer by trying to find out as much about the disease as he can.  The description of cancer he reads in a book at the library makes it sound like the disease is a Communist invasion. Unintentional creepy moment in the program:  He visits a cancer research lab and the doc there offers him a cigarette to calm his nerves (and he thanks the doc for it on his way out of the lab). The show was recorded by the American Broadcasting Company Recording Division.  It was digitized from a vinyl American Cancer Society transcription, matrix number ABC 562 Thanks again Mike for this unusual show!

James A. Fitzpatrick's Movie Horoscope Series - May

If you were born in May and you enjoy the blog, consider this your birthday present.  :) I admit, this isn't a radio transcription, but it's great fun and a one-of-a-kind recording.

In this post, a 16" soundtrack disc to a lost film short, "James A. Fitzpatrick's Movie Horoscope Series - May".  Fitzpatrick Pictures made mostly short travelogues with some entries distributed by MGM and there's no documentation I can find about this particular series.  I would assume they would have released one of these each month for different signs of the zodiac.  The short gives you the low-down on the personality of people born in May and some famous individuals from history who share May birthdays.  The series is so obscure, I didn't even find a listing for it at the Internet Movie Database. The label notes that it's production number 62052 with sound recording done on the RCA Photophone process.  So the film was recorded with the "sound on film" process and this disc was used for showings in movie houses that still had setups for Vitaphone discs.  The disc was pressed by Victor, matrix number FIT2-62052-21 and is dated 1930.  The film elements to the short appear to be lost. Listen closely around the 3:30 mark and you can hear the distinctive "ringing" of a tube in the sound equipment, probably caused by some kind of vibration in the equipment, a technician bumping against the tube or some other electrical problem.  I have an lp issue of some of Bell Labs early electrical recording experiments of the twenties and this "ringing" was a problem they'd sometimes encounter during recording sessions.

Family Hour - Pgm 74

The "Prudential Family Hour" was a popular 1940s series of light operetta and classical music heard on CBS.  AFRS rebroadcast the series as "The Family Hour" on their network.  Like many regular live music programs of the period, there aren't many episodes in circulation - Goldin lists about forty examples in his database, primarily from AFRS discs.

In this post, we hear program 74 of the series as heard on AFRS and originally broadcast on CBS on December 17, 1944.  The first tune on the program is a rousing version of "Beat Out That Rhythm on the Drum" from "Carmen Jones".  Our host is Frank Gallop and his smooth, round announcing tones.  Heard on the show are regulars Patrice Munsel, Reed Kennedy, Jack Smith and Al Goodman and His Orchestra. Our show was transferred from original vinyl War Department AFRS vinyl transcription. The date is from the disc matrix and I believe it's a previously lost episode. I've got a couple more programs in the series I'll drop in for you in the coming weeks.