rand's esoteric otr

Yankee Doodle - Pgm 4

Up next on the blog, another entry in the previously lost World War II Civil Defense public service series, “Yankee Doodle”.  This is from a group of pretty beat-up transcriptions from the series I obtained a few years back.

Program 4 in the series is a drama where a guy who just got out of the Army and wants to mind his own business, learns a lesson in caring about the importance of air raid wardens in his local community.  The show was directed by Clinton Johnston.

The program was transferred from an original sixteen inch vinyl transcription pressed by Allied, matrix number G-6025.  My apologies for the rough sound on this one - some of the sides in this set were in such bad shape, I couldn’t get them to play at all without constantly skipping.

Yankee Doodle - Pgm 3

Here’s another episode in the previously lost World War II Civil Defense public service series, “Yankee Doodle”.  I obtained a few beat up transcriptions of this show and managed to salvage most of them.

Directed by Clinton Johnston, program three in the series looks at the role of auxiliary firemen in civil defense in your local community with a dramatic sketch about a reluctant volunteer.

Our show was transferred from an original sixteen inch vinyl transcription pressed by Allied, matrix number G-6019.

 

Yankee Doodle - Pgm 1

Finally, this week, a forgotten little fifteen minute public service series from World War II.

When I first saw the US Office of Civilian Defense logo on these discs, I thought they might date from the Cold War period when so many government public service programs were distributed.  However, after listening to the shows on the discs, I discovered they were produced during World War II in the early days of the Office of Civilian Defense, promoting work with local and neighborhood coordinators on areas such as blackouts, recycling, and learning first aid and firefighting.  Based on internal references, the shows date from 1942.  The label credits Clinton Johnston as director, but I didn’t really turn up anything else on him.

Program 1 in the series is “What’s This Civilian Defense?” and uses dramatic vignettes to show how the listener can become involved in the War effort on the home front.

Our show was transferred from an original sixteen inch vinyl transcription pressed by Allied, matrix number G-6004.

I believe this series isn’t in circulation and might be previously lost.  One reason it might not have turned up before is the information printed at the bottom of the label:  “The vinylite in this pressing is a strategic material allocated by the WPB.  Help us conserve it.  As soon as the pressing has been used, please return it to Allied Record Mfg. Co, Hollywood, Calif., with the enclosed “frank”.”  I wonder how many of these were recycled and simply lost to modern old time radio researchers and collectors.

 

Rupert Hughes - Pgm 4 - September 4, 1944

Here’s another anti-FDR speech from the 1944 Presidential campaign, this one originating on the West Coast.

This is the fourth program in a series of 15 minute commentaries by Rupert Hughes sponsored by the Republican Party of California and heard on KMPC, Los Angeles, California.  The series was broadcast at 6:30 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Rupert Hughes was a writer who was the uncle of billionaire Howard Hughes; he served as president of the American Writers Association, a group of anti-Communist writers, and is most well-known for his biography of George Washington.

Hughes spends his quarter hour commentary raising fears about FDR’s death and what might happen if his inexperienced VP Truman took over the Oval Office.  He’s suspicious of FDR’s dealings with Churchill and Stalin and the ability of Truman to serve as President, noting how he had been left out of the Tehran Conference.  Hughes goes on to liken Roosevelt to a king or dictator - “Is he going to liquidate the American republic?  He’s already liquidated the Democratic party … This is an election that’s coming up - not a coronation!”

Our mp3 was transferred from a single-sided 16” glass-based NBC Reference lacquer.  I think this may be the only surviving episode of this series and it appears to not be currently in circulation among old time radio enthusiasts.

I had a very difficult time playing this program - it was cracked long ago from the edge to the label and, typical of glass-based discs, the lacquer coating was beginning to flake off and deform.  I had to “ride the needle” to get it to track, especially in the first few minutes.

Please note that I did a “copy and paste” of one phrase from the end of the program to the beginning, where the announcer states that the program was paid for by the Republican Party of California - there was a nasty skip in the opening and I did the alternation since the announcer was saying the same phrase to preserve the continuity of the program content.  I also saved a raw wav file of the full transfer.

By the way, the label fell off this disc.  Here’s what was underneath it.

 

 

Warren Atherton speech - November 1, 1944

In this post, an anti-FDR speech by Warren Atherton, a noted American lawyer who was Commander of the American Legion from 1943 to 1944 and who designed the so-called GI Bill.  The speech is sponsored by the Republican National Committee and was heard on WABC, New York - I haven’t seen listings that would indicate it was carried on the wider CBS network.  The announcer on the program is Ford Bond.

In his speech, Atherton blasts FDR and the Democrats for not preventing the War, appeasing the Axis powers, and not preparing for the build up of the military for the War.  He also emphasizes how FDR and the Democrats won’t support the widows of those who died in the War or create jobs and support for returning veterans.

The speech came in the aftermath of a bitter fight by the American Legion to pass the GI Bill, outlined in this NEH website article.

The Legion introduced the Serviceman’s Readjustment Ac in Congress as an omnibus bill in early 1944 to prevent consideration of the bills components by various committees.  FDR had asked Congress in October 1943 to fund educational and vocational training for returning GIs, with an eye towards integrating millions of servicemen back into the civilian economy.  Debate on the issue heated up all through the first half 1944, coming to a head as our servicemen were storming the beaches at Normandy for D-Day.

“To gain public support, the Legion conducted a national publicity campaign. Two-minute movies, which featured battle scenes and an appeal for support, were shown in movie theaters. Four hundred radio spots, some of which featured disabled veterans, explained the program. Hearst newspapers touted the bill in articles and editorials. Other newspapers ran the Legion’s editorials in full, even providing readers with coupons they could cut out and send to their congressmen to show support. In Washington, the Legion assembled a war room, with a chart listing where each member stood on the bill. Its team walked the halls of Congress, talking up senators, representatives, and their staffs. If a member needed persuading, Legion chapters located in the member’s district inundated them with telegrams and letters.”

An opposing bill was offered by four other veteran’s organizations - Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, the Disabled American Veterans, and the Regular Veterans Association.  They felt that wounded vets should be the first responsibility of the country and that the GI bill would detract from that focus.  After much back-room dealing and intrigue, the GI Bill was signed by FDR on June 12, 1944.

Just six months later, Atherton was slamming FDR and the Democrats in this speech for Dewey.  Reading the full story of how the GI Bill came to pass, the American Legion’s approach here is rather curious and almost petty - Atherton and the Legion got everything they wanted with the GI Bill in a bi-partisan effort, but offered no recognition to the work that FDR and the Democrats put into the effort.  Looking back at the speech today, it sounds more like a grab for raw political power by Warren Atherton, rather than a genuine interest in the affairs of servicemen.

Our program was transferred from an original one-sided 16” lacquer from Empire Broadcasting Corp, 480 Lexington Avenue, New York.

 

John L. Lewis speech - October 25, 1940

We’re going to skip ahead a few years from our previous post and look at a response to FDR’s New Deal and his two terms in office.

John L. Lewis served as president of the United Mine Workers for four decades and was one of the founders of the Congress of Industrial Organizations that organized other workers around the country.  Lewis backed FDR in 1936, but became an isolationist on the eve of World War II and supported Wendell Wilkie.

In this post, we hear a half-hour speech given by Lewis in support of Wilkie originally broadcast on all four networks on October 25, 1940, just a couple of weeks before the election.  The broadcast, sponsored by the National Committee of Democrats for Wilkie, originated from Washington, DC.

In the speech, Lewis slams FDR as not friend of labor by moving the US towards war.  The speech is notable because Lewis famously committed to resigning from his position with the CIO if labor disagreed with him.

Lewis resigned after the election when 85% of the CIO supported Roosevelt.

This speech appears to be previously lost.  I’ve only found one archives who has a copy (in Australia, of all places) and they only have one of the discs.

The speech, carried on all four networks, was slotted for thirty minutes, but this recording appears to run longer than that - almost 34 minutes.  The labels on the discs note that it is the “complete speech”, so Lewis may have been cut off the network when he ran long.

The program includes the introduction for Lewis and the outcue for the CBS network.  At the end of the program, you can hear other announcers in the background - it may be the other announcers for the other networks giving the network cues for their own stations.

Our mp3 was transferred from a set of three sides on two red vinyl 16” transcriptions pressed by Time Abroad, Inc., 79 West 57th Street, New York, matrix numbers TR-2802S, TR-2803S, and TR-2806S.  One disc in the set is cracked from the edge to the lable, so you’ll hear a regular “tick” on two of the parts.

Village Store - Pgm 87

Some comedy now with the "Sealtest Village Store", a series with a bit of a convoluted history. Originally the series premiered in 1943 with Joan Davis as a followup to the "Rudy Vallee Show".  Davis got her own solo show in 1945, with her co-host, Jack Haley, taking over hosting dues until he departed in 1947.  Then, Eve Arden emerged from the cast to carry the program and she was later joined by Jack Carson.  Both Arden and Carson left the program in 1948, with Arden starring in her own sitcom, "Our Miss Brooks".

Program 87 of the series, heard on the Armed Forces Radio Service as "Village Store", was originally broadcast on NBC on May 17, 1945.  The episode has a wartime theme, with Jack trying to make up his mind whether he's going to buy a speedboat or a War Bond. The mp3 was transferred from an original AFRS vinyl transcription and appears to be a previously lost episode of the series. There's probably plenty more episodes of this series to emerge from AFRS discs.  Despite being on the air for a few years, Goldin only lists 23 programs existing in his database.

Words with Music - Pgm 28

If you were a GI on an island in the Pacific or fighting the War in Europe in the 1940s, wouldn't it have been nice to hear a romantic voice from home?  Well, that's the idea behind the series "Words with Music", produced by the Armed Forces Radio Network.

Program 28 features love sonnets read by Jane Wyatt, accompanied by organist Milton Charles. Poetry reading programs were quite common in old time radio and popular on the networks in the early 30s; they continued to be heard on many local stations around the country into the 1950s.  Ernie Kovack's did his own parody of the style with his famous Percy Dovetonsils character. Our program was transferred direct from an undated original vinyl AFRS transcription.

GI Jive and KGEI Shortwave sign-off - excerpts - circa 1946

Continuing from our previous post, we hear a brief one minute mp3 from a home recorded 10" lacquer.  The other side of the disc contained a ten minute excerpt from a national Basketball League game.  This side contained very short test recordings. This particular cut is curious because it's a shortwave aircheck of the opening of Armed Forces Radio's "GI Jive" and the closing of the show with KGEI, San Francisco giving their sign-off.  OTR era airchecks are rare and rarer still are sign-offs from shortwave stations of this period. KGEI was owned and operated by General Electric, broadcasting to Latin America and Asia as a commercial venture.  By World War II, as one of the few privately owned shortwave stations on the air, KGEI was enrolled to help the US government get balanced views about the War to overseas audiences.  It's interesting that the announcer in this clip refers to KGEI as "The Voice of America" - this may have been from the period when VOA was using commercial facilities for its broadcasts. Our mp3 was dubbed directly from a home recorded unlabeled 10" lacquer running at 33.3 rpm.

Here's Morgan - June 10, 1946

Here's my Christmas gift to you.  Or, at least some of you that are fans of the acerbic wit of Henry Morgan. Henry Morgan was a bit ahead of his time with his cynical comedy that would later flower with comedians like Bob and Ray and publications such as Mad magazine.  Morgan got his start with a quarter hour stream of consciousness comedy show on Mutual where he was famous for skewering sponsors and poking fun at the conventions of radio. There's only a few episodes floating around of Morgan's fifteen minute show, even though Goldin lists several as being in existence - many from the Mutual run from 1941-42 and only two when the show was carried on ABC in 1945-46.  Here's a previously lost episode of Morgan's work that I've not seen documented elsewhere, originally heard on June 10, 1946 on ABC and originating at WJZ, New York. The show dates from just a few months before Morgan would start a half-hour comedy-variety series on ABC.  (You can hear several episodes from the run at archive.org and I posted an AFRS version of one episode a few months ago in the blog.) In the show, Morgan pokes fun at Walter Winchell, takes us inside the mind of a landlord, referencing wartime rationing and shortages, and comments on the recent film "Cluny Brown" and Orson Welles's doomed Broadway musical version of "Around the World in 80 Days".  The commercials include Gallo Wine, Esquire boot polish and Topps chewing gum. This episode of "Here's Morgan" appears to have survived because it was transcribed - the disc is part of a recent purchase I made of odd test discs and "throwaways" from various stations from a private collection.  So, it can pay off to carefully go through stacks of odd discs like this from local stations. If you would like to know a bit more about Henry Morgan, WFMU has an extensive blog entry appreciation of Morgan's work.  And here's a profile of Morgan from the April 14, 1947 edition of Life magazine that includes some great photos, including the famous "praying to the razor" shot that got him in trouble with his sponsor, Eversharp.  (The ads interspersed with the article, by the way, are just a wonderfully funny as Morgan's parodies and include one featuring Senator Claghorn from the "Fred Allen Show".) There's no scan on this transcription since there's no label - just a very light grease pencil notation on the label reading "Morgan" and "6-10-46" on the signle sided lacquer.