http://oldfortyfives.com:80/thoseoldwesterns.htm
Read the 'fine print' at the end of this carefully. I'm going to categorize this site as "friends" but it still might be a "copyright violation".
DJH
Dennis,
That was great, brought back a lot of Saturday mornings in front of the 17" Hoffman watching "Okie Bob's Western Theatre".
Alex
Dang. I thought I was the only one left who remembers what a Hoffman was.
What a great collection of western stars and character actors! BUT I noticed three glaring omissions.
Denver Pyle was master of the Elvis-like sneer and usually played the shiny vest roles: crooked lawyer, judge, or sheriff who was really one of the bad guys.
Myron Healy was usually a leading henchman, the slim muscular guy who wound up in a fistfight with the star. (No photo found)
John Doucette was the burly bad guy, usually a second henchman who often wound up in a climactic fistfight with the sidekick.
In one memorable Gene Autry episode, Denver Pyle rode into town flanked by Myron Healy and John Doucette, and you knew that with those three guys in cahoots Gene was in for a tough time.
A couple of observations:
Listening to Roy Rogers sing "Hoppy, Gene, and Me" is likely to bring a tear to the eye of many an old timer.
I've read that a handsome young actor named Bill Boyd was quite the Hollywood party animal, but after he became Hopalong Cassidy he would never smoke or drink because he didn't want his little fans to see him doing anything that Hoppy wouldn't do. Anybody who watched him on TV or listened to him on radio and hears a recording of Hoppy's laugh will know instantly who it is.
Finally, let's not forget the REAL "Gunsmoke".
Howard McNear (Doc Adams), Georgia Ellis (Kitty Russell), William Conrad (Matt Dillon), Parley Baer (Chester Wesley Proudfoot)
I forgot Floyd the barber was on Gunsmoke!
You know you're getting old when..... you can identify this fellow.
Ron the Coilman
You know you are getting old when happy hour is a nap
Steve,
Gotta remember the Gunsmoke group was radio & continued on radio, even after James Arness was playing Matt Dillon on TV, We're talking about some of the best voices around. Best Conrad line from "Gunsmoke" was to a traveling executioner "I bet you always leave them Well Hung"
Ron.
This is a wild guess, but is that Sammy Davis Jr. I've only seen him in an old clip with his father & uncle.
Alex
Well gee Alex, it's quite obvious! If you look at the picture and read the caption right under it, it tells you who it is! It's "Ron the Coilman"!
Both wrong, but here is a hint. He (Allen) appeared in short films from 1922 to 1931. These films were popular TV reruns for small children in the very late 1940's to the mid 1950's.
Ron the Coilman
Ron,
Thanks for the hint, it isn't Buckwheat or Stymie Boyd, It's Farina, could never figure out if he was a boy or a girl. The first talkies had two little girls coming out & announcing "Hal Roach presents his Little Rascals in an Our Gang Comedy"
Alex
Allen "Farina" Hoskins, one of the "Our Gang" kids. (I cheated; I looked it up.) I remember that he was in the silents and early talkies, but didn't recognize him. I'm more familiar with the later kids (Darla, Spanky, Buckwheat, Alfalfa, etc.).
We were the last - or one of the last - families on our street to get a television. When we moved in 1949, though, my parents decided I was old enough (at eight) to have a radio on the nightstand by my bed. I remember listening to "Beulah," "The Great Gildersleeve," "Fibber McGee and Molly," "Life with Luigi" and "Henry Aldrich." I'm sure there were more, but those are the ones that come to mind.
When my parents moved again while I was away at college in 1960, my mother threw away the radio. Three or four years ago, I found the same radio on e-bay and bought it. It plays, but I can't get any of those programs....
When you dye your hair orange thinking it was blond. I live with grey and the baldness. It's not bad. I save on haircuts.
Dick,
Most are on DVD or cassette you just close your eyes & go into the theatre of the mind. Just got the entire Amos 'n Andy collection all the radio & television shows.
Alex
Oh, yeah, I forgot Amos 'n' Andy. Thanks.
Dick
And I listened to "the Lone Ranger" on the radio until we got a TV. Even then we'd stay up late at night to listen to Mystery Theater on KGO, they usually played the old classic shows like "The Shadow" or "Inner Sanctum" --scared the begebies outa us! (as did "Twilight Zone" later on the TV--black and white TV!)
T'
David D.
David, yeah, another one I forgot - "Gangbusters." At the end, they would describe a criminal who was at large and invariably say, "Warning! This person is armed and dangerous." I was always convinced he was lurking in our front yard, waiting to climb through my window as soon as I turned off the light...
Dick
The first daily radio program I remember listening to, 1946, was "It's a bird, It's a plane, It's.........SUUUUUUPERMAN!"
Gordon
Steve The one on the left is Foid [from the Andy grifith show the guy in the midle is Jackie Gleason--YES??
Larry
I believe the one in the middle,the one that played Matt is William Conrad.
Well that wasn't much of a news flash.I looked at the picture again and noticed his name is listed there,oh well.
Jimmy Krehbiel's family had a TV, so I would walk two blocks to Jimmy's house to watch The Lone Ranger on Thursday nights. One day I was there with Jimmy after school and he turned on the TV to show me the test pattern. The programming didn't start until five or six PM. Fortunately Dad was famously tight with a dollar and we didn't get a TV until 1952. That's when the transcontinental coaxial cable made the World Series available live on the west coast, and he was willing to spend the dough for a 21" Silvertone. We set up the aerial on the roof, aimed it at Mount Wilson, and turned on the set. It happened to be tuned to Channel 7, KECA (later KABC), and the show was Space Patrol. I didn't realize at the time how lucky I was to not have TV until the age of eleven. Those years without it allowed me to experience what Frank Buxton called "Real Radio". Listening to recordings can give you a taste of what it was like, but only a taste. Years later when I was privileged to meet some of those famous voices, like Brett Morrison (The Shadow), Jim Jordan (Fibber McGee), Hal Peary (Gildersleeve), and Les Tremayne (First Nighter), they all talked about how radio was a very special experience not just for us listeners, but for them as well.
IF YOU WANT RADIO PROGRAMS, you don't have to spend a lot of money for commercial recordings. SPERDVAC (the Society to Preserve & Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy) has a huge collection of recordings available to copy. Many are in crystal clear sound, taken directly from the original transcription disks. It's one of the best entertainment bargains on the planet. The website is http://www.sperdvac.org
Gordon, that was Jackson Beck you heard doing that Superman introduction. Superman was played by Bud Collyer, who was later the host of "Beat the Clock" and "To Tell the Truth".
Radio trivia: In the classic radio soap "Pepper Young's Family" Pepper Young was played by Mason Adams. Until recent years you heard him saying, "With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good." The new guy doing the Smuckers voice over sounds very much like him.
Willaim Conrad had a great voice. I really enjoyed his narration on Jay Wards "Rocky and Bullwinkle Show".
Steve - The guy at the extreme left in the picture (Howard McNear) looks to me like a younger version of the guy that played the part of the "high-strung" barber on the the Andy Griffith (Mayberry R.F.D.) show. (???) He's alway start out by saying, "Sa-sa-sa-saaaaaaay, that reminds me of............" Remember him? He really used to crack me up!
We are old aren't we? I keep thinking that wrinkly old fart in my bath room mirror is just a defect in the glass.
Speaking of "Old", I just got the new bumper sticker for the back of my 27 Tudor. It still has the "NObama" sticker on the spare but my new spare tire cover, covers it up.
The new one is a perfect fit for an 81 year old car, it says "I'm Voting For The Wrinkly, White Haired Dude".
Yep, Howard McNear also played Floyd the barber. He was also one of the scores of actors who appeared on "One Man's Family", which ran on NBC from 1932 to 1959.
When Jay Ward and Bill Scott found that Conrad's voice got higher as he read faster, they had him read his lines as fast as he could. That's why he sounds a little different on their show than in most of his other work.
Sargent Preston of the Yukon? You could feel colder just listing to the sound(wind driven snow)effects; even in July.
Denver Pyle wasn't always a bad guy. younger generations knew him as uncle Jesse Duke. Dukes of hazzard.
Tim
You know your still young when you listen to all these old guys talk of their fond memories and realise that you have no idea whatsoever of the people they are talking about.
Alex and Henry - I am pretty sure you 2 ARE the only people alive who knows what a Hoffman is - the only 1 ive even heard of is Dustin.
Floyd the Barber? What the #!%$? is a barber? Is it a kind of sheep hearder?
Denver Pyle - was he Gomers dad?
Alex - Stymie Boyd - isnt that a disease associated with poor hygiene?
I guess id best stay away from these kinds of threads!!
Carry on gentlemen.
Glenn
Glen, I absolutely promise you that there will be a day when you will be participating in a topic that sounds a lot like this one.
Now back to you old farts.
"Who knows what evil lurks within the hearts of men?,........."
Harold,the line about that being Ron the Coilman about caused me to fall out of my chair! With the troubles I am haveing lately,I needed that good belly laugh! Thanks!
I would have to check to see which channel but I am purty sure there is or was a channel on Xm Radio for the old radio programs.
I do know the old 49 chevy pickup we still have that my dad bought in the 50's was named after the Green Hornet.
The Shadow, knows?
"Floyd the Barber? What the #!%$? is a barber? Is it a kind of sheep hearder"
Glen,If you aint got no idea what a barber is,you must play the "shaggy DA" on Haloween!:>)
A barber is a fellow that cuts mens hair in a little building that has a striped pole that rotates out front.At 1 time they offered first aid as well as hair cuts.They also shave ye if you cant do that.
Men go to barber shops.Women go to buety shops.
Hair cuts around here at the barber shop have gotten ridicualasly high though.9 bucks for a stinking hair cut.I have cut back to 4 a year to save money.They tick me off though as it takes a while to get ye sideburns down there where they belong and they seem to want to hack them off way up high.UHUH buddy,leave them alone other than thin them a little.
My barber doesn't raise his price; he has a scheme whereby he cuts less hair. I think he spritzs on some kind of hairicide on the back of my head. I now see a bare spot growing there when he shows me the mirror. I haven't figured out how he managed to get my widow's peak to invert itself and start racing toward the back of my head and the now growing bare spot. All very curious ;-0
Anyone remember listening to the BBC shortwave serial broadcast of the "Sinking of the Titanic" in the late 1960's?
You know you are old when your granddaughter's cousin comes to visit and she wants to call home, and she asks "How do you dial this phone?" It has a rotary dial. That was the new thing when I was a boy. They put a dial on the phone, and you didn't have to ask "central" to make the connection!
Norman
Yes and also when your home telephone number was 9254J.
Ron the Coilman
Mack and Evan, I tell my barber that if he spends more than 5 minutes on my haircut that he is wasting my time as well as his.
Gordon
It is channel 164 on XM that I am about positive they play old radio programs.If you aint on handcrank like me and have a high speed connection you can listen online.
Mack,
You're right. XM 164 plays old time radio shows. I have listened to William conrad doing Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke several times recently. Fibber NcGee and Molly Show, Jack Beny Show, The Whistler, The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, etc. are all played.
Channel 118 on Sirius satellite radio is Radio Classics. You can listen as a free trial on the web site.
William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd was bord just about 3 miles from where I am setting at work right now
Yer gettin old when you don't remember which way the coils go in ... or who this guy is ...
Hey Ron, don't you remember back when you learned the trade by watch'n ya pappy?
Ron:
Do you still have that hat?
Old radio programs are carried 24/7 on satellite radio. I like Richard Diamond Private Eye and Candy Matson P.I.
Yea,try haveing a 6 year old walk up to a minivan now and get in.They stand there waiting on the door to open by it's self.
There use to be a Fm station in Statesville,WFMX,1 of the first in the country.When I was old enough to mess with radios I would break my neck trying to get in the house to listen to Lum and Abner.When they took it off the air I was really let down.Hard to believe now to look back at that and know that it was the end of a era of real entertainment.Something that required you to visualize in your mind what was going on instead of haveing it sent to ye in a 3d,HD,stereo,blueray,plasmascreen.
Hey Mack, we're doing a lot of kid'n around here, but you just touched on an interesting point. What you just said about "something that required you to visualize in your mind what was going on"........that's why people are still writing, selling and reading books! And that's why we all still hear comments like, yeah, the movie was okey, but the book was better". Or comments like, "ya' just can't beat a good book".
I reall must be getting old.A while ago my cell phone fell out of my shirt pocket for the millionth time.While I was down there picking it up,I caught myself checking around to see if there was anything else I could grab while there!
When I was a kid in a suburb of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, radio station KFI took a break in its soap operas each day to have the Noon Farm Report. The announcer would say, "It's high noon neighbors, and time for your Noon Farm Reporter!"
I don't think there's a farm within radio distance here now. This was in 1943-44 or so, and I still remmeber that. Can't remember what I did yesterday or what I was suppose to do today, but....ah, what was I saying?
Bob
Remember the old radio stations that had a live band that played every day at noon or late in the afternoon? My favorite was Mike Dosh on WNAX, Yankton, South Dakota. He came on at noon and again at 5 PM right after the news, which always seemed to me interminably long and of little interest. He played the accordian and had a polka band. They would read request letters people had sent in for birthdays and anniversaries and things and I couldn't imagine any better thing to do with my life than be on the radio playing music. There was Wes Gatlin at KATL, Miles City, Montana, who was on every Saturday morning singing old time cowboy songs and playing old cowboy records. This would have been in the early 50's. I wrote to him and told him I had bought myself a singing cowboys guitar and was going to learn to play it and be a cowboy singer just like him and asked him to send me the words to "Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail." He wrote the words out for me and wrote a nice letter--which I still have in the case of my 1939 Stella Singing Cowboys guitar that I bought in 1951 for $4.50--telling me to practice hard and learn all the words so I sang the songs right and I would do OK. Guess I did. I found out later that he was a wounded World War Two vet that could only walk with walking sticks or crutches. He mostly was in a wheel chair but he never mentioned that on the air.
Then there were all those border radio stations that we listened to late at night from Del Rio and Clint, Texas, selling baby chicks and Buddy Durham fiddle records, plastic statues of Jesus that glowed in the dark and a cardboard "electric train" that my older brother bought for me that ran on a flashlight battery and had a motor that drug a plastic train around the track that is printed on the top of the box.
Long ago days, now.
Harold, I debated about hiring someone to illustrate Herman and Freida but finally decided that I would let everybody see them as they see them in their mind. I'm sure the farm looks different to readers in the south than it does to readers in North Dakota and I'm sure Herman looks different in your mind than mine. I had a nice phone call from a reader a week or two ago who was telling me what it all looked like and how it must have been exactly like his grandfather's farm. I didn't have the heart to tell him his barn was too big and the house didn't have a porch on the east side like his grandmother's house. At least not the way I see it in my mind. And the towns don't look at all like he thinks they do. But who am I to tell him what they should look like in his mind? All I can do is tell a story and let people imagine what it all looks like to them. One thing does seem pretty constant, tho. Everybody seems to have about the same idea of what the two Danish girls look like.
Bob, remember the nightly winter frost warnings on KFI for the citrus growers? At 640 AM with 50,000 clear channel watts, the station was heard at night from Mexico to Canada. It drove the suits at NBC crazy that every night at eight, no matter what big time show was coming down the line from the network, KFI went local for five minutes of frost warnings before cutting back to the network. I think it was about 1946 that a delegation of vice presidents was dispatched from New York to buy the station from Earle C. Anthony. The meeting was going well until one of them said something that set him off, and Anthony told them all to get the hell out of his office. The winter frost warnings continued on KFI as long as the old man was alive.
Steve,
There is a newsreel clip in the "Will Rodgers Collection" with him talking into a microphone with poorly written "KFI" on what looks like shirt cardboard on it.
I Clearly remember in 1952 my Parents & a young 5 year old (me) went to take delivery of a used 49 Packard Custom Eight at Earl C. Anthony's. He personnaly came out, offered my Parents libation & me a soda, they brought the car down from upstairs on a spiral ramp & parked it on a rug.
Gave me an idea what class was all about. We then went to Olvera Street for Mexican Food, I got a turtle with my name hand printed on the back, went home & the "New" Packard was parked in front of My Father's AA.
Alex
Quiz,
Who was the 1st Shadow, hint, he was a good citizen.
One night we were watching TV & out of the blue I asked my wife, who played "Hoppalong Cassidy" I'd forgotten, she instantly said William Boyd, then slapped herself across the face & said "where the hell did that come from?"
Alex
Alex,
The Shadow was Lamont Cranston.....sorry 'bout that.
Bob
Bob,
Lamont Cranston had "The Ability to cloud men's minds" it was Orson Welles who played him, "The weed of crime bears bitter fruit" then the maniacal laugh.
Alex
Before 1939 KFI was on the top floor of the E. C. Anthony Packard building at Tenth & Hope. There's an apocryphal story that Don Wilson and Kate Smith weren't allowed to ride the elevator at the same time. I think somebody was kidding.
A couple of local KFI shows I remember were a weekly broadcast by the Mitchell Boys' Choir and a guy who read the funnies on Sunday morning, ala La Guardia.
Right now, listening to "Handel in the Morning" on KFI.
Last week I went looking for the Solemint Store on Soledad Canyon Rd north of Santa Clarita. There is a tire store there now, and they hadn't even heard of the Solemint Store. I was hoping to make that a stop on a Model T tour we are planning for next April. The man in the tire store said "when were you at the store", and I realized it was 60 years ago!
Norm
Alex,
Didn't Lamont Cranston (Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men....The Shadow knows!) have a sidekick named Kato, or Cato?
And I used to love the sound effects of a car driving off, shifting through the gears. Sounded soooo phony.
Bob
Kato was the sidekick and driver for the Green Hornet.
Bob,
Kato, was the Green Hornet's Japanese chauffer, (played by Bruce Lee in the short lived TV series), after 12/7/41 he amazingly became Korean.
Margo Lane was Lamont Cranston's sidekick.
Alex
That is a very nice video, but where are all the women of the westerns? I am really not that old (49) but I remember many of them. I was surprised at some of their dates of passing as it seems like yesterday that you saw an interview with them in it or viewed their last movie.
Dave DeYoung
Here's more trivia for you.
The first Lamont Cranston was Robert Hardy Andrews, and the second was Orson Welles. The first Margot Lane was Agnes Moorehead, long before she became a witch on TV. The show came from WOR in New York.
The Green Hornet came from WXYZ in Detroit, as did The Lone Ranger, and many of the same actors appeared on both shows. The Lone Ranger's name was John Reid. His nephew, Dan Reid, was a recurring character who appeared in some of the stories. Britt Reid, publisher of the Daily Sentinal, was secretly the Green Hornet. His grandfather was Dan Reid, so the Green Hornet (a masked crime fighter) was the grandnephew of the Lone Ranger (a masked crime fighter). The only survivors I know of who had featured roles are Dick Beals, one of the actors who played Dan Reid, and Fred Foy, who announced The Lone Ranger. ("From out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver...Come with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear...The Lone Ranger Rides again!")
Steve,
My wife went to Agnes Moorehead's acting school, she was trained by Karl Malden, fencing by Bernard Fox (Dr. Bombay). She told me a story, that Agnes Moorehead told her. Moorehead was traveling in Europe with her mother & was sitting at a sidewalk cafe in Paris, there was a young American boy sitting there, they started talking & there was an immediate connection. He told her that he was going into the new thing called radio & he wanted her to be an actress on his shows. She laughed it off. since he was a kid. The kid was Orson Welles.
Alex
Alex,
You're right again!
I should have remembered that because there's a street in our neighborhood named Margo Lane, and another named Lois Lane.
Bob
Do you guys realize how many generations there are out there that haven't got a clue what we're talking about?
Matt Dillion on the radio by Robert Conrad:
The intro stated "The first man you are looking and the last man you want to meet"
How about Bucky Beaver and new Ipanna tootpaste.
You have me straightened-out on the sidekicks, how about Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, The Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, Red Rider, Tonto, Little Beaver, Don Quxiote and Gene Autry's horses names?
Bob
Roy Rogers Trigger, Dale Evans Buttercup, The Lone Ranger Silver, Gene Autry Champion.
Don't remember the others. What about Pat Brady's jeep's name?
RE Roy Roger's horse Trigger. If you have ever seen Oliva De Haviland in Robin Hood, the golden horse she rode later became known as Trigger.
What's missing here is the music. I'm not knowledgeable enough to know the names of all the theme music for all of these characters, but you all know exactly what it meant when you heard the first few bars.
Hi Ho and Away
Happy Trails to You
Back in the Saddle Again
Others?
The William Tell Overture was the Lone Ranger's music.
Bob
Pat Brady's Jeep was Nellie Belle. Cisco Kid's horse was Diablo can't remember Pancho's horse's name, but I do know that Cisco & Pancho enjoyed Sandwiches made with Weber's Bread.
The Green Hornet's music was "The Flight of the Bumble Bee". Burn's & Allen was "Love Nest" Jack Benny's "Love in Bloom"
Alex
Bob, I once heard "intellectual" defined as someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of the Lone Ranger.
Dick
Dick,
Technically it's the "Finale" of the William Tell Overture preceding it are the "Preamble" the "Tempest" & the "Calm" then the "Finale". I consider myself fairly intellectual, but whenever I hear it, sorry, I think of the "Lone Ranger" or as Bugs Bunny used to call him "The Loan Arranger".
Alex
Well, Alex, even more technically, if you "listen to the William Tell Overture," you are also going to hear the finale, and if you don't think of the Lone Ranger then, you're an intellectual....
Your point is, however, granted, and the line could be amended to be more accurate.
Dick
Bob, those horses are: Trigger, Buttermilk, Silver, Topper, Thunder, Scout, Papoose, Rocinante, and Champion. I'll raise you three more horses: Dan Reid, Pancho, Straight Arrow.
Extra points: Straight Arrow's alter ego.
OK, boys, here's one for you. What was the name of Randolph Scott's horse?
Here's another one. What was the name of Hank Snow, The Singing Ranger's, horse? Many people forget that in the beginning, he was a cowboy singer and had a trick horse, did cowboy shows with the horse and guns, etc.
You guys will have to excuse me but I can't hear the words "Randolph Scott" without thinking of this.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071230/quotes
Surely you remember the scene where Cleavon Little is trying to get the town's people to defend their town and they won't until he says "you'd do it for Randolph Scott" and the men all place their hats over their hearts, look up to the say and say "Randolph Scott" in unison, right?
I knew Cleavon (casually) in San Diego many years ago, he was a brilliant actor, shame he died so young.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleavon_Little
Dennis,
Ah, Randolph Scott, watched him in "Roberta" the other day, a musical, playing opposite Irene Dunne & also starring Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, talk about mis-casting. His best movie is probably "Seven men from Now". It's funny how Scott, Joel McCrae & Jimmy Stewart gravitated from Screwball to Westerns.
Also met Cleavon when he was going to San Diego State. "Candygram for Mungo"
Alex
I think Dudley Do - Right's horse had a great name.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=dudley+do+right&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&o i=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#
Royce,
Didn't even pull up the link "Horse". Used to do a decent Dudley do Right impression "Yes Inspector Fenwick, Hello Horse, Hello Nell". Poor suffering Nell.
Alex
You'll have to excuse me, this is my first original Model T. The last one I owned had a Dodge Hemi in it.
One of the gear heads over at "Car Crazy" I hang out with sent me this.
http://thefiftiesandsixties.com/CarsWeDrove.htm
I'll preface this by saying that I'm 27.
If you're interested in great Western Swing records, go to www.westernswing78.blogspot.com . Unbelievable stuff there.
I have an iPod AM transmitter that a friend of mine designed that I use to listen to the stuff on my Philco. Spend many evenings listening to Bill Boyd, Spade Cooley, Roy Newman, the Tune Wranglers, and many others.
Grew up listening to KOA, Denver's 50,000 watt Voice Of The West. Evan Slack came on every day at noon with the Farm and Market Report, preceded by a version of Floyd Cramer's "Last Date." Also listened a lot to Kansas City's 610 WDAF, the station that sponsored Patsy Cline's last show.
Used to listen to KVOO in Tulsa, home of Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys. They turned it into a Spanish-language station in about 2002 or so. Before that, we could pick it up in the high mountains of Colorado (10,000 feet and above) on a clear night. Always was very pleasant up in the South Park to hear the announcer light into a version of "Take Me Back To Tulsa" by saying, "Here's some of Bob and the boys."
Currently listen to 1070 AM "The Ranch", the last (that I know of) of the "Radio Ranch" Stations, out of Wichita, Kansas. Lots of good classic country, with lots of personalities. The traditional radio format almost holds - there are conversations with the advertisers, the radio show hosts talk about whatever they like, and the farm and market reports are legion. Truly a national treasure that's overlooked. Always look forward to a day in the pickup with the Radio Ranch.
What does this have to do with Model T's? Not a thing. But these things bring me joy, as do Model T's, so they're related in a way.
Alex:
Kids today find it hard to believe that you would actually have to get up and change the TV channel. Also, if you did not make it home in time for your favorite show, you missed it?
Buffalo Bob and Engineer Bill???
Harvey ...
Harvey,
I had a remote, it was called a kid sister. Buffalo Bob Smith Drove a Model T to Rockefeller Center & the NBC Studios, from his home in Connecticut on an almost daily basis. Engineer Bill, never did a Lionel set, but did get an American Flyer, which I still have.
Alex
Engineer Bill Stulla just died a few weeks ago. He was a bit after my time, but my brothers watched him and even played "Red light, Green light". He was a local L.A. guy, along with Sheriff John (Rovick), Tom Hatton and Popeye, Jimmy Weldon and Webster Webfoot, Skipper Frank and others I have probably forgotten
Time For Beany or Crusader Rabbit? Anyone ???
In 1980 we took our 3 year old daughter to the stage version of "Annie" (she'd worn out her 1st cast album, vinyl) . When My wife & I were reading the Playbill & saw that Tom Hatton was playing FDR we gave out a mutual groan. But when we saw him, we were in awe, he was great, had Roosevelt down to a T (pun intended) right down to the grin with the cigarette holder jutting up between clenched teeth, also had an excellent singing voice.
Before my time but "Who's the little Chatterbox, the one with all the auburn locks, Everyone know's, it's Little Orphan Annie". Watch "Christmas Story" again you'll hear it.
Alex
I have a T shirt with Beany and Cecil on it. I was wearing it one day when a gal says, "I'm probably dating myself, but I remember that cartoon". I said, "Cartoon? I watched it when it was a puppet show". She gave me an odd look and smiled
I have a tee shirt with Popeye on it that says
"I Yam What I Yam, 100% American". Only the old folks know who the guy in the middle of it is.
Here's a little treat for you.
I have a console "Victrola" that's almost 100 years old. It's been in the family since it was new, it's in virtually perfrct condition, among the stack of 78's I have, is this classic.
"Keep Your Yead Down Fritzie Boy" by the American Quartet, circa 1918.
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/m2/f7/10289.mp3
This little ditty was a national hit when it was new, I can just visualize people riding around in Model T's singing this thing.
Doesn't anybody remember "The Halls of Ivy" that surround us here today and we will not forget though we be "far, far, away"? How about "Bobby Benson and R Bar B riders"? Anybody remember Lemuel Q. Hawkins on Fargo ND KFGO? How about Lawrence Welk on Yankton SD WNAX? Big bands from the Chicago Edgewater or the "Breakfast Club" with Don McNeil from WGN?
I had an old Zenith tube radion with headsets and a anenna wire from our house to the barn and could get shortwave!
Gerald Cornelius
Watertown, South Dakota
I just thought, no one remembers Pinkie Lee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXpyp0KGCdo
Alex
Now you guys have me remembering when I was about four or five, hearing Jan Garber playing "Harbor Lights" on a crystal set.
Used to listen to Bobby Benson, Red Ryder, Tom Mix, and the Cisco Kid on KHJ ("This is the Mutual Don Lee Broadcasting System.")
Dishonest John says, "Bad night, everybody!"
A Hoffman had a greenish yellow color to it. Get em-up Scout . . . . just who was that masked man ?
Beatrice Kay singing "Don't go near the Lion's cage tonight father for they are hungry and have not yet been fed". Wanna buy a duck ?
Then I busted my Bazooka. Gildersleeve's nephew Leroy's pig would only eat bacon while he was Water Commisioner. There were two Gildersleve's.
Jack Benny's car was a Maxwell and I know the car. It was a dark red 1913 Maxwell Messinger Roadster owned by Superior Court Judge Raymond Thomson who drove Jack in a parade in Santa Ana, CA. After the parade Jack got Mel Blank to make the sound of the car starting and started Mel on a career. In films the Maxwell was a 20's Maxwell Touring car with no top.
Dennis, I have a handful of WWI 78's. I think my favorite is "I'd Like to See the Kaiser with a Lily in his Hand!"
Dick
During the Great Depression, we of course had no electricity, indoor plumbing or whatever. My Grandparents raised me and my Brother, one Uncle was still at home and working for the CCC. He came up with one of the crystal radios, don't ask me how if was built and etc. but I do remember a razor blade being involved, and we drug somthing across something to tune it. Lord knows where he came up with an earphone back in that day and time, but he did. We were as awe struck as my Grandparents that something like this was possible. When the War started and everyone went into the Service, my Granddaddy got a battery powered radio, we would take the battery out of the T and bring it in the house to play the radio, when it went dead (pretty quick) we put it back in the car and recharged it. Later on he got a Wincharger, it would keep the dedicated battery reasonably charged, but a hard night of listening (about three hours if I remember right) and it went dead. The neighbors for miles around, about a dozen families, would gather around to listen, all had family in the Services and wanted to hear something about their loved ones. Long time ago.
Well,I just got a good dose of how old I am getting this morning.
I was cleaning the whitewalls on the rear tire of 1 my dads harleys we were working on yesterday doing a brake job.I broke the white wall brush.
Well no bigge I thought.I went to Advance this morning."You need a what?"I went back to the car cleaning section and there was a slot for them but none there.I hope they get some in but the employees had no idea what I was asking about other than the number and tag on the shelf.
Dang this getting old is for the burds.
Another thing I miss,a decent weather man with the bulliten board and the cardboard clouds.Clide Mclain or Jerry Peterson with his thunderboomers on tv was more accurate than all these mulitmillion dollar radar towers.Hap might hear or remember hearing Jerry Peterson as the last I heard of him he was on a little Am station in SC.
Hey Dick, check this out.
[img]http://www.parlorsongs.com/content/k/kaisrlil.jpg[/img]
The internet is a trip! I was looking for a recording of it but this was the best I could do.
Reading back through this thread and I saw Stan's, made me think about some of the stuff we listened to, Ed Murrow and "This, is London" and hearing the bombing and etc., Big Ben tolling the hours so the world would know Britain was alive and still kicking, FDR and his fire side chats, and we all believed every word he said, including the "only thing we have to fear is fear itself", the Border Stations, "XEG, the Voice of North America", XELO, KOB Albuquerque, KOA Denver, KMOX St. Louis, WWL New Orleans, WOAI, WBAP with the cow bell, all of the old "Clear Channel Stations" that enabled us out in the sticks to hear a station, Blue Network, like Stan said, the Mexican stations on the border selling a genuine "Prayer Cloth" to drape over the radio, Dr. Brinkley and his goat glands on XER and XERA, got all the way up to 1,000,00 watts, nearly didn't need a radio to hear him, mercy, I thought I had forgotten all of this !
I guess you all have seen Woody Alen's Radio Days?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djq9Dn9pjxY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18WhG83BQ5s
Here's some real soundbites from 40's radio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_L0JoQei0g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcHqyPq5ZKQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQg-F6DKA0I
Dang it! All the aggrovation!I went to a bigger town this evening,with all intentions of getting me a white wall brush.While headed up that way I thouhgt of the ink cartrige I needed for this puter,a couple gas cans that I needed to fill since gas is headed back up from 2.59 to 2.79.
A tarp for winter storage for my camper and a new hitch.All was got and a good supper at Caption D's.
I get home all happy i had a productive trip.Then I relized,I forgot the @##(* brush.!
:>0 So I reckon I am going to have to find out what I can do to deal with this gitten old bussiness.!
If you ever read the strip "Pickles" there was a good one a couple of weeks ago. Earl (Grandpa)talking to a friend, & asks "Do you ever walk into a room & then forget what you went in for", "yes & it's happening more often" Earl says "It happened to me this morning, I looked around & realized I was in the bathroom & I remembered"
I remember the old battery powered radios well. We would set around the radio on Saturday nights listening to the Grand Ole Opry. It always seemed like when someone was on that you really liked that the signal would start to fade. When we got electricity we had twenty five cycle and then got sixty cycle around 1950.
Jim
When your mother is still giving you parental welfare at age 44...
Back in 82 my first antique radio was a 1936 RCA 14BT2 farm radio.A and B battery powered.I built a power supply for the 90 and used a big 1.5 volt battery for the filaments.I used to listen to the grandole opery at night when the parents were gone and I was by myself.Still have the radio,that was over 25 years ago.It was the begining of my large gathering of old radios.I have 1 of the first solid state Zenith Transoceanics.The transistors are in sockets like Tubes.
The radio behind Zeke is the kind that used to bring me Grand Old Opry, Let's Pretend, Jack Kirkwood, Suspense, and Tallulah Bankhead. It's a 1937 Philco. It still works, but most of the AM programming available is political gasbags or depressing "music".
Steve,I had to go downstairs to make sure we still have our 2 old telephones! Those kind are tough and loud enough you can hear them.
I have 2 phones here in the computer-bedroom and 1 is a bright red rotary dial phone.No it dont light up.:>)
People who see the Model T ask "What kind of car is that?" "Does it run on regular unleaded gas?"
"Can you still get parts for it" "Just go east in I 8."
I remember seeing them all the time when I was a boy, and they were being used as regular transportation into the 1950's. Some of the boys drove them to high school.
Norm
Norm,
North Park used to be full of Model T's & A's into the 70's, older folk who just needed transportation, ask if they wanted to sell it, they'd give you look, like a smack across the face. I've always wondered how many are sitting in garages around here.
Alex
Harvey! I didn't think anyone else ever saw Crusader Rabbit!
ok, here's a quiz...when I mention this one, folks around here think I'm crazy, or have a dirty mind. What was the name of that show about Kipling's jungle book stories, that was hosted by "Froggy and his magic twanger"?
Steven
It was called "Let's Pretend."
"Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy....!"
Nope, it was Smilin' Ed McConnel's "Buster Brown Gang" on NBC Red. ("That's my dog Tyge; he lives in a shoe. I'm Buster Brown; look for me in there too!") Smilin' Ed would say "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!" and you would hear a "Boing!" sound effct, and "Hiya, kids! Hiya! Hiya!", and the studio audience would yell, "Hiya, Froggy!" Froggy's shtick was sassy backtalk, usually directed at a stuffed-shirt character in the bit as Froggy's foil/target. The kids in the audience, not allowed any sassy backtalk in their own lives, would scream with delight. Froggy's costars were Squeaky the mouse and Midnight the cat ("Niiiice!")
"Let's Pretend" was directed by Nila Mack, most famous native of Arkansas City, Kansas, and hosted by Uncle Bill Adams on CBS. The show was a dramatisation of well-known stories and fairy tales. It was sponsored by Cream of Wheat. ("Cream of Wheat is so good to eat that we have it every day. We sing this song 'cause it makes us strong, and it makes us shout Hooray! It's good for growing children and grown-ups, too, to eat. For all your family's breakfast, you can't beat Cream of Wheat!")
On TV it was "Andy's Gang" with Andy Devine, Froggy used sit on a clock, still have my rubber Froggy, little worn out but he still sticks out his tongue if you cover the holes. My mother always got me "Buster Brown" shoes, from my own expierence as a father I think kids grow out of shoes every three weeks, or so it seemed.
Alex
Does anyone remember King Leonardo and his Short Subjects? I recently said "Razzle Trazzle Trizzle Trone; time for this one to go home" and my kid brother had no idea what I was talking about. This is what Tooter Turtle was told when his wishes to the wizard went horribly wrong. They also had an elephant called Twinkles who used to scam me into begging my Mom to buy his breakfast cereal.
As far as Froggy, I was exposed to him in the seventies by the Ghoul. He would yell "Twang your magic twanger Froggy!" and then proceed to set him on fire or blow him up with firecrackers. All the while Froggy was saying Hiya Ghoul, hiya, hiya, hiya. This was all on UHF TV after 10PM here in Detroit.
Disclaimer: I am not on and have never done drugs.
I remember Froggy from a Saturday morning radio show called "No School Today." The theme song was The Teddy Bears' Picnic.
Tom, I wonder if King Leonardo was written by somebody who read the comic books about Mary Jane and her little mouse friend, Sniffles in he forties. ("Magic words of Poof, Poof, Piffles, make me just as small as Sniffles!")
Dick, the character you remember from "No School Today" was Sparkie. Jon Arthur (Big Jon) was the host and also did the voices for Sparkie and almost all the other characters. The show began locally in Cincinnati in 1948 and ran on ABC from 1950 to 1958.
http://www.bigjonandsparkie.org/
Alex, I'm impressed that you still have your Froggy. Mine is long gone, along with the space city from "Space Patrol", the Snap, Crackle, and Pop puppets, and the "Straight Arrow" cards out of the shredded wheat box. I do still have my Canadian real estate from Sergeant Preston.
Steve, you're right. I was confusing the two.
I also very well remember Mary Jane and Sniffles. I actually found a Mary Jane and Sniffles comic book once, but thought they wanted too much for it, so I didn't buy it. (I did read through it in the store, though.)
Anybody remember Tom Mix and "Shredded Ralston for your breakfast starts the day off shining bright, full of lots of cowboy energy and a flavor that's just right! So take a tip from Tom go and tell your Mom Shredded Ralston can't be beat"?
They tasted terrible, but we ate them anyhow!
Also, "PEP" cereal with WWII fighter cut-outs, send your boxtops in for "Buck Rogers" explorer sunwatch with secret compartment for your code messages, and many other goodies?
Gerald Cornelius
Watertown, SD
Ah, but there's more! The full song is:
"Shredded Ralston for your breakfast starts the day off shining bright, full of lots of cowboy energy and a flavor that's just right! It's delicious and nutritious, bite-sized and ready to eat. So take a tip from Tom, go and tell your Mom Shredded Ralston can't be beat."
Kellogg's Pep was also Superman's sponsor.
Steve,
Met Sgt. Preston in 1959 at a Boy Scout thing, he said he didn't have King because the weather was too warm for him.
Gerald,
Funny thing Tom Mix never played Tom Mix on the radio, the show was somewhat before my time, but I remember the cereal, Hay with milk & sugar.
Dick,
When our Daughter was ready for regular shoes, we got her a pair of "Mary Janes", The shoe clerk knew what they were, but didn't have a clue about where the name came from, My wife & I just laughed. We'd been raised on "Looney Tunes" comic books.
Have a good weekend.
Alex
Alex:
Speaking of Buster Brown Shoes. Do you or does anyone remember that machine at the shoe store that you stood on, with your new shoes on and look down through a viewer and see your toes through the shoes? Kinda of a X ray machine? Yikes! A little spooky, now that I think about it.
Harvey ...
Buster Brown X-Ray machines, I think almost all of us with any miles at all have done that. When a nephew passed away with Leukemia in the 60's, it generated quite a bit of interest at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, which is where he was. They interviewed everyone in the family. friends, his school and playmates and etc. trying to find a common cause that could possibly have caused this, the only real common denominator was the Buster Brown X-Ray machine that had been used by parents, family, myself included and grandparents.
I used to like to see my feet in those X-ray machines as a kid, but my Mom would never let me put my feet in those machines because she said that she thought it was bad for me; that too much X-ray over time would be bad for me. In fact, I remember one fairly "heated" argument that she had with one particular shoe salesman. Of course I just thought she was sort of a "kill-joy". Boy! Was she ahead of her time! She must have known a few other things about good health, as she's now 91 years old and still in very good health!
My wife's name is Alice Faye named by her dad after the actor Alice Faye. Our Miss Brooks was a favorite on Sunday evenings. I remember putting up quite a fuss when my folks took back the Sylvania TV set because they did not like the hallow light around the screen.
Harvey & Grady,
I remember well that wooden cabinet, an X-Ray operated by shoe salesmen, trying to sell arch supports, that weren't needed. When some kid had his feet in it, my mother told me to back away, I don't think she knew why, just old country. Only thing she trusted was the Branick Device (the metal thing they still use for measuring feet) if my feet didn't hurt & I was walking straight, all well & good. Only X-rays she allowed were those required by an MD, say for maybe a complex compound fracture.
Alex
"Our Miss Brooks": Dick Crenna (Walter Denton), Eve Aden (Connie Brooks), Gale Gordon (Osgood Conklin)
This is from radio, before they moved to TV. Philip Boynton, the oblivious biology teacher, was played on radio by Jeff Chandler and on TV by Bob Rockwell.
Robert Rockwell, Eve Arden
This was a show with some very funny and witty writing, delivered with perfect wry irony by Eve Arden. Richard Crenna as adenoidal teenager Walter Denton was a hoot, and the great Gale Gordon was, as in most of his roles, their perfect foil as the blustery Madison High principal.
Here is a picture of where I lived when I was 3 years old. We had no running water, and an outside privy. My mother cooked over a wood stove and used a wash tub with a wash board to do the clothes. The machine on the very left of the picture was what I learned to play music on.
I have one of those machines here now and people ask how do you play CD's on it!
Norm
Norm,
I have a similar picture of me on the front porch of the house I was born in (my grandma was midwife). We had no running water (cistern pump),outside biffy, and washed in a tub and used a washboard for clothes. We had a similar phonograph, but a console model. I still have my dad's ole thick 78 RPM records.
Gerald Cornelius
Watertown, SD
Gerald, the only place I have ever heard the word "biffy" was at a summer camp I attended in Michigan as a kid. Do you have any idea where it comes from?
Dick
My grandma had a beach house on Long Island Sound across from New London Conn. (I think) many years ago. The only thing I remember about it was that I was the one who who was always asked to "fetch" the water. There was a pump on the kitchen sink. I thought that was so cool.
When I said something to my grandfather that he found hard to believe, he always said, "That sounds pretty far-fetched to me."
If it's easy to believe, is it near-fetched?
This stuff is cool. I'll bet this gets the award for the longest thread - believe it or not!
OK, I'll keep it going.
"Believe It or Not", featuring Robert L.Ripley, of course, was first heard on NBC on April 14, 1930. The show same to radio in a variety format, with Ozzie Nelson's band and vocalist Harriet Hilliard, Ozzie's future wife. The show was heard in various formats and on various networks until Ripley's death on May 27, 1949, and was always vey popular. The "Believe It or Not" organisation carries on today, and the feature still runs in hundreds of newspapers.
The big console Edison phonograph my dad listened to as a kid is in the liveing room still in perfect working order.It was bought by his mother and her sisters.They picked cotton to pay for it and when the other 2 sisters passed away my grandmal ask that my dad be given the phonograph.He wore out the 2 records "Roving Gambler" and "wreck of ol 97" by from what I can tell is the original version.
I have a cylinder type edison but it is in terriable shape.
Norm,
I grew up with indoor plumbing, but My Grandparent's house in Fontana, where they tended the vinyard, had barely, added on bath off the kitchen, no plaster only the lath & it had a cess pool, all the wiring was exposed knob & tube, big basement where the wine kegs were stored. The place hadn't been in the family for years, but last year my Cousin Nina called, she went out & took photos of it just before they scraped the place for a subdivision.
Both Grandkids are fascinated with the 1905 Victor, they put their finger on the reproducer to feel the vibration then listen to the sound coming out of the horn. Both total T freaks they're learning there was a life before computers.
Mack,
You may want to contact Tim at PhonoPhan about your Edison.
http://www.phonophan.com/index.html
He's to antique phonographs like Ron Patterson is to coils.
Alex
Something that popped into my mind yesterday was to wonder how successful someone could be these days with a song called, "She's too fat for me!" ("I don't want her, you can have her, she's too fat for me!")
Wreck of the old 97 was one of the records I remember, but the one that got me in trouble was"Star Spangled Banner" The first time I played the National Anthem, all the adults stood up with their hands over their hearts. That impressed me so much that I kept playing it over and over, until I was told to stop or I would get a spanking and not be allowed to play the machine anymore!
That was an old cabin in Big Santa Anita Canyon just north of Sierra Madre Ca. where we moved during the depression to save money on rent. My grandfather had built that cabin in 1914.
Norm
How about HV Kaltenborn, pretty popular in the late 30's, he broadcast live a la Ed Murrow back in the Spanish Civil War days, and was very vocal about the War in Europe when it was just starting in the late 30's, I thought he was great, he seemed to tell it like it was and was good at interviewing those in the news, we were still very Provincial in those days and didn't know who to believe, but lots of folks thought he was Gospel.
Dick,
The word "biffy" for describing a toilet is well-known and used in South Dakota. The "B" is for bathroom and the "iffy" was for JIFFY. When you had to go to use the outhouse in the winter at 10 below zero with a frost ring around the hole you went to the "Bathroom" in a "Jiffy"!
My most memorable radio news reports of the late 30's/early 40's were the live reports from London during the Battle of Britain with the sounds of German bombs exploding! We had "black-out" curtains on our house! Reports of German bombers coming over the Canadian border were rampant!
Gerald Cornelius
Watertown, South Dakota
Yes, I remember the fluoroscopes in the shoe stores, both Buster Brown, and Red Goose... was always putting my feet in them to look at the bones...
And watching Walter Cronkite host "The Twentieth Century" I think on Sunday evenings on the b/w tv...
And was it Mr. Wizard, the science show, where you had the acetate (?) overlay that you attached to the tv screen for some of his presentations?
Steven,
"Winky Dinks" with Orson Bean, had the overlay, some kind of plastic held on by static electricty, you filled out the picture, with a wax crayon.
Don Herbert was Mr. Wizard, You actually learned something, with experiments you could do in the kitchen. The show lasted into the 70's
Alex
"Modern Marvels" did a show on "Failed Inventions" I saw the other night. They said the govt banned all the foot flouroscopes in 1950, but I remember trying one no earlier than late 1951. They said lots of doctors died of cancer back then.
Never thought about it before, but a younger cousin died of leukemia in about 1951. Dunno if she was exposed to X-rays. Her Dad had a shop, Ricks Garage, in tiny Jefferson, Oregon. An itinerant sign painter mistakenly put an apostrophe in the name, so it became Rick's Garage.
rdr
You know,I got another heavier dose of just how stinking old I am getting.
As most of you know we are haveing DTV comeing soon.Well I got my 2 discount cards from uncle Sam,Hopefully every US citizen got thiers as it aint our fault the goverment will make billions off this deal.But anyway,Bunny ears on top of the tv dont cut it with these digital boxes.
You have to have a good antenna.
Well Years ago I had the biggest 1 Winegard built out here on a phone pole about 40 feet in the air.I could rotate it and get close to 40 channels of off air tv from accross 3 states.Hugo came along and decided to render it useless.
I didnt have a clue that outdoor antennas would become impossiable to get.But you know I am getting alot of goofy looks from folkes at Lowes,Home Cheapo,radioshack,everywhere,when I ask about a outdoor antenna.
I at least need 1 of the white round 1's that dont need rotateing.
I reckon I will have to use the net to find 1,and a debit card to buy it,and HOPE it gets here in 1 peice.
But for folkes in radio shack to not know what a outdoor antenna is,that is sad.
As I sit here, reading all of the items going back for years, seeing myself circling the drain hole, I remember one of the first times I noticed I was getting old. One of my kids came in, so pleased with himself, and announced he had just gotten his first senior discount.
It'll be a pleasant day tomorrow, so I'll just crank up the old truck and go for a ride in the afternoon. Don't know where, but it'll be nice.
Yea,that would make a fellow feel old.you reminded me of the time I went to and got breakfast at a place they didnt know me.And I reckon I musta looked old being i walk slow and to the left,hunched over.I got a senior discount at 40 years old from a 18 something behind the cash register.
But it did prove that no matter how old you git,the women will still "check you out"
Ralph,
I remember those machines until at least '59, I was only 2 in 1950, but remember them well.
My Daughter had a friend in school whose father collected things (read packrat). He had a similar cabinet, but with wires & handles & guages that looked like the insturment panel on a 36 Packard, it cured Cancer.
Alex
Two stories about being obsolete:
About thirty years ago I went into a big Tower Records store on Sunset Boulevard and asked if they had copy of "A Christmas Carol" with Lionel Barrymore. The sweet young thing behind the counter asked, "What kind of music does he play?"
Last summer I went into a Circuit City in Wichita and asked to see the turntables. The kid took me to the clock radios, and I had to explain to him what a turntable is.
Steve,from what I understand from a fellow who should know,more turntables were sold in 2006 than in all other years combined.From what I understand with the young folkes likeing this 70s stuff a little,they are buying them.
No one remembers Pogo?
I grew up on Jack Armstrong, Jack Benny and Fibber McGee. (second hand)
Chuck Shaydon here in the land of Chicago still broadcasts from COD.
Occasionally life treats you good:
My young wife (65) and I (73) went to the Capistrano Mission this year to see the swallows return (yes, I remember that song!). The lady at the entrance refused to give me a senior discount on the admission! Said I was too young. I asked her to marry me. I'm going back every year from now on.
When something like that happens, life is suddenly good.
Sure and Pogo Possom and his buddy, Albert the alligator lived in a swamp and was my favorite cartoon. Now my favorite is Hagar The Horrible.
Bob
Mr. Olsen and Mr. Robb, I probably have a few years on you, Pogo has been a favorite of mine since 1949, I have almost all the Pogo books, this one is a First. I bought in '49 for $1, tag still in it. Lots of wisdom in Walt Kelly's books, I still read them on occasion and laugh as hard as I ever did, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Kelly a very long time ago.
I enjoyed Pogo, but my favorites were Our Boarding House (Egad! Fap!) and Out Our Way (Born Thirty Years Too Soon, Why Mothers Get Gray, The Worry Wart, etc.) For some good entertainment, go to the library and read the daily comics pages from sixty to eighty years ago.
I actually lived in a boarding house for a few weeks when I was 18. It included an Egad guy, a professed Buick man, who said "Fords are awful to work on. You have to drop the rearend to lift the radiator cap."
I never did really appreciate that statement until I got a T, and also found that any job on it took almost every tool in my garage, plus one.
rdr
Guys,WHAT THE HAY! Not a soul has mentioned the famous twentieth century legend...Sky King.
Lee, when I first heard that show at about age six I pictured a bearded guy wearing a purple robe and a gold crown, and flying a plane. After awhile I figured out it was a western.
Who the heck was "Ming The Merciless?"
Bob
Ming the Merciless was the evil emperor of the planet Mongo. In the Flash Gordon movies of the thirties, starring Olympic athlete Buster Crabbe, Ming was played to menacing perfection by Charles Middleton.
I would watch any Lillian Gish flick that would run on Saturday mornings.
Does anyone remember the comic strip "Happy Hooligan" Who used a tin can for his hat?
Or the "Katzenjammar Kids" who were always getting in trouble? During WWII the name of that comic became "Captain and the Kids"
Do you remember Kate Smith singing "God Bless America" She had a great voice. Today she wouldn't make it because she was overweight!
Norm
Lee, Kinda had hots for Penny.
Steve, I don't think Charles Middleton ever got close to cracking a smile, I remember Oliver Hardy once asked him "How much would you charge to haunt a house?".
Alex
You forgot Dr. Zarkof, my nickname in college...
God Bless America was introduced 70 years ago this week, in 1938, on the Kate Smith Radio Hour. It had been specially written for her.
...and no one has ever sung it as well!
yU8vHe qwuolfcueypz, [url=http://mrtmemwhzfzo.com/]mrtmemwhzfzo[/url], [link=http://hbsydultmjpo.com/]hbsydultmjpo[/link], http://rofksvsczioy.com/
Hmmm I think you missed a couple, how about
Fibber McGee and Molly from 79 Wistful Vista St
or that opening line
Henry, Henry Aldrich --- coming Mother
Then as Time Marches On and we turned to the
comic pages, there was B.O. Plenty and family,
Lil Abner and Daisy Mae ...
you know you're old when you hiccup and pull a sphincter muscle... ;)
Oh man the dang hackers have gotten into our old people thread.Dang it,I hope that 1 entry can be got out.There is to many good laughs we all need here.
Not so long ago for me, but ancient history for some of you. WLAC in Nashville with a program named Randy's Record Shop in Gallatin, Tennessee, the Disc Jockey was a man by the name of Gene Nobles. This was in the early 50's, back in the "clear channel" days, I think it was one of the "50,000 watt" stations. Listened to it a many a night sitting in some old company car out in the middle of nowhere.
Since they've hit it once, they most probably will keep hitting it.