IJBFC Chat - July 8, 2007
(Name of message originator in [] brackets at the beginning of each line)
[ed] me*
[KayLhota] Hi Laura
[Brad from Georgia] Hi, LL
[Laura Leff] Hi folks!
[ed] hey laura
[Laura Leff] How's everyone this evening?
User wpowers has entered this room.
[KayLhota] Ed isn't feeling well.
[Laura Leff] WP!!!!!
[Laura Leff] Sorry to hear that Ed...hope it's nothing serious.
[KayLhota] Hello WP
[ed] I'll live
[Brad from Georgia] Well, my elderly mom's in the hospital. She seems to be mending a bit, though.
[ed] wp hi
[wpowers] im at work so i can get in the room tonite on this computer
[KayLhota] Pass the Sympathy and any soothing syrup we got
[Laura Leff] Maybe some of those One-a-Day vitamins
[Laura Leff] Brad - Best wishes for a speedy recovery for her
[ed] a 12 pack
[KayLhota] I turn 50 tomorrow
[Laura Leff] I had a headache for most of today, but the ibuprofen seems to have gotten it in the last hour.
[Brad from Georgia] Thanks!
[Laura Leff] Kay - Mazel tov!
[KayLhota] thank you.
[Brad from Georgia] Happy BD, Kay.
[ed] other than me how was everyone's fourth
[Laura Leff] Now I've just got three guys from the Bronx in my back yard.
[KayLhota] my 4th was excellent, thanks
[Brad from Georgia] Very quiet...stayed at home. Only one day off summer school....
[Laura Leff] Ed - Quiet, nice. Warm. Good.
[ed] too warm here in Springfield Ill
[ed] 90+ today
[Laura Leff] Kay - How about them Red Sox?
[Brad from Georgia] We've had a few thunderstorms. We're in a bad drought.
[KayLhota] I hear that the Red Sox are getting pounded by Detroit
[Laura Leff] It's really dry out here as well. We need to be careful out here, since this is fire season.
[Laura Leff] So did folks have a chance to listen to the show for this evening?
[Brad from Georgia] Yes!
[KayLhota] Yes, I just finished listening to it
[Laura Leff] I have to admit that I'd never heard it before.
[Laura Leff] What did you think?
[Brad from Georgia] I actually went back and listened to Jack's show the week before and the Sunday after the Quiz Kids show.
[KayLhota] Jack Benny came across very brattily.
[Brad from Georgia] QK was very funny! Jack had great rapport with those kids--you could hear them giggling.
[KayLhota] I should have listened to those shows, as it has been a few years.
[Laura Leff] They say never work with kids or animals because they'll steal the show...Jack could work with either.
[Brad from Georgia] And Jack proved he was not smarter than a fifth-grader...and that he was ahead of his time!
[Laura Leff] anyone know if any of those kids are still around? They must be...
[KayLhota] those were tough questions
[ed] jack foxworthy?
[Brad from Georgia] Jack had three of the kids on his show the Sunday before the Quiz Kids broadcast--he was fretting they were going to show him up and trying to get them to teach him things!
[Brad from Georgia] Ed--Jeff Foxworthy.
[Laura Leff] I had to laugh at the question from Grand Rapids Michigan (my home town).
User Maxwell has entered this room.
[ed] I know
[Laura Leff] Jeff Foxworthy = Admiral Ross
[Brad from Georgia] Hi, Maxwell
[KayLhota] Hi Maxwell
[Laura Leff] Hi Max!
[Maxwell] Hey everybody!
[ed] hi max
[Brad from Georgia] D'oh! I missed your joke, ed!
[Maxwell] ed told a joke?
[ed] yes it is rare
[Maxwell] And I missed it!
[Brad from Georgia] "Jack Foxworthy" in "Are You Smarter than a Quiz Kid?"
[Laura Leff] Myron Proudfoot
[ed] the quiz kids
[Laura Leff] Max - Did you hear the show for tonight?
[ed] the show with fred allen is a classic
[Brad from Georgia] If Myron had a brother, would they be Proudfoots or Proudfeet?
[Maxwell] Yeah, I listened to it the other day?
[Laura Leff] Ed - Fred Allen was on the Quiz Kids?
[Maxwell] Well, let's ask Chester. Perhaps he's Myron's brother.
[ed] no myron proudfoot episode
[Laura Leff] They just redid that at the REPS convention with Eddie Carroll.
[Laura Leff] Eddie even lost his pants for the occasion.
[KayLhota] oh my
[ed] YES
[Maxwell] Okay, refresh my memory please...REPS?
[Brad from Georgia] Oddly, in Jack's before-Quiz Kids show, one of the kids told Jack about the Taj Mahal--took 22,000 men 22 years to build. Jack got it mixed up of course: 22 men working for 22,000 years.
[Laura Leff] Someone had appliqued "LSMFT" on the shorts he had on underneath.
[Laura Leff] REPS = Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound. Their convention was June 22-23.
[Maxwell] OH, okay...Chuck Schaden was there!
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Yes, he and I did a panel together.
[ed] Been a member since 2003 oh i wish i couls go
[Maxwell] They mentioned it on his June 23 show.
[Maxwell] Cool!
[Maxwell] They mentioned he was doing a panel.
[Brad from Georgia] The recreation sounds hilarious.
[Laura Leff] We were doing so much of the "After you"..."No, after YOU."..."No, after YOU" that he said we sounded like Amos n Andy.
[KayLhota] great!
[KayLhota] Wish I could have heard that!
[wpowers] I have it on my to do list to go to AT LEAST one of those conventions in next year now that I am able..
[Laura Leff] One of us would toss up a story and then go back and forth over which of us would tell it.
[Laura Leff] W - Friends of Old Time Radio is probably closest to you, and the granddaddy of OTR conventions.
[Maxwell] One of these days I'm going to have to shell out for his "Speaking of Radio" book.
[wpowers] is that the one in northeast?
[Brad from Georgia] Since I sort of got conned into teaching summer school, I won't have much of a chance to go anywhere this summer.
[Laura Leff] WP - That's it...Newark, NJ.
[Laura Leff] Brad - How's that going for you?
[wpowers] i have it on my radar.. I think it is usually in spring
[Laura Leff] WP - That's Cincinnati...FOTR is in October.
[Brad from Georgia] LL--very hectic! I have two eight-week classes and one four-week class! Fortunately, they're paying me...next Thursday, I think, or Friday.
[Laura Leff] There's going to be a Beverly Hills Beavers reunion at a SPERDVAC lunch in November.
[wpowers] Cincinnati... ah, even I should get there.. Well October is still out there.. thats great!
[Laura Leff] Brad - Good luck with that.
[Brad from Georgia] My son Jonathan went to Kansas City, MO, this weekend to perform with the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company at a Robert Heinlein convention.
[Laura Leff] So what else about the Quiz Kids?
[Laura Leff] Brad - That sounds like fun!
[KayLhota] That does soound wonderful, Brad.
[Laura Leff] Brad - Was Jeff Foxworthy there?
[Brad from Georgia] I agree that the questions were hard! The one about the falling rock especially so!
[Maxwell] I wanted to get to the "sequels" on Jack's show after they started the one, but I never got around to it.
[Maxwell] I could have done the falling rock, but not w/o pencil and paper.
[Brad from Georgia] LL--Dunno. I have to confess that I'm NOT a Robert Heinlein fan!
[Maxwell] I did get the musical scale ones, too.
[Laura Leff] Brad - Yeah, especially when you remember that the acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 m/s^2, rather than 32.2 ft/s^2
[KayLhota] good lord
[wpowers] I think I have a postcard featuring the Quiz Kids ... My grandmother must have written into the network and she got this card in return.. They sure LOOK like smart kids!
[Laura Leff] Did anyone else notice that the kid said it wrong...said that it was 32.2 ft/s rather than 32.2 ft/s^2?
[Maxwell] I did.
[Maxwell] I teach physics.
[Brad from Georgia] Has anyone done a "Where are they now" feature about some of the Quiz Kids?
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - I just loved physics.
[Laura Leff] Brad - You'd think, but I'm not sure.
[Laura Leff] This is one of the things of being so siloed on Jack, that someone may have done that and I simply wasn't paying attention.
[Brad from Georgia] I liked SOME of the physics--mostly the labs!
[KayLhota] well, I'm always telling you to spread out your interests, Laura.
[Maxwell] I had a lousy HS physics teacher, so I ended up teaching it.
[KayLhota] You should never stop learning.
[Laura Leff] Max - One of my professors posed (in heavy Maine accent) to the class, "Why is the world charged?"
[Maxwell] I stopped learning on Oct. 23, 1987 at 3:37 p.m.
[Laura Leff] I responded, "Because we didn't have enough cash to buy it outright."
[KayLhota]
[KayLhota] Good one!
[Maxwell] Excellent.
[Brad from Georgia] Jack really did a good job of bookending his appearance. His fretting about how dumb he was the week before segued into his contrition and embarrassment the week after.
[Laura Leff] One of those punch lines that came spilling out of my mouth before I had a chance to think about it.
[Maxwell] My mom was asked in home ec class, "Do you knead biscuits."
[Maxwell] She answered, "No we can get along with bread."
[Laura Leff] Ba dum bum
[Maxwell] Absolutely god's honest truth story.
[Laura Leff] So's mine!
[Laura Leff] So I haven't heard other QK shows...did celebrities come on week after week to be embarassed like that?
[Maxwell] I didn't doubt that it was. That's why it reminded me of my mom's.
[Laura Leff] And what would you do if, say, Oscar Levant came on?
[Maxwell] I've never heard any other QKs before that I remember.
[Brad from Georgia] One of Jack's pre-QK jokes: Jack: They may ask me about the Taj Mahal. I'm thirty-four years old and don't know anything about it! Mary: You could have BUILT the Taj Mahal since you were thirty-four!
[KayLhota] I've never heard the Quiz Kid show before
[Maxwell] LL Have the choke button handy.
[KayLhota] Information Please, I have heard and that is almost as tough.
User wpowers has logged out.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Not an Oscar Levant fan, I see.
[Maxwell] No, I LOVE Oscar Levant.
[Maxwell] His ad libbing might have put them out of business, though.
[Laura Leff] Kay - That's why I wondered about Levant, since he was a sharp although rather unstable cookie.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - That's very true.
[KayLhota] Yes, Oscar had what now would have been medicated mental health issues.
[Brad from Georgia] I wonder how much of Jack's nearly off-mike grumbling on the show was ad-libbed. The kids got the giggles when he did it.
[Laura Leff] I heard that the kids really were scripted, though.
[Maxwell] I just heard a great Jolson-Levant performance last week.
[Maxwell] LL including the answers?
[Laura Leff] Kay - Oh, Levant was plenty medicated. Larry Adler told me he was the only person he ever knew who took laudanum.
[KayLhota] Oscar Levant said in his autobio that he enjoyed working with Al Jolson
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Yes. And I love the Jolson-Levant shows.
[Brad from Georgia] I didn't even know that laudanum was available in the 20th century!
[Maxwell] This one was just the two of them. No guest stars.
[Laura Leff] Brad - I have a feeling that probably about half of it was scripted.
[Maxwell] Neither did I, at least after maybe 1910.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - I stole a record from the Grand Rapids Public Library of a collection of Jolson-Levant exchanges from the shows.
User wpowers has entered this room.
[KayLhota] well, the medication sedated him, but with medications that combat manic depression and anti anxiety, his life would have been different
[Laura Leff] Brad - Apparently for Oscar Levant, they made an exception.
[Maxwell] An old LP? If so, I remember seeing that as a kid.
User wpowers has logged out.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - It has a painting of the two of them on the front of it.
[Maxwell] I remember he did some kind of quiz show with Carl Reiner before he died.
[Brad from Georgia] I do know that one of my odder college friends tried to home-brew laudanum years ago. Whatever he got made him throw up.
[Maxwell] That might be the one!
[KayLhota] did he?
[Laura Leff] Who's seen the Benny TV program on which Levant guested?
User wpowers has entered this room.
[Maxwell] I haven't.
[KayLhota] Me!
[Laura Leff] Brad - Sounds like not the desired effect.
[KayLhota] I had a dream two days ago with Frank Nelson in it.
[Laura Leff] Kay - Do tell
[KayLhota] I was in a story, and he was one of the actors in the story.
[Laura Leff] Kay - Actually, that's a good segue now that I think about the larger plot of the show with Levant.
[Brad from Georgia] I had a dream with Don Wilson in it. He wanted to do horrible things to me with Jell-O.
[Laura Leff] Anyone who's a Frank Nelson fan should see that show.
[KayLhota] Something about him was telling me that it wasn't right for him to be there, but he was alive, so I wasn't sure what was wrong.
[Maxwell] I wish I would have gotten a chance to talk to Bob Havens a couple of weeks ago when I saw him playing...I wish that I could have asked him about doing the Benny Show with Welk.
[Laura Leff] Brad - Not sure if that's a good dream or a nightmare
[Maxwell] Brad, that's just plain scary.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Who is Bob Havens?
[Brad from Georgia] I'll never want lime again.
[Laura Leff] One of the Welk musicians?
[Maxwell] He was the jazz trombone soloist for Welk from about 1960 until Welk passed away.
[Laura Leff] Hey, that's not fruit in that Jell-O...
[Maxwell] Very good trad jazz/swing player.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Cool that folks from the band are still playing.
User ed has logged out.
[Maxwell] He's in his mid-late '70s.
[Laura Leff] I've got to watch the Welk show on which Jack guested...I think we have it in the library.
User J. Fred Muggwump has entered this room.
[Laura Leff] Oh here's a pip...
[Laura Leff] Ah, SOMEONE listened to the show...
[Maxwell] Hey J. Fred
[Laura Leff] Hi Fred!
[J. Fred Muggwump] Hello, you all
[Brad from Georgia] Hi, J. Fred.
[KayLhota] speaking of library, I am enjoying the DVDs that I ordered, Laura. thank you!
[Laura Leff] I was transferring some shows from my Beta tapes to DVD recently for the library...
[Laura Leff] Kay - That's great! Glad you were able to get them.
[J. Fred Muggwump] Yes, Laura, but I only knew the answer to one of those darned questions
[Laura Leff] So I'm cleaning the living room and sort of half paying attention to the show
[KayLhota] My friend Mary was so thrilled to finally see "Love Thy Neighbor"
[Laura Leff] And I look up at a woman playing a cafeteria attendant, listen to her voice, and say, "Oh my gosh, that's Shirley!"
[KayLhota] She's a huge Fred Allen fan, but she is beginning to see what I see in Jack Benny.
[Laura Leff] She had been standing in front of me at the REPS convention about a week earlier.
User wpowers has logged out.
[Laura Leff] And then in the credits, there was the name of someone else I'd spoken to at the convention.
[Laura Leff] Kay - What'd you think of the end of the movie?
[KayLhota] I forget. How did it end?
[Laura Leff] Kay - Baby carriage
[KayLhota] Oh gosh! That's right!
[Laura Leff] My, my!
[KayLhota] Whoo-- that was strange.
[Laura Leff] Kay- Yeah, isn't it?
[Laura Leff] Apologies to anyone here who hasn't seen "Love Thy Neighbor"
[KayLhota] I think my favorite scene was the two of them sitting at the table and laughing.
[Maxwell] If I've seen it it's been at least 40 years.
[Laura Leff] At the risk of giving a spoiler
[Maxwell] I seem to remember seeing a movie with Benny and Allen in it that long ago.
[Brad from Georgia] I have a very dim memory of seeing it on TV years ago.
[Laura Leff] (cover your eyes if you don't want a spoiler)
[Maxwell] <---Thrives on spoilers.
[KayLhota] I liked Mary Martin very much.
[Maxwell] Then I can sound like I know what I'm talking about even when I don't.
[Laura Leff] it ends with Jack and Fred as babies (twins?) fighting in a baby carriage.
[Maxwell] Stolen from L&H.
[KayLhota] I'm dying to share "Buck Benny Rides Again" with Mary.
[Laura Leff] And a baby Rochester looking on from a separate carriage
[Brad from Georgia] Yup--"
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Is it?
[Maxwell] Yup.
[Brad from Georgia] "Brats"
[Laura Leff] Kay - That's a good movie, I think.
[Maxwell] One of their shorts.
[Maxwell] I really liked Buck Benny.
[Maxwell] That's the one!
[Laura Leff] I'm not a L&H person, so I didn't know the connection.
[KayLhota] I like that one very very much.
[Brad from Georgia] I did, too! I thought "Buck" was a great showcase for Eddie Anderson.
[Maxwell] L&H and the Marx Brothers are my other comedic passion.
[Laura Leff] "Man About Town" is also a great showcase for Eddie Anderson.
[KayLhota] mine too.
[Brad from Georgia] PBS here just re-played a Groucho special from 1991.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - I'm definitely into the Marxes, just never connected with L&H.
[Laura Leff] Brad - Which one? Unknown Marx Bros?
[Brad from Georgia] No, "The One, the Only Groucho."
(some loss)
[KayLhota] The 1931 movie isn't very good, but it is a curio.
[Brad from Georgia] Just checked it out--I were wrong. Woolsey was the fast talker with glasses.
[Maxwell] Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller...can't think offhand of who else.
[KayLhota] Benay Venuta?
[KayLhota] Harry James?
[Maxwell] That I doubt.
[KayLhota] Gene Krupa?
[Brad from Georgia] Phil Harris?
[Maxwell] I think Krupa may have been the drummer.
[KayLhota] I forget. It's been so long since I read about the play.
[Maxwell] He was hanging with that group then.
[Maxwell] He was on Bix Beiderbecke's last recordings with Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Bud Freeman, etc.
[KayLhota] yeah, I have heard a little of that.
[KayLhota] Early jazz isn't my forte
[Laura Leff] I had done a bunch of Gershwin research back in the 80s, but I've forgotten a lot of it.
[Maxwell] Twas my passion as a young whippersnapper.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Jean Goldkette?
[KayLhota] I'm more familiar with Broadway and movie musicals
[Maxwell] A lot of them came up with Goldkette and then moved eventually to Paul Whiteman.
[Brad from Georgia] Kay--name three musicals for which P.G. Wodehouse wrote lyrics....
[Maxwell] LL: Don Ingle's dad (Red) played with Goldkette.
[KayLhota] Okay, I remember now that Eddie Quillain played the Mickey Rooney part in the 31 Girl Crazy
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Cool...at the same time as Bix?
[Maxwell] I think their time overlapped.
[KayLhota] Hmm... Oh Kay,
[Maxwell] I know Don has talked about his dad playing with Bix.
[KayLhota] Brad, I can 't remember.
[Maxwell] Show Boat.
[Maxwell] Bill
[KayLhota] oops
[Maxwell] (Bill was the song)
[Brad from Georgia] Right!
[Maxwell] The Passing Show?
[Laura Leff] Wodehouse wrote the lyrics to Bill?
[KayLhota] I should have remembered that
[Brad from Georgia] "Anything Goes"
[Brad from Georgia] Yep
[Laura Leff] Huh!
[KayLhota] yes, because Bill was a trunk song
[Maxwell] Yup. I was Jake the Piano Player in our HS production of Show Boat.
[Maxwell] So I played Bill.
[Brad from Georgia] Wodehouse reprotedly got quite a nice annual royalty just from that one lyric!
[Maxwell] First time in history Show Boat was ever played with an all white cast.
[KayLhota] oh boy!
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Did you have someone in blackface, or what?
[KayLhota] I saw that done once with Finian's Rainbow
[Maxwell] Blackface and upper bodies in the case of the stevedores.
[Laura Leff] I saw an all-black Barefoot in the Park once
[KayLhota] they did that for the TV series
[Maxwell] I have a Show Boat HS production story that you might appreciate regarding "Bill"
[KayLhota] it died a fast death in 1970
[J. Fred Muggwump] Gosh, I'd forgotten about the TV series...
[Maxwell] I remember that series. Was that the one Scoey Mitchlll was in?
[KayLhota] I think so
[Laura Leff] There was a TV series of Barefoot in the Park?
[Maxwell] As Kay said, it didn't last long.
[KayLhota] along with "The Odd Couple"
[Laura Leff] And I was only 1 year old at the time, so I don't have a lot of recollection of it.
[KayLhota] understandable.
[Maxwell] I don't know if it was ever rerun. Not enough episodes.
[KayLhota] I never saw it again
[KayLhota] I think it did its 13 and died
[Laura Leff] Go figure
[Maxwell] I dont' remember if it made it through a full season or not.
[J. Fred Muggwump] A number of those half season and even full season shows of that era are gone with the wind now...
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - So you were saying about the production story
[KayLhota] I know that it did not. I was watching a lot of TV then
[Laura Leff] Muggwump - Sounds like fodder for YouTube except for the copyright issues.
[Maxwell] Okay, we had too tall a piano for the character of Julie to climb up on to sing Bill....
[Laura Leff] Time for a stool
[Maxwell] So we were trying to figure out a way for her to do it gracefully, and someone got the bright idea to turn my back to the audience....
[Laura Leff] To climb up on the piano, I mean
[Maxwell] But I had lines....
[Maxwell] And I was talking into the back curtain... and even though I'm loud, I'm not THAT loud...
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Were you going to cup your hands for her to step on them?
[Maxwell] She was going to use the bench to get up.
[Laura Leff] OIC
[KayLhota] how were the singers, maxwell?
[KayLhota] Show Boat is one of my favorite shows.
[Maxwell] I complained that I'd be talking into the back wall, but to no avail, and the kid playing Julie said, "That's okay, you don't have that big a part anyway."
[Maxwell] Not bad.
[Brad from Georgia] The TV "Barefoot" did have one of my favorite actors in it: James Cromwell. And Hans Conreid was in it.
User Fred Allen has entered this room.
[Maxwell] Well, that got my dander up, as you can well imagine...
[KayLhota] Hellow Fred.
[Laura Leff] Brad - James Cromwell as in Zefrain Cochran?
[Laura Leff] Hi Fred!
[Fred Allen] Hello
[J. Fred Muggwump] Hello Fred
[KayLhota] Brad, any time you mention Hans Conried you get my full attention
[Laura Leff] Fred - We're more on a general comedy/vintage media discussion.
[Brad from Georgia] LL-No, I think in that 'un he was Harry Pepper. Conreid was Mr. Belasco? Velasco?
[Maxwell] So I played along nice and understated with her under her vocal, and at the end, where the line is, "I love him because he's--I don't know--Because he's just my Bill...
[Fred Allen] I think of the show Fractured Flickers when I hear Hans' name
[KayLhota] I'm still passionately seeking out everything he did
[Maxwell] I cut out completely at I don't know...
[Laura Leff] Brad - But same actor?
[Maxwell] And then I showed her how important my part was. The song is in B-flat.
[Maxwell] After dropping out for the 2 bars, I played the big final chord: B-natural.
[Brad from Georgia] LL--same as what? Oh, as Zef. Yup. The pig owner from Babe.
[KayLhota] ouchies, Brad!
[Maxwell] "Did I go THAT flat?
[Maxwell] "
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - And made her sound off key!
[KayLhota]
[Maxwell] I just said, "So I don't have that important a part, eh?"
[KayLhota]
[Maxwell] The turned my face away from the back of the stage.
[Brad from Georgia] You had a KEY part!
User yhtapmys has entered this room.
[Maxwell] Brad, you could say that. I wouldn't but you could
[Laura Leff] Brad - No, the person who invented warp drive in Star Trek: First Contact.
[KayLhota] Hi Yip
[Laura Leff] Hey Yht!
[Maxwell] Hey Yht!
[yhtapmys] Sorry I'm late. Had to deal with BS at a ballgame.
[Brad from Georgia] LL-Yes, same actor. He was also the bad buy in LA Confidiential.
[Maxwell] Hey Fred!
[Brad from Georgia] And he was also Stretch on "All in the Family."
[J. Fred Muggwump] Hello Hyt
[Laura Leff] Yht - I saw a fight break out at the Seattle-Oakland game today
[J. Fred Muggwump] Yht, even
[Brad from Georgia] Bad guy, that is.
[yhtapmys] Hi Frde
[Laura Leff] Brad - He's done a lot of really good stuff.
[Brad from Georgia] He looks so much like my grand-dad it's spooky.
[Laura Leff] For the newer folks in the room...any comments on the Quiz Kids show for tonight?
(some loss)
[yhtapmys] It was in a N.J. warehouse.
[J. Fred Muggwump] NBC broadcast the first Super Bowl...which is now lost
[KayLhota] it's such a hearbreak to lose that stuff
[Fred Allen] The Honeymooners was on kinescopes and most of the old stuff lost
[yhtapmys] And they needed space.
[ed] except for ed ames and the tomahwk
[yhtapmys] So they killed stuff.
[Laura Leff] Groucho and Johnny on the very first Carson tonight show is at the bottom of the ocean.
[KayLhota] remember the story of how abcTV was erasing Ernie Kovac's video tapes to reuse?
[Laura Leff] Kay - Ouch
[J. Fred Muggwump] Ouch, Kay
[ed] great comic kovacs
[Fred Allen] The Narobi Trio
[KayLhota] Luckily Edie Adams Kovacs started buying them up
[Maxwell] I know Edie Adams has the rights to the surviving Kovacs material.
[Laura Leff] Like Erich Von Stroheim's assertion (although unproven) that the studio recycled the remaining 10 hours of Greed for the silver content
[J. Fred Muggwump] I was fascinated by those Kovacs shows, but was kinda scared by them...I was 8 at the time and some of the comedy struck me as creepy
[Laura Leff] Now erasing "Full House"...that makes sense.
[KayLhota] that sounds about right, Laura. The film was cut and the footage was destroyed.
[Laura Leff] Then again, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.
[J. Fred Muggwump] Laura
[ed] mary-kate and ashley...NO
[Fred Allen] Erase Urkle
[Maxwell] Anybody remember the Kovacs bit with Sentimental Journey being whistled, and the "whistler" was a pencil sharpener?
[KayLhota] yes, I do.
[yhtapmys] Does anyone feel like smacking those Quiz Kids?
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - That turned by itself?
[Maxwell] Yeah.
[KayLhota] I just share that with my son last month.
[Laura Leff] Yht - Does anyone feel like smacking Jack?
[yhtapmys] Well, Jack's really misplaced on this show.
[Maxwell] And of course, the Mack the Knife blackouts.
[ed] naw
[Laura Leff] What was the name of his 15-minute show...Eugene?
[KayLhota] Laura, I felt squirmy. I wasn't enjoying the Quiz show much
[KayLhota] Eugene is correct, Laura.
[yhtapmys] I don't like them to begin with.
[J. Fred Muggwump] I couldn't figure out how they were keeping score
[KayLhota] but it was a full half hour program
[Maxwell] I don't think they knew how they were keeping score.
[Laura Leff] I saw Eugene in its entirety at a Kovacs symposium at an art museum.
[J. Fred Muggwump] Kay - maybe that's why it was sponsored by Alka-Seltzer :-)
[KayLhota]
[Laura Leff] J. Fred - Good thought
[ed]
[yhtapmys] What is the appeal of this show anyway?
[KayLhota] I saw Eugene 30 years ago on PBS
[Maxwell] People must have liked smart kids...and it was probably cheap for WMAQ/NBC to produce.
[yhtapmys] Other than Ken Carpenter's spots.
[Fred Allen] Sounds like The College Bowl
[J. Fred Muggwump] I love, love those old organs, though
[ed] we must ask questions*
[yhtapmys] Well, the College Bowl you could test your own skills.
[Laura Leff] Back when intelligence was more respected
[yhtapmys] This show just has inane questions.
[Maxwell] Now defunct unfortunately.
[Maxwell] Now inane sportstalk.
[ed] god bless 'maq
[Maxwell] Just like WNBC became WFAN.
[Maxwell] WMAQ became WSCR.
[J. Fred Muggwump] Bring back organ music in quiz shows...
[Maxwell] (The Score)
[Laura Leff] WOWO just keeps going
[yhtapmys] I just can't get interested in any of these poixdexters.
[Maxwell] And soap operas!
[ed] ma and oxydol
[yhtapmys] Yeah, Max, there isnt much of a budget for this show.
[Maxwell] ed Ever see Rich Samuels' web site about Chicago broadcasting...a lot of 'MAQ stuff.
[Laura Leff] I wonder if the audience was all parents who were smacking the backs of their kids' heads and saying
[Laura Leff] "Why can't you be smart like THEM?"
[ed] need to hope to see museum back up asap
[KayLhota] like in Radio Days?
[Laura Leff] Kay - Oh, I'd forgotten about that.
[Maxwell] Seems like they're reviving that with "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader'
[J. Fred Muggwump] I wondered whether it was fixed...the 14 year old girl's voice sounded like she was really about 27
[ed] got that mp3 from my neice in chicago in jan. great movie
[Laura Leff] J. Fred - My understanding is that it was fixed because it was really scripted.
[J. Fred Muggwump] Laura - Really? I didn't know that
[Laura Leff] J. Fred - Don't quote me on it, but that's what I heard.
[Maxwell] Rich Samuels' Chicago broadcasting web site: http://www.richsamuels.com/
[ed] dvd not mp3
[yhtapmys] The Quiz Kids was fixed?
[KayLhota] I used to work at a video store, and when I played "Radio Days" on our store TV it always rented
[J. Fred Muggwump] I guess it is hard to believe those kids could be that spontaneously brilliant, though
[Maxwell] Like calculating the falling rock without pencil and paper?
[yhtapmys] To be honest, they're being asked uninteresting questions I don't want to know the answer to.
[J. Fred Muggwump] Maxwell - yeah, exactly
[yhtapmys] And poor Jack sounds lost.
[ed] or rock paper scissors
[Maxwell] Yht: I'm afraid he was there for comedy relief.
[Maxwell] And they needed something for relief.
[KayLhota] I have to take the trash out to the front of the house for a few minutes but I am asking my husband to step in to chat for me.
[Maxwell] Hi Kay's husband!
[yhtapmys] Unfortunately, Max, he just doesn't like he is sure what to say.
[J. Fred Muggwump] "Now, little Billy, explain some of the work you've been doing for this 'Manhattan Project'..."
[Laura Leff] Don't you remember when Charles Van Doren was a Quiz Kid?
[Maxwell] I can say one thing...the schools they were from are pretty prestigious...even today.
User Fred Allen has logged out.
[yhtapmys] They need little Harry Shearer.
[Laura Leff] You're lucky they're picking up your trash...there's a labor dispute out here.
[Maxwell] I think I remember Oak Park River Forest, Chicago Latin, U of C Lab School maybe?
[Laura Leff] Yht - Oh, that would be good.
[ed] you mean 21'svan doren?
[Laura Leff] ed - Yeah
User Maxwell has logged out.
[yhtapmys] Van Doren was a quiz kid?
User Maxwell has entered this room.
[J. Fred Muggwump] Did Van Doren just have a knack for showing up on fixed quiz shows?
[Laura Leff] Yht - I'm joking. Just in response to the Quiz Kids being fixed.
[Maxwell] D'oh!
[J. Fred Muggwump] Laura -
[Laura Leff] Wow...you all are gullible tonight!
[yhtapmys] Oh.
[yhtapmys] Duh.
[J. Fred Muggwump] Laura - I'll pick the middle shell
[Laura Leff] Did you know that Mary was Quentin?
[ed] OOOPS
[Laura Leff] Someone E-mailed me a theory that Jack was killed because he found out about a government mind control project.
[Laura Leff] Can't remember if I mentioned that here or not.
[Maxwell] Wasn't Quentin Barnabas Collins' brother?
[yhtapmys] I wonder whose idea it was to put Jack on the Quiz Kids.
[KayLhota] (Actually Frank) How tough were the "Quiz Kids" questions? Were they as tough as the original Jepardy questions?
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - No, his brother's name was Tom.
[Maxwell] Don't mind if I do!
[Laura Leff] Kay - I love Jeopardy. Would enjoy seeing the original.
[ed] HOW ABOUT TOMCOLLINS
[yhtapmys] No, the original Jeopardy questions weren't like this.
[Maxwell] DAmn...now I have Quentin's Theme running through my head.
[Laura Leff] How about Collins and Harlan?
[Maxwell] Not a big fan of a lot of their material.
[Laura Leff] Quentin Tarantino?
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Yes, it's a bit outdated now.
[Maxwell] Kind of questionable by today's standards.
[KayLhota] (Kay) I am back and Frank is at his own computer.
[Maxwell] Bye Frank!
[ed] bye
[KayLhota] I will have to share that Quiz kid show with him so that he can hear how tough the questions were
[Laura Leff] Side note...there's quite a racket going on outside as the dogs move a large herd of goats across the street from us.
[ed] what
[Laura Leff] I'm still waiting on my wild turkeys to make their appearance for today
[J. Fred Muggwump] Laura - c'mon, we're not THAT gullible...
[Laura Leff] J. Fred - Actually, that one is true.
[Maxwell] When you get the Wild Turkey, pour me some.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - I knew someone was going to say that.
[ed] i need one to...
[Laura Leff] So what else Benny-wise or comedy-wise is on everyone's mind this evening?
[Maxwell] So exactly why did you choose this show LL? It seems to be universally despised.
[J. Fred Muggwump] Oh, I liked it okay...
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Because I hadn't heard it and I hadn't heard anyone really discuss it.
[Maxwell] And you still haven't! :D
[Laura Leff] People talk about the Quiz Kids on Jack's program, but not vice-versa.
[yhtapmys] I think it's worth listening to.
[Laura Leff] Maybe now we know why
[yhtapmys] Only I have to get through it.
[Maxwell] I have the feeling that jack was definitely without the benefit of his own writers.
[Laura Leff] I think it would be better to, as someone else said, bookend it with the Benny shows surrounding it.
[Maxwell] yht: I was joking around, too.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Very much agreed.
[J. Fred Muggwump] I'm surprised it was on the air for 13 years, though...
[yhtapmys] Information Please was a hit and I find it dull, too.
[Laura Leff] Maybe, like the I Can't Stand Jack Benny contest, they had a lot of leftover questions.
[Maxwell] People valued intelligence more back then.
[ed] did people pan qiz kids as showing off smart kids when most kids couldnot get that good of an education in those days
[yhtapmys] I'll take It Pays To Be Ignorant.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Amen to that.
[J. Fred Muggwump] I like It Pays To Be Ignorant best...no intelligence there...
[yhtapmys] Funny show.
[Laura Leff] Yht - I haven't heard that, but my mother said it was awful.
[yhtapmys] So was Groucho.
[yhtapmys] It's on line somewhere, Laura.
[Laura Leff] Oh, I'm sure I can download it.
[Maxwell] Wasn't there a Dr. IQ, too?
[ed] yes
[Laura Leff] I have a lady in the balcony!
[J. Fred Muggwump] "I have a lady in the balcony!
[yhtapmys] Wasn't he the guy with the lady in the balcony>
[Maxwell] That's right!
[yhtapmys] They gave away chocolate bars?
[Laura Leff] What I'd do with her I don't know, since I'm straight...
[Maxwell] Now I remember.
[ed] ouch...
[J. Fred Muggwump] "A box of Milky Way candy bars to the lady!"
[yhtapmys] Silver dollars and Mars bars, I think./
[Laura Leff] I also just transferred the Ben Blue appearance on Jack's show to DVD
[Laura Leff] Which is something like that.
[Maxwell] Which show had the $64 Question?
[Laura Leff] The $64 Question
[Maxwell] No, that's not what it was called.
[Maxwell] My mind is just blank.
[ed] hal march hosted that one on tv
[Maxwell] OH!
[Maxwell] Double or Nothing
[Laura Leff] The $64,000 Question
[yhtapmys] How was Blue, Laura?
[Laura Leff] The $20,000 Pyramid Scheme
[ed] my fav game show to tell the truth
[Laura Leff] Yht - The Kieslowski movie? It was pretty intense.
[Maxwell] That's the one where he does the "magic act," right?
[J. Fred Muggwump] There was a radio simulcast of The $64,000 Question...
[Laura Leff] But that's redundant
[yhtapmys] Laura, his appearance on Jack.
[Laura Leff] Oh...BEN Blue
[Laura Leff] Is her name Cosgrove?
[Maxwell] Yeah, the "magic act," right?
[Laura Leff] Yeah, that's it
[Laura Leff] Chandu the Magician
[Maxwell] Right.
[Maxwell] Knife throwers.
[Maxwell] or was that another show?
[yhtapmys] Chandu? There's another low-budget radio show.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - This is shooting him in a bag.
[Maxwell] Right.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - You're thinking of Lucy
[Maxwell] I was getting that mixed up in my head with the amateur show with the knife throwing act.
[yhtapmys] Maybe Mitl wrote both.
[ed] ed ames
[yhtapmys] Milt.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Oh right...haven't seen that one in years.
[Maxwell] I saw it several months ago.
[Laura Leff] Actually, Milt was probably off the show by then.
[Maxwell] Right around the time they showed the Ben Blue show, which is probably why I mixed them up.
[Laura Leff] Maybe Hal or Al, but I'd bet it was more likely George/Sam.
[Laura Leff] Ben Blue draws a keg on a chalkboard, pushes in a tap, and pours himself a beer.
[KayLhota] that was Buster Keaton
[ed] i thought that was someone else
[Laura Leff] And there was a prominent NRA ad from CBN years ago in the middle of it.
[Maxwell] Kay Wasn't Buster drawing a hook and hanging his hat?
[Laura Leff] Kay - Ben Blue did it too
[KayLhota] ah
[ed] buster and beerad great
[Laura Leff] Stole it, no doubt
[yhtapmys] Damned web page
[Maxwell] OH...beer ad later than the hook!
[Maxwell] By about 40 years.
[KayLhota] no offense to Buster or Ben Blue.
[Laura Leff] Ben Blue and Jack are probably about 10 feet away from each other now
[ed] buster didnot say much did he
[yhtapmys] Buster Blue?
[Laura Leff] At least, what's left of them.
[yhtapmys] He related to Buster Brown?
[Maxwell] No, that's Milton Berle.
[Laura Leff] Or Buster Poindexter?
[ed] he lives in an shoe
[yhtapmys] No, he was a Quiz Kid.
[Laura Leff] No, Milton is down the hill. Completely different section.
[Maxwell] Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!
[ed] berle and radio...bad
[ed] berle and TV...good
[Laura Leff] i don't think I've ever heard Berle on radio
[yhtapmys] I have Laura.
[yhtapmys] He's average,
[Maxwell] LL You haven't missed much.
[ed] i have too
[KayLhota] I've heard a little. I should hear more.
[Maxwell] Kay Not really.
[yhtapmys] I think Frank Nelson was on the show I heard.
[Laura Leff] Sounds like Clark Gable on radio. Now I understand why he wouldn't go on Jack's show.
[KayLhota] I've never been in a rush. It's like hearing Red Skelton on the radio.
[Laura Leff] I could imagine Skelton being very good on radio...so many voices.
[Maxwell] Skelton wasn't that bad, but he was made for TV.
[ed] red and radio was fine
[ed] visual
[KayLhota] yes, but I've not heard enough.
[J. Fred Muggwump] I like some of Red's radio shows
[Maxwell] Saw Red live about 30 years ago...still doing falls, etc.
[ed] he's got some funny ones
[Maxwell] He was well into his 70s.
[ed] died of stroke in 1998
[Laura Leff] I saw him in the late 70s performing live
[ed] goodnight and god bless...
[Laura Leff] Got an autograph too
[Maxwell] That was probably about the time I saw him. Maybe I saw him a little later. I have no idea what year it was.
[Laura Leff] Gave him a latch-hooking I'd done of a clown
[KayLhota] that is so sweet
[ed] born i a circus family
[yhtapmys] Laura, did anyone open for him?
[ed] in*
[Maxwell] He and Jack were my two favorite comedians when I was a kid.
[Laura Leff] Yht - I don't recall that anyone did.
[ed] who needed to>..
[yhtapmys] Not even Gisele Mackenzie?
[J. Fred Muggwump] I didn't like his TV show when I was little - thought it was cornball...Dick Van Dyke was more my speed back then
[Laura Leff] It was sort of a consolation prize because I'd been so excited to see Victor Borge because I thought he was Edgar Bergen
[Maxwell] LL He had a full orchestra. I think they played something and he came onstage.
[Maxwell] I loved Red's ad libbing and cracking up the guest stars.
[yhtapmys] I didn't know Bergen was Danish.
[KayLhota] I thought Edgar Bergen was Swedish
[ed] he had of the biggest crowds at ill.state fair ever more than 14000
[Laura Leff] Yht - I couldn't understand why he kept playing the piano and not bringing out Charlie McCarthy.
[Maxwell] hahahahahahahahaha
[yhtapmys] Maybe Charlie was made from the piano.
[ed] no iam serious
[Laura Leff] ed - Borge or Skelton?
[Maxwell] Also saw Bill Cosby and George Burns their on Consecutive nights.
[Maxwell] there
[yhtapmys] Burns would have been great.
[Maxwell] He was.
[ed] only group since then that big was hootie and the Blowfish'
[Laura Leff] I first saw George Burns at the Ionia Free Fair on August 2, 1982.
[ed] red laura
[Laura Leff] Saw Cosby at the first performance at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan.
[Maxwell] Red was very popular in this part of the country.
[ed] indiana born
[Maxwell] First time I saw Cosby was around 1968-69 in college.
[Maxwell] Yup Vincennes.
[yhtapmys] I think that was his demographic, too, Max.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Yup. I saw him at the now-gone-except-for-the-facade Walsh Auditorium in Grand Rapids, MI
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Ah, that was Cosby's hey-day. All his records and so on.
[Maxwell] Yup...and he'd just gotten married...and had a great routine about the wedding ceremony.
[ed] the ark classic
[Laura Leff] Poll to the room...what's your favorite Cosby routine or record?
[Laura Leff] *ding* NOAH
[KayLhota] I have a few. Chicken heart,
[ed] you've gotmine
[KayLhota] Noah
[Maxwell] Two: Noah and The Chicken Heart that Ate New York.
[KayLhota] Nut in Every Car, The Caveman
[KayLhota] Tonsils
[Laura Leff] Driving in San Francisco
[Maxwell] Also the coin toss to start the American Revolution.
[KayLhota] Track and Field
[Laura Leff] Pull around, idiot, pull around!
[KayLhota] To Russell my Brother Whom I slept With
[ed] going up the hill
[Laura Leff] I used to be very fond of Revenge
[Laura Leff] He came out at Genesee and immediately people were calling for Chicken Heart
[Maxwell] I've seen Cosby three times, and every time I left with my sides aching.
[KayLhota] Well, the Chicken heart was brilliant
[Laura Leff] Cosby finished up at Genesee with Dentists
[Laura Leff] As kids we used to sit in the back of the bus (no pun intended) and recite his routines from memory
[Maxwell] He did a bit about trifocals that was hysterical.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - That must be one of his later routines!
[Maxwell] Yeah...'80s or early '90s.
[Maxwell] Brain dead children was another great one.
[Laura Leff] So why do we all know the song from Gilligan's Island, but I'd bet no one here can recall much of the Cosby Show theme?
[KayLhota] I can recall the themes of Bill Cosby's shows
[Maxwell] I remember the Bobby McFerrin version of it.
[Laura Leff] There was one about Dudes on Dope which was pretty funny...going to Burger King and asking to see the King
[KayLhota] going back to the early 70's one when he was a gym teacher.
[ed] again-good-at-the-start.....and-on-I-Spy
[Laura Leff] Kay - Yeah, but you're you.
[KayLhota] can't sing it because it was gibberish
[KayLhota] [sighing] yes, Laura. I know.
[Laura Leff] Kay - And I'm the same way.
[KayLhota] Oh, let me share a story on myself.
[Maxwell] I don't remember the theme for his variety show.
[Maxwell] (The one with Lola Falana)
[Laura Leff] Bill Cosby's Music Hall
[KayLhota] We were in Detroit last week visiting relatives, and we went to the Motown Museum
[Maxwell] Or Cos (the kid's show)
[Laura Leff] Hey hey hey...it's FAT ALBERT!
[ed] fat-albert
[KayLhota] the tour guide showed us a hole in the ceiling that was cut in the 1950's and was a cheap way of getting an echo sound for their recordings
[Maxwell] Anybody else remember Cos?
[KayLhota] the tour guide urged someone in the group to test out the sound. I ended up singing "Please Mr. Postman"
[Maxwell] Prime time but aimed at kids.
[Laura Leff] I think I remember hearing about it, but never saw it.
[ed] that-theme-i-remember-came-on-after-Shazam
[KayLhota] I saw it, Max
[J. Fred Muggwump] I rememer his two 60s "singing" albums...
[Laura Leff] Hooray for the Salvation Army Band
[J. Fred Muggwump] Laura - Yep!
[Laura Leff] Kay - How was the echo?
[KayLhota] it was amazing.
[Laura Leff] Not bad for a cheap effect!
[KayLhota] It really gave off a great sound.
[Maxwell] Wow! I almost forgot the series he did with Felicia Rashaad and Madeleine Kahn.
[Maxwell] She died while they were doing that series.
[Laura Leff] Oh yeah, a detective thing or something.
[Laura Leff] Who died? Rashan or Kahn?
[KayLhota] I saw Madeline Kahn in two stage musicals: Two by Two, and On the 20th Century
[Maxwell] Kahn
[KayLhota] she had cancer
[Laura Leff] Gosh, didn't know that. She wasn't very old.
[Laura Leff] Limited
[Maxwell] She played Felicia Rashaad's business partner, I think.
[KayLhota] she looked so frail and thin towards the end
[Maxwell] That's another one you don't see reruns of because it only lasted 2-3 years.
[Laura Leff] Kay - Sounds like Jack in the screen tests for The Sunshine Boys
[Maxwell] Kay, yeah she did.
[KayLhota] you have seen his screen test?
[Laura Leff] Kay - Yes, it's on the most recent DVD release of TSB
[KayLhota] oh, I have to get that.
[Laura Leff] It's silent, but there
[KayLhota] My son Daniel has to read some books this summer and included in the recommended list
[KayLhota] were any play by Neil Simon
[Laura Leff] Cool
[Maxwell] I can go along with that.
[KayLhota] so I suggested "The Sunshine Boys" because he saw the movie and loved it
[Maxwell] Perfect.
[Laura Leff] En-TER!
[KayLhota]
[Maxwell] hahahahahaha
[KayLhota] I told him about how George Burns is so lovely at the end because he really was such a vaudeville file
[KayLhota] just so perfect for that role
[Laura Leff] I still say George is probably better in that role than Jack would have been.
[Maxwell] LL you might be right.
[Maxwell] He was terrific.
[ed] how-would-have-jack-done-in-the-movie-had-he-lived
[KayLhota] and how I saw Jack Benny on the Tonight Show in the summer of 1974 and had this awful premonition that they should not wait until the winter to shoot the film
[Laura Leff] Jack has a really hard time playing a character with an edge, like "The Man Who Came to Dinner"
[Laura Leff] Kay - No kidding...don't think you'd mentioned that.
[Maxwell] Hmmm...he did a pretty good job of playing that kind of part in Broadway Melody of 1936...
[KayLhota] It was an odd feeling, Laura.
[Maxwell] I've seen that twice in the past month or two.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - That's a very interesting point....I think that as he developed as a performer and sluffed of that character, it became harder.
[Laura Leff] sluffed off
[KayLhota] perhaps his radio personality took over a bit, Laura.
[Maxwell] sloughed.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Thank you
[Maxwell] <---spelling police.
[Laura Leff] I don't write that word too often
[Laura Leff] ontomatopoeia
[Laura Leff] onomatopoeia
[Maxwell] you're onto matopoeia?
[ed] what-do-you-take-for-that
[KayLhota] I remember seeing that episode of the Tonight show in 1974, and George Raft was a guest as well
[Maxwell] Gas-X
[Laura Leff] Sometimes I take an aspirin, sometimes I take a Calamel
[KayLhota] they showed a clip of him dancing with Carole Lombard in BOLERO and Johnny observed that
[J. Fred Muggwump] I'd walk a mile for a Calamel
[Laura Leff] ed-why-do-you-put-dashes-in-between-all-your-words?
[KayLhota] George did not look at the monitor
[Maxwell] Oh, you mean chocolate calomel!
[Laura Leff] J. Fred - I was waiting for someone to take the bait
[KayLhota] he said that he never saw himself on screen. He refused to.
[ed] my-space-button-is-stuck
[J. Fred Muggwump] Chomp!
[ed] soory
[ed] soory
[Maxwell] Contact Cmdr. Buzz Corey!
[ed] sorry
[Laura Leff] ed - Ah...OK!
[KayLhota] no apologies needed Ed
[Maxwell] (Of the Space bar Patrol!)
[Laura Leff] Ba dum bum
[ed] jack-webb
[Laura Leff] so folks, we've just hit the 2:15 mark...would you like to keep going or call it good?
[Laura Leff] Copper clappers kept in Clara Clifford's closet
[ed] iam game
[Maxwell] *bang*
[KayLhota] I'll continue a bit more
[ed] great
[J. Fred Muggwump] A crow flew over the river with a raw lump of liver
[Laura Leff] Dan left with his Bronx friends to go to Fisherman's Wharf to get dinner, leaving me to fend for myself.
[J. Fred Muggwump] Laura - are the goats gone?
[Laura Leff] J. Fred- The racket stopped a while ago, now it's getting cool enough that I closed the windows.
[Laura Leff] But I'm still waiting on my turkeys.
[Maxwell] They'er in the straw.
[Laura Leff] The neighbor's cat came cruising through a while ago, which may be keeping them away.
[yhtapmys] Any named Tallulah?
[ed] laura-drink-reponsibly
[Laura Leff] No one's eaten the corn on the patio, so they haven't been through today.
[J. Fred Muggwump] *meow*
[Laura Leff] Yht - Funny that, since we have three hens and two babies who frequent us.
[J. Fred Muggwump] How come there's a meow but no bark?
[Laura Leff] One morning I opened the garage door to see three toms and two hens all feeding on the driveway, and one displaying proudly.
[ed] ouch
[Laura Leff] J. Fred - Dunno...youhave to ask addon Chat about that.
[Laura Leff] So what else would folks like to discuss?
[J. Fred Muggwump] Laura - when you wrote "toms" I thought at first you meant tom cats...that's a strange visual image...
[Laura Leff] No...tom turkeys
[yhtapmys] *meow*
[Maxwell] There are three kinds of turkeys.
[Laura Leff] I once knew a turkey named Tom...he was the engineer at my first radio station.
[Maxwell] Tom, hen, and jive.
[J. Fred Muggwump] Laura - I heard the other week one of the shows were Jack refers to "Rodney Dangerfield"...
[ed]
[Laura Leff] J. Fred - Yes, there are a few of those over time.
[J. Fred Muggwump] I was wondering - did Dangerfield take his name from that, or from something else that Jack had picked up
[ed] he.didnot.change.his.name.til.the.sixties.i.thought
[Laura Leff] J. Fred - Jack's writers didn't seem to originate the name, as it was often used as a "gag" name
[Laura Leff] in vaudeville, etc.
[ed] oh
[Laura Leff] It's possible that Dangerfield picked it up from Jack. I asked, but he didn't respond.
[Laura Leff] But he could have heard it elsewhere.
[J. Fred Muggwump] Ah, a mystery
[Laura Leff] Let's see if I can eat a rice cake and peanut butter without smearing it on the keyboard...
[Laura Leff] (And now for something completely different)
[Maxwell] I have a TWTD Benny alert. A Benny excerpt and a full Benny program on this week's Those were the Days show.
[KayLhota] I forgot that you might be hungry now, Laura.
[Laura Leff] I'll go get something when we're done.
[KayLhota] It's almost 10:30 in the east
[J. Fred Muggwump] oops, charlie's jumped in my lap
[Laura Leff] *meow*
[Laura Leff] *meow* *meow* *meow*
[Maxwell] 8-minute excerpt from 4/6/52 (Jack and Rochester decide to clean the pool)...
[yhtapmys] Sounds like a Quiz Cat.
[KayLhota]
[J. Fred Muggwump] you've got his complete attention
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Oh, is that the un-PC one with the rice paddy?
[Maxwell] And complete show (sans commercials because it's an AFRS rebroadcast) from 5/9/54: Beavers take a trip to the beach.
[Laura Leff] *meow*
[Laura Leff] *slap*
[Maxwell] Not sure. I haven't looked up the episode yet in "39 Forver Volume 2"
[Maxwell] Written by somebody named Laura Leff.
[J. Fred Muggwump] wroof!
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - And I wrote the book so I don't have to carry the information around in my head.
[yhtapmys] Too bad, the spots are real highlights.
[Laura Leff] And be the Oracle at Waukegan
[Maxwell] To be the oracle of Delphi, you'd have to move to Indiana.
[J. Fred Muggwump] first again with tobacco men!
[Laura Leff] Someone at REPS said to me, "Wow, I thought you'd be really unapproachable since you know so much."
[Laura Leff] "But now I find out you're just a darned fool."
[Maxwell] Aren't we all?
[Laura Leff] So my cover's been blown.
[Maxwell] For some reason, I can hear Frank Nelson saying that.
[Laura Leff] (OK, that's not quite what they said.)
[KayLhota] what did they say?
[Maxwell] My guess is just the first part.
[KayLhota] Did they think you would be a savant and not a sociable person?
[Laura Leff] The first line is the same...I said, 'Gosh, did someone say I was unapproachable?"
[Laura Leff] Kay - Yeah, that's it exactly.
[Laura Leff] I told her the story of Socrates and the Oracle at Delphi
[KayLhota] I know the feeling.
[Laura Leff] and said that's pretty much my attitude about my knowledge, although I appreciate the kind compliments.
User ed has logged out.
[KayLhota] when I was 20 I was talking to a girl at college, just chatting, but my flood of the usual information was pouring out
[KayLhota] after nearly an hour she said: "You don't smoke grass, do you?"
[KayLhota] I was surprised at the question but I didn't
[KayLhota] and she told me how she knew why I didn't. It was my memory, which I wouldn'
[KayLhota] wouldn't have if I smoked the weed
[KayLhota] I've always prefered staying sober, and I have had people in my family with substance abuse problems, so I stayed away
[KayLhota] Laura, you remind me that I try to take down notes when I listen to radio shows because it is too much information for me to remember. The plot, the actors, the character names, the credits
[Laura Leff] Kay - Oh my...sounds like a lot of work.
[KayLhota] but it helps me with some mental reminders when I hear a show a second time
[Maxwell] There's my problem I don't take notes.
[Laura Leff] I had a strange memory recently that I had taken to creating a log of WB cartoons when I was young
[KayLhota] how young?
[Laura Leff] Each cartoon would have its name noted, running time, stars, and my own personal star raging
[Laura Leff] Kay - Not sure...maybe 7 or 8
[KayLhota] I was logging during 1979-81
[Laura Leff] Kay - Well, that may be about the same time I was doing it, although that's a little later.
[Maxwell] When I was that age I was keeping score of telvised ballgames.
[KayLhota] I was going to write a book because their wasn't any out at the time.
[Laura Leff] I remember my mother getting hold of it and writing some goofy entries in it, and I got very mad.
[KayLhota] Fortunately, Jerry Beck finally published them.
[Laura Leff] Kay - You should have...gotten the jump on it.
[Maxwell] So what was your rating for Falling Hare?
[KayLhota] The Gremlin has Benny Rubin's laugh.
[yhtapmys] She gave it an A Card.
[KayLhota] His schtick was laughing to the tune of Yankee Doodle
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Can't remember...I hope I don't have them any more.
[J. Fred Muggwump] I made a log of all the WB cartoons I recorded on VHS...unfortunately, technology has pretty much rendered teh collection, and the log, obsolete
[Maxwell] For the record, it's my second favorite cartoon, and my favorite Bugs.
[Laura Leff] Falling Hare?
[Maxwell] Yeah.
[Laura Leff] Actually...I'm trying to remember the name of my favorite Bugs cartoon....
[Laura Leff] It's the one where he's arguing with the cartoonist.
[Maxwell] My favorite cartoon is Magical Maestro.
[yhtapmys] Rabbit Rampage.
[Maxwell] That's it!
[J. Fred Muggwump] Laura - Rabbit Rampage?
[Laura Leff] That's it. Thanks Yht
[KayLhota] But that is an MGM Tex Avery cartoon
[KayLhota] Rabbit Rampage.
[Maxwell] It's my favorite cartoon.
[Laura Leff] Rabbit Rampage is a Tex Avery cartoon?
[J. Fred Muggwump] I like "Bully for Bugs" and "Rabbit Seasoning" best
[KayLhota] I forgot the title but was sidetracked on the other cartoon
[Maxwell] No, Magical Maestro is Avery.
[KayLhota] No Rabbit Rampage was done by Chuck Jones
[Maxwell] I think Rabbit Rampage is Jones.
[KayLhota] I know that it is.
[J. Fred Muggwump] Rabbit Rampage was the Duck Amuck idea done for Bugs
[Maxwell] So do I.
[Laura Leff] There was just something about busting the fourth wall that made that really neat.
[Maxwell] J. Fred Yup.
[Laura Leff] J. Fred - Yes. But somehow I liked Bugs better.
[Maxwell] Ditto with Magical Maestro...the "hair" in the corner of the screen.
[KayLhota] that is brilliant
[Laura Leff] Oh, I remember that!
[KayLhota] I love the bunnies dancing with the guy
[J. Fred Muggwump] King Size Canary is my favorite Avery...one of the strangest cartoons ever...
[Maxwell] And multiplying every time he holds out his arms.
[Maxwell] J. Fred Another masterpiece.
[Laura Leff] What's the story on Falling Hare?
[Maxwell] The gremlin.
[Laura Leff] Gremlins from the Kremlin? That's Russian Rhapsody
[J. Fred Muggwump] Nope, Bugs and one gremlin
[Maxwell] No, the gremlin and bugs in the plane.
[KayLhota] Bugs is reading about Gremlins and a gremlin is whacking at a blockbuster bomb
[Maxwell] Mel Blanc has a field day as the plane is diving.
[KayLhota] indeed
[Laura Leff] I think Russian Rhapsody must have inadvertently erased most of my memory of Falling Hare
[KayLhota] on both voices
[Maxwell] Heee-Hooo-Haaaa
[Maxwell] Sorry Folks, we ran out of gas.
[KayLhota] The gremlins in russian Phapsody are all charicatures of the staff at the animation studio
[Maxwell] Clampett at his best.
[J. Fred Muggwump] I wish WB would put out a WWII cartoon box along the lines of Disney's "On the Front Lines
[Laura Leff] Yeah, I'll drink to that
[J. Fred Muggwump] But then...come to think of it, that wouldn't be WB...
[Laura Leff] (Where are those turkeys?)
[J. Fred Muggwump] Or would it? Who owns those pre-1949 Warners now?
[KayLhota] Warners does
[Laura Leff] Why wouldn't Warners own them?
[Maxwell] AOL Time Warner
[Maxwell] UA used to own them...
[KayLhota] Warners sold the pre 1948 films and cartoons to UA
[Maxwell] Then Turner picked them up, and AOL-Time-Warner got them when they bought out Turner.
[Laura Leff] Oh, and someone bought UA recently...
[J. Fred Muggwump] They were sold off long ago and ended up with Turner, I think...so I guess they'd be WB again?
[KayLhota] MGM got the UA collection and then Turner got them and he sold them to AOL Time Warners
[Laura Leff] Ironic...like NBC Universal owning Jack's CBS shows.
[KayLhota] they came full circle
[J. Fred Muggwump] But a WWII box would be sublime
[Laura Leff] What would John Cahill say?
[Maxwell] So now AOL-Time-Warner owns WB, RKC, MGM, and UA.
[KayLhota] yes
[yhtapmys] RKC?
[Laura Leff] Who owns RKO?
[Maxwell] But now I'm seeing Sony attached to a lot of old MGM and UA stuff.
[KayLhota] cute
[Maxwell] RKO
[J. Fred Muggwump] Royal Krown Cola?
[Laura Leff] RKO owns RKO?
[Maxwell] So maybe Sony bought that stuff out.
[Maxwell] Turner had that, so AOL or Sony or whoever.
[KayLhota] friends, I'll see you in August.
[Maxwell] So long Kay!
[KayLhota] You take care
[J. Fred Muggwump] Night, Kay, happy summer days
[Laura Leff] I just refound my notes from the Library of Congress, and I have to write to Sony to get clearance to get a piece of a Canada Dry show out of the depths.
[KayLhota] thanks
[Laura Leff] Have fun, Kay!
User KayLhota has logged out.
[Maxwell] Is it one of the two making the rounds, or a different one?
[Laura Leff] Shows you what you can find when you clean up your desk.
[yhtapmys] A new one?
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Different one. Babies' Night.
[Maxwell] I wouldn't know about cleaning a desk.
[Maxwell] Cool!
[Laura Leff] I think it's from July 1932, would have to look it up.
yhtapmys shouts hurray!
[J. Fred Muggwump] Yay, Laura!
[yhtapmys] Do they have others, Laura?
[Laura Leff] It's not very long, only about 3-4 minutes. But it's better than nothing.
[Maxwell] Yup.
[Laura Leff] Yht - Unfortunately, not that I could find.
[yhtapmys]
[Maxwell] Just about the side of a record, huh?
[Laura Leff] Yes, I think someone did an amateur recording of it.
[yhtapmys] How's the quality, do you know?
[Laura Leff] Sort of ike the recent Amos n Andy disc on History Detectives.
[Laura Leff] Yht - I've heard it...not bad.
[J. Fred Muggwump] Well, anything from that time is precious
[Laura Leff] Better than the circulating January shows, actually.
[yhtapmys] It sure is, Fred.
[Laura Leff] It's taken right out of the middle of the show. Strange.
[Maxwell] LL do you know what's with the 1/1/33 show? The mp3 I've heard in more than one place repeats the start about 3 times.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - Not sure...I don't think mine does that.
[Laura Leff] *checking*
[J. Fred Muggwump] Favorite fantasy - taking a time machine back to a year in the 30s...with a portable radio and a digital recorder...
[Maxwell] The version on Crispy.com does that, and so does the one on otr.net
[yhtapmys] Then Fred, 50 years from now they'll moan about the poor quality.
[J. Fred Muggwump]
[Maxwell] Yeah, you can hear the static!
[yhtapmys] Like how DVDs will be obsolete in five years.
[Laura Leff] *hearing the opening song*
[Maxwell] It goes 2-3 minutes and then goes back to the start, I think.
[J. Fred Muggwump] I wonder how good those sounded coming out of an average radio back then...
[Maxwell] I think during the first number by Weems.
[Maxwell] A lot better than the recordings we have now.
[Laura Leff] Now going into Rise and Shine
[Maxwell] Somewhere in there is where it goes back to the start.
[Laura Leff] J. Fred - Well, remember that the J-E-L-L-O was sung VERY slowly for a while so people could hear EXACTLY what letters were being sung.
[Maxwell] I think the total time as a result of the repeats is something like 17 minutes.
[Laura Leff] Mine's 13:55
[Maxwell] Okay...then yours doesn't.
[J. Fred Muggwump] Well, some of the First Generation Archives recordings are so good, it's hard to believe that people heard them that clearly when they were broadcast
[J. Fred Muggwump] Laura - that's interesting
[Laura Leff] I'm not hearing anything suspect yet, and I'm at 2:24
[Laura Leff] Now Jack's been introduced
[Maxwell] Okay...no problems with yours.
[Laura Leff] We take the effort to bring you the best copies available.
[Maxwell] You might want to check out otr.com 's version to see what I mean.
[Maxwell] Crispy downloads so slowly.
[Laura Leff] I've heard strange edits like that on some shows...
[Laura Leff] I'm sure he doesn't have much in the way of server power
[Maxwell] I wonder if they had problems during the transfer and then it just got passed on to somebody else.
[yhtapmys] Never used him, Max.
[Laura Leff] I remember when we were doing Operation Benjamin to get the remaining shows in our library transferred
[Laura Leff] And I made all the MP3s available to the people working on the project
[yhtapmys] You could get Jack on Napster when it was big.
[Laura Leff] username-password, the whole bit
[yhtapmys] And the same screwed up versions were being passed around.
[Laura Leff] And within a couple days of sending out the logins, we almost shut down my friend's server who was hosting it.
[J. Fred Muggwump] I mainly used First Generation to get their Our Miss Brooks shows...I've never heard an OMB collection to rival theirs
[Laura Leff] I'm sure there were more people downloading than just the 10 or so on the project.
[Maxwell] In May I heard the Hindenburg disaster actually played at the right speed. I'd heard Herb Morrison interviewed, and it actually sounded like him instead of someone inhaling helium.
[Laura Leff] I thought he was just panicked
[Maxwell] No, it's been played back at the wrong speed (or was recorded at the wrong speed) for 70 years.
[yhtapmys] No, it's definitely off-speed
[Laura Leff] Oh the speed control!
[Laura Leff] Any particular reason? Was recorded at 80 and played back at 78?
[J. Fred Muggwump] I'm glad people are taking the time to speed-correct important recordings like that, Maz
[Laura Leff] Or the opposite?
[yhtapmys] It might be a later dub onto reel-to-reel.
[yhtapmys] We had tape machines at places I worked at that played off-speed.
[Maxwell] I'm not sure where it happened, but whoever made this version got it right.
[Laura Leff] Ain't technology wonderful?
[Maxwell] They used recordings of Morrison's voice to get the right pitch.
[yhtapmys] So, when you record it and play it elsewhere....
[J. Fred Muggwump] Who knows? I've downloaded things on Usenet that sound like OTR Alvin & the Chipmunks...
[Laura Leff] Does anyone here remember Hampster Dance?
[Maxwell] If it's recorded to slowly and played back at the right speed, it sounds too high.
[Maxwell] too
[Maxwell] LL No.
[Laura Leff] Hampster Dance was a Web fad a few years back
[J. Fred Muggwump] I'm still trying to forget it, Laura
[Maxwell] OH! Yeah!
[Laura Leff] It had music behind it that I recgonized as "Whistle Stop" from Disney.
[Maxwell] Kind of like Peanut Butter Jelly Time was a year or so ago.
[Laura Leff] So I pulled out a record of it to play for Dan. A 33 1/3.
[J. Fred Muggwump] Remember those great internet hits?
[Laura Leff] Then as we were listening to it, I ramped it up to 45, then 78.
[Laura Leff] I hit 78 and suddenly it was Hampster Dance!
[Maxwell] I wish I had a turntable that did 78.
[Laura Leff] Or almost. I had to use my manual speed adjust to get it up to about 81 to get Hampster Dance.
[Maxwell] Heck, I wish I had a turntable that played at constant rpm.
[Laura Leff] Dan and I looked at each other slack-jawed at discovering the secret.
[Laura Leff] Maxwell - I bought a professional one that's very good. Don't know if it's still available.
[Laura Leff] With 10,000 records, I need a turntable.
[yhtapmys] Canyou still find needles, Laura?
[Maxwell] I guess!
[Laura Leff] Yht - I have to order online, but yes...they're still made.
[Maxwell] Radio Shack used to carry needles...at least a few years ago.
[Laura Leff] I don't think I'd trust my records with a Radio Shack needle.
[Laura Leff] Heck, you can still get vacuum tubes for radios.
[Laura Leff] Well folks...we're at the 3:00 mark and I'd like to go get some dinner.
[yhtapmys] OK.
[yhtapmys] I've got some web page work to do.
[Maxwell] I need to go to bed.
[Laura Leff] If you'd like to stay and chat, please feel free to do so.
[Laura Leff] OK, sounds like not.
[Maxwell] Nah...I'm hitting the rack.
[yhtapmys] See you in a month.
[Laura Leff] Thanks for stopping, and we'll see you in August!