In an apparent attempt to get their Live365 radio station canceled, the hosts of Radio Once More, Ken Stockinger and Neal Ellis, have invited Your Obedient Servant and the Worst Voice in Internet Audio to guest on their program this Friday evening, January 22nd, at 9:00pm Eastern Standard Time, 6:00pm in the west (and in Baltimore it’ll be 9:42).

Please join us at that time, when we will attempt to answer the question, “What the heck is he doing here?” Check out http://www.radiooncemore.com/ for complete details and to listen in.

I realize this is a little early to be thinking about next October 21-24 Friends of Old-Time Radio Convention, but if you’ve considered attending (and you really should), now would be a great time to make hotel reservations.

Louise at the Ramada Plaza (formerly the Holiday Inn) tipped Jay Hickerson off to a great deal…don’t know whether it’s a typo, they are treating the seperate wings of the hotel (old and new) as different or what, but…

Head to the Ramada web-based reservation system and do a hotel search for Newark, NJ. You will find two listings for the Ramada Plaza…one that lists at $79.00/night, and another for the same building that lists for $49.00/night. Obviously, pick that latter one, which is the best price on this hotel I think I’ve ever seen! No pre-pay is required, and reservations can be canceled up to 6:00pm the first night.

This just in from our friend Jim Widner; a clip from Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show where he (as usual) picks on Sean Hannity. What could possibly be old-time radio-related about that? Well, check out the “young producer” Jon introduces at the end of the bit…folks who attend the Friends of Old-Time Radio Convention will certainly recognize him…

This is the second version of the Mercury Theater presentation of The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells and adapted for radio by Howard Koch, provided to me by Martin Grams, Jr. and possibly from the collection of Terry Salomonson, proprietor of Audio-Classics.com. We will refer to this, for the sake of discussion only, as program #2.

I haven’t really had the chance to listen to this yet, so we’re going to explore the similarities and differences of the two versions together. I apologize for taking so long to get this posted, as I received it quite a few days ago from Martin, but life frequently gets in the way of our “best-laid plans.”

So for those of you are interested in comparing this to the other copy Martin provided to continue the discussion on the Internet OTR Digest, well, here it is.

You may stream the show using the player below, or download it with the link. Remember, by subscribing to this blog with any podcasting client (Juice, iTunes, etc.) the shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer or MP3 player!

 Mercury Theater - The War of the Worlds Program #2 [60:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

These were taken Friday, October 23rd, 2009. And I have to explain a little about one of those photos down there. If you look at the photo captioned, “Cereal Stars,” you will see four distinguished gentlemen posing with…cereal boxes.

Derek Tague not only has an odd sense of humor but makes connections where most of us wouldn’t. As an auction object, he gathered together mini-boxes of cereal having a direct connection to some of our guests; Chuck McCann, who is the original “Cuckoo for CocoaPuffs,” Simon Jones, best-known as “Arthur Dent” but who also performed the cranky unfrosted side of a talking MiniWheat, Arthur Anderson, known by all as the original Lucky Charms Leprechaun, and Russell Horton, the Trix Rabbit. So these folks not only autographed their respective cereal boxes, they also lined up with their boxes for a photo-op. Seriously, you gotta love the indulgence of these stars.

Newcomers to the convention are always awed by the recreations; I should note I tend to use recreation and performance specifically, where some others use recreation for all of the shows. I think a “re-creation” is a show that specifically contains cast members of the original program, where a “performance” is a show performed by others. I know it’s splitting semantic hairs, but I find it a little uncomfortable referencing a performance by modern fans a recreation.

All that said, the performances are never perfect; it really isn’t an insult to honestly say some performances are better than others, or more even, or more interesting. Some of it comes to personal tastes, some to casting choices, and yes, some to the director’s skill and decisions. Those of us who have been around-the-block tend to have more critical opinions, where new folks are so amazed at simply seeing the performance they can’t notice what we oldsters notice as serious problems.

This is a long-winded way of explaining why, unless you catch me at the bar the evening after the shows chewing the fat with others who have been at many many conventions, you won’t hear me critiquing the performances. I want the new folks to be spellbound by the performances, without having some old guy grumbling about a less-than-perfect casting choice or less-than-stellar direction.

	The Life of Riley Rehearsal Gary Yoggy and Barbara Watkins rehearse the Dave Warren Players' performance of The Life of Riley.
	Jay Hickerson The hardest-working man at the convention, the guy who throws one helluva party, keeping everything on schedule during the evening festivities.
	Cereal Stars Chuck McCann (Cuckoo for CocoaPuffs), Simon Jones (cranky unfrosted side of MiniWheat), Arthur Anderson (Lucky Charms Leprechan) and Russell Horton (Trix Rabbit)
	The Fall of the House of Usher Performance The cast of the Escape episode, The Fall of the House of Usher.
	Dragnet Sketch Performance Chuck McCann, Larry Conroy, Michael C. Gwynne, and Richard Herd
	The Great Gildersleeve Performance Chuck McCann, Shirley Mitchell, and Corinne Orr at the microphones.

This is the episode of the Mercury Theater which aired seventy-one years ago tonight, on October 30, 1938. Adapted by Howard Koch from the story by H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds is one of those almost mythical programs in the Old-Time radio cannon, a show that almost everyone, even those with no knowledge of OTR, think they know about.

And this year, it has been quite a topic of conversation on the Internet OTR Digest, with postings suggesting there were multiple airings of the program. I talked to Martin Grams, Jr., who provided me with this copy of the program we are going to, for the sake of argument only, call program #1.

This is the one I’ve been listening to for a lot of years, with well-known scratches and surface noises almost being old friends to me. My first exposure to this was sometime in the 1960’s, when I purchased a record album set from a television advertisement, containing two discs of OTR hosted by Jack Benny, a disc of news and sports hosted by Frank Knight, and this recording. I still have the records, packed away downstairs with most of the rest of my youth, and each year around this time when I listen to the program I am still enthralled.

So if you are interested in comparing this to the other copy Martin has mailed to me to continue the discussion on the Digest, well, here it is. On the other hand, if you just want to sit back, close your eyes, and enjoy a rip-roaring story told in an extraordinary way, well, you’re allowed to do that, too.

You may stream the show using the player below, or download it with the link. Remember, by subscribing to this blog with any podcasting client (Juice, iTunes, etc.) the shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer or MP3 player!

 Mercury Theater - The War of the Worlds Program #1 [61:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Also from Friday, October 23rd, 2009. Watching the rehearsals is fun, especially for those of us who have been attending conventions for a while. The performers are still working the kinks out of their characters, and sometimes they try things that don’t work so well. It’s a hoot to watch them work, and worry, over each line, each phrase, each inflection. Anyone who thinks audio acting is easy has never done it, nor has ever watched it done well.

But it’s always the veterans who put me in awe. I have been so fortunate over the years to meet and know so many actors from radio’s golden age, and have been able to watch them demonstrate the skills they were able to hone by constantly working. Harry Bartell used to tell me he’d feel guilty when the family went on vacation, since it meant he wouldn’t be able to work, and so worried that he’d be forgotten by the directors he depended upon to feed his family. Naturally much of that is “actors’ insecurity,” but many of the journeymen actors of the period thought nothing of working six or seven days every week, two or three shows every day. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that they could pick up a script cold and perform an adequate character, using rehearsal time to build that into a living, breathing person.

And before I forget my manners, I want to thank Sean Dougherty, Derek Tague, and Martin Grams, Jr. for helping me keep my failing memory from insulting anyone with incorrect names or incorrect spellings. That doesn’t mean I got everything right, though - if you see any mislabelings in the photos, drop me a note directly or post to the comments and I’ll fix any goof-ups ASAP!

	The Great Gildersleeve Rehearsal Chuck McCann and Arthur Anderson
	The Great Gildersleeve Rehearsal Corinne Orr
	The Great Gildersleeve Rehearsal Chuck McCann, Shirley Mitchell, and Corinne Orr
	The Great Gildersleeve Rehearsal Michael C. Gwynne; he's an occasional contributer to the Internet OTR Digest.
	The Great Gildersleeve Rehearsal Christina Britton Conroy and Arthur Anderson, with Cliff Carpenter
	The Great Gildersleeve Rehearsal Talk about professionalism...Christina Britton Conroy and leslie Shreve put in a little extra rehearsal time, with audio engineer Bill Siudmak.

These were taken Friday, October 23rd, 2009. The photo of Richard Herd and Gregg Oppenheimer cracks me up…while they were just talking on the other side of the room, the photo makes it look like Richard is threatening Gregg with bodily harm or something. As someone who’s worked with Richard before, I can tell you he’s a guy you want in your cast; he’s not only versatile, but he’s always listening to the rest of the cast, and has one eye on the director all the time. (Besides, he’s just a really nice guy.)

It’s also always a treat to hear Michael C. Gwynne work. Those who read his posts on the Internet OTR Digest are missing out hearing that well-trained voice of his. Depending on the need, it can be smooth as silk or tough as nails. He’s just got one of those voices that cannot be ignored.

And Christina Britton Conroy…well, c’mon…the woman clearly has a painting in her attic aging for her. I’ve seen her turn the heads of 20-somethings, not to mention those of us of more advanced years.

	Fred Berney Before the Friday technical panel
	Gary Yoggy During his panel on OTR in the Movies.
	Dragnet Sketch Rehearsal Richard Herd and Gregg Oppenheimer
	Dragnet Sketch Rehearsal Richard Herd and Michael C. Gwynne
	The Great Gildersleeve Rehearsal Chuck McCann and Christina Britton Conroy at the microphones, with Larry Conroy and Michael C. Gwynne
	The Great Gildersleeve Rehearsal Cliff Carpenter
	The Great Gildersleeve Rehearsal The cast rehearses for the evening performance.

These pics were all taken last Thursday, October 22, 2009. When I’m not helping out with something else, I spend time in the rehearsal room with Bill and Bart, taking pics of the rehearsals. It’s a whole lot easier to get cast pics during rehearsal, when I can move about relatively freely, than during the performances when I’m kinda stuck in one place.

I have to publicly thank my great friend Mike Bortner for loaning me literally thousands of dollars worth of equipment…the Canon High-Def camcorder is an amazing piece of equipment (although now that I’m back home I’m fighting a little bit with the AVCHD disc burner…), and allowed me to take still photographs while recording the performances in high-definition. For anyone who was there, imagine Chuck McCann on a 54″ high-def screen…!

Almost every still photo you’ll see here was taken with that camcorder; in still mode it’s better than almost any camera I’ve used. It seems to be crazy for light…some of the pics I took were in low-light areas, and I’ve had to do very little post-photo to brighten them up. And even on the ones I did increase brightness and contrast, the camera supplied enough information that it’s tough to tell I mucked with them at all.

An amazing piece of hardware, one I greatly appreciate using for this convention! Thanks, Mike!

	Burnt Rehearsal Bobb Lynes and Craig Wichman
	Burnt Rehearsal Bobb Lynes and Craig Wichman
	Ken Stockinger and Alice Anderson Before his panel, Ken talks to Alice Anderson, Arthur's wife and a great friend to the convention.
	Young Mr. Lincoln Rehearsal Larry Conroy and Will Hutchins, with sound man Bart Curtis waiting for his next cue.
	Young Mr. Lincoln Rehearsal The cast of Young Mr. Lincoln; from left, Arthur Anderson (obscured), Bill Owen, leslie Shreve, Elaine Hyman, Craig Wichman, Larry Conroy, Will Hutchins, Cliff Carpenter (obscured)
	Young Mr. Lincoln Rehearsal Craig Wichman, Larry Conroy, and Will Hutchins
	Young Mr. Lincoln Rehearsal Elaine Hyman and Craig Wichman
	Young Mr. Lincoln Performance Director Jay Stern, Bill Owen, Arthur Anderson, leslie Shreve (obscured), Elaine Hyman (obscured), Larry Conroy, Craig Wichman, Will Hutchins (obscured), and Cliff Carpenter.
	Young Mr. Lincoln Performance leslie Shreve and Bill Owen

As promised, the first of the photographs from this year’s Friends of Old-Time Radio Convention, held last week in Newark, NJ. These tend to be bits-and-pieces, in no real chronological order. Later pages will have a bit more order imposed, honest.

	Ken Stockinger Some guy hanging around in the hotel hall...
	OTR Historians Panel From left, Anthony Tollin, Gary Yoggy, Michael Biel, Derek Tague, Gregg Oppenheimer, and Jack French
	Burnt Rehearsal Bill Owen at the microphone while Lynne Rogers waits her cue. This script was the prize-winning entry from last year.
	The Author's Panel From left, host Mel Simons, Jim Manago, Alan Able, Michael Hayde, and Martin Grams, Jr.
	My Daughter the Barfly Katie sitting in the bar with Shirley Mitchell, Gina Gwynne, and Paul Mellos. You know, a lot of the OTR-related Katie stories start in a bar...

Yeah, I remember saying I was going to be as consistent with posting photos and information on the Friends of Old-Time Radio Convention as I was at Cincy…there’s only one small problem. At Cincy, my biggest decision is where to eat any given day, where here I actually have things to do, with helping Fred with the video taping, and helping anyone else with whatever else needs to be done.

So, as I’m certain you’ve figured out, I haven’t posted a d*mned thing from Newark, and what’s worse I haven’t gotten issues of the Digest out, either.

So here’s the latest promise, and I’m pretty sure I can actually fulfill this one. I’m going to start Monday gathering the hundreds if not thousands of photographs and hours of high-def video and see if I can get stuff posted throughout the week. I also have some personal thoughts about the stuff thats been going on here I’ll be posting over the next week.

One quick personal comment now, though. Ken, if you’re reading this, I give you as much crap as humanly possible as often as I can, but you d*mned well deserve to be a member of the Rockford Club, more than some others, and almost certainly more than I do. And while this’ll be the last nice thing I say about you to your face for a long while, don’t ever think I don’t value you.

In an odd coincidence, last week on the Internet OTR Digest there was a discussion about the Les Paul Trio appearing on the Burns and Allen program; for a short time in 1945, they joined the Meredith Wilson Orchestra for musical numbers on the program.

I downloaded this episode of the show, which originally aired on September 20, 1945, many years ago from an unknown source. The sound quality is not terribly good and the show is a little hard on the ears, but it was the only episode with the Les Paul Trio I could find quickly. I will continue to look, not only in the digital realm but in my analog recordings to see if I can find something better - if I do, I’ll post it to the podcast. But in memory of Les Paul, who died at the age of 94, the Nostalgic Rumblings podcast presents this Burns and Allen episode, the first sponsored by Maxwell House Coffee, which includes the unmistakable sound of the Les Paul Trio playing, “Out of Nowhere.”

You may stream the show using the player below, or download it with the link. Remember, by subscribing to this blog with any podcasting client (Juice, iTunes, etc.) the shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer or MP3 player!

 George Burns and Gracie Allen - September 20, 1945 [32:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From CNN: Guitar, studio wizard Les Paul dies at 94

From the obit: “Les Paul, whose innovations with the electric guitar and studio technology made him one of the most important figures in recorded music, has died, according to a statement from his publicists. Paul was 94.”

From The New York Times: Les Paul, Guitar Innovator, Dies at 94

As I mentioned before, everyone has a Les Paul story, and here’s mine; A few years ago, Mr. Paul was a guest of the Friends of Old-Time Radio Convention at one of the more…er…eclectic closing performances. He spoke for a bit, answered some pre-set questions, and accepted our applause. After the evening’s performances finally ended, I sought him out…I didn’t take anything for him to sign, I just wanted to thank him for taking the time out of his schedule to visit with us, and frankly I wanted to meet the guy, someone I’d appreciated for pretty much my entire lifetime, and particularly since I learned to play guitar after losing a finger on my left hand. I found him, and did so…while shaking his hand across a table, I held it for just a moment longer than customary (men know what I’m talking about), looked him in the eye and said, “I wonder if a lick will rub off?”

You can hear his interview with Bob Edwards from April, 2008 at the BobEdwards.Info website.

On the Internet OTR Digest, there are some discussions that rear their ugly heads with depressing frequency. Like, Is OTR copyrighted? Was the Lone Ranger’s first name John? And the current argument, How high a bitrate is acceptable for OTR converted to MP3?

This one drives me crazy, since it’s so filled with confusion and personal biases that completely cloud the real issues involved. And like political or religious arguments, this one seems to bring out the absolute assurance in everyone - most within the argument make definitive claims they believe are absolute and irrefutable. And I admit, I get a little frustrated, since as listmaster of the Digest, I can’t get involved…if I do, some people will assume my opinion is some kind of “official” position of the list instead of my naturally-reasonable (and almost certainly correct… ;) opinion on the subject.

So why post here? Because this blog is designed to hold my personal opinions, and I’m pretty sure anyone who visits here doesn’t take my word for anything as an almighty dictate, but rather just the ramblings of an old man. So let me outline my view of this argument, why I think it’s one of the silliest arguments to even start, and why there really is no answer to the basic question.

But let me tackle some of the different aspects of the issue some people don’t understand, or in some cases even intentionally ignore. And let’s start with the whole nonsense that a specific bitrate can be compared to a specific analog system. Some people say 64kbps (or some other bitrate, these are just examples) is “AM Radio,” 128kbps is “FM Radio,” 256kbps is “CD-Quality,” etc. This is, and forgive me for being blunt, nonsense. No digital lossy compression scheme can be directly compared to an analog “compression” scheme…analog isn’t “compressed” the way we think of it in digital terms, it is more accurately “limited” in the frequencies it can transfer between the source and the target (your ears). This is a whole lot like comparing apples and oranges…lost frequencies cannot equate to lost digital information (which isn’t based on frequency, but rather on a mathematical assumption of “important” vs. “unimportant”), so getting into this is just plain useless, and gets in the road of the real discussion.

Now let’s talk preservation. Some people argue that these shows should be preserved in as high a bitrate as possible, which is also dead wrong. He, he…I can see you actually turning pale at the idea I would suggest preserving old-time radio at a low bitrate, but that isn’t what I’m saying…I’m saying that OTR should be preserved uncompressed. Kids, this isn’t rocket science, this is simple common sense…if you have the only copy of a lost episode of I Love a Mystery, it would be a bloody crime for you to encode it to any bitrate of MP3 while transcribing it, period. The show should be preserved as an uncompressed AIFF or WAV file - any digital compression on the only existing preservation copy should be grounds for a lengthy jail term. (And no, I refuse to get into the silly argument of 44kHz vs. 48kHz for the preservation copy, or even sillier 16-bits vs. 24-bits…I don’t know anyone who suggests any of these transcriptions have frequencies of 24kHz, so the CD format is just fine. If you want to waste the space for the extra 4kHz and 8-bits/sample on your own recordings, knock yourself out, but there sure as heck isn’t anything to argue about here.)

But that doesn’t suggest that listening copies have to be uncompressed CDs. That is, if I have the only surviving copy of that ILAM episode, and give you a copy to listen to, I can give you any bitrate I want. Your options are to either listen to what I supply to you, or be a snob, demand 320kbps, and be told to stick it in your ear. Seriously, I can’t understand why anyone would turn their nose up at a low-bandwidth listening copy. Assuming the encoding has been done with care, a 32kbps copy from good source material sounds just fine. Perfect? Of course not, but absolutely listenable.

And let’s talk about the thousands of crappy-sounding OTR MP3s wandering around the Internet. Everyone seems to blame the bitrate, when that really isn’t the problem. The problem is a bunch of kids who collected 18-generation cassette copies of shows they never listened to and only collected to say they “had the most” encoded those things while they were downloading pr0n and playing games on underpowered computers with bootleg MP3 encoders.

Go ahead…read that last paragraph again. I want to make sure you understand exactly how I feel about this. Most of the crap MP3s out there aren’t lousy because of the bitrate, they are lousy because of the source material and the encoding mechanics. Those who demand only high-bitrate MP3 files don’t want to hear or accept that, but it’s true nevertheless. You don’t need 320kbps to have a decent listening experience…heck, many people reading this listen to Sirius or XM’s RadioClassics channel, and that’s got to be running about 12kbps (considering the music channels are assumed to be under 30kbps after the most recent round of bandwidth-cutting, and RC is running much lower than that), and they don’t seem to mind. (Me, I don’t listen because I can’t stand the editing to insert contemporary commercials, and I’m not particularly excited about the host, either. But that’s a different rant.)

The ones I love are the ones that were originally encoded as lousy RealAudio files, which are later transcoded to high-bandwidth MP3s to “improve” them. What a joke…once information is removed in a lossy compression scheme, you can’t put it back so transcoding is only going to remove more signal, not make it better. And just as in analog recordings of the past, no equalizing is going to make it sound better.

And then there’s noise-reduction. Some people without a clue are determined to remove every bit of noise, using free apps like Audacity instead of high-end and expensive applications like No-Noise. It does more damage to the sound quality than if you’d leave it alone - talk about adding unnecessary artifacts! If you aren’t going to use high-quality (and expensive) software, touch the material as little as possible to reduce some of the tape hiss perhaps. But every time some heavy-handed “restorationist” uses Audacity to remove pops-and-clicks, it destroys whatever is there.

Let me give you an example. A while back on this podcast, I posted an episode of Cecil and Sally provided to me by Fred Berney. Naturally, someone took my 32kbps file, “cleaned” it (probably by converting to WAV file and running it through open-source noise-reduction software), then re-encoded it to 96kbps and posted it on the newsgroups as an “improvement.” Of course, the only thing that person could accomplish without having access to the source file (which was/is on CD) is remove more information, making it sound worse, not better. This is why we have so much garbage sound out there…people who either don’t give a rat’s patoots about the sound quality in the first place, or people who are foolish enough to think they can “improve” a low-bandwidth file by transcoding to a higher bandwidth.

(It’s also why I always hesitate before posting anything relatively rare, even though many of the “heavy hitters” in the hobby have been very generous to me over the years. Between people screwing around with the copies I provide, and the scum who immediately sell it on a certain auction site, there are a bunch of us who are negatively-motivated to share some of the lesser-heard programs in our collection.)

Look, I’m not saying we should go out of our way to screw up the audio. What I am saying is that we should lighten up a little on the whole “demanding high-bandwidth MP3s to listen to” thing…if the audio is listenable and fun at 32kbps, what the heck is wrong with that? At the bottom of this rant is one of the shows from the Haendiges collection in 32kbps encoding, done with attention to the 44-22kHz conversion and low-pass filters. I hope you’ll listen to it and enjoy the show instead of cranking it up to find the digital artifacts existent in the file, but if you want to demand 96kbps or whatever, well, no one is forcing you to listen. (Jerry, of course, maintains a 44kHz 16-bit digital copy, and probably the original analog source as well, so the show is properly “preserved,” thank you very much. And if you don’t trust Jerry to preserve it, buy a copy from him in CD format and retain it yourself…preservation problem solved, and the rest of us can have guilt-free fun listening to this copy of the show.)

I received from Jerry Haendiges, of The Vintage Radio Place a large collection of programs, with the suggestion I “broadcast” some of them here on the blog…thing is, many of the programs he sent I’d never heard, and some I’ve never heard of, even as long as I’ve been in the hobby. So for the foreseeable future I’m going to run the shows he sent in low-bandwidth MP3 format - even at 32kbps mono, these shows are some of the best-sounding shows you’ll hear. But remember for even better sound, these shows (and a few bazillion others) may be purchased from Jerry in either audio CD format, or ultra-high-quality MP3 format.

This program, from May 9, 1944, is an episode of the Columbia Workshop, which for a period of 26 weeks was taken over by Norman Corwin under the title, “Columbia Presents Corwin.” This episode is the first of a trilogy about cities and towns; written, produced, and directed by Corwin, of course.

You may stream the show using the player below, or download it with the link. Remember, by subscribing to this blog with any podcasting client (Juice, iTunes, etc.) the shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer or MP3 player!

 The Columbia Workshop; May 9, 1944 [32:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Not certain why, but secureserver.net is currently rejecting The Internet OTR Digest with, “The message was rejected because it contains prohibited virus or spam content.”

I have no idea what’s triggering the filter, but I do know secureserver.net handles mail for a number of hosting sites and small personal domains, so if you haven’t received a Digest in the past week and you have a small personal or business domain, might want to check with your provider to see if your mail goes through secureserver.

Jack French, he of the Metro Washington OTR Club and author of Private Eyelashes, sends the following:

Up until a few years ago, Rick Spurlock was a regular poster on the
Digest. His family recently contacted the Metro Washington OTR Club
with a request to get in touch with him. Our only contact with him
was publishing in the August 2000 issue of RADIO RECALL his list of
radio shows that made it to TV. We’ve had no contact with him since.

So, Rick, if you’re out there somewhere, please email me and I’ll
relay the family message. Or if anyone has any current
contact information for Rick, please let me know.

Send the info to me personally via the “Contact the Webmaster” form on the left, and I’ll see Jack gets it ASAP.

As many of you know, the Cincinnati convention had to scramble to find a new hotel at the last minute when the hotel that was already booked closed down suddenly. Bob Burchett, convention organizer, took a big hit financially because the new hotel was substantially more expensive.

To help cover his extra expenses, Bob is offering a special DVD to those who will donate to keep the Cincinnati convention alive. Please read how you can help, and get this unique DVD in the process.

As I mentioned Saturday, there was a bit of serendipity - Eddie Carroll guested in a number of sitcoms over the years, and an episode of All in the Family he appeared in was on TV Land this morning. Herewith are a couple of screen-grabs from the program, first with Sherman Hemsley and Carroll O’Connor, and then in close-up.

Gotta love that powder-blue tux jacket…

This post is going to be pretty brief; it’s after midnight, and we need to leave early in the morning to get on the road for home. In the next few days, I’ll get some more photos and maybe even some audio and video from this year’s convention, but for now, as I promised myself, some pics from around the convention today with some tongue-in-cheek comments.

	Katie Summers and Eddie Carroll My Research Assistant handled questions about Jiminy Cricket, and a fine job she did, too.
	Charlie Summers and Eddie Carroll Her father, on the other hand, received barely passing grades.
	Eddie Carroll, Katie Summers Go figure; after having had dinner with Eddie and Carolyn Carroll the evening before, and interviewing him, she suddenly got shy asking him for an autograph.
	Don Ramlow Director Don Ramlow at rehearsal.
	Eddie Carroll, Bob Hastings Eddie Carroll as Jack Benny, Bob Hastings as Dennis Day at rehearsal.
	Karen Hughes, Eddie Carroll, Bob Hastings With Karen Hughes as Mary Livingston, at rehearsal.
	Eddie Carroll, Bob Hastings Poor Dennis looks frustrated in this performance shot.
	Terry Salomonson Terry appears a bit confused.
	Don Ramlow, Stephen Jansen The aforementioned "dirty noir rat" receives the Dave Warren award.
	Don and Mary Ramlow Mary Ramlow receives the Dave Warren award. Yes, I read her lips when husband Don announced her name. No, I won't tell you what two syllables she mouthed.
	Bob Burchett, Eddie Carroll Eddie Carroll receives the Stone-Watterman award.
	Bob Burchett Bob closes down the convention. We're going to force him to continue having these until he can get through the closing ceremonies without choking up.

Ok, I have an explanation to make. In fact, I’ve already made it about five times already, so one more isn’t going to matter. When Terry Salomonson presented me with the Parley Baer Award which was actually awarded but not presented a few years ago, I wasn’t exactly certain what to say other than “Thank you.” But I realized there were three people from the Golden Age of Radio I always wanted to meet but never did; Parley Baer, Larry Dobkin, and Harry Bartell. As many of you know, Harry was a friend of mine, yet we were never in the same room at the same time. We talked by email, and telephone, but never had the drink we promised each other we’d enjoy together.

I don’t know why I got vapor-locked, but it was absolutely impossible for me to speak his name. I tried a few times, and then finally gave up before I, as Steve Jansen (the dirty noir rat) suggested, “cried like a dame.” Fleeing seemed like a reasonable solution at the time, in fact the only solution available to me, but it left a bit of confusion in everyone’s mind.

You see, a lot of folks there assumed I was choked-up about my pal Hal Stone, and I have to admit that wasn’t the case. I did meet Hal, lots of times, and am thrilled to tell you the two of us enjoyed many drinks, and arguments, together. In fact, Hal bought my daughter her first Shirley Temple, and if you haven’t read that story, follow the link there and read it now along with the other stories I told after he passed…go ahead, I’ll wait until you come back to finish this.

Anyway, Harry and I never met face-to-face and one of my lifetime regrets is that we never did. Hal and I did, and while of course I wish we had spent more time with him, I have no other regrets when it comes to Hal. But if you’re interested, I can tell you exactly what Hal Stone would have said tonight if he were alive, twinkle in his eye and right before buying me a drink to celebrate my award.

“Ah, c’mon, Curley…I won that award before you did, and the Stone-Waterman Award, too. Beat that, kid.”

Tonight I’ll drink to all my friends…those no longer with us like Hal and Harry, and those who still enrich my life and hug my daughter like Bob and Eddie. Then I’ll get a few more photo published, and grab some sleep for the big drive home tomorrow.