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.

Today was the first official day of the convention (but like we did, everyone seems to have arrived a little early!), and it was a busy one. Lots of time spent in the dealers’ room, topped-off by recreations this evening including The Bickersons, and Suspense.

I had planed on writing a lot more than just this, but after the performances we went over to Benihana (across the street from the hotel) and had an amazing dinner, made so much better by the excellent company. After that, I had some other work to do, my daughter finished researching her questions for tomorrow, and so it’s late and I’m tired. I’ll write more, probably after we get back home.

But for now, some photos from today. Same routine; click the thumbnail for a larger version of the photo.

	Terry Salomonson, Neil Ellis Terry Salomonson talks to Neil Ellis who is broadcasting on Yesterday USA
	Michael and Leah Biel, Neil Ellis Michael and Leah Biel visit with Neil Ellis
	Dave Davies Seriously, you don't want to know.
	Ken Piletic Every convention I try to get a photograph of Ken as he's photographing someone else. Dunno why, I just do.
	Don Ramlow, Eddie Carroll Director Don Ramlow talks to Eddie Carroll
	Auditions Acting Auditions for available roles in various re-creations over the weekend.
	Eddie Carroll, Esther Geddes McVey Eddie Carroll and Esther Geddes McVey at the microphones
	Don Ramlow, Bob Hastings, Eddie Carroll It looks like Bob just found out what he's being paid for the weekend.
	Bob Hastings, Esther Geddes McVey, Eddie Carroll I'm not sure why I like this photo so much, but I really do. It has all three of our special guests, and it just feels good to me.
	Bob Hastings, Esther Geddes McVey Bob and Esther perform The Bickersons.
	Cast of Suspense The Suspense re-creation performance.
	Cast of Suspense Taken at rehearsal - you can tell, because I am using a flash.
	Sound Effects The sound effects department, apparently wondering if what Director Ramlow wants is possible.
	Eddie Carroll, Stephen Jansen Accident of photography, Stephen looks like he's going to rip someone's head off or something. He's usually not that scary.
	Suspense This photo shows what I love about Bob Hastings...he's totally invested in any character he performs. He uses his entire body, which gives his voice exactly the nuance he wants.
	Eddie Carroll Eddie Carroll becomes Jack Benny.
	Esther Geddes McVey Esther Geddes McVey

Today was an “off” day at Cincinnati, waiting for the convention to start tomorrow morning, so we decided to go to the zoo. Before we did, though, as evidenced in the photographs below, we found a few bipedal animals that were strangely familiar to us in the hotel atrium…

While today was a great day (we even got to see a Fishing Cat catch and eat lunch, something I hope to post a video of once we get back since I managed to get the thing recorded from start to relatively bloody end), we’re looking forward to tomorrow and the start of the convention. Already talked to many friends, had dinner with Fred and Ellen Berney, and can’t wait for tomorrow morning’s official kick-off. Er…ok, after breakfast in the Atrium…

For those new to the blog here, simply click on the thumbnail photo for a larger version in a pop-up window.

	A Motley Crew Look who I noticed walking near the pool! The guy responsible for this convention, Bob Burchett, is on the right.
	Even More! This was this morning at breakfast...there were more folks in town.
	A White Tiger He was posing for us. A really beautiful animal.
	A Red Panda These are odd-looking little creatures. Cute, but with those claws...
	Maccac I think this is a Maccac. Would accept correction, though.
	Another Maccac He laid down, rolled over, and looked at me.
	Canadian Lynx Again, I think this is a Canadian Lynx, correction welcomed. Funny-looking ear-tuffs, no?

Update: As we were going to press, I heard a rabble outside my hotel room. Sure enough, it was a contingent of early arrivals, partying like it’s 1945 or so. (Yeah, that’s an OTR reference, why?)

Just to make certain everyone is properly embarrassed, I post the following photographs without comment.

	Just a test... It took me a while to figure out how to turn the flash back on after turning it off at the zoo. Katie agreed to be guinea pig.

From the New York Times’ ArtsBeat Blog: CBS Turning Off ‘Guiding Light’

From the article: “CBS announced Wednesday the cancellation of the longest-running scripted program in broadcasting history, the soap opera ‘Guiding Light.’ It has been on CBS radio and then television for 72 years and was the last program to have made the transition from radio to television. The last broadcast is scheduled for Sept. 18.”

Received info from Bob Burchett that the hotel scheduled to hold this year’s Cincinnati Old-Time Radio and Nostalgia Convention closed it’s doors! Poor Bob only found out last Sunday, yet managed to scramble to find a new home for the con. (Bob is officially the man-of-the-hour as far as I’m concerned…I can only imagine what the last few days have been like for the guy!)

At any rate, complete information is included in this updated flier - download it ASAP for all the info, and send Tweets, Facebook updates, and anything else you can think of to get the word out!

 Ebook: Download

Gregg Oppenheimer posts to the Internet OTR Digest about directing a recreation of “The Baby Snooks Show” at this year’s SPERDVAC Convention (May 1-3, 2009 at the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn). Additional information on the recreations Gregg will be directing is on his blog.

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.

Today is, at Curmudgeon Central at least, a snow day; the Katester is off school, the skies are gray, and the driveway is filled with snow needing to be shoveled. So while I generally don’t run comedy/variety series here on the blog, I’m making an exception today to help lighten the mood.

NBC’s New Jimmy Durante Show was a continuation of The Durante-Moore Show, the successful collaboration of Jimmy Durante and Gary Moore. Once Moore left, Durante continued the show with Arthur Treacher, later the figurehead of a successful chain of fish-and-chips restaurants, Peggy Lee, Candy Candido, and in this episode, guest Eddie Cantor, who years before, John Dunning reports, was a singing waiter at Terry Walsh’s club on Coney Island while Durante played piano. At the end of the show, Rexall sportscaster Tommy Harmon reports from Detroit on all the football news. Enjoy this show from October 8, 1947!

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 Jimmy Durante Show; October 8, 1947 [31:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The registration form for the 23rd Annual Cincinnati Old-Time Radio and Nostalgia Convention is finally ready, here for your download in convenient PDF format. With guests Eddie Carroll, Bob Hastings, Rosemary Rice, and Esther Geddes, it’s going to be another great get-together!

 23rd Annual Cincinnati Old-Time Radio and Nostalgia Convention Registration Flyer: Download

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 show is the audition program for the Jimmy Stewart western series, The Six Shooter, recorded on July 15, 1953. It’s the story of a roving gunslinger, Brit Ponsett carrying a gun of, “gray steel and rainbow mother-of-pearl.” You’ll hear the west-coast stock company, including Robert Conrad. Since this is the series’ audition, you’ll also hear Jimmy Stewart introduce the series at the mid-commercial, and a dummy commercial for “our product” after the feel-good ending. Listening to this program, you have to wonder what took Stewart so long to do radio - his deliberate yet natural delivery was tailor-made for the medium.

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 Six Shooter Audition - July 15, 1953 [25:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Over the last few weeks I’ve run into an issue on the Internet OTR Digest I’m not exactly sure how to handle, and so I ask for opinions and suggestions from the subscribers. It has to do with podcasts…

See, lots of people (including your obedient servant) run podcasts…we used to call it “uploading OTR files for others to enjoy,” but even I can’t stem the podcast moniker, so I’ve quit trying (and you may stop laughing now, Jim…). OTR podcasts are, in the best of circumstances, irregularly-released, since most folks running them have real work to do, and operate them as a hobby. Still, there are many releases to choose from every week from subscribers to the Digest who publish them.

But I believe there are too many to have postings about every release. Some people are justifiably proud of their podcasts (unlike your servant, who is still “the worst voice in Internet audio”), and want to post about each new edition. My fear, and the reason I have been rejecting those weekly postings, is that it won’t take long before the podcasts promotions will over-run the conversation on the Digest, crowding it out, and that seems like a really bad thing. One podcast I subscribe to has released twelve episodes so far this month, add to that weekly and less-regular podcasts out there. Heck, I don’t post to the Digest about my own podcast, unless I post a show specifically because it’s being discussed there. (But since I have you, feel free to look around here on the blog and check out the recently-released shows; you can play them directly from here, or download and take ‘em with you. The Six Shooter audition program is scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday.)

Yet there are weekly promotions for radio shows on the Digest, so I seem to be splitting a somewhat fine hair here in rejecting the one and allowing the other. And if I’m going to allow radio promotions, shouldn’t I be encouraging the other subscribers on the list who have radio shows (for example Max Schmid of WBAI, Ed Walker of WAMU, etc.) to post as well?

I have to admit I’m stumped for a simple, solid, I-can-follow-it-all-the-time rule about this; and it’s going to get worse as more people publish podcasts, not easier, so I really need to come up with something we can all live with, something that keeps me out of being in the position of making value judgments and deciding who or what is “worthy” and who or what isn’t. I need a solution that works for the Digest and all the subscribers to it, since (as I’ve said more than once), the readers of the Digest are my primary concern, even sometimes at the expense of the posters.

What I have been doing to this point about podcasts is to suggest the poster, instead of posting about every episode they publish, write a brief description of their podcast and post that along with a link to a more detailed description on the podcast’s website. That way subscribers would receive the information about the show, and be able to make up their own mind about subscribing. But there are reasoned arguments against this (and trust me, lately I’ve heard a bunch of ‘em), and besides, it seems to the rejected poster that I am saying his podcast (which I almost certainly haven’t yet heard) is somehow not “worthy” of promotion in the Digest,

So I’m asking for your thoughts on how we might solve this, getting the word out while not dampening the discussion the Digest was designed to carry. I want to keep the discussion here, though, not on the Digest - it’s easy to make public comments to this blog entry (once you register and sign-in to the blog, use the “Leave a Reply” box at the bottom), and if you prefer to make suggestions privately to me, you may easily use the “Contact the Webmaster” button over on the sidebar - those comments aren’t public, and come to me alone.

You can follow the discussion here easily, too, using any RSS aggrigator or even your browser, by adding the “RSS feed for comments on this post” link below to your RSS news client (Firefox calls it a “Live Bookmark”) and monitoring it for new comments.

A side note: I’ve added our Twitter name to the footer of each issue of the Digest; should you have a problem and not be able to contact me via email, you can always get in touch via the web form over there on the sidebar of this blog, or by a DM to CFSummers on Twitter. Our Twitter address is also tracking this blog and announcing our podcast, so if you have a Twitter account please feel free to follow me, and DM me that you’re a Digest subscriber. As always, if you have any questions about which address to use for what, just check that footer - it’s in every issue of the Internet OTR Digest!

This program marks the return of the, “Worst Voice in Internet Audio,” after a somewhat lengthy break…

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.

Life with Luigi was a comedy series created by My Friend Irma’s creator Cy Howard, aired on CBS for Wriggley’s Gum. J. Carrol Naish starred as Luigi Basco, a little immigrant who each week wrote a letter home to his mother describing what happened to him in the last week, leading the listener into his adventures. You’ll also hear Alan Reed as Pasquale and Hans Conried as Schultz. This episode, directed by Norman MacDonnell, better-known for shows like The Adventures of Philip Marlowe and Gunsmoke, originally aired on May 15th, 1951 and tells of the upcoming “I Am an American” day, or in Luigi’s case, “I Want-a to Be an American.”

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!

 Life with Luigi - May 15, 1951 [31:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

For your downloading pleasure, a flier and registration form conveniently packaged as an Adobe Acrobat file for your printing pleasure - this for the 2009 SPERDVAC convention, to be held May 1-3, 2009 at the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn. This one sounds like a can’t-miss!

 2009 SPERDVAC Convention Flier: Download

On the Internet OTR Digest, the subject of XM Satellite Radio has come up. Since it really isn’t directly on-topic, I suggested the discussion be moved here.

So feel free to discuss anything and everything about XM or satellite radio in general here…talk about radios, how well they work at home, which channel is better, anything you’d like, since here the discussion is as unfocused as the guy who runs the place…

To get you started, and maybe to rile some of you up, I point to my 2004 review of the RadioClassics channel…and no, I don’t think anything has changed since then. Also search the blog for my other comments and rants about the programming on XM (especially since the takeover of our Sirius overlords).

Just add your comments using the form below - while you need to register here on the blog, and your first post will need to be approved (it’s just to keep out the spammers who are constantly trying to sell their pharmaceuticals and smut), comments aren’t expected to “stay on-topic” as they are on the Digest…the only posts banned here are for inappropriate language, since while we’re all adults here, I’d rather not offend the kids that also read the blog.

If you’re like our family, you end up missing an episode or two of The Cinnamon Bear and need to catch up later…if this happens a few times a week, sometimes you even get a little confused about which episode you’re supposed to be listening to.

So I put together a little calendar in iCalendar format with the episodes and the dates; you can import it into almost any modern calendar application (phpCal, Sunbird, etc.) and always know what episode you should be listening to…and maybe even how many episodes you’re behind. ;)

Now that our friend Dennis Crow can no longer remind everyone, it’s up to me; don’t forget to listen to episodes of The Cinnamon Bear each evening during this holiday season. Today’s episode is episode 4, so if you haven’t started yet, you have some catching-up to do if you want it to end, as it should, on Christmas Eve.

Dennis’ legacy is intact, though, as the packet he put together for everyone is still available here; it includes song lyrics, a map of Maybeland, and other goodies. And the first episode of the four-inch-high bear’s story is also available below, although it contains my personal note from earlier this year when Dennis left us far too soon.

The entire series is available in amazing sound quality from First Generation Radio Archives - if you want to hear this series the way it was meant to be heard, buy this set. You and your family will enjoy it for decades to come.

 The Cinnamon Bear - Episode 1 [16:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download