[78-L] Panic..or myth? (Hey, it was 73 years ago tonight, too) [FWD]

Mon Oct 31 15:05:02 PDT 2011

Eddy was a regular on the program from August 8, 1937 until November 5, 1939 -- and occasionally was billed *ahead* of Bergen and McCarthy, such was his popularity during this era. During this period it was a true variety-hour format, with Don Ameche the regular master of ceremonies, Bergen and McCarthy as the comedy stars, and Eddy and Dorothy Lamour as the vocalists. W. C. Fields was also a featured comedian on the program until the end of September 1937. With a regular cast like this, to say nothing of guest stars, it's not hard to see why nobody was listening to Orson Welles.

Elizabeth

on 10/31/11 5:54 PM Rodger Holtin wrote:

>Now I'm confused.
>If it was the Chase and Sanborn Hour, then Bergan and his wooden sidekick 
>were the stars and nelson was the guest, right?
>'Splain this:  http://www.old-time.com/otrlogs2/charlie_mg.html
>This website says:
>"[#] 78. (10/30/38) Madeline Carroll is guest. This same evening Orson 
>Welles panicked America on CBS."
> 
>No mention of Nelson until January 1939.  What's the whole story?
>
>Rodger
>
>For Best Results use Victor Needles.
>
>.
>
>--- On Mon, 10/31/11, David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
>
>From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
>Subject: Re: [78-L] Panic..or myth? (Hey, it was 73 years ago tonight, 
>too) [FWD]
>To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>Date: Monday, October 31, 2011, 4:29 PM
>
>
>I thought I had it on a Radiola lp but I'm not seeing it on the shelf (Edgar 
>Bergen-Charlie McCarthy program).
>
>dl
>
>On 10/31/2011 5:23 PM, Rodger Holtin wrote:
>> Is Nelson's show available anywhere?
>>
>> Rodger
>>
>> For Best Results use Victor Needles.
>>
>> .
>>
>> --- On Mon, 10/31/11, Michael Biel<mbiel at mbiel.com>  wrote:
>>
>>
>> From: Michael Biel<mbiel at mbiel.com>
>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Panic..or myth? (Hey, it was 73 years ago tonight, too) 
>[FWD]
>> To: "78-L Mail List"<78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>> Date: Monday, October 31, 2011, 4:02 PM
>>
>>
>> As I mentioned in my early posting, several years ago Elizabeth did a
>> great explanation about the slightness of the panic by reminding us that
>> if 1.2 million people were noted as being "upset" or "Disturbed" by the
>> broadcast, the population of the U.S. was 130 million - so less than 1%
>> could have upset, let alone panic.
>>
>> By the way, you CAN'T blame Nelson Eddy for the tune-outs.  He OPENED
>> the program.  He starts singing at about 2:15 into the show after a
>> little banter between Don Ameche, Charlie, and Judy Canova.  He finishes
>> just after 6:30 when Charlie McCarthy and Bergen join Amache and Eddy.
>> While his second song "The Canadian Logging Song" is not as exciting as
>> his first one "Song of the Vagabonds", even this at 4:30 in the show is
>> much earlier into the program than everyone thinks would grab new
>> tune-ins.  So people stayed with Bergen&  McCarthy at least until 15:00
>> into the show when Dorothy Lamour is introduced to sing "Two Sleepy
>> People".  So is Dorothy Lamour singing a NEW HIT to blame????  You can
>> blame Lamour if you consider that people tuning into a comedy show do
>> not want music, but just about every comedy/variety program had music,
>> including Fred Allen and Jack Benny. BUT Amache does an ad around 19:30
>> followed just after 21:00 by a rather dull dramatic scene from "There's
>> Always Juliette" played by Madelene Carrol and Amache.  THIS is the
>> tune-out, but it is about 20 minutes into the program.
>>
>> Unfortunately the BBC closed comments for its article, but the
>> ill-informed had a chance to tell us that there were no national
>> stations in the U.S. except for the Mexican border stations, and that
>> the government and FCC passed laws because of this broadcast.  Of
>> course, no laws or rules were passed (although NOW there is a rule
>> against hoax broadcasts, but that is relatively recent), CBS programs
>> were heard nationwide simultaneously (Boston withstanding!), and that
>> Orson Welles had been commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation to
>> study the possibility of using radio to spread fear and war propaganda.
>>
>>
>> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>>
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Panic..or myth? (Hey, it was 73 years ago tonight,
>> too) [FWD]
>> From: Elizabeth McLeod<lizmcl at midcoast.com>
>> Date: Mon, October 31, 2011 3:45 pm
>> To: "78-L Mail List"<78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>>
>> Precisely -- the Mercury Theatre was unsponsored because 8 to 9 pm time
>> slot on CBS was considered, for all intents and purposes, to be
>> unsalable
>> since the Chase&  Sanborn Hour on NBC was at that moment riding high as
>> the most popular program of the week. Chase&  Sanborn was averaging
>> about
>> 37 million listeners each Sunday, compare to about 6 million, tops, for
>> Welles. No sponsor was going to want a piece of that unless something
>> happened to bring unusual attention to Welles.
>>
>> THere was indeed no West Coast rebroadcast for the Mercury Theatre
>> series
>> -- sustaining programs rarely, if ever, did a second show for the Coast.
>>
>> So if it was heard at all out west, it was heard around suppertime.
>>
>> As for announcements in the program, there was Dan Seymour's opening
>> announcement, an announcement following the theme music introducing
>> Welles, a regularly-scheduled station break at approximately 40 minutes
>> past the hour, a post-station break announcement thirty seconds later,
>> Welles's closing speech, and a closing signature. Although it's
>> occasionally been written that various stations along the network broke
>> in locally, no positive documentation exists to back that up.
>>
>> Elizabeth
>>
>>
>>
>> on 10/31/11 2:50 PM David Lennick wrote:
>>
>>> No commercials..which was related to the lack of listeners, since the show
>>> was
>>> "highbrow" and couldn't land a sponsor until after the notoriety, at which
>>> point it became the Campbell Playhouse. If I'm not mistaken, it wasn't even
>>> done a second time for the west coast, which means that whatever stations in
>>> the west carried it (and I believe LA didn't) ran it at 5pm. Some local
>>> stations are thought to have done a line check and run it later. I've
>>> heard a
>>> number of different transfers of this broadcast (Longines, a dub off Orson's
>>> own lacquers, a 16-inch set of discs dubbed from another set of 78 lacquers)
>>> and the only "You are listening to.." occurs about 2/3 in.
>>>
>>> dl
>>>
>>> On 10/31/2011 2:40 PM, Rodger Holtin wrote:
>>>> Some were truly panicked. My dad's family was happily enjoying Nelson Eddy
>>> when the old man in their upstairs apartment came downstairs in tears
>>> blubbering about the end of thw world. They spent the rest of the hour
>>> scanning the radio dial looking ion vain for other stations that would
>>> confirm or deny the situation and basicaly missed the rest of both Nelson
>>> and Orson, including, I assume, Orson's announcement at the end, something
>>> about "we couldn't possibly soap all your windows so we did the next best
>>> thing."
>>>>
>>>> I have heard recordings of this, and they all run straight through,
>> including
>>> an LP from Longenes or somebody like that. I have read that there were at
>>> least six announcements of the "only a play" nature of the broadcast given
>>> during the hour, but I've never heard but the one I mentioned above. I
>>> have to ask, too, if it was not broken up by commercial announcements?
>>> This was an hour, after, all, and that seems a long time to go without "a
>>> word from our sponsor " on a commercial station or network, right?? Had
>>> they broken for commercials, that would have been a tip-off even to the
>>> most unsophisticated listener.
>>>>
>>>> Rodger
>>>>
>>>> For Best Results use Victor Needles.
>>>>
>>>> .
>>>>
>>>> --- On Mon, 10/31/11, Elizabeth McLeod<lizmcl at midcoast.com>  wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> From: Elizabeth McLeod<lizmcl at midcoast.com>
>>>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Panic..or myth? (Hey, it was 73 years ago tonight, too)
>>> [FWD]
>>>> To: "78-L Mail List"<78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>>>> Date: Monday, October 31, 2011, 7:26 AM
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> People desperately *want* the GIGANTIC PANIC OMG! to be true in this case,
>>> simply because it *is* such a good story. OTR fans want it to be true
>>> because it's the basis for the entire Orson Welles Legend. And a lot of
>>> media critics want it to be true because it makes an excellent talking
>>> point for whatever agenda they happen to have.
>>>>
>>>> There's also a lot of people who want the "Nelson Eddy drove all the Chase
>>> and Sanborn listeners over to Welles" angle to be true, because they can't
>>> understand how anybody could possibly like Nelson Eddy, who may well have
>>> been the most popular male vocalist in the country at that particular
>>> instant in time. But that's a whole 'nother myth to explode.
>>>>
>>>> Elizabeth
>>>>
>>>> on 10/31/11 3:36 AM Mike Harkin wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Never let the truth get in the way of a good story! [First Axiom of
>>>>> story-telling].
>>>>>
>>>>> Mike in Plovdiv
>>>>>
>>>>> --- On Mon, 10/31/11, David Lennick<dlennick at sympatico.ca>  wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> From: David Lennick<dlennick at sympatico.ca>
>>>>> Subject: [78-L] Panic..or myth? (Hey, it was 73 years ago tonight, too)
>>>>> To: "78L"<78-L at 78online.com>
>>>>> Date: Monday, October 31, 2011, 3:12 AM
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> What's this about War Of The Worlds not causing that much of a panic?
>>>>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/magazine-15470903
>>>>>
>>>>> dl
>>>>>
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