Classic Television: Leave It To Beaver

My first recollection of watching Leave It To Beaver was watching the show at my grandfather’s farm in Allendale, Missouri. Our local station in Alexandria, Louisiana was an NBC station so we had never seen the show because it was on ABC.

It was first shown in September of 1957 when Jerry Mathers who played the Beaver was nine years old. Tony Dow who played Beaver’s older brother Wally was twelve when the show was first shown. Wally’s friend if you want to call him a friend Eddie Haskell was portrayed by Ken Osmond who was already fourteen when the show debuted.

Dow was 64 earlier this month. He continued to act but also was a producer and a director of many television shows.

One of my sons saw Mathers at a Portland Beavers minor league baseball game where he was making a personal appearance. He was fortunate to obtain his autograph.

Mathers had appeared in movies and in some theater productions for television like Matinee Theater and General Electric Theater before taking the role as Beaver.

He also appeared on many television shows after leaving Leave It To Beaver. Mathers will be 61 in June. He is recognized even in Japan where the show is called Happy Boy and fans say “Happy Boy” when they see him.

Hugh Beaumont who played the father Ward Cleaver was 48 and his wife June Cleaver played by Barbara Billingsley was 41.

The Disney Channel revived the show from 1986-1988 with 101 episodes of a updated show named Still The Beaver. Most of the original cast returned except for Beaumont who had died four years earlier.

The two brilliant writers of the show were Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher who had teamed up to write scripts for both the radio and the television versions of Amos and Andy.

It was amazing the predicaments Beaver could get into but by the end of thirty minutes his father and mother had helped him solve whatever the problem was by the end of the show.

Beaumont was very effective as the father and was a no nonsense father who taught Beaver a life lesson in most shows. Beaumont was a licensed Methodist preacher. He was in many movies from 1940-1965 but was best known for appearing as the detective Michael Shayne in five movies. He died in 1982 at the age of 73 in Munich, Germany.

Billingsley was a great mom for the show balancing being a loving mother with being a strict mom when needed. She is 93 years old now.

Eddie was one of my favorite characters who would find a way to diss the Beaver whenever possible. His feigned politeness to Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver always amused me. They saw through that politeness though and knew he was not what he seemed and that was a teenager bent on getting Wally in trouble  or it seemed that way. Osmond went to become a Los Angeles policeman and will be 66 in June.

Some of my favorite episodes were when Burt Mustin appeared as Gus the fireman. He was 73 when he made his first appearance and went on to appear in fifteen epiosodes as Gus. Mustin died in 1977 at the age of 92.

The show was last seen forty six years ago on network television but is still being show in rerun on television today.

The following photos show more recent photos of  the actors on the show:

Jerry Mathers

Tony Dow

Jerry Mathers shown with Barbara Billingsley

Ken Osmond

Some shows come and go during our lifetime but others are remembered many years after they leave network television and Leave It To Beaver was one of those shows. Kids today can still learn from how Beaver and Wally encountered problems and how their parents helped them solve their problems. A lot of kids today probably wish they had a dad like Ward Cleaver and a mom like June Cleaver.

With so many parents both working today the kids today don’t have a mom like June to be there when they come home from school. With the stress in the world today it is nice to be able to go back to a simpler time.

Classic Television: Dragnet

Jack Webb as Joe Friday and Ben Alexander as Frank Smith portrayed detectives on the popular television series Dragnet in the 50's. Looks like Frank Smith is taking a snooze in the middle of the scene.

Dragnet was my favorite detective show from the 1950′s as I will never forget the dum da dum dum…dum da dum dum…dum that opened each show. It was also part of  a famous knock knock joke:

Knock knock…who’s there?

Dum

Dum who

Dum da dum da dum dum…dum

Jack Webb had first done the show on radio and about 360 or so of those shows still exist. One radio show about a boy killing his friend accidentally was one of the saddest old time radio shows ever heard.

The best version of  Dragnet to me was the Webb and Ben Alexander combo doing the show in the 50′s. This show was perfect for black and white televison.

The announcer would start the program with this statement: “Ladies and gentlemen the story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.”

I never could get used to the later version with Harry Porter teaming up with Webb as Officer Gannon. It just didn’t come across as well to me in color.

Even though it was a crime show Friday and Smith would joke about whatever was happening in their lives at the time but they still took care of business and by the end of thirty minutes the crime had been solved.

Then we would be told by the announcer that the trial was held for the offense committed on that night’s show and that in a minute we would hear the results of that trial.

After the commercial break the announcer would tell what sentence had been meted out by the judge in the case for that night.

This was television at its best. Nothing too complicated to figure out like with some of the crime shows today who spend so much time dealing with forensics.

Back then it was a case of  Friday and Webb digging for facts and Friday was famous for saying “Just the facts mam” and then the two detectives would follow each lead until the case had been solved. It was later discovered that Joe Friday had never uttered the line about the facts but that comedian Stan Freberg had made a parody of the show using that line.

Jack Webb died December 23, 1982 at the age of 62. Ben Alexander died July 5, 1969 at the age of 58 ten years after last Dragnet black and white show had been televised.

Drive In Movies Still Operating Today

A typical drive in theater of the past in a simpler time before computers, video games and MP3 players occupy so much our time today.

The drive in theater may be a dying breed today but there are still drive in theaters in operation in many states today. There are no longer any drive in theaters in the state of Louisiana where I spent most of my youth and adult years. Louisiana is one of three states without an operating drive in moviet theater as of  December 1, 2008. The other two states without a drive movie theater are Alaska and Delaware.

Sacramento, California has one of the 18 remaining drive in movie theaters in California. It is called the Sacramento 6. I am not sure if the 6 refers to six screens.

I can still remember the wait for darkness so the movie could begin playing on the giant screen. There are still memories of the concession stands and the popcorn, candy and cold drinks that were for sale inside.

Who can forget the speakers that allowed us to hear the sound emanating from the movie?  It is sad that drive ins have lost their popularity over the years as other interests took the place of a night outside at the drive in movie.

We went on a vacation to see the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006 and on the way we saw a drive in movie in Mt. Airy, N.C. and it was like going back in time even if the speakers of the past were gone and the sound came from a certain frequency on the car radio.  My grandsons thoroughly enjoyed the experience and it was good that they experienced what it was like to see a movie under the stars.

Too often we forget the past and the great memories like drive in movies. It has been 76 years since Richard Hollingshead opened the first drive in movie in Camden, New Jersey on June 6, 1933.  It cost 25 cents per car and 25 cents per person for the first movie.

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa980121.htm

This is a list of operating drive in movie theaters still operating as of  December 1, 2008:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_drive-in_theaters

From The Past: Burma Shave Signs

I can remember on our family vacations that we would see from time to time signs with funny sayings alongside the highway. Those signs were placed there by the Burma- Shave company. The company had been struggling before they used the signs to advertise Burma- Shave shaving cream.

These signs helped pass the time on long trips across the country and kept the passengers amused by the funny sayings on the signs. Wikipedia.com breaks down the signs into different time periods: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-Shave

Old Time Radio: Night Watch

Night Watch was a radio version of COPS except you don’t see the cops in action but you do hear everything that happens when a criminal is being questioned by the cops.

These are true stories recorded as they happen by a police reporter who rides in the patrol car with the officers. This to me is the most realistic old time radio program since there are no actors and what you hear are the actual words of the cops, criminals, witnesses and parents when juveniles are involved.

One of the stories is about a mother that leaves her two kids in the car on a cold night so she can go in a bar. The police are alerted and check on the kids and question the mother.

Another story is about a man stealing bedding from a nearby motel to take back to his trailer.

This show is not mentioned much in old time radio circles but if there was ever a reality radio show Night Watch would be the one most remembered.

This is a very good description of the shows:

http://www.radioarchives.org/sets/RL08.htm

Smokey Joe’s Cafe: Jailhouse Rock

Matt Bogart singing Jailhouse Rock with dancing help from some of the others in the ensemble.

Our Second Car: 1949 Packard

This isn't exactly like our 1949 Packard but the style is similar to that of the one we owned. We went on a trip from Louisiana to Maine in 1957 in a 1949 Packard.

Our First Car: 1939 Plymouth

The 1939 Plymouth was our first car and I can remember us driving to Missouri in the car when the car was twenty years old. We kept this car until my dad bought a 1949 Packard.

A&W Root Beer Stands

I can remember growing up in Pineville, Louisiana and going across the Red River to Alexandria where we would go to the A&W Root Beer place in our 1949 Packard.

How could we ever forget those icy mugs filled with root beer? Those were a special treat since my parents didn’t take us kids out to eat very often in those days.

Roy Allen made the first root beer in a mug in June of 1919 in Lodi, California and sold it for a nickel. He took on a partner in Frank Wright one of the first people he had hired at the Lodi establishment. They took the first initials of both their names and named the root beer A&W Root beer.

A&W Root Beer was even better when mixed with ice cream in a root beer float. No other drink goes quite as well with ice cream as root beer.

 

This photo brings back memories of when the carhops would bring our order to car in a tray like this.

 

 

An early barrel shaped A&W Root Beer stand.

Modern version of an A&W Root Beer stand.

It is getting very difficult to find an A&W Root Beer stand. They still exist but they seem to be in smaller cities mostly.

According to the A&W Root Beer website there are only twelve A&W Root Beer stands remaining in Tennessee.

Keep On Rollin’ and Searchin’

This is one of my favorite parts when the four singers sing Keep on Rollin’ and Searchin’.

B.J. Crosby and Victor Trent Cook

B.J. Crosby and Victor Trent Cook sing Treat Me Nice and Hound Dog like they have never been sung before.

The two bring a comedic touch to both songs.

B.J. Crosby: Fools Fall In Love

B.J. Crosby sings Fools Fall In Love on the last night of the run of  Smokey Joe’s Cafe at the Beacon Theater in New York City. She ends the song with a flourish as she builds to a crescendo ending.

She suffered a stroke last summer but have not heard how she is doing now:

http://blog.nola.com/keithspera/2008/07/singer_bj_crosby_taking_it_one.html

Bill Haley: Rip It Up

Bill Haley singing Rip It Up with some crazy swing dancing going on.

Cuban Missile Crisis

The New York Daily News headline of October 23, 1962 says that United States will blast Reds if Castro attacks the United States.

I entered the Army on October 12th of 1962 oblivious to the fact that the United States was at the brink of war with Russia. They kept us so busy with basic training that I never heard the Cuban missile crisis was happening at that time. I do remember when we marched that we sang this song:

I don’t know but I believe, I’ll be in Cuba by Christmas Eve.

Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy talk during the height of the Cuban missile crisis.

We may never know all the details of what went on behind closed doors but some of the information has been released since it happened forty seven 47 years ago this next October. One wrong move or statement may have triggered a war between the United States and Russia. Eventually the two parties worked out an agreement where the United States would remove our missiles from Turkey in exchange for Russia removing their missiles from Cuba.

This is President John F. Kennedy making a statement on television during the Cuban missile crisis.

The following site gives a more in depth look at the situation during the Cuban missile crisis.

http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/index.html

Jerry Lee Lewis: Another Place Another Time

Jerry Lee Lewis singing Another Place Another Time. He could have been a star as a country singer but he was too well known as a rock and roll singer plus rock and roll showcases his piano playing more than country music does.

Old Time Radio: Fibber McGee and Molly

Fibber McGee and Molly was one of the most popular shows in old time radio.

Fibber McGee and Molly was first broadcast in 1935 and became one of the most popular shows in old time radio history. Most of the programs took place at their home on  79 Wistful Vista but they did leave the home for shopping trips and other occasions.

The thing that I first noticed about the show is that they would have a stream of visitors coming to their house during the thirty minute show.  It was never very long from the doorbell ringing for one visitor until another visitor was ringing the bell. It was uncanny how announcer  Harlow Wilcox would come to their house about halfway into each show and started rambling on about how great a product Johnson Wax was. Instead of having a commercial break they weaved his spiels for Johnson Wax seamlessly into the shows.

The show is most famous for the closet that emptied from time to time when the door was opened making a cacaphony of loud noises until the last item hit the floor.

Marian Jordan’s playing Teeny was one of my favorite parts of the show. I particularly liked the Christmas program which they repeated many years of Teeny bringing her friends over to do their rendition of The Night Before Christmas.

Harold Peary who played Throckmorton Gildersleeve on Fibber McGee and Molly before going to star in The Great Gildersleeve.

Harold Perry did so well playing Fibber McGee’s friend Throckmorton Gildersleeve that he wound up having his own show named The Great Gildersleeve. He and Fibber didn’t get along too well but it made for great comedy. My favorite parts were when the two would try to find out what the other was giving them for Christmas so they would know how much to spend on the other.  Peary and Jim Jordan who portrayed Fibber made for a great comedy team but they were too good to have on the same show for very long so Peary eventually left to start his own show.

A show that stands out is when the crowd sings a patriotic song at the end of the first show after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 of 1941. Don Quinn did a great job of writing for the show and was a big part of the success of the show.

After listening to many Fibber McGee and Molly shows I still don’t know what Fibber did for a living. Not many people make a living staying at home and answering the door bell constantly and cracking jokes but somehow Fibber always found a way to pay the bills.

You can listen to 442 Fibber McGee and Molly shows at this site which will need to copied and pasted in a browser since link isn’t working :

http://www.otr.net/?p=fibb

Best Jazz Organ Song: The Cat

This is the best jazz organ song I have heard. Jimmy Smith was my favorite jazz organist.

Southern Gospel Pianist

Wally Varner plays the piano in the old style southern gospel way when the pianists back then could work their magic on the keyboard. This video is from a Gaither homecoming reunion show.

Foster Brooks the Airline Pilot

This is Foster Brooks on the Dean Martin Show portraying an airline pilot who has had one drink too many to be flying an airplane.

Fats Domino and Friends

Fats Domino, Ray Charles and Jerry Lee Lewis got together on stage at Storyville in New Orleans on a hot night. Fats was sick that night but still gave a great performance.

These three pianists give a rousing performance with the help of guitarist Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones.

Newspaper Tools Of The Past

This is how the ludlow stick looked after a line of type is set up before being molded into lead.

Ludlow sticks used in the production of newspaper headlines and ads.

When I worked at the Monroe Morning World in Monroe, Louisiana from 1974-1976 we used Ludlow sticks to make headlines. They were also used for ads that used large lettering.

We used them to make the headlines on page one. We would usually use three line headlines and each line would be staggered by placing blank slugs to make the spacing we needed for that particular line.  After the stick was filled up we would place the stick into a Ludlow machine which would cast the letters on the stick into metal which would be then taken to the page and inserted in the proper place according to the page layout.

TV Quiz Show Scandals

Charles Van Doren pictured on the cover of Life Magazine as he appears on the quiz show Twenty One which was found to have been rigged by the producers.

Charles Van Doren a college professor appeared on the game show Twenty One was very successful. Only problem was that one of his opponents Herbert Stempel revealed that he was told to give a wrong answer for a question he knew in advance would be asked. Stempel blew the whistle on the producers of the show.

He was told to lose when the producers wanted Van Doren to become champion. The contestants were told to fidget and pretend to not know the answers to increase the dramatic impact of the shows.

After the first show failed to please Geritol who was sponsoring the show  because it wasn’t as dramatic as Geritol had hoped it would be the producers decided to rig the show.

Van Doren confessed at a house hearing investigating quiz shows that he had been given the answers to each question so that he could remain on the show for as many weeks as they wanted him on the show.

The website below tells in the own words of the people involved how the quiz shows were fixed:

http://www.mlfilms.com/productions/quiz

Forerunner Of Reality Shows Being Rigged

The producers rigging the quiz shows reminds me of the way that producers rig the so-called reality shows of today. If a reality show had a house of people that got along well and just talked about the weather and never had a harsh word for the others living in the house it would garner very low ratings. So to increase ratings they throw people into a house that are short tempered and have problems getting along with other people.

There is nothing real about reality shows even reality shows like American Idol  which seems to be staged in a way to favor a certain contestant. It seems like the best singers never open the show. Then on elimination night the producers play with the idols as they sort them into different groups and create a mystery of whether they are in a safe group or the bottom three group.

Then to build up the suspense they pretend to be close to naming the contestant that is being eliminated. However they may show a commercial first, then let another famous singer sing a song and then go to another commercial. By the time they return to revealing who has been elimnated another ten minutes has passed.

High School Reunion reality show is another example of how everything is planned ahead to create the most dramatic effect. They don’t bring classmates on the show who got along very well and had no problems. Instead they bring former wives and husbands who have not seen each other in a long time. They bring the rowdiest ones from school who cause unrest with all the classmates in the house in Hawaii where the reunion is being held.

They purposely bring to the so-called high school reunion classmates who were bitter rivals in high school and then just sit by and let the sparks fly. It is sad that television viewers are entertained by people fighting and bickering among themselves.

We can expect more reality shows as the networks turn to cheaply produced reality shows to save money. In a way the reality shows are scripted shows e

Diana Krall: Best Female Singer Today

I was looking for good music at amazon.com back in 2001. I stumbled across a Diana Krall album named The Look of Love that to me is the best easy listening album ever made.  The album was released exactly one week after the terrorist attacks in the United States had left us in a state of shock.

The album had a calming effect on listeners since the music was perfect for the times since all of the songs on the album were slow songs that were very relaxing. My favorite cut on the album was Cry Me A River the old Julie London standard. Diana sang this as well as Julie if not better.

The title song The Look of Love was another one of my favorites along with Maybe You’ll Be There. In my book she is the best female singer today with nobody coming close to her vocalizing and piano playing.

Diana Krall released her newest album named Quiet Nights featuring songs with a bossa nova flavor on March 30th.

This video of  Diana singing Fly Me To The Moon  shows her artistry combining great vocals with excellent piano playing.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?rlz=1C1CHMI_en-USUS292US303&sourceid=chrome&q=diana+krall&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=8SHmSfOgJMqDtgeWpPGwDA&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#

Lindy Hop

Many years have gone by since the heyday of the Lindy Hop but it is still alive after all these years. It is not nearly as popular as it once was but the lindy hop dancers of today are as much into it as the dancers from the 40′s and 50′s.

Here is a couple of examples of how it is still alive even today.

This is a fast dance contest from about three years ago:

List Of Old Time Radio Shows

This is a list of my old time radio shows and the first number is how many episodes of a show I have in the collection and the last number on the right is the total number of hours of that show:

No. Of Shows CDs Name of Show Hours Total

44 same CD Maisie 22:00 22:00

1 same CD Breakfast Club 1:00 23:00

1 same CD Candid Microphone 1:00 24:00

2 same CD Groucho Marx 1:00 25:00

9 same CD Martin and Lewis 4:50 29:50

36 same CD My Favorite Husband 18:00 47:50

5 same CD Nazi Eyes 2:50 50:40

2 same CD Pete Kelly\’s Blues 1:00 51:40

100 1 Jack Benny 50:00 101:40

70 1 OTR Sampler 35:00 136:40

62 1 My Favorite Husband 31:00 167:40

296 2 Bob and Ray 100:00 267:40

360 4 Dragnet 180:00 447:40

190 2 Burns and Allen 95:00 542:40

138 2 Fred Allen 69:00 611:40

182 2 Life of Riley 91:00 702:40

869 9 Jack Benny 433:00 1135:40

199 1 Red Skelton 98:00 1233:40

96 1 Phillip Marlowe 48:00 1281:40

230 1 Cavalcade of America 115:00 1396:40

52 1 Damon Runyon Theater 26:00 1422:40

79 1 Gangbusters 39:50 1462:30

114 1 Inner Sanctum 57:00 1519:30

41 1 Mel Blanc 20:50 1540:20

101 1 Our Miss Brooks 50:50 1591:10

209 2 Christmas Collection 104:50 1696:00

106 1 OTR CAT Sampler 53:00 1749:00

54 1 The Bickersons 25:00 1774:00

52 1 Box 13 26:00 1800:00

381 4 Family Theatre 190:50 1990:50

60 20 cass Walter Cronkite 60 Best 30:00 2020:50

64 1 Abbott and Costello 37:00 2057:50

76 1 Bob Hope 38:00 2095:50

164 1 Groucho Marx 82:00 2177:50

60 1 Ozzie and Harriet 30:00 2207:50

249 3 This Is Your FBI 124:50 2332:40

290 1 Easy Aces and Mr. Ace 75:00 2407:40

510 6 Great Gildersleeve 255:00 2662:40

105 1 Phil Harris-Alice Faye 52:50 2715:30

95 1 Nick Carter 47:50 2763:20

734 7 Fibber McGee and Molly 367:00 3130:20

189 2 Command Performance 12:00 3142:20

2 1 2 Complete Broadcast Days 36:00 3178:20

183 1 Variety CD 91:50 3270:10

78 1 Richard Diamond 39:50 3310:00

102 1 You Bet Your Life 56:00 3366:00

30 1 Mike Shayne 15:00 3381:00

95 1 Sampler CD 47:50 3428:50

82 1 Jack Webb Collection 41:00 3469:50

52 1 Damon Runyon Theater 26:00 3495:50

255 1 Lum and Abner 64:00 3559:50

25 1 Rocky Forturne 12:50 3572:40

33 1 Milton Berle 16:50 3589:30

45 1 Big Band Remotes 22:50 3612:20

240 1 Easy Aces 60:00 3672:20

51 1 My Friend Irma 25:50 3698:10

539 10 Lux Radio Theater 535:00 4233:10

57 1 Dinah Shore Collection 28:50 4262:00

146 1 Couple Next Door 36:50 4298:50

38 1 Honest Harold 19:00 4317:50

64 1 Gangbusters 32:00 4349:50

186 1 Your Hit Parade 50:00 4399:50

146 1 Couple Next Door 36:50 4436:40

49 1 Richard Diamond 24:50 4461:30

71 1 Adventures of Maisie 35:50 4497:20

75 1 Father Knows Best 27:50 4525:10

182 2 Boston Blackie 91:00 4616:10

68 1 Nightbeat 34:00 4650:10

931 4 Lum and Abner 232:00 4882:10

201 2 Red Skelton 100:50 4983:00

367 3 Amos and Andy 183:50 5166:50

Part of shows 1 Bloopers and Outtakes 12:00 5178:50

65 1 Broadway Is My Beat 32:50 5211:40

101 1 Our Miss Brooks 50:50 5262:30

24 1 Martin and Lewis 12:50 5275:20

104 1 OTR CAT Sampler Vol. 2 52:00 5327:20

62 1 Sam Spade 31:00 5358:20

485 5 Gunsmoke 242:50 5601:10

94 1 Let George Do It 47:00 5648:10

81 1 Duffy\’s Tavern 40:50 5689:00

181 1 Mary Noble 40:50 5648:50

414 4 Bing Crosby 212:00 5860:50

68 1 Birthday CD 34:00 5894:50

129 1 Bill Stern 30:00 5924:50

117 1 Johnny Dollar Vol. 4 47:00 5971:50

61 1 Radio City Playhouse 30:50 6002:40

48 1 Railroad Hour 24:00 6026:40

88 1 Words of War 44:00 6070:40

88 1 Christmas Collection 44:00 6114:40

48 1 Nightwatch 22:00 6136:40

124 1 Christmas-Cinnamon Bears 50:00 6186:40

79 1 Jimmy Durante-Martin & Lewis 39:00 6225:40

48 1 Nightwatch 24:00 6249:40

81 1 Broadway Is My Beat OTR CAT 42:00 6291:40

232 1 Perry Mason 58:00 6349:40

25 1 Stand By For Crime 12:50 6362:30

96 1 Hopalong Cassidy 48:00 6410:30

94 2 Screen Director\’s Playhouse 47:00 6457:30

34 1 It Pays To Be Ignorant 17:00 6474:30

99 2 My Favorite Husband 44:50 6519:20

19 1 Curtain Time 9:50 6529:20

104 1 Guest Star 25:00 6554:10

175 2 Screen Guild Theater 87:50 6642:00

92 1 Theater Of Romance 46:00 6596:00

34 1 Bright Star 17:00 6613:00

205 2 Escape 102:50 6715:50

31 1 Nero Wolfe 15:50 6731:40

30 same Crime Club 15:00 6746:40

141 1 Grand Ole Opry 50:00 6796:40

122 1 Christmas Shows-Cinnamon Bears 61:00 6857:40

53 1 The Lineup 106:00 6963:40

258 3 Calling All Cars 129:00 7092:40

929 7 Suspense 464:50 7557:30

41 1 Six Shooter 20:00 7577:30

79 1 OTRCAT Sampler #5 43:30 7620:30

229 2 Wild Bill Hickok 47:00 7667:30

22 1 Arthur Godfrey 11:00 7678:30

61 1 Eddie Cantor 30:30 7719:00

29 1 My Little Margie 14:30 7733:30

102 1 Bickersons – Blondie 51:00 7784:30

174 2 Bob Hope 87:00 7871:30

56 1 Frances Langford 28:00 7899:30

85 1 Mr. District Attorney 42:30 7942:00

31 1 Henry Morgan 13:00 7955:00

68 1 I Was A Communist For FBI 34:00 7989:00

78 1 Information Please 39:00 8028:00

36 1 FBI In Peace And War 18:00 8046:00

49 1 Edward G. Robinson 24:30 8070:30

17225 178 8070:30

The 17,225 is the number of episodes…178 is number of MP3 CD’s the shows are on…The 8070:30 is the number of total hours of old time radio in the collection.

Jimmy Boyd Dies At 70

I just found out that Jimmy Boyd died last month at the age of 70. He is best known for singing “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” that became popular in 1952. He got his start singing on local radio shows and I want to thank Ron Sayles who keeps the Births/Deaths list of old time radio stars  for letting me know of his death.

Jimmy Boyd the singer who recorded "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" in 1952 died last month of cancer.

Boyd died on March 7 at the age of 70. He was in the classic movie “Inherit The Wind” and was on television shows like Ed Sullivan, Date With The Angels, Bachelor Father and My Three Sons.

He sang in Las Vegas at the Sands Hotel and was so popular the audience kept asking for more encores but was so popular the audience kept requesting more encores until Jack Entratter the boss of the Sands stopped him from singing any more encores since it was 2AM and he wanted the guests to start gambling instead of listening to Jimmy sing any longer.

Despite his success as a singer and actor he will always be remembered as the 12 year old kid who sang “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.”

Five cent Cokes

The good old days when Coca-Cola sold for a nickel.

Those were the good old days when you could buy a six ounce bottle of Coca-Cola for only five cents. Now it usually cost over a dollar to buy a 20 ounce bottle of  Coca-Cola.

It is amazing that the price of Coca-Cola remained at five cents from 1886-1959. Not many products stay the same price over such a long period. Cokes out of the bottles back then seemed to taste better than the cokes out of bottles today but that is just my opinion.

This article tells more about the history of Coca-Cola and the five cent bottle:

http://www.slate.com/id/2165787/

If only Coca-Cola could come up with a diet Coca-Cola that actually tasted good. Usually with diet colas the drinker has to brace themselves for the bad taste they know is coming when they take the first sip.

Many years ago I drank a cherry coke from a soda fountain and until this day I have never encountered that taste again in a cherry coke product sold on a store shelf. The only way to get that sweet cherry flavor these days is to go to a convenience store that has cherry shots as an option in their soft drink dispensing machines. The first time I added the cherry shots to the coke or root beer it was like going back fifty years in time to recapture that special flavor I had missed for so long.

Listening To Old Time Radio On Console Radio

I have always wanted to listen to old time radio shows on a console radio with the great sound. I did listen to some Kansas City Athletics baseball games in the late 50′s on my grandfather’s console radio. It was my first time to hear a major league baseball game on a radio.

This is a console radio similar to the one my grandpa had on his Missouri farm back in 1959. I have always wanted to have a working radio like this but they are cost prohibitive.

These radios came from another time but it was a special time when families gathered around their radios to hear such great shows as Gunsmoke, Amos and Andy, Jack Benny and Boston Blackie and many others.

These were truly the good old days when a family would gather around the radio on a cold winter evening and listen to the great old time radio Christmas shows while snow was falling outside.

The days of old time radio may have been gone for the last 47 years but those days will live on in the memories of those of us who remember those days. Even today these same shows can be bought at very nominal prices. I bought 360 Dragnet shows just recently for a total of $7.00.

Televison may have caused old time radio to vanish from the airwaves as radio converted to an almost strictly news and music format. There have been some attempts to bring back old time radio but it never reached the popularity again that it had in the 30′s, 40′s, 50,s and the first couple years of the 60′s. There were a few shows that went on the air in the 20′s but the sound quality on those shows is nothing compared to the technology of later years of old time radio when the sound was crystal clear. Gunsmoke which came to old time radio in the 50′s in an excellent example of how old time radio improved with the superb sound and the expert sound technicians who recreated the sounds of the wild west so we could enjoy the shows many years after the last gunfighter in the old west had retired.

Trains of the Past: Southern Belle Passenger Train

These trains brings back memories of the days when passenger trains were still on the tracks across the country. I remember the Southern Belle the best because of trips to Kansas City but also rode Missouri Pacific to Indianapolis to report to my new post at Fort Benjamin Harrison on a snowy day in January of 1963.

I can remember in 1962 when my high school graduation present was a train ride by myself to Kansas City, Missouri to see a baseball game.

That trip was 47 years ago but I can remember it like it was yesterday. I boarded the train in Alexandria, Louisiana in the afternoon and the next morning the train arrived in Kansas City, Missouri.

I can still remember some of the stops along the way like Texarkana, Texas,  Sallisaw, Oklahoma, Neosho Missouri, Joplin, Missouri and Grandview, Missouri which was close to Kansas City.

After a long night of traveling it was good to finally arrive in Kansas City after about 17 hours of traveling from Louisiana to Missouri.

Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri which was built in 1914 and was at the time the second largest train station in the United States.

While I in Kansas City I got to see the New York Yankees play the Kansas City Athletics in a doubleheader. I can remember Hall of Famer Whitey Ford losing a 16 hitter which I think was a complete game. The highlight of the doubleheader was seeing both Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris hit home runs. Only a year earlier Maris had set the single season home run record when he hit 61 homers and Mantle had hit 54 that year.

In a few days I boarded the train for the return trip to Louisiana and wish today I could make another trip on a passenger train but passenger trains mostly are in bigger cities now.

Still the memories of that train ride will always remain.