Friday Check In

Happy Friday, to those of you who still celebrate it.

Boss, it was a great trip. With a few quirks thrown in for good measure. Quirk number one, I found some of the best Texas style barbecue at a place called Sunset Barbecue. Run by a pair of transplanted Texans. The smoked brisket is to die for. It didn't make me die, but it did make me take a nap. Yes, I took overeating to a serious Thanksgiving level.

Quirk number two, I learned that my wife has seriously upgraded the level of profanity she can use intelligently. I learned this after my son and I sneaked off without telling her and went...




Yup, that's me. My son brought up the idea, the temptation was strong and I jumped at it literally.

I'll post more pics in the Cobaltian Adventures thread later.

Now that we're home and she's speaking to me again, we're back into our daily routines and hoping the world keeps moving toward what we used to think of as normal. And we're planning a weeklong trip to Texas in August. I'm sure that more barbecue will be consumed at that time.

Be well, be safe and be happy my friends,
Space

Space that's brilliant it's always great to have some shenanigans where ever you go.

Space, you are living the dream. And much respect to a woman who can embellish our vocabularies with fresh, creative obscenities.
Jeff

Jeff great to see you check in I know you are finishing up the next great American novel. And its always great to follow Space's adventures.

Its been hot here all week so really been enjoying that. Tomorrow I get my second dose of Pfizer so very excited for that. Gonna have an icecream cone after and tell myself what a good boy I am.

Stay safe and enjoy summer my friends...

Greetings all -- Friday so soon yet again... amazing.

I am done with 95% of my reel transfers and am now turning to scanning of documents. I have started going through Joe Hehn's correspondence -- some of it is in really bad shape with water and other moisture damage. The water and humidity damage is extensive. He didn't have much money, so the typewriter ink is bleeding through the cheap paper, and of course the pages are sticking together. Luckily, scanning can make some of these things more readable. He corresponded with Nelson Olmstead, and the moisture basically washed away the signatures, except for a couple of short letters.

If anyone has advice on getting papers that are stuck together apart, that would be great.

This link https://we.tl/t-Xo5Sr4PRv2 goes to two PDFs that are very interesting.

One is a letter from the writer of Chandu, Vera Oldham! She wrote a letter in response to Hehn about the series and his desire for research. It's quite interesting.

His efforts to research that kids serials book generated so much paper -- some of it is depressing as he is being spurned by so many people. And then you find something here and there that's of interest, and you can tell that he was encouraged by it. It seems he pitched the book to Scholastic Publishers and they turned it down after he spent a lot of time cultivating the contact. There was no Bear Manor Media back then -- the publishing market was not built in a way that stimulated the activities of small niche titles.

The other PDF is multiple letters from Jack Johnstone. He affirms that YTJD was "syndicated" to CBS stations for a while after the last original broadcasts in 1962.

Someone asked me why I didn't just go ahead and start finishing Hehn's book --- I can't see any indication that he got past even the most basic outline stage. He just gave up sometime in the 70s. After I did more looking this afternoon, there is still no outline or pitch letter.

There are 1960s OTR collector catalogs -- many are massive, with plot descriptions and other notes. They were certain that there would not be many shows to find... They'd be shocked how many programs are around now!

Much to catch up on here still -- but finally making headway!

Netflix has season 2 of Lupin which we will view this weekend. Still enjoying BritBox shows Line of Duty (wow!!), Silent Witness , and when we need something nearly mindless and amusing, New Tricks, with the retired detectives.

We're looking for something somewhat traditional and funny on Netflix, Prime, or YouTube. If there are any shows on BritBox or AcornTV that fit the bill, that would be be great. It's a little harder to find -- I love Monty Python, the Mrs does not; Are You Being Served? was funny for a little while. Suggestions?

Hope everyone is well! Have a marvelous weekend and week!

The Vera Oldham letter was brilliant. Lol she had a real wit. LOL she threw out all the scripts. The comment about how naive the show was poignant. How kids were not allowed to listen because it was too exciting and how she laughed at that. So funny and so real.

I love how matter of fact she is about her work being stolen and her copyright being filed by Earnshaw. She probably never saw a cent for her copyright. The amount of work she was churning out per week is stunning. I have edited my show summary for Chandu to give full writing credit to Oldham for ALL of the scripts and writing of the original runs. I know the 49-50 ABC had Chandu play a more gumshoe character and another writer wrote those.

Anything else you find about Chandu would be of great interest to me. Years ago I corresponded with Tom Collins daughter and son. They were great and loved that the Cobalt Club kept Tom's memory alive.

If Vera wrote him again I would love to see that.

Thanks for all the great work.

If you did not see it, Radio Spirits had a blogpost re Collins this week
http://www.radiospirits.info/2021/06/07/happy-birthday-tom-collins/

There are LOTS of Chandu in the Hehn and Falk reels -- it is hoped that when they are eventually processed they will yield sound upgrades -- all these decades later!

That's exciting to hear. I did enjoy Velda she saw could write a good letter. I enjoyed her use of Gad in there. She was in her 70's when she wrote that dying at 83 she had a good innings. Fantastic writer I bet she was a hoot at the parties I imagine they had

Friday again... already? This week we watched and loved Lupin on Netflix. They teased another season at the end. Good. Still enjoying Silent Witness and holding off on Line of Duty so we can watch Season 5 soon and binge Season 6, just finishing up on Britbox, over the July 4 holiday. In the meantime, the very light Brokenwood Mysteries new season is great fun.

GB the Younger visits today for early Fathers Day manfood celebration this evening and tomorrow afternoon and then heads back home in the evening. So it will be a quiet actual Fathers Day on Sunday and I think my treat will be a full uninterrupted day to get as close to finishing the Casey book as much as possible.

Went through more of the box of Hehn correspondence, and oh, the pain, the pain, in the various letters of rejection. The only real hero in it all is Jack Johnstone, whose letters were always positive, encouraging, and cooperative. The frustration in each follow-up letter to others is so plain, and the fact that letter-writing was so very inefficient, with letters like "we are sending this letter to tell you we have your original letter but have not gotten to it yet" is just awful. Ugh. It's easy to forget how expensive long distance was and how so much of the research he was trying to do is easier now online. Things Hehn wrote in letters were being misinterpreted, and it's obvious a phone conversation would have avoided all of that. But phones were not really available since Hehn worked during the day at bureaucratic stuff and lots of phone coordination, so he'd never be able to call them anyway. The amount of phone tag that would have been played would have only compounded the frustration.

These letters are from 1965 and 1966, radio drama's body was still warm, and the kids programs he was researching were gone about 10 years. The people involved were still active in the business in some way directly or indirectly (Sybil Trent, one of the Let's Pretend kids, for example, had a great career in direct mail marketing at famous ad agency Young & Rubicam). It was all still fresh to them, and it was work. They went to work like everyone else, and asking them to be nostalgic about that work was the same as asking a forklift operator to be nostalgic about that. They did the job, and moved onto the next one, just like everyone else.

A reason for Hehn's rejections was that not enough time had passed for these people to step back from their careers and accomplishments to feel even a hint of nostalgia about them. They really thought that these kids programs were not worth the effort and remembering them was not something people would be interested in. Hi Brown wrote "...what anyone would want with a history of the shows you are trying to gather together is beyond me."

The nostalgia craze that was so strong in the 1970s, especially the comic books and collectibles, and it really had no precedent. Sure, people liked the old Hollywood movies, etc., but remembering radio? Nope. No way. Great, we miss those days, but I have work to do.... that seemed to be their frame of mind. That experience of Shatner at a Star Trek convention that was lampooned on SNL, where he tells the Trekkies to get a life, seems to have been a rampant feeling. Hehn was too early, and his enthusiasm lost momentum, quickly. This was before Jim Harmon's Great Radio Heroes, Lamparski's Whatever Became Of?, and especially Buxton and Owens' Radio's Golden Age, republished as The Big Broadcast a few years later. The letters are so frustrating I'm not even sure I want to scan them all... so I need some distance from them, I'm just going to leave them alone for a while. The Star Trek cast learned that typecasting could be lucrative and that fans actually loved them. That perspective was new, arriving a decade after Hehn's failures and defeat. It is so very hard to see all of this.

But on the brighter side, as I type this, I am 10 hours from a marvelous pizza... and 36 hours from a great steak... and time with GB the Y... and Mrs GB at our side...

Great update GB. The saga of the Hehn letters is really interesting. And I can understand the actors who may have done 20 shows a week, providing voices in everything. To them it was a job and most were not paid that well for it. Still its great to have access to those letters. I really enjoyed the Chandu stuff.

Its been another gorgeous and warm week here and by warm I mean high 70's not the crazy heat i am seeing over there in the news.

Been enjoying summer, reading and working and doing my thang....

Stay safe my friends enjoy summer stay out of the heat....

Yes, it's true. I seldom know what day of the week it is. But rumor has it, today is Friday.

GB, the work you're doing amazes me. And your dedication is inspirational. I can't even find enough inspiration to pick up a guitar on a daily basis. Maybe it's time I set some new goals and get my butt back to work.

Boss, my day today was mostly mowing 3 1/2 acres of lawn in that heat you mentioned. But the heat is something I learned to endure many years ago. And the mowing has a sort of zen effect on me. I actually enjoy it.

The wife and I are about to start really exploring the new area we live in. We're still taking precautions. But we intend to just drive around and stop when something looks interesting.

Be well, be safe and be happy.
Space

Friday again... so soon. Finally making progress on the Casey book. I looked at the date at the end of my introduction -- April 2020. Yikes!! I've been meandering around the book and making additions and corrections and had not touched that part for over a year. My first notes for the book were assembled in 2006. This one's been a long time coming, for sure.

Keith Scott sent me a draft of his Suspense log - WOW!! And he intends on making it free to OTRdom as a PDF. It's 200+ pages long. His specialty has been to identify cast members who did not get on-air credit. He started the effort when he made numerous US trips from his native Australia in the 1970s and 1980s and had access to scripts, wherever they were, before they were assembled into the collection at Thousand Oaks. That collection, btw, is on its way to Santa Barbara and is not available yet. It's a couple of months away before the remarkable achievement will be released. Worth the wait! Worth the sweat!

Scanned more collector catalogs from the Hehn papers this week. That era's collectors really thought every recording they found might be their last. They'd all be shocked if they were still around to see all of this we now have access to. Their catalogs are packed with individual program information.

Finally getting around and living the vax'd life a little more each day. Actually planned a vacation in August! It feels like forever or longer since that happened...

This weekend's picks for us are season 6 of Line of Duty on BritBox and the satire Death of Stalin on Netflix.

Great update as usual GB. The amount of info we have available now is amazing.

I am also now fully vaxxed and taking it a lot easier as I travel around my daily sites and sounds.

Weather has been so nice so doggo and me have been rambling around enjoying all the beautiful countryside and loving the beach. Get out early and have the whole beach to ourselves. I take a cold water plunge while Blue says forget about it I will sit on the beach like a sensible dog.

Right now I am listening to my playlist of Shep episodes on summer. Always laugh out loud.

Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.

Ah Summer time. But this year, trying to avoid falling into a pattern of doing nothing of consequence. And of course, doing it in my own nerdy/quirky way. I still haven't picked the guitar back up. But that will happen this week. I'd like to add a new amp. Dreams of a Marshall JCM600. 100 watts on top of a full stack. But it'll probably be a Marshall Code 50 or a Boss Katana 50. My awesome and favorite Les Paul is still at my brother's house in Florida, along with my AC-15 amp. I do have my much loved G&L Legacy here, but I definitely need a better amp here/now.

As I typed earlier, I try to avoid falling into a retirement rut. But being, lets call it eccentric, I tend to do that in what some would call weird ways. This past week, that resulted in my holding a Francis the Talking Mule film festival. Next may be a Ma and Pa Kettle film fest. All of these silly classics has got me thinking about reactivating The Screening Room. Get ready, it's definitely coming.

Be well, be safe and be happy,
Space

Another Friday and the weather has been gorgeous all week in the low 70's just where I like it. Loads of outside time and exploring the unbeaten paths with the doggo.

Still rolling same old routine only now I am fully vaxxed so less worried about Covid. Still got a wary eye but doing my own 'thang' as per usual.

Want more guitar updates from Space old buddy...

Stay safe and enjoy summer my friends...

Spent 2 hrs with Keith Scott last night (his bright morning) going over his Suspense log. Amazing that here I am in eastern US and he's outside Sydney, and we're chatting with video like he was sitting right here with me. What marvelous things we have amidst the daily chaos of life.

The Casey book is coming along... more tweaks needed than I ever thought. It's coming along. And it's actually been fun verifying things because I'm finding new things along the way.

We finished season 6 of Line of Duty... so glad we started watching it a few weeks ago. Hope they do a season 7 but I suspect it won't be soon since everyone in the cast seems to have some other projects lined up.

Hoping for some lighter fare this weekend.

Still transferring Suspense 1800 reels -- nothing new to report.

But between the Hehn and the Falk reels there are some stunning upgrades to Pat Novak in process. Hooray!

Looking forward to a quiet weekend and yet another 2-YTJD-5part power walk

Happy Friday, and Happy Independence Day to those who celebrate it.

We woke up to a happy surprise this morning. Around 7:00 am, we heard someone ringing the farm bell I restored and mounted next to the front walk. I looked out to see who was there and found my sister in law, my niece, the niece's husband and their daughter. They drove all night from Florida, to spend a few days with us. Happy smiles and tears of joy all over the front walk. They'll be with us til Wednesday and the fatted calf has been put on notice.

Be well, be safe and be happy,
Space

Gosh this Friday showed up quick -- blame it on the Monday pseuoHoliday where they tack on a day off when the actual holiday falls on a weekend. But when you're retired, it's always Saturday, but it still messes stuff up.

We broke out of an aspect of our lockeddownedness with a visit to the NC history museum for the 50s & 60s toy exhibit, which was great fun. Mr. Machine didn't look that flimsy or small in the TV commercials!

Still waiting for a museum to have the guts to put out an empty box in a glass display that says "this would have been an exhibit of vintage baseball cards, but the donor's mother threw them away when he left for college"

And we ate inside in a real restaurant for the first time in almost 18 months. If you're ever in Raleigh, NC, look for Big Ed's City Market. Yum!

Oh boy does Keith Scott's Suspense log look great. The desktop publishing has been coming along. Have not used MSWord in a very long time, but all of the keyboard tricks and formatting workarounds have been coming back to me. I use LibreOffice Writer every day but there are times when only Word can do things. The program screwed up my life so badly years ago (out of the blue, "normal.dot has been corrupted" messages would appear, etc., etc., etc.) and the help messages were like they were written by Sgt. Schultz. But this is nice. Posted the near-final cover in the Suspense thread.

Tonight's my presentation for Metro Washington OTR Club's monthly meeting, by Zoom, and I'm on to discuss Suspense. Slides will be posted later. Hope they let me post audio.

Mrs GB's Dad used to tell them when they were kids that "It's 4th of July... the Summer is almost over" and the three kids would protest, and he'd say "school will start before you know it." And in a flash it all seemed to happen as he said. Adults... they ruin everything... you didn't throw out the baseball cards, did you? Really?

Great update GB. I used to spent 3 months of every year in IBM's Triangle Park research labs in Raleigh. I would fly down from Canada and it was always so darn hot. I really enjoyed my time there and in the labs in Annapolis Maryland. My friend was a retired fighter pilot who had a pass onto the base and he took me behind the scenes to see the Phantom F4 jets and Alan Shepards Mercury Capsule. I couldn't believe how small that was inside.

Can't wait to see the new logs. Always enjoy those updates and Toy Museum would be right up my alley.

It's been a nice week weather wise so i am putting a lot of effort into just enjoying summer and not letting anything get to me. That means no TV at all this week no news. Just weather report and reading my books at night. Got through 5 books this week and the device detox has been great.

And I agree with Mrs GB's Dad time is just flying by now.

Hope everyone is enjoying summer and staying safe.

I finally figured out that it's the weekend. We had a great week with family. Lots of good excuses for cookouts, fireworks and even got out to explore the area a bit. I even managed to prank the group. No details. But it was tasteless and hilarious. We were sorry they had to leave on Thursday.

I seem to remember a box of 10,000 sports cards somewhere in amongst unpacked boxes, here in the house. Nothing earth shattering. Mostly perfect condition firsts from the 70's and 80's. So I'm pretty sure no museum will ever want to display them.

I never got into collecting autographed books. I do attempt to get first editions of classics that I love. But I prefer complete reading copies, rather than high grade copies. I feel that a book should be enjoyed, rather than locked away as an investment. And I do occasionally take one down from the shelf and read it cover to cover. I also love to read the original serialized sci-fi/fantasy/horror stories from the Golden Age, as first released in Pulp Magazines. They can be quite different from the novelizations.

We found a great local restaurant just a few miles from the house. It's called the Hot Rod Cafe. Guess what the theme of the place is? Yup, it's overwhelmingly decorated as a salute to classic hot rods and muscle cars. Along with "for some reason" a John Wayne room. The atmosphere is laid back and down home. The food is also very down home and amazing. There were five adults at the table. Everyone ordered something different. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their meal. And everyone was eager to return and try more items on the menu. I took some pictures (with permission) and will try to post them here in the next few days.

Be well, be safe and be happy,
Space

Here are the pics I mentioned from the Hot Rod Cafe near my house. I love to find local restaurants that have flavor of their own and good food as well. I'll be going back to try their Rib Eye Sandwich very soon.

These first to are at the front counter. Just a promise of the over the top decor throughout.





A few more pics around the dining area. It's decidedly not upscale. But it's a lot of fun to take a closer look and explore the decoration.













And finally, the John Wayne room.



There are a few other "local" restaurants in the area, including one called the Soul Food Cafe. That's another I can't wait to try. But that Rib Eye sandwich needs my attention first.

Wow Space I love the booths and all the model cars. Nice to have that in your neighbourhood.

Friday yet again. Oh, Mr. Scott is so very close to finishing the Suspense log. I get to read his series overview today, so we are so very very very close now. Perhaps by next Friday I'll be telling everyone where they can download it.

We watched Unforgotten on PBS.org where they put the latest season up all at once for happy binging rather than watching it once a week. How Neanderthal watching an episode once a week and waiting for the next one seems to be now. The instant gratification of binging is quite helpful in the complex plotlines with multiple characters and references to prior series and such. As members of OTRdom, we've been binging for decades on our favorite programs. So glad other media have caught up with us! This is an excellent series, and this season 4 was so very well done... we hope there's another... despite the ending...

We watched the first pair of episodes of Heist on Netflix. Recommended. Looking forward to the two other pairs (three stories of real life outrageous robberies told in two parts each).

In a few weeks we have a trip to western NC in the mountains to a resort... the lockeddownedness mentality is tough to break and some mountain air and fabulous views will help get us back into the swing of things.

Major league baseball begins again this evening -- part of our trip will be to see a minor league game -- love the minors ballpark experiences. Almost innocent and you just watch the game without regard to the personalities. There are parts of the minor league game that are not likeable, you realize after a little while that strategy toward winning sometimes takes a back seat to player development, and that leaving a battered pitcher in is a matter of getting to a pitch count rather than an outcome, as well as teaching them how to get out of a situational difficulty. But that aside, that atmosphere of the minors is something to be enjoyed. NC has more than its proportion of minor league teams, and even a pro non-minor team in the Atlantic League where they're doing the rule experiments for the majors.

About 10+ years ago we were in Edmonton, Alberta for a pro league game in the defunct Northern League, the Edmonton Cracker Cats versus the Kansas City T-Bones. Some ex-MLB guys who got cups of coffee at the big time and some minor leaguers trying to get back in, playing to about 400 people were there, including a KC 1Bman who could make Prince Fielder or Greg Luzinski look skinny. The big hitter on the Cracker Cats had an Eastern European name that was so long the scoreboard could not handle it. http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?ID=6682  Good times.

Last Friday's Metro Washington OTR Club meeting presentation about Suspense went really well -- they posted video for their members but I will edit it down and sync the slides to it soon. There's so very much to do... and that's why we retire!
If you want to see the unedited video go to https://youtu.be/5-z8_9d_T3U -- they had various hiccups in communications in the other parts of the meeting, but that is a really good club and they really do stick together. I made a web page that has all kinds of resources for them https://sites.google.com/view/suspense-mwotrc/home  and I always pitch the idea of relocating to or vacationing in Cobaltia

Great update GB. Always enjoy the OTR updates and the baseball.

It's been a hot humid week here but still getting out everyday but we go early morning before the heat sets in.

I am having a lazy ol' summer just the way I like it. Work on my own schedule and read and listen to vinyl.

Enjoy the summer my friends and stay safe...

This week has been a bit of a mixed bag. Health and happiness is fine. Lots daily entertainment and laughs. But, I had to spend an unexpected ton of $$$ to fence and gate the front and only side of the property, which weren't already fenced. This, so that I don't have to shoot a neighbor's dog. Said dog, a Pit Bull, runs into my yard barking aggressively while trying to get behind me, every time I'm in the front yard, picking up the mail, taking out the trash, etc. This pretty much cooked our onhand savings. But I didn't want to harm the dog and didn't want to start a feud with new neighbors.

Now on to brighter things. We leave in three weeks for a week in Texas, to spend a week with our two youngest grandkids. We have a second trip to Texas planned for March or April, to throw our spin on the traditional Griswald Family Vacation. The youngest son, his wife, the two grands, my wife and I are going to motor home from there to the Grand Canyon and all points of interest we come across. I can hardly wait to recreate the "Sh*tter's Full" scene, complete with pyrotechnics.

Be well, be safe and be happy,
Space