The Old Time Radio Club Established 1975 Number 301 June 2002 BOBBY BENSON The Illustrated rFress Membership information Club Officers and Librarians New member processing, $5 plus club member­ President ship of $17.50 per year from January 1 to Jerry Collins (716) 683-6199 December 31. Members receive a tape library list­ 56 Christen Ct. ing, reference library listing and a monthly newslet­ Lancaster, NY 14086 ter. Memberships are as follows: If you join [email protected] January-March, $17.50; April-June, $14; July­ September, $10; October-December, $7. All Vice President & Canadian Branch renewals should be sent in as soon as possible to Richard Simpson avoid missing issues. Please be sure to notify us if 960 16 Road R.R. 3 you have a change of address. The Old Time Fenwick, Ontario Radio Club meets the first Monday of every month Canada LOS 1CO at 7:39 PM during the months of September to June at 393 George Urban Blvd., Cheektowaga, NY Treasurer, Back Issues, Videos & Records 14225. The club meets informally during the Dominic Parisi (716) 884-2004 months of July and August at the same address. 38 Ardmore PI. Anyone interested in the Golden Age of Radio is Buffalo, NY 14213 welcome. The Old Time Radio Club is affiliated with The Old Time Radio Network. Membership Renewals, Change of Address, Cassette Library - #2445 and !m. Club Mailing Address Peter Bellanca (716) 773-2485 Old Time Radio Club 1620 Ferry Road 56 Christen Ct. Grand Island, NY 14072 Lancaster, NY 14086 [email protected] Membership Inquires and OTR Back issues of The Illustrated Press are Network Related Items . $1 .50 postpaid Richard Olday (716) 684-1604 171 Parwood Trail Depew, NY 14043 Deadline for The Illustrated Press is the 1st of each month prior to publication. Tape Libraries The Illustrated Press is a monthly newsletter of the Cassettes - #1 !m.to 2444 Old Time Radio Club, headquartered in Western Dan Marafino (716) 684-0733 New York State. Contents except where noted are 19 Church Street copyright 2002 by the OTRC. Lancaster, NY 14086 Reel-to-Reel and Reference Library Send all articles, letters, exchange newsletters, Ed Wanat, Sr. (716) 895-9690 etc. to: The Illustrated Press 393 George Urban Blvd. c/o Ken Krug, Editor (716) 684-5290 Cheektowaga, NY 14225 49 Regal Street Depew, New York 14043 Tape Library Rates: All reels and video cassettes are $1.85 per month; audio cassettes and records E-Mail address:[email protected] are $.85 per month. Rates include postage and Web Page Address: www2.pcom.net/robmcd handling and are payable in U.S. funds. The Illustrated Press His catchy phrases were known to all: "Everybody wants to get inta de act!," "It's da condishuns dat pre­ vail." and "Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you . are." But he's remembered (This column is made up ofclippings from various best for the splashy publications gathered over the years by Ed Wanat) musicals at MGM in the '40s, among them Two Girls and A Sailor, Ziegfeld Follies Durante Makes Heaven and It Happened in Brooklyn. His TV pop­ Brigllter ularity came in the '50s when he starred By David Ragan in three successful series, All Star Revue, For 10 years at the start of his career, Jimmy Durante The Colgate Hour and never talked to his audience from the stage "because 1 Jimmy and his wife Marge adopted this The Jimmy Durante . tiny baby girl in 1962. They named their Sh was afraid dey would laugh at me." And he was new daughter Cece. ow. right-they did. He kept them laughing for so many years, that millions mourned when the "Schnozzola" The last series died at age 86. meant a great· I deal to him His unconventional looks-tiny eyes and gargantuan because he was nose-caused him a lot of pain when he was growing up teamed once on New York's Lower East Side. "Every time 1 went more with his down the street I'd hear: 'Look at the big-nosed kid!' buddy, . Eddie And when anybody'd stare, I'd just sneak off." Jackson. It was on this show He played honky-tonk piano in New York clubs, accom­ that he worked panying singing waiter.Eddie Cantor, and even had his with some of the own Club Durante. But it wasn't until he met young most famous comic Eddie Jackson that Jimmy let his natural humor comedians and shine through. The team of Lou Clayton, Durante and gave others Jackson took the country by storm in the late 1920s. their start. He starred on Broadway, played in 43 movies, per­ Milton Berle' formed on radio and TV and at the White House. His told The Globe: kindness was so apparent, one friend said: "You can "He was a pio­ warm your hands on this man." Comedian Joey Bishop neer on radio drove 90 minutes each way every week to visit the ail­ and TV . all Daughter Cece brought him much ioy during ing Durante. "Without Jimmy I'd have no career."hop of us will miss his life. Even her piano clinkers were music to told the Globe. "He encouraged me at the start, when his company." his ears. things weren't going right. He paid the rent when 1 was Jack Carter added "He got me on his old TV short. He brought me meals. He helped me work out shows-and 1 learned so much. But 1 guess I'm only one comedy routines." of a thousand comics he's helped." Marty Allen Agreed: "Without Jimmy's help I'd probably be driving a cab." George Raft, Durante's life-long pal, told The Globe: "He helped so many, many people over the years. He Sammy Fain summed it up: "I'd like to write a song just was the first to help a charity, the first to offer to per­ for Jimmy," he told The Globe. "But how do you put form at all the benefits." into words all the good he has done. All the love he has inspired." Said Joey Bishop: "Though the world will be Fans loved Durante because he made them laugh and sadder for his going, heaven will be brighter." feel better about themselves. The songs he wrote and performed like "Inka Dinka Doo" and "I Ups to Him So goodnight Jimmy Durante, wherever you are. and He Ups to Me" became national favorites. Illustrated cFress 3 The Illustrated Press It is always a pleasure to see and talk with Bob Hastings. This year we were treated to "Archie" and "Ethel and Albert". We also enjoyed listening to The JUST THE Boogie Woogie Girls and Company E (Ed Klute). FACTS MA'AM Show your support for OTR. Support the Cincinatti Old Time Radio Convention. Don't be a cheat like By Frank C. Boncore Frank Bork, Elderly Librarian Emeritus. Hope to see you in Cincinatti next year. The 2002 Cincinatti Radio Convention Cincinatti's 16th Annual Every spring I look forward to seeing my old friends Old Time Radio Nostalgia at the Cincinatti Old Time Radio Convention in Convention - April 19-20, 2002 Sharondale, (just north of Cincinatti) Ohio. I have a daughter in Atlanta, Georgia, a daughter, grand by JERRY COLLINS daughter and son-in-law in South Carolina. This also gives me a chance to visit them and get a pre­ Although their guests are not as numerous and the view of spring; since the week before, we had snow in crowds not as large, Bob Burchett and company were West Seneca (just south of Buffalo). able to host another great Old Time Radio Convention. Although the dealer room opened The Cincinatti Radio Convention can be looked at as Thursday evening, the convention was basically a a friend away from home. And one could consider Friday and Saturday event. himself a guest of Bob Burchett. This year was no At 9:00 Friday morning the dealer room opened. It exception. With directions hot off the Internet, I was good to see Martin Grams, Jr., Leo Gawroniak, drove straight to the hotel. It is amazing that the Jerry Randolph, Barry Hill as well as the wonderful Internet gives you portal-to-portal instructions. The people from Great American Radio, Radio Memories, mileage and drive time. Most of the hotel speaks Satellite Productions as well as the many other ven­ some kind of English. There are other hotels and sev­ dors that have become our close friends. I think eral restaurants in the area. Frank Boncore and I left a little bit of our money at Radio Memories, Great American Radio, Vintage all their tables. I even found an autographed picture of one of my favorite baseball players, Warren Spahn. Broadcasts, The Shadows Sanctum, Barry Hill and several other dealers were present. There was a great On Friday evening we were treated to a comical selection of radio shows on cassette, CDs for yuppies episode of the Our Miss Brooks Show. Mr. Conklin and those who think they're yuppies. DCVDs for was convinced that he could improve discipline by computer heads and even some (not much) on reel­ placing tight controls on the flow of traffic at the to-reel (for old farts), There was also a selection of school. movies and (ugh) television shows on video. After a few hours in the dealer room on Saturday, we I was impressed by Ted Davenport and Tom Monroe were treated to another great Ethel and Albert Show. of Radio Memories. Ifyou were a first-time visitor to Rosemary Rice replaced Peg Lynch, who remained the convention, or you were under 16 years old, you home with her husband who had recent surgery.