David Sarho!! It Was His Extraordinary Vision That Led Him to Propose the First Commercial Radio
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Established 1975 Number 256 January 1998 :David SarHo!! It was his extraordinary vision that led him to propose the first commercial radio . receiver. Then, after winning recognition as the narrator of the Titanic disaster, he quickly rose to become the propelling force behind network radio and TV broadcasting. Sarnoff had a strong hand in molding the media industries radio, television and the movies - into the forces we know today. · <: Publication of the Old Time Radio Club Membership Information Club Officers and Librarians New member processing, $5 plus club membership President of $15 per year from January 1 to December 31. Jerry Collins (716) 683-6199 Members receive a tape library listing, reference 56 Christen Ct. library listing, and a monthly newsletter. Member Lancaster, NY 14086 ships are as follows: If you join January-March, $15; April-June, $12; JUly-September, $8; October Vice President & Canadian Branch December; $5. 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Rates include postage and 49 Regal Street handling. Canadian rates are the same as above, Depew, New York 14043 but in Canadian funds. jamuvut 1998 Publication of the Old Time Radio Club including topsoil, garden hoses, grass and everything else. For fifteen years Lorenzo bumbled along, reveling in his SAME TIME, fantasy world, thinking up new ideas and rather inno cently experiencing occasional brushes with the law. He SAME STATI'ON fancied himself as quite a detective, infrequently turn by Jim Cox ing up a desperado or two, also. But when the ratings began to slip in 1952, producers Frank and Anne Hummert ordered an immediate fix. The result was a total departure from the series that listeners had been LORENZO JONES hearing since 1937. Instead of a light comedic serial, Lorenzo Jones suddenly took on characteristics of its Lorenzo Jones, the man, was a daytime version of the more melodramatic peers. It began with Lorenzo being popular nighttime eccentric, Fibber McGee, who kidnapped and wounded by accomplices of some gem aspired to invent numerous items that nobody wanted. thieves he had helped put away. In no time, he devel Neither McGee nor Jones had much in the way ofprac oped such a severe case of amnesia, radio's classic mala tical ability for reasoning things out, however. dy, that he spent nearly all of his final three years on Nevertheless, both were determined to pursue their idi the air in a virtual stupor. Stumbling about from place otic concepts despite the fact that they frequently to place picking up odd jobs, he almost became daytime became local laughingstocks. radio's first bigamist, nearly walking down the aisle while still being married to Belle. It was a strange turn Jones was introduced each afternoon with this narra of events for a soap opera that claimed "more smiles tive: "We all know couples like loveable, impractical than tears" in its epigraph. Lorenzo Jones and his devoted wife Belle. Lorenzo's But when the NBC brass decided they'd had enough inventions have made him a character to the town but not to Belle, who loves him. Their struggle for secu and set a date for the series' imminent departure, rity is anybody's story. But somehow with Lorenzo it Lorenzo's memory immediately returned. Belle was waiting for him, of course, and presumably, they all has more smiles than tears." lived happily ever after. It was an odd way to climax a An understanding Belle was as important to this series successful program that had commanded a strong fol lowing for most of its life. ' as Molly was to Fibber McGee. Belle Jones was the typi cal self-effacing spouse of that era who put her own The talented versatile radio actor Karl Swenson Lord hopes and dreams aside to support her mate in his pre L~renzo posterous quests. Even when Lorenzo's notions were Henry Brinthrope on Our Gal Sunday, played too outlandish to share with anyone, Belle seldom during its 18-year run. The Brooklyn native had argued against them. Instead, she preferred to murmur appeared regularly on the stage before debuting on "Lorenzo, Lorenzo, I just don't know about that" in her radio's The March of Time in 1935. Swenson was also own restrained fashion. But she never tolerated others the lead during the run of the weekly detective series, who questioned her spouse's rationality. She was quick Mr. Chameleon, in which he used a new dialect to fit a to defend her beloved Lorenzo when critics impugned different disguise every week. The busy actor played on his integrity or sanity. Father Brown, Joe Palooka, Lawyer Q, Linda's First Love, Mrs. Miniver, Rich Man's Darling, The Whisper For most of the run, Lorenzo, an auto mechanic at Jim Men, Cavalcade of America, World's Great Novels, Barker's garage, frittered away time daydreaming about Portia Faces Life, This is Your FBI, Inner Sanctum future inventions, intriguing the audience with his off Mysteries, Spy Secrets, Grand Central Station, There the-wall ideas. He once thought up a three-spouted Was a Woman, The Mighty Show, Aunt Jenny's Real teapot, with openings for strong, medium and weak tea. Life Stories, The Court of Missing Heirs and The Ford He developed hair restorers that didn't work and bed Theater. He later played the male lead in the TV ver warmers that worked so well they ignited the beds! His sion of Portia Faces Life, was a regular on TV's' Little sulfur water pep tonic, contrived to get people moving House on the Prairie and appeared in the movies in The again, accomplished its purpose - one swallow and con Birds and The Hanging Tree. He died at age 70 Oct. 8 1979. ' sumers were heaving frantically, hoping to keep any thing down. Then there was his outdoor vacuum clean Belle Jones was played by only two actresses during the er, which nearly ate everything it came in contact with, long run. In the first three years Betty Garde, who had Janaa:at1998 Publication of the Old Time Radio Club dozens of radio credits, was cast in the role. She later show on radio. moved on to TV's The Edge ofNight. She was succeeded as Belle by Lucille Wall, who played the heroine in PAUL FREES - One of the best of them all, with a radio's Portia Faces Life, later carrying a role in TV's voice so powerful that it DEMANDED your attention. General Hospital for 17 years. More often than not he was a program announcer Lorenzo Jones took to the air at 4 p.m. ET April 26, and/or narrator, With his voice of doom he was able to 1937 on NBC Red network. Always an NBC property, it set the mood of a story with just a few introductory moved to 11:15 a.m. the following year, to 4:30 p.m. in words. 1939, to 5:30 p.m. in 1951 and to 5:15 p.m. in 1954, where it was canceled Sept. 30, 1955. The program was He had an unusual way of phrasing sentences that under auspices of Sterling Drugs (Bayer aspirin and other actors could not even try to copy. This phrasing other products) until 1949. Procter & Gamble took over made him a one-of-a-kind performer. for Dreft dishwashing detergent, relinquishing the series in 1952 to rival consumer goods manufacturer Like Conrad, he was a utility actor, able to do any type Colgate-Palmolive-Peet (Colgate dental cream, Fab of role that came along whether it was drama or comedy laundry detergent, Palmolive soap, etc.). Hazel Bishop ... although drama seemed to be his most effective lipsticks participated in the commercials near the end of style. the run.