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#11467: 20TH CENTURY-FOX HOUR, THE

1957-09-04, KNXT, 60 min.

October 5th, 1955- September 18th, 1957 (CBS)

One of the first television ventures by 20th Century-Fox, this hour dramatic anthology series alternated on Wednesdays with The US Steel Hour for two seasons. Peter Packer produced the series and Joseph Cotton hosted it during the first season.

This Episode: " The Great American Hoax," by Paddy Chayefsky, adapted by Devery Freeman.
Ed Wynn portrays a 65-year-old devoted printer who is automatically retired from his firm. Feeling dejected and unwanted, John Hodges retires to the park where he hits upon a daring plan. In order to regain his job, he decides to impersonate the mysteriously remote president of his former company. (Film).

Cast:
John Hodges- Ed Wynn
McKinley- Walter Abel
Alice- Kathleen Crowley
William T. Stinson- Conrad Nagel
George- Jesse White
Della- Peg LaCentra
Joe Elliot- Jerry Paris
Paul Erikson- Richard Deacon
First Chess Player- Harry Ruby
Second Chess Player- Benny Rubin

SELECTIONS FROM ORIGINAL GRAY AUDOGRAPH DISC RECORDINGS, RECORDED OFF THE AIR, REPRESENTING SEVEN CONSECUTIVE DAYS OF KNXT LOS, ANGELES BROADCASTING, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 THRU 7, 1957.

These LOST CBS broadcasts represent an unprecedented one complete week, sign on to sign off, September 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1957 (130 hours on 130 8 & 1/2" diameter discs with a capacity to record 32 minutes per side (side one and side two had the potential capacity to record 64 minutes).

These discs were obtained in Los Angeles by Phil Gries, creator and owner of Archival Television Audio, Inc. in 2011. They were originally found in an establishment, located in Burbank, California, selling old records dispersing its inventory as they went out of business, a few years before.

The rarity of this type of media to record television is not known to have occured beyond a few incidents, as stated below, at any other time, which make this collection of TV Audio Airchecks, recorded on Gray Audograph discs, an amazing surviving artifact.

The sound quality varies with different broadcasts. After a period of almost three years, processing and digitizing these 130 two sided discs, there is recognition of the rarity of some of these broadcasts providing one of a kind surviving Television Audio Airchecks and are extremely desirable regardless of some of the extraneous sound artifacts heard on some of these tracks which were painstakingly processed and transferred one by one to optimize the sound quality and proper pitch.

NOTE:

To listen to a seminar Phil Gries presented at an ARSC presentation in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 2014, about these Gray Audograph Discs...their genesis, discovery and contents, go to the ATA website www.atvaudio.com and click on ARSC which can be found within the right column on the ATA Home Page.

GRAY AUDIOGRAPH (1946 - 1976)

History:

The Gray Audograph was a dictation disc recording format introduced in 1946 by the Gray Manufacturing Company in the United States. It recorded sound by pressing grooves into soft vinyl discs, like the competing, but incompatible, SoundScriber and VoiceWriter formats.

Audiograph discs were blue thin plastic flexible discs, recorded from the inside to the outside, the opposite of conventional phonograph discs. Another difference compared to phonograph discs (78, 45, 33 & 1/2) was that the audiograph was driven by a surface-mounted wheel, meaning that its recording and playback speed decreased toward the edge of the disc (like the Compact Disc and other digital formats), to keep a more constant linear velocity and to improve playing time.

The mandatory speed variation correction requires playback on an Audograph player, which ATA possesses and has modified, allowing line out output connections, direct line, to the input of any other recording format device.

Gray Audograph discs were available in three different sizes. The 6-inch diameter disc offered 10 minutes of recording time per side, the 6 & 1/2" disc offered 15 minutes per side. The
8 & 1/2" disc, which is extant in the ATA archive, offered 30 minutes of recording per side.

ALONG WITH THE DICTABELT RECORDER, A GRAY AUDOGRAPH RECORDER MACHINE CAPTURED THE ACTUAL LIVE SOUNDS RECORDED OF GUN SHOTS AT THE TIME OF THE JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION. THESE AUDIO SOUNDS WERE USED IN THE REVIEW BY THE UNITED STATES HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON ASSASSINATIONS.

THE GRAY COMPANY CEASED MANUFACTURE OF THE GRAY AUDOGRAPH RECORDER IN 1976.

#898: A 1960'S RADIO BROADCAST ADDITION: MEMOIRS OF THE MOVIES: HOLLYWOOD AT HOME

Order

1961-12-03, WNYC, 27 min.

Program number 10 of 18 programs.
Myrna Loy introduces this unique series. Buster Keaton leads a tour through the boulevards and back rooms and closets where the skeletons were kept in the grandest, gaudiest days of Hollywood, USA, when the guest lists and salary checks were closely related. The movie industry's catered affairs are recalled by Melvyn Douglas, Ralph Bellamy, Elliot Nugent, Walter Abel, writers Frances Marion, Albert Hackett, Samuel Spewack and Otto Preminger, producers Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Dore Schary and Japanese star Sessue Hayakawa. Most of the interviews were originally recorded in 1959 by producers Joan and Robert Franklin.

NOTE: Robert C. Franklin (1920-1980), inspired by a 1958 newspaper story he read about Columbia University's POPULAR ARTS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT, approached Dr. Louis Starr, then director of the oral-history collection, with a proposal to interview and tape record, on to 1/4" reel to reel audio tapes, movie people as they passed through New York. The objective would be to document, through personal recollections, the era of the silent era in films, the impact of sound, the triumphs and inequities of the major studios, and life in the glittering film capital...a firsthand account revelation of how silent movies were actually made.

Robert and his wife, Joan Franklin went on to record 200 reels of audio tape, recording celebrities mostly in New York City hotel rooms in 1958 and 1959. Transcripts of interviews were made available at the time to students and researchers.

In 1961 excerpts/highlights from these audio tapes were edited into a 16 part radio series titled, MEMOIRS OF THE MOVIES. Myrna Loy provided a standard opening. A different celebrity host/hostess was employed to introduce each episode. All of the 90 celebrities interviewed have since passed away with the exception of Joanne Woodward. Two additional episodes were later produced, "Style of the 70's," and "Rush To Reality," both hosted by Ben Gazzara and added, subsequently, to re-issues of the series which were syndicated in the 1960's and 1970's airing in New York (WINS), Boston (WBZ), Philadelphia (KYW), Baltimore (WJZ), Fort Wayne (WOWO), Chicago (WIND), San Francisco (KPIX), and Los Angeles (KFWB).

The original 200 unedited reels of 1/4" audio tape interviews recorded by Joan and Robert Franklin are no longer known to exist. However, audio cassette transfers from these original tapes were donated by Joan Franklin many decades ago to Columbia University's Oral History Research Office where they exist today.
Confirmed during a 2009 phone conversation with Mary Marshal Clark, archivist at Columbia at that time, who stated that the first on file communication from Robert Franklin to Columbia University related to his proposal to do an oral history audio recorded project is dated, July 31, 1958.

#350: A 1960'S RADIO BROADCAST ADDITION: RETROSPECT (MEMOIRS OF THE MOVIES) THE TWO MINUTE TAKE

Order

1963-01-06, WINS, 28 min.

Program 6 of 18 programs in the series originally broadcast in 1961. The funny, frustrating business of acting for the movies, in short takes. Love scenes at 9 a.m., creating brainless roles and the battles against type casting are all deftly recalled by hostess Aileen Pringle.
Comments from Myrna Loy, Henry Fonda, Janet Gaynor, Mae Murray, Rod Steiger, Basil Rathbone, Melvyn Douglas, Ralph Bellamy, Walter Abel, Roddy McDowall and Nita Naldi. A feature presentation of the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company in collaboration with the Oral History Research Project of Columbia University. Produced by Joan Franklin and Robert Franklin.

NOTE: Robert C. Franklin (1920-1980), inspired by a 1958 newspaper story he read about Columbia University's POPULAR ARTS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT, approached Dr. Louis Starr, then director of the oral-history collection, with a proposal to interview and tape record, on to 1/4" reel to reel audio tapes, movie people as they passed through New York. The objective would be to document, through personal recollections, the era of the silent era in films, the impact of sound, the triumphs and inequities of the major studios, and life in the glittering film capital...a firsthand account revelation of how silent movies were actually made.

Robert and his wife, Joan Franklin went on to record 200 reels of audio tape, recording celebrities mostly in New York City hotel rooms in 1958 and 1959. Transcripts of interviews were made available at the time to students and researchers.

In 1961 excerpts/highlights from these audio tapes were edited into a 16 part radio series titled, MEMOIRS OF THE MOVIES. Myrna Loy provided a standard opening. A different celebrity host/hostess was employed to introduce each episode. All of the 90 celebrities interviewed have since passed away with the exception of Joanne Woodward. Two additional episodes were later produced, "Style of the 70's," and "Rush To Reality," both hosted by Ben Gazzara and added, subsequently, to re-issues of the series which were syndicated in the 1960's and 1970's airing in New York (WINS), Boston (WBZ), Philadelphia (KYW), Baltimore (WJZ), Fort Wayne (WOWO), Chicago (WIND), San Francisco (KPIX), and Los Angeles (KFWB).

The original 200 unedited reels of 1/4" audio tape interviews recorded by Joan and Robert Franklin are no longer known to exist. However, audio cassette transfers from these original tapes were donated by Joan Franklin many decades ago to Columbia University's Oral History Research Office where they exist today.
Confirmed during a 2009 phone conversation with Mary Marshal Clark, archivist at Columbia at that time, who stated that the first on file communication from Robert Franklin to Columbia University related to his proposal to do an oral history audio recorded project is dated, July 31, 1958.

#395: A 1960'S RADIO BROADCAST ADDITION: RETROSPECT (MEMOIRS OF THE MOVIES: THE BIG, BIG SCREEN

Order

1963-02-17, WINS, 28 min.

Program number 16 of 18 programs in the series originally broadcast in 1961. The small small television screen that caused panic in Hollywood, and the convulsions that followed are detailed from the inside out by the industry's most powerful executives and dynamic producers. Howard da Silva is host for this spoken memoir of the movies with personal retrospectives from Walter Abel, George Seaton, Edward Dmytryk, Harry Brandt, Paul Lazarus, Jerry Wald, Adolph Zukor, Dore Schary, Kenneth McKenna, Hal B. Wallis, and David O' Selznick. A feature presentation of the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company in Collaboration with the Oral History Research Project of Columbia University. Produced by Joan Franklin and Robert Franklin.

NOTE: Robert C. Franklin (1920-1980), inspired by a 1958 newspaper story he read about Columbia University's POPULAR ARTS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT, approached Dr. Louis Starr, then director of the oral-history collection, with a proposal to interview and tape record, on to 1/4" reel to reel audio tapes, movie people as they passed through New York. The objective would be to document, through personal recollections, the era of the silent era in films, the impact of sound, the triumphs and inequities of the major studios, and life in the glittering film capital...a firsthand account revelation of how silent movies were actually made.

Robert and his wife, Joan Franklin went on to record 200 reels of audio tape, recording celebrities mostly in New York City hotel rooms in 1958 and 1959. Transcripts of interviews were made available at the time to students and researchers.

In 1961 excerpts/highlights from these audio tapes were edited into a 16 part radio series titled, MEMOIRS OF THE MOVIES. Myrna Loy provided a standard opening. A different celebrity host/hostess was employed to introduce each episode. All of the 90 celebrities interviewed have since passed away with the exception of Joanne Woodward. Two additional episodes were later produced, "Style of the 70's," and "Rush To Reality," both hosted by Ben Gazzara and added, subsequently, to re-issues of the series which were syndicated in the 1960's and 1970's airing in New York (WINS), Boston (WBZ), Philadelphia (KYW), Baltimore (WJZ), Fort Wayne (WOWO), Chicago (WIND), San Francisco (KPIX), and Los Angeles (KFWB).

The original 200 unedited reels of 1/4" audio tape interviews recorded by Joan and Robert Franklin are no longer known to exist. However, audio cassette transfers from these original tapes were donated by Joan Franklin many decades ago to Columbia University's Oral History Research Office where they exist today.
Confirmed during a 2009 phone conversation with Mary Marshal Clark, archivist at Columbia at that time, who stated that the first on file communication from Robert Franklin to Columbia University related to his proposal to do an oral history audio recorded project is dated, July 31, 1958.

#7608: AMERICAN WOMEN:PORTRAITS IN COURAGE

Order

1976-05-20, ABC, 90 min.

 The contributions of noted American women over the past 200 years are depicted through dramatizations and newsreel footage. Patricia Neal narrates.
  Women profiled include Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, pioneer suffragettes; Harriet Tubman, who helped free hundreds of slaves; and Margret Sanger, who established the first birth control clinic in the U.S.

5 records found for Walter Abel

#11467: 20TH CENTURY-FOX HOUR, THE

1957-09-04, KNXT, 60 min.

#898: A 1960'S RADIO BROADCAST ADDITION: MEMOIRS OF THE MOVIES: HOLLYWOOD AT HOME

1961-12-03, WNYC, 27 min.

#350: A 1960'S RADIO BROADCAST ADDITION: RETROSPECT (MEMOIRS OF THE MOVIES) THE TWO MINUTE TAKE

1963-01-06, WINS, 28 min.

#395: A 1960'S RADIO BROADCAST ADDITION: RETROSPECT (MEMOIRS OF THE MOVIES: THE BIG, BIG SCREEN

1963-02-17, WINS, 28 min.

#7608: AMERICAN WOMEN:PORTRAITS IN COURAGE

1976-05-20, ABC, 90 min.