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SPERDVAC graciously extends its gratitude to these individualwho have contributed $50 or more to SPERDVAC during the pa:12 months. lfyou wish to be a sponsor of SPERDVAC andjoin thiselect group your tax-deductible donation to SPERDVAC can bmailed to Dan Haefele, 13720 Jefferson Avenue, HawthorniCA 90250. Thank you!

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- ALICE AKI NS in memory ofGlen Akins ofMary Grams memory ofGil Stratton- DAVE AMAREL in memory ofJim - JOHN F. HALLEY - JOAN TREMAYNE in memory ofLes

Harmon - DR. MICHELE HILMES Tremayne- ARTHUR J.M. ANDERSON in memory - STEPHEN E. HOLDEN - EDMUND TOTMAN

of Orson Welles - GERALD A. HOLZMAN - EUGENE J. WARD- ERIC BAELEN - JAMES F. HORNER in memory ofThe KNX - WASHINGTON OLD TIME RADIO CLUB~ JUDIE BARTELL in memory ofHarry Radio Drama Hour in memory ofJim Harmon

Bartell, Ben Wright and Vic Perrin - SEAMAN JACOBS in memory ofFred S. - BETSY L. WEINBERG- PAUL M. BENNETT Fox - LESLIE C. WEST- FRED BONDY in memory ofthe whole - DENNIS C. JOHNSON - JAMES C. WORDEN

Gunsmoke gang - RALPH M. JOHNSON- GEORGE BRECKENRIDGE - SAM KAMLER- BUD BRESNAHAN in memory ofRich— - CASEY KASEM

ard Crenna - GLEN DA KELLY in memory ofJim- RICHARD A. BROCKELMAN Harmon- DENNIS B. BURK in memory ofPhil - NILAN L. KINCAID

Harper - ALBERT J. KOPEC- CHRIS M. BUZZARD - RON LANGSETH- GEROLD M. CLEMENSEN - JEFFREY J. LEBRUN in memory ofall- WARD L. COCHRAN departed voice artists- BERT H. COHEN - ALFRED LUCAS- RICHARD F. COLAVECHIO in memory ‘ - LON McCARTT in memory ofSmiIin’Ed

ofBryna Raeburn, Craig McDonnell, (Froggy the Gremlin) McConnellBill Zuckert and Florence Robinson - ROBY & JOYCE McHONE

- JOHN COLLINS - ESTHER GEDDES McVEY in memory of- THOMAS W. COLLINS in memory of my leading man, Tyler McVey

William Conrad - JAN MERLIN in memory ofFrankie- TOMMY COOK in memory ofArch Thomas and Mona Bruns Thomas

Oboler - MILLIE MORSE in memory ofJim Har-- IVAN CURY in memory ofBob Novak mon- DIX DAVIS - GEORGE (BOB) &V|RGINIA NEWHART in- LLOYD DE LLAMAS memory ofBill Quinn- ROSEMARY DOBBS - DR. WAYNE OTT- JUNE FORAY DONAVAN in memory of - FORREST F. OWEN

Hobart Donavan - GARRY PAPERS- WIL DUFOUR - PHIL PROCTOR- BOB DUNCAN, JR. - LEE SMITH- HERB ELLIS in memory ofLarry Dob- - BRIAN E. RAMSEY

kin, Harry Bartel! and Parley Baer - MARIE RAYMOND- HENRY C. ENGELHARDT III in memory - RONALD M. REISNER, M.D.

ofMichael Meredith - DICK RICHARDS- CARMEN FINESTRA - D.W. RICHARDSON- ART FORSTER in memory ofGil Strat- - STEPHEN K. SH UTTLEWORTH

ton and William Conrad - STUART & JANIS SIMON- JACK FRANCE - CHUCK SIVERTSEN- BARBARA FULLER in memory of - LOREN SLAFER

John Newland, Peggy Knudsen and - KENNETH L. SLEEPERLaughter - LEE SMITH

- JACK GAGNE - C. W. STAUFENBERG in memory of Paul- BARRY GERBER Rhymer and members of the ”Vic and- STANLEY D. GINSBURG Sade” cast- RICHARD GLASBAND in honor of - RICHARD STONE

Bobb Lynes and Barbara Watkins - ROBERT A. SUMMERSXKATHLEEN GRAMS-GIBBS in memory - RICHARD 84 MADELENETEPERSON in

I IRADIOGRAM - SEPTEMBER 2010» =sperdvi

Treasurer............Secretary/..............Activities ChairAcquisitions Chair

Elections Chair.....Merchandise.........Cetelogs.............NEW MElT1b$l’S...........

Volume 35 - Number 9 ~ September 2010

The Society toPreserve and Encourage

Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy

BOARD OF DIRECTORSpresident

Bob SteinmetzO O O

Officers

Dan Haefele - Dave StruthersRex Quinn - Glenda Kelly

Barbara Harmon

Dan Heefele

Membership Chalr..........

........Glenda Kelly

..........Bobb LynesDan Haefele

Barry OpligerNeil J. Mitchell

........Michael PlettBob Steinmetz

Rex Quinn

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EditorPATRICK LUCANIO

RADIOGRAM is published monthly except December bySPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve and Encourage RadioDrama, Variety and Comedy, a California nonprofit publicbenefit corporation, P.O. Box 669. Manhattan Beach, Cali-fornia 90266-0669. Dues are $25 for first year and $15 forrenewals; $30 American cunency for Canadian members.Annual subscriptions to Radiogrem only are $15 in the U.S.,Canada, and Mexico, and $20 in all other countries. Edito-rial submissions are welcome. but the publisher assumesno responsibility for the return of unsolicited material. Alleditorial-related photographs and artwork received unsolic-ited become the property of seenuvnc. Opinions expressedare not necessarily the opinions of svenovnc All rights toletters sent to Radiogrsm will be treated as uncondition-ally assigned for publication unless othenivise stated. Thepublishers make every effort to ensure the accuracy oiinformation published in editorial and advertising materialbut assume no responsibility for inconveniences or damagesresulting from editorial error or omissions. Publisher is notresponsible for typographical errors. All photographs andillustrations are believed authorized for reproduction as setforth within. Entire contents are copyright © 2010 by theSociety to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Varietyand Comedy. All rights reserved. Nothing contained in thisissue may be reproduced, in whole or In pert, by any means,including the Internet, without prior written permission fromthe publisher.

EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS should be sent to Radiogram,Patrick Lucanio, Editor, 1097 Janus Street, Springfield,Oregon 97477; e-mail: Radiogram@comcest.net. E-mailattachments in Microsoft Word are encouraged for all articlessubmitted. Articles sent by U.S. Mail should be MicrosoftWord formatted floppy disk or compact disk accompaniedby hardcopy.

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sperdl/BCI 1SEPTEMBER2010 - RADIOGRAM I

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%fllftflllby MICKEY SMITH

THERE IS A STONE AND GLASS GAZEBO on thegrounds of Laugharne Castle in the south ofWales. Dylan Thomas, Wales’ most famouswriter, did some of his work there and hiswords are honored in various displays. Alsohonored there but to a lesser degree is oneRichard Hughes.

As we reviewed a framed description ofsome of Hughes’ work, my wife and I weresurprised to read that he was consideredto have written the first radio drama. Myresearch revealed that although there are afew other early examples of broadcast dramaHughes almost certainly was the first to authora fictional drama purposely tailored to theinfant broadcast medium.

Richard Hughes was born in Surrey, Eng-land, in April 1900. His father, Arthur, wasa civil servant who had done some scholarlywriting and had been working on a full-lengthhistory of English law.

Any real genetic predisposition to a ca-reer as a writer probably came from Hughes’mother and her family. Hughes’ maternalgrandfather aspired to a career as a playrightbut his plan was interrupted by bankruptcyand emigration to Jamaica, which becamea subject for Richard Hughes’ own well-received book and screenplay titled HighWind in Jamaica. Arthur Hughes remainedin Jamaica as a successful journalist.

It was well that Richard Hughes’ motherhad talent since her husband, Hughes’ father,became a permanent invalid when Hugheswas three. Thus, Hughes’ mother becamethe sole source of income and his father diedtwo years later.

Richard Hughes quickly showed a tastefor literature. According to biographer Rich-ard Percival Graves, Hughes read 40 books,plays and long poems during the 1910-1911Christmas holidays when he was 10-years-old.

It was in 1923 that Hughes became in-trigued by the possibility of writing for the“wireless.” Only a few months after theestablishment of the British BroadcastingCompany, he produced the first draft of a“broadcasting play,” which he later called a“listening play.” Shortly thereafter in a meet-

ing with Sir Nigel Playfair, it was mentionedthat a semi-theatrical entertainment wasneeded for broadcast four days hence.

According to Hughes, Sir Nigel said: “Ibelieve what is really wanted for broadcastingis something specially written for the job. Apity there’s no time now to get it done; we be-gin rehearsing after lunch.” Hughes modestlyhoped he could write something in the shorttime never mentioning that he had a draftready. Playfair offered ten guineas for allrights and certainly must have been surprisedwhen Hughes arrived the next morning witha polished work.

Hughes called his play at first, A Com-edy of Danger, but later changed it to simplyDanger.

Hughes set his play in a coal mine and theradio announcer asked the audience to listenwith their lights off. Young lovers, Mary andJack, are in a mine visiting when the lights gooff. They believe it to be a temporary powerfailure until they hear an explosion. Theywere joined when the lights went out by “Bax,”a cynical old Englishman.

Following the explosion, the characterdevelopment finds Mary and Bax at differenttimes angry, frightened and resigned. Jack,a writer like Hughes, is neurotic and morbidfinally declaring that he is ready if not eagerto die just to see what it’s like.

Jack suggests that it’s easier for an oldman to face death than for a young one. Theresponse by Bax is worthy of a direct quota-tion as a sample of Hughes’ writing: “D’youthink it is any easier for the old to die thanthe young? I tell you it’s harder, sir, harder!Life is like a trusted friend, he grows moreprecious as the years go by. What’s your lifeto mine? A shadow, sir! Yours, twenty-oddyears of imbecile childhood, lunatic youth; therest a mere rosy presumption of the future!Mine, sixty solid years of solid, real living; nomore rosy dream! Do you think it is as easyfor me to leave my solid substance as you toleave your trumpery shadow?”

Hughes’ ironic touch is evident when therescuers break through the roof of the tun-nel and lower a rope. It is Bax who drowns

.

because he nobly refuses to be rescued untilthe two young people have been hauled tosafety. Bax’s last words to Jack? “Give yousomething to write about . . . my boy.”

The first radio drama required more thanjust spoken words and “lights out” makebelieve, and to this end aural images wereejjfected to suggest the milieu. The first effectwas designed to simulate mine-entombedvoices, which was accomplished by having theactors speak into buckets. There were alsominers (who ultimately died) in the mine aswell, and they sang until their deaths. These“miners” were, in fact, out-ofwork Welshmenrecruited off the streets with the idea that allWelshmen can sing. They sang continuouslyin a room adjoining the studio with the doorsbeing opened when their voices were needed.

Finally, an explosion was necessary. Inthe rehearsal the explosion had shatteredthe microphone and so in performance amuch smaller explosion was arranged nearthe microphone.

Alan Beck, in The Invisible Play, wrotethat, “The lights went out at the beginning ofDanger and lit up the whole future of writingfor radio.” He called it “. . . a sort of moralityplay of suffering and redemption.” In addi-tion, A.R. Burroughs, in Story ofBroadcasting,wrote: “I think all who heard this first attemptat building up a really dramatic situation en-tirely by sound effects will admit that it wasvery thrilling and opened up a wide range ofpossibilities." Jean Chothia, in The History ofBritish Drama, observed that “Hughes createda model for subsequent radio writing as he

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Iperdvncr 1SEPTEMBER 2010 - RADIOGRAM I 1’

HEARD BUTSELDOM

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GEORGE ANSB

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pitching scads of sponsors’ commodities on athrong of transcontinental series. Early in the21st century, to the best of his recollection,his network radio service as an announcercomprised all of the shows identified hereexcept as indicated. They are named alpha-betically with the years Ansbro participatedin each one.

‘The American Album of Familiar Music(commercials, 1930s-1951)

‘The Avengers (1945-1946)‘Big band remotes—Charlie Barnet,

Xavier Cugat, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey,Eddie Duchin, Benny Goodman, GeneKrupa, Guy Lombardo, Glenn Miller, ChickWebb, et al. (ca. mid 1930s-mid 1940s)

‘ Chaplain Jim, U.S.A. (1942-1945)‘ Cliff Edwards Show (1944-1948)‘Coast to Coast on a Bus (boy soprano,

1927-1930)‘ Easy Aces (1936)‘ Esso News (1938-1941)‘ Ethel and Albert (1944-ca. 1945)‘ FBI Washington (1965-1989)‘Home Sweet Home (1934-1936)‘Just Plain Bill (substitute announcer and

commercials, 1936)‘Let’s Dance (1934-1935)‘Lowell Thomas and the News (1943-

1944)‘Manhattan Maharajah (1951-late 1950s)‘Manhattan Merry-Go-Round (commer-

cials, 1930s-1949)‘ Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1936-

1938)‘ Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons

(substitute announcer and commercials,1938-1941)

‘Omar Herth, the Swingmaker (1938-mid 1940s)

‘Pick a Date with Buddy Rogers (1949-1950)

‘Sammy Kaye’s Sunday Serenade (1943-1944)

‘Stella Dallas (commercials, 1938-1940)‘Waltz Time (commercials, 1930s-1948)‘What Makes You Tick? (1948-1951)‘ When a Girl Marries (ca. 1953-ca. 1954)‘ Young Widder Brown (1938-1956)On television during the mid-1940s, Ans-

bro delivered some early evening experimen-tal newscasts. While these were dispatchedlive they were also extremely primitive bymodern standards. Without film to accom-pany anything and while merely facing acamera, Ansbro read news copy ripped froma teletype machine. In that epoch there wereno commercials either, “Because there waspractically no audience,” he reasoned.

Before the 1940s passed Ansbro waspaired with John Charles Daly (of CBS-TV’sWhat’s My Line? fame) for a daily 7 p.m.ABC-TV quarter-hour newscast. Daly hadpreviously been a CBS radio newsman. An-

Some 65 years behind the microphone for NBC’s"voice of the red and blue networks."it-xii-Qiiii

sbro introduced the program and deliveredlive plugs for Pontiac automobiles.

During the 1953-1954 season he wasone of a quartet of roving interlocutors onABC-TV’s Dr. I.Q., the Mental Banker. Theaudience participation show’s master of cer-emonies, Jimmy McClain, called on Ansbroand his cohorts to supply contestants seatedin the gallery who—for a specified number ofsilver dollars—attempted to answer questionsposed by the emcee. This allowed Ansbroopportunities to deliver the incomparablestimulating metaphor that appeared to arousenearly every American of age at the time: Ihave a lady in the balcony. It became such awidespread hit Ansbro adopted it when hetitled his memoir nearly a half-century later.

For many years after his aural broad-casting heyday ended he delivered weatherinserts and local news intros for New York’snetwork flagship station WABC-TV duringWorld News This Morning and Good MomingAmerica. And until his retirement in 1990, fol-lowing a debut on ABC-TV on July 15, 1968,he prerecorded a mid-break announcementthat ran on One Life to Live. Those declara-tions were taped weekly “in a session whichlasted hardly a half hour,” he surmised. Indoing them he maintained a tie with daytimeserials that he’d launched more than a half-century earlier.

Ansbro’s voice was actually linked withsoap operas with histories that extended backto July 23, 1934. On that date he and theBlue web’s Home Sweet Home premiered insync. The durable spokesman initially pushedProcter & Gamble Company’s Chipso Gran-

ules detergent in a test-marketing samplethere. With the possible exception of manynightly big band remotes, he may have de-voted more airtime collectively to drainboarddramas than to any other single genre———em-bracing a half-dozen of the more somberradio sagas with a couple of daily humorousnarratives, too, plus the single televised tale.It was a giddy triumph. Even then, however,it yet may be surpassed by still another recordin that species, one also set by Ansbro.

On September 26, 1938, he kicked off thearrival of Young Widder Brown at NBC. Hedidn’t know it then, of course, and neitherdid anyone else; over the next 18 years he wasto remain in his post, the only cast memberstill there when it ended. With very rareexceptions for illnesses and brief plannedabsences he reported in until that enduringdishpan drama was withdrawn by NBC onJune 29, 1956. It’s remarkable that he wasgiven exclusive dispensation to persist on anNBC series a dozen years after the Blue Net-work was shunted off and turned into NBCcompetitor ABC.

Yet, just possibly, George Ansbro’s moststunning exploit was still ahead of him. Asidefrom the fact he served network broadcastingmore than 58 years, it may have been just this:He is the only radio daytime serial narratorto remain in that capacity with one featurefor that prolonged length while also doingso on a single network. No one else in thehistory of aural broadcasting reached thatplateau or even arrived within striking dis-tance. It’s yet one more attainment by a manwhose longevity record may be celebrated in

sperdvac 1 :SEPTEMBER 2010 ‘ RADIOGRAM l 31

iii

George Ansbro at 95:”His lifelong fondness for show business continues to win out over

both stage fright and Aizheimerisl”

manifold spheres.For years Ansbro proffered this epigram

every weekday afternoon, so familiar tomillions of housewives in mid-20th centuryAmerica:

Again we present the moving humandrama of a woman’s heart and a mother’slove-—Y0ung WidderBrown. In the little townof Simpsonville, attractive Ellen Brown, withtwo children to support, faces the questionof what she owes to them and what she owesto herself. Here’s the story of life and loveas we all know it.

There were variations of that opening atother times but that’s the most recognizableone in the mid to late 1940s. In the 1950s, themaxim was condensed to this: The NationalBroadcasting Company now brings you YoungWidder Brown the story of attractive EllenBrown with two fatherless children to support. . . the story of the age-old conflict between amother’s duty and a woman’s heart.

Note the reference to “the age-old con-flict,” ironically something that was to plagueGeorge Ansbro himself in later years!

In the meantime he once cited that dailywashboard weeper as “eighteen years of themost excruciating radio torture ever devisedby Frank and Anne Hummert.” Operatingunder the corporate moniker ofAir Features,Inc., the indomitable Hummerts producedYoung Widder Brown and more than threescore additional tear-jerking stories of whatpassed as “normal” heroines in jeopardy.Virtually all of their soapy sagas witnessed

beleaguered damsels in distress, utterly miredin misery on most days, seeing only brieflapses of episodic bliss between harrowingexperiences. That was truly “normalcy” intheir dramas.

As a daily observer of such tripe Ansbro-having been associated with the Hummerts ona quintet of melodramatic serials (ChaplainJim, U.S.A., Just Plain Bill, Mrs. Wiggs of theCabbage Patch, Stella Dallas, and Young Wid-der Brown) would have been positioned tospeak with authority in making the assessmenthe did of his most durable radio assignment.Some would say that sweeping estimate wasapplicable to dozens of Ellen Brown’s con-temporaries.

Ansbro narrated or read commercialplugs on many of the Hummerts’ programs,heavily dominated by just two rival sponsorsthat manufactured a surfeit of packagedconsumer goods: American Home Products(AHP) and Sterling Drugs—-paradoxically,neither considered a “soap” maker. Henceit wasn’t at all uncommon throughout the dayto hear Ansbro’s habitual babbling for one orthe other. He extolled the qualities ofAHP’sAnacin pain reliever, BiSoDol analgesic,Hill’s cold remedy, Kolynos toothpaste andtooth powder, Old English furniture pol-ish, and many more wares; and Sterling’sBayer aspirin, Haley’s M-O laxative, DoubleDanderine shampoo, Energine cleaningfluid, Lyons toothpaste and Dr. Lyons toothpowder, Mulsified Coconut Oil shampoo,Phillips Milk of Magnesia laxative, and so

many more. In the Hummert ritual, Ansbrocould be the designated interlocutor on oneprogram underwritten by one of those outfitsbut turn up again within minutes on anotherHummert feature reading cowcatcher orhitchhike commercials.

George Ansbro’s personal life away fromthe studios is recalled in some detail in hisautobiography. For years he was a bachelor,sharing a pad with one or more young menwith similar professional interests. He wasalso engaged twice and broke both pledges.At last, in the spring of 1944, he was smitten bya new hire in the Blue Network’s mail room.Jo-Anne Chantal, then 16, was a dozen yearshis junior. As it turned out she, too, hadn’tbeen truthful about her age when applyingfor work; incredibly she indicated she was twoyears older than she was—just as Ansbro haddone nearly 13 years earlier! Despite the agedifference, as time passed he was convincedthat this was the real thing.

The pair courted steadily and when heasked her to marry him in 1946, she said “yes.”Their nuptials at St. Patrick’s Cathedral inNew York were on June 29, 1946. To thatunion five children were born, all in NewYork’s Lenox Hill Hospital.

In the spring of 2001, George, then86, and Jo-Anne, 74, left metropolitan lifeand moved into a retirement communityin Connecticut. At about this same timeAnsbro began having serious difficulty withgeographical directions, often being unableto find his way in simple and familiar sur-roundings. In time, confusion ran unbridled.A physician who tested the retired announcerverified that he had dementia. Even thougha six-foot-tall Ansbro was physically robust,his ability to mentally cope had deterioratedand the prognosis was that it wasn’t going toimprove. The emotional stress on Jo-Annebegan to affect her health, a sobering experi-ence. Occasionally George made temporaryvisits to the adjacent nursing facility to helphim deal with his misfortune while weighingheavily on Jo-Anne. When the treatmentstaff hinted that she might consider allowinghim to become a permanent resident, she wasincredulous.

Time passed and Ansbro grew worse. Atsome point Jo-Anne Ansbro at last let herselfconsider the possibility of relocation. OnSeptember ll, 2007, she was informed that aroom was available right then but a decisionmust be made almost immediately. With herkids’ affirmation of her own instincts, J0-Annewent forward, transitioning Ansbro into a newhome. Revisiting the matter several monthslater, she concluded that she had made theright decision. Ansbro was happy “most ofthe time” and while she is sometimes lonely,“I don’t mind being alone.” It’s a 10-minutewalk between their residences and she treks

lRADlOGRAM ~ SEPTEMBER 20101 " * Iperdvac

NLAS Offering Back Issuesof The Jot ‘Em Down Journal

The National Lum and Abner Society,which was founded in 1984 with permissiongranted by Chester Lauck Jr., son of the“Lum” half of the comedy team and theowner of the registered trademark Lum andAbner, has cleaned out

and various covers.In 2005, The Jot ‘Em Down Journal be-

came a quarterly but by 2007 publication wassuspended in order to expand the presenceNLAS on-line. The current address is www.

lumandabnersociety.its archives ofback issuesof the printed Jot ‘EmDown Joumal and is of-fering them for sale withproceeds going towardweb-hosting fees of anew NLAS website.

The journal startedpublication with theJuly-August 1984 issue.Published bimonthly, itoriginated as a crudelyassembled photocopied

org and offers severalarticles in the “Journal”section which is a placefor new and old articles.There is now no chargeto join NLAS, and it canbe done with an e-mail.

Almost instantlyseveral earlier issues(then in low supply)sold out. Anyone in-terested in purchasinbgback issues is invited to

newsletter. As the yearspassed, it became professionally printed andlater was assembled using state-of-the-artdesktop publishing software. Tim Hollisserved as the editor and when he gainedemployment with a publishing firm he foundhe could produce the journal through theirfacilities. Hollis researched and wrote the ma-jority of the articles with contributions fromfellow NLAS “ossifer” Donnie Pitchford andvarious members scattered throughout theorganization. Pitchford also contributed artfor the various issues, including the masthead-

it almost daily.In the newsletter of the complex in which

she lives, Jo-Anne penned an article aboutGeorge’s current status. She allowed thata very common question Alzheimer familymembers get is, “Does he (or she) know you?”Invariably she is quick to answer: “Yes indeedGeorge knows me. And it is his daily reactionof surprise and unabashed joy at the sight ofme, followed by his introduction to one and allas ‘My bride’ that first made me think aboutwriting this love story.”

D0 you recall how a bashful George likedto perform for relatives as a kid? In mid 2010,at the age of 95, he was still doing it! Fre-quently they put a mike in his hands on a stagebefore the residents, staff and visitors wherehe lives and Ansbro hams it up! His lifelongfondness for show business continues to winout over both stage fright and Alzheimer’s!

And after offering thousands of themback in the day, he's a man who still needsno introduction. 5sperdvac I

visit the site and readthe descriptions and order as many issues ashe or she wishes. At present, the NLAS doesnot have PayPal so one must rely on the old-fashioned “check or money order” business.The prices are one Journal for $2, two for $3,three for $4, four for $5, five for $6, six for $7,seven for $8, eight for $9, nine for $10, and 10for $10.50. After 10, each additional Journalis 50 cents. Postage and handling fees arecovered in these prices.

Soon to be posted will be the remainingissues of The Lum and Abner Scripts. Thesesoftbound volumes offered printed scriptsfrom Lum and Abner programs that do notexist in recorded form. These books sell for$5 each, postage included.

Future activities for the NLAS includeplans for a new series of NLAS Conventions.Sam Brown has considered calling them“NLAS Reunions.” Nothing has been set instone, but with 2011 being the 80th anniver-sary of the first Lum and Abner broadcast, itmight be a good time to “ride the mail hackover to the County Seat” and allow a “goodtime to be had by all.”

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Conrad Binyon set forSeptember 11 meeting

Honorary member Conrad Binyon willappear September 11 at the Mid-ValleyLibrary in North Hills to again share hismemories of OTRas SPERDVAC’S guestat the fall resump-tion of the monthlymeetings.

Known for hisrecurring role asyoung Hank in OneMan’s Family andas Junior oppositeWilliam Bendix onradio’s The Life of Riley, Conrad will sharemore of his memories of working with Lio-nel Barrymore, Agnes Moorehead, WilliamBendix and others during his radio career.

Interested in flying at an early age, Con-rad got his pilot’s license at age 17 and soonjoined the Air National Guard. His unit wascalled into service for Korea where he sawaction and eventually served a 20-year careerin the Air Force.

The meeting will be at the Mid-ValleyLibrary at 16244 Nordhoff St. in North Hills(San Fernando Valley) and begins at 12 noon,and as always the meeting is free and open tothe public.

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golo -THE 2010 SPERDVACMONTHLY MEETING

SCHEDULEALL DATES ARE CONFIRMED

Q September 1 1CONRAD BINYON

Mid-Valley Library - North Hills

L October 9South Pasadena Community Room .

November 13To Be Announced

FOR COMPLETE INFORM-\Tl0N AND DETAILS ON OUR MONTHLY IEETIIIGBK PLEASE GALL OUR TOLL FREE NUMBER

877-251 -5771or check our website at sperdvacorg

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ISEPTEMBER 2010 - RADIOGRAM | i