[rollei_list] Re: NASA & Rollie
- From: Marc James Small <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:28:02 -0400
At 12:38 AM 10/28/2009, Richard Knoppow wrote:
> Hardly anyone on this list will have any idea of what we
>are talking about.
Well, for those who are not in the know, THE
WHISTLER was a wildly popular US radio show of
the later 1940's. It was a "West Coast Show",
which was then a bit of an oddity, with most
shows coming from the East Coast, though this was
changing at that time as broadcasting moved to
California. THE WHISTLER began with a haunting
whistle (performed by Dorothy Roberts), and a
somber voice saying, "I am the Whistler: I know
many things, for I walk by night". Almost 700
shows were aired, of which more than 500 survive
and are often played by outlets such as RADIO
SPIRITS. Bill Forman, the show's creator,
generally did the part of the Whistler but others
who did the role included Gale Gordon, best known
as Principal Conklin, Eve Arden's nemesis in OUR
MISS BROOKS, and Bill Johnstone, who was the
iconic SHADOW ("who knows what evil lurks in the
hearts of man .... the Shadow knows!"). THE
WHISTLER was owned by Signal Oil in various
guises: as Richard has noted, the corporate history is a bit murky.
Another West Coast show which made a national
impact included PAT NOVAK ... FOR HIRE, starring
Jack Webb, which allowed him to create DRAGNET.
There is some grand trivia in radio. For
instance, Howard MacNear, the fellow who played
the rather addlepated Floyd Lawson, the Barber on
THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW on TV, got his first big
break in the 1930's as Clint Barlow in SPEED
GIBSON OF THE INTERNATIONAL SECRET POLICE: as
Clint Barlow, his voice was deep and serious,
while, at the end of his career, he played Floyd
with a much less powerful voice. (MacNear had a
stroke and asked to be written out of the role on
the TV show, but Andy Griffith insisted he
remain, as Griffith saw him as a central character.)
And Mike Wallace, the later kingpin of SIXTY
MINUTES, got his break when he was hired as a
teen-ager to announce THE GREEN HORNET, one of
the shows which made Mutual a powerhouse. And now Mutual is no more.
Marc
msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
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