Duchess of Weaselskin

Bayfield, Colorado - A few days ago (September 15, 2011) the mountains above 9000 feet elevation in the San Juans of Southwest Colorado, received 4 to 5 inches of snow while the rest of us below that elevation received some much needed rain most of last week. Did NW Okie get some of that rain and moisture blown to Oklahoma and Kansas? I heard Southern Oklahoma got 2-inches of rain last week. Hope the farm ponds are looking wetting!

Remember when some of you were little kids, glued to the radio station for your entertainment of drama, etc? This young baby boomer would have to ask her parents or grandparents if they remember the following statement broadcasts to radio listeners: "Don't touch that dial!"

How about, "From out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse, Silver! The Lone Ranger rides again!!!" Well! I guess I do remember that from the early television programs of when I was young. But I do not remember hearing it on the radio -- unless you go searching for the Old Time Radio shows online.

We have transferred some more vinyl records of "Golden Age of Radio" to MP3 files and added to the top files of our Prairie Pioneer Jukebox. We will list a few of them here:

Radio Reports WWII -

Radio Reports WWII (continued) -

Radio Adventure, Mystery, Drama -

Classic Radio News Broadcasts 1929 -

Classic Radio News Broadcasts 1936


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This Day In History (September 18 & 19)

America - On September 18, 1947, the National Security Act, which unified the Army, Navy and newly formed Air Force, went into effect. Go to Article

On this day, September 19, 1881, the 20th president of the United States, James A. Garfield, died of wounds inflicted by an assassin. president Garfield breathed his last breathe at 10:35pm, putting an end to the long weeks of suffering he had endured. READ More HERE!

On This Date, September 18th . . .

• 1759 - The French surrendered Quebec to the British.
• 1793 - President George Washington laid the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol.
• 1810 - Chile declared its independence from Spain.
• 1850 - Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed slaveowners to reclaim slaves who had escaped to other states.
• 1851 - The first edition of The New York Times was published.
• 1905 - Actress Greta Garbo was born in Stockholm, Sweden.
• 1927 - The Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System (later CBS) debuted with a network of 16 radio stations.

• 1777 - American soldiers won the first Battle of Saratoga during the Revolutionary War.
• 1911 - Sir William Golding, author of the novel "Lord of the Flies", was born. Following his death on June 19, 1993, his obituary appeared in The Times. Go to obituary
• 1934 - Bruno Hauptmann was arrested in New York and charged with the kidnap-murder of the Lindbergh baby.
• 1955 - President Juan Peron of Argentina was ousted after a revolt by the military.
• 1957 - The United States conducted its first underground nuclear test, in the Nevada desert.

NW Okie's Corner

Oklahoma - I was shuffling through some old papers of my grandmother's this last week and found a couple of letters written in pencil and sent to my Great Grandpa, J. R. Warwick, in September 1917, February 1918 and September 1923. I have scanned those letters and tried to darken the lighter ones for easier viewing.

I wish my Great grandpa had written some kind of journal to help explain some of these priceless tidbits of his past. These two letters opens yet another chapter of our continuing Warwick pioneer story in northwest Oklahoma. If anyone out there reading these letters can fill this NW Okie in on the rest of the story, I would love to hear it!

Thursday, Feb. 8, 1917 Letter From Verdia Geiger

Actually, this letter is written to Adolph G. Geiger, RFD 4, Alva, Oklahoma, from his wife, Verdia. I am not sure who Adolph G. & Verdia Geiger were, but assume they lived out west of Alva, Oklahoma. The first letter begins as follows and the letter September 9, 1918 follows it:

"Adolph, I am writing to let you know that I have gone home. I see that we couldn't get along together so I thought that we had better part. You said that you hadn't had a good time since we were married so now you can have all the good times you want.

"I have told Mr. & Mrs. Warwick that I had got a letter saying that my cousin was sick and for me to come home, but that's all a lie. They don't know that I am leaving.

"About my things in the trunk you can have Mr. Warwick to send them to me. When we were married I thought I loved you, but I soon found out that I didn't. Well! Good bye, for ever and ever. Your deceitful wife, Verdia. "P.S. Don't (which is erased) follow me. When you get this letter I will be in Englewood."

September 9, 1918 Letter From Adolph Geiger

Letter (or Note) stuck inside Verida's 1917 letter and given to John R. Warwick September 9, 1918, from Adolph Geiger, 910 Maple, Alva, Oklahoma. Within over a year of the first letter above, I am assuming that Adolph moved from his RFD 4, into Alva, Oklahoma.

Adolph's letter to John Warwick reads as follows and I have corrected some misspellings and left some the same. Putting in parenthesis () my own notes.

Adoplh writes, "Mr. John Warwick Just to drop you a few lines. I'm letting you know that I am here at Alva yet and was inspecting to see you here in town someday but haven't saw you till yet. I waited as long as I am going on you saddling up with me. But it don't seem to me you are going to do it. So I'll have to let the law get it for me, and the law wilt do it for me. You let me know if you'll come in this week. I'll not cause you any trouble . If not I'll send the man out that will get it. I've worked for you from November 20, 1916 until February 9, 1917. (not sure how the following reads, but think it says something like the following) You $27 IOU. So I ask for $30.00 now if you are willing to sate up with me. But if I got to take it to law I'll call for $30.00 a month and cost and I'll have you arrested for selling whiskey out there. You got my wife to leave me. You was the cause of her leaving me. You told me all kinds of lies and my wife to. And what you did to my wife in the barn loft do you remember about that. That is why we parted. You are the cause of it all. She told me the morning I went out to Fairvalley what you did to her. So I told her we had better part and she said yes that old fool had me up there and could not help myself so then he gave me $10.00 for it. You know I thought you was trying for something so you got it and now I am going to get you if you don't settle up with me. Do as ya please. But next monday I'll do as I please. Don't think I am a dam fool. I'll learn you something about what I can have."

September 1, 1923 Letter To J. R. Warwick

As I read it this last letter is written by Mrs. Vera Bearsons (or Pearsons and maybe) Gordon, 518 So. Topeka, 1118 W. 14th St. Check the image to see for yourself. The envelope is address to Mr. John Warwick, Alva, Oklahoma, R.B.

The letter reads as follows: "Mr. Warwick. Dear Sir; I cannot tell you how much I thank you for your kindness in extending those notes and I hope that some one some day may do you an equally great favor. We are moving to 1118 West 14th Street so when you come to Wichita you will find us at the new address. Again I say thank you for the favor and that you will not lose one cent by granting it. Very Truly - Mrs. Vera Bearsons Gordon."

I again thank whoever reads the above letters and can help me fill in the blanks and the rest of the story that crossed my great-grandpa's past between 1917 through 1923 and beyond! Great Grandpa John R. Warwick, why didn't you leave a journal of your legacy for your future descendants to help me decipher some of these findings?

Good Night & Good Luck searching your ancestry legacies! View/Write Comments (count 2)   |   Receive updates (1 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

How to Embed MP3 Audio Files In Web Pages

For those who did not catch the late update of how we embedded the MP3 files into our newsletter last week we have included the embed tag that we used below.

We used the Google Reader MP3 Player. Google Reader has an inbuilt MP3 player that is pretty much the same as Gmail player but it also works on non-Google websites. This player has volume controls, no Google branding and it auto-detects the duration of the music file so your readers know how long the song will last. SEE MORE at this LINK

To use this MP3 player on your Website or Blog, copy-paste the following code and replace the MP3_FILE_URL with the link to your MP3 file.

Old Time Radio (OTR)

America - Old Time Radio (OTR) was a time of the "Golden Age of Radio" which refers to a period of radio broadcasting in the early 1920's until television's replacement of radio became the primary home entertainment medium in the 1950's.

It was during this Golden Age of Radio that radio dominated the airwaves, filling us with a variety of radio formats and genres as families tuned in to their favorite radio programs.

It was not until after the sinking of the Titanic catastrophe in 1912 that radio came in to use as mass communication, inspired by the work of amateur (Ham) radio operators. It was especially important during WWI as it was vital for air and naval operations. WWI brought about major developments in radio, superseding the Morse code of the wireless telegraph with the vocal communication of the wireless telephone, through advancements in the vacuum tube technology and the introduction of the transceiver.

After the war numerous radio stations were born and set the standard for later radio programs with the Detroit News station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan covering local election results, 31 August 1920. This was followed in 1920 with the first commercial radio station (KDKA) established in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The first Rose Bowl was broadcast on January 1, 1923 on the Los Angeles station KHJ.

It was during the Golden Age of Radio that found many families gathered around their radios to listen to their popular adventure, comedy, drama, horror, mystery, musical variety, romance, thrillers, classical music concerts, farm reports, news and commentary, panel discussions, quiz shows, sidewalk interviews and weather forecasts. Do you remember your grandparents ever mentioning any of these?

In the late 1920s, the sponsored musical feature was the most popular program format. During the 1930s and 1940s, the leading orchestras were heard often through big band remotes, and NBC's Monitor continued such remotes well into the 1950s by broadcasting live music from New York City jazz clubs to rural America.

The first soap opera, Clara, Lu, and Em was introduced in 1930 on Chicago's WGN. When daytime serials began in the early 1930s, they became known as soap operas because many were sponsored by soap products and detergents.

In the beginning of the Golden Age, American radio network programs were almost exclusively broadcast live, as the national networks prohibited the airing of recorded programs until the late 1940s because of the inferior sound quality of phonograph discs, the only practical recording medium. As a result, prime-time shows would be performed twice, once for each coast. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

The Shadow Radio Drama

America - The unmistakable introduction from The Shadow radio program has earned a place in the American idiom: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" AND . . . While you were sitting in front of your radio, were you reminded to, "Don't that dial!"?

You might have heard about The Shadow online. It was a collection of serialized dramas, which originated in pulp magazines, then on 1930's radio and then in a wide variety of media. It followed the exploits of the title character, a crime fighting vigilante in the pulps, which carried over to the airwaves as a wealthy, young man about town with psychic powers with a companion and partner, Margo Lane.

The Shadow was fully developed and transformed into a pop culture icon by pulp writer Walter B. Gibson. The radio drama was well remembered by many for its episodes voiced by Orson Welles, who was the voice of The Shadow from September 1937 to October 1938. He was succeeded by Bill Johnstone.

The Shadow debuted on July 31, 1930, as the mysterious narrator of the Street and Smith radio program Detective Story Hour. Over the years, the character evolved. On September 26, 1937, The Shadow radio drama officially premiered with the story "The Deathhouse Rescue," in which the character had the power to cloud men's minds so they cannot see him.

Remember the female character, Margo Lane, introduced into radio drama, The Shadow? Margo Lane was played by Agnes Moorehead, among others as Cranston's, the Shadow's, love interest, crime solving partner and the only person who knew his identity as The Shadow.

Lane was described as Cranston's friend and companion in later episodes, although the exact nature of their relationship was unclear. In the early scripts of the radio drama the character's name was spelled "Margot." The name itself was originally inspired by Margot Stevenson, the Broadway ingénue who would later be chosen to voice Lane opposite Welles' Shadow during the 1938 Goodrich Summer Season of the Radio Drama. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

WWII Lost Film of August, 1945

America - Ellis shared this link with us that he found of a spontaneous victory parade in Honolulu in 1945. How do you think this young lady felt when she discovered the movie her father had shot back in August, 1945, along Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki.

The video is of a spontaneous victory parade in Honolulu in 1945. Notice the cars and jeeps, youth. The guys in khaki or gray shirts and black ties are Navy officers or chiefs. The rest are Army or Marine. How young they all were to do what they did. This guy really captured a moment in history! You can listen to Jimmy Durante singing "I'll be Seeing You" in the background, too. This is a super video of a time past - we need to remember and be THANKFUL. Check out the color fidelity. Not bad for 1945. Nothing will ever compare with the richness of Kodachrome film.


VJ Day, Honolulu Hawaii, August 14, 1945 from Richard Sullivan on Vimeo. View/Write Comments (count 1)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Don't Touch That Dial

Bayfield, Colorado - Remember these words: "Don't Touch that dial!" . . . "From out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse, Silver! The Lone Ranger rides again!"

There never was nor will there ever be again a mortal as great as The Lone Ranger. Or will there? Whenever those literally galloping bars of the William Tell Overture burst forth from the radio speaker, there wasn't a child or adult within earshot who didn't sidle up next to it to find out which band of outlaws the Lone Ranger and his trusty scout Tonto would uncover, shoot-it-out with and ultimately bring to justice that week. Is that how you saw it?

Remember? Of course you do, and the hundreds of other radio shows that demanded part of your time, whether it was at noon, late afternoon or early evening. We gave up that time willingly and eagerly, because those were the "Good Old Days of Radio," a period in our lives that wasn't quite that far behind us, but just far enough back that we need to jog our memories a little to bring it back into focus. View/Write Comments (count 1)   |   Receive updates (1 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe