Reciprocal Web Sites
We invite reciprocity in linked Web sites: You provide on your Web site a link to our Web site, and we'll do the same for you. Here are four sites that have us linked.
• Jerry Haendiges has set up The Vintage Radio Place as a source of much info on old-time radio. See his Web site for recordings, radio logs, and more.
• Tony Fortunato has a band called The Emperors of Swing that performs a variety of music live and on recordings. Check it out.
• Glen Richards has created the Hot Dance & Vintage Jazz Pages dedicated to dance and jazz music of the Twenties and Thirties, with other info on musicians, radio stars, and radio publications.
• Brad Lang has set up a Classic Movies Web site that contains a lot of good info on the old-time films we enjoy and the people involved in making them.
More Web Sites
In our GRB of Maryland newsletter, On the Air, we have had columns called "Going Online" in which we have explored miscellaneous Web sites of interest to our members. Below we'll compile those recent columns, since they may be of interest also to visitors to our GRB Web site. Some columns may be on the subject of old-time radio; some may be about other areas of nostalgic interest to our members.
Three Maryland Museums
Welcome to a new feature in our On the Air newsletter. For issues in which I don’t have a "Program Notes" column -- because we didn’t have a recent program -- I intend to write this "Going Online" column in which we’ll explore some notable Web sites that have content of interest to GRB members.
Making the Connection
Right off the bat, of course, let’s admit that only a limited number of our readers have home-computer connections to the Internet. However, two other points are also relevant: (1) the number of people (and presumably readers) going online increases daily, and (2) our readers who are not online have many other ways to connect to the Web, such as at friends’ homes, at libraries, and at senior centers. They too can explore the Web sites we’ll be discussing in this and future columns.
In this issue we’ll look at the Web sites of three Maryland museums offering a nostalgic view of radio.
Radio History
Part of our November 1998 program was a presentation on the Radio History Society, and in the September-October 1999 newsletter I described and showed photos of the society’s new Radio and Television Museum in Bowie. Now we’ll look at their Web site
(http://www.radiohistory.org), the logo for which is an old-time vacuum tube.
The home page has links to six options: the RHS, the museum, the current Atwater-Kent exhibit, joining the RHS, related sites, and events. I tried each of them, with interesting results.
The Atwater-Kent page, for instance, gave a history of the company and had links to descriptions and photos of 17 models, from a 1922 breadboard to a 1936 tombstone model. The related-sites page listed the Web addresses of 24 other sites of nostalgic interest.
Broadcasting Library
Michael Henry, of the Metro Washington OTR Club, visited us twice -- at our September 1995 and 1996 programs -- to describe the Broadcast Pioneers Library of American Broadcasting, which began in downtown D.C. in the Seventies and in ’94 moved into the Hornbake Library building at the University of Maryland College Park. Among its collection, he told us, were over 1,300 radio and television scripts and over 20,000 photographs.
More information on the collection is at the Web site (http://www.itd.umd.edu/UMCP/LAB). The home-page link to the scripts reveals an alphabetical list of programs and their years of broadcast. Some in the list are links to more information. The Fibber McGee and Molly link, for instance, leads to a description of the show and the scripts’ broadcast dates, from 7/8/35 to 12/6/37.
The link to the photograph collection reveals a sampling of photos organized into such categories as actors, announcers, comedians, disc jockeys, musicians, and vocalists. Coming soon are the categories of studio equipment, microphones, and broadcast stations.
Museum of Industry
The GRB has a working relationship with the Baltimore Museum of Industry. This facility, adjacent to the Inner Harbor, celebrates the history of all sorts of businesses in the area. Included is the old-time radio that was enjoyed by area residents, and the museum is the venue for GRB programs such as re-creations of OTR programs based on actual scripts as broadcast years ago over the several radio networks.
The museum's Web site is (http://www.thebmi.org).
Looking at Web Sites Just for Fun
In my previous "Going Online" column I discussed the Web sites of two Maryland museums dedicated to old-time-radio programming and hardware. In this issue, let's look at some Web sites of interest to nostalgia lovers that are out there just for our amusement and entertainment. As I mentioned last time, even if you don't have a personal computer on the Internet, you can always surf the Web on a computer at a school, library, or senior center.
This time we'll look at Web sites of movie mistakes, TV mistakes, and all kinds of information on motion pictures. Let's surf.
Movie Mistakes
Here's a Web site that compiles all those little goofs that the theatrical movie-makers missed when they released their films to the public. Check them out to see what you may have missed too. Or, if you have one to add to the collection, submit it, since this is an interactive Web site. The Web address, or URL (universal resource locator), is http://www.movie-mistakes.com.
This site boasts, at last count, 1,122 films and 4,974 entries. It was started by a British recent college graduate who, taking a year off, is managing the site. He can't confirm all the entries submitted by Web visitors, but, if any visitor does challenge a previous entry, he posts that comment too.
The films are listed alphabetically, and, to check out the site, I picked S. Here was one entry: In The Seven Year Itch, when Tom Ewell and Marilyn Monroe are on the back porch, watch the Coke bottle. From shot to shot the level of the drink goes up and down.
Television Mistakes
A similar site for television mistakes was started by the same fellow but has been taken over by a student at the college. Its URL is http://www.tv-mistakes.com. I looked up I Love Lucy and found this: In the episode titled "Redecorating the Mertzes' Apartment," in the last scene with Lucy and Ethel, a feather can be seen floating down in the room. Earlier the Ricardos and Mertzes had redecorated a supposedly different room, and feathers had spilled from a chair being upholstered.
Internet Movie Data Base
Here's a comprehensive Web site, started in 1990 by a group of movie fans, that claims to have information on over 200,000 movies and 400,000 actors and actresses. The address is http://www.imdb.com. If your computer is equipped for sound and video, you can view the trailer or preview of certain films. I watched one for Rear Window, with Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly.
One feature of the site finds movies from famous quotes. I typed in one of my favorites: "I coulda been a contender." That of course brought up information about On the Waterfront, the 1954 Marlon Brando classic. The page had the more complete dialog (remember?): "You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am; let's face it. It was you, Charlie."
The page also gave the film's plot, cast, and credits, with additional links to other pages. I clicked on Tony Galento, who played union member Truck, and a page came up with background info on "Two-Ton Tony," the ex-prize-fighter turned actor.
Appreciating the Web
It is at times like these that I appreciate the wealth of information available on the World Wide Web. If you've been on the fence, consider giving it a try.