MWOTRC AT MANC
by Mark Bush © 2012
(From Radio Recall, October 2012)
What is MANC? No, it is not the singular of
Manx. It stands for Mid Attantic Nostalgia
Convention and is the brainchild of member
Martin Grams. Jr.
The Metropolitan Washington Old Time
Radio Club held its August meeting in Hunt
Valley synchronous with the MANe convention.
No other club has ever been so honored. The
meeting got the prime Saturday afternoon time
slot of 1:30 to 2:45 P. M. President Maury
Cagle was sidellned with Illness so, Vice-President
Fred Berney welcomed everyone to
the meeting then asked how many club
members were there who had never before
attended a club meeting. A few hands went up,
and then Fred briefly outlined the club's history
and purpose.
Jack French's "First Fifteen" episode
was from The New National Guard Show, a
series that brought star-quality personalities to
the microphone to perform and try to convince
listeners to join the Guard. This 1947 example
featured Joe E Brown playing "Elmer Biggs."
Following Jack's polished presentation,
we asked to have volunteers help with a sound
effects presentation Jack wrote to use when he
addresses groups. The script, "The Escape of
Dr. Fang," is effects-laden with 39 sound effects
in 36 lines of dialog. We had more than enough
volunteers to fill the respective jobs. We broke
down the sound effects into eight (8) stations of
three or four effects each so no one had too
much to do but everybody got a feel for the
timing involved.
We even color-coded the effects to match
colored cues on the script. Chuck and Joanle
Langdon and Jeff and Mary Whipple had come
to our house the previous Sunday and we
showed them how to operate the sound effects
so they, in tum, could educate the volunteers in
the all too brief time before the performance.
Marsha and I had tried to do the script ourselves
just to get a feel for it. We certainly could not
have performed the show without the valuable
help of the Langdons and the Whipples.
Members and non-members were pleased and
instructed by the presentation.
After the performance, a few people
wanted to have us do it again for the banquet.
Jack explained that it required too much set-up
and knock-down time and the night's program
was already solidly booked. A young man from
the hotel helped us move the sound devices
from the car to the meeting room and back and
fell in love with the thunder gag. He is now a
convert. Jeff Whipple gave him a membership
blank to complete.
Jeff also spoke to the attendees urging
those not already members to join and
presented them a copy of the club newsletter,
"Radio Recall" with a membership blank
attached.
Jack's quiz was next on the program
and was a version of his popular "easy/hard" test
from our semi-annual luncheon meetings. The
eighteen prizes were not "Ten silver dollars and
a box of Mars candy bars" but the yummy
"Payday" treat.
Fred Berney took to the mike again and
thanked everybody for attending the meeting.
Several people commented favorably on the
content of the meeting and the individual
segments such as the quiz or the sound effects.
Everybody left happy and we counted our participation in MANC a coup for the club.
|
