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Audio Clips from
"Studio Schoolhouse"
Clips and commentary provided by Bill Stock, except as noted. Posted by Jerry Klein.
icon at the start of the
description.
WFIL STUDIO SCHOOLHOUSE
These 15-minute shows were taped about three weeks in advance in Studio A and were aired each weekday at 9:45am on WFIL. These programs are from the "Storyland" series which aired every Tuesday. There was also an "Americana" series (great moments/people in American history) and a "Fun With Rhythm" series (kids with blocks and rhythm sticks playing to live piano music). That accounts for three days and for the life of me, I can't remember what we did on the other two. Maybe someone else will remember.
The shows were basically live-to-tape. We stopped every once in awhile, but not often as I recall. We had a read-through and a dress rehearsal on mike for about an hour and then we recorded.
The "Storyland" and "Americana" series were supervised, written and narrated by Marguerite M. Farley from the Philadelphia Board of Education. She was a lovely person, about early 30's, a little on the prim side, but lots of fun. We had many a laugh during the rehearsals, but she took the job seriously when the "ON AIR" light went on, as you can hear from her narration.
"PETER PAN"
This was a three-parter that aired on three consecutive Tuesdays in October, 1963. I seem to remember that we taped at least two of these (maybe all three) on the same day, because of the large cast:
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The sound truck got a good workout on these three. Someone rocked back and forth in a creaky old chair for the boat, and the crocodile was an alarm clock and mike covered over with that old metal wash-tub from the sound effects cabinet.
Here are three excerpts from the first episode:
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"THE LITTLEST ANGEL"
I always thought this was one of our more touching efforts. This aired in December of 1963.
Must have been a slow week at the studios, because HERB SMITH played everything! (Announcer,
senior angel and God) DALE ZARIS was the angel. ETHEL GOLDBERG handled sound patterns and
JOE TARITARO was technical director. BILL STOCK gets a credit for production assistant, but I can't
remember what I did. (5 minutes 11 seconds)
"HAPPY THE HEALTHY"
We always got a kick out of this show, because the 3rd and 4th graders from the local schools
would come in to sing the club song and take the club pledge. About 20-30 kids, all scrubbed up and in
their best clothes ... and tremendously excited because they were going to see a RADIO SHOW! It was
such an innocent time. These shows were always taped in Studio B because we used the piano.
MARGUERITE FARLEY would narrate and the other members of the cast were from the Philadelphia
Dairy Council - all very professional, as you can hear. This program aired on March 10, 1964. The clip
includes the program intro by Herb Smith. (3 minutes 20 seconds)
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"THE STORY OF RUSSELL CONWELL AND TEMPLE UNIVERSITY"
This is the conclusion of a program from the "Americana" series. It was recorded around
January 1964. Announcer: Bill Stock. Technical assistant: Al Maslin. (76 seconds)(Clip provided by
Jerry Klein)