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A SPECIAL THANK YOU
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A sincere, thank you, Mrs. Patti Griggs. This featured presentation would have not been possible without your generosity, dedication, and your continuous support.
Above WABX music chart courtesy of Mrs. Patti Griggs and the George L. Griggs estate.
Beatles’ George Chimes On Set of Group’s Second Major Motion Picture Film
MUSIC BUSINESS (4/14/1965) — “We arereallyenjoying making ‘Eight Arms To Hold You.’ It is a knockout!” George recently told Music Business. “Our travels have taken us pretty well all over the world but in this our being our second film, we filmed in three countries-Nassau in the Bahamas, Austria and of course England.
“The film plot is very involved and totally different from our previous film, “A Hard Day’s Night.’ The opening night scene is devoted to a high priestess, played by Eleanor Bron, in an Eastern temple. According to sacrificial rites the priestess must wear a ceremonial ring but it has fallen into the hands of Ringo Starr. That’s where we come in!
The Chase Scene
GEORGE HARRISON. Photo shot from a scene in the Beatles’ second film, ‘Eight Arms To Hold You‘.
“Gangsters, hired bythe cult, then chase us through the three countries mentioned, the first of which is England. Incidentally we filmed this part last and are in fact filming at the moment at Twickenham in Middlesex. In this part of the film chase scenes include a set with us fleeing down Salisbury plain in a television outside broadcast van!
“To escape we travel to Austria. Didn’t have any time to practice skiing, though. John was the only one who has ever tried his hand at it before. Unfortunately the script included a chase scene down a mountain slope on skis! So we were given a gentle but firm push and the film producer shouted ‘Action.’ Just as well it was only a short scene because we couldn’t keep upright for long!
“Austria was a dead loss as we couldn’t move from the village between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. because the only pass was closed owing to avalanches caused by melting snow.
“All we had time for was filming and had to get up at the unearthly hour of 5 a.m. to start. Who says it’s an easy life?
“The film script then demanded that we should go to the Bahamas, so off we were again, still being chased. I don’t think Ringo wanted the ring anyway! He’s got enough to last him a lifetime – every fan letter he gets has a ring in it and a ‘please wear it for me’ message! Fortunately he manages to get the ring off his finger and the film ends with another poor bloke being chased!
Confusing But Fun
“That’s the film plot – very confusing isn’t it, but we had a great laugh. I’d like to make films until I was pensioned off but I wouldn’t make them without John, Paul and Ringo. Filming is less strenuous than ballroom work but the hours are much longer and filming can become a drag when you have to spend three hours or more preparing a ten minute scene.
“I’d like to make a script myself but it would mean being off the scene for about nine months and I couldn’t afford that length of time. It might not be a good one anyway so I think it’s better for the professionals to do it.
“I’ve read the script for our next film, in which we play cowhands, and am really looking forward to making it. I’d like to take a week off before shooting commences and practice horse riding or it might end up like the skiing episode!” END
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Information, credit and news source: Music Business; April 14, 1965
PAMS started it all. As early as 1947, singing station identifications (ID’s) were used by KLIF in Dallas, Texas. One of the musicians working on KLIF at the time was a Dallas native by the name of Bill Meeks. In addition to leading two bands that performed live on the station, Bill also sold commercial time to the shows’ sponsors. He participated in creating commercials and jingles for those sponsors, as well as making musical identifications for the station itself. They got favorable reaction, and KLIF did well. After a while, some of Bill’s clients urged him to devote more time to working on their advertising needs. So in 1951 Mr. Meeks formed his own advertising agency. He named it PAMS, which is an acronym for Production Advertising Merchandising Service. Initially, the company created and placed radio spots for local accounts. This ad agency experience strengthened Bill’s belief that most listeners at the time didn’t really know which station they were listening to. He noted that some stations with supposedly low ratings generated good response for advertisers, while many highly rated stations did not. Drawing on his experience at KLIF, Bill decided that many radio stations could benefit from having musical station ID’s.
PAMS designed a group of ten jingles, and called the package simply “Series 1”. A more elaborate “Series 2” followed shortly thereafter. The idea was that stations would hear a demonstration tape of the jingles (a “demo”), and re-write the lyrics to suit their own requirements. PAMS would then assemble the vocal group in a studio and re-sing the jingles using the new lyrics, over the already-existing instrumental backgrounds. This is the essence of jingle syndication. It began at PAMS in the early 1950″s, and the process continues to this day.
As word of success stories spread, PAMS began recording jingles for broadcasters from coast to coast. Although PAMS produced hundreds of musical jingles for merchants and advertising agencies, station identification jingles became the firm’s specialty. What began as a decision in 1906 to issue unique call signs to stations, eventually grew into a multi-million dollar industry devoted to setting those call signs to music.
TOP 40 RELIES ON JINGLES. For those who grew up with it, the top-40 sound of the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s made an indelible impression. This was before the age of FM radio and portable CD players. AM radio was where people turned for music and entertainment, and broadcasters battled fiercely to be perceived as the most exciting spot on the dial. In market after market, the winners were the ones who used PAMS jingles. And the sound of the jingles is forever linked in our memories with the sound of the stations and their DJs
Smart programmers always wanted to ride the latest trend. Whenever PAMS came up with a new idea and developed it into a series of jingles, many stations would build their entire image around the new jingle package. For a while it seemed as if the industry would wait to hear each new PAMS package so that they would know what to do next. Phrases like “Go Go”, “The In Sound”, “Fun Vibrations”, and “Music Power” became part of radio stations all over the world. The unmistakable PAMS sound was everywhere.
THE DEMO TAPES. As PAMS created each new collection of mass-appeal jingles, the series would be named, and also numbered sequentially. A demo tape would be prepared and sent to prospective clients to show them what the jingles sounded like. Often the demos would include a narrated sales pitch to explain the concepts involved. Sometimes there would be different variations of a series, or modular sections of a package that a station could choose from. These were differentiated with letters (e.g. “Series 34A” or “Series 34B”). Through the years PAMS also created many specialized jingle packages for other radio formats such as country, easy listening and talk. These packages were given names, but not included as one of the numbered series.
CHANGING TIMES. For a period spanning three decades, PAMS was the most influential and imitated source of radio jingles in the world, and an integral part of the sound of legendary stations. A great part of PAMS’ success was due to the ingenuity and musical excellence of the many writers, producers, engineers, and talent who worked there over the years. Another important ingredient was the prevailing atmosphere in broadcasting which allowed and encouraged jingles and DJs to be entertaining in their own right. By the mid ‘70s, however, changing trends in broadcasting, along with increased competition, began to have a serious impact on PAMS’ product and sales. Business difficulties ensued, and PAMS suspended operations in 1978. It remained legally dormant until 1990, when the corporation was bought and returned to active status with the intent of preserving the classic PAMS heritage.
In my first book, ‘Turn Your Radio On’, there is a photo from the Detroit News referencing how I was able to play the part of The Lone Ranger.
It was all arranged by the late Dick Osgood who was a wonderful friend, Emmy Award Winning Radio icon, and a giant in the early days at WXYZ. One of the three performances we did was recorded with Dick giving a brief history of radio and introducing the cast of the performance. You’ll recognize some of the names.
With an introduction by yours truly, this is the only recording in existence and deserves to be preserved. Most of the cast are now in Heaven, including a bit player, Detroit’s most popular radio and television weatherman, Sonny Eliot.
In adding further to the Lone Ranger legacy, in 1986, Lee Alan wrote to a feature columnist with the Detroit News:
“My childhood hero was The Lone Ranger, but before Clayton Moore. As a boy growing up in Detroit I listened to The Lone Ranger as it was done live from WXYZ on the radio. My Lone Ranger in those days (actually the name was Brace) was Bruce Beemer. His deep, resonant voice created a vivid mental picture of my hero.
Brace Beemer. The original Lone Ranger on the radio ‘live’ from the WXYZ studios in the 1940s.
In 1965, I shared an office at WXYZ with my dear and recently deceased friend, Joel Sebastian. I heard a voice from the hallway. And there he stood . . . 60 plus years of age — looking just like I always thought he would. I nervously introduced myself. He shook my hand, and with the other . . . he gave me a silver bullet. Five days later he died.
“In 1985, at the national convention of the ‘Friends Of Old-Time Radio,’ the Lone Ranger was recreated by the original cast. They asked me to go and play Brace Beemer’s part. For 30 minutes I was surrounded by all the thundering hoof beats from out of the past and realized my boyhood dream. I was the Lone Ranger . . .”
“I retired from radio in 1970 and opened my ad agency about 16 years ago,” said Alan. “The horn and ashtray are locked up in a vault, along with photos and film clips of my radio days. But nothing means more to me than that silver bullet. That and the fact that I actually became the Lone Ranger . . . if only for a little while.”
A ‘Lone Ranger’ Blue Network radio ad. May 1945
Alan also added, “The cast members, when I had the wonderful opportunity to play Brace Beemer’s part as the Lone Ranger before a live audience of a thousand people, included Fred Foy who was the show’s announcer, Dick Osgood, Rube Weiss as Tonto and, the show’s actual director on WXYZ, Chuck Livingstone.
When it was over a small elderly lady approached me and said: “I closed my eyes and it was him . . . I heard his voice. It was him.”
The lady was Leta Beemer, widow of Brace Beemer. My “Lone Ranger.” She saw the “pictures” that only radio can produce.
Lee Alan | March 15, 2022
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A special Thank You to Lee Alan for recently providing his special audio presentation of The Lone Ranger for this page on Motor City Radio Flashbacks.
Audio recording digitally remastered by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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NEW! A special thank you to our senior contributor Greg Innis, of Livonia, Mi., for donating the above featured WYUR audio memory to our Motor City Radio Flashbacks airchecks collection.
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A SPECIAL THANK YOU
