1931-01-03 Cecil and Sally 0312 Cecil is Sunflower Sally is Barracuda - Announcements added

In the 1920s and early 1930s, the producers and distributors of syndicated comedies and dramas did not record the openings and closings of their radio shows. The surviving recordings of these shows thus usually contain the bodies of the shows only -- the only exceptions being if the shows were recorded as airchecks, which is very rare indeed. Local station announcers had to read the openings and closings from cue sheets that were inserted inside the jackets holding the transcribed discs; they even needed to add music fills using organs or small orchestras in their studios. Advertising was local, as well. This practice offered flexibility to local stations so they could integrate the shows into their own programming needs. However, by the mid-1930s, more syndicated shows were recorded as complete packages, including theme music and episode descriptions. Over the years, many enthusiasts have tried to restore the opening and closing announcements on these shows, but usually, the cue sheets have not survived. It is known that most of the opening and closing announcements for early Amos 'n' Andy shows do survive, for example, but for shows such as Cecil and Sally, very few cue sheets remain. Veteran broadcaster and radio historian David Goldin has collected as many cue sheets as possible for Cecil and Sally. Still, only around 300-400 of the nearly 1000 known recordings of the show include the opening and closing announcements from cue sheets. And among the episodes in public circulation, only 17 have known opening and closing announcements. This playlist presents John Grimmett's attempts at restoring the opening and closing announcements of these 17 episodes. John has tried to restore them by reading as a local announcer would have read them circa 1930, with an engaging, somewhat sarcastic feel that fit the tone of the program well. John bases his style on the recordings he has heard from the mid-1930s that included opening and closing announcements, such as Lum and Abner. If we can find more texts for the opening and closing announcements of these programs, we'll make more recordings. We have included the text for these opening and closing announcements with each episode. These come from the RadioGoldIndex at https://radiogoldin.library.umkc.edu/... Opening announcement: "Sally has been reading something. Not only that, but she is taking it seriously. Let's see how seriously Cecil takes it when she tells him about this idea she has. Here we go." Closing announcement: "Poor Cecil; he had Sally off on another thought and then had to let the cat out of the bag and remind her what she was angry about. Fortunately, we all know that Sally doesn't stay mad very long. The comic strip of the air, Cecil and Sally in 'The Funniest Things,' is presented by..."