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Gene Autry Guitar Club

9/22/2018

Yesterday I picked up 3 badges from the Toowoomba Collectors Fair. One was a standard Joan Read 2CH badge, I probably have 4 of them already. Another was this one which was a total guess. Gene Autry Guitar Club. If nothing else, it was interesting and I hadn't seen one before.

I got a bit of time this afternoon to do a little research and I found that it was a guitar and lessons that you paid off, similar to the Smoky Dawson and Tex Morton guitars, but limited to 500 members.

The club was run from Sydney and I found ads on Trove for 1946-1948, Australian Women's Weekly (opposite) and local newspapers, Longreach, Ipswich and Maryborough.

For me, the most interesting thing was that there were radio sessions by the same name on 4IP, 4MB, 4LG and the 4LG ads mention joining the club and getting a badge.

Longreach Leader 1946

1947

Queensland Times 1947

Longreach Leader 1948

My good friend Paul Kelly, Country Music Collector, heard about my find and messaged me and advised that he had a Gene Autry Guitar Club guitar. He imported it from the U.S. I was surprised at how plastic it was and the cardboard carry case. Not the quality of Paul's Smoky Dawson Guitar which I had seen previously.

Paul brought it to me today to allow me to take a couple of photos to add to this story.

Thank you Paul, appreciate that.

If you were a member of the Gene Autry Guitar Club, please email me via the contact page and let me know what it was like.

If you were a member of any of the Australian Radio Listener Clubs, I would love to hear about it. I am currently working on a book of the clubs and it looks like including more than 300 clubs, but there are a few I have no information on.

Ian Grieve

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Deadline For Danger

5/13/2017

1 Comment

You can see the S.W.Caldwell Stick, which indicates Harry S. Goodman also sold the series into Canada

Several weeks ago, I picked up four episodes of an Australian series 'Deadline For Danger' from the U.S.

I didn't know the series but my database listed it as being broadcast at 3XY in 1954. Last week I was working in 1954 on 'Address Unknown' so I thought I would see what I could find on ARC Production 'Deadline For Danger'. The answer was, nothing. The database also showed another ARC series 'Deadline' at the same time and days on 3XY so I had a look at that.

Deadline had a very limited run. I only found it broadcast on 3XY Melbourne and 2HD Newcastle 1954-1955.

I also asked collectors Craig Nugent and Jamie Kelly if they had any record of ARC 'Deadline For Danger' but they didn't, however both had some U.S. labelled Harry S. Goodman discs of that name as well as ARC discs of 'Deadline'

It was obvious we were dealing with the same series and a name change, but we didn't know why. All searches had come up empty. Jamie suggested that it was probably the same as 'Thirty Minutes to go' but I didn't understand the comment.

What you can't see with these discs is that the Australian ARC disc has Matrix information engraved on the disc outside the label. That information allows us to date the manufacture.

The Harry S. Goodman U.S. discs do not have that information which supported our belief they had been dubbed from the ARC discs.

Also Some of the Harry S. Goodman discs were labelled Series 1 and some Series 2.

With no newspaper or radio magazine program listings for 'Deadline For Danger' we knew it had never been broadcast in Australia.

I mentioned to Craig that it was unfortunate that I didn't have any issues of B&T (Broadcasting & Television) around that time, as it lists sales of series/serials to Radio Stations and overseas, then I finished for the night.

Craig however, kept worrying at the problem and eventually found that he had the necessary issue and solved the mystery. I woke the next morning to find an email from Craig with the following explanation.

This article from Broadcasting and Television confirms that 'Deadline' was sold to 3XY, 2HD and also to Harry S. Goodman for distribution in the U.S.

It also mentions an earlier ARC series 'Thirty Minutes To Go' which had a much wider distribution in Australia on 5KA Adelaide, 3UZ Melbourne, 2UE Sydney and 4BC Brisbane commencing 1953.

As a result of this article and putting the call out, I have been sent a couple of episodes of 'Thirty Minutes To Go' by Jerry Haendiges in the U.S. I then researched and logged the series

Thirty Minutes To Go - Log

It is unusual to change the name of Series sold to the U.S. or even Series bought from the U.S., but it does happen. The U.S. series 'Let George Do It' was changed to 'Danger is my Business' in Australia. I can think of other U.S. to Australia changes, but this is the first time I have noticed it going the other way.

'Deadline For Danger' (Deadline) and 'Thirty Minutes To Go' aren't the polished performances and scriptwriting we are used to from the likes of Grace Gibson Productions in the 1950's, however I am sure both of these ARC series contain some gems.

Before I forget, a thank you to Craig for not giving up on Deadline for Danger and for supplying the Label images and B&TV Article.

Ian Grieve

Deadline For Danger - Log

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Ian Grieve has been Collecting, Researching and Documenting Australian Old Time Radio since about 1998. He enjoys the thrill of finding and identifying shows thought to have been lost and then researching their history as well as the people involved in their production.

Gene Autry Guitar Club

Deadline For Danger

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