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Scanned  from  the  collections  of 
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AUDIO-VISUAL  CONSERVATION        ..gggSBIt '  '     m\  i  M^  ^     JL 

at  The  UBRAKY  of  CONGRESS 


Packard  Campus 

for  Audio  Visual  Conservation 

www.loG.gov/avGonservation 

Motion  Picture  and  Television  Reading  Room 
www.loc.gov/rr/mopic 

Recorded  Sound  Reference  Center 
www.loc.gov/rr/record 


I 


TEN  CENTS 


Edward  G.  Robinson  as 
ulius  Reuter  in  Warner 
Jros.  timely  film,  "A  Dis- 
jatch  from  Reuter's."  Rob- 
nson  returns  to  the  air- 
anes  Oct.  9  in  "Big  Town" 
>ver  CBS. 


"PATTER  ON  THE  PLATTER" 

Jurgens    National   Favorite    -    Jimmy    Dorsey 

Waxes  Swing  in  New  Album    News,  Views 

and  Reviews  of  Today's  Records. 

By  HAL   DAVIS 


In  his  tenth  year  as  a  dance- 
band  maestro,  Dick  Jurgens  has 
finally  arrived  as  a  national 
"name."  Popular  in  Chicago  and 
the  mid-west,  Dick  never  had 
much  of  a  following  in  the  rest  of 
the  country.  However,  long  re- 
cording periods  with  Okeh  and 
coast-to-coast  airthne  this  summer 
combined  to  make  the  Jurgens 
cognoment  one  of  the  brighter  in 
the  orchestra  world.  His  discs 
are  all  notable  for  perfect  tempos, 
simple,  melodic  arrangements  and 
grand  vocals.  The  loss  of  Eddy 
Howard  has  been  more  than  com- 
pensated by  the  addition  of  Har- 
ry Cool,  one  of  today's  finest  vo- 
calists. Cool,  a  graduate  of 
KMOX  St.  Louis,  possesses  a 
beautiful  tone  and  splendid  dic- 
tion. Dick's  latest  release  couples 
"Crosstown"  with  "Goodnight 
Mother."  The  first  side  is  a 
sprightly  rhythm  number  with 
clever  and  amusing  lyrics.  The 
reverse  impresses  as  a  potent  an- 
ti-war song.  Tune  is  on  same 
general  style  as  "Goodnight 
Sweetheart,"  with  Harry  Cool 
neatly  selling  the  lyrics.     (Okeh). 

Woody  Herman  and  Jimmy  Dor- 
sey are  two  Decca  outfits  which 
rate  high  up  in  any  band  poll. 
Herman,  a  vastly  underrated 
maestro,  has  one  of  the  finest 
blues  combinations  in  the  country. 
His  "Blues  Upstairs"  is  a  jazz  clas- 
sic. Best  of  his  recent  efforts  has 
been  "Herman  At  The  Sherman" 
and  "Jukin."  The  ease  and  ex- 
pression of  this  outfit  plus  its 
aatural  musicianship  makes  listen- 
ing a  pleasure  and  dancing  a 
"must."  Dorsey  has  overtaken 
brother  Tommy  during  the  past 
year  and  fans  are  beginning  to 
realize  that  Jimmy  really  has  a 
solid  orchestra.  With  his  alto  sax 
sparking  the  band,  Jimmy  takes 
a  back  seat  to  no  competitor. 
Decca's  album  of  "Contrasting 
Music"  is  interesting  all  the  way 
through  as  Jimmy  and  the  boys 
swing    along    on    "Swamp    Fire," 

Page  2  * 


"Rigamarole,"  "Cherokee,"  "A 
Man  And  His  Drum,"  "Keep  A- 
Knockin,"  "Major  and  Minor 
Stomp,"  "Contrasts,"  "Perfidia," 
tc.  There's  plenty  of  material  in 
he  album  for  any  swing  cat  — 
and  it's  all  mellow. 

Not  enough  attention  has  been 
paid  to  Ted  Straeter's  swell  music 
or  Doris  Rhodes'  ditto  singing.  Ted 
has  a  society  band  that  produces 
the  finest  dance-time  anyone 
would  want.  Dorothy  Rochelle 
handles  the  vocals  more  than 
adequately.  Listen  to  "Tea  for 
Two"  and  "Dancing  in  the  Dark" 
(Columbia)  for  verification.  Doris 
Rhodes,  former  CBS  "Girl  with  iiie 
Deep  Purple  Voice,"  has  waxed 
"Melancholy  Baby"  and  the  Ger- 
shwin's old  tune  "Lorelei"  for  the 
same  company.  Backed  by  Joe 
Sullivan's  band,  which  includes 
Maxie  Kaminsky  on  trumpet,  Pee- 
wee  Russell  on  clarinet  and  Brad 


Gowans  on  trombone,  Doris  de- 
livers strongly  on  both  sides.  She 
has  a  gorgeous  low  tone  and 
clear  diction,  plus  a  natural  rhyth- 
mic feeling.  Highly  recommended 
for  your  library. 

Thomas  "Fats"  Waller  lets  loose 
with  "At  Twilight"  plus  "Fat  and 
Greasy'-'  to  our  great  delight.  Fats 
is  worth  hearing  any  time.     The 
much  improved  Les  Brown  outfit 
cuts  "Blue  Divil  Jam"  and  "Grave- 
diggers    Holiday"    for    lighter    jit- 
terbugging.      In    the    waltz    field 
there's   Wayne   King,   still  practi- 
cally alone  at  his  chosen  tempo. 
"Melody    of    Love"    has    a    nice 
L.weep.    Flipover:  "Forgotten"  has 
a  vocal  by  the  Waltz  King. 
NOTE:  Let's  have  your  comments, 
suggestions,  queries  on  this  col- 
umn.   The  first  500  fans  to  write 
in  will  receive  a  new,  5x7  photo 
of  Dick  Jurgens,  with  a  list  of 
his  latest  record  releases. 


HADID    VARIETIES 


VOLUME  3— No.  9 


SEPTEMBER,  1949 


Karl   Lambertz 

The   Williams   Brothers 

Radio  Varieties  Gold  Cup  Award 

Irene  Rich — Glorious  One 

Carl  Hoff  Lost  at  Sea 

"I  Was  Born  to  Sing"  '•   • 

"Joyce  Jordan"   Serial  Enters  Fourth  Year 

Meet   The  Wilbum  Children  of  WSM 

She  Wasn't  The   Type 

Pix  and  News  About  the  Stars 

Water,   a  Radio   and   Tomato   Soup 

DeU  Gibbs 

NBC  Brings  You  World  War  No.  2 

Betty   V^inkler 


Page  4 

Page  5 

Page  6 

Page  8 

Page  9 

Page  10 

Page  11 

Page  U  &  15 

Page  16 

Page  18  &  19 

Page  20 

Page  21 

Page  22 

Page  23 


F.    L.    ROSENTHAL,    Publisher 


WILTON    ROSENTHAL,    Editor 


Published  by  Radio  Varieties  Incorporated,  at  1056  West  Van  Buren  Street, 
Chicago,  Illinois.  New  York  Office:  485  Madison  Avenue.  Hollywood  Office: 
3532  Sunset  Boulevard.  Published  Monthly.  Single  copies  ten  cents.  Subscrip- 
tion rate  $1.00  per  year  in  the  United  States  and  Possessions,  $1.50  in  Canada. 
Entered  as  second  class  matter  January  10,  1940,  at  the  Post  Office  at  Chicago, 
Illinois,  under  the  act  of  March  3,  1879.  Every  effort  will  be  made  to  return 
unused  manuscripts,  photographs,  and  drawings  (if  accompanied  by  sufficient 
first-class  postage  and  name  and  address),  but  we  will  not  be  responsible  for 
any  losses  for  such  matter  contributed.  The  publishers  assume  no  responsibil- 
ity for  statements  made  herein  by  contributors  and  correspondents,  nor  does 
publication    indicate    approval    thereof. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  SEPTEMBER 


NEWS  and  VIEWS  of  WDZ,  Tuscola 


WDZ'S  200  LBS. 
OF  DYNAMITE 

Paulie  Grove  the  dynamic 
Hillbilly  blues  yodeler 
came  to  WDZ  in  Novem- 
ber, 1938,  after,  what  he 
terms,  a  very  dull  life  be- 
hind the  plow,  and  here's 
the  inside  story: 

Born  and  raised  on  a  farm  in  Jasper  Coun- 
ty, near  West  Liberty,  where  he  attended 
school,  he  was  one  in  a  family  of  seven 
boys  and  one  girl.  After  seventeen  years 
of  struggling  to  get  ahead  on  the  farm,  he 
managed  to  save  enough  from  the  eggs  (his 
chickens  laid)  to  purchase  a  second  hand 
guitar.  He  spent  many  hours  beside  the  old 
family  phonograph  listening  to  recordings, 
principally  those  of  Jimmy  Rodgers,  whom, 
it  is  often  said,  he  resembles  a  great  deal  in 
style  of  his  performance. 

At  the  age  of  24  years  the  de- 
sire to  see  the  world  flared  up  so 
strong  in  the  breast  of  this  coun- 
try boy  that  he  took  it  on  the 
lam,  went  to  Brocton,  Illinois  —  a 
full  sixty  miles  from  home  and 
mother,  and  got  a  job  driving  a 
transfer  truck.  One  year  at  this 
vocation  was  sufficient  to  secure 
for  Paulie  a  ticket  back  home  on 
the  farm,  plus  a  life  long  com- 
panion to  support. 

After  three  more  years  on  the 


farm,  the  desire  for  the  great  open 
spaces  once  more  came  upon 
our  smiling  troubadour.  Throwing 
his  "gittar"  over  his  shouldar  he 
took  off  for  the  WDZ  studios  then 
located  in  Mattoon,  Illinois. 

At  last  his  efforts  were  to  bare 
fruit,  for  he  was  given  a  job  im- 
mediately and  has  been  with 
WDZ  ever  since. 


Paulie    Grove 


Is  he  good?  Well,  just  watch 
him.     He's  goin'  places! 

He's  been  in  radio  but  two 
short  years  but  has  achieved  for 
himself  in  that  time  an  audience 
that  many  stars  work  years  to 
obtain. 

A  self-made  man,  if  ever  1  seen 
one,  and  a  mail  puller  in  any 
man's  radio  station. 


WDZ    GETS    NEW 
PROGRAM  DIRECTOR 

Frank  Jennings,  who  organized 
the  Pals  of  the  Prairie,  widely 
known  to  the  WDZ  audience,  has 
been  appointed  program  director 
of  WDZ,  in  Tuscola,  111.  Frank 
has  been  in  radio  six  years  over 
stations  throughout  the  middle 
west,  including  WHO,  Des  Moines, 
KMA,  Shenandoah,  la.,  and 
KVOO,  Tulsa,  Okla.  Since  De- 
catur, 111.  is  Frank's  birthplace, 
he's    right    at    home    with    WDZ. 


Clair  Hull,  manager  of  WDZ,  says 
Frank  is  "shaping  up  nicely  and 
promises  to  be  a  good  man  for 
us." 

WDZ  ON  PARADE 

WDZ  met  a  large  number  of 
people  this  summer  on  a  new  ap- 
pearance idea  called  WDZ  ON 
PARADE.  The  WDZ  artist  staff 
put  on  a  free  show  at  a  focal  point 
in  the  business  district  of  the, one 
town  visited  each  week  in  the 
WDZ   area.     This   free   afternoon 


show  publicized  a  night  show  and 
by  rebroadcasting  over  WDZ  by 
created  interest  in  the  audience 
short  wave  from  the  street  stage. 
As  evidence  of  success,  WDZ  ON 
PARADE  played  before  an  audi- 
ence of  about  75,000  during  the 
fourteen  shows.  Profit  from  the 
night  shows,  and  from  sponsor- 
ship by  the  merchants  in  the  town 
visited  each  week,  aided  material- 
ly in  paying  salaries  of  the  artist 
staff,  none  of  whom  were  dis- 
missed through  slump  summer 
months. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  SEPTEMBER 


Page  3 


KARL  LAMBERTZ 

MUSICAL  DIRECTOR  OF  WFAA 


Since  between  fifty  and  sixty 
per  cent  of  all  programs  origi- 
nated in  the  studios  of  Station 
WFAA  are  either  entirel  or  partly 
musical,  the  music  department  of 
The  Dallas  News  station  is  of 
major  importance  in  the  prepa- 
ration and  background  of  radio 
programs  which  WFAA  listeners 
hear. 

The  musical  director  of  WFAA 
is  Karl  Lambertz,  a  veteran  of 
more  than  thirty  years  in  show 
business,  much  of  which  was 
spent  in  the  theater  playing  or 
directing  stage  or  pit  orchestras. 
Generally  speaking,  the  job  of  his 
department  at  WFAA  is  that  of 
planning  and  executing  musical 
programs  in  all  the  ways  in  which 
music  enters  into  the  picture  of 
broadcasting. 

Ldmbertz  selects'  the  music  to 
be  played  on  a  program  or  pas- 
ses on  the  music  selected  by  the 
artist  or  group  to  perform  on  the 
air.  The  chief  consideration  here 
is  building  a  well-balanced  musi- 
cal show  which  will  include  sel- 
ections of  interest  to  a  wide  cross- 
section  of  the  listening  audience. 

The  musical  director  chooses 
the  artists  to  perform  the  program 
he  makes  out,  and  is  responsible 
for  getting  rehearsals  scheduled 
and  for  getting  the  program  on 
the  air  at  the  proper  time.  This 
means  an  elaborate  private  tele- 
phone book  and  system  of  noti- 
fying artists,  as  well  as  a  large 
listing  of  artists  with  notations  on 
their  particular  talents. 

Lambertz  also  supplies  musical 
cues  and  other  dramatic  parts 
which  are  generally  a  part  of 
every  dramatic  show. 

One  of  Lambertz' s  roles  in  that 
of  ex-officio  production  manager 
of  programs  involving  other  mu- 
sical artists. 

An  important  sub-division  of  the 
music  department  is  the  music 
library,  which  at  WFAA  is  in 
charge  of  Arthur  Kuehn.     Kuehn 

Page  4      . 


Karl    Lambertz 


takes  the  music  sheet  after  Lam- 
bertz either  makes  it  out  or  pas- 
ses on  it  and  checks  the  copy- 
right of  the  song  to  see  if  the  sta- 
tion has  a  license  to  perform  it. 
If  not,  out  the  number  goes  and 
another  is  substituted. 

Kuehn  has  his  orchestrations, 
vocal  copies  and  copyright  infor- 
mation so  catalogued  that  he  can, 
at  a  moment's  notice,  put  his 
hands  on  any  one  of  approximate- 
ly 9,000  orchestrations,  15,000  vo- 
cal copies  of  songs,  or  any  one 
of  150,000  cards  giving  complete 
information  about  the  copyright 
of  that  many  songs.  He  also  has 
catalogued  the  key  number  to 
more  4,000  musical  selections  on 
electrical  transcription,  contained 
in  the  station's  recorded  music 
library. 

The  music  library  at  WFAA 
comprises  the  largest  number  of 
orchestrations,  vocal  copies  and 
the  largest  collection  of  copyright 
information  owned  by  any  indi- 
vidual station  in  the  United  States. 

Another  unusual  advantage  of 
the  WFAA  music  department  is 
that  it  retains  a  coach  for  its  vo- 
cal artists  and  groups  in  the  per- 
son of  Craig  Barton,  accomplished 
pianist,  arranger  and  vocal 
coach.  Barton's  job  is  to  drill 
vocalists  until  the  rough  spots  in 
a  performance  have  been  elimi- 
nated. Barton's  coaching  is  in  a 
large  measure  responsible  for  the 
success  of  such  vocalists  as  Eve- 
lyn Lynne,  now  on  NBC  in  Chi- 
cago (known  here  as  Evelyn  Hon- 
eycutt),  and  Dale  Evans,  Chicago 
network  singer. 

The  music  department  also  con- 
ducts public  auditions  for  those 
who  either  actually  have,  or 
think  they  have  talent,  on  Tues- 
day evenings.  A  few  artists  have 
been  discovered  in  this  way. 
Everyone  gets  a  hearing,  and  any 
promise  of  talent  is  bound  to  be 
noticed. 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


SEPTEMBER 


THE  WILLIAMS  BROTHERS 


Bob,   Dick,   Don  and  Andy    (below) 


The  Williams  boys  are  real 
brothers:  Bob,  age  21;  Don,  17; 
Dick,  14  and  Andy,  just  12  years 
old.  None  of  them  has  ever  had 
a  lesson  in  music  or  voice. 

The  Williams  Brothers  came  to 
WLS  in  late  July  from  WHO  in  Des 
Moines,  where  they  had  been 
singing  on  the  Iowa  Barn  Dance 
for  three  years  —  since  just  after 
they  started  to  sing  together,  in 
fact. 

About  six  years  ago,  while  the 
family  was  living  in  Wall  Lake, 
Iowa,  Bob  and  Don  and  their 
parents  were  singing  in  the  church 
choir.  The  boys,  then  just  14  and 
11  years  old,  saw  the  possibilities 
in  a  brothers'  quartet  and  ap- 
proached their  father  on  the 
matter.  It  was  decided  they  would 
start  just  as  soon  as  six-year-old 
Andy  was  a  little    older.     They 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


SEPTEMBER 


did;  in  a  few  months  they  crashed 
Des  Moines  radio;  and  in  three 
years,  they  now  find  themselves 
in  big  city  radio,  as  staff  artists 
at  WLS,  Chicago. 

Originally  they  were  invitea  to 
Chicago  only  for  two  guest  ap- 
pearances on  the  WLS  National 
Barn  Dance,  but  the  audience 
demand  for  more  of  their  singing 
v/as  so  great  that  they  were  added 
to  the  staff.  On  "The  Last  Hour" 
they  stopped  the  show  as  the 
theater  audience  applauded  loud 
and  long,  demanding  encore  after 
encore. 

In  addition  to  their  regular  ap- 
pearances on  the  Barn  Dance, 
the  Williams  Brothers  have  a 
program  of  their  own  at  8  a.  m.' 
CDST  on  Tuesdays,  Thursda'^'s 
and  Saturdays,  appear  frequently 
also  on  the  WLS  Homemakers' 
Hour  and  other  programs. 

Page  5 


RADIO  VARIETIES  GOLD  CUP  AWARD 


Presented  To 


AL  PEARCE 


SOMETHING  TO  CROW   ABOUT 
In  addition  to  having  a  bird  farm  of  over  500  game  birds  on  his  Holly- 
wood estate,  Al  Pearce  has  something  to  crow  about  himself.     He  has  just 
been   awarded   the   coveted   Gold  Cup     prize    for    outstanding     radio   enter- 
tainment  by  Radio  Varieties. 


Al  Pearce,  whose  program  is 
heard  over  CBS  each  Friday  (6:30 
CDST;  7:30  EDST),  has  done  it 
again.  "It"  being  the  develop- 
ment of  a  new  idea  in  radio;  an 
idea  that  is  packed  full  of  kind- 
ness, faith  in  the  unknown,  unex- 
plored talent  of  America,  plus 
topflight  entertainment  value. 

About  two  and  a  half  months 
ago,  Pearce  came  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  something  should  be 
done  about  the  hundreds  of  tal- 
ented newcomers  in  radio  who 
are  favorites  on  local  stations  but 
have  never  had  an  opportunity 
on  coast-to-coast  programs.  Many 

Page  6         , 


airings  have  sought  out  amateurs, 
and  many  shows  feature  estab- 
lished artists  in  guest  spots.  But 
Pearce  wanted  to  stretch  out  a 
hand  to  the  great  middle  class  — 
who  go  about  their  business  of 
entertaining  their  particular  locale, 
but  never  get  the  "break  of  prov- 
ing themselves  on  a  transconti- 
nental broadcast. 

"We  felt  that  the  rest  of  the 
Qountry,  outside  the  limited  field 
where  these  artists  are  known, 
should  hear  these  people,"  Pearce 
explains.  "'We  didn't  want  to  es- 
tablish any  hard  ,-X(-nd-'' fast  rules 
about  presenting  new  talent  every 
week.     We  didn't  wont  an  ama- 


teur hour  idea.  We  did  want  to 
watch  for  unusual  talent  all  over 
the  country  and  showcase  it  on 
our  own  program." 

The  response  was  cataclysmic. 
From  all  over  the  country  an  av- 
alanche of  responre  came  in.  Let- 
ters, records,  even  telephone 
calls  proved  that  the  unheralded 
talent  of  America  was  waiting 
for  just  such  an  offer. 

The  first  guest  was  pretty  little 
Bonnie  King  from  station  KMBC  in 
Kansas  City.  Bonnie  stepped  off 
a  plane,  wide-eyed  with  wonder 
and  excitement  to  be  greeied  by 
the  Pearce  cast  and  also  the  Tex- 
as Rangers  who  came  from  tl^e 
somiO  Kansas  City  station.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Pearce  and  the  rest  of 
the  cast  set  out  to  make  Bonnie's 
stoy  a  pleasant  one.  On  the 
night  of  the  broadcast,  Bonnie  had 
her  chance  at  the  big-time,  and 
made  the  most  of  it.  Her  voice, 
her  style  and  her  personality  as 
displayed  by  Pearce  on  his  show, 
won  Bonnie  the  featured  soloist 
spot  with  the  Bob  Crosby  Band. 

Virginia  Carpenter  came  down 
from  San  Francisco  at  Pearce' s 
invitation.  Result  —  Warner 
Brothers  took  an  option  on  her 
services.  Ed  and  Tom  Plehal, 
harmonica  duo  from  WCCO  in 
Minneapolis  were  brought  to  Hol- 
lywood by  Pearce.  They  per- 
formed —  and  were  offered  an 
engagement  at  the  Roxy  theater 
in  New  York.  From  KFAB  in  Lin- 
coln, came  the  young  tenor.  Bob 
Bellamy,  now  on  his  way  up  the 
ladder  of  success  thanks  to  Pearce. 

Not  only  is  this  unusual  plan 
stimulating  and  inspiring  talent 
in  America.  It  is  providing  an 
entertainment  punch  for  every  ra- 
dio listener.  But  then,  Pearce  has 
been  doing  the  different  thing  in 
radio,  much  to  the  listener's  en- 
joyment, since  the  old  Blue  Mon- 
day Jamboree  Days  —  the  pro- 
gram he  originated  on  the  west 
coast.  Half  the  time  the  players 
didn't  even  use  a  script  because 
Pearce  had  the  theory  that  un- 
less the  actors  had  fun  —  the  audi- 
ence couldn't.  The  theory 
worked,  too. 

He's  always  violating  the  rules 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


SEPTEMBER 


in  radio  technique.  Usually  the 
star  of  a  program  stars,  and  the 
rest  of  the  cast  remains  in  obscu- 
rity. Not  so  on  the  Pearce  pro- 
gram. Carl  Hoff  who  directs  the 
music  for  Pearce  has  emerged  a 
definite,  concise  personality.  Artie 
Auerbach,  the  "Mr.  Kitzel"  of  the 
show,  has  etched  a  character  the 
whole  nation  laughs  at.  "Mr. 
Kitzel"  is  mimicked  in  every  day 
talk,  he's  satirized  in  the  movies 
— -  in  short,  Pearce  has  helped 
Auerbach  to  build  a  sound,  solid 
comic  character.  The  same  is 
true  of  Arthur  O.  Bryan  who  does 
"Waymond  W.  Wadcliffe"  much 
to  the  hilarity  of  the  listeners. 

It's  part  of  Al  Pearce's  back- 
ground to  hold  out  a  helping 
hand,  and  to  keep  a  key  on  the 
public's  entertainment  pulse. 
Born  in  San  Jose,  California,  July 
25,  1898,  Pearce  worked  his  way 
through  school  helping  with  the 
family  dairy.  At  15  he  played  in 
an  orchestra  at  the  San  Francis- 
co World's  Fair.  His  first  radio 
experience  was  singing  duets  with 
his  brother,  Cal,  with  the  San 
Francisco  Real  Estate  Glee  Club. 
From  that  time  until  he  turned  to 
professional  radio,  Pearce  spent 
the  years  as  a  salesman.  Roof- 
ing, insurance,  diamonds  and  real 
estate  were  pushed  by  the  indomi- 
table Pearce.  He  met  all  kinds  of 
people,  tried  to  understand  all 
kinds  of  philosophies.  The  mar- 
ket crash  in  1929  put  an  end  to 
selling  real  estate  —  so  Pearce 
turned  to  commercial  radio.  He's 
been  in  it  ever  since. 

But  he's  never  lost  touch  with 
the  reactions  of  the  public. 
Pearce's  favorite  sport  is  fishing 
in  his  boat  the  Audal  (combina- 
tion of  Audrey,  Pearce's  wife,  and 
his  own  name).  But  he  only  keeps 
a  few  of  the  catch.  The  rest  are 
distributed  to  the  needy. 

The  standards  of  the  world,  par- 
ticularly of  the  entertainment 
world  don't  usually  include  the 
bromide  of  helping  others  instead 
of  yourself,  as  a  quick  road  to 
success,  but  Pearce  has  made  it 
work.  Sponsored  by  Camel  Cig- 
arette's, the  Pearce  program  prob- 
ably has  a  more  widely  diversi- 
fied type  of  audience  than  any 
other  airshow.  All  types  and 
kinds  of  listeners  catch  the  friend- 
ly spirit  and  enthusiasm  that  is 
part  and  parcel  of  all  Pearce's 
entertainment  endeavors. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  SEPTEMBER 


Daddy's  Heart  Belongs  to  Him 


Dick  Powell's  seven-year-old  son,  Norman,  does  a  turn-about 
on  Mary  Martin's  famous  song — "Daddy's  Heart  Belongs  to  Me,  or 
Vice  Versa",  he  says.  Dick  Powell,  known  to  millions  of  radio 
listeners  as  a  singing  star  of  "Good  News  of  1940",  broadcast  every 
Thursday  at  8:00  p.m.,  EDST,  over  the  NBC-Red  Network,  is  just 
plain  "pal"  at  home — where  a  good  deal  of  time  is  spent  playing 
ball,  telling   stories   and   swapping    Ice   cream   with    Normle. 


Heidt  of  Happiness 


Horace  Heidt,  handsome  maestro  of  NBC's  "Treasure  Chest"  and 
"Pot  o'  Gold"  programs,  presents  his  new  (and  rather  cute)  vocal 
acquisition,  sixteen-year-old  Jean  Farney,  a  Cedar  Rapids  girl — 
rapidly  gaining  radio  stardom.  Two  years  ago,  Jean  pushed  her 
way  into  the  middle  of  Heidt's  rehearsals  while  on  a  theater  date 
near  Cedar  Rapids  and  requested  an  audition.  Always  the  gentle- 
man, Horace  listened  although  he  wasn't  looking  for  a  singer.  He 
developed  a  sudden  need  of  one  after  he  heard  Jean,  how- 
ever. But  rigors  and  strain  of  one-nighters  was  a  little  too  much 
for  the  youngster  and  illness  overtook  her.  Heidt  waited  until  she 
recovered   and  sent  for  her  again  two  months  ago.     Is  she  happy? 


Page  7 


IRENE  RICH  -  GLORIOUS  ONE 


Within  sixty  days  of  the  Sun- 
day night  that  Irene  Rich  began 
to  play  the  role  of  a  mother  on 
her  NBC-blue  network  series,  Hol- 
lywood seized  upon  her  for  an 
important  mother  role  in  an  im- 
portant new  picture. 


IRENE    RICH 


The  first  studio  to  recognize  her 
qualifications  for  this  role  was 
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,  which  cast 
her  as  the  mother  in  the  movie 
version  of  Phyllis  Bottome's  fa- 
mous story,  "The  Mortal  Storm." 

Page  8       " 


Until  her  appearance  on  the  Sun- 
day night  serial  "Glorious  One," 
Miss  Rich  had  played  a  variety 
of  roles,  many  of  them  ingenue 
and  young  characters. 

Curiously    enough,    the   role    of 


Judith  Bradley,  which  Miss  Rich 
plays  in  "Glorious  One,"  is  in 
many  respects  very  similar  to  her 
movie  role.  On  Sunday  night  she 
is  the  mother  of  two  children  in 
a   family   beset   by   many   crises. 

Her  job  is  the  straightening  out 
of  this  family's  precarious  domes- 
tic life;  and  in  the  movie,  "The 
Mortal  Storm,"  she  is  also  the 
mother  given  much  the  same  task. 
Release  of  "The  Mortal  Storm," 
is  expected  within  a  few  weeks. 

In  the  movie  "The  Mortal 
Storm/'  the  effect  of  the  Nazi 
regime  on  one  family  is  graphi- 
cally portrayed.  How  the  chil- 
dren, firm  in  the  belief  that  the 
Nazi  objectives  will  bring  a  glor- 
ious future  to  their  country  —  but 
leads  them  to  final  tragedy,  makes 
one  of  the  most  stirring  pictures 
of  the  year. 

Irene  Rich  is  now  in  her  seventh 
year  of  radio  broadcasting  for  the 
same  sponsor.  In  that  time  she 
has  played  more  than  350  dra- 
matic programs.  Star  of  stage, 
screen,  and  radio,  she  is  also  the 
mother  of  two  beautiful  daughters. 
One,  recently  married,  and  the 
other,  a  sculptress,  have  both 
joined  her  for  the  summer  holi- 
days. Daughter  Frances,  the  sculp- 
tress, has  been  given  national  no- 
tice because  of  her  work.  She  has 
done  monuments  and  decorative 
motifs  for  building  in  a  number  of 
cities.  One  of  her  most  recent 
pieces  of  work  was  a  set  of  bas- 
reliefs  for  Purdue  University. 

Another  important  picture  for 
Miss  Rich,  following  closely  on 
the  heels  of  the  successful  "Mor- 
tal Storm"  role,  will  soon  be  re- 
leased by  Columbia  Studios  and 
will  be  called  "The  Lady  In  Ques- 
tion." Brian  Aheme  is  the  male 
star  of  the  picture. 

Miss  Rich  will  be  seen  as 
Michele  Morestan,  wife  of  a  Paris 
bicycle-shop  proprietor.  She  has 
TWO  grown  children  and  again 
plays  the  role  of  a  mature  woman. 

Continued  on  Page  17 
RADIO  VARIETIES  —  SEPTEMBER 


CARL  HOFF  LOST  AT  SEA 


CARL    HOFF 


When  rough  weather  damaged  his  cabin  cruiser,  the  Caprice,  Carl   Hoff   (aboard 
the  cruiser   in   photo)    and   his   party,  were   lost  for  nine   nerve  wracking   hours. 


Catalina  Island  is  one  of  the 
beauty  spots  of  the  world  and  al- 
so one  of  the  most  popular  des- 
tinations of  Southern  California 
yachtsmen.  But  have  you  ever 
noticed  how  many  of  them  are 
reported  missing  or  adrift  in  the 
waters  surrounding  it?  Seperat- 
ing  the  island  from  the  mainland 
is  thirty  miles  of  the  trickiest  wat- 
ers in  the  world.  Heavy  fogs  bil- 
low down  out  of  nowhere,  cross- 
currents and  rough  waters  with 
high  winds  develop  with  no 
warning.  It  compares  with  the 
English  Channel  and  the  waters 
off  Cape  Hatteras  for  squalls  and 
tough  navigation.  That's  why 
this  channel  bests  so  many  good 
yachtsmen. 
Latest  to  testify  to  the  truth  of 
this  is  Carl  Hoff,  handsome  maes- 
tro of  the  Al  Pecrrce-CBS  programs 
on  Friday  nights.  On  a  recent 
Sunday  Hoff  drifted  helplessly 
there  for  nine  hours  when  the 
rudder  on  his  cabin  cruiser,  the 
Caprice,  was  snapped  off  by 
rough  water.  Water  so  rough  that 
it  snapped  the  one-inch  brass 
shaft  on  his  quite  new  boat,  be- 
lieve it  or  not! 

Imagine,   if  you  can,   the   anx- 


iety, the  nerve  wracking  uncer- 
tainty —  multiplied  by  nine  hours 
of  waiting  and  wondering  —  of 
such  an  experience.  It  wasn't 
pleasant,  although  now  it  seems 
amusing  in  retrospect. 

Hoff  and  his  pretty  wife  Dorothy, 
accompanied  by  Helen  Carroll  of 
the  Merry  Macs  also  featured  on 
the  Pearce  show,  and  her  hus- 
band, Carl  Kress,  ace  guitarist, 
had  been  to  Catalina  for  the  week- 
end on  Hoff's  boat.  At  about  3 
o'clock  Sunday  afternoon  they 
radio-telephoned  to  Bob  Cannom, 
producer  of  the  show,  who  was 
aboard  his  boat  in  Balboa  basin 
that  they  were  about  to  leave  the 
island  for  the  mainland,  plan- 
ning to  arrive  about  6  o'clock. 

Just  before  5  Cannom  tuned  in 
his  set  again  and  heard  Hoff 
calling  him.  "I've  just  lost  the 
rudder  on  my  boat!"  was  the 
frenzied  call  of  the  Caprice's 
skipper. 

Action  was  fast  after  that.  Can- 
nom called  the  marine  operator, 
KOU,  at  Wilmington.  The  short- 
wave radio-telephone  band  was 
immediately  cleared,  as  is  always 
done  for  distress  calls.  Cannom 
called  the  Coast  Guard.    Wendell 


Niles,  Pearce's  announcer  who 
was  with  Cannom,  drove  to  noti- 
fy the  Balboa  harbor  master.  The 
Hermes,  175-foot  Coast  Guard 
cutter,  was  immediately  dis- 
patched to  search  for  the  Caprice, 
according  to  the  approximate  lo- 
cation given  by  Hoff. 

Perhaps  you  don't  know  that 
small  cruisers  do  not  carry  equip- 
ment for  calculating  exact  latitude 
and  longtitude.  The  compass 
gives  the  direction  and  by  cal- 
culating approximate  speed  and 
time  out  of  port  they  can  give 
only  a  rough  idea  of  location. 
This  Hoff  did.  The  Coast  Guard 
then  calculates  tide  drift  and  wind 
velocity  to  decide  where  a  boat 
should  be  after  a  given  time  is 
elapsed.  Thus  did  the  Hermes  set 
out  to  find  Hoff,  at  about  5  in  the 
afternoon. 

Radio  calls  were  put  in  every 
half-hour  after  that,  between  Hoff, 
Cannom,  the  KOU  marine  opera- 
tor and  the  Coast  Guard,  with 
Cannom' s  and  Niles'  anxiety 
growing  every  minute,  for  Hoff 
was  not  found.  To  save  the  bat- 
teries on  his  boat,  Hoff  was  mak- 
ing  his   calls    shorter   each   time. 


Continued  on  Page  17 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


SEPTEMBER 


Page  9 


"I  WAS  BORN  TO  SING" 

SAYS  JESSICA  DRAGONETTE 

Jessica  Dragonette  calls  her  long  radio  expe- 
rience "fortunate"  because  of  the  "long  association 
with  good  directors"  it  afforded  her.  "It  helped  me." 
she  said,  "along  the  straight  and  narrow  path  of 
good  musicianship." 

Her  great  achievements  with  concerts  —  sym- 
phonies-movies and  Radio  she  completely 
disregards  as  "details."  "I  was  born  to  sing,"  she 
says,  "and  nothing  else  matters.  The  rest  is  details." 


Jessica    Dragonette 


The  vivacious  j'oung  soprano  star  of 
the  new  Sunday  night  Ford  Summer 
Hour  series  on  the  Columbia  net- 
work finds  it  difficult  to  balance  her 
youthful  appearance  and  a  radio 
record  that  establishes  her  in  the 
formidable  class  of  the  "veteran." 
Real  old-timers  who  squint  down 
their  noses  and  say  this  can't  be  she, 
must  be  reminded  that  when  r-dio 
wns    very    young,    Jessica    was  even 

Page   10 


younger.  Moreover,  radio's  still  just 
a   kid. 

Her  career  in  broadcasting  is  much 
less  the  record  of  a  veteran  than  that 
of  an  artist's  growth  to  cultural 
maturity. 

Two  years  ago  she  stepped  from 
the  broadcasting  studio  into  the  con- 
cert hall  with  the  tremendous  satisfac- 
'•■'in  of  having  seen  her  exneriments 
bear  fruit.     The  very  type  of  variety 


program  on  which  she  is  starred  now 
is  a  crystallization,  she  feels,  of  the 
early  patterns  she  evolved  f«r  this 
type  of  entertainment.  Her  combi- 
nation of  acting  and  singing  in  light 
opera  broadcasts  and  in  the  first  sing- 
ing-talking scrint  was  among  the 
forms  she  tested.  Children's  stories, 
one-act  plays  and  Shakespeare  were 
other  important  mediums  she 
advanced. 

"I  hoped  that  American  poetry 
would  be  written  for  the  air,  too," 
she  said,  "and  predicted  a  trend 
toward  'better  programs.  I  had  to 
battle  for  good  music.  My  faith  in 
the  demand  of  listeners  for  good 
things    was    strong." 

Miss  Dragonette's  two-year  expe- 
rience in  the  concert  hall,  which  in- 
volved tours  to  the  remotest  corners 
of  the  United  States,  Hawaii  and 
Canada,  proved  this  faith  to  be 
justified. 

"I  took  temporary  leave  of  radio 
not  to  advance  myself  in  another 
field  on  the  strength  of  a  reputation 
in  radio,"  she  said,  "but  because  I 
felt  my  pioneer  work  was  finished. 
So  many  loyal  followers  had  requested 
me  to  make  personal  appearances 
that  I  felt  I  should  justify  their  faith 
in    me. 

"And  then  I  wanted  to  verify  what 
1  knew  was  happening,  to  find  out 
how  music  was  being  taught  and  what 
people's  tastes  were.  I  have  found 
to  my  delight  that  these  people  not 
only  wanted  to  listen  to  music  but  to 
make  their  own.  In  every  community 
I  visited  there  was  a  worthy  group 
activity  being  conducted.  Everywhere 
1  went  mem'bers  of  the  audience  came 
backstage  and  told  me  of  some  con- 
structive work  in  which  they  were 
engaged  after  having  been  led  to  it 
by  radio." 

The  vivacious  young  soprano  said 
this  all  helped  her  to  get  "a  needed 
change  to  develop  as  an  artist"  after 
having  "done  the  same  thing  so  long." 
Meanwhile  a  stranger  thing  was  hap- 
pening. Her  tremendous  radio  fol- 
lowing was  impatient  for  her  to  come 
back  to  the  microphone.  They  missed 
her,  and  said  so  in  a  steady  stream 
of  letters.  Concert  appearances 
before  thousands  was  a  treat  for 
which  they  were  grateful,  but  they 
preferred  her  at  the  microphone  so 
millions  could  hear  her  at  once.  This 
accounted  for  her  decision  to  return 
to   the  air. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  SEPTEMBER 


"JOYCE   JORDAN"   SERIAL   ENTERS  FOURTH  YEAR 


Cast  of  Joyce  Jordan 
played  by  Ann  Shepherd 
plays  various    roles   in    Col 

"Joyce  Jordan  —  Girl  Interne" 
was  born  on  a  Fifth  Avenue  bus! 
No,  not  the  character,  but  the 
idea  for  the  radio  serial  now 
about  to  complete  its  fourth  year 
on  the  air. 

By  chance,  one  day,  "Hi" 
Brown,  the  show's  producer,  and 
Julian  Funt,  author,  sat  down 
behind  a  young  couple  on  a 
New  York  motorcoach  who  were 
arguing  the  age-old  theory  that 
marriage  and  a  career  do  not 
mix.  They  were  going  at  it 
tooth  and  nail  when  the  inspira- 
tion for  "Joyce  Jordan  —  Girl 
Interne"  dawned  on  the  politely 
eavesdropping  gentlemen  sitting 
behind  them.  Here  was  a  theme 
for  a  good  daytime  serial  which 
had  landed  in  their  laps  from  the 
blue! 

The  reason  behind  the  tena- 
cious appeal  of  the  story,  —  few 
programs  have  its  staying  pop- 
ularity —  probably  lies  in  its 
being  a  believable,  real-life  story 
of  hospital  life.  "Joyce  Jordan", 
unlike  most  medical  heroines,  did 
not  perform  any  delicate  brain 
surgery  her  second  day  out  of 
medical  school,  —  in  fact,  she 
has -never  performed  an  operation 
at  all  on  the  show.  Feeling  that 
scalpel  sequences  are  over-used 
in  daily  dramas  of  this  type,  "Hi" 
Brown  and  Julian  Funt  have 
steered  quite  clear  of  experimental 


:  Paul  Sherwood  played  by  Myrom  McCo 
—  Dr.  Hans  Simons  played  by  Erik  Ralf 
unibia's   serial    heard    at    1:15   p.m.,    COST. 

medicine  and  have  dealt  almost 
completely  with  the  psychological 
phases  of  the  field.  Instead  of 
dramatizing  operating  room 
scenes  and  leaving  their  radio 
audience  with  "cliff  hanging" 
teasers  to  bring  them  back  the 
next  day,  "Hi"  and  Julian  let 
"Joyce"  unravel  emotional  prob- 
lems by  common-sense,  scientific 
methods.  "Joyce"  holds  her  daily 
audience  through  a  "stream  of 
consciousness  appeal,  not  through 
perilous  threats. 

When  "Hi"  was  shopping 
around  for  a  counter  theme  in  the 
hospital  story,  he  discovered  that 
medicine  and  newspaper  work 
ran  neck  and  neck  in  the  affec- 
tions of  feminine  listeners.  Hence, 
he  picked  a  foreign  correspon- 
dent to  play  the  romantic  lead  op- 
posite his  girl  physician.  Right 
now,  in  the  script,  she  has  com- 
bined both  marriage  and  her 
career  and  is  wed  to  the  news- 
paperman. 

"Hi"  Brown  has  cast  many  big 
names  on  his  afternoon  fifteen- 
minute  program.  Rex  Ingram, 
"De  Lcrwd"  in  "Green  Pastures" 
appears  in  the  script  off  and  on, 
as  does  Aileen  Pringle,  former 
screen  siren.  Myron  McCormick, 
who  plays  "Joyce's"  husband, 
does  both  stage  and  film  work 
besides  radio.  His  last  movie 
was  the   documentary  child-birth 


rmack     —     Joyce     Jordan 
and    Adelaide    Klein    who 


saga,  "The  Fight  for  Life".  Agnes 
Moorehead,  who  is  radio's  num- 
ber one  actress,  also  lends  a 
hand  to  the  story,  along  with 
Theodore  J^ewton,  reporter  in 
"The  Man  Who  Came  to  Dinner", 
Broadway   comedy  hit. 

"Hi's"  first  "Joyce  Jordan"  was 
Rita  Johnson,  lovely,  blonde  film 
star;  Helen  Claire,  of  "Kiss  the 
Boys  Goodbye"  fame,  came  next; 
then  Elspeth  Erik,  who  left  the 
cast  to  do  Claire  Booth's  "Margin 
for  Error";  finally  Ann  Shepherd, 
present  "Joyce  Jordan",  a  prom- 
inent Chicago  actress  who  played 
in  starring  roles  at  the  age  of 
sixteen.  Ann  got  her  early  train- 
ing behind  the  footlights  under 
the  name  of  Shaindel  Kalish; 
then  went  to  Hollywood  to  do 
film  work  under  the  name  of 
Judith  Blake.  She  changed  her 
moniker  to  Ann  Shepherd  when 
she  started  radio  work  —  and 
has  held  onto  it  ever  since.  A 
talented,  emotional  actress,  Ann 
pinch-hit  for  Sylvia  Sidney  in 
"The  Gentle  People"  on  the  stage 
before  she  got  her  permanent 
girl  interne  job. 

"Hi"  and  Julian  work  hard  on 
the  "Joyce  Jordan  —  Girl  Interne" 
script  every  day  to  keep  the 
story  moving,  and  avoid  those 
"dull"  sequences  which  are 
responsible  for  the  demise  of 
many    daytime    dramas. 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


SEPTEMBER 


Page  II 


KITTY  KEENE 


KITTY  KEENE  CAST:  In  this  old  family  album 
group  are  the  principal  members  of  the  cast  of  Kitty 
Keene,  NBC  dramatic  serial  heard  Mondays  through 
Fridays  over  the  NBC-Red  network  at  4:30  p.  m.  COST. 
Left  to    right,    front     row:      Carlton     (Charles     Williams) 


KaDell,  Gail  (Kitty  herself)  Henshaw,  Patricia  (Jill  Jones) 
Dunlap,  Bob  (Bob  Jones)  Bailey,  Loretta  (Pearl  Davis) 
Poynton.  Back  row:  Phil  (Jefferson  Fowler)  Lord, 
Director  Frank  Dane,  Peggy  (Clara  Lund)  Hillias  and 
Stanley    (Neil   Perry)    Harris. 


BY  BIRDIE  MORGAN 

Kitty  still  beautiful,  is  the  mother 
of  a  chcrrming  daughter,  Jill,  and 
the  wife  of  Charles  Williams, 
former  newspaperman.  Jill  is 
married  to  Bob  Jones,  lieutenant 
of  detectives.  The  daughter  is  a 
mother  too.  Tiny  Miss  Jones  is 
Kit,  Junior. 

Star  of  the  show  is  Gail  Hen- 
shaw, a  young  actress  who  forgot 
to  count  10  during  a  quarrel  with 
her  fiance  two  years  ago.  Gail 
handed  Robert  Hughes  her  en- 
gagement ring  —  and  the  mitten 
—  and  headed  for  Chicago  by 
plane.  Gail  was  still  in  a  huff 
when  she  landed,  so,  without 
even  unpacking  she  marched 
over  to  NBC  studios  in  the  Mer- 
chandise Mart  to  ask  for  a  job. 
A  few  months  later  she  was 
Kitty  Keene. 

The  scrap?  That  came  out  all 
right,  too.  Hughes  lingered  in 
New  York  a  month  after  Gail  left; 

Page  12 


then  he  took  a  tip  from  Young 
Lochinvar,  reversed  Young  L's 
route  and  headed  west.  Miss 
Henshaw  became  Mrs.  Robert 
Hughes  on  Christmas  Eve,  1938. 

Gail  is  that  rara  avis,  a  native 
New  Yorker;  she  was  born  in 
Gotham  August  8,  1912.  She  at- 
tended St.  Agatha  elementary 
and  high  school,  went  to  Wellesley 
for  a  couple  of  years  and  then 
switched  to  the  American 
Academy  of  Dramatic  art,  from 
which  she  graudated  in  1933.  At 
Wellesley  Gail  not  only  starred 
in  dramatics,  she  directed  campus 
plays,  was  in  the  choir,  gave  a 
hand  to  the  crew  and  played 
basketball. 

Back  in  1936,  Gail  was  in  stock 
in  New  York  when  a  fellow 
player  begged  her  to  help  him 
out  on  a  hurry-up  replacement  in 
a  dramatic  presentation  on  a 
local  station.  She  stayed  two 
years,  graduating  to  the  networks. 


Current  episodes  in  the  serial 
deal  with  Kitty's  problems  as 
manager  of  "The  Modern 
Woman",  a  job  which  has 
estranged  her  unemployed  hus- 
band and  driven  him  to  New 
York  and  consolation  in  the 
charms  of  Norma  Vernack,  a 
Javanese  dancer.  Further  compli- 
cations are  stirred  up  by  Kitty's 
decision  to  move  to  an  elaborate 
apartment  "on  the  other  side  of 
town"  and  taking  the  young 
Joneses  with  her.  The  move  goes 
to  Jill's  head  and  Bob  finds  he 
doesn't  fit  in.  A  friend  of  Kitty's 
employer,  adds  to  the  situation 
by  showing  an  interest  in  Kitty. 

The  show  is  produced  for  the 
agency  by  Frank  Dane,  director 
and  character  actor  who  created 
the  role  of  detective  "Never-Fail" 
Hendricks  for  the  Story  of  Mary 
Marlin.  Dan  Donaldson  announ- 
ces the  serial  and  Clinton  Stanley 
does  production  for  NBC. 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


SEPTEMBER 


Bartons   At   Home 


If  the  Bartons  of  "The  Story  of  Bud  Barton" 
were  a  real  family  they  couldn't  look  any 
more  domestic  than  this  picture  of  the  three 
NBC  actors  who  play  mother,  father  and  son. 
Fern  Parsons  plays  Mrs.  Barton;  Lester  Damon 
plays  Henry  Barton,  and  Dick  Holland  is  Bud. 
The  drama  of  Bud,  his  family  and  friends  is 
heard  five  times  weekly  as  part  of  NBC's 
Children's  Hour,  a  full  suppertime  hour  of 
entertainment  enjoyed  by  children  and  grown- 
ups alike. 


Scrumptious  Scripter  and  Singer 


Pipe  the  decor  resting  on  a  photographer's  Idea  of  a  pipe  line — 
Sally  Vass,  23-year-old  big  sister  of  NBC's  popular  harmony  team — 
The  Vass  Family — composed  of  four  beautiful  sisters  and  a  hand- 
some brother.  The  group  are  currently  broadcasting  from  NBC's 
studios    in    Chicago.      Sally,    incidentally,    writes    all    their   scripts. 


Co-Stars 


"Sky  Baby",  Arabian  thorough- 
bred named  after  the  young  colt 
in  the  popular  NBC  serial,  "One 
Man's  Family",  is  trying  his 
hardest  to  smile  for  the  camera 
in  his  first  picture,  while  Kath- 
leen Wilson,  "Claudia"  on  the 
program,     is    tickiiing     nis    cnin 

to    help    him    out. 


Comedian  Eddie  Cantor  dusts 
off  the  microphone  in  prepara- 
tion for  his  return  to  NBC 
October  2  in  a  new  "Hour  of 
Smiles"  series.  With  an  all-star 
comedy  revue,  the  funster  will 
end  a  year's  vacation  from  the 
airwaves  when  he  is  again  heard 
over  the  NBC-Red  Network,  on 
which  he  first  won  radio  glory 
nearly  a  decade  ago.  The  "Hour 
of  Smiles,"  now  featuring  Abbott 
and  Costello  as  Summer  en- 
tertainment, will  continue  to  be 
broadcast  every  Wednesday  at 
8:00    p.    m.,   COST. 


Mike. Cleaner 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  SEPTEMBER 


Page  13 


MEET  THE  WILBURN  CHILDREN  OF  WSM 


It's  just  a  Big,  Little  Family  Affair 
with  the  Wilbums,  newest  young- 
est Opry  Stars. 


From  a  small  farm  in  Arkansas 
to  the  Grand  Ole  Opry  is  the 
path  traveled  by  the  Wilburn 
Children. 

And  they  would  not  trade  places 
with  the  Squire  of  Van  Buren, 
Bob  Burns. 

Bob  can  have  his  Bazooka  and 
Hollywood  and  all  that  goes  with 
it.  The  Wilburn  Children  are 
satisfied  with  what  they  have,  to 
put  it  mildly,  and  would  not  trade 
with  the  most  famous  citizen  of 
Arkansas. 

Ever  since  the  oldest  of  the  chil- 
dren first  picked  up  a  "gittar"  — 
and  that  has  not  been  long  ago — 
their  fond  parents  dreamed  of  the 
day  when  they  would  "make" 
the  Grand  Ole  Opry. 

That's  the  dream  of  most  gittar- 
plunkers  and  fiddle-scrapers  in 
America,  so  it  was  not  un-naturaly 
that  the  Wilburn  parents,  father 
and  mother,  should  aspire  to  such 
a  goal  for  their  children  rather 
than  hoping  one  would  ascend  to 
the  White  House. 

And  the  fact  that  both  parents 
had  musical  attainments  —  but 
had  not  attained  the  pre-eminence 
of  the  WSM  Grand  Ole  Opry  — 
only  added  spice  to  their  ambi- 
tions for  the  children. 

When  Lester  responded  so 
promptly  to  the  instructions  of  his 
parents,  they  felt  emboldened  to 
start  on  the  next  youngest.  That 
was  Leslie.  Once  Leslie  had  mas- 
tered the  rudiments  of  the  mando- 
lin, guitar  and  fiddle,  they  bought 
a  mandolin  and  gave  it  to  their 
only  girl,  Geraldine.  And  on 
down  the  list  of  their  children 
from  the  oldest  to  the  youngest, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Estes  Wilburn  in- 
stilled in  them  a  love  of  the  old- 
time  tunes  of  their  forefathers  and 
an  ability  to  play  and  sing  them. 

After  work  on  the  farm  had  been 
completed,  the  Wilburn  family 
would  gather  on  the  porch  in  the 
gathering  twilight  and  engage  in 
a  family  song-fest.  From  aged 
grandfather  down  to  three  year 
old  Theodore,  the  Wilburns  sang 
the  songs  that  had  echoed  through 
the  Arkansas  hills  for  many  gene- 
rations. 


HERE  IS  THE  WILBURN  FAMILY:  from 
youngest  to  oldest  (left  to  right) — Theodore, 
Doyle,   Geraldine,   Leslie  and   Lester. 


Then,  when  grandfather  and 
father  were  satisfied  the  children 
were  ready,  only  grandfather 
stayed  on  the  form  as  Mr.   and 


Mis.  Wilburn  started  out  with  the 
children. 

They  did  not  know  where  they 
were  going  first. 


Page  14 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


SEPTEMBER 


7/ 


mmk 


Theodore  Wilburn,  a  radio  star  at  six,  is  the  biggest  little  man  on 
the  WSM  Grand  Ole  Opry.  He  may  not  be  able  to  reach  the  mike  with- 
out the  aid  of  a  chair,  but  he  can  reach  the  hearts  of  millions  of  Grand 
Ole  Opry  fans  when  he  sings  the  songs  of  the  soil. 


But  they  knew  where  they  were 
headed  for  —  finally.  That  was 
Nashville,  Tennessee  and  the 
WSM  Grand  Ole  Opry. 

They  made  it  this  summer  — 
and  only  this  past  month  made 
their  first  appearance  on  the  NBC 
network  portion  of  the  famed  Opry 
show.  Back  in  Arkansas  —  at 
the  home-town  of  Hardy  —  and  in 
other  parts  of  the  Razor-back  state, 
countless  friends  gained  real  sat- 
isfaction when  they  heard  the 
Wilburn  family  on  the  Grand  Ole 
Opry. 

But  the  biggest  thrill  for  the 
Arkansas  Travelers  was  the  re- 
ception the  Opry  audience  ac- 
corded them.  By  the  thousands 
came  letters  to  WSM  praising 
"those  cute  little  children  from 
Arkansas,"  "How  they  can  sing," 
"angelic  voices,"  "among  the 
best"  and  other  flattering  phrases 


that  told  the  Wilburns  in  a  lan- 
guage they  could  all  understand 
—  all  the  way  from  Theodore  to 
Papa  Estes — that  they  had  made 
good  on  the  toughest  trial  any 
folk  singer  can  have. 

Many  of  those  who  wrote  in  to 
WSM  wanted  to  know  about  the 
Wilburn  children.  Radio  Varieties 
has  already  received  many  let- 
ters asking  about  this  youngest 
family   group. 

So  here  is  the  information  about 
each  one: 

LESTER  is  the  oldest.  He  is 
sixteen  and  acts  just  like  a  big 
brother,  keeping  the  youngsters 
out  of  mischief.  He  plays  the 
mandolin,  guitar  and  fiddle,  which 
he  prefers  to  anyth-ing  else.  But 
given  a  choice  between  working 
on  the  farm  and  something  else, 
Lester  would  take  to  fishing  and 
hunting. 


LESLIE  is  next  in  line.  He  is 
fourteen  years  old,  in  the  seventh 
grade  in  school,  but  openly  pre- 
fers music  to  mathematics.  Or  is 
it  arithmetic  in  the  seventh  grade? 
Unlike  older  brother,  he  would 
take  to  farming  next  to  fiddling, 
but  like  older  brother  he  is  a 
triple  threat  musician  —  mando- 
lin, guitar  and  fiddle. 

GERALDINE,  the  only  girl  in 
the  family  is  thirteen  years  old 
but  has  progressed  in  school  as 
far  as  her  older  brother.  She  also 
plays  all  three  instruments  and 
when  not  playing  on  the  radio  or 
studying  her  lessons,  likes  to  help 
mother  with  the  cooking  and  sew- 
ing. 

DOYLE,  who  is  nine  years  old 
is  next  in  line.  He  is  in  the  fourth 
grade  in  school  and  professes  to 
like  his  school  work  next  to  mu- 
sic. He  also  likes  baseball  and 
will  play  it  at  the  drop  of  a  bat. 

Youngest  and  most  lively  and 
mischievous  is  THEODORE,  who 
is  only  six  years  old.  Theodore 
is  the  only  member  of  the  family 
not  versed  on  three  instruments. 
This  youngster  has  not  mastered 
the  fiddle,  but  can  man-handle  a 
man-sized  guitar  and  make  a 
mandolin  cry.  He  is  the  darling 
of  the  Opry  and  it  takes  the  best 
efforts  of  the  rest  of  the  family 
to  keep  Theodore  from  getting 
spoiled. 

As  most  radio  fans  know,  most 
of  radio's  "families"  are  fictitious. 
But  not  with  the  Wilburns.  One 
look  at  their  accompanying  pic- 
tures is  enough  to  convince  any- 
one of  that. 

They  come  from  Arkansas 
where  Papa  Wilburn  says  the 
people  "use  coons  for  watch-dogs 
and  owls  for  roosters  and  Bob 
Burns  is  a  sissy." 

And  where  the  Grand  Ole  Opry 
is  an  object  of  more  admiration 
than  the  Metropolitan  Opera  to 
some  sputtering  soprano. 

And  for  six  year  old  Theodore 
to  achieve  stardom  on  WSM's 
Grand  Ole  Opry  is  just  as  won- 
derful to  his  home-folk  back  in 
Arkansas  as  if  Baby  Sandy  should 
be  signed  to  sing  Don  Jose  in 
"Carmen"  at  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  next   season. 

Theodore,  the  biggest  little  star 
on  the  Grand  Ole  Opry,  is  the 
man  of  the  moment  in  Arkansas. 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


SEPTEMBER 


Page  15 


SHE  WASNT  THE  TYPE 

A    SUCCESS    STORY    ABOUT 
RADIO  ACTRESS  LESLEY  WOODS 


By  Bob  Harttnan 

For  the  third  time  in  two  hours 
an  arresting  blonde  girl  edged 
her  way  along  the  line  which 
led  to  the  assistant  stage  man- 
ager's office.  She  was  a  girl  of 
unusual  appearance,  with  fine 
high  cheek-bones  and  a  world  of 
vitality  in  her  carriage. 

She  self-consciously  adjusted 
her  sable  neckpiece  (borrowed) 
as  her  place  in  line  landed  her 
before  the  desk.  The  assistant 
stage  manager  gave  her  a  cursory 
glance. 

"You're  not  the  type,"  he  said. 

"O.  K.,"  answered  the  girl.  She 
turned  to  go. 

"Saaay  —  WAIT  a  minute!" 
said  the  man.  You've  been  here 
before  today." 

"You  bet  I  have,"  answered 
Lesley  Woods.  "There  times! 
I  die  hard." 

This  little  episode  in  Lesley's 
life  may  be  indicative  of  why,  in 
two  short  years,  she's  become 
one  of  Chicago's  radio's  busiest 
actresses. 

Not  very  many  years  ago 
Lesley  Woods  walked  out  of 
Goodman  School  of  the  Theatre, 
cum  laude,  which  meant  that  she 
could  really  wrap  her  tongue  a- 
round  a  piece  of  the  English  lan- 
guage. 

Almost  immediately  Lesley 
landed  a  job  with  a  summer 
theatre  and  did  everything  from 
shifting  scenery  to  walking  on  as 
leading  lady  when  the  star 
keeled  over  with  the  heat. 

The  season  almost  over,  Lesley 
returned  to  Chicago  to  find  an- 
other job  awaiting  her.  This  time 
with  a  stock  company  in  Michi- 
gan. She  got  to  play  bits,  quite 
a  few  ingenue  leads,  and  a  few 
starring  parts  when  name  players 
were  ill. 

Right  here  it  better  be  stated 
that  Lesley  admits  she's  darn 
lucky  when  it  comes  to  illness. 
She's  never  sick  herself  but  twice 
a  principal  she's  been  under- 
studying has  had  tough  going 
and  Lesley  has  been  given  the 

Page  16 


long-awaited  chance  to  "go  on  in 
the  part." 

Finally  the  Michigan  stock 
season  came  to  an  end  and  once 
more  Lesley  decided  to  return  to 
Chicago  when  two  other  girls  in 
the  company  said,  "Come  on. 
Let's  go  on  to  New  York!" 

Lesley  scoffed.  "You  should 
see  my  bank  roll!"  she  laughed. 

"You  should  see  OURS,"  they 
G"  swered. 


Blonde  in  real  life,  somehow  Lesley 
Woods  Is  never  called  upon  to  play 
dizzy     blonde     roles    at    the     NBC 

Chicago  studios.  Lesley  has  made 
her  mark  as  a  dramatic  actress  ap- 
pearing on  three  NBC  dramatic 
serials,  as  an  ailing  wife  In  "Guiding 
Light";  a  divorcee  in  love  with  a 
doctor  in  "Road  of  Life";  and  as  an 
office  receptionist  in  love  with  a  doc- 
tor  in    "Woman    in    White." 

Anyway,  the  three  young 
ladies  set  off  for  the  great  metrop- 
olis, their  principal  asset  being 
an  old  Ford  car. 

Lesley  Woods  tackled  Broad- 
way a  full-fledged  actress.  She'd 
had  years  of  formal  training.  She'd 
had  two  seasons  of  actual  expe- 
rience. But  Broadway  treated  her 
the  way  it  treats  all  young  ac- 
tresses. It  gave  her  the  grand 
brush  off  and  forced  her  to  get 
in  the  hard  way. 


As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  gentle- 
man who  told  Lesley  she 
"wasn't  the  type"  was  one  of  her 
first  job-hunting  efforts  and  she 
didn't  let  him  discourage  her.  She 
went  home  —  returned  the  sables 
to  the  girl  across  the  hall  (who 
returned  them  to  her  lucky  girl 
friend  who  had  a  steady  job)  and 
sat  down  and  wrote  a  letter  to 
the  producer  she'd  just  tried  to 
see.  On  an  impulse,  Lesley 
cVopped  in  a  small  picture  of  her- 
self —  a  trick  which  won  her 
many  an  appointment  thereafter. 
In  a  few  days  a  note  came  from 
Mr.  So-and-So  would  see  Miss 
Woods  at  11:15  the  following 
Tuesday. 

Miss  Woods  saw  Mr.  So-and- 
So  the  following  Tuesday.  He 
gave  her  one  look  and  started  to 
say  —  "You  re  not  the  .  .  . 

Lesley  held  up  her  hands.  "I 
know,"  she  interrupted.  "I'm  not 
the  type." 

"Frankly,  you  aren't,"  said  the 
producer.  "But  let's  hear  you 
read  anyway." 

Lesley  read  some  scripts,  and 
proved  to  the  producer  and  to 
herself  that  sometimes  it's  better 
to  be  a  good  actress  than  "the 
type."  She  got  a  bit  part  in  the 
Broadway  production  of  "Excur- 
sion." 

There  followed  parts  in  the 
Theatre  Guild  play,  "Love  Is  Not 
Simple,"  and  Mark  Hellinger's 
"Double  Dummy." 

In  between  shows  Lesley  mod- 
eled and  clerked  at  exclusive 
Fifth  Avenue  shops,  posed  for 
photographers,  and  worked  in 
movie  shorts  —  anything  to  keep 
20c  in  her  pocket. 

One  day,  after  Lesley  had 
battled  through  lines  of  actresses, 
wheedled  a  job  out  of  a  producer, 
toiled  through  weeks  of  grueling 
rehearsal,  the  show  closed  during 
dress  rehearsal. 

That  was  the  day  Lesley  got 
sick  of  having  only  20c  in  her 
pocket.  She  wasn't  going  to  give 
up  but  decided  it  was  time  she 
had  a  change. 

Continued  on  Page  17 
RADIO  VARIETIES  —  SEPTEMBER 


CARL  HOFF  LOST  AT  SEA 

Continued  from  Page   9 

Once  he  reported  that  Kress,  try- 
ing to  tie  a  shirt  to  the  radio  an- 
tenna for  a  distress  signal,  was 
nearly  washed  overboard,  and 
then,  ironically,  no  one  saw  it. 
After  dark  the  Coast  Guard  told 
Hoff  to  set  off  rockets  or  dip  a 
mop  in  oil  and  burn  it  over  the 
stern.  He  had  no  flares  or  mop 
aboard.  The  sea  was  rough,  the 
wind  high  and  the  Caprice  was 
lost  and  tossing. 

At  10  p.m.  the  Hermes  reported 
to  Cannom  that  it  had  covered 
300  square  miles,  in  ever  widen- 
ing circles  between  Catalina  and 
the  mainland,  but  still  had  not 
found  Hoff. 

Next  came  a  call  from  Hoff 
that  he  could  see  lights  which  he 
believed  to  be  somewhere  on 
Catalina.  Cannom  and  the 
Hermes'  skipper  both  told  him  it 
must  be  the  mainland,  according 
to  the  normal  drift  he  should  have 
had.  Meanwhile  Hoff  had  been 
using  his  searchlight  for  SOS  dots 
and  dashes,  and  finally  that  wore 
out.  Cannom  and  Niles,  waiting 
at  dock  in  Balboa,  were  helpless 
and  very  worried.  At  midnight 
Hoff  was  still  lost. 

At  about  1:30  a.m.,  the  Nor- 
conian  III,  a  charter  boat  going 
from  Wilmington  to  Catalina, 
picked  up  Hoff  about  six  miles  off 
a  lonely  part  of  Catalina  and 
towed  him  to  Avalon,  main  town 
of  the  island,  arriving  about  2 
a.m.  With  the  radioed  report  of 
the  rescue,  the  Hermes  lost  no 
time  in  rushing  there  to  check  up 
on  what  seemed  to  have  been  a 
"sea  phantom." 

"How  did  you  ever  drift  back  to 
the  island,  going  against  the  wind 
and  tide,"  the  Coast  Guard  skip- 
per asked  Hoff. 

"Well,  I  left  my  motor  running, 
because  we  didn't  seem  to  pitch 
and  roll  so  much  then,  but  of 
course  that  did  make  us  zig-zag 
all  over  the  ocean.  I  guess  I  for- 
got to  tell  you  that  in  my  reports," 
the  exhausted  Hoff  explained. 

When  Pearce  asked  Hoff  the 
same  question  the  next  day,  the 
wearied  maestro  had  recovered 
his  sense  of  humor  somewhat. 
His  only  answer,  paraphrasing 
Arthur  Q.  Bryan  on  the  Pearce 
show,  was 

"Mr.  Pearce,  it  wasn't  easy." 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  SEPTEMBER 


IRENE  RICH  -  Glorious  One 

Continued   from  Page   8 

"The  Lady  In  Question"  will  be 
released  late  in  August  and  is 
being  directed  by  Charles  Vidor, 
who  directed  "My  Son,  My  Son." 
Other  stars  in  the  picture  will  be 
Rita  Hayworth,  Dorothy  Burgess, 
Edward  Norris  and  Glenn   Ford, 

The  Irene  Rich  radio  program, 
"Glorious  One,"  continues  with- 
out an  interruption  through  all 
the  picture  work  she  is  under- 
taking. A  third  picture  is  reported 
being  planned  for  her  already. 

"Glorious  One"  is  heard  every 
Sunday  night  on  the  NBC  Blue 
Network. 

More  than  $5,000  was  raised  re- 
cently by  Miss  Rich,  when  she 
visited  Miami  at  the  invitation  of 
Mayor  Alexander  Orr  to  make  a 
personal  appearance  for  the 
American  Red  Cross. 

As  a  result  of  her  nation-wide 
offer  to  pick  up  personally  checks 
for  the  American  Red  Cross  in 
the  amount  of  $5,000  or  more,  she 
headed  the  greatest  show  ever 
produced  in  the  Florida  city. 

The  star  of  "Glorious  One" 
made  the  trip  to  Miami  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  sponsor's  co-operation 
is  shaping  up  the  show  around 
incidents  which  did  not  involve 
"Judith  Bradley,"  the  character  she 
plays  on  the  air. 

The  event  was  a  result  of  Mayor 
Alexander  Orr's  response  to  Miss 
Rich's  Red  Cross  appeal  after  a 
spurious  telegram  had  been  sent 
in  his  name.  Rising  to  the  chal- 
lenge, Mayor  Orr  said  immed- 
iately that  Miami  would  make 
good,  and  on  July  5th  would  de- 
liver at  least  $5,000  into  Miss 
Rich's  hands.  Seventeen  civic 
clubs  of  Miami  joined  in  a  special 
luncheon  on  July  5th  and  all  pro- 
fessional talent  in  the  area  was 
included  in  the  program.  A  cho- 
rus of  150  trained  voices,  the 
American  Legion  Drum  and  Bugle 
Corps,  29  widely  known  singers, 
and  a  committee  of  the  city's 
leading  business  men  participated 
in  the  event.  In  charge  of  ar- 
rangements for  the  day  was  Mr. 
E.  E.  Seller,  who  has  been  in 
charge  of  Orange  Bowl  festivals 
for  Miami's  New  Years  Day  foot- 
ball classics  for  several  years. 
Price  of  the  luncheon  was  one  of 
the  method  used  to  raise  Red 
Cross  funds  during  the  day. 


SHE  WASN'T  THE  TYPE 

Continued  from  Page   16 

With  an  empty  purse,  and  a 
stunning  wardrobe  (the  perennial 
paradox  of  young  actresses) 
Lesley  arrived  in  Chicago  for  a 
short  vacation  with  her  mother. 
She  intended  to  stay  to  weeks. 
She  stayed  two  years. 

On  one  of  her  first  evenings  at 
home,  Lesley  went  to  a  party 
given  by  radio  people.  They 
talked  about  their  work,  as  radio 
people  are  wont  to  do.  They  said 
to  Lesley,  "why  don't  you  take  a 
crack  at  it?" 

Lesley  could  think  of  no  good 
reason  why  not  and  the  next 
morning  found  her  "taking  a 
crack  at  it,"  which  consisted  of 
cooling  her  heels  outside  a  radio 
producer's  office. 

When  the  first  comment  after 
her  first  radio  audition  was 
"you're  not  the  type,"  Lesley  took 
it  as  an  omen  of  luck  rather  than 
one  of  misfortune.  And  wisely. 
She  stubbornly  beat  away  at  the 
portals,  and  finally  the  great  god 
Radio  gave  her  the  green  light. 
Producers  began  to  notice  the 
slight  blonde  girl  always  so 
smartly  dressed,  always  so  full 
of  energy,  always  so  alert  as  to 
what  was  going  on. 

Lesley  started  to  do  radio  work, 
and  radio  directors  discovered 
that  although  she  might  not  be 
"the  type"  when  she  walked  in- 
to a  studio,  she  possessed  such 
splendid  technical  background  in 
acting  that  she  was  able  to  turn 
out  the  kind  of  job  they  had  in 
mind  before  rehearsal  was  over. 

Lesley  has  made  a  name  for 
herself  in  radio  on  such  programs 
as  Edgar  Guest's  "It  Can  Be 
Done,"  heard  over  CBS  some 
months  ago;  and  "Campana's 
First  Nighter"  which  returns  to 
CBS  airwaves  September  3.  She 
is  now  being  heard  in  the  fea- 
tured roles  of  "Carol  Evans"  in 
CBS  and  NBC's,"  Road  of  Life," 
"Midge"  in  "Midstream"  and 
"Janet  Munson"  in  "Woman  in 
White"  heard  over  NBC. 

Although  Lesley  is  seldom  if 
ever  confronted  with  "You're  not 
the  type,"  anymore,  when  she 
DOES  hear  it,  Lesley  treats  her- 
self to  a  good  laugh! 

"When  they  scry  that  to  me 
now,"  says  Lesley,  "I  know  for 
sure  I'm  on  the  right  track!" 

Page  17 


GETS  NEW  ROLE  IN  "ROAD  OF  LIFE" 


A 


Lovely  Muriel 
Brenner,  who 
has  just  been 
cast  as  Helen 
Gowan  Stephen- 
son In  the  NBC 
serial,  "Koacl  ot 
Life",  is  filling 
a  role  that  nas 
been  portrayed 
at  one  time  or 
another  by  such 
finished  actresses 
as  Betty  Winkler, 


"^ 


Betty  Lou  Ger- 
son,  Donna  Reade 
and  Janet  Logan. 
iVIuriel  has  ample 
experience  Tor 
the  sssignment, 
however,  having 
served  a  valuable 
stretch  in  West 
Coast  film  stu- 
dios before  com- 
ing to  Chicago 
in     1938. 


i 


S:'^''^^^^->V«^^y^'-'-^'-^w'vsvvw'-^"'<js^^i^ 


RADIO  HONEY 


Daisy  Bernier,  the  "Honey"  of 
the  singing  trio,  "Two  Bees 
and  a  Honey",  is  a  newcomer 
to  the  Fred  Waring  Gang.  Pre- 
viously, she  appeared  in  Broad- 
way revues  and  was  last  seen 
in  a  featured  role  in  the  hit, 
"Sing  Out  the  News"  The 
newest  "l-'ennsyivanlan"  hails, 
Incidentally,  from  Massachu- 
settes. 


I.  Q.    Goes    East 

In  the  front  rank  of  inquisitors 
swarming  the  airwaves  In  every 
manner  of  quiz  programs  is 
young  Lew  valentine — "Dr.  I. 
Q."  in  person.  He  has  just 
moved  his  lively  show  from 
Billings  in  the  Rockies  t© 
Broadway's  Capital  Theater 
and  will  continue  to  be  heard 
over  the  NBC-Red  Network 
Mondays    at   9:00    p.    m.,    EDST. 


Page  18 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  SEPTEMBER 


GOOD  THINGS  IN  THREES 


Betty  Ruth  Smith,  charming  NBC  actress,  is  a  firm  believer  In  the 
rule  of  three — especially  when  it's  a  question  of  breaking  into  big- 
time  radio.  After  eighteen  months  local  station  work  at  home  In 
Wichita,  Kansas,  Betty  came  to  Chicago  one  Monday  in  1939,  saw 
sights  on  Tuesday,  and  visited  NBC  on  Wednesday.  After  three 
auditions  she  was  signed  up.  Three  days — three  tries — and  now 
Betty  plays  Karen  Adams  Harding  on  the  serial,  "Women  In  White." 


IN  THE  GROOVE 


^.Ji^, 


Dora  Johnson,  pretty  young  NBC 
dramatic  star,  started  out  as  a 
singer,  but  had  her  career  nipped 
in  the  bud  by  illness.  In  a  short 
time,  however,  she  re-established 
herself  as  an  actress  and  thereby 
re-established  herself  in  the  fam- 
ily tradition,  Dora,  you  see,  has 
one  brother  an  actor  and  another 
a  playwright,  and  any  work  away 
from  the  theater  is  next  door  to 
oblivion.  Dora's  door  is  the  role 
of  Evey  FItz,  the  married  daugh- 
ter, in  the  serial,  "Oxydol's  Own 
Ma  Perkins",  heard  over  the 
NBC-Red  Network  every  Monday 
through    Friday. 


Neifir  Sho^vs  and  Stars  Over  NBC  This  Fall 


Vacationing  radio  programs  will 
begin  their  return  to  networks  of  the 
National  Broadcasting  Company  early 
in  September,  with  new  programs 
scheduled  offering  a  wide  variety  of 
entertainment    and    Information. 

Programs  a  I  r  e  a  d  y  definitely 
scheduled   are: 

Sept.  1 — Chase  and  Sanborn  program, 
variety;  NBC-Red,  Sundays,  7:00 
p.    m.,    COST. 

1 — Walter      Winchell,     news     com- 
ment,    NBC-Blue,     Sundays,     8:00 
p.    m.,    CDST. 
5 — Good     News     of     1940,     variety; 
NBC-Red,   Thursdays,   7:00    p.    m., 
CDST. 
9 — True    or    False,    quiz    program; 
NBC-Blue,     Mondays,     7:30    p.    m., 
CDST. 
15^0llvio     Santoro,     boy     yodeler; 
NBC-Blue,     Sundays,     4:15    p.    m., 
CDST. 
24 — Bob     Hope,    variety;     NBC-Red, 
Tuesdays,  9:00  p.  m.,  CDST. 


29 — Bob  Becker's  Chats  About 
Dogs;  NBC-Red,  Sundays,  2:45 
p.    m.,  CST. 

29 — Dorothy  Thompson,  news  com- 
ment; NBC-Blue,  Sundays,  6:30 
p.    m.,   CST. 

29 — S  h  e  r  I  0  c  k  Holmes,  dramas; 
NBC-Blue,  Sundays,  7:30  p.  m., 
p.   m.,   CST. 

29 — Ahead  of  the  Headlines,  news 
analysis  by  Newsweek  editors; 
NBC-Blue,  Sundays,  10:45  a.  m., 
CST. 

30 — I  Love  a  Mystery,  dramas; 
NBC-Blue,  Mondays,  7:00  p.  m., 
CST. 

30 — Tom  Mix  Ralston  Straight 
Shooters,  juvenile  dramas;  NBC- 
Blue,  Mondays  through  Fridays, 
4:45  p.  m.,  CST. 
Oct.  1 — Fibber  McGee  and  Molly,  vari- 
ety; NBC-Red,  Tuesdays,  8:30 
p.    m.,   CST. 

1 — Ben     Bernie,    musical    audience 
participation     show;       NbC-Blue, 


Tuesdays,   7:00    p.   m.,   CST. 

2 — Cavalcade  of  America,  his- 
torical dramas;  NBC-Red,  Wednes- 
days, 7:30   p.    m.,    EST. 

2 — Eddie  Cantor,  variety;  NBC- 
Red,  Wednesdays,  8:00  p.  m., 
CST. 

4 — Arch  Oboiers  Plays;  NBC- 
Red,   Fridays,   8:30   p   .m.,   CST. 

6 — Jack    Benny,    variety;    NBC-Red 
Sundays,  6:00  p.  m.,  CST. 
13 — Tony    Wons'    Scrap    Book,    read- 
ings;     NBC-Red,     Sundays,     3:15 
p.m.,   CST;    Tuesdays  and   Thurs- 
days,   12:15    p.m.,   CST. 
27 — Quaker  Oats  program,   variety; 
NBC-Red,     Sundays,      4:30     p.m., 
CST. 
Nov.    12 — Uncle    Jim's   Question    Bee; 
NBC-Blue,    Tuesdays,    7:30    p.    m., 
CST. 
Nov.    15 — Information     Please      (new 
network,     time     and     sponsor); 
NBC-Red,     Fridays,     7:30     p.     m., 
CST. 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


SEPTEMBER 


Page  19 


WATER.   A   RADIO   AND   TOMATO   SOUP 

Chuck  Acree,  who  conducts  "Everybody's  Hour"  and  "Man  on  the  Farm"  for  WLS, 
Chicago,  also  "We,  the  Wives"  on  NBC,  has  one  of  the  largest  collections  of  cross 
questions  with  crooked  answers  in  the  world.  He  added  to  them  this  summer  on  a 
six-weeks  trek  through  Central  America.  Several  years  ago  on  a  question-and-answer 
program.  Chuck  asked  an  interviewee  what  three  things,  if  he  could  have  only  three, 
he  would  take  with  him  for  a  ten-year  stay  on  a  lonely  island.  On  his  Central  American 
junket.  Chuck  found  the  answer  for  himself,  as  reflected   in  this  page  from   his  diary. 


By  CHUCK  ACREE 

I  hope  I  ^ever  see  a  quinine 
tablet  again.  I  wish  we  could 
find  just  one  place  where  we 
could  rest  for  one  day  without 
worrying  about  catching  malaria 
and  fever  from  the  mosquitos.  I'd 
give  anything  for  a  bar  of  soap 
and  the  privilege  of  striking  a 
match.  I  wonder  what  it  feels 
like  to  sleep  in  a  real  bed. 

I'd  give  ten  dollars  for  a  drink 
of  clear,  cold  water  that  I  know 
is  safe  to  drink.  A  ten-cent  can 
of  tomato  soup  would  be  a  su- 
preme delicacy.  I  wonder  what 
Hitler  is  doing  now,  if  the  English 
have  driven  the  Nazis  out  of  Nor- 
way. I'd  trade  all  my  baggage 
for  a  .radio  that  would  get  short 
wave  programs.  I  wonder  if  the 
next  white  man  we  find  will  have 
one. 

For  thr^e  days  we  have  had 
nothing  to  drink  but  native  beer. 
Water  is  plentiful,  but  we  dare 
not  drink  it  for  fear  it  carries  the 
amoeba  germ  that  causes  dysen- 
tery. Boiling  doesn't  seem  to  kill 
them.  Distilling  the  water  will, 
but  we  have  no  apparatus  with 
us  to  distill  the  water  and  must 
wait  until  we  get  "into  port"  before 
we  find  water  that  is  safe.  And 
even  then  it  will  not  be  cold  — 
just  warm  —  but  it  will  be  wet. 

Every  night  we  sleep  under  a 
mosquito  net  that  has  such  a 
"tight  weave"  that  it  is  almost 
suffocating.  But  despite  this  pre- 
caution a  few  of  the  devils  nip 
us  anyway.  That's  why  we  take 
quinine.  We  started  with  just  a 
few  grains  of  quinine  a  day.  Now 
we  gobble  down  so  many  that 
our  heads  ring,  and  already  I 
am  noticing  that  I  can't  hear  as 
well  as  I  should. 

We  had  matches,  plenty  of 
them.  But  as  we  travelled  we 
gave  first  one  packet  to  one  native 
and    another    packet    here    and 

Page  20 


there  until  suddenly  they  were  all 
gone.  Now  if  another  white  man 
came  through  here  with  some,  we 
would  not  stop  at  begging  for 
them  just  as  earnestly  as  the 
native. 

Soap  is  scarce,  too.  We  have 
three  cakes  left,  the  small  cakes 
like  the  ones  you  receive  when 
you  stay  at  a  hotel.  They  are 
cakes  we  just  happened  to  take 
with  us  when  we  got  off  the  boat. 
The  natives  "in  port"  always  send 
their  children  to  the  dock  to  beg 
for  the  small  cakes  of  soap  that 
cruise-passengers  might  happen 
to  have  when  they  leave  for  a 
sight-seeing  tour.  I  couldn't  un- 
derstand that  three  weeks  ago, 
but  now  I  know.  I'd  like  to  meet 
one  of  those  passengers  right  now 
myself. 

Sleeping  in  a  hammock  is  a 
great  experience  —  the  first  night. 
The  next  night  you  wish  you  could 
get  your  back  on  a  feather  bed. 
Sleeping  on  a  pile  of  freshly  cut 
twigs  is  better,  but  the  creases  left 
in  your  back  make  you  remember 
the  nice  innerspring  back  home. 

But  none  of  these  inconve- 
niences compare  with  the  punish- 
ment of  not  having  a  radio.  We 
brought  a  portable  radio  with  us, 
but  never  stopped  to  think  that 
we  wouldn't  be  able  to  get  any 
"long  wave"  stations  in  Central 
America.  And  the  radio  isn't 
equipped  for  short  wave  reception. 
We've  been  near  a  radio  three  or 
four  times  since  we  left  the  boat, 
once  at  Puerto  Cabezes,  Nicara- 
gua; again  at  Managua,  Nicara- 
gua and  a  third  time  at  San  Car- 
los up  in  the  hills  on  the  Pacific 
side. 

A  bit  of  dial  twirling  at  San  Car- 
los taught  us  much  more  quickly 
than  all  our  diplomats'  cautions 
that  German  propaganda  is  per- 
meating the  Central  Americas.  We 
never  had  thought  much  about 
short-wave  stations  before,  but 
here    it    was    suddenly    brought 


home  to  us  how  important  short- 
wave broadcasting  is  to  the  well- 
being  of  the  relations  of  the  Ameri- 
cas. From  Germany  came 
"strong"  short-wave  broadcasts  in 
Spanish  (which  we  learned  to  un- 
derstand very  quickly)  telling 
about  the  tremendous  benefits  the 
German  Reich  was  contributing 
to  civilization.  From  England 
came  the  matter  of  fact  assurances 
that  all  would  be  well.  Somehow 
I  feel  that  all  won't  be  well.  That 
was  two  weeks  ago  we  heard  that 
last  broadcast.  I  wonder  how 
things  are  going  now.  I  wish  we 
could  find  another  radio  some- 
place —  a  radio  that  would  get 
what  all  Central  American  own- 
ers say  that  prefer:  "An  unbiased 
short-wave  news  report  from  the 
good  old  Estados  Unidos." 

I  never  knew  short-wave  broad- 
casts were  so  important.  I  never 
knew  they  could  mean  so  much. 

How  well  I  remember  that 
question  I  asked  during  the  "Man 
On  The  Street"  broadcast  about 
what  three  things  a  person  would 
take  with  them  for  a  solitary  stay 
of  ten  years.  I  could  make  up 
my  list  easy  now. 

First  of  all  there  would  be  plen- 
ty of  good  drinking  water  —  plen- 
ty of  it.  Second:  I  would  like  a 
radio  —  a  radio  that  would  re- 
ceive short-wave  programs.  And 
then  I  would  have  hundreds  and 
hundreds  of  cases  of  canned  to- 
mato soup  just  to  help  remind  me 
that  there  was  such  a  thing  as 
civilization. 

You  can  fight  mosquitos,  go  dir- 
ty and  do  without  matches,  but 
you  can't  fight  thirst,  hunger  and 
the  desire  to  keep  in  touch  with 
civilization.  Give  me  a  drink  and 
something  that  I  like  to  eat,  and 
I  believe  I  could  last  the  ten 
years  all  right.  But  a  mosquito 
bar,  a  few  cakes  of  soap  and  some 
matches  would  certainly  be  ap- 
preciated. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  SEPTEMBER 


DELL  GIBBS  OF  WFAA 


X 


A  sort  of  Orson  Welles  is  Dell 
Gibbs,  new  addition  to  the  an- 
nouncing and  continuity  depart- 
ments at  WFAA,  Dallas.  Gibbs 
not  only  is  an  announcer  and 
writer  of  program  and  commercial 
continuity,  but  is  as  well  an  ac- 
complished musician,  musical  ar- 
ranger and,  of  all  things,  a  law- 
yer. 


X 


As  a  1940  graduate  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Florida  at  Gainesville, 
Gibbs  holds  a  Bachelor  of  Science 
in  Business  Administration  and 
a  Bachelor  of  Law  degree  from 
that  institution.  His  career  as  an 
announcer  began  while  at  the 
university,  while  he  worked  as 
an  announcer  at  WRUF,  owned 
by  the  State  and  operated  by  the 
university. 

Adequate  testimony  to  the  fact 
that  Gibbs  knows  his  law  is  the 
fact  that  he  won  the  $100  first 
prize  award  in  the  1940  Nathan 
Burkan  Memorial  Contest  spon- 
sored by  the  American  Society  of 
Composers,  Authors  and  Publish- 
ers, with  a  paper  on  "Radio  In- 
fringement of  the  Interpretive 
Rights  of  the  Musical  Artist  and 
the- Rights  of  the  Phonograph  Rec- 
ord Manufacturer." 

Although  the  essence  of  musical 
arranging,  especially  the  arrang- 
ing of  popular  dance  music,  does 
not  seem  to  have  any  excuse  be- 
ing wafted  through  the  halls  of 
a  law  school,  Gibbs  accomplished 
it.  He  was  for  three  years  ar- 
ranger and  trumpet  player  with 
Dean  Hudson's  Florida  Clubmen, 
an  organization  now  heard  on 
the  networks  of  NBC. 

He  was  a  newspaper  columnist 
for  three  years  at  the  University 
of  Florida,  writing  a  weekly  col- 
umn on  radio  for  the  campus 
newspaper  and  contributed  liter- 
ary articles  to  the  Florida  Review. 
He  also  was  feature  editor  of  the 
university  yearbook  and  associate 
editor  of  the  publication  at  ano- 
ther time.  While  all  this  was  go- 
ing on,  he  was  playing  in  dance 
bands  to  pay  his  way  through 
school. 

Gibbs  was  born  on  Friday,  Jan- 
uary   13,     1917    at    Jacksonville, 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  SEPTEMBER 


Dell    Gibbs 


Fla.,  and  attended  the  primorv 
and  high  school  grades  there, 
going  to  the  University  of  Florida 
for  his  higher  education. 

He  was  a  page  in  the  United 
States  Senate  in  Washington  dur- 
ing the  1931-32  session,  and 
served  such  noted  senators  as 
the  late  Huey  P.  Long,  Hattie  Car- 


away,  Tom  Connolly,   and   other 
noted  Democrats. 

Gibbs  is  a  member  of  Phi  Delta 
Theta  social  fraternity,  Florida 
Blue  Key,  an  honorary  leader- 
ship and  service  fraternity  at  the 
university;  Phi  Delta  Phi,  national 
honorary  legal  fraternity  and  Al- 
pha Kappa  Psi,  national  profes- 
sional commerce  fraternity. 

Page  21 


NBC  BRINGS  YOU  "WORLD  WAR  No.  2" 


In  front  line  trenches,  atop  hills  looking  down  on  shell- 
pocked  battlefields,  in  the  heart  of  Europe's  largest  cities 
with  air  raid  sirens  screeching  and  bombers  roaring  over 
head,  from  ships  at  sea  crowded  with  survivors,  and  at 
the  side  of  rulers  of  state,  cabinet   members  and   generals 


in  the  fleld-from  these  and  nnany  more  points  at  home 
and  abroad,  NBC's  radio  reporters,  commentators  and 
military  experts  bring  to  radio  audiences  the  play-by-play 
account  of  Word   War   No.  2. 


Pictured  here  are  the  men  and  women  who  man  the  microphones  in  war-torn  Europe.  Top  row: 
Left  to  right,  Charles  Lanius  in  Rome;  Joan  Livingston  in  Shanghai;  John  McVane  in  London,  and 
William  C.  Kerker  in  Berlin.  Bottom  row:  Left  to  right,  Archinard  in  Paris;  Martin  Agronsky 
in    the    Balkans;     Helen    Hiett    in    Madrid,    and    Fred    Bate    in    London. 


Where  there  is  war,  there  also  is  an  NBC  representative,  and  back  in  Radio  City  and  Washington 
expert  commentators  organize  and  broadcast  interpretations,  and  late  bulletins.  Above  are  the  men 
who  cover  NBC's  home  front.  Top  row:  left  to  right,  T.  R.  Ybarra,  who  broadcasts  a  nightly  Euro 
pean  roundup  at  9:00  p.m.,  COST;  Lowell  Thomas,  who  brings  the  news  to  the  supper  table  at  5:45 
p.m.,  COST,  and  Earl  Godwin,  who  goes  on  the  air  at  7:10  a.m.,  COST,  with  news  and  views  from 
Washington.  Bottom  row:  left  to  right,  Maj.  Gen.  Stephen  O.  Fuqua,  NBC's  military  expert;  H.  R. 
Baukhage,  lunch  hour  Washington  commentator,  and  John  B.  Kennedy,  who  broadcasts  the  European 
news   at   6:15    p.m.,   COST. 


Page  22 


RADIO   VARIETIES 


SEPTEMBER 


e/^ 


nfde/i^ 


Wl/. 


They  hired  Betty  Winkler  to  do  her  first  role  in  radio  because  they  thought  she  had  a 
soprano  voice.  .Nobody  knew  until  three  days  later,  when  a  throat  cold  had  relaxed 
its  grip  on  her  vocal  chords,  that  Betty  was  actually  a  contralto.  But  by  that  time 
she  was  well  launched  on  a  radio  dramatic  career  and  nobody  has  been  able  to  get 
hfr  away  from  that  career  since,  not  even  her  marriage  to  Robert  Jennings,  adverti- 
sing agency  executive.  Onq  of  radio's  best  known  actresses,  Betty  plays  the  title 
role  in  Girl  Alone  over  the  NBC-Red  network  Mondays  through  Fridays  at  4:00  p.m. 
CST. 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


SEPTEMBER 


Page  23 


OWING  TO  SO  MANY  SUBSCRIBERS  AWAY  ON  VACATION 

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Jack  Stilwill.  an- 
nouncer  at  WLS,  Chi- 
cago, includes  among 
his  many  programs 
portions  of  the  WLS 
National  Bam  Dance 
and  the  daily  Smile- 
A-While  Program. 


1 

^ne   il'liaweii  C^ait 


'■'"^t 


JENTS 


ii 


PATTER     OFF     THE     PLATTER 


// 


Reviews,  News  and  Views 
of    the    Recording    Whir] 

J>  AYMOND  SCOTT  has  changed 
the  personnel  of  his  new  band, 
but  the  answers  stay  the  same. 
Scott's  records  are  prime  illustra- 
tions of  what  good  musicianship, 
clever  ideas  and  persistent  re- 
hearsals can  do.  "A  Million 
Dreams  Ago"  and  "In  A  Moon- 
boat"  are  distinguished,  polished 
modern  dansology. 

Nan  Wynn  delivers  a  potent 
vccal  job  on  both  sides.  She 
won't  be  with  the  bond  when  it 
opens  at  Chicago's  Blackhcrwk  in 
November.  Ray  has  added  Clyde 
Burke  for  the  ballads  and  is  cur- 
rently looking  for  another  girl 
vocalist. 

Girl  vocalists  generally  fall  in- 
to three  classes.  The  first  ccnsists 
of  girls  who  are  beautiful  —  but 
can't  sing.  The  second  includes 
the  lassies  with  good  voices  but 
poor  chassis. 
The-  third,  very 
limited,  consists 
of  the  ladies 
who  combine 
both  tone  and 
sex  -  appeal  in 
the  proper 
quantities.  One 
of  the  nicest 
girls  third-class 
on  radio  and  ginny  simms 
records       is 

Ginny  Simms,  the  Kay  Kyser 
canary.  Ginny  has  a  peculiar 
style  which  is  highly  individual- 
istic. Her  high,  soaring  obligates 
on  popular  tunes  are  a  joy  to 
hear.  Listen  to  "I'll  Never  Smile 
Again"  and  "I  Can't  Resist  You" 
(Okeh)  for  good  examples  of  the 
Simms  technique.  Another  fa- 
vorite with  vocal  fans  is  Connie 
Boswell.  Lovely  Connie  has  few 
equals  when  it  comes  to  swing- 
ing or  balladry.  Her  Deccadisc 
of  "Blueberry  Hill"  and  "The 
Nearness  of  You"  approaches 
vocal  perfection. 

With  the  fall  season  approach- 
ing, word  comes  that  the  New 
York   Philharmonic   -   Syjmphoniy 


By  Hal  Davis 

Orchestra  will  again  be  heard  on 
the  CBS  air-lanes.  Columbia  Re- 
cords has  released  the  Brahms 
Second  as  played  by  Barbirolli 
and  the  Philharmonic  in  a  techni- 
cally perfect  recording  that  is 
made  more  attractive  by  the 
recent  price  cuts.  Chicago's 
Frederic  has  recorded  Sibelius' 
"Swan  of  Tuonela"  for  Columbia 
with  the  Chicago  Symphony.  The 
playing  is  brilliant  and  Stock's  in- 
terpretation decidely  worth-while. 

Dixieland  swing  is  a  specialized 
field  in  which  few  bands  are  out- 
standing. Most  notable  in  this 
line  is  the  Bob  Crosby  outfit, 
followed  closely  by  Will  Brad- 
ley's up-and-coming  aggregation.- 
Decca  has  just  issued  a  Crosby 
Dixieland  album  that  is  darn 
good  jazz.  Especially  liked  were 
such  sides  as  "Dixieland 
Shuffle,"  "At  The  Jazz  Band  Ball, 
and  "Dixieland  Ban  d".  Solo 
honors  are  evenly  distributed  with 
Bob  Haggart's  bass  being  in 
evidence  most  of  the  time. 

Eddy  Duchin  fans  will  probably 
be  thrilled  to  death  when  they 
hear  his  new  Columbia  piano 
album.  "The  Magic  fingers  oi 
Radio"  get  busy  with  such  num- 
bers as  "Lovely  To  Look  At," 
"April  in  Paris,"  "Way  You  Look 
Tonight,"  "1  Guess  I'll  Have  To 
Change  My  Plan"  and  other 
romantic  ballads  in  the  same 
catergory  with  highly  effective  re- 
sults. Backed  by  a  smooth 
rhythm  group,  Duchin  plays  in 
his  usual  distinctive  style.  Highly 
Recommended  for  piano  fanciers. 

Eddy  Howard's  "I'll  Never 
Smile  Again"  and  "Now  I  Lay 
Me  Down  To  Dream"  are  ad- 
mirable song-selling.  Lou  Adrian 
handles  the  accompaniments. 
(Columbia).  Tommy  Dorsey  un- 
leashes smooth  trombone  on 
"Our  Love  Affair"  and  "That's 
For  Me."  (Victor).  Vaughn 
Monroe's  new  band,  which  looks 
like  a  comer,  does  an  excellent 
job  with  "There  I  Go"  plus 
"Whatever  Happened  To  You." 
(Bluebird).  Give  this  aepartment 
John  Kirby  for  instrumental  per- 
fection.    His  "On  A   Little  Street 


In  Singapore"  and  "Zooming 
at  the  Zombie"  can't  be  matched 
by  any  ether  small  combination. 
Watch  fcr  Billy  Kyle's  pianistics. 
(Okeh)  Teddy  (Cafe  Society) 
Wilson's  Columbi  adisc  of  "Liza" 
and  "Sweet  Lorraine"  fsat-ures 
terrific  Wilson  88-work.;.'  Don 
Arres  caters  to  the  current  conga 
craze  with  "One"  And-  Twp  And 
Three"  plus  "Agua."- '  ■  '■    '•    .',:■ 

Tommy  Tucker'^Tim'e  flips'  light- 
ly off  the  tongue  —  but  maestro 
Tucker  deserves  a  longer  period 
of     consideration.      Tcmmy,    like- 
able   and     personable,     has 
gathered 
together  a  real- 
ly    fine     sweet 
band  under  his 
banner.      Smart 
showman      and 
shrewd     baton- 
eer.      Tucker 
realizes  that  the 
success      of      a 
band     is     not 
TOMMY  TUCKER       ^^j^  ae'pendont 

on  the  kind  cf 
music  it  plays.  Tommy  is  con- 
stanlty  on  the  lookout  lor  new 
ideas,  songs  and  novelties  to 
spice  up  his  entertainment  value. 
Remember  "The  Man  Who  Comes 
Around?"  Tommy  plugged  and 
plugged  at  that  tune  till  his  Okeh 
record  had  sold  over  200,000. 
Now  he  has  the  sequel,  some- 
thing called  "The  Man  Don't 
Come  To  Our  House  Anymore." 
It's  tuneful  and  rhythmic,  with  a 
catchy  lyric.  If  Tommy  doesn't 
watch  out,  he'll  end  up  with  one 
of  the  country's  biggest  name 
bands.  ASIDES:  Amy  Arnell, 
young,  luscious,  smooth,  does  the 
vocals.  Amy  sings  in  the  Bonnie 
Baker  fashion  when  she  has  to, 
but  ccm.  turn  out  a  fine  job  on 
clever  novelties.  Catch  "Ain't  It 
A  Shame  About  Mame?"  (Okeh). 

(Want  a  picture  of  Tommy 
Tucker?  Just  drop  this  column  a 
postal.  The  first  500  fans  to  write 
in  will  receive  a  picture  of 
Tommy  and  a  list  of  his  latest 
records.) 


Page  2 


RADIO   VARIETIES 


OCTOBER 


LIFE     CAN     BE      BEAUTIFUL 


f  f 


LIFE  CAN  BE  BEAUTIFUL  —  If  you  don't  believe  it 
ask  the  above  members  of  the  cast  of  Life  Can  Be  Beauti- 
ful, NBC  dramatic  serial   heard    Mondays  through   Fridays 


over  the  NBC-Red  network  at  12  Noon  CST.  Left  to 
right:  Ralph  ("Papa"  David  Solomon)  Locke,  Mitzi 
(Rita)  Gould,  John  (Stephen  Hamilton)  Holbrook  and 
Alice    ("Chichi"   Conrad)    Reinheart. 


The  "Life  Can  Be  Beautiful" 
program  was  on  the  air  two  years 
last  September  5th,  and  to  date 
the  chief  problem  of  the  authors, 
Don  Becker  and  Carl  Bixby,  is 
how  to  introduce  a  villainous 
character  into  the  script  and  keep 
him,  or  her,  that  way. 

Their  difficulty  can  be  traced 
directly  to  Papa  David  Solomon, 
the  central  figure  of  their  story, 
and  to  the  atmosphere  of  his  little 
Slightly-Read  Bookshop,  where, 
for  the  most  port,  the  scene  of  the 
story  is  laid.  When  Bixby  and 
Becker  created  David  Solomon, 
they  endowed  him  with  a  philos- 
ophy which  is  summed  up  in 
the  program   title,    "Life    Can  Be 

RADIO  VARICTIES  —  OCTOBER 


Beautiful",  and  they  gave  him  a 
sincere  belief  in  the  fundamental 
goodness  of  every  human  being. 
Papa  David  immediately  came  to 
life  before  their  eyes,  and  has  so 
stubbornly  adhered  to  the  char- 
acteristics, with  which  they  them- 
selves endowed  him,  that  every 
new,  and  supposedly  villainous, 
character  which  they  introduce  to 
the  script  immediately  reforms 
under  David's  kindly  tutelage, 
and  another  plot  has  to  be 
revised. 

Stephen  Hamilton,  a  crippled 
yoimg  lawyer,  was  already  living 
with  David  in  the  bookshop  when 
the  story  opened  and,  in  the  first 
day's  episode,  Clhichi  Conrad,  a 


young  girl  from  the  slums  who 
had  been  turned  out  on  the  streets 
by  a  woman  she  believed  to  be 
her  mother,  ran  into  the  shop  for 
refuge.  These  two  have  since  be- 
come Papa  David's  "adopted" 
children,  and  the  old  man's  in- 
fluence on  them  was  all  accord- 
ing to  plan.  A  short  while  ago, 
however,  a  character  by  the 
name  of  Rita  Yates  was  in- 
troduced to  the  show.  She  was 
supposed  to  be  in  the  bookshop 
for  the  questionable  piorpose  of 
swindling  money  from  one  of 
Chichi' s  friends,  and  her  char- 
acter was  definitely  on  the  shady 
side  when  first  we  met  her.    She 


(Continued  on  Page   4) 


Page  3 


LIFE  CAN  BE  BEAUTIFUL 

Continued  from  Page  3 

stayed  in  the  bookshop  a  few 
weeks  and,  in  spite  of  the  authors, 
her  better  nature  began  to  assert 
itself.  Finally  David  reformed  her 
completely,  while  B  i  x  b  y  and 
Becker  tore  their  hair  and  re- 
signed themselves  to  finding  Rita 
honest  work  in  a  settlement 
house.  She  was  a  complete 
washout  as  a  villainess  when 
David  got  through  with  her. 

Ralph  Locke,  who  takes  the  part 
of  Papa  David,  is  a  genial  gentle- 
man with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye, 
and  a  perfect  fit  for  the  part.  Even 
Papa  David's  stubborness  is 
reflected  in  Ralph's  sustained  and 
single-minded  refusal  to  accept 
publicity.  He  says  that  if  he's 
any  good  the  public  will  find  it 
out,  and  if  he  isn't  there's  no  point 
in  trying  to  persuade  them  to 
think  he  is.  He  then  retires  to  his 
out-of-town  home  and  only  shows 
up  in  the  city  for  his  regular 
broadcasts. 

Alice  Reinheart,  who  plays  the 
part  of  Chichi  Conrad,  and  John 
Holbrook,  who  plays  Stephen 
Hamilton,  ore,  however,  regular 
city  dwellers  and  maintain  a  sort 
of  program  solidarity  by  living 
within  a  few  blocks  of  each  other. 

Alice,  the  petite  and  pretty  star 
of  the  show,  is  5 '2"  tall  and 
weighs  only  95  pounds.  She  has 
chestnut  hair  and  her  own  descrip- 
tion of  her  eyes  is  "green  with 
coffee  grounds  in  them".  Her 
radio  life  in  David's  bookshop 
reflects  her  own  life,  for  her 
library  is  the  most  important  part 
of  her  own  home.  She  has  col- 
lected first  editions  for  years  and 
has  a  four-volume  scrapbook  in 
which  she  has  transcribed  ex- 
cerpts from  the  world's  greatest 
literature.  She  turned  down  a 
rnovie  contract  to  make  her  debut 
in  radio  in  1931,  and  has  behind 
her  a  long  list  of  successes  in 
stock  and  on  Broadway.  An  ac- 
complished piannist,  Miss  Rein- 
heart  studied  the  piano  for  four- 
teen years,  part  of  the  time  at  the 
San  Francisco  Conservatory  of 
Music,  and  then  tried  her  hand  at 
journalism,  majoring  in  that 
subject  at  the  University  of 
California.  Her  early  stage  ex- 
perience took  her  on  a  European 
tour,  and  she  has  appeared  on 
the  stage  in  Berlin.  The  wide 
variety  of  her  interests,   and  the 

Page  4 


vital  quality  of  her  mind  make 
Miss  Reinheart  a  well-informed 
and  fascinating  conversationalist 
on  almost  any  subject  that  can 
be  brought  up,  and  lends  an 
unusual  richness  and  depth  to 
her  acting. 

John  Holbrook,  the  Stephen 
Hamilton  of  our  story,  has  a  rather 
different  and  unusual  background 
for  an  actor.  His  first  business 
venture  was  a  very  successful  ski 
school  in  Canada.  Passing  from 
this  job  to  being  an  automobile 
salesman,  and  later  joining  a 
group  of  actors  in  Waterbury 
Conn.,  he  eventually  found  him- 
self before  the  microphone  as  an 
announcer  on  a  local  station. 
After  this  he  wrote,  produced,  and 
announced  various  shows  in 
Boston,  and  was  at  one  time  the 
head  of  the  Radio  Department  of 
an  advertising  agency.  He  gave 
up  this  job,  because  he  didn't  feel 
he  knew  enough  about  radio,  and 
came  to  New  York  City.  Here  he 
was  primarily  responsible  for  the 
compilation  of  the  largest  known 
recorded  library  of  music  in 
public  domain,  and  here  his 
career  as  a  successful  radio  actor 
really  began. 


These  three  people,  versatile 
and  interesting  in  their  own  right, 
make  up  the  nucleus  around 
which  the  story  of  '"Life  Can  Be 
Beautiful"  revolves.  Other  per- 
manent members  of  the  cast  are: 
Carl  Eastman,  who  plays  the  part 
of  Toby  Nelson,  a  loyal  and 
belligerent  admirer  of  Chichi  ever 
since  her  childhood  days  in  the 
slums  of  the  big  metropolis  where 
our  story  takes  place;  Richard 
Kollmar,  who  is  heard  as  Barry 
Markham,  son  of  the  wealthy  and 
prominent  surgeon.  Dr.  Markham, 
played  by  Charles  Webster;  and 
Mitzi  Gould,  vivacious  and 
talented  young  actress  who  takes 
the  part  of  the  now  reformed  Rita 
Yates. 

The  theme  music  used  on  the 
show  was  written  by  the  co- 
author, Don  Becker,  and  its  title 
is,  naturally  enough,  "Life  Can  Be 
Beautiful".  It  can  be  bought  in 
sheet  music  form.  Don,  himself, 
listens  to  the  show  and  to  the  re- 
hearsals almost  every  day  by 
means  of  a  private  wiring  system, 
which  allows  him  to  "tune  in"  to 
the  studio  at  any  time  while 
sitting  in  his  own  living-room. 


RADIO    VARIETIES 


Volume  3,  No.  10 


October,  1940 


"Patter  Off  the  Platter" 

"Life  Can  Be  Beautiful" 

Radio   and   Your  Imagination 

Here's   How   It   All   Started 

Familiar  Music  in  a  Majestic  Manner 

Your  Crazy  Program 

Who  Are  the  Men  Behind  the  Men  Behind  the  Mike? 

The  Story  of  a  Comeback 

Kenny  Baker 

Bing   Crosby 

Renfro   Valley   Folks 

Bald  Pates  and  Boiled  Shirts 

Burns  of  Allen  Does  a  Rhumba 

Music  Makers 

WLS  at  the  Fairs 

I   Married   a   Sportscaster 

WDZ's  Sales  Ladies 

Listen   to   "Blondie" 

Pix  of  the  Stars 


Page 


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18 


22  & 


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8 

9 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

17 

19 

20 

21 

23 

26 

27 

29 

31 


Published  at  1056  West  Van  Buren  Street,  Chicago,  Illinois.  F.  L.  Rosenthal,  Publisher. 
New  York  Office:  485  Madison  Avenue,  Hollywood  Office:  3532  Sunset  Boulevard. 
Published  Monthly.  Single  Copies,  ten  cents.  Subscription  rate  $1.00  per  year  in  the 
United  States  and  Possessions,  $1.50  in  Canada.  Entered  as  second  class  matter  lanuary 
10,  1940,  at  the  post  office  at  Chicago,  Illinois,  under  the  act  of  March  3,  1879.  Every 
effort  will  be  made  to  return  unused  manuscripts,  photographs,  and  drawings  (if  accom- 
panied by  sufficient  first-class  postage  and  name  and  address),  but  we  will  not  be 
responsible  for  any  losses  for  such  matter  contributed.  The  publishers  assume  no 
responsibility  for  statements  made  herein  by  contributors  and  correspondents,  nor  does 
publication  indicate  approval   thereof. 


RADIO    VARIETIES 


OCTOBER 


RADIO  AND  YOUR   IMAGINATION 


CecU  B.  DeMille.  world  fa- 
mous motion  picture  director 
produces  the  Lux  Theater 
programs  over  the  CBS  each 
monday  at  8:00  p.m.  CST. 
DeMille,  one  of  the  screen's 
foremost    figures     for     more 


than  25  years,  is  the  first  big 
film  director  to  devote  a  reg- 
ular portion  of  his  time  and 
talent  to  radio.  In  this  story 
he  explains  the  technique 
used  to  stimulate  the  imagi- 
nation of  the  radio  audience. 


By  Cecil  B.  DeMille 

Strength  of  the  radio  dramati- 
zation of  any  story  involving 
action  and  excitement  lies  in  the 
ability  of  producers  and  players 
to  stimulate  the  listener's  imagina- 
tion. 

This  was  clearly  demonstrated 
for  me  recently  when  we  produced 
Louis  Bromfield's  novel,  "The 
Rains  Came",  on  the  CBS  "Lux 
Radio  Theater."  You  will  recall 
the  climax  of  the  story  —  the 
earthquake  that  releases  a  flood 
on  the  province  of  Ranchipur, 
India,  taking  an  appalling  death 
toll,  and  violently  changing  the 
destinies  of  all  who  are  left  alive. 

The  day  after  we  produced  this 
story  on  the  air  I  received  the 
congratulations  of  a  motion  picture 
actress  who  had  listened  to  the 
performance  at  home. 

"That  was  the  greatest  flood 
scene  I've  ever  witnessed,"  she 
said  —  and  then  laughed  at  her 
slip.  "I  mean,"  she  corrected, 
"that  I've  ever  heard." 

But  I  told  her  she  was  right  the 
first  time.  We  had  tried  to  make 
that  flood  visible  to  our  audience, 
and  to  her  it  apparently  was.  She 
had  enough  imagination  to  vis- 
ualize the  whole  scene  that  we 
could  merely  suggest  with  sound. 
And  in  this  combination  of 
powers — imagination  and  stimu- 
lation— lies  the  great  magic  secret 
of  radio. 

The  radio  listener,  his  imagina- 
tion stimulated  by  the  sounds  and 
effects,  becomes  for  the  moment 
a  motion  picture  director.  Let  us'- 
suppose  a  war  story  is  being 
broadcast.  There  are  sounds  of 
battle,  and  ^a  single  line  of 
dialogue: 

"There  are  15,000  men  storming 
that  hill,  sir." 


CECIL  B.  DEMILLE 

The  listener  with  imagination 
immediately  creates  that  scene  in 
his  mind.  He  visualizes  trees, 
rocks,  -  parapets,  distributes  thou- 
sands of  men  through  the  scene. 
Perhaps,  like  a  general,  he  places 


guns,  tanks,  planes,  puffs  of 
smoke  here  and  there,  hand-to- 
hand  fighting. 

The  listener  with  imagination 
can  "see"  this  effect,  I  repeat,  but. 
only  if  his  imagination  is  properly 
stimulated  by  the  sound  we  give 
him. 

Not  long  ago,  I  imported  hun- 
dreds of  70  and  100  foot  pine  trees 
from  the  San  Bernardino  moun- 
tains, "planted"  the  forest  at 
Paramount  and  populated  it  with 
500  Indians  for  a  single  scene  in 
the  picture,  "North  West  Mounted 
Police,"  The  total  bill  made  me 
think,  with  some  chagrin,  how 
much  easier  it  would  be  to  create 
the  same  scene  when  we  do 
"North  West  Mounted  Police"  on 
the  Lux  Radio  Theater  —  with  a 
few  words  of  description,  some 
dialogue,  and  a  number  of  super- 
numerary voices,  back  from  the 
microphone  f  o  r  "atmosphere." 
Yes,  motion  pictures  are  much 
more  expensive. 

In  a  motion  picture,  each  mem- 
ber of  the  audience  will  see  that 
scene  in  exactly  the  same  way. 
But  the  radio  audience,  hearing 
it  on  the  air,  will  have  thousands 
of  individual  concepts.  It  is  this 
"imaginative  elasticity"  of  radio 
that  fascinates  me. 

Once  I  asked  a  room  full  of 
people  to  sketch  for  me  their  im- 
pressions of  a  great  temple  re- 
ferred to  as  the  scene  of  a  broad- 
cast. Of  course,  all  the  sketches 
differed  greatly  in  conception  and 
detail.  Yet  each  was  striking, 
and  revealed  how  vividly  the 
subject  had  impressed  each 
listener.  So,  too,  with  a  complete 
drama  on  the  air  —  projected 
through  a  single  microphone,  it 
is  transformed  into  as  many  im- 
aginative dramas  as  there  are 
pairs  of  ears  to  hear  it. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  OCTOBER 


Page  5 


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MARY   DINWIDDIE  —  JEAN   HARMON  —  FRANCES  ROBINSON 


THE  SMALL-sized  4^/4  AA  shoes 
■■■  left  vacant  at  Vi^SM,  Nash- 
ville's noted  Air  Castle  of  the 
South,  when  Dinah  Shore  joined 

Page  6 


the  NBC  staff  for  national  stardom, 
have  not  been  filled — so  far. 

But    WSM    listeners    hove    an 
idea   that    these    4>4    AA    shoes 


may  be  filled  by  THREE  LOVELY 
LASSIES. 

Heard  at  the  same  time  Dinah 
previously    was     featured,     The 

RADIO   VARIETIES   —   OCTOBER 


Sophistocates  are  causing  com- 
ment down  South,  where  rhythm 
and  romance  are  more  important 
than   the  monetary   do-re-mi. 

The  Sophistocates  hove  been 
on  the  air  only  a  few  months,  and 
yet  in  that  time  they  have  made 
real  progress. 

Inasmuch  as  it  is  always  a 
pleasure  to  interview  pretty  girls, 
Radio  Varieties'  correspondent 
tackled  his  assignment  of  deter- 
mining the  secret  of  early 
success  of  the  Sophistocates  with 
what  is  generally  called  relish. 
(Editor's  Note:  Ken  Carpenter 
would  probably  call  it  ^^acle 
Whip.) 

"W  here  could  he  find  the 
Sophistocates?"  inquired  the  in- 
quiring reporter. 

"Why  in  studio  C  or  E,  any 
time  between  10  in  the  morning 
and  4  in  the  afternoon",  answered 
the  WSM  hostess,  so  attractive 
that  for  the  moment  the  inter- 
viewer thought  perhaps  he  might 
shift  assignments. 

But  duty  called  —  and  so  to 
the  Sophistocates  for  the  secret  of 
success  on  the  air  after  only  a 
few  months. 

If  he  had  been  expecting  any- 
thing romantic  or  mysterious,  he 
was  doomed  to  disappointment. 
For  the  secret  was  simply  HARD 
WORK.  These  three  young  ladies 
actually  work  in  one  of  WSM's 
studios  each  day  between  the 
hours  of  10  in  the  morning  and  4 
in  the  afternoon,  and  in  a  way 
that  would  make  many  a  steno- 
grapher blush. 

"That's  the  only  way  to  build 
one  of  the  best  girl's  trios  in  the 
country",  explained  Mary  Din- 
widdle exposing  a  determined 
jaw. 

"And  what  about  lunches?"  in- 
quired the  inquiring  reporter, 
"none  of  you  look  as  if  you 
passed  up  many   meals." 

"Oh,  we  send  out  for  those" 
replied  pretty  Frances  Robinson, 
as  all  three  planted  none  too 
gentle  pats  against  both  cheeks 
for  too  much  cheekiness  on  the 
part  of  a  reporter,  whose  duties, 
after  all,  prescribe  asking  ques,- 
tions,  and  not  making  catty  re.- 
marks. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  .OCTOBER  " 


Incidentally,  that  Mary  Din- 
widdle can  slap  a  face.  She  got 
her  experience  slapping  a  big 
bass  fiddle.  Mary  started  out  in 
music  when  she  was  only  12 
years  old,  member  of  on  all-girl 
band.  She  hid  behind  the  big 
bass  fiddle  whenever  the  truant 
officer  was  around,  since  she  had 
to  skip  school  frequently.  But 
even  then  music  was  the  most  im- 
portant thing  in  her  life. 

The  truant  officer,  together  with 
Mama  and  Papa  Dinwiddle  final- 
ly persuaded  Mary  that  maybe 
she  had  better  go  on  to  school 
and  take  a  fling  at  music  later. 

The  next  time  Mary  essayed  on 
the  bond-stand,  she  was  with  a 
male-band.  Again,  she  slapped 
the  bass,  stepping  forth  frequently 
for  a  smile  and  a  song.  It  was 
during  this  period  that  she 
learned  the  manly  art  of  self- 
defense.  Not  many  men,  even 
pie-eyed,  wanted  to  take  a  chance 
on  hurting  the  feelings  of  a 
young  lady,  who  tantalizingly 
twirled  a  big  bass  fiddle  as  if  it 
were  an  all-day  sucker. 

The  truth  was,  Mary  had  her 
towering  instroment  so  fixed  that 
it  took  very  little  effort  to  send  it 
spinning.  But  that  was  enough 
to  send  the  mashers  a-scamper- 
ing. 

Jean  Harmon  admits  that  she 
minors  in  dates  (not  historical) 
but  like  the  rest  of  the  trio,  con- 
firms her  first  love  is  singing.  It 
was  Jean  that  called  the  first 
meeting  of  the  Sophistocates  and 
arranged  their  initial  rehearsals. 
She  insisted  that  they  try  out  at 
WSM,  but  the  others  demurred. 
They  felt  they  were  not  ready. 

The  others  were  right.  Or  at 
least  that  was  also  the  opinion  of 
the  WSM  audition  committee.  But 
they  turned  the  trio  down  so 
politely,  that  Jean  convinced  both 
Frances  and  Mary  that  it  would 
be  no  time  before  they  became 
the  new  Boswells. 

What  they  had  actually  gotten 
was  the  usual  polite  brush-off  at 
WSM.  But  these  youngsters  did 
not  know  defeat,  and  that  polite 
turn-down  only  inspired  them  to 
harder  work.  At  first  they  started 
with  3  hours  a  day.  When  they 
startled  WSM  with  their  improve- 


ment and  got  Dinah  Shore's  old 
spot,  they  stepped  that  d  a  il  y 
schedule  up  steadily  to  its  present 
herculean  proportions. 

Since  coming  to  the  Air  Castle 
of  the  South,  they  hove  gotten 
their  biggest  kick  in  fan-mail, 
their  biggest  disasppointment  in 
listening  to  their  own  records. 
For  while  others  think  they  are 
fine,  the  Sophistocates  are  still 
not  satisfied. 

Pretty  Frances  Robinson  is  in 
charge  of  the  fan-mail,  it  comes 
mostly  from  men,  and  mostly 
from  groups  of  three  men. 

Apparently  with  the  fans  as 
well  as  the  trio,  it's  love  me,  find 
a  pal  for  my  girl-friend".  So  far, 
however,  only  one  of  their  mash 
lelters  has  materialized  into  an 
actual  date. 

Frances  was  surprised  when  the 
sponsor  of  their  show,  a  coffee 
manufacturer,  returned  one  letter, 
marking  it  "PERSONAL"  and 
"FOR  IMMEDIATE  ATTENTION." 

With  hasty  fingers  bom  only 
of  a  woman's  curiosity,  she  tore 
open  the  envelope  to  find  a  letter 
from  Boy  Scout  Troop,  Number 
63,  singed  by  the  secretary.  It 
read: 

"None  of  us  is  sophistocated, 
but  we  like  to  hear  you  Sophis- 
tocates sing.  We  even  bought  a 
pound  of  your  coffee  and  took  it 
on  our  hike  last  week.  But  we 
are  not  very  good  cooks.  If  you 
girls  can  cook  as  well  as  you 
sing,  we'd  like  you  to  go  on  our 
hike  next  week." 

The  girls  went,  and  they  cooked 
as  well  as  sang.  Now,  they  are 
honorary  members  of  Boy  Scout 
Troops  No.  63. 

Incidentlly,  your  reporter  found 
them  good  scouts. 

You  may  wonder  why  Radio 
Varieties,  which  month  after 
month,  brings  you  success  stories 
of  stars  that  night  after  night  come 
through  your  loud  speakers  via 
the  several  networks,  would  be 
interested  in  a  comparatively  un- 
known trio. 

Well,  we  believe  the  Sophis- 
tocates of  WSM  will  not  be  long 
in  making  theraselves  well-known, 
and  when  they  do  become  the 
Boswells  of  Tennesee,  then  we'll 
say,    "We   told  ycu  so." 

Page  7 


HERE'S     HOW     IT     ALL     STARTED 


By  JOAN  BLAINE 

Joan  Blaine,  popular  star  of  "Val- 
iant Lady",  analyzes  the  daily 
serial,  tracing  it's  early  beginnings 
.  .  .  and  gives  readers  a  brief 
glimpse  of  her  own  background. 


^&^^ 


JOAN    BLAINE 


Now  that  I've  been  "Jocm  Bar- 
rett" for  over  two  and  a  half 
years  on  "VaUant  Lady,"  every 
weekday  afternoon,  with  rare  va- 
cations for  a  few  days  it's  time 
to  go  over  my  radio  work  and  to 
analyze  this  art  form  in  which  I 
work,   the   radio   serial. 

I'll  get  myself  out  of  the  way 
first.  "Joan"  seems  to  be  good 
luck  for  me.  There's  "Joan  Bar- 
rett," and  there  was  "Joan  Hous- 
ton," who  stayed  by  me  a  long 


time  too.  It  must  be  my  ancestor 
James  G.  Blaine,  who  was  almost 
president  of  this  country,  who 
transmitted  my  love  of  the  stage 
to  me.  When  I  was  a  kid  I  was 
the  gal  on  the  debating  team,  you 
know  .  .  .  "Should  The  Govern- 
ment Run  The  Railroads?"  or,  for 
the  sake  of  variation,  "Should  we 
Free  The  Phillipines?"  I  must  ad- 
mit that  I  didn't  care  much  which 
side  I  took,  so  long  as  I  got  a 
chance   to   deliver   a   good   rous- 


ing speech.  I  won  medals,  cer- 
tificates, and  a  silver  loving  cup 
that  I've  hung  on  to,  sort  of  a 
good  luck  piece.  It's  too  big  for 
a  vase,  and  too  small  for  a  punch 
bowl,  so  it  retains  its  pristine  glo- 
ry! 

My  love  of  oratory  stood  me  in 
good  stead,  too,  as  it  won  a  North- 
western University  scholarship  for 
me.  I  won  first  in  all  speech  con- 
tests there,  and  got  the  thrill  of 
my  life  when  I  won  the  Grand 
Prize  in  the  Northern  Oratorical 
league  contest,  competing  agin' 
nine  men  from  nine  other  univer- 
sities. It's  a  wonder  I  didn't  go 
in  for  politics! 

New  York,  with  attendance  at 
Columbia's  Journalism  School; 
acting  in  Chicago  with  the  Chi- 
cago Theater  Guild;  and  a  con- 
cert tour  from  coast  to  coast, 
where  I  played  the  harp  and  did 
dramatic  character  sketches 
brought  me  to  the  stage  in  a 
serious  way.  I  worked  in  Cali- 
fornia, New  York,  and  in  sum- 
mer theaters,  and  enjoyed  star- 
dom on  Broadway.  I  did  movies, 
then  I  worked  on  radio  shows  out 
of  Chicago's  NBC  studios.  I  re- 
call such  parts  as  that  of  Mary 
Marlin,  in  the  show  of  the  same 
name;  Joan  Huston  in  "A  Tale  of 
Today;"  "Music  Magic;"  "Musi- 
cal Keys;"  "Welcome  Valley;" 
and  "Silken  Strings." 

All  this  happened  before  1937 
and  "Valiant  Lady."  I've  worked 
in  so  many  serials  that  I've  done 
a  lot  of  investigating  into  the  his- 
tory of  the  radio  serial.  While 
radio's  version  of  the  continued 
sketch  has  grown  into  a  definite 
art  form,  its  ancestry  is  long  and 
honorable.  Way  back  in  the  Mid- 
dle Ages,  in  France,  Spain,  Italy, 
and  other  countries,  a  form  of 
rapid-fire  sketch  called  "Vaude- 
ville" was  developed.  From  this 
sprang  modern  vaudeville  and 
the  "revue."  Since  there  were 
no  newspapers  (or  radios!)  in 
those  distant  days,  the  actors  pre- 
senting the  "Vaudeville"  also  in- 
cluded sketches  based  upon  re- 
ports of  contemporary  events,  of- 
ten in  ballade  form. 

In  Spain  and  the  Latin-Ameri- 
Continued  on  Page  25 


Page 


RADIO   VARIETTIES   —   OCTOBER 


FAMILIAR    MUSIC   IN  A   MAJESTIC   MANNER 

FORD  SUNDAY  EVENING  HOUR  IN  ITS 
SEVENTH  SEASON 


When  the  lights  dimmed  in  a 
Detroit  Auditorium  on  the  night  of 
September  29  it  marked  the  return 
of  the  Ford  Sunday  Evening  Hour 
for  the  seventh  consecutive  sea- 
son. Lily  Pons,  Metropolitan 
Opera  soprano,  who  was  guest 
soloist  on  the  opening  broadcast 
shared  the  spotlight  with  her  hus- 
band, Andre  Kostelanetz,  conduc- 
tor. The  program  of  the  75-piece 
Ford  Symphony  Orchestra  and  the 
26-voice  mixed  chorus  was  heard 
in  millions  of  homes  in  the  United 
States  over  a  nation-wide  CBS  net- 
work, and  in  far  distant  lands  via 
short  wave,  at  8  to  9  P.M.  (CST). 

Many  listeners  have  written  in 
requesting  information  as  to  when 
the  Ford  Sunday  Evening  Hour 
started  and  who  thought  of  the 
idea  of  putting  on  a  full-hour  of 
fine  music  with  a  complete  lack 
of  advertising.  For  those  interest- 
ed in  the  Sunday  Evening  Hour, 
here  is  its  history. 

In  June,  1934,  seventy  musicians 
of  the  Detroit  Symphony  orches- 
tra were  selected  to  play  at  the 
Ford  Symphony  Gardens  at  the 
World's  Fair  in  Chicago.  For 
twelve  weeks  this  musical  aggre- 
gation played  a  series  of  156. con- 
certs, performing  two  two-hour 
concerts  seven  days  a  week.  More 
than  1,500  compositions  were  pre- 
sented before  an  audience  of  a 
million  World's  Fair  visitors.  This 
large  number  probably  exceeds 
the  total  audience  for  most  sym- 
phonies for  a  generation. 

The  programs  presented  by  the 
Detroit  Symphony  Orchestra,  dur- 
ing its  engagement  at  the  Sym- 
phony Gardens,  were  not  exactly 
the  type  of  programs  you'd  expect 
to  hear  had  you  been  a  regular 
patron  of  the  concert  halls  of 
America.  There  was  liberal 
sprinkling  of  lighter  music  —  Vic- 
tor Herbert  fantasies,  sparkling 
selections  from  light  opera,  hardly 
any  full-length  symphonies  but 
more  compositions  such  as  the 
Hungarian  and  Slavic  dances  and 
Kreisler  caprices.  However,  more 
serious  music  was  by  no  means 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  OCTOBER 


neglected  and  was  an  important 
part  of  each  concert.  But  whether 
the  program  was  light  or  serious, 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  cosmopoli- 
tan audience  which  attended  the 


LILY     PONS 


ANDRE    KOSTELANETZ 


programs  brought  to  realization 
the  good-will  building  potentiali- 
ties of  such  a  presentation. 

After  the   final  performance   of 
the  Detroit  Symphony  in  the  Gar- 


dens at  "A  Century  of  Progress,  ' 
the  orchestra  returned  to  Detroit 
to  begin  the  first  of  the  Ford  Sun- 
day Evening  Hour  series.  For 
radio  purposes  they  became  the 
Ford  Symphony  (Drchestra  and 
broadcast  over  what,  at  the  time, 
was  one  of  the  largest  networks 
in  radio  history. 

These  Sunday  night  concerts 
were  similar  to  those  which  were  ■ 
presented  in  Chicago.  Henry  Ford, 
interested  in  reaching  the  multi- 
tude, offered  something  to  bring 
beauty  and  artistic  inspiration  to 
the  man  In  the  street,  as  well  as 
to  those  whose  education  and 
tastes  would  permit  them  to  en- 
joy the  compcsitions  of  the  great 
masters. 

Mr.  Ford's  original  instructions 
to  the  program  staff  are  well  sum- 
marized in  the  phase  "familiar 
music  in  the  majestic  manner." 
These  instructions  have  been  fol- 
lowed faithfully.  As  a  result  ra- 
dio listeners  have  heard  a  great 
symphony  play  an  orchestral  tran- 
scription of  "Turkey  in  the  Straw,' 
Victor  Herbert  medleys  and,  in 
1940,  Earl  Robinson  and  John  La- 
touche's  "Ballad  for  Americans." 
Critics  found  these  works  interest- 
ing, stimulating  and  inspiring.  At 
the  same  time.  The  Ford  Sunday 
Evening  Hour  did  not  assume  that 
listeners  appreciated  only  that 
kind  of  music,  for  it  offered  on  the 
same  programs  a  Schumann  con- 
certo or  a  great  symphony.  Lovers 
of  fine  music  realized  anew  that 
majesty  can  be  breathed  into  a 
simple  and  well-loved  melody  by 
great  art  in  presentation. 

From  the  standpoint  of  populai 
acceptance,  the  program  has  es- 
tablished something  of  a  record. 
This  was  proved  when  t  h  e 
Women's  National  Radio  Commit- 
tee acclaimed  it  the  "best  musical 
program"  and  presented  its  an- 
nual award  to  its  sponsor  for  the 
past  three  years.  For  the  six  sea- 
sons it  has  been  on  the  air  it  has 
been  voted  the  most  popular  ra- 
dio program  in  numerous  polls 
conducted  by  newspapers,  mag- 
Continued  on  Page  24 

Page  9 


YOUR    CRAZY    PROGRAM 


Jack  Amiung,  Your  Crazy  Program  Maestro,  signals  for  a  fanfare.  Trumpeters 
"Brother  Pinknose,"  left,  and  "The  Great  Lover"  comply.  All  the  "noise"  is  by  way 
of  introducing  another  hilarious  skit  by  Sugarcane  (Conrad  Brady),  left,  and  February 
Francis   Quinn). 


The  scene  was  the  Mineral  Wells,  Texas  office  of  Hal  H.  Collins, 
president  of  the  Crazy  Water  Company.  Mr.  Collins  was  addressing  a 
timid  yoimg  reporter  from  a  college  newspaper. 

"Yes,  this  radio  business  is  going  to  be  a  big  business  someday. 
Why  some  time  we  might  even  use  it  to  advertise  our  products." 

The  time:  1929. 

One  year  later  Mr.  Collins'  Crazy  Water  Company  was  selling 
Crazy  Water  Crystals  via  WBAP,  Fort  Worth,  with  a  harmonica  player 
and  Mr.  Collins  as  head  spieler.  One  of  Texas'  most  popular  radio 
programs  was  bom. 


TODAY,   Your  Crazy  Program  is 

being   aired    Monday    through 

Friday  over  WBAP  and  the  Texas 

Quality     Network,     consisting    of 


WFAA,  Dallas;  KPRC,  Houston, 
and  WOAI,  San  Antonio,  in  ad- 
dition to  WBAP.  The  cast  con- 
sists   of     nearly     half-a-hundred 


Page   10 


artists  and  a  recent  week's  mail 
count  was  32,291  postal  cards. 
Yes,  it's  a  far  cry  from  the  harma- 
nica  opus  of    1930    to  the    huge 

RADIO    VARIETIES   —   OCTOBER 


variety  show  of  1940.  And  only 
one  of  the  originial  cast  appears 
in  the  current  show.  It's  the  boss 
man,  Hal  Collins. 

So  rapid  was  the  sale  of  Crazy 
Crystals  that  a  few  months  after 
the  harmonica  player  -  Collins 
combination  made  its  ether  debut, 
Jack  Amlung  and  his  popular 
orchestra  were  added  attractions. 

With  Amlung' s  band  as  the 
nucleus  the  Crazy  show  passed 
through  many  changes  from  1930 
to  1935.  The  amateur-craze  had 
struck  radio  and  Mr.  Collins  was 
kept  busy  interviewing  such 
Crazy  program  prospects  as  one- 
man  bands  and  hog  callers. 
Fiddle  bands,  whistlers  and  the 
popular  Skiles  Family  followed  in 
vaudevillian  succession.  One  of 
the  musical  Skiles  is  now  listed 
on  the  roster  of  the  Fred  Waring 
aggregation  and  another  is  toot- 
ing his  horn  for  Henry  King. 

Conrad  Brady,  well  known  in 
the  show  business,  was  added 
to  the  Crazy  show  in  1935  as 
master  of  ceremonies.  He  was 
assisted  by  Francis  Quinn  in  for- 
ming the  blackface  team  of 
Sugarcane  and  February.  This 
act  with  its  homey  witticisms  met 
with  immediate  popular  favor  and 
is  still  going  strong.  Many  con- 
tests such  as  jingles,  etc.,  were 
built  around  this  comical  pair  but 
their  presentation  of  a  daily  ques- 
tion-answer skit  known  as  "The 
Brain-busters"  drew  the  most  at- 
tention. Puzzlers  were  sent  in  by 
the  listeners  and  Sugarcane  and 
February  called  on  members  of 
the  studio  audience  for  the  an- 
swers. When  some  studio  fan's 
hand  would  go  up  the  familiar 
cry:  "Here  cum  a  man,"  was  a 
sure  house-bringer-downer. 

Your  Crazy  program  was  also 
aired  over  the  Mutual  Broadcast- 
ing System  from  November,  1936 
to  March  26,  1937,  in  addition  to 
its  five-times-weekly  WBAP-Texas 
Quality  Network  shows. 

Not  so  incidentally,  this  popular 
quarter-hour  originates  in  the  spa- 
cious lobby  of  the  Crazy  Water 
Hotel  in  Mineral  Wells,  Texas,  52 
miles  west  of  Forth  Worth  and 
WBAP,  from  whence  it  is  placed 
on  TON  lines  as  well  as  WBAP's 
800  kilocycle  frequency.  Approx- 
imately 500  fans  wax  wildly  en- 


thusiastic in  the  studio  -lobby 
daily,  during  these  programs  and 
the  daily  mail  hails  from  every 
Texas  county  and  the  states  of 
Louisana,  Oklahoma,  New 
Mexico,  Arkansas,  Missouri,  Kan- 
sas and  Colorado. 

During  the  latter  part  of  1936 
and  nearly  all  of  1937,  a  young 
dancer  from  Weatherford,  Texas, 
appeared  on  the  show  in  the  role 
of  a  vocalist.  Her  torch  ballads 
were    delivered    in    a    somewhat 


daily  but  brief  heart-to-heart  talk 
by  Mr.  Collins.  It's  entitled  "One 
Man's  Opinion"  and  may  treat 
of  subjects  varying  from  "Kind- 
ness to  Dumb  Animals"  to  "Why 
Gentlemen  Don't  Always  Prefer 
Blondes."  Hundreds  of  loyal 
listeners  have  reported  that  they 
like  this  port  of  the  show  best  of 
all.  If  all  the  mail  from  appre- 
ciative Your  Crazy  program 
friends  received  since  the  pro- 
gram's debut  in  1930,  was  placed 


Mary   Martin  was  known  as   Mary   Hageman  when   she  sang  torch   songs  for  the 
Your   Crazy    Program    in    1936-37. 


piping  voice  which  by  no  means 
made  her  the  popular  personage 
she  is  today.  She  was  known  to 
Crazy  fans  as  pretty  Mary  Hage- 
man. Today,  she's  known  to 
NBC  and  movie  fans  as  Mary 
Martin;  pretty  Mary  Martin,  need- 
less to  soy. 

One    very    interesting    part    of 
today's  Your  Crazy  program  is  a 


end  to  end  it  would  reach...  er 
ah...  hand  me  that  pencil  and 
paper...  now  let's  see,  1,035,  248 
plus  1,026,378  plus...  oh  well  — 
the  Crazy  mail  would  make  quite 
a  heap,  yes,  quite  a  heap. 

P.  S.  —  The  timid  reporter  in 
Scene  1  was  yours  truly  at  the 
callous  age  of   19. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  OCTOBER 


Pag©  11 


WHO  ARE  THE  MEN 
BEHIND  THE  MEN 
BEHIND  THE  MICROPHONE? 


RADIO  VARIETIES  herewith  in- 
troduces three  of  the  men  who 
produce  some  of  NBC  Chicago's 
biggest  radio  shows. 

By  DAN  THOMPSON 

Most  modest  and  unassuming 
of  all  members  of  the  vast  radio 
fraternity  are  those  men  who  hide 
their  manifold  talents,  their  per- 
sonalities and  their  ambitions 
under  what  often  amounts  to 
a  mask  of  anonymity  —  the 
title  of  "Director."  Like  their 
brothers  of  the  movie  industry 
they  are  almost  completely  un- 
known to  the  millions  of  fans 
for  whom  they  labor.  Yet  many 
a  proud  star,  basking  in  the  adu- 
lation of  the  multitude,  willingly 
admits  that  without  proper  direc- 
tion they  might  flounder  helpless- 
ly in  the  sea  of  scripts  which 
flow  from  the  continuity  depart- 
ments of  networks  and  agencies. 
Many  a  singer  and  musician  rec- 
ognizes the  value  of  a  directorial 
ear  trained  to  bring  out  the  best 
in  any  score  as  well  as  the  best 
in  individual  or  group  performers. 

Just  to  get  it  straight,  let's  try 
to  define  a  radio  director  as  one 
who  is  ultimately  responsible  for 
everything  that  goes  into  a  micro- 
phone and  out  on  the  air  during 
the  period  to  which  he  has  been 
assigned.  His  is  the  responsibility 
for  material,  commercial,  drama- 
tic, sustaining  or  what  not.  His 
also,  the  responsibility  for  per- 
formance, announcements,  timing 
and  the  thousand  and  one  other 
details  which  go  to  make  up  a 
onow. 

•  Among  the  producers  at  NBC 
Chicago  who  are  responsible  for 
network  shows  originating  in  the 
Merchandise  Mart  Studios  are  W. 
P.  Wright,  the  production  mana- 
ger and  director- of  General  Mills' 
Arnold  Grimm's  Daughter,  popu- 
lar NBC  dramatic  serial  heard 
Mondays  through  Fridays  over 
the  NBC-Red  network  at  1:15  p.m. 
CST. 

Wright  has  been  associated 
with  the  stage  and  radio  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  making  his 
debut  as  the  member  of  a   1915 

Page  12 


(Top)  George  Voutsas,  director  who  dis- 
covered Lillian  Cornell.  (Center)  W.  P. 
Wright,  NBC's  Production  Manager  and 
Director,  guides  Betty  Lou  Gerson,  star  of 
Arnold  Grimm's  Daughter  thru  the  script. 
(Bottom)  L.  G.  (Bucky)  Harris  who  directs 
the     National    Farm    and     Home     Hour. 


stock  company  production  of  "As 
You  Like  It."  Born  in  Columbus, 
Ohio,  on  February  15,  1897,  he 
attended  schools  in  Michigan  and 
later  studied  for  the  bar  at  the 
Detroit  College  of  Law.  In  1930, 
he  organized  a  dramatic  depart- 
ment for  WWJ  in  Detroit,  where  he 


remained  until  he  came  to  NBC  as 
a  director  in  April  1934  and  to 
which  he  returned  for  a  short 
time  before  becoming  assistant 
production  manager  under  C.  L. 
Menser   on   January    1,    1939. 

In  addition  to  attending  to  all 
his  duties  as  head  of  the  NBC 
Central  Division  production  de- 
partment, Wright  directs  only  the 
one  daytime  serial  mentioned 
above.  Those  who  work  with 
him  on  that  show  find  him  one  of 
the  most  agreeable  yet  stimulating 
directors  on  the  NBC  staff. 

Mr.  Wright's  assistant  is  L.  G. 
(Bucky)  Harris,  former  actor, 
newspaperman,  announcer,  con- 
tinuity writer  and  radio  station 
manager.  Listed  on  the  musical 
side  of  the  staff,  Bucky  is  really 
one  of  the  most  versatile  direc- 
tors in  the  Midwest.  His  record 
includes  a  year  and  a  half  as 
producer  of  floor  shows  for  the 
Boyd  -  Prinz  Company,  several 
years  as  a  minstrel  man  and  in 
vaudeville  and  a  record  of  six 
years  as  producer  of  the  National 
Farm  and  Home  Hour.  Prior  to 
being  made  assistant  production 
manager  on  March  1,  1939,  Bucky 
directed  such  shows  as  Today's 
Children,  the  Climalene  Carnival, 
Teatime  at  Morrell's,  Real  Silk, 
the  Singing  Lady,  Sinclair  Min- 
strels and  Al  Pearce  and  His 
Gang. 

A  native  Missourian,  Bucky  at- 
tended the  University  of  Missouri. 
Torn  between  his  love  for  the 
theater  and  for  newspaper  work, 
Bucky  finally  entered  radio  when, 
as  tri-state  editor  of  the  Mem- 
phis Commercial  Appeal,  he  was 
asked  to  broadcast  bulletins  over 
WMC  during  the  1927  flood.  Fol- 
lowed some  months  as  announcer, 
continuity  writer  and  Sunday  Ra- 
dio Page  editor  before  he  be- 
came station  manager.  Jobs  later 
came  at  WJJD,  WBBM,  KMOX, 
WIBO  and  finally  in  1933  he 
joined  NBC.  At  the  present  writ- 
ing he  is  director  of  "Beat  the 
Band"  as  well  as  of  the  National 
Farm  and  Home  Hour. 

Third  on  the  present  list  of  "men 
behind  the  men  behind  the  mike" 
Continued  on  Page  24 

RADIO    VARIETIES   —   OCTOBER 


THE  STORY  OF  A  COMEBACK 


Chatting  about  Hollywood  on 
the  air  three  times  a  week  for  Sun- 
kist  oranges  and  lemons  gives  me 
a  terrific  thrill  —  but  sometimes 
there  are  stories  to  tell  that  defy 
time  —  and  the  timely  news 
crowds  them  off  the  air. 

One  of  those  stories  is  about  a 
Hollywood  personality  who 
breezed  his  way  to  screen  fame 
by  way  of  radio;  a  personality 
who  all  the  movie  wise  guys  said 
was  through  a  year  ago.  But 
Dick  Powell  said,  "Watch  me, 
boys!!,"  packed  his  bags,  said 
goodbye  to  loving  wife  Joan 
Blondell,  children  Ellen  and  Nor- 
man, planed  out  of  movietown 
for  a  personal  appearance  tour 
that  knocked  'em  dead  all  over 
the  country. 

So  began  the  successful  battle 
that  Dick  fought  to  make  a  Hol- 
lywood comeback.  Since  the  ex- 
citing radio  days  of  "Hollywood 
Hotel"  and  musicals  like  "Naughty 
But  Nice,"  Dick's  voice  hadn't 
been  heard  in  anything  worth 
while.  Then  Chicago,  St.  Louis, 
New  York  began  discovering  a 
new  Powell  all  over  again  in  spite 
of  the  wise  owls  in  the  plush 
chairs  out  here  who  couldn't  see 
anything  for  the  laughing  boy 
but  oblivion. 

Originally  Dick  had  come  up 
the  hard  way.     Playing  in  bands 

—  then  branching  into  solo  radio 
work    he    knew    the    microphone 

—  and  he  knew  audience  reac- 
tion on  the  p. a.  tour.  Besides  he 
was  still  a  big  movie  name,  for 
several  years  had  been  one  of  the 
top  ten  stars  at  the  box  office. 
And  that's  why  he  smashed  rec- 
ords everywhere  — ■  played  to 
more  than  a  million  fans  on  that 
tour.  When  Dick  played  the  k9y 
cities  of  the  East,  fans  stormed  the 
box  offices  to  see  him  in  the 
flesh;  everywhere  house  records 
fell;  he  was  held  over  a  second 
week  at  New  York's  Paramount, 
broke  a  five-year  record  for  that 
theater,  pulled  down  one  of  the 
highest  prices  ever  paid  to  a  star 
for  a  personal  appearance. 

Then  the  triumphant  troubador 
marched  proudly  back  to  wife, 
kiddies,  and  the  Hollywood  mo- 
guls to  announce  firmly,   "I'll  do 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  OCTOBER 


By  HEDDA  HOPPER 

no  more  singing  on  the  screen!" 
And  why  was  it  that  the  young 
man  who  owed  his  success  to 
his  voice  —  who  had  earned  his 
living  by  warbling  for  lo  these 
many  years  —  suddenly  turned 
turtle  and  refused  to  sing  again 
on  the  screen? 


be  Hamlet.  Dick  will  always  do 
pictures  that  hove  plenty  of  com- 
edy —  but  also  stories  that  have 
some  dramatic  rheaning.  Take, 
for  instance,  the  picture  he's  just 
finishing  now  for  Paramount.  A 
swell  yarn  about  a  big  coffee 
concern    called    Maxford    House, 


HEDDA  HOPPER 


The  reason  for  Dick's  determi- 
nation to  abandon  music  in  pic- 
tures was  that  he  wanted  good, 
meaty  dramatic  roles  —  roles  that 
would  give  him  a  new  lease  on 
life  —  with  himself  and  with  the 
public.  He  was  confident  he 
could  do  it  —  but  type  casting 
had  killed  him  in  pictures.  He 
rebelled  against  being  cast  as 
the  young  boy  who  goes  through 
a  lot  of  refined  Hell,  always  smil- 
ing, and  comes  out  o.k.  after  do- 
ing four  solos  and  a  turn  with  a 
dance  band. 

Don't  worry,  though,  when  I  say 
Powell  will  do  dramatic  roles  I 
don't  mean  his  next  picture  will 


whose  Java  is  "Great  to  the  Last 
Gulp."  Playing  opposite  Ellen 
Drew  under  the  direction  of  the 
brilliant  writer-director,  Preston 
Sturges,  who  turned  out  "The 
Great  McGinty,"  Dick  gets  full 
scope  for  his  talents  —  and 
he's  going  to  be  swell.  And 
you've  all  read  about  the  one 
he  just  finished  called,  "I  Want 
A  Divorce,"  built  around  the 
familiar  radio  series.  There'll 
be  heart-throbs  in  that  one  —  and, 
believe  me,  when  you  get  a 
load  of  Powell  and  Blondell  emot- 
ing opposite  each  other,  you're 
going  to  get  that  little  hitch  in 
Continued  on  Page  24 

Page   13 


As    chief    vocalizer    on    the 
Texaco  Star  Theatre  Wednes- 
day nites  at  8:00  P.  M.  over 
5    Coast-to-Coast    Stations 
Kenny's    tenor    voice    shares 
the  spotlight   with   Fred 
Allen    on    CBS 


Page   14 


RADIO    VARIETIES    —    OCTOBER 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  OCTOBER 


Page   1 S 


RENFRO  VALLEY  FOLKS 

HILL  BILLY  LIFE  AND  MUSIC  OF  LONG  AGO 
LIVES  AGAIN  IN  KENTUCKY'S  RENFRO  VALLEY 


John  Lair,  left,  lays  down  the  law  to  clowning  Slim  Miller 
in  a  pre-broadcast  pep-talk  at  Renfro  Valley,  site  of  the  broad- 
cast of  Renfro  Valley  Folks  at  8:30  p.m.  CST  over  the  NBC-Red 
network     each      Monday     night.       Left     to     right,     rear     are     the 


Coon  Creek  girls,  the  Mountain  Rangers,  the  Neighborhood 
Boys.  Shorty  Hobbs  and  Eller,  A'nt  Idy  Harper  and  Little 
Clifford.  Front,  Judy  Dell.  Granny  Harper,  Slim  Miller  and 
Roland    Gaines    (kneeling)    of   the    Mountain    Rangers. 


By   JULES    CASS 

Deep  in  Kentucky,  about  140 
winding  miles  south  of  Cincin- 
nati on  the  famed  Dixie  Highway, 
motorists  begin  to  realize  they're 
in  the  Cumberland  foothills.  A 
couple  of  miles  south  of  Dead 
Man's  Curve,  they  come  upon  a 
modern-looking  little  settlement  of 
34  buildings,  the  center  of  life  in 
Renfro  Valley. 

There,  without  sacrificing  too 
many  modern  improvements,  a 
short,  stocky  man  named  John 
Lair  has  managed  to  turn  the 
clock  back  50  years.  It  is  from 
this  settlement  that  every  Monday 
at  8:30  p.  m.  CST,  John  Lair  and 
his  Renfro  Valley  Folks  give 
listeners  to  the  NBC  Southern  Net- 
work an  idea  of  the  hill  life  of 
,a  half-century  ago. 


Lair  got  the  idea  for  this  set- 
tlement eleven  years  ago,  when 
he  started  in  radio.  He  used  to 
be  an  insurance  man  in  Chicago, 
but  he  also  had  a  hobby  of  col- 
lecting old  songs.  Those  he  heard 
on  the  air  seemed  to  him  to  be 
unauthentic,  for  they  were  not 
sung  the  way  he  had  learned 
them  as  a  boy  in  the  hills  of  Ken- 
tucky. 

So,  in  the  summer  of  1929,  Lair 
went  back  to  Renfro  where  every- 
body knows  the  down-home  songs 
and  where  everybody  sings  or 
plays  cm  instrument.  He  brought 
some  of  the  youngsters  from  Ren- 
fro to  Chicago,  had  no  trouble 
getting  them  on  the  air,  and  casu- 
ally went  on  the  air  himself.  He 
stayed. 

But  though  he  was  in  Chicago, 
the    green    valley    of    Renfro    — 


which  is  named  after  the  little 
creek  that  flows  through  the  hills 
— remained  in  Lair's  mind  all  the 
time.  Did  it  remain  in  the  minds 
of  the  kids  he  had  taken  away 
from  there  and  brought  to  the  big 
city? 

Not  completely.  "I  found  the 
kids  lost  something  when  they 
went  into  town,"  he  recalls.  In 
fact,  he  found  you  could  take  the 
country  out  of  the  boy  when  you 
took  the  boy  out  of  the  country. 
The  boy  started  to  lose  his  sim- 
plicity. 

Lair  didn't  want  that  to  happen, 
so  he  started  mulling  over  ideas. 
He  finally  decided  on  the  ob- 
vious. Since  something  was  lost 
when  you  brought  the  hills  to  ra- 
dio, he  would  bring  radio  to  the 
hills. 

A    year    ago.    Lair    finally    got 


Page   16 


RADIO    VARIETIES 


OCTOBER 


cffound  to  realizing  his  decade- 
old  plan.  All  his  money  went 
into  the  Renfro  settlement.  He  had 
accumulated  the  money  through 
years  of  successfully-managed  ra- 
dio programs  and  stage  tours  with 
hillbilly  outfits. 

He  believes  that  the  Renfro  Val- 
ley settlement  will  become  a 
shrine  of  American  folk  music. 
He  thinks  it  will  recreate  an  at- 
mosphere of  50  years  ago,  when 
people  lived  a  more  simple  and 
direct  life.  He  feels  he  can  take 
the  old  American  songs  out  of 
the  dusty  unreality  of  an  indus- 
trialized age,  and  put  them  back 
into  the   scene   of  their  origin. 

The  name  Renfro  Valley  Folks 
exactly  describes  the  NBC  pro- 
gram which  Lair  now  conducts. 
Renfro  Folks  constitute  the  talent 
for  the  program.  Other  Renfro 
folks  helped  erect  the  settlement. 
They  built  the  lodge,  where  visi- 
tors can  get  dinners  of  country- 
cured  ham  and  a  lot  of  dishes  that 
are  exclusively  hill  menus.  There 
was  an  old  grist  mill  nine  miles 
from  the  settlement,  and  they  took 
the  machinery  from  that  and  in- 
stalled it  in  a  new  mill,  where 
corn  meal  for  the  restaurant  will 
be  ground.  They  built  cabins, 
where  travelers  could  stay  over- 
night. They  built  a  huge  barn, 
for  the  Saturday  night  barn  dance 
program  aired  over  WLW. 
.  Finally,  they  moved  the  old 
schoolhouse  onto  the  settlement 
property.  Lair  attended  school  in 
this  old  log  and  plaster  structure, 
and  so  did  his  father.  It  used  to 
be  located  three  miles  west,  up 
the  valley  in  a  red  bud  thicket. 
Nobody,  not  even  the  80-year- 
old  patriarchs  of  the  valley,  knows 
the  age  of  this  school  building. 
Everybody  in  the  valley  went  to 
school  there  at  some  time  or 
other,  or  attended  Sunday  school 
or  speeches  or  picnic  suppers 
or  the  elections  held  there,  since 
it  was  the  only  public  meeting 
place  in  the  neighborhood. 

Lair  loves  the  schoolhouse, 
where  he  learned  grammar,  ge- 
ography, reading,  writing  and 
arithmetic.  There  were  13  pu- 
pils most  of  the  time,  and  a 
pile  of  McGuffey  books.  There 
were  no  classes;  half  the  kids 
were  in  "big  arithmetic"  and  the 
rest  in  "little  arithmetic."  Nobody 
ever  tried  to  trace  the  history  of 
the  building,  but  it  was  old  in  the 
days  of  the  Civil  War. 


Lair  wanted  the  schoolhouse 
because  more  than  anything  else 
it  represents  the  dignity,  tradition 
and  endurance  of  the  valley 
people.  So  he  had  it  moved,  log 
by  log,  stone  by  stone,  foundation 
and  all,  from  the  old  location  to 
the  new  one  on  the  settlement 
property. 

And  now  the  little  schoolhouse 
is  famous.  As  in  the  old  days, 
it  continues  to  serve  as  a  meeting 
place,  but  now  the  schoolhouse  is 
also  a  radio  studio.  They've  set 
up  a  microphone  and  amplifier 
there,  and  the  NBC  broadcasts 
originate  there  every  Monday 
night. 

It  is  probably  the  most  unelab- 
orate  broadcasting  studio  in  the 
world.  Two  none-too-bright  elec- 
tric bulbs  provide  the  illumination, 
and  the  engineer  keeps  a  flash- 
light on  hand,  just  in  case.  Out- 
side, the  katykids  gnaw  the  air 
in  the  dark  woods.  Yellow  light 
falls  on  the  faces  of  a  few  people 
who  have  come  down  to  peer 
through  the  open  windows  at  the 
shindig  within.  Inside,  these  visi- 
tors see  the  Coon  Creek  Girls  and 
An't  Idy  and  Little  Clifford,  and 
Slim  Miller  and  the  Neighborhood 
Boys,  and  all  the  others.  The  visi- 
tors grew  up  with  most  of  these 
people  who  are  now  on  the  air. 
They  know  Shorty  and  Filer,  the 
Mountain  Rangers,  Dwight  Butch- 
er, the  Pine  Ridge  Boys,  the  Ran- 
dolph Sisters,  Gene  Cobb,  Si  and 
Fanny,  Harmonica  Bill  Russell, 
Granny  Harper  and  Homer  and 
Jethro. 

They're  just  Renfro  Valley  folks. 

How  has  Lair  been  able  to 
achieve  such  success?  Probably 
through  his  sincerity,  first  of  all. 
Secondly,  through  his  knowledge 
of  his  people,  and  of  his  subject, 
which  is  American  folk  music. 

Lair  is  believed  to  know  more 
about  American  folk  music  than 
any  other  living  man. 

Lair  does  a  lot  of  personal  re- 
search for  his  extensive  collec- 
tion of  this  music.  Ten  years 
ago  he  went  out  to  Kearney,  Mo., 
just  to  talk  to  the  descendants  of 
esse  James  and  discover  the  tunes 
the  old  reprobate  liked  best.  He 
got  the  musical  lowdown  on  Jes- 
se, even  on  the  tune  that  was 
played  at  the  bandit's  funeral. 
He  has  a  lot  of  music  connected 
with  Lincoln  — ■  the  first  song  the 
woodchopper  learned  as  a  child. 


a  song  he  wrote  and  sang  at  his 
sister's  wedding;  "Hoosen  John- 
ny," one  of  his  favorite  campaign 
songs,  and  the  song  Anne  Rut- 
ledge  sang  to  Lincoln  while  she 
was  on  her  deathbed.  It  was 
called  "Vain  Man,  Thy  Fond  Pur- 
suits Forbear." 

Much  of  this  information  comes 
to  Lair  from  people  who  have 
heard  him  on  the  radio.  Personal 
information  he  backs  up  with  col- 
lections of  songs.  He  has  three 
famous  collections — Grady's  De- 
laney's  and  Hevermeyer's. 

He  estimates  he  has  well  over  a 
hundred  thousand  songs  in  his 
vast  collection.  Some  of  the  song 
books  are  collector's  items.  He 
has  Brigham  Young's  personal 
copy  of  the  Mormon  hymn  book, 
with  Brigham' s  autograph  on  the 
hymns  he  happened  to  like  best. 

Lair  has  no  way  of  evaluating 
his  collection,  since  probably  no- 
body else  in  the  United  States  is 
interested  in  it.  The  Library  of 
Congress  would  like  to  have  a 
few  of  the  books,  but  Lair  is  hold- 
ing on  to  everything.  He  soys  he 
wouldn't  take  $15,000  cash  for 
the  collection. 

Of  the  24  people  who  take  big 
parts  and  small  on  the  Monday 
NBC  broadcasts,  only  one  act, 
the  Crusaders,  do  not  live  within 
a  radius  of  15  miles  of  Lair's  set- 
tlement. The  Crusaders  come 
from  Seventy  Six,  Kentucky,  a 
hamlet  80  miles  from  Renfro. 

The  Coon  Creek  Girls,  Lair 
suggests,  are  typical  of  the  people 
on  his  show.  They  comprise  Rosie 
and  Lily  May  Ledford,  who  were 
born  in  Pitchem  Tight  Hollow;  and 
Bertha,  Irene  and  Opal  Ambergy. 
Lair  four  years  ago  got  Lily  May 
a  job  in  Chicago,  then  started  his 
own  company  and  gave  them  all 
jobs.  When  King  George  and 
Queen  Elizabeth  visited  the  White 
House,  the  Coon  Creekers  went 
there  on  invitation  to  sing.  They 
were  chosen  as  typical  singers  of 
pioneer  American  music. 

Lair  is  now  in  his  forties,  turn- 
ing gray  in  an  iron  sort  of  way, 
firm-jawed  and  earnest.  He  owns 
three  farms,  totaling  400  acres.  He 
owns  a  beautiful  set  of  tackle 
which  he  seldom  uses,  although 
Renfro  Creek  has  plenty  of  good 
bass.  He's  too  busy  with  his 
ideas. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  OCTOBER 


Page  17 


BALD  PATES  AND  BOILED  SHIRTS 


Imagine  a  man  owing  his  job 
to  bald  heads  and  starched  shirt 
fronts!  Incredible,  you  might  say, 
until  you  take  a  look  at  the  many 
fantastic  jobs  which  have  mush- 
roomed in  the  radio  industry  since 
the  days  of  the  first  crystal  sets. 

High  on  the  list  must  be  men- 
tioned the  man  who  barks  like  a 
dog  —  and  gets  well  paid  for  it. 
And  also  the  woman  who  cries 
like  a  baby  to  such  good  effect 
that  a  fat  weekly  salary  check 
greets  her  efforts. 

Then  we  must  not  forget  the 
pianist  who  nightly  in  the  radio 
studios  plays  the  works  of  the 
masters  as  well  as  popular  com- 
positions —  but  never  goes  on 
the  air! 

Add  to  the  above  list  the  man 
who  watches  clocks  right  under 
his  boss'  nose  and  gets  paid- 
for  it,  and  those  strangest  of  all 
people  —  radio  sound  effects 
men  —  and  it  would  seem  that 
radio  boasts  the  greatest  collec- 
tion of  queer  jobs  extant. 

Getting  back  to  the  man  first 
mentioned.  His  official  title  might 
read  something  like  this:  "Offi- 
cial Separator  of  Stiff-bosomed 
Dress  Shirts  and  Bald  Pates."  His 
raison  d'etre  is  as  follows.  During 
the  Fall  symphony  series  at  NBC, 
engineers  at  a  Toscanini  concert 
discovered  that-  the  tone  values, 
especially  in  the  higher  frequen- 
cies, were  registering  with  un- 
usual sharpness.  Investigation 
revealed  that  this  was  due 
largely  to  the  fact  that  a  great 
many  gentlemen  in  the  studio 
audience  were  wearing  stiff 
dress  shirts. 

Because  of  this  particular  dress 
9n  the  part  of  the  gentlemen,  the 
sound  waves  came  bouncing 
back  in  a  manner  which  caused 
a  reverberation  not  present  when 
informal  attire  was  worn.  Not 
that  the  difference  was  plainly 
perceptible,  but  it  was  sufficient 
to  register  on  the  oscillograph 
which  tests  acoustical  conditions 
in  the  studio. 

Additional  research  along  sim- 
ilar lines  revealed  other  interest- 
ing facts  about  the  delicate  and 
tricky  nature  of  sound  waves.  For 
example,    large    persons    absorb 


sound  better  than  small  persons, 
■^imnly  because  their  greater  ex- 
panse of  epidermis  provides 
more  of  a  target  for  sound  waves. 
In  like  manner,  a  lady  garbed  in 
velvet  will  kill  an  echo  much 
more  quickly  than  one  wearing 
silk  or  taffeta. 


CRY-BABY 
Madeleine  Pierce  is  a  cry-baby.  While 
this  term  is  considered  the  apogee  of 
opprobrium  in  some  circles,  (especially 
the  younger  ones).  Miss  Pierce  is  proud 
of  the  fact  that  she  is  the  leading  ex- 
ponent of  the  art  of  crying  on  the  NBC 
networks.  i  he  one-woman  nursery 
plays  everything  from  the  smallest, 
sleepy  sigh  to  the  loudest,  milk-hungry 
wail. 

YEEEOW  —  GRRR  —  MEEOW  — 
bradley  Barker  has  taken  the  wolf 
from  his  door  and  put  it  to  work  before 
a  microphone.  A  wolf's  cry  is  only  one 
of  40  animal  voices  which  Barker  sim- 
ulates in  radio  dramas.  Half  of  his 
work,  however,  consists  of  Imitating 
dogs  and  cats.  Barker  began  his  unusual 
calling  when  he  discovered  that  mechanl. 
cally-produced  animal  sounds  often 
resulted  in  soprano  lions,  falsetto  dogs 
and    basso    profundo   cats. 


And,  in  case  you  didn't  know 
it,  bald-headed  men  are  shock- 
ingly poor  at  absorbing  sound, 
while  hirsute  individuals  will 
tangle  up  the  most  athletic  sound 
wave. 

Now,  when  the  engineers 
viev/ed  these  interesting  pheno- 
mena, they  didn't  become  unduly 


concerned.  Program  officials,  how- 
ever, took  the  matter  seriously. 
Pictures  of  whole  sections  of 
boiled  shirts  or  bald  heads,  from 
which  the  sound  waves  would 
bounce  and  go  will-nilly  around 
the  studio,  haunted  their  mid- 
night dreams.  Something  had  to 
be  done,  namely,  to  appoint 
someone  to  separate  the  starched 
shirt  fronts  and  billiard-like 
domes  and  scatter  them  about 
the  studio. 

So  the  job  of  "Official  Sep- 
arator of  Stiff-Bosomed  Dress 
Shirts  and  Bald  Pates"  was  creat- 
ed and  entrusted  to  a  keen-eyed 
young  man  who  greeted  visitors 
to  the  studio  with  tactful,  "To  the 
rights,  Sir,"  "To  the  lefts.  Sir"  etc. 
We  wonder  how  the  census-taker 
listed  that  one! 

But  while  separating  bald 
heads,  etc.,  certainly  ranks  high 
up  in  the  queer  job  category,  we 
must  not  forget  the  woman  who 
acts  childishly.  In  most  quarters 
this  is  frowned  upon.  But  when 
it  comes  to  radio,  being  profes- 
sionally babyish  is  well  worth 
while. 

Madeleine  Pierce  is  the  leading 
exponent  of  the  art  of  crying-  like 
a  baby,  specializing  in  genuine 
baby  gabble  and  not  the  falla- 
cious "muvva's  ittle  -  cootums" 
variety. 

The  one-woman  nursery  can 
play  an  infant  mood  from  the 
smallest,  sleepy  sigh  to  the  loud- 
est, milk-hungry  wail.  Though 
she  specializes  in  small  infants. 
Miss  Pierce  also  plays  older 
boys  and  girls  and  mature 
women.  Recently  she  played  an 
infant,  a  12-year-old  boy,  a  girl 
of  six,  and  a  nurse  —  all  on  the 
same  broadcasti 

Miss  Pierce  didn't  have  a 
thought  for  her  particular  talent 
for  the  squalls,  whimpers  and 
coos  business,  until  friends  prac- 
tically pushed  her  into  the  NBC 
studios  for  an  audition. 

From  baby's  squeals  to  a 
repertoire  of  40  animal  voices, 
although  about  half  his  work 
consists  of  imitating  dogs  and 
cats,  is  the  fantastic  radio  leap 
made  by  Bradley  Barker,  who,  In 


Page  18 


RADIO    VARICTIES   —   OCTOBER 


truth,  has  taken  the  wolf  from  his 
door  and  put  it  to  v/ork  before  a 
microphone. 

When  Barker  first  turned  to 
radio  in  1926,  after  seventeen 
years  as  a  vaudeville  and  motion 
picture  actor,  recorded  sound 
effects  were  frowned  upon,  so 
animal  voices  were  created  me- 
chanically by  means  of  resined 
rods  drawn  through  holes  in  tin 
cans,  etc. 

"The  results,"  reminisces  Bark- 
er, "were  weirdly  unpredictable. 
Often  we  heard  soprano  lions, 
falsetto  dogs  and  basso  profundo 
cats.  When  we  tried  to  use  live 
animals  in  the  studio  we  always 
regretted  it." 

A  husky  six  -  footer.  Barker 
takes  his  work  as  seriously  as 
any  Metropolitan  diva.  Recently 
he  spent  several  weeks  with  the 
Ringling  Brothers  so  that  he  could 
learn  to  imitate  Gargantua,  the 
giant  ape.  Barker  thought  Gargi 
was  a  friendly  fellow. 

And  now  radio's  odd-job  quest 
brings  us  to  the  champion  clock 
watchers  of  this  or  any  other 
era  —  men  who  impudently 
watch  the  clocks  right  under  their 
boss'  nose  without  danger  of 
getting  fired! 

The  heroes  of  this  saga  are 
members  of  the  NBC  Maintenance 
Department.  Their  particular  mis- 
sion in  life  is  to  keep  the  291 
clocks  at  the  NBC  studios  in 
Radio  City  right  up  to  the  split 
second.  Equipped  with  chrono- 
meters, these  unsung  behind-the- 
sceners  make  numerous  checks 
of  the  clocks.  And  a  nice,  easy 
way  of  not  being  able  to  see  a_ 
clock  is  to  ask  one  of  the  boys, 
"What  time  is  it?" 

Sound  effects  men  are  really 
radio's  greatest  odd-jobbers.  They 
make  nature's  greatest  imitators 
—  the  African  Grey  parrot,  the 
myna,  the  raven  —  look  like  a 
third-rate  stumble  bum  matched 
with  Joe  Louis. 

To  any  of  the  thousand  and 
one  strange  requests  which  come 
to  them,  from  creating  the  sound 
of  rolling  a  cigarette  to  the  noise 
produced  by  a  naval  battle  in  the 
Norwegian  fjords,  these  men  have 
never  said  "It  can't  be  done." 

While  the  growth  of  radio  has 
witnessed  greater  complexity  of 
scripts,    resulting    in    the    use   of 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  OCTOBER 


recordings  for  background  effects 
to  a  large  degree  (NBC  has  on 
hand  more  than  one  thousand 
discs,  capable  of  producing  ap- 
proximately 4,000  different  noises), 
the  on-the-spot  sound  effect  has 
lost  none  of  its  usefulness  as 
sounds  requiring  exact  cueing, 
such  as  door  bells  or  a  sudden 
blast  of  wind,  ore  best  transmitted 
by  the  real  thing  or  its  synthetic 
equivalent. 

One  script  for  an  NBC  program 
called  for  the  sound  of  a  sewing 
machine.     To  the    sensitive  ears 


TUNER 
Herman  F.  Krausser  plays  more  piano 
music  than  any  concert  artist  in  the 
NBC  Radio  City  studios  but  —  he  never 
is  heard  by  listeners.  Krausser  is  NBC's 
official  piano  tuner,  chief  custodian  of 
the  38  pianos  used  daily  by  artists. 
Krausser  works  while  the  city  sleeps, 
during  the  hours  the  networks  are  off 
the    air. 


of  the  sound  effects  men,  how- 
ever, the  sewing  machine  brought 
into  the  studio  sounded  like  any- 
thing else  than  the  real  thing. 
And  this  is  where  odd-jobbedness 
paid.  One  of  the  tonal  experts 
had  had  occasion  to  experiment 
with  bells  of  all  sort,  for  another 
program.  He  suddenly  remem- 
bered that  the  sound  produced  by 
cranking  the  bell  handle  of  a 
rural  telephone  —  without  the 
bell  —  had  exactly  simulated 
the  sound  required.  A  bell,  or 
should  we  say,  a  bell-less  tele- 
phone, was  produced.  Eureka. 
The  solution  was  in  hand. 

And  now  our  tale  nears  on  end 
with  the  story  of  H  e  r  m  a  n  F. 
Krausser,  who,  like  the  sound 
effects  men,  is  a  tonal  expert  of 
the  highest  degree  and  definitely 
superior  to  NBC's  "squeak  testers" 
—  men  who  examine  each  of  the 
folding  chairs  in  radio  studios  to 
make    sure    they    are  free  of  all 


squeaks  because  a  high-pitched 
squeak  is  easily  picked  up  by 
the  sensitive  microphone. 

Mr.  Krausser,  a  slight  man, 
with  sad  eyes  behind  steel-rim- 
med glasses,  takes  his  place  at 
one  of  the  studio  pianos  when 
the  curtain  rings  down  on  the  last 
show  of  the  day  from  Radio  City. 

With  all  the  poise,  the  strength 
and  sureness  of  a  great  artist, 
Mr.  Krausser  raps  out  a  few 
vibrant  chords. 

Then  his  fingers  run  surely 
through  an  arpeggio  that  covers 
the  range  of  the  keyboard.  But 
with  this  brief  performance  the 
music  ends  and  listeners  from 
coast  to  coast  will  never  savor  the 
full  flavor  of  it. 

The  artist  becomes  artisan. 
Tools  come  out  from  his  small 
black  bag.  At  his  touch ,  the 
piano  comes  apart  with  the  ease 
of  secret  panels  opening.  Mr. 
Krausser,  NBC's  piano  tuner,  is 
on  the  job  I 

Keeping  the  38  pianos  used 
daily  by  NBC  artists  at  precise 
concert  pitch  —  whether  they  are 
used  for  a  syronhony  concert  or 
a  red  hot  swing  jamboree  — 
calls  for  the  loving  attention  of 
Mr.  Krausser,  who  sadly  men- 
tions that  he  has  never  met  any 
of  the  artists  who  use  the  instru- 
ments. He  knows  them,  though, 
he  will  tell  you. 

"Frequently,"  he  says,  "I  find 
some  of  their  personal  belong- 
ings hidden  away  inside  the 
pianos.  Compacts,  handkerchiefs, 
fountain  pens,  pencils,  hair  pins, 
even  keys  and  odd  coins.  I  still 
can't  figure  out  the  loose  coins 
though.  Generally  there  is  a 
penny  or  a  nickel  —  never  more 
than  a  dime! 

Krausser  had  his  own  musical 
ambitions  as  a  young  man  but 
found  it  easier  to  make  a  living 
as  the  skilled  artisan  who  keeps 
the  pianos  in  pitch  for  others. 
But  he  loves  music,  sings  a  bit 
for  church  services  and  plays 
for  his  own  amusement. 

As  a  parting  shot,  we  told  Mr. 
Krausser  about  the  man  who's 
job  it  is  to  separate  bald  heads 
and  starched  shirts. 

"That's  no  job,"  he  exclaimed, 
a  trifle  indignantly.  "There's  no 
future  in  it." 

Page  l9 


The  Burns  of  Allen 
Does  a  Rhumba 


With  George  Burns  learning  the 
Latin  branch  of  dancing  at  the 
point  of  Gracie  Allen's  finger,  and 
ably  assisted  by  Miss  Anita  Stone 
of  the  Arthur  Murray  Dancers, 
these  pictures  taken  exclusively 
for  Radio  Varieties  show  George 
as  the  best  rhumba  dancer  in  all 
Mexico.  Note  the  smile  of  pleasure 
and  contentment  in  Grade's  face 
(bottom  right)  as  George  goes  thru 
his  routines  with  Latin  blood  fairly 
oozing  thru  his  veins. 


yitm-    -^ 


iP'^Hijisa*' 


■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■II 


II 1 1 1 1 1 1  III  1 1 1 1 II 1 1  li  I 


MAKE  RS 

(Top  left)  Back  on  the  air, 
Ben  Bernie,  the  old  maestro, 
is  heard  as  conductor  of 
"Ben  Bernie's  Musical  Quiz" 
(Top  right)  A  native  of 
Mexico  and  a  favorite  of 
New  York  cafe  society, 
handsome  Ramon  Ramos  is 
capturing  the  dancers  of  the 
beautiful  Camellia  House  in 
the  Drake  Hotel  with  his 
sophisticated  music.  Listen 
in  at  11:30  p.  m.  over  CBS. 
(Bottom  left)  Wayne  King, 
favorite  of  millions,  is  spon- 
sored by  Colgate  over  WBBM 
each  Saturday  at  7:30  p.  m. 
(Bottom  right)  Featured  on 
Alec  Templeton's  show  on 
NBC  Ray  Noble  is  heard  at 
9:30  on   Fridays. 


mmm 


iiiiiiiiii 


WL5 

At  The  Fairs 


WLS,  Chicago,  regularly  sends  the 
famed  WLS  National  Bam  Dance  to 
Milwaukee,  Springfield  and  Indiana- 
polis as  the  opening  night  attraction 
for  the  annual  State  Fairs.  This  year 
they  played  their  ninth  opening  at 
Indiana,  shattering  all  past  records, 
also  played  the  Wisconsin  opening. 
The  opening  of  the  Illinois  fair  had  to 
be  skipped  this  year,  since  it  opened 
the  same  dory  as  Wisconsin.  However, 
WLS  stars  entertained  daily  in  the 
WLS-Prairie  Farmer  exhibit  tent  at  all 
three  expositions. 

Twelve  thousand  people  iammed 
the  new  Coliseum  at  the  Indiana  Fair 
(top)  to  see  the  WLS  National  Bam 
Dance.  AU  seats  were  sold,  and  nearly 
two  thousand  persons  stood  throught- 
out  the  4 '72  hour  broadcast. 

The  WLS  Rangers  and  Grace  Wislon 
(center  photo)  chat  before  boarding  the 
Milwaukee  Special.  Left  to  right  are 
Ozzie  Westley.  Grace  Wilson,  Clyde 
Moffett  and  Harry  Sims.  Note  the 
illuminated  sign  on  the  back  platform, 
identifying  the  troupe. 

WLS  chartered  special  trains  to  carry 
the  Hayloft  Gang  to  the  Milwaukee 
and  Indianapolis  Fairs.  (Bottom  photo) 
Here  are  Patsy  Montana  and  Pat  But- 
tram  being  checked  onto  the  train  for 
Milwaukee,  also  draw  their  expense 
allowances  from  WLS  Production 
Manager  Al  Boyd  (right).  Last  year. 
Patsy  claimed  she  didn't  get  her  ex- 
pense envelope.  Boyd  has  proof  she 
did  this  year. 

P.  S.  Patsy  didn't  get  it  last  year, 
until  several  hours  after  the  train 
pulled  out 


Pictured  here  in  the  upper  right  cor- 
ner is  part  of  the  Hayloft  Gang  that 
lined  up  on  the  stage  at  the  Indiana 
Fair  to  sing  the  opening  theme  for  the 
WLS  National  Bam  Dance. 

So  the  fairgroimds  audience  wouldn't 
have  to  sit  through  the  Alka-Seltzer 
network  hotir  of  the  WLS  National  Bam 
Dance  twice — once  when  it  was  done 
for  the  East  and  Mid-West  and  again 
when  repeated  for  the  Far  West,  WLS 
staged  a  one-hour  stage  show,  not 
broadcast,  giving  opportunity  for  a  lot 
of  horse  play  not  possible  on  the  air. 
One  of  the  stunts  was  shooting  465 
pomid  Otto  from  a  cannon.  (Top  photo) 
Pat  Buttram  drills  his  private  army: 
Left  to  right,  "Generalissimo"  Buttram; 
Salty  Holmes,  whose  uniorm  lacked 
suspenders  evidently;  Orrie  Hogsett 
(Joe  Rockhold);  Ramblin'  Red  Foley  and 
Otto  (Ted  Morse). 

While  the  major  portion  of  the  Bom 
Dance  cast  was  busy  at  the  Wisconsin 
State  Fair,  others  were  entertaining 
visitors  in  the  WLS-Prairie  Farmer  ex- 
hibit tent  at  the  Illinois  State  Fair  in 
Springfield.  The  Prairie  Sweethearts. 
Essie  and  Kay,  get  a  little  help  from 
Reggie  Cross,  of  the  Hoosier  Sod- 
busters  (center).  Note  the  baimer. 
WLS  and  its  parent  company,  Prairie 
Farmer,  America's  oldest  farm  paper, 
will  celebrate  its  100th  birthday  in 
January. 

The  Wisconsin  State  Fair  trip  gave 
Cowgirl  Patsy  Montana  (center  right) 
opportunity  to  renew  her  friendship 
with   Sponsor  Jim  Murphy's  horses. 

With  a  number  by  the  Prairie 
Ramblers  (lower  right)  scheduled  im- 
mediately after  Pat  Buttram's  army 
drill.  Salty  Holmes  had  no  time  to  re- 
cover his  pants  (and  shins).  The 
Ramblers  (left  to  right)  are  Jack  Taylor 
Chick  Hurt,  Salty  and  Alan  Crockett. 


The  Story  of  a  Ck>meback 

Continued  from  Page  13 
the  mid-section  thcrt  always  comes 
when  you   see   something  good. 
And  there's  not  a  bar  of  music  in 
it,  except  for  background. 

So  Dickie  boy  sewed  himself  a 
beautiful  little  patch  of  Hollywood 
clover  all  over  again  —  and  when 
those  two  pictures  are  released 
he'll  be  sitting  on  top  of  the  world. 
And  the  radio  lad  who  turned 
from  the  microphone  to  the  silver 
screen  —  hit  the  top  in  pictures, 
started  the  old  slide  down  and 
pulled  himself  up  by  his  own  boot 
straps,  is  back  with  us  again 
stronger  than  ever  doing  screen 
parts  with  plenty  of  punch,  and 
getting  top  billing  on  the  Maxwell 
House  Radio  Show. 

All  of  which  brings  up  an  in- 
teresting point  that  there's  really 
no  foundation  at  all  for  the  so- 
called  "feud"  between  radio  and 
the  movies.  They  complement 
each  other.  Radio  has  given 
many  stars  to  the  screen,  and  cer- 
tainly many  mxOvie  people  have 
made  your  radio  hours  a  lot  more 
entertaining.  For  years  Gene 
Autry  was  one  of  the  most  popu- 
lar air  personalities  in  America 
as  "The  Singing  Cowboy":  his 
fan  mail  topped  any  star  in  the 
business,  he  went  from  there  to 
pictiires  and  became  one  of  the 
movies'  highest-paid  stars  with- 
out ever  having  one  of  his  pictures 
showing  in  a  first-rim  Hollywood 
theater.  Radio  gave  Dottie  La- 
mour  to  the  screen.  All  she  learned 
about  singing  she  learned  while 
earning  $18  a  week  ob  a  sustain- 
ing warbler  for  NBC.  You  all 
know  the  case  of  Don  Ameche; 
and  where  would  Orson  Welles 
be  today  if  it  weren't  for  the  mi- 
crophone? Personally,  I  have  a 
tremendous  lot  of  respect  for  ra- 
dio people.  I  did  a  picture  re- 
'cently  called  "Cross  Country  Ro- 
mance" —  a  fast-moving,  very 
smart  little  comedy  with  Gene 
Raymond;  it  was  piloted  expertly 
by  Frank  Woodruff,  who  produced 
and  directed  your  Lux  Radio 
Theater  for  many  years. 

Yep  —  I  cut  my  teeth  on  the 
stage,  grew  up  in  pictures,  am 
spending  my  old  age  pleasantly 
hopping  from  my  daily  column, 
to  the  air,  to  the  movie  sets  — 
and  I  say,  as  long  as  it's  enter- 
tainment, it  belongs  —  whatever 
the  medium. 

Page  24 


Who  Are  the  Men 

Continued  from  Page  12 
is  George  Voutsas,  musically  in- 
clined Beau  Brummell  who  was 
born  in  Asia  Minor,  reared  in 
New  York  City  from  his  second 
year  on  and  trained  in  the  ways 
of  radio  broadcasting  by  none  less 
than  Dr.  Frank  Black,  general  mu- 
sical director  of  NBC. 

Voutsas  is  chiefly  known  in  the 
NBC  Central  Division  for  his  dis- 
covery of  Lillian  Cornell,  NBC 
contralto  who  is  now  in  Hollywood 
after  making  several  movie  ap- 
pearances in  Jack  Benny  and 
Bing  Crosby  pictures,  and  for  his 
further  discovery  of  the  Dinning 
Sisters,  jitterbug  trio  heard  on  the 
NBC  Breakfast  Club  and  Club 
Matinee  broadcasts  and  men- 
tioned by  many  music  critics  as 
runners-up  to  the  famed  Andrews 
Sisters. 

Voutsas  studied  music  under 
private  tutors  for  12'  years  and 
won  a  gold  medal  for  his  violin 
playing  in  competition  in  1928. 
He  was  considering  turning  pro- 
fessional when  he  suddenly  land- 
ed a  job  in  the  music  library  of 
the  newly-formed  National  Broad- 
casting Company.  He  remained 
in  the  music  library  for  loui  years, 
meeting  great  musicians,  artists 
and  personalities  who  helped 
mold  him  into  a  brilliant  research 
man,  capable  of  building  and  pro- 
ducing almost  any  type  of  musi- 
cal show.  In  the  last  of  his  four 
years  in  the  music  library,  he 
worked  with  Erno  Rapee,  Harold 
Sanford,  Cesare  Sodero  and  many 
others.  He  became  Dr.  Frank 
Black's  assistant  when  the  later 
came  to  NBC  and  remained  in 
that  post  until  Dr.  Black  insisted 
on  his  accepting  a  position  as  mu- 
sical director  in  the  NBC  Central 
Division. 

While  in  New  York,  Voutsas  as- 
sisted in  producing  and  writing 
such  shows  as  the  NBC  Sym- 
phony, String  Symphony,  Five 
Hours  Back,  the  Magic  Key  of 
RCA,  the  Pontiac  Program  and 
the  Sunday  General  Motors  con- 
certs. In  Chicago,  he  conducts  the 
NBC  Club  Matinee,  the  Roy  Shield 
Revue,  all  Chicago  City  Opera 
broadcasts  over  NBC  and  did  con- 
duct This  Amazing  America  at 
its  inception.  He  is  5'H"  tall, 
weighs  185  pounds,  has  dark 
brown  eyes,  black  hair  and  a 
serious  disposition. 


Music  in  a  Majestic  Manner 

Continued  from  Page  9 
azines  and  syndicates.  One  of 
the  reasons  for  its  popularity,  aside 
from  the  high  musical  quality  of 
the  program,  is  the  complete  ab- 
sence of  commercial  fan-fare. 

Programs  for  the  1940-41  season 
will  be  conducted  by  such  emi- 
nent conductors  as  Fritz  Reiner, 
Reginald  Stewart,  John  Barbirolli, 
Wilfred  Pelletier,  Eugene  Orman- 
dy,  Andre  Kostelanetz,  and  Victor 
Kolctr.  i 

The  list  of  guest  artists  to  be 
featured  each  week  reads  like  a 
musical  "Who's  Who."  Among 
the  guests  to  be  heard  are  Lily 
Pons,  soprano;  Richard  Crooks, 
tenor;  Jascha  Heifetz,  violinist; 
Grace  Moore,  soprano;  John 
Charles  Thomas,  baritone;  Jose 
Iturbi,  pianist;  Dorothy  Maynor, 
soprano;  Helen  Jepson,  soprano; 
Charles  Kullmonn,  tenor;  Lawr- 
ence Tibbett,  baritone;  and  Gladys 
Sworthout,  mezzo-soprano. 

Another  popular  feature  of  the 
Sunday  Evening  Hour  broadcasts 
are  the  talks  by  W.  J.  Cameron. 
Interest  in  these  talks,  which  cover 
subjects  of  current  interest,  has 
grown  to  such  an  extent  that  over 
50,000  printed  copies  are  mailed 
each  week  to  listeners  requesting 
them.  Printed  copies  of  the  pro- 
grams, with  brief  biographies  of 
the  artists  and  descriptions  of  the 
music  to  be  played,  also  are  sup- 
plied to  large  numbers  of  listen- 
ers who  write  in  for  them. 

In  1934  the  programs  first  started 
to  broadcast  from  Orchestra  Hall 
in  Detroit  which  has  a  capacity  of 
2,000  persons.  Two  years  later 
the  broadcasts  were  moved  to  a 
larger  auditorium  in  Detroit  and 
now  some  5,000  persons  attend 
every  week.  Each  Sunday  eve- 
ning the  hall  is  filled  to  capacity 
by  an  audience  of  enthusiastic 
people  who  appreciate  an  oppor- 
tunity to  hear  a  fine  musical  pre- 
sentation by  one  of  the  country's 
greatest  orchestras  and  famous 
concert  personalities  and  to  wit- 
ness a  major  broadcast. 

Evidencing  the  important  role 
played  by  the  Ford  Sunday  Eve- 
ning Hour  in  musical  education 
throughout  the  country  are  the 
many  letters  received  each  week 
from  educational  institutions  ancT 
from  individuals  who  use  the  pro- 
grams as  a  basis  for  instruction 
in  music  appreciation. 


RADIO    VARIETIES 


OCTOBER 


HERE'S  HOW  IT  ALL  STARTED 

Continued  from  Page  8 

can  countries,  old-fashioned  vaud- 
eville still  survives  in  its  purest 
form.  Because  of  the  censorship 
of  newspapers  and  their  small 
circulations,  current  events  are 
satirized  on  the  stages  between 
romantic  songs  and  dramatic 
skits.  Cuban  and  Mexican  thea- 
ters present  little  farces  based 
upon  domestic  politics,  with  the 
chief  actors  wearing  masks  to 
avoid  possible  prosecution  by  the 
authorities! 

Until  a  generation  or  two  ago, 
the  sketch  survived  as  the  one-act 
"curtain  raiser"  that  was  an  ob- 
ligatory appetizer  to  the  main  fare 
of  a  full  play,  like  the  preliminary 
boxing  matches.  This  was  true 
in  London  and  New  York. 

John  and  Maggie  Field,  Ameri- 
can vaudeville  headliners  of  1873, 
brought  the  dramatic  sketch  to 
this  country.  In  1896,  dramatic 
sketches  had  become  the  most 
popular  fare  of  "standard  vaude- 
ville" as  played  throughout  the 
country.  These  acts  formed  the 
backbone  of  vaudeville  up  to  its 
"death"  a  short  time  ago.  Most 
stars  of  the  legitimate  stage 
played  at  least  a  few  weeks  in 
dramatic  sketches  while  many  of 
them  played  a  whole  season 
throughout  the  country.  A  few 
of  the  great  "legit"  stars  who  were 
dramatic  sketch  headliners  were: 
Sarah  Bernhardt,  Ethel  and  Lionel 
Barrymore,  Arthur  Byron,  Florence 
Reed,  Irene  Rich,  Walter  Huston. 
Comedy  skits  were  the  vehicles 
of  such  people  as  the  Marx  Broth- 
ers! Weber  and  Fields;  W.  C. 
Fields;  Moss  and  Frye;  Jimmy 
Durante;  Victor  Moore,  and  many 
others. 

Radio  took  a  page  from  the  his- 
tory of  the  stage,  and  repopular- 
ized  the  dramatic  sketch,  hiring 
star  acting,  directing,  and  writing 
talent.  Eventually  many  vaude- 
ville artists  in  vaudeville's  hey- 
day carried  the  sketch  a  step 
further  by  introducing  sequels. 
Radio  carried  this  idea  on,  making 
the  sketch  a  daily  running  story. 

I  believe  that  when  television 
finally  arrives  in  all  its  glory,  the 
"dramatic  sketch"  with  all  the 
props  and  techniques  of  old-time 
vaudeville,  plus  new  radio  wrin- 
kles, will  hold  an  important  spot 
in  this  new  form  of  entertainment. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  OCTOBER 


Radio  is  rich  ia  beautihil  women  as  aay  oUier  branch  of  the  entertainment  industry  and 
at  the  heap  in  the  mattei  of  pulchritude  is  copper-haired  Marian  Shockley,  who  plays  the 
of  Nikld  Porter,  co-star  of  the  popular  mystery  "Adventures  of  EUery  Queen." 


right 
role 


Page  25 


I   MARRIED   A   SPORTSCASTER 


.^* 


BY  HARRIET  STERN, 
wiie  of  Bill  Stem  of  NBC 


I  am  a  stranger  to  the  radio 
audience  but  my  husband  is 
probably  better  known  by  you 
than  he  is  by  me  —  you  see,  he 
never  comes  home. 

When  we  were  first  married 
several  years  ago,  I  realized  that 
it  was  like  marrying  a  traveling 
salesman  who  was  always  travel- 
ing. But  I  never  thought  that  my 
only  look  at  my  husband  would 
be  either  in  the  early  morning 
or  very  late  at  night. 

Long  ago  I  gave  up  inviting 
people  over  for  dinner.  You  see, 
I  soon  ran  out  of  excuses  as  to 
why  Bill  was  late.  But  please  do 
not  misunderstand.     I  love  it!     It's 

Pdqe  26 


like  being  on  a  merry-go-round 
and  always  trying  for  the  brass 
ring! 

Bill  is  busy  morning,  noon  and 
night,  but  I,  at  least,  have  one 
advantage  over  other  wives.  All 
1  have  to  do  is  turn  on  the  radio 
and  I  know  at  once  where  my 
wandering  boy  is  tonight.  Nor 
am  I  amazed  any  longer  to  find 
him  on  one  coast  of  this  grand 
country  of  ours  one  night,  and 
on  the  air  the  next  night  from  the 
opposite  end. 

So  much  '  for  the"  complaint 
departMfent.  •  " 

You  say;  "Why  do  L  stand  it? 
Well  that's  easy  to  answer  —  1 


just  happen  to  love  the  guy.  But 
seriously,  it's  not  entirely  as  bad 
as  I've  painted  it.  True,  Bill  does 
work  seven  days  a  week,  fifty- 
two  weeks  a  year.  But  his  work 
is  so  interesting  that  even  I,  who 
knew  nothing  about  sports  a  few 
years  back,  am  now  all  wrapped 
up  in  Joe  DiMaggio,  Joe  Louis, 
etc.  To  me  they've  become  real 
people  instead  of  imaginary  per- 
sons one  might  read  about. 

Bill  is  always  dropping  in  with 
some  celebrity  and  casually  say- 
ing: "Honey,  I  want  you  to  meet 
Alfred  Gwynne  Vanderbilt  or 
Alice  Marble,"  depending  on 
which  sport  he's  describing  that 
day.  I  like  it,  and  I  think  all 
women  would,  too.  Then,  too, 
you  should  hear  all  the  gossip  I 
hear  about  famous  people  —  it's 
wonderful.  Sometimes  I  think 
Bill  makes  some  of  it  up  just  to 
amuse  me  —  but  it's  still  interest- 
ing and  I  never  let  on  that  I  know 
the  difference. 

Bill's  average  week  is  like  sorrie- 
one  auditioning  for  a  nervous 
breakdown.  Each  morning  he's 
down  at  NBC  by  9:30,  getting  his 
daily  show  ready;  that  is,  Mon- 
days through  Fridays.  On  Satur- 
days he  has  usually  a  football 
game,  track  meet  or  something 
else  in  the  afternoon. 

All  week  long  he  is  watching 
to  see  that  NBC  covers  the  right 
sports  event,  and  making  plans 
and  arrangements  for  his  broad- 
casts not  to  mention  writing  his 
material.  In  the  evenings  all  he 
has  are  two  M-G-M  newsreels 
("News  of  the  Day")  to  make  a 
week  which  start  at  9:00  in  the 
evening  and  run  through  until 
3:00  the  next  morning.  They  are 
made  on  Mondays  and  Wednes- 
days. 

Hardly  a  week  goes  by  that  he 
doesn't  work  with  Sam  Taub  on 
the  fight  broadcasts  and  Sunday 
evenings  are  filled  with  the  Bill 
Stern-Sports  broadcasts.  (8:45  p.  m. 
CDST,  NBC-Blue).  There  are  two 
of  them  you  know,  the  second  one 
is  heard  out  West. 

Sounds  terrible,  doesn't  it?  But 
it  isn't.  It's  fun  —  fun  for  him  or 
he  wouldn't  be  doing  it,  and  as 
for  me  —  well,  I  guess  I  kind  of 
like  it,  too. 


RADIO    VARIETIES 


OCTOBER 


WDZ   S     SALES     LADIES 


By  H.   Johnston 

Pictured  from  left  to  right,  little 
Joy  Hull,  her  mother  Mrs.  Clair  B. 
Hull,  and  baby  Niki.  This  charm- 
ing group  represents  WDZ's  fe- 
male announcing  staff,  and  what 
a  job  they're  doing! 

Joy,  age  six,  is  very  serious  and 
practical  minded.  Baby  Niki,  age 
two,  a  little  scatter  brained,  mis- 
chievous and  naughty,  says 
Mother.     Mothers  are  that  way. 

The  trio  carries  a  half-hour  mid- 
afternoon  program  and  their  mail 
pull  is  the  envy  of  every  WDZ 
artist.  Their  popularity  with  our 
listeners,  proves  that  the  home  is 
without  doubt,  still  America's 
number  one  institution.  Broad- 
cast from  the  dining  room  of  their 
home  by  remote  control,  theirs  is 
strictly  an  informal  program  in 
which  lovable  personalities  reign 
supreme. 

In  a  few  days,  Joy  informs  me 
they  will  be  starting  a  new  con- 
test. "Mother  is  going  to  give  the 
commercial  on  Velvitize  (a  hair 
remover),    Niki    is    going    to    sell 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  OCTOBER 


baby  shampoo,  and  I  am  going 
to  advertize  a  beautiful  blond 
make-up  kit,  she  said.  I  ask 
her  who  she  thought  would  sell 
the  most.  Her  reply  was,  "Well, 
1  can  beat  Mother.. .but  Niki's 
pretty  good." 

What  won't  the  next  generation 
be? 

To  listen  to  them  is  to  love  them. 

Sponsored  by  Schultz  &   Co. 

NUTTY    NEWCOMER 

"Lespedesa",  greener  than  the 
grass  for  which  he  is  named,  is 
featured  with  the  Tennessee 
Valley  boys  over  WDZ  every 
week  day  afternoon  at  12:15. 

Lespedesa,  or  Joe  Forrester,  has 
appeared  over  the  Grand  Ole 
Opry  at  WSM,  Nashville.  Then 
he  joined  the  KVOO  Saddle 
Mountain  Round-up  in  Tulsa, 
Okla.  Slow  talking,  a  born  come- 
dian, Lespedesa  is  already  a 
favorite  with  the  WDZ  staff  and 
audience.  The  picture  shows 
Lespedesa  stirring  up  a  panic  on 
the  KVOO  Saddle  Mountain 
Round-Up. 


"WDZ    GETS    NEW 
SPORTS  CASTER" 

Recently  acquired  by  WDZ  to 
take  over  the  sports  job  on  the 
station  is  Jack  Peterson.  Comely 
fellow,  this  Peterson.  When  ap- 
proached by  our  reporter  regard- 
ing his  personality.  Jack  replied, 
"Peculiar,  not  nice;  in  fact  an 
ugly  personality  at  first  impres- 
sion, but  not  bad  if  approached  in 
the  proper  way."  Jack's  person- 
ality is  really  tops.  He  was 
picked  for  our  sportscasting  job 
out  of  243  applicants  and  audi- 
tions. 

Interested  in  sports  always...  as 
a  youngster  lived  near  Wrigley 
Field  in  Chicago  and  averaged 
some  30  to  40  games  a  season. 
In  school  took  active  part  in  foot- 
ball, basketball,  and  track.  Has 
served  the  past  six  years  as 
sports  editor  of  the  Daily  Times 
Press  in  Streator,  Illinois,  and 
more  recently  with  the  Pontiac 
Daily  Leader  in  the  same  capa- 
city. 

Page-  27 


Ah-Ah-Ah,   DON'T  TOUCH  THAT   DIAL, 

LISTEN  TO 


The  high  rating  of  the 
show  is  not  the  only  cri- 
terion of  its  popularity,  for 
recently  "Blondie"  was 
voted  the  best  comedy 
serial  on  the  air  by  1200 
drama  students  of  Los  An- 
geles City  College.  Final 
proof  is  that,  after  four 
months,  "Blondie"  had  to 
give  up  her  plan  to  an- 
swer requests  for  auto- 
graphs with  pennies — she 
was  getting  2000  requests 
a  week. 


Arthur   Lake 


Penny    Singleton 


A  year  ago  when  radio  enter- 
tainment was  studded  with  spec- 
tacular guest  stars,  sensational 
piemises  and  lavish  expenditures 
Camel  Cigarettes  diverted  from 
convention  to  launch  the  "Blon- 
die" show,  based  on  three  words: 
"keep  it  simple."  The  formula  of 
the  "Blondie"  program  has  never 
swerved    from    that    brief    theme. 

According  to  Ashmead  Scott, 
who  writes  and  directs  the  "Blon- 
die" airing,  the  "Blondie"  shows 
are  really  just  a  compendium  of 
people  he's  met  or  seen,  or  of 
stories  about  people  which  his 
friends  have  told  him. 

"Everything  that  happens  on 
'Blondie'  is  really  picked  from  life. 
On  the  bus,  in  the  theater,  at  the 
grocery,  at  graduation  exercises 
—  I'll  note  little  things  that  people 
do  and  say,  —  mannerisms  — 
vocabulary    —    and    from    these 

Page  28 


come  the  'Blondie'  scripts.  Some 
of  the  incidents  come  from  ob- 
servations of  people  in  Eastern 
cities  —  some  from  villages  in 
New  England,  or  Mid-western 
towns. 

"There's  probably  always  some- 
thing on  the  broadcast  which  re- 
minds you  of  your  Aunt  Minnie  or 
even  yourself.  And  for  all  you 
know,  we  may  actually  be  por- 
traying you  or  Aunt  Minnie," 
Scott  goes  on  to  explain. 

Penny  Singleton  and  Arthur 
Lake,  stars  of  the  program,  are 
real  life  prototypes  of  Blondie  and 
Dogwood. 

Penny  is  just  as  pert  and  viva- 
cious as  the  Blondie  she  portrays. 
And  just  as  domestic.  She  cooks 
and  sews  and  invents  amazing 
household  gadgets,  such  as  de- 
vices to  remove  tightly  stuck  jar 
caps.     They  work  too.  Like  Blon- 


die, Penny  is  generous  almost  to 
a  fault.  Out  of  her  radio  earnings 
she  has  established  her  mother 
and  father  in  a  beautiful  home  in 
Son  Fernando  Valley.  But  like 
Blondie,  too,  she's  wise  about  fi- 
nances. Penny  has  established 
a  substantial  trust  fund  for  her 
five-year-old  daughter,  DeeGee 
and  made  arrangements  for  the 
proverbial  rainy  day,  even  though 
it  seems  far  distant. 

As  for  Arthur  Lake  —  he's  very 
apt  to  trip  over  his  own  shoe-laces. 
He  spills  coffee  at  buffet  suppers 
and  adores  gigantic  sandwiches. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  favorite 
story  his  own  mother,  Mrs.  Edith 
Lake,  loves  to  tell  on  Arthur  shows 
his  early  proclivities  toward  Dag- 
wood-like  faux  pas.  Mrs.  Lake 
was  touring  in  stock  in  Georgia 
and  she  had  Arthur  and  his  sis- 
ter   Florence    with    her.      Came 

RADIO    VARIETIES   —   OCTOBER 


Christmas  Day  and  the  Lake 
pocketbook  was  not  exactly  bulg- 
ing. ^;put  the  three  of  them  de- 
cided'** to  splurge  on  something 
very  gala  for  the  holiday.  Being 
in  Georgia,  they  bought  a  luscious 
strawberry  shortcake,  heaped 
high  with  whipped  cream  and 
enormous  berries.  At  the  ap- 
pointed hour  on  Christmas  Day, 
Arthur  lifted  the  cake  in  a  grand  j 
manner  and  followed  by  sister 
Florence  started  to  carry  it  in 
to  present  to  his  mother.  Singing 
and  laughing  t  h  e  little  duo 
marched  proudly  forward  until  — 
Arthur  stumbled  and  ended  up 
lace  forward  through  the  whipped 
::ream  and  berries  in  the  approved 
custard  pie  manner. 

It's  no  wonder  the  Hollywood 
post  office  has  had  to  install  a 
private  box  for  Arthur  since  80 
percent  of  his  mail  is  addressed 
to    'Dogwood  Bumstead." 

No,,cast  ever  enjoyed  "doing  a 
show"  more  than  the  "Blondie" 
crew.  Penny  and  Arthur  clown 
until  time  to  actual  dress  rehear- 
sal.   Then  all  is  seriousness.    The 

dress  rehearsal  is  put  on  wax.  penny  Sirgleton,  plays  the  part  o 
Then  the  entire  troupe  sits  down  Arthur  Lake,  plays  the  ro!e  of  D 
at  a  long  table  in  the  studio  with 
Ashmead  Scott,  and  the  record  is 
played  for  them. 

A  very  careful  study  is  made  of 
every  line  and  the  timing  of  the 
speeches.  A  round-table  confer- 
ence follows  in  which  constructive 
criiirisms  are  made  with  the  play- 
er'3  often  their  severest  critics.  The 
cast  watch  carefully  for  any  diver- 
sions from  character.  When 
"Daisy"  is  written  into  the  script, 
the  pooch  and  her  trainer  stay 
close  together,  listening,  too. 
Scott  makes  no  substitutions  for 
Daisy.  The  dog  barks  his  own 
lines  —  on  cue  from  the  trainer. 
The  puppy  even  has  a  varied 
repertoire  of  barks,  controlled  by 
the  signs  from  the  trainer. 

When  Penny  and  Arthur  are  in 
production  on  one  of  the  "Blon- 
die" picture  series,  the  schedule 
gets  pretty  neavy,  with  the  two 
stars  setting  their  alarms  for  4  a.m. 
to  start  picture  work  literally  at 
the  crack  of  dawn.  They  leave 
the  set  for  early  rehearsals  of  the 
broadcast,  grab  lunch,  report  for 
the  final  "polishing"  radio  rehear- 
sal at  1  p.m.  They  usually  put  in 
a  15-hour  day  on  the  Mondays  of 
the  airshow. 


Elondie. 
agwood 


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4  '  ?l^ 

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WS 

M    ^ 

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h^ 

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V    : 

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JStM 

k\ 

Blondie,     Dagwood,     Baby     Dum,:rng   and 
Daisy  the  dcg. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  OCTOBER 


To  Dick  Marvin  of  the  William 

Esty   Advertising   Company   goes 

'^^M    ^^-®  credit  for  dramatizing  a  comic 

strip     that     appeals     to     adults. 

Previous   to   the    "Blondie"    show, 

funny  paper  programs  had  been 

'    intended      for      child      audiences 

;    alone,  but  the  domestic  situations 

■    of  the  Bumsteads  have  been  uni- 

I    verpai  in  their  appeal.     The  light 

i    homespun  yarns  have  proved  the 

sponsoi's   theory   of   simplicity   in 

radio. 


The  show  has  faced  some  tough 
situations  since  its  inception. 
Twice  the  broadcasts  were  staged 
from  the  hospital  —  once  when 
Arthur  Lake  was  forced  to  the 
operotjng  table  for  a  tonsilectomy 
and  again  when  Penny  was  in- 
jured in  an  automobile  accident. 
The  hospital  attendants  shook 
their  heads  mournfully  over  Pen- 
ay  s  severely  lacerated  leg.  Her 
condition  would  not  permit  having 
the  rest  of  the  cast  come  to  the 
hospital.  So  a  triple  hook-up  was 
installed.  One  line  carried  eve- 
rything Penny  said  directly  to  the 
studio  where  the  cast  listened  to 
her  cues  through  earphones.  The 
other  carried  what  was  said  at 
the  broadcasting  station  directly 
to  Penny's  earphones.  The  third 
line  was  simply  a  telephone  hook- 
up so  that  the  engineers  at  both 
places  could  talk  to  each  other, 
if  necessary.  Despite  the  serious- 
nes.'^  of  her  accident,  Penny  and 
"Blondie"  didn't  miss  a  broad- 
cast. 

Situations  like  those  only  serve 
to  stimulate  the  ingenuity  of  reai 
troupers.  And  the  "Blondie"  casi 
is  composed  of  just  that.  Penn^ 
and  Arthur  were  practically  bci 
in  the  proverbial  theater  trunks. 
And  Ashmead  Scott  still  maintains 
his  own  stock  company,  the  "Mt. 
Gretna  Players"  in  the  East. 

There  have  been  four  weddings 
since  the  opening  of  the  "Blondie" 
program.  Joe  Donahue,  who  for- 
merly represented  Esty  Co.  on  the 
coast,  and  Mary  Eastman;  Leone 
LeDoux,  actress,  and  Ted  Carter; 
hanley  "Mr.  Dithers"  Stafford  and 
Vyola  Vonn;  and  Scott  and  "Tig" 
Turner,    actress. 

It's  quite  evident  that  the  "keep 
it  simple"  policy  has  won  — ■  for 
the  audience  —  the  cast  —  and 
the  sponsor. 

Page  2? 


MUmWiijHBiliAi'fllitJE^ 


Third  Role  and  Going  Strong 


L 


Betty  Lou  Gerson,  one  of  the  leading  players  in  the  NBC  Chicago 
studios,  has  added  a  new  laurel  to  her  growing  list  of  triumphs  by 
winning  the  title  role  in  the  widely-popular  serial,  "Story  of  Mary 
Marlln",  heard  daily  over  the  NBC-Blue  Network.  She  also  has  the 
leads   in  "Midstream"  and  "Arnold  Grimm's   Daughter." 


(Top)  The  Yodeling  De  Zurik  Sistere  left  WLS 
for  Hollywood  to  appear  in  Republic  movie  "Barn- 
yard   Follieo." 

(Bottom)  The  Natonal  Barn  D&nce  celebrated 
its  seventh  anniversary,  so  members  of  the  cast  in 
the  garb  of  seven-year-olds  gather  for  the  festivities. 
Among  them  are  Pat,  Ann  and  Judy,  and  (bottom) 
Eddie    Peabody,    banjo   luminary. 


A  V  A  L  0  N 
SHOWBOAT 

EACH    MONDAY 

8:30  P.  M.  CST 

NBC   Red    Network 

STARRING 

DICK  TODD— VIRGINIA 

VERRILL— CAPT.   BARNEY 

BEULAH    (MARLIN    HURT) 

BOB   STRONG'S  ORCHESTRA 

BOB   TRENDLER'S   ORCHESTRA 


UNCLE  WALTER'S 
DOGHOUSE 

EACH  TUESDAY 

9:30  P.M.  CST 

NBC   Red   Network 

STARRING 

TOM    WALLACE    AS    UNCLE 

WALTER— BOB   STRONG'S 

ORCHESTRA— VIRGINIA 

VERRILL— DOGHOUSECHORUS 


PLANTATION 
PARTY 

EACH  WEDNESDAY 

7:30  P.M.  CST 
NBC   Red    Network 

STARRING 
LOUISE    MASSEY    AND    THE 

WESTERNERS— WHITNEY 

FORD— MICHAEL  STEWART 

DORING  SISTERS 

TOM,    DICK   AND   HARRY 


Page  30 


RADIO    VARIEnES   —   OCTOBER 


Horace  Heidt  and  his  wife  arrived  in 
Hollywood  by  plane,  where  Heidt  and 
his  orchestra  are  making  a  picture 
based  on  his  "Pot  of  Gold"  program. 


An  expert  at  playing  sister  roles,  bonnie  Bonita  Kay  owes  her 
technique  to  an  aunt's  observation.  "Brothers  and  sisters  may 
fight,"  says  Auntie,  "but  at  heart  they're  proud  of  the  relationship." 
That's  what  is  behind  Bonita's  playing  on  the  NBC  serials,  "Bud 
Barton",  and  "Arnold  Grimm's  Daughter." 


3tCC-PIPER   CUB   AIRPLANE- Jlt£C 


LISTEN        TO 


// 


WINGS   OF    DESTINY" 


AND 

LEARN  HOW  TO  WIN  AN  AIRPLANE  ABSOLUTELY  FREE 

EVERY    FRIDAY    NITE    AT 
7:30  P.   M.  —   NBC    RED    NETWORK 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  OCTOBER 


Page  31 


STARS  from  WLS, 
^        ^        ^ 

TJADIO  stars  from  WLS.  Chicago,  are  famous  through- 
out the  nation.  When  you're  in  Chicago,  visit  the 
WLS  National  Bam  Dance  broadcast.  And  when 
you're  at  home,  listen  to  WLS,  to  the  Barn  Dance  and 
all  the  everyday  programs  that  feature  these  same 
Barn  Dance  stars.  For  greater  enjoyment  of  your  ra- 
dio, tune  to  WLS.  Chicago  —  on  870  kilocycles. 


Right:  WLS  Rangers.  Below  left:  Harriet  Hester,  who  con- 
ducts "School  Time"  and  "Homemakers'  Hour";  right:  the  Wil- 
liams Brothers.  Bottom:  12,000  people  saw  the  WLS  National 
Barn    Dance   at   the    Indiana   State    Fair. 

*        *        * 


CHICAGO 


iVEMBER  1940 


TEN  CENTS 


v^ 


^W-v 


^ 


y: 


CHUCK  ACREE  of  WLS,  CHICAGO 


S^.' 


■iWOi.ntp.^//-' 


<^., 


i 


PATTER   OFF   THE   PLATTER 


gIG  NEWS  of  the  month  in  record 
circles  is  the  barrage  of  re-is- 
sues unleashed  by  Columbia.  Jazz 
collectors  ore  in  for  the  time  of 
their  lives  with  the  large  store 
of  classics  in  tempo  now  available 
at  bargain-basement  rates.  The 
traffic  in  original  issues  stands  to 
lose  much  of  its  money  value,  as 
the  result  of  the  Columbia  blitz- 
krieg on  hard  to  get  issues. 

George  Avakian,  Yale's  erudite 
swing  critic,  and  John  Hammond, 
probably  the  best  known  authority 
on  jazz  in  the  covmtry,  dug  through 
musty  matrice  files  in  the  cellar  of 
Columbia's  Bridgeport  plant  for 
hitherto  unreleased  items  by  such 
names  as  Fletcher  Henderson, 
Louis  Armstrong,  Bessie  Smith, 
Bix  Beiderbecke,  Red  Norvo,  Red 
Allen,  Don  Redman  and  others. 

The  first  release  consisted  of 
four  albums  and  15  singles,  with 
plenty  of  interesting  jazz  emerging 
from  the  62  sides.  We  especially 
liked  the  Fletcher  Henderson  al- 
bum. "Hop  Off,"  resurrected  from 
a  dusty  bin,  proves  one  of  the 
greatest  Fletcher  items  in  years. 
Recorded  in  November,  1927,  it 
has  Bobby  Stark  on  trumpet;  Cole- 
man Hawkins,  tenor;  Jimmy  Har- 
rison, trombone;  Carmello  Jejo, 
clarinet  and  Joe  Smith  on  comet. 
Other  swell  Henderson  sides  in 
the  collection  are  "Sugar  Foot 
Stomp",  "Money  Blues,  Stam- 
pede" and  "New  King  Porter 
Stomp." 

Of  the  single  records,  you'll  like 
Duke  Ellington's  "Ducky  Wucky" 
and  "Swing  Low,"  Buster  Bailey's 
"Call  of  the  Delta"  and  "Shanghai 
Shuffle"  and  Red  Norvo  playing 
"I  Surrender  Dear"  plus  "Old- 
Fashioned  Love." 

Chuck  Foster's  popular  Chicago 
band  has  just  begun  to  record  for 
Okeh.  First  four  sides  are  "All 
I  Desire,"  "Sleepy  Time  Gal," 
"Spring  Fever"  and  "Oh,  You 
Beautiful  Doll."  The  outfit  leans 
heavily  on  the  sweet  side  and 
provides  good,  listenable  and 
danceable  waxings. 

We  don't  understand  why  the 
Quintones  haven't  made  more  of 
a  splash  on  the  waxworks.  They 
are  surely  one  of  the  finest  swing 
vocal  groups  in  the  coiintry.  Per- 
sonnel: Four  boys  and  a  girl  with 
the  tone  and  rhythmic  ideas  which 

Page  2 


has  made  the  critics  and  radio 
audience  sit  up  and  take  notice. 
Hear  their  Okeh  record  of  "Fool 
That  I  Am"  for  proof  of  their 
clean-cut  superiority  in  the  choral 
field. 

This  might  be  a  good  time  to 
call  attention  to  a  Paul  Whiteman 
albimi  of  Decca  records  that 
should  be  in  most  libraries.  It's 
called  "Manhattan"  and  com- 
prises some  of  Louis  Alter' s  finest 
compositions  on  the  teeming  life 
of  the  big  city.  Whiteman  does  a 
thorough,  musicianly  job  on  all 
counts  and  the  net  results  are  dis- 
tinctly worth-while.  Incidentally, 
by  the  time  this  column  appears 
decision  should  have  been  made 
on  the  new  commercial  Paul, 
Andre  Kostelanetz  and  Don  Voor- 
hees  are  currently  competing  for. 
At  this  point  it  looks  like  a  dead- 
heat,  for  all  bands  have  been 
asked  to  make  another  audition. 

Columbia's  Barry  Wood,  star  of 
the  "Hit  Parade,"  has  recorded 
Raymond  Scott's  clever  "Huckle- 
berry Duck"  with  Ray's  brother, 
Mark  Warnow,  supplying  the  mus- 
ical backing.  Barry  does  a  swell 
job  on  the  lyrics  which  Jack  Law- 


rence set  to  the  tough  melody. 
This  is  the  tune  that  most  bands 
decline  politely  —  to  save  the  rep- 
utation of  their  sax  sections. 

Lanny  Ross  makes  his  entrance 
into  the  record  field  with  "Moon- 
light and  Roses."  Lanny's  pleas- 
ant voice  has  been  a  favorite  on 
the  air  for  years  and  he  is  a 
notable  addition  to  recording 
ranks.  Another  new  name  on  the 
labels  is  Claude  Thornhill,  for- 
merly Maxine  Sullivan's  pianist- 
arranger.  Thornhill  has  a  band 
which  includes  two  clarinets  and 
four  saxophones  for  unusual  reed 
effects.  Rhythm  and  arrange- 
ments are  excellent.  Catch  his 
discing  of  "Bad-Humor  Man"  from 
Kay  Kayser's  new  picture,  "You'll 
Find  Out." 

Other  discs:  Fair,  and  only  fair, 
is  Ziggy  Elman  trumpeting  "Bye 
'n  Bye"  and  "Deep  Night."  Lar- 
ry Clinton  comes  through  with 
a  good  pairing  for  dancing  — 
"Dancing  on  a  Dime,"  "I  Hear 
Music."  Duke  Ellington's  "Five 
O'clock  Whistle"  and  "There 
Shall  Be  No  Night"  are  up  to  the 
usual  incomparable  Ellington 
standards. 


RADIO    VARIETIES 


No.  3  Volume  1 1 


NOVEMBER  1940 


Patter  off  the  Platter 

Wanted-Experience 

Fifty   Years    With    Henry  Burr 

Light  of  the  World 

A  Folksome  Twosome 

I'm  a  Hollywood  Farmer   (by  Bob  Bums) 

Radio's  Super  Salesmen 

The  WDZ  Screw  Ball  Club 

They'll  Make   You  Laugh! 

Join  The  Light  Crust  Dough  Boys 

From  Stage  Boards  to  Bread   Boards! 

Jane  Alden,    Fashion  Stylist 

Quachita  Roundup 


Page  2 

3 

5 

6 

7 

8&9 

10 

11 

12&13 

16  &17 

18&19 

20 

21 


F.  L.  ROSENTHAL,  Publisher 


WILTON  ROSENTHAL,  £di/or 


Published  at  1056  West  Van  Buren  Street,  Chicago,  Illinois.  F.  L.  Rosenthal,  Publisher. 
New  York  Office:  485  Madison  Avenue,  Hollywood  Office;  3532  Sunset  Boulevard. 
Published  Monthly.  Single  Copies,  ten  cents.  Subscription  rate  $1.00  per  year  in  the 
United  States  and  Possessions,  Sl.SO  in  Canada.  Entered  as  second  class  matter  January 
10,  1940,  at  the  post  office  at  Chicago,  Illinois,  under  the  act  of  March  3,  1879.  Every 
effort  will  be  made  to  return  unused  manuscripts,  photographs,  and  drawings  (if  accom- 
panied by  sufficient  first-class  postage  and  name  and  address),  but  we  will  not  be 
responsible  for  any  losses  for  such  matter  contributed.  The  publishers  assume  no 
responsibility  for  statements  made  herein  by  contributors  and  correspondents,  nor  does 
publication  indicate  approval   thereof. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  NOVEMBER 


Wanted— Experience 

By  BOB  TROUT 
CBS'    newscaster    and 
presidential  announcer 

Newscaster  Bob  Trout  was  a  fic- 
tion writer  who  took  a  brief  stab 
at  radio  ...  for  the  experience. 
Now  he  tells  you  the  experiences 
he's  had  in  nine  years  of  radio 
reporting. 


You  might  think  that  writing 
adventure  fiction  is  a  long  way 
from  reporting  the  world's  news 
through  a  microphone.  I  used  to 
think  so.     I   don't  any  more. 

Writing  stories  packed  with  ac- 
tion was  what  I  was  trying  to  do 
nine  years  ago  when  I  fell  into 
radio.  The  first  few  days  behind 
a  microphone  seemed  to  me  like 
good  experience  on  which  to  base 
more  stories.  Maybe  some  editor, 
somewhere,  in  an  unaccustomed 
happy  frame  of  mind,  caught  off 
guard,  might  even  buy  one  some 
day.  The  first  few  months  still 
seemed  like  good  experience. 
The  first  few  years  ditto.  I'm 
still  getting  experience. 

Microphones  and  I  first  became 
acquainted  when  I  was  just  twen- 
ty-two years  old.  1  think  that's 
how  old  I  was.  Radio  executives, 
who  ore  always  where  micro- 
phones are,  at  various  times 
changed  my  age  in  an  attempt  to 
make  me  look  older  until  I  am 
no  longer  sure  just  how  old  I  am. 
My  insurance  agent  still  writes 
me  indignant  letters,  full  of  un- 
interesting statistics  about  the  re- 
lationship of  ages  to  premiums. 
The  radio  executives  made  me 
grow  a  moustache,  too,  to  look 
older.  Recently,  I  met  one  of 
these  executives  from  the  past. 
He  said:  "You  can  shave  the 
moustache  off  now.  You  look  old 
enough,  at  last."  But  now  I've 
got  used  to  the  darn  thing. 

All  this  started  when  I  stumbled 
into  the  radio  business  in  a  little 
Virginia  city  near  Washington, 
D.C.  —  after  several  active  years 
spent  in  such  strange  occupations 
as  collecting  debts  (no,  I  never 
DID  collect  any)  for  a  firm  that 
was  supposed  to  collect  debts, 
putting  gasoline  into  automobile 

RADIO  VARIETIES  r-  NOVEMBER 


tanks  and  wiping  off  windshields, 
delivering  messages  for  a  bank- 
ing firm,  driving  a  taxicab,  acting 
as  a  laboratory  assistant  (or, 
rather,  standing  around  and  try- 
ing to  act  as  I  thought  a  labora- 
tory assistant  should  act),  and  best 
of  all,  working  on  a  merchant 
vessel  in  the  North  Atlantic.  You 
see,  I  did  want  to  be  a  writer.  And 
I  thought  that  first  I  needed  ex- 
perience.    Of   course,    you   may 


Bob  Trout 

think  that  the  search  for  experi- 
ence was  just  cm  excuse,  and  I 
really  did  such  things  as  sign  on 
an  oceangoing  vessel  just  for 
the  fun  of  it.  And  maybe  you 
are  right. 

In  the  intervals  between  these 
jobs,  I  pounded  a  typewriter,  to 
the  great  vmconcern  of  practical- 
ly every  edi-tor  in  the  United  States 
and  its  territorial  possessions.  In- 
cluding the  Canal  Zone.  I  still 
firmly  believe  that  if  I  had  kept 
steadfastly  pounding  my  type- 
writer until  the  year  1940  I  would 
now  be  earning  my  living  by  writ- 
ing fiction  for  the  nation's  big 
magazines.    Some  day  I  still  wont 


to  try  it  —  seriously.  But  back 
in  1931,  a  microphone  sneaked  up 
and  bit  me  in  the  back.  The  bite 
of  a  microphone  is  as  far-reach- 
ing in  its  effects  as  the  sting  of 
the  love  bug.  Sometimes  it's 
even  more  permanent. 

This  typewriter  pounding  oc- 
curred largely  in  New  York's 
Greenwich  Village.  That,  too, 
seemed  like  the  right  thing  to  do 
at  the  time.  Then,  one  snowy  day, 
I  caught  something  which  might 
have  been  a  bad  cold  and  might 
have  been  pneumonia.  I  decided 
it  was  pneumonia.  That  sounds 
like  a  good  sensible  reason  to 
leave  the  snow  behind  and  go 
south.  Virginia  was  where  it  all 
happened. 

A  radio  studio  seemed  to  me  to 
offer  good  possibilities  as  the  lo- 
cale around  which  to  plot  a  story. 
So  I  decided  to  see  one.  That 
was  WJSV,  Mount  Vernon  Hills, 
Virginia.  At  least  once  every 
month,  these  days,  sometimes 
several  times  a  week,  I  broadcast 
news  over  CBS  from  the  studios 
of  WJSV.  But  it  is  not  Mount 
Vernon  Hills  any  more.  Now  it 
is  CBS'  50  thousand  watt  key 
station  for  the  nation's  capital, 
Washington,  D.C. 

In  1931,  WJSV's  program  direc- 
tor convinced  me,  on  that  evening 
I  visited  his  station,  that  the  big 
money  was  quicker  —  and  big- 
ger —  in  radio  than  in  the  maga- 
zines. At  least,  I  agreed  mental- 
ly, in  the  magazines  which  were 
not  buying  my  stories.  Unani- 
mously. 

After  about  two  weeks  of  writ- 
ing radio  plays,  news,  comedy 
sketches  and  other  imdying  liter- 
ature of  a  similar  type  for  the 
local  station,  I  counted  up  my 
earnings.  This  took  a  remarkably 
short  time.  So  far  I  had  enjoyed 
a  gross  income  of  zero  dollars 
and  zero  cents.  My  net  income 
was  no  better.     I  resigned. 

But  in  my  second  and  final 
week  as  a  script  writer  my  fate 
had  caught  up  with  me.  At  the 
time,  I  didn't  realize  it  at  all.  One 
evening  at  six  o'clock,  the  repor- 
ter from  the  Alexandria,  Va., 
Daily  Gazette,  oldest  daily  news- 
paper in  the  United  States,  had 
not  appeared  for  his  news  pro- 
gram. There  was  a  copy  of  that 
afternoon's  Gazette  in  the  studio. 


(Continued  on  page  4i) 


Page  3 


Radio's  New  Portia 


WANTED  -  EXPERIENCE  by  Bob  Trout 

(Continued  from  page  3) 


U 


Lucille  Wall  Is  heard  in  the  title 
role  of  Portia  Blake,  in  the  new 
dramatic  serial  "Portia  Faces  Life" 
over  CBS  at  3  p.  m.  CST  Monday  thru 
Friday,  it  is  the  story  of  a  courageous 
woman  attorney  who  battles  the  for- 
ces of  crime,  injustice  and  civic  cor- 
ruption in  a  small  American  city. 
When  Miss  Wall  made  her  first  micro- 
phone bow  in  1927,  the  then  teen- 
aged  girl  was  literally  catapulted  to 
stardom  after  a  performance  as  lead- 
ing lady  for  Fredric  March.  Since 
then,  the  charming  young  "veteran" 
of  over  500  roles,  has  appeared  in 
almost  every  type  of  drama. 

Portia's  ten-year-old  son  will  be 
played  by  Raymond  Ives,  wellknown 
child  actor  who  began  his  dramatic 
career  at  the  age  of  seven  by  joining 
a  Shakespearean  Repertory  Company 
for  a  three-year-run. 

Young  Myron  McCormick  of  film, 
stage  and  radio  fame  has  been  re- 
cruited to  portray  the  fighting  editor 
of  Portia's  town  who  is  also  the 
"heart  interest"  of  the  story. 

Political  bosses,  respected  citizens 
and  the  city  judge  —  all  of  Portia's 
town,  Parkerstown — will  be  introduced 
as  the  serial  progresses. 


so  I  picked  up  the  paper  and 
went  on  the  air.  It  was  a  rather 
unpleasant    experience. 

Of  course,  I  had  mike  fright, 
which  is  just  another  way  of  say- 
ing that  I  was  nervous.  Then  I 
hesitated  to  perpetrate  such  an 
outrage  upon  oiir  unsuspecting 
listeners:  I  had  never  had  any 
sort  of  voice  training,  and  had 
always  regarded  my  voice  as  the 
sort  of  disagreeable  sound  which 
is  best  used  as  little  as  possible. 
Telephone  operators  had  consis- 
tently been  unable  to  imderstand 
me,  and  elevator  men  had  always 
asked  me  three  times  what  floor 
I  wanted.  And  then  let  me  off 
at  the  wrong  place.  Less  than 
ten  minutes  after  I  had  finished 
my  first  news  broadcast,  the  pro- 
gram director,  who  had  been 
dining  quietly  at  a  nearby  bar- 
becue stand,  came  running  into 
the  station.  I  didn't  care  parti- 
cularly. I  was  going  to  resign 
anyway. 

"I  just  heard  the  news  show  at 
the  barbecue  wagon,"  he  an- 
nounced. "That  fellow  is  much 
better  than  the  reporter  who  has 
been  doing  the  program.  We 
ought  to  get  him  every  day.  Who 
was  it?" 

He  was  surprised'  when  I  told 
him.  But  nothing  came  of  it  lontil 
I  had  resigned  as  the  station's 
script  writer.  Then  a  vacancy  on 
the  announcing  staff  developed, 
and  I  was  offered  the  job.  I  de- 
clined. I  was  coaxed.  I  declined. 
I  was  argued  with,  at,  and 
about.  I  wanted  to  be  a  writer. 
There  was  a  meeting.  I  still 
wanted  to  be  a  writer.  The  hours 
wore  on  and  the  meeting  grew 
more  animated.  My  resistance 
wore  down.  They  got  me.  The 
next  day  was  Sunday,  and 
promptly  at  eight  o'clock  in  the 
morning  I  put  a  record  on  the 
WJSV  phonograph  and  signed  on 
the  station.    I  was  a  broadcaster. 

It  was  a  long  crowded  road 
from  that  day,  when  I  began 
taking  part  in  all  the  types  of  pro- 
gram known  to  radio,  to  the  days 
several  years  later  when  I  began 
specializing  on  news  broadcasts 
and  special  events  for  the  Colum- 
bia Broadcasting  System.  First 
in  Washington,  now  in  New  York 
—  and  wherever  the  news  is  hop- 


Page  4 


pening.  I  could  write  a  book 
about  radio's  part  in  the  first  hec- 
tic years  when  the  New  Deal 
came  to  Washington.  Maybe 
some  day  I  will. 

Since  the  days  when  Herbert 
Hoover  was  President  of  the 
United  States,  I  have  introduced 
the  President  to  the  radio  audi- 
ence. I  have  traveled  through 
every  state  in  the  Union  to  put 
on  broadcasts,  covered  two  Pres- 
idential Inaugurations,  Republi- 
can and  Democratic  political  con- 
ventions and  campaigns,  the  Cor- 
onation of  King  George  VI  in  Lon- 
don, the  maiden  voyage  of  the 
Atlantic  Clipper  from  Long  Island 
to  France,  taken  my  portable  mi- 
crophone into  campaign  trains,  up 
the  outside  of  the  Washington 
monument,  into  a  submarine,  and 
high  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The 
list  of  famous  people  I  have  in- 
troduced to  the  listening  audience 
reads  like  an  international  Who's 
Who. 

Years  ago  I  graduated  from  the 
role  of  radio  announcer  into  the 
field  of  microphone  news  report- 
ing, with  the  emphasis  on  report- 
ing the  news  as  it  is  happening, 
on  the  spot.  And  long  ago  I  re- 
alized that  all  that  experience  I 
thought  I  was  amassing  as  a 
reservoir  of  fiction  plots  has  been 
invaluable  in  radio.  I  don't  mean 
because  the  news  of  our  time  is 
so  similar  to  fiction,  although  there  ; 
is  something  in  that,  too.  What . 
I  do  mean  is  that  my  pre-radio 
experience  was  gathered  among 
real  average  people,  the  kind  of 
American  who  listens  to  the  ra- 
dio, and  wants  his  radio  to  talk 
to  him  —  and  her  —  with  under- 
standing, sympathy,  and  honest 
friendliness.  You  can't  do  that 
if  you  don't  feel  it.  You  can't  do 
it  if  you  don't  know  the  people 
you  are  talking  too,  or  if  you  don't 
like  them.  I  think  I  know  my 
audience,  because  I  once  worked 
on  a  steamship  deck  with  them, 
filled  their  gasoline  tanks,  and 
drove  them  around  in  a  taxicab. 
As  I  see  it,  I'm  still  working  with 
them  now.  There  is  no  trick  in 
understanding  the  man  in  the 
street  when  you  realize  that  you 
are  one  of  the  men  in  the  street 
yourself. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  NOVEMBER 


Fifty  Years  With 
Henry 
Burr 

G^ — ? 

Featured  Singer 
on  National  Barn 

Dance  Has 
Colorful  History 


"  Jl  RE  YOU  the  same  Henry  Burr 
we  used  to  hear  on  our  pho- 
nograph?" 

This  is  the  constant  query  put 
to  Henry  Burr,  dean  of  ballad  sing- 
ers on  the  Alka  Seltzer  National 
Barn  Dance. 

The  question  is  understandable 
because  Henry  Burr,  bom  Harry 
McClaskey,  is  a  living  tale  of  the 
history  of  the  mechanical  amuse- 
ment industry  and  a  pioneer  in 
radio  broadcasting  —  his  silvery 
voice  has  been  heard  from  coast 
to  coast  for  a  half-century. 

Despite  the  years,  Henry  Burr 
has  kept  his  popularity,  as  evi- 
denced by  the  heavy  fan  mail  re- 
ceived each  week. 

Each  week  also  he  receives  in- 
numerable requests  to  sing  songs 
he  made  famous  from  the  Gay 
Nineties  on. 

Henry  Burr  was  bom  in  St.  Ste- 
phen, New  Brunswick,  Canada,  in 
1885.  When  he  was  five  years 
old  he  became  a  boy  soprano, 
singing  in  theaters,  churches  and 
community  centers  —  and  he's 
been  singing  ever  since. 

For  many  years  he  toured  the 
country  with  such  artists  as  Her- 
bert Witherspoon,  baritone  and 
late  director  of  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  Company. 

Then  he  became  interested  in 
the  queer  contraption  invented  by 
Edison  in  which  the  voice  could 
be  played  back. 

So,  in  1903,  he  was  one  of  the 
first  to  make  records  for  Edison 


and  Columbia. 

"These  were  disc  records,"  he 
explains.  "I  would  sing  into  a 
number  of  horns  each  one  of 
which  was  attached  to  a  separate 
recording.  And  for  each  one  I 
received  the  magnificent  sum  of 
fifty  cents." 

Despite  the  frugal  monetary  re- 
turns, Henry  Burr  kept  on.  He  has 
made  more  than  nine  million  rec- 
ords. One,  "Goodnight,  Little 
Girl,  Goodnight"  sold  more  than 
three  million  copies. 

At  the  time  of  his  initial  record 
ventures.  Burr  was  a  soloist  at  a 
Madison  Avenue  chiirch  in  New 
York.  Since  record  making  was 
considered  in  the  light  of  a  toy,  he 
was  strongly  advised  to  disconti- 
nue such  nonsense.  So  he 
dropped  his  real  name,  Harry 
McClaskey,  in  order  to  continue 
the  "nonsense". 

In  1912,  he  organized  his  own 
concert  company,  Eight  Popular 
Victor  Artists,  touring  the  United 
States  from  Maine  to  California, 
with  such  men  as  Billy  Murray, 
Frank  Banta,  pianist,  and  Rudy 
Wiedeoft,    saxophone    player. 

Then  came  radio,  and  Burr  who 
had  shown  he  was  not  afraid  to 
fry  new  things,  bravely  ap- 
proached a  crude  microphone  in 
1920  for  his  ffrst  broadcast. 

The  studio  was  in  a  doctor's 
laboratory  in  Denver.  The  micro- 
phone was  a  crude  wooden  bowl 
with  an  inverted  telephone  frans- 
mitter. 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


NOVEMBER 


Henry    Burr 

Immediately  after  the  broad- 
cast, Burr  left  for  California,  find- 
ing upon  his  arrival  that  the  fact 
that  his  voice  had  been  heard 
from  Denver  to  San  Francisco  via 
the  ether  waves  had  made  front- 
page headlines  up  and  down  the 
West  Coast. 

In  the  years  following  he  per- 
formed on  such  programs  as  the 
City  Service  Show  from  New 
York,  the  Maxwell  House  pro- 
gram, and  Goodrich  Zippers. 

Six  years  ago  he  joined  the  Al- 
ka Seltzer  National  Barn  Dance 
where  his  silvery  voice  still  car- 
ries on. 

Burr  is  five  feet,  nine  and  one- 
half  inches  tall,  weighs  205 
pounds,  has  a  fair  complexion, 
gray  hafr  and  blue  eyes.  He 
has  been  married  to  concert  sing- 
er Cecelia  Niles  since  1910. 

Of  his  listeners  he  says: 

"I  have  fans  who've  been  fol- 
lowing my  records  and  listening 
to  my  broadcasts  since  the  begin- 
ning. They're  my  friends,  and 
each  time  I  approach  the  micro- 
phone I  sing  to  them." 

But  each  time  he  approaches 
the  microphone,  Henry  Burr  has 
an  attack  of  "mike  fright"  —  de- 
spite the  fact  that  he's  been  doing 
the  same  thing  for  twenty  years. 

Henry  Burr  is  heard  on  the 
National  Barn  Dance  each  Satur- 
day evening  at  eight  o'clock  (CST) 
over  the  red  network  of  the  Na- 
tional Broadcasting  Company. 

.Page  $ 


Light  of  the  World 


By  BASIL  LOUGHRANE 
Director  of  "Light  of  the  World" 

Radio  wiseacres  claimed  it  was 
impossible  to  direct  a  daytime 
show  adapted  from  the  Bible,  but 
Basil  Loughrane  has  made  "Light 
of  the  World"  one  of  the  most 
notable  shows  on  the  air. 


Our  aim  in  presenting  these 
radio  versions  of  the  Bible  is  to 
make  the  listener  feel  that  he  — 
or  she  —  is  hearing  about  real 
things  happening  to  real  people. 
If  we  succeed  in  doing  this  we 
feel  that  we  are  achieving  our 
primary  purpose.  Listeners  of  all 
religions  and  sects  have  given  us 
an  enthusiastic  response,  from  all 
parts  of  the  country.  Perhaps  the 
greatest  compliment  we  have  re- 
ceived is  that  our  broadcast  has 
spurred  the   sale   of  Bibles. 


When  I  first  took  over  the  as- 
signment of  directing  "Light  of 
the  World,"  the  wiseacres  in  the 
radio  business  pulled  long  faces, 
and  were  generous  in  their  sym- 
pathy  for  me. 

"Poor  Basil,"  they  commiser- 
ated, "he's  got  one  tough  assign- 
ment! Directing  a  daytime  show 
adopted  from  the  Bible!  Poor 
Basil,  he  won't  know  what  to  do 
about  it!" 

Well,  without  any  boasting,  I 
think  I  can  frankly  say  that  "Light 
of  the  World"  is  one  of  the  notable 
shows  on  the  air,  and  that  we 
have  put  it  on  without  either  of- 
fending sensibilities  or  pulling 
dramatic  punches. 

The  first  daytime  radio  show 
based  upon  the  Bible,  and 
the  only  serial  drama  to  "tran- 
slate" Scripture  into  modern 
broadcast  serial  terms,  "Light  of 
the  World"  was  looked  upon  with 
mingled  fear  and  hope  in  the  ra- 
dio world  when  its  airing  was  first 
announced.  For  many  years  we 
radio  people  looking  around 
for  basic  sources  of  dramatic  ma- 
terial had  been  drawn  to  the 
Bible,  and  its  wealth  of  story  and 
dramatic  content.  But  prejudice 
.  and  fear  was  against  us.  True, 
sporadic  attempts  had  been  made, 
here  and  there,  to  put  on  por- 
tions of  the  Bible,  however,  these 
bits  of  the  Bible  were  heavily  gar- 
landed with  music  and  tense  dra- 
matic material  so  that  the  spirit 
of  the  Scriptures,  if  not  lost,  was 
at  least  concealed. 

"Light  of  the  World"  takes  the 
Bible,  and  puts  it  on  in  unadorned, 
simple  terms,  letting  the  eternal 
stories  of  the  Book  stand  on  their 
own  feet  as  tales  of  emotional  and 
symbolical  value  to  all  of  us. 

Paqp   6 


Drowned  in  the  wave  of  popu- 
larity that  has  met  "Light  of  the 
World,"  and  resulted  in  its  re- 
newal, fear  has  gone. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  reasons  for 
the  popularity  of  this  Bible  series 
lies  in  the  care  with  which  it  is 
prepared  for  the  air.  Under  the 
leadership  of  Dr.  James  H.  Mof- 
fatt,  eminent  Scripture  authority. 
Professor  at  Union  Theological 
Seminary,  and  author  of  numerous 
books  on  Biblical  topics,  a  relig- 
ious advisory  board  was  formed. 
This  advisory  council  consists  of 
representatives  of  the  leading 
faiths.  We  work  closely  with 
these  men  and  they  are  as  keen 
as  we  are  to  see  to  it  that  the 
Bible  is  spread  to  millions  of 
listeners  through  the  medium  of 
the  radio.  Their  knowledge  and 
experience  is  a  guarantee  that 
the  eternal  truths  of  the  Bible  re- 
main unimpaired  in  the  radio 
treatments. 

The  importance  of  religion  and 
the  Bible  today  is  sharply  demon- 
strated by  the  public  reception  to 
"Light  of  the  World."  Unsettled 
world  conditions  have  emphasized 
the  eternal  values  of  the  Bible. 
There  is  no  begging  the  fact  that 
the  halo  surrounding  The  Book 
has  obscured  for  many  of  us  the 
truth,  beauty,  and  drama  inherent 
in  the  Scriptures.  In  the  medium 
of  radio,  we  do  our  humble  best 
to  present  these  tales  so  that  they 
relate  a  continued  dramatic  story, 
and  are  freighted  with  the  eternal 
messages  of  the  Prophets.  Writ- 
ten most  poetically  and  dramati- 
cally, many  Bible  passages  lend 
themselves  easily  to  broadcasting 
technique.  Other  passages  have 
to  be  adapted  so  that  they  retain 
the  original  story  and  message, 
but  form  consistent  dramatic  uni- 
ties. 


Considering  the  use  made  of 
the  Bible  in  other  arts,  it  is  odd 
that  radio  should  have  come  so 
late  to  this  source.  Painting, 
sculpture,  and  architecture  have 
stemmed  directly  from  attempts 
to  depict  the  stories  in  the  Bible, 
and  emphasize  their  moralities  for 
mankind  often  in  terms  as  con- 
temporary to  their  period  as  ra- 
dio is  to  this  age.  The  Italian 
and  Flemish  artists,  for  example, 
painted  from  models  with  features 
and  clothes  of  their  time  in  de- 
picting Bible  scenes,  remaining 
faithful  to  the  essence  of  the  sto- 
ries. The  novelists,  including 
such  diverse  writers  as  Kingsley, 
Anatole  France,  and  George 
Moore,  have  been  ceaselessly  fas- 
cinated by  the  Scriptures.  Play- 
wrights ranging  from  the  anony- 
mous authors  of  the  mediaeval 
Morality  Plays  to  Eugene  O'Neill, 
George  Bernard  Shaw,  and  Jerome 
K.  Jerome,  have  coped  with  some 
of  the  tremendous  dramatic  situ- 
ations enacted  in  the  Scriptures. 
Some  of  the  more  ambitious  mo- 
tion pictures  hove  been  based 
upon  Biblical  incidents.  It  is  high 
time  for  this  radio  interpretation 
of  the  Book  ...  a  Book  that  has 
affected  all  mankind  for  thou- 
sands of  years  and  shaped  the 
form  of  human  society. 

We  find  that  our  radio  Story  of 
the  Bible,  "Light  of  the  World," 
has  endless  fascination  for  our 
listeners,  the  same  fascination 
that  held  enthralled  the  first  men 
and  women  who  heard  the  Bible 
stories. 

"Light  of  the  World"  is  heard 
daily     Mon.-Fri.,     1:00-1:15     p.m. 
GST  on  NBC,    sponsored  by  Gen- 
eral Mills,  Inc.,  for  Softasilk  Coke 
Flo'jr. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  NOVEMBER 


A  FOLKSOME 
TWOSOME 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  NOVEMBER 


Woody  Guthrie  and  Margaret  "Honey  Chile"  Johnson  sing  real 
old-time  folk  ballads  on  the  CBS  network  show,  "Back  Where  I  Come 
From,"  heard  on  Monday,  Wednesday  and  Friday  at  9:30  P.M.  CST. 
Woody  hails  from  Oklahoma  and  "Honey  Chile"  got  her  southern  accent 
in  the  state  of  Texas,  but  the  folksongs  they  sing  come  from  the  four 
corners  of  the  continent.  If  "Honey  Chile's"  face  looks  familiar  to  you, 
you  may  have  seen  it  in  a  magazine  ad  —  she^s  also  a  professional  model. 


Page  7 


I'm  a  Hollywood 
Farmer 


By  Bob  Burns 

(As  told  to  Joe  Alvin) 


It    must    have    been    an    Uncle    Fud    story 
that   made  this  mule   Hee-Haw. 


Farmer  Burns  just  shows  one  of  his  sugar  beets  In- 
stead of  bragging  about  them  —  Like  everything  else  in 
Hollywood,  they're  colossal. 


T  WANT  to  tell  you  how  it  feels 
to  be  a  Hollywood  Farmer.  A  lot 
of  folks  think  that  being  a  farmer 
in  the  same  town  with  Hedy 
Lomorr  and  Madeleine  Carroll  is 
awfully  funny.  They  even  say 
that  movie  and  radio  folks  buy 
themselves  ranches  in  San  Fer- 
nando Valley  so  the  people  would 
think  they're  real.  Well,  I'll  tell 
you.  When  I  get  through  with 
my  work  on  the  Kraft  Music  Hall 
Thursday  night  and  drive  up  to 
my  ranch  house  in  Canoga  Park 
thirty  minutes  later,  it  almost 
makes  a  poet  out  of  me.  It's  just 
about  sunset  time,  and  the  peace 
of  twilight  is  spreading  over  the 

Page  8 


land,  every  acre  of  it  mine.  It's 
just  too  wonderful  for  ordinary 
words.  It  makes  me  feel  almighty 
thankful  that  I'm  alive  and  just 
plain  glad  that  God  gave  me  the 
talent  with  which  to  earn  the 
money  to  invest  in  land. 

I've  wanted  to  be  a  farmer  all 
my  life,  and  farming  is  right  in 
my  blood.  Like  every  boy  in  the 
world,  I've  had  my  share  of 
wanderlust.  I've  bummed  and 
worked  around  the  country  and 
I've  done  my  shore  of  travelling 
all  through  the  east  and  west. 
I've  worked  at  odd  jobs  in  small 
and  big  towns,  I've .  tried  the  life 


of  a  soldier  with  the  U.  S.  Marines 
and  I've  done  my  share  of  troup- 
ing  in  the  show  business.  But  all 
that  couldn't  take  the  hankering 
out  of  me  to  get  back  and  dig  in 
the  soil  like  we  used  to  do  when 
I  was  a  boy  in  Von  Buren.  It 
wasn't  until  I  finally  got  to  Holly- 
wood and  got  settled  working  in 
radio  and  in  pictures  that  I  got 
right  down  to  brass,  tacks  and 
realized  what  I  really  wanted  out 
of  life.  I  had  a  nice  home  that 
was  plenty  comfortable  and 
peaceful  but  in  Stone  canyon. 
There  was  room  enough  for  all 
of  us,  and  there  were  trees  and 
movmtains  around,  but  there  was 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  NOVEMBER 


Acres  and  acres  of  sugar  beets  ready  for  harvest  are 
plenty  compensation  for  Bob's  toil.  Bob  uses  mules  for 
most  of  the  farm  work,  and  has  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
how  to  harness  them. 


something  missing.  It  took  me  a 
long  time  to  figure  out,  and  when 
I  did,  I  wondered  why  it  took  me 
so  long  when  it  was  so  simple. 
What  I  really  wanted  was  land, 
land  that  I  could  dig  into  and 
plant  things  in  and  then  watch 
them  grow. 

I  began  buying  land,  acre  by 
acre,  in  what  I  think  is  the  prettiest 
spot  in  this  section  of  the  county. 
It's  a  district  called  Canoga  Pork, 
thirty  minutes  by  car  from  Holly- 
wood, close  enough  to  get  to  the 
NBC  or  movie  studios  in  a  hurry, 
but  far  enough  from  the  city  and 


studio  atmosphere  to  make  us 
completely  at  ease.  There  are 
trees  and  mountains  all  around 
and  there  isn't  a  dull  spot  on  the 
whole  horizon.  And  I  wouldn't 
be  lyin'  if  I  said  it's  as  pretty  as 
a  picture.  But  there  was  a  better 
reason  why  I  decided  to  buy  in 
Canoga  Park.  The  land  was  rich 
and  productive. 

Maybe  it's  because  down 
where  I  come  from  in  Arkansas 
we  had  to  make  a  living  out  of 
the  soil,  like  farmers  everywhere 
have  to  do  unless  they're  gentle- 
man fanners,  but  I  just  ain't  got 


any  use  for  land  you  can't  grow 
things  on.  As  much  as  I  like  land 
and  soil,  I  wouldn't  give  you  a 
dime  for  land  that  dcn't  produce. 
Land  to  me  is  like  a  living  thing 
like  a  human  being.  It's  get  to  be 
useful.  It's  got  to  give  a  man  oack 
something  for  his  sweat  and  his 
pains.  Now,  I  don't  mean  to  say 
that  there  aren't  fine  human  be- 
ings who  don't  produce.  Maybe 
they  never  had  a  chance.  Land 
is  like  that  too.  It  won't  prcduce 
unless  it's  given  a  chance. 
Well,  I  took  that  land  of  mine 

(Continued  on  page  23) 


ff 


s.*^' 


'wr-!^»^jc\-.',-«««5j|,  _.    ^ 


This  is  Bob  Burns'  new  ranch  home  in  California  with    modern    out   buildings.      It's   a   dream    house    Bob   began   to 
think   about  way   back   in   Van    Buren   County,  with   a  few     Hollywood    touches    thrown    in. 


RADIO   VARIETIES 


NOVEMBER 


Page  9 


Among  the  wordmen  at  the  NBC  Central  Division  are  the  above  pictured  gentlemen, 
rear  left  to  right:  Durward  Xirby,  Cleve  Conway,  Verl  Thomson  and  Norman 
Barry;  Seated,  left  to  right:   Lynn  Brandt,  Fort  Pearson,  Bob  Brown  and  Charles  Lyon. 

Radio's  Super  Salesman 


By  Dan  Thompson 

Salesmen  of  a  modern  age  are 
the  announcers  of  a  radio  pro- 
gram. Adept  at  voicing  the 
written  sales  arguments  of  the 
.many  sponsors  of  radio  shows, 
these  men  know  rules  of  accent, 
syllabification,  proper  breathing, 
pause  and  color  as  intimately  as 
actors  and  singers.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  many  of  them  have  had 
training  on  the  stage.  Few  of 
them  ever  reach  the  networks  — 
which  correspond  to  the  big 
leagues  in  baseball  —  without 
having  served  time  in  the  minors 
—  i.  e.,  small  radio  stations. 

Let's  look  at  the  record  of  the 
eight  NBC  announcers  pictured 
above.  Kirby.  for  instance,  was 
born    in   Kentucky   and   came   to 

Page    10 


NBC  via  WBAA  at  Purdue  and 
Indianapolis  and  Cincinnati  sta- 
tions. He  made  his  radio  debut 
as  a  singer  at  Purdue.  Blue-eyed 
and  blonde,  he  is  6  feet  4  inches 
tall,  weighs  185  pounds.  He  was 
bom  August  24,  1912  and,  in  ad- 
dition to  being  heard  as  Ransom 
Sherman's  stooge  on  Club  Mati- 
nee, announces  Lone  Journey  and 
the  W  E  N  R  10  o'clock  final 
Walgreen  show. 

CONWAY,  whose  real  name  is 
Kleve  Kirby,  gave  up  his  legit- 
imate name  because  of  Durward 
Kirby' s  priority  claims  at  NBC.  As 
Kleve  Kirby,  Cleve  Conway 
served  "time"  at  WWL,  New 
Orleans,  before  coming  to  NBC  in 
April  1940.  You  can  hear  him  on 
the  Roy  Shield  Encore  and  Sach's 
News  programs. 


THOMSON  entered  broadcast- 
ing as  a  singer  over  W  C  F  L, 
though  he  had  broadcast  prior  to 
that  as  an  amateur  over  WFAT 
in  Sioux  Falls  in  1923.  He  has 
also  worked  at  WXYZ,  at  KSOO- 
KELO  as  program  director,  and 
WIND.    He  came  to  NBC  in  1937. 

BARRY,  newscaster  for  Man- 
hattan Soap,  and  one  of  several 
Club  Matinee  announcers,  is  31 
years  old  and  an  ex-sailor.  He 
was  a  bass  baritone  for  a  time 
with  Don  Irwin's  orchestra, 
worked  at  WIBO  and  came  to 
NBC  in  1934.  He  is  grandson  of 
Mother  Lake,  considered  one  of 
greatest  platform  lecturers  in  her 
day.  He  is  6  feet  2  inches  tall, 
weighs  175. 

(Continued  on  page  23) 
RADIO  VARIETIES  —  NOVEMBER 


The  WDZ  Screw  Ball  Club 


DADIO'S  biggest  little  band,  "The 
WDZ  Screw  Ball  Club",  pro- 
vides entertainment  that  delights 
the  young  and  old  alike. 

They  are  pictured  above  just  as 
they  appear  in  the  studio  each 
afternoon  for  their  rollicking  jam 
session  and  informal  discussion  of 
the  most  whimsical  events  of  the 
day.  The  band  was  organized 
here  at  WDZ  less  than  a  year  ago 
by  Dippy  Johnston  (seated  on  the 
piano),  who  came  to  this  station 
as  Musical  Director,  after  a  career 
in  the  music  business  with  some 
of  the  biggest  band  leaders  in 
the  country,  plus  a  Chicago  band 
of  his  own,  which  he  organized 
and  directed  in  1933  and  1934. 

According  to  Dippy,  their  win- 
ter schedule  Includes  a  great  deal 


of  dance  and  show  work  outside 
their  regular  radio  activities. 

Curly  Bray,  competent  bass 
player,  better  known  to  the  Screw 
Ball  fans  as  "Dog  House  Cur  ley", 
is  the  possessor  of  a  very  pleas- 
ing Irish  tenor  voice. 

Ciorl  Poulton,  jovially  referred  to 
as  '  Six  String  Gerty"  on  the  show, 
was  born  in  West  Virginia,  a  hill- 
billy as  exemplified  by  his  com- 
positions, "When  It's  Lamp-Light- 
in'  Time  In  The  Valley",  "We'll 
Rest  At  The  End  Of  The  Trail", 
and  his  most  recent  release,  pub- 
lished by  Broadcast  Music,  Inc. 
"There's  An  Old  Easy  Chair  By 
The  Fire  Place".  Curt's  rendition 
of  his  own  niimbers  is  a  welcome 
addition  to  the  versatility  of  this 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


NOVEMBER 


•1*" 


splendid  organization. 

Bashful  Bob  Mills,  Pianist  and 
staff  Accordionist  is  a  thorough 
musicicTP.  and  fills  that  position 
most  competently. 

"Fish  Horn  Buddie",  Bud  Carter, 
his  real  name,  hails  from  Southern 
Illinois  where  he  claims  he  learned 
to  play  saxophone  as  the  line  of 
least  resistance.  Bud  weights  only 
96  pounds  and  takes  considerable 
pushing  around  both  verbally  and 
physically. 

The  Screw  Ball  Chib  is  truly  a 
program  of  merit  in  that  it  is  en- 
tirely different  from  any  show  yet 
devised,  and  its  ten  thousand  paid 
members  bespeaks  the  value  of 
such  a  program  on  any  radio  sta- 
tion. 

Page   1 1 


«* 


^ 


\ 


SAUTION 

SCHOOL 
AHE>> 


> 


.    (■ 


t.-r 


jmmmmmmm 


ifc^" 


4:„ 


'^^ 


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y. 


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iCAUTION  ^^ 

SCHOOL 

ami  4l^4     '  . 


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A  Star  Is  Made 

The  Talent  Scouts  and  Publicity 
Dep't  of  NBC  Artist  Service 
Build  the  Stars  of  Tomorrow 


"Old-fashioned! '.'  said  c;ne 
critic  looking  her  over  from  head 
to  toe.  "Not  enough  poise,"  re- 
marked a  second  sage.  "She 
simply  lacks  that  certain  some- 
thing," was  the  verdict  of  obser- 
ver number  three. 

Eyeing  the  pretty,  raven-tressed 
lass  who  had  just  trilled  the  last 
notes  of  a  stuffy  operatic  aria, 
the  talent  scout  shook  his  head. 
"For  the  present",  he  replied,  "You 
may  be  right.  But  I  like  that  feel- 
ing in  her  voice.  And  her  looks 
and   figure    aren't   exactly   to   be 


GIRL  IN  UNIFORM 
During  her  radio  days  when  Lillian 
Cornell  posed  for  pictures,  the  Chicago 
Cubs  were  photographed  the  same  day. 
Her  managers  dreamed  up  the  Idea  of 
Lillian  posing  as  the  mascot  of  the 
Chicago  Cubs  baseball  team.  As  a  result 
of  these  pictures  Lillian  gained  national 
recognition. 

sneered  atl  No  —  we'll  keep  her. 
And  just  wait'll  we  put  a  warble 
in  her  voice  and  a  spark  into  her 
personality!  Wait'll  the  build-up 
begins!  She'll  wow  'em!  Mark 
my  words  —  someday  Lillian  Ma- 
chuda  will  be  a  name  known  to 
every  radio  and  movie  fan  in  the 
U.S.A." 

Well,  the  talent  scout's  actual 
prophecy  is  impossible  now,  for 
the  first  action  taken  by  Lillian's 

Page  14 


managers,  the  NBC  Artists  Ser- 
vice, was  to  change  her  name 
trom  Machuda  to  Cornell  —  the 
one  we  know  her  by  today. 

And  after  deciding  her  voice 
was  fashioned  for  popular  music 
rather  than  the  classics,  the  next 
step  in  their  campaign  to  make 
Lillian  Cornell  famous  was  to  dis- 
patch her  to  a  voice  teacher  ex- 
perienced in  light  musical  veins, 
who  taught  her  the  intricacies  of 
popular  rhythms. 

Soon  the  time  arrived  for  her 
first  real  step  up  the  ladder  of 
success.  Artists  Service  assigned 
Lillian  to  a  few  local  radio  spots 
where  the  songstress  acquired  the 
"mike  technique"  experience  es- 
sential for  a  network  debut.  Then 
spots  on  two  popular  Chicago 
programs,  the  NBC  Jamboree  and 
Club  Matinee,  were  obtained  for 
her  to  display  her  talents. 

Meanwhile  two  powerful  "build- 
up" forces  were  working  for  Lil- 
lian Cornell.  The  contract  she. 
had  signed  with  NBC  Artists  Ser- 
vice to  manage  her  career  cov- 
ered more  than  mere  business 
routines.  Clothes,  friendships  and 
recreation  all  called  for  their 
knowing  counsels.  The  right 
places  had  to  be  frequented  and 
the  right  people  met.  Clothes  had 
to  be  streamlined  to  her  personal- 
ity —  all  in  all,  everything  de- 
signed to  type  her  as  a  glamor- 
ous radio  songstress  was  stren- 
uously plugged. 

The  piiblicity  departments  of 
Artists  Service  and  NBC  mean- 
while had  also  swung  into  action. 
One  of  their  first  actions  was  to 
photograph  their  charge  from 
every  concievable  angle  and  in 
scores  of  different  costumes.  Ac- 
companied by  fitting  sheafs  of 
publicity  copy,  photos  of  Lillian 
Cornell  posing  as  the  ideal  ten- 
nis player,  the  typical  mermaid, 
the  college  boy's  dream,  ad  in- 
finitum, flooded  newspaper  and 
magazine  offices  throughout  the 
nation.  Lillian's  managers  even 
arranged  to  have  her  picture  taken 


as    mascot   (fully   uniformed!)    of 
the  Chicago  Cubs! 

While  all  this  was  going  on, 
Lillian  was  appearing  on  more 
and  more  sustaining  radio  pro- 
grams. As  her  fan  mail  rose  and 
her  personality  became  etched  on 
the  public  mind,  she  began  to  re- 
ceive top  billing  with  greater  fre- 
quency. Eventually  her  break 
came  —  in  form  of  a  bathing-suit 
picture,  published  in  a  radio  fan 
magazine,  which  created  quite 
a  stir  amongst  HoUywoods  movie 
producers,  and  led  to  urgent  de- 
mands for  auditions. 


A  PRETTY  GIRL— A  BEAUTIFUL 
VOICE— A    SARONG 

Dorothy     Lamour,     made    famous    by    a 
scanty  piece  of  colored  cloth — the  sarong. 


Since  Lillian's  radio  commit- 
ments in  Chicago  prohibited  a 
personal  Hollywood  appearance, 
her  managers  arranged  a  cock- 
tail party  in  the  movie  mecca,  at 
which  an  audition  of  Lillian's  voice 
was  heard  by  special  wire  from 
the  Windy  City  . . .  The  rest  is  his- 
tory. The  large  public  following 
of  the  songstress  plus  her  looks 
plus  her  figure  plus  her  singing 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


NOVEMBER 


and  acting  talent  led  to  an  im- 
mediate contract  with  Paramount, 
and  a  few  months  later  Lillian 
Cornell  appeared  high  up  in  the 
Dramatis  Personae  of  "Bucky  Ben- 
ny Rides  Again!" 

Although  our  heroine  has  not 
yet  reached  the  "star"  class,  she's 
definitely  on  the  way.  Rapidly, 
too.  Her  movies,  as  they  appear, 
will  win  her  larger  and  loyaler 
audiences,  as  her  series  of  sus- 
taining assignments  did  for  her 
radio  career.  She  has  already 
appeared  in  four  pictures,  soon  to 
be  released,  since  "Buck  Benny": 
"Dancing  on  a  Dime,"  "Rhythm 
on  the  River,"  "Kiss  the  Boys 
Goodbye"  and  "Touchdown." 

All  of  which  isn't  to  say  that 
anyone  with  talent  can  be  "built 
up  to  Lillian  Cornell's  proportions. 
For  mere  ability  abounds  today  in 
the  entertainment  world. 

But  one  of  the  most  elusive 
things  in  the  world  of  talent  is  cm 
individuality  that  appeals  to  the 
public.  That  is  what  the  scout 
has  to  keep  his  eyes  peeled  for 
in  addition  to  personality,  physi- 
cal charm  and  voice.  Arresting 
individuality.  That's  what  the 
talent  scout  perceived  in  Lillian 
Cornell  with  the  clairvoyance  that 
only  successful  scouts  possess. 
Then,  once  the  catch  was  made, 
began  his  real  job:  to  sharpen 
that  individuality  and  through 
continual  radio  spots  and  an  ac- 
companying flood  of  publicity  to 
etch  her  personality  deep  on  the 
public's  collective  mind. 

All  of  which  is  a  trying,  pain- 
staking task,  calling  for  canny  in- 
sight inio  fickle  public  tastes  and 
understanding  of  the  panics  and 
brainstorms  of  the  show  business. 
Anyone  from  NBC's  Artists  Service 
Bureau  —  the  men  who  discover 
and  develop  divas,  ballerinas,  tap 
dancers,  mystery  writers,  cowboy 
singers,  symphonic  conductors, 
diaJecticians,  ad  finitum  —  will 
vouch  for  that. 

Although  night  clubs,  hotels  and 
theatres  are  sources  offering  a 
vast  amount  of  talent  to  radio, 
the  biggest  slice  of  radio's  bigtime 
talent  comes  from  small  stations 
around  the  country.  When  a 
rarticu-arly  fine  voice  is  heard  by 
a  scout,  its  possessor  is  investi- 
gated, and  if  the  necessary  abi- 


lity and  individuality  is  there,  he 
(or  she)  is  taken  to  Chicago,  Hol- 
lywood or  New  York's  Radio  City 
for  an  audition.  Then,  if  the  re- 
sults are  successful,  begins  the 
"typing,"  the  press  campaign,  the 
whole  general  buildup.  Movie, 
radio  and  gossip  columns  are 
plugged.  New  fashion  styles  are 
watched,  and  sometimes  the  ar- 
tist's manager  con  even  get  a 
new  style  named  after  his  charge. 
In  some  cases,  even  a  color  is 
named  after  a  star,  witness  Gene- 
vieve Blue  —  after  the  party  bear- 
ing that  monicker  on  the  "Amos 
claims:  "Heavens,  look  how  So- 
And-So  came  from  nowhere  and 
jumped  suddenly  into  stardom!" 
—  we  hope  you'll  know  the  an- 
swer. For  looking  back  over  the 
case  histories  given,  it  is  obvious 
that  the  management  of  radio  ar- 
tists figures  extensively  in  their 
lise  from  obscurity  to  the  cream 
c-i  the  vast  radio  crop. 
and  Andy"  program. 

Dorothy  Lamoijr  is  an  outstand- 
ing example  of  a  radio  artist  who 
benefitted  immeasurably  by  an 
extensive  build-up.  Artists  Ser- 
vice "found"  her  while  she  was 
singing  with  a  Chicago  bond, 
placed  her  under  contract,  and 
planned  her  career  with  the  re- 
sult that  she  eventually  became 
one  of  the  most  outstanding  screen 
and  radio  personalities  of  our 
day.  Lamour's  publicity  centered 
around  her  breathtaking  glamour, 
and  she  was  billed  as  the 
"Dreamer  of  Songs." 

The  history  of  Lucille  Manners 
sounds  like  a  Horatio  Alger  story. 
Sometimes  the  vital  role  played 
by  the  artist's  manager  is  over- 
looked in  cases  of  her  sort.  A 
fifteen-doUar-a-week  stenographer 
in  Newark,  Miss  Manners  missed 
many  meals  in  order  to  pay  for 
her  coveted  voice  lessons.  Even- 
tually she  landed  a  spot  on  a 
local  New  Jersey  radio  program 
and  later  an  audition  at  NBC, 
where  she  was  given  an  assign- 
ment on  a  small  sustaining  pro- 
gram. 

Meanwhile  the  Artists  Service 
Bureau  was  building  her  up 
through  guest  appearances  with 
popular  concert  orchestras.  In 
1933,  this  build-up,  together  with 
Miss  Manners'  natural  talent, 
qualified  her  as  the  summer  sxob- 


stitute  for  the  Cities  Service  Con- 
ceits. A  few  years  later.  Miss 
Manners  became  the  regular  Fri- 
day night  soloist  for  the  Cities 
Service  Concerts! 

Wonder  why  the  blonde  sopra- 
no is  referred  to  as  Miss  Manners? 
Well,  it's  a  result  of  her  build-up. 
Just  as  people  associate  the  words 
Dorothy  Lamour  and  sarong  (they 
ore  inseperable,  aren't  they?),  they 
synonymize  Lucille  Manners,  in 
their  mind's  eye,  with  good  man- 
ners, satiny  evening  gowns  and 
a  personality  sweet  and  sedate. 
Each  Friday  night  she  appears 
before  the  studio  audience  gor- 
geously gowned.  Colored  spot- 
lights play  on  her  face.  The  at- 
mosphere is  permeated  with  aus- 
terity. And  well  knowing  that  he 
must  perpetuate  the  piiblic  con- 
ception of  his  client,  Lucille  Man- 
ners' manager  sees  to  it  that  her 
photos  convey  the  same  impres- 
sion of  sweet  dignity. 

An  entirely  different  approach 
is  being  used  in  building  up  a 
songstress  you'll  hear  a  mighty 
lot  about  before  long.  Her  name 
is  Yvette,  and  she  sings  French 
and  American  tunes  in  a  pert  and 
saucy  manner.  Petit,  blonde  and 
vivacious,  Yvette  lives  the  part 
she  plays  on  the  air.  For  NBC 
Artists  Service,  realizing  that  they 
have  created  an  arresting  perso- 
nality different  from  all  others  as 
well  as  one  that  has  caught  the 
fickle  public's  fancy,  will  see  to 
it  that  Yvette  stays  that  way! 

Dinah  Shore  is  another  yoimg- 
stor  clambering  up  the  success- 
ladder.  Dinah  was  brought  to 
Radio  City  from  a  small  Nashville 
station  where  she  sang  while  stud- 
ying at  Vanderbilt  University.  She 
was  developed  by  her  Artists  Ser 
vice  into  the  dreamy  Southern 
type.  Langour,  not  glamour,  was 
her  groove.  First  she  was  given 
a  sustaining  spot  on  NBC,  and  at 
present  her  wisteria-laden  croon- 
ing is  making  her  a  favorite  with 
network  audiences.  She  sings 
every  Sunday  afternoon  now  with 
"The  Chamber  Music  Society  of 
Lower  Basin  Street."  Unless  all 
signs  fail,  she  will  star  one  day  on 
a  topflight  commercial  program. 
When  that  happens  don't  plant  all 
the  credit  on  her  pretty  head.  Save 
a  kudo  for  her  builder-upper  man- 
ager. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  NOVEMBER 


Page  15 


By  ELBERT  HALING 

YES,  THE  Doughboys  hob-nob 
with  the  luminaries  of  stage, 
screen  and  radio  and  why  not? 
They've  made  many  stage  ap- 
pearances themselves  and  every 
day  their  studio  in  the  Burrus  Mill, 
seven  miles  north  of  Fort  Worth,  is 
jammed  with  folks  who  have 
heard  their  shows  on  Station 
WBAP  and  Texas  Quality  Net- 
work. As  for  screen  endeavor  the 
gang,  led  by  tall,  dark  and  hand- 
some Parker  Willson,  has  ap- 
peared in  such  jumping  tintypes 
as  "Oh  Suzannah"  and  "The  Big 
Show."  They  backed  up  Cinema 
Star  Gene  Autry  in  more  ways 
than  cne  in  these  pictures.  And 
as  far  as  radio  is  concerned  the 
boys  have  been  singing  and 
playing  for  the  electric  ears  of 
radio  since  1923. 

The  Doughboys  own  and  op- 
erate a  streamlined  sound  truck 
in  the  neighborhood  ot  a  city 
block  in  length.  It's  air  condi- 
tioned and  serves  as  a  studio 
when  the  boys  are  on  the  road. 
Western  Electric' s  latest  sound 
equipment  is  used  throughout.  Not 
so  long  ago,  the  Doughboys,  all 
seven  of  them,  took  to  tne  air 
literally  as  they  chartered  Bra- 
niff's  largest  airliner  for  a  jaunt 
into  Oklahoma.  It  seems  as 
though  their  bus  wasn't  fast 
enough  and  the  gang  voted  on 
the  ether  highway  route  full  well 
knowing  that  their  leader,  Parker 
Willson,  suffers  air  sickness  even 
while  standing  atop  a  Texas 
haystack. 

Last  year  Texas'  own  Mary 
Martin  came  to  town.  Mary  had 
just  stepped  from  the  silver  screen 
showing  of  "The  Great  Waltz". 
Did  she  apoectr  with  the  local 
Town  Hall  Grouo?  Did  she  sing 
•with  the  Fort  Worth  Symphony? 
Absolutely  not.  Much  to  every- 
one's surprise,  including  Mary's 
own  pretty  surprise,  she  found 
herself  singing  popular  ditties  w'th 
Parker  Willson's  "Bring-Em-In- 
.^live"  gang. 

Last  September  Samuel  Gold- 
wyn's  gigantic,  s  u  p  e  r  -  colossal 
spectacle,  "The  Westerner,"  star- 
ring Gary  Cooper,  Doris  Daven- 
port and  Walter  Brennan,  had  its 
world  premiere  in  Fort  Worth. 
Plans  for  entertaining  the  visiting 
stors  had  been     laid     for     many 

Page    16 


Join  the  Light  Crust 

Dough   Boys 
—  and  See  the  World 


Well,  not  exactly,  maybe,  but 
anyway  if  you're  a  member  of  the 
Burrus  Mill  &  Elevator  Company's 
Doughboy  musical  combination 
you'll  cover  a  lot  of  territory.  And 
when  not  going  to  Hollywood  or 
the  East  coast  various  and  sundry 
notables  who  compose  the  more 
illustrous  citizenry  of  these  re- 
gions —  visit  the  Doughboys. 


WBAP 

mmm 

\  lEmntK 


Gary  Cooper  does  his  bit  for  the  Light  Crust  Dough- 
boys' audience  as  Parker  Willson,  Doughboys'  mentor, 
looks   on   approvingly  from   the   right. 

RADIO   VARICTIES   —   NOVEMBER 


Here  we  see  Film  Star  Charlie  Ruggles  with  Publish- 
er Amon  Carter  in  white  hat. 


Bob  Hope,  Pepsodent's  ether  salesman,  speaks  his 
part  while  the  slightly  baldish  gent  on  the  left  looking  on 
is  Samuel   Goldwyn. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  NOVEMBER 


weeks  ahead.  The  entire  recep- 
tion crew  of  Ideal  dignataries 
were  on  hand  to  greet  the  three 
airplanes  and  their  platinum- 
plated  contents.  Texas  Rangers 
sat  astride  their  steeds  with  alert- 
ness while  the  mayor  and  his 
company  hung  on  to  their  steeds 
for  dear  life  and  hoped  for  the 
best. 

Did  the  movie  kings  and  queens 
follow  the  police  escort  straight 
into  the  waiting  sport  mcdel  lux- 
ury liners?  Did  the  flicker  heroes 
and  heroines  escape  via  the  Air- 
port's Administration  Building  and 
its  side  door?  Absolutely  not! 
Gary  Cooper,  Walter  Brennon, 
Bob  Hope,  Bruce  Cabot,  Doris 
Davenport,  Charlie  Ruggles, 
Edward  Arnold,  Lillian  Bond,  etc., 
headed  by  Producer  Samuel  Gold- 
wyn, were  corralled  by  "Jessie 
James"  Parker  Willson  and  his 
merry  bond  of  Light  Crust  "out- 
laws" and  steered  for  the  Dough- 
boys bus.  From  this  point  the 
airport  broadcast  originated  and 
was  carried  by  Station  KGKO, 
5,000  watt  little  brother  to  WBAP, 
it's  Fort  Worth  Star-Telegram 
50,000  watt  big  brother. 

Along  about  noon-time  of  this 
same  September  day,  the  most 
eventfull  in  Fort  Worth's  visiting 
celebrity  history,  Amon  Carter, 
genial  Star-Telegram  publisher, 
dined  the  notables  at  the  fashion- 
able and  exclusive  Fort  Worth 
Club.  It  was  an  invitation  affair 
with  few  invitations.  Only  the 
"really  somebodys"  passed 
through  the  Club's  sacred  pre- 
cincts. 

When  12:30  p.  m.  rolled  around 
and  the  guests  had  filled  their 
illustrous  tummies,  up  popped  — 
not  Yehudi  —  but  a  whole  crew 
of  Yehudi's  in  the  form  of  Willson 
and  his  Doughboys.  In  less  time 
than  it  takes  to  run  down  another 
pedestrian  Gary  Cooper  and  his 
crowd  were  speaking  their  bits 
for  the  Light  Crust  audience  from 
the  Texas  caprock  in  the  Lone 
Star  State's  Panhandle  to  the 
Gulf's  silvery  sands.  Some  folks 
murmured:  "Such  crustl" 

Master  of  Ceremonies  Willson 
never  missed  a  word  of  the  script 
as  he  cast  this  aside:  "Yes  ladies, 
it's  good  old  Light  Crustl" 

Page  17 


Page  18 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  NOVEMBER 


From  Stage  Boards 


to  Bread  Boards! 


From  stage  boards  to  bread  boards 
might  seem  a  broad  iump,  but  it  has 
been  no  feat  for  versatile  Doris  Bich- 


II  S  DORIS  MOORE,  home  econ- 
omist and  commentator,  she 
points  out  to  women  listeners  that 
home  baking  is  easy,  simple  and 
economical.  Her  vivid  descrip- 
tions of  piping  hot  Parker  House 
rolls  fresh  from  the  oven,  or  cin- 
namon rolls  dripping  with  hot 
butter  and  sugar,  both  made  with 
fast,  granular  Maca  yeast,  have 
started  many  a  housewife  run- 
ning to  the  kitchen  to  surprise  her 
husband  with  the  almost-forgotten 
rolls  "like  Mother  used  to  make." 

As  Doris  Rich,  daughter  of  the 
founder  of  the  Boston  Women's 
Symphony  orchestra,  and  a  vete- 
ran musician  while  still  in  her 
teens,  she  lived  in  a  trunk  or 
stage  dressing  room  lontil  she  set- 
tled down  to  radio  work  in  Chi- 
cago two  years  ago. 

Having  a  permanent  home  for 
the  first  time  in  her  life,  she  set 
out  to  make  it  charming,  expres- 
sive of  her  personality  —  the  sort 
of  home  that  every  woman  with 
a  spark  of  individuality  dreams 
of.  Miss  Rich  found  her  self-ex- 
pression simple  —  an  indulgence 
in  antiques. 

Her  transformation  to  home 
economist  has  not  been  confined 
to  her  role  on  the  air.  She  has 
become  an  expert  on  breadmak- 
ing  and  hostess  whose  Italian 
spaghetti  and  Chicken  Tetrazin- 
ni,  served  in  her  antique  copper 
Russian  milk  pan,  along  with  Ital- 


ian  breadsticks,    are    famous    in 
radio  circles. 

Inaugurated  last  spring  as  a 
local  test-program,  "Songs  of  a 
Dreamer"  has  gone  notional,  with 
WLS  and  a  series  of  stations  from 
coast  to  coast  broadcasting  the 
show.  Prime  purpose  of  the  pro- 
gram is  to  accelerate  the  "back 
to  baking"  trend  in  American 
homes.  Gene  Baker,  baritone, 
weaves  bits  of  home-spun  phil- 
osophy into  his  poetic  narrations, 
roimds  out  his  songs  with  a 
"thought  for  the  day."  A  musical 
background  fitting  each  perfor- 
mance is  provided  by  Larry  Lar- 
sen  at  the  organ. 

Miss  Rich's  background  in  dra- 
ma and  music  is  more  than  ex- 
tensive —  it  occupies  a  life  time. 
Her  father,  Henry  H,  Rich,  had 
her  studying  piano  at  seven  years 
of  age,  and  the  flute  at  nine.  He 
was  determined  that  his  daughter 
should  become  a  musician.  At 
1 5  she  was  playing  with  the  Roch- 
ester Symphony  orchestra.  Miss 
Rich  recalls  that  she  was  1 1  years 
old  when  she  earned  her  first 
money  —  six  dollars  for  a  two- 
hour  performance  on  the  flute, 
and  which  she  promptly  spent  for 
a  front-lace  corset.  This  was  be- 
cause a  young  lady  whose  figure 
she  admired  had  told  her  that 
she  owed  her  own  splendid  curves 
to  such  a  garment. 

At  seven  Doris  Rich  had  a  role 
in  a  benefit  play,  and  was  struck 


<■ 


iDoris  Rich,  home  economist  known  as  Doris  Moore  on  the 
""Northwestern  Yeast  Company  radio  show,  "Songs  of  a  Dream- 


er," on  WLS,  Chicago,  and  other  stations,  and  expert  on  Maca  bread- 
making,  demonstrates  a  test  that  determines  whether  bread  has  properly 
risen.  She  presses  her  finger  into  the  dough.  If  the  dough  holds  a  dent 
without  springing  back,  it  is  "ready."  Miss  Rich  uses  art  antique  bread 
proofing  box  from  colonial  days  for  raising  her  dough. 


with  stage  fever.  In  spite  of  pa- 
rental objections  she  entered  some 
years  later  the  American  Acad- 
emy of  Dramatic  Arts,  determined 
to  become  an  actress.  That  she 
attained  her  ambition  is  obvious  in 
a  glance  at  a  record  o^her  roles 
in  the  succeeding  years. 

She  was  Prudence  in  "Camille," 
in  both  the  Jane  Cowl  and  Eva 
LeGallienne  productions;  Maria  in 
Jane  Cowl's  "Twelfth  Night"; 
Clytemnestra  in  "Electro"  with 
Blanche  Yurka.  She  played  Ib- 
sen with  LeGollienne  on  Brood- 
way,  and  on  the  road.  In  "The 
Constant  Wife"  she  appeared 
with  Ethel  Borrymore,  and  in 
Broadway  productions  starring 
Margaret  Anglin,  Pot  O'Brien  and 
Spencer  Trocy.  Her  lost  appear- 
ance in  Chicogo  in  the  legitimate 
theater  was  with  the  Lunts  in  "The 
Taming  of  the  Shrew." 

For  ten  years,  off  and  on,  she 
had  radio  ports  in  such  ploys  os 
"Rich  Man's  Darling,"  and  "Loren- 
zo Jones,"  and  for  26  weeks  she 
played  over  the  oir  on  Ethel  Bar- 
rymore's  series,  "Great  Ploys." 
Then  two  years  ogo  she  settled 
down  to  radio  permanently  as 
Houseboat  Hannah,  and  subse- 
quently was  selected  to  ploy  Dor- 
is Moore  for  Northwestern  Yeost 
Company. 

She  has  mode  o  hobby  and  a 
home  collecting  Early  English  and 
American  Colonial  antiques.  Her 
particular  prizes,  among  o  well- 
bolonced  collection  that  hos 
caught  the  eye  of  more  than  one 
antiquarion,  include  an  old  linen 
press,  used  now  as  o  toble  — 
a  spice  box  which  hangs  on  the 
woll  —  on  English  tea  table  of 
1790,  complete  with  locks  —  a 
sailor's  sea  safe  with  a  tiny,  but 
efficient  combinotion  lock — o  cob- 
bler's bench  —  o  Lozy  Susan  tea 
toble  —  a  rosewood  music  stond 
—  and  o  small  but  fine  China 
collection  of  Edward  VIII  pieces. 
Her  Russian  milk  pan  is  just  one 
of  a  large  collection  of  antique 
cooking  vessels  of  bross  and  cop- 
per. 

The  only  note  from  Broadway 
is  o  miniature  theotricol  collboord, 
tucked  owoy  in  on  out-of-the-way 
comer  of  her  oportment,  v^here 
several  old  press  notices  are  dis- 
played. Among  these  ore  two 
about  Sarah  Bernhardt. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  NOVEMBER 


Page  19 


Jane  Alden 

Fashion 
Stylist 


This  ioimer  4-H  Club  girl  from  an  Iowa  farm  has 
attended  European  salon  style  openings,  attends  all 
the  American  openings,  and  as  a  leading  American 
stylist  today  interprets  personal  and  home  styles  for 
the  radio  audience  over  WLS,  Chicago. 


QNCE  UPON  a  time,  and  not  so 
long  ago,  either,  "well-dressed 
women  of  America  thought  fash- 
ions might  come  from  anywhere, 
but  style  —  ah.,  style  —  that  had 
to  come  from  Paris  I 

That  is  what  Jane  Alden 
thought,  too  —  ion  til  she  took  a 
trip  to  Paris.  She  knew  that  the 
American  girl  had  a  style  of  her 
own,  and  believed  she  should 
have  a  style  of  dress  of  her  own. 
So  she  returned  to  America  and 
embarked  on  a  career  of  inform- 
ing American  women  on  style. 

Jane  Alden  was  bom  on  a  farm 
in  Iowa  and  engaged  as  a  girl  in 
4-H  Club  activities,  like  so  many 
girls  living  on  forms  today.  But 
Jane  Alden  has  vision;  she  wanted 
to  bring  style  to  the  girls  on  the 
farms  of  America.  She,  too,  went 
to  Paris,  to  observe  the  fine  points 
of  style,  and  today  Jane  Alden  is 
known  to  millions  as  the  woman 
who  dresses  the  farmer's  daugh- 
ter. And  certainly,  thanks  to  radio 
and  motion  pictures,  the  farmer's 
daughter  today  wants  to  be 
dressed  in  up-to-the  minute  fash- 
ions. 

As  stylist  for  the  Chicago  Mail 
Order  Company,  Jane  Alden  con- 
ducts her  own  radio  program  over 
WLS,  Chicago,  at  10:30  A.  M. 
Tuesdays,  Thursdays  and  Satur- 
days. 

Miss  Alden's  gay,  chatty  talks 
have  proved  inspiring  to  many 
housewives,  since  her  down-to- 
earth  advice  on  personal  care  and 
charm,  as  well  as  on  good  groom- 
ilig  for  the  home  are  practical  and 
workable  on  limited  budgets.  The 
secret  of  her  appeal  is  the  bold, 
straight-forward  way  in  which  she 
blasts  through  the  snobbishness 
of  staging  which  characterizes 
many  presentations  of  Paris,  New 
York  and  Hollywood  designers. 
Miss  Alden  talks  in  the  plain,  Mid- 
Western  manner,  picks  out  the 
styles  she  thinks  practical  for 
American  women.  She  is  smart 
and  clever,  but  her  attitude  toward 
styles  is  refreshingly  direct. 

In  her  broadcasts,    entitled 

Page  20 


JANE  ALDEN 


"Fashions  for  Living",  Jane  Alden 
discusses  the  fashion  ideas/  of 
famous  and  interesting  personal- 
ities whom  she  has  interviewed 
especially  to  report  to  her  radio 
audience.  Among  those  whose 
interviews  are  to  be  reported  are 
Kate  Smith,  the  Grand  Duchess 
Marie,  Antoinette  Donnelly,  Or- 
chestra Leader  Griff  Williams, 
Prince  Obolensky,  Mrs.  Eleanor 
Roosevelt  and  Joan  Blaine,  the 
radio  actress. 

When  Jane  Alden  interviewed 
Joan  Blaine,  they  found  they  had 
a  lot  in  common,  for  they  grew 
up  on  neighboring  Iowa  farms. 
Miss  Alden  lived  on  a  500-acre 
farm  near  Fort  Dodge,  wnere  she 
grew  up  with  her  five  sisters.  She 
still  remembers  the  cold  Iowa 
winters,  how  when  the  men  would 
come  in  the  girlsi  would  yell 
"Close  the  door,"  and  hurry  to  put 
the  rug  back  against  the  crack 
between  the  door  and  the  floor, 
where  the  wind  and  snow  whis- 


tled in  and  sent  icy  shivers  up 
their  backs. 

She  well  remembers  how,  on 
rainy  days  she  and  her  lour  sis- 
ters would  cut  out  and  color  the 
paper  dolls  in  the  magazines.  But 
it  was  the  fine  weather  little  Jane 
Alden  really  liked,  the  days  when 
she  could  be  out  on  her  Shetland 
pony,  romping  over  the  rolling 
farmland.  It  was,  however,  best 
to  stay  away  from  the  farmyard 
with  her  pony.  For  whenever  Aunt 
Sally  saw  her  in  such  boyish  pur- 
suits. Auntie  would  call  her  in  for 
a  lesson  in  mending  or  darning 
socks,  with  a  warning  that  she 
had  to  learn  to  be  a  lady.  It  was 
Aunt  Sally,  too,  who  gave  her 
one  of  her  first  lessons  in  styling. 

Another  early  lesson,  too,  came 
from  Aiont  Sally.  Jane  was  fas- 
cinated by  the  variety  and  beauty 
of  a  neighbor's  clothes.  She  chat- 
tered away  to  her  Aunt  about 
them.  But  wise  Aunt  Sally  only 
nodded  her  head  and  answered: 
"She  should  have  nice  clothes. 
Every  cent  she  has,  she  puts  on 
her  back.  But  you  ought  to  see 
her  house." 

And  today,  Jane  Alden,  stylist, 
gives  a  large  part  of  her  broad- 
cast time  to  discussion  of  home 
furnishing,  as  well  as  to  clothes 
style  and  personal  charm. 

This  Iowa  farm  girl  has  grown 
to  be  a  style  leader,  a  true  sophis- 
ticate. She  attends  all  major  style 
openings  in  this  country,  and 
before  the  war,  all  those  in  Eu- 
rope, including  the  openings  of 
the  swank  salons  along  famous 
Parisian  boulevards. 

But  for  all  her  smart  style,  Jane 
Alden  is  still  a  home  girl,  prac- 
tical and  unspoiled.  One  of  her 
pet  peeves  is  the  heavy  smear  of 
lipstick  some  women  use  —  then 
leave  most  of  it  on  the  rim  of  a 
glass  or  coffee  cup.  And  Jane 
Alden  still  loves  to  get  back  to  the 
home  farm  in  Iowa,  to  rest  and 
visit  with  her  sisters  and  to  talk 
with  4-H  Club  girls  about  their 
dress  problems. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  NOVEMBER 


The  regulars  oi  the  Ouachita  Roundup,  heard  from  KTHS,  Hot  Springs,  each  Tuesday  night.  From 
left  to  right:  with  leis  around  their  necks,  the  Easterlies:;  standing,  Carl,  Lulubelle,  Truman,  Pee 
Wee  and  Cotton,  the  Skyliners:  second  from  the  right,  Ed  Appier.  The  remainder  are  members 
of  Cowboy  Jack's  Prairie  Pals.  In  addition  to  the  regulars,  from  fifteen  to  thirty  guests  appear  on 
the  Roundup  each  week. 


THE   QUACHITA   ROUNDUP 


THE  OUACHITA  ROUNDUP  is 
the  successor  to  a  barn  dance- 
type  of  show  which  has  been 
featured  on  KTHS,  Hot  Springs, 
weekly  for  the  past  thirteen  years. 
Originally  scheduled  as  a  Barn 
Dance,  the  program  was  first  con- 
ducted by  Campbell  Arnoux  in 
1929  and  was  broadcast  from  the 
studio  of  KTHS  until  the  spring 
of  1938  when  the  show  was  re- 
named the  Country  Store  and 
moved  to  the  city  auditorium. 

During  its  colorful  existence  the 
feature  has  presented  many  not- 
ables and  practically  all  the  out- 
standing hillbilly  and  cowboy  acts 
of  the  Southwest. 

At  one  time,  the  Country  Store, 
as  it  was  then  called  was  deluged 
with  rabbit's  feet.  During  a  per- 
formance one  night,  Ed  Appier, 
who    then    served    as    master    of 


ceremonies,  made  great  formality 
of  hanging  a  rabbit's  foot  on  the 
microphone.  Within  a  month  he 
had  received  rabbit's  feet  from 
thirty  states.  The  collection  in- 
cluded every  size  bunny  tootsie 
from  the  tiny  red  rabbit  in  Georgia 
to  the  great  Snowshoe  rabbit.  The 
response  wasn't  entirely  limited  to 
the  feet  of  rabbits.  A  bass  fiddle 
was  adorned  with  two  mule-sized 
ears  from  a  Texas  jack  for  many 
months. 

In  the  spring  of  1938,  the  Coun- 
try Store  had  grown  to  such  pro- 
portions that  acts  were  run  into 
the  studio  for  broadcast  in  relays, 
so  the  stage  of  the  city  auditorium 
was  set  to  simulate  a  Country 
Store  and  the  show  moved  there 
with  the  public  invited  to  attend. 

Shortly  afterward,  in  an  effort 
to  give  the  program  a  distinctive 


name  it  was  renamed  the  Ouachi- 
ta Roundup  after  the  Ouachita 
National  Forest  near  which  Hot 
Springs  is  located.  The  setting 
now  includes  a  campfire,  a  chuck 
wagon  and  bales  of  straw. 

Everett  Kemp  succeeded  Ed  Ap- 
pier as  master  of  ceremonies  and 
Pee  Wee  Roberts  took  over  in 
1939.  The  Ouachita  Roundup,  one 
of  the  oldest  shows  of  its  kind 
on  the  air,  has  moved  from  night 
to  night  and  had  many  changes 
in  talent,  but  it  continues  to  attract 
a  nationwide  audience.  Frequent- 
ly cards  are  received  from  listen- 
ers who  have  never  missed  a 
broadcast. 

The  Ouachita  Roundup  is  cur- 
rently heard  from  KTHS,  Hot 
Springs,  at  9:05  P.M.  Tuesday 
nights.  ■ 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


■NOVEMBER 


Pag-   2! 


Tommy  Dorsey  (right)  NBC's  "Sentimental  Gentleman  of  Swing," 
goes  over  the  script  of  his  new  series  with  his  featured  vocalists  Connie 
Haines  and  Frank  Sinatra.  Tommy  and  his  popular  gang  are  heard  over 
the  NBC-Blue  network  Thursdays  In  a  musical  show  called  "Fame  and 
Fortune." 


Charles  Penman  in  the  dual  role  of  director  and  leading  man  "John 
Fairchild"  in  CBS's  "Stepmother"  serial  gives  a  bit  of  advice  to  Barbara 
Fuller    (Peg    Fairchild)    and    Janet    Logan    (Kay    Fairchild). 

Poge  22 


Statement  Of  The  Ownership,  Man- 
agement, Circulation,  Etc.,  Required 
By  The   Acts  Of  Congress  Of  August 

24,   1912,   And    March   3,   1933. 
Of    RADIO    VARIETIES    published    monthly 
at   Chicago,    III.    for   October    I.    1940. 

State    of    Illinois,,    County    of    Cook — ss. 

Before  me,  a  notary  public  in  and  for  the 
State  and  county  aforesaid,  personally  ap- 
peared F.  L.  Rosenthal,  who,  having  been 
duly  sworn  according  to  law,  deposes  and 
says  that  he  is  the  Publisher  of  the  RADIO 
VARIETIES  and  that  the  following  is,  to 
the  best  of  his  knowledge  and  belief,  a  true 
statement  of  the  ownership,  management 
(and  if  a  daily  paper,  the  circulation), 
etc.,  of  the  aforesaid  publication  for  the 
date  shown  in  the  above  caption,  required 
by  the  Act  of  August  24,  1912,  as  amended 
by  the  Act  of  March  3,  1933,  embodied  in 
section  53  7,  Postal  Laws  and  Regulations, 
printed  on  the  reverse  side  of  this  form, 
to    wit: 

1 .  That  the  names  and  addresses  of  the 
publisher,  editor,  managing  editor,  and 
business    managers    are; 

Publisher   —    F.    L.    Rosenthal,    1056    Van 

Buren    Street 
Editor    —    Wilton    Rosenthal.     1056     Van 

Buren    Street. 
Managing    Editor    —    None. 
Business   Managers  —  None. 

2.  That  the  owner  is:  (If  owned  by  a 
corporation,  its  name  and  address  must  be 
stated  and  also  immediately  thereunder  the 
names  and  addresses  of  stockholders  own- 
ing or  holding  one  per  cent  or  more  of 
total  amount  of  stock.  If  not  owned  by  a 
corporation,  the  names  and  addresses  of 
the  individual  owners  must  be  given.  If 
owned  by  a  firm,  company,  or  other  unin- 
corporated concern,  its  name  and  address. 
a.5  well  as  those  of  each  individual  member, 
must  be   given.) 

F.  L.  Rosenthal,  115  S.  Illinois  Ave.,  Villa 
Pk.,  III.;  Wilton  Rosenthal,  3270  Lake 
Shore  Drive,   Chicago,   111. 

3.  That  the  known  bondholders,  mort- 
gagees, and  other  security  holders  owning 
or  holding  1  per  cent  or  more  of  total 
amount  of  bonds,  mortgages,  or  other 
securities  are:  (If  there  are  none,  so  state.) 
None. 

4.  That  the  two  paragraph's  next  above, 
giving  the  names  of  the  owners,  stock- 
holders, and  security  holders,  if  any,  con- 
tain not  only  the  list  of  stockholders  and 
security  holders  as  they  appear  upon  the 
books  of  the  company  but  also,  in  ca.ses 
where  the  stockholder  or  security  holder 
appears  upon  the  books  of  the  company  as 
trustee  or  in  any  other  fiduciary  relation, 
the  name  of  the  person  or  corporation  for 
whom  such  trustee  is  acting,  is  given;  also 
that  the  said  two  paragraphs  contain  state- 
ments embracing  affiant's  full  knowledge 
and  belief  as  to  the  circumstances  and  con- 
ditions under  which  stockholders  and  se- 
curity holders  who  do  not  appear  upon  the 
books  of  the  company  as  trustees,  hold 
■stock  and  securities  in  a  capacity  other 
than  that  of  a  bona  fide  owner;  and  this 
affiant  has  no  reason  to  believe  that  any 
other  person,  association  or  corporation 
has  any  interest  direct  or  indirect  in  the 
said  stock,  bonds,  or  other  securities  than 
as  so   stated   by   him. 

F.   L.  ROSENTHAL. 
Sworn    to    and    subscribed    before   me    this 
24th    day   of    October,    1940. 

M.  A.   BINDER, 
(Seal)  Notary    Publ» 

(My  commission  expires  Dec.  6,    1940.) 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  NOVEMBER 


rm  a  Hollywood  Farmer 


(Continued   from   page    9) 


and  began  to  plant  on  it.  i  nave 
361  acres  in  all  so  I  cultivated  a 
third  of  it  and  put  it  in  sugar  beets. 
I  did  a  lot  of  the  work  myself,  that 
is,  as  much  as  I  could  with  movie 
and  radio  Work.  And  my  very 
first  harvest  turned  out  just  dandy. 
I  not  only  paid  my  expenses,  but 
turned  a  little  proht.  The  next 
season  was  even  better  as  I  got 
to  know  more  about  sugar  beets 
and  how  to  raise  them.  I  never 
raised  sugar  beets  before,  you 
know,  though  I  did  have  my  share 
cf  farm  work,  both  in  Van  Buren 
and  on  my  uncle's  farm  in  Okla- 
homa during  my  wanderings.  I 
began  thinking  too  about  diver- 
sifying my  crops.  I  planted  some 
barley  and  black  eyed  peas  and 
lima  beans  and  had  luck  with  all 
of  them.  And  it  was  about  that 
time  that  I  decided  to  give  up  the 
house  in  Stone  Canyon  and  build 
a  home  of  my  own  right  there  on 
the  land. 

Well,  let  me  tell  you,  folks,  I've 
never  been  so  nappy  in  oil  my  life 
as  I've  been  since  we  moved  into 
the  house.  Why,  time  there  passes 
so  fast  that  when  I  get  to  the 
broadcast  on  Thursday  it  seems 
just  like  the  day  before  that  we 
did  last  Tnursday's.  And  that's  a 
pretty  sure  sign  a  fellow's  happy, 
1  guess,  when  times  begins  to  fiy 
that  fast.  There  ore  so  many  things 
to  do  around  the  farm  it  keeps 
every  one  of  us  busy  from  morn- 
ing till  night.  I've  got  six  hands 
now  who  live  on  the  ranch  per- 
manently, and  1  hire  as  many  as 
fifteen  at  harvest  time.  And  there 
isn't  a  cne  of  them  that's  idle.  I 
guess  they  like  the  soil  as  much 
3S  I  do. 

Of  my  351  acres,  there's  only 
six  that  aren't  planted.  That's  the 
six  I  built  the  house  on.  It's  not 
of  them  "style"  houses,  just  a 
plain,  white  ranch  house  with 
eleven  rooms,  and  believe  me,  we 
need  every  single  one  of  them, 
what  with  the  help  and  the  Missus 
and  the  kids.  By  the  time  you 
read  this,  there'll  be  onotner  one 
too,  (and  we've  been  prayin'  hard 
everything  turns  out  all  right), 
bom  right  in  the  house.  All  the 
other  children  were  bom  in  hos- 
pitals, but  we  didn't  want  this  one 
to    come    anywhere    but    in    the 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  NOVEMBER 


house.  1  was  born  in  a  house  and 
so  was  everyone  else  in  our  fam- 
ily back  in  Van  Buren,  and  I  wont 
at  least  one  of  my  kids  when  he 
grows  up  to  be  able  to  point  to 
our  house  and  scry,  "That's  the 
house  I  was  bom  in." 

We  do  all  the  iana  work  and 
all  the  hauling  ourselves.  1  own 
two  tractors  now,  and  two  trucJcs, 
and  ail  the  farm  implements  we 
need.  I  also  have  two  mules  to 
do  some  of  the  work  we  can't  do 
with  tractors  and  when  it  comes  to 
putting  on  the  harness  and  hitch- 
ing them  to  the  wagon,  I'm  just 
like  a  kid.  We  also  hcrve  a  cir- 
cular saw  with  which  we  cut  all 
the  wood  we  need  around  the 
place.  We  build  our  own  fences 
and  sheds  and  I  have  two  big 
bams  in  which  to  store  aifaJa. 
I've  started  growing  my  own  cufal- 
fa  already  with  the  iaea  in  mind 
cf  going  into  cattle  raising  next 
year.  I've  put  140  acres  into 
aifaifa,  and  I'm  going  to  buy  up 
some  of  the  lean  and  hungry 
pasture  cows  around  here  and 
fatten  them  up  for  the  market.  1  ex- 
pect to  m  a  k  e  a  prcLt  on  it,  cf 
course,  but  nothing  will  give  me 
a  bigger  kick  than  to  see  these 
cows  dig  their  noses  into  the 
alfalfa  and  eat  till  they  bulge.  All 
my  cattle  will  be  beef  catde.  I 
never  did  core  for  show  cattle. 

Well,  so  far  we've  worked  hard 
and  we've  made  the  ranch  pay 
for  itself.  I  even  flatter  myseif,  or 
maybe  it's  just  the  truth,  that  I 
could  quit  radio  and  movie  work 
right  now  and  live  off  that  form. 
What's  more  it  wouldn't  make  me 
unhappy.  But  don't  get  me  wrong. 
Being  a  radio  and  picture  come- 
dian is  my  line.  I'm  in  it  because 
I  like  it  and  I  aim  to  keep  on  try- 
ing to  entertain  you  as  long  as 
you'll  let  me,  even  if  it's  'till  I'm 
so  old  I  can't  blow  the  bazooka 
any  more.  If  anything,  that  farm 
of  mine  has  made  me  work  harder 
as  a  comedian  than  I  ever  did 
before.  It's  made  everything  in 
life  seem  more  substantial  and 
worth  while.  Maybe  that's  why 
God  gave  all  of  us  way  down 
deep  in  our  hearts  a  hunger  and 
a  love  for  land.  And  I  don't  know 
of  anything  else  but  land  that  a 
fellow  con  still  use  after  he's  dead. 


RADIO'S   SUPER   SALESMAN 

(Continued   from   page    1.0) 

BRANDT  was  born  Brandt 
Bloomquist  at  Lynn,  Mass., 
September  28,  1907,  but  was 
educated  on  the  other  side  of  the 
continent  at  the  University  of 
Washington.  An  orchestra  leader 
in  his  school  days,  he  became 
first  violinist  on  Station  KOMO  in 
1921.  Was  chief  announcer  at 
WROK  for  4  years  and  came  to 
NBC  in  August  1936.  A  perfect 
blond,  he  is  5  feet  10^2  inches  tall 
and  weighs  165  pounds.  He  is 
conductor  of  the  gossip  column 
of  the  air  known  as  Radio  Parade. 

PEARSON,  another  ex-radio 
singer,  sang  in  his  sparetime  over 
a  Shreveport,  La.,  station  while 
working  as  a  bank  teller.  He 
worked  later  in  radio  at  Port 
Arthur,  Texas,  and  on  KPRC, 
Houston.  He  came  to  NBC  in 
June  1935.  Born  in  Chattanooga, 
Tenn.,  on  May  3,  1909,  he  now 
may  be  heard  as  announcer  on 
The  Guiding  Light  for  Procter  & 
Gamble,  on  General  Mills'  Beat 
the  Band,  on  Miles  Laboratories' 
Quiz  Kids,  on  R.  J.  Reynolds' 
Uncle  Ezra  and  on  the  Fitch  Band- 
wagon . 

BROWN,  another  ex-singer, 
admits  he's  a  disappointed 
baritone.  His  early  training 
pointed  towards  a  vocal  career, 
but  he  left  the  Cincinnati  College 
of  Music  to  study  civil  engineer- 
ing at  the  University  of  Buffalo. 
Instead  of  following  engineering, 
he  took  a  radio  audition  at  WGR, 
later  moved  to  WLW  in  Cincin- 
nati. He  came  to  NBC  in  Chicago 
in  1932.  Is  5  feet,  11  inches  tall, 
weighs  140  pounds.  Is  regularly 
heard  on  The  Story  of  Mary 
Marlin  for  P  &  G's  Ivory  Soap  and 
on  Backstage  Wife. 

LYON,  like  Norman  Barry,  is 
an  ex-sailor.  He  is  also  an  ex- 
actor. He  played  juvenile  leads 
in  Cameo  comedies  in  Hollywood, 
later  joined  Stuart  Walker  Stock 
Company  in  Cincinnati,  played  ■ 
in  "The  Poor  Nut"  on  Broadway 
and  entered  radio  as  an  an- 
noimcer  at  WTAM  in  Cleveland. 
He  is  5  feet  9V2  inches  tall  and 
weighs  145  pounds.  Shows  on 
which  he  appears  as  announcer 
ore  Sach's  Amateur  Hour  on 
WENR,  Girl  Alone  for  Kellogg, 
Uncle  Walter's  Dog  House  and 
Plantation  Party . 

Page  23 


WSM 


brings  you  the  best  there 
is  in  radio  entertainment, 
eighteen    hours   a    day. 

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ACCIDENT  INSURANCE  CO. 

offers  you  the  best  there  is  in 
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you  on  any  matters 
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r     *     C.    A.    CRAIG,    Chairman  of  the    Board  lifflaBCa/ C .     R.     CLEMENTS,     President     •      7 

4-s ■ ViJSwPSy'/ I  '  y 


HOME  OFFICE^SfiHffifflR'NATIONAL  6L0G. 

NASHVILLE^i^TENNESSEE 


DECEMBER — 1940 


TEN   CENTS 


^ 


FORD  RUSH  —  WSM  STAR 


w* 


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¥ 

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'#MHMM 

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PATTER   OFF   THE   PLATTER 


BENNY  GOODMAN  is  back  and 
all's  right  with  the  orchestra 
worid!  The  clarinet  virtuoso  began 
recording  again  for  Columbia  last 
month  and  started  his  new  band 
on  a  round  of  one-nighters  through 
the  East.  The  records  are  swell 
and  the  band  is  certainly  the 
finest  outfit  Benny  has  ever 
fronted.  Take  "Wholly  Cats"  and 
"Royal  Garden  Blues",  two  Sextet 
numbers.  Both  feature  the  amaz- 
ing trumpeting  of  Cootie  Williams, 
formerly  Duke  Ellington's  ace 
growl  trumpet  man.  Then  there's 
Count  Basie's  piano  tricks  for  real 
thrills.  On  tenor  sax,  Benny  is 
spotting  Georgie  Auld,  who  had 
his  own  outfit  for  a  time  and  is 
rated  one  of  the  all-time  greats  on 
his  instrument.  Charlie  Christians 
plays  a  sparkling  electric  guitar 
and  bassist  Artie  Bernstein  shares 
rhythm  honors  with  drummer 
Harry  J.  Yaeger.  Through  both 
sides,  of  course,  runs  the  exciting 
clarinet  of  maestro  Goodman. 

With  his  big  crew,  Benny  disced 
"Henderson's  Stomp"  and  "No- 
body" on  conventional  10-inch 
platters  and  stepped  into  the  12- 
inch  field  with  a  super  coupling 
of  "The  Man  I  Love"  and  "Benny 
Rides  Again."  The  latter  pair  re- 
present the  high  point  of  modem 
jazz,  especially  in  Goodman's 
clarinet  takeoffs  with  drum  back- 
ing. 

Eddie  Sauter  and  Fletcher  Hen- 
derson ore  to  be  congratulated  for 
their  brilliant  arranging  feats  for 
the  ensemble.  Getting  15  top- 
flight soloists  to  sound  well  play- 
ing together  is  a  task  but  Benny 
and  the  arranging  staff  have  done 
a  marvelous  job.  Lend  an  ear 
to  Helen  Forrest,  one  of  the  nicest 
and  the  best,  of  today's  girl 
vocalists. 

Welcome  back,  Benny — there's 
nobody  to  fill  your  placel 

That  lovely  Hildegarde,  star  of 
stage,  radio,  theaters,  nightclubs 
and  any  other  amusement  field 
you  might  mention,  has  turned  out 
a  Decca  album  which  deserves 
mention.  Heldegarde  sings  Ver- 
non Duke  composition  in  a  lovely, 
eloquent  voice  that  grows  more 
pleasant  with  each  hearing.  The 
haunting  "April  in  Paris"  receives 
fresh    beauty    once     more     and 


"What  Is  There  To  Say"  doubles 
the  enjoyment.  You'll  like  every 
disc  in  the  collection. 


Boogie- Woogie  harpsichord  has 
another  expert  in  Artie  Shaw's 
pianist  John  Guamieri,  heard  to 
good  advantage  in  "Summit 
Ridge  Drive"  and  "Cross  Your 
Heart."  The  Gramercy  Five  con- 
tribute some  exemplary  chamber- 
music  jazz  to  this  coupling.  Lanny 
Ross  doubles  "Crosstown"  and 
"Maricmna  Annobelle"  for  a  neat 
twosome.  Hal  Kemp's  dcmceable 
music  grows  more  mellow  through 
the  years.  Try  "The  Moon  Fell  In 
The  River"  and  "Lady  With  Red 
Hair"  for  proof.  (Victor.) 


Raymond  Scott  continues  his 
sweet  series  with  "Yesterthoughts" 
and  "Strangers"  with  A-1  results. 
We  still  like  Dave  Harris'  tenor 
sax  though  against  any  soloist 
Ray  has  had  since  the  days  of  his 
first  big  band.  (Columbia). 


"Beat  Me  Daddy,  Eight  to  the 
Bar,"  seems  to  be  the  nation's 
theme  these  cold  Winter  days  and 
Woody  Herman  thrums  his  way 
through  another  exciting  version 
of  the  boogie  -  woogie  thriller. 
Reverse  is  "There  I  Go"  and 
features  excellent  Herman  vocal. 
Of  course,  if  you've  missed  Will 
Bradley's  waxing  of  "Beat  Me 
Daddy" — you  just  don't  live  right. 


Beatrice  Kay's  "Gay  Nineties" 
album  really  started  something. 
Tommy  Tucker  disced  an  interest- 
ing version  of  "Oceana  Roll"  and 
now  the  King  Sisters  harmonize 
"Don't  Go  In  The  Lion's  Cage 
Tonight."  Neither  Tommy  nor  the 
King  Sisters  come  up  to  Miss 
Kaye's  hilarities  with  the  tunes 
but  we  can  heartily  recommend 
them  anyway.  However,  we  can't 
recommend  E  r  s  k  i  n  e  Hawkins' 
tooting  "Norfolk  Ferry"  and  "Put 
Yourself  in  My  Place." 


CHATTER:  Look  for  Barry 
Wood's  first  Victor  discs...  Irene 
Beasley  with  a  new  idea  in 
children's  records...  Andre  Koste- 
lanetz'  new  album...  Edward  Kile- 
nyi  as  the  newest  and  brightest 
name  in  the  classical  field. 


RADIO    VARIETIES 


No.  3— Volume  12 


December  1940 


Patter  off  the  Platter  Page  2 

WMMN  In  the  SpotHght 3 

Information    Please 4 

Quick,  Watson— the  Needle! 5  &  20 

Dick  Powell  Builds  Dime  Stores 6.  7  &  16 

Louise  Massey  and  the  Westerners 8 

Meet    Mary    Ann 9 

What  I  Think  of  Swing 10 

Guiding  Light  Cast 11 

Down   on   the   Farm 12,  13  &  21 

Lets  Not  Be  Matter  of  Fact  About  Radio ' 15 

Housebcat   Hannah   Cast 17 

Letters  From  a  Flying  Cadet 18619 


F.  L.  ROSENTHAL,  Publisher 


WILTON  ROSENTHAL,  Editor 


Published  at  1056  West  Van  Buren  Street,  Chicago,  Illinois.  F.  L.  Rosenthal,  Publisher. 
New  York  Office:  485  Madison  Avenue,  Hollywood  Office:  3532  Sunset  Boulevard. 
Published  Monthly.  Single  Copies,  ten  cents.  Subscription  rate  $1.00  per  year  in  the 
United  States  and  Possessions,  $1.50  in  Canada.  Entered  as  second  class  matter  lanuary 
10,  1940,  at  the  post  office  at  Chicago,  Illinois,  under  the  act  of  March  3,  1879.  Every 
effort  will  be  made  to  return  unused  manuscripts,  photographs,  and  drawings  (if  accom- 
panied by  sufficient  first-class  postage  and  name  and  address),  but  we  will  not  be 
responsible  for  any  losses  for  such  matter  contributed.  The  publishers  assume  no 
responsibility  for  statements  made  herein  by  contributors  and  correspondents,  nor  does 
publication  indicate  approval   thereof. 


Pago  2 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  DECEMBER 


WMMN  IN  THE  SPOTLIGHT 


WMMN  JUST  RECENTLY  SECU- 
RED permission  to  go  5.000  watts 
nig]:  t  as  well  as  daytime,  and 
stoi-ted  on  its  increased  21  hour 
per  day  service  on  Nov.  1st.  It  is 
planned  to  give  a  mixed  program 
of  both  popular  and  Hill  Billy 
music  starting  every  morning  at 
3  o'clock.  One  of  the  station's 
featured  singers  of  songs,  Buddy 
Starcher,  will  be  heard  early  in 
the  mornings  for  the  first  few 
weeks.  This  increase  in  power  at 
night,  gives  WMMN,  5.000  watts 
day  and  night. 


BLAINE  SMITH,  ONE  OF  the 
most  popular  singers  ever  at 
WMMN,  returned  to  the  station 
early  in  October.  Blaine  left 
WMMN  two  years  ago  and  was 
heard  over  WLS,  Chicago  for  one 
year  after  leaving  WMMN.  On 
his  return,  Blaine  brought  a  com- 
pany of  five  people,  featuring  the 
Davis  Twins,  "Honey  and  Sonny" 
who  are  fast  winning  popularity 
with  their  songs.  Blaine  Smith 
and  his  "Home  Folks"  are  heard 
over  WMMN  every  afternoon  at 
4.30. 


THE  CAMPBELL  SISTERS,  BET- 
TER known  as  the  "Sagebrush 
Sweethearts"  now,  are  a  recent 
addition  to  the  talent  staff  at 
WMMN.  The  sisters,  a  blonde,  a 
red  head  and  a  brunette,  came  to 
WMMN  from  a  Youngstown  Ohio 
station,  and  their  sweet  harmony 
singing  has  already  stamped 
them  as  one  of  the  outstanding 
radio  acts  at  this  station. 


JOE  EDISON,  FORMERLY  WITH 
a  Youngstown  O.  station,  is  an- 
other recent  addition  to  the  an- 
nouncing staff  at  WMMN.  Joe  has 
also  been  appointed  chief  pro- 
ducer of  the  "Sagebrush  Round- 
up" a  week  jamboree  show  that 
WMMN  presents  every  Saturday 
night  at  the  Fairmont,  Armory. 


FOXY  WOLFE,  PROGRAM 
DIRECTOR  of  station  WMMN, 
Fairmont,  W.  Va.  has  been  just 
about  the  busiest  man  on  two  legs 
the  past  thirty    days,    what    with 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  DECEMBER 


the  election  and  scheduling  new 
radio  acts,  plus  his  other  work.  It 
might  be  added  here  that  Foxy 
has  just  about  settled  down  to  a 
contented,  happy  married  life, 
and  we  rather  expect  that  many 
cold  winter  nights  he  will  be  at 
home  toasting  his  "Tootsies"  in- 
stead of  being  at  the  station  work- 
ing until  the  week  small  hours. 


UNCLE  NAT  ROYSTER,  WHO 
started  his  "Uncle  Nat's  Kiddie 
Club"  program  on  WMMN  a  year 
ago,  will  soon  celebrate  his  first 
Kiddie  Club  anniversary.  During 
the  year  he  has  taken  into  the 
club  more  than  11.000  paid  up 
members.  The  program  is  a 
regular  weekly  feature,  being 
broadcast  every  Satiorday  morn- 
ing at  11  A.  M. 


ONE  OF  THE  MOST  modern 
improvements  made  at  station 
WMMN,  is  the  new  recording 
equipment  which  was  installed 
this  summer.  It  is  just  about  the 
last  word  in  equipment,  and 
enables  WMMN  to  make  trans- 
criptions, at  a  minutes  notice.  The 
recording  equipment  is  under  the 
supervision  of  Roy  Heck,  chief 
engineer  of  station  WMMN. 


THE  WMMN  SAGEBRUSH 
ROUNDUP,  a  Saturday  night  jam- 
boree show  celebrated  its  third 
birthday,  on  November  16th,  in 
the  Fairmont  Armory,  Fairmont, 
W.  Va.  where  it  played  to  almost 
fifteen  hundred  paid  admissions 
for  the  one  show.  The  "Sage- 
brush Roundup"  was  started  three 
years  ago  at  WMMN  as  a  studio 
presentation  but  soon  became  so 
popular  that  it  moved  into  the 
National  Guard  Armory  in  Fair- 
mont, and  later  made  several 
personal  appearance  tours  which 
brought  capacity  houses  every- 
where. Consisting  of  practically 
every  member  of  the  talent  staff 
from  WMMN,  The  Roundup  fea- 
tures vaudeville  skits,  hill  billy 
and  western  music  and  songs, 
with  lots  of  excellent  novelty 
thrown  in  for  good  measure.  Each 
Saturday  night    at    the  Fairmont 


Armory  brings  visitors  from  Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland,  and  Ohio, 
some  of  whom  travel  more  than 
two  hundred  miles  to  see  this 
popular  jamboree  show.  Joe 
Edison  is  producer. 


PAT  MORAN,  ONE  OF  the 
WMMN  announcers,  is  the  proud 
father  of  a  bouncing  ten  pound 
four  ounce  boy,  christened  David 
Patrick  Moran.  Mother  and  child 
are  up  and  doing  fine.  Pat  was 
one  of  the  first  announcers  on 
WMMN,  and  had  been  with  the 
station  almost  continuously  since 
its  inception.  Pat  says  he  will 
make  a  football  star  out  of  the 
boy  some  day. 


BUDGE  AND  FUDGE  ARE  two 
new  editions  to  the  talent  staff  at 
WMMN,  coming  here  two  weeks 
ago.  They  work  with  Buddy 
Starcher,  and  are  expected  to 
make  personal  appearances  short- 

ly. 


ARIZONA  RUSTY,  WHO  HAS 
been  a  WMMN  feature  for  several 
months,  left  for  St.  Louis,  Mo.  on 
November  1 5th,  to  become  a  mem- 
ber of  Pappy  Cheshire's  radio  act 
there  at  one  of  the  leading  station. 


COWBOY  LOYE,  ONE  OF  the 
most  popular  radio  personalities 
to  appear  at  WMMN,  has  given 
up  making  personal  appearances 
due  to  his  health,  but  we  are 
happy  to  say  that  he  is  improving 
rapidly,  and  so  far  seldom  misses 
his  daily  broadcast. 


A  SMALL  RECREATION 
ROOM,  something  new  for  station 
WMMN,  has  been  added  just 
recently,  and  the  radio  acts  as 
well  as  other  members  of  the  staff 
when  off  duty  can  be  found  quite 
often  playing  ping  pcng,  table 
tennis  and  other  games  arranged 
for  their  pastime.  Joe  Wright, 
head  keeper  of  the  recreation 
room,  is  even  learning  to  play 
ping  pong  between  songs  which 
he  writes  occasionally. 

Pag«  3 


These  are  the  "regulars"  of  the  "Information  Please"  board  of  experts  and  their  quizmaster.    Left 

to  right,  top:    John  Kieran,  Franklin  P.  Adams;  bottom,  Oscar  Levant,  Clifton  Fadiman,  quizmaster. 

Page  4  RADIO  VARIETIES  —  DECEMBER 


Quick,  Watson  — the  Needle! 


Radio's  favorite  sleuth   Sherlock   Holmes,   portrayed   by    Basil    Rathbone. 
RADIO  VARIETIES  —  DECEMBER 


TF  sir  Arthur  Conan  Doyle  were 
writing  today,  he  would  have 
an  easier  job  describing  Sherlock 
Holmes  to  his  readers  than  he  did 
at  the  turn  of  the  century.  Instead 
of  a  careful  inventory  of  Holmes' 
physical  characteristics,  ne  could 
have  passed  the  description  off 
v/ith  a  single  sentence. 

"Sherlock  Holmes",  he  might 
have  said,  "was  a  tall,  spare  man 
with  piercing  eyes,  a  resonant 
voice,  a  vibrant  personality  —  in 
short  a  Basil  Rathbone  with  a 
flair  for  criminology". 

Dr.  Watson  would  be  easier. 
"Picture  Nigel  Bruce",  our  pre- 
sent-day Doyle  would  say.  "Give 
him  a  battered  doctor's  bag,  and 
dull  his  sense  of  humor,  and  you 
Vv'ould  see  Dr.  Watson  as  he  was 
when  he  shared  rooms  at  221 
Baker  street  with  Mr.  Sherlock 
Holmes." 

The  physical  resemblance 
between  Basil  Rathbone  and 
Sherlock  Holmes,  and  betweeii 
Nigel  Bruce  and  Dr.  Watson  start- 
led even  Denis  Conan  Doyle,  son 
of  the  famous  writer  of  the  Sher- 
lock Holmes  stories,  when  he 
visited  NBC's  Hollywood  Radio 
City  recently  and  saw  a  radio 
performance  of  one  of  his  father's 
mystery  thrillers  for  the  first  time. 
"Admirable,  absolutely  admir- 
able", Conan  Doyle  commentated 
as  he  watched  Rathbone  and 
Bruce  in  action.  "I  have  never 
seen  a  better  portrayal  of  Holmes 
— and  I  have  seen  many.  Bruce 
and  Rathbone  resemble  almost  to 
perfection  my  father's  conception 
of  the  characters." 

There  is  more  than  physical 
similarity  between  the  NBC  actors 
and  their  fictional  counterparts. 
Holmes  absorbed  Sherlock  Holmes 
during  his  childhood  and  youth 
in  England,  and  he  knows  the 
people  Holmes  knew,  and  the 
country  where  many  of  the  cases 
described  in  Conan  Doyle's  books 
were  set.  He  has  wandered 
London's  back  streets,  the  Down 
country,  and  the  bleak  moors 
where  Holmes  and  Watson 
tracked  down  "The  Hound  of  the 
Baskervilles." 

As  for  Nigel  Bruce,  his  Scottish 
ancestry   and  his  English  educa- 
tion combine  to  give  an  authentic 
(Continued  on  pcge  20) 

Page  5 


DICK  POWELL  BUILDS  DIME  STORES 


by  JOE  ALVIN 

r)ICK  POWELL,  star  of  NBC's 
MAXWELL  HOUSE  COFFEE 
TIME,  is  the  Hcllywood  actor  who 
builds  dime  stores  for  million 
dollar  babies  to  work  in.  He 
doesn't  do  it  for  publicity,  even  if 
he  did  stage  the  world's  first  pre- 
miere cf  a  five  and  ten  cent  store 
in  Long  Beach,  California,  this 
year.  Dick  does  it  because  h.3 
gets  a  kick  out  of  it;  because  he 
likes  to  see  buildings  come  up 
where  there  was  only  a  vacant 
let  before;  because  he  likes  to  see 
homes  cluster  and  grow  around 
a  business  establishment  and 
form  the  nucleus  of  a  new  com- 
munity; and  last  but  not  least, 
because  he  likes  to  make  money. 
So,  you  find  Powell  building  dime 
stores  for  million  doliar  babies 
besides  singing  about  them.  You 
find  him  building  other  store 
buildings  and  homes  he  hopes  to 
sell  at  a  profit. 

An  actor  in  years  gene  by 
wasn't  supposed  to  have  any 
business  sense.  Many  of  them 
didn't,  like  the  old  screen  stars  to 
whom  Hollywood  owes  so  much 
today  for  the  lesson  they  taught 
it.  The  old  stars  had  expected 
their  big  earnings  to  go  on  forever, 
but  they  didn't  put  anything  away 
for  the  future.  When  their  pop- 
ularity began  to  dim,  when  the 
public  turned  to  other  favorites, 
they  found  themselves  broke, 
jobless  and  in  many  instances, 
even  homeless,  in  a  world  which 
owes  a  living  to  no  one.  Those 
Hcllywood  actors  were  the 
pioneers  in  a  new  profession  and 
their  hardships  taught  those  who 
followed  a  tremendous  lesson. 
That  fabulous  salaries  of  Holly- 
wood are  almost  as  short-lived  as 
the  rainbow,  and  that  the  actor, 
who  like  the  squirrel,  doesn't  store 
away  some  of  "the  nut",  is  cer- 
tain to  face  the  prospect  of  a 
dreary  winter  of  future. 

Here  is  the  way  Dick  Powell 
Icoks  at  it: 

"I  consider  myself  very  for- 
tunate for  the  opportunities  that 
brought  what  talent  God  gave  me 
to  the  attention  of  the  public,  and 
I  am  grateful  for  the  compensation 
that  talent  has  brought  me.     And 

Page  6 


Dick  Powell  cuts  the  ribbon  that  officially  opens  his  dime  store  in  Long 
Beach  while  NBC  stars,  including  Warren  Hull,  Irene  Rich  entertains 
the  crowds — sign   autographs. 


for  that,  if  for  no  other  reason,  1 
would  consider  myself  a  fool  to 
squander  the  money  1  earn. 
Money  often  has  been  called 
Power.  And  that's  what  it  can 
be,  a  power  sometimes  used  to 
destroy,  as  in  war;  or  a  power  to 
create,  as  by  and  large  the  human 
race  has  used  it  in  times  of  peace. 
1  am  using  money  to  create  things 
that  weren't  in  the  world  before — 
neighborhood  stores  that  save  the 
housewife  tiring  trips  to  do  her 
shopping  downtown — places  that 
serve  a  purpose  and  fill  a  need." 

Powell  doesn't  pretend  to  be  a 
crusader  flying  a  banner  of  ser- 
vice.    He  expects  to  earn  a  fair 


return  for  the  time,  effort  and 
money  he  puts  into  one  of  his  real 
estate  projects.  He's  not  ashamed 
of  turning  an  honest  penny  or  an 
honest  dollar  for  profit.  Besides 
being  an  actor  and  a  real  estate 
man,  he  is  also  a  husband  and  a 
father.  He  wants  to  be  able  to 
provide  for  his  family  when  the 
time  comes  in  the  future  when  his 
screen  or  radio  earnings  stop.  He 
wants  his  children  to  get  a  proper 
start  in  life  and  be  able  to  meet 
the  complex  and  bewildering 
world  of  today.  He  wants  to 
provide  for  the  best  education  their 
minds  can  absorb.  If  such  motives 
are  selfish,     then     those  are  the 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  DECEMBER 


FOR  MILLION  DOLLAR  BABIES 


Dick  entertains   at   gala    opening    of    the    drug    store    which     leases   his 
building. 


selfish  motives  behind  Powell's 
efforts  to  make  wise  investments. 
There  is  something  else  too,  the 
satisfaction  he  gets  out  of  bus- 
iness deals. 

"As  far  back  as  I  can  remem- 
ber, even  in  my  boyhood  days  in 
Arkansas,  I  always  got  a  kick  out 
of  selling  or  trading  things,"  said 
Powell.  "I  suppose  it  was  nothing 
more  than  a  top  or  a  jack-knife 
in  those  days.  But  that  instinct  in 
me  was  almost  as  strong  as  the 
love  for  music.  Not  many  of  the 
boys  who  worked  with  me  in  the 


band  in  Indianapolis,  early  in  my 
career,  knew  that  in  my  spare 
time  I  was  selling  life  insurance 
on  the  side.  The  business  world 
always  has  intrigued  me  and 
figures  were  never  a  bore.  For 
many  years,  however,  I  did  noth- 
ing much  about  it  except  for  side- 
lines like  the  insurance  job  in 
Indianapolis.  Then,  after  breaking 
into  motion  pictures  and  settling 
down  to  a  fairly  regular  life  in 
Hollywood,  I  decided  to  build  a 
home.  I  bought  twenty-two  acres 
in    Toluca   Lake,    and   got  it  at  a 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


DECEMBER 


good  price.  That  was  before 
Toluca  Lake  became  the  residen- 
tial district  it  is  today.  I  built  my 
house  on  two  acres,  and  by  that 
time,  the  neighborhood  began  to 
bcom.  Property  went  up  in  value. 
I  was  made  an  offer  for  my  other 
twenty  acres.  The  offer  was  too 
good  to  turn  down.  So  good,  in 
fact,  that  the  profit  en  those  twenty 
acres  paid  for  my  house." 

To  make  a  long  story  short,  that 
was  the  beginning  of  even  space 
Powell's  activity  in  real  estate.  He 
began  building  houses  and  selling 
them.  "Maybe  I  v/as  lucky  or  may- 
be I  used  my  head."  Dick  told  me. 
"I'm  not  sure.  But  so  far,  I've  built 
nine  of  them  and  haven't  lost  any 
money  yet."  He  didn't  make  any 
Florida  boom  profits,  of  course. 
The  important  thing  was,  he  d.dn't 
lose  any  money.  Yet,  as  mterest- 
ing  as  he  found  this  Ling  into  the 
ccnstruction  gam.e,  it  wasn't  really 
what  he  wanted.  He  wanted  to 
build  something  that  would  serve 
as  a  long-term  investment.  If  you 
ever  had  money  to  invest,  you  can 
appreciate  what  a  problem  it  can 
be  to  invest  it  wisely.  What  fi- 
nally gave  Powell  the  idea  of 
putting  it  into  store  buildings  and 
ccmmunity  business  blocks  was 
a  trip  to  his  home  town  of  Little 
Rock,  Arkansas. 

There  isn't  a  one  cf  us  who 
doesn't  remember  every  store  on 
Main  Street  and  even  the  name 
of  every  owner  during  the  boy- 
hcod  days  when  we  roamed  up 
and  down  the  street  in  search  cf 
adventure  —  or  trouble.  Walking 
up  and  down  Main  Street  in 
Little  Rock  during  that  visit,  he 
became  curious  to  find  out  how 
many  of  the  old  stores  were  still 
there  and  how  many  were  under 
the  same  management.  He  found 
most  of  the  old  store  fronts  gone. 
Some  of  them  were  left.  Those 
that  were  left  were...  dime  stores, 
drug  stores  and  department  stores. 

"It  occurred  to  me,"  explained 
Pcwell,  "if  that  type  ot  store  was 
the  type  that  remained  in  the 
community  longest,  then  that  was 
the  type  that  represented  the  best 
long  range     investment     in     real 

(Continued  on  Page   16) 

Page  7 


Louise  Massey  and  the  Westerners 


Louise  Massey  and  the  Westerners  have  four  shows  every 
week  on  WLS,  Chicago.  Principal  among  these  is  their  half- 
hour  prcgram  which  opens  the  WLS  National  Barn  Dance  at 
7  p.  m.  each  Saturday  night.  Their  other  programs  are  at  6:45 
p.  m.  on  Tuesdays,  Thursdays  and  Fridays.  Left  to  right  are 
Larry,    Milt,   Curt,   Louise   and   Allen. 


LOUISE  MASSEY  and  the 
West3rners,  who  are  heard  four 
times  each  week  en  WLS,  Chica- 
go, ore  practically  a  family  group. 
First,  cf  ccur?e,  there's  Louise  her- 
self. Then  there's  her  husband, 
Milt  Mabia,  v/ho  plays  bass  fiddle 
in  the  act;  her  two  brothers.  Curt 
the  vi'linist  and  Allen  the  guitar- 
ist. And  the  fifth  member  is  an 
outsider  v,ho  works  so  well  with 
the  group  that  one  might  think 
he'd  been  raised  with  them;  he 
is  Larry  Wellington,  acccrdionist. 

Page  8 


Louise  Massey' s  birthday  is 
August  10,  and  like  Curt  and 
Allen,  she  was  born  in  Midland, 
Texas.  She  is  five  feet  five  inches 
tall,  weighs  128  pounds,  and  has 
black  hair,  brcwn  eyes,  and  olive 
skin. 

Milt  Mabie  was  born  on  one 
June  27  in  Independence,  Iowa,  is 
six  feet  tall,  weighs  185  pounds, 
and  has  brown  hair,  blue  eyes 
light  skin. 

Dott  Curtiss  Massey  celebrates 
his  birthday  on  May  3,  is  six  feet 


two  inches  tall,  weighs  195  pounds 
and  like  Allen,  has  the  same 
coloring  as  Louise. 

Allen's  birthday  falls  on  Decem- 
ber 12  and  he  is  the  same  height 
and  weight  as  his  brother-in-law, 
Milt. 

Larry  was  born  in  Oxnard, 
California,  one  February  15.  He 
is  five  feet  eight  inches  tall, 
weighs  160  pounds,  and  has  light 
brown  hair,  blue  eyes  and  fair 
skin. 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


DECEMBER 


Meet    Hary   Ann 


MARY  ANN    ESTES 


This  is  the  story  of  Mary  Ann 
and  her  ambition.  For  Mary  Ann, 
although  only  21  years  old  (and 
barely  that),  has  already  achieved 
her  goal,  fulfilled  her  life's  ambi- 
tion. Four  years  ago  when  she 
first  started  singing  and  yodeling 
her  songs  over  the  airwovers, 
Mary  Ann  set  her  goal  —  to  be 
on  the  staff  of  WLS,  Chicago. 

And  since  September  of  this 
year,  that  is  just  where  Mary  Ann 
has  been  —  at  WLS  in  Chicago. 
She  is  heard  regularly  on  Smile- 
A-While  5  to  6  A.  M.  daily;  with 
the  Prairie  Ramblers  at  6:30  A.  M. 
on  Tuesdays,  Thursdays  and  Sat- 
urdays; on  Merry-Go-Round  at  2 
P.  M.  Saturdays  and  on  the  WLS 
National  Born  Dance  every  Satur- 
day night. 

Her  full  name  is  Mary  Ann 
Estes,  and  she  was  born  in  Cres- 
cent, Ohio,  on  November  10,  1919, 
making  her  21  years  old  less  than 
a  month  ago.  She  is  really  a 
small  town  girl  who  has  made 
good  in  the  big  city,  for  her  home 
town  of  Crescent  has  a  popula- 
tion of  only  300.  Mary  Ann  went 
to  grade  school  there,  but  since 
there  was    no    high    school,    she 


continued  her  education  at  Bridge 
port  (Ohio)  high  school,  commut- 
ing from  her  home  via  school  bus. 

Mary  Ann  was  really  not  a 
stage  struck  youngster.  She 
learned  to  play  the  guitcrr  and 
sang  because  she  liked  to.  People 
liked  her  music  and  she  enjoyed 
herself;  so  it  was  only  natural 
that  she  made  a  number  of  ap- 
pearances in  amateur  entertain- 
ments. This  led  to  her  being  in- 
vited to  participate  in  a  minstrel 
show  at  Wheeling,  West  Virginia. 

One  of  the  other  acts  in  the 
minstrel  show  was  a  quartet,  the 
Rhythm  Rangers,  who  were  broad- 
casting regularly  on  WWVA  in 
Wheeling.  They  were  intrigued 
by  the  singing  of  this  cute  little 
brunette  and  demanded  to  meet 
her.     They  suggested  cm  audition, 

Mary  Ann  was  at  Wheeling  for 
three  years,  with  a  few  months  off 
here  and  there  while  she  worked 
at  several  Ohio  and  West  Vir- 
ginia stations.  It  was  like  old 
home  week  at  WLS  when  Mary 
Ann  arrived.  She  came  to  Chica- 
go from  Fairmont,  West  Virginia, 
where  she  worked  with  Joe  Rock- 
hold,    Smiley    Sutter    and  Jimmie 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


DECEMBER 


James,  all  three  of  them  now  with 
WLS  in  Chicago, 
and  with  hopes  none  too  high, 
Mary  Ann  approached  the  studio. 
She  was  accepted  as  soon  as  she 
had  sung  her  first  number,  and 
the  Rhythm  Rangers  then  and 
there  became  a  fivesome. 

Already  her  old  friends  have 
started  teasing  her  about  an  old 
weakness — Mary  Ann's  fondness 
for  dill  pickles  and  home-made 
bread.  She  really  does  like  them 
— better  than  any  other  foods, 
she  says  —  but  being  kidded 
publicly  about  them  was  net  her 
idea.  She  has  not  objected,  how- 
ever, for  in  the  past,  the  kidding 
has  paid  big  dividends.  Every- 
time  she  made  a  personal  ap- 
pearance at  a  theater  or  picnic  or 
fair  when  she  was  working  in  the 
East,  some  listener  would  come 
back  stage  with  one  or  more 
leaves  cf  home  -  made  bread; 
another  would  scon  follow  with 
a  big  jar  cf  pickles  —  and  it 
might  go  on  like  that  for  an  hour. 
That's  when  Mary  Ann  is  her 
happiest  —  getting  to  know  her 
listeners  intimately  —  and  in- 
cidentally getting  a  sufficiency  of 
dill  pickles  and  home  -  baked 
bread. 

Mary  Ann  herself  is  quite  a 
cook,  but  her  kitchen  repertoire, 
she  admits,  is  somewhat  limited. 
What  she  does  cook,  she  cooks 
exceptionally  well,  and  no  one 
ever  turns  down  an  invitation  to 
one  of  Mary  Ann's  periodic  feasts 
of  Hungarian  goulash.  Another 
"guest"  dish  that  brings  them 
back  is  Mary  Ann's  beef  stew. 

She  makes  no  pretense  of  being 
a  gocd  cook  however,  admitting 
only  that  she  can  "cook  a  little." 
Information  on  her  culinary 
delicacies  had  to  be  obtained  frcm 
friends  who  hove  been  her  guests. 
But  from  Mary  Ann  herself,  one 
learns  that  the  one  thing  she  likes 
to  cook  above  all  others  is  pork 
chops  —  fried  pork  chops.  "1 
like  the  smell,"  she  explains; 
"they  smell  so  good  when  they're 
frying  that  it's  just  like  eating  pork 
chops  for  half  an  hour  at  a  time. 

And  that's  the  story  of  Mary 
Ann,  small  town  girl  who  made 
good  in  the  big  city  —  a  girl  who 
fulfilled  her  lifetime  ambition 
before  she  was  21  years  old  — 
an  awfully  cute  little  girl  who 
has  become  a  favorite  of  the  WLS 
audience  in  only  a  few  short 
months. 

Page  9 


1 


What  I 


Think  of 


Swing 


By  Glenn  Miller 


"VJhai  do  you  think  of  swing?" 

'A  personable  young  repre- 
sentative of  the  genus  jitterbug  ap- 
proached me  between  dance  num- 
bers at  a  college  hop  recently 
and  pinioned  me  v/'ith  that  ques- 
tion. 

It  was  like  asking  Babe  Ruth 
v/hat  he  thinks  of  baseball  or 
Rcscoe  Turner  how  he  feels  about 
flying.  Paraphrasing  an  old  bal- 
lad 1  gave  her  the  obvious  an- 
swer: 

"It  made  me  what  I  am  today." 
In  justice  to  swing  I  coulcn't 
honestly  paraphrase  more  than 
the  opening  line  of  that  venerable 
tearjerker  —  "The  Curse  of  an 
Aching  Heart,"  I  think  it  was 
called — for  swing  hasn't  "dragged 
ME  down  'til  hope  within  me 
died." 

Quite  the  contrary.  It  has  lifted 
my  orchestra  into  the  top  bracket 
cf  dance  bands  and  brought  me 
a  modest  measure  of  fame  and 
fortune  —  which  I  hope  will  not 
be  too  fleeting. 

Page   10 


Glenn  Miller,  the  Iowa  farm  boy  who  recently  signed  a  movie  contract  with  his  band  for 
$IGO,ODO.    His  BEuebird  recordings  place  him  in  the  tcp  spot  as  America's  favorite  band. 


There  is  more  to  it  than  that 
however. 

If  there  is  one  thing  1  like,  it  is 
good  music.  I  have  never  had 
enough  of  it.  And  swing  is  good 
music — when  intelligently  played. 

Two  of  my  pet  "hates"  are  (1) 
bad  music  and  (2)  people  who 
detest  swing.  The  first  is  usually 
responsible  for  the  second. 

Perhaps  I  should  be  more  tol- 
erant of  people  who  don't  like 
swing,  for  there  have  been  a  lot 
of  musical  crimes  perpetrated 
in  its  name. 

Some  misguided  musicians 
seem  to  feel  that  to  swing  g  num- 
ber it  it  necessary  only  to  "give 
until  it  hurts."  Their  prime  objec- 
tive appears  to  be  to  smash  be- 
yond hope  of  repair  the  eardrums 
cf  the  defenseless  customers. 

You  must  have  a  good  basic 
melody  before  you    con    success- 


fully swing  it.  It  can  be  sad  or  it 
can  be  gay  —  but  it  must  be  tune- 
ful. And  to  produce  real  swing, 
the  band  has  got  to  give  out  some- 
thing more  than  deafening  sound 
and  fury. 

Experience  has  convinced  me 
that  even  the  most  rabid  alligators 
prefer  their  tom-toms  muffled  by 
other  sounds  of  the  jungle.  Rhyth- 
mic dissonances  send  shivers 
down'  the  spine  but  when  they  are 
blatantly  poured  out  in  unre- 
strained volume,  the  resultant 
effect  can  be  completely  paralyz- 
ing. 

Swing  fundamentally  is  jungle 
music.  While  I  don't  Pelong  to 
the  Explorers'  Club,  I'm  reason- 
ably certain  that  our  foremost 
jungles  have  more  to  offer  in 
pleasing  sound  effects  in  their 
warbling  birds'  songs  than  in  the 

(Continued   on  Page   14) 
RADIO  VARIETIES  —  DECEMBER 


Guiding  Light  Cast 


INHABITANTS    OF    "FIVE    POINTS"    GET    READY     TO   GO  ON   THE   AIR 


Members  of  the  cast  of  the  Guiding  Light, 
which  is  broadcast  IVIondays  through  Fridays  at  9:45 
a.m.  and  4:30  p.m.  CST  over  the  NBC-Red  network. 
The  setting  of  the  serial  is  in  the  mythical  melting 
pot  community  of  "Five  Points."  Left  to  right, 
front    row:     Ruth     (Rose     Kransky)     Bailey;     Gladys 


(Torchy  Reynolds)  Heene;  Dr.  John  Ruthledge; 
Mignon  (Mrs.  Kransky)  Schreiber;  Muriel  (Frede- 
ricka  Lang)  Bremner;  Betty  (Iris  Marsh)  Arnold. 
Back  Row:  Bill  (Charles  Cunningham)  Bouchey; 
Paul  (Jack  Felzer)  Barnes;  Phil  (Ellis  Smith)  Dakin, 
and  Seymour    (Jacob   Kransky)   Young. 


THE  LIVES  of  half-a-dozen  people 
color  the  pattern  that  is  the 
Guiding  Light,  now  in  its  fourth 
year  as  an  NBC  network  serial. 
Dr.  John  Ruthledge,  kindly  minister 
of  the  mythical  melting  pot  com- 
munity of  Five  Points,  is  the  central 
character  actor,  made  his  debut 
and  his  gentle,  understanding  in- 
fluence, the  various  personalities 
and  plots  revolve. 

Dr.  Ruthledge  is  portrayed  by 
Arthur  Peterson,  who  nas  tilled 
the  role  since  the  show  was  first 
inaugurated.  Peterson,  a  talented 
character  actor,  made  his  debut 
reciting  "pieces"  in  Sunday 
school.  Oddly  enough,  when  he 
matriculated  at  the  University  of 
Minnesota,  that  school's  vocation- 
al guidance  department  recom- 
mended that  he  study  for  the 
ministry. 


Although  Peterson  once  served 
as  junior  superintendent  of  a  Sun- 
day School,  the  grease  paint  tradi- 
tion is  strong  in  his  family  —  both 
grandparents  on  both  sides,  his 
parents,  uncles,  aunts  and  his 
wife  were  all  connected  with  the 
theater.  Some  of  them  still  are. 
So  it  was  more  than  natural  that 
Arthur  follow  their  lead. 

Born  in  Mandan,  North  Dakota, 
Peterson  was  graduated  from  the 
University  of  Minnesota.  He  had 
the  theater  as  his  goal  from  kinder- 
garten days  onward,  cmd,  by  the 
time  he  received  his  sheepskin, 
he  already  had  900  performances 
to  his  credit.  He  went  directly 
into  stock  and  repertory  theaters 
and  from  there  to  Chicago  and 
radio. 

Currently,  in  the  serial,  the  plot 


RADIO   VARIETTIES 


DECEMBER 


most  intimately  touching  Dr.  Ruth- 
ledge's  life  is  centered  around  his 
secretary-church  organist,  Laura, 
added  to  the  parsonage  after  the 
marriage  cf  Mary,  the  Doctor's 
daughter.  The  discovery  that 
Laura  is  a  kleptomaniac  has 
driven  away  Ellen,  the  house- 
keeper for  many,  many  years. 

The  Doctor's  daughter  is  now 
the  wife  of  Ned  Holden,  a  young 
man  reared  in  the  parsonage.  The 
marriage  has  been  brought  about 
recently,  after  many  trials  for  the 
young  people.  Once,  just  before 
their  wedding,  Ned  discovered 
that  his  father  was  a  thief  and  a 
blackmailer;  that  his  mother, 
Fredericka  Lang,  had  shot  her  hus- 
band rather  than  let  him  influence 
her     son's     life.     The     discovery 

(Continued  on  Page   19) 

Page  11 


Down  on  the  Farm 


By  Clark  Gable 


FARMER   IN  THE  DELL   (upper  left) 
C4ark    Gable    "rakes   the    meadow   sweet   with    hay"    as    he    perches    precariously 
atop    the    hurricane    deck    of    a    land-lubbing    clipper    on    his    new    twenty-acre 
Encino  ranch. 

AT  HOME  ON  THE   RANGE    (upper  right) 
Farmer   Clark    Gable   spends    his   days   idly    playing   with    his   dog,   or   pet  turtle, 
inspecting    his   trees,   riding    his   horses,    in    his   workshop,   "fixing   up"  the   place 


H  FTER  ALL  these  years,  here  I 
am  right  back  where  I  started 
from  —  down  on  the  farm. 

As  I  ride  my  bucking  tractor 
over  my  newly-acquired  few  acres 
out  here  in  California,  I  am  carried 
back  to  the  beginning  of  these 
reminiscences  which,   in  compar- 


ison with  life  on  the  farm  today, 
is  unforgettable  proof  that  times 
do  change. 

My  earliest  recollections  of  farm 
life  goes  back  to  the  shores  of 
Conneaut  Lake  in  Pennsylvania. 
My  mother  had  died  when  I  was 
seven  months  old,  so  I  spent  my 


earliest  years  on  the  farm  of  my 
grandparents,  Charles  and  Nancy 
Gable,  near  Meadville.  About  all 
that  I  recall  now  of  those  farm 
days  is  that  I  led  a  lonely  life  for 
a  child. 

The  active  years  in  many  varied 
occupations  have  erased  the  more 


WHEN  A  SPADE'S  A  SPADE   (lower  left) 
Clark   Gable's  answer  to  that  one   is,  "When   you've  got  to  turn   dirt  with  one." 

IT'S  "FARMER  GABLE"  NOW    (lower  right) 
Joctkey  to  a  tractor  is  but  one  of  the   many  chores       engaged    in    by   Gable   on 
his   ranch. 


GABLE'S    PALOMINO    PAL 

Farmer  Clark  Gable  has  a  real  equine  friend  in  "Tony,"  one  of  the  finest  Palomino 
colts  In  America.  Together  they  roam  the  new  twenty-acre  ranch  at  Encino,  in  Cali- 
fornia's San  Fernando  Valley,  where  Gable  lives  with  his  bride,  Carole  Lombard. 


unpleasant  memories  of  the  form 
back  in  Ohio,  and  the  brighter 
side  of  life  on  the  farm  still 
remains  in  my  memories.  In 
recent  years,  the  desire  to  return 
to  the  solitude  of  the  country  has 


been      growing     stronger     and 
stronger. 

Well,  there's  the  yam.  I'm  back 
on  the  farm  and,  I  hope,  for  the 
rest  of  my  life.  Out  here,  every- 
body else  calls  a  patch  of  dirt  fiom 


a  half  acre  on  up  in  size  a  ranch. 
1  have  no  ranch.  It  is  a  farm  and 
that  is  the  name  of  it  over  the 
gate,  "The  Farm." 

My   farm   is   fourteen   acres   in 
(Continued  on  page  21) 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  DECEMBER 


Page  13 


WHAT  I  THINK  OF  SWING 

(Continued  from  Page  10) 

irascible  roars  of  their  prowling 
lions.  And  when  a  great  ope 
pounds  his  chest  and  goes  boom, 
uttering  the  meat  cry  or  the  mate 
cry,  as  the  case  may  be,  it's  a 
safe  bet  he's  so  far  up  the  jungle 
mountainside  that  the  echo  is  just 
©a-rie  background  for  the  soughing 
of  the  night  wind  through  the  trees. 
Granting  that  swing  then,  is  jungle 
music,  let's  keep  it  authentic. 

They  regard  me  as  a  fence 
straddler  in  the  field  of  swing  be- 
cause I  like  to  blend  the  sweet 
with  the  hot.  1  believe  in  dressing 
up  my  jungle  savage  in  smooth- 
ly-tailored tails  and  top  hat  and 
moulding  my  Hawaiian  hula  danc- 
er into  one  of  those  sleek,  form- 
fitting  dinner  gowns  from  a  smart 
Fifth  Avenue  shop  —  "encasing 
solid,  suggestive  jungle  sounds  in 
a  smooth,  mellifluous  jacket." 
That's  the  way  some  lad  summed 
it  up  who  swings  his  adjectives 
the  way  I  like  to  think  1  swing  my 
tunes. 

Something  old-new-borrowed- 
blue,  I've  found  to  be  a  winning 
combination  on  a  swing  program. 

Have  "Sweet  Leilani"  blow 
"Smoke  Rings"  "Under  a  Blanket 
of  Blue"  by  the  "Waters  of 
Minnetonka."  Call  the  medley 
"Bcogit"  and  you've  got  something 
sweet  and  torrid. 

Take  a  lovely  old  ballad  like 
"Sweet  and  Low"  or  "My  Darling 
Nelly  Gray,"  dress  it  up  m  modem 
style  and  you've  got  a  number 
that  lends  itself  to  some  equato- 
rial sending. 

And,  if  you  would  put  your 
listeners  distinctly  in  the  groove, 
let  them  cut  the  rugs  to  the  ac- 
companiment of  a  hot  arrange- 
ment of  "Prelude  in  C  Sharp 
Major." 

I  believe  swing  is  here  to  stay. 
But  the  bands  that  are  going  to 
have  the  popular  following  will  be 
those  whose  arrangements  subor- 
dinate the  jump  stuff  and  exagger- 
ated jive  to  sonorous  tonal  quali- 
ty. They  must  give  out  quality 
rather  than  quantity  of  tone  effect, 
resisting  the  temptation  to  blast 
full-lunged  upon  a  world  already 
shell-shocked  by  too  much  "blitz- 
krieg." 

Page   14 


Singing  Sisters 


Though  they  look  enough  alike  to  be  triplets,  four  years 
separate  the  oldest  from  the  youngest  in  this  comely  team  of 
radio  singers,  the  Mullen  Sisters,  heard  Friday  evenings  on 
Columbia  network's  "Kate  Smith  Hour."  Left  to  right,  they  are 
Mary  Margaret,  the  oldest;  Imelda  Rose,  the  youngest;  and 
Kathleen. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  DECEMBER 


LET'S  NOT  BE  MATTER  OF  FACT  ABOUT  RADIO 


Rosemary  DeGamp  helps  Dr.  Christian  (Jean  Hersholt)  light  up  as  they  relax  at  rehearsal  of  CBS's  serial  "Dr.  Christian." 


By  Jean  Hersholt 

TX7HEN  I  WAS  a  youngster  in 
Copenhagen,  Denmark,  my 
father  and  mother  appeared  in 
many  ploys  at  the  Royal  Theater 
in  that  city.  Under  the  stage  there 
was  a  long  dark  room  fitted  with 
benches.  Persons  from  the  Blind 
Institute  were  welcome  to  sit  in 
that  room  during  performances. 
In  that  way,  they  could  hear  the 
play  and  follow  its  progress  al- 
most as  well  as  if  they  were  out 
in  front. 

That  room  and  its  benches  has 
a  direct  relationship  —  in  my 
mind  —  with  radio  today. 

This  is  my  third  season  with 
CBS  as  Dr.  Christian,  the  country 
doctor  of  "River's  End,"  and  dur- 
ing these  three  years  I  have  sel- 
dom gone  on  the  air  without  think- 
ing about  those  Danish  blind 
persons  and  the  similarity  of  that 
stage  arrangement  to  radio. 

Back  in  Copenhagen,  I  often  sat 
underneath  the  stage  with  the  un- 
fortunates, and  I  used  to  think  how 
nice  it  would  be  if  it  were  possible 
for  all  of  the  blind  persons  in  the 
world  to  be  able  to  hear  plays.  By 


means  of  radio,  not  only  the  blind, 
but  shut-ins  of  every  description 
can  hear  the  best  in  entertainment 
by  simply  turning  a  small  dial. 

I  know  that  I'm  not  saying 
something  new,  something  that 
most  of  us  don't  already  realize — 
but  I  think  we  have  all  developed 
a  matter-of-fact  attitude  about 
radio.  Today  we  seldom  stop  to 
realize  what  a  boon  it  has  been  to 
mankind,  and  especially  to  the 
unfortunates  who  cannot  afford 
other  entertainment. 

That's  why  I'm  taking  this  op- 
portunity to  say  what  I'm  saying 
—  even  at  the  risk  of  being  repe- 
titious. 

Of  course,  radio  is  a  two-way 
proposition.  The  public  should 
be  grateful  for  radio.  But  those  in 
the  radio  industry  should  also  be 
appreciative  of  the  listening  public 
because  it  is  they  who  make  the 
high  grade  of  radio  •ntertainment 
in  this  country  possible. 

Radio  in  the  United  States  is  on 
a  much  higher  plane  than  in  al- 
most any  other  country,  simply  be- 
cause such  a  large  proportion  of 
the  population  supports  it.    When 


I  think  that  millions  of  persons 
listen  to  our  production  each  week 
over  CBS,  it  never  ceases  to 
amaze  me. 

That  is  probably  more  people 
than  all  of  the  stars  on  Broadway 
—  before  radio  became  popular — 
would  play  to  during  their  entire 
lifetimes.  This  one  fact  alone  in- 
dicates the  tremendous  scope  of 
radio  and  should  make  us,  who 
are  working  in  the  industry  realize 
what  an  extremely  serious  respon- 
sibility we  have  toward  our  lis- 
teners. 

The  trend  of  programs  in  the 
past  few  years  indicates  tnat  radio 
IS  aware  of  its  responsibility.  As 
merely  one  person  in  a  vast  field 
of  entertainment,  I  know  that  we 
of  "Dr.  Christian"  recognize  our 
duty. 

It  is  a  far  cry  today  from  those 
blind  friends  of  mine  beneath  the 
stage  in  the  Copenhagen  theater. 
Mental  sight  has  been  brought  to 
the  many  instead  of  the  few. 

As  long  as  radio  here  in  the 
United  States  continues  to  be  a 
factor  of  enlightenment,  we  all 
have  a  strong  ally  working  for 
our  personal  welfare. 


RADIO   VARIETIES 


DECEMBER 


Page  15 


DICK  POWELL  BUILDS  DIME  STORES  FOR  MILLION  DOLLAR  BABIES 

(Continued  from  Page  7) 


estate,  and  gave  the  people  of  a 
community  the  kind  of  service  that 
kept  them  patronizing  the  same 
stores  year  after  year.  When  I 
returned  to  Hollywood,  my  invest- 
ment plans  were  made.  I  went 
into  the  real  estate  business, 
building  store  buildings  and  leas- 
ing them  to  dime  store,  arug  store 
and  department  store  tenants. 


for  a  drug  store  tenant  in  the  Cren- 
shaw district.  His  Long  Beach 
and  Los  Angeles  buildings 
represent  an  investment  of  $175,- 
000  each — every  penny  of  which 
Dick  earned  himself.  His  New 
Mexico  and  El  Centre  Investments 
are  much  smaller.  He  also  owns 
an  automobile  sales  agency  in 
Beverly  Hills,   which   is   operated 


1          ^m^Hi 

1 

F% 

^n 

9L'^  ^^^^^^^^^SB^fl^lP*     *^B^^^ 

ij 

Dick  Powell  samples  the  soup  In  the  kitchen  of  his  leased  drug  store 
store  officials  look  on. 


Another  camera  shot  of  Dick  singing  for  the  crowds  and  radio  audience  as 
his  store  opening  is  broadcast. 


Today  Dick  Powell  owns  and 
leases  store  buildings  in  a  small 
town  in  New  Mexico,  in  El  Centro, 
California,  in  Long  Beach,  Califor- 
nia, and  in  Los  Angeles,  where  he 
has  just  staged  a  grand  opening 


under  a  firm  name.  From  each 
of  these  investments  he  expects 
to  receive  a  nominal  but  long- 
range  profit.  And  as  time  goes 
on.  he  may  add  other  mterests. 
Right  now,    he's    thinking    about 


going  into  farming.  If  he  does 
acquire  a  ranch,  it  won't  be  until 
next  year.  He's  lived  on  a  form 
and  has  done  farm  work  —  and 
would  enjoy  doing  it  again.  But 
real  estate  is  his  first  love  in 
activities  off  the  air  and  screen. 

"I  have  faith  in  real  estate," 
Dick  declared.  "My  interest  in  It 
has  broadened  me,  I  feel  as  on 
actor.  It  has  given  me  a  new  kind 
of  experience  and  a  new  kind  of 
thrill;  greater  vision  and  greater 
interest  in  my  responsibilities  as 
a  citizen  and  an  American.  It  has 
made  my  life  fuller  through  the 
satisfaction  that  comes  from  prac- 
tical creative  contribution  to  the 
lives  of  my  fellow  human  beings 
and  to  the  practical  every-day  life 
of  a  community.  It  has  made  my 
life  fuller  with  the  knowledge  that 
at  the  same  time  I  have  not 
squandered  my  earnings  in  idle 
schemes  but  have  provided  a 
greater  measure  of  future  security 
for  myself  and  my  family.  By 
being  personally  interested  in  my 
tenants  and  visiting  the  buildings 
after  they  moved  in  and  opened 
for  business,  I  have  made  many 
new  friends  in  new  communities. 
I  have  discussed  their  problems 
and  learned  their  points  of  view 
on  local,  national  and  world 
problems.  For  all  those  reasons, 
I  feel  that  because  I'm  a  real 
estate  man,  I  am  a  better  man  to 
my  profession,  to  my  family,  and 
to  my  country." 


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Page  16 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


DECEMBER 


Houseboat  Hannah  Cast 


THE  HOUSEBOAT  Hannah  is 
moored  in  Shantyfish  Row 
along  the  West  Coast,  under  com- 
mand of  Hannah  O'Leary  and  her 
husband,  Dan.  Once,  the  O'Learys 
were  comfortably  happy  in  a 
small,  white  cottage  inland.  Then 
1  canning  factory  accident 
ncapacitated  Dan  so  the  family, 
including  nephew  Clem,  moved 
to  the  houseboat  and  became 
lobster  fishermen.  Hannah  sells 
the  catch,  which  she  calls  "Green 
Shamrock  Lobsters." 

Currently,  Hannah  has  become 
a  crusader  for  clean  politics  and 
for  the  welfare  of  Shantyfish  Row. 
The  big  city  boss,  Hughey,  has 
been  defeated  by  Hannah's  Fu- 
sion Party  and  his  henchmen  from 
now  on  will  have  to  let  Shantyfish 
row  alone.  Dan  has  been  elected 
alderman  and  the  little  community 
settles  down  to  peace  and  quiet. 


Hannah  finds  new  outlet  for  her 
energies  in  the  love  story  of 
Barbara  Hughey  and  Jim  Nichols, 
a  dissillusioned  writer  who  has 
cut  himself  off  from  his  former  life. 
Barbara  worked  against  her 
father  in  the  political  campaign 
and  Hughey  complicates  her 
life  by  deciding  to  disappear. 
feeling  that  his  career  as  boss  has 
alienated  her  completely.  At  one 
time,  Hughey  also  tried  to  scuttle 
the  Barbara-Jim  romance.  Jim 
has  tried  to  show  Hughey  that  he 
wants  to  be  friends  but  "The 
Boss"  can't  believe  it  and  carries 
out  his  plans  to  go  into  hiding. 

The  romance  is  further  com- 
plicated by  Jim's  realization  that 
he  is  simply  drifting  along,  cher- 
ishing his  cynicism  and  clinging 
to  the  memories  of  a  former 
disastrous  love  affair.  It's  up  to 
Hannah  to  straighten  out  the  three 
lives. 


Doris  Rich  former  Broadway 
actress,  plays  the  part  of  Hannah. 
Educated  in  New  York,  Miss  Rich 
studied  dramatics  at  the  Amer- 
ican Academy  for  Dramatic  Art. 
She  appeared  in  productions  with 
Jane  Cowl,  Ethel  Barrymore,  Eva 
LaGallienne,  Blanche  Yurka,  Mrs. 
Pat  Campbell,  Alfred  Lunt  and 
Lynn  Fontanne. 

Norman  Gottschalk,  who  has 
played  the  role  of  Dan  since  the 
show  first  made  its  appearance 
on  the  air.  is  a  former  stationary 
engineer  and  jewelry  manufac-. 
turer  who  went  into  radio  back  in 
1932  when  he  wrote  a  program, 
auditioned  it,  and  got  a  job  WAth 
Station  WLW  in  Cincinnati. 

Currently,  it  is  broadcast  from  the 
Chicago  NBC  studios  at  9:00  a.  m. 
CST   over  the   NBC-Red   network. 


Members  of  the  cast  of  the  popular  serial  as  they  appeared  during  a  recent 
rehearsal.  Left  to  right,  front  row:  Les  (Jim  Nichols)  Damon;  Doris  (Hannah  O'Leary) 
Rich;  Norman  (Dan  O'Leary)  Gottschalk.  Back  row:  Billy  (Shamus  O'Leary)  Rose; 
Gilbert  (Clem  O'Leary)  Faust;  Louise  (Ellen  O'Leary)  Fitch;  William  (Boss  Hughey) 
Amsdell;    Beverly   (Barbara   Hughey)   Younger;    and   Francis    (Kevin  O'Leary)    Derby. 


Letters  From  a  Hicks  Field 
Flying  Cadet 


Left  to  right:  Bill  Arms,  Letter  reader; 
Gene  Reynolds,  production  director;  Tee 
Casper,  announcer;  Maj.  B.  S.  Graham, 
Hicks  Field  Director,  and  Cadet  "Speedy" 
Scott,  technical  assistant.  The  ship  is  a 
Fairchild  Primary  Training  plane  used  by 
the  U.  S.  Army  Air  Corps  for  Cadet  training. 


by    ELBERT  HALING 

CEVERAL  months  ago  a  new- 
series  of  radio  programs  took 
the  air  over  Station  WBAP,  Fort 
Worth.  The  new  series  was  known 
as  "Letters  From  a  Hicks  Field 
Flying  Cadet."  It  became  imme- 
diately popular.  It's  still  going 
strong  and  may  be  found  at  800 
on  the  dial  at  5:15  p.  m.  every 
Sunday  afternoon. 

Page  18 


When  WBAP  followers  learned 
that  a  radio  tie-up  with  Hicks 
Field,  12  miles  north  of  downtown 
Fort  Worth,  was  contemplated,  the 
idea  was  ridiculed.  Many  folks 
stated:  "That's  a  U.  S.  Army  field 
and  the  Air  Corps  won't  permit 
such  a  series."  Others  stated: 
"It  can't  be  done!" 

But  t  h  e  "Can't-Be-Don'ers" 
failed  to  reckon  with  the  WBAP 
personnel  who  usually  get  what 


they  go  after  —  and  "Letters"  took 
flight  over  the  ether  channels 
October  6. 

Now  there  are  many  ways  to 
present  a  program  in  connection 
with  an  army  project.  Most  ways 
we've  heard  ore  somewhat  dry  in 
subject  matter  and  lacking  in 
showmanship  or  appeal.  So  the 
program  department  set  about 
doing  this  show  in  a  new  and 
different  manner. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  DECEMBER 


First,  using  the  sane  judgement 
of  Maj.  B.  S.  Graham,  Hicks  Field 
director,  a  young  cadet  actually 
undergoing  flight  and  ground 
school  training,  was  selected  to 
assist  in  writing  the  script.  He 
was,  under  Army  regulations,  to 
receive  no  pay  nor  publicity  for 
his  personal  reactions  tO'  a  young, 
red-blooded  American  undergoing 
flight  training  in  Uncle  Sam's 
Flying  Cadets.  A  lad  by  the  name 
of  "Speedy"  Scott  was  selected 
for  this  advisory  capacity,  Scott 
having  done  some  newspaper 
work  before  forsaking  riches  for 
his  country's  service. 

Second,  a  unique  method  of 
presentation  was  worked  o  u  t 
under  the  guidance  of  "Woody" 
Woodford  and  Gene  Reynolds, 
production  men  at  WBAP.  The 
show  opens  with  a  bang  —  or 
more  truthfully  —  a  roar;  the  roar 
of  a  fast  Army  pursuit  ship  doing 
a  steep  maneuver.  This  is  calcu- 
lated to  lift  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Casual 
Dialer  right  out  of  their  chairs.  It 
does! 

Bill  Arms,  WBAP  announcer- 
dramatist,  fresh  from  local  theat- 
rical triumphs,  reads  the  flying 
cadet's  letter  during  each  show. 
This  is  done  with  recorded  mu- 
sical bridges  and  sound  effects. 
Toward  the  end  of  the  letter  the 
cadet,  who  has  been  writing  the 
letter  in  the  barracks  at  the  close 
of  day,  hears  the  distant,  nostalgic 
sound  of  a  bugler  sounding 
"taps."  Even  Major  Graham's 
auburn-haired  secretary  admits  a 
tear  or  two  every  time  this  part  of 
the  show  is  reached. 

To  secure  authenticity  in  the 
writing  of  the  show  and  its 
production  the  WBAP  personnel 
handling  the  show  makes  regular 
trips  to  Hicks  Field  to  watch 
ground  and  aerial  classes  in 
action.  They  dine  in  style  in 
Hicks'  modern  cafeteria,  talk  with 
the  cadets  and  flight  instructors 
and  get  a  first-hand  "feel"  of  the 
life  of  a  flying  cadet. 

Here's     a    typical     letter    read 
during  a  recent  show: 

"Dear  Mom  and  Dad  — 

Today  was  the  most  moment- 
ous one  in  my  career  as  a  Flying 
Cadet  for  our  Uncle  Samuel.  I 
rolled  out  of  bed  at  5:30  a.  m.,  ate 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  DECEMBER 


a  big  breakfast  that  reminded  me 
of  our  own  breakfast  table  back 
home,  and  was  on  the  flying  line 
at  exactly  6  a.  m.  There  were  30 
sleek  training  ships  drawn  up  in 
a  perfect  line  with  their  noses 
sniffing  the  rising  Texas  sun. 
Beside  each  ship  was  an  instruct- 
or. Yes,  an  instructor.  Now  these 
fellows  are  really  swell  to  have 
around  except  when  your  darling 
foo:tball  hero  makes  a  rough  land- 
ing or  banks  a  ship  too  much. 
But  my  instructor  was  Lieut.  Bill 
Allen  and  he's  reputed  to  be  the 
toughest  man  in  the  school  here. 
Well  —  after  we  had  made  a 
sloppy  landing  or  two  —  with 
your  son  John  at  the  controls  — 
we  pulled  up  near  a  front  hanger 
and  the  Lieutenant  clambered 
out.     1  started  to  follow. 

'Where  are  you  going.  Mister?' 
he  snapped.  "Stay  in  that  ship 
and  take  it  up  again.  I'm  staying 
right  here  to  watch  you.' 

"Yes,  mom,  I  made  it  or  1 
wouldn't  be  writing  you  —  but 
don't  worry  about  my  getting  hurt. 
Texas  is  so  large  and  there's  al- 
ways a  handy  pasture  nearby  for 
forced  landings. — And  just  think, 
we  have  our  own  little  church  here 
and  I  went  to  services  this  morn- 
ing. They  played  "Rock  of  Ages" 
and  all  the  cadets  sany. 

"It  was  just  like  our  little  church 
in  Pleasant  Valley  —  only  I 
missed  dad's  bass  voice  and  sister 
Mary's  contralto.  —  All  of  the 
boys  feel  the  need  ol  spiritual 
devotion.  Flying  high  above  the 
bustle  of  ordinary  activity  we 
seem  suspended  on  some  mighty 
chain  anchored  to  the  Heavenly 
Throne  itself.  It  brings  one  closer 
to  spiritual  things  and  I  believe 
all  those  who  fly  feel  about  the 
same  as  we  do  —  well  —  I  hear 
"taps"  now  —  I've  fifteen  minutes 
to  get  in  bed  —  so  goodbye  — 
love  and  kisses  —  and  save  some 
for  the  girl  friend  —  Margaret  — 
your  loving  son  • —  John." 

Needless  to  say  the  local  news- 
papers are  keenly  interested  in 
this  show  and  several  hundred 
fans  wrote  in  on  program  Number 
One  wanting  to  know  how  they 
might  enter  the  U.  S.  Army.  Air 
Corps.  Needless  to  say  —  Major 
Graham  informed  them  I 


GUIDING  LIGHT 

(Continued  from  Page   11) 

drove  Ned  to  repudiate  Fredericka 
and  flee  to  the  West  Coast,  where 
he  married  Torchy  Reynolds, 
young  waterfront  girl.  They  were 
eventually  divorced,  so  that  Ned 
and  Mary  could  marry.  Ned  is 
now  reconciled  with  his  mother. 

Another  thread  in  the  story 
concerns  the  lives  of  the  Kransky 
family.  Rose,  the  daughter,  once 
loved  Charles  Cunningham, 
wealthy  publisher.  She  became 
the  mother  of  his  child  and  figured 
sensationally  in  a  trial  when 
Cunningham's  wife  divorced  him, 
naming  Rose  as  co-respondent. 
Now  Charles  wants  to  marry  Rose 
but  she  is  engaged  to  her  present 
employer.  Jack  Felzer,  prominent 
young  attorney. 

Ellis  Smith,  an  artist  who  calls 
himself  "Mr.  Nobody  from  No- 
where," is  another  important  port 
of  the  story  pattern.  Ellis,  blinded 
when  he  rescued  Fredericka  from 
a  tenement  fire,  has  recently 
regained  his  sight.  Torchy,  now 
a  famous  night  club  and  radio 
singer,  loves  him;  so  does  Iris 
Marsh,  a  young  woman  who  has 
left  her  husband  and  little  son  to 
build  up  a  new  life  of  her  own. 
Ellis  isn't  sure  of  his  own  heart  and 
is  currently  planning  to  leave 
Five  Points  and  start  life  over 
again.  Although  he  has  long  been 
a  verbal  antagonist  of  Dr.  Ruth- 
ledge,  the  artist  has  his  own  cyn- 
ical way  of  spreading  kindness 
through  the  little  community. 

Mary  Ruthledge  Holden  is 
played  by  Sarajane  Wells;  Ned 
Holden,  by  Ed  Prentiss;  Mrs. 
Kransky  is  Mignon  Schreiber; 
Rose  Kransky,  Ruth  Bailey;  Jacob 
Kransky,  Seym.our  Young;  Torchy 
Reynolds,  Gladys  Heen;  Frede- 
ricka Lang,  Muriel  Bremner;  Irish 
Marsh,  Betty  Arnold;  Ellis  Smith, 
Phil  Dakin;  Charles  Cunningham, 
Bill  Bouchey;  Jack  Felzer,  Paul 
Barnes;  Laura  Martin,  Gail  Hen- 
shaw: 

The  serial  written  by  Ima 
Phillips,  "Radio's  No.  1  Author, 
was  inaugurated  January  25,  1937. 
It  is  broadcast  Mondays  through 
Fridays  at  9:45  a.m.  and  4:30  p.m. 
CST  over  the  NBC-Red  network. 
The  show  is  produced  by  Howard 
Keegan,  for  the  agency,  and 
announced  by  Fort  Pearson. 

Pago  19 


Quick  Watson,  The  Needle 

(Continued   from   page    5) 


flavor  to  his  interpretcriion  of  the 
bluff  doctor,  Holmes'  friend,  as- 
sistccnt  and  biographer. 

Even  the  long-time  friendship 
which  bound  Holmes  and  Watson 
together  is  duplicated  in  the  real- 
life  stories  of  Basil  Rathbone  and 
Nigel  Bruce.  When  World  War  I 
was  raging,  Rathbone  and  Bruce, 
both  rising  young  British  actors, 
served   in    their   country's    army. 


that  might  not  look  well  in  print. 
We've  never  shared  rooms  in 
Baker  street,  but  if  we  had,  I  think 
we  might  have  got  along  about 
as  Holmes  and  Watson  did. 
Willie  claims  a  better  sense  of 
humor  than  Watson  —  but  that's 
purely  his  opinion". 

That's  the  opinion  of  most  of 
Hollywood,  too — including  Rath- 
bone,   who    does   not  believe  his 


Sherlock  Holmes  and  Dr.  Watson,  his  assistant,  put  their 
heads  together  to  solve  another  spine  chilling  mystery  on 
NBC's  Adventures  of  Sherlock   Holmes. 


When  the  war  was  over,  Bruce, 
in  spite  of  the  effects  of  a  serious 
wound,  returned  to  the  stage,  and 
there  renewed  his  friendship  with 
Rathbone. 

"Long  ago,  we  arrived  at  the 
point  where  we  can  insult  each 
other  with  impunity",  Rathbone 
says.  "1  call  him  Willie,  or 
Walrus.  Usually  Willie.  It's 
simpler.     And  he  calls  me  things 


own  slanderous  implication. 
Conan  Doyle  tells  us  that  Sher- 
lock's custom,  in  moments  of  re- 
laxation, was  to  play  his  violin, 
or  to  listen  to  good  music.  He 
doesn't  say  much  about  Watson's 
lighter  moments.  But  both  Holmes 
and  Watson,  in  the  persons  of 
Rathbone  and  Bruce,  are  practical 
jokers  in  their  more  relaxed 
moods   on  broadcast   days.     The 


boisterous  humor  of  Bruce  and 
the  pointed  wit  of  Rathbone  are 
used  to  advantage  on  each  other, 
and  sometimes  on  long  suffering 
Tom  McKnight,  who  produces  the 
Sherlock  Holmes  series. 

Members  of  the  cast  of  Sherlock 
Holmes  have  caused  Rathbone 
some  worry  of  late,  because  they 
insist  upon  taking  his  portrayal  of 
Sherlock  too  seriously. 

It  all  began  when  a  small 
powder  factory  on  the  Pacific 
Coast  was  blown  up.  When  Rath- 
bone arrived  for  a  rehearsal  Sun- 
day at  NBC's  Hollywood  Radio 
City,  every  member  of  the  support- 
ing cast  was  waiting  for  him,  and 
everyone  had  the  same  clipping, 
a  complete  story  of  the  disaster. 
In  chorus,  they  demanded,  "Solve 
this,  Mr.  Holmes". 

Rathbone  escaped  that  one,  but 
he  couldn't  get  a  way  from  the 
story.  As  further  information  ap- 
peared in  the  papers,  it  was 
collected  by  the  actors,  with  the 
connivance  of  Bruce,  and  saved 
for  the  next  week's  show. 

Faced  with  a  showdown, 
Rathbone  shrugged,  and  said, 
"Not  a  case  for  Holmes  at  all. 
That  was  simply  an  accident". 

The  newspapers,  of  course, 
carried  the  opinions  of  inves- 
tigators, and  their  opinion  was — 
accident. 

But  Rathbone  can't  evade 
Holme's  reputation.  He  still 
receives  newspaper  clippings  of 
unsolved  crimes,  with  requests  for 
their  solution.  Not  all  are  jokes 
from  the  cast.  Some  are  serious. 
But,  although  he  is  a  serious 
student  of  Holmseiana,  Rathbone 
confesses  he  is  no  Sherlock  in  the 
matter  of  deductive  powers,  and 
so  the  cases  will  remain  unsolved, 
unless  the  police  do  the  work. 

First  heard  on  NBC  in  their 
"Adventures  of  Sherlock  Holmes" 
series  in  1939,  Rathbone  and  Bruce 
now  are  in  their  second  season 
on  the  air.  Edith  Meiser  is  author 
of  the  radio  adaptations  of  the 
stories.  Her  treatment  of.  the 
Holmes  stories  is  heightened  by 
the  unique  musical  score,  written 
and  directed  by  Lou  Kosloff,  and 
interpreted  by  an  instrumental 
group  which  makes  use  of  the 
bassoon,  French  horn,  electric 
organ,  violin  and  trombone  to 
produce  the  weird  tonal  quality 
which  is  an  essential  part  of  the 
show. 


Page  20 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  DECEMBER 


twimiauju—iw.  -  lujjjijiiipijiii       __  ^ 


"I'VE    BEEN    WORKING   ON    THE   VALE    ROAD" 
So  sings  Farmer  Clark  Gable  as  he  rides  on  the  grador  drawn   by  faithful  farm  animal 
to  improve  the  road  leading  from  the  main   highway  up  to  his  new  twenty-acre    ranch 


Continued   from  Page    13 

size,  which  may  bring  a  laugh  to 
the  toilers  of  the  earth  back  East. 
But  out  here,  on  fourteen  acres, 
we  can  grow  anything  and  more, 
too,  than  can  be  grown  on  a 
quarter  section  any  place  else. 

On  my  farm,  1  have  a  six  room 
farmhouse  with  two  bedrooms 
and  not  even  a  guest  room.  The 
barn  is  large  enough  for  ten 
horses,  but  1  have  only  five 
horses  in  it.  The  orchard  has  900 
specimen  citrus  trees.  Two  and 
a  half  acres  are  in  grapes.  So 
far,  I  have  500  chickens  and  six 
white  turkeys  in  my  poultry  pens. 
Later  on,  I  may  raise  pheasants. 


The  truck  garden  provides  all 
the  fresh  vegetables  for  our  table. 
I  grow  all  my  own  alfalfa  for  my 
stock  and  still  there  is  an  ample 
pasture  for  the  horses  to  graze  in. 
With  the  help  of  one  farmer,  my 
only  hired  hand,  I  do  all  my  own 
farming.  For  him  and  his  wife 
1  have  built  a  small  farmhouse  in 
which  they  live. 

We  start  out  at  six  in  the  morn- 
ing, when  I'm  not  busy  on  a 
picture  and  keep  right  at  it  until 
supper  time  —  and  you'll  notice 
I  said  supper-time  and  not  dinner. 
That's  real  farm  talk.  Of  course, 
it  is  hard  work,  but  I  have  learned 
to  ecrt  it  up.  Besides,  farming  to- 
day isn't  as  tough  as  it  was  when 


I  was  a  kid  back  on  my  Dad's 
farm.  The  job  is  lightened  by  the 
tractor,  which  is  my  pet,  the 
modern  rakes,  harrows  and 
ploughs,  and  painting  the  sheds 
and  fences  is  a  pleasure  with  the 
automatic  spray. 

More  than  once  I've  been 
chased  away  from  the  supper 
table  to  wash  my  dirty  hands 
and  change  my  dirty  overalls, 
but  that  all  goes  with  farming. 

Another  thing,  you  won't  find 
a  swimming  pool  or  badminton 
court  on  my  farm,  which  makes 
me  a  sort  of  an  outcast  among 
the  Hollywood  farmers — or,  ranch- 
erios,  as  I  should  say  —  around 
this  part  of  the  country." 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


DECEMBER 


Page  21 


WHO  ARE  THE  MEN 
BEHIND  THE  MEN 
BEHIND  THE  MIKE? 

RADIO  VARIETIES  here- 
with presents  the  second  in 
series  of  articles  designed 
to  acquaint  its  readers  with 
some  of  the  directors  of  NBC 


By  Dan  Thompson 

WHAT  DOES  it  take  to  he  a 
radio  director?  Too  often  the 
work  of  a  radio  director  is  taken 
for  granted,  like  sunshine,  rain 
and  electromagnetism — that  sine 
qua  non  of  radio.  Essential  ds 
the  radio  director  is,  he  and  his 
work  ore    almost    equally  myste- 


NBC   Director   Frank    Papp 

rious  to  the  average  radio  listener. 
Yet  there  is  glamor  in  the  radio 
director's  life  —  glamor  and 
human  interest.  In  an  effort  to 
find  out  what  kind  of  men  radio 
directors  really  are  and  what 
talents  and  aptitudes  they  must 
possess,  we  interviewed  Harold 
Bean,  a  musical  director  in  the 
NBC  Central  Division,  and  two  of 
his  dramatic  colleagues  —  Frank 
Popp  and  Ted  MacMurray. 

Bean,  who  directs  some  of  the 
NBC  Club  Matinee  and  National 
Farm  and  Home  Hour  broadcasts, 
the  Roy  Shield  Revue  unO  many 
of  the  broadcasts  featuring   such 

Page  22 


singers  as  Wayne,  Van  Dyne, 
finds  practical  experience  as  a 
singer  or  with  some  musical 
instrument  —  preferrably  profes- 
sional —  the  number  one  require- 
ment in  a  musical  director.  "I  say 
'preferrably  professional,'  "  Bean 
explained,  "because  the  profes- 
sional is  not  quite  as  biased  as 
the  amateur  who  is  likely  to  con- 
fuse his  individual  likes  and  dis- 
likes with  those  of  his  audiences. 
"As  an  example  of  the  impor- 
tance of  this  experience,  it  is  only 
necessary  to  point  out,"  Bean 
continued,  "that  all  our  musical 
directors  in  the  NBC  Central 
Division  have  had  practical  ex- 
perience. Albert  Ulrich,  director 
of  the  Hymns  of  All  Churches,  for 
instance,  was  a  member  of  the 
Chicago  Symphony  Orchestra  and 
the     Ravinia     Opera     Company 


NBC  Director  Harold   Bean. 

Orchestra  for  14  years.  Bob  White 
was  tenor  soloist  over  a  Detroit 
station  before  becoming  an  an- 
nouncer,   actor    and    producer  in 


turn.  George  Voutsas  and  I  have 
fiddled  at  one  time  or  another. 
Arch  Scott  and  L.  G.  Harris  were 
musical  comedy  and  minstrel 
men  on  the  stage  and  Tom  Hargis 
was  a  radio  singer  in  Houston, 
Texas,  before  coming  to  Chicago. 
Jules  Herbuveaux,  former  man- 
ager of  the  production  depart- 
ment and  now  program  manager 
of  the  NBC  Central  Division,  was 
an  orchestra  leader  at  one  time, 
and  Rex  Maupin,  who  now  con- 
ducts an  NBC  orchestra,  turned 
director  several  years  ago  and 
then  reverted  to  conducting  again 
two  years  ago. 

The  value  of  experience  on  a 
local  radio  station  was  stressed 
by  Mr.  Bean,  who  compared  such 
training  to  that  a  newspaperman 
gets  on  a  small  town  paper. 
"Working  on  a  small  radio  station 
gives  a  director  a  comprehensive 
idea  of  the  problems  that  hove  to 
be  met  in  radio  and  makes  him 
fully  aware  of  the  important  place 


NBC  Director  Ted  MacMurray 

radio  now  holds  in  community 
life." 

Granted  then  that  a  musical 
director  for  a  network  should  have 
practical  musical  experience  and 
a  small  station  background,  what 
else  is  needed?  "He  must  have 
some  record  of  originality  in 
building  programs,  a  sense  of 
loyalty,  an  agreeable  personality 
and  polish  enough  to  be  able  to 
meet  all  kinds  of  people." 

Turning  to  the  dramatic  side  of 
radio,  Frank  Papp,  director  of  the 
Story  of  Bud  Barton  and  Cameos 
cf  New  Orleans,  believes  a  good 
dramatic  director  must  have  had 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


DECEMBER 


legitimcrte  experience  in  all  phases 

of  showmanship.  "Writing,  design- 
ing, directing  and  acting  are  all 
essential,"  he  soys,  "and  a 
musical  background  is  highly- 
desirable  even  in  a  dramatic 
director  because  many  serials 
make  constant  use  of  incidental 
music. 

"It  is  probably  obvious  to  say 
that  a  director  should  know 
dramatic  literature  of  all  nations 
and  should  know  how  to  handle 
people.  The  importance  of  know- 
ing one's  actors  may  not  be  so 
apparent  to  listeners,  but  it  is 
nevertheless  true  that  a  director 
often  finds  it  burdensome  to  direct 
a  person  with  whose  personal 
background  he  is  unfamiliar. 
When  it  comes  to  stardom,  best 
results  are  obtained  when  director 
and  star  know  each  otner  quite 
well." 

Ted  MacMurray,  whose  small 
town  background  made  his  under- 
standing of  Vic  and  Sade  especial- 
ly fine  and  which  now  helps  him 


in  Li'l  Abner,  agrees  with  Papp 
that  a  good  dramatic  director 
should  know  every  phase  of  show 
business.  He  adds  that  "every 
phase  of  life  is  the  director's  text- 
book." 

"While  a  director  may  draw 
upon  his  imagination  in  sequences 
with  which  he  is  totally  unfamiliar 
by  experience,  Ted  says,  "he  can 
do  much  to  heighten  suspense 
and  achieve  verisimilitude  if  he 
actually  knows  something  about 
the  particular  bit  of  life  he  is  try- 
ing to  mirror.  Writing  experience 
is  valuable  because  every  good 
director  is  called  upon  from  time 
to  time  to  write  a  page  or  so  of 
dialogue;  travel  is  helpful  in 
many  ways  and  has  been  espe- 
cially helpful  to  me  in  enabling 
me  to  recognize  dialects.  For  in- 
stance when  casting  Li'l  Abner 
we  auditioned  over  a  hundred 
men  for  the  title  role  before  find- 
ing one  who  had  just  the  right 
dialect  and  who  didn't  confuse 
the     hill-billy     dialect     with     the 


Southern  Negro   accent." 

Turning  to  the  bicgraphical,  we 
found  that  Bean  is  a  g.aduate  of 
the  University  of  Illinois.  He  start- 
ed his  radio  career  at  WFBM  in 
Indianapolis  and  came  to  WBBM 
in  Chicago  in  1930  and  to  WMBD 
in  Peoria  as  program  director  for 
three  years  before  joining  the  NBC 
Central  Division  staff  in    1939. 

Papp  was  born  in  Chicago  and 
educated  at  the  University  cf  Chi- 
cago. He  was  trained  profes- 
sionally in  violin  and  began  his 
career  by  reading  manuscripts 
for  publishers  in  New  York  City. 
For  a  time,  he  taught  public 
speaking.  Later  he  became  pur- 
chasing agent  for  a  distributor  of 
foreign  films  in  America,  casting 
director  and  play  reader  for  a 
New  York  producer,  and  finally 
a  free  lance  actor,  director  and 
producer  for  agencies.  He  joined 
NBC  in  1939  and  is  married  to 
Mary  Pcrtton,  beautiful  NBC  star 
who  is  heard  as  Marie  Martel  in 
Arnold  Grimm's  Daughter. 


NBC  Prepares  for  Music  Change 


K    GREAT  expansion  of  activity 

is  seen  around  the  NBC  Central 
Division  Music  Library  as  NBC 
music  officials  prepare  for  Jan- 
uary 1,  the  day  when  ASCAP 
music  becomes  unavailable  for 
broadcasting.  Several  new  em- 
ployees hove  been  added  to  the 
music  library  staff,  bringing  the 
total  number  of  employees  in  the 
library  to  14,  exclusive  of  two 
free-lance  copyists  who  are  called 
upon  fairly  regularly. 

Also,  in  anticipation  of  the 
change  effective  January  1,  the 
physical  equipment  of  the  music 
library  has  been  enlarged.  A 
client's  program  service  room,  has 
been  set  up  adjacent  to  the 
music  library  and  already  is 
being  used  to  provide  a  ready 
consultation  service  on  musical 
problems. 

Photostatic  equipment,  play- 
back recording  machines  and  on 
additional  piano  also  have  been 
acquired  by  the  music  library  to 
expedite  the  work.  The  new  set- 
up is  under  the  direction  of  Don 
Marcotte,  NBC  Central  Division 
music  supervisor. 

A  check  of  the  theme  songs  of 


programs  originating  in  the  NBC 
Chicago  studios  reveals  that  18 
commercial  shows  will  not  be 
affected  by  the  ASCAP  situation, 
while  the  themes  of  21  will  be 
changed.  Among  the  programs 
which  are  not  affected  are  Tom 
Mix  Straight  Shooters  ("When  the 
Bloom  Is  on  the  Sage");  Knicker- 
bocker, Playhouse  and  Wings  of 
Destiny  (both  original  man- 
uscripts); Arnold  Grimm's  Daugh- 
ter ("Poor  Little  Cinderella")  and 
Hymns  of  All  Churches  ("Andante 
Religiose"). 

Shows  and  musical  themes 
affected  include  Mary  Marlin 
("Clare  de  Lune");  Vic  and  Sade 
("Chansons  Bohemienne");  Guid- 
ing Light  ("Aphrodite");  Quiz 
Kids  ("School  Days"  and  "Play- 
mates"); Alec  Templeton  Time 
("Humming  Blues"  and  "The  Very 
Thought  of  You");  and  Fitch  Band- 
wagon ("Smile  for  Me"). 

Almost  all  sustaining  network 
programs  originating  at  NBC  Chi- 
cago will  change  their  themes  by 
November  15,  if  not  already 
changed,  according  to  Marcotte. 
Included  in  this  category  are  Club 
Matinee,    Doctors    at    Work    and 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


DECEMBER 


Uncle  Sam's  Forest  Rangers 
(heard  on  the  National  Farm  and 
Home  Hour)  with  new  themes  by 
Rex  Maupin,  NBC  conductor.  Roy 
Shield,  Central  Division  music 
director,  will  provide  a  new  theme 
fcr  the  Farm  and  Home  Hour.  The 
NBC  Breakfast  Club  has  four 
themes,  two  cf  which  have  always 
been  non-ASCAP. 

All  commercial  prcyiams  now 
using  ASCAP  themes  are  plan- 
ning changes.  In  some  cases  only 
a  new  arrangement  of  the  theme 
in  use  is  necessary,  since  a  num- 
ber of  the  melodies  are  not  restric- 
ted, but  an  ASCAP  arrangement 
is  being  used. 

One  of  the  first  NBC  network 
dramatic  programs  to  discard  its 
former  theme  was  Girl  Alone 
which  introduced  a  new  departure 
in  thematic  music  in  the  form  of 
a  so-called  "Girl  Alone  Suite" 
composed  by  Marcotte.  The  new 
music  for  this  show  not  only 
includes  opening  and  closing 
themes,  but  also  motif  music  which 
serves  to  describe  the  leading 
characters  and  to  introduce  these 
characters   in  script  sequences. 

Page  23 


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JANUARY—  1941 


TEN  CENTS 


Minnie  Pearl— The  Giil  With  the  Big  Future  at  WSM  (See  Page  19.; 


^i  • 


^  22  mi .'  i 


QViL 


PATTER   OFF   THE   PLATTER 


The  Waltz  Kings  of  the  19th  and 
20th  centuries  meet  in  Johonn 
Strcaiss'  "Wine,  Womctn  and 
Song,"  now  played  by  Wayne 
King,  best  known  popular  inter- 
preter of  three  quarter  time.  King 
adds  to  the  Strauss  music  a  new 
tang  and  warmth,  achieved 
through  the  perfect  blend  of  his 
saxes  and  strings.  The  coupling 
is  the  waltz  sensation  of  the  early 
twenties,  "That  Naughty  Waltz," 
featuring  the  maestro' s  own 
golden  sax.    (Victor  27264) 

Larry  Clinton  styles  the  lilting 
new  "Moonlight  and  Tears"  (from 
Warner  Brothers'  "Four  Mothers") 
in  a  smooth  and  effective  arrange- 
ment reminiscent  of  "My  Reverie." 
Peggy  Mann  sings.  The  reverse 
is  another  film  tune,  "You  Forgot 
about  Me"  from  RKO's  "Let's 
Make  Music,"  featuring  a  clari- 
net quartet  and  vocal  by  Terry 
Allen.  (Bluebird  B-10984) 

"Fats"  Waller  offers  "Everybody 
Loves  My  Baby"  in  a  fashion  that 
makes  us  wonder  why  he  didn't 
record  it  long  ago.  The  song  is  a 
natural  for  the  Waller  style  and 
"Fats'-'  rides  the  keys  and  the 
mike  for  a  torrid  performance.  The 
companion  piece,  "Scram"  was 
written  by  Leonard  Feather,  the 
English  jazz  cmhority,  and  com- 
prises instrumental  variations  on 
a  tricky  little  riff.  (Bluebird  B- 10989) 
One  of  the  most  striking 
swing  arrangements  to  come  our 
way  in  a  long  time  is  Glenn  Mil- 
ler's "Anvil  Chorus"  which  has 
created  a  storm  of  applause  at 
each  airing.  Glenn  has  now  re- 
corded the  number.  Parts  I  and  II 
on  both  sides  of  a  ten-inch  record, 
making  20  inches  of  driving,  solid 
swing.  There's  little  we  can  say 
(?bout  it  that  hasn't  already  been 
said.  The  pace  is  fast  and  fur- 
ious; the  orchestration  and  solos 
tremendous.  This  is  a  must  for 
any  swing  fan.  (Bluebird  B-10982) 

As  of  this  writing,  "Yes,  My 
Darling  Daughter"  was  enjoying  a 
sunny  spot  high  on  the  best  sel- 
ler list,  thanks  entirely  to  the  ef- 
forts of  Miss  Dinah  Shore  who 
introduced  the  number  and  car- 
ried it  single-handed.  Now  Glenn 
Miller  steps  aboard  and  next  week 
you  will  probably  see  other  or- 
chestras lining  up  on  the  right. 

Glenn  swings  the  tune  at  a  bit 
faster    tempo    than    Miss    Shore's 


vocal  arrangement  and  brings  to 
bear  his  unison  saxes  and  trom- 
bone quartet.  Lyrics  are  handled 
by  Marion  Hutton  who,  if  we  may 
say  so,  does  the  best  job  she  has 
ever  done  on  any  record.  The 
reverse  is  another  top  tune, 
"Along  the  Santa  Fe  Trail"  from 
the  Warner  Brothers  film  of  the 
same  name.  This  is  in  slow, 
pulsing  rhythm  with  Ray  Eberle 
at  the  microphone.  (Bluebird  B- 
10970) 

"Your  Dream"  (Hammerstein  II 
—  Harbach  —  Kern,  from  Univer- 
sal's  "One  Night  In  The  Tropics") 
is  one  of  the  most  delightful  mel- 
odies to  come  out  of  the  film  fac- 
tories for  some  time.  Leo  Reisman 
gives  it  a  velvet  and  cream  setting 
complete  with  vocal  solo  by  the 
musical  show  favorite,  Phil  Duey. 
The  coupling,  "Remind  Me"  from 
the  same  picture,  is  in  rumba  fox 
trot  tempo,  clean  cut  and  rhyth- 
mical. (Victor  27237) 

The  old  Benny  Goodman  band 
(Harry  James,  Dove  Matthews  and 
Buddy  Schutz)  beat  out  a  tremen- 
dous double  on  "Farewell  Blues" 
and  "Margie,"  a  pair  of  favorites 


straight  from  New  Orleans.  This 
was  the  brand  of  playing  that 
first  brought  fame  to  the  Swing 
King,  full  powerful  brass,  solid 
rocking  beat  and  plenty  of  unbe- 
lievable horn  from  both  B.  G.  and 
Harry  James.  (Bluebird  B- 10973) 

The  famous  all-star  Chicago 
session  which  produced  "Blue 
For  You  Johnny,"  and  "Ain't  Mis- 
behovin'  "  yields  another  double 
of  pure  jazz,  "Save  It,  Pretty  Ma- 
ma" and  "Stompy  Jones."  This 
was  the  date  with  Sidney  Bechet 
on  soprano  sax  and  clarinet;  Rex 
Stewart,  cornet;  Earl  Hines,  pia- 
no; John  Lindsay,  bass;  and  "Ba- 
by" Dodds,  drums.  Ellington's 
"Stompy  Jones"  is  the  faster  of 
the  two,  but  both  show  tremen- 
dous driving  force  and  inspired, 
smoking  solo  work.  (Victor  Swing 
Classic  27240) 

From  Poromount's  new  film, 
"Second  Chorus,"  Victor  just  re- 
leased a  12  inch  disc  of  Artie 
Shaw's,  "Concerto  for  Clarinet," 
in  two  parts.  This  two  sided 
platter  contains  plenty  of  "clari- 
net calories"  for  devotees  of  Ar- 
tie's licorice  stick. 


RADIO    VARIETIES 


No.  4,  VOLUME  1 


JANUARY- 1941 


Page 

Patter  Off  the  Platter 2 

First  Lady  of  the  American  Theatre 3 

"We  Take  You  Now  to  Mitchell  Tower" 4 

"Cokes"   for  the  Cast  of  Girl  Alone 5 

Jack  Benny  —  the  New  Champ 6&7 

Kostelcinetz  Predicts    7 

The  Shadow  at  Home 8 

Chaplin  Praises  CBS / 9 

Cantor  Looks  at  Radio lO&ll 

Radio  Varieties  Gold  Cup  Award 12 

Alec  —  the  Music  Box  Collector 13 

Let's  Look  at  WLS 14 

Watch  the  Birdie! 15 

Radio  and  U.  S.  Defense 16  &  17 

Daddy  Hanley  Stafford 18 


F.  L.  ROSENTHAL,  Publishei 


WILTON  ROSENTHAL,  Editor 


Published  at  1056  West  Van  Buien  Street,  Chicago,  Illinois.  F.  L.  Rosenthal,  Publisher. 
New  Yoik  Office:  485  Madison  Avenue,  Hollywood  Office:  3532  Sunset  Boulevard. 
Published  Monthly.  Sijigle  Copies,  ten  cents.  Subscription  rate  SI. 00  per  year  in  the 
United  States  and  P'ossessions,  $1.50  in  Canada.  Entered  as  second  class  matter  January 
10,  1940.  at  the  post  office  at  Chicago,  Illinois,  under  the  act  of  March  3,  1879.  Every 
effort  will  be  made  to  return  unused  manuscripts,  photographs,  and  drawings  (if  accom- 
panied by  sufficient  first-class  postage  and  name  and  address),  but  we  will  not  be 
responsible  for  any  losses  lor  such  matter  contributed.  The  publishers  assume  no 
responsibility  for  statements  made  herein  by  contributors  and  correspondents,  nor  does 
publication  indicate  approval   thereof. 


Pag©  2 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JANUARY 


FIRST  LADY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  THEATRE 

Helen  Hayes  at  her  piano  in  the  music  room  of 
her  beautiful  Victorian  home  in  Nyack,  N.  Y.,  where 
she  finds  comfort  and  relaxation  between  her  dramatic 
radio  shows.  Miss  Hayes  is  heard  in  her  own  radio 
playhouse  —  "Helen  Hayes  Theater"  —  on  a  63- 
stotion  coast-to-coast  Columbia  network.  Mark 
Warnow  conducts  the  orchestra  and  Harry  Von  Zell 
announces.  Dramatic  material  for  each  Sunday 
evening  series  is  selected  from  originals,  motion 
picture  hits,  magazine  stories  and  novels.  "Helen 
-  Hayes  Theater"  is  sponsored  by  Thomas  J.  Lipton,  Inc., 

in  behalf  of  Lipton's  Tea  and  is  heard  at  9:30p.  m.  CST. 


// 


We  Take  You  Now  to  Mitchell  Tower" 


Every  Sunday  —  for  longer 
than  most  listeners  can  re- 
member —  this  phrase  has 
introduced  the  oldest  educa- 
tional network  broadcast  in 
radio:  The  University  oi 
Chicago  Round  Table. 

TN  1931  WHEN  the  Round  Table 
made  its  debut  on  WMAQ  Chi- 
cago the  idea  of  three  professors 
discussing  a  current  problem 
before  a  microphone  was  neither 
exciting  nor  n3v/sworthY.  It  was 
an  experiment.     They     used     no 


ceived  and  directed  the  program 
in  its  infancy. 

Less  than  two  years  later,  in 
1933,  the  Round  Tajale  became  an 
educational  feature  of  the  NBC 
Red  Network  —  the  first  network 
broadcast  produced  without  script. 
Its  popularity  as  a  local  feature 
soon  was  eclipsed  by  the  interest 
it  commanded  before  a  national 
audience.  At  first  heard  only  in 
the  East  and  Middle  West,  the 
program  later  became  a  "coast-to 
coast"  feature,  with  an  audience 
of  nearly  a  million  listeners.     By 


Emily  Post  to  the  contrary,  elbows  are  decidedly  in  order  on  the  University 
of  Chicago  Round  Table  and  the  idea  is  to  keep  the  speakers  in  microphone 
position.  L.  to  R.;  W.  Laves,  political  science  professor,  U.  of  C;  H.  Deutsch, 
history    professor,    U.  of    Minnesota;  and    H.    M.    Cole,    military   expert,    U.    of   0. 


script,  had  no  rehearsal,  and  held 
no  conclusion  to  drive  home. 

In  radio,  however,  this  was  a 
dangerous  precedent,  an  unheard 
of  privilege.  There  could  be  dy- 
namite in  a  program  wJiich  de- 
pended for  its  content  on  the  whim 
or  judgment  cf  the  three  speakers. 
Besides,  the  topic  of  the  first  dis- 
cussion was  highly  controversial: 
The  Wickersham  Report  on  Prohi- 
bition! 

It  is  a  far  cry  to  that  bunday  in 
1931  when  the  three  professors  sat 
around  a  card  table  and  analyzed 
the  Wickersham  report  for  a  few 
hundred  thousand  listeners.  But 
production  of  that  first  broadcast 
remains  a  tribute  to  the  farsighted 
judgment  of  Judith  Waller,  then 
manager  of  WMAQ,  and  now 
educational  director  of  NBC  in  the 
Middle  West.  For  Miss  Waller 
and  Allen  Miller,  then  radio 
director  of  the  University,  hod  con- 


1935  there  were  more  than  fifty 
stations  in  its  network,  and  the 
audience  grew  steadily. 

Today  the  Round  Table  stands 
at  the  top  of  all  discussion  pro- 
grams in  educational  radio.  With 
a  network  of  nearly  ninety  sta- 
tions, more  than  five  million 
listeners  are  tuned  each  week  to 
the  discussions. 

At  first  the  Round  Table  trios 
consisted  only  of  University  of 
Chicago  professors.  Usually  two 
experts  on  the  topic  presented 
their  facts  to  a  third  professor  who 
played  the  role  of  "intelligent  lay- 
man," protecting  the  audience 
from  experts  who  might  cloud  the 
issues  in  technical  jargon. 

In  1938  new  horizons  were  sud- 
denly opened  to  the  Round  Table. 
The  Alfred  P.  Sloan  Foundation, 
newly  endowed  for  the  dissemi- 
nation   of    economic    knowledge, 


made  a  grant  to  the  University  of 
Chicago  for  experimentation  in 
radio  education  and  expansion  of 
the  activities  of  the  Round  Table. 

For  the  first  time  the  Round 
Table  was  equipped  to  bring  re- 
cognized authorities  from  any 
part  of  the  country  to  discuss  im- 
portant problems  before  its  micro- 
phone. In  special  instances  the 
mountain  went  to  Mohammed  — 
to  Henry  Wallace,  Thurmcm 
Arnold,  Clifton  Fadiman,  who 
were  unable  to  come  to  Chicago 
but  whose  contributiona  were  es- 
sential to  an  authoritative  discus- 
sion of  the  scheduled  topics. 

For  the  first  time  the  insistent 
public  demand  for  printed  copies 
of  the  discussions  could  be  met. 
In  a  little  more  than  two  years 
listeners  have  written  for  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  million  copies 
cf  Round  Table  discussion.  Today 
there  are  nearly  four  thousand 
regular  subscribers,  and  single 
broadcasts  have  brought  requests 
for  as  many  as  thirty  thousand 
transcripts,  which  are  sold  on  a 
non-profit  basis. 

With  a  network  continuing  to 
expand  and  an  audience  that  has 
grown  steadily  throughout  the 
"summer  lull"  the  Round  Table 
celebrates  its  seventh  network 
birthday  on  October  13.  Ranked 
as  one  of  the  outstanding  pro- 
grams devoted  to  the  discussion 
of  issues  of  national  and  interna- 
tional importance  t  h  e  Round 
Table  exemplifies  the  American 
traditions  of  freedom  of  expression 
and  communication.  The  Round 
Table  has  never  been  otticially 
censored  because  inherent  in  its 
three-speaker  set-up  are  a  fair 
treatment  of  conflicting  points  of 
view  and  a  diligent  attention  tO'  a 
balanced  presentation  of  contro- 
versial subjects. 

At  a  time  when  civil  liberties 
elsewhere  in  the  world  are  being 
restricted  by  authoritarian  govern- 
ments the  Round  Table  stands  as 
a  monument  to  the  democratic 
guarantee  of  those  liberties.  The 
constantly  widening  audience  for 
the  program  demonstrates  the 
practical  possibility  of  stimulating 
awareness  and  understanding  of 
important  national  issues  through 
educational  broadcasting. 


Page  4 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JANUARY 


"Cokes  '  for  the  Cast  of  Girl  Alone 


Members  of  the  cast  ot  NBC's 
Girl  Alone,  heca-d  Mondays 
through  Fridays  at  4:00  p.  m. 
GST  over  the  N  B  C  -  R  o  d 
network,  take  time  out  for 
refreshments  between  shows  at 
the  NBG  Round  Table  at  the 
Merchandise  Mart  Restaurant. 
Left  to  right  around  the  table: 
Herbert  (Ziehm)  Butterfield;  Lau- 
rette  (Virginia  Richman)  Fill- 
brandt:  John  GFrankie  McGinnis) 


Larkin;  Betty  (Patricia  Rogers) 
Winkler;  Pat  (Scoop  Curtis) 
Murphy;  Joan  (Alice  Ames 
Warner)  Winters;  Frances  (Ruth 
Lardner)  Cctrlon  and  the  vacant 
chair  would  hove  been  for  June 
Travis,  who  plays  Stormy 
Wilson  Curtis.  Standing,  1.  to 
r.:  NBC  Director  Charles 
Urquhort,  Frankie  (Jack)  Pacelli 
and  Henry  (Scotson  Webb) 
Hunter. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JANUARY 


Paga  5 


JACK    BENNY-THE  new  CHAMPI 

Jack  Benny,  star  of  the  Sunday  evening 
Jello  series,  was  voted  Champion  of  Cham- 
pions by  more  than  700  radio  editors  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada,  queried  by 
MOTION  PICTURE  DAILY  in  its  fifth 
nual  radio  poll  on  behalf  of  Fame. 


"DENNY,  who  won  the  tirst  MO- 
*^  TION  PICTURE  DAILY  poll  in 
1S36,  regained  the  leadership 
which  he  lost  to  Edgar  Bergen's 
Charlie  McCarthy  during  the  in- 
tervening three  years. 

Many  other  old  favorites  re- 
turned to  top  ranking  white  some 
former  leaders  dropped  from 
grace.  Dinah  Shore,  vocalist  on 
the  Eddie  Cantor  show,  was 
picked  by  the  editors  as  the  Out- 
standing New  Star  of  the  Season, 
while  Edward  G.  Robinson  was 
selected  as  the  Most  Effective  Film 
Player  on  the  Air. 

Bob  Hope  was  selected  as  the 
Best  Comedian,  Fanny  Brice  as 
Best  Comedienne,  and  Fibber 
McGee  &  Molly  as  the  Best  Com- 
edy Team.  Ring  Crosby  and 
Kate  Smith  again  won  top  spots 
as  popular  masculine  and  fem- 
inine vocalists,  respectively,  with 
Richard  Crooks  and  Margaret 
Speaks  winning  on  the  classical 
side. 

Raymond  Gram  Swing  rose 
from  fourth  place  to  first  among 
the  commentators,  with  Bill  Stern 
in  the  lead  for  Best  Sports  An- 
nouncer. 

Lux  Theatre  Wins 

The  Best  Dramatic  Show  accord- 
ing to  the  editors,  is  the  "Lux  Radio 
Theatre  "  a  perennial  favorite,  and 
"One  Man's  Family"  drew  top 
honors  as  Best  Dramatic  Series. 
The  "Aldrich  Family"  was  voted 
tops  among  Comedy  Series. 

The  biggest  total  was  rolled  up 
by  "Information,  Please,"  voted 
Best  Quiz  Program,  and  "Vic  and 
Sade"  was  named  best  among 
the  Monday-through-Friday  day- 
time serials. 

Best  Educational  Program  is  the 
CBS  "American  School  of  the  Air", 
which  has  been  recognized  in 
many  states  as  part  of  the  regular 
curriculum  and  now  is  playing  an 
important  part  in  cultural  relations 
with  Latin  America.  Irene  Wicker 
drew    top    honors    for    the    Best 

Paqe  6 


Children's  Program  with  her  show, 
"The  Singing  Lady." 

Glenn  Miller's  orchestra  was 
heralded  as  best  among  the 
swing  bands  and  Guy  Lombardo 
was  similarly  honored  for  the  Best 
Radio  Orchestra  (Popular).  Kay 
Kyser's  "College  of  Musical  Know- 
ledge" drew  top  rank  for  the  best 
popular  musical  show. 

The  New  York  Philharmonic- 
Symphony  Orchestra  was  voted 
the  Best  Radio  Orchestra  in  the 
classical  division,  while  the  "Ford 
Sunday  Evening  Hour"  drew  the 
plaudits  for  being  the  Best  Musical 
Show  on  the  classical  side. 

With  war  and  politics  occupy- 
ing most  of  the  special  events  time 
over  all  networks,  the  CBS  "Eu- 
ropean Roundup"  was  voted  best. 
Hope  and  Crosby  Close 

Following  closely  on  the  heels 
of  Benny,  in  the  open  champion- 
ship class,  were  Bob  Hope,  Bing 
Crosby  and  Bergen,  in  that  order. 
Fred  Allen  and  Helen  Hayes  were 
tied  for  the  fifth  place. 

Jack  Benny  trailed  Hope,  how- 
ever, as  Best  Comedian.  In  third 
place  was  Fred  Allen,  followed 
by  Bergen.  Eddie  Anderson,  as 
Benny's  valet  Rochester,  stepped 
in  with  the  leaders  to  take  fifth 
place. 

Gracie  Allen  was  runner-up  to 
Miss  Brice  as  Best  Comedienne. 
Mary  Livingstone  was  third, 
Marion  Jordan  (Molly  McGee) 
fourth,  with  Jane  Ace  and  Portland 
Hoffa  tied  for  fifth. 

Burns  &  Allen  followed  Fibber 
McGee  &  Molly  in  the  ratmgs  for 
Best  Comedy  Team.  Brenda  & 
Combina  placed  third,  and 
Amos  'n'  Andy,  Abbott  &  Costello 
and  Benny  &  Livingstone  were  in 
a  triple  tie  for  fourth  place. 

Benny's  Jello  series  was  given 
the  second  place  spot  behind  the 
"Aldrich  Family"  as  the  Best  Com- 
edy Series.  The  Bob  Hope  show 
for  Pepsodent  was  third,  while 
Fred  Allen's  "Texaco  Star  Theatre" 


an- 


and  the     "Easy     Aces"     tied    for 
fourth. 

Yvette,  the  golden-haired  songs- 
tress, was  voted  by  the  editors  as 
the  second  Outsanding  New  Star 
of  the  Season.  Helen  Hayes  was 
third  and  Carol  Bruce,  fourth. 
That  the  political  campaign  left  its 
mark  on  the  minds  of  the  editors 
was  reflected  in  the  fact  that 
Wendell  L.  W  i  1 1  k  i  e  received 
enough  votes  to  tie  for  the  fourth 
position  in  this  classfication. 

Kenny  Baker  followed  Crosby  as 
the  Best  Male  Vocalist  (Popular). 
Lanny  Ross  was  third,  Frank 
Parker,  fourth,  and  Frank  Munn, 
fifth. 

Miss  Shore's  rapid  rise  to  star- 
dom on  the  airwaves  gave  her 
not  only  the  top  rating  for  out- 
standing new  star,  but  also  gave 
her  second  place  to  Miss  Smith 
as  Best  Female  Vocalist  (Popular) 
Connie  Soswell  and  Frances 
Longford  were  tied  for  third  posi- 
tion and  Ginny  Simms  and  Bea 
Wain  were  tied  for  fifth. 

Crooks  Leads  Vocalists 

Richard  Crooks,  best  of  the 
male  vocalists  on  the  classical 
side,  was  followed  by  James 
Melton,  John  Charles  Thomas  and 
Nelson  Eddy  and  Lawrence  Tib- 
bett,  the  last  two  tied  for  fourth 
place. 

Still  on  the  classical  side,  but 
with  the  feminine  artists  this  time, 
Lily  Pons  follows  Miss  Speaks 
among  the  vocalists.  Lucille  Man- 
ners and  Jessica  Dragonette  were 
tied  for  third  place  and  Grace 
Moore  was  fifth. 

Lowell  Thomas  retained  second 
place  among  the  commentators. 
H.  V.  Kaltenborn  was  third,  Elmer 
Davis,  fourth,  while  Gabriel 
Heatter  and  Wythe  Williams  tied 
for  fifth. 

Ted  Husing  was  a  close  runner- 
up  to  Stern  as  Best  Sports  An- 
nouncer. Red  Barber  placed  third 
and  Stan  Lomax  and  Bob  Trout 
finished   in   the  money  by  tieing 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JANUARY 


for  fourth.  Lomax,  a  WOR  sports- 
caster,  was  the  only  non-network 
star  to  take  a  place  in  the  poll. 

Following  Robinson  as  the  Most 
Effective  Film  Player  on  the  Air 
were  Don  Ameche,  Basil  Rath- 
bone  and  Bing  Crosby,  in  that 
order.  Bette  Davis  and  Miss  Hayes 
tied  for  fifth  place. 

The  popularity  among  editors 
and  the  people  who  buy  the 
sponsors'  goods  has  changed 
little  with  respect  to  announcers. 
Wilson,  who  has  won  this  poll 
since  1936,  was  followed  in  the 
top  ranking  by  Harry  von  Zell, 
Milton  Cross,  Ken  Carpenter  and 
Bob  Trout. 

Another  repeated  favorite  is  the 
"Lux  Radio  Theatre"  which  was 
followed  in  the  Best  Dramatic 
Show  classification  by  the  new 
"Helen  Hayes  Theatre,"  Arch  Obo- 
ler's  "Everyman's  Theater,"  "First 
Nighter"  and  "Columbia  Work- 
shop." 

Criticize  Daytime  Serials 

Following  "One  Man's  Family" 
as  Best  Dramatic  Series  were  "Big 
Town"  and  the  "Aldrich  Family," 
in  that  order.  "Cavalcade  of  Amer- 
ica," "Second  Husband"  and 
"Those  We  Love"  were  tied  for 
fourth  place. 

In  second  place  among  quiz 
programs  was  "Dr.  I.  Q."  follow- 
ed by  "Take  It  or  Leave  It"  and 
"College  of  Musical  Knowledge." 
"Prof.  Quiz"  and  the  "Quiz  Kids" 
were  tied  for  fifth  place. 

Editors  who  frequently  criticize 
the  daytime  program  material, 
marked  their  ballots  with  a  num- 
ber of  asides  concerning  the  day- 
time serials.  "Big  Sister,"  "The 
Story  of  Mary  Marlin"  and  "The 
Goldbergs"  were  in  a  triple  tie 
for  second  place  behind  "Vic  and 
Sade."  Also  in  a  triple  tie,  but  for 
fifth  place,  were  "Bachelor's  Chil- 
dren," "Life  Can  Be  Beautiful" 
and  "The  O'Neill's." 

"University  of  Chicago  Round- 
table"  was  voted  second  in  the 
Best  Educational  Program  series. 
Apparently  of  the  opinion  that 
education  can  be  absorded  in  a 
number  of  ways,  the  editors  gave 
"Information,  Please"  third  place, 
while  "American  Town  Meeting  of 
the  Air"  were  tied  for  fourth. 

Following  Miss  Wicker's  "The 
Singing  Lady"  as  Best  Children's 
Program  were  "Coast-to-Coast  on 
a  Bus"  (Milton  Cross),  "Let's  Pre- 
tend"   (Nila    Mack),     and    "Quiz 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JANUARY 


Kids,"  all  in  a  triple  tie  for  second 
place,  and  "Tom  Mix's  Straight 
Shooters"  in  fifth  place. 

Popular  dance  bands  rated  in 
this  order  behind  Guy  Lombctrdo: 
Wayne  King  and  Fred  Waring, 
tied  for  second,  Kay  Kyser,  third, 
and  Tommy  Dorse  y  and  Glenn 
Miller,  tied  for  fourth. 

Miller,  who  topped  the  swing 
bands,  was  followed  by  Tommy 
Dorsey,  Benny  Goodman,  Artie 
Shaw  and  Jimmie  Lunceford. 
Richard  Himber  just  missed  the 
first  five. 

Triple  Musical  Show  Tie 

The  Fred  Waring  show,  "Kraft 
Music  Hall"  and  'Your  Hit  Parade' 
were  in  a  triple  tie  for  second 
place  behind  "College  of  Musical 
Knowledge"  as  the  Best  Musical 
Show  (Popular).  "Musical  Amer- 
icana" came  fifth. 

The  NBC  Symphony  Orchestra 
was  rated  second  among  the 
classical  radio  orchestras.  Frank 
Black's  "Cities  Service"  orchestra 
was  fourth  while  Andre  Kostela- 
netz's  orchestra,  Raymond  Paige's 
"Musical  Americana"  orchestra 
and  Alfred  Wallenstein's  "Voice 
of  Firestone"  orchestra  were  tied 
for  fifth  place. 

The  "Ford  Sunday  Evening 
Hour,"  which  was  selectea  as  the 
Best  Musical  Show  (Classical), 
was  followed  by  the  N.  Y.  Philhar- 
monic-Symphony Sunday  after- 
noon broadcasts  in  second  place, 
the  NBC  Symphony  ana  "Voice 
of  Firestone,"  tied  for  third,  and 
"Cities  Service,"  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  broadcasts  and  the  "Tele- 
phone Hour,"  tied  for  fifth. 

War  coverage,  politicial  conven- 
tions and  election  returns  were 
almost  exclusively  the  items  cited 
by  the  editors  voting  on  special 
events.  Although  the  ballots 
requested  designation  by  network, 
the  second  greatest  group  of  votes 
was  for  convention  and  election 
coverage  with  "all  networks" 
noted  on  the  ballots.  The  CBS 
"European  Roundup"  was  in  first 
place.  Among  others  items  cited 
as  outstanding  were  the  NBC  spot 
description  of  the  scuttling  of  the 
Graf  Spee,  general  NBC  war 
coverage,  and  NBC  broadcasts  of 
refugee  children  speaking  to  their 
parents  in  England.  Outside  of 
the  war  and  politics,  the  only 
other  event  to  get  special  citation 
was  the  NBC  coverage  of  the  draft 
drawings. 


KOSTELANETZ  PREDICTS 

_^NDRE  KOSTELANETZ,  famous 
musical  conductor  of  stage  and 
radio,  predicts  a  greater  concen- 
tration than  ever  upon  Latin- Amer- 
ican music  this  season.  It  will  be 
the  natural  result,  he  says,  of  the 
close  relations  between  the  United 
States  and  the  republics  to  the 
South,  growing  cut  of  the  hemi- 
sphere defense  policy. 

The  movement  toward  great 
cultural  interdependence  between 
the  two  continents  has  already 
begun,  he  points  out,  with  the 
decision  cf  the  leading  motion 
picture  studios  on  the  West  Coast 
to  broadcast  programs  by  their 
stars  to  Latin  America.  Music 
figures  prominently  in  these  plans 
—  all  styles  and  classes  cf  Amer- 
ican melody  from  the  folKsongs  ol 
the  mountains  and  the  plains  and 
the  old  South  to  the  latest  Tin  Pan 
Alley  his. 

These  programs  will  supple- 
ment the  regular  short-wave  pro- 
grams of  music-and-story  which 
go  out  regularly  from  New  York, 

In  return,  says  Kostelanetz,  we 
can  expect  a  steady  cargo  of 
Latin-American  music  —  tangos, 
rhumbas,  fandangos,  serenades; 
"all  the  music,  in  fact,  that  is  iden- 
tified with  the  peoples  south  of 
the  Rio  Grande." 

"The  more  infectious  of  these 
tunes  wlil  find  their  way,  you  may 
be  sure,  into  the  catalogues  and 
music  racks  of  our  dance  and  con- 
cert orchestras.  I  look  for  the 
Latin  American  vogue  to  be 
greater  than  ever  this  winter." 

The  people  of  the  United  States, 
he  declares,  have  long  been  en- 
thusiastic about  the  music  south 
of  the  border.  "Its  zip  and  rhythm 
have  influenced  our  musical  fash- 
ions deeply  for  many  years.  In- 
deed, for  the  last  few  seasons  it 
would  seem  we  can't  get  enough 
of  Latin  American  music,  just  as  I 
understand  Latin  America  cannot 
get  enough  of  our  jazz,  our  cow- 
boy songs  and  Negro  'spirituals.'  " 

Kostelanetz  is  convinced  that 
this  musical  exchange  is  proving 
one  of  the  most  important  factors 
— if  it  is  not  the  most  important — 
in  cementing  good  will  between 
the  two  continents. 

"We've  become  good  neighbors 
because  we  have  a  common 
meeting-ground  in  music. 

Page  7 


The  Shadow  at  Home 


IT'S  HARD  to  imagine  the  Shadow  having  a 
family,  but  here  it  is,  intact.  Back  row,  left  to 
right:  Jerry  Devine,  author  of  the  series  heard 
Sundays  at  4:30  P.  M.  CST  over  MBS;  Arthur 
Vinton,  who  plays  whatever  menace  is  required 
each  week;  Ed's  son,  Keenan  Wynn,  who  ploys 
"Shrevie";  Bill  Tuttle,  director;  Dick  Widmork, 
juvenile  lead;  Kenny  Delmar,  "Commissioner 
Weston." 

In  the  front  row,  left  to  right:  Bill  Johnstone, 
the  Shadow  himself  who  doubles  as  Lament 
Cranston;  ingenue  Betty  Heckser;  Marjorie 
Anderson,  the  Shadow's  girl  friend,  "Margot"; 
and  Elsie  Thompson,  whose  weird  organ  in- 
troductions precede  the  Shadow's  wicked  Icrugh. 


Page  8 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JANUARV 


CHAPLIN  PRAISES  CBS 

Color   Television 


"Terrific,"  "amazing"  and  "marvelous"  were  the 
words  used  by  Charles  Chaplin  (  left)  to  express  his 
wonderment  at  Columbia  Broadcasting  System's  sensa- 
tional new  development  of  color  television.  The  great  film 
comedian  was  given  a  private  demonstration  of  the  device 
by  its  inventor,  Dr.  Peter  C.  Goldmarl<,  CBS  chief  tele- 
vision engineer.  At  right  is  Gilbert  Seldes,  CBS  director 
of  television   programs. 


QOLUMBIA  Broadcasting  Sys- 
tem's color  television  came  in 
for  high  praise  from  one  of  the 
motion  picture  industry's  greatest 
figures  when  Charles  Chaplin  de- 
scribed a  demonstration  as  "ter- 
rific"   and    "a    strikina   argument 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JANUARY 


for  Democracy." 

Mr.  Chaplin,  as  guest  of  the 
CBS  Chief  Television  Engineer, 
Dr.  Peter  C.  Goldmark,  was  shown 
a  comparative  demonstration, 
color  control  and  magnified  vision. 
He  sow  a  reel  of  color  film  tele- 


vised on  black  and  white  and 
color  receivers  standing  side-by- 
side  and  expressed  his  amaze- 
ment in  typical  motion  picture  ad- 
jectives such  as  "terrific,"  "amaz- 
ing" and  "marvelous." 

"Color  seems  to  me,"  Mr.  Chap- 
lin said,  "to  be  ten  times  as  im- 
portant to  television  as  it  is  to 
the  motion  pictures,  because  in 
black  and  white  television,  you 
can't  recognize  the  details  of  the 
picture  clearly  —  and  with  color 
you  can.  With  color  your  eye 
gets  more  for  its  money.  I  tried 
to  keep  comparing  the  two  pic- 
tures, but  I  soon  forgot  about  the 
black  and  white." 

vVhen  Mr.  Chaplin  learned  that 
Nazi  scientists  had  not  only  failed 
to  produce  color  television,  but  of- 
ficially had  abandoned  it  as  im- 
possible, the  man  responsible  for 
"The  Great  Dictator,"  which  satir- 
izes dictatorial  control,  said: 

"The  color  television  I  have  just 
seen  is  an  American  product,  and 
is  a  striking  argument  for  Democ- 
racy." 

After  the  demonstration  of  black- 
and-white  television  alongside  the 
CBS  color  method,  Mr.  Chaplin 
was  initiated  into  the  color  control 
technique,  with  Dr.  Goldmark  ex- 
tracting colors  from  the  image  on 
the  television  screen. 

Then  "magnified  image"  was 
explained  with  the  great  screen 
star  getting  a  rare  peep  into  the 
inner  workings  of  the  color  scan- 
ning machinery  and  a  close-up  in- 
spection of  the  newly  developed 
lens  which  increases  the  appar- 
ent picture  area  of  the  television 
image  by  about  80  per  cent. 

After  a  tour  through  the  labora- 
tories, Mr.  Chaplin  warmly  con- 
gratulated Dr.  Goldmark  on  his 
developing  color  television  and 
said: 

"I  think  that  now  that  you've 
got  color,  you  can  start  television 
off  on  its  right  foot." 

Page  9 


Cantor  Looks  at  Radio 


"We  need  laughter  as  much  as  we  need 
music,  education  and  the  news  of  the  day/' 
says  Cantor.  "It  is  the  oxygen  tank  to 
keep  Americans  alive   today." 


VOUR  INTERVIEW  with  Eddie 
Canter  is  set  for  the  lunch  hour. 
You  are  admitted  to  hi^  suite  on 
the  top  floor  of  a  midtown  Man- 
hattan hotel  and  directed  to  his 
bedroom.  A  faint,  linimenty,  locker 
room  aroma  catches  up  with  you 


on  the  occasion  of  his  decade  in 
radio.  Cantor  extricates  a  tanned 
arm  from  the  white  sheet  that  en- 
velopes him  and  motions  you  to  a 
seat,  just  as  his  muscled  masseur 
punches  out  a  staccato  run  on  the 
keyboard  of  his  spine. 


Eddie  Cantor  caught  in  tlie  act  of  "raiding  the  ice  box" 
claims  his  steady  diet  of  milk  gives  him  most  of  his  energy 
and   is  the  beneficial   all   around   drink   in   his   house. 


as  you  enter  and  find  your  host 
stretched  on  a  table  taking  his 
rub-down. 

You  have  come  to  get  a  story 

Page  10 


"This  is  how  I  get  my  exercise, 
"Eddie  tells  you  dolefully.  "Be- 
tween rehearsals  and  broadcasts 
and  benefit  shows  you  can  never 


find  time  for  the  real  thing." 

To  start  things  off,  you  remind 
your  host  that  in  October,  1931, 
he  began  his  radio  career  with 
the  National  Broadcasting  Com- 
pany when  it  occupied  only  a 
few  floors  of  broadcasting  space 
at  71 1  Fifth  Avenue.  Now  that  he 
is  beginning  his  tenth  year  with 
NBC  with  his  "Time  to  Smile" 
program,  how  does  radio  look  in 
retrospect,  especially  in  regard  to 
comedy  programs? 

Before  the  masseur  can  lay 
hands  on  another  vertebra  Cantor 
replies: 

"There  have  been  changes. 
They  were  slow  in  coming,  but  the 
changes  have  been  for  the  better. 
The  quality  of  radio  comedy  is  at 
a  higher  level  now  than  at  any 
period  in  radio's  history.  Puns, 
jokes  and  wheezes  have  passed 
out  of  the  picture.  In  their  place 
we  have  situations  involving  real 
people.  We  are  making  actors 
living  persons  instead  of  ma- 
chines that  spout  jokes. 

Radio  comedy  is  building 
characters,  not  caricatures,  and 
ycu  can  give  Jack  Benny  the 
credit  for  showing  the  way.  He 
gave  us  real  characters  that  every 
listener  can  recognize." 

The  blond  muscle  man,  with 
hands  half  closed,  half  slaps  and 
half  punches  the  comedian's  well 
developed  torso.  Eddie's  voice  is 
about  as  steady  as  Jack  Benny's 
in  his  old  Maxwell,  but  there  is  no 
interruption  in  his  train  of  thought. 
Resting  his  chin  on  his  arm,  use- 
ful as  a  shock  absorber,  he  goes 
on! 

"Another  change  for  the  batter 
is  the  faster  tempo  of  radio  com- 
edy. We're  doing  in  a  half  hour 
now  what  seme  programs  used 
to  do  in  an  hour.  We  were  the 
first,  I  believe,  to  set  the  style  in 
this  respect.  We  cut  away  non- 
essentials like  extravagant  in- 
troductions and  buildups,  which 
were  auite  the  rage  a  few  years 
ago.  Listen,  this  will  slay  you. 
Do  you  know  how  we  introduced 
Deanna  Durbin  for  the  first  time? 
Don't  faint.  All  we  said  was, 
'Here's  a  13-year-old  girl  with  a 
very  lovely  voice.' 

The  famous  pop-eyes  popped. 
He  pondered  this.  In  retrospect 
this    seemed    an    incredulous    in 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


JANUARY 


troduction  to  a  girl  who  was  to 
win  sudden  and  spectacular 
success  in  the  films,  but  it  served 
to  point  up  the  Cantor  contention 
that  radio  goes  too  fast  nowadays 
to  permit  dawdling  continuity. 

"Crack  that  knee,  will  you 
please,"  says  Eddie  lifting  his 
right  leg  to  the  man  in  the  white 
jersey.  The  masseur  obliges,  the 
knee   cracks,  Eddie  continues: 

"I'll  tell  you  another  thing  that 
has  changed  for  the  better.  Come- 
dians are  broadcasting  now  for 
the  listening  audience  and  not  the 
studio  audience.  The  boys  who 
made  people  scream  in  the  studios 
are  not  on  the  air  anymore. 
Actors  don't  harp  on  Hedy 
Lamarr  or  Bing  Crosby's  horses 
to  raise  a  laugh. 

Nowadays  they  cater  to  the 
homes.  No  comedian  has  a  right 
on  the  air  unless  he  can  see  in  his 
mind's  eye  the  Nebraskans,  the 
Alabamans,  the  lowans  and  all 
the  rest." 

At  this  point  Bunky  steps  silent- 
ly in  view.  Bunky  is  an  old  time 
vaudeville  trouper  who  gave 
Eddie  his  first  job.  Cantor,  as  a 
youngster,  worked  for  Bunky  (the 
Arthur  of  Bedini  and  Arthur)  as  a 
black  face  juggler,  becoming  one 
of  the  first  stooges  in  vaudeville. 
Bunky  is  now  the  comedian's  all- 
around  man.  He  stands  before 
him  now  to  point  a  thumb  in  the 
direction  of  the  living  room.  Eddie 
understands'  the  song  pluggers 
are  here  on  their  daily  visit.  He 
slips  on  a  bath  robe  and  goes  in 
to  meet  them.  There  are  three  of 
them.  Perfunctorily  they  cluster 
around  the  little  upright  in  a  cor- 
ner. One  sits  at  the  piano;  anoth- 
er, holding  a  little  sheet  of  music, 
sings;  the  third,  the  publisher, 
stands  by  following  the  score. 
Eddie  stands  close  to  me  singer, 
facing  him.  It's  a  marching  song 
about  a  young  man  who  is  drafted 
and  goes  to  camp.  Eddie  listens 
attentively,  tapping  one  foot  in 
time  with  the  music.  He  hears 
several  choruses  and  then  there 
is  a  pause  for  the  verdict. 

"It's  got  a  good  title,  boys,  and 
it  shows  thought.  But  I  don't 
believe  you  have  scratched  the 
surface.  This  is  straight  stuff. 
It's  factual.  You've  got  to  be 
comical,  very  comical.  The  way 
to  make  a  hit  is  to  make  people 
laugh."  Eddie,  who  will  draw 
parallels  at    the    drop    of    a  hat, 


gave  as  on  illustration  his  famous 

'Potatoes  Are  Cheaper'  song.  He 

sang  for  their  benefit  one  refrain.' 

'You're  not  a  Taylor  or  Gable, 

But  Do  What  You're  Able.' 

"You  hove  got  to  have  a  first 
act  curtain  at  the  end  of  each 
chorus.  I  think  you  can  piinch  it 
up.  Work  it  over  and  see  me  in 
a  couple  of  days." 

The  pluggers  get  the  drift  and 
leave.  Eddie,  still  humming  the 
tune,  sits  down  at  a  bridge  table 
for  his  first  meal  of  the  day.  Bells 
begin  to  ring:   the  door  bell,   the 


r"*"'^ 


Eddie  Cantor  keeps  in  trim  by 
taking  a  plunge  each  morning  in 
his  private  pool  on  his  California 
estate. 

phone,  but  the  busy  little  man 
goes  ahead  with  his  meal,  taking 
in  order  orange  juice,  figs  on  dry- 
cereal,  cream  cheese,  milk  and  a 
spot   of  vanilla  ice  cream. 

Distractions  notwithstanding,  the 
comedian's  mind  is  still  on 
radio.  Particularly  his  new  show, 
"Time  to  Smile,"  which  is  pre- 
sented from  NBC's  studio  8-H,  from 
whence  he  broadcast  the  first 
comedy  program  to  emanate  from 
Radio  City.  It  was  on  the  occa- 
sion of  dedication  of  NBC's  pres- 
ent headquarters  in  1933. 

Of  his  new  discovery,  Mrs. 
Waterfall  (Maude  Davis),  Cantor 
says:  "She  has  a  better  sense  of 
timing  than  any  woman  I  have 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


JANUARY 


worked  with  in  my  life." 

Of  Harry  Von  Zell,  his  an- 
nouncer, he  says:  "Unquestion- 
ably t  h  e  greatest  announcer- 
actor-comedian  in  the  business. 
When  he  makes  a  mistake  it's  an 
improvement  over  what  you've 
got." 

You  talk  about  straight  men  and 
Eddie  is  reminded  anew  of  the 
progress  radio  has  made.  When 
he  first  started  in  radio  he  hor- 
rified sponsors,  he  tells  you,  by 
suggesting  that  the  commercial 
be  said  by  the  comedian's  straight 
men,  just  as  Von  Zell  is  doing 
today.  It  took  almost  a  decade, 
he  says,  for  sponsors  to  appre- 
ciate the  value  of  incorporating 
the  plug  for  the  product  in  the 
running  dialogue  rather  than  to 
set  it  as  something  apart. 

Eddie  was  ahead  of  his  time 
and  in  any  review  of  the  history 
of  radio  comedy  his  name  will  be 
preeminent  as  a  pioneer  who 
helped  develop  it.  He  was  the 
first  to  go  out  of  his  way  to  find 
new  talent  and  develop  it  (Bobby 
Breen,  Deanna  Durbin,  Parkyakar- 
kas).  He  was  the  first  to  do  a 
preview  of  his  program  before 
submitting  -it  to- -a  nationwide 
audience. 

He  was  a  pioneer  in  admitting 
the  public  to  his  broadcasts, 
rather  than  reserve  the  privilege 
to  a  handful  of  friends  of  the 
sponsor.  These  and  other  in- 
novations have  helped  radio  com- 
edy progress. 

You  ask  him  about  the  future  of 
radio   comedy  and  he  answers: 

"There  will  be  an  avalanche, 
an  epidemic  of  laughter.  We 
need  laughter  as  much  as  we 
need  music,  education  and  the 
news  of  the  day.  Laughter  is  a 
balance  very  necessary  m  these 
times.  You  will  hear  more  and 
more  laughter  because  people 
will  be  afraid  NOT  to  laugh.  If 
the  dictators  didn't  suppress 
laughter  they  wouldn't  have  a 
chance,  because  laughter  makes 
a  people  relax  and  think.  As 
long  as  we  can  laugh,  we're  safe. 
There  have  been  substitutes  for 
oil,  for  food  and  clothing,  but 
never  has  there  been  a  stibstitute 
for  laughter.  There  has  yet  to  be 
an  ersatz  laughter.  Laughter  is 
the  most  important  thing  in  the 
world  today.  It  is  the  oxygen 
tank  to  keep  Americans  alive  to- 
day." 

Poqe  II 


RADIO  VARIETIES  GOLD  CUP  AWARD 

Presented  to 

Meet  Mr.  Meek 


^  Though  "Meet  Mr.  Meek"  has  been  on  the  air  only 
since  July,  its  audience  rating  is  higher  than  many  pro- 
grams on  the   air  much   longer. 

^  The  pathos  and  humor  of  the  scripts  are  typically 
American  —  the  situations  ones  that  could  happen  nowhere 
but  here.  The  Meeks  might  be  the  Joneses  or  the  Smiths 
or  even  the  listener's  own  family. 


-^  It  brings  the  public  some  of  the  finest  acting  on  the 
air  in  the  persons  of  ingenue  Doris  Dudley,  whose  flair 
for  the  spectacular  is  unequalled;  Adelaide  Klein,  one  of 
radio's  best  character  actresses;  Frank  Readick,  veteran 
of  screen,  stage  and  radio  and  Jack  Smart,  a  Bob  Hope 
alumni  whose  work  is  well  known  to  radio  listeners  from 
coast  to  coast. 


pADIO      VARIETIES      herewith 
presents  Meet  Mr.  Meek  with 
the    Radio    Varieties    Gold    Cup 
Award . 

Each  episode  is  complete  in  it- 
self, peppered  with  situations  that 
point  up  the  good  character  qual- 
ities of  the  persons  involved.  Even 
Mr.  Meek's  wife,  Agatha,  thought 
somewhat  a  nagger,  is  absolved 
at  the  end  of  every  script  so  that  ■ 


a  class  all  its  own. 

In  casting  the  program,  fore- 
sighted  Dick  Marvin,  radio  head 
of  the  agency  bankrolling  the 
show,  took  television  into  consi- 
deration so  that  today,  each  indi- 
vidual in  the  Meet  Mr.  Meek  cast 
is  prepared  for  visual  radio  by 
looking  his  part  as  well  as  sound- 
ing it. 

Doris  Dudley  is  one  of  radio's 


Frank"  Readick  who 

the  listener  is  left  with  sympa- 
thetic reactions  toward  her  and 
her  lazy  brother,  Louie. 

Excellence  of  writing  combined 
with  excellence  of  acting  and  di- 
recting lift  the  Meek  program 
from  the  ranks  of  the  banal  into 

Page  12 


portrays  Mr.  Meek 

most  brilliant  young  actresses. 
After  finishing  a  year's  run  with 
John  Barrymore  in  "My  Dear  Chil- 
dren," Doris  came  to  New  York 
and  landed  her  first  big  night  time 
radio  role  in  Meet  Mr.  Meek.  She 
plays  the  Meek's  daughter,  Pegy. 


Tall,  dynamic,  blonde,  she  is  now 
preparing  for  the  legit'  season  and 
by  the  time  this  appears  in  print, 
may  be  rehearsing  a  Theatre 
Guild  ploy. 

Jack  Smart,  who  ploys  Louie, 
Mr.  Meek's  lazy  brother-in-law,  al- 
most needs  no  introduction.  He 
was  on  the  Bob  Hope  show  all 
last  year  and  made  about  eight 
pictures  with  Hope.  Now,  in  Man- 
hattan, he  divides  his  time  be- 
tween the  Meek  program  and  ap- 
pearances on  most  of  the  big 
variety  shows. 

This  gesture  toward  the  radio 
progress  of  tomorrow,  he  believes, 
will  not  only  safeguard  the  show's 
future,  but  the  actor's  futi;ire  as 
well.  If  actors  look  their  ports, 
they  con't  lose  out  when  television 
becomes  a  reolity. 

The  title  role  is  played  by  smoll, 
lithe,  goodnotured  Frank  Readick. 
He  has  been  in  radio  for  twelve 
years  and  it  was  he  who  created 
the  original  Shadow.  His  exper- 
ience OS  on  actor  dotes  back  to 
the  days  when  his  father  toured 
the  for  west  in  a  covered  wagon 
show  and  allowed  Frank  to  breok 
into  show  business  with  o  song 
and  dance  when  he  was  borely 
out  of  rompers. 

Adeloide  Klein,  who  ploys  Mr. 
Meek's  wife,  Agotho,  storted  out 
to  be  o  concert  singer  but  switched 
to  straight  dramatic  octing  when 
radio  started  going  places.  She 
AATfote  monologues  where  she 
played  five  different  women,  so 
Rudy  Vollee  put  her  on  his  show 
five  consecutive  weeks  and  offer 
that,  Addie  was  a  stor.  Todoy,  in 
oddition  to  her  work  on  Meet  Mr. 
Meek,  she  oppeors  as  one  of  the 
leads  in  "We  the  Abotts"  and  is 
heard  weekly  on  such  shows  os 
Gongbuster,  Kate  Smith,  Helen 
Hayes  ond  other  major  network 
shows. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JANUARY 


Alec  — the  Music  Box  Collector 


JI^LEC  TEMPLETON  is  in  a  fair 
way  to  open  a  music  instru- 
ment shop  providing  the  notion 
strikes  him. 

For  in  his  Chicago  suite  the 
"Puck  of  the  piano"  has  a  col- 
lection of  musicana  which  is 
threatening  to  dislodge  conven- 
tional accoutrements.   ' 

As  you  enter  Templeton's  abode 
70U  may  be  surrounded  by  the 
rippling    tones    of    a    piano,    the 


in  composing  such  Templetonia 
as  "Corelli  in  the  Old  Corral," 
"Bach  Goes  to  Town"  and  "Men- 
delssohn Mows  'em  Down."  Still 
Alec  finds  time  for  his  hobby. 

Some  thirty-six  music  boxes 
compose  the  major  part  of  the  col- 
lection. 

Show  piece  is  the  ancient 
French  box,  a  ponderous  affair 
weighing  forty-five  pounds  and  es- 
timated to  be  150  years  old.    Alec 


Alec  Templeton  enjoys  a  secret  joke  with  Edna  O'Dell  before  a 
broadcast  of  "Alec  Templeton  Time."  Miss  O'Dell  was  a  recent  guest 
songstress  on  the  program.  "Alec  Templeton  Time"  is  aired  each 
Friday  evening  at  6:30  and  9:30   (CST)   over  NBC. 


tinkling  notes  of  a  music  box,  the 
chime  of  a  musical  clock,  or  the 
majestic  music  of  Mozart  from  a 
recording  machine,  the  rhythmic 
beat  of  castanets,  rhumba  gourds, 
and  a  radio  playing  "Beat  Me, 
Daddy." 

When  Alec  Templeton  was  a 
lad  of  two,  he  reached  up  on  the 
parlor  table  in  the  Welsh  farm- 
house where  his  family  lived  and 
pulled  down  the  family's  ancient 
music  box.  For  fear  it  would 
break,  his  mother  cautioned  him 
never  to  play  it.  He  didn't,  but 
he  discovered  another  way  to  lis- 
ten to  its  tune.  By  running  his 
fingers  over  the  roll  (similar  to  a 
player-piano  roll)  he  figured  out 
its  melody. 

Since  that  time.  Alec  Templeton 
has  had  a  passion  for  music 
boxes,  and  as  years  passed,  a 
passion  for  musical  instruments  of 
all  types. 

Some  part  of  each  day  is  spent 
with  his  collection.  There  may  be 
a  rehearsal  for  "Alec  Templeton 
Time"   or  he  may  be   engrossed 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JANUARY 


discovered  it  in  the  farm,  house  of 
some  French-Canadian  friends.  It 
is  entirely  handmade  and  ploys 
twelve  different  operatic  selec- 
tions in  a  rich,  bell-like  tone. 

The  European  symphonium  al- 
so is  150  years  old.  It  is  four  feet 
long,  two  and  a  half  feet  high, 
three  feet  wide  and  plays  fifty 
large  metal  records. 

Until  recently  the  prized  pos- 
session of  a  Hoosier  admirer  is 
the  small  spun-metal  musical  pow- 
der box.  A  fragile  picture  of  a 
costumed  lady  is  painted  on  a 
tiny  china  circle  inserted  in  the 
lid. 

Among  the  other  thirty-six  are 
an  Old  English  "Toby"  jug,  a  cig- 
arette box,  beer  mug,  Swiss  music 
box  playing  metal  discs,  a  minia- 
ture grand  piano  and  an  old  teapot 
which  ploys  two  melodies  in  E 
major. 

Templeton's  love  for  these  odd 
music  makers  is  known  through- 
out the  country.  He  is  constcmtly 
advised  by  the  public  where  he 


may  procure  them.  When  he  was 
the  guest  at  o  University  of  Oklo- 
homa  sorority  music  box  party, 
he  come  awoy  with  two  instru- 
ments: one  playing  "The  Side- 
walks of  New  York"  in  B-flot,  and 
the  other,  shaped  like  o  flower 
pot. 

The  zither  is  neglected  these 
days  —  excepting  by  Templeton. 
He  possesses  on  oncient  one  for 
which  he  hos  invented  a  new 
scale  based  on  the  overtones  of 
A  flat.  Its  weird  tones  were  pro- 
duced over  the  air  on  "Alec  Tem- 
pleton Time"  when  he  composed 
"Fantasy  For  Zither  and  Chorus." 

A  Chinese  bell,  hundreds  of 
years  old,  was  presented  to  Alec 
by  a  San  Francisco  admirer.  Alec 
claims  it  is  o  raritv  because  the 
tone  is  exceptionally  clear.  It  is 
in  the  key  of  G. 

Castanets,  rhumba  gourds  and 
sticks  ore  omong  the  exotic  in- 
struments Templeton  ploys  dex- 
terously. Most  unusual  of  this 
division  is  the  __little_  brown-nut- 
sized  gourd  which  hos  been  hol- 
lowed out.  When  struck  by  o 
special  wood  hammer,  it  produces 
o  high  monotonous  note.  It  origi- 
nated in  Jopan  where  it  wos  used 
to  drown  out  mundane  sounds 
while  the  owner  was  ot  worship. 

And  if  oil  these  instruments 
were  not  sufficient,  Alec  will  point 
out  his  concert  grand  piano,  ra- 
dios, record  playing  machines  and 
several  hundred  records. 

However,  like  all  true  collec- 
tors, Templeton  is  constcmtly 
seorching   for   the    "major  prize." 

The  "prize,"  in  Alec's  cose  if 
and  when  he  obtains  it,  is  a  horp- 
sichord  untouched  by  the  mechon- 
icol  perfection  of  modem  times. 

Once  when  Alec  visited  them 
he  sot  down  at  o  harpsichord 
and  played  "Bach  Goes  to  Town" 
with  complete  splomb  —  even 
though  he  hod  never  before 
played    the    instrument. 

Alec  Templeton  is  the  stor  of 
the  Alka  Seltzer  program,  "Alec 
Templeton  Time",  heard  each  Fri- 
day evening  at  6:30  ond  9:30 
(CST)  over  the  red  network  of  the 
Notional  Broadcasting  Company. 

Page  13 


Let's  Look  at  WLS 


SMILEY  SUTTER,  YODELING 
newcomer  who  stops  the  WLS 
National  Bom  Dance  every  Satur- 
day night,  is  a  crossword  puzzle 
addict.  He  can  complete  the 
toughest  puzzles  in  record  time 
and  has  probably  one  of  the 
largest  vocabularies  in  radio.  He 
is  never  without  his  pocket  dic- 
tionary, and  whenever  he  runs 
across  a  new  word,  he  looks  it  up, 
studies  it,  applies  it,  una  uses  it 
from  then  on. 

WLS  REGULARLY  AUDITIONS 
countless  numbers  of  aspiring 
artists,  after  each  has  applied  for 
an  audition  on  the  blank  form 
provided.  One  of  the  strmgest 
requests  for  a  hearing,  however, 
came  recently  from  an  Indiana 
housewife,  a  soprano  soloist.  In 
the  space  for  miscellaneous  re- 
marks, this  soprano  wrote  some- 
what irrelevantly:  "I  won  the  hog 
calling  contest  at  the  Farmers' 
Picnic." 

ROY  KNAPP,  DRUMMER  with 
the  WLS  Orchestra,  also  teaches 
percussion  instruments.  Among 
his  pupils  have  been  Gene  Krupa 
and  the  drummers  in  Ted  Weems', 
Paul  Whiteman's  and  Wayne 
King's  orchestras. 

"K-I-D-S  CLUB"  IS  now  heard 
at  7:45  a.  m.  Mondays  on  WLS 
instead  of  during  the  Sunday 
morning  "Everybody's  Hour." 
Chuck  Acree,  who  conducts  the 
show,  offers  pencil  boxes  for  best 
riddles.  Many  people  write  him 
after  each  show,  asking  for  copies 
of  the  prize  winning  riddles  when 
they  have  missed  the  show  for 
•one  reason  or  another.  One  wo- 
man recently  wrote  that  her  house 
was  on  fire  during  the  show  and 
she  didn't  hear  it.  She  wanted 
the  riddles  because  they  were  the 
best  device  she  had  to  keep  the 
attention  of  her  Sunday  School 
class. 

SOME  BIRTHDAYS  AT  WLS 
you  may  wish  to  note:  Chuck 
Acree,  September  22;  Ken 
Trietsch,  September  13;  Grace 
Wilson,   April     10;     Eddie    Allen, 

Page  14 


August  27;  Julian  Bentley,  August 
19;  Pat  Buttram,  June  19;  Red 
Foley,  June  17;  Jack  Holden,  Octo- 
ber 21;  Dr.  John  W.  Holland,  May 
8;  Salty  Holmes,  March  6  and 
Chick  Hurt,  May  11. 


Twice  a  year  or  more,  stars  of  the 
WLS  National  Barn  Dance  put  on  a 
special  show  for  the  wounded  veterans 
of  the  last  World  War  at  Hines  Memorial 
Hospital,  near  Chicago.  Some  of  the 
veterans  engaged  in  a  "Jam  session" 
with  two  of  the  Barn  Dance  lasses  after 
a  recent  show.  With  the  patients,  above, 
are  Mary  Ann  on  the  left  and  Verne 
Carter,   of  the  Verne,  Lee  and   Mary  trio. 


Laurel  and  Hardy  of  movie  fame  re- 
cently Joined  Aunt  Rita  and  Uncle  Charlie 
in  reading  the  funnies  on  WLS,  Chicago. 
Here  are  Oliver  Hardy,  Rita  Ascot  and 
Stan  Laurel.  Charles  Eggleston  Is  hidden 
behind    Laurel. 

HARRIET  HESTER,  WHO  con- 
ducts "Homemakers'  Hour"  and 
"School  Time"  on  WLS,  collects 
old-time  hymnals  and  old-fash- 
ioned dishes.  She  has  some 
particularly  rare  pieces  of  French 
china  and  looks  forward  to  the 
day  she  may  discover  another 
piece  to  add  to  her  collection. 


SANTA  CLAUS  IS  coming,  and 
WLS  personalities  have  their  lists 
all  made  out.  News  Editor  Julian 
Bentley  jokingly  asks  for  a  draft 
exemption  from  St.  Nick.  Actually, 
Julian  is  a  member  of  a  business 
man's  civilian  unit  taking  military 
drill  every  Saturday  afternoon. 
On  the  more  serious  side,  Julian 
hopes  to  get  a  radio-phonograph 
combination  for  Christmas.  Ervin 
Lewis,  Assistant  News  Editor, 
would  like  to  ask  Santa  for  a  new 
Packard,  but  he's  afraid  that 
would  be  too  hard  to  wrap  up.  So 
all  he  wants  is  a  stable  reference 
map  of  Europe. 

JOHN  BROWN  MUST  want  di- 
amonds. When  asked  what  he 
wanted  for  Christmas,  he  said  he 
had  something  brilliant  in  mind — 
but  wouldn't  say  what.  He  was 
on  his  way  to  buy  a  new  alarm 
clock  to  get  him  up  in  time  for 
"Smile-A-While."  Just  a  pessimist, 
apparently.  For  John  already  has 
two  alarm  clocks  and  hasn't  been 
late  for  the  show  yetl 

WHEN  MAKING  50  gallons  ot 
sauerkraut  from  a  radio  recipe,  it 
is  best  to  get  the  whole  recipe 
before  starting.  Frank  Baker,  con- 
tinuity editor  at  WLS,  received  a 
frantic  call  from  a  housewife  at 
Palatine  the  other  day.  "Several 
days  ago  I  heard  a  recipe  for 
sauerkraut  on  WLS,"  sne  said. 
"I've  started  making  some  — ■  50 
gallons  —  but  now  I  forget  what 
comes  next.  What  shall  I  do?" 
Baker  didn't  know  what  to  do.  But 
he  turned  the  call  over  to  the  WLS 
Homemakers'  department,  and 
Harriet  Hester  read  the  rest  of  the 
sauerkraut  recipe  over  the  phone. 

THE  1941  WLS  Family  Album, 
with  new  pictures  of  all  WLS 
personalties,  has  just  been  pub- 
lished. 

JOE  ROCKHOLD,  KNOWN  to 
WLS  listeners  also  as  Honey  Boy 
and  the  Great  Orrie  Hogsett,  has 
14  hunting  dogs  —  and  hopes 
someone  will  give  him  another 
good  coon  dog  for  ChristmasI  He 
has  only  one  dog  with  him  in 
Chicago;  the  rest  are  "boarded 
out."  He  has  turned  down  an 
offer  of  $150  for  the  dog  he  has 
with  him,  but  all  14  cost  him  no- 
thing. Listeners  have  given  the 
dogs  to  him  at  various  times. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JANUARY 


Watch 

the 
Birdie! 


When  radio's  popular  family,  "The  O'Neills,"  started  a  new  five-times- 
weeikly  schedule  on  CBS  network,  the  photographer  heralded  their  arrival 
by  snapping  this  lively  tintype.  Suitably  framed,  it  would  be  fine  to  hang 
over  your  Morris  chair.  In  center  is  Ma  O'Neill  (Kate  McComb),  flanked  at 
right  by  her  son  and  daughter  Danny  and  Peggy,  and  at  left  by  her  adopted 
children  Eddie  and  Janice.  In  real  life  Danny  and  Peggy  are  James  Tansey 
and  Claire  Niesen,  and  Eddie  and  Janice  are  Jimmy  Donnelly  and  Janice 
Gilbert.     "The   O'Neills"   are   heard    Mondays  through    Fridays  at  4:16   GST. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JANUARY 


Page  15 


"pHE  TRAINING  of  the  ncrtion's 

conscription  army  is  now  under 
way  in  camps  throughout  the 
country.  The  folks  back  home 
wont  to  know  what  the  boys  are 
doing  and  what  life  is  like  in 
army  barracks. 

To  give  listeners  on-the-scene 
accounts,  to  let  them  hear  the  boys 
in  imiform  themselves,  and  to 
show  what  army  training  really 
means,  NBC  is  sending  a  stream- 
lined mobile  unit  on  a  trons-con- 
linental  tour  of  the  13  training  cen- 
ters with  a  crew  of  announcers, 
engineers  and  production  men. 
The  crew  will  be  on  tour  for  about 
three  months.  They  will  travel 
more  than   10,000  miles. 

Descriptions  of  how  raw  recruits 
are  transformed  into  competent 
fighting  men  will  be  fed  to  the 
networks  by  Announcers  George 
Hicks  and  Bob  Stanton.  And 
aside  from  training  techniques 
employed  in  various  branches  of 
the  service.  Hicks  and  Stanton 
will  supply  listeners  with  a  variety 
of  camp  vignettes.  They're  going 
to  tell  how  (and  when)  the  trainees 
eat,  sleep,  play  and  are  enter- 
tained, spreading  the  whole  pano- 
rama of  camp  life  before  radio 
listeners. 

And  to  show  how  the  problems 
of  whipping  into  shape  the  na- 
tion's greatest  peacetime  army  are 
being  solved,  they  will  interview 
officers,  medical  men,  mess 
officers,  orderlies,  and  the  con- 
scripts themselves.  They're  go- 
ing to  air  such  human  interest 
episodes  as  "Blue  Monday,"  reg- 
ular Army  wash  day,  amateur 
shows  and  boxing  bouts. 

Although  the  unit's  itinerary 
will  be  subject  to  frequent  change, 
it  is  planned  to  stop  first  at  Fort 
Devens  in  Massachusetts,  then 
head  across  the  northern  tier  of 
states  before  snow  falls,  with  vis- 
its to  Camp  Custer,  Michigan; 
•  Fort  Sheridan,  Illinois;  Fort  Snel- 
ling  Minnesota,  and  thence  to 
Fort  Lewis  in  Washington. 

During  tlie  last  war  radio  as  we 
know  it  today  didn't  exist.  Not 
a  single  broadcasting  station  was 
in  operation.  Coast-to-Coast  net- 
works where  an  obvious  impos- 
sibility. This  is  the  first  time  In 
history  that  the  American  system 
of  broadcasting  has  had  the  op- 
portimity  to  show  what  it  can 
do  for  the  nation  in  the  develop- 
ment of  a  great  peacetime  defense 
effort. 

Pa<30  16 


RADIO  AND 


#  Radio,  which  enjoys  the  full 
freedom  accorded  it  by  a  Demo- 
cratic from  of  Government,  ful- 


k:i^f^:mi:^ii^- 


iiSB(iiiwy?«ui:i;.te-.;' 


The  National  Broadcasting  Company,  cooperating  with  the  federal  gov- 
ernment In  the  development  of  the  national  defense  effort,  goes  Into  the  field 
to  bring  radio  listeners  first-hand  descriptions  of  activities  underway.  Most 
recent  undertaking  will  be  the  tour  of  the  country's  thirteen  conscription 
army  training  camps  for  a  series  of  on^he-spot  broadcasts  describing  the 
processes  by  which  civilians  are  turned  Into  a  reserve  of  trained  manpower. 


In  addition  to  actual  coverage 
of  training  camps,  NBC  will  con- 
tinue its  informative  and  stimulat- 
ing regular  weekly  programs 
dealing  with  national  defense  and 
the  American  way  of  life. 

"I'm  an  American,"  broadcast 
with  the  help  of  the  U.  S.  Immi- 
gration and  Naturalization  Service, 
brings  to  the  mike  such  famous 
naturalized  citizens  as  Claudette 
Colbert,  Albert  Einstein,  Luise 
Roiner,  and  William  S.  Knudsen. 


These  people,  who  have  come  to 
America  from  many  different 
lands,  talk  about  democracy  and 
the  American  way  of  life  on  this 
series.  Songwriter  Irving  Berlin, 
bom  in  Russia,  revealed  how  he 
came  to  write  "God  Bless  Ameri- 
ca," and  brought  Larmy  Ross 
along  to  sing  it.  Einstein,  Ger- 
man-bom appeared  on  the  pro- 
gram a  few  hours  after  his  citizen- 
ship examination.  Two  yoimg 
naturalized    citizens    interviewed 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JANUARY 


U.  S.  DEFENSE 


fills  its  task  in  preserving  Dem- 
ocracy   as    we    know    it    in    the 
United    States   of   America 


The    portable    microphone    and    transmitter    pictcs    up    the    rat-a-tat-tat    of 
the  deadly  U.   S.  Army   improved   machine   gun. 


The  mobile  unit  of  the  National  Broadcastina  Co.npany,  manned  by  two 
announcers  and  two  engineers,  are  touring  the  United  States  to  bring  listeners 
a  series  of  broadcasts  from  the  thirteen  training  camps  of  the  country's  first 
peace-time  conscription  army.  Having  already  seen  service  in  covering  sports, 
disasters,  parades  and  political  events,  the  mobile  unit  sets  out  in  behalf  of 
national  defense.  The  unit  Includes  a  studio,  a  power  plant  and  four  separate 
transmitters  mounted  in  a  specially  built  five-ton  car  with  a  speed  capacity 
of  70  miles  an  hour. 


Mrs.  Roosevelt  on  youth  prob- 
lems in  a  democracy.  Weeks  to 
come  will  feature  such  noted 
naturalized  citizens  as  Morlene 
Dietrich.     Dr.   Walter  Damrosch, 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JANUARY 


Paul  Muni,  Leopold  Stokowski 
and  many  others.  ("I'm  An  Amer- 
ican" is  heard  Sundays  at  1:00 
p.m.,  EST,  over  the  NBC-Blue  Net- 
work.) 


To  bring  home  to  listeners  the 
importance  of  aviation  in  our 
national  life,  there's  a  weekly 
series  called  "Wings  Over  Amer- 
ica." NBC  has  obtained  the  co- 
operation of  James  R.  Ray,  long 
a  prominent  figiire  in  aviation, 
to  insure  the  authenticity  and 
completeness  of  the  scripts,  which 
are  the  combined  work  of  Ray 
and  Richard  McDonagh  of  the 
NBC  Script  Division.  Each  of  the 
weekly  programs  consists  of  a 
dramatization  that  brings  to  life 
an  achievement  or  episode  of  his- 
torical importance  and  a  discus- 
sion by  guest  speakers  acknowl- 
edged as  experts  in  some  parti- 
cular branch  of  aviation.  ("Wings 
Over  America"  is  heard  Sundays 
at  11:30  A.M.  CST,  over  the  NBC- 
Red  Network.) 

"You're  in  the  Army  Now"  is 
a  new  weekly  NBC  series  deal- 
ing with  life  in  the  newly  drafted 
forces.  This  is  a  dramatic  pro- 
gram, aimed  to  interest  all  Amer- 
ican families.  These  comic  but 
plausible  stories  of  the  army 
camps  are  written  by  Wyllis 
Cooper,  a  World  War  Veteran  and 
Captain  in  the  U.  S.  Reserve. 
Cooper's  successful  career  in  ra- 
dio includes  the  origination  and 
writing  for  two  and  a  half  years 
of  the  famous  "Lights  Out"  series. 
("You're  In  The  Army  Now"  is 
broadcast  Mondays  at  8:00  p.m., 
CST,  over  the  NBC-Blue  Network.) 

The  National  Farm  and  Home 
Hour,  produced  in  cooperation 
with  the  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture,  is  devoting  a 
current  series  of  weekly  shows  to 
the  relationship  of  agriculture  to 
the  nation's  defense.  The  contribu- 
tions agriculture  can  make  and  is 
now  making  is  being  told  by  farm 
men  and  women,  boys  and  girls, 
as  well  as  officers  of  the  Federal 
agricultural  services  who  are  now 
actively  engaged  in  carrying  on 
the  agricultural  phases  of  the  de- 
fense program.  (The  National 
Farm  and  Home  Hour  is  heard 
Mondays  through  Saturdays  at 
11:30  A.M.,  CST,  over  the  NBC 
Blue  Network. 

The  Army  Recruiting  Services 
assisted  in  the  broadcasting  of  a 
series  designed  to  stimulate  recru- 
iting, while  another  NBC  defense 
series,  "This,  Our  America,"  de- 
scribed the  nation's  resources  and 
the  part  they  will  ploy  in  the 
present  defense  program. 

Page  17 


Page  18 


What  poor  Daddy  Hanley  Stafford  goes  through  in 
his  attempts  to  discipline  Baby  Snooks  is  only  too  clearly 
shown  in  these  shots  during  the  Maxwell  House  Coffee 
Time  program  on  NBC.  When  Snooks  (Fannie  Brice) 
smashes  his  best  China,  Daddy  is  firm  about  it  (upper 
left).  By  gradual  stages,  resistance  weakens  to  utter 
exasperation. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JANUARY 


MINNIE   PEARL    The  Girl  With  the  Big  Future 


For  a  girl  who  had  pined  for  the 
triumphs  of  Cornell  in  plays  by 
the  Bard-of-Avon,  Ophelia  Col- 
ley  is  doing  right  well  by  herself 
on  the  WSM  Grand  Ole  Opry, 


TF  THE  name  Ophelia  CoUey  fails 

to  strike  a  familiar  note,  then 
perhaps  you've  heard  of  Minnie 
Pearl.  Minnie  is  the  little  girl 
who  came  onto  the  Opry  stage 
in  Nashville  a  few  weeks  ago  and 
brought  the  house  down  with  her 
homey  patter   and   songs. 

She  is  not  yet  as  well  known  as 
Uncle  Dave  Macon,  Roy  Acuff, 
The  Solemn  Old  Judge,  the  Fruit 
Jar  Drinkers  and  a  few  other  top- 
stars  of  "The  Grand  Ole  Opry." 
But  given  a  little  time,  Minnie  Pearl 
stands  every  chance  of  blooming 
into  a  full-grown  star.  In  fact, 
she  is  already  being  compared 
— and  not  unfavorable — with  the 
Songbird  of  the  Ozorks  .  .  .  Judy 
Canova. 

So  if  you  hove  not  yet  heard 
about  Minnie  Pearl,  you  are  likely 
to  hear  a  lot  about  her  in  the  near 
future.  And  RADIO  VARIETIES 
wanted  to  be  the  first  to  introduce 
her  to  you. 

Minnie  Pearl  was  born  in  Cen- 
terville,  Tennessee  in  1912,  which 
is  about  fifty  miles  Southwest  of 
Nashville.  The  exact  date  remains 
her  secret,  as  part  of  a  woman's 
prerogative.  To  be  perfectly  exact, 
however,  we  cannot  soy  that  Min- 
nie was  bom  these  twenty-eight 
years  ago.  It  was  Ophelia  Colley 
who  was  bom  then.  Minnie  came 
along  much  later,  as  this  story 
reveals. 

Ophelia  lived  the  normal  life 
of  a  young  girl  in  a  small  town  of 
a  family  above  the  average 
means.  She  never  wanted  for 
anything,  least  of  all  diversion. 
For  she  more  than  made  up  what 
the  town  lacked  in  playmates  by 
her  own  vivid  imagination. 

That  imagination  turned  toward 
"play-acting"  and  as  years  went 
by  toward  "acting."  Nothing 
would  do  but  the  Centerville-Cor- 
nell  should  hove  serious  training 
for  the  stage. 

The  envy  of  many  a  young  Cen- 
terville  lassie,  Ophelia  went  off 
to  Ward-Belmont   college,   swank 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JANUARY 


girl's  school  in  Nashville  which 
attracts  subdebs  from  all  over  the 
country.  It  is  a  superb  finishing 
school. 

But  the  Centerville  entrant  was 
not  so  much  concerned  with  fin- 
ishing touches  as  the  dramatic 
work  offered  there.  For  five  years, 
she  labored  to  learn  the  technique 
of  the  stage.  Then  after  receiving 
her  glossy  diploma,  back  she 
went  to  Centerville' s  security  to 
teach  youngsters  there  the  fine 
art  of  the  drama  (with  a  long  "a"). 

But  two  years  of  this  found  her 
gradually  getting  up  momentum 
for  the  big  plunge,  which  was 
made  in  1934  when  Ophelia 
joined  the  Wayne  P.  Sewell  Pro- 
ducing company  of  Atlanta,  trav- 
elling all  over  the  South  giving 
dramatic  readings  and  coaching 
home  talent  for  their  own  produc- 
tion. 

She  still  yearned  for  the  serious 
side  of  drama,  but  fate  seemed  to 
conspire  to  turn  her  toward  come- 
dy. There  was  an  abundance  of 
native  humor  to  be  found  in  these 
little  communities  all  over  the 
South  —  humor  which  seemed  to 
be  begging  expression. 

The  young  Ward-Belmont  grad- 
uate lived  in  the  homes  of  the 
country-folk  she  was  teaching, 
worked  hours  on  end  with  the 
whole  small  township  in  produc- 
ing their  own  ploys.  Invariab- 
ly, she  learned  they  were  better 
at  their  own  sort  of  plays  than 
those  of  any  ploywrite,  including 
even  Shakespeare. 

Or,  as  she  now  admits,  especial- 
ly Shakespeare. 

If  that  were  the  case  of  the 
country  folk  of  Georgia,  Alabama, 
Louisiana,  Mississippi  and  Ar- 
kansas— then  it  was  doubtless  so 
of  Tennesseans  ...  of  those  from 
Centerville,  including  Ophelia. 

Thus  she  reasoned  as  she  came 
to  the  conclusion  to  abandon  the 
serious  drama  and  tum  to  the 
native  country  wit  of  the  South. 
For  three   years,   this  young  girl 


traveled  through  twenty  states  of 
the  South  and  South-east,  talking 
with,  working  with,  and  living 
with  the  folks  in  the  coiontry  areas 
and  the  small  towns. 

Little  by  little  she  picked  up  bits 
of  wit  and  humor  from  the  natives 
which  she  incorporated  in  the 
character  she  began  building — 
building  with  one  idea  in  mind: 
presenting  it  on  the  Grand  Ole 
Opry. 

Minnie  Pearl,  then,  is  no  one 
character,  but  bits  of  many  people 
Ophelia  Colley  knows  very  well. 
So  are  the  other  characters  that 
appear  on  the  Opry  with  Minnie 
Pearl,  all  creations  of  this  young 
girl  gleaned  from  her  extensive 
travels  through  the  rural  South- 
land. And  Grinders  Switch,  where 
Minnie  lives,  is  actually  a  place 
not  far  from  Centerville. 

"Nobody  lives  there  any  more," 
Ophelia  explained,  "So  I  thought 
they  would  not  mind  if  1  moved 
Minnie  in.  Nobody  has  com- 
plained. And  I  reckon  the  only 
one  who  would  is  Farmer  Stephen- 
son, who  owns  the  ground  where 
Grinders  Switch  is  located.  There 
used  to  be  a  couple  of  families 
there,  but  they  moved  away.  It 
makes  a  nice  home  for  Minnie 
Pearl." 

Incidentally,  that  name  is  the 
part  of  two  persons  who  contri- 
buted to  the  creation.  But  Ophe- 
lia nover  thought  there  was  such 
a  real  person.  Since  her  debut 
on  the  Grand  Ole  Opry,  she  has 
heard  from  scores  of  real,  honest- 
to-goodness  Minnie  Pearls. 

And  although  Minnie  is  pretty 
dumb,  no  one  has  complained. 
For  Minnie  is  too  real  and  very 
lovable.  Nobody  could  dislike 
her,  or  take  exception  to  what 
she  says. 

That's  the  reason  WSM  officials 
feel  she  has  a  long  and  happy 
and  prosperous  life  ahead  of  her, 
feel  she  is  destined  to  add  glory, 
if  not  glamour  to  the  Grand  Ole 
Opry. 

If  you  haven't  heard  about  Min- 
nie, you  will  before  very  long. 

And  if  you  haven't  heard  Min- 
nie, you  should  right  away. 

Page  19 


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(Radio 

only). 

n  $13.05 

is  enclosed. 

Ship 

B 10546 

(Radio 

and  Batteries). 

D  $  9.95 

is  enclosed. 

Ship 

B 10596 

Radio 

(Walnut). 

□  $10.75 

is  enclosed. 

Ship 

B 10598 

Radio 

(Ivory). 

□  Send  y 

3ur  Free    1941    catalog. 

Nnmp 

Address 

Jcx    No 

Ciiy 

Sfo 

fp 

RADIO  VARIETIES   —   JANUARY 


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BRUARY— -1941 


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PATTER   OFF   THE   PLATTER 


If  you  listen  to  the  radio,  and 
if  you  don't  you're  one  in  57  or 
82  or  something,  you've  heard 
Raymond  Paige  and  his  "Musical 
Americana"    programs. 

You  con  now  take  this  pro- 
gram home  with  you  on  Victor 
records,  a  12-inch,  four  record, 
"Musical  Americana"  album  of 
Paige  and  his  most  popular  music 
in  an  ail-American  program. 

The  numbers  include  excerpts 
from  Gershwin's  "Porgy  and 
Bess'',  Cole  Porter's  "Night  and 
Day",  Rodriguez"  "La  Cumpar- 
sita",  Gershwin's  "Rhapsody  in 
Blue",  Earl's  "Beautiful  Ohio", 
Berllin's  "Lady  of  the  Evening", 
Leslie-Nicholl's  "Among  My  Souv- 
enirs", Porter's  "Anything  Goes", 
Black-Moret's  "Moonlight  and 
Roses",  Dietz-Schwctrtz  "Louisiana 
Hayride",  Ellington's  "Mood  In- 
digo", and  De  Sylva-Katscher's 
"When  Day  is  Done".  (Album 
G-28). 

All  the  tunes  were  arranged  by 
Paige  himself  for  his  highly 
specialized  64-piece  orchestra,  the 
largest  orchestra  now  being  re- 
corded for  music  of  this  type. 
Because  of  this  fact,  Victor  used 
a  new  and  bigger  studio  in  New 
York  than  the  one  ordinarily  em- 
ployed for  popular  orchestras. 

Mr.  Paige  himself  is  currently 
the  highest  paid  popular  musical 
conductor  in  radio.  Forty-one 
members  of  his  orchestra  are  for- 
mer conductors,  thirty-seven  have 
had  their  own  orchestras.  He  is 
interested  in  American  music  and 
continually  features  the  works  of 
American  composers  on  his 
Westinghouse    radio    program. 

The  famous  Quintet  of  the  Hot 
Club  of  France,  now  gone  the 
way  of  all  French  music,  cut  an 
extraordinary  double  several 
years  back,  titled  "Paramount 
Stomp"  and  "Swinging  with 
Djcmgo".  The  first  rides  out  on 
—  of  all  things  —  the  musical 
theme  of  Paramount  News  while 
the  second  is  just  what  the  title 
implies,  a  double  dose  of  Mr. 
Reinhardt's  amazing  guitar  tech- 
nique. Michael  Warlop  sat  in  as 
guest  fidler  during  this  session 
pitting  his  instrument  against 
Stephane  Grappelly's  in  furious 
violin  duel.  (Victor  Swing  Classic 
*27272). 


Alvino  Rey's  version  of  "Tiger 
Rag"  was  recorded  by,  popular 
request  and  after  listening  to  the 
record  we  can  see  what  they 
mean.  It's  done  very  fast  with  gen- 
erous slices  of  Alvino's  electric 
guitar,  backed  up  by  the  King 
Sisters  and  a  brilliant  band  per- 
formance. The  companion  piece 
is  an  abrupt  about-face,  a  smooth 
and  lovely  "Rose  Room"  in  the 
m  a  e  s  t  r  o  '  s  own  instrumental 
arrangement.  (Bluebird  B- 11002). 
These  records  go  on  sale 
January  31. 

Another  12-incher  from  Victor 
this  week,  this  time  a  luxurious 
coupling  of  the  music  from  two 
continents  played  by  two  inter- 
nationally known  orchestras. 
Wayne  King  presents  a  concert 
rendition  of  the  tango  "Escapada" 
by  the  English  composer  Sid 
Philips,  displaying  a  wealth  of 
rich  orchestral  effects  in  a  pleas- 
ant compromise  between  classic 
symphonic  performance  and 
straight  dance  band  tempo.  On 
the  backing,  Jack  Hylton's  Or- 
chestra offers  the  Benatzky  waltz 
"Grinzing",  carrying  on  in  brilliant 
style  with  swirling  Viennese 
tempos.  This  is  listening  music 
of  the  highest  order.  (Victor  36387) 

Artie  Shaw  and  his  Gramercy 
Five  paint  a  musical  picture  of  a 


famous  meeting.  "Dr.  Livingstone, 
I  Presume?"  with  jungle  tom-toms 
and  scorching  clarinet  work.  The 
reverse  is  the  much  pijblicized 
"When  the  Quail  Come  Back  To 
San  Quentin",  cued  from  a  recent 
popular  song  hit,  and  wrapped 
up  by  Mr.  Shaw  in  a  neat  parcel 
of  solid  small  band  jazz.  (Victor 
Swing  Classic  *27289). 

Dick  Todd  back-to-backs  two 
ballads  in  the  nobody-loves-me 
mood,  lending  his  man-to-man 
baritone  to  "The  Mem'ry  of  a 
Rose",  and  "You  Forgot  About 
Me".  He  laments  very  nicely, 
and  the  supporting  orchestra  fills 
in   elegantly.    (Bluebird  B-11024). 

Bill  Monroe  and  his  Blue  Grass 
Boys  who  record  the  popular 
favorite  "No  letter  in  the  mail" 
on  Bluebird  —  8611  has  had 
tremendous  requests  over  WSM 
Nashville  for  this  number.  On 
reverse  side  "Cryin'  Holy  Unto 
My  Lord." 

Glenn  Miller  scores  "I  Do,  Do 
You?"  for  Ray  Eberle  and  his 
famous  sax  choir  in  slow  and 
provocative  tempo.  The  five- way 
reeds  also  highlight  the  com^ 
panion  piece,  "You  Are  the  One" 
which  is  still  in  the  slow  groove 
with  beautiful,  close  harmony. 
Mr.  Eberle  is  also  the  vocalist 
here.    (Bluebird  B-11020). 


RADIO    VARIETIES 


No.  4,  VOLUME  2 


FEBRUARY,  1941 


Page 

Patter    Off   the    Platter 2 

Visiting   the   Little   Red   School  House 3 

562   Pounds   of   Musical   Glamour 6 

Service   Can   Be   Entertaining 7 

Gang   Busters   Celebrate   Anniversary 8 

Marie    McDonald    9 

Columbia's    Colorful    Commentators 10-11-12 

Let's  Look   at  WLS 14 

Smilin'    Ed    McConnell 15 


F.  L.  ROSENTHAL,  Publisher 


WILTON  ROSENTHAL,  Editor 


Published  at  1056  West  Van  Buren  Street,  Chicago,  Illinois.  F.  L.  Rosenthal,  Publisher. 
New  York  Office:  485  Madison  Avenue,  Hollywood  Office:  3532  Sunset  Boulevard. 
Published  Monthly.  Single  Copies,  ten  cents.  Subscription  rate  $1.00  per  year  in  the 
United  States  and  Possessions,  $1.50  in  Canada.  Entered  as  second  class  matter  January 
10,  1940,  at  the  post  office  at  Chicago,  Illinois,  under  the  act  of  March  3,  1879.  Every 
effort  wrill  be  made  to  return  unused  manuscripts,  photographs,  and  drawings  (if  accom- 
panied by  sufficient  first-class  postage  and  name  and  address),  but  we  will  not  be 
responsible  for  any  losses  for  such  matter  contributed.  The  publishers  assume  no 
responsibility  for  statements  made  herein  by  contributors  and  correspondents,  nor  does 
publication  indicate  approval   thereof. 


P::g9  2 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  FEBRUARY 


Visiting  the  Little  Red  Schoolhouse 


As  Viewed  by  Elbert  Hahng 


TUST  PICTURE  200,000  young  men 
'  and  women  students  assembled 
in  one  gigantic  class  room.  A 
mighty  giant  stands  atop  a  653- 
'oot  rostrum  and  in  a  mighty  voice 
tronger  than  the  winds  them- 
oelves  presents  sugar-coated  gems 
of  knowledge  to  his  attentive 
pupils.  Compare  this  mythical 
scene  with  the  little  red  school 
house  of  yesterday  where  grand- 
pop  learned  his  three  R's  to  the 
tune  of  a  hickory  stick. 

Now  —  getting  down  to  brass 
tacks,  or  is  it  chalk  and  black- 
boards, the  "professor's"  mind 
wanders,  our  analogy  is  drown 
between  the  Texas  School  of  the 
Air,  its  4,000  participating  schools, 
the  653-foot  WBAP-WFAA  antenna 
tower  and  yesterday's  methods  of 
education. 

The  Texas  School  of  the  Air 
opened  its  doors  on  February  4, 
1940  and  its  programs  have  since 
been  used  by  an  ever-increasing 
number  of  Texas  schools  as  a 
supplementary  aid  to  learning, 
with  ever-growing  satisfaction  tc 
both  teachers  and  pupils.  During 
this  same  period,  administrators 
of  all  types  of  schools,  and  the 
public  in  general,  have  accepted 
radio  as  an  important  new  in- 
strumentality for  public  educa- 
tion in  Texas. 

Since  the  advent  of  radio  more 
than  two  decades  ago,  educators 
have  dreamed  of  the  time  when 
this  new  marvel  of  communica- 
tion could  be  put  into  effective  use 
in  the  classrooms  and  homes  of 
our  nation  for  educational  pur- 
poses. While  listened  to  in  homes 
and  places  of  business  in  increas- 
ing hours  for  almost  a  generation 
now,  radio  has  slowly  found  its 
place  in  the  school  as  a  part  of 
the  daily  curriculum.  This  has 
been  due  primarily  to  lack  of  un- 
derstanding of  radio  as  a  tool  of 
education,  to  a  paucity  of  suit- 
able educational  radio  programs, 
and  to  very  limited  radio  equip- 
ment in  the  schools. 

The  organization  of  the  Texas 
School  of  the    Air   marks    the  in- 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  FEBRUARY 


A  typical  Texas  School  of  the  Air  cast  is  seen  before  the  microphone 
of  Station  WBAP,  Fort  Worth.  Note  the  various  ages  represented  to 
secure  voice   variations  for  the  particular  project  being   offered. 


L.    A.    WOODS,    State    Superintendent 
of  Education  for  Texas. 

auguration  of  a  new  era  in  pub- 
lic education  in  Texas.  It  is  a 
conscious  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  State  Department  of  Educa- 
tion and  associated  institutions  to 
harness  and  use  radio  in  the  in- 
terest of  a  broader  and  better 
educational  program.  Through 
the  facilities  of  the  Texas  School 
of  the  Air,  specially  prepared  pro- 
grams, planned  and  produced  by 
competent  persons  to  enrich  and 
vitalize  classroom  instructions,  are 
now  available  to  the  majority  of 
Texas  schools.    Through  this  new 


JOHN    W.    GUNSTREAM, 
Texas  School   of  the    Air   Director 

instrumentality  children  can  listen, 
as  a  part  of  the  school  curriculum, 
to  talks  by  authorities  in  many 
fields  of  human  endeavor,  to 
great  music  and  drama,  and  to 
interest  -  compelling  presentations 
of  study  materials  which  are  or- 
dinarily considered  dry  and  un- 
interesting. Children  who  are  de- 
nied this  opportunity  of  listening 
to  these  programs  because  of  an 
inflexible  class  schedule  or  be- 
cause of  lack  of  school  radios,  are 
missing  some  real  education  — 
of  the  easy-to-take  variety. 

(G^ntinued  on  Page   13) 

Pag«  3 


i      If 


0^^^^  ^'Wi.'.i^.'.u^iWsmf. 


style  leader  in  the  NBC  Chicago  studios  Is  beautiful  Joan  Winters, 
who  plays  Alice  Ames  Warner  In  "Girl  Alone"  and  Sylvia  Bertram  Par- 
sons in  the  "Road  of  Life."  A  graduate  of  the  Vogue  School  of  Art, 
she  Is  always  ahead  of  style  trends. 


Page  4 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  FEBRUARY 


A    Brooklyn    Cowboy 

Though  most  of  the  cowboy  singers  at  WLS 
are  true  sons  of  the  West,  Newcomer  Smilie 
Sutter  upsets  the  rule;  he's  one  of  the  best 
of  the  cowboy  singers,  but  he's  from  New 
York  City. 


jl^MERICAN  folk  music  has  long 
been  the  stock  in  trade  of 
WLS,  Chicago,  with  many  WLS 
programs  featuring  the  songs  of 
the  Western  plains  and  of  the 
Eastern  and  Southern  mountains. 
The  authenticity  of  the  ballads  is 
above  question  —  for  almost  all 
the  stars  are  true  sons  of  the 
West  or  children  of  the  hill  coun- 
try. The  Prairie  Ramblers,  for 
example,  are  all  Kentucky  moun- 
tain boys;  Ramblin'  Red  Foley 
was  born  in  the  cattle  country  of 
New  Mexico;  Mary  Ann  grew  up 
in  the  mountains  of  the  Caro'i- 
nas  .  .  .  and  now  comes  a  cow- 
boy singer  from  New  York  City,  a 
real  Brooklyn  cowboy. 

This  "upstart"  in  the  ranks  of 
the  cowboy  singers  at  WLS  is 
Smilie  Sutter,  and  he's  realized 
a  three-year-old  ambition  in  ob- 
taining a  place  on  the  WLS  staff. 
Smilie's  real  name  is  Anthony  F. 
Slater,  and  he  was  born  on  May 
11,  1915,  in  East  Hartford,  Con- 
necticut, but  when  he  was  about 
a  year  old  the  family  moved  to 
New  Britain,  Connecticut,  where 
Smilie  lived  for  10  years. 

Smilie  was  orphaned  when  he 
was  11  years  old  and  went  to 
live  with  an  aunt  in  Brooklyn,  one 
of  New  York  City's  five  boroughs. 
Young  Tony  Slater  was  not  un- 
appreciative;  he  was  glad  to  have 
a  home.  But  he  didn't  like  Brook- 
lyn. All  the  time  he  was  there 
he  never  sow  a  tree  nor  a  blade 
of  grass;  there  wasn't  a  natural 
flower  in  the  borough,  only  those 
in  window  boxes  and  indoor  pots. 
This  was  no  life  at  all  for  a  small- 
town boy  who  had  spent  the  first 
eleven  years  of  his  life  in  the  open 
air,  in  the  country. 

The  worst  time  of  all  was  the 
spring.  Smilie  longed  then  more 
than  ever  for  the  country.  He 
wanted  to  be  near  on  orchard. 
He  wanted  to  see  and  to  smell  the 
blossoming     apple,     cherry     and 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  FEBRUARY 


plum  trees.  He  wanted  to  watch 
the  grass  grow  green.  He  wanted 
wide  open  spaces  instead  of  nar- 
row canyons  —  streets  suffocated 
by  towering  brick  apartment  walls. 


SMILIE  SUTTER 

So  as  soon  as  he  was  old 
enough,  Smiley  would  start  off 
on  long  hikes  into  the  country, 
traveling  from  place  to  place.  He'd 
be  gone  all  spring,  summer  and 
fall,  returning  to  Brooklyn  in  the 
winters,  getting  a  job  to  hold  him 
over  to  the  following  spring.  When 
he  was  about  17  years  old,  Smilie 
bought  a  guitar  and  taught  him- 
self to  play  it;  he  already  was  ex- 
pert with  the  harmonica.  From 
then  on,  his  guitar  was  his  con- 
stant companion. 

The  following  year,  Smilie  left 
New  York  City  for  good.  He  had 
had  a  once-a-week  program  on  a 
New  York  radio  station,  and  he 
planned  someday  to  get  into  radio 


as  a  regular  thing.  But  it  wasn't 
until  five  years  ago  that  he  really 
got  his  professional  start.  Smilie, 
in  his  travels,  was  then  at  Ports- 
mouth, Ohio,  and  it  was  there  at 
WPAY  that  he  got  his  first  fulL 
time  radio  job.  Since  then  he  has 
been  with  WCHS,  Charleston, 
WMMN,  Fairmont,  and  WWVA, 
Wheeling,  West  Virginia,  and  at 
WLVA,   Lynchburg,   Virginia. 

Smilie  has  not  been  in  rad:o 
all  the  time  these  past  five  years, 
however.  During  the  shipping 
season  of  1937,  Smilie  worked  on 
passenger  boats  plying  the  Great 
Lakes.  All  his  spare  time  he  spent 
listening  to  the  radio,  and  the  sta- 
tion that  could  best  be  heard  on 
the  Western  Lakes  was  WLS  in 
Chicago.  Smilie  listened  to  WLS 
for  hours  and  hours,  and  it  was 
in  that  summer  of  1937  that  Smi- 
lie made  up  his  mind  the  one 
place  he  really  wanted  to  work 
was  WLS.  But  Smilie  was  a 
modest  youngster  and  didn't  think 
he  was  good  enough  for  the  Prai- 
rie Farmer  Station. 

So  he  returned  to  the  East.  It 
was  while  working  at  Fairmont 
West  Virginia,  that  Smilie  last 
year  met  Joe  Rockhold,  who  was 
also  at  the  radio  station  there. 
Last  spring,  Rockhold  came  to 
WLS  as  an  announcer  and  char- 
acter actor.  In  the  summer,  Smi- 
lie came  to  the  Mid-West  to  visit 
his  old  friend,  and  loe  arranged 
an  audition  for  Smilie  Sutter. 

Station  officials  suggested  a 
guest  appearance  that  very  week 
on  the  WLS  National  Barn  Dance. 
Smilie  stopped  the  show.  Ap- 
plause almost  brought  down  the 
house.  It  was  all  the  program 
department  needed  to  know.  Smi- 
lie Sutter  from  that  night  on  has 
been  a  regular  member  of  the 
WLS  staff,  a  "regular"  on  the  WLS 
National  Bam  Dance  ever  since, 
as  well  as  having  his  own  day- 
time program  during  the  week. 

Page  5 


562 


isical  Glamour 


TEXAS  COWGIRLS:     Left  to    right:    Bess,  Sue,  Sally,    Marge  and   Bertie. 
Not  even  static  can  throw  these  Icvely  talented  lassies  off  the  570-ether- 

trail. 


"Hear  my  song  as  I  ride  along, 
I'm  just  a  happy  Texas  Cowgirl, 
Herdin'   the   dark   clouds   out   of 

the  sky  — 
Keepin'  the  heavens  blue!" 
CO  SING  the  Texas  Cowgirls 
every  weekday  morn  at  seven 
via  Station  KGKO,  Fort  Worth, 
smaller  brother  to  that  ether  giant, 
WBAP. 

Figuratively  speaking,  and  we 
ore  writing  about  the  Texas  Cow- 
GIRLS,  aren't  we?  —  KGKO's  gift 
to  the  glamour-ways,  play  some- 
thing like  27  broadcasts  month- 
ly, travel  1,000  miles  and  make 
ten  to  twelve  personal  appear- 
ances before  school  groups,  lun- 
cheon clubs  and  other  gala  oc- 
casions. 

Traveling  with  them  as  master 
of  ceremonies  we  find  Scooter 
Tonahill  and  his  wife,  known  to 
Texas  theatrical  audiences  as 
"Shorty."    Whenever  this  musical 

Page  6 


caravan  rests  at  some  roadside 
hamburger  emporium  while  en- 
route  to  personal  appearances  the 
proprietor  and  customers  sym- 
pathize with  the  great  Phil  Spital- 
ny  and  his  all-girl  music  making 
combo.  It's  Scooter  who  orders 
the  hamburgers  and  woe  be  un- 
to him  if  he  forgets  that  "Marge" 
demands  onions,  "Sue"  wants  no 
onions,  "Sally"  wants  no  mustard, 
"Bess"  wants  hers  on  plain  bread 
o'-id  "Bertie"  wants  a  steak  sand- 
wich. 

But  all  in  all,  taking  the  whims 
and  appeals  of  the  five  instrumen- 
tal and  vocal  damsels  as  a  whole, 
they  are  at  once  overlooked  when 
the  downbeat  signal  is  given  and 
the  570-ether  way  is  made  happy 
with  the  solid  sending  of  their 
rich  music. 

But  getting  down  to  figures,  er 
ah,  statistics,  we  ."night  as  well 
divulge   the   information   that   the 


five  Texas  Cowgirls  play  ten  dif- 
ferent instruments  with  ease;  they 
are  all  in  their  late  teens  and 
each  one  possesses  a  smooth 
sot  of  vocal  pipes. 

More  specifically,  the  Cowgirls 
aggregation  consists  of  "Bess" 
(Ruth  Mulkey);  "Bertie,"  (Bertie  Ev- 
elyn Keisel);  "Sue,"  (Gail  Whit- 
ney); "Marge,"  (Veda  Mae  Spoon) 
and  "Sally,"  (Ruth  Murphree). 
Yes,  boys,  all  ore  single! 

"BESS"  violinist,  sings  in  a  Fort 
Worth  Church  Choir  and  plays 
fiddle  with  the  Fort  Worth  Sym- 
phony when  not  singing  "Home  On 
the  Range"  with  the  Cowgirls  or 
sawing  out  a  mean  square  dance 
for  the  radio  .  .  .  her  mother  be- 
gan teachmg  her  piano  lessons 
at  the  age  of  three  and  now  "Bess" 
teaches  violin  .  .  .  made  her  radio 
debut  on  a  stanza  with  the  Hired 
Hand  v/hen,  according  to  that 
popular  personality,  she  was 
"just  the  size  of  a  dime"  .  .  .  choc- 
olate pie  is  her  favorite  dish  .  .  . 
is  5'6"  tall,  weighs  125  .  .  .  black 
hair,  snappy  brown  eyes. 

"MARGE,"  steel  guitarist  .  .  . 
began  taking  guitar  lessons  at  the 
age  of  13  and  soon  became  a  full 
time  radio  performer  on  a  small 
local  station  .  .  .  checks  every 
Cowgirls  musical  list  and  although 
but  five  feet  tall  and  weighing  100 
pounds  she  is  the  live  wire  of 
the  outfit  .  .  .  chili  is  her  favorite 
food  with  horseback  riding  as  her 
favorite  sport  .  .  .  somewhat  shy 
she  prefers  radio  to  personal  crp- 
pearonces  .  .  .  pet  dislike:  hearing 
remorks  like  this  one  from  the 
audience  at  stage  shows:  "Isn't 
she  the  cutest  little  trick?"  .  .  . 
Black  hair  and  brown  eyes. 

"SUE,"  accordionist,  began  the 
study  of  piano  at  the  age  of  five 
.  .  .  learned  to  sing  before  she 
could  talk  .  .  .  plays  the  Hammond 
Electric  Organ  and  is  taking  voice 
lessons  at  the  Fort  Worth  Con- 
servatory .  .  .  likes  to  go  horse- 
back riding  in  the  rain  and  swim 
in  the  i^icoulight  .  .  .  tends  a  Bos- 
ton Bull  pup  as  ner  hobby  .  .  . 
Is  5'7"  tall,  weighs  120  pounds 
without  her  shoes  and  accordion 
.  .  .  blond  hair  and  blue  eyes  .  .  . 
enjoys  ctage  shows  immensely  — 
"especially  when  they  don't  throw 
things." 

Continued  on  Pa -^    13 
RADIO  VARIETIES  —  FEBRUARY 


Service    Can     Be     Entertaining 


Martha  Crane  and  Helen  Joyce  hcve  been 
helping  homemakers  in  their  daily  work 
for  a  combined  total  of  18  years,  and  in  all 
that  time  have  based  their  programs  on 
the  idea  that  homemaking  and  learning 


gCHOOL  DAYS  for  most  of  us 
were  not  all  fun.  There  were 
days  when  the  call  of  learning 
was  not  half  so  strong  as  the  call 
to  the  old  swimming  hole  or  the 
call  to  the  woods.  But  when  one 
grows  up,  there  comes  a  change. 
We  still  have  a  lot  to  learn  — 
and  we  admit  it.  So  we  make 
learning  fun,  whatever  the  lesson 
may  be. 

One  class  most  eager  in  learn- 
ing more  about  her  "business"  is 
the  homemaker.  She  likes  to 
know  how  other  housewives  solve 
their  problems,  to  know  shortcuts 
in  her  household  tasks.  Radio 
has  long  served  this  need;  and 
Martha  Crone  and  Helen  Joyce, 
of  WLS,  Chicago,  have  made  this 
learning  fun  on  their  "Feature 
Foods"  program,  11  to  11:30  a.m. 
daily  except  Sunday. 

For  Martha  and  Helen  do  not 
present  only  household  hints.  In 
their  programs  they  include  mu- 
sical entertainment  by  some  of 
WLS'  best  stars.  The  peppy  tunes 
of  the  Chore  Boys  are  a  regular 
feature,  plus  numbers  by  such 
other  acts  as  Hal  Culver,  Howard 
Peterson,  Grace  Wilson,  Rusty 
Gill,  the  Hoosier  Sodbusters, 
George  Menard,  Ramblin'  Red 
Foley  and  the  Prairie  Ramblers. 
In  addition,  "Feature  Foods"  is 
practically  a  woman's  magazine 
of  the  air.  For  Martha  and  Helen 
discuss  new  and  old  ideas  in 
such  varied  topics  as  decoration, 
entertainment,  food  preparation, 
child  raising,  and  also  find  time 
to  conduct  a  "rummage  exchange" 
in  which  women  can  offer  for 
trade  almost  anything  they  have 
and  don't  need  any  more  for  some- 
thing they  would  like  to  have. 

Guests  also  participate  in  the 
program  frequently  ■ — •  usually 
women  with  a  message  of  in- 
terest to  others  of  their  sex.  Some 
of  those  who  hove  been  inter- 
viewed by  Martha  and  Helen  have 


MARTHA  CRANE 


HELEN  JOYCE 

been  Mrs.  Ora  Snyder  of  candy 
store  fame;  Ruth  Mix,  daughter  of 
the  Tom  Mix,  Helena  Rubenstein, 
beauty  expert,  and,  among  the 
men.  Author  Van  Wyck  Mason. 

"Feature  Foods"  started  on  WLS 
in  January,  1935,  but  Martha 
Crane's  service  as  homemaker  on 
WLS  started  long  before  that.  Last 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


FEBRUARY 


October  15,  Martha  celebrated  her 
12th  anniversary  with  the  station. 
Martha,  whose  married  name  is 
Mrs.  Raymond  Caris,  lives  in 
Highland  Park,  Illinois,  and  has 
two  children:  Crane,  age  5,  and 
Barry,  who  will  not  be  2 '  until 
April  7. 

Helen  Joyce  started  with  WLS 
about  the  same  time  as  "Feature 
Foods"  was  inaugurated,  in  1935. 
Helen,  too,  is  a  homemaker,  and 
has  two  children,  one  girl  in  high 
school  and  a  boy  in  college. 

In  addition  to  their  broadcasts 
and  their  own  homemaking,  Mar- 
tha and  Helen  find  time  to  give, 
special  talks  and  demonstrations' 
before  various  club  meetings  — 
about  one  a  week  except  in  sum- 
mer. In  the  past  two  years,  they 
have  conducted  74  of  these  Fea- 
ture Fcods  "clinics,"  with  an  at- 
tendance of  more  than  1 00  at  each. 
At  these,  they  talk  about  radio  and 
radio  stars,  put  on  demonstrations 
of  "Feature  Foods"  advertised 
products,  and  usually  have  some 
gifts  to  distribute  among  those 
attending.  The  club  members  get 
an  extra  insight  into  the  working  of 
radio  advertising,  because  Martha 
and  Helen  frequently  test  out 
sales  copy  on  them,  reading  sev- 
eral sample  scripts  and  asking 
which  would  make  them  most 
apt  to  buy  the  product.  Then  a 
few  days  later,  the  club  members 
will  probably  hear  them  reading 
that  very  copy  on  the  air. 

Another  test  they  often  make 
concerns  premiums.  They  read 
copy  describing  a  premium  and 
find  out  which  copy  makes  the 
women  want  the  article.  Then 
they  show  the  article.  Some- 
times, women  are  disappointed 
on  seeing  the  item.  Then  they 
find  out  whether  it  is  not  a  good 
premium,  or  whether  the  descrip- 
tion was  too  glowing.  In  these 
ways,  advertisers  are  better  able 
to  serve  their  customers. 

Pag©  7 


A  "square  table"  conference  over  the  question  of  "Whodunit?" 
engages  the  attention  of  (L.  to  R.)  Basil  Rathbone,  Thomas 
McNight,  Nigel  Bruce  and  Edith  Meiser,  adapter  of  the  Sherlock 
Holmes  scripts  (NBC-Blue,  Sundays,  8:30  p.m.,  EST).  Rathbono 
is  i-icirnci;;   Bruce,  Watson,  and  McKnight  directs. 


'^■«,&JV 


Elolse  Kummsr,  who  plays  the  vlllalness,  Marcia  Mannering,  In 
NBC's  Backstags  Wife,  first  went  on  the  air  while  a  co-ed  at  the  Uni- 
versicy  of  Wisconsin,  playing  the  part  of  a  little  boy.  She  thinks  she 
has  been  playing  parts,  equally  foreign  to  what  she  really  is,  ever 
since.    Elolse  weighs  only  114,  and  is  5  feet  4  Inches  tall. 

Paga  8 


GANG  BUSTERS 
CELEBRATE    FIFTH  AIR 


CALUTED  by  barking  machine  guns,  wail- 
ing sirens  and  tramping  feet,  Gang  Bus- 
ters celebrated  its  fifth  anniversary  on  the 
air  with  the  announcem.ent  of  its  1941  Roll 
oi  Public  Enemies  over  NBC  on  Friday,  Jan- 
uary 17. 

Gang  Busters,  whose  clues  have  helped 
apprehend  160  desperate  criminals,  makes 
a  feature  of  its  public  enemies'  list  on  each 
anniversary  program.  Each  name  on  the 
roll  represents  a  criminal  outcast  still  at 
large. 

Several  members  of  previous  rolls  are 
still  uncaught  and  therefore,  are  eligible  for 
the  1941  nominations.  They  include  Charles 
Irving  Chapman,  Maurice  Denning  and 
"Soup"  Grey  son.  Other  winners  of  the 
dubious  distinction  before  this  year  —  Ben- 
nie  and  Estelle  Dickson,  and  Raymond  Du- 
vall  —  have  been  called  to  account. 

Compilation  of  the  annual  roll  is  a  12- 
month  job  for  a  part  of  the  Gang  Busters' 
staff.  Cooperating  with  them  are  750  law- 
enforcement  bureaus  and  more  than  400 
specially  selected  trained  field  correspon- 
dents. 

Week  by  v/eek  their  reports  pour  into 
the  Gang  Busters  office  in  New  York,  there 
to  be  tabulated  and  analyzed  by  the  staff. 
Criminal  exploits  are  carefully  watched  and 
their  developments  noted.  Police  authorities 
throughout  the  country  are  repeatedly  con- 
sulted. 

Of  the  thousands  of  criminals  reported 
every  year.  Gang  Busters  concentrates  on 
those  most  eagerly  sought  by  the  police. 
Toward  the  end  of  the  year  the  field  is 
greatly  reduced.  Tough  candidates  —  but 
not  tough  enough  —  are  thrown  off  the  ten- 
tative list.  There  follows  rechecking  of  rec- 
ords, long  distance  telephone  calls  to  local 
authorities  and  study  of  charges  and  indict- 
ments. 

A  final  selection  is  made  only  24  hours 
before  the  anniversary  broadcast.  The 
script  that  then  grows  out  of  the  selections 
is  carefully  scrutinized  by  the  program's  at- 
torneys, who  also  attend  all  rehearsals  to 
see  to  it  that  the  spoken  word  does  not  carry 
impressions  not  given  by  the  written  word. 

Gang  Busters  are  kept  busy  to  the  last 
minute  with  possible  changes  and  additions. 
Only  when  the  program  actually  goes  on 
the  air  is  its  choice  of  the  sour  cream  of  un- 
apprehended American  criminals  made 
known  in  these  words  of  one  police  chief 
after  another:  "In  my  opinion,  the  most  no- 
torious public  enemy  at  large  in  the  United 
States  today  is  .  .  ." 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


FEBRUARY 


MARIE  Mcdonald 

"FRYES"  TORRID  TUNES 
FOR  T.  DORSEY 


IWfARIE  McDonald,  gorgeous  new  sopra- 
no of  Tommy  Dorsey's  "Fame  and  For- 
tune" program,  over  NBC-Blue  Thursdays  at 
8:30  p.m.,  e.s.t.,  has  had  a  varied  career, 
embracing  many  branches  of  the  entertain- 
ment field  .  .  .  Her  first  professional  work 
was  done  as  one  of  the  world  famous  Powers 
models  .  .  .  On  Broadway  she  understudied 
Ella  Logan  in  George  White's  "Scandals." 
.  .  .  She  sang  in  the  Earl  Carroll  Theatre  and 
Hollywood  presented  her  in  three  films, 
"Ziegfeld  Girl,"  "Down  Argentine  Way"  and 
"Argentine  Nights."  .  .  .  Now  Tommy  Dorsey 
has  brought  her  to  commercial  radio  and  to 
the  ballrooms  where  his  popular  dance  band 
appears  ...  In  addition  to  all  this,  the  lovely 
and  vivacious  briinette  was  voted  "Miss 
New  York"  in  1939  and  just  a  few  months 
ago  on  the  west  coast  was  voted  the  new 
leader  of  the  "sweater  set"  on  the  MGM  lot, 
inheriting  the  title  from  Lana  Turner  .  .  . 
All  of  this  was  done  under  her  real  name 
of  Marie  Frye,  which  Dorsey  changed  for 
professional  reasons  .  .  .  Marie  is  a  native  of 
Yonkors,  N.  Y.,  attended  Roosevelt  High 
School  and  New  Rochelle  College,  intent 
upon  following  a  journalistic  career  .  .  .  And, 
oddly  enough,  her  first  personal  appearance 
upon  joining  Dorsey's  band  was  in  Yonkers: 
— local  girl  comes  home  to  make  good!  .  .  . 
Marie  sang  for  three  years  with  her  college 
choir  and  is  a  member  of  the  Alpha  Delta 
Sigma  sorority  .  .  .  Her  favorite  sports  are 
horseback  riding,  bowling  and  swimming 
.  .  .  Says  13  is  her  lucky  number:  she  was 
invited  to  join  George  White's  "Scandals," 
took  her  MGM  screen  test  and  met  Tommy 
Dorsey  all  on  Friday  the  13th  —  but  in 
different  years  of  course  .  .  .  Marie's  oppor- 
tunity to  join  the  Dorsey  band  came  about 
most  unexpectedly  .  .  .  She  was  with  a  party 
of  friends  at  the  new  Palladium  night  spot  in 
Hollywood  while  Tommy  Dorsey's  band  was 
playing  there  .  .  .  Tommy  joined  the  party 
knowing  her  companions  .  .  .  Conversation 
gradually  left  her  out  of  the  picture  .  .  .  Marie 
started  to  sing  to  herself  - —  suddenly  re- 
alized that  the  table  talk  had  stilled  ...  All 
of  them  were  watching  her,  listening  .  .  .  She 
stopped  singing,  embarrassed,  until  Tommy, 
who'd  never  seen  her  before,  asked  her  if 
she  could  be  packed  by  early  next  morning 
to  fly  to  New  York  with  him  and  join  his 
band  .  .  P.S.:  she  made  the  10  a.m.  plane. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  FEBRUARY 


James  Melton  (left),  tenor  star  of  the  Telephone  Hour,  gets  down 
to  shirt  sleeves,  as  does  conductor  Donald  Voorhees,  for  a  rehearsal 
with  Francia  White,  soprano,  during  which  they  put  finishing 
touches  on  one  of  the  broadcasts  heard  each  Monday  evening  over 
NBC    as   a    Red    Network   feature. 


m)im,)i »i^)vmt-)',-  ■4'M'P^'"ji!'0-n>'W;i'^"  -  -■-■'i'^PPPP^'^MiPiilP 


One  trial  performance  has  won  Betty  Moran,  youthful  radio  and 
screen  actress,  a  permanent  place  in  the  cast  of  "Dear  John",  NBC- 
Blue  Network  Sunday  evening  serial  starring  Irene  Rich.  Betty 
succeeds  to  the  role  of  Carol  Chandler,  left  vacant  when  Martha 
O'Driscoll  left  the  cast  to  resume  her  screen  career. 


Page  9 


COLUMBIA'S  COLORFUL 
COMMENTATORS 


PAUL  SULLIVAN.  CBS  news 
analyst.  Bom  St.  Louis,  Sept.  1, 
1908.  Attended  Cathedral  Col- 
lege, Christian  Brothers'  College 
and  Benton  College  of  Low  in  St. 
Louis,  and  Xovier  University  in 
Cincinnati.  Before  getting  estab- 
lished in  radio,  he  worked  as  bank 
clerk,  chauffeur  and  radio  service- 
man. Took  temporary  position  in 
1931  with  KMOX,  St.  Louis;  went 
to  WTAX,  Springfield,  111.;  recalled 
to  KMOX;  transferred  to  WLW, 
and  in  April,  1939,  switched  to 
W  H  A  S,  Louisville,  Kentucky, 
where  he  gained  such  popularity 
that  his  program,  "Paul  Sullivan 
Reviews  the  News"  became'  a 
Columbia  network  feature.  Wo- 
men's National  Radio  Committee 
ranked  him  one  of  best  news  an- 
alysts on  the  air. 
PLMER  DAVIS.  CBS  news  an- 
alyst.  Bom  Jan.  13,  1890,  in 
Aurora,  Indiana.  Attended  Frank- 
lin College,  Class  of  1910,  winning 
Rhodes  Scholarship  to  Queens 
College,  Oxford.  Became  New 
"^ork     Times     reporter    in     1914; 


INTERESTING  SIDE- 
LIGHTS ABOUT  CBS'S 
COLORFUL  COMMENTA- 
TORS WHO  BRING  YOU 
THE  "WORLD  IN  EXCITE- 
MENT" FROM  ALL  COR- 
NERS   OF    THE    GLOBE. 

within  ten  years,  a  Times  editorial 
page  writer.  Literary  career  in- 
cludes scores  of  fiction  stories  and 
special  articles  for  magazines. 
Wife  is  the  former  Florence  Mac- 
Millccn.  They  live  in  midtown 
New  York,  summer  in  Mystic, 
Conn.  Have  two  children,  Robert 
Lloyd  and  Anne. 

MAJOR  GEORGE  FIELDING 
ELIOT.  CBS  military  analyst.  Born 
June  22,  1894,  in  Brooklyn,  New 
York  City.  Family  moved  to 
Australia  in  1902.  Attended  Trin- 
ity College,  University  of  Mel- 
bourne., Served  throughout  war 
with  Austrialian  Imperial  Forces, 
entering  a  second  lieutenant, 
emerging  an  acting  major  of  in- 
fantry. Fought  in  Dardanelles 
campaign,  in  Egypt  and  on  Wes- 
tern Front.  After  arrival  in  United 
States  in  1922,  became  a  second 
lieutenant  of  engineers  in  Mis- 
souri National  Guard.  Served  in 
U.  S.  Army  Reserves,  Military  In- 
telligence for  eight  years.  Ma- 
gazine writer  and  author  of  books 
on  military,    naval    and    interna- 


tional affairs.  In  1933  he  married 
the  former  Sara  Elaine  Hodges  of 
Knoxville,  North  Carolina. 

EDWIN  C.  HILL.  CBS  news  an- 
alyst. Bom,  Aurora,  Indiana,  Apr. 
23,  1884.  Graduate  of  Indiana 
University,  1901.  Post  graduate 
student,  Butler  College,  Indiana- 
polis. Got  first  newspaper  job  at 
salary  of  $15  a  week.  Came  to 
New  York  and  clicked  with  frist 
story  —  at  space  rates  — -  about 
tenement  blaze.  Reporter,  New 
York  Sun,  1904-23;  director.  Fox 
newsreel,  1923-24;  scenario  editor, 
Fox  Film  Corporation,  1925-26; 
feature  writer,  New  York  Sun, 
1927-32.  Since  then,  he  has  estab- 
lished a  national  reputation  as 
newspaper  columnist  and  radio 
reporter.  His  CBS  program  is 
devoted  to  "The  Human  Side  of 
the  News."  Member  of  Sigma 
Chi.  Author  of  "The  Iron  Horse," 
1925;  "The  American  Scene," 
1933;  "Human  Side  of  the  News," 
1934. 

ALBERT  WARNER.  CBS  Wash- 
ington    correspondent.     Bom     in 


PAUL    SULLIVAN 

"Paul  Sullivan   Reviews  The   News"   Mon. 
Thru    Fri.   5:30  to   5:45   PM.   CST. 

Page  10 


ELMER  DAVIS 

"European  War  News  With  Elmer  Davis" 
Mon.  Thru  Fri.  7:55  to  8:00  PM.  CST.  Also 
Sat.    5:30    to    5:45    PM.    CST. 


MAJ.  GEO.  FIELDING 
ELLIOTT 

"The  World   Today"   Mon.  Thru   Sat.  5:45 
to   6:00    PM.    CST. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  FEBRUARY 


Brooklyn,  New  York,  1903.  Grad- 
uate of  Amherst.  Phi  Beta  Kappa. 
Pursued  graduate  studies  in  poli- 
tical science  at  Columbia  Univer- 
sity. After  year  on  Brooklyn  (N.Y.) 
Daily  Eagle  staff,  joined  INJew  York 
Times.  Assigned  to  cover  State 
capital  at  Albany,  later  reporting 
political  conventions  and  the  Alfred 
E.  Smith  1928  presidential  cam- 
paign tour.  Named  assistant  chief. 
New  York  Herald-Tribune  Wash- 
ington Bureau  in  1930.  Became 
chief  of  bureau.  Covered  World 
Economic  Conference  in  London. 
Made  a  nationwide  political  "^ur- 
vey  during  Roosevelt-Landon  cam- 
paign. Vice  chairman  of  Radio 
Correspondents'  Association  of 
Washington,  former  president  of 
White  House  Correspondents'  As- 
sociation and  member  of  Gridiron 
Club  and  Overseas  Press  Club. 

LINTON  WELLS.  CBS  news  an- 
alyst. Born  April  1,  1893  in  Louis- 
ville, Kentucky,  a  descendent  of 
Matthew  Tindal,  eminent  Deist. 
Office  boy  for  "Marse  Henry" 
Watterson,  editor  of  Louisville 
Courier- Journal.  Attended  U.  S. 
Nerval  Academy,  leaving  after  two 
years  to  take  first  reporter  job  on 
Denver  Post.  As  correspondent 
for  news  associations  and  free- 
lance writer,  he  circled  world  1 1 
times,  traveled  more  than  2,200,- 
000  miles.  Accused  by  Japanese 
Foreign  Office  of  trying  to  foment 
war  between  Japan  and  Russia  in 
1934.  Imprisoned  in  Siberian  con- 
centration camp  by  Bolsheviks. 
"First  aerial  stowaway"  on  one 
of  two  U.  S.  Army  planes  on 
around-the-world  flight  in  1924. 
Reported  Villa  uprising  m  Mexico. 


Injured  in  1923  Yokohama  earth- 
quake. Expelled  from  Italy  by 
Mussolini.  Attached  to  Prince  of 
Wales  suite  on  latter's  1924  trip 
to  America.  Set  record  for  globe- 
girdling  in  1926  —  28  days,  14 
hours,  36  minutes.  War  correspon- 
dent in  Ethiopia.  Author  of 
"Blood  on  the  Moon,"  best-selling 
autobiography,  many  other  books 
and  magazine  articles.  Speaks 
French,  Spanish,  Portugese,  Ger- 
man, Russian,  Japanese  and  Sa- 
moan.  Plane  pilot  since  1915. 
About  this  time  he  also  signed  as 
CBS  correspondent  in  the  Far  East, 
succeeding  Burton  Crane,  now  in 
the  financial  news  department  of 
ttie  New  York  Times. 

HARPY  W.  FI  ANNERY.  Newly- 
appointed  to  the  CBS  staff  in 
Berlin.  Born  40  years  ago  in 
Greensburg,  Pennsylvania.  Mar- 
ried and  has  one  child,  a  girl. 
Completed  journalism  course  in 
1923  at  Notre  Dame  University 
where  he  later  taught  English. 
As  a  student,  he  edited  several 
publications  at  university.  Became 
secretary  to  journalism  school's 
dean.  Worked  as  newspaperman 
in  Hagerstown,  Maryland,  and  for 
Baltimore  Sun,  Albany  Evening 
News,  Decatur  (Illinois)  Herald, 
the  Chicago  City  News  Associa- 
tion and  the  Hoosier  Observer 
(Fort  Wayne,  Indiana).  Also  sec- 
retary to  J.  P.  McEvoy,  playwright. 
News  and  sports  editor  of  Station 
WOWO,  Fort  Wayne,  before  join- 
inc^  KMOX,  Columbia  station  in  St. 
Loiis,  January  1,  1935,  as  news 
director  and  analyst.  Led  St. 
Loi  lis  smoke  elimination  crusade 
covered  1937  floods  for  CBS. 


Met  wife  former  Fay  Gillis,  aviator 
and  writer,  in  Moscow  in  1932. 

BOB  TROUT.  Veteran  CBS 
newsman.  Bom  in  Wake  County, 
North  Carolina,  Oct.  15,  1908.  In 
1931  went  to  work  as  script  writer 
for  Alexandria  (Va.)  station,  WJSV, 
then  an  independent.  Remained 
with  station  when  it  joined  CBS 
network  and  moved  to  Washing- 
ton, covering  all  important  White 
House  events  and  gaining  a  repu- 
tation for  rapid-fire  ad  fibbing  on 
reportorial  duties.  Assigned  to 
New  York  in  1935.  Broadcast 
Kentucky  Derby  color  and  political 
conventions;  covered  fleet  maneu- 
vers. Only  American  broadcaster 
sent  to  London  to  cover  King 
George's  coronation.  Went  on  to 
France  to  report  Wolly  ISimpson- 
Duke  of  Windsor  marriage.  Col- 
umbia's star  reporter  of  special 
events.  * "' 

JOHN  CHARLES  DALY.  CBS 
Washington  reporter.  Bom  in 
South  Africa,  1914.  Son  of  minnig 
engineer.  Early  schooling  at 
Mcrrist  Brothers  College,  Johan- 
nesburg. Attended  Tilton  School, 
New  Hampshire,  1923  to  1926; 
Tilton  Academy,  1926  to  1930; 
Boston  College,  1931  to  1933. 
Worked  way  through  college  as 
switchboard  operator  in  medical 
building.  A  year  with  Peabody 
Players  in  Boston.  Clerk  in  wool 
firm.  Announcer,  WLOE,  Boston. 
Two  years  with  transit  company 
in  Washington.  Joined  WJSV  in 
1937.  Accompanied  Willkie  on 
his  campaign  tour. 

EDWARD  R.  MURROW.  CBS 
chief  European  representative. 
Bom   1904   in    Greensboro,    North 


If 


EDWIN    C.    HILL 

"The    Human    Side    of    The    News", 
Thru    Fri.    6:05    to    6:15    PM.    EST. 


Mon. 


LINTON   WELLS 

"The     World     Today",      Mon.     Thru     Sat. 
5:45   to   6:00    PM.    CST. 


ALBERT    WARNER 

"The     World     Today",     5:45    to    6:00    PM. 
CST.     Mon.    Thru    Sat. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  FEBRUARY 


Page  11 


Carolina.  Graduate  of  Stanford 
University  of  Washington  and 
Washington  State  College.  In  col- 
laboration with  Dr.  James  T.  Shot- 
well,  Bryce  professor  at  Columbia 
University,  he  wrote  "Channels  of 
International  Cooperation." 

Assumed  present  post  after  ser- 
ving as  network's  director  of  talks. 
Prior  to  that,  acted  as  assistant 
director  of  the  Institute  of  Interna- 
tional Education.  Before  outbreak 
of  war  necessitated  establishing 
himself  in  London,  he  covered  a 
large  part  of  Europe  for  CBS. 
Chartered  23-passenger  plane  as 
sole  passenger  to  reach  Vienna  in 
time  to  describe  Anschluss  in 
1938.  Recently  married.  His  wife 
is  with  him  in  British  capital. 

WILLIAM  L.  SHIRER.  CBS  cor- 
respondent in  Berlin.  Bom  in 
Chicago.  Graduate  of  Coe  Col- 
lege, Cedar  Rapids,  la.  Went  to 
Europe  on  cattleboat.  Landed  job 


WILLIAM    SHIRER 
"The     World     Today",     5:45    to    6:00     PM. 
CST.     Mon.     Thru     Sat. 

in  Paris  office  of  Chicago  Tribune 
in  1925.  Covered  entire  continent 
thereafter,  becoming  chief  Central 
European  correspondent  for  news- 
paper with  headquarters  in 
Vienna.  Companion  and  confi- 
dant of  Mohcrtma  Gandhi,  1930-31. 
Quit  Tribune  in  1932  for  year's 
free-lance  writing  on  Catalan 
coast.  Universal  Service's  Berlin 
correspondent,  1934-37.  Joined  CBS 
in  1937.  After  Anschluss,  moved 
wife,  former  Therese  Stiberitz  of 
Vienna,  and  infant  daughter  to 
Geneva,  where  he  vacations 
whenever  possible. 

ERIC  SEVAREID.  CBS  cor- 
respondent, now  in  London.  Bom 
30  years  ago.     Took  a  job  as  re- 


porter at  18  with  Minneapolis 
Journal.  Studied  political  science 
at  University  of  Minnesota  and 
other  courses  in  its  graduate 
school.  Served  as  student  colum- 
nist for  130  college  papers  and 
also  correspondent  for  Minnea- 
polis Star  and  Journal.  Had  brief 
career  as  California  gold  miner. 
Went  abroad  for  further  study  in 
University  of  Lcndon  and  Sor- 
bonne,  Paris.  Night  editor  for 
United  Press  in  Paris.  Father  is 
Alfred  Sevareid,  secretary  of  St. 
Paul,  Minn.,  Federal  Land  Bank. 
Wife  is  the  former  Lois  Finger, 
daughter  of  late  Sherman  finger, 
famous  University  of  Minnesota 
track  and  field  coach. 

Sevoreids  became  parents  of 
twin  boys  during  early  days  of 
Paris  bombings.  (Mother  and  child- 
ren now  in  United  States).  Seva- 
reid resigned  post  of  city  editor, 
Paris  Herald,  to  join  CBS  Paris 
staff.  Remained  there  until  French 
Government's  evacuation.  Accom- 
panied administration  to  Vichy 
and  then  transferred  to  CBS  in 
London. 


CECIL  BROWN.  CBS  correspond- 
ent in  Rome.  Born  in  New  Brigh- 
ton, Pa.,  32  years  ago.  Attended 
Western  Reserve  and  Ohio  State 
Universities,  graduating  from  lat- 
ter in  1929.  Cubbed  on  foungs- 
town  (Ohio)  Vindicator.  Went  to 
West  Coast  for  United  Press.  Also 
worked  on  Pittsburgh  Press,  Ne- 
wark Ledger  and  New  York  Amer- 
ican. Worked  in  CBS  publicitv 
department  in  Summer  of  1937. 
Went  to  Europe  for  International 
News  Service.  Resigned  from  INS 
oost  when  signed  last  January  as 
CBS  Rome  correspondent. 

EDWIN  HARTRICH.  CBS  cor- 
resDondent  in  Berlin.  Bom  in  Chi- 
cago, May  25  1911.  Attended 
Notre  Dome  and  Northwestern 
University's  Medill  School  of 
Journalism.  Worked  way  on  fruit 
steamers  to  Central  and  South 
America.  With  General  Press 
Association  in  Washington  for 
three  and  one  half  vears.  London 
rcrresTDondent  for  Time  magazine 
in  1937.  Six  months  later  he  joined 
the  Herald-Tribune's  Paris  staff.  He 
then  joined  CBS  to  cover  the  Rus- 
sian invasion  of  Finland.  Was 
stationed  in  Amsterdam  when 
Nazi  blitzkrieg  hit  the  Lowlands. 


Hartrich  is  now  in  Berlin  assisting 
Shirer. 

LARRY  LESUEUR.  CBS  corres- 
pondent in  London.  Bom  June  10, 
1909  in  New  York  City.  Third  ge- 
neration of  newspaper  family. 
Grandfather  published  two  papers 
in  Iowa.  Father,  Wallace  Lesueur, 
was  a  foreign  correspondent  for 
the  New  York  Tribune. 

Larry  Lesueur  received  his  B.A. 
from  New  York  University  in  1931. 
After  six  years  with  the  United 
Press  in  its  New  York  office,  he 
went  to  Europe  last  year  and, 
while  in  London,  signed  with  CBS. 
Assigned  to  cover  the  R.  A.  F.  in 
France.  After  the  fall  of  Paris,  he 
went  to  England  aboard  a  troop- 
ship. 

WALTER  R.  WILLS.  CBS  corres- 
pondent in  Tokyo.  Native  of  the 
mid-West  and  45  years  of  age. 
Formerly  in  charge  of  national 
advertising     for     the      American 


EDWARD    R.    MURROW 

"The  World  Today",  Mon.  Thru  Sat.  5:45 
to    6:00    PM.    CST. 

Weekly,  Hearst  Sunday  supple- 
ment. Became  advertising  man- 
ager of  Harley  Davidson  motor- 
cycle firm,  later  becoming  a  motor- 
cycle racer  to  promote  his  com- 
pany's product.  Took  over  Harley 
Davidson  agency  in  Japan  and  in 
1929  joined  the  business  staff  of 
the  Japan  Advertiser  in  Tokyo. 
After  three  years  he  left  the  news- 
paper to  open  a  branch  office  for 
Fox  Films  in  the  Japanese  capital. 
After  some  years,  he  founded  the 
Oriental  -  American  Booking  A- 
gency,  bringing  theatrical  artists, 
midget  car  racers  and  carnivals 
across  the  Pacific  for  the  Yoko- 
hama exposition.  Early  in  1937 
he  financed  the  Japan  Newsweek. 


Page  12 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  FEBRUARY 


Visiting  the  Little  Red 
School  House 

(Continued  from  page  3) 

The  School  of  the  Air  does  not 
attempt  to  supplant  the  teacher  in 
any  sense.  Rather,  the  use  of 
radio  in  the  classroom  will  make 
the  teacher  more  important  in 
s?iaping  the  educational  destiny 
of  the  pupils. 

The  School  of  the  Air  is  pre- 
senting five  series  of  twenty-six 
programs,  each  in  five  major  core 
areas  of  the  public  school  cur- 
riculum of  Texas,  namely,  lan- 
guage, arts,  social  science,  natural 
science  and  music  and  vocations. 
Each  class  room  broadcast  has 
been  planned  by  competent  edu- 
cators and  so  designed  as  to  be 
good  radio  and  good  education; 
each  program  is  produced  by  a 
trained  and  efficient  director. 

The  University  of  Texas  is  pre- 
senting the  language  arts  series; 
the  Dallas  Radio  Workshop,  the 
social  science  series;  North  Texas 
State  Teachers  College  and  the 
Texas  State  College  for  Women, 
the  natural  science  series;  Agricul- 
tural and  Mechanical  College,  the 
vocational  series;  and  the  State 
Department  of  Education,  in  co- 
operation with  various  music  or- 
ganizations and  institutions,  will 
present  the  music  series. 

Since  its  inauguration  the  Tex- 
as School  of  the  Air  has  received 
thousands  of  letters  from  boys 
and  girls  and  their  teachers  in 
many  sections  of  the  Lone  Star 
State.  Much  of  the  credit  for  the 
ether-school's  success  is  due  to 
the  untiring  work  of  two  men  — 
L.  A.  Woods,  State  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction,  and  John  W. 
Gunstream,  Director  of  enterprise. 
These  popular  educators  realize 
fully  that  radio  promises  to  fill  a 
real  need  in  education,  but  the 
realization  of  this  promise  depends 
upon  intelligent  and  purposeful 
use  of  radio  programs  by  the 
teacher. 

In  the  meanwhile  Little  Johnny 
and  Mary,  1940  models,  ore  get- 
ting much  helpful  schooling  from 
the  Texas  School  of  the  Air  every 
week-day  at  1:15  p.m.,  when  their 
school  radios  are  tuned  to  Sta- 
tion WBAP  and  the  other  ether 
giants  comprising  the  Texas 
Quality  Network. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  FEBRUARY 


Cugat  The  Cook 


Xavler  Cugat  sampling  ■  stew  In 
his  "private"  corner  of  the 
Waldorf-Astoria  Hotel  kitchen  in 
New  York.  The  NBC-Red  Net- 
work maestro's  hobby  U  cookina> 


King  Of  Bluff 


Frank  Morgan,  "King  of  Bluff", 
will  spiel  his  Intricate  yarns  of 
personal  exploits  over  NBC  again 
when  he  returns  on  Jan.  2  to 
"Maxwoll    HeuM    Can—    Tim*." 


562  lbs.  of  Musical  Glamour 

(Continued    from    page    6) 

"BERTIE,"  standard  guitarist 
and  sings  plaintive  range  ballads 
.  .  .  began  the  study  of  guitar  at 
13  .  .  .  enjoys  eating  fried  steak 
sandwiches  and  reading  fan  mail 
...  is  an  expert  swimmer  and 
horseback  rider  .  .  .  can  twirl  a 
mean  lariat  and  aims  to  catch 
herself  a  certain  man  come  next 
Sadie  Hawkins  day  ...  Is  5'6"  toll, 
weighs  102  with  her  guitar  and 
shoes  .  .  .  has  brown  hair  and 
dark  eyes  .  .  .  closes  her  eyes 
when  she  sings,  "just  to  get  in 
the  mood." 

"SALLY,"  bass  player  ...  in- 
terested in  arrangement  at  the 
age  of  three  when  her  mother  ap- 
plied the  hair  brush  as  "reward" 
for  "Sally's"  re-orrangement  of 
the  furniture  in  the  family  music 
room  ...  is  an  accomplished  pian- 
ist of  the  concert  variety  but 
"learned  the  bass  in  two  weeks 
to  earn  a  living"  .  .  .  also  tickles 
the  vibrahorp  artistically  and 
takes  an  occasional  turn  at  the 
organ  .  .  .  likes  horseback  riding 
.  .  .  hobby:  collecting  phonograph 
records  .  .  .  favorite  food:  banana 
splits  ...  is  no  jitterbug  but  likes 
ballroom  dancing  ...  Is  5'8"  tall, 
weighs  1 02  .  .  .  has  blond  hcdr  and 
baby  blue  eyes  ...  an  expert  at 
making  puns  and  cooking  buns. 
Wowl 

And  that  brings  us  to  Master 
of  Ceremonies  Tonahill.  Scooter's 
quick  wit  and  stage  presence 
make  him  an  ideal  emcee  for  a 
radio  or  vaudeville  show  .  .  .  has 
had  ten  years  radio  experience 
beginning  with  a  regular  announc- 
ing stint  at  a  Waco,  Texas  ether 
factory  and  graduating  to  KGKO 
several  years  ago  .  .  .  favorite 
hobby  is  his  trick  fox  terrier, 
"Little  Man."  ...  Is  5'9"  toll, 
weighs  160  pounds,  brown  hair 
and  brown  eyes.  On  personal 
appearance  trips  he  fixes  flat  tires 
(auto),  tends  to  ticket  distribution 
and  arranges  the  programs  in  ad- 
dition to  his  emcee  task. 

And  just  in  case  you're  won- 
dering where  we  got  the  title, 
"562  Pounds  of  Musical  Glamour," 
add  up  the  weights  of  the  Cow- 
girls. We  hope  you  get  the  some 
answer  we  didi 

Page  13 


Let's  Look  at  WLS 


ART  JANES  HAS  RETIRED  from 
the  Maple  City  Four,  to  get  a  rest 
and  regain  his  health.  This  is 
the  first  change  in  personnel  of 
this  act  in  more  than  10  years. 
The  new  tenor  is  Charles  Kemer. 

HARRIET  HESTER,  MR.  HESTER, 
WLS  Sales  Manager  William 
Cline  and  some  others  decided 
to  get  some  winter  fishing  at  a 
lodge  in  Northern  Minnesota  some 
time  ago.  The  first  blizzard  of 
the  year  snowed  them  in;  so  it 
was  catch  fish  or  starve  for  them. 
They  caught  plenty  of  fish,  and 
with  one  onion,  a  little  molasses 
and  short  lots  of  a  few  things,  they 
made  out  well  until  the  snow 
plows  got  to  them  three  days 
later.  Oddest  thing  about  the  trip 
was  the  book  Harriet  took  along 
to  read  in  spare  moments.  It  was 
titled  "You  Can't  Go  Home 
Again." 

JOHN  BROWN,  PIANIST  AT 
WLS,  used  to  be  on  the  Chau- 
tauqua circuit  with  the  famed 
William  Jennings  Bryan  .  .  .  One 
of  the  first  signs  of  winter  at  WLS 
is  the  black  derbies  sported  during 
cold  weather  by  Singers  Mac  and 
Bob. 

MARGARET  SWEENEY,  HAR- 
PIST IN  the  WLS  and  National 
Barn  Dance  orchestras,  studied  in 
Chicago,  Berlin  and  Leipsig.  She 
has  played  at  civic  receptions  for 
many  famous  people,  including 
Mrs.  Roosevelt,  the  late  Italo  Bal- 
bo,  and  Marconi  .  .  .  Herb  Wyers, 
control  room  engineer  at  WLS 
used  to  be  a  streetcar  motorman 
and  conductor.  When  he  first 
came  to  Chicago,  he  lived  in  on 
apartment  house  on  the  very  place 
where  the  WLS  studios  and  Prai- 
rie Former  Building  ore  now  lo- 
cated. 

CY  HARRICE,  ANNOUNCER  AT 
WLS,  was  married  on  November 
2  to  Yvonne  Morris,  a  social 
worker  in  Evanston,  Illinois  .  .  . 
Joe  Rockhold,  announcer  and  ac- 
tor, doing  such  roles  as  Honey 
Boy  and  Great  Orrie  Hogsett,  also 
plays  guitar  and  sings;  in  fact, 
that's  what  he  first  did  in  radio. 

SOME  BIRTHDAYS  AT  WLS 
you  may  wish  to  note:  Reggie 
Cross,  April  27;  Howard  Black, 
February  4;  Rusty  Gill,  June  10; 
Evelyn  Overstoke,  December  20; 

Page  U 


Honey  Boy,  comic  colored  janitor  on 
WLS  Homemakers'  Hour  and  the  WLS 
National  Barn  Dance,  is  the  same  man 
as  the  Great  Orrie  Hogsett  —  Joe 
Rockhold. 


A  new  comic  at  WLS,  Jimmie  James 
amazes  the  theater  audiences  at  the 
WLS  National  Barn  Dance  as  he  defies 
all  laws  of  gravity,  playing  his  trom- 
bone while  slanted  at  about  a  30  degree 
angle  over  the  footlights.  Jimmie  is 
also  heard  quite  often  playing  the 
electric  guitar  for  Smiley  Sutter. 

Bill    O'Connor,    August    8;    The 
Williams    Brothers   —   Bob,    Jan- 


uary 1,  Don,  October  9,  Dick,  June 
7  and  Andy,  December  3. 

Ted  Morse  (Otto  and  Little  Ger. 
evieve)  August  12;  Chick  Hun 
May  11;  Salty  Holmes,  March  6. 
Alan  Crockett,  August  2;  JacV 
Taylor,  November   4;  Red   Foley/ 

PRAIRIE  FARMER,  WHICH  O^ 
June  17  and  Hal  Culver,  March  B 
ERATES  WLS,  will  celebrate  itb 
100th  birthday  with  a  special, 
giant  issue  on  January  1 1 ,  review- 
ing advances,  particularly  in  the 
farm  field,  in  the  100  years  since 
John  Stephen  Wright  founded 
America's  first  farm  paper  — 
Prairie  Farmer.  For  the  past  sev- 
eral months,  WLS  has  been  dram- 
atizing life  among  the  farmers  100 
years  ago,  including  the  founding 
of  the  magazine.  The  series, 
"Mid-West  in  the  Making,"  is 
heard  as  part  of  the  WLS  National 
Barn  Dance. 

WHICH  BRINGS  UP  THE  found- 
ing of  WLS.  The  Prairie  Farmer 
Station  first  went  on  the  air  on 
April  12,  1924,  with  a  list  of 
celebrities  as  long  as  your  arm 
on  the  opening  program.  Some 
of  them  took  part  by  broadcasting 
over  a  direct  wire  from  New  York; 
that  was  before  networks.  Among 
the  names  on  the  show  were: 
Jane  Addams,  Grace  Wilson, 
Gloria  Sv/anson,  Arthur  Brisbane, 
H.  B.  Warner,  William  S.  Hart,  the 
Duncan  Sisters  as  Topsy  and  Eva, 
and  George  Beban. 

Ethel  Barrymore  was  to  make 
her  radio  debut  on  the  broadcast 
that  night.  Accustomed  as  she 
was  to  audiences,  she  couldn't 
face  the  microphone.  She  stepped 
up  to  it,  gave  one  look  and  ex- 
claimed in  fright,  "Oh,  my  God!" 
She  couldn't  say  another  word. 

RAY  FERRIS,  MUSICAL  DIREC- 
TOR at  WLS,  used  to  be  a  mem- 
ber of  the  act  Chuck  and  Ray. 
The  two  of  them  and  another  man 
were  the  original  3-man  minstrels 
in  radio,  an  act  they  later  ex- 
panded to  include  six  endmen  and 
a  25-piece  orchestra;  you'll  remem- 
ber them  as  the  Sinclair  Minstrels 
on  NBC.  Ferris  was  in  the  avia- 
tion branch  of  the  U.  S.  Navy  in 
the  last  war  .  .  .  Chick  Hurt  of  the 
Prairie  Ramblers  has  been  called 
"Chick"  so  long  that  a  lot  of  people 
don't  even  know  his  real  name  — 
it's  Charles. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  FEBRUARY 


Smilin' 

Ed 

McConnell 


pOMANCE  has  meant  much  to 
Smiling  Ed  McConnell,  NBC's 
Singing  Philosopher,  and  for  that 
reason  he  never  forgets  his  wed- 
ding anniversary.  Nor  does  he 
wait  until  the  day  before  to  buy 
a  present  for  his  wife.  Thinking 
far  in  advance  of  January  29,  the 
date  on  which  he  and  Mrs.  Mc- 
Connell celebrated  their  11th  wed- 
ding anniversary,  Smiling  Ed 
again  ordered  a  handsome  new 
car  for  her  —  the  93rd  he  has 
bought  in  the  last  25  or  30  years. 
When  interviewed  by  Radio 
Varieties,  Smiling  Ed  had  just  cel- 
ebrated his  49th  birthday  on  Jan- 
uary  12  and  having  just  signed 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  FEBRUARY 


a  new  contract  with  his  sponsor, 
the  Acme  White  Lead  &  Color 
Works,  Detroit,  Mich.,  Smiling  Ed 
was  in  an  expansive  mood.  After 
discussing  his  wife's  anniversary 
present  and  telling  of  plans  he  is 
even  now  making  for  her  birth- 
day on  February  23,  he  revealed 
the  story  of  his  romance. 

"It  began,"  he  said,  "in  a  church 
choir  in  St.  Petersburgh,  Fla.,  in 
which  we  were  both  singing. 
Later  when  she  visited  me  at 
Nashville,  while  I  was  singing 
over  WSM,  we  determined  to 
elope.  Driving  into  Kentucky  we 
found  no  one  willing  to  marry  a 
17-year-old   girl.     So,    continiiing 


into  Indiana,  I  persuaded  the  chief 
of  police  at  Crawfordsville,  Ind., 
a  friend  of  mine  to  go  with  me 
to  Evansville,  where  a  minister 
married  us  in  the  presence  of 
two  police  chiefs,  five  six-foot 
pcrtrolmen  and  the  minister's 
wife.  Mrs.  McConnell  started  to 
Florida  the  next  day.  Ten  weeks 
later,  we  met  for  a  second  wed- 
ding at  Decatur,  Ala." 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  McConnell  have 
two  children,  Mary  lane,  9,  and 
Ed.,  Jr.,  nearly  five. 

Smiling  Ed  is  heard  each  Sat- 
urday at  10:45  A.M.  CST  over 
the  NBC-Red  network. 

Paqm  15 


WSM 


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rl    *     C.    A.    CRAIG,    Chairman  of  the   Board  \|!fl^j{3{g/C.     R.     CLEMENTS,     President     *r7 


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NASHVILLE^i^TENNESSEE 


I 


MARCH  -  1941 


TEN     CENTS 


JERRY  COLONNA— RADIO'&  GOOD  HUMOR  MAN 


Patter   Off  the   Platter 


Whether  or  not  you've  ever  gone 
overboard  for  a  pcaiicular  record, 
you  will  as  of  next  week.  The 
occasion  is  going  to  be  the  re- 
leaf  e  of  Artie  Shaw's  next  hit, 
"Dancing  in  the  Dark".  It's  that 
good. 

Such  a  recording  could  only 
have  been  made  with  his  large 
orchestra.  The  sweep  of  the 
strings,  the  sonority  of  the  brass, 
the  blend  of  the  reeds,  the  flexible 
swing  of  the  rhythm  section,  and 
above  all  Shaw's  master  miisi- 
cianship,  all  add  up  to  a  definitive 
recording  of  this  Howard  Dietz  - 
Arthur  Schwartz  favorite.  You 
would  expect  a  good  recording 
from  Shaw  but  this  one  is  master- 
ful. 

The  reverse  is  a  natural  coup- 
ling, "Smoke  Gets  In  Your  Eyes", 
performed  by  Artie  and  his  Gra- 
mercy  Five  in  intimate,  chamber- 
music  jazz  style.  The  tempo  bor- 
ders on  slow  with  the  Show  clari- 
net setting  the  pace.  (Victor  27335) 

Joe  Reichman,  the  Pagliacci  of 
the  piano,  is  up  next  with  his 
second  Victor  record,  "I'm  Always 
Chasing  Rainbows",  and  "Keep 
an  Eye  on  Your  Heart",  a  coup- 
ling that  is  just  as  good  as  his 
first.  loe  offers  grand  hotel  music 
in  ultra  smart  arrangements,  plus 
his  own  nimble  pianistics.  Marion 
Show  is  the  vocalist.  (Victor 
27333) 

Donald  Lambert  is  a  young  Negro 
pianist  who  has  a  keyboard  style 
like  a  bolt  of  greased  lightning. 
You'll  have  to  hear  "Anitra's 
Dance"  and  "Elegie"  yourself  to 
believe  it.  Solely  the  musical 
product  of  Donald  Lambert  him- 
self, he  has  styled  Grieg  and 
Massenet  in  a  manner  which 
would  astound  any  piano  teacher 
and  that  includes  ourselves.  (Blue- 
bird B-1 1053) 

On  the  Bluebird  Race  lists,  the 
Hot  Lips  Page  trio  hold  forth  with 
more  authentic  blues,  presenting 
"Evil  Man's  Blues",  a  composi- 
tion of  the  famous  English  critic 
Leonard  Feather,  and  "Do  It,  If 
You  Wanna".  The  numbers  ore 
notable  for  Page's  trumpet  and 
Teddy  Bunn's  guitar.  (Bluebird  B- 
8634) 

The  amazing  Mr.  Miller  plays 
"Song  of  the  Volga  Boatman"  and 


you  can  bet  your  shirt  it  will  be 
a  hit.  Done  up  in  Glenn's  com- 
pelling drag  tempo,  the  Millerized 
tune  has  the  power  and  kick  of 
a  quart  of  vodka.  The  reverse  is 
a  slow  "Chapel  In  the  Valley" 
with  velvet  saxes  and  the  voice 
of  Bob  Eberle.  (Bluebird  B-1 1029) 

Tommy  Dorsey  has  the  dancers 
in  mind  on  his  pairing  of  "Do  I 
Worry?"  and  "Little  Man  With  a 
Candy  Cigar",  delivering  these 
newer  ballads  with  smooth  or- 
chestrations and  vocals.  Frank 
Sinatra  and  Pied  Pipers  cooperate 
on  the  lyrics  of  the  first  while 
Miss  Jo  Stafford  of  the  Pipers  takes 
care  of  the  coupling.  (Victor  27338) 

Lionel  Hampton  introduces  a 
new  group  with  his  recording  of 
"Bogo  Jo",  the  Hampton  Rhythm 
Girls  who  can  scat  with  the  best 
of  them.  The  tune  is  rocking  and 
easy,  the  words  don't  make  sense 
but  you  won't  mind  in  the  least. 
The  other  side  is  "Open  House", 
quiet  and  well  behaved  swing. 
(Victor  27341) 

Tony  Pastor  gives  "Pale  Moon", 
and  "Hep-Tee-Hootie"  his  low- 
down  scat  interpretations,  singing 
all  the  way.  "The  Pastor  twist  is 
particularly  surprising  in  tthe  first 
which  is  a  standard  for  many  an 


aspiring  concert  soprano.  The 
full  band  work  is  excellent.  (Blue- 
bird B-1 1040) 

Whether  or  not  you  admit  a 
liking  for  Hawaiian  music,  you'll 
be  partial  to  "Lttle  Brown  Gal" 
and  "Kawika"  as  played  by  John- 
ny Kaonohi  Pineapple  and  his 
Native  Islanders,  Johrmy  is  cur- 
rently packing  them  in  at  Flori- 
da's newest  nitery,  Singapore 
Sadie's,  and  these  tunes  are 
among  his  most  requested  num- 
bers. They  have  all  the  neces- 
sary ingredients,  Hawaiian  guitar, 
island  drums  and  the  voices  of 
Napua  Woodd  (cq),  Johnny  him- 
self and  the  trio  (Bluebird  B-1 1027) 

Vaughn  Monroe  combines  a  Hit 
Parader,  "There'll  Be  Some 
Changes  Made",  with  an  immor- 
tal favorite  of  the  old  school  "Dar- 
donella",  and  does  a  bang-up 
job  on  both.  The  first  serves  to 
introduce  his  new  vocalist,  lovely 
Marilyn  Duke,  after  a  superlative 
Dixieland  Band  first  chorus.  "Dar- 
danella"  is  faster  with  crisp  brass 
and  saxes  in  a  beautifully  per- 
formed arrangement.  Al  King  is 
responsible  for  the  trumpet  work, 
Andrew  Dagni  plays  the  excep- 
tional alto  sax.  (Bluebird  B-1 1025) 


RADIO    VARIETIES 


No.  4,  VOLUME  3 


MARCH,  1941 


Page 

Jerry   Colonna   Corer 

Poller   Off   the   Plotter 2 

Guest    Column    by    Uncle    Ezra ' 

A  Good  Trick  —  If  You  Con  Do  It 5 

Let's   Look    ot   WLS ^ 

Life  of  Pot  Buttrocm 8  &  9 

Rodio   ond   Notionol   Defense ^^ 


F.  L.  ROSENTHAL,  Publisher 


WILTON  ROSENTHAL,  EdUor 


Publishod  at  1056  West  Van  Buien  Street,  Chicago,  Illinoia.  F.  L.  Rosenthal,  Publisher. 
New  York  Office:  485  Madison  Avenue,  Hollywood  Office:  3532  Sunset  Boulevard. 
Published  Monthly.  Single  Copies,  ten  cants.  Subscription  rate  $1.00  per  year  in  the 
United  States  and  Possessions,  $1.50  in  Cemada.  Entered  as  second  class  matter  January 
10,  1940,  at  the  post  office  at  Chicago,  Illinois,  under  the  act  of  March  3,  1879.  Every 
effort  will  be  made  to  return  unused  manuscripts,  photographs,  and  drawings  (if  accom- 
panied by  sufficient  fiist-class  postage  and  name  and  address),  but  we  will  not  be 
respoiuible  for  any  losses  for  such  matter  contributed  The  publishers  assume  no 
responaibility  for  statements  made  herein  by  contributors  and  correspondents,  nor  does 
publicatioB  mdioate  approval  thereof. 


RADIO  VARICTIES  —  MARCH 


JJOWDY  EWYBUDDYl  You  know  it's 
kinda  nice  to  be  able  to  talk  to  you  city- 
folk  direct  like  this,  almost  as  big  a  thrill  as 
I  get  when  I'm  watten  out  from  the  "little  five 
waiter"  down  in  Rosedale.  Of  course,  all 
you  folks  know  that  people  say  that  I'm 
owner,  operator,  manager,  announcer,  copy 
writer,  program  director,  engineer,  and 
janitor  of  the  mythical  station  familiarly 
called  "the  jumping  jennywren".  Truth- 
fully it  may  be  mythical  but  I  tell  you  right 
from  my  heart  that  my  Saturday  night  pro- 
gram to  me  is  the  highlight  of  the  week,  and 
I  hove  lived  with  it  so  long  (goin'  on  ten 
years  now)  that  sometimes  I  have  to  pinch 
myself  to  realize  that  Cecilia,  Aunt  Fanny, 
and  the  Sons  of  The  Pioneers  ore  not  watten 
out  from  the  Rosedale  station,  instead  of  the 
NBC  studios. 

It's  a  real  thrill  for  me  to  write  this  little 
piece  for  Radio  Varieties,  and  it's  a  great 
feeling  for  me  and  Cecilia  to  get  down  here 
to  our  farm  away  from  the  big  city  of  Chica- 
go. For  it's  here  on  this  farm,  where  I'm 
able  to  pick  up  most  of  my  material  for  our 
Saturday  evening  shows.  Really  the  folks 
of  Hebron  might  just  as  well  live  in  Rose- 
dale, because  "the  friendly  little  city"  is 
typical  of  small  towns  in  every  section  of 
the  country.  Our  principal  characters  can 
be  seen  strolling  down  the  main  street  of 
Hebron  almost  any  Saturday  night.  You 
know  it  was  from  listening  to  stories  and 
anecdotes  at  countryside  gatherings  that  I 
was  first  able  to  create  my  character,  Uncle 
Ezra. 

Of  course  my  vaudeville  experience  is 
largely  responsible  for  the  success  of  my 
"little  five-watter".  I  guess  I  just  naturally 
fell  into  a  theatrical  career,  as  all  my  as- 
sociates were  with  the  stage.  My  father 
was  a  musician  and  my  mother  an  actress, 
travelling  with  their  own  company  and  play- 
ing many  of  the  well  known  melodramas  of 

RADIO  VAMETIES  —  MARCH 


GUEST  COLUMN 

by 

UNCLE  EZRA 

(PAT  BARRETT) 

Star  of  the 
ALKA-SELZER 
WLS   BARN   DANCE 


that  era. 

There's  nothing  like  having  been  an  old 
man  since  you  were  sixteen  years  old...  but 
that's  me.  It  all  started  accidently  when 
I  heard  of  a  new  show  that  was  to  start  on 
the  road  very  soon.  1  immediately  applied 
for  a  role,  and  was  given  the  lines  of  on  old 
man.  Afterwards  they  told  me  that  ttie  read- 
ing was  satisfactory  but  needed  polishing. 
So,  equipped  with  a  script,  I  went  hotne, 
polished  up  on  my  reading,  and  won  the 
part.  I  guess  that  this  was  really  the 
beginning  of  my  character  of  Uncle  Ezra,  as 
I  found  myself  after  this  in  demand  to  take 
the  parts  of  old  men,  though  I  really  didn't 
begin  to  appear  as  Ezra  until   1930. 

My  first  experience  as  Ezra  was  in  the 
famous  WLS  Bam  Dance  in  Chicago.  Coin- 
cidently,  it  was  in  that  city  that  I  met  Nora 
Cuneen,  who  was  to  become  my  wife.  For 
five  years  we  worked  together  on  the  Ezra 
show,  and  Nora  created  the  character  of 
Cecilia.  Then  we  brought  the  mythical  sta- 
tion E-Z-R-A  to  NBC. 

I  have  had  so  many  letters  and  comments 
from  my  listeners  saying  that  one  of  the 
things  they  enjoy  most  about  my  program- 
my  is  my  "thought  for  the  day"  that  closes 
every  Saturday  night  show.  So  I  think  it 
only  appropriate  to  sign  off  this  guest 
column  wife,  my  thought  for  the  day,  and 
also  thank  you  for  this  grand  chance  to  talk 
to  you  readers  of  Radio  Varieties...  I've 
gotten  a  big  kick  out  of  it.     So-long  for  now... 

When  two  old  friends  are  faring  down 

The  road  of  life  together, 
It's  only  natural  now  and  then 

That  they  meet  some  stormy  weather; 
But  if  the  friendship's  right  and  true 

It  never  goes  down  to  defeat, 
But  somehow  or  other  survives  the  storm 

And  comes   through  on  Happiness 
Streetl 


Page  3 


Kaltenborn  Edits  the  News 


•-■m-' 


^^j^iNfr' 


H.' V.  KALTENBORN,  Dean  of  Commentators 


pOLLOWERS  of  H.  V.  Kalten- 
born should  not  look  forward  to 
the  purchase  of  a  delinitive  collec- 
tion of  his  best  broadcasts.  Such 
a  volume  will  never  be  published. 

Pqge  4 


"The  technique  of  appealing  to 
the  ear  is  so  different  from  that  oi 
attracting  the  eye  that  the  two 
should  never  be  confused,"  ex- 
plains   NBC's    dean    of  commen- 


tators. "In  the  former,  voice  color, 
emphasis,  simplicity,  repetition 
and  contrast  are  of  tremendous 
importanoe.  In  the  latter,  senten- 
ces can  be  longer,  paragraphs 
more  involved  and  references 
more  erudite,  for  printed  matter 
gives  timi©  for  the  reader  to  pause, 
re-read  and  reflect  and  to  concen- 
trate fully  on  the  subject  at  hand. 

"No  one  could  successfully 
read  an  article  on  foreign  affairs 
while  listening  to  conversation 
yet  millions  of  persons  listen  to 
news  broadcasts  about  foreign 
affairs  while  occupied  with  other 
things. 

"1  give  these  examples  merely 
to  show  that  written  and  spoken 
style  are  two  completely  different 
things.  For  that  matter,  radio  and 
banquet  hall  style  also  are  diffe- 
rent things.  That's  why  I  have 
always  disliked  having  to  broad- 
cast from  a  banquet  table.  The 
quiet,  conversational,  intimate 
technique  suitable  to  microphone 
use  cannot  be  effective  in  a  hall. 
In  the  same  way  the  vigorous, 
oratorical,  hortatory  style  suited 
to  after-dinner  speaking  grates  on 
the  radio  listener's  ear. 

"Naturally,  I  frequently  take 
something  I  have  said  on  the  air 
and  adapt  it  for  publication.  But 
in  such  cases  I  rewrite  every  word. 
Of  course,  my  case  is  peculiar 
because  I  extemporize  all  my 
radio  talks  but  I  think  my  point 
holds  good  even  with  speeches 
written  especially  for  radio  deliv- 
ery. 

Kaltenborn  adds  that  while  he 
has  improved  his  radio  style  with 
18  years  of  practice  he  still  finds 
plenty  of  rough  spots  when  he 
starts  rewriting  for  the  printed 
page. 

"Most  of  those  faults,  such  as 
slight  hesitations  or  hasty  mispro- 
nunciations are  excused  by  the 
radio  listener,  who  is  participating 
with  the  speaker  in  the  creative 
irocess  and  they  even  add  a  cer- 
tain liveliness  and  intimacy  to  the 
subject,"  he  says,  "but  when  I 
icje  a  transcript  of  one  of  those 
talks  I  sometimes  groan  with 
humiliation  as  the  cold  type  stares 
up  at  me." 

Kaltenborn  broadcasts  Tues- 
days, Thursdays  and  Saturdays  at 
6:45  p.  m.  CST  over  the  NBC-Red 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


MARCH 


A  Good  Trick  — if  You  Can  Do  It 


CHUCK  ACREE 


JHOSE  WORDS  the  magician 
recites  before  pulling  a  live 
rabbit  out  of  a  hat  must  have 
something  to  do  with  it;  for  Chuck 
Acree,  the  Talkative  Oklahomon 
on  WLS,  Chicago,  uses  a  lot  of 
words  per  minute  and  can  do  the 
same  thing.  Instead  of  using  a 
silk  hat,  however,  Acree  gets 
rabbits  from  an  empty  candy  box. 
(above). 

The  rabbit  trick  is  only  one  that 
Acree,  who  is  a  member  of  the 
American  Society  of  Magicians, 
can  do.    He  knows  card  tricks  by 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  MARCH 


the  dozen;  he  can  make  hand- 
kerchiefs change  color  right 
before  your  eyes;  he  makes  things 
disappear  into  thin  air  —  in  fact, 
he  knows  all  the  high  class  effects 
of  the  master  magicians. 

Acree  conducts  "Everybody's 
Hour",  "K-I-D-S  Club",  and  "Some 
thing  to  Talk  About"  on  WLS,  and 
also  broadcasts.  "The  Man  on 
the  Farm"  from  the  Quaker  Oats 
experimental  farm  near  Liberty- 
ville,  Illinois,  a  program  heard  on 
WLS  and  transcribed  for  rebroad- 
cast  on  many  stations  throughout 


the  country. 

He  often  entertains  the  crowd  at 
the  farm  before  and  after  the 
broadcast  with  his  tricks  of  magic, 
and  with  another  stunt  he  has 
developed,  a  rapid  memory  feat. 
Acree  let's  someone  write  down  a 
list  of  20  objects  as  he  looks  on; 
then  the  list  is  covered,  and  the 
audience  can  ask  him  any  num- 
ber. He  tells  them  what  object 
is  written  beside  that  number;  or 
they  can  name  any  of  the  objects 
and  he  will  tell  them  what  num- 
ber it  is. 

Page  5 


Let's  Look  at  WLS 


PATSY  MONTANA  AND 
EVELYN,  the  Little  Maid,  have  both 
temporarily  left  WLS,  Patsy  to  go 
to  St.  Louis  and  Evelyn  to  WLS' 
associate  station,  KOY  in  Phoenix, 
Arizona...  Evelyn's  sister,  another 
cf  the  original  Three  Little  Maids, 
is  married  to  Ramblin'  Red  Foley. 
Eva  and  Red  recently  sang 
reveral  duets  at  a  party  for  WLS 
employes  —  and  was  that  a  treat! 
-..Harry  Sims,  of  the  WLS 
Rangers,  and  Ray  Ferris,  WLS 
producer,  collaborated  in  a  new 
pong  just  published;  it's  called 
"Lyla  Lou." 


ON  A  RECENT  WLS  National 
Barn  Dance,  Louise  Massey  sang 
"Lonescme,  That's  All."  A  few 
minutes  later,  she  got  a  phone 
call  backstage.  The  caller  thanked 
her  for  the  song,  explained  that 
he  and  his  wife  were  divorced  a 
year  before.  After  hearing  her 
sing  "Lonesome",  he  was  going 
to  call  his  wife  and  try  to  effect 
a  reconciliation.  Before  he  could 
do  so,  his  phone  rang.  It  was  the 
estranged  wife.  She,  too,  had 
heard  Louise  sing.  The  couple 
were  remarried  the  next  day. 


Birthdays  at  WLS  in  February: 
Mary  Jane  DeZurik,  the  1st; 
Howard  Black  the  4th;  Adele 
Brandt,  the  10th,  and  Essie  Martin, 
cf  the  Prairie  Sweethearts,  the  11. 

Julian  Bentley,  news  editor, 
used  to  be  a  meter  reader... 
Howard  Black  was  once  a 
restaurant  cook...  Phil  Kalar  used 
to  be  a  cook,  too — in  a  monastery 
...Joe  Kelly,  of  Barn  Dance  and 
Quiz  Kids  fame,  once  led  his  own 
orchestra  and  Lou  Klcrtt,  accord- 
ionist with  the  WLS  Concert 
Orchestra,  played  for  several 
years  with  Herby  Kay  and  his 
band. 


NOW  TO  ANSWER  A  few  ques- 
tions from  WLS  listeners.  Mrs.  F. 
L.,  Milwaukee,   Wisconsin,  asks: 

"Where  d  i  d  Ozzie  Westley 
move  to?"  Ozzie  and  Mary  West- 
ley  moved  to  suburban  West- 
Page  8 


Chester  last  fall.  Since  then,  they 
have  been  joined  by  another  of 
the  Rangers.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Augie 
Klein  have  moved  into  a  neighbor- 
ing house,  just  vacated  by  Howard 
Black  and  his  wife. 

H.  S.  A.,  Formington,  Illinois, 
writes:  "My  mother  says  Henry 
Hornsbuckle  (Merle  Housh)  was 
the  Henry  of  the  team  Hiram  and 
Henry,  and  I  say  he  wasn't.  Who 
is  right?"  Sorry,  Miss  A.,  but  you 
are  wrong.  Merle  Housh  is  the 
same  Henry  Hornsbuckle  as  in  the 
Hiram  and  Henry  team. 


GEORGE     GOEBEL 
..."littlest    cowboy"     has    a    band. 

J.  M.  of  Milburn,  Indiana,  asks: 
"What  is  George  Menard's  little 
girl's  name  and  the  date  of  birth?" 
She  was  born  shortly  before 
Christmas  in  1939,  on  December  9; 
so  she  was  named  Noel  Marie. 

V.  G.,  Pine  River,  Wisconsin, 
writes:  "Would  you  please  tell  me 
what  Mac  of  Mac  and  Bob  named 
their  baby  girl."     The  little  girl  is 


called  Carol  Gay.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Lester  McForlond  have  also  two 
boys:  Kenneth,  age  8,  and  Larry, 

3. 

An  Indiana  housewife  applied 
to  WLS  Program  Director  Harold 
Safford  for  on  audition  last  week. 
She  was  invited  to  fill  out  the 
regular  form  conoeming  previous 
experience,  etc.  On  the  last  line  of 
the  form  under  "Remarks,"  the 
ambitious  aspirant  noted,  "winner 
of  the  hog  calling  contest  at 
Farmer's  Frolic." 

P.  S.  —  She  was  a  "soprano 
soloist." 

Joe  Kelly,  master  of  ceremonies 
on  WLS  National  Bam  Dance  and 
"Quiz  Kids,"  has  returned  to  his 
"Pet  Pals"  program  on  WLS  for 
Coco-Wheats.  The  show  is  broad- 
cast 7:45  to  8:00  A.  M.  Tuesday 
through  Saturday,  and  has  been 
on  WLS,  Chicago,  for  the  some 
sponsor  yearly  for  the  past  five 
years. 

Station  WLS,  Chicago,  honored 
one  of  Chicago's  outstanding 
policemen,  recently,  when  Dick 
Humpf  retired  from  active  service 
after  28  years  on  the  Qiicago 
Policje  Force.  Humpf  was  pres- 
ented with  a  watch  by  the  WLS 
National  Bam  Dance  crew  for  his 
service  at  the  Eight  Street  Theatre 
where  he  has  been  on  duty  for  the 
last  8^  years  handling  the  Bam 
Dance  crowds  each  Saturday 
night. 

L.  W.,  Platteville,  Wisconsin, 
asks  three  questions:  "Where  is 
Lucille  Overstake?  Where  is 
George  Goebel?  Is  Fred  Kirby 
the  one  that  was  at  WLW?" 
Lucille  Overstake,  the  third  of  the 
Three  Little  Maids  (two  of  them 
mentioned  earlier  on  this  page), 
is  traveling  with  the  Texas  Tommy 
act,  showing  trick  animals,  fancy 
roping  and  shooting  in  theaters 
and  at  fairs.  George  Goebel  is  on 
lour  with  his  own  Barn  Dance 
band,  and  Fred  Kirby,  whom  you 
hear  on  Sundays  over  WLS,  was 
formerly  with  the  Cincinnati  sta- 
tion. 

RADIO  VAMETIES  —  MARCH 


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RADIO  VARIETIES  —  MARCH  Page  7 


LIFE  OF  PAT  BUTTRAM  (SO  FAR) 


By  PAT  BUTTRAM 


Pat  Buttram,  one  of  the  outstanding  stars  of  the  WLS   Barn   Dance. 


T  WUZ  horned  in.  a  little  town  of 
Addison,  Ala.  (200  population) 
on  the  night  of  June  19,  1915. 
There  wuz  no  doctor  in  Addison 
so  I  wuz  horned  without  one. 

The  house  we  lived  in  at  the 
time  wuz  a  church  remodeled  into 
a  "parsonage".  You  see,  my  dad 
wuz  a  preacher  in  Addison,  an' 
wen  they  huilt  a  new  church  they 
moy.ed_u£_into_lhe_Qld_Dne. ..  Dad 

Fq90  8 


didn't  make  much  money  the  year 
1  wuz  horned  (only  $200),  hut  every- 
hody  agreed  that  he  wuz  the  hesi 
circuit  rider  in  Winston  County.  1 
might  explain  that  a  circuit  rider  is 
a  preacher  that  has  more  than  one 
church  an'  rides  from  one  to  the 
other  each  Sunday.  The  reason  for 
this  is  very  few  churches  in  the 
hills  can  aford  a  preacher  of  its 
own,  an'  it  takes  two  or  three 
churches  to  suport  one  preacher. 


Dad  never  has  made  any  more 
than  a  hear  livin'  at  preachin'  but 
he  alius  says  he  counts  his  hles- 
sins  instead  of  his  cash  and  figures 
hes  doin'  pretty  good. 

But  gittin'  hack  to  me  (after  all, 
I'm  the  he-ro  of  this  story)  I  wuz 
the  youngest  of  seven  children  an' 
we  wuz  all  raised  on  "ruterheggers 
and  rahhits."  I  had  three  hrothers 
older'n  me  so  hy  the  time  the  pants 
got  down   to  me  they  wuz  pretty 


RADIO  VARICTIES 


MARCH 


threadbear. 

I  dont  'member  any  of  my  early 
youth,  but  from  what  I  hear  I  spent 
all  my  time  dodgin'  work.  One 
old  man  who  knew  me  back  in 
Winston  County  remarked,  when 
he  heerd  I  had  a  job  on  the  radio, 
he  said: 

"Well,  they  got  the  right  one  for 
the  right  job  .  .  he  s  too  dern  sorry 
to  do  anythin'  else." 

Wen  1  was  eight  I  made  my  first 
stage  appearance.  It  could  hardly 
be  called  a  "stage"  appearance 
becau&e  the  only  stage  we  had 
was  a  buckboard  wagon  with 
boards  acrost  it.  I  gave  some  sort 
of  comedy  recitation.  I  dont  'mem- 
ber it  but  I  do  'member  how  thrilled 
1  wuz  wen  I  heerd  the  audience 
aplawd.  From  then  on  there  was 
no  stoppin'  me. 

In  the  meantime  1  had  been 
growin'  and  goin'  to  school  an' 
playin'  hookey  and  baseball  .  .  . 
an'  I  was  also  third  jerk  on  the 
tug  of  war  team. 

Wen  I  wuz  sixteen  we  moved  out 
of  Winston  County,  (which,  irici- 
dentally,  is  the  only  Republican 
County  in  the  state  of  Alabama. 
It  has  only  voted  Dem  once  since 
the  Civil  War).  We  moved  to  a 
bigger  town  an'  I  soon  becom  used 
to  electric  lights  an'  runnin'  water 
an'  went  to  a  high  school  named 
Mortimer  Jordan  High  School. 
After  finishin'  high  school  (I  wuz 
like  George  Washington.  1  went 
down  in  history,  too)  I  went  to  Col- 
lege to  study  for  the  ministry.  The 
college  I  attended  wuz  Birming- 
ham Southern  in  Birmingham, 
Ala.,  an'  I  entered  there  wen  I 
wuz  seventeen  .  .  .  just  a  simple 
country  lad,  more  simple  than 
country.  ,^\M 

I  wuz  takin'  a  class  in  speech 
and  Dr.  Evans  wuz  the  perfessor 
an'  he  asked  me  one  day  if  I  would 
like  a  part  in  the  anual  s,'chcol 
play  an'  of  course,  I  said  yes,  so 
1  wuz  in  the  play.  1  had  a  goood 
part.  All  1  had  to  do  wuz  to  look 
dumb  so  I  went  over  pretty  good, 
specially  since  all  my  relatives 
come  to  see  me. 

After  the  performance  wuz  over 
and  I  wuz  putting  my  brothers  suit 
back  on  in  walks  a  feller  named 
Steve  Cisler  who  said  he  wuz 
manager  of  the  local  radio  station 


an'  he  needed  a  comedy  announ- 
cer. So  I  started  on  Station  WSGN 
in  Birmingham  with  3  programs 
a  day  an'  $6  a  week.  But  1  made 
out  all  right  because  I  put  a  cot  in 
the  back  room  of  the  transmitter 
an'  slept  there  an'  then  I  made  a 
deal  with  a  local  restaurant  to  give 
them  a  plug  every  mornin'  on  the 
early  program  in  exchange  for  a 
weekly  meal  ticket.  The  station 
manager  never  knew  of  this  deal 
but  1  never  worried  because  I  knew 
he  never  got  up  that  early  in  the 
mornin'. 


Pat  hits  a  few  high  notes  as  Ginger 
Dinning  of  the  Dinning  Sisters  iool<s 
on  with   a   broad  smile. 


Later  on  I  received  a  lot  of  help 

from  another  radio  artist  in  town 
...  a  fellow  named  Luther  Patrick 
who  has'  since  becom  a  Congress- 
man from  Alabama  an'  is  now 
listed  in  Who's  Who  as  a  comin' 
American  Poet.  (The  name  of  that 
restaurant,  by  the  way,  is  Cofields 
Cafe,  so  you  se  Im  still  gettin'  my 
meals  there.) 

I  com  to  Chicago  to  see  the 
world's  fair.  Steve  Cisler  give  me 
a  free  ride  an'  wen  we  got  to 
Chicago   he   took    me    to   Station 


WLS.  Wen  I  returned  to  Birming- 
ham there  wuz  a  telegram  offerin' 

me  a  job  if  Id  com  back  there.  For 
the  first  time  in  my  life  I  flew  in  an 
airy  plane. 

I  wuz  with  WLS  for  five  or  six 

years,  in  which  time  I  done  every- 
thin'  from  announcin'  to  singin' 
and  also  personal  appearances  at 
every  theater  in  the  middle  west. 
We  played  every  sort  an'  size  the- 
ater an'  school  house  .  . .  we  finally 
had  one  bookin'  in  a  garage  in 
Peoria,  111.  We  played  one  the- 
ater so  small  that  if  the  audience 
didnt  like  my  jokes  they  wouldnt 
throw  things  at  me,  theyd  just  reach 
up  an    slap  my  face. 

An'  we  played  another  theater 
so  large  that  someone  in  the  back 
of  the  house  threw  an  egg  at  me 
an'  it  hatched  afore  it  reached  the 
stage. 

In  1935  I  met  a  young  lady 
named  Dorothy  McFadden  an  a 
year  later  we  wuz  married  .  .  .  Aug. 
3,  1936.  Dot  is  a  Chicago^  girl  an' 
shes  one  Yankee  that  likesi  the 
South,  specially  the  good  preachin' 
they  have  down  there. 

Well,  thats  about  all  there  is  to 
my  career  so  far  .  .  .  although  I 
hope  its  just  startin'. 

For  the  past  two  months  I  have 
been  appearin'  regular  on  the  Alka 
Seltzer  National  Barn  Dance  an'  I 
aint  wore  out  my  welcome  yet. 

For  the  benefit  cf  all  the  girls  111 
describe  mvself.  I  have  my  fathers 
black  hair,  my  motliers  brown  eyes 
and  my  brothers  green  pants.  I 
am  five  feet  ten  an'  one  half  inches 
tall  an'  weigh  a  hundred  and 
eighty  pounds,',  soakin  wet.  If  I 
keep  on  gainin'  111  look  like  a  bail 
of  hay  with  the  middle  hoop  bust- 
ed. I  am  twenty  five  years  old 
and  have  got  rhumatism  already. 
I  am  number  1065  in  the  draft  re- 
gerstratlon. 

Thankin'  you  for  readin'  this  and 
alius  wishin'  you  life  at  its  best  I 
remain, 

Yourn  trooly, 

Pat  Buttram 

P.S.  My  real  name  is  Maxwell  Em- 
mett  Buttram  but  I  have  bin  called 
Pat  since  I  wuz  twelve.  Before  that 
1  wuz  called  Bacoon  Buttram. 


RADIO  VARIEnES  —  MARCH 


Page  9 


Radio   and    National    Defense 


An  address  by  I^Hles  Trammell,  president  of 
the  National  Broadcasting  Company,  before 
the  16th  Women's  Patriotic  Conference  on 
Notional     Defense     at     Washington     D.     C. 


TT  IS  A  GREAT  pleasure  to  meet  with  you  here 
today,  and  it  is  on  honor  to  address  you.  You  are 
the  women  whose  kith  and  kin  have  served  our 
country  in  its  wars.  You  ore  the  women  who  hove 
known  all  the  hard,  lonely  by-paths  of  personal  sacri- 
fice and  devotion. 

I  should  be  remiss  as  a  man  —  and  as  an  Amer- 
ican —  if  I  did  not  at  once  pay  tribute  to  yovir 
personal  gallantry  and  to  your  great  patriotism.  It 
is  because  of  your  individual  and  group  awareness 
and  \mderstanding  of  the  problems  of  notional 
defense  that  I  consider  it  an  opportunity  to  be  able 
to  talk  to  you  today  about  radio's  role  in  this  great 
patriotic  task. 

We  are  not  living  in  a  day  when  patriotism 
was  a  rite  to  be  celebrated  once  or  twice  a  year, 
then  returned  to  the  mothballs  to  be  taken  out  for 
another  occasion.    These  are  grave  days. 

Today  pabiotism  and  self-preservation  may 
mean  one  and  the  same  thing.  Today  we  cannot 
plan  without  making  this  motive  foremost.  The 
common  determination  to  defend  our  freedoms  by 
any  sacrifices  necessary  is  oui  bulwark  against 
the  dangers  that  may  threaten  our  physical  safety, 
our  way  of  life  and  the  principles  of  government 
upon  which  our  nation  has  been  built. 

MThatever  activity  we  pursue  today,  our  most 
important  business  is  patriotism.  Without  it  our  work 
can  hove  no  meaning,  our  life  no  stability. 

PATRIOTISM  is  the  very  basis  of  national  morale. 
Look  at  the  tight  little  island  across  the  seas,  the 
embattled  fortress  that  is  England.  It  fights  with 
every  living  effort  to  hold  back  the  mighty  tide  of 
tyranny  which  has  washed  away  nearly  all  the  free 
nations  of  Europe.  But  it  is  the  morale  of  England 
not  its  armaments,  which  thrills  us  today.  We  have 
to  go  back  into  history  to  londerstand  the  source  of 
this  indomitable  spirit.  At  another  time,  and  in 
another  crisis,  this  is  what  Oliver  Cromwell  told  his 
countrymen: 

"Well,  your  danger  is  that  you  have  seen. 
And  truly  I  am  sorry  it  is  so  great.    But 
I  wish  it  to  cause  no  despondency:  as  I 
think  it  will  not:  for  we  are  Englishmen." 
Well,  we  are  Americans!  It  may  be  that  we,  too, 
hove  been  slow  to  realize  that  the  time  is  not  too 
early.     But  we  have  heard  too  much  tumult  and  out- 
cry from  across  the  seas  to  fall  asleep. 

There  is  no  room  for  defeatism  in  the  American 
spirit.  And  there  is.  no  cause  for  complacency  in  the 
face  of  the  dangers  before  us.  But  it  would  be  to 
belie  our  vast  resources,  the  genius  of  our  research 

Page  10 


work,  the  inventiveness  of  our  people,  the  technical 
and  business  leadership  which  has  made  our  country 
the  synonym  of  mass  production  to  doubt  that  we 
can  meet  successfully  any  problem  of  national 
defense,  however  desperate  may  become  the  situation 
abroad. 

This  is  not  the  first  time  the  world  has  reeled 
from  the  cataclysm  of  war.  But  there  has  never  been 
a  time  when  the  earth  echoed  with  a  more  discordant 
chorus  of  propaganda  and  hatred.  There  is  hardly 
anything  which  we  and  our  forefathers  believed  in 
that  is  not  being  questioned  today.  Many  currents 
swirl  around  the  foundations  upon  which  our  institu- 
tions have  been  built.  We  need  to  strengthen  our 
determination.  We  need  to  re-dedicate  ourselves 
with  every  means  and  medium  at  our  command  to 
the  principles  of  liberty  and  freedom  which  have 
made  this  country  great.  We  must  marshal  all  our 
resources  to  this  task. 

TN  THE  ALL-OUT  effort  we  must  ifiake  to  defend 
democracy,  radio  stands  as  a  great  national  asset. 
Broadcasting's  present  efficiency  derives  directly  from 
its  freedom.  Broadcasting  is  able  to  serve  all  oior 
people  because  of  that  freedom.  And,  in  considering 
the  function  of  this  vast  medium  of  communication, 
we  must  consider  its  part  in  national  defense. 

Guns,  tanks,  planes,  ships  and  manpower  con- 
stitute a  nation's  iirslt  line  of  defense.  But  behind  this 
first  line  —  and  of  almost  equal  importance  —  must 
be  the  intangible,  but  definite  support  of  national 
morale.  In  the  living  patriotism  which  we  need  to 
make  our  arms  strong  and  our  will  indomitable,  radio 
can  play  a  significant  part.  This  war  has  shown 
that  peoples  can  be  bombed  by  air  with  words  as 
well  as  with  high  explosives. 

The  great  power  of  broadcatsing  is  based  on  the 
fact  that  American  radio  can  link  every  home  in  the 
country  with  a  simultaneous  message  transmitted 
from  a  single  source.  In  that  lies  the  power  and 
glory  of  radio  as  a  medium  of  information,  a  medium 
of  entertainment  and  a  medium  of  education.  Pro- 
vided, always,  that  the  programs  broadcast  command 
the  hearing  and  attention  of  the  millionfold  audience 
of  the  air.  Thus  the  first  prayer  of  the  broadcaster  is 
for  the  loyalty  of  his  audience. 

Two  things  are  essential  to  the  maintenance  of 
national  morale  by  radio.  The  first  is  the  xaninterrupted 
flow  of  information  and  news  —  free  and  uncensored 
—  to  the  American  people.  The  second  is  the  con- 
tinuance of  entertainment  and  aids  to  relaxation 
which  must  maintain  the  spirits  of  the  people  and 
help  to  preserve  as  far  as  possible  the  pattern  of 
normal  life.  Our  duty  Is  to  continue  and  to  expand 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  MARCH 


Beautiful  Muriel  Bremnep,  who  prepared  for  her  radio  career  in 
west  Coast  film  studios  before  coming  to  Chicago  in  1938,  now  has 
prominent  roles  in  two  NBC  serials.  She  is  heard  as  Helen  Gowan 
Stephenson  in  "Road  of  Life",  and  as  Fredericka  Lang  in  "Guidina 
Light",  both  NBC-Red  Network  daily  features. 


several  months  ago  when  Jan  Miller  had  her  first  audition, 
experts  shook  their  heads  and  said  they  couldn't  use  her 
because  her  voice  "sounded  too  much  like  that  of  'Linda 
Dale'  ".    Now  Jan    is  playing  "Linda    Dale." 


RADIO  AND  NATIONAL  DEFENSE 

these  programs  in  the  national  interest.  We  must 
provide  service  and  we  must  provide  relaxation. 
For  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  entertainment  is  the 
beacon  that  attracts  the  vast  audience  to  radio. 

Such  service  results  from  competition  between 
networks,  between  stations  and  among  advertisers 
to  present  to  the  American  public  great  music,  the 
great  orchestras,  the  great  plays,  and  other  enter- 
tainment, news  and  educational  features  that  com- 
mand the  loyalty  of   100,000,000  radio  listeners. 

Moreover,  it  is  through  this  great  channel  of 
communication,  kept  open  by  entertainment,  that  the 
educator,  the  churchman,  the  social  service  worker 
and  the  government  find  their  greatest  opportunity 
to  serve  the  American  public  directly. 
J^S  AIRPLANES  and  battleships  must  be  the  great 
arms  of  our  national  defense,  so  isi  radio  the  voice. 
None  can  dispute  the  fact  that  on  the  questions  of 
war  and  peace,  on  the  need  and  extent  of  our  own 
task  in  the  world  of  confusion  and  danger^  the  Amer- 


ican people  are  the  best  informed  in  the  world.  The 
responsible  polls  of  public  opinion  are  convincing 
evidence  of  their  awareness.  I  am  not  disturbed  by 
the  fact  that  public  opinion  has  shifted  on  various 
issues.  So  have  the  circumstances.  That  many 
voices  speak,  that  many  policies  are  suggested,  that 
many  contradictions  are  made  evident  in  the  debates 
on  the  air,  may  indicate  at  first  thought  a  pattern  of 
confusion  in  our  democratic  procedure.  But  I  am 
convinced  that  it  is  a  confusion  more  apparent  than 
real.  It  is  thus  that  a  free  people,  through  free  speech 
and  debate  are  able  to  correct  each  other's  errors  and 
eventually  reach  conclusions  in  the  interest  of  the 
many,  not  of  the  few.  The  free  mind  cannot  be 
regimented. 

Unity  in  a  democracy  is  the  unity  of  action, 
once  the  ballots  hove  been  counted  and  the  legislotiore 
has  voted.  Our  country  has  not  lacked  that  loyalty 
to  leadership  gravely  necessary  in  every  great 
emergency,  in  our  national  life. 

(Continued  on  Page  12.) 


RADIO  VARICTIES  —  MARCH 


11 


RADIO  AND  NATIONAL  DEFENSE 

Radio's  part  in  gathering  and  disseminat- 
ing news,  views,  and  opinions,  bringing 
information  to  one  hundred  million  listeners 
directly  from  the  sources,  is  known  to  all 
of  you.  This  service  should  develop  even 
greater  importance  during  this  year  of 
ci:isis.  For  under  the  American  system  of 
broadcasting,  radio  is  democracy  at  work. 
Here  we  are  not  told  by  a  dictator  what 
radio  must  do.  Nor,  are  citizens  ordered 
to  listen.  American  radio  has  won  the 
confidence  of  its  public,  who  listen  not  from 
duress,  but  of  their  own  volition  and  desire. 

The  President  broadcasts  his  message 
personally  to  the  people.  The  simplest,  the 
humblest  citizen  may  stand  up  in  the  Town 
Hall  Meeting  of  the  Air,  and,  over  the  radio, 
voice  his  disagreement  with  the  President. 
And,  just  as  many  people  in  this  great,  free 
land  of  ours  can  hear  this  citizen  speaking 
at  Town  Hall  as  can  hear  the  President. 

This  is  Democracyl 

Our  freedom  of  speech,  of  the  press,  and 
freedom  of  radio,  permit  the  American  nation 
to  function  as  a  free  jury.  The  only  mandate 
radio  has,  the  only  mandate  the  American 
people  will  bestow  on  radio,  is  the  mandate 
to  keep  the  truth  free.  Broadcasting  is  a  co- 
hesive factor  in  blending  the  thoughts  and 
hopes  and  aspirations  of  the  American 
people.  Alongside  with  the  press,  it  is  the 
mirror  and  mentor  of  our  public  opmion. 

■pREEDOM  is  a  responsibility  as  well  as  a 
privilege.     Radio  has  accepted  the  obliga- 
tions that  its  freedom  entails. 

In  all  of  our  programs  we  must  be 
motivated  by  considerations  of  taste,  de- 
cency, and  maximum  public  service.  For 
broadcasting's  code  is  a  strict  one.  There 
must  be  no  offense  to  religious  or  racial 
groups.  Sacrilege  and  obscenity  are  taboo. 
There  must  be  no  misrepresentation  and  no 
questionable  statement.  Emphasis  on  in- 
sobriety and  morbidity  is  not  permitted.  In 
short,  we  accept  our  responsibility  as  a 
public  trust.  We  hold  this  code  of  ethics  to 
be  of  first  importance. 

Recognizing  that  radio  has  a  particular 
function  and  responsibility  to  the  millions  of 
American  listeners  in  the  present  world  tur- 
moil, the  National  Broadcasting  Company 
from  the  beginning  of  the  war  has  adopted 
certain  self-imposed  regulations  as  to  the 
handling  of  war  news.  These  rules  call  for 
the  temperate,  responsible,  and  mature 
handling  of  the  facts  without  color  and  sen- 
sationalism. On  the  positive  side  we  hove 
undertaken  programs  intended  to  counteract 

(Continued  on  Page  13.) 


Ic  Bernle  front  handle,   Ben.  The  luscious  gals  are  the   Bailey 

Sisters.  The  two-step  is  a  bit  of  folly  to  put  the  trio  "In  the  groove" 
for  "Ben  Bernie's  Musical  Quiz"  heard  over  the  NBC-Blue  Network 
from  8:00  to  830  p.m..  EST,  every  Tuesday  night.  Broadcast  is  from 
Radio  City  in  New  York- 


Thursday  nights  finds  the  famous  AFdrlch  Family  gathered  before 
the  NBC  mike  to  let  America  In  on  the  latest  exploit  of  their  ever- 
erring  son,  Henry.  Ezra  Stone,  left,  originally  created  the  role  of 
Henry  in  the  Broadway  hit,  "Whatta  Life."  Henry's  sister,  Mary, 
to  Mary  Mason;  Katharine  Raht  i«  mother;  House  Jameson,  Dad. 


Pag©  12 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


MARCH 


RADIO  AND  NATIONAL  DEFENSE 

the  influence  of  alien  philosophies,  and  of 
programs  that  dramatize  the  value  of  the 
heritage  our  nation  is  preparing  to  defend. 

Thus,  the  National  Broadcasting  Company 
is  cooperating  with  the  Fedearl  Government 
and  other  agencies  in  the  preparation  of 
programs  that  place  the  accent  on  Amer- 
icanism. 

These  programs  are  concerned  with  the 
privileges  and  responsibilities  of  the  demo- 
cratic way  of  life,  as  in  the  series  "I  Am  an 
American."  They  are  concerned  with  ag- 
riculture's relation  to  national  defense,  as  in 
the  daily  programs  of  the  "National  Form 
and  Home  Hour." 

They  are  concerned  with  instructing  our 
young  men  in  many  details  of  the  transition 
from  civilian  to  military  life. 

They  are  concerned  with  information  for 
the  families  of  such  boys.  We  knew  that 
families  at  home  would  want  to  hear  about 
the  life  of  their  sons  in  military  training 
camps.  So  we  built  a  special  truck,  carrying 
its  own  power  plant  and  four  fronsmitters. 
This  mobile  unit  is  touring  the  country  today 

—  visiting  all  camps,  bringing  vivid,  in- 
spiring details  of  Uncle  Sam's  training  of  his 
peacetime  army. 

To  me  the  promise  of  a  better  and  better 
informed  public  opinion  in  America  —  the 
assurance  that  we  ore  fashioning  a  democ- 
racy equal  to  every  problem  of  government 

—  is  the  fact  that  the  public  not  only  accepts 
but  expects  a  constantly  higher  grade  of 
program  service.  People  want  something 
into  which  their  mental  teeth  can  bite. 

This  is  a  new  and  significant  element  in 
mass  information,  mass  education,  and  mass 
entertainment.  The  National  Broadcasting 
Company  is  awake  to  this  demand. 

Consider  the  panorama  of  music,  drama, 
literature,  history,  fine  arts,  public  affairs, 
psychology,  economics,  natural  science, 
physical  science,  biological  sciences,  reli- 
gion, formal  education,  vocational  guidance, 
agriculture,  safety,  aviation,  children's  pro- 
grams and  women's  programs  made  avail- 
able today  by  the  NBC  as  the  pioneering 
organization  in  nation-wide  broadcasting 
service.  Many  arts  and  many  skills  have 
been  combined  to  render  this  service. 

JHE  CONTRIBUTIONS   of    the    artist,    the 

musician,  the  writer,  and  the  newsmen  on 

the  air  ore  great  indeed.    But  I  hold  that  the 

contribution  of  the  advertising  sponsor  in  the 

(Continued  on  Page  14.) 
RADIO  VARIEnES  —  MARCH 


■.4v^d&»^^^&>!«^  vAiM&aaaKw*/^vaC«ft\'»  <  ^Va^XXv.s^ 


Persona? — ^Young  girl,  attractive,  capable  and  efficient,  not  to  men- 
tion her  many  other  fine  features,  craves  male  companionship. 
Contrary  to  general  belief,  is  not  married  op  engaged,  but  has  no 
objections.  Apply  to  Bonnie  Baker,  care  "Hidden  Stars"  show, 
Sundays  at  5:30  p.m.,  EST,  on  NBC-Blue  Network. 


Those  Smiles  on  the  faces  of  Richard  Gordon  and  Kenneth  Lynch, 
the  Bishop  and  the  Gargoyle  on  the  NBC-Blue  Network's  Saturday 
night  mystery  serial  of  the  same  name,  might  suggest  that  they  hart 
Just  eaten  the  photographer's  birdie.  On  the  other  hand  they  prob' 
ably  show  that  the  pair  have  picked  up  a  clue  to  a  baffling  new  crime 


Page  13 


Sharon  Lee  Smith  of  the  dreamy,  achemy  eyes  kept  them  open  to 
watch  her  wishes  Jell.  A  fan  of  "Your  Dream  Has  Come  True  , 
NBC-Red  Network  Sunday  feature,  she  wrote  the  program  stating 
her  oreat  dream  was  to  appear  on  the  show  as  an  acfess.  so 
what??    So  she  got  the  audition  and  then  got  the  Jobll 


"Ye*,  madam,  this  is  the  District  Attorney's  office,"  Is  what  Jay 
Jostyn.  who  plays  the  title  role  In  the  NBC-Red  Network's  "Mr. 
District  Attorney",  is  telling  the  telephone.  And  those  absorbed 
eavesdroppers  are  VIcki  Vola  and  Leonard  Doyle,  both  important 
cogs    in   the    radio   "wheelsofjustlce"    Wednesday    seriss. 

Page  U 


RADIO  AND  NATIONAL  DEFENSE 

radio  program  is  no  less  significant.  His 
support  is  the  very  fabric  of  the  American 
system  of  broadcasting.  His  use  of  broad-  - 
casting  as  a  sales  force  has  provided  the 
American  people  with  the  finet  radio  pro- 
grams produced  anywhere  in  the  world.  His 
investment  of  money  in  radio  time  has 
enabled  us  to  give  proportionate  value  to 
American  listeners  and  to  expand  and  to 
improve  our  public  service  broadcasts. 

It  is  important  that  no  matter  what  emer- 
gency may  arise,  we  maintain  this  fruitful 
cooperation;  that  we  continue  to  give  lis- 
teners the  accustomed  program  service 
which  has  created  a  vast  radio  audience 
and  a  great  radio  industry. 

TWO  MONTHS  ago    the   President  of  the 
United  States  in  his  eloquent  tribute  \P 
the  progress  of  radio  in  two  short  decades 
said: 

"Today  the  need  is  greater  than  ever 
that  broadcasting  should  perform  its  func- 
tion as  a  medium  of  public  information. 
Factual  and  accurate  news  made  available 
to  all  of  our  people  is  a  basic  essential 
of  democracy.  Radio  has  done  its  job 
well  in  this  field." 

These  are  President  Roosevelt's  words. 
We  of  the  industry  ore  grateful  for  such 
high  praise,  but  we  do  not  intend  that  it 
shall  make  us  complacent. 

That  broadcasting  has  performed  a  real 
function  in  this  field  is  evident  to  every  ra- 
dio listener  who  has  followed  events  from 
the  theaters  of  war  abroad  —  events  as 
they  happen.  To  do  this  radio  had  to  meet 
a  challenge  xmprecedented  in  its  history. 
It  met  it  through  the  cooperation  of  over- 
seas newsmen  who  were  enlisted  in  the 
service  of  broadcasting. 

Brilliant  eye-witness  descriptions,  and  on- 
the-spot  news  summaries  by  American  for- 
eign correspondents  and  wire  services,  as 
well  as  reports  from  our  own  staff  observers, 
were  broadcast  directly  from  the  scene  of 
hostilities  and  action,  over  the  National 
Broadcasting  Company's  coast-to-coast  net- 
works. Thus,  radio  joined  the  press  in 
keeping  the  American  public  better  informed 
than  ever  before  on  developments  through- 
out the  world. 

As  the  President  has  stated,  the  nations 
of  this  hemisphere  are  engaged  in  a  co- 
operative undertaking  to  keep  war  and  ag- 
gression from  our  shores.  Radio  is  a  power- 
ful medium  for  carrying  our  public  opinion 
to  the  world. 

We  con  broadcast  the  success  story  of 
American   democracy   to   listeners  abroad. 

(Continued  on  Page  15.) 

RADIO  VARICTIES  —  MARCH 


Patricia  Dunlap,  charming  NBC  Ingenue  from  Illinois,  recently  won 
the  role  of  Pat  Curtis  In  "Tom  Mix  Straight  Shooters".  As  Pecos' 
flirl  friend,  she  becomes  the  second  feminine  member  of  the  regular 
cast  of  the  NBC-Blue  Networl<  serial.  Pat  also  is  Jill  Stewart  in 
"Bacl<8tago   Wife",   NBC-Red    Network   serial. 


■••ring  further  proof  of  the  strong  bond  of  friendship  which  unites 
tiM  twenty-one  Amerioan  Republics,  Washington  columnists  Drew 
Pearson  (left)  and  Robert  8.  Allen  have  been  engaged  by  the 
Brazilian  government  to  disseminate  "News  for  the  Americas^ 
•v«r  the  NBC*Blu«  Network  eaoh  Sunday,  to  promote  good  wilt 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  MARCH 


RADIO  AND  NATIONAL  DEFENSE 

We  can  srtengthen  the  democratic  deter- 
mination of  other  peoples.  We  hove  tried 
it.     We  believe  it  is  working. 

The  International  Division  of  the  National 
Broadcasting  Company  is  presenting  short 
wave  broadcasts  sixteen  hours  a  day, 
carrying  a  simply  told,  truthful  story  of  our 
ideals,  our  way  of  life,  to  peoples  every- 
where. 

Programs  in  German,  French,  English, 
Italian,  Portuguese,  and  Spanish  ore 
devoted  to  subjects  of  interest  to  the  world- 
wide audience  with  particular  emphasis  on 
the  "good  neighbor"  policy  of  our  govern- 
ment. Thus,  radio  is  performing  a  service 
for  democracy. 

In  South  America,  and  in  parts  of  Europe, 
there  is  group  listening  which  is  not  foiind 
in  the  United  States.  These  listeners  ore 
people  who  cannot  afford  radio  sets,  but 
who  listen  to  short  wove  broadcasts  from 
the  United  States  over  community-owned, 
all-wave  receivers.  Radio  broadcasting  is 
a  most  important  service  in  certain  of  these 
countries,  where  many  people  do  not  read 
or  write  and  can  be  reached  only  through 
the  spoken  word. 

Through  its  international  programs  radio 
has  provided  American  listeners  with  ring- 
side seats  dt  world-shaking  events.  It  is 
thus  that  broadcasting  has  kept  faith  with 
the  public. 

As  we  go  forward  into  this  comparatively 
new  year,  we  are  aware  that  it  is  a  year  of 
destiny.  It  will  be  filled  with  uncertainty 
and  peril.  However,  we  can  face  the  future 
with  confidence  because  we  face  it  with 
faith  —  faith  in  our  democratic  institutions 
and  fcdth  in  the  strength  of  our  people. 

American  broadcasting  will  help  to  for- 
tify our  confidence,  more  so  because  radio 
has  the  assurance  of  freedom.  President 
Roosevelt  in  his  memorable  statement 
made  on  November  25th  last,  declared: 
"Your  government  has  no  wish  to  interfere 
or  hinder  the  continued  development  of  the 
American  system  of  broadcasting.  Radio 
was  born  and  developed  in  the  real  Amer- 
ican way  and  its  future  must  continue  on 
that  basis." 

With  his  assurance  we  shall  continue  to 
serve  the  country's  interests  fully,  whole- 
heartedly, and  patriotically.  We  shall 
continue  to  contribute  to  the  high  morale 
of  our  people,  and  to  our  unity  of  spirit  and 
action. 

Together  we  shall  preserve  that  freedom 
which  is  America's  tradition,  America's 
way  of  life,  America's  strength  and  shield 
against  aggressors.  Whatever  the  future 
brings  to  our  great  land,  radio  stands  pre- 
pared to  do  its  part. 

Pag*  U 


-;^.: 


■^^■>- 


/^^f^/-  mafch  29th 
WLS    Changes    to 

A    New    Place 
On  Your  Radio  Dial 

On  Saturday,  March  29,  and  thereafter  WLS  will  be  at  a  new 
place  on  yoiir  radio  dial:  890  instead  of  at  870  as  it  is  now. 

Here  is  the  reason:  A  new  treaty  has  been  signed  by  the  United 
States,  Mexico  and  Cuba,  requiring  certain  changes  in  the  radio 
frequencies  of  nearly  all  stations  in  each  of  those  countries.  By  this 
it  is  expected  radio  interference  will  be  greatly  reduced.  For  WLS 
we  believe  the  change  will  result  in  better  reception  for  all  our 
listeners. 

We're  telling  you  about  this  change  early  so  you  won't  be  con- 
fused; so  you  won't  miss  a  single  program.  Mark  the  date  on  your 
calendar  now  —  March.  29.  Beginning  that  day,  turn  your  dial  to 
890  kilocycles  (89)  for  all  your  favorite  WLS  programs. 

WLS 

THE  PRAIRIE  FARMER  STATION 


CHICAGO 


890  KILOCYCLES 


50.000  WATTS 


APRIL-  1941 


^^^  rm  CENTS 


THE  WLS  RANGERS 


^01 


■>^ 


y 


kl 


^65.    \-5i 


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N' 


I 


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The    Red-Headed    Bluebird 


IJICK  TODD  is  one  singer  whose 
themia  song  might  well  be 
"South  Of  The  Border".  A  native 
Cctnadian,  he  has  gained  well 
deserved  fame  as  one  of  the  best 
radio  vocalists  in  the  United 
States  as  well  as  one  of  its  top 
recording  artists. 

He  began  singing  August  5  of  the 
same  year.  "Of  course,  I  didn't 
get  much  melody"  he  qualifies, 
but  I  sure  gave  the  neighborhood 
cats  a  whale  of  a  contest". 

Page  2 


DICK  TODD 

He  attended  pioblic  school  at 
MacDonald  College  where  he 
engaged  in  football,  hockey, 
basketball  and  boxing,  continuing 
his  education  at  McGill  University 
where  he  interspersed  sports  with 
his  flair  for  music.  Just  about 
this  time  he  was  bitten  by  the 
travel  bug  and  left  for  a  "short" 
cruise  to  the  West  Indies.  After 
two  years  of  traveling  through  the 
Indies  and  England,  France,  Italy, 
Switzerland,     Todd     returned     to 


Canada. 

There  he  organized  his  own  five- 
piece  instrumental  combination, 
with  himself  as  the  vocal  "front", 
made  records,  radio  and  personal 
appearances  throughout  the 
Dominion.  Canada  sat  up  and 
took  notice  of  the  carrot-topped 
caroUer  with  his  new  style  of 
singing,  and  soon  word  seeped 
down  to  New  York  where  RCA 
Victor  officials  decided  to  laiinch 
him  on  a  record  career. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  APRIL 


In  New  York,  he  begem  to  record  for  Blue- 
bird, then  handled  the  vocal  assignments 
with  Larry  Qinton's  band  dxiring  the  summer 
of  1938.  In  the  fall  of  the  same  year,  he 
made  several  appearances  on  the  Artie 
Show  program. 

It  is  no  secret  that  Todd's  voice  is  very 
much  like  Bing  Crosby's.  And  it  is  well 
known  in  the  trade  that  Todd  and  Tommy 
Dorsey  are  good  friends.  Some  time  ago, 
Crosby  brought  his  racing  stable  to  Long 
Island.  Tommy  Dorsey,  interested  in  buying 
a  few  horses  for  his  New  Jersey  farm,  called 
the  Long  Island  residence  where  he  knew 
Bing  was  staying.  A  familiar  voice  on  the 
other  end  queried:  "Who  is  this?"  "Tommy 
Dorsey"  was  the  reply,  "Who  is  this?"  "Dick 
Todd"  snapped  back  Crosby.  The  three  of 
them  still  chuckle  every  time  they  think  of 
the  Crosby  comeback. 

According  to  song  pluggers,  Dick  Todd 
has  picked  slightly  more  tiian  450  songs  to 
sing  on  his  various  recording  and  broad- 
casting ventures  during  the  past  three  years. 
And  out  of  that  total  number  of  tunes,  the 
song  salesman  rate  Todd  as  having  picked 
at  least  150  hit  tunes  and  not  one  single 
flop.  Every  song  negotiated  by  the  baritone 
has  been  a  better  than  average  tune,  the 
song  pluggers  declare. 

The  Todd  formula  for  picking  star  tunes  is 
something  the  singer  can't  put  into  words. 
It  seems  to  be  a  combination  of  intuition  and 
a  personal  taste  that  runs  very  close  to  what 
might  be  described  as  the  norm  of  listening 
appreciation. 

When  he  is  getting  ready  to  pick  a  new 
song  for  a  future  program,  Dick  can  usually 
tell  after  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  whether  a 
song  is  going  to  be  popular  or  not.  He 
looks  over  the  notation,  tries  out  an  experi- 
mental phrasing  or  two  —  and  that's  all 
there  is  to  that.  Either  he  wants  to  sing  it, 
or  else  he  doesn't. 

Among  the  smash  hits  Todd  has  picked 
during  his  singing  career  are  "Deep  Purple", 
of  which  he  made  the  first  recording; 
"Stairway  To  The  Stars";  "Imagination"; 
"Singing  Hills";  "Little  Sir  Echo",  which 
broke  record  sales;  "The  Wind  and  The  Rain 
In  Your  Hair";  "I  Give  You  My  Word"  and 
many  other  outstanding  song  hits. 

The  boy  from  Toronto  has  traveled  a  long 
way.  Tops  as  a  radio  star  is  enough  for 
any  yoimg  man,  without  mentioning  the  fact 
of  breaking  all  records  when  it  comes  to 
records  —  which  should  be  some  kind  of  a 
record.  It's  something  that  happens  Just 
once  in  a  lifetime  —  that  a  Red-headed  Blue- 
bird sings  his  way  to  the  top.  Todd  is  heard 
currently  on  Show  Boat,  Monday  nights  over 
the  NBC  red  network. 


Witty  quips  and  costumes  like  this  black  nutnbep,  with  "Ilka" 
embroidered  In  gold  on  the  pocket,  add  to  the  fun  Saturdays  at 
"Luncheon  at  the  Waldorf",  when  Ilka  Chase,  actress,  m.c,  author 
and  fashionable  woman  of  the  world  entertains,  and  a  national 
audience  listens  over  the  NBC-Blue  Network. 


Heart-y  congratulations  are  tn  order  for  pretty  Louise  King,  the 
Lullaby  Lady  of  the  Carnation  Contented  program.  The  NBC  Presa 
Department  has  chosen  her  as  the  heart  throb  of  February  and 
•ends  forthwith  this  Valentine  greeting  to  all  radio  editors.  The 
OwMlioa  program  Is  broadcast  Mondays  on  the  Red  Network. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  APRIL 


Page  3 


Patter   Off   the    Platter 


Decca's  platter  of  Jimmy  Dor- 
sey's  recording  of  "Yours"  (3658) 
with  Bob  Eberly  and  Helen  O'Con- 
nell  sharing  the  vocal  honors,  is 
a  standout.  The  flip-over  is 
"When  the  Sun  Comes  Out"  vo- 
cals by  Helen  O'Connell. 

Decca's  new  Album  No.  A-200 
GEMS  OF  JAZZ  include  six  rec- 
ords that  represent  the  hottest  jazz 
numbers  in  a  decade.  Bud  Free- 
man and  his  Windy  City  Five, 
Gene  Krupa,  Mildred  Bailey, 
Mead  "Lux"  Lewis,  and  Joe  Mar- 
salla  all  contribute  to  make  Dec- 
ca's album  "Gems  of  Jazz"  one 
of  the  most  outstanding  albums 
in  Jazz. 

Again  Decca  does  it.  "A  Night 
In  Rio"  is  their  latest  to  crash  the 
popular  album  field.  Three  10" 
records  sung  by  the  colorful  Car- 
men Miranda  in  her  native  tongue. 
This  album  No.  A-210  is  a  must 
for  the  thousands  of  "Miranda" 
fans.  Two  more  Decca's  latest 
releases  are  the  popular  "Ama- 
pola"  played  by  Nano  Rodrigo 
(3172)  and  Ruby  Newman's  "Per- 
fidia"  (2846).  Fcr  two  terrific 
Congas  taken  from  popular  songs 
of  the  1920's  are  Poncho's  re- 
cording of  Decca's  (3620)  Tiger 
Rag  and  Hindustan. 

Add  boogie-woogie  to  a  bugle 
call  and  you've  got  something 
that  only  Jimmy  Yancey  would 
think  of.  He  demonstrates  in  his 
"Yancey's  Bule  Call"  which  like 
the  reverse,  "35th  and  Dearborn," 
is  an  endless  series  of  boogie- 
woogie  variations  on  a  theme. 
Yancey  is  the  man  who  is  cred- 
ited with  starting  the  walking  left 
hand  style  which  is  now  all  the 
rage.  (Victor  27238) 

Abe  Lyman  backs  one  of  the 
outstanding  ballad  contenders  of 
the  day  "How  Did  He  Look"  with 
o  1941  version  of  the  buck  pri- 
vate's lament,  "You're  In  The  Ar- 
my Now."  The  latter  is  furnished 
with  eight  choruses  of  brand  new 
lyrics,  brass  band  effects  and 
drum  and  bugle  introduction. 
Look  for  it  in  the  coin  machines. 
(Bluebird  B- 10971) 

Bunny  Berigon  bocks  "Peg  O' 
My  Heart"  with  "Night  Song"  for 
a  double  of  imusuol  melodic  op- 
peol.  "Night  Song"  is  the  work 
of    Juon    Tizol,    Duke    Ellington's 

Page  4 


famous  valve  trombonist,  and  the 
well-known  arranger  Jimmy  Mun- 
dy,  and  includes  some  out  of 
trumpet-range  stuff  which  Bunny 
plays    beoutifully.    (Victor    27258) 

Huddie  Leodbetter,  Lead  Belly 
to  his  intimates  and  pioblic  alike, 
hos  perhaps  the  largest  and  best 
repertoires  of  Southern  prison  and 
penitentiary  songs  in  existence. 
He  records  them  for  posterity  in 
"The  Midnight  Special  and  Other 
Prison  Songs",  singing  these  bit- 
ter and  hounting  refrains  with  the 
Golden  Gate  Quartet.  In  addition 
to  "The  Midnight  Special",  the 
numbers  ore  "Ham  an'  Eggs", 
"Grey  Goose",  "Stewboll",  "Pick 
A  Bole  of  Cotton",  and  "Alabama 
Bound",  an  unforgettable  phase 
of  Americano.  Alan  Lomox,  one 
of  the  foremost  outhorities  on  folk 
music,  edits  the  accompanying 
booklet.     (Victor  Album  P-50) 

Continuing  its  exploration  of  the 
unfamiliar  and  unusual  in  music, 
the  Victor  Block  Lobel  Classics 
list  presents  "Plymouth  Ho! "  a 
"nautical  overture"  by  John  Ansell. 
The  rollicking  performance  of  the 
Light  Symphony  Orchestra  is  lan- 
der the  direction  of  Mr.  Ansell 
himself.  (Victor  27252) 

Popy's  "Ballet  Suite",  played  by 


the  Grand  Concert  Orchestra  is 
goy  and  dancing  music  with 
which  not  one  in  o  hundred  is 
familiar.  It  is  however  the  kind 
of  music  that  people  whistle  on 
o  sunny  day,  brilliantly  ployed 
by  the  Grand  Concert  Orches- 
tra. (Victor  27253) 

You  may  coll  "The  Lilac  Dom- 
ino" either  light  opero  or  musicol 
comedy  but  it  is  still  England's 
favorite  collection  of  infectious 
melodious  tunes.  The  London 
Pollodium  Orchestro,  conducted 
by  Jock  Frere,  offers  selections  in- 
cluding the  Introduction,  "All  Line 
Up  In  A  Queue",  "Where  Love  Is 
Waiting",  "Let  The  Music  Ploy", 
"Whot  Is  Done  You  Never  Con 
Undo",  the  Finale  of  Act  I,  "For 
Your  Love  I'm  Waiting",  "Cctrni- 
val  Night",  and  "Lilac  Domino". 
(Victor  36382) 

"Lady  in  the  Dork"  which  is 
currently  causing  all  the  New 
York  critics  to  scramble  for  more 
complimentory  adjectives,  owes 
mony  of  its  rave  notices  to  the 
Iro  Gershwin  -  Kurt  Weill  score. 
Mitchell  Ayres  shows  us  why, 
romanticizing  the  sweet  tune, 
"This  is  New",  and  funnyboning 
the  clever  "Jenny"  for  o  preview 

(Continued  on  next  page) 


RADIO    VARIETIES 


No.  4,  VOLUME  3 


APRIL,  194L 


CONTENTS 

The  Red  Headed  Bluebird 

Guest  Column  By  John  J.  Anthony 

From   the   Old   Hayloft 

The  Maple  City  Four 

Tugboat   Gill  and   Demling 

Patter  Off  the  Platter 

Studio  Notes 

KS  TP  Sunset  Valley  Barn  Dance 

Bess  Johnson 

Peggy  Knudsen 


F.  L.  ROSENTHAL,  Publishei 


WILTON  ROSENTHAL,  Editor 


Published  at  1056  West  Van  Buxen  Street,  Chicago,  lUinois.  F.  L.  Rosenthal,  Publisher. 
New  York  Office:  485  Madison  Avenue,  Hollywood  Office:  3532  Sunset  Boulevard. 
Published  Monthly.  Single  Copies,  ten  cents.  Subscription  rate  $1.00  per  year  in  the 
United  States  and  Possessions,  $1.50  in  Canada.  Entered  as  second  class  matter  January 
10,  1940,  at  the  post  office  at  Chicago,  Dlinois,  under  the  act  of  March  3,  1879.  Every 
effort  will  be  made  to  return  unused  manuscripts,  photographs,  and  drawings  (if  accom- 
panied by  sufficient  first-class  postage  and  name  and  address),  but  we  will  not  be 
responsible  for  any  losses  for  such  matter  contributed.  The  publishers  assume  no 
responsibility  for  statements  made  herein  by  contributors  and  correspondent*,  noi  does 
publication  indicate  approval  thereof. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —   APRIL 


PATTER  OFF  THE  PLATTER 

shot  of  the  show.  Mary  Ann  Mer- 
cer sells  the  lyrics  in  beautiful 
fashion.  (Bluebird  B-11035) 

Rarely  does  Charlie  Bamet  get 
such  admirable  display  pieces  for 
his  orchestra  as  his  present  coup- 
ling "Good  For  Nothin'  Joe",  and 
"Charleston  Alley".  "Good  For" 
serves  to  introduce  his  new  singer, 
Lena  Home  who  can  carry  a  torch 
with  the  best  of  them.  "Charles- 
ton Alley"  is  rolling,  solid  jazz 
with  screaming  brass  and  Charlie 
himself  on  soprano  sax.  (Blue- 
bird B-11037) 

One  of  the  smoother  Wayne 
King  pairings  comes  up  this  week, 
"In  Apple  Blossom  Time",  and 
"When  I  Lost  You",  lovely  mel- 
odies played  in  the  Wayne  King 
manner.  The  latter  is  early  Irving 
Berlin  performed  in  slow  waltz 
tempo  with  the  maestro  himself 
taking  core  of  the  lyrics.  (Victor 
27336) 

The  personnel  of  the  latest  Sid- 
ney Bechet  record  is  recommen- 
dation enough:  Bechet,  clarinet 
and  soprano  sax;  Henry  "Red" 
Allen,  trumpet;  J.  C.  Higgin- 
b  o  t  h  a  m,  trombone;  Wellman 
Braud,  bass;  James  Toliver,  piano; 
and  James  Heard,  drums.  The 
titles,  "Egyptian  Fantasy",  and 
"Slippin'  and  Slidin'"  aren't  im- 
portant except  to  identify  two 
beautiful  and  solid  examples  of 
New  Orleans  jazz  at  its  best. 
(Victor  Swing  Classic  27337) 
Vaughn  Monroe  brings  Tschai- 
kowsky  into  popular  music  again, 
playing  "My  One  Romance"  at  a 
medium  slow  beat.  Marilyn 
Duke  romances  while  the  Monroe 
saxes  make  soft  accompaniment. 
A  flash  ending  is  achieved  with 
full  brass  crescendo.  The  plat- 
ter mate  is  a  swingy  rhythm  study, 
"Take  It,  Jackson",  with  good  solo 
work  from  trumpet,  tenor  sax  and 
piano.  (Bluebird  B- 11045) 

Glenn  Miller  presents  a  dance 
band  version  of  "You  Stepped  Out 
of  a  Dream",  then  steps  up  the 
tempo  a  bit  for  "Ring,  Telephone, 
Ring".  The  effortless  singing  of 
the  Modemaires  and  Ray  Eberle 
mark  the  first  while  Roy  takes 
over  alone  for  the  second.  Note 
the  way  the  eight  brass  build  a 
chord  in  single  note  punching 
fashion  in  "You  Stepped".  (Blue- 
bird B-1 1042) 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  APRIL 


STUDIO  NOTES 


HUGH  STUDEBAKER,  Dr.  Bob 
Graham  in  Bachelor's  Children, 
is  mulling  plans  to  branch  out 
in  his  forming  hobby  by  acquir- 
ing a  New  Mexico  ranch.  Stude- 
baker  already  owns  an  80-acre 
farm  in  Indiana  .  .  .  PAT  BUTT- 
RAM,  whose  hill-billy  twang  is  a 
feature  of  the  Alka-Seltzer  Na- 
tional Barn  Dance,  actually  is  one 
of  the  most  voracious  readers  in 
radio.  He  reads  all  the  best  sel- 
lers and  pursues  half  a  dozen 
reading  hobbies  .  .  .  JIM  GROSS, 
Uncle  Jim  Fairfield  in  Jack  Arm- 
strong, the  AU-Americon  Boy,  is 
a  member  of  the  famous  printing 
press  family  but  says  he  never 
got  any  closer  to  newspaper  ca- 
reer than  the  comer  stand  .  .  . 
The  name  of  KAY  KYSER  has 
been  heard  over  the  airlanes  of 
the  nation  for  several  years  but 
now  the  name  of  Kyser  may  be 
seen  on  the  airlanes.  One  of  the 
planes  operating  on  the  new  Pitts- 
burgh-to-Birmingham  air  route  has 
been  titled  the  "Kay  Kyser"  .  .  . 
ELIA  KAZAN  and  ANN  THOMAS, 
members  of  the  Johnny  Presents 
program  cast,  have  been  assigned 
roles  in  "Five  Alarm  Waltz,"  cur- 
rently rehearsing  for  early  Broad- 
way opening  .  .  .  Schottische  at 
Sunrise,"  new  tune  by  DON  MAR- 
COTTE,  NBC  Central  Division  mu- 
sic supervisor,  goes  into  the  wax- 
works shortly.  It  will  be  recorded 
for  Victor  and  Bluebird  by  JOE 
REICHMAN  and  MITCHELL 
AYERS  .  .  .  RIKEL  KENT  has  been 
assigned  to  produce  "The  Mystery 
Man,"  new  serial  story  which 
makes  its  bow  Monday,  March 
24,  on  NBC  .  .  .  BARBARA  ALLEN, 
Beth  Holly  of  One  Man's  Family, 
has  been  handed  the  comedy  lead 
in  "Buy  Me  That  Town"  which  is 
scheduled  to  go  before  the  cam- 
eras this  week  .  .  .  MICHAEL  RO- 
MANO has  joined  the  Arnold 
Grimm's  Daughter  cast  as  Mr. 
Williams,  a  slicker  ...  A  rigid 
diet  schedule  has  given  BOB 
CROSBY  a  sylph-like  figure. 
Crosby  was  a  guest  maestro  on 
the  Fitch  Bandwagon  on  Sunday, 
March  23  .  .  . 


MEMBERS  OF  ANDRE  KOS- 
TELANTZ'  orchestra  aren't  troub- 
led with  any  petty  legal  matters. 
Emanuel  Green,  violinist  in  the 
CBS  orchestra  heard  Sundays  on 
"The  Pause  That  Refreshes  on  The 
Air,"  received  a  law  degree  from 
St.  John's  University  in  Brooklyn 
and  serves  as  legal  advisor  to 
his  fellow  musicians  .  .  .  Program 
producer  on  CBS's  "Hedda  Hop- 
per's Hollywood"  is  Tom  Sawyer, 
and  one  of  Hedda  Hopper's  assis- 
tants is  Jeff  Davis  .  .  .  Dick  Crom- 
well, one  of  the  stars  of  Colum- 
bia network's  "These  We  Love," 
may  turn  into  a  gold  miner  this 
summer.  John  Estes,  who  once 
served  as  Cromwell's  "stand  in" 
in  movies,  has  a  gold  mine  near 
Downeyville,  Cal,  and  has  in- 
vited Dick  for  a  bit  of  ore  sifting 
.  .  .  Russ  Johnson,  program  direc- 
tor for  CBS's  Pacific  network,  is 
justly  proud  of  his  Dobermctn  Pin- 
scher.  In  a  recent  Los  Angeles 
dog  show  his  pooch  was  first  in 
the  Open  class,  first  in  the  Win- 
ner's Dog  class  and  first  as  Best  of 
Winners  .  .  .  Carl  Hoff  and  his  or- 
chestra, music  makers  for  the  CBS 
Al  Peorce  stanzas,  will  record  an 
album  of  Vincent  Youman  tunes 
for  Columbia  Records  .  .  .  After 
visiting  the  "Court  of  Missing 
Heirs"  in  order  to  incorporate  its 
backstage  story  in  one  of  her 
CBS  broadcasts,  Mary  Margaret 
McBride  wondered  if  maybe  she 
wasn't  a  missing  heir  herself.  One 
of  the  program's  authors,  James 
Waters,  informed  her  of  an  earlier 
broadcast  telling  the  story  of  Ellen 
McBride  v/ho  died  in  1936  leaving 
an  estate  of  $60,000  which  had 
been  accumulated  by  herself  and 
her  family  —  two  members  of 
which  were  named  Mary  Mc- 
Bride and  Margaret  McBride  ... 
When  Eloise  Kummer,  of  CBS's 
"Right  to  Happines,"  left  Chicago 
for  a  trip  to  New  York,  her  friends 
warned  her  with  that  old  "don't 
take  any  wooden  nickels"  gag. 
Eloise  scoffed,  but  now  she  thinks 
there's  something  to  it  —  the  first 
change  she  got  in  New  York  had  a 
phoney  fifty-cent  piece  in  it. 

Page  5 


Although  It  seems  foregone  that  Gerard  Darrow,  eight-year-old 
nature  expert  on  the  NBC-Blue  Network  "Quiz  Kids",  will  be  an 
ornithologist,  he  hopes  to  be  a  lawyer  too.  He  thinks  that  as  a 
lawyer  he  can  agitate  for  enactment  of  anti-bird-huntlng  laws.  He'» 
distressed  by  the  extinct  birds  shown         nuseums. 


f<,-»/  '"v««-^«*'y^i<i>H.iPjw« 


Clutching  his  Inseparable  pipe  In  one  hand  and  the  microphone  In 
the  other,  affable  Eddy  Howard  runs  over  the  songs  he  will  offer 
during  appearances  with  poet-philosopher  Edgar  A.  Guest.  Composer 
of  a  number  of  hits  himself,  Howard  Is  featured  singer  of  ths 
Guest   series,   Wednesdays   through    Fridays,    NBC-Blue    Network. 


Page  6 


GUEST  COLUMN 
BY 

JOHN  J.  ANTHONY 

GOOD  WILL  DIRECTOR 

Writing  a  radio  column  is  like  conducting 
my  Original  Good  Will  Hour.  I  honestly 
don't  know  what  I'm  going  to  say  until  I 
begin.  I  suppose  one  of  the  things  I  can 
write  about  is  the  problems  I've  encountered 
during  my  several  years  as  conductor  of  the 
program. 

Offhand,  I'd  say  that  most  of  the  prob- 
lems have  been  matrimonial  in  content.  In 
listening  to  the  troubles  of  the  thousands  of 
people  who  have  afcipeared  on  the  Good 
Will  Hour,  I  have  been  struck  by  the  impor- 
tant part  that  accepted  prejudices  play  in 
hindering  otherwise  happy  marriages. 

For  instance:  ought  married  women  to 
work?  Often,  the  married  woman's  job 
saves  a  marriage  by  giving  her  an  interest 
in  life  and  easing  financial  pressure.  Often, 
of  course,  a  woman's  working  can  be  bad 
for  happy  marriage.  But  each  case  should 
be  considered  on  its  merits,  I  would  tend 
to  the  idea  that  where  the  question  arises, 
that  fact  alone  shows  that  the  necessity  of 
the  woman  working  is  subconsciously  rec- 
ognized by  husband  and  wife. 

Unfortionately,  the  question  of  whether  the 
woman  should  work  is  often  less  important 
than  the  question:  where  can  the  woman 
find  a  job?  The  economic  task  of  mankind 
in  modem  civilization  has  never  been  easy. 
Every  manied  couple  and  every  individual 
must  answer  the  question  of  whether  women 
should  work  in  light  of  the  circumstances  sur- 
rounding each  case.  When  the  husband  is 
struggling  on  a  low  salary  when  there  are 
no  children,  when  the  wife  is  adopted  for 
some  special  job,  the  answer  should  be 
simple  to  find.  When  the  wife  is  so  attuned 
to  commercial  life  that  household  tasks  are 
dull  for  her,  she  is  an  irritant  in  the  home, 
rather  than  a  bringer  of  peace.  I  believe 
that  is  the  case,  today,  with  many  women 
who  have  entered  marriage  after  a  career 
in  the  business  world. 

In  any  case,  modern  marriage  entails  a 
frank  partnership  between  wife  and  hus- 
band. In  any  situation  in  which  the  hus- 
band's income  is  below  a  subsistence  level 
for  the  family  there  is  no  real  argument 
RADIO  VARIETIES  —  APRIL 


against  the  wife  shouldering  port  of  the 
responsibiUty  if  she  is  fit  to  do  so.  When 
this  becomes  necessary,  the  wife  shouldn't 
feel  herself  persecuted  or  cheated  out  of  the 
prerequisites  of  married  life.  One  third  of 
all  American  wage-earning  women  over 
fifteen  are  married!  Most  of  them  though 
not  aU,  are  working  because  their  husband's 
earnings  alone  are  not  sufficient  to  support 
the  family  decently.  This  becomes  true 
very  often  when  children  enter  the  equation. 
Married  women  who  work  have  a  great 
deal  to  be  proud  of,  and  should  disregard 
the  "popular"  prejudices  against  working 
wives.  The  situation  becomes  questionable 
when  a  wife  works  only  to  avoid  house- 
hold tasks  and  responsibilities,  or  because 
she  wants  to  retain  her  independence  so 
she  can  be  "free"  to  have  the  same  kind 
of  contacts  with  men  she  had  as  a  single 
woman. 

I  never  advise  a  woman  to  work  unless  it 
is  financially  needed.  1  think  the  woman 
is  happiest  who  can  give  all  of  her  energies 
to  the  exciting  job  of  making  home  the  most 
stimulating  and  beautiful  spot  in  the  world 
of  her  husband  and  herself. 

To  the  husbands  of  working  wives,  I  would 
like  to  give  this  message:  if  you  are  honest- 
ly doing  all  you  can  to  discharge  your  own 
responsibility  don't  be  ashamed  because 
your  wife,  also,  puts  her  shoulder  to  the 
wheel.  Honor  her,  and  give  her  the  satis- 
faction of  knowijig  that  she  is  appreciated. 

I  do  think,  however,  that  those  husbands 
who  allow  their  wives  to  support  them  pay 
dearly  for  the  privilege  of  doing  nothing. 
They  are  ashamed  to  face  their  fellow-men, 
ashamed  to  face  themselves  ctnd  their  wives. 
Of  course,  under  present-day  conditions, 
situations  are  bound  to  arise  where  the  hus- 
band who  doesn't  even  look  for  work,  but 
is  content  to  live  on  his  wife's  salary.  The 
world,  alas  for  these  husbands,  looks  more 
kindly  on  an  idle  wife  living  on  a  husband's 
salary  than  it  does  on  the  idle  husband. 

The  economic  situation  between  husband 
and  wife  should  be  settled  calmly  to  the 
best  interests  of  the  married  couple,  and  once 
settled  should  be  taken  for  granted  so  that 
it  doesn't  form  the  basis  of  continual  bicker- 
ings. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  APRIL 


Lovely  Dinah  Shore,  NBC's  Songbird  of  the  South,  takes  time  off 
between  Red  Network  "Time  to  Smile"  programs  to  bask  in  Cali- 
fornia's warm  sunshine.  Of  course  it's  always  warm  and  sunny 
Where  Dinah  is,  but  we  think  she's  very  beautiful  in  a  bathing  suit, 
and  that  smile! 


The  Doring  Sisters,  vocal  trio  on  NBC's  Plantation  Party,  always 
take  this  position  around  the  mike.  Helps  the  director  remember 
that  their  voices  vary  inversely  with  their  heights.  Ruth,  left, 
tallest,  sings  lowest;  Grace,  right,  shortest,  sings  highest.  Marion, 
center,  in-between  height,  sings  in  medium  range. 

Page  7 


KSTP   Sunset  Valley   Barn    Dance 

The  old  philosophy  of  "nothing  ventured, 
nothing  gained"  has  found  living  proof  — 
in  the  success  story  which  KSTP  and  its 
president,  Stanley  E.  Hubbard,  has  written 
in  the  KSTP  Sunset  Valley  Barn  Dance. 

1/"STP,  one  of  the  pioneers  in 
northwest  radio,  had  for  years 
shunned  the  idea  of  barn  dances 
and  rustic  music;  and  even  the 
other  outlets  had  made  no  con- 
sistent effort  to  build  an  authen- 
tic, regular  rural  appeal  show. 

With  a  new  50,000-watt  trans- 
mitter giving  KSTP  a  potentially 
greater  audience  than  any  other 
outlet  in  the  area,  Mr.  Hubbard, 
late  in  1940  began  to  work  on  a 
plan  to  bring  into  his  listening 
fold  the  farmers  and  rural  folk  of 
Minnesota's  tremendous  grain- 
filled  bread-basket.  And  his  first 
thoughts  turned  to  an  authentic, 
flavorful  barn  dance  program. 

The  results  have  been  astound- 
ing, for,  inaugurated  late  in  Oc- 
tober, the  Sunset  Valley  Barn 
Dance  has  played  to  more  than 
50,000  persons  in  those  few  short 
months,'  with  almost  every  Satur- 
day night  a  complete  sell-out. 

To  handle  the  Sunset  Valley 
Show,  Mr.  Hubbard  cast  about 
for  exactly  the  right  man  for  the 
job  —  someone  who  knew  rural 
people,  knew  their  entertainment 
likes  and  dislikes,  who  knew 
showmanship,  production  and 
bam  dance  techniques. 

His  search  led  him  to  David 
Stone,  then  co-producer  of  WSM's 
"Grand  OV  Opry,"  doubtless  one 
of  the  most  successful  shows  of 
its  type  on  the  air. 

David  was  employed  by  KSTP 
and  given  full  rein  in  the  selec- 
tion of  his  talent  and  the  pro- 
duction of  his  show. 

Deciding  that  what  he  wanted 
was  not  the  "professional"  hill- 
billy, but  the  authentic  type,  he 
felt  that  certainly  in  the  northwest 
region  of  Minnesota,  Wisconsin 
and  the  Dakotas  there  was  plen- 
ty of  authentic  talent  if  he  could 
only  "dig  it  out." 

Over  KSTP's  wave-length  went 
a  series  of  announcements,  setting 
a  date  for  auditions  and  calling 
for  old-time  fiddlers,  harmonica 
players,    comedians,    singers,    in- 

Page  8 


The  "man  behind  the  gun"  in 
KSTP's  Sunset  Valley  Barn  Dance  at 
the  St.  Paul,  Minnesota  Auditorium 
each  Saturday  night  is  popular  David 
Stone,  employed  by  KSTP  to  found, 
produce,  direct  and  m-c  the  show. 
He  was  former  co-producer  of  WSM's 
Grand    Ol'    Opry. 


terpreters  of  folk,  mountain  and 
cowboy  music. 

And  the  first  audition  proved 
that  Mr.  Stone's  original  assump- 
tion was  right  —  for  into  KSTP's 
studios  that  night  poured  nearly 
200  aspirants  for  jobs  on  the  new 
show! 

Within  two  weeks  Stone  was 
ready,  and  in  the  meantime,  Mr. 
Hubbard  had  gone  a  step  farther 
his  plan  to  implant  KSTP  and 


m 


the  Sunset  Valley  Barn  Dance  on 
the  minds  of  his  listeners. 

He  had  completed  arrangements 
with  the  St.  Paul  Municipal  Audi- 
torium for  use  of  its  2800-seat 
theater  every  Saturday  night,  and 
had  decided  that  the  entire  pro- 
gram would  be  staged  there,  with 
a  30-cent  admission  charge. 

And  with  little  fanfare  heralding 
the  opening  of  the  Sunset  Valley 
Barn  Dance  on  October  26,  1940, 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  APRIL 


The  name  of  Arthur  (Shorty)  Brier 
is  well-l<nown  to  midwest  listeners; 
now  it's  well-l<nown  in  the  northwest, 
for  Shorty  is  the  musical  director  of 
KSTP's  mammoth  Sunset  Valley  Barn 
Dance.  He  is  one  of  a  group  of 
four  trained  men  around  whom  David 
Stone    has   built   his  successful   show. 


the  curtain  went  up  —  on  a 
packed  house,  and  a  tuxncrway  of 
between  1,200  and  1,500  persons! 

The  same  story  has  been  writ- 
ten week  after  week,  as  the  Bam 
Dance  progressed  through  the 
winter,  with  crowds  ranging  be- 
tween 2,000  and  a  complete  sell- 
out. 

As  a  basis  for  his  Sunset  Valley 
Bam  Dance,  Stone  decided  that 
he  needed  two  or  three  men  of 
well-rounded  experience  in  the 
field  to  knit  his  group  solidly  to- 
gether, and  the  first  of  these  he 
selected  was  Arthur  (Shorty)  Brier, 
banjo  ace,  who  had  done  work  in 
the  same  field  for  WHO,  Des 
Moines;  KSO-KRNT,  Des  Moines; 
KVOO,  Tulsa;  and  WXYZ,  De- 
troit. Shorty  was  chosen  as  mu- 
sical   director    and    arranger    for 


the  Sunset  Valley  Barn  Dance. 
The  two  other  groups  chosen  for 
past  experience  were  Al  and 
Hank,  the  Dakota  Ramblers,  pre- 
viously with  WDAY,  and  Herb 
Wilson,  known  as  Cactus  Slim, 
who  had  been  with  CKLW  in 
Windsor. 

But  aside  from  the  basic  group 
of  Stone,  Brier,  Wilson,  and  the 
Dakota  Ramblers,  the  others  used 
on  Sunset  Valley  Bam  Dance 
were  amateurs  —  more  than  two 
score  of  them. 

Typical  of  these  people  are  Al- 
verna  Julien  and  Lenore  Carlson, 
two  Forest  Lake,  Minnesota  form 
girls,  who  sing  cowboy  songs; 
Marilyn  Mercord,  a  16-year-old 
Prescott,  Wisconsin  high  school 
girl  whose  only  previous  singing 
experience    was    in    the    church 


choir  but  who  has  captivated 
Sunset  Valley  audiences;  Clyde 
Cook,  and  old-time  fiddler  who 
goes  under  the  name  of  Uncle 
Zeke,  who  organized  his  Moun- 
taineers and  added  a  new  note 
to  the  Sunset  Valley  Bam  Dance; 
the  Alfalfa  Neers,  a  Clayton,  Wis- 
consin farmer  and  his  daughter 
whose  only  previous  experience 
had  been  amusing  neighbors;  and 
June  and  Gwen  Vromcm,  two  St. 
Paul  business  girls. 

The  new  idea  which  Uncle  Zeke 
added  to  the  Sunset  Valley  Bam 
Dance  was  the  square-dance.  Re- 
membering some  of  the  better 
ones  for  whom  he  had  played, 
he  brought  about  the  organization 
of  a  square  dance  troupe,  which 
performs  as  a  highlight  of  the 
show  each  Saturday  night. 


Charm  —  that's  what  does  it!  And 
18-year-old  Katherine  Kohls  has  it. 
On  her  first  appearance  on  KSTP's 
Sunset  Valley  Barn  Dance  in  the  St. 
Paul  auditorium  she  proved  that  her 
infectious  grin  and  handling  of  the 
accordion  made  her  big-time  material. 
Now   she's   a    regular   performer. 

Has  the  Sunset  Valley  Born 
Dance  proved  Mr.  Hubbctrd's 
original  contention:  that  it  would 
increase  his  roster  of  listeners? 
The  answer  is  yes. 

Two  periods  are  broadcast 
from  the  Auditorium  over  KSTP, 
one  at  9:30  P.M.  Saturdays;  the 
other  at  10:15  P.M.,  and  a  recent 
coincidental  survey  on  the  9:30 
period  showed  that  KSTP,  with 
five  other  Twin  City  stations  com- 
peting against  KSTP  for  audience, 
had  more  than  46  per  cent  of  the 
total! 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  APRIL 


Page  9 


From    the    Old     Hayloft 


News,  notes  and  gossip,  of  the 
stars  of  WLS,  Chicago,  and  the 
WLS    National   Bam   Dance. 


JHE  END  of  March,  Rcanblin'  Red 
Foley  took  a  two-week  leave 
of  absence  from  his  friends  in  the 
Old  Hayloft  to  make  a  motion  pic- 
ture in  Hollywood.  It  will  be  a 
spring  release  by  Monogram, 
with  Tex  Hitter,  the  Western  star. 


* 


* 


When  Jimmy  James  looked  out 
from  his  hotel  window  a  short 
time  ago,  he  saw  smoke  billowing 
from  a  car  far  below  him  on  the 
street.  "Someone's  going  to  be 
surprised  when  he  comes  out," 
Jimmy  mused.  Then  it  dawned 
on  him  —  it  was  his  own  cor. 
He  rushed  down  to  the  street  in 
record  time,  pulled  the  fire  alarm 
box  on  the  corner,  and  returned 
to  his  burning  car.  Then  he 
thought  of  a  fire  extinguisher,  and 
dashed  into  the  lobby  to  borrow 
one.  So  when  the  fire  trucks  — 
dozens  of  them — came  screeching 
to  a  halt,  he  just  smiled  and  said 


The  photographer  has  been  doing 
tricks  with  his  camera,  just  as  Ted 
Morse  does  tricks  with  his  voice. 
For  Ted  Morse  is  famed  on  the  WLS 
National  Barn  Dance  as  Otto  and  al- 
so as  Little  Genevieve.  And  here 
he. is,  both  in  one  picture,  with  darling 
Little  Genevieve  whispering  In  Otto's 
ear  —  probably  something  about  not 
practicing    her    piano    lessons. 


they  could  go  home  now. 
put  the  fire  out  himself. 

Page  10 


He'd 


On  his  "Bag  O'  Money"  pro- 
gram on  WLS,  Jack  Holden  gives 
kids  money  for  doing  simple 
stunts  or  answering  easy  ques- 
tions. Sometimes  he  offers  a 
quarter,  sometimes  as  much  as  a 


drain  on  the  Bag  O'  Money,  but 
rather  than  verify  the  count  him- 
self, Holden  paid. 

Those  two  dancing  dummies  at 
the  WLS  National  Bam  Dance 
hove   new   names,   conferred   on 


.  The  Hayloft  Gang  crowd  around 
'to  wish  Red  Foley  farewell  and  good 
luck  as  he  finished  the  last  WLS 
National  Barn  Dance  before  he  left 
for  Hollywood.  He  took  a  two-week 
leave  of  absence  to  appear  In  a  Mono- 
gram motion  picture  starring  Tex  Rit- 
ter.  Shown  are  Harry  Sims,  Jimmy 
James,  one  of  the  square  dancers, 
Foley,  Jack  Taylor,  Harold  Safford, 
Salty  Holmes,  Lester  (Mac)  MacFar- 
land,  Ozzie  Westley,  Mary  Ann  and 
Bob    Gardner. 


dollar,  but  on  a  recent  broadcast, 
he  offered  more  than  he  realized. 

A  little  girl  came  to  the  micro- 
phone. Jack  said  he'd  give  her 
10c  apiece  for  her  freckles,  if  she 
could  get  someone  in  the  audience 
to  count  them.  She  had  her 
brother  with  her,  and  the  pair  went 
off  in  a  comer  to  count.  Fifteen 
minutes  later  they  come  up  with 
their  total:  80  freckles  at  10c  — 
$9.00   please  I     It  was   a   terrific 


them  by  WLS  listeners  in  a  recent 
contest.  The  winners  received 
$50  each  for  naming  one  dummy 
Freida  Staire  and  the  other  Sara 
Nade.  Salty  Holmes  and  Otto 
use  them  for  partners  in  their 
comic  dances  each  Saturday 
night. 


Jim  Poole,  best  known  market 
broadtxister  and  analyst,  is  back 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  APRIL 


on  the  air  after  a  period  of  illness. 
He's  heccrd  on  WLS  at  11:45  a.m. 
Sundays  .  .  .  Mel  Galliart,  new 
announcer  at  WLS,  is  also  a  com- 
petent baritone  soloist  .  .  .  The 
whole  trio  of  Verne,  Lee  and  Mary 
were  once  arrested  in  a  Wiscon- 
sin   town    for    jaywalking    .    .    . 


Pat  Buttram,  comic  of  the  WLS 
National  Barn  Dance,  tries  out  a  new 
gag  backstage  before  springing  it  on 
the  air  and  to  the  audience  in  the 
Eighth  Street  Theater.  Judging  from 
Grace  Wilson's  expression,  she  found 
it  very  funny! 


When  Pat  Buttram  invites  the  WLS 
audience  to  the  National  Barn  Dance, 
he  always  quotes  the  prices  for  the 
big  ones  and  for  the  little  ones.  And 
here  are  the  biggest  one  and  the 
littlest  one  of  the  Hayloft  Gang  — 
Andy  Williams  of  the  Williams 
Broth€rs  quartet  and  Norman  Ross, 
m.c. 

George  Menard  used  to  bring  the 
horses  up  for  water  back  at  his 
farm  home,  then  stand  on  a  nearby 
platform  and  deliver  long  lectures 
to  them  —  on  any  subject  under 
^he   sun,   for  he   just  wanted   to 

RAPIG  V^RJETES  —  APRIL  • 


learn  public  speaking,  and  the 
horses  made  a  good  audience. 
Charles  Kerner  of  the  Maple  City 
Four  also  sings  under  the  name 
of  Charles  Willard  —  the  latter 
his  middle  name. 


Singing  Cowgirl 


Patsy  Montana,  singing  cowgirl  at 
WLS,  Chicago,  is  a  real  cowgirl, 
veteran  rider  of  a  dozen  rodeos.  She 
made  one  of  her  first  broadcasts  on 
horseback.  Patsy  receives  more  re- 
quests to  sing  "I  Want  to  Be  a  Cow- 
boy's Sweetheart"  than  any  of  the 
several  hundred  other  songs  In  her 
repertory.  She  wrote  it  herself  when 
.  she  first  got  in  radio,  and  has  written 
dozens  of  others  since.  Including  her 
recent  "My   Poncho   Pony." 

Patsy  dresses  the  part  of  a  cowgirl 
in  ail  her  stage  appearances,  with 
leather  skirt  and  vest  and  riding 
boots.  She  still  blushes  when  she 
thinks  of  her  first  stage  appearance. 
She  entered  a  California  amateur  con- 
test and  sang  her  cowgirl  songs 
dressed  fit  to  kill  —  In  a  black  even- 
ing gown.  Anyhow,  she  won,  and  It 
was  the  first  step  in  a  career  that  has 
taken  her  to  the  top  as  a  radio  and 
motion  picture  star. 


Augie  Klein,  accordionist  with 
the  WLS  Rangers,  studied  accor- 
dion under  Lou  Klott,  of  the  WLS 
Concert  orchestra.  Augie  has  a 
brother  who  is  also  on  accordion- 
ist and  another  brother  in  the 
United  States  Navy  .  .  .  Reggie 
Cross,  harmonica  expert  with  the 
Hoosier  Sodbusters,  also  plays 
Hawaiian  guitar  and  drums  .  .  . 
Cy  Harrice  invents  lots  of  gadgets 
just  for  his  own  amusement,  and 
recently  was  awarded  a  patent 
on  a  tooth  brush. 

Adele  Brandt's  grandmother 
was  a  cousin  to  Franz  Schubert 
.  .  .  Salty  Holmes'  hobby  is  col- 
lecting small  jugs  —  miniatures 
of  the  style  he  makes  music  with 
on  the  Bam  Dance.  Salty  is  a 
member  of  the  123rd  Cavalry- 
Band,  on  leave  of  absence.  At 
camp,  the  band  used  to  have  to 
get  up  early  and  practice.  Their 
marching  rehearsal  consisted  of 
marching  back  and  forth  past  the 
stables,  serenading  the  horses  .  .  . 

The  FARR  brothers,  HUGH  and 
KARL,  two  of  the  Sons  of  the 
Pioneers,  singing  team  heard  on 
the  UNCLE  EZRA  program,  ore 
one-eighth  Cherokee.  It's  one  of 
those  touchy  subjects  in  the  Fan 
home — their  mother's  great  great 
grandfather  was  killed  fightin 
injuns!. 


From  Chicago  twice  a  day  Is 
heard  the  voice  of  NBC  actress 
Fern  Persons  on  "Bud  Barton" 
and     "Thunder    Over     Paradise." 

Page  II 


'■liF'.*  ■'"* ' ^*^'"    t,^< 


K^ont 


inued 


Following  the  episode  in  which  Bess  Johnson  was  dismissed  as  matron 

ff  of  the  "Hilltop  House"  orphanage,  the  series'  sponsor  now  presents  her  in 

a  "The  Story  of  Bess  Johnson/'  over  CBS  Monday  through  Fridays  at  3:30  P.M. 

C.S.T.    Bess  Johnson,  who  has  played  the  stellar  role  in  "Hilltop  House"  under 

her  own  name  for  more  than  three  years,  continues  as  the  central  figure  in  a 

story  of  feminine  courage  and  wisdom. 


Po^e  12 


RADIO  VARIETIES  ^  AlWL 


i^p  Jo  standard 


ip 


The  young  radio  actresses  heard  from  Chicago  on  Coliombia  network's 
daytime  serial  dramas  have  long  had  a  reputation  for  unusual  beauty,  and 
the  latest  addition  to  the  string  seems  to  meet  all  the  requirements.  She's  17- 
year-old  Peggy  Knudsen,  of  Duluth,  Minn.,  who  currently  portrays  Betty  Adams 
in  "Woman  in  White."    Heard  Mondays  through  Fridays,  12:15  P.M.  C.S.T. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  APRIL 


Page  13 


The    Maple    City    Four 


Here  are  those  zccnies  of  the  WLS  National  Bam 
Dance  —  the  Maple  City  Four.  They're  Scotch  High- 
landers —  they  think.  This  is  the  first  pictiire  taken 
of  them  in  these  costumes  since  Charles  Kerner 
joined  the  act  several  months  ago.  Left  to  right 
ore  Pot  Petterson,  Al  Rice,  Kerner  and  Fritz  Meissner. 


Page  14 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


APRIL 


And  there  bloomed  In  Illinois  a  girl-chlld,  called  fair  Marilyn 
Thorne,  with  voice  sweet  as  piping  woodwinds  in  the  spring.  And 
a  bandsman,  called  Ted  Weems,  hearing  the  voice,  did  say,  verily, 
this  must  be  heard  by  all  the  land.  Now  Marilyn  sings  on  Beat 
the  Band,  Sunday  evenings  over  the  NBC  Networid  called  Red* 


All  work  and  no  play  would  make  even  Fred  Waring's  inimitable 
Three  Squires  dull  boys.  Here,  assisted  by  lovely  Donna  Dae, 
they  demonstrate  a  new  dart  game  they've  perfected  with  a  St. 
Valentine's  Day  touch.  Left  to  right  they  are:  Marvin  Long, 
.Donna,  Fred  Ohms  and  "Lumpy"  Brannunu  "Lumpy"  hit  buU'a  eye* 

RADIO  VARIEnES  —  APRIL 


TUGBOAT 
GILL  and  DEMLING 

"THE  NUTS  Who  Launched  a  Thouscmd 
Squirrels"  or  "What  Happens  to  a  Ra- 
dio Gag  Writer  When  He  Gets  Tired  of 
Hearing  Other  People  Speak  His  Lines"  are 
alternate  slogans  for  this  opus. 

It  concerns  a  couple  of  fellows  named  Gill 
and  Demling,  and  it  proves  that  where 
there's  smoke  there's  a  cigarette  sponsor, 
and  also  that  if  you  don't  want  your  routines 
swiped  don't  let  a  couple  of  budding 
comedians  have  Annie  Oakleys  to  a  De- 
troit  theater. 

Gill  and  Demling,  otherwise  known  as 
Frank  and  Bill,  or  Fish  and  Baldy,  currently 
are  featured  as  the  slap-wacky  skippers  of 
the  "Show  Boat"  on  the  NBC-Red  Network 
Mondays.  But  today  is  long  after  the  day 
they  first  collided  as  students  at  Wayne 
University,  Detroit.  Bill  Demling  had  a  side 
job  as  usher  at  a  local  theater,  and  through 
him  Annie  Oakleys  were  available.  Thus, 
sitting  in  free  seats,  the  two  managed,  so 
they  say,  to  skim  off  the  best  gags  heard 
in  the  house,  later  to  convert  their  illicit  wit 
into  routines  that  got  them  their  first  air 
jobs  at  a  local  station  in  1931. 

By  the  time  they  landed  at  NBC  Chi- 
cago, the  following  year,  according  to  their 
own  statement,  they  had  run  out  of  the 
gags  manufactured  by  other  people  and 
were  embarked  on  a  hazardous  career  of 
writing  their  own.  And  it  was  in  the  writing 
field  that  they  gained  Hollywood  fame  later, 
dashing  in  and  out  of  movie  assignments  to 
whack  out  verbal  lulus  for  such  assorted 
radio  memorablia  as  Bums  and  Allen,  Eddie 
Cantor,  Bob  Burns,  Ben  Bernie,  the  Marx 
Brothers,  Al  Jolson,  Ed  Wynn,  Fanny  Brice, 
Bea  Lillie,  Charles  Butterworth  and  John  Bar- 
rymore. 

In  regard  to  their  families,  Frank  Gill  says 
his  daughter  Kathreen,  age  1,  is  an  accom- 
plished lutist  and  his  other  daughter,  Pamela, 
age  3,  the  youngest  strip-teaseuse  extant. 
Demling  says  his  1940  son  also  is  well  ad- 
vanced —  he  already  has  learned  how  to 
deliver  a  Bronx  cheer. 

Amazingly  enough,  instead  of  being  the 
kind  of  bon  vivants  a  pair  of  comedians 
might  be,  they  ore  retiring  souls,  preferring 
to  stay  out  of  town  at  all  possible  hours. 
They  hate  trying  to  be  funny  at  parties,  a 
fact  which  has  made  them  the  despair  of 
many  an  eager  hostess.  And  it's  an  odd  fact, 
but  very  true,  that  Gill  is  taking  a  couple  of 
university  courses  in  the  romance  languages 
and  Greek  classics.  Oddest  fan  gift  they 
ever  received  was  an  old  gray  horse — ^which 
they  are  alleged  to  hove  eaten  during  a 
layoff. 

Page  15 


Rita  Ascot  WLS  Star 


JUNE  -- 1941. 


TEN  CENTS 


Guest  Star  of  many  radio  shows,  Priscilla  Lone  is  now  starred  in  Warner  Bros,  film  "Million  Dollar  Baby. 


Patter   Off  the   Platter 


Jimmy  Dorsey  is  making  mu- 
sical history  this  spring  with  each 
recording  he  mokes.  His  "Ama- 
pola"  leads  the  league  in  sales  in 
every  hamlet  in  the  country.  Bob 
Eberly  takes  the  first  vocal  on  this 
popular  Decca  and  is  followed  by 
Helen  O'Connell  who  spreads  out 
on  one  of  the  best  swing  choruses 
heard  yet. 

Decca's  (3710)  presents  Dorsey 
and  Co.  again  in  My  Sister  and 
I  v/ith  Eberly  taking  charge  of  the 
singing  dept.  The  flipover  is  a 
popular  rendition  based  on  The 
Sheherazada,  titled  "In  The  Hush 
of  the  Night"  Two  more  smash 
hits  recorded  by  Dorsey  for  Decca 
are  "Maria  Elena"  (3698)  and 
"Perfidia"  (3198). 

Decca's  contribution  to  the 
Latin  trend  which  is  sweeping  the 
Americas  are  two  Tango  albums, 
one  by  Pancho,  the  other  by  Nano 
Rodriguez.  Both  are  gracetul  and 
romantically  recorded  with  the 
best  selections  of  tangos  that  hove 
come  out  of  the  Pampas. 

For  something  unusual  Decca 
has  combined  two  Bob  Crosby 
discs  titled  "Shakespeare  In 
Swing".  The  Bob  Cats  swing  out 
on  excerpts  from  the  Bards  ploys, 
with  Marion  Mann  donating  the 
throat  music. 

In  direct  contrast  to  the  great 
strides  Decca  has  made  in  the 
Hep-Cat  dept.  their  album  (191), 
records  10  sides  of  Favorite  Hawai- 
ian Songs  by  Ray  Kinney.  Soo- 
thing to  the  nerves,  this  dreomy- 
drowsey  soft  music  of  the  Islands 
is  a  tonic  for  the  listener,  It  takes 
him  over  the  blue  pacific  to  the 
carefree  land  of  swishing  palms 
and  romance. 

For  a  shot  in  the  arm  listen  to 
Decca's  (218)  the  Count  Basie 
album  "One  O'clock  Jump."  Here 
the  Count  handles  the  ivories  is 
his  famous  "Basie  Cord"  manner 
with  the  Bull  Fiddle  jumping  up 
and  down  the  scale  like  mad. 
James  Rushing  sings  on  four  sides 
of  the  12  sided  Decca-hot-platter- 
album.     A  must  for  cats. 

Paul  Robeson  lends  his  splendid 
basso  to  two  old  favorites,  "Ab- 
sent", and  "Sylvia".  There  was 
a  time  when  these  two  were 
possibly  the  most  popular  senti- 
mental songs  in  the  world.  Pai.l 
Robeson  shows  us  why.  (Victor 
27366) 

Page  2 


Contributing  to  the  Latin  Amer- 
ican vogue,  Barnabas  Von  Geczy 
and  his  Orchestra  play  "Cuban 
Serenade"  and  "Mexican  Sere- 
nade". Both  ore  melodious,  ra- 
ther restrained  in  style  and  ex- 
tremely colorful.  (Victor  27368). 

Eric  Coates  has  composed  much 
charming  light  music  in  the  mod- 
ern -  not  modernistic  -  manner.  He 
conducts  the  Light  Symphony  Or- 
chestra in  his  "Springtime  Suite", 
a  miniature  work  occupying  three 
record  sides.  The  fourth  is  taken 
up  by  his  "For  Your  Delight" 
serenade,  an  admirable  choice. 
(Victor  36393  and  36394). 

Graziella  Parraga  is  a  musical 
emissary  of  good-will  from  Cuba 
and  she  furthers  her  duties  ad- 
mirably with  "Blue  Echoes"  and 
"Night  Over  Rio".  These  ballad 
style  tunes,  sung  in  beth  English 
and  Spanish,  fit  her  svelte  con- 
tralto beautifully  (Bluebird  B-1 1047) 
A  collector's  item  of  the  first 
water  is  a  pairing  of  instrumental 
solos  by  two  outstanding  hot 
stars,  Dicky  Wells  playing  trom- 
bone in  "Dicky  Wells  Blues",  and 
Tommy  Dorsey  is  pretty  much 
of  a  perfectionist  when  it  comes 
to  the  recording  or  the  broadcast- 
ing of  his  own  music.  He  liked 
his  version  of  "Let's  Get  Away 
From  It  All,"  however,  in  fact  so 
much  that  he  devoted  both  sides 
of  his  latest  record  to  a  special  ar- 


rangement of  the  tune.  His  six- 
minute  interpretation  does  it  full 
justice  and  we'll  add  our  recom- 
mendations to  those  of  Dorsey 
himself.  Everybody  plays  and 
everybody  sings  in  the  smart 
Broadway-Dorsey  style  and  patter 
of  his  recent  "Oh!  Look  At  Me 
Now."  Definitely  recommended, 
(Victor  27377) 

"Take  the  'A'  Train,"  the  latest 
Duke  Ellington  offering,  is  the 
cryptic  title  of  a  Billy  Strayhorn 
opus  spiced  with  the  Duke's  or- 
chestrating genius.  There's  some 
excellent  trumpet  work  included 
and  solid  tempo.  The  reverse  is 
an  unusual  version  of  "Sidewalks 
of  New  York"  featuring  Blgord's 
clarinet.  (Victor  27380) 

Having  effectively  taken  care  of 
the  "William  Tell"  overture,  Al- 
vino  Rey  turns  his  guitar  loose 
in  "Light  Cavalry,"  the  von  Suppe 
overture  with  all  the  trombone 
slides.  For  contrast  he  ploys 
"Amapola,"  slow  sweet  ond 
beautiful.    (Bluebird  B-1 1 1 08) 

Glenn  Miller  presents  velvety 
pleasure  music  in  "The  One  I 
Love"  with  vocal  embellishments 
by  Ray  Eberle  and  the  Modem- 
aires.  The  coupling  is  "Sun  Val- 
ley Jump,"  a  jiimp  tune  in  the 
meter  best  designed  to  show  off 
the  Miller  virtuosity.  (Bluebird 
B-1 11 10) 


RADIO    VARIETIES 


NO.  6,  VOLUME  3 


JUNE,  1941 


CONTENTS 

Paqe 

Patter  OH  the  Platter ^ 

Rudy  Vallee  l 

Walter  Winchell   ,  /  1 1 

K.  P.  Now  Means  Klever  Pianist ini.ii 

Emotions  Of  a  Script  Writer ,9 

The  Little  Maid || 

Decca's  Delightful  Duet   \z 

LitUesI  Girl  '  •  ^" 


F.  L.  ROSENTHAL,  Publisher 


WILTON  ROSENTHAL,  Edflor 


Published  at  1056  West  Van  Buien  Street,  Chicago,  Illinois.  F.  L.  Rosenthal,  Publuher. 
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responsibility  for  statements  made  herein  by  contributors  and  correspondent*,  nor  doe* 
publication  Indicate  approval  thereof. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JUNE 


Rudy 
Vallee 


n  LTHOUGH  credit  is  given  to  Rudy  Vallee  for  the 
discovery  of  such  stars  as  Edgar  Bergen  and 
Charlie  McCarthy,  Bob  Burns,  Tommy  Riggs  cmd 
Betty  Lou,  Alice  Faye,  Burns  and  Allen  and  even 
John  Barrymore  (as  a  radio  hit),  the  modest  Yankee 
says  "I  feel  I  have  been  greatly  overrated  as  a 
'discoverer'  of  talent.  I  can't  honestly  take  credit 
for  being  the  first  to  see  possibilities  in  all  these 
artists." 

"For  instance,"  says  Rudy,  "I  never  thought  of 
Charlie  McCarthy  as  a  radio  'find'  until  Elsa  Max- 
well called  him  to  my  attention  at  a  party  for  Noel 
Coward." 

That  Rudy  is  a  master  showman,  however,  can- 
not be  denied  for  even  though  John  Borrymore's 
name  has  been  a  household  word  for  decades,  it 
took  Rudy's  sense  of  timing  to  bring  out  the  great 
latent  talents  for  radio  comedy  in  the  man  who  is 
really  the  Qown  Prince  of  Comedy  on  the  air  today. 

"A  showman,"  says  Rudy,  is  nothing  more  than 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JUNE 


a  good  human  guinea  pig — a  common  denominator. 
As  for  me,  1  expose  myself  to  all  talent — known  and 
unknown — because  I  feel  that  what  amuses  me  will 
amuse  others." 

Vallee  is  quick  to  admit  that  he  is  a  hard  task- 
master, but  he  believes  that  genius,  like  truth,  will 
out  when  given  even  a  moderate  chance  for  develop- 
ment. He  says  the  very  human  satisfaction  of  giving 
some  talented  newcomer  a  start  in  a  career  is  as 
great  a  compensation  for  him  as  the  satisfaction  of 
offering  the  public  a  new  artist. 

Rudy  Vallee' s  current  program  is  heard  each 
Thursday  night  from  Hollywood  at  9:00  p.  m.  CDST 
over  the  NBC-Red  network.  Featured  on  the  pro- 
gram in  addition  to  Barrymore  and  Vallee' s  or- 
chestra is  Lurene  Tuttle,  NBC  actress  who  has  also 
been  heard  in  I  Love  a  Mystery,  One  Man's  Family, 
and  other  dramatic  shows  from  Hollywood.  Though 
she  is  heard  as  Rudy's  radio  sweetheart  in  practi- 
cally every  broadcast,  it  is  strictly  all  radio  with  the 
two  of  them. 

Pcic)«  3 


CUGAT  CONGA  DRUM- 
MER CRACKS  WISE 
IN   RHYTHM 


•THE  "XAVIER  CUGAT  and  Yvette  Program" 
boasts  an  "angel",  and  not  only  that  but 
one  with  a  sense  of  humor. 

There  is  a  deal  of  entertainment  in  the 
Cam-el  program  at  7:30  P.M.,  EST,  Thursday 
nights  and  some  of  it  is  off  the  record  in  the 
"off-stage"  remarks  by  said  "angel",  which 
cause  near  havoc  among  members  of  the 
NBC-Red  Network  program's  cast. 

The  conga  is  a  free  and  easy  type  of 
music,  permitting  of  ad-libbing  and  high- 
pitched  shouts  which  to  the  overage  listener 
sound  as  if  they  meant  nothing  at  all  except 
an  expression  of  exuberance  by  the  musi- 
cians. But  in  the  studio  it  is  easy  to  see  that 
the  musicians  grin  and  chuckle  amcng 
themselves  far  more  than  the  gay  spirit  of 
the  tunes  warrant. 

And  it  all  can  be  laid  at  the  door  of  Angel 
Santos,  who  plays  the  conga  drum  and 
swings  the  gourds  in  Cugat's  orchestra. 
When  that  type  of  tune  is  being  played  he 
gets  up  and  dances  around  the  studio  sing- ' 
ing  to  himself,  and  letting  an  occasional 
shout  "fly  into  the  nearest  microphone.  There- 
in lie  the  chuckles. 

One  Thursday  evening  Angel  didn't  think 
much  of  the  fiddle  work  so  he  shouted  the 
Spanish  slang  for  "corny"  into  the  mike. 
Then  there  was  another  time- — the  boys 
had  been  out  on  a  party  the  night  before, 
and  still  felt  like  it.  Angel  sidled  up  to  the 
mike  and  yelled  the  Spanish  equivalent  of 
"I  feel  awful!"  That  broke  up  the  brass  sec- 
tion and  for  a  full  second  the  only  sound 
emitted  by  the  horns  were  a  couple  of 
grunts. 

Sometimes  Santcs'  cracks  lead  to  unex- 
pected results.  Nico  Lopez,  the  bongo  drum- 
mer is  sensitive  about  his  big  feet.  When 
Angel  shouted — "those  are  suitcases,  not 
feetl"  Nico  stopped  his  work  and  chased 
Angel  across  the  studio. 

Because  each  step  was  instinctively  taken 
in  time  to  the  rhythmic  beat  of  the  music 
the  studio  audience  was  not  aware  of  any- 
thing other  than  "just  a  little  more  clowning", 
and  because  the  particular  number  was  loud 
anyway,  no  extraneous  sounds  reached  the 
air. 

Page  4 


Sparkling  eyes  and  a  piquant  smile  put  lovely  Jane  Wilson  in  • 
fair  position  as  one  of  radio's  top  lovelies.  Jane  has  an  incredibly 
high  voice  which  rings  out  sweetly  in  solo  selections  on  the  "Fred 
Waring  in  Pleasure  Time"  programs  heard  Mondays  through  FK 
days  over  the  NBC-Red  Networl(  from  N«'w  Yorl<  City. 


Olive  Major,  13-year-old  Eddie 
Cantor  soprano  protege  on  the 
NBC-Red  Networl<  "Time  to 
Smile",  is  having  the  time  of  her 
life— first  trip  to  Gotham. 


Johnny,  famed  call  boy,  whose 
•larlon  call  summons  America  to 
NBC-Red  airing  of  "Johnny  Pre- 
•ents"  Tuesdays,  gives  his  auto- 
graph to  a  wide-eyed  fan. 

RADIO  VARIEnES  —  JUNE 


BERNIE  REHEARSALS 

NO  PLACE  FOR 

SANE  PEOPLE 

TJNRESTRAINED,  uninhibited  and  definite- 
ly wacky  are  the  dress  rehearsals  for 
Ben  Bernie's  NBC-Blue  Network  "New  Army 
Game"  every  Tuesday  afternoon  in  NBC's 
Ritz  Theater  when  the  old  maestro,  probably 
inspired  by  the  empty  seats,  takes  every  op- 
portunity to  give  with  the  quip. 

The  joke  jamboree  gets  under  way  when 
the  quiz  section  of  the  show  is  being  timed. 
For  this  purpose  the  Bailey  Sisters,  vocalists 
with  the  band,  and  Carol  Bruce,  soloist,  im- 
personate the  female  contestants  and  Ber- 
nie's writers  do  the  male  entrants.  And  this 
can  happen: 

Eddie  Green,  new  colored  character  on  the 
show,  shuffles  up  to  the  mike. 

Bemie:  "Good  evening.  What's  your 
name?" 

Green:  "Sweeney." 

Bemie:   "Sweeney?" 

Green:  "Yassuh.  Sweeney  with  the  dark 
brown  wool." 

A  writer  strolls  up. 

femie:  "Good  evening,  sir.  May  1  ask 
your  name?" 

Writer:  "Oberon  Crouch." 

Bemie:  "All  right,  Mr.  Crouch.  Your  ques- 
tion is  geological.  This  is  long  and  wind- 
ing and  when  it  leaves  its  source,  always 
gets  where  it's  going.  The  name  of  the 
son(?  is — 

(Orch.:  "Volga  Boatman.") 

Writer:  "Er,  uh,  hmmmm.  It's  right  on 
the  tip  of  my  tongue." 

Bemie:  "Well,  it's  a  bit  longer  than  that, 
although  you  do  have  quite  a  formidable 
stinger."  (Off  stage,  Carol  Bruce,  the  maes- 
tro's  best  stooge,  goes  into  hysterics  and 
Bemie  beams.) 

Bemie:  "Sorry,  Crouch,  your  time  is  up. 
Next." 

Carol  Bruce:   "Good  evening,  sir." 

Bemie:  "Why,  good  evening.  Miss.  May 
I  have  your  name?" 

Bruce:  "Ming  Toy  Slitch." 

Bemie:  "Sounds  like  a  merger.  Miss  Slitch 
let's  say  you're  out  in  a  canoe  with  Winchell 
and  both  fall  in.  What's  the  name  of  this 
song?"  (Orch.:  "Down  Went  McGinty.") 

Bruce:  "Down  Went  McGinty  to  the  Bot- 
tom of  the  Sea." 

Bemie:  "Right,  Ming  Toy.  And,  inciden- 
tally, that  would  be  the  only  time  Winchell 
was  ever  seen  tipping." 

At  this  point,  the  orchestra  usually  decides 
to  do  a  little  impromptu  jamming;  every- 
one discovers  it's  time  to  go  out  for  cof- 
fee; Bemie  discovers  no  one  has  been 
timing  the  show  and  the  writers  disappear. 
But,  somehow,  the  show  does  get  on. 

RADIO  VARIETIES   —  JUNE 


IfU'.y"  '•  >w">'i'i//'wn'"jtf'''u'fmiim9mmW-'>'"''^Ji>W^f9f^^''^ 


Patricia  Duntap,  ehapmlng  NBC  Ingenue  from  Illinois,  recently  won 
the  rolo  of  Pat  Curtis  In  "Tom  Mix  Straight  Shooters".  As  Pecos* 
girl  friend,  she  becomes  the  second  feminine  member  of  the  regular 
cast  of  the  NBC-Blue  Networl<  serial.  Pat  also  Is  Jill  Stewart  In 
"Backstage    Wife",    NBC-Red    Network    serial. 


r 


More  than  a  decade  ago  a.  young  reporter-columnist  went  on  the 
air  in  Kansas  City  with  a  pleasant  little  sl<etch  about  a  bridge- 
playing  couple.  Today  Jane  and  poodman  Ace  (NBC-Blue,  Tuesdays,. 
Wednesdays  and  Thursdays;  7:00  p.m.,  EST)  are  comedy  "tops". 

Page  5 


VfiHchell- 

The  iHan  dnetifpne— 
An4  %  One—HnpuA 


The  fellow  with  his  collar  open, 

his  tie  unknotted  and  his  hat  on  the 
back  of  his  head  can  make  or  break, 
can  praise  or  blame  with  equally- 
telling  effect  with  the  words  he  ma- 
chine-guns into  the  NBC-Blue  net- 
work microphone  each  Sunday 
night  at  8:00  p.m.  CST. 

For  that  fellow  is  Walter  Win- 
chell,  editing  his  Jergens  Journal 
"with  lotions  of  love  for  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  North  America  and  all  the 
ships  at  sea." 

Winchell  ofttimes  sends  the  FBI 
racing  to  an  out-of-the-way  spot,  or 
the  center  of  New  York,  sets  edi- 
tors frantically  checking,  sets 
tongues  a-wagging  half  way 
around  the  world  with  his  flashes. 

How  does  a  man  who  was  never 
a  reporter  uncover  stories  that 
trained  editors  don't  suspect?  And 
obtain  information  that  law  enforce- 
ment agencies  cannot  lay  their 
hands  on? 

The  answer  is  hard  to  find,  for 
Winchell  keeps  his  own  counsel. 
He  never  betrays  a  confidence  nor 
discloses  the  identity  of  a  person 
who  has  given  him  information. 
He  doesn't  want  close  friends,  be- 
cause he  doesn't  want  the  obliga- 
tions of  friendship. 

A  part  of  his  secret  is  hard  work. 
Winchell  works  every  minute  of 
the  day.  In  night  club  or  restau- 
rant, in  cab  or  in  airplane,  on  the 
beach  at  Miami,  the  set  at  Holly- 
wood or  the  pavement  of  Broad- 
way, his  quick  inquisitive  mind 
scans  the  place  and  people  for 
scraps  of  information. 

Another  part  of  his  secret  is  his 
mail.  His  letters  from  millionaires 
and  paupers,  high  government  offi- 
cials and  bums.  Park  Avenue 
matrons  and  school  girls,  from 
revilers  and  adulators,  run  into  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  a  year. 
And  all  these  correspondents  and 
acquaintances  contribute  to  the 
mass  of  information  from  which 
Winchell  selects  the  material  for 
his  daily  newspaper  and  weekly 
radio  columns. 

Winchell  has  been  satirized, 
ridiculed,  derided,  physically  at- 
tacked, and  written  into  plays, 
books  and  magazine  articles.  But 
he  has  never  swerved  from  his 
aim: 

To  get  and  print  the  news  about 
anybody. 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


JUNE 


K.  P.  Now   Means    Klever   Pianist 


John  Brown,  staff  pianist  at  WLS,  Chicago,  first 
started  to  leom  the  violin,  abandoned  that 
to  take  up  comet,  but  became  a  professional 
trombonist  before  he  settled  down  to  the  piano 
OS  a  life  work. 


JOHN    BROWN, 
Staff  Pianist,  WLS,  Chicago 


QN  A  BLAZING  hot  summer  day 
in  1917,  John  Brown,  private 
in  the  A.E.F.,  was  on  K.P.  duty 
somewhere  in  France.  He  was 
attached  to  an  outfit  convoying 
axabulances  to  and  from  the  front 
lines,  but  in  his  K.P.  capacity,  was 
engaged  at  the  moment  in  scrap- 
ing the  skins  from  a  heap  of  po- 

RADIO  VARIEnES  —  JUNE 


tcrtoes  almost  as  high  as  the  Eif- 
fel To^A^r. 

That  was  misery  enough.  But 
to  add  to  it,  the  company  band 
was  rehearsing  nearby.  Before 
his  days  as  a  soldier,  John  made 
his  living  as  a  musician  —  and 
he  couldn't  stand  the  rehearsal. 


Evidently,  John  says,  they  had 
held  a  contest  to  locate  the  worst 
trombone  player  in  the  army  — ■ 
and  they'd  found  him. 

So  John  lost  no  time  in  apply- 
ing for  the  job.  Somewhere  in 
his  professional  career,  John  had 
dropped  the  trombone  to  concen- 
trate on  piano,  and  he  was  two 
years  out  of  practice.  The  con- 
ductor, however,  was  not  informed 
of  that  fact.  For  cm  audition,  he 
suggested  "America  Forever." 
John  raised  the  horn  to  his  mouth 
and  waded  in.  But  his  lack  of 
practice  showed,  even  though  it 
wasn't  heard.  For  he  puffed  out 
his  cheeks  slightly  —  an  awful 
thing  for  a  trombone  player  to  do. 
The  sensitive  conductor  was  en- 
raged. "Your  embouchure  is  ter- 
riblel"  he  shouted  —  and  forth- 
with sent  John  Brown  back  to 
peeling  spuds. 

John  was  at  Bordeaux  on  the 
first  Armistice  Day,  but  the  end 
of  the  war  did  not  mean  the  end 
of  service  for  him.  He  spent  more 
time  Over  There  after  the  Ar- 
mistice than  before,  with  the  Army 
of  Occupation  at  Trier,  Germany, 
in  the  Moselle  region. 

After  his  discharge,  John  re- 
turned to  the  United  States  and 
show  business  —  as  a  pianist. 
Piano  is  the  only  instrument  John 
rov/  plays  at  WLS,  but  by  no 
moans  the  only  one  he  can  ploy. 
Brcv/n  made  his  professional  de- 
but as  a  trombonist  with  the  AU- 
American  Bond,  conducted  by  the 
celebrated  Thurlow  Lieurance. 
But  as  a  boy,  he  had  first  mastered 
the  cornet,  before  turning  to  the 
slide  horn.  And  before  that,  he 
had  started  out  to  learn  violin. 
It  was  only  his  short  reach  that 
kept  John  Brown  from  a  violin  ca- 


(Continued  on  Page  14) 


Page  7 


"SANCTUM'S"  MUSIC 
IS  WEIRD  AS 

ITS  DRAMAS 

pOR  A  SUPER  "whodunnit"  series  like  the 
NBC-Blue  Network's  marrow-melting  "In- 
ner Sanctum  Mystery",  heard  Tuesdays  at 
9:35  P.M.,  EST,  the  choice  of  Charles  Paul 
as  music  director  was  not  only  logical  but 
inevitable. 

A  concert  organist  of  high  standing  in 
his  soberer  moments,  Paul  can  make  an 
organ  do  the  darndest  things  when  he's  of 
a  mind  to.  He  can  make  it  purr  like  a 
kitten,  bark  like  a  seal,  hum  like  a  vacuum 
cleaner  or  wail  like  a  banshee — as  his  mood 
inclines. 

When  a  program  is  deliberately  designed 
to  make  gibbering  insomniacs  of  130,000,000 
radio  listeners,  however,  as  the  "Inner  Sanc- 
tum" series  is,  all  the  stops  are  off  and  Paul 
gets  downright  demoniacal.  Then  the  or- 
gan becomes  haunted.  It  groans,  howls 
like  the  worst  nor' wester  you've  ever  heard, 
or  whimpers  like  a  sick  puppy. 

It  wasn't  always  like  that,  though.  Paul,  a 
native  of  the  Yorkville  sector  of  New  York 
Ciy  is  a  graduate  of  the  New  York  College 
of  Music. 

He  developed  his  whimsical  touch  when 
he  was  engaged  by  Max  Fleischer  to  furnish 
the  accompaniment  for  animated  cartoons.  ■ 
His  fertile  imagination  was  given  the  widest 
latitude.  He  worked  out  various  effects  at 
the  keyboard  that  drew '  as  many  laughs 
from  theater-goers  as  the  cartoon  characters 
did. 

Since  becoming  the  organist  and  music 
director  of  the  "Inner  Sanctum  Mystery", 
Paul  has  added  many  fiendish  sounds  to  his 
unusual  repertoire.  He  receives  a  copy  of 
each  script  several  days  before  they  are 
broadcast  and  spends  hours  working  them 
out 

"It's  just  a  knack  of  having  imagination", 
he  modestly  asserts,  adding,  "and  being  able 
to  work  out  an  effect  that  is  descriptive  with- 
out sounding  musical." 

RESIDENTS  of  New  York  state  have  bene- 
fited more  from  Horace  Heidi's  "Pot  o' 
Gold"  show  than  the  constituents  of  any 
other  section.  As  the  popular  maestro  of 
the  NBC-Blue  coin  carnival  moved  into  Man- 
hattan recently,  he  made  a  survey  of  the 
statistics.  Nine  of  his  gifts  hove  gone  to 
Empire  Staters.  Ohio  comes  second  with 
seven,  Minnesota  third  with  six,  and  Iowa 
fourth  with  five. 

It's  a  moot  question  whether  New  Yorkers 
spend  more  time  at  home  and  thus  hear  the 
$1,000  call,  but  the  state  enjoys  another  rec- 
ord in  grabbing  the  gifts;  the  largest  amount 
ever  given  went  to  a  resident  of  Jamestown, 
N.  Y.— $4,600. 

Page  8 


?'^ JV'?"^   u^jy.  wvJiv.!i^fjy;^-jx,^i„f^miri)/wvft.'<^  '.j'-jw/j  ynjLnw»i.»ii.Mi  .i,iJKWUJ!Uj>^w.y. 


Betty  Lou  Gerson,  one  of  the  leading  players  in  the  NBC  Chieafl* 
studios,  has  added  a  new  laurel  to  her  growing  list  of  triumphs  by 
winning  the  title  role  In  the  widely-popular  serial,  "Story  of  Mary 
Marlln",  heard  dally  over  the  NBC-Blue  Network.  She  also  ha«  the 
%  leads  In  "ISIIdstream"  and  "Arnold  Grimm's  Daughter." 


Judging  from  the  "shame-on-you"  expressions  on  the  faces  of  Edgar 
Bergen  and  Bud  Abbott  and  the  !ool<  of  triumph  beneath  CharUe 
McCarthy's  silk  topper,  Charlie  ("IVIcCarty,"  Lou  Costello  calls  him) 
has  won  the  first  round  in  his  feud  with  Costello.  Keep  tuned  t* 
the  NBC-Red  Sundays  for  other  rounds. 

RADIO  VARIEnES  —  JUNE 


Typical  of  millions  of  American  girls  and  boys  are  "Midge"  and 
"Bud"  Barton  (portrayed  above  by  Jane  Webb  and  Dicl<  Holland)  in 
the  popular  NBC-Blue  Network  series,  "the  Bartons."  The  series  is 
heard  daily,  Monday  through  Friday,  and  the  activities  of  "The 
Bartons"  are  as  familiar  as  those  of  your   neighbor  next  door. 


1^  *WLU^^  iAJJ»>>H^L)J5RWI,iy/J 


Lowell  Thomas,  ace  news  commentator  on  the  NBC-Blue  Network, 
accepts  the  first  of  a  new  edition  of  the  "Lowell  Thomas  Adventure 
Library"  from  W.  W.  Beardsley,  editor  of  P.  F,  Collier  &  Son. 
Thomas,  whose  middle  name  might  well  be  "adventure",  Is  heard 
Monday  through  Friday  in  his  interpretations  of  world  events. 


RADIO   VARIETIES 


JUNE 


YVETTE  MAY  BUY  A  BICYCLE 

AND  A  GOOD  STOUT 

PADLOCK 

VVETTE'S  automobile  v/as  stolen — cmd  yet 

at  the  same  time  it  wasn't.  You  see  it's 
like  this.  The  NBC  network  songbird,  who 
has  been  sporting  a  brand  new  maroon  con- 
vertible, recently  parked  the  car  outside  her 
apartment  building.  But  when  she  came 
out  an  hour  later  it  was  gone. 

A  telephone  call  to  Police  Headquarters 
brought  a  squad  car  on  the  doxoble.  Assured 
by  police  that  the  car  would  be  located 
Yvette  went  to  bed  with  hope  in  her  Jieart. 

Nov;-  we  shift  to  Scene  2...  A  gentlernon 
who  wishes  to  remain  cloaked  in  anonymity 
owns  another  one  of  those  convertibles.  His 
is  not  maroon,  but  a  dork  satiny  blue.  He 
lives  in  the  some  apartment  building.  He 
likewise  parked  his  can  in  frcnt,  but  tele- 
phoned his  garage,  asking  them  to  pick  it 
up  and  put  it  ov/oy  for  the  night. 

When  the  gentleman  came  out  in  the 
m.orning  he  found  his  car  in  front  and  drove 
right  to  the  garage  ripe  for  a  blistering  re- 
prim.and.  On  arrival  he  found  a  new  em- 
ployee who  said  "Why — we  have  your  car 
here — I'll  show  ycu! "  The  cor  in  the  garage 
was  a  maroon  one.  "Mister  I'm  gonna  call 
the  police!"  the  garage  man  said,  "That's 
grand  larcenyi " 

The  police  arrived.  They  called  Yvette. 
All  was  explained.  All  was  forgiven.  The 
locks  on  both  cars  are  identical,  which 
happens  only  once  in  10,000  cars  according 
to  the  police. 

Harpsichordist    Marlowe    and 

Singers  Kay  Lorraine,  Brad 

Reynolds,  on  Anachronistic 

Sunday  Program 

QYLVIA  MARLOWE,  noted  American  har- 
psichordist who  airs  an  anachronism— 
sv/ing  and  boogie  woogie  out  of  that  antique 
instrament — sets  the  pace  for  15  minutes  of 
widely  contrasting  moods  on  the  NBC-Red 
network,  Sunday  afternoons  during  Lavender 
and  New  Lace,  at  2:00  p.  m.  CDST. 

Designed  to  present  both  classics  and 
popular  music  without  swinging  the  masters, 
or  getting  heavy  on  the  popular  music,  the 
program  begins  by  painting  a  picture  of 
eighteenth  century  candlelight  and  hoop- 
skirts. 

About  the  time  the  listener  gets  well  settled 
in  the  satin  and  jasmine  groove,  he  finds 
yesterday  getting  involved  with  today,  his 
satin  illusions  are  shattered,  .tiie^'pf^dle 
snuffed  out.  '■■:>  ,;^ 

Mozart  is  shunted  into  the  rumb!e"Lseat 
and  the  land  of  long  ergo  has,  had  gm  in- 
jection of  lace  and  ruffled  jive  m.ixed  by  cm 
eighteenth  century  harpsichord  pestle  in  the 
twentieth  century  mortar  of  radio. 

Page  9 


Emotions  of  a  Script  Writer 


The  littery  lads  of  the  maternity  words  hove 
nothing  on  Don  Quinn,  writer  of  the  'Tib- 
ber  McGee  and  MoUy"  programs,  as  he 
watches  —  or  rather,  listens  —  to  his  brain 
children  being  bom    each    Tuesday    night, 


»pALK  ABOUT  expectant  fathers 

having  a  time  of  it!  —  the  effect 
of  the  studio  audience's  rhyth- 
mical laughter  on  the  McGees 
writer  is  akin  to  the  relief  a  cor- 
ridor-pacing father  feels  with  the 
first  cry  of  his  new-bom  child. 

At  an  early  hour  Tuesday 
evening  Don  goes  stroightforth  to 
the  sponsor's  booth,  which  Is 
located  high  above  the  stage  in 
Studio  C  of  NBC's  Hollywood 
Radio  City.  A  sponsor's  booth,  just 
to  make  sure  that  we're  still 
together,  is  so  constructed  that  its 
occupants  can  see  as  well  as  hear 
how  the  program  soiinds  on  the 
air. 

Ouinn  seats  himself  in  a  sub- 
dued corner  near  the  loudspeaker, 
and,  out  of  vision  range  of  what 
is  taking  place  on  the  stage,  he 
nervously  ticks  off  the  minutes 
until  airtime.  When  Fibber,  Molly 
and  their  supporting  players  start 
to  warm  up  the  audience  with 
one  of  radio's  funniest  series  of 
pre-broadcast  stimts,  Don  begins 
to  relax  just  a  trifle.  However,  it 
is  evident  to  everyone  present 
that  he  is  listening  intently. 

"Listening  to  what?"  you 
wonder.  Certainly  he  has  heard 
this  pre-air  routine  scores  of  times 
—  Fibber  and  Molly  do  it  every 
Tuesday.  As  you  study  Don  and 
his  reactions,  all  of  a  sudden  it 
dawns  on  you  that  he  is  listening 
to  only  one  thing — the  audience's 
reaction. 

If  the  audience  is  a  responsive 
one  and  generous  with  its  laugh- 
ter, Don  looks  around  him  with  a 
pleased  -  with  himself  and  a 
pleased  -  with  -  the  -  world  -  in- 
general  smile.  For  he  knows  that 
such  an  audience  also  will  be 
more  responsive  to  the  as  yet  im- 
tried  material  to  come  when 
Studio  C's  red  light  signals  "On 
the  air". 

To  a  stranger  entering  the 
booth,  Don  Quinn  appears  to  be 
the  least  important  person  there. 
But  that  Is  true  of  most  really  im- 
portant   people   —   they   seldom 

Page  10 


Fibber  McGee,  Molly  and  Don  Quinn. 


flaunt  their  position,  and  certainly 
Don  is  no  exception  to  the  rule, 

"Surely  that  quiet,  slightly 
rotund  figure  straddling  a  chair 
over  there  in  the  comer  can't  be 
important,"  they  probably  think 
to  themselves.  "Whereas  his  pres- 
ence in  the  booth  may  not  be 
important  to  them,  their  presence 
there  is  to  Quinn. 

With  each  line  of  the  broadcast 
he  studies  them  as  a  scientist 
would  a  strange  specimen.  By 
their  reactions  and  the  laughter 
from  the  studio  audience,  Don 
pieces  together  a  cross-country 
picture  of  a  nation  seated  by  its 
collective  radio.  And  so  it  is  that 
he  learns  and  improves  and  finds 
the  eagerly  sought  answers  to 
the  thousand  and  one  questions 
he  has  been  asking  himself  about 
the  script's  various  lines  and 
situations,  about  the  turning  of  a 
phrase,  the  choice  of  a  word,  the 
right  spot  for  a  certain  routine. 


That  is  why,  as  th©  "Fibber 
McGee  and  Molly"  scripts  roll  off 
the  production  line  of  Don  Qulnn's 
pen,  the  McGees  tour  the  nation's 
broadcasting  band  each  Tuesday 
night  in  a  better  and  smarter 
model  than  the  week  before.  Each 
program  in  its  turn  is  based  on 
the  knowledge  gained  the  week 
before. 

When  the  script  is  completed 
and  ready  for  the  air,  Quinn  fig- 
ures that  his  work  Is  only  half 
done.  His  next  task  is  to  take  it 
into  the  laboratory  of  human 
reaction  to  prove  or  disprove  his 
work.  Only  by  using  the  testing 
ground  of  an  actual  broadcast 
and  getting  all  the  answers  does 
Don  Quinn  feel  that  he  is  prepared 
to  tackle  next  Tuesday's  "Fibber 
McGee  and  Molly"  script. 

The  mechanics  of  writing  the 
script  are  something  to  write  about 
and  something  on  which  Quinn 
has  a  few  things  to  say. 

RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JUNE 


For  over  ten  years  he  has  been 
directly  associated  with  the  Fibber 
McGee  and  Molly  stars  —  Marian 
and  Jim  Jordan,  who  are  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Nearly  six  of  those  ten 
years  have  been  devoted  to  writ- 
ing Fibber  and  Molly  scripts. 
Their  early  years  were  occupied 
with  a  daytime  serial  known  as 
"Smackout".  Not  once  during  this 
time  has  Quinn  relaxed  his  vig- 
ilance and  deep  concern  over 
every  program. 

"When  the  time  comes," 
declares  Don,  and  the  Jordans 
back  him  up,  "when  we  hove  to 
put  a  show  on  the  air  on  which 
we — and  thai  means  every  mem- 
ber of  the  troupe — are  not  sold 
100  percent,  that  will  be  the  signal 
for  us  to  quit  this  radio  business 
and  take  up  farming." 

In  all  probability  the  Jordan- 
Ouinn  trio  will  not  soon  take  to 
serious  agricultural  pursuits,  for 
the  "Fibber  McGee  and  Molly" 
show  stays  consistently  top-flight 
and  is  harvesting  a  bigger  au- 
dience with  each  airing.  Figures 
show  that  the  McGees  are  at  the 
top  of  all  weekday  broadcasts. 

Ouinn  says  that  the  secret  of 
this  steady  success  lies  in  the 
versatility  of  the  cast.  But  that  is 
only  part  of  the  story. 

"After  the  first  draft  of  the 
script  is  'written"  explains  Don, 
"we  have  a  reading  on  Friday 
afternoon,  four  days  before  air- 
time.  We  go  over  the  lines  and 
kick  them  around  —  everyone 
makes  suggestions,  and  then  I  go 
back  to  work.  While  revising  the 
script,  I  try  to  keep  the  theme  of 
the  program  intact  and  at  the 
same  time  try  to  strengthen  weak 
spots  and  delete  bad  gags. 

"Monday  morning  the  cast 
rehearses  the  revised  script,  picks 
it  to  pieces  again  for  possible 
flaws.  Mind  you,  all  of  this  a 
scant  twenty-four  hours  before  the 
broadcast.  Even  then,  if  it  still 
seems  weak,  if  the  cast  can  not 
work  up  the  proper  enthusiasm, 
the  entire  script  is  junked.  We 
make  no  further  attempt  to  re- 
write it  but  start  on  a  new  script 
with  a  new  theme. 

"This  can  be  done,"  continued 
Ouinn,  "only  because  each  mem- 


ber of  the  cast,  from  Marion  and 
Jim  Jordan  down,  is  able  to  play 
at  least  three  different  characters 
if  necessary.  Thus,  without  the 
necessity  of  adding  to  the  cast,  it  is 
possible  to  change  a  script  which 
features  Fibber  and  Molly,  Horatio 
K.  Boomer,  an  English  butler  and 
a  society  woman  to  one  having 
such  characters  as  the  Old  Timer, 
the  Little  Girl,  a  stuttering  vacuum 
cleaner  salesman,  a  gangster  and 
a  "Grik"  dialectician.  With  these 
character  substitutions  we  can 
change  the  entire  theme  of  the 
program  in  a  few  hours  if  nec- 
essary." 

Changing  the  entire  script  of  a 
radio  program  at  the  eleventh 
hour  is  no  easy  task,  no  matter 
how  versatile  a  cast  may  be. 
However,  it  has  been  done,  but 
you  can  see  by  the  look  in  Mr. 
Oulnn's  eyes  that  he  hopes  it 
doesn't  happen  again  soon. 

Ouinn's  theory  for  comedy  writ- 
ing is  simple.  Every  lough  line 
on  the  show  must  grow  directly 
out  of  its  characters  and  situations 
at  79  Wistful  Vista,  the  locale  of 
all  the  McGees'  doings. 

Fibber  must  be  funny  as  Fibber 
and  not  with  a  joke  stolen  from 
Toe  Miller.  Don  will  not  depend 
on  the  ordinary  radio  technique 
of  taking  an  extraneous  gag  and 
shoving  it  in  as  the  high  spot. 

Oulnn's  is  the  hard  way  to  do  It. 
But  it's  the  way  he  has  worked 
since  the  beginning  of  his  associa- 
tion with  the  Jordans. 

There  are  really  two  Don 
Ouinns:  the  serious  worker  whom 
we  have  just  described,  and  the 
whimsical  chap  known  to  his 
family  and  friends.  In  fact,  Don  is 
a  rarity  amongst  humorists  —  a 
completely  sane  and  happy  man. 

To  be  brutally  frank,  the  current 
fashion  for  humorists  —  especially 
radio  writers  —  calls  for  an  upset 
stomach,  a  perennial  grouch  at 
the  world  and  a  preoccupied  stare 
that  apparently  sees  naught  but 
over-ripe  eggs  laying  all  over  the 
place.  While  these  men  may 
succeed  from  time  to  time  in  shak- 
ing the  world  with  a  belly  laugh, 
it  is  often  advisable  to  pass  them 


by  when  in  search  of  good  com- 
pany. 

But  Ouinn,  as  we  said,  is  an  ex- 
ception —  probably  that  always 
needed  exception  to  prove  the 
rule. 

The  only  beef  Don  has  in  his 
scheme  of  things  is  that  there  is  so 
little  time  left  over  in  the  days  and 
weeks  to  devote  to  his  numerous 
hobbies  —  hobbies  other  than 
writing,  which  he  thoroughly 
enjoys. 

And  it  is  very  probable  that  this 
enormous  appetite  for  living  keeps 
Don  going  year  after  year  with 
never  a  lack  of  material. 

As  for  the  hobbies  —  there  are 
several  sleek  guns  in  the  comer 
of  his  study  that  are  always  in- 
viting him  out  to  the-  target  range. 
"And  I'm  getting  to  be  a  pretty 
good  shot,  too,"  remarks  Don  with 
a  surprising  likeness  to  Santa 
Clous  twinkle  in  his  eyes. 

Golf  is  "Swell",  according  to 
Ouinn,  but  the  real  love  of  his 
life,  next  to  Mrs.  Ouinn  and  their 
5-year-old  daughter,  Nancy,  is 
flying.  "That's  really  being  in 
another  world,"  is  the  way  he 
sums  it  up. 

On  his  desk  is  o  stock  of  yet-to- 
be-read  books.  "Swell  hobby  for 
anyone,  reading,"  he'll  tell  you. 
Photography  is  something  else 
that  he  would  like  to  find  a  great 
deal  more  hours  for. 

And  OS  he  goes  on  down  the 
list,  it  is  all  too  evident  that  here 
is  one  funnyman  who  hasn't  out- 
laughed  himself  at  the  ways  of 
the  world. 

There  ore  also  weekly  top 
lessons  that  manage  somehow  to 
find  their  way  into  his  crowded 
week.  "It's  swell  exercise,  you 
know,  and  that's  one  way  you 
can  hove  a  lot  of  laughs  at  your- 
self without  anyone  getting  hurt/' 

And  that  last  remark  just  about 
sums  up  Don  Oulnn's  philosophy 
of  life: 

If  you  can  lough  ot  yourself 
and  really  enjoy  living,  you  hove 
a  better  right  to  ask  the  world  to 
lough  with  you. 


RADIO  VARIETIEb  —   JUNE 


Paa©  11 


#:^'!rsl 


Wm^'M-w^ 


The   Little   Maid 


Evelyn,  the  Little  Maid  of  WLS,  Chicago,  is  now  singing  at  WLS'  sister 
station  KOY  in  Phoenix,  Arizona.  Evelyn's  last  name  is  Overstake,  and  she 
is  a  sister  of  Eva  Overstake,  now  Mrs.  Red  Foley.  With  a  third  sister,  Lucille, 
they  used  to  be  known  as  the  Three  Little  Maids  on  WIS. 


VERA  VAGUE  SELECTS 
BEST  DRESSED  MEN 

gING  CROSBY,   Rudy  Vallee  and  a  little 

man  who  attended  a  Signal  Carnival  pro- 
gram incognito  are  Hollywood's  best  dressed 
men,  according  to  Vera  Vague,  the  brilliant 
and  unbalanced  NBC  lecturess  of  many  West 
Coast  broadcasts.  Seven  other  worthy  char- 
acters made  up  Miss  Vogue's  list  of  the  10 
bsst  dressed  Hollywoodians  for   1940. 

"I  nominate  Bing  Crosby  for  first  place," 
Miss  Vague  said,  "because  he  has  a  sense 
of  color,  a  sense  of  what  not  to  wear,  and 
the  things  he  doesn't  wear  look  so  nice  on 
the  men  who  wear  them.     Or  do  they? 

"Rudy  Vallee  is  my  second  choice,  be- 
cause he  looks  so  dashing,  if  you  get  what 
I  mean.  No  one  in  Hollywood  wears  dark 
glasses  with  such  an  air.  Rudy  and  Bing 
both  sing  nice,  too,  so  let's  take  them  as 
representatives  of  two  schools  of  thought. 
Of  course  they  might  give  a  little  more 
thought  to  me,  don't  you  think?" 

Queried  as  to  her  third  choice.  Miss  Vague 
said,  "Oh,  him?  I  just  threw  him  in  because 
he's  cute.  He  always  sits  in  the  front  row, 
wears  horn-rimmed  spectacles,  looks  as 
though  he  should  have  a  goatee  but  doesn't, 
and  he  cracks  his  knuckles.  He's  about 
iive  feet  two,  weighs  about  100  pounds.  And 
he  wears  suits  exactly  like  my  father  used 
to  wear  when  father  was  the  best  dressed 
man  in  the  country  in  1842." 

Miss  Vogue's  other  selections  were  Joe 
the  Newsboy;  Bill  Goodwin,  because  he 
wears  toothpaste  with  such  an.  air;  Basil 
Rathbone,  because  his  Sherlock  Hclmes  cap 
is  so  practical  (he  can  tip  his  hat  to  two  girls 
at  the  same  tim.e);  and  three  ushers  from 
Grauman's   Chinese   Theatre. 

KING  CANUTE  HAS  NOTHING 
ON  BOB  BURNS 

DOB  BURNS  may  go  down  in  history  as  the 
inventor  of  the  bazooka,  but  NBC's  Music 
Hall  comic  has  another  spring  to  add  to  his 
laurel   wreath — the   waterproof   fence. 

During  California's  rai  -  -  er,  heavy  dew  - 
-  -  of  the  past  week,  water  begun  pouring 
into  low  parts  of  Burns'  ranch.  Trenches 
and  sand  bags  were  of  no  help.  Ever  re- 
sourceful. Burns  bought  2000  feet  of  2x12 
lumber,  nailed  it  to  the  wooden  fence,  mak- 
ing a  24  inch  high  solid  barricade.  To  this 
he  nailed  waterproof  roofing  paper,  one  foot 
of  which  he  laid  along  the  ground  and 
covered  with  dirt. 

It  made  the  world's  first  waterproof  fence, 
and  Bob  Burns,  who  never  has  been  known 
to  exaggerate,  swears  and  deposes  that  his 
ranch  was  as  dry  as  a  Sahara  safari,  though 
the  rest  of  his  neighborhood  was  as  wet  as 
an  Arctic  aquacade. 


VIckl  Voia,  NBC-Red  Network  heroine  In  Mary  Roberts  Rlnehart't 
"The  Window  at  the  White  Cat",  as  dramatized  In  "The  Mystery 
Man"  daily  series,  and  right  hand  woman  to  "Mr.  District  Attorney", 
detective  thriller  heard  Wednesdays,  once  worked  as  a  grocery 
•tore  cashier  to  pay  for  her  flret  lessons  In  acting. 


RADIO  VARIETIES 


JUNE 


Tom  Wallace,  known  to  NBC-Red  The  country  squire  at  the   NBC 

Network      listeners     as     "Uncle  microphone    Is    none    other   than 

Walter"  of  the  "Dog  House"  pro-  Uncle  Fletcher  of  the   NBC  Vic 

grami    shares    his    haven    from  and   6ade  series.   In   private   life 
liarples    with    mascot    "Penny.*  he's  Clarenoe  Hartzell. 

Page  18 


(Continued  from  page  7) 

reer.  As  John  explains  it,  he 
couldn't  stand  the  screaching 
tones  he  produced  when  he  start- 
ed at  the  age  of  five;  they  hurt  his 
ears,  and  he  had  to  give  up  the 
fiddle. 

All  the  time  this  WLS  pianist  was 
Learning  brass  instruments,  he 
was  fooling  around  with  the  par- 
lor piano.  There  was  no  piano 
teacher  in  his  home  town  out  in 
Kansas,  but  being  a  natural-born 
musician,  John  thoroughly  mas- 
tered it  all  by  himself.  Living  at  the 
Brown  home  was  the  noted  com- 
poser and  conductor,  Thurlow 
Lieurance,  who  had  come  to 
Kansas  to  study  Indian  tribal  mu- 
sic. He  would  frequently  hand 
John  the  manuscript  of  a  new 
composition  and  ask  the  boy  to 
try  it  over  on  the  piano. 

One  day,  he  handed  out  a  piece 
he  had  worked  on  only  a  short 
time.  John  played.  Lieurance 
listened.  "It  will  be  a  hit,  I  think." 
he  confided  to  the  youngster.  It 
was.  For  that  afternoon  was  the 
first  time  that  anyone  had  ever 
played  "By  the  Waters  of  Min- 
netonka."  It  was  mailed  to  the 
publishers  next  day. 

At  an  early  age  John  was  play- 
ing his  trombone  in  bands  at  par- 
ties and  in  theaters.  Then  he 
went  into  Chautauqua  for  six 
seasons,  and  toured  the  country 
in  the  same  company  as  William 
Jennings  Bryan,  the  Great  Com- 
moner. 

Only  a  short  time  after  John 
Brown  returned  from  France,  it 
was  obvious  that  radio  was  go- 
ing to  be  a  big  thing.  So  he 
settled  down  in  Chicago,  broad- 
casting programs  of  piano  duets 
with  Dean  Remick  on  several  sta- 
tions. He  finally  came  to  WLS, 
where  he  met  the  other  talent, 
among  them  a  girls'  duo,  Mae 
and  June.  June's  real  name  was 
Ju£tnita  Rae,  but  as  June  Ray  she 
had  been  singing  with  Red 
Nichols,  Don  Bestor,  Buddy  Rog- 
ers and  other  orchestras.  Today 
Juanita  is  Mrs.  John  Brown.  They 
hove  two  children,  Joan  Juanita, 
iovi  and  one-half  years  old,  and 
Betty  Jane,  18  months. 
Page  14 


Charles  Flynn,  who  plays  a  17-year-old  cub  reporter  In  his  mother'a 
NBC-Red  Network  dramatic  serial,  "Bachelor's  Children",  is  looking 
forward  to  visiting  his  mother  on  Mother's  Day.  Mrs.  Bess  Flynn, 
awthor  of  the  popular  daytime  feature,  lives  in  New  York  while 
Charles  lives  in  Chicago,  show's  origin. 


'Specially  lovely  Evelyn  Lynne 
sings  away  thos«  morning  dol- 
drums on  the  Breakfast  Club, 
NBC-Blue  Network's  autn.  tMlgll 
iMloh. 


Meet  the  new  "Doctor  1.  Q.", 
folksl  It's  Jimmy  McClaIn,  29, 
announcer  and  producer,"  who 
now  holdsforth  in  the  ringmaster 
role  on  the  NBC-Red  quiz  show. 


RADIO  VARIETIES  —  JUNE 


Decca's  Delighful  Duet 


Helen  O'Connell  and  Bob  Eberly,  featured  singers 
with  Jimmy  Dorsey  and  his  Orchestra.  Heard  on 
Decca  records  and  NBC  on  Fridays  at  8:30  P.  M. 


RADIO  VARlETfflS   —  JiSfE 


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Here's  the  littlest  cowgirl  radio  star,  Beverly  Paula  Rose,  following  in  th» 
footsteps  of  her  celebrated  mother,  Patsy  Montana.  Patsy  is  a  former  singing 
and  yodeling  star  of  the  WLS  National  Barn  Dance  and  is  now  broadcasting, 
with  Beverly,  from  San  Antonio,  Texas. 


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