Radio mirror (Jan-June 1948)

Mh Hu$b "Even in a schedule as tight as Don's, there's always a loophole o{ spare time for a fiBherraan wbo*9 ardent enough.'* ON MsNehl .cT J^ ^ S r^ <%' 5,^ **It*8 true* what they say about i work — particalarly since now I'm going to be on Breakfast Club shows as well." By KAY McNeill am told to Don Terrio A glimpse into a house warmed by affection . . . for the people who live WHEN I was younger, and before I had even met Don McNeill, 1 pictured the life-of-the-wife of a motion picture or radio star as more or less a constant stream of parties and "evenings out" — meeting people, dancing, and sleeping late in the morning. Perhaps some star-wives do live on such a meny-go -round. But it isn't for me ... I like a simple life. For with our early-rising schedule, night life just can't be for us. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times we've been night-clubbing. Perhaps four or five times a year we see a movie, and that's about all. You see, my life with your Breakfast Club toastmaster revolves completely around our home and family. I know that some wives feel differently about "going places and doing things." But I feel that the love and enjoyment I find in my family, and the values I know in Don, far outweigh any program of getting out and going "places." There are two questions which people ask me about Don before any others. One is "How do you get him up in the morning?" The second is, "What kind of a man is he to live with?" The former is by far the easiest to answer, so I'll take that first. Don arises at 5:45 every 'morning — and not by himself! It takes the combined efforts of two alarm clocks, our three boys — Donnie, Bobby and Tommy — and me. If Don is particularly reluctant, I threaten hin» with a pitcher of water. Then, while Don shaves, I get breakfast. Bobby talks to Don while his dad uses the razor, telling him how to run the program that day, and appears at the breakfast table well sprinkled with shaving lotion and with a bit of lather clinging to his ears. Breakfast is on a seventeenminute schedule, covering cereal, coffee and eggs — ^with whatever else might be convenient Our job is to "prime" the B. C. toastmaster — Donnie pops up with a "new" story he's heard there love each other as a family, and like each other as friends at school. For example, on a recent morning he said to Don, "She sure gave you a dirty look" Don said, ."Who?" Donnie cracked, "Mother Nature." There were a few assorted groans before Don wiped the coffee off his chin and sprinted out the door — to the Breakfast Club and you. The boys run outdoors for a short while, and our housekeeper and I clean up the breakfast dishes and set the kitchen in order. The boys are back in the house by 8 o'clock, and listen to as much of (he Breakfast Club as they can stand before running for school. After the program, I have more time for thinking about Don — ^and why I love him — than when he is home. Of course, there's an old saying that no man is a hero in the eyes of his wife. Perhaps Don is an exception, for he is my hero, indeed. Don first attracted me, back in his college days, because of his free, perfectly statural manner of speaking and his real interest in people. Later, I grew to love Don for the hidden things which don't come out when you first meet a person — his thoughtfulness, consideration and kindness to other people. Perhaps that's best expressed in Don's own closing line to the Breakfast Club programs— "Be good to yourself." He means, of course, that you should be good to oth^r people, and that as time goes on other people will be good to you in return. Naturally, I'm proud of the work Don does on the Breakfast Club — ^both because it amuses so many milUons of people and because his Memory Time, Inspiration Time, Prayer Time and Sunshine Showers have brought happiness and a change in viewpoint to many thousands. And Don's feehng for people doesn't end when the Breakfast Club goes off the air. About four years ago, a girl in Michigan wrote Don that she fotmd a great deal of satisfaction in his inspirational messages, for she had tuberculosis, had spent all