Radio mirror (Jan-June 1948)

Superman In the Suburbs (Continued from page 37) living room is Bud's pride. "It's great for the kids," he explains. "Why, last Christmas we got a tree in it that was seventeen feet tall." The way he says it betrays that Bud was as thrilled by this enormous tree as were the children. Bud and Marian would like to spend every evening at home, but unfortunately the inexorable demands of their profession won't permit it. In addition to playing Superman, a role he created on the air seven years ago, Bud appears regularly on Life Can Be Beautiful, Break the Bank, Silver Theatre, Listening Post and Road of Life. He's the announcer on Road of Life, in which Marian has played "Carol Brent." But he often takes other roles as well. Too often for his liking this rigorous schedule keeps him in town beyond the children's bedtime. THE only program on which Marian appears regularly is Road of Life, and although she accepts occasional parts on other shows, she prefers to keep her working hours to a minimum. "Running a house the size of ours takes lots of time, even though we do have a man and his wife to help," she says, "but if I didn't do some radio work, I'd seldom see Bud. He'd be in New York and I'd be in Greenwich." They are together each morning on the trip to New York and during the rehearsals and broadcasts of Road of Life. Often they manage to meet for lunch, and then Marian usually returns alone to Greenwich if it is one of those days when Bud must stay in town for an evening show. Such days are not rare. Bud is one of the busiest announcers and actors in radio — a strange success for one who only twelve years ago was heading for an entirely different career. Bud started out to be a lawyer. After graduating from Williams College and Fordham University law school, he joined a New York law firm as a clerk — the accepted beginning for a fledgling attorney. "I was working for a fast fifteen dollars a week and desk space," he recalls. "After a while I foimd that dull." He worked hard in this humble calling for two years before he decided that radio promised larger returns. While at Fordham he had earned spending money by singing on WABC (now WCBS) and he remembered that actors and announcers he had met at that time made as much money in a month as he could expect to collect in a year at the bar. He appeared at an NBC audition and landed a part on a show. That was in 1935, and although he no longer recalls the name of that program, it marked the turning point of his life. "I was in radio for good after that," he says. The construction of a career in radio acting and announcing comes slowly at the start, and for some time Bud languished in semi-obscurity. In those years he found his own lack of fame a particularly bitter pill because of a family connection. Bud's sister, June CoUyer, was then a well-known movie star. "People were always introducing us as June CoUyer and, oh, yes, this is her brother," Bud says. After a while, however. Bud began to be recognized as a coming radio star. Recently when he and June were at LITTLE LULU Little Lulu says . . . Compare tissues — compare boxes— and you'll see why Kleenex* is America's favorite tissue. You pull just one double tissue at a time— up pops another! e International Cellacotton Products Co. •T. M. Reg. U. S. Pat. Ofi. &V3 Codlym*? <md £c)aipm«n1 by V t & A — Omco^ LINGERS LONGEk whizzing down snow-covered slopes is breath-taking . . . breott)toking as the tasty fresh mint fftivor of LEAF Chewing Gv -^