Radio Digest (June 1932-Mar 1933)

Station Parade IFGY^Schenectady.N. Y. «T JES' come down from de Mekinac JL for broadax to people in de Junite State to tole dem how smart dose man is w'at leev in dat place. You know who was de mos' bes' fi'tin' man up dere? Dat was my huncle. Oh ... he was beeg man an' he weigh, I dunno, mebbe four hondred twenty five poun'." Thus speaks Joe Peno or Joseph Felicitas Pinaud, the French-Canadian woodsman of WGY, who is rapidly taking his place among radio comedy characters. Joe is the brain child of Waldo Pooler who is also his radio interpreter. Mr. Pooler, a former newspaperman and actor, lived for years at Bangor, Me., and he saw character material for the stage in the French-Canadian. Kolin Hager, manager of WGY, saw in the French-Canadian an excellent opportunity for a new radio personality and he planned the Joe and Eddie sketch which is now a three-time-a-week attraction of the Schenectady station. Joe is a composite of many characters and the patois, which is a fascinating and humorous union of both French and English, is authentic. Joe Peno, as conceived by Pooler, is a simple, lovable blunderer with a natural affinity for trouble, gay one moment, melancholy the next, and loyal to his friends. Joe's besetting sin and one of which he is wholly unconscious, is a tendency to exaggerate, in fact, Joe is a colossal liar. He has inherited the epics of that master woodsman, Paul Bunyan, and he really believes that Paul saved his army of woodsmen from starvation by building a fire under a lake to make a lakeful of pea soup after hundreds of sleighs loaded with peas broke through the ice. Peno recalls, as if it were today, a winter so cold that spoken words froze in the air and his ears still tingle with the bedlam of curses that was released when the spring thaw set in. 35 The sketch "Joe arid Eddie," presented by WGY every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 6:00 p.m., is built around the adventures of Joe Peno and his friend Eddie, a straight character, employes of a night-club. Eddie, played by Warren Munson, is a night-club entertainer, and Joe is a humble jack-of-all-trades working in the kitchen or as bus boy in the dining room. A third character Jimmie, manager and fixer, is taken by Tom Lewis, who also assists in writing the script. WMBH^Joplin, Mo. "T TNCLE Clem and Martha" in "Down LJ on the Farm" met with instant popularity at WMBH. Miss Jean Knighton, playing the part of Martha, is a graduate of Tom Lewis "Jimmie" — Waldo Pooler as "Joe Peno" and Warren Munson as "Eddie" Northwestern University. Miss Knighton is twenty-two years of age and portrays several characters in the script. Merwyn Love, playing the part of Uncle Clem, is twenty-three, writes the script and also Colonel Reiniger portrays several characters. Mr. Love hails from Kansas University. "Down on the Farm" presents Uncle Clem in a Yankee type of characterization and very much in love with Martha. This program began as a local feature three months ago. It is a regular evening feature broadcast at six-fifteen — clean-cut. wholesome comedy. WOR ^Newark, N. J. COLONEL REINIGER, WOR, 10:00 a.m., Saturdays. Colonel Reiniger. who presides at the meetings of the Young Aviators of America National Club, over WOR every Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m., used to be one of the star salesmen of the National Broadcasting Company. He says that he is going to put the proceeds of whatever broadcasting he does into making a success of his hobby, the Y. A. A. There are already over a thousand members of this club, and they hold a weekly mass-meeting at the Chanin Building Little Theatre, and ground school meetings every Friday night in the various public libraries. The object of the club is to teach every one of its members how to fly. Colonel Reiniger organized the now widespread and powerful Reserve Officers' Association of the United States. He started that organization in a small way as the Reserve Officers' Association of Western North Carolina. Colonel Reiniger has had a colorful career beginning with his education at the U. S. Naval Academy, his service as a Major of field artillery during the war. and later for three years as a member of the general Staff of the Army in Washington under General Pershing, then two years preparing for and serving in the diplomatic service of the State Department, and finally with NBC.