We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
THE STEEL WORKER
into wheezing senescence. This may be all right; I do not know. I only know that if the testimony of my grandfather is reliable, those of us who never heard Artemus Ward missed a considerable something. Today we do not make our fun ; it is made for us.
Now, although it is perfectly true that what we can buy is better than what we can make; although it is true that, despite the passing of the annual county pumpkin show, America is better entertained and more entertaining than ever before, it is equally true that spontaneous artistic diversions of even the most rudimentary intention have left the American scene, perhaps forever. Today we are critics and appreciators ; we have ceased to be participants.
The humble monologue, simplest of dramatic forms, hangs upon the upright body of modern entertainment as a sort of vestigial tail. But, like many other enduring institutions, it is as respectable as it is humble, for it is the oldest entertainment known to man. It is the only genuine primitive in the entire gallery of dramatics. Radio, by reason of its peculiar character, can (if it will) express this known but neglected truth more forcefully than any other medium except the stage. I have heard bad monologues on the air, but I have heard surprisingly few. This is because as an art form in drama it is the most natural. It was common in pre-Christian times; it is common in all Oriental countries today; it occurs throughout the Bible and Shakespeare, and I believe it is something that radio will embrace increasingly.
A well-written, pointed monologue is a challenge to any actor. He is obliged to turn himself into a one-man show. Because so few actors can meet this challenge, the standard set by the good monologue is as animating as it is healthy. The piece that I have selected reveals many of the inherent opportunities afforded by this type of dramatic writing; opportunities to the writer and performer alike. Arch Oboler, whose monologue is reprinted, has used this medium for its commentary advantages. Oboler, who was mentioned in the prefatory statement to “The Lighthouse Keepers,” is one of radio’s best-known and most prolific writers.
3S7