Broadcasting (Jan-June 1933)

We Pay Our Respects to — ELMER WILLIAM PRATT WITH THE RETURN to private life of Elmer William Pratt, the Radio Commission loses the "dean" of its legal staff and a lawyer whose attainments in the new field of radio jurisprudence are reflected in many of the statutes and regulations which today govern radio. After five years of service, to the day, Mr. Pratt leaves the Commission on June 1 to return to the private practice of law in Washington. Planning to specialize in radio, he will face the very bench over which he presided so many times as an examiner for the Commission. He was the first lawyer on the Commission's staff when it was formed in 1927 and also its first examiner. Thus, although only 32, he is the veteran among radio lawyers. For the last three years, minus one month, Mr. Pratt has held an examinership. During that time he presided over 242 separate cases, many of them raising test issues that became the basis for Commission policies. Of the total, 37 cases are still pending before the Commission. Of the 196 cases decided, Mr. Pratt was sustained in 165 and reversed in only 31, giving him a "batting average" of better than .840. Almost everyone who has had dealings with the Commission knows and likes Elmer Pratt, whose forte as an examiner has been his calm and judicial handling of heated legalistic encounters of counsel appearing before him. Elmer William Pratt was born in Salt Lake City on Oct. 28, 1900, the son of William Parker and Catherine B. Pratt. He is the eldest of 15 children. His parents still reside in the Mormon capital, which his great grandfather, Parley Parker Pratt, helped found. The elder Pratt was associated with Joseph Smith and Brigham Young in the Mormon migration to Utah. After attending grammar and high schools in Salt Lake City, young Pratt, at 19, journeyed to South Dakota, for a two-year tenure as a Mormon missionary. During his school vacations, he worked on farms around Utah, and in 1922 spent a year travelling through the west as a woolen salesman. Meanwhile, he completed a business course at Henagers Business College in Salt Lake City, graduating in 1923. That same year he went to Washington to pursue a law course, and to pay his way, he secured a position as clerk in the office of Senator Smoot, (R.) of Utah. Enrolling at National University Law School in January, 1924, he continued his employment in Senator Smoot's office, and was promoted at that time to assistant clerk of the Senate Finance Committee, of which the Senator was chairman. In 1926 he became secretary to the Senator and clerk of this committee. Graduating from law school in August, 1926, young Pratt passed the District bar examination in June of the following year. On June 1, 1928, he resigned his post with Senator Smoot to become the Commission's first legal employe. A month later, Louis G. Caldwell, Chicago attox'ney, was appointed as the Commission's first general counsel, and the two delved into the maze of hearings called by the Commission preparatory to the sweeping reallocation of the fall of 1928, in which practically all stations were involved. Three separate hearing calendars were conducted simultaneously over a period of several weeks, both day and night, and the entire legal burden fell upon the shoulders of Caldwell and Pratt during the earlier days. When the examiners division was created by the Commission on July 1, 1930, Mr. Pratt was transferred to it from the legal staff. About a month later, Ellis A. Yost, of West Virginia, was appointed chief examiner, and the two shared the duties of the division. Mr. Pratt married Margaret Genevieve Robinson, of Coalville, Utah, Aug. 29, 1924. They have two children, Elmer Reed, 6, and Gene Albert, 4 months. He is an ardent baseball fan, and the best fisherman in the Radio Piscators' Club in Washington. But golf is his main diversion. PERSONAL NOTES SAM PICKARD, CBS station relations vice president, was given a farewell party by his friends and colleagues May 20, just before he left for Florida to begin a three month leave of absence during which he and Mrs. Pickard will also tour Europe. GARDNER COWLES, Jr., executive editor of the Des Moines Register & Tribune, who negotiated the purchases of KSO and two other Iowa stations by those newspapers, was married in Des Moines May 18 to Miss Lois Thornburg, a reporter on the Tribune staff. They sailed May 25 for Europe. JAMES C. HANRAHAN, executive vice president of the Iowa Broadcasting Co., operating KSO, Des Moines, and other radio stations of the Des Moines Register & Tribune group, was married at Lamar, Colo., May 6, to Miss Priscilla Todd, of Washington, D. C. R. L. RUST, the past two years commercial manager of KTM, Los Angeles, resigned the middle of May to become advertising manager for the Godissart Cosmetic Co., Los Angeles. George Martinson, manager of KTM, will assume the combined duties of general and commercial managers. BENSON K. PRATT, director of public relations for NBC in Chicago, has been assigned to take charge of special feature broadcasts for the network at the Chicago World's Fair. Judith Waller, educational director for NBC in Chicago, will be in charge of the regular local and network broadcasts from the Fair. RECENT visitors in the office of Fred Weber, NBC manager of station relations in Chicago, included: William Walker, WIBA; J. Montgomery, KOIL; Peter Lutkin, president of Lamar Life Insurance Co., and WJDX; C. W. Corkhill, KSCJ; Edgar Bell, secretary Oklahoma Publishing Co., and WKY; Gayle Grubb, WKY; George Campbell, KGHL; George Smith, radio attorney of Washington, D. C; Joe Maland, WOC-WHO. COL. THAD H. BROWN, Radio Commissioner, and Alfred J. McCosker, director of WOR and president of the NAB, will address the "Radio Family Dinner" of the annual convention of the Radio Manufacturers Association at the Hotel Stevens, Chicago, June 6. MAJ. GLADSTONE MURRAY, Canadian born vice president of the British Broadcasting Coi'p., who has been in Canada for the last few months aiding the Canadian Radio Commission in reorganizing the broadcasting system there, returns to London early in June. On June 4 he will speak to the American public via CBS on "Radio Decisive for World Citizenship." G. W. STAMM, founder and for four years publisher of Broadcast Advertising, which was purchased by Broadcasting last February, has joined the sales staff of WJJD, Chicago. HOWARD C. RAY, formerly manager of KOB, Albuquerque, N. M., is now with KGRS, Amarillo, Tex., doing sales promotion and merchandising. PAUL MEYER, vice president of World Broadcasting System, has been elected a director of the Alliance Francaise of New York. N. VERNON CLARKE, formerly of Tampa, Fla., has been named general manager of WRDW, Augusta, Ga. JACK BEESON, formerly advertising manager of WRDW, Augusta, Ga., has been transferred to WSPA, Spartanburg, S. C, and promoted to general commercial manager. MISS MERLE MATTHEWS is the new production manager at KTAB, San Francisco, succeeding Glenhall Taylor, who has moved into the commercial department. Miss Matthews formerly held the same post at KFRC. W. A. MILLER has resigned as manager of KROW, Oakland. No successor has yet been named. BEHIND THE MICROPHONE EUGENE KONECKY, of WOW, Omaha, is author of the poem "Radio Singer" which Jessica Dragonette, who also claims some distinction as a reader, recited at a meeting of poets in the Barbizon Club, New York, May 18. ARTHUR Q. BRYAN, formerly with WOR as conductor of the Moonbeams and later with WCAU, has joined WIP, Philadelphia. WIP also reports the return of Gene Marshall, announcer, after an absence of several months. A. L. ALEXANDER, chief announcer of WMCA, New York, was inducted as an honorary member of the Veteran of Foreign Wars Post No. 601 May 27. WMCA also reports the marriage of Brook Allen, staff baritone, May 21, to Ruth Gean Kappel, assistant to Dr. William Wheeler, eye specialist who operated on the King of Siam, in Fort Lee, N. J. LEON JANNEY, the juvenile film star of "Penrod and Sam", has joined the staff of WMCA, New York, and is heard in a new program Mondays, 10:15 p.m. EDWARD LYNN, who conducts a weekly drama series for KFI, Los Angeles, starring Mrs. Wallace Reid, is also directing "Catherine the Great" on KHJ, with half-hour episodes weekly. KEN ROBINSON, news announcer for the Chicago Evening American on WENR, has written a series of sketches entitled "Inside the Rackets", based on the expose of Chicago gangland. The sketches are being broadcast twice weekly over WENR. VAL SHERMAN, former announcer at WBBM, Chicago, has joined WSBC, Chicago, in a similar capacity. EDWARD BARRY, program director of WGN, Chicago, will' return from a vacation in Europe the first of June. AL AND PETE, formerly on the NBC network, are now on a twice weekly morning show on WLS, Chicago. Gene Autry, the Oklahoma Cowboy, and Tom Dix, singer, both of the WLS, Chicago staff, have just recovered from severe cases of tonsilitis. THE THIRD unit of the WLS Barn Dance show, comprising a cast of 20 persons, has been organized and has gone on tour of middle western cities. EDWARD FITZGERALD is a new announcer at KFRC, San Francisco, coming from the theatre business in which he was. identified as manager of the Warner theatre there. J. CLARENCE MYERS has been added to the staff of KQW, San Jose, as announcer. Myers, who works in the station's San Francisco studios, was formerly radio editor of the San Francisco Call-Bulletin. DONALD NOVIS, former NBC tenor, has signed with KFWB, Hollywood, to do a weekly program for Knudsen's Bakery. Co-star will be Jan Rubini, violinist. "HAPPY CHAPPIES", vocal duo at KNX, Hollywood, have just written "The Golden Shores of Lake Louise", for Canadian National Railways. "When the Bloom is on the Sage" was their popular hit of a few years ago. Team is former vaudeville duo known as Vincent and Howard. EMANUEL ROSENBERG, lyric tenor on the staff of WHK, Cleveland, has joined the vocal faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music. MUNRO UPTON, until recently with the NBC production department in San Francisco, has gone to Los Angeles to join Al Pearce's frolic which broadcasts via KFI and an NBC network week days. June 1, 1933 • BROADCASTING Page 21