Broadcasting (Jan - June 1942)

DOUBLEDAY, DORAN >|>^ ROBERT ST. JOHN NBC commentator from London reports over, WEAF and nation wide | hook-up 7:15 P.M. Mon1 day through Friday. "The best book to come out of World War 11"— that's what LEWIS GANNETT called Robert St. John's FROM THE LAND OF SILENT PEOPLE (^3). Time Magazine says "it reads like a huge, super-exciting news dispatch" while The Atlantic Monthly gives it "a place on the small permanent shelf of war literature." ILKA CHASE heard every Saturday at 12:30 P.M. on WEAF and nation wide hook-up in '*A Luncheon Date with Ilka Chase." You'll enjoy PAST IMPERFECT (^2), the hilarious coast-to-coast best-seller that scalps the big-wigs of radio, stage and screen. This sparkling record of the indiscretions of a lady of wit and opinion has been called "as gay and effervescent as we are likely to have offered us for some time to come." — Chicago Sun. FRED ALLEN says: "I had to read it in dribs and dribs. I can't say dribs and drabs because there are no drab episodes among her memoir escapades." HENRY J. TAYLOR Heard over WHN on Wednesdays at 10 P.M. and Saturdays at p.'/5 P.M. Successful businessman, top-flight economist, and ace correspondent, Henry J. Taylor has been for 20 years a first-hand student of Europe. In TIME RUNS OUT (^3) he tells why the United Nations must act now, not later — why the precious time in which to smash Hitler is fast running out. "It is direct, vital and convincing. " J^^ And the writer's k n|^^^ breadth of spirit i i^^^^ ''^ admirable as his sincerity and . courage." — N. Y. WKntjiti^um L^fijija^0)imMA Times Book Re These b e s t sellers are in stock at your favorite book shop. DOUBLEDAY, DORAN ( Continued from page 65) clear fashion the physics of shortwave transmission. The story of what the FCC and the Defense Communications Board are doing to protect radio, nerve center of the war effort, is told by a group of writers including William Dow Boutwell, radio chief of the U. S. Office of Education, and Pauline Frederick, assistant to NBC's Washington commentator, H. R. Baukhage, in the book America Prepares for Tomorrow: The Story of Our Total Defense Effort, published last year by Harper & Bros. One of the complete histories of radio is the new volume Sound & Fury, modestly subtitled An Informal History of Broadcasting, written by Francis J. Chase. His claim is that radio is "still in swaddling clothes compared with the theatre, the nwespaper, and even the motion picture, but its growth to maturity has been so rapid that today it touches intimately and helps to mold the lives of more Americans than the theatre, the newspaper, and the motion picture combined." Schechter's Two Books A history of one phase of radio is presented in / Live on Air, the recent volume by A. A. Schechter, director of news and special events for NBC, which serves to prove that luck, steady nerves, a news sense, a great deal of wire, and especially speed are required to bring to the radio audience spot news from Egyptian pyramids, singing mice, a Hindenburg disaster, a four-country roundup, or a flood. Mr. Schechter several years ago also authored a juvenile fiction volume with a radio hero, Go Ahead Garrison. The director of the Radio Arts Guild of America, Robert West, has a new volume of anecdotal history mysteriously called The Rape of Radio of interest to a fairly general audience. . Projected at this time is a series of books on the outlook for various phases of the industry, introduced by the volume. Who, What, Why Is Radio?, by Robert J. Landry, radio editor of Vai'iety. It enhances the discussion of sponsors and pressure groups, the responsibility of the broadcaster and of the regulators. In the field of research is a series inaugurated by Paul Lazarsfeld, of Columbia, and Frank Stanton, of CBS, Radio Research, 19^1, which began as a supplement to Dr. Lazarsfeld's previous book Radio and the Printed Page and developed into this report of six studies, three concerned with radio programs and three with listeners These books of self-appraisal, measurement and inquiry will be referred to again and again by students of radio. Ilka and Clifton New evidence of the popularity of radio personalities is seen in the best-selling editions by Ilka Chase, hostess of NBC's Saturday noonday show, A Luncheon Date With Ilka Chase, and Clifton Fadiman, long m.c. of Information Please. In Past Imperfect Miss Chase chatters along, spattering acid and her particular sophisticated brand of philosophy. Whether discussing the mores of Hollywood or the re-hemming of her wedding dress. Miss Chase is true to her Saturday noon personality. Mr. Fadiman gathered his favorite stories and excerpts from books for publication in Reading I've Liked. Mary Margaret McBride and Ted Malone revisit the homes of their many listeners via the printed page. Miss McBride's America for Me contributes to the body of literature on American traditions by telling inspirational stories of interesting people in American life. Stories of his visits to the homes of famous American authors fill Mr. Malone's American Pilgrimage. The outstanding broadcasts on Ambrose Bierce, Herman Melville and Mark Twain are here given the permanence they deserve, along with additional valuable biographical material. James F. Waters' projected volume which will probably become a best seller, although possibly a surreptitious one: Modern Age is producing a volume listing the missing heirs so much the concern of Mr. Waters on his program. The Court of Missing Heirs. Corwin and Oboler Robert Frost says that "the finest thing that you can do for a poem is to print it"; similarly, the finest thing that you can do for an outstanding dramatic script which has benefited by the vitalizing of a successful radio production is to make a permanent printing of it, for at least three reasons: It is a contribution to today's letters, it serves a purpose with experimental groups and it defeats the ephemeral quality of radio. Norman Corwin's book Thirteen by Corwin has been hailed by Carl Van Doren as "the richest contribution yet made to the newest form of literature." The plays, says Mr. Van Doren, should be read, if that is possible, with the ear as attentive as the eye. Mr. Corwin's script We Hold These Truths, written to commemorate the Bill of Rights and broadcast on all networks last Dec. 15, will soon be put in book form. It won him a 1941 Peabody Award. Contributing not only to literature but to the unifying of our country today are the volume by Arch Oboler, This Freedom, a collection of the transcripts of his programs, and The Free Company Presents, compiled by James Boyd. Two annual volumes of selected scripts have appeared which are being widely used by students of writing for radio. In The Writer's Radio Theatre, 19U0-U1, Norman S. Weiser presents 10 outstanding dramatic scripts and a discussion of the techniques which have proved most successful in such broadcasts. Whittlesey House is planning to YOU CAN STILL GET CUFF'S... "THE FACE OF THE WAR" This is the 5-minute NBC Recorded Program of war news analysis from which the name of Sam Cuff's new book was taken. It's the program that 6S stations have sold profitably to Banks Men's Stores Tobacconists Dept. Stores Utilities Insurance Companies Bldg. & Loan Assns. Gas & Oil Dealers Used Car Dealers Furniture Stores and many others "THE FACE OF THE WAR" is immediately available in many markets. Contracts are for 3 programs a week, 13 or more weeks — at rates surprisingly low. Write for presentation, audition records, and rates. NBC RADIO-RECORDING DIVISION NATIONAL BROADCASTING CO. A Radio Corporation of America Service RCA Building, Radio City, New York Chicago • Washington, D.C. • Hollywood Henry Holt and Company : 257 4th Ave., N. Y 1st PRINTING, January, 1942 2nd PRINTING March, 1942 3RD PRINTING April, 1942 Thirteen by CORWIX Radio Dramas by NORMAN CORWIN Introduction by Carl Van Doren $2.75 Henry Holt and Company : 257 4th Ave., N. Y. Page 68 • May 11, 1942 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising