Hollywood Spectator (Apr-May 1939)

BY HOWARD WALTER FISK Ike iiAtenincf PoAt COMMENTS ON SOME HOLLYWOOD PROGRAMS PASSING PARADE — Mon., 8 p.m., KECA. Here is the one-man show which tops all one-man shows. John Nesbitt’s style is different, his material engrossing, his admirers legions. Formerly on KHJ, Nesbitt has been on and off the air many times, but like the India rubber man he bounces back higher and higher. BURNS AND ALLEN — Wed.. 7:30 p.m.. KNX. This program will be the subject of the analytical review in next issue. Some folks swear by this team, others swear at them. I happen not to like it and will try to tell why. I WAS THERE — Sun., 7 p.m.. KNX. Here is a program with a swell idea behind it. It has always impressed me that the show is being handled somewhat like a stepchild. With proper grooming, not so obvious writing and more production care it could go from a "for free" spot to a sponsor of money and merit — with emphasis on both money and merit. FLETCHER WILEY— Mon., through Fri„ 10:30 a.m.. KNX. The "chief of staff" of the Housewives' Protective League woke up with an idea one morning, several years ago, and ran the idea from a few miles of wordy workout once a week to a cross country jaunt. He goes coast-tocoast now. He breaks all recognized rules of radio delivery, jumps from subject to subject like a newscaster who dropped his copy and is reading while picking up the sheets. But he has a large local following and his material always has something which provokes thought. May his national success also be gratifying to him and his sponsors. I WANT A DIVORCE— Sun., 8:30 p.m., KFI. This show has two of the most capable men in Hollywood radio as its helmsmen. Van Fleming writes the air adaptations of big name stories, and succeeds in avoiding a "pulp fiction" atmosphere. Van is sincere in his work. William Lawrence directs it. and for my money Bill is one of the most sympathetic producers in the business. Given a sponsor who would pay the bills and give hint a free hand. Bill could make most any of them sit up and take notice. The casts of / Want a Divorce arc uniformly good. I have always thought the idea behind the show smelled just a bit. TUNE UP TIME— KNX. Andre Kostellanetz and his music. Tony Martin as soloist. There just isn’t any better combination for an enjoyable show. The Firestone program is similar in its setup but it lacks the color and personality which Kostelanetz gets into his program. One cannot compare Richard Crooks and Tony Martin because they are different in their vocal styles. Suffice it to say that Tony is more important in his field than Crooks is in his. Daylight Saving Time is now in effect in many cities from which your favorite programs originate, thus many Hollywood programs have been shifted. Check with your newspaper for correct times on programs not mentioned here. (This is the fourth of a senes of analytical reviews of programs originating in Hollywood.) FROM a chummy dinner to a chillerdiller is quite a jump for a radio author to make, but Carleton Morse does it each week with practically no effort at all. Therefore, this issue’s review will consider One Man’s Family and I Love a Mystery more or less as a single offering. In the first place, the same man writes both. In the second place, virtually the same cast enacts them. For instance, Paul. Nickie and Jack of the Tribe of Barbour turn up as Packard, Reggie and Doc in the youkill-me-or-ITl-kill-you series. In a lesser degree Claudia, Hazel, Betty, et al, of the Barbour female contingent, stand by to fill the girl-to-be-saved roles when the Three Comrades need an incentive to do deeds of valour. The fact that both shows carry many of the same people has, to a great degree, lessened my interest in them. For five or six years several millions of us became good friends of the Barbours. We laughed with them, we exulted with them, we worried with them. Several times it just happened that something got in my eye, and I called for a very large hankie, when some of the more tragic events descended upon them. New Voices and Old •I At any rate, I have never been able to accept the Three Comrades as being other than the Barbour boys playing cops and robbers. I have never made inquiry as to why Morse put the Barbours into the chill show, but he made me mad when he did it. One reason I was irked is as stated above — I cannot and will not believe the said comrades are the real McCoy. Another is that Morse, who has a genius for casting radio roles — and in evidence I submit the priceless antique dealer in the current Morse mystery — could have (and should have) spread the work around. If by now the readers of this column do not know that I have a great antipathy for too many shows having too many of the same people on them, this is just as good a time to find it out as any. Radio's greatest asset, as far as its talent appeal is concerned, is voices. When the same people appear on show after show — no matter how good they may be — it gets a little tiresome. Sort of like having ham and beans at every meal. Morse could have found in the great wealth of radio talent in Hollywood, actors who could do the job as well as those now doing it. Furthermore, it would have saved me much confusion. As it is I have to think twice to remember whether it is time for my Tenderleaf Tea or Fleischman's High Vitamin Yeast three times daily. Hokum and Hacks •J In the face of considerable adverse opinion from radio writers and that small portion of the listening public with whom I come in contact, I hereby proclaim it is my belief that Carleton Morse writes the best radio heard on the air today. True, he is very wordy. True, One Man’s Family has little or no plot (as plots go in Hollywood). True, I Love a Mystery is hokum with a capital hoke. Likewise, it is true that in the tidal wave of words which he pours out each week is the soundest psychology underlying anything on the air. It is also true that your life and mine are not built on the lines of a predetermined story idea in a magazine. That is why the Barbours are so well liked by millions. Again it is true that the listener will accept a lot of hokum if he is led to believe the characters could be real people. Now, of course, Morse is in a most enviable position — a position which he created by virtue of his talents — in that he is responsible to no one for what he writes or how he produces it. His sponsors have confidence in his excellent taste, in his desire to give his public radio drama that is, even in his blood and thunder, deeply colored with the tones of semi-classical music. Were all sponsors as broad-minded there might be more fine radio writers instead of the vast number of hacks that radio is developing. These writers do not want to be hacks. They want to write what is popularly termed “good stuff." I do not say highbrow stuff ; I say good stuff. No "Slick" Field C[ Radio has yet to develop a “slick” field. The greater portion of its writing is “pulp.” When a writer gets a “slick” idea and develops it to where it should have full color illustrations, the producer, sponsor (or heaven knows who) will yell. “The public won't like it”; and the net result is a good writing job run through a deglossing process and coming out with bad pen and ink sketches to dress up a story that has been re-written “down” to a moron's I. Q. It makes it most discour PAGE TWELVE HOLLYWOOD SPECTATOR