Inside facts of stage and screen (March 22, 1930)

PAGE EIGHT SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1930 INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN IIP OFF 10 HELP SPORTING GENTRY Program Reviews H BHDCIST10 STIR FILM FOLK Pickups & Viewpoint ray OF CALIF. WILL BE 1 mo Curtis Benton, who announces the fights at Hollywood stadium for the air fans, has added a new term to his descriptions that proves a little mystifying to the general run of listeners but is keenly appreciated by many sport- ing gentlemen who are unable to be at the ringside in person. Benton now includes in his an- nouncement that so-and-so is in the white corner, and so-and-so, his opponent, is in the black cor- ner. This information may seem im- material, irrelevant and incompe- tent so far as the radio audience is concerned, as the average per- son, no matter how much inter- ested he might be in the outcome of the fight, really sees little im- portance in a fighter occupying any particular corner. However, to the Hollywood sport this information is more use- ful than any other detail of the bout. It is the habit of Hollywood sports to bet a little money on the fights, but so sporting are they that the money is not placed on the fighter but on the corner he occupies. The bets are made be- fore the combatants appear. A takes the white corner and B the black. Neither knows until the fighters are in the ring which man his money is on, which makes the sport more sporting. Hence, the kindness of Benton in including this additional infor- mation in his broadcast is some- thing that is very greatly appreci- ated by those betting gentlemen— and ladies — who are prevented from being there in person. 500 Callers Register Kick On Withdrawal “Hank Simmons’ Show Boat,” a CBS network program which has been released here through KHJ, having been off again and on again several times, is now off again, the time having been taken over for a Pacific Coast spon- sored program. Instancing how the listening public is falling for radio drama and is disappointed when it is switched, over 500 telephone calls went into KHJ last Wednesday night expressing displeasure over the program’s withdrawal. SWITCH ‘SPICE’ KFWB’s frolic hour, known as “Spice of the Air,” and piloted by Jimmy Mack with the assistance of Cliff and Lolly, “The Two Nuts of Radio,” has been moved to Monday nights. The program makes a specialty of funny stories, read by Mack. Cliff and Lolly furnish song interpolations. Over the Air From KYA SAN FRANCISCO Comes the Voice of Greta Gahler ALWAYS ANXIOUS TO PLEASE George Nickson TENOR SOLOIST KYA - SAN FRANCISCO TUNE IN ON DUD WILLIAMSON MASTER OF CEREMONIES and STAFF ARTIST KYA SAN FRANCISCO RADIO’S PERSONALITY GIRL JEANE COWAN Daily At KFWB “CHASIN’ THE BLUES” KHJ, LOS ANGELES (Reviewed March 15) An informal frolic hour broad- cast over the Coast network of the Don Lee System. Charlie Well- man, m. c.; Kenneth Niles, an- nouncer; Lindsay MacHarrie, chief announcer. Public admitted. Opened with fanfare and “12th Street Rag.” Wellman with his “Hello, everybody,” coaxing the audience to call back “Hello, Char- lie,” for the benefit of the mike. Orchestra under Ray Paige, and singers ensemble, rendered “Turn On the Heat.” Followed by “Doc- tor” Foley in burlesque lecture on scientific subjects, humorous and enjoyable but not quite up to the usual standard. Wellman sang with orchestra, “Puttin’ On the Ritz” in the stand- ard Wellman style, followed by a harmonica rumor of “Light Cav- alry Overture.” Does anybody like harmonica except down on the farm? Elvia Allman offered a mono- logue of a lady trying to get a phone number. Ho, hum. Then the male quartet gave a three- minute minstrel show and justified every minute. “Trombonium” introduced three trombones in a hot selection, then June Parker soothed down the listeners with “I’m a Home Girl,” as nobody but June can croon. Gene Byrnes and Lindsay Mac- Harrie offered a dialogue skit in their characters of Count de Tour and Vulgar Boatman, rating a bunch of laughs. The work was well done. Wellman and the orchestra next offered “Mona,” then Wellman and Byrnes pulled that terrible old gag, “Ha, ha, ha! I wasn’t home last night.” “St. Louis Blues” came out of its shroud for an airing, then “12th Street Rag,” fanfare and fadeout. And so to bed, laughing heartily. Yeat es. CROSS-SECTIONING RADIO-LAND THUMB-NAIL REVIEWS SAN FRANCISCO (Reviewed March 14) KGO (8 p. m.)—Mediocre trans- continental program from Club Richman, New York. Boon to local talent. Announcer with a startling fog-horn voice. KLX (8:15 p. m.)—Hijinx, Ma- chado’s . Hawaiians incessantly on the air. Five-piece orchestral com- bination supporting Dell Sisters, harmony team, and doing them no good. Very funny joke about “Spreichen ze deutch?” ... “I don’t get you” . . . “Do you speak German?” . . . Sure.” (Up- roarious laughter.) KFWM (8:20 p. m.)—Somebody saying something about St. Pat. Couldn’t understand. KTAB (8:25 p. m.)—New stu- dio feature, “Miniatures.” Walter Rudolph conducting orchestra in “La Barcarolle.” Excellent. KPO (8:30 p. m.)—Cy Trobbe’s Scrap Book. Prelude to “Deluge” with Trobbe featured in an out- standing violin solo. KFRC (8:40 p. m.)—Bob Olsen effectively high-tenoring “Carolina Moon.” Mahlon Merrick’s Modern Melodists, good pop orchestra. Walter Bunker, Jr., announcing and good. KYA (8:50 p. m.)—Calendar of the Air. Pleasing feature with Harry Bechtel reading and Pacific Artists Trio in musical interpola- tions. KGGC (9:20 p. m. — Charley Glenn in two-minute song fol- lowed by three-minute discourse on a steaming hot sandwich . . . “Steaming” reiterated seven times. Must be hot stuff. KFWI (9:40 p. m.) — Isabelle Henion displaying a mighty nice voice in ballad singing. Nadine Criss accompanying nicely. KPO (10:15 p. m.)—Jesse Staf- ford and his orchestra. Constant echo caught by the mike indicated sparce business. May have been the acoustics. KYA (10:30 p. m.)—Nice pro- gram of the semi-classics with Greta Gahler and George Nickson Taking advantage of the great popularity that always greets the radio appearance of screen players of note, a new nationwide broad- cast is to originate in Hollywood. The program is to be similar to the “Voices From Filmland,” now originated through KHJ for re- lease through the Columbia Broad- casting System in cooperation with the. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. This one, however, is for release by the National Broadcasting Company in collaboration wth Ra- dio Pictures studios. It is now being organized and should be ready for the air in about three weeks. The cast of “Rio Rita,” includ- ing Bebe Daniels and John Boles, are tentatively proposed for the presentation, and really bright stars of the film world are prom- ised for every bill. KFI is expected to do most of the originating for the chain, al- though some of the musical num- bers are to be dubbed in from San Francisco, according to present plans. fflMTil SETTLED Blf BIB 1 The rivalry between Tacoma and Seattle, between whom historic battles have been fought for pre- eminence in geographic, railroad, steamship and other commercial affairs, recently extended to ra- dio, but has been skillfully over- come by the owners of station KVI. The transmitter for KVI is lo- cated at Auburn, Wash., midway between the two cities, which are only about 30 miles apart. Pro- ducing studios were located in Se- attle and Tacoma, and when broadcasting it was customary for the announcer to say: “KVI, Se- attle and Tacoma.” This roused the ire of Tacoma citizens, who demanded their town be named first, but when this was tried Se- attle raised a fuss and pointed pridefully to a population many times, greater than that of the sis- ter city as justification for being given the preeminent spot. The announcement last week that KVI has purchased station KOL, a Seattle station, is now followed by a further statement that the producing studio for KVI will now be located at Tacoma exclusively, and KOL will serve the Seattle territory, thereby di- vorcing the two cities ethereally and relieving the situation. These two stations are to be units of the Don Lee system, and, in addition to releasing programs of that chain, will also carry Co- lumbia network programs from New York. JUNE SCORES HIT June Parker sang on Paul White- man’s Old Hour last week with such success that New York want- ed to hear her again, so she re- peated on this week’s program. Miss Parker is staff blues crooner at KHJ. BACK AT KHJ Mona Content has returned to the KHJ staff as concert pianist and accompanist. She resigned a few weeks ago after several years of service. NOE WITH WHITEMAN Cecil Noe is pinch hitting as Paul Whiteman’s first trumpet. The original was called back to New York. Noe is regularly a mem- ber of Raymond Paige’s Don Lee Orchestra. vocalizing nicely, Liborius Haupt- man and concert trio playing, and Charles Concannon announcing. KPO (11 p. m.)—Joe Wright and his Silver Slipper Orchestra. Good combination that makes the feet tickle. Bock. By FRED YEATES Part of the dedication program from the new studios of KOIN. Portland, were released here over KHJ last Sunday night, and the second hour was much superior to the first because it was frankly popular and did not pretend to be anything else. The first hour was a concert by the Portland Symphony Orches- tra under Van Hoogstraten, and once more we almost wept with disappointment. Can anyone explain why a sym- phony orchestra, when it comes before the microphone, must al- ways offer the same music that regular broadcasting orchestras play to us all day long? The Portland body offered us a pair of the Brahms Hungarian dances and the same number of Dvorak’s Slavonic dances, and a Strauss waltz, interspersed with things like “Deep River” and “My Little Banjo” by a male quartet. The symphony conductors who have been regularly insulting the intelligence of their listeners should pay radio the compliment of listen- ing to it a little before building their programs and gain some idea of what is regularly going out. When a listener has heard about three different orchestras play Strauss and Dvorak dance music during the day, and play it effec- tively, if he dials in a symphony concert expecting something a lit- tle more profound and gets the same music again played for the concert hall instead of the mike, he can scarcely be blamed for re- fusing to listen. Symphony orchestras should per- form their office on the air no less ably than on the platform, and give it just as much intelli- gent thought. * * * Frank Murphy celebrates the fifth birthday of KFWB. When Warners decided they should have a radio station and bought the old plant of KFI, Murphy was re- quested to have it installed in 90 days. “They” said it couldn’t be done but the man—Murphy him- self—said to be chiefly responsi- ble for talking pictures, got it op- erating in 28 days. And it still works. * * * A Los Angeles club has a pro- gram for men only this week, and a tip-off has it that a microphone is to be smuggled in by which the scandal will be broadcast to the ladies. There will not be time be- tween now and press time for us to review it. * * * One has to give some of these announcer boys credit for sin- cerity. We just heard one preach- ing the merits of certain hats so fervently that we could almost see his own closet walls covered with a variety of the niftiest styles, until we remembered that he hasn’t worn a hat since fresh- man days. * * * A remarkable sidelight on the power of radio advertising comes in a statement that constant plug- ging by manufacturers of women’s and children’s shoes has resulted in steadily increasing sales, while the sales of men’s shoes has been steadily decreasing. To offset this the National Retail Shoe Associa- tion is initiating a chain broadcast weekly to din into papa’s ears that he needs new shoes. * * * KHJ’s proposition to broadcast the midwinter regatta from ob- servation launches was abandoned, the official reason being that tests were unsatisfactory. However, in- side dope has it that astrologers found the moon in unfavorable juxtaposition with the birth stars of the station announcers, intimat- ing that unusual exposure to water at this time might result in said announcers getting all wet. A tip to life insurance companies resulted in a protest, and so news bulletins were substituted. The lives of radio announcers are worth something to insurance peo- ple, anyway. That much is con- soling. Germinating from the seed of vogue sown by the “Oh, Susanna” musical stage production put on in Los Angeles and San Francisco recently, and presaging a coming fashion for colorful California stories _ a, new coastwide radio re- lease is to go on the air each Wednesday night in which the out- standing episodes of California history, from the discovery of gold to the driving of the final spike of a transcontinental railroad, will be presented in dramatic form with the historical facts and songs of the period. A great deal of original research has been undertaken to make these programs authoritative, and no doubt a great many writers and producers will be listening in to accumulate a lot of otherwise expensive data without effort and without cost, to be used in novels and pictures. The few remaining original ’49ers are billed for appearance be- fore the mike on these programs, which will originate in KFRC, San Francisco, and go out over the Don Lee system (KHJ in Los Angeles), every Wednesday night, 8 to8:30, beginning March 19. An oil company sponsors the presen- tation. KFWB SIGNS VAN Billie Van, singing pianist who operates under the nom de guerre of Paul Revere, has been signed by KFWB as an exclusive staff artist. PALEY ON VACATIO William S. Paley, president CBS, is vacationing at Palm Springs. IS JUNIOR ANNOUNCER Frank Vallan has been taken on as junior announcer at KFI. PLAYS HELLO GIRL Marvin Werner, leader for Everett Hoagland and His Trou- badors, is doubling on the switch- board at KFWB besides playing the saxophone. WANT MORE POWER KFWB and KFVD, Los An- geles, have applied to the Federal Radio Commission for permits for increased power. CHANGE CALL KEJK, Beverly Hills, has changed its call .letters to KMPC, the last three letters signifying the McMillan Petroleum Corpora- tion. owners of the station. PATHE SIGNS GLEASON James Gleason has been placed under a long-term contract by Pathe for work as a player and as a dialogue writer. Hardly ever a comedy picture, whether feature or ‘short,’ that doesn’t select anywhere from one to a dozen jokes and gags out of MADI- SON’S BUDGET. The author of MADISON’S BUDGET is now located in Hollywood, and &1- though Thanksgiving Day is a long way off, is ready to talk ‘turkey’ to some big motion pic- ture concern that desires a writer who really knows his laughs. So DIAL for DIALogue and other comedy require- ments to JAMES MAD- ISON. HRegon 9407, the addrer'. being 465 South Detroit St., Los Angeles