Inside facts of stage and screen (April 5, 1930)

SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 1930 INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN PAGE NINS Special Air Program Given For Peabodys The sixth anniversary of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Peabody was made the subject of a special broadcast over KMTR, Thursday morning, March 27. Ed- die and his wife were vacationing at the Peabody Rancho at River- side, Calif., and the station kept in touch with them by telephone, broadcasting to the public just what they were doing and furnish- ing appropriate atmospheric mu- sic, as for instance, while dinner was being served on the patio, Spanish music was played, and while they were playing golf the theme was “I’m Walking Around in a Dream.” The famous banjoist-m. c. is slated to open at the Fox, San Francisco, on April 11. HER FIMRS ARE FAR Ai lEAR SEATTLE, April 3.—What is believed to be a world record for diversity of fan mail for any radio artist is claimed by Betty Shilton, organist at Fox’s Fifth Avenue Theatre here, who broadcasts nightly over KOMO by remote control from the theatre. Included in Betty’s recent re- ceipt of requests was a caiblegram from the ice-bound steamer Nanuk, fur-trading ’way up on the rim of the Arctic Circle. The crew of the ship pick up Betty’s program regularly and, the other day, sent down the wire message for a real hot number. Picking out some- thing appropriate for a bunch of lads up in the frozen north Betty played “Chant of the Jungle.” A few days after the northern request. Miss Shilton was sur- prised to receive a communica- tion from Cuba. It seems that the lad making the request couldn’t write English, so he went to a notary public, who wasn’t much better even if he did have the legal seals and all, who drew up the document in regulation of- ficial form, requesting, to wit: Party of the first part requests of party of the second part, etc., etc., etc., to execute, render, play, broadcast, etc., etc., etc., “Estrel- lita.” The contract was fulfilled. The pay-off of recent letters came from a couple of bachelors in the Arctic Circle who wanted an appropriate tune. The lads have been frozen in for several months with a load of beautiful seal and fox pelts that would bring envy to any miss, so Betty just turned around and played for them Men- delssohn’s “Wedding March” and “Hotter ’n Hot” from Fox’s Movietone Follies, and “Turn on the Heat” from “Sunnyside Up.” 8™ MT is popyuli m KOI SEATTLE, April 3.—One of the most well-liked radio announcers in these parts is Stan Spiegle, currently holding forth at the microphone at KOMO. Stan holds down _ the “early bird” and daytime shift, handling some of the more prominent of the programs emanating from this station during these periods. Stan’s voice mikes well, and he bids fair to get somewhere. In addition to his capabilities as an announcer, Spiegle is well versed in writing continuity and chasing studio publicity, having had extensive experience in both these fields while associate director for the American Broadcasting Company. — RADIO ARTISTS — Here’s a New Tune for You! “AM I THE ONLY ONE FOR YOU” A Tuneful Fox-Trot Song Adv. Song Copies Free Stamps Appreciated MANAOIS MUSIC PUB. 1619 J. St, San Diego, Calif< AOBOn PHIS OVER BI6 PHILCO PLOCS SEATTLE, April 3.—H. C. Ab- bott. regional factory sales rep- resentative for the Philco Radio people, has been spending consid- erable time in this territory un- corking one of the most show- manlike campaigns for his products the natives have ever seen. _ Starting his efforts by tying in with the Publix houses, for whom he purchased full page spreads, plugging his radio and the current theatre attraction, in return for which the showshop laid out a display of Philcos in the lobby, Abbott has proceeded rapidly with his whirlwind plan, and, obviously getting plenty of results. One of the gags was to snipe in the the- atre 24-sheets with the phrase, “Paramount on the screen—Phil- co on the air.” The pay-off of Abbott’s exploita- tion campaign came here early in the week when he launched his “trade-in” campaign. Time vvas purchased on every radio station in the northwest, as well as space in every daily of prominence, ad- vising the public that Philco deal- ers would take the old radio in trade, giving them the top allow- ance and, in turn, donating the used radios, after reconditioning them, to invalids, shut-ins, insti- tutions and poor folks absolutely free. For this campaign, Abbott hired Arthur Clausen and his Or- chestra from Publix’s Paramount Theatre. Clausen and his boys opened the drive with a whirlwind program that went out over KVI, local outlet of the OBS. Already Abbott’s campaign is reported as showing great results. Every -dealer in the territory is tied in on the stunt, and it looks like a tough season for the oppo- sition. San Francisco Radio Notes SAN FRANCISCO, April 3.— The third Pacific Coast anniver- sary of National Broadcasting Co. will be celebrated this Saturday night when an anniversary fete is on the cards. About a hundred local aerial artists will take part in a program at the Community The- atre and for which a thousand in- vitations have been extended. It will be broadcast over KGO at 10:15. * * ♦ In the belief that the soothing strains of music will aid their cows in giving more and better milk, several Stockton dairymen have installed a radio loud speak- er in their dairy barns. The speak- er is said to have a device that will automatically shut off harmony teams that turn sour on the high notes. * * * Paul Whiteman and his orches- tra were here this week en route to Seattle. The organization played over KFRC for its weekly nationwide broadcast. * * * Merton Bories, production man- ager of KPO, recently married. ♦ * * Peggy Chapman, appearing over NBC’s network on the Firestone hour, is now also with the Pa- cific Vagabonds. !K * * Two new artists have been added to KTAB’s ranks. Olive Thornton, lyric soprano, made her station debut this week singing standard and semi-classic numbers with Jane Sargent Sands at the piano. John Teel, baritone, will be featured on the Poem Pictures program every Monday night from 8 to 9. * * * On April 8 KPO begins its sixth consecutive year of sports broadcasting. Don Thompson, who is a newspaper man as well as an announcer, gives word pictures of the leading athletic events. « * KTAB has contracted for the electrical transcriptions of Baron Keyes’ “Klickity Klack” programs for the kiddies. They will be used as regular features over this sta- tion. ^ :<c The California Rhythm Boys, Al and Ray, are singing over KTAB. They’re former vaude players. ♦ * * Jerry Stewartson, arranger at NBC, turns out some splendid ar- rangements for the various or- chestral programs coming over that chain. Program Reviews (Continued from Page 8) KJR, SEATTLE (Reviewed March 29) The program opened with some cleverly-written continuity, assem- bled by Grant Merrill of the Northwest Broadcasting System’s staff, and spoken by Thomas Greybairn Smith, chief announcer of this chain. Agatha Turley opened the pro- gram with “An Indian Slumber Song,” a composition of H. Rik- ken’s, with words by Agnes Lockhart Hughes, local author. Miss Turley has a soprano voice of wide range, and an Irish twang to her singing helped sell the tune. A nice recording voice. “Hear Ye, Israel,” from the Oratorio “Eli- jah,” was Miss Turley’s second offering, and she did the heavy number full justice. Campbell-Tipton’s “ C r y i n ’ of Waters” was Sydney Dixon’s first offering on the half hour broadcast. Dixon has a beautiful tenor voice, with lots of power. He obviously knows his micro- phones, as his offerings came over well. “Dream On to My Song of Love” was Dixon’s second num- ber, and a better choice than the first. Here he had ample oppor- tunity to hit some high notes that rang out nicely. Harold Strong, staff pianist of the Northwest circuit, was heard in accompaniment to the singers. During an intermission he did Chopin’s “Waltz in D Flat” on the ivories, and Harold’s rendition was a classic. Agatha Turley sang “Villanelle,” with verve, and followed it with a trifle lighter offering, “It Was a Lover and a Lass,” in which she displayed capable handling of her vocal powers. Dixon brought the meritorious program to a close with a trio of numbers. His first, “Mighty Lak’ a Rose,” was nicely done and came over okay. He followed this with a light ditty, “Come Into the Garden, Maude,” the musical version of Tennyson’s popular poem. These two numbers clicked, and, with some time still left, Dixon offered “Thinking of Mary,” one of Bennett’s new compositions. The latter is a tune with merit, and Dixon’s handling of the lyrics and melody were very good. The recital went into the sys- tem’s three stations, KEX, Port- land; KGA, Spokane, and KJR, Seattle, from which it emanated. Jean. IMPOSlHTER IT STITIOIIKGFJ KGFJ, the 24-hour station in Los Angeles, has gathered an im- posing roster of talent for its fu- ture feature programs. Among the leaders are: Paul Howard’s Serenaders. Ray West’s Hawaiian Quartet. Unique String Quintet, Arch Fritz, organist; Gladys Par- ish. blues; Hale Hooper, ballads; Blanche Cooper, pianist; Albert Keglovich, violinist; Haven John- son, pops: Bob Smith, the singing porter; Miniature Blackbirds or- chestra; Nat Winecoff, vocals, and Beth Whitney, blues. A wide variety of remote con- trols are taken for dance music, including Coonie Conrad and his El Patio Ballroom orchestra, Mos- by’s Dixieland Blue Blowers from the Apex Nite Club, the Yellow Jackets from Oaks Tavern, George Fabregat and Collegians from Orange Grove Cafe, and the Glenn Edmonds Hotel Alexandria or- chestra. This station has the reputation of never having been off the air for a moment since its first open- ing. ADAPTING “TOMMY” _ J. Walter Ruben has been as- signed to make the adaptation of “Tommy” for Radio Pictures from the stage play. Production is scheduled to begin within two weeks under Melville Brown’s di- rection. RE-SIGN MAUDE FULTON Maude Fulton has been signed under a contract by Warner Broth- ers to write adaptations and origi- nal stories. ■ SCORES BIO SUCCESS IN N. W. SEATTLE, April 3.—From the viewpoint of consistent service to the listeners and high quality of programs offered, the record of KOMO in Seattle has been one of the outstanding successes in the Pacific Northwest. No station in the United States has, KOMO of- ficials say, ever been launched un- der more auspicious circumstances. A group of Pacific Northwest largest advertisers organized to- gether to lease the entire time of the new station, this time to be allocated among the membership. This organization,, known as Totem Broadcasters, virtually guaranteed to listeners of the Pacific North- west an all-day program of high- grade music. Its first schedule called for fourteen hours a day. This was revolutionary in view of the fact that practicaly no station in the Northwest was on for more than six hours a day, and that many times during the day and late evening not a single station could be found operating in the territory. Beginning with a schedule from 10 a. m. to 12:30 a. m.. Totem Broadcasters immediately assem- bled a staff of approximately 40 to carry out an elaborately de- signed program schedule. At the present time KOMO is the exclusive NBC outlet for its territory. In spite of_ the fact that the gradual extension of the pro.gram schedule with the National Broad- casting^ Companv has absorbed an increasing amount of the time of KOMO. the staff of KOMO has increased and numbers toflay about SO. This is a result of an effort to build programs originating locallv to a standard comparable to the programs of the NBC System. Station KOMO is one of the verv few stations, if not the only station, in the United States that can positively say it has never broadcast a phonograph record. Jts pay roll for artists participat- ing on its local programs in 1929 was in excess of JlOO.OflO. Tlie present schedule of KOMO is from 7:55 a. m. to 12:30 a. m. A little more than one-third of this time is used for programs orig- inating with the National Broad- casting Company, both sustaining and commercial. The balance of the time is used by members of the Totem Broadcasters for their own programs. KOMO also originates 45^ hours per week of commercial programs to stations of the North- west Triangle (KHQ. Spokane; KGW, Portland, and KOMO). “MOBY DICK” STARTS The talkie version of “Moby Dick,” formerly made as a silent picture by John Barrymore under the title “Sea Beast,” has gone into production at Warners’, with Bar- rymore again in the starring role. Supporting cast includes Joan Bennett, Hobart Bosworth, Lloyd Hughes, Nigel De Brulier, Noble Johnson and May Boley. Lloyd Bacon is directing. Put On Plug But It All Goes Wrong A New York advertising agency, in arranging a newspaper display tie-up with an NBC broadcast for a beverage company, acted on the assumption that the program would be released through HFI and failed to check up. On the big day the ads ap- peared plugging the broadcast for KFI, but the program was re- leased over RECA. It so hap- pened, however, that a rival bever- age company put on a program over KFI at the same time and copped the tie-up. SMflifSli IS WIDEIV PDPU SEATTLE, April 3.—That burr in a voice radio audiences of Western America have come to know, belongs to Thomas Free- bairn Smith, young announcer in charge of that department for the Northwest Broadcasting System, emanating from KJR, Seattle. From Chicago to Los Angeles have come comments on that voice, brought to this country by Smith from his birthplace, Wey- mas Bay, Scotland. Theatre men of this territory are of the general opinion that if there ever was a voice adapted to film recording. Smith has it, and has it in generous quantities. A great bet for talking newsreels, says everyone. WANT FEM TALKER The National Broadcasting Com- pany is looking for a woman with a charming voice, apparently youthful, to give some beauty talks on a sponsored program, and KFI has been asked to put five candidates on the wires to headquarters for a test. PLAYING AT WHITCOMB SAN FRANCISCO, April 3.— Art Fadden, radio pianist, will play during intermissions in Drury Lane of the Hotel Whitcomb every Sat- urday night, working in conjunc- tion with Wilt Gunzendorfer’s Or- chestra. HOUR DOESN’T GO ON The first Paramount song writ- er’s hour scheduled for RHJ last Thursday did not go on the air on account of lack of rehearsal. SEATTLE, April 3.—Mary Lou- ise Roderick, soprano, has joined the staff of Station KVI here. SIGNED BY KNX The vaudeville _ Newcombe-Hall troupe of entertainers have been signed for work over KNX, Hol- lywood. HOOT TO START Shooting of Hoot Gibson’s cur- rent vehicle, “Spure,” an original story by Reaves Eason, who will also direct the production, will get under way this week. Location scenes will be filmed at Lone Pine and Bishop, Calif.