Inside facts of stage and screen (May 10, 1930)

PAGE EIGHT === INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1930 REVIEWS COMMENT RADIO'L.AWD By FRED YEATES CHATTER NEWS If it is good enough to record, it is good enough to broadcast, is the reply of radio stations who use phonograph records for program material, to criticisms of their pol- icy. They claim there can be no le- gitimate objection to such a policy, and that a broadcaster has as much right to offer recorded music for entertainment as a picture pro- ducer. The public is not charged for the entertainment, and they do not have to listen to it if they do not care for it. The records are obtained in exchange for a consideration, either in money or in advertising, therefore, they as- sert, no one is cheated. Although the major stations use in-person talent and command higher prices for their time, the record stations claim their pro- grams do not suffer in quality, using the argument that recording companies use only the best avail- able and most popular talent. If it is the kind of material people are willing to buy in record form, it should be acceptable as free radio entertainment, they say. They declare this policy works no harm to musicians and artists, as these smaller stations could not function at all with the heav- ier overhead of an in-person staff of sufficiently high grade. Their listeners inform them they would much rather hear a good recording than cheap or amateur in-person talent, and they believe the only real opposition to record broad- casting comes from the manufac- turers of the records, who believe the practice restricts record sales. This the station people dispute, stating that the disadvantage of the phonograph is the manual op- eration necessary. BAND TAKES HOUR Irene Franklin’s dance orchestra will be heard over KMTR every Thursday night between 6 and 7 o’clock from now on. Miss Frank- lin’s music is well known here, having been formerly a feature of Solomon’s in Los Angeles and of the Egyptian Ballroom, Ocean Park. WEEKS STILL HEARD Anson Weeks’ orchestra is moved from the Mark Hopkins, San Francisco, to the Roosevelt, New York, but will still be heard over CBS, local radio, twice weekly. Ted Fiorito succeeds Weeks at the S. F. stanch STAGED MANY PLAYLETS Georgia Fifield, drama director at KNX, is reputed to be the old- est woman in radio, but in length of service only and not in age. She has staged and played in over 250 playlets over KNX, and appeared in the first dramatic production ever broadcast. BACK WITH PLAYERS Harry Hays, Jr., has returned to the Savoy Players, San Diego, for a part in “Unusual Weather.” He left the players to take a fly- ing course. Pickups AND Fiewpoints Speech Professors Need Modern Ideas These professors who teach “speech arts” in the private colleges are entitled to pursue their calling and thereby earn a living, but when they step before a radio microphone they are telling the world, and that’s different. Evidently the “speech arts” taught are those that supposedly apply to. dramatic expression, for that is the vehicle used by the estimable and very sincere professor who declaims sententiously over a local station at regular intervals. However, if it is his intention to have himself regarded as an example of perfect dramatic speech art he should take a friendly tip to bring himself up to date on style, because with the generation-old method of delivery he employs he succeeds only in misleading the ignorant and making himself ridiculous with the informed. The day of declamatory unction has long since passed. Today’s school requires naturalness, sincerity and deep feeling, flavored with a measure of restraint. Moreover, the voice must fit the character. NEON SIGN ON HILL AS PLUG Figured as a great plug stunt for “Hell’s Angels,” Sid Grauman is reported planning the erection of a huge Neon sign on the Hol- lywood Hills, similar to several other horizon brighteners, now burning in the interest of real estate developments. Estimated cost for the addition to Hollywood’s famed miles of lights, is $75,000, with the sign certain to get a visibility, par- ticularly at night, hundreds of times that of an ordinary mes- sage of building or board. SINGERS SWAP POSTS Elvia Allman, ballad crooner at KHJ, and Jean Wakefield, ditto at KFRC, San Francisco, are swapping jobs by way of a change, effective this week. Rumors that Miss Allman was going to S. F. to be married are denied. NEW KECA SPOTTING Rearrangement of KECA sched- ules puts Bob and Monte', har- mony team, in a new spot. Com- mencing this week they will fol- low Amos and Andy every Thurs- day night. ANTHONY DUO VISIT Harry Hall and Margaret O’Don- nell, of the Earl C. Anthony pro- gram arranging staff, visited San Francisco during the week to study National Broadcasting Com- pany methods. EASTERNERS HERE G. A. Richards, president, and Leo Fitzpatrick, vice-president, of WJR, Detroit, Mich., were visitors in Los Angeles during the week. KINGSTON TO STAY A1 Kingston, recently appointed director of entertainment at the Blossom Room, Roosevelt Hotel, has been made permanent in the position, due, it is said, to the suc- cess he has achieved in the past few weeks. ACTOR GETS FINED Municipal Judge Parker socked a $50 fine on actor and director, King Baggott, after he pleaded guilty this week to a charge of driving an automobile while in- toxicated following his arrest by Hollywood police. YOU’LL READ IT FIRST IN INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN 800-801 Warner Bros. Downtown Bldg. Los Angeles, Calif. SUBSCRIBE NOW! Kindly enter my Subscription for One Year, for whicb I enclose $4.00 in Payment for Same Name. Address.. Town and State.. It does not follow that because" a thing is old it is good. Take a piece of cheese, for example. Old methods of doing things are dis- carded because they do not fit present needs or tastes. No credit reflects upon a radio station that continues to broadcast the archaic, except as a novelty, and no doubt either the professor or the station, or both, will ’wake to this fact sooner or later. It is to be hoped so, especially in this world center of things theatrical where the tyro expects to find standards the very highest. * * * An example of high grade ex- cellence in radio dramatic fare came over KECA, from the San Francisco NBC studios, last Sun- day afternoon, when the National Players presented “Adventure in Love.” It was exceptionally well done, technically; well cast, well produced, well written, and the story contrived to be absorbingly interesting to the very end. The plot concerned the efforts of a philosophical expert to arrange the matrimonial affairs of a grandson, and contrived to be not only philo- sophical but plausible as well. A jarring note was one of those windblown announcers, who sounded as though either he had just run up 14 flights of stairs or was standing on his head. * * * Last week we published a para- graph to the effect that KFI and KECA were having difficulty find- ing stenographers with some knowledge of musical matters. The day following publication found two rooms full of applicants at the Anthony stations, ranging from a grand opera star with a knowl- dege of shorthand to a business college graduate with operatic yearnings. * * * “Did you hear Mary Lewis?” is the topic of conversation this week. It seems everybody did. Billed to the wide world as the star of the big-shot Atwater Kent hour for last Sunday night, she opened up on “Blue Danube,” and what a mess! She swooped and sallied, was off pitch, one moment breathing into the mike and the next seemingly far away, and was either ahead of or behind the or- chestra most of the . time. She came right back with another number, but whatever it was be- came lost sight of against the astonishing performance. June Parker’s burlesque opera on the Merrymakers’ hour last week was legitimate beside it. The program was filled out with a quartet of negro spiritual singers and later on in the hour announce- ment was made that Miss Lewis had been taken suddenly ill. Announcement was made three days later that Miss Lewis’ father had died in France, and that she was leaving on the next boat. * * * Graham MacNamee, sports an- nouncer, is being accused in some quarters as being lacking in sports- manship as the result of an unan- nounced broadcast released here last Saturday over the CBS, when, at the opening of the National Aero Show in New York, he was allowed guest privileges in an air- plane from which two-way broad- casting was being done for the first time. It was a CBS stunt, and Graham is an NBC man, but from the accounts he preempted most of the spotlight! ♦ * * Bob Swan has been made chief announcer of KHJ. In giving us this item the publicity department (Continued on Page 9) JOSEPH DISKAY OPENS STUDIOS Joseph Diskay, Hungarian tenor, featured in vaudeville and on radio, has opened a vocal studio here, planning to concentrate on train- ing for miking technique. Singing in twelve languages, Dis- kay has featured an extensive rep- ertoire in R-K-O headlining ap- pearances, national radio broad- casts, on Columbia and Victor rec- ords and in many concert appear- ances. Numerous critics have particular- ly commented on Diskay’s appre- ciation of the little intricacies of the art of singing before the mi- crophone. BENEFIT FOR HELPER Prominent theatrical folk joined with Los Angeles people in a spe- cial benefit for Faith Chevallier, noted here for years as the “little angel of the prisons,” held at the Biltmore Hotel Tuesday night with Eddie Lambert as master of ceremonies. The aged woman spent most of her fortune in help- ing jail inmates and the benefit receipts were expected to save her home, threatened for lack of funds. CRAWFORD BROADCAST Jesse Crawford, local lad who made good in a big way on the organ, comes on the air with a new series of his own over the CBS beginning May 12. Mrs. Crawford, with a tenor and a mas- ter of ceremonies, will assist. N Y. Paramount organ will be used. SECOND ANNIVERSARY The Don Lee chain celebrates its second anniversary this week. HERE’S OPPORTUNITY Eloise Kirkpatrick, staff soprano at KHJ, has resigned. Tryouts are now being held for her suc- cessor. A coloratura voice is re- quired. LYONS ARRIVES Arthur Lyons, president of Lyons and Lyons, arrived here Tuesday on his first trip to the coast. GOING AFTER RADIO Reports that Warner Brothers were going after the radio broad- casting business in a big way fol- lowed announcement of the pur- chase of the Nakken patents last week. These patents give War- ners a means of broadcasting sound and television free of all patents held by other interests. Following the employment of Bill Ray by KGER, Long Beach, to manage its station, the report got abroad that Warners had pur- chased the plant to add to its Hol- lywood station KFWB as the nucleus of a projected chain. Ray had been an employe of KFWB for some years. These reports, however, are de- nied by Warner Brothers officials. Ray's move to Long Beach was an independent one, they assert, and has no connection with any radio plans of the picture pro- ducers. Moreover, they say, they plan no furtherance of radio ac- tivities under present contempla- tion. SONG’S AIR PREMIERE An English song success, “Give Yourself a Pat on the Back,” is to have its first American presen- tation, and its world air premiere, over KHJ on the Merrymakers’ program, May 8. Tubby Garron of the local office of Santley Bros., is arranging a tie-up for the oc- casion. RADIO’S PERSONALITY GIRL JEANE COWAN Dally At KFWB Over the Air From KYA SAN FRANCISCO Comes the Voice of Greta Gahler The English Comedian Wm. DON CHARACTER IMPRESSIONIST National Broadcasting Co. SAN FRANCISCO SEQUOIANS MALE QUARTETTE A Feature Over KPO SAN FRANCISCO THE MODERNISTIC RHYTHM GIRL NITA MITCHELL OPENS MAY 14 at the SILVER SLIPPER CAFE SAN FRANCISCO Broadcasting Nightly With JOE WRIGHT’S ORCHESTRA Over KPO A Lot of Laffs on Every Page x Just Off the Press “SPEAKING OF HAMS” By RICHARD F. MANN A HUMOROUS AND INTIMATE STORY OF TWO FEMALE TROUPERS On sale at News Stands where INSIDE FACTS is sold. Or order direct from Jester Pub. Co., 405 Kress Bldg., San Francisco. 50c A COPY