Inside facts of stage and screen (October 11, 1930)

PAGE EIGHT INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN OCT. 11, 1930 REVIEWS COMMENT RADIOLAND CHATTER NEWS Pickups and Viewpoints RKO BOOKS SHARPLES, GANG Bill Sharpies and his gang, featured over KTM, and number- ing, among their following, several thousand radio fans, were chosen by Cliff Work, divisional manager of RKO, to follow the appearance of Dobbsie at the RKO theatre last Thursday. Together with Sharpies, are the following radio artists, Pierre White, musical comedy artist, in the role of the singing vagabond; Clarence Muse, nationally known colored motion picture and radio artist, who is now playing the feature role in Columbia’s “Dirigiblethe Gold Medal train crew, male quartette, seen in “Love Among the Millionaires” and “Let’s Go Native;” Bunona Kay, formerly of the Kay sisters, BKO artists, who will appear in her role of “Dolly Madison,” one of her radio characters. Grampa and Gramma Sears, old time fiddlers and character artists, will also appear, together with Sharpies’ eight piece band, led by Archie Wallace. The boys will step out and do various specialties. Sharpies will make his entrance on “Roxanna,” white Ara- bian horse presented to him by the Kellogg stables. It is said that the horse was so named, coincident with Sharpies time on the air, “dawn of day.” A1 Smith, who was stage director for “Under a Virginia Moon,” has been retained by Sharpies in the same capacity for this show, with the scenery being furnished by Ernest W. Rit- ter. Billing of the show will be “Bill Sharpies and his Western Show.” * * * GLEN SOQN GOES SCOUTING Latest Arkansas importation for the Hill Billies, a quick witted youth, with a great voice, probably will be returned to the Ozarks soon, when Glen Rise, station manager of KMPC and originator of the billie act, will go scouting for another one. Some day Rice hopes to find some clever woman musician and entertainer, as his last two importations have been boys. It is said Rice hires an auto and goes driving in the Arkansas hills, inquiring here and there as to whereabouts of a good yodeler, as they call all vocalists down there. Rice dresses in no dude clothes now, as he made the mistake of wearing golf pants on his first scouting trip, thus stirring up the enmity of several inhabitants, who objected to seeing “a grown man wear- ing knee pants like a little bov.” Cliff Read, publicity man for the station, just back from a color gathering trip into the Ozarks, says its a music-goofy locality. An oil rigger was heard yodelling like Hubert Wal- ton, and wherever Read went, he encountered harpists, mean- ing mouth organ players, as well as fiddlers, Civil War buglers and vocalists of all sorts. Rice’s adroit handling of the billies has put KMPC into first rank with Los Angeles stations. Incidentally, it has put Rice into first rank among station managers. A year or so ago he was one of the boys at KNX. When he broke loose from the Voice of Hollywood,” he spent a little while in an ad agency, and then tied up with the Beverly Hills broadcaster, which began to sizzle with popularity, when Rice began strutting his stuff. RADIO DEPARTMENT NOW IS FEATURED BY BEN, SALLY CO. Ben and Sally Productions at Long Beach have recently added a radio talent department. Inasmuch, as the aim is to take raw talent and produce an artist capable of com- peting with radio professionals, this new phase of the work becomes valuable to radio stations. The booking division, under su- pervision of Don Walker, has made rapid strides since its inception the latter part of 1929. At present, the concern is featuring a line of six girls for theatres and clubs, the Parker Sisters, acrobatic and dance duo; Rita and Rubins assisted by Marilyn Downs; Kitty Brown, com- edienne; Betty and Kay Clarke, harmony duo; Dorothy Quesner; a large kiddie revue; Buel Payne, tap dancer, and the Rhythm Queens, a girls’ dance orchestra. ROOM IS DEVOTED TO PROGRAM GANG With appointment of Jack Joy as manager of production, Manager Gerald King set aside a suite of rooms on the second floor of War- ner Bros. Hollywood theater build- ing which houses the KFWB stu- dio and equipped them to suit the tastes of program producers. Here’s the staff: Jack Joy, melodrama; Kay Van Riper, serious and historical; Tom Breneman, comedy. SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES TO RADIO ARTISTS INSIDE FACTS Delivered to Home or Station One Dollar—Three Months STOP and LISTEN to the WESTERNERS MALE QUARTET KFRC San Francisco HAVE YOU HEARD BILLY VAN I ! On K. G. E. R? CROSS-SECTIONING RADIOLAND THUMBNAIL REVIEWS (Reviewed Oct. 2) KGGC (7:55 p. m.)—Frank Cru- mitt record. Police siren. “Holdup at Army and Potrero.” “Dancing With Tears in My Eyes,” another record. KYA (8 p. m.)—Jimmy Moseley in hill-billy songs. Pleasing mike personality. Dud Williamson in an advertising plug, farewell song from Moseley, ‘Sterling Furniture Time” and then the Harmony Ranch opening, with atmospheric music and rube chatter by Harry Bechtel. Tom Smith in hill-billy number. Jimmy Moseley’s similar stuff should have been spotted earl- ier in the evening since it had so much hill-billy stuff, as in the Har- mony Ranch. KQW, San Jose (8:05 p. m.)— Pianist in a boring classical selec- tion. KROW, Oakland (8:08 p. m.)— Robert Blair, tenor soloing. Talk on a U. S. Marine Band concert. Announcer’s personality in need of a stimulant. Charlie Edington. Wanted to sing, “Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby,” for his fiiance, but he didn’t have the music with him, so sang “Minnie the Mermaid” in- stead. Big plug for his coming marriage. KLX, Oakland (8:15 p. m.)— Lynn Prior’s orchestra from the Athens Athletic Club. About a six or seven piece combo playing ‘Old New England Moon.” Steel guitar solo, “A Long Time Ago.” KGO (8:18 p. m.)—Sales talk for Packard. Needed the shears. Clas- sical orchestra not especially inter- esting. Turned the dials quickly to KPO (8:20 p. m.)—Gilmore Gas program, done in circus style with barker, etc. ‘Song by Nucco, the man with the upside down nose.” Nucco has nice voice and personal- ity as well as a hot piano. KFRC (8:30 p. m.)—East Indian musical offering ... a mighty good orchestra. Ben. (Reviewed Oct. 1) KFRC (2:55 p. m.—A1 Pearce’s Happy Go Lucky Hour. Or rather, the last five minutes of it. A1 at the mike talking about chestnuts. Sign off song. Followed by electrical transcription dramatic program. Dorothy Chase Players, or some- thing like that. KPO (3:02 p. m.j—Pacific Coast League baseball, Don Thompson handling the verbal description. Gasoline plug. KGO 13:05 p. m.)-—Old time fid dling with piano accompaniment. KYA (3:07 p. m.)— A Virginia Spencer piano offering, and good, too. “Seems To Be Spring” seguing into “All Alone,” then into “When You're Awav.” Plenty of piano. KJBS (3:12 p. m.)—Interesting to know that artists on this hour are blind . . . pianists, singers and all. Except the announcer. He could have speeded up his one-way conversation. KFRC (3:18 p. m.)-—Barbara Gould, telling the gals about face creams, lotions and whatnots. For the ladies only. Dial out—and hur- riedlv. KLX (3:19 p. m.)—Cough drops plug. A record. Another plug. An- other record. Another plug. We plug out. KYA (3:24 p. m.)—"My Fate Is In Your Hands,” with Virginia Snencer still at the piano, and Dud Williamson handling the lyrics. Hebrew charity announcement. Then into a Red Nichols phono- graph record. KGO (3:30 p. m.)-—Bible story by female voice. Into negro spirit- ual. Some days religion just doesn’t mean a -thing to us. LA VOVE JOINS “FACTS” STAFF Art LaVove, former news- paperman and well known publicitv director is now on the staff as Associate Radio Editor. SAN FRANCISCO RADIO NOTES SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 9.—Next week, and in each issue follow- ing, until completed, “Inside Facts” will present in these columns the personnel—artist and executive—of San Francisco radio stations. It is suggested that readers clip and file the list for future reference. * * * Application has been filed by Hale Brothers and the Chronicle,joint owners of KPO, with the Federal Radio Commission for permission to increase present power equipment from 5000 to 50,000 watts, a move that will place KPO among the country’s high-powered broadcasting units. KPO is the only cleared channel station in San Francisco, and the commission has extended power increased to four cleared channel stations in each of the five federal radio zones. A new transmitter, costing $450,000, will be installed several miles from the city—prob- ably down the peninsula, but studios will remain in the Hale store building. * * * Sam Dickson, short story writer formerly with KYA and later with KPO, has transferred his course to KTAB, where he will also write continuity for the Pepper Box. * * * Nita Mitchell, songstress, will join KFRC’s staff on Oct. 26. * * * Jack Dean, vocalist, now on KYA’s staff, has filed petition for bank- ruptcy, listing liabilities as $22,351.94 and assets of $250. * * * Diet bug has hit Edna O’Keefe of KFRC. After voice and camera tests on the Fox lot in Hollywood, she was told she’d have to take off about 10 pounds before she could begin work there. So her reducing is on full blast. * * * Jerry Jermaine, KPO contralto, and Mildred Bailey, pianist, have opened a voice studio. * * * Charlie Addington, KROW singer, was married this week to Ethel Patterson, non-pro, at a public wedding, broadcast over 'KROW with vocal description by Ruth Gwen, station press agent. * * * Executives of KFWI are John Geisen, manager; Joseph Klein, commercial manager; Dean Metcalf, program director; E. F. Jefferson, technical director; Bill Sanderson, announcer. * * * Cotton Bond, southern singer, has joined KPO. Hs was formerlv on KFRC and KTAB. * * * NBC has a football squad of its own, consisting of former col- lege men. Members are Lloyd Yoder, captain; C. L. McCarthy, May- nard Jones, Ed Fitzpatrick, Howard Milholland, Bill Andrews, Joseph Baker, Charlie Marshall, Bib Nichols, Harry Stanton and Bennie Walker. * * * With Don Gilman in the East, Howard Milholland, in charge of NBC here, has made several changes in the artist staff, letting out Henry Starr and Peggy Chapman. WALTER DAMROSCH EXHIBITS INTEREST IN COAST’S RADIO By ARTHUR S. GARBETT SAN FRANCfSCO, Oct. 9.—Visiting New York after many years’ absence has brought thrilling experiences, but none more so than that of meeting Walter Damrosch, whose music appreciation lessons have done much for musical education by radio during the past few years. Mr. Damrosch was interested in the work being done on the Pacific Coast through the Standard School Broadcast and the Standard Sym- phony Hour. One of the first questions he asked was “Have you a good orchestra?” “For the Standard Symphony Hour in the evening,” he was told, “we have the San Francisco Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras broadcasting alternately week by week. For the elementary and advanced lessons of the Standard School Broadcast, preparatory to the Symphony Hour, we have a smaller group of instrumentalists.” This information interested the eminent conductor very much and when asked if he had a message for Pacific Coast workers in radio music, who are familiar with his Saturday night concerts, Mr. Damrosch had much to say that was vividly illuminating. T try to interest the children emotionally,” he explained. “Music is above all things the language of emotions, and as they listen they become gradually more and more aware of the immense range of feeling which music can express: love, tenderness, sadness, joy, humor—perhaps above all humor. There are so many compositions of the great masters which, express gaiety. There are scherzos of Beethoven, the charming fairy-like grace of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream music; the delicate fancy displayed by Tschaikowsky’s “Nutcracker Suite,” and “Carnival of the Animals” of Saint-Saens. Children are quick to grasp the essential beauty of such works and gradually come to learn how music reaches, into broader and deeper fields, until the whole language of music becomes to them as their mother tongue, and they find in its beautiful nuances an echo of their own feelings and an inspiration that will be lifelong and of infinite variety.” “Do you find that teachers in the schools are quick to grasp the spirit of these broadcasts?” “Indeed they are,” replied Mr. Damrosch enthusiastically. “And this is the more remarkable because in many schools, especially in re- mote country districts teachers themselves have had little or no oppor- tunity of hearing gooa music before the coming of radio.” “This is really a great help because so much depends on the support and encouragement that teachers can give to the little people entrusted to their care.” “When I was in France during the war, General Pershing asked me to do what I could, to develop the military bands. ‘Many of these bands,’ he said, ‘are in need of improvement.’ “‘How good are the bandmasters?’ I asked. “‘Not very good, I am afraid,’ laughed General Pershing. “ ‘Ah, then,’ I told him, ‘we must begin with the bandmasters.’ “And so it is with the schools—or would be if the teachers them- selves were not so well equipped to carry on the very necessary work of preparation. No doubt, many teachers find themselves getting as much from the broadcasts as their young students, and I hope that they and their charges derive mutual pleasure in listening to the music and dis- cussing its qualities.” _ It is some years since I last saw Walter Damrosch. His hair is white now, and white are the eyebrows from under which his bright kindly eyes gleam with enthusiasm. But he is the picture of health, sturdy and uostanding, with the old quick gestures that concert-goers know so well. Apart from his enthusiasm for broadcasting, his main pleasure at the moment is being back in America after a summer abroad “It rained heavily,” he said, "and while I enjoyed my trip it is so good to he back, where there is sunshine so plentiful and so continuous. It is good to be in America again.”