Inside facts of stage and screen (February 28, 1931)

Page Eight INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN ■Saturday, February 28, 1931 KFI has begun construction, on a 50-kilowatt transmitter to be lo- cated on a thirty acre tract near Northam, Los Angeles County. De- tailed specifications have not yet been released as to the number and dimension of the towers or build- ing. Nor are accurate figures avail- able at this time on the cost of the station or the new transmitter. But it’s safe to say that this all comes under the head of “big breaks.” The Three Cheers, KHJ’s rhy- thm trio has a new member, re- placing Bud Collyer. He is Ken Allen whose specialty is unusual arrangements that set otf his re- markably high voice. Hale and Derry continue to hold on as the other two-th.Vds of the male trio. The Vignettes in bymphony have been changed again. This ace air contribution originating at KHJ is now on the. C. B. S. network as far East as Salt Lake City. The Vignettes arc being given in half- hour broadcasts running two or more times, depending on how much story and music there is to cover. The last half of the former Vignette hour how carries a C. B. S. program from New York. Dick Creedou continues to write continuities like everything at KHJ. He's one of the few versatile radio personalities who neither sings, tab-.-:, acts, nor plays any instru- ment whatsoever into the mike. Not an uninteresting line-up of "den’ts’ tor an ex-publicity man; vanning a 24-hour station calls lor plenty of pep from the person- nel, with staff additions now and then. KG'FJ has a new secretary and general assistant to Frank Vallan, publicity director. Dotialda Hands' rates that job. Jules Garri- son is on to conduct the Slumber hour, and Don McDonald is go- ing to run the Sunshine Hour. ‘..EI.W’s Texas Longhorns have brought up an old time cow-hand from their native state to fiddle on their hour. Tex Barker is the new recruit. Radio Varieties has a new voice riding the wave lengths over KGER. It belongs to Mel Roach, formerly of Indianapolis, WKBF and WFBM. Roach is doubling in continuity writing along with Spiel- ing. Dorothy' Dee is back to the com- paratively' soothing cacophony of her station, KTM, after week-end- ing in San Diego with her family', which includes a couple of kid sis- lers and a brother just at the boistrous age. KTM has switched Roland Haynes, tenor, and Arline Sweet, accompanist and ivory' soloist, to an earlier hour for their Saturday- broadcast. With 31 published songs to his credit, not counting the Geise light, has time to indulge in a hob- by. Its right in his own-business —electrical transcriptions. He has the dope on this subject from every angle. Lani McIntyre and his Harmony Hawaiians are on the air from KMTR every morning now. They play and warble pops and Hawai- ian Lines. There is only on pair of towers in the U. S. equal in height to the ones on the new United Artists KMTR station now under con- struction. They are to be 250 feet high. The tune that Irving Bibo and D. J. Vecsei wrote recently, “Still Was The Night” has been pub- lished and was caught coming through the air in various inter- pretations by Eva Olivatti, Ted White, David Percy, Gus Arnheim, Abe Lyman, Brick English, Wes- ley Tourtellote, and Wade . Hamil- ton this week. Chet Mittendorf, head of KFWB’s Commercial Department, has joined the ranks of proud pa- pas. It’s an eight pound girl. Jack Joy, KFWB program direc- tor, has practically cornered the music market by investing in a flock of opera scores, musical com- edy scores, foreign music and many etceteras' in the musical line. He took advantage of a ret'iring-froin- misiness-sale. SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 26.— United Broadcasting Co. and the Northwest Broadcasting System combine on March 1 in a deal given its final touches this week. Eleven California, Washington and Oregon stations will be in- cluded in the new UBC setup with F. C. Dahlquist continuing as gen- era! manager. Only change in the stations will be in San Francisco where KTAB leaves UBC to continue as an in- dependent outfit, owned by Pick- wick, KYA will take KTAB’s place as a link in the coast, unit. Consummation of the deal will give -UBC 2000 watts more power than any other chain on the Coast. Network will he divided into two sections, Northwestern and Cali- fornia. X. W. stations are KJR, Seattle; KGA. Spokane; KHX, Portland; K \ OS. Bellingham; KPQ, Wenatchee, these operating as the. Green network. Stations KVA, San Francisco; KGB San Diego; KGER, Long Beach; KFWB, Hollywood, KTM, Los Angeles; will be known as the Sil- ver Network. Northwestern stations and KYA here are all former Northwest Broadcasting System units, being Owned by- that corporation. Lewis Lacey is local manager. •Having pulled away from UBC, KTAB here, effective March 1, will operate as an individual station uS- ing San Francisco artists. Bob Roberts is manager. SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 26.— Following the general trend of 1 show business to abbreviate its us- ual offerings radio, too, has reach- ed the point where speed is the thing. Listeners generally don’t want to sit still for long stretches of time. They want speed, punch. Fifteen minute and half hour programs. Look over any station’s announce- ment of new programs and you'll find 75 per cent of the new spon- sored programs are for the quar- ter hour period. With a number of y-ears in show business to his credit Frank Gal- vin has been named program direc- tor of Ralph Brunton’s KjBS. Gal- vin has been on the air for the past two years as a monologist and musician and has been on KFRC, KPO and KTAB. KPO has a newly organized drama guild under the direction of Baldwin McGaw, producer and player. “House of Mystery” by Ed. Evans, KPO staff -member, was done last week with such staff artists as Emma Knox, Barbara Lee; Don Wilding, Helen Stone, and Benay Venuta. NBC made a wrong step when it announced discontinuance of its Memory Lane program last week. Chain got 9808 letters from all over the country asking for continuance of H ,C. Connette's tale of the Sinithers family. Twirling the Dial By VI KFWB FRENCH MINIATURES 9:30-10 p. m. “The Silver Wig ’ episode of Kay' V-an Riper’s class continuity was carried out in idiomatic Ameri- cauese, which means that it moved along faster than title and sub- ject would indicate. The atmos- pheric delicacy of the whole didn’t suffer on this account. It rang true by' virtue of sincere perform- ances, characteristic musical back- ground and clever story manipula- tion. ness. Duke Atteberry and Ken Gillum were the hokesters and Rocco Plantamura directed the ten- picce band. KHJ DAVIS PERFECTION BREAD CO. 9-9:15 a. m. Count Jack and Grace among those who do their share in pull- ing up the . score on continuities . to a very decent average. With a Kay' Van Riper put across her domestic skit punctuated by songs, CHIROPRACTIC ADJUSTMENTS Dr. Edith Woods Km, 4 — 1096 No. Western Ave., Corner Santa Monica lines as Madame de Maintenon in a pleasingly unaffected voice that qualifies over the mike. Nannette Vallori as Diane de Conti, the lady of the silver wig, gave a first rate account of herself in her usual de- pendable yva>'. Stuart Buchnan was vocally suave and kingly as Louis XIV. Dorothy Warren and Fred Harrington got good results with their parts. Sam Wineland direct- ed the string orchestra in several specialty tunes that came tinder the head of good music. KFI GILMORE OIL CO. they threw plenty of amusing lines into the ether. Jack Sterne has a confidential quality to his crooning that early' morning lady' listeners can go for. His piano accompani- ments were on the credit side of the ledger, too. Grace Hamilton’s voice is a class warble with hot tendencies and sweet tones that never miss. They’re just a couple of love birds whose domestic trials and errors are real enough to be diverting. •3:15-8:45 p. m. The Gilmore Circus was put over with neat success. Calliope, pea- nuts, balloons, sawdust, elephants and clowns—they were right there. The atmospheric crowd carried on with just the necessary touch to complete the spangleland illusion. The barker's ballyhoo and what the clowns called booby-hatch buf- fooneries clicked from beginning to end. Even the old gags managed ear. Dunn should be a strong bid to garner their share of giggles in | for dance fans to crowd the place this hit-and-miss collection of where lie- swings the baton. The KGFJ SO. CALIF. FURNITURE CO. 10-10:30 p. m. Taking a slow and easy tempo throughout, Jack Dunn turned out some mighty warm dance band mu- sic. A sweet sax and low down drums stood out in this combina- tion, which included a vocal solo- ist on the choruses. Not a ryth- mic trick was lost and Jack Dunn.’s stamped them ail with his own dis- tinctive style. The band is a class outfit that was ingratiating to the knock-about comedy, Paul Taylors Metropolitans of- fered a novelty' vocal arrangement of “Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” KMTR that would have been a riot under any three-ring tent in the busi- broadcast came by remote control from the Rainbow Gardens. ager, is in Arizona on business. KYA has tied up with Reginald Travers for that Nob Hill produc- er to his group will be on the air twice 'weekly. Speaking of plays Fred Gray, as- sistant city' editor of the Exam- iner, has written a mystery “Bog Island Murder Trial” which was done on NBC this week. TE© HEMICEL MUSICAL CONDUCTOR PRESENTATION AND DIRECTOR CAPITOL THEATRE Sydney, Australia Pit Orchestra of 30 Stage Band of 20 NEW YORK HARDWARE TRADING CO. 9:30-10 p. m. Ron Wilson and Don Warner at- tacked their entertaining half-hour with bang-up spirit and business- like presentation. The boy's work on two pianos and play ’em off fast and furious. A team like this does much to bring back faith in the ebony and ivory means of amusing the public. They crowded lots of harmonies and melodies, themes and variations into their snappy pro- gram. “Sing Something Simple,” “Give Me Something To Remem- ber You^ By’’ and “I Still Get a Thrill Thinking of You” were among their okay' offerings. KGER 8:30-9 p. m. If y'ou like bland crooning- and dont insist that there’s only one mellow melodist who can get by with it, Billy Van is a good bet. He s a great imitator, anyway. Re- member that “Not good but loud” gag line on a well-known broadcast? Well, he uses that one, too. Yes, indeedy. But there is no reason for not enjoying Billy Van’s line of entertainment. He hums and whistles, croons and murmurs just like the best. “Blue Again” was neat stuff. The piano accompanist rates good mention on her own. N. B. Send self - addressed stamped envelope for correct pro- nunciation of “Au Revoir.” It’s a good tune and a good plugger should have his work correct in every detail. KELW 7:30-8 p. m. Don Julio and his Spanish orches- tra was all Spanish from spiels to tunes with the exception of Don Julio’s “Let’s Go, Boys” at the push-off. The music offered was of the indolent, strumming type. A few more peppy tunes would add strength to the half-hour. Interest dropped off due to routine similar- ity. The program was presented by the Pan-American Broadcasting Company. KF.CA 9:45-10 p. m. Songs of Spain, as offered by- Felipe Delgado, had all the ex- pected insinuating appeal of their ty'pe, but lacked variety of styde. Delgado is a lyric baritone whose high notes are of almost liquid tenor persuasion. The first group was from Old Spain, the second included old California love songs, and the third group was of Tango love songs from Argentine. The Considered two of the biggest radio draws in town Mac and his Cow Hollow Symphony and A1 Pearce with his Happy Go Lucky gang will soon start a seres of per- sonal engagements. Believing the back country is ready' for some of those old fash- ioned barn dances, Mac (Harry McClintock) is taking his old time instrumental group on a flock of Saturday night dates. Pearce starts his week-end tours on March 14 when he appears in Fresno. Phyllida Ashley', NBC pianist, is off on a one week vacation through Canada and the Northwest. Jerry Wilford joins KFRC soon as announcer and m. c. of the Feminine Fancies program, com- ing from KSL, Salt Lake. The wife of Clarence Hayes, NBC guitarist and vocalist, under- went a serious operation this week from which she is now recovering. GRETA BACK ON AIR SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 26.— Greta Gahler has returned to her staff vocalist duties at KYA after a nine day' confinement to her homc with a. bad cold. ADDED TO MOODS KGFJ has made two additions to Twilight Moods; William Sa- brinsky, pop pianist and organist; and Charles Silliman, violinist. This is George Cox’s program. Tex Howard and His Tigers are featured nitely, at ten, over KXA. The hot dance tunes this band sends over the air are the kind that make the old young and the young younger. closing number was the only one sung in English. This program is well into the class line-up and probably' has the Spanish popula- tion swarming eagerly around the Delgado dial turn. Carlotta Otero’s accompaniments were in harmony with the general atmosphere. Her piano solo, Tan- go in D by Albanez was a wel- come offering. OLLIE WALLACE Artist at Organ Entertainer on Mike PARAMOUNT PORTLAND OBEY—A—MAY EFT—LAY—EAST LAY—R. K. O. Befirendt-Levy Co., Ltd. General Insurance insurance Exchange Building VA. 1261 EARLE WALLACE BALLET MODERN “Light and Shadows Impressions” fParainogiiit Tiicafa'e LOS ANGELES Week of February 26th Created and Produced by Earle Wallace Belmont Theatre Bidg., Vermont at First EX. 1196