Inside facts of stage and screen (March 14, 1931)

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Saturday, March 14, 1931 INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN Page Nine Ramblin’ With Vi By Vi Hegyi This looks like International Broadcast Week for KFL On Sat- urday the Prince of Wales speaks from the Argentine. (For a while it looked as if this one wouldn’t come off.) Then on Sunday Wil- liam T. Cosgrove, President of the Irish Free State, is slated to be heard in a talk on economic de- velopment. | underground and equipped with a [ special sprinkling system to keep it t at the proper moisture. The tow- ers will soon be completed. Arthur Freedheim, often heard locally over KFI, has gone to New York to play a series of concert en- gagements. He may return to Los Angeles for a short time next sea- son. The Oldsmobile Motor Works is sponsoring a new one over KHJ featuring Hazel Warner and the Hallelujah Quartet. Naturally enough, the theme song is a revival of “In My Merry Oldsmobile.” KHJ is constantly increasing the number of programs originating in their studios to go over the coast chain of the CBS. So far there are seven, with more to come. •i The Ranch Boys of KTM were l very much on deck to bid Charlie Chase goodbye when he left for Panama. They worked in some of his pictures and couldn't resist join- ing the party. : Falling for the w. k. lure of the Sea, Roland Haynes has left KTM and is now on a boat running be- tween San Francisco and New York. He was, at the last bearing, doubling from purser to entertain- er, besides having charge of enter- tainment on the ship. There is such a thing as too much popularity after all. The Ranch iBoys of KTM have had to discon- - tinue their Monday night request - program. They just weren't up to * at. But then, 400 requests per hour ^|is a bit heavy, even for this ener- • getic gang. From now on they will . jjust follow their regular continuity. si KTM donates a half-hour every Saturday afternoon to the City De- partment of Playground and Recre^ ation. Nellie Frizelle, who is in charge there, puts on a program of kid talent that has its own faithful following. Vi Curtiss, like strummer and warbler of KELW’S Mackies String Trio, has joined Billie Rush and Beth Haynes in a series of horse- back rides that will not be broad- cast until the equestrienne trio be- comes as proficient as the musical ditto. In the meantime they are suffering for their "art.” The Texas Longhorns of KELW made a couple of personal appear- ances around their home grounds in Burbank last week. They are draw- ing a flock of new followers to their broadcast. Ground has been broken for the studios and towers of KMTR’S new U. A. station. The studios will be located at the United Artists lot. and the towers at Calnienga and Santa Monica Boulevards, on the old Keaton lot. John Hilliard is the radio engin- eer under whose direction the work is being carried on. The towers have the most extensive ground- work and insulation yet attempted on the west coast. There are three miles of copper wire, interlaced, in :the ground work, which is 10 feet Behrendt-Levy Co., Ltd. General Insurance Insurance Exchange Building VA. 1261 Tom 'Brenneman (“Tom and Wash”) is transferring himself and his talents from KFWB to KNX. He starts Monday, doing programs, writing continuities and making himself generally valuable to his new station. There’s a new composition floor- ing in the large studio at IvFWB that’s proving a success, the acous- tics of the studio being greatly im- proved, with tones coming up more brilliantly than before. _ A new Con Conrad song will make its radio debut over KFWB on Sunday. The Locus Sisters, will harmonize and Conrad is. slated to accompany them in the new tune; A short new feature program Combining semi-classics with con- tinuity describing the numbers will start next week over KMTR. Twenty-five of K M PCs Ambas- sador of the Air programs are be- ing collected and elaborated for publication. The book will be called “The Little Red Schoolhouse,” and includes topical discussions, mis- pronounced words (with correct pronunciations) and other handy bits of information, in addition to timely philosophies. K.FI-KEGA has added a new in- strument to its musical equipment, the reed organ, or harmonium'. George King lias been elected to play the harmonium, which is often used to imitate wood wind solo voices and mass effects in small or- chestral ensembles. A new program, the Book-Drama Hour, with Guy Hedlund and Caro- line Cooke, is slated for KFI KF.CA. Both are old time stage and screen players. An inrush of stage and screen people to the radio field will be in- evitable if the present radio trend continues, in the opinion of one high studio executive, expressed this week. He Stated that the tendency now is for completely dialogued acts and playlets, and that the next step will be to present them for visual as well as oral entertainment. This, he continued, will bring about ra- dio studios resembing the inter- iors of theatres, with large seating capacities, and the inevitable after- math to this will be casts recruited for their acting as well as speaking ability. Which means the afore- mentioned inrush from stage and screen. He pointed to the Rainbow Gar- dens project as what radio will come to within the near future. The Gardens are planning an audi- toriutn seating 5000 to 6000 spec- tators, from which fully staged and directed plays will be broadcast over the . air. The exec declared his belief that other studios will follow this ex- ample in the near future, there be- ing a natural tie-up between the class of entertainment material to- ward which radio is now tending and its presentation to itj-persOu audiences. A survey of figures coming from one of the minor broadcasting stu- dios shows that 450,000 persons have been drawn to the station over a-ten month period to watch a routine program built as nearly along the lines of visual entertain- ment as is .possible for an air fea- ture. This is another forecast of radio's next big step, the exec stated. Gustavo F. Moran, who conducts the Mexican - American program from KMFC. is a brother-in-law of Ramon Novarro. Ramblin’ With Hal By Harold Bock SAN FRANCISCO, March 13.-- The flood of recent letters to radio editors demanding less radio adver- tising has caused station managers to perk up an attentive ear. With- in the next three months it’s a cinch that radio ' stations will have swept out much of the superfluous blurbing now going on. The sta- tion with the least advertising and the best programs will get the lis- teners . and the minute a studio starts giving ’em a lot of adver- tising blah—well, the dials are too easily turned to listen to that sort of thing. Tragedy entered the ranks of lo- cal radio tnhis week when the wife of “Wee Willie" Hancock of KPO, passed away within a few short months of the couples’ marriage and before they had even left on a belated honeymoon to Honolulu. Known as Virginia Sedberry,. the deceased did considerable contralto work over KPO. After three or four nights on the 11 p. m. shift the Who Cares hour, KPO; has been shifted back to its original 3 p. m. spot. Audience re- action is better there. The Don Lee system’s technical department is one not to be sneezed at . . . if you'll pardon a preposition ending a sentence. Headed by Harold G. Peery the local KFRC gang includes Alan Cormack, technical director; Vic de Roco, chief operator; Jim Mc- Ardle, Don Cameron, Bob Baldwin and Carl Bensberg, operators. Our old friend and Oakland ra- dio columnist, Dinty Doyle, is back on the air again since KTAB re- turned its Pepper Box to the ether lanes, Dinty is still , doing his ‘Rambles of a Newspaperman” and for varied entertainment there is none ; better than his. weekly chat. K\A has a novelty orchestra the personnel of which includes Ken- nedy at the piano, Phil Fallon, ma- rimba; Leo Catalano, sax: Manuel Tapia, guitar; Melvin Dunn, ac- cordion; Norman Wier, string bass and Adeie Burian, vocalist. Under Clem Kennedy’s direction Dial — By VI KHJ 9:30-10 p. m. Jimmy Bittick and his Town House Orchestra are just so much class in. the pop music line. His half-hour was ace high for either ear entertainment or melodic, har- monic, and rhythmic support for dance devotees. Don Abbott’s mel- low croon on choruses came in for a good share of appreciation. Bittick’s strings and reeds (he uses no brasses) are more than suffi- cient to handle the requirements of any of the tunes, from hot to sweet. With his obvious musical sense and clever arrangements-, this aggrega- tion, as it stands, is completely sat- isfying. Don Abbott’s vocaling showed to best advantage in such songs as “Would You Like To Take A Walk,” and “Wedding in the Ark," which had the novelty stamp in ad- dition to being okay jazz. KFI 4:15-4:30 p. m. A syncopating vocal combination, the Alabama Boys, Royce and Ron- ald, proved themselves strong and warm rhythmic specialists. Their songs were taken from the “I Ain’t Got Nobody,” “Toot, Toot, Tootsie. Goodbye” era, but were plenty hot and new in manner of delivery. This broadcast could be extended to half- hour length and still carry interest right through. Largely because Royce and Ronald give their per- formances with 100 per cent spon- taneity and pep, this is one . of the best teams of its kind on the air. The introductory and signing-off song ; of the Alabama Boys is a California plug to the tune of “Marching -Through Georgia,” which sounds like nothing more serious than a slight inconsistency of names and places. NBC VAGABONDS 6 to 7 P. M. One of the ace aerial dance bands on the Coast, the Vagabonds, directed by Mahlon Merrick, set a fast pace for competitors. There was brilliance and life to this hour of music and its qualities were in- creased by an intelligent selection of numbers; not the usual ones caught on almost every number of the dial. Plenty of smart batoning by Merrick evident throughout. In addition to straight dance tunes Clarence Hayes vocalized in a mighty pleasing fashion; Fred 11e ward did some torrid fiddling and Alvino Rey went great guns with guitar soloing that included an excellent interpretation of Rach- maninoff's Prelude. Bock. KTM 9-10 P. M. Dorothy Dee's “Readers’ Hour” of organ music is well named. There were no interruptions in the program other than the necessary station announcements. The music flowed on and on, unpretentiously offered, making no demands upon the dialist. Dorothy Dee can pull some stuff at the console of the Robert Morton that makes her aural audience sit up and takeaiotice, but for these broadcasts she contents herself with soothing the too often musically harassed auditors. She played pops and ballads, of- fering a variety of moods without imposing any of them too strenu- ously upon the relaxed tune-in. The way this hour is set.up.it serves its purpose right down to 'the last chord. The HARMONIZERS RECORDING TRIO KPO SAN FRANCISC* KMTR Cambria Pines 6-6:30 p. m. Andy, Chester and Del, the Banjo Boys, are one of those de- pendable combinations, never fall- ing down on the many musical as- signments they fill for their station. They’ve worked together long enough to keep the informal chatter between numbers up to tempo. Even reading excerpts from re- quest letters doesn’t sound like a stall for time. In other words, the boys are showmen. They have a neat way of turning incidents around the station into very ac- ceptable gags. ; The Banjo Boys strum and croon a wide variety of tunes, from old-time sweet songs to the newest super-hot oops. KNX 9-10:30 p. m. Calmon Luboviski continues to hold up as one of the outstanding musical personalities on the coast. He is a concert violinist who does not make a practice of bowing to popular taste in his radio programs —and gets by with it. Where a lesser artist, after venturing the Handel Larghetto, would rush into something or other of spring to square himself with the ether pub- lic for getting so highbrow over their loud speakers, Luboviski topped the number with the Devil’s Trill Sonata by Tartini, with cadenzas by Hubai. He is not a hard and fast classicist, either. The Seidel arrangement of “Eli Eli,” “Song of the Nightingale” by Sara- Don McNeill and Van Fleming have arrived from the East to do their Quaker Oats program from this end of the NBC chain. They’re on the air every morning, except Sunday, at 7:45, which is much too early for our editorial ears. National Broadcasting Com- pany’s annual birthday is slated to come off April 4. The El Sidelo and Spotlight Review bands will provide entertainment for the usual entertainment. According to Hollywood advices, Tom Catton is now managing Frank Watanabe (Eddie Holden) of KNX. To look at Lloyd Yoder, NBC's publicity maestro, you wouldn’t think he was a song writer but his song “Carnegie Victory Song” has just won a Carnegie Tech prize and will be included among that university’s fotball songs. ) Theatres are not the only ones going after kid business. Radio is following the same idea. Two local programs came on the air this week, seeking the kiddies as listen- ers. NBC did “Cowboy Kills” with Billy Page and Jack Mery featured and will continue to- do them every Monday and Wednes- day p. m. KY A had “Children’s Lodge of the Air.” Slipping off to \ uma, for a *)en days, “Sleepy ’ of KNX's Arizoii: Wranglers, was married. No cins at the station knew about it uiiti be rcurned and drawled the reeiv; to the gang. It’s Mr. and Mrs. <3u "Sleepy” Short now, 'Manager. Glen Rice of KMltC estimates that 779,000 people hav< visited the studios to watch tin Beverly Hill Billies’ broadcast. ,. Nc mean figure. Thfey draw a mol wnerever they appear. 200,00! turned out at the airport for tlreii four appearances there. A string quintette instruments in Spanish fashion, Luis Alvare; and Mildred Laughlin wll appeal in a newly scheduled program Iron KECA as a weekly feature. i sate, and Cyril Scott’s “Lotu Land,” arranged by Kreisler, fotin their way into his broadcast, toe It was a program planned w;it discernment and played with tech 11 <cal and emotional beauty and ap peal. Claire Mellonino not only accom panied, but also played a quota, c piano solos with her customar distinction. Her Chopin is alway noteworthy, and “Sometimes I Fee Like a Motherless Child” was on of the highlights of the broadcas Tudor Williams, sang sever: groups of ballads in a fine baritone Two Irish songs, simple and melc dions, were his best numbers. FILMARTE 1228 Vine Street Hollywood “Loose Ends” With EDNA BEST, Owen Nares and Donald Calthrop Directed by Norman Walker Sadie Halpeiiu ¥HieatricaI Agency GIRL REVUES—SINGERS—DANCERS— VAUDE ACTS FOR ALL OCCASIONS SOS Warner Bros. Downtown Bldg. Telephone VAndike 3234