NBC Transmitter (Jan-Dec 1939)

VOL. 5 NBC TRANSMITTER <& $>v DECEMBER, 1939 NO. 12 ARTISTS M^t^GfRS TRAINING CROUP BEGINS DISCUSSIONS ROCKEFELLER AND SARNOFF SPEAK AT CENTER CEREMONY DAVID SARNOFF’S “creative imagination” played a large part in the development of Radio City, Nelson Rockefeller declared at ceremonies on Nov. 1 which marked the completion of the fourteenth and final building in the Rockefeller Center group. Introducing the RCA president and chairman of the NBC board, Rockefeller said that with the radio tie-up the idea of Rockefeller Center took the form that it has today. Mr. Nelson Rockefeller, after discussing the leasing of the land on which Rockefeller Center is built, continued as follows: “Having the property, there was only one thing to do — develop it. The opera was out as a nucleus for development, and the question was left — was there anything that could take its place? The answer was — radio. Opera was the great old art — radio the new. The latest thing in this contemporary world of ours, the newest miracle of this scientific era, young and expanding. “Negotiations were begun with the group consisting of RCA, the National Broadcasting Company, and RKO. In these discussions the creative imagination of David Sarnoff played a large part. These companies had their places of operations very much scattered, and were thinking of bringing them together. So an alliance was made with the radio group. This was done by the signing of the largest and most important lease on record. With the radio tie-up, the idea of Rockefeller Center took the form that it has today — expressed in towering steel and concrete. The radio angle is essential to the story, the great business of broadcasting. And representing radio at this gathering here is David Sarnoff, President of the Radio Corporation of America. He’s the one to take over the microphone now, and pick up the broadcast thread of the story.” Mr. Sarnoff then said, in an address which was broadcast nationally by NBC: “Perhaps it was natural, Mr. Rockefeller, that radio, a pioneering art and industry, should have become a “first settler” in what was once a wilderness of blue-prints. We f Continued on page 2) Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, RCA President David Sarnoff and Nelson D. Rockefeller, President of Rockefeller Center, Inc., at the ceremony marking the completion of Rockefeller Center. THE first meeting '• of George Engles’ pioneer Artist Management Training Group took place in the vice president’s office of Artists Service, Tuesday night, November 7. It was a successful beginning for a new and practical venture in this profession. Mr. Engles’ welcome to the men and his discussion of the aims and ideals of the Group were in the form of a play, a gesture to showmanship. The men and guests arrived in evening dress and were given silk programs entitled The Show Must Go On. But when Mr. Engles started to take the chair, he found himself interrupted by Allan Bengtson, who informed him that the men had decided that he too should offer his credentials for membership in the Group. Mr. Engles claimed to have had some experience in the entertainment field and gave a brief autobiography, including an appearance as valedictorian, a shorthand scholarship, the date of his first shave, and the beginning of his career as secretary to a publicity agent and later as an aide to Doctor Walter Damrosch. He told of his unique chance to manage Paderewski’s first post-war tour, which was made possible for him by his friend, Mr. Harry Harkness Flagler. After this resume of his early career, Mr. Engles was unanimously voted in and assumed the chair. He welcomed the “distinguished ladies” present, the Misses Brainard, Cuthbert, King, McGrew, MacRorie and Mobert. Then he turned to the business of the meeting and spoke to the men of the Artists Management Group. The thirteen men fortunate enough to be chosen from over a hundred NBC applicants are Clifford Bengtson, Thomas Donlin, Howard Flynn, William Hoffman, Jr., Edgar Kobak. Richard Ledick, Willis Myers, Robertson Schroeder, and Edward White, Jr., all from the NBC uniformed staff; Howard Cann, mail clerk; John Collins, assistant in auditions for Artists Service; Vincent O'Connell, delivery clerk, and Lewis Julian of the Music Division. Mr. Engles proposed that these men form an organization with president, vice president, and secretary and make their own necessary by-laws, the group to be known as the NBC f Continued on page 8) George Engles interviewed by his eventual successors. At this informal gathering the vice president, at the end of the desk, explained to the Artists Management Group his plans for the course.