NBC Transmitter (Jan-Nov 1942)

AUGUST 1942 3 "ARMY HOUR NOT AN ENTERTAINMENT; IT'S A MILITARY MISSION"-VARIETY (The folloiving text is reprinted from the article "‘Showmanship and ‘The Army Hour’’” by Robert J. Landry in the July 22, 1942, issue of “Variety.’’ The article by the brilliant radio editor of the “shotvmen’s bible” was subheaded “A Triumph Over Time, Water, Static and Redtape.” ) # “ ‘The Army Hour’ is not an entertainment. That’s what they say. It’s a military mission. The distinction may have seemed like a literary conceit at the start. It has tended to become a crisp fact as the program has been shaken down. Now in its 10th week, ‘The Army Hour’ has become progressively mililary-like, dirninishingly schmalz-like; * * * “Now that it has settled down for the duration and gone over the bumps ( it’s 7 in the Hooper Rating ) that any new series has to take ‘The Army Hour’ may be examined as a clinical study in showmanship on a global magnitude of total war and total human destiny. It is possible to consider now with some perspective the program goals set by Gen. A. D. Surles and Lt. Col. Ed Kirby of the Bureau of Public Relations and how these have been translated and transmitted bv the Army’s get-it-done civilian, Wyllis Cooper, the latter one of big time radio’s best writingproducing craftsmen. “ ‘The Army Hour’ goes to Australia, Jamaica, Canada, Chungking, Cairo, England, Curacao, Hawaii, Ireland, India, Newfoundland, Panama, Puerto Rico, Russia. These world-encircling pickups tell as well as any words of description the farflung nature of this fight. They are necessary parts of the program formula. So, too, is praise of the British, the Russians, the Dutch, the Chinese, the Australians, the Canadians, all the Allies bunched together in the United Nations. A persisting emphasis upon the tie-up between the battle front and the production front is also fundamental to the design of ‘The Army Hour.’ The mounting crescendo of the drill-press is the obbligato to the rat-a-tat of the proving grounds, the field maneuvers and, finally, the actual death test with the enemy. “The processes of democratic mobilization and organization are slow. An impatient people has to be lighted through dark passages of history. ‘The Army Hour’ editorializes now and again at the American people, disabusing them of false confidence on the one hand, but keeping hope from withering and the outlook from being all murky and depressing on the other. Somebody has to do this, and the Army has a habit of not waiting upon others. Never mind that critics sometimes suggest that the complex politics of ‘hope’ ought, in a democracy, to be handled outside the armed forces. That’s theoretical. ‘The Army Hour’ is practical. Practical in putting radio programs together on a basis of the Army’s exclusive knowledge of the whole picture, of the dangers to, and the needs of maximum efficiency. “Naturally ‘The Army Hour’ must speak for all the branches and corps. ( It also speaks on occasion for the Navy.) In this war the over-all totals of publicity have tended to glamourize the air force first and tanks second. Only now are there belated salutes being organized in the country at large and via all channels of communications to such neglected bodies as the Medical Corps, the Quartermaster Corps, the Infantry, etc. Of military and other personages heard on ‘The Army Hour’ 16% have been connected with aviation. Of visits to factories and other places in the United States the aviation percentage has been above 30%. In its ‘profiles’ of the lethal weapons of modern warfare the program has concentrated 8.3% on aerial matters. “Now comes the get-it-done part, the "OLD GLORY'' IN STUDIO “The big 8-H studio at NBC is not neglected in the operations of this military mission.” Landry stated in his “Army Hour” Variety article. “It is standard practice to troop in the colors with a guard of soldiers fust before the broadcast and the colors are trooped out with due ceremony at the finale.” The president of the Radio Corporation of America participating in a recent “Army Hour” broadcast. Colonel David SarnofJ, U. S. Army Signal Corps, is shown facing the NBC microphone at Camp Murphy, Florida. sweating, worrying, long distancing, cabling, script-writing, putting it together job. There’s anywhere from 60 hours up of hard work for Wyllis Cooper alone on any one broadcast. J his is the supreme test of professionalism. No amateur could perform under such everyday handicaps. Too few assistants, too few funds, too few conveniences. NBC pays the bills but the budget is not unlimited. It costs S7 jjer minute, for example, to hold a |rroduction conference by telephone with NBC’s man. Bob St. John, in London. Cairo and other points east and west, are proportionately higher. People in remote places have to be cued, rehearsed, supplied with directives ( and in Army code as an added conijilication I and the w hole undertaking is veiled until broadcast time by military secrecy. The Japanese must not know that Chiang Kai-Shek or Archibald W avell w ill be at a given point at a given time to broadcast. * * * “1'he domestic pickups are, of course, easy by comparison. The country is rampant with eager jness agents. Preferably ‘The Army Hour’ likes to send one of its own men to set up the routine. Donald Briggs, the radio and film actor, is doing such assignments for \^ \llis Cooper. Lt. Howard Nussbaum, Lt. Joe Thompson and Jack Harris out of ashington also travel a good deal to line up specials. It is their intimate knowledge of the program that makes them ideal in dealing w ith the local public relations officers and [Continued on page 15)