Radio and television mirror (July-Dec 1949)

The Life and Times of CBS (Continued from, page 25) the security of the press for the "uncertainty" of the still static-ridden air! A thin, energetic, young man by the name of Ted Husing was lugging the heavy weight of a recent invention — the portable transmitter — around after Bobby Jones in the National Amateur Golf Finals. He was the first reporter to use a portable mike at a sports event. And CBS was about to put Rudy Vallee on the air and change the singing style of the nation. It happened by accident. One of the most popular of early CBS programs was called Night Club Romances. It featured the lively jazz of the day. One night there was wild alarm in the studio a few minutes before the program was scheduled to go on the air. The orchestra was in place, the conductor was there, the engineers were ready. But there was no music score in the studio. The producer burned up the telephone wires, and made a deal with a young bandleader to go on the air from his recently opened Heigh Ho Club in Greenwich Village. "As a great novelty, we are leaving the studio and taking you directly to a night club to hear Rudy Vallee and his Connecticut Yankees," said the announcer. With that a brand-new sound went out over the airways — a band with no brasses — a singer who murmured to the mike. The era of the crooner had come. In 1929, CBS signed Paul Whiteman, the greatest name in jazz, and, as a result, scored several more "firsts." When Whiteman and his band went to Hollywood to make "The King of Jazz," his was the first program troupe to travel, broadcasting as it went. It moved as a unit in ten railway cars and made seventeen broadcasts. In Whiteman's troupe was a bigeared boy who already was beginning to hum "boo-boo-ba-boo-boo" into the mike — Bing Crosby, who also won his first big radio chance by accident . . . accident and President Paley's ceaseless search for new talent. Paley was relaxing on the deck of a ship bound for Europe. Technically, he was on a vacation. But when he heard a new, dulcet sound pouring out of a stateroom window, he went to work. He rushed to the door of the unknown traveler while "To you my love, my life, my all — I surrender, dear," was still floating out of the Victrola, demanded the name of the singer who had made the recording, hurried to the wireless room. The result was Bing Crosby's first engagement on the big time. But was this an accident? How often is "good luck" no more than a combination of good thinking and quick action? The scores of famous personalities first introduced to the airways by CBS cannot all be the result of happy accident. Look at the record: 1930— CBS brought the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra to the air and has kept it on ever since. The expense was staggering but hundreds of thousands of people who never had heard of symphonies before were able to enjoy it, free for the turn of a dial. Today, it is estimated that nearly forty-four million people hear CBS concerts in one season. Kate Smith was first heard regularly (Continued on the next page) 4 I . . -^ There is something wonderful in New Woodbury Powder— a new ingredient that gives your skin a smooth-as-Satin look. And Woodbury shades are just a glow of Satiny color on your skin— richer, wanner, they give none of that obvious "powdered" look. New Woodbury Powder is finer-blended than was ever before possible. And the subtle, exciting fragrance clings as long as the powder. 1 says GLORIA DE HAVEN co-starring in Metro-Goldwyn-Moyer's "SCENE OF THE CRIME" See for yourself why women from Coast to Coast voted New Woodbury the four-to-one favorite over all leading face powdersl < 7 glow-of-color shades, IS^*, 30^ and $1.00 plus tax.