Radio and television mirror (July-Dec 1948)

GENE O'DONNEL is Barney Blake, Police Reporter (Thurs. 9:30 P.M. NBC). He broke into acting via summer stock, and after an Army detour returned to the stage and television. Born in Dcs Moines, Gene made Hollywood his home town long enough to be seen in many movies and heard in Lux Theater, Big Town, Sherlock Holmes. JOHNNY DESMOND is half of the singing team of CBS -TV's Face the Music, Mon. and Wed., 7:15 P.M. Johnny began as a boy soprano in Detroit. When his voice dropped, he made a switch to radio acting, and was heard in Lone Ranger, Green Hornet, and other Detroit programs. Then he came of age, and went back to singing with Bob Crosby, Gene Krupa and eventually Glenn Miller. With the Miller Band, Johnny sang all over Europe, incluciiiu; a couple of performances for royalty. Johnny is as telegenic as his partner on Face the Music, Shave Cogan, which makes their tuneful offering attractive to watch. They are backed by the Tony Mottola Trio. KYLE MACDONNELL stars in NBC's For Your Pleasure, Thurs., 8 P.M, EDT, and then rushes to Broadway for her part in "Make Mine Manhattan," in which her tall blonde beauty and appealing voice win raves. Kyle was a Conover Model before her first Broadway job in "Park Ave." GRACE GIOE is known as "Aunt Grace" to the thousands of youngsters who see and hear her Birthday Party television show every Thursday night at 7 over the DuMont station WABD. "Aunt Grace" was bom Grace Catherine Gioe, in 1921, in Brooklyn, and still lives there. She received her early education in St. Angela Hall Academy and followed by graduating Mary mount College in 1942 in Tarrytown, New York. Grace handles the whole Party show from auditioning the youngsters to acting as moderator and m.c. Over Diiniont slat IN^RADIO errors can be covered up with, no allseeing camera eye to worry about; and in Hollywood if something goes wrong they merely stop and do the scene over again. But in television once the action has begun, nothing can stop it. A classic example is the time they were doing a dramatic skit at WNBT in Radio City. When they came to the place in the script where a marriage was to take place in a tiny weather station in Alaska, everyone was grouped about in heavy furs, the happy couple and the minister were ready, and the best man crossed to the old-fashioned Victrola that was to play "The Wedding March " As he placed the arm to the record, the needle fell out and disappeared! The bride and bridegroom frantically ad-libbed while other members of the cast got down on hands and knees to search for the missing needle; for the cameras just had to keep grinding. The needle was found and the action continued with the actors perspiring a little more than usual. With the baseball season at its height— let's take a look behind the scenes at how a game is televised. The televising requires as finely co-ordinated team work as the winning of a big-league match. To do a video broadcast also requires more men than are on a ball team. The list includes the announcer, his spotter, RADIO MIRROR song interprelaLu two cameramen, program director, audio engineer, two video control technicians, a switch technician and a transmitter supervisor. When doubleheaders are played two crews are used, except for the announcer and his spotter, because of the fatiguing concentration required. The two television cameras that are used to telecast a baseball game are located in a camera booth hung from the upper tier behind home plate. In the same booth are the announcer and his spotter. While two cameras continuously follow the action of the baseball game and catch different views, only one of them is sent out over the air. The program director decides which view is broadcast. He and his crew are housed in a television control room under the stands. In front of the director are two screens — one for each camera. It is his task to decide instantly which view is the better and order it transmitted. NEWSREELS are proving to be extremely popular on television; and why not — pictures of news and special events reach the televiewer as quickly as th*e day they occur. The Camel Newsreel Theater,.for example, which is seen at 7:50 every week-day evening over the NBC network— and the films are flown to other video stations throughout the country — shows FoxMovietone newsreels days before they can be shown DnniomV vm it a> popnhu v,hh ilf audience u " li ii'li" nine Mil -TV"! Bob Mi caughf Injrriil II. , . nppean in theaters. And the theaters are getting nervous. Word comes from France that despite limited budgets, television there is forging ahead. Radiodiffusion Francais executive Jacques Armand told recently of plans for a video station complete with a large swimming pool to be used for underwater scenes! Television courses have been given in Eastern colleges for several years — but only for the technical side of the medium. However, North Texas Agricultural College, at Arlington, Texas, will offer advanced speech courses tailored to the television industry in the Fall. (Continued on poae 79) TELEVISION SECTION