Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

Genius of Noise Boy and Baron They Don't Look (Continued from Page 19) sounding. I never witnessed an airplane accident, but Capt. Bill Royle, the aviator, who is one of our artists, described the sound to me. For a whole hour, I dropped folding chairs, listening to the sound they made, through a pair of ear-phones. They didn't sound quite right, so I tried dropping other things — no good. Then I suddenly remembered how a drum-head sounds when you crush it in your hands, and wondered what the mike would do with its stiff crackling noise. I tried it out — and the effect was so realistic that Capt. Royle himself was thrilled." • Letters came all the way from New York, begging to know how NBC re-created the San Francisco fire through the microphone, in a transcontinental program, the Pacific Feature Hour, which was broadcast on the anniversary of the San Francisco fire last month. Madonna Todd, author of the continuity, described the sound she wanted — the crackle of flames, then the roar of the mighty holocaust, close at hand. Norman got it — so well that an awe-inspiring effect was produced. More than one listener wrote to NBC's audience mail department admitting that he instinctively moved back from the microphone when the roar of the flames sounded — "almost too close." It seems a shame to disillusion the scared ones, but the "fire" was a small bundle of bamboo sticks plus a handful of tissue paper. The sticks produced the crackling, and the sound of the tissue-paper, crumpled before the microphone, emerged from receiving sets as the thrilling roar of the fire. NBC's unbreakable rule against using electrical transcriptions of sounds for atmospheric effect prevents the use of records of sea-waves breaking against the beach, or similar noises. Norman has a miniature "sea" of his own, however, which sounds more realistic through the microphone than the real thing. This is a large, shallow hat-box filled with shot. When the box is rhythmically swung back and forth, the shot swishes like waves. • The City of the Dead," eerie mystery serial by Carlton E. Morse, required at periodic intervals the sound of a rusty, faraway old bell whose mysterious ringing was part of the drama's puzzle. It was almost as hard for Norman to find a suitable bell as it was for "Sergeant Long," intrepid radio detective, to locate the mystery bell. Real bells proved hard to use; they were too loud or of the wrong pitch. Finally Norman tried striking a long, flexible steel rail until he got the exact sound required. The spot on the rail which produced this pitch was marked, so the sound was dupli (Continued from Page 26) comedy novel on fellow crewsmen, "who," he says sadly, "took it all seriously, and really I had a gag in every line." Monroe says if it hadn't been for the radio he would have continued writing comedy, but as it is he's found time to turn out a pair of wise-cracking numbers; one for "Simpy Fitts" in collaboration with his crack-mate "Pedro," and the other hot off the press for his latest character "Lord Bilgewater." Yes, the sea-farer came home again. KFRC nailed him as a technician but there was graduation on the docket when Monroe slipped "Fitts" over on them during an auditorium program. "You know the rest," says Simpy himself, "there were those who showed a slight tendency to laugh, thus my indeterminate sentence to be funny when called upon even at seven o'clock in the morning." • It was Fitts, the naive, optimistic soul, albeit a bit wobbly in his mental gyrations, who opened up the Early Bird station WORM, located on Seal Rocks (through KFRC) and invited imbecilic persiflaging seals to slip and splash in review during the hour, thus giving a refreshing tang to the radio-listeners' early breakfast. Speaking of reviews, Monroe Upton does that too — reviews books on Thursdays, by air, same station. Lately he has taken to singing and he can't carry a tune. But, if you don't believe he gets away with it, do a little listening-in yourself (Monday night Jamboree, Don Lee Chain) . He refuses to eat eggplant but begs for candy and says his mother is his best and severest cook. cated time after time without variation. Moreover, other points on the rail proved to offer so many differing bell-tones that the rail has superseded real bells almost completely. (Continued from Page 21 ) The soldiers begin to tear down the door. That is Stuart Buchanan setting up a terrible racket with an old apple box and a two-by-four. The women of Paris demonstrate in the streets. You can hear their threatening howls for food. It is the orchestra boys, doubling for the mob. Aside from the principals in the drama, there are a dozen members of the orchestra in the studio to play the musical interludes, and to act as supers, when necessary. It is a far cry from the period costumes of the play to these worn by the players. But it is much farther to the orchestra's habiliments, when compared with those usually donned for concert work. Wineland, who crouches upon a stool, has dispensed with coat, waistcoat and collar and tie. The play moves smoothly on, sign language, and by clever reading, and vocal business. What a tribute to the radio artist, that without the costumes, without the business of the stage, without anything more than the voices, the music and such effects as can be wrung from an old apple box, beaten by a two inch board, the tense and pregnant atmosphere of the Revolution can be reproduced so marvelously that thousands continue to tune their radios to this program each week, to revel, vicariously, in the intrigue and bloody plottings of the Reign of Terror. MICROPHONES ices foi ;s. Mounting Expert Repair All All Sizes and Practical Use Cables and Universal Microphone Co., Ltd. THornwall 0600 1163 Hyde Park Blvd. Inglewood, Calif. Handled by all dealers, wholesalers and jobbers everywhere Radio Sound Television Code Taught by Experts on Modern Apparatus Day and Evening Classes r Mail Coupon for Further Information | Radio Institute of California 1117 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles. Calif. Please send me Radio and Sound Information. 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