Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

^ango's 'Dynamic Person all ty Has Won Hun Thousands of Friends and Followers ^All Over the West His Works of Qtarity are tooDVnmerons toQonnt. to keep the home together if there are children!" In 1930, Rango was credited with having fed approximately 63,000 persons. Many were clothed in addition. He found jobs for hundreds, held funerals for scores and kept many a home from becoming disrupted. And it isn't an easy job. Rango is on the jump every minute of the day. His irons are in so many fires it requires a manager and a secretary to keep his activities organized. He attends benefits, gives performances, manages his own baseball team. He owns a public address system which he takes to celebrations and broadcasts performances there. On one occasion, at a baseball game, Rango announced through the microphone that he was coming down through the crowd for donations. He borrowed a wheelbarrow, pushed it among the crowd, and brought it in with hundreds of dollars in it. He recently held a guessing contest over KELW, in which the public was asked to guess the articles hanging on a clothesline in the studio. Immediately the telephone wires began to hum. Between 11:00 a. m. and a little after midnight, the calls came in so fast that they were nearly impossible to handle. As a result of this contest, the telephone company sent Rango a letter. "We have found that during your recent guessing contest, that 12,430 of the connections made with your studio could not be completed. To sufficiently take care of this overwhelming number of calls during these hours, it would require 42 separate lines, instead of the four now maintained by KELW. Because of the exceedingly great expense necessary for KELW to maintain this number of lines, may we suggest that you attempt to confine the answers to your contests to letters, instead of telephone calls." Rango obliged, and answers in writing were requested. In answering the hundreds of questions that come in, Rango applies another simple rule. "Is the question and corresponding answer uplifting to the mind?" Questions of an obviously petty nature are ignored. Naturally, before meeting a person like Rango, the suspicion of charlatanism and exploitation lurk in one's mind. One rather expects to see a darky banjoist or Indian chief somewhere. But he is so open, so abrupt and frank, that doubts are How would you like a morning mail like this.'' Just a part of the letters Rango has received. Left, his specially-designed bus containing a broadcast system. Mrs. Rango and their daughter are sitting beside ■Daddyr banished as soon as he starts speaking. All of his statements are forceful and decisive, with a challenging tone that says, "I'm doing what I believe is right, and I'm getting a lot done. If you don't like it, you know what you can do!" And he is doing a lot. He has the proof of his pudding of charity in the letters that pour into him, in the lines of people that wait patiently at his office door, in the thousands of friends who rally to his support when he calls. "That's my reward," Rango explained. "I haven't a red cent, but look at the millions of friends I have. If you went to the bank and looked at my account, you'd be lucky to find $50. That's not what I'm after!" In the three years he has been at KELW, Rango has received more than 300,000 letters. Some of thanks, some appealing, some congratulatory. That too, is something. Then he wears on his vest three medals. One is a gold medal of appreciation from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, one an Honorary Chief of the Fire Department of Alhambra, Calif., badge, and one from the Parent-Teachers' Association, in recognition of services. He is a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. That's Rango — showman, philosopher, good Samaritan, friend of the Children, and "Daddy" to all. Page Thirteen