Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

The Grand Old Man Of Radio by Qertrudc Selby • Seth Parker is asked to marry. Christen, and bury, by ardent fans Luho look upon him as a real, sincere minister of the gospel. IF IT WEREN'T for Hosia B. Phillips' buggy, it's about "six o' one and half dozen of t'other" that Phillips Lord would not have become Seth Parker. For it was on buggy rides with Grandpa Phillips through the New England country-side that young Lord learned the philosophy and humor of the God-fearing folk of the soil. Years later he put a microphone in a rural New England front parlor, and invited the nation to spend "Sunday Night at Seth Parker's." Today, in an age pictured as supersophisticated, countless thousands journey by way of NBC networks to Jonesport, Maine, to meet Seth and "Ma" Parker and their neighbors. There they find an evening of hymn sings, melodeon music and simple talk of God without creed. The simplicity and sincerity of Seth Parker has won him a place in American life comparable only to Amos 'n' Andy. Both depict, in a natural way, the fundamental characteristics and philosophy of a people. They live in reality for their listeners. Seth Parker has been asked to christen babies and perform marriage ceremonies. Others wire for his hymns to be sung at funerals. Some send money as offerings to charity. Thousands write him at Jonesport, Me., an actual town very much alive. Many motor there to see him. To them, he is a kindly, benign and be-whiskered citizen of Jonesport. They know him as one of a group gathered about the organ in the parlor singing "Come to the Church in the Wildwood," mixing worship with neighborhood talk and possibility ending up "Rock of Ages" with the caution, "Look out. Frank, you'll be knocking the prisms off the lamp." It is so real that many listeners think the National Broadcasting Company has placed its microphone in Seth's parlor at Jonesport. In fact, Seth Parker and his folk spend their Sunday evenings in the NBC studios in New York and Seth himself is 28-years-old Phillips Lord. Six years ago when he was graduated from Bowdoin college, Phil Lord never dreamed that in a short time he would stand in the halls of Congress and be introduced as "the source of more cheer and contentment and wholesome enjoyment than any person living in the United States today." "He is, in fact, a mere boy," said Representative D. F. Snow on that occasion, "but he is known from one end of this country to the other. I present to the House — in private life, Phillips H. Lord of New York, but on each Sunday evening, lovably known in radio as Seth Parker of Jonesport, Me." The members arose and applauded. That happened less than two years after Lord first introduced "Sunday at Seth Parker's" to the radio world — an almost accidental event in its beginning, but paved with hard work before its culmination. Lord was fresh out of college, the son of a minister, and bent upon a business career when he came to New York. He had a hankering for writing, however, and between jobs with a candy factory, sought to sell manuscripts to magazines. Like many young writers, he overlooked the source of real-life atmosphere known to him in his boyhood. Between rejection slips, he listened to the radio. One day he dialed in a program which purported to portray rural life. It was so unreal and overdrawn that it grated. Lord decided to try his hand at true characterization of the folks he knew in childhood. He recreated Seth Parker and his hymn folks, put them in the seacoast town of Jonesport. and brought them to life in a small New York radio studio after rehearsal with friends. Before long, fifteen stations were presenting "Seth Parker and His OldFashioned Singing School" with great ( Continued on Page 33 ) • "You go to your church and I'll go to mine, but let's walk along together," sings Seth Parker — Phillips Lord in private life — in the Sunday night NBC feature. Here is the "githering" in Seth's parlor, with Seth leading the singing, and Ma Parker presiding at the melodeon in the background.