Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

MORE CHATTER Phil Harris, whose basement baritone booms out from the Lofner-Harris orchestra frequently, confesses that he is a "'reformed trap drummer." • Gerda Lundberg, the KTAB Swedish nightingale, is back in the studio after a long absence, due to an appendix operation. Gerda may have lost her appendix, but not the old charm and vocal ability. Did you know that Noreen Gammill is busy nowadays writing burlesques on great moments in history and presenting them every Monday night at 8 o'clock on KNX? She is assisted by the "Hysterical" Players, who rightly deserve the title. As usual, you will will find Noreen playing several parts in these hilarious skitch. which every one agrees are lots of fun. • Mirandv, the onlv feminine bit of the K I'M Beverly Hill Billies, has gone Hollywood. Anxious to eradicate the effects of summer sun and wind, she has taken to using freckle cream. B. A. Rolfe, who has directed the Lucky Strike Dance Orchestra for the past three years, has been advised by his doctor to take a long rest, and go abroad. Since he started on the Lucky program, Rolfe has played 7,460 dance numbers. « Mahlon Merick, NBC orchestra leader, has taken his band to the Palace Hotel, San Francisco, where they play from eight to one nightly, and at Saturday afternoon tea dances. He still continues with his broadcasting, as usual, however. • Lord Algy, the monocled pal of the Happy Chappies of KMPC, Beverly Hills, has a welldeveloped bump on his head. The Chappies maintain that he contracted the protuberance while crawling out from under the piano, where he usually sleeps while he waits for his pals to finish their broadcast. But that might not be the reason at all. Algy was married recently, you know. • Bing Crosby's old four o'clock spot has been turned over to another Western entertainer— Henry Halstead. And incidentally— Henry has a baritone with him — Clarence Rand — who has many listeners still thinking he is Bing. There is certainly a resemblance. An open-air marriage, with the Arizona Wranglers playing the "Wedding March" on fiddle, guitar and harmonica, marked the "splicing" of Uncle Irontail (Charlie Hunter) of KNX and his "cowgirl" bride the other Sunday. Groom in shirt-sleeves, bride in chaps and sombrero, parson in evening dress —you get the picture. News reel photographers were on the spot to cover the unique affair, and an old-fashioned "chuck wagon" was on hand to fill the guests. Kate Smith, Columbia songstress, never took a singing lesson in her life— —even substituted a cooking course in high school for one in music. Aiding the Boswell Sisters in their new series is the background provided by the guitar of the agile-fingered Eddie Lang, of the violin-guitar team of Venuti and Lang. This is one of the first occasions on record in which the two have been separated, for Joe and Eddie have played together as a rule in all their vaudeville, orchestral, recording and broadcasting engagements. On each occasion when that new sensational quartet, the Mills Brothers, on Columbia, broadcasts, CBS stations are swamped with telephone calls from listeners who will not believe that the only musical instrument used is the guitar. Many of the callers say that they are asking for information in order to settle a bet. "After all," says Eddie Cantor in his radio campaign for President, "I can sing. I ask you! Can Hoover or Coolidge croon?" Russ Columbo's full name is Ruggerio Rudolfo Eugenio Columbo. • Ben Bernie, the "old Maestro," whom we can always depend on for jokes, has a new one— about the rustic visitor to New York. It seems the visitor made a desperate run for the ferry boat just as it started to shove off. He made a mighty leap, landed on deck, and lay stunned for a few moment. At last he sat up feebly, stared dazedly over the quarter-mile expanse of water between boat and shore. "Holy cats!" he exclaimed in awe. "What a jump!" • Jerry Purcell, the production manager of KFAC, the newest radio station in Los Angeles (formerly KTBI), was critically injured in an automobile accident recently, and passed away the following day. Jerry was one of the finest and most conscientious boys in radio and manyregret his passing. • Jean Cameron, who will be remembered for her excellent singing in the past on such programs as the Maxwell House Coffee melodies, is being heard frequently over the KNX Treasure Ship program on Monday nights, at eight o'clock. CHEERIO! By Lord Bilgewater KFRC Happy Go Lucky Hour CHEERIO and all that sort of rot! I've just been reading a book on the Constellation Hollywood —the only constellation discovered by the people, by the way, instead of the astronomers. (Why are astronomers always cheerful? Give up? Because things are always looking up with them! Ha, ha, ha, ha! Like it?) This book is called "Hollywood Undressed." By jove, do you know, when I opened the pot, er, I mean the book, I was all prepared for a strip poker story but it wasn't about games of chance at all. It was about wrestling, a sport which is all arranged beforehand in America, I understand. It appears as though movie stars, unlike other people, are subject to unwelcome protuberances which pop out in the most embarrassing places and without giving any warning, mind you. These protuberances are frightfully fatty in nature. For example, one very lovely sprite of the talking canvas suddenly became too well rounded in the vicinity of the — Oh, dear! I can't say it. I thought I could but my nerve has deserted me. At any rate, when this parfay condition occurs the star immediately repairs to the domicile of one "Sylvia." Sylvia exclaims: "Oh, Lardy!" And the wrestling match is on. It's awfully strange, but Sylvia always wins. She pounds and pummels her victim until he or she is red, white and blue, and then collects the $15.00 prize money. "Hollywood Undressed" is really quite a risque title for the book, don't you think? People will think the stars indulge in such Pagan practices as sleeping in the raw. I suggest it be changed to, "The Fat Is in the Fire." Which reminds me of a riddle. If it takes a little pig all day to walk half an hour, how long will it take an old sow to walk a week? Capitulate? I'll tell you the answer next month. The book also contains a quantity of anecdotes about the stars which reveals that they are a jolly lot after all. Which is best, don't you think, because they must all remain here on earth with the rest of us, for a time yet, at any rate. Pip! Pip! Until next month. Page Thirty RADIO DOINGS