Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

n nistic oing STRONG presence there, banners and ribbons were festooned around it. The proprietor was delighted to learn that his guest was conected with the famous KNX program, and informed him that at least sixty of his friends came into the place every Friday night. Hagelburg was immediately struck with an idea. He appointed the owner of the restaurant a '"Grand Organizer" of members in the club, and presented him with 100 membership cards. Three days later the man wrote to Fred and asked for 100 more! This started a new exploitation of the program, and similar organizers were established in central localities. The program had been on the air just two years, when George Reed, then manager of the Anaheim Valencia Orange Show, called upon Hagelburg, urging him to bring his Royal Order of Optimistic Doughnuts down to the Orange Show to perform on a Tuesday night, which of course is the dead night in the show business. Hagelburg consented, and with Charlie Hamp as master of ceremonies, down they went. There was little newspaper mention of the event. The Doughnuts had to depend on only two broadcasts previous to their performance at the Orange Show to acquaint the public of their appearance at Anaheim. The radio audience was told that the Doughnuts would adhere to their usual custom of tossing Optimistic doughnuts to members of the audience at the Orange Show. The result was almost a riot. Whereas the greatest paid attendance theretofore had been 4000 for one night, it was 12,000 paid admissions on the night of the show put on by the Perfection Bread troupe. Perhaps there is no better way to illustrate the popularity of this KNX feature than by mentioning the questionnaire of the San Francisco Call Bulletin this year. Projected for the purpose of finding the most popular program on the Pacific Coast, the questionnaire was divided into fifteen-minute periods, starting at six in the evening, and ending at 10. For Friday night, from 8 to 9 p. m., the Royal Order of Optimistic Dough Probably the Oldest Regular Radio Program in the W est, The Optimistic Do-Nuts Are Still Among the Most Popular Variety Programs, After Seven Years Above, our old friend * "Sunburnt Jim." and his inevitable uke. Below, Fred Hagelburg and a feu of the "Optimistic DoNuts" admirers. nuts won by a score of 3 to 1 over any other program on the coast. This was against all Pacific Coast programs on the air on Friday nights, and revealed by a San Francisco paper which certainly could have had no interest in a Los Angeles program. There is Satchel McVea, (known as 99-year-old McVea) who is the leader of the troupe. Having once contemplated the practice of medicine, and owning as a hobbv the deep perusal of ancient Chinese literature, he is the head man of the outfit. He has never missed a night on the air, in all the seven years during which the program has been broadcast. And, be it known, the Royal Order of Optimistic Doughnuts will have been on the air seven years on the first day of January, 1932, consecutively every Friday night. This is the longest that any radio program has ever been sustained on the air. it is claimed. All the colored boys in the show work in some capacity during the day. Some of them are bus boys, others janitors, elevator operators, in downtown department stores and office buildings, while others are engaged in different pursuits. The job of writing the continuity and producing the act as Master of Ceremonies, which once rested upon the capable shoulders of the aforementioned and redoubtable Bert Butterworth, and was later transferred to Tom Brenneman, has lately been assumed bv Jack Carter, known to the KNX audience as the "Boy from London." The practice of tossing doughnuts to the audience which crams the studios every Friday night from 8 to 9 still continues. And if you don't believe it, come over to KNX some night. If you're lucky enough to be able to squeeze in, you too can watch Jack Carter's magical eye-glasses gleaming in the middle of his face like twin-mirrors, while a happy, jostling throng of people reach for the scrumptious dainties thrown to them bv grinning members of the Royal Order of Optimistic Doughnuts! RADIO DOINGS Page Seventeen