Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

KOI I and I II I — Still Side by Each " After Thirty-Four Years Together, The Wests Most Popular Comedy Team Takes Its Place On the Air — With Dialect and Wit of a Kind That Never Grows Old 1 OGETHER side by each"' they started out 34 years ago the vaudeville stage, one of an army of German dialect teams in which a tall, slim chap and a short, rotund one waged a never-ending, everhumorous wrangle before the footlights. Today, at the peak of their profession, and piling up new honors on the ether, Clarence Kolb and Max Dill, oldest active theatrical team, are still "together side by each." "The Dinglebenders." the serial in which thev are heard three nights a week on the NBC-KPO net work, has an audience of almost uncountable dimensions, stretching up and down the Pacific Coast. In many homes, three generations of listeners follow the pair who, for almost four decades have entertained theatre-goers with a characteristic brand of offerings whose popularity has never faltered, no matter how public taste has changed in other directions. The quaint dialect, the grammatical errors and the conversational mix-ups by which Kolb and Dill have made theatre audiences laugh for years, have an appeal just as strong when heard through the home radio sets of their thousands of fans. The Pacific Coast has been a Kolb and Dill stronghold for so many years, that to Westerners the two veteran funmakers are identified altogether with the West. They were born in Cleveland, Ohio, however — and their first vaudeville act, "Together Side by Side." was an echo of their boyhood days. They were not quite next door neighbors, for one house intervened between their respective homes, but from their grammar schools days parents and neighbors always knew that when they saw Clarence Kolb, Max Dill was not far away, and that when Max was implicated in some boyish prank, Clarence undoubtedly was equally guilty. Even in boyhood, Kolb always was the slimmer and taller of the two friends, and Max was inclined toward plumpness. So when they began to take part in amateur theatricals, they inevitably turned to comedy rather than drama, and jigged together, sang together and poked fun at each other in dialect. Thev chose German dialect because by John Bacon it came more easily to them. There were many Germans in the section of Cleveland where they grew up, and many of their most famous jokes evolve from memories of this or that delicatessen dealer or other familiar bovhood figure of German extraction. Incidentally, Ernest R. Ball was a member of one of these families of German blood with whom they grew up. Ball was a classmate of Kolb's, who believes that the famous ballad-writer's Irish mother and German father formed the combination which made the music of their son famous. Even Ball's "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," he points out, is a combination of sentimental affection for Erin, portraved in typically German music. Max and Clarence, interested as thev were in music — they both belonged to mandolin clubs — had no ambitions to be song writers, although Kolb later wrote songs for his own productions. Both turned to business for several vears after they left school, and Max was the manager of a laundry route, and Clarence was selling life insurance for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Conipanv so fast that when he resigned he was supervising the activities of eighty other salesmen. That was in 1899. A \aude\ille agent offered the pair a chance to perform on the Orpheum c ircuit as thev did at their mandolin clubs, and the) accepted in a gasping duet of "Yes," Their first act was one of a number of other German dialect teams made up of a tall, thin chap and a rotund foil, but out of them only two teams rose to lasting fame. One was Weber and Fields: the other. Kolb and Dill. For years the two teams debated which was the older, but since Weber and Fields have retired, the NBC team is the oldest team still active. They arrived in San Francisco the very first season they were on the road, and made their first Western appearance on a bill which included Jessie Bartlett Davis. McCahill and Daniels and many another name now passed into theatrical history. Something in the California air struck a responsive chord in the hearts of both partners. They toured the coast, falling in love with it more and more. Then, under the management of Fisher and Redman, they went to Australia, where the same quality which made the voung chaps "click" almost from their first performance won them a large following. Back in the United States, they were amazed to learn how much money they had made for their managers, and when, at the end of the next year, Fisher and Redman retired, with $200,000 apiece, all earned out of Kolb and Dill productions, they held grave consultation. "If producers can make that much money out of shows in which we are the stars, we'd better produce our own shows after this." Kolb exclaimed. "Good — I'll manage us." said Dill promptly. (Turn to Page 31) No less a person than Governor Rolph introduced Kolb and Dill to the radio audience when they made their Left to right mocrophone debut in the "Dinglebenders. Earl Gilmore. Clarence Kolb. Governor Rolph. Max Dill Don Gilman, head of Pacific NBC. RADIO DOINGS Page Seventeen