Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

CHAT TEH From This Studio— and That MR. BING CROSBY'S latest song is "California, Here I Come." He's now in Hollywood to start work on a Paramount picture, the "Big Broadcast." In between making faces at the camera, Bing is scheduled to sing over a national Columbia network, but instead of traveling several miles to the KHJ studios, he is broadcasting from KNX, which is located on the Paramount lot. You can hear Bing until July 6 each Monday and Wednesday afternoon at 3:45. Myrt and Marge, Mort Downey and Kate Smith will be back on the air about August. SETH PARKER has a medical degree! -Well, not Seth, either, and it really isn't a medical degree. But Phillips Lord is adding another personality to his list of characterizations. In the "Country Doctor," which begins Monday, June 20 at 6:00 p. m., he steps into the role of that benign, hardworking and poorly paid American. We'll be expecting great things from the "Doctor," for there should certainly be some marvelous opportunities in such a character. Ed Wynn, veteran vaudeville performer, insists on dressing up in his comic firechief regalia when broadcasting. Maybe he ivorks better that way. BERT LAHR, who will soon join the Lucky Strike program, is familiar to Broadway as a great comedian of stage and screen. Joined vaudeville act as German dialect comedian at 18, has risen swiftly to the top. Winchell will stay with the show one day a week, and Walter O'Keefe is the new master of ceremonies. The new L. S. set-up looks like a good one. With all due respect to Winchell for the wizard that he is, a little variation will be welcome. Here's the menu: Tuesday, police dramas; Thursday, Winchell. and Saturday, Lahr. Mildred Bailey, singer with Paul Whiteman, is a sister of Al Rinker, one of the original Rhythm Boys. JOHN MILLS, the oom-pah vocal percussionist of the Mills Brothers, still keeps the old mail-order catalogue from which he ordered the guitar for the quartet, tucked away in the guitar-case. Woe betide the incautious person who attempts to touch it. "That's our luck," says Harry Mills. Dave Ballou, formerly with KFVD, has joined the staff of KFl-KECA in the production department. Dave's a smart lad, a hard worker and a real broadcaster, through and through. IT is reported that Gayne "Chandu" Whitman has signed up with a Hollywood producer to play a mystery role in a Far East movie thriller. It probably won't be Chandu, however, because Fox has bought the movie rights to that story for some $40,000. TEN YEARS AGO — Ted Husing was a semi-pro basketball player. • — Little Jack Little, employed by a music publisher, was on a tour of the country's few radio stations to "plug" songs. On the train he ■wrote his first hit, "Jealous." • — Thirteen-year-old Kate Smith was singing her way through seventh grade in Washington. She was known as "the Smith bad girl." m — Ben Bernie teas doing a "single" in vaudeville with his trusty fiddle. • ■ — Sylvia Froos, seven, was beginning her vaudeville career as "Baby Sylvia," the child sensation. ■ — Singin Sam (Harry Frankel) ran a camera shop in Richmond, Ind. • — Mort Downey ivas holding a French horn and singing the choruses with Paul Whiteman s S. S. Leviathan orchestra. 9 — Ann Leaf entered high school in pig-tails in Omaha, Neb. • — Bing Crosby was playing the role of Julius Caesar in a high school play when the curtain fell on him. • —The Mills Brothers were entertaining customers in their dad's barber shop in Piqua, Ohio. • —The Boswell Sisters played together in a classical string trio in New Orleans. • — Guy Lombardo had fust brought his band from London, Ont., and was playing one-night stands in dance halls. • — Abe Lyman had just made his first recordings — "No, No, Nora," and "Sweet Little You." Ray Paige, KHJ maestro, ivhose engagement to Mary York was recently announced tried to act as if nothing had happened on the day it was made public. But when he stepped on the platform for the first rehearsal and lifted his baton, instead of the scheduled number, the ivhole orchestra broke into the Wedding March! VAN AND DON, the Two Professors of Coo Coo College, are busy training their track team for the Olympics. Here are the rules for the athletes: 1. No exercise of any kind — save yourselves for the big game. 2. Plenty of good wholesome sweets. 3. All the fresh air you can get in a two-room apartment. 4. Always cover your tracks. Vic Young is the fellow who thought up the idea of having Bing, the Mills Brothers and the Boswells all do trick choruses on the same phonograph record. MONA LOWE graduated from the University of Southern California with honors, where she wrote its 1931 Extravaganza "Shipwrecked." Was born in Windsor, Canada, went first to Detroit, and then to Glendale, Calif. Used to sing with Loyce Whiteman over KFT. Col. Lemuel Stoopnagle, eminent CBS inventor, spent a holiday by inventing a cellophane key. He claims it will now be an easy matter to look through keyholes, even if the key is in the lock. EARLY in his career Phillips Lord (Seth Parker) taught school in Maine. Seeking to test the alertness of his class one day he suddenly slapped a quarter on the desk and asked sharply, "What's that?" A boy in the front row promptly shouted, "Tails!" KNX has been granted an increase of power by the F. R. C. So now you'll hear Watanabe, Bill Sharpies, and the rest of the gang backed up by 25,000 big healthy ivatts, intsead of the former five grand. THE Boswell Sisters have a small melodian in the rear of their limousine, and they now ride out into the country to rehearse new numbers, Martha using the little organ instead of a piano to accompany herself and her harmonizing sisters. At last! The secret of that mysterious "trumpet" of the Mills Brothers. It seems that John Mills couldn't buy or borrow a trumpet for a negro orchestra, and offered to imitate the instrument for half pay — thereby originating their vocal antics. ABE LYMAN'S broadcast the other night brought together a prominent group of alumni from the Cocoanut Grove. The guest artist was Loyce Whiteman, and Harry von Zell, who announced the program, used to announce many of Lyman's numbers when Abe's band was at the Grove years ago. Alma Mammy! RADIO DOINGS Page Fifteen