Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

More CHATTER WITH the approach of summer heat, Col. Lemuel Stoopnagle is calmly perfecting a summer-approaching kit. It will consist of an electric fan that blows backwards as well as in the standard fashion, so that he may keep cool both coming and going. Other accessories will be a noiseless fly-swatter and individual nets for mosquitoes. A great man. the Colonel! H. C. Connette, author of "Memory Lane" in his otherwise modernistic apartment, is furnishing his bedroom in 1893 style, complete with articles popular in Memory Lane time. RAY PERKINS, NBC humorist, hastens to assure his listeners that there is no truth to the rumor that San Francisco has taken her Gate off the gold standard. Another choice wisecrack was made by Ray Knight, who proclaimed. "I don't see who Alfonso, ex-King of Spain, doesn't come to America. A royal welcome awaits any old Bourbon.*' Ed Wynne isn't bothered with hitchhikers any more — ever since he put a "Taxi" sign on the front of his car. DONALD NOVIS, who recently signed a long-term contract by NBC in New York, is preparing for his eastern radio debut. The star arrived with his wife aboard the S. S. Santa Elisa. June 5 and is now rehearsing with an NBC orchestra for his New York appearances. Don first gained attention as the winner of the $5,000 first prize in the 1928 Atwater Kent National Radio Audition. His vocal style is fresh and robust, offering a sharp contrast to so-called crooning. At the Ambassador Hotel Cocoanut Grove, where he was heard with the Cocoanut Grove Orchestra, he was the season's sensation. His home is in Pasadena. He has appeared in several important pictures, including Maurice Chevalier's "One Hour With You," Ronald Colman's "Bulldog Drummond" and Jeannette MacDonald's "Monte Carlo." Richard LeGrande has taken over the post of Master of Ceremonies on the KYA "On With the Show" program. G. Donald Gray, same station, was a member of the original stock company in which Boris Karloff, of "Frankenstein" fame got his start. The fact is, Gray and the manager chose his stage name. DURING the month of July the three-aweek broadcasts of Singin' Sam will originate in Cincinnati where the old time minstrel got his radio start. Sam will be visiting his parents at Richmond, Ind., and will make the 50-mile auto trip back and forth for each performance. "Rip" Witherspoon, manager of KDB, the Don Lee Santa Barbara station, comes forth with another "Believe It or Don't," in connection with a new series of programs inaugurated at his station. "Strange as it may seem," declares Herb, "the old Santa Barbara Mission is the only one of its kind having twin towers." VICTOR YOUNG, whose orchestra is heard with the Mills Brothers, Tuesdays and Thursdays is reviving in futuristic treatment a number of the old hits, and he has sent out a call for help to the radio audience. Victor promises that if the radio audience will send him piano copies of songs written before 1915 he will arrange them for his novelty orchestra and play them on the programs that feature the Mills Brothers. Some of the younger old timers he has revived include the comic "Titina" and the ballad "Lonesome and Sorry." Now he's seeking songs that were popular a little more than 15 years ago. He'll make a modern arrangement and send the piano copy back to the listener who sends it to him in care of the Columbia Broadcasting System, 485 Madison Ave., New York. THE reason you don't hear bands playing the Mills Brothers' tunes is that they are "private stuff." Their manager gets special material for them. Their latest, "The Old Man of the Mountain," was written by Victor Young. Two of the odd hits they own are "How'm I Doin' " and "I Heard." An envelope containing the picture of Ed Wynn sliding down a fireman's pole as the only address ivas delivered recently at the NBC New York studios. HERE'S that announcement many of you have been waiting for. While Bing Crosby was playing a vaudeville engagement in Boston a radio contest was held for the best imitation of the Crosby style. None of the competitors was announced, merely given a number. Bing himself took part, and when the returns came in, found that he hadn't even placed. (Finished under glass.) Russ Columbo leads his band with a tiny piccolo — fust a pet superstition. WELCOME LEWIS is ill in bed and thereby hangs a tale. For two months she and her secretary have been seeking a new home where their tiny canary might have a larger garden. She stood up under the strain until they finally located a new house Monday and signed the lease. Then Welcome fainted and her physician tells her she must stay in bed for at least a week — as the result of nervous strain. She's taken a vow to live in the new house at least for five years! PAUL RICKENBACKER, KHJ assistant production manager, and the Old Rancher of "Historical Southern California" fame, are walking with a decided roll, and talking with a noticeable nautical twang these days. It's all because they received a red-hot fan letter from a few of the gobs on the U. S. S. New York, of the Battle Force dreadnaught unit, at the harbor. Since all seafaring folk dream of ranches, and chickens (fowl), and people like the Old Rancher usually dream of a life on the bounding main, everybody should be happy. Harry Richman was once a sailor, a chauffeur and a beach life-guard. ACCORDING to a Chinese law still in effect, all radio equipment is rated as "munitions of war," according to Monroe "Bilgewater" Upton, of NBC, who built station ECO in Shanghai in 1923. He had to smuggle most of the equipment into the city, or else explain to the Chinese officials that the assortment of tubes and wires were not instruments of battle. He chose the easiest way. Charlie Leland, KHJ comic, is knock ing 'em cuckoo at the R.K.O. Hillstree Theatre these days, where he is appear ing with Paul Ash on the stage, tween umpteen shows a day, Mons. Le land manages to find time to appear a KHJ for his regular spots. It's all done with mirrors. DON'T MISS these sensational reenactments in music and drama of authentic historical episodes from our Southland's glamorous past. Raymond Paige and his orchestra, Paul Rickenbacker, Seymour Hastings, and other artists. "Historical Southern California" PACIFIC ELECTRIC RAILWAY 6 MOTOR TRANSIT STAGES Page Sixteen RADIO DOINGS