Radio mirror (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE FAVORITE PERFORMERS OF ANOTHER DA J WHERE RRE THEU? By MARY JACOBS Editor's Note: During the next jew weeks, you will hear many special programs on both the Red and Blue chains of the National Broadcasting Company celebrating NBC's tenth anniversary as a network. These broadcasts, dedicated to the many stars of yesteryear who were once your favorite performers, make this fascinating series of articles doubly significant. SO you've forgotten all about the stars of yesteryear. Harriet Lee. Ben Alley. Helen Nugent. Mildred Hunt. The Gold Dust Twins. What do those names mean to you today? Or to make the list more recent, Jack Pearl, Charles Carlisle, Jeanie Lang. Remember these big-time radio stars? What has become of them? What made them lose importance in radio? Where are they now? Are they coming back? Tall, statuesque, blonde Harriet Lee was Radio Queen of 1931. For three years prior to that date she was tops at CBS. Today she's a song plugger at Famous Music Co. for |40 a week. And she was delighted to appear on the Return Engagement program at WOR, where old-time stars are given a one-shot on the air. Why did Harriet lose out in radio? The answer in her case is mismanagement. That's the consensus of opinion along Radio Row, anyway. Instead of getting a professional manager, she took a member of her family who was not familiar with radio's inside rules. Harriet, a numerologist, felt her downfall was due in part to her name, which she considered unlucky. Accordingly, she changed it to Katha Lee. But misfortune kept right after her. Today she's Harriet again. Since she left CBS, I've heard her singing in night clubs. And once I heard her in a 52nd St. night club, the great Harriet who never sang without magnificent orchestra accompaniment on the air! She was as lovely as ever: her blonde hair fell in loose waves about her flushed face, and her voice was as clear and sweet as it had been in her heydey. But I doubt if any of the patrons, busy with their liquor, knew of her former glory. Associated in memory with Harriet Lee are Helen Nugent and Ben Alley. They were whirling on the radio merry-go-round at the same time. Remember back in 1929 when Alley and Helen Nugent were billed as the "Five O'clock Sweethearts?" Recall how 48 beautifully his romantic tenor and her sweet soprano blended in their Grace Notes program? So popular was Ben Alley that the radio moguls overreached themselves. They put him on too many programs. Every time you tuned in you heard Ben Alley singing. He was on for a corset concern. For a department store. For a cigar concern. He had his own group of sustainings. And people tired of hearing him. Today, he's an entertainer at a Baltimore night club. As for Helen Nugent, no one seems to know exactly what she's doing. When last heard from she was at WLW in Cincinnati, and engaged to be married. If anyone deserves happiness, it's Helen. In her heyday at CBS, Helen and Paul Green, one of CBS' engineers, were devoted to each other and everyone thought they'd middle-aisle it. Then the broadcasting company hired Adele Vasa, the opera star, for a series. She met Paul Green. They fell in love, and married. Helen Nugent was so broken up by this twist of Fate that she left CBS and New York. As for Adele Vasa, she gave up her career when she married. B ESIDES Adele Vasa there's been one other big time radio star who has given up fame for marriage — Virginia Gardiner, the dramatic star, who married Roy Durstine, of the huge advertising concern, Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborne. They met through one of her radio programs which he handled. Unhappy home life has broken up several careers, just when they seemed to shine the brightest. Perhaps you no longer remember Mildred Hunt, the crooner, but she was very important six years ago. Soloist for Paul Whiteman, with Roxy — there's hardly a big radio name hers wasn't associated with. Until she and her husband were divorced. She took the collapse of her home very much to heart and went to Europe, where she appeared for awhile. When she returned to the United States, she tried to make a comeback on the air, but she failed. Then she took to song writing and recently three of her songs were accepted for the movies. And then there were Gene and Glenn, Gene Carroll and Glenn Rowell, whose Jake and Lena comedy skits were so successful in the midwest. Gene Carroll was a clever mimic, and in addition to playing Jake (Continued on page 62)