Radio mirror (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

us have enjoyed your work and wish you Godspeed on your journey to California. We'll all miss you and your pep." The audience, surprised at first, applauded loudly. Intimate as she is with these big moneymakers, she still maintains a mysterious aloofness. Jack Arthur once saw her leave the studio and make tracks for an Automat. He sneaked up behind her and whispered: "What do you say to a real meal as my guest tonight?" Peggy Harriett turned slowly. She tried to hide her embarrassment. Then she said: "No, thanks, Jack; 1 never eat so late at night." fOne star sent her a sizable check as a reward for the good luck her presence at broadcasts had brought. Mrs. Harriett returned the check by next mail. "I'm afraid to accept their little gifts, much as I could use them, because I know that's the first way to dissolve a friendship." she explains. "And I need their friendship. It's all I have in the world." I nlike rabid radio fans, Mrs. Harriett never writes a fan letter or seeks an autograph. Perhaps that's the secret of her ;uccess. It was Walter Woolf King who old her: "Remember, mother, if there's anything you ever want just ask your "alter." LTON Berle usually tries out his gags on Mrs. Harriett. "If she laughs 1 know its good material and original." he lays. Arnold Johnson, director of the National Amateur Night program, clears the control room on audition nights of even his own family, to find a place of honor for this first fan. "Couldn't do without her," he insists. RADIO MIRROR This, by the way, is her favorite program. "It gives me a kick to help weed out the good ones from the bad. If it had only been like that when I was young," she says frequently. But in the 1880's there were no radios, no opportunities for embryos. If there had been, perhaps, tiny Peggy Harriett would be one of our great veteran stars. When she was a little girl in Louisville she used to sneak out the back door to see the showboats on the Ohio River, then return to her room to pose and act before a great mirror. Her stern Quaker father objected strenuously to these "painted play actors" and refused to see them. When she was sixteen, Peggy was married to a man she didn't love. He took her to New York and here he went through every nickel Peggy's father gave them, with one unsuccessful enterprise after another. She left him seven years later and tried to find work in the music halls and beer gardens. But the theater was heartless and impatient. She had two children to support so she turned to selling jewelry. "If I had been unmarried I could have studied show business and taken chances. But my babies needed food and I dropped any ideas of trying to become an actress." Peggy Harriett will never be an actress. But her dreams of footlights, applause, and achievements are reflected in her radio friends. She can remember all the fine things they have done for her. She can remember proudly the night a rude gentleman knocked her cane off her arm and sent it hurtling down the aisle during a broadcast. Oscar Shaw saw the incident, jumped over the orchestra pit, returned the cane to his friend, and raced back to the stage just in time for his next number. She can remember pleasantly the night genial Morton Downey noticed her absence at one of his rehearsals. A superstitious Irishman if there ever was one, Morton knew that since Mrs. Harriett had been attending his rehearsals and broadcasts, his contract had been renewed three times in a row. %A#HERE'S Grandma?" he asked his ™ " manager. ^Seems to be missing tonight, Mort."' "Well, find her and bring her here for the broadcast." Mort's manager and chauffeur worked fast and furiously in the half hour before broadcast time. They finally reached Mrs. Harriett's unpretentious hotel to find her asleep in her tiny bedroom. "My word," she apologized, "I must have overslept." "Well hurry up. Mort wants you at the studio," yelled the chauffeur. So she was whisked past traffic lights, escorted up the private elevator and practically carried down to the front row. Downey sighted her and whistled. "Hey, Grandma," he shouted, "Are you that tired of my voice?" She can recall the night Nino Martini sent her two tickets to his debut at the Metropolitan Opera with the simple card attached which read: '"You are the top." Radio makes this lonely old lady carry on. She's an important person behind the scenes of your favorite radio program. Next time you tune in, picture in your mind a ?!3,000-a-week radio star, singing for all he's worth, for fear the little old mascot in Row A will give him the devil if he misses a high note. MAKES ME CCRY ) A FEW WEEKS UATER J GOSH, JEAN-IT'S :EKTAlNL.y GRANP TO HAVE MDU SO CHEERPUL ANP »EPPy AGAIN DON'T let*UNDERFEIJ'BLOOD KEEP YOU WORN OUT SO MANY people feel tired out and depressed at this time of year. Usually, your blood is "underfed" and does not carry enough food to your muscles and nerves. Fleischmann's fresh Yeast supplies your blood with needed vitamins and other important food elements. Then, your blood can carry more and better nourishment to your tissues. Eat 3 cakes of Fleischmann's Yeast daily — a cake about Vi. hour before each ' meal — plain, or in water. FLEISCMMANN'5 FRESH YBfi6>T CONTAJN* 4 VITAMINS IN APPITION TO HOQMONE -LIKE SUB5TANCE5, WHKH MELPTME POPV 6ET GREATER VALUE TO>M THE TOOO YOU EAT, ANP 6GT XX FASTER IT'S yOUR BLOOP THAT nPEEPS"YOUR BOPY— One of the important functions of your blood stream is to carry nourishment from your food to muscle and nerve tissues of your body. When you find that you get overtired at the least extra effort, it is usually a sign that your blood is not being supplied with enough food for your tissues. What you need ia something to help your blood get more nourishment from your food. Copyright. 1936. Standard Brands Incorporated