Radio mirror (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

B y J A Y PETERS PRESS-TIME FLASHES: Witty and wisecracking James J. Walker, New York's ex-playboy mayor, should make his debut as a news commentator shortly. Sponsors regard his remarkable gift of gab and ingratiating personality as potential star material . . . Rudy Vallee is negotiating with producers to star him in a legitimate play on Broadway . . . Major Bowes turns down a quarter of a million dollars to work in the movies because it wouldn't be fair to his sponsor. Jean Harlow, offered plenty for a solo session with the mike in New York, declines, claiming she hasn't the courage to run the gauntlet of autograph fiends. A brand new reason for not broadcasting . . . 520,000 visitors passed through the portals of Radio City during 1936, 55,000 more than last year's record. At forty cents a head, it means the tidy sum of |208,000 paid out for a peek behind the scenes of broadcastland. Two old timers in show business, Billy B. Van and Gus Edwards, are on the verge of signing with sponsors for network programs . . . the networks taboo any humorous mention of Mrs. Wallie Simpson and King Edward, though they are the most discussed topic in the world . . . Gossips see a romance budding between Kay Thompson of the Chesterfield program and Jack Jenny, saxophonist with Andre Kostelanetz' orchestra. So many programs originating in Hollywood are creating such a demand for film stars that salaries have gone haywire, and this development is forcing some of the shows to move back East. When this column was compiled, the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency, producer of the Lux Radio Theater and Shell Chateau sessions, was again contemplating with favor Radio City, where plenty of talent of all kinds is constantly on tap. On the Pacific, stars once content with |2,000 a broadcast are demanding — and getting — f 5,000, and sponsors find the cost of programs mounting beyond all reason. Elsie Hitz and Nick Dawson of Dangerous Paradise fame will return Jan. 4 in a new dramatic serial. Columbia's staff of announcers is in the throes of a shake-up. It follows a new rule imposed by its Artists Bureau that announcers must give up to the bureau twenty per cent of their salaries in commissions for any extra money earned spieling on commercial programs, for news reels, transcriptions, etc. Carlyle Stevens and Del Sharbut promptly turned in their resignations to become free-lance mikemen and others are following in their footsteps. The departure of Sharbut provided an opening at the New York headquarters for Ralph Edwards, formerly of KFRC on the West Coast. * * * Jack Benny becomes Public Entertainer No. 1 in the Crosley Reports, the sponsors' Bible, replacing Major Edward Bowes who occupied that exalted position for two years. Critics assign much of the credit to Benny's new script writer, Al Boasberg, for ten years a movie scenarist and director. Sears, Roebuck and Company, going strong for picture celebrities for its Then and Now program, hands Francis Lederer $3,500 for a single broadcast and considers Ronald Coleman at $ 7,500! Is that the reason for its sudden departure from the air? Jack Pearl grins in pleasure over being back on the air as the Baron. Here he is with Mrs. Pearl. With applications for new broadcasting stations being filed with the Federal Communications Commission at the rate of twenty-five weekly, the rush to the Ether Eldorado is on in earnest. Fifty new transmitters {Cant, on page 71)