Radio Mirror (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

RADIO MIRROR ! got a four year contract, but mine's only for thirteen weeks." DOTS AND DASHES ON JACK BENNY'S PROGRAM. . . . This merrymaker's program is now radio's number one, according to ihe telephone polls, which make surveys of listening popularity, for advertising agencies and sponsors. ... It finally shoved Major Bowes' amateurs into second place. . . . Jack's sponsors attribute this to their highpriced comic's flippant personality. . . . But the veteran comedian likes to think his success is due to his innovation of situation comedy on the air, rather than to gags. . . . Jack likes to kid the nation's latest crazes, its newest movies, its latest heroes. However, this type of comedy has its limitations. . . . Lampooning national affairs, international figures, politics, religions, is taboo. ... To make up for this, Jack built up his company of funsters into definite personalities, so he could kid them instead. . . . When Harry Conn, $2,500-a-week gag writer, left Jack to write for Joe Penner, the former fiddler hired another high-priced writer, Al Boasberg, and three assistants. . . . The writers bring in the rough draft to their boss early in the week. . . . Benny greets them in a silk dressing gown, silkier pajamas, and the inevitable cigar tucked in the side of his mouth. . . . Benny injects his own ideas. . . . The following Sunday the cast gives it a first reading. . . . Suggestions are made by Mary, Kenny Baker and Phil Harris, to suit their personalities. . . . One of the hardest workers and biggest worriers on the program is Tom Harrington, crack production man, who has traveled over 75,000 miles, in connection with this show, between the West Coast studios and the New York advertising agency offices of his company, Young and Rubicam. . . . He gets gray hairs every Sunday when Jack upsets the planned routine. . . . It's Harrington's job to keep the program timed properly. . . . Young and Rubicam like comedians on their radio shows. They present Jack Benny, Phil Baker, Fred Allen, Charles Butterworth, Stoopnagle and Budd and Ed Wynn, weekly, to a waiting world. . . . Jack's man Friday is baldish Harry Baldwin, who cares for Jack's minor business affairs, arranges his appointments, handles Mary's charge accounts. . . . Phil Harris is Jack's sixth bandleader. . . . Most of the company dress informally for the broadcasts; Jack wears sweater and slacks, Mary a sports dress, but dimpled, thirty-year-old Harris dresses like a Wall Street baron. . . . The former West Coast drummer made a prize-winning short, "So This Is Harris;" his band has been one of NBC's aces for many years. . . . Has only one hobby; polo ponies. . . . He owns a string of them. ... It was Rudy Vallee who first recommended him as a coming maestro. ... A year ago Kenny Baker was unknown. . . . Today he starts his first starring talkie, "The Great Crooner," Mervyn LeRoy's first independently produced picture. ... Is the proud father of a two-months old boy. . . . Don Wilson's raucous laugh, usually heard above the rest of the studio audience, is not forced. . . . He still thinks Jack Benny is the funniest man in the world. Keep Up With Teh ^vision's Rapid Growth. Again Next Month in the March !« ;sue We Bring You All the Latest News In Interviews wi th Tele vision's First Real Stars. "Say, mother, we'd need our own garden to get fresh, Home Grown Vegetables like the Gerber folks use in their, vegetable soup! "And even then, our vegetables wouldn't be as good as Gerber's, for theirs are grown from special pedigreed seed in extra-nourishing soil. When the vegetables are ripe and just right, they rush 'em to the big shining Gerber kitchens nearby so they have no time to lose the food values that make them so good for me. "You ought to see the way Gerber's prepare those Home Grown Vegetables! After scientific straining, the vegetables are cooked in an exclusive Gerber way that preserves, to a high degree, the vitamins and minerals that you are apt to lose when you cook at home. Gerber's Shaker-Cooking means faster and more even cooking, too. I wish I had some Gerber's right now!" ONLY GERBER'S OFFER ALL THESE ADVANTAGES Pedigreed Seeds— developed by expert horticulturists for prize vegetables of highest nutriment. Controlled Farms— for proper soil, and harvesting at the correct degree of full ripeness. Home Groivn — within an hour from our kitchens to prevent appreciable loss of quality. Shaker-Cooked— after scientific straining, at right temperatures with air excluded, for mineral and vitamin protection in high degree, and even cooking throughout every can. (Gerber's Strained Cereal made from selected ■whole grains; Gerber's Prunes are raised in the Santa Clara Valley of California.) ^ p Gerber's Strained Vegetable Soup is a well4/ \ balanced nutritive combination of strained carrots, peas, spinach, rice, barley, beef, tomatoes and celery. Other Gerber Strained Foods : TOMATOES, GREEN BEANS, BEETS, CARROTS, PEAS, SPINACH, PRUNES AND CEREAL. oAaKex-LooAzd Sputlne^ Jixx&i Give Your Baby This Fine Stuffed Doll Made of good Quality stuffed sateen, boy doll in blue, girl doll in pink. Sent for 10c and 3 Gerber labels. GERBER PRODUCTS COMPANY, Fremont, Michigan 112 (In Canada, Gerber's are grown and packed by Fine Foods of Canada, Ltd., Tecumseh, Ontario.) Name Address City State Check items desired: fj Boy Doll Q Girl Doll. FJ Mealtime Psychology, a free booklet on infant feeding, fj Baby's Book, on general infant care, 10c additional. 81