Radio mirror (Nov 1935-Apr 1936)

CHICAGO By Chase Giles ]^OW that Samuel Insull has turned -l^i radio network boss the old studios in the Chicago Civic Opera building will come back into their own. Studios were once used by WENR before NBC took that station over and since have been in operation only for a few NBC programs, specially those using an organ. NBC is expanding its Merchandise Mart studios and installing an organ there. . . . WBBM and Columbia staff in Chicago were happily surprised end of the year by an extra week's check for each employee there more than one year. . . . Irene Castle McLaughlin, the once famous dancer who recently did a radio series based on her memoirs, has as her present hobby the Orphans of the Storm, famous home for dogs. Surprising was the recent story that the kennels had been robbed, this despite several hundred varied and assorted canines within reach. * * * LENOX LOHR, new NBC president, included among his first duties in that capacity a visit to Chicago NBC studios in the Merchandise Mart just to look the situation over . . . Clara, Lu and Em, the famous backyard gossips of radio, have been turning down new radio contracts because the serious illness of one of the girls necessitates a rest of several months. CBS has offered a contract and NBC an option but the girls refused both. . . . Vic and Sade were surprised to discover in their fan mail a card of thanks and congratulation from Thelma Todd. It had been mailed in Hollywood just the day before the famous film actress was found dead. . . . Al Pearce and his brother Cal were masters of ceremonies at a huge banquet tendered Amos 'n' Andy in California some years back. Thus started a friendship which led to A. & A. suggesting Al Pearce and his gang when their sponsor decided to add another radio act . . . Morey Amsterdam, comedian of Al Pearce's gang, is married to Mable Todd of the same gang, a fact which has not been publicized. And Tizzie Lish is really a man. * * * IT'S nice to write your own show. Take Katherine Avery for instance. She is WBBM's Sentimental Selma as well as author of that script. So when she wanted to go home for a visit recently she simply wrote herself out of the scripts for a few days and left the rest of the cast to carry on in Chicago ... On his 14 S^fc. Out West, the 1936 beach costumes are in vogue already. Grace Cooper NBC actress, shows this one. first broadcast Charles Chaplin, although a film veteran, was plenty frightened by the microphone, according to Les Weinrott, who arranged the broadcast and is now author and director of WGN's Grandstand Thrills . . . Chaplin's hand shook so they had to paste the script onto cardboard to keep the noise out of the microphone . . . Announcer Truman Bradley has a colored maid and a Scotch terrier in his Chicago home. Imagine his surprise the other day to hear the maid threatening the disobedient pup thus: "Ah'll send yo' to Ethiopia to fight for us if yo' don't behave!" * * * UP in a small Michigan town neighbors and friends installed a new highpowered radio in an old lady's home. Later some friends dropped over to ask how she liked it. "V^eil, it ain't so bad'' she said, "but I think the old four party line is best!" * * * FROM his work interviewing the "man on the street" for Columbia, Announcer Pat Flanagan opines: Every woman laughs before answering your question and every man scowls; men back up when the mike is put before them, women step forward; women are better informed than men about current topics; women have cleaner teeth than men. * * * BILLIE BAILEY, Chicago Columbia singer comes from a town named Table Grove, 111. . . . Truman Bradley, announcer, Pat O'M alley, Jack Hylton's Irish singer, Howard Neumiller, pianist, and other (Continued on page 94) PACIFIC By Dr. Ralph L. Power APRIL Fool's Day will soon be here, and lots of radio people will be up to all sorts of tricks. There's Bernie Smith, KFWB news commentator. But he made a New Year resolution not to 'phone any of his friends and leave the police station telephone number. . . . Dale Armstrong, KHJ newsman, can't toss empty pocketbooks out of the new Times tower, because the new "tower" is really an inside radio room with drapes 'n' everything along the walls. . . . Lorna Ladd, KM PC interviewer, has been saving up old hats to pile on the sidewalk with bricks beneath. But the other day her husband, Mel Williamson, called the Goodwill people and had them carted away. ... Ted Galley, KGER program director, recently married to Grace Glasser, head of her own radio agency, wants it known he is too grown up for childish pranks. And, besides, he can't think of a new April Fool's Day gag. ... So I guess that maybe after all the radio lads and lassies out on the Coast will be good on that day. Anyway, they have never been able to top KFI's gag of ten years ago when it did a murder hoax over the WIDE WORLD Red-headed music maker Wendell Hall recently completed a three-week engagement in vaudeville in New York. air and then stopped the broadcast. What a barrage of wires and 'phone calls! And few of the fans thought it was very funny at that. * * * KING ZANY, whose poetry and philosophy form the basis for a daily program on KFAC, Los Angeles, lives in a comfortable desert home at Pear Blossom, Cal., where he is trying to regain lost health. The region is a veritable hot place in summer, but with frequent snow flurries in the wintertime. Little Rock is the nearest post office about eight miles away. * * * GLADYS JOHNSON is playing the cello in the KMTR staff orchestra. She led the girls' ork over at KTM for several years until hard times set in and the studio group dwindled to three. * * * CHARLEY FOLL, who left KROW to join KJBS some time ago, is back at KROW again as staff announcer.