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The Hunt for TALENT
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I F there is any one field or profession where the odds, judged by past record, and the conditions, considering present circumstances, are against the unknown seeking success, it is in the radio broadcasting field.
So many hopefuls with nothing but their own belief in their talents and the praises of relatives or friends in the home town to bolster their courage write to this magazine asking "How con I become a radio star?" The answer is almost "via the route to Mars." Tenors who croon in their own parlors, pretty little blondes who think they can imitate Ruth Etting all seem to believe that they only need an audition to become one of the radio famous. Thousands of them have bombarded the broadcast studios in the past year, so many thousands of them are granted what they believe is the privilege of an audition before some important executive, and then immediately forgotten by everybody but themselves, that the whole routine of present-day auditioning is a tragedy. The breach between an audition and a sponsored program is wider than the gap between a visit to a third-rate theatrical agent who wants a deposit in advance and stellar billing in an M-G-M super-special film production.
Occasionally some unheralded newcomer does get a break on a program and jumps right into popularity with on unusual appeal, but these events are so rare that they ore epochal. Unless some radio celebrity is personally interested -in the stranger at the microphone or some executive is determined to give the unknown every opportunity, the unheralded applicant for broadcast recognition nas as much chance of getting it as you or I have of swimming the Atlantic. The prevalent prejudice against talent not yet established in any definite field of entertainment is too big a handicap for any but an applicant whose first hearing actually proves the promise of sensational and immediate success.
Out of more than 20,000 men, women, precocious children and barking dogs who were auditioned by one of the big chains last year, two eventually reached radio prominence. Now what chance has Mary Smith from Gainesville or Tom Jones from Scranton in the'face of those statistics?
Even the well-known artists from the theater and the movies and the concert stage have gone through long processes of many auditions and then never had anything result from the heart-breaking negotiations.
The fault is partly that of the broadcast people who have no faith in embryonic talent and really do not give obscure applicants a fair chance. Then, too, there is the ridiculous presumption of the mediocre performers who aspire beyond their own possibilities.
It may sound harsh and hard to discourage ambition which will take some hopeful man or woman to a studio day after day, trying out his stuff before those who are only mildly attentive at best, but it's really kindness to give warning against the almost overwhelming handicaps which ore existing at present.
Though I know that in spite of the failures, regardless of all the thousands and thousands of experiences that preceded failure this year will probably see the same long lines in pathetic parade to the audition rooms. For each one thinks his own cose is different.
T.
JLJl.