Radio mirror (May-Oct 1934)

RADIO MI RROR Harmon Trophy, awarded to the outstanding aviator in the United States each year was given to Hawks for his work in 1930, when he was also decorated by the French Aero Club and the Swiss Aero Club. And this man, Frank Hawks, is a short wave fan! Now here's a man who listens-in on the European broadcasters for both business and pleasure. You know him well, for it's none other than the old master showman — Rudy Vallee himself. Well, Vallee is not satisfied to listen only to American stations, in order to follow the trends in music. He has a sensitive short wave receiver in his apartment on Central Park West and, when not otherwise occupied during an evening, tunes-in on the major European transatlantic broadcasts. Another man whose name is always associated with sports, is Ted Husing, the CBS announcer who plays tennis, golf, handball, football and baseball. Ted. whose real name is Edward Britt Husing, is thirty-three years old, six feet tall, and weighs 175 pounds. He was born in New Mexico, but while he was still a boy, the family moved to New York. The lure of the road got him, after his graduation from high school, and he hitch-hiked to Kansas, where he worked in a wheat field for a few months, then going on to Seattle, Wash., and returning home via Texas and Florida, where he stayed for a while, learning to be an aviator. He became a commercial pilot in 1923 and was sent to Miami; came back to New York and was one of the first "flying cops" in the force, but got married and went to Florida again as a real estate salesman. When the bubble burst he and 618 other men auditioned for an announcerial position. Ted got the job in September, 1924, and has been at it ever since. Yet the wanderlust that marked his earlier days has never left him. Though he's more or less tied down by his studio work, he still manages to do a bit of vicarious travelling via the short waves, and there is no more pathetic sight than to see Husing, his head in his hands, listening to a leisurely Britisher drawling a kick-by-tackle description of a rousing game of rugger. Women are represented, too, among the short waves' famous fans. One of them is Mrs. Emily Post, who was born in Baltimore, Md., 1873. Mrs. Post, the mother of two boys, was well known as a novelist several years ago, her fiction having its setting in European countries, the standards of which she contrasted with those of America. Although she has given up all but her non-fiction work, the lure of Europe is still strong, and she makes a habit of following the foreign programs via her rad'o set. Besides being a recognized authority on modern manners and social customs, Mrs. Post is an expert on architecture, color and interior decoration. Dialing the Short Waves {Continued from page 56) Also a writer is Willard Huntington Wright, better known as S. S. Van Dine, author of the "Benson", "Canary," "Greene," "Bishop," "Scarab," and "Kennel" Murder Cases. While Mr. Wright's detective, Philo Vance, tracks down the fictional murderers, the author grimly follows the trail of distant short wave stations. He has just purchased one of the latest and best of the high frequency receivers. Wright (alias Van Dine) is a native of Charlottesville, Va., but now lives in New York. He was born in 1888, and had become literary editor of the Los Angeles Times by the time he was nineteen years old. Since then he has served in the same capacity on Town Topics, and the New York Evening Mail, as art critic on the Forum, the San Francisco Bulletin and Hearst's International Magazine, as a critic of music and drama, and as editor of Smart RADIO'S PERFECT VOICE Helen Menken, glamorous redheaded o-f the staqe is the latest celebrity to join the ranks of radio artists. Engaged for one broadcast this past spring, her dramatic characterization was so successful she was retained for the entire series and will be back on the air this fall in a new program. Broadcast executives say she has the most perfect female speaking voice yet heard on the radio. READ ALL ABOUT HELEN MENKEN IN THE OCTOBER RADIO MIRROR. Set. In addition to all this he was Police Commissioner .of the town of Bradley Beach, New Jersey. Now Mr. Wright divides his time between the typewriter (he's just finishing a new book) and his short wave receiver. Sticking to writers for the present, we find Walter Winchell, the reporterbroadcaster, as another ardent short wave-ite. He's the busiest man in the world, getting through with work around three A. M. when he doesn't have to stay on the job late — but still he manages to find time to tune-in on the short wave band. Just think of the gossip he must pick up! And how it must break his heart not to be able to print it, because of government regulations! If you happen to be in communication with W8CPC, you may be able to get some free medical advice, for that's the call of Dr. Burton T. Simpson, of Buifalo, N. Y., who is Director of the Institute for the Study of Malignant Diseases. Dr. Burton is an amateur of eight years' standing. "I started as a broadcast listener," he says, "and then started building 'my own receivers. Through a natural course of evolution, I graduated into the amateur ranks — ^and now just look at me!" The doctor is unpaid physician to literally hundreds of amateurs. They hear his call, look him up in the call book, see the "M. D." after his name and promptly ask him for advice on everything from fallen arches to falling hair, though he is a specialist on cancer. While in the realm of science, we mustn't skip Hiram Percy Maxim, inventor of the Maxim Silencer and dozens of other devices in the fields of ordnance, automobiles and electricity. He's the son of Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim, and was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1 869. He was the youngest member of his class in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he graduated at the age of seventeen. Twelve years later he married Josephine Hamilton, daughter of the ex-Governor of Maryland. And is H. P. Maxim interested in short waves? Well, he's president of the American Radio Relay League and the International Amateur Radio Union! Billie Jones, who with his partner, Ernie Hare has been on the air for eleven years, is a short wave fan, as are Stokowski, Toscanini and Peter Van Steeden, the orchestra leaders; Art Egan, the poet; Breen and de Rose, the Sweethearts of the Air; Paul McCullough of Clark and McCullough, and Art Van Harvey, of "Vic and Sade." Van Harvey, on the air over Amateur Harold Blough's station, W9SP in Forest Park, 111., happened to mention that he was "Vic" in the NBC sketches, to a Syracuse, N. Y. amateur. A Watertown, S. D., ham picked it up and butted in with some questions. Finally another in Cicero, 111., brought his wife into it, and let her talk to Vic over the air. Paul Davis, former president of the Chicago Stock Exchange, runs a transmitter, too, as do many other wealthy men, for amateur radio is a hobby which appeals to rich and poor alike. And even diplomats, far from home in foreign lands, manage to keep in touch with their own countries by means of short wave sets. Two of them who come to mind are Henry R. Norweb, U. S. Charge d'AfiFaires in Mexico, and Dr. Le Brun, the Argentine Ambassador in Paris, both of whom bought American receivers before going to take their stations! So no matter how late you sit up with your set, remember: You're not alone! Somewhere, some world-famous man or woman is sitting, too, with drooping eyelids, trying to bring in China, Japan or Australia loud enough to get a verification card, just as you are. Next month, the Globe Twister will tell you all about famous heroes of the short wave, tales of daring rescues achieved by historic S.O.S.'s.