Radio mirror (May-Oct 1934)

^^^ • 1 •' » '■t^ovui X > V rf /^" ;v 9 Eve Sully and Jesse Block, new air favorites, say "Hello" to California and the movies where they're now working ing. Rosaline Greene, one of NBC's ace actresses, drinks tea regularly because she believes it adds allure to her speaking voice. A French scientist once told her tea-drinkers teem with "radio-active emanations" (high-brow for sex appeal) and Rosaline points to her fan mail from masculine admirers as proof of the professor's contention. * * * Johnny Davis, who sings with Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians, is what is known as a "scat singer". But perhaps you don't know what a "scat singer" is. Here's Waring's definition: "A fellow who knows all the words but can't pronounce them". Apparently, there are scads of "scat singers" on the radio. * * * STUDIO SIDELIGHTS Harry Richman expresses his individuality by wearing loud and flashy clothes and jewelry everywhere but on his toes. And when it comes to cussing! No truck driver, no BY MERCURY matter how abusive or what the provocation, can equal his vocabulary . . . And by the way, Harry says he will never marry again until he completes payment on a million dollar annuity . . . Vivienne Segal has a unique way of soothing her nerves before a broadcast. She turns on her heel, knocks on wood and swears — sotto voce, of course, and employing cuss words not offensive to the Holy Name Society . . . Clyde Doerr is now musical director of the NBC in San Francisco studios. Doerr is the man who helped popularize the saxophone on both the air and in the theatre but don't hold that up against him. "Fats" Waller, songwriter, singer, instrumentalist and m. c, wrote the songs for a musical backed by Arnold Rothstein, mysteriously slain New York gambler. It was "Keep Shuffling", the Negro show produced eight years ago . . . Eddie Peabody, the banjo virtuoso, is raising two adopted boys . . . Eddie, incidentally, is an adopted brave of the Sioux tribe. His Indian name is Wichasha Tankala, the English equivalent of which is Little Big Man — or so says the official interpreter at NBC . . . Once a clothes designer through necessity, Ruth Etting still makes her own clothes — but now because she likes to. After a long association with CBS Tony Wons is now an NBC attraction. Peggy Keenan and Sandra Phillips, the titian-haired piano duo, also switched networks with the Scrap Book man . . . The amazing record of 1892 performances was hung up by Amos 'n' Andy when they quit the air lanes in mid-July for a two months rest. They wrote something like three and a half million words of continuity for that number of episodes — every word of it the creation of their own fertile minds . . . Leo Reisman, who spent part of last winter in the hospital with a broken hip, still has trouble with his injury. =K * * Alexander Woollcott, devoted booster of the vitriolic Dorothy Parker (wonder if her elopement with Alan Campbell, the young actor, will make any difference in the ardor of his adoration?), returns to the air lanes this autumn, this time under sponsorship. The literator will make his wise and witty comments as The Town Crier to promote the sales of a breakfast food. Woollcott doesn't fancy prostituting his art to commercialism but Columbia doesn't share that dislike. The network spent months and considerable money on Woolcott's {Continued on pa^e 67)