Radio mirror (May-Oct 1934)

RADIO MIRROR he was a vogue which is passing and that he could never again assume to the place he held with millions of people. That, also is very doubtful. He is a controversial leader who must always take a definite side on any new issue which arouses his fighting spirit and he has the faculty for inspiring the crowds to ardent support or indignant opposition. If he had been on the air these past two months, one wonders what part he would have taken in the west coast strike and those in the middle-west. He is pledged to help the working man but he is bitterly opposed to communistic influences. He has battled strongly against socialism and he would probably have broadcast some very vital statements to the communists who were involved in the San Francisco general strike. One wonders, too, what he would have had to say to Herr Hitler these past few months. Even if one is at odds with Father Coughlin's convictions, it must be admitted that his sermons were impressive, that they were never wild statements which he did not back with statistics and records and while he has been provocative to his opposition, he has never been a speaker of idle words. If a vote were put to his listening public what would the result be? Would there still be the insistent demand for him to continue in the role of crusader? Would he be asked to take up the fight again and what would his own answer be? It all depends on Father Coughlin. Knowing his history and his record up to this year it is impossible to believe that he would ever be happily reconciled to a church career that did not include active participation in temporal issues that are continually arising to challenge the knowledge and effort of such a priest as he. He is not a rebel in his own faith. He has the interested support of his immediate superiors and the admiration of many prelates in the Catholic church. He has never gone out of bounds, even though he has brought down denunciation from individuals who were at variance with his views. Do the readers of this magazine want Father Coughlin to take up his fight again? Or are they satisfied to have him retire to his own parish and confine his activities to the post which his church assigned to him? Radio Mirror would like to get the opinions of its thousands of readers on the subject. If you think Father Coughlin belongs to the people who have .so ardently supported him and that his only medium is radio broadcasting, then write a letter to the editor. If you think his place is in his own pulpit and that he should not resume his controversial part in public events, write that, too. Such a representative written opinion will be an important cross-section of the country's attitude toward this fighting priest of the airways. in drinking afternoon tea, and for getting along with temperamental ladies. A little later he had a job as salesman in a New York department store, which operated a radio station. One day he was watching a broadcast and overheard the program director bewailing the fact that one of the acts had failed to show up. Dave volunteered to fill in with some poetry readings and the desperate director put him on the air without preparation or rehearsal. Two weeks later he was given a job as staff announcer, staying there for two years, until, in 1927, he joined the newly organized Columbia Broadcasting System. He's been on the CBS continuously ever since — longer than any of their other announcers. He still retains his ability to go on the air in an emergency, even when totally unprepared. Some time ago the network was to broadcast a round-up of humorists — O. Soglow, Will Cuppy, Ogden Nash and Milt Gross. At the last minute a wire came from Gross, regretting his inability to appear. The program had been carefully timed, and his absence would leave an aching void of minutes. So Dave volunteered to read Gross' script. "What!" chorused the astonished officials, "a Gold Medal Announcer who can talk Yiddish dialect! Preposterous!" But Dave picked up the script and went into it — while the officials went into convulsions. For Dave has the gift of tongues. He can do a good job on Greek, Italian and French dialect as well as Yiddish. In fact, he tries out two or three of them before every broadcast in which he takes part, for when he steps up to the microphone to make the customary voice-level test, he substitutes, "Hey, Tony! How's-a dees wan?" and similar queries for the more conventional "onetwo-three-four-hello-hello" customarily employed. He also uses his trick dialects when 78 Puck in the Poets' Corner {Continued from page 37) hitch-hiking, for thumbing rides is another of his day-off amusements. The man who stops and gives Ross a ride is amply rewarded with anecdotes, for Dave sometimes pretends to be an Italian shoemaker, who is very proud that his daughter is about to marry an exbootlegger, or he may enact the role of a Greek restaurant owner who is upset because the board of health won't let him keep a couple of goats in his cellar, or almost anything else that comes into his fertile mind. That, and riding on ferryboats are his two favorite everyday pursuits. On odd occasions he likes to play football, tennis and baseball. He's a good tennis player, and a fair quarterback and pitcher. He likes to tell you that he has played against Al Schact; it was in the old days and in the Bronx. But, when Dave wants a taste of Heaven, he takes a ride in a speedboat. It was just a fev/ days ago that he tried it for the first time, when a friend took him out for a spin on Lake Hopatcong. He gets poetic when he talks about it, and his whole expressive face lights up with enthusiasm as he leans forward in his chair and grabs you by the arm for added emphasis. "It was marvelous!" he says. "The lift and swoop. Like a seagull. You seem to have no body. It's the most wonderful sensation in the world. I can't describe it " Another of his delights is to sing the good, old Rabelaisian ballads — songs that would burn up your loud speaker and turn your ears a bright crimson if they ever went over the air. He and Bing Crosby get together on these during rehearsal and have a swell time. Mostly they sing old sea chanties — which haven't very much tune, but have plenty of rhythm and deal with such subjects as the infidelities of the First Mate's wife, the adventures of a sailor who got lost in the Sultan's harem, and so forth. Bing and Dave vie to see which of them can arouse the greatest enthusiasm in the members of the orchestra. Bing has the better delivery, but Dave knows more words. Another of his amusements is "double-talking", which is nothing at all like double-dealing. Sid Garry is known as one of the foremost exponents of the art, which consists of inserting some unintelligible sounds into an otherwise rational statement. Once when Sid was at the station rehearsing, Dave said, "Mr. Garry, if you would stand a little closer to the microphone, you wouldn't defotherailery. Don't you think so?" "Huh?" said Mr. Garry. "What was that? I didn't catch it." "I just said you would sound better if you'd cronahojik. Try it and see if I'm not right." Garry burst out laughing and exclaimed, "Here's a man that doubletalked me and made me fall for it. Boy, you're good!" Dave ought to be good. He used to use it on his English prof at college, when he didn't know the answer to a question. It enabled him to keep stalling until the professor got tired of trying to make out what he was saying. Finally the prof got hep to it — and flunked Dave at the end of the term. This, then is David Ross, the fellow whose name has become a synonym for suavity and dignity. But it is a side of his many-faceted personality that is known only to his most intimate friends. Now that you have entered the charmed circle of the People Who Know David, you may have a more completely rounded picture of him. For now you know that besides being a good announcer, David Ross is darned good fun. SHE'S FROM MISSOURI! And you've got to show Gladys Swarthout, this beautiful, talented singer who came from opera to radio and who will tell you all about her home life and her career NEXT MONTH!