Radio stars (June 1933)

RADIO STARS Almost everyone of any kind of fame at all has been a guest artist on the Rudy Vallee's Fleischmann Hour — including the breery Mae West. Your Radio Corner (Continued from page 39) through thunder, Mrs. Nichols' thunder that sounds so orach like a real airplane in full Sight that Miss Earhart has risen from her chair, trying to get a look at the machine that produces it. Hill blazes a trail of narrative. "Near midnight, the moon disappears. A severe storm, shot with lightning, buffets the plane. She fights to hold her course in the rough and pounding wind. This lasts for hours." A man with a drumstick pounds it against a taut steer-hide bigger than a dining room table. Thunder, that ! Our ears ache with the tumult of noises. Hill tells of fog. "It forces her to rise. And ice forms on the wings of her plane. But these are the least of her perils. The exhaust is slowly burning through from a defective weld. Tongues of fire appear in the darkness and pieces of metal drop away. . . ." But with the new day she runs into sunshine, and Ireland. Her way barred by thunderstorms, she decides to land. The motor noise suddenly ceases, for a moment the sound of a landing gear making contact with bumpy pasture land, and then silence. What a silence ! Here in the studio, it is like a vacuum. Abruptly, we are aware of the clink and tinkle of cow bells. Somewhere, a girl sings. Mrs. Nichols' magic, that. Then, Miss Earhart's voice: "Hello, there. Can you tell me where I am ?" "Shurrr! You're in Derry, sir." This in rich Irish brogue. "In Derry? Oh, Londonderry?" "Yis, sorr. Heaven help me ! It's a woman." Amelia Earhart chuckles delightedly in her corner. George Palmer Putnam puts his hand on hers for a moment. She gets up and goes to her mike. Hill says : "Miss Earhart. haven't you often thanked fortune that you stuck at the thing that gave you so much fun?" "It usually works out," she answered, "that if one follows where an interest leads the knowledge or contacts somehow or other will be found useful in time. I learned to fly, and kept with it because it was the thing I wanted most to do. Of course, today, there's more responsibility attached to it, but I'm still flying for the fun of it." Shilkret's musicians sweep into a lively melody. Hill grins at Miss Earhart and wipes his forehead with a blue handkerchief. A moment later, Van Vorhees introduces the commercial announcement. All across the country, in a half-dozen different key points, announcers are plugging into the broadcast to mention the particular brand of SoconyVacuum product sold in that territory. The music from this studio forms a background for all their words. And now the half hour is over. George Palmer Putnam holds an evening wrap for his wife. Ed Hill crosses to shake their hands and bid them goodnight. Some of the musicians crash their instruments into cases and sprint through the doorway to another studio where they are scheduled to appear. Miss Earhart and Mr. Hill follow them. good sounding radio is the Lyric, manufactured by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company, North Tonawanda, N. Y. Model SA-130, which is pictured, is a good example of this make. This particular model is forty inches high, twenty-five inches in width and thirteen inches in depth. It sells for $149.50 complete with tubes. It is the tuning of this set to which the manufacturers point with pride. They call it the "channel control" Lyric, and the makers say that with this set there is not the slightest sound between stations — no overlapping of programs. THE Philadelphia Storage Battery Company, Ontario and C Streets. Philadelphia, have a new development for their Philco radio which is noteworthy. They call it the Lazy-X. It is a remote tuning control affair. Here's how the company explains it: "Place the convenient Lazy-X tuning cabinet, with complete remote control, beside your easy chair. Place the attractive Lazy-X sound console anywhere in the room. Relax — change programs, adjust volume, control tone— all without stirring a foot or disturbing your mood by moving." Tonal excellence and fidelity of reproduction is being emphasized more strongly than ever before by the Stromberg-Carlson Company. Four new models have just been announced by this company and each of these utilize an audio output system which is so new, says an official, that new tubes had to be designed for them and a new type speaker created. The General Electronics Corporation, 15 Laight Street,. New York City, manufactures something unique in all-wave receivers. The set pictured is the Baird model 50 which gives efficient reception from 15 to 555 meters. It has a super switch control for changing to various wave length ranges and uses no plug-in coils. I HAVE been attracted by Model F-12, a six-tube superheterodyne, in looking over the products of the Pilot Radio & Tube Corporation, Lawrence, Massachusetts. This table set is in a bakelite cabinet which was especially designed and perfected and said by the company to be the largest bakelite moulded product ever attempted. The finish is permanent, moisture-proof, A distinctly different midget radio model, Lilliputian in size, is introduced by the General Electric Company, 1285 Boston Avenue, Bridgeport, Conn., in The Little G-E, Model K-40, with a tuned radio frequency circuit using four tubes. It can be operated on either alternating or direct current and provides adequate facilities for full, clear reception where great volume is not required. THE Crosley Radio Corporation, Cincinnati, Ohio, is out with a really new idea. It's the Crosley Fiver Bookcase, library model. This receiver represents a set of books, each book with an appropriate title. The bookbacks are covered with a good grade of leatherette of antique coloring and the backs and two sides are embossed and embellished with gold. The book backs are mounted on two doors which swing open and permit the radio to be operated in the same manner as the conventional table model receiver. The Crosley Fiver Bookcase employs a five-tube superheterodyne chassis. Only $25.00 complete. 41