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RADIO STARS
MICROPHONE MAGIC!
A fascinating story of two lovable youngsters—Pat and Peg— who came to New York from the sticks to crash a national radio network. Poor kids! They thought it would be so easy. But when they tried it—
By PETER DIXON
Illustrated by JACK WELCH
THE bare-headed hoy and the hlond-haired girl hesitated but a second at the building entrance. Hesitated long enough to glance at the building number. It was 711 Fifth avenue and had they any doubts at all about being at the right address, there in big letters, carved in stone, was "National Broadcasting Company, Incorporated."
The boy carried a cased banjo and the girl had a ukulele tucked under her arm. The boy might have been twentythree years old — the girl hardly twenty. George, the tall doorman at NBC, had noticed them wait at the corner of Fifty-fifth and Fifth avenue until the traffic lights changed. So George knew that the boy and the girl were from out of town. The average New York pedestrian is the most reckless creature in the world and braves death at every crossing.
George watched the boy and the girl walk through the big brass-framed doors and down the long lobby to the elevators. As the girl passed George got a whiff of fragrance that was clean and suggested open spaces far from Fifth avenue. A synthetic odor, of course — New Mown Hay was the label on the perfume bottle — but it was a perfume that fitted the girl's personality. Not bucolic but clean and out-doorsy.
"Kids," said George to an acquaintance. "Kids probably a big sensation back on K Double O K in Keokuk. Bet you a week's pay they are going for an audition. They'll get it — but there's not a chance of them getting anything else."
George wasn't far from wrong. They were just kids and they had been a big sensation — not in Keokuk — but in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Over KVOO where the local announcer introduced them three times a week as the Happy Uarmonizers, Peggy and Pat, popular singing duo. 10
Song-pluggers thrust sheet music at B. A. Rolfe. Eddie Cantor dashed up, demanding Jimmy W a 1 1 i n g t o n . Peggy and Pat stood there dazzled.
THEY were pretty good, too, and friends had told them as friends will that they ought to be heard on a national network. After a while they began to believe it themselves. They counted their savings. Not quite five hundred dollars between them but enough to buy railroad tickets to New York and to live for a few weeks until the network officials recognized their merits. Plenty of courage in those two kids. They didn't buy return tickets back to Tulsa. If they failed to make good — well, they hadn't even thought of that.
Some of their best friends were a little worried when Peggy and Pat started off to New York. Peggy and Pat weren't married yet. Engaged and very much in love with each other but Peggy wouldn't hear of marriage until their financial position could be made more secure.