Radio stars (July 1933)

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And the "somehodies somewhere" who were sick or lonely or downhearted or grief-stricken, wrote in by the thousands to say how grateful they were for the mental setting up exercises which helped them to start their day right each morning. There is a story that Cheerio put on the program in memory of his mother. The truth is that when the idea came to him she was in good health. But by the time he was broadcasting she had been stricken with her last illness, and so had become, by a dramatic turn of fate, the most important member of that audience for whom the program was intended. For a year Cheerio made his friendly visit over the air every morning. Then Herbert Hoover, at that time Secretary of Commerce (which made him chief of radio ) came to talk to him. He must go to New York, Herbert Hoover said. He must get on a national hook-up instead of a local hook-up. The good he was doing must reach hundreds of thousands instead of thousands. Cheerio went east. He told the officials of NBC what he wanted to do, of the friendly message he wished to send out over their great national network. At first it was too simple for them to understand. A man wanting to give his time doing good for others and not wanting any pay for it and insisting that his name he kept secret. It was incomprehensible. "And," they discouraged him, "no one listens in the morning anyway. It would l)e a waste of time." But finally, after months of persistence on Cheerio's part, NBC agreed to cooperate in this mental daily dozen idea. They said he could have fifteen minutes over one station, WEAF, as a test. With Cheerio that first morning — March 14, 1927 — were two other persons who were willing to help. There was Russell Gilbert, another business man, who had once been in vaudeville and who said he could find time before going to the office to play the piano and tell a joke or two. There was Geraldine Kiegger, a tall girl with a lovely contralto voice, who had been a pupil of Madame Sembrich. These three — Cheerio and Gil and derry — were the original Cheerio group which, all unheralded, dropped in for its friendly visit on the "somebodies somewhere" who were listening in. THAT was six years ago. There are thirty-five stations broadcasting Cheerio now instead of one — practically the entire NBC" network for the eastern and central time zones. The fifteen minutes allowed for the program's trial has been increased to half an hour. And for six years more and more "somehodies" somewhere have been taking their mental daily dozens from one they know only as Cheerio, getting from him the "exercises" to fight, not overweight, not flabby muscles, not sagging shoulders, but things infinitely worse — drudgery and boredom and" loneliness and discouragement and ill health and sorrow. "Good morning," he says, "this is Cheerio." A mother of four children who has just gone through the hullabaloo of getting those youngsters off to school, takes a deep breath, draws up a chair to the radio, relaxes, and says, "There, now, those breakfast dishes can just wait." A doctor going out to make a round of visits, pauses as the program comes on. "I'll listen to this a while. I'll get a good joke or something cheering to take to my patients." An invalid who has spent seventeen years in a wheel chair listens to Cheerio's warm sympathetic voice, to the songs of Gerry and Lovina and Gil and Fat, to all the gay banter and nonsense, and says, "When someone has taken so much trouble to cheer me it would he ungrateful to spend a weepsv day." That's the sort of good work Cheerio and his group are doing. The group is larger now. Besides the original three there are thirteen other artists. There is the soprano Lovina Gilbert, Russell's wife, who joined the group the first week. There is Fat Kelly, the Irish tenor. There is Elizabeth Freeman, the Bird Lady, whose singing canaries accompany the music so beautifully. There is Loyal Lane who works the controls. There is Harrison Isles and his orchestra. And we must not forget Dr. Crumbine of the American Child Health Association, who comes in every Thursday to give a talk upon some subject pertaining to the walfare of children. It was the American Child Health Association which did much of the early financing of the program. Now NBC pays the artists — except Cheerio, of course, who has never received a cent for his work — and the clerical force which does the research for the program. THE scheme of the program is the birthday party, you know. Present at the birthday breakfast table in make believe are the great ones of the past and present who were born on that day. ( An incredible amount of research has gone into collecting those dates i Special honor is paid to the famous birthday guests. Their works arc read, their music is played, their songs are sung. Stories are told of their lives. All very intimate and sweet. And to all whose birthday is on that date goes out the Cheerio birthday