Radio stars (Oct 1934-Sept 1935)

RADIO STARS To Hell with Happiness "it's the Cheese. 991 This old expression means "anything good, first grade in quality, genuine and pleasant," and it adequately describes the simple but appetizing cheese menus outlined in this month's COOKING SCHOOL There are dozens of dishes which you already serve, that may be tremendously brightened by the addition of cheese. All of the recipes given this month are favorites of Dick Powell who insists that any dish made with cheese has his hearty approval. Every recipe has been created by practical people and tested in our own kitchens. You will find them easy to prepare from the directions given and the results will be a delight to the family. Read the COOKING SCHOOL every month in {Continued from pane 8) riding high, Frank Luther returned to the United States with the Revelers and sang at the Mirador. His contract was for thirty thousand dollars a year, more money than he had ever made hefore in his life. He began paying off the debts he had contracted in the lean and bitter years; he began buying a few luxuries for his mother, whom he adores, and his sisters. And then, suddenly, unexpectedly, calamity came! It seemed like such a simple thing, at first. Frank Luther, working too hard, caught a cold. The cold lingered on, and he Couldn't sing. The doctor examined him, shook his head gravely. "You need complete rest," he said. "I don't know whether you'll ever be able to sing again. It will take time and rest — complete rest." Complete rest? Frank was dazed. Why, the man must be mad ! How can you sit still and do nothing? Two months of inactivity . . . Do you know what it means to a man like Frank to have the bread taken out of his mouth and to be told that he must sit back and do nothing? He paced up and down his apartment like a madman. Sometimes it seemed that if something didn't happen soon, he would go mad. He went to the Revelers and begged them to wait till he got well. But they couldn't wait, and Jimmy Melton went on in the spot that should have been Frank's. He hadn't a nickel saved up. He was still in debt. He touched bottom. All the confidence ebbed out of him. The salt of life had lost its savor. "If I were the type who could take his own life, I would have done it then," Frank Luther told me, his dark brown eyes growing almost black at the thought of those days and nights of agony. "But suddenly I realized that I was a fool if I whimpered now, and that I was a dolt if I asked happiness of life. I was here to live, not to be happy." Do you want to know what he did then? He went out to Pittsburgh and got a job playing the piano in a dinky cafe. Frank Luther, to whom princes and dukes had listened in awed silence, now played and sang for men too drunk to know that they were hearing a golden voice gone wrong. It was these men whom he now had to beg for nickels and quarters. He, a nice wholesome American boy, wrho only a short time before had held a contract for thirty thousand dollars within his grasp. In the end, amid these sodden people, he found his voice again, and with his voice he found something else, new-born confidence. All the false pride and cockiness had been knocked out of him, but after he had touched bottom his spirits soared again. Back to New York once more he came, asking his friends if they knew of work that he could do. And, because he believed in himself again, he found work. He met three young fellows who had been in vaudeville. One was an arranger of music, and the other two were looking for someone to make up a trio. And so Frank Luther, Jack Parker, Phil Duey and Will Donaldson got together and succeeded i putting over the program you still hear i the Men About Town. Frank Luther has always lived intense!; from the time he was a small shaver on cattle ranch in western Kansas. When t was in grammar school he fell in love witl a blonde and, to convince her of his ardor dipped one blonde braid into his inkwell The blonde was furious and lived to grol up and marry Frank's brother! She still maintains she hates him! As a matter of fact, Frank really grel up in a man's world. From the time 1 was four years old his father used to tak him to various state fair-, where he e>( hibited cattle and sheep, and so, from bo)| I hood, Frank learned to mingle with cattlcl men. When he was but fourteen years old h \ father used to allow him to travel to til state fairs alone with a carload of cattllj and there the boy had to try to mat(| | wits with men who yaw him no (|uart<N because of his tender years. In his deal ings with them, he learned shrewdness arl sharpness, but above all he learned to li\ { by a man's code. I Living ! That's his battle-word, hi torch. Yes, he carries a torch for lifl Already he has met the Grim Reaper arl foiled him, and I think that if ever til time conies when death stands by his cfl bow, Frank Luther will put up a wortljl battle. But let me tell you about the time ll almost met death. He was sixteen yeal old, and was coming back alone fro| Denver, where he had exhibited at a liv stock show. Around dawn he got tired < resting in the caboose and decided to wa over the top of the freight train to s how his herd of cattle was doing. Istarted to go down over the end of the br car, but the train was going fast, and fell between two cars. He heard the screaming of steel \vhe( waiting to grind him into bits. With heroic effort he grabbed hold of the bral rod. Holding on to that, he managed save himself. Two hoboes who had seen him fall star in wonder as he crawded back. For th'" had thought they had seen him fall to \ death. A fewr years later Frank's father lc all his money, and just when he was tr ing to stage a come-back, he died in burning hotel. And then the spur of r sponsibility pricked Frank. "I can't fa; I mustn't fail," he told himself, thinkil of his mother and his sisters. "I must ta my father's place with them." Since that time he has never falten never made excuses for himself, nev loafed on the job. On and on he h gone, driving himself relentlessly. He h been a minister, a newspaperman, a sing at evangelistic meetings, and heaven or, knows what else. And out of it all h come not happiness but rich and glorii experience in living and friendships w diverse people, from the country's leadi hobo to men of world-wide fame. II RADIO 5TAR5 106