Radio stars (Oct 1935-Sept 1936)

RADIO STARS KQOL MILDLY MENTHOLATED CIGARETTES CORK-TIPPED THOSE cork tips please your lips. The fine Turkish-Domestic tobaccos please your palate. The mild menthol brings a cool and thankful refreshment to your throat. Finally, the B & W coupon in each pack of KQDLS is a constant source of gratification. Save them; they are good for a choice of attractive items of nationally advertised merchandise. (Write for latest illustrated premium list No. 10; offer good in U. S. A. only.) For a year of Thanksgiving smoking switch to KGDLS! Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., Louisville, Ky. SAVE COUPONS for HANDSOME PREMIUMS ~Tke ftatadoxlcal Alt. 4jimbet (Continued from page 48) 1 5* /& TWENTY RALEIGH CIGARETTES . . . NOW AT POPULAR PRICES . . . ALSO CARRY B & W COUPONS 58 the Studebaker Champion maestro, is generous to a fault. The best-natured, most easy going guy in the world. And the person I'd like least of all to have as an enemy. He hates people who come late for appointments ; yet he is invariably late. He doesn't drink. Yet he has two bars full of the choicest liquors. He doesn't smoke. Yet he has a complete assortment of cigars and cigarettes. He can splice a cigarette with a rifle shot. Yet he never shoots. For ten years he danced on the stage ; today, when he takes a girl out, he insists he can't dance a step! When he goes to the movies and doesn't like the show, he talks right out loud and says what he wants. When he doesn't like a person, he does the same. Once he told Laura Lorraine, who was with him on a few Essex House programs, that everyone said her singing was terrible. And he couldn't understand why she got angry, slapped his face, and walked out on him. To me, the most pronounced of his characteristics is his fun-loving spirit, which has resulted in so much embarrassment to his friends and associates. Let me tell you something he pulled on Isidore Zir, his very competent but very serious first violinist. One day he and Izzie were going out together. It was after a broadcast, and they just had time to make their appointment. Just before they got started, when Izzie reached in to turn the key in the car. Dick grabbed it. "My, this is a lovely key," Dick said. "Is it the only one you've got to the car?" Izzie answered truthfully that it was. "Of what metal is it made?" Dick queried innocently, banging the key. "Does it bounce?" Before the violinist could stop him, he threw it against the wall. Of course, Zir couldn't find it. He almost went wild searching for it. "I'm ruined," he groaned. "Oh, what am I going to do now?" After twenty minutes, Dick suddenly got an inspiration. "Perhaps you can start the car without a key," lie said. "What !" exploded the harrassed Issie. "Well, let's get in and try," Dick said. They got into the car. And there was the key in the lock ! How was it done? Dick, who is an amateur magician, had a couple of dummy keys palmed in his hand. When he asked. "What kind of metal is this." and banged the key, he made the switch. And then there was the time when Arty Shaw, who was first sax with the Himber orchestra, and some of the other boys, piled into the Shaw chariot, a little Ford, and went for a ride. Every few blocks the car would stop. Shaw inspected the gas tank; the motor; nothing was out of order. There was plenty of gas. When he was about ready to drop, Dick would say innocently ; "Maybe the car will start now. Give it a try." And sure enough, it went beautifully — for a few more blocks. Finally Arty doped it out, or so he thought. "I guess every time my little buggy hits a bump, the key turns and the car is locked." he explained apologetically. To this day he doesn't know what really was the trouble. Dick, seated in the far end of the car, had attached an invisible horsehair, the kind you use for magic tricks, to the key. Whenever he wanted to he pulled it, turning the key. Then quite as easily, he'd yank it back into moving position. Don't think the boys sit by with folded hands and say nothing to all of Dick's gags. One night Johnny Young, the announcer, decided to pay Dick back in his own coin. He had some of the band members pretend to be undertakers and called up the Essex House where Dick lives, insisting there was a corpse in Room 608, Dick's room. At 4 a. m. the house detective came on the run, and woke Dick up. knocking at the door. To make sure there was no' hidden corpse, he even examined the apartment ! Finally, though, his friends framed Dick. They all know that clowning Mr. Himber, boisterous and loud as he is at times, becomes quiet and deadly serious the minute rehearsals start. Goes haywire if anything spoils his program. Insists upon absolute cooperation from the entire orchestra. A sour note makes him almost physically sick. This day he came to the studio, set for the broadcast. The clock struck eight. Dick raised his baton. Came a down beat. One of the saxes hit a wrong note. "I got sick," Dick told me. "I waved with my hand for the men to tighten up. Another down beat. Another off-key note. Then they all hit wrong notes. I nearly fainted. We were on the air !" Panicky, Himber stood, white as a sheet, while David Ross, the announcer, broke in with his usual commercial announcements. He began in his smooth, golden unctuous tones, "This is Stude — -stude — ee — baker Champ — Chump — Champion," he stuttered out. No longer could Himber contain himself. "Good heavens." he yelled, "what is going on here today at CBS!" Then Jean Hight, the head of the CBS commercial contact department, who was also in on the trick, said: "Surprise! Its all a gag!" The boys had turned the clocktwo minutes ahead ! They were not on the air! Though Dick Himber is a wizard at cards, and enjoys playing, he ordinarily refuses to play. But one morning Ken Lyons and Irving Mansfield, two of his pals, kept bragging all over the place that they were the best contract bridge players in either circles. Why. they bad beaten Mr. and Mrs. Ted Pearson, the acknowledged champions. "I'll play you a game," Dick said suddenly. "I thought you don't play bridge," Ken answered. "I've never played contract bridge, but I'll beat you," Dick answered. Just then Andre Baruch, the announcer,