Radio and television mirror (July-Dec 1950)

for ten days and almost as many nights. WSAZ, Huntington, West Virginia, had to move equipment to a top floor as the waters rose but it stayed on the air as did dozens of other stations, its staff refusing to flee to safety. The Ohio flood crest of sixty-nine feet put the streets of Louisville deep under water but WHAS stayed on and on, manned by exhausted people who would not quit while there was still a job to do. The whole nation listened as they relayed messages from volunteers roving with shortwave transmitters to rescue crews, "Fifty children in a church. Waters rising above the pews. Aid is urgent'1 . . . "Insane man at corner of Eleventh and Walnut. He has a gun" . . . "Seven people marooned on top of a house. It is listing badly. Help needed fast" . . . "Woman in childbirth. Take blankets if possible." Unforgettable, those broadcasts so packed with reports of danger that all emotion was stripped from the tired voices. 'TFhis is my problem, Mr. Anthony" 1 became a catch-phrase following the start of The Good Will Hour this same year. John J. Anthony came to the air after some years of success as a consultant on marital problems. Some five thousand people whose wedded lives were not happy had poured through his office, so he was accustomed to startling confessions. He needed to be when he reached the air and began broadcasting interviews with people desperate enough to bare their souls in public. Names were not used on his program, but the variety of accents and the unmistakable emotion proved to all listeners that they were tuned in on real people at a moment of high stress. Again it was proved that human interest had an enormous drawing power. Jean Hersholt's beloved Dr. Christian also used a form of audience participation in that his adventures were based on plot suggestions sent in by listeners. Big Town started with Edward G. Robinson as the crime-busting editor and Ona Munson as his girl reporter, Lorelei. Edward Pawley and Fran Carlon took over the roles in 1943 and are still hot on the trail of gangsters. Nancy Craig started a new kind of woman's show, interspersing news about food and new domestic gadgets with reports on shows, fashions and interviews and an impressive run of guests day after day. Her real name is Alice Maslin. How she got her professional name is interesting. Nancy Booth Craig was invented by an NBC executive board because the initials were NBC. The Booth was summarily dropped when she was sold with the Blue Network to the company that was to become ABC, but Nancy Craig goes happily along, longest established of nationally-heard service shows. Roy Rogers was emerging as a singing cowboy on the screen after a slow start as a barnstorming radio singer under his own name, Leonard Slye. His start in show business began in 1932 when he took his guitar to an amateur contest in a suburban Los Angeles theater and won first prize — a lot of applause. However, The Rocky Mountaineers heard him and he joined them on a small station for five dollars a week. Bob Nolan, author of "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," was added soon after and the group began to taste success. Each member was raised to ten dollars a week! Recognition at last! They became successively The International Cowboys, The Texas Outlaws, The O-Bar-O Boys and finally The Sons of He said "Good Night" but he meant "Goodbye" because Don't let DEODORANT FAILURE rob you of popularity... ONE SPRAY IS WORTH A DOZEN DARS new spray deodorant . . . stops perspiration No wonder women everywhere are changing to new, spray-on HEED in the flexible squeeze bottle. HEED stops perspiration . . . prevents underarm odor all the live-long day. HEED is so easy, so dainty to use— no more messy fingers. No other type deodorant, no cream or oldfashioned liquid gives such long-lasting protection so ' quickly. So don't take chances with short-time deodorants . . . use HEED. At all cosmetic counters, 490. Lasts many months! Atewk Heed '/ess and 'you'// 'a/tvays he safe/ R M 79