Radio and television mirror (July-Dec 1950)

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Accepted for Advertising by the Journal of the American Medical Association 80 the Pioneers. It was a long pull before a contract at Republic Pictures brought Trigger into Roy's life and before the boy who had been glad to work for five dollars sent his program out over all 520 of the Mutual stations. 1937 was a year of many contrasts and many important developments in radio. One was the formation of the American Federation of Radio Artists, better known as AFRA. It is an autonomous union that takes in all radio talent except the musicians under the A. F. of L. A union of radio talent was curiously slow in arriving. Stage stars had been unionized for a long time. The White Rats (rats is star spelled backward) had been founded in 1901. It lost its strength through inner dissension, but was succeeded in 1913 by the Actors Equity which became a powerful union after 1919, and has remained so ever since. Of enormous importance to listeners was the formation of the NBC Symphony Orchestra. CBS has sponsored the great New York Philharmonic since 1930 in continuous broadcasts. Other great organizations like the Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Chicago Symphonies have been heard in air series at various times, but the NBC Orchestra was the first created entirely for the radio. David Sarnoff built a superb group and offered the conductor's baton to Arturo Toscanini, who was most willing to return to this country. He had persistently refused to conduct the Fascist hymn in his native Italy even after Mussolini had tried to win him over. He also had cancelled his Bayreuth and Salzburg engagements when Hitler took over. The series started on Christmas night with announcer Ben Grauer becoming Bennett Grauer in token of how dignified and important was the occasion. At various times the radio industry has been accused of money-madness. No doubt about the matter, radio is, in the main, a business. However it is only fair to remember that both CBS and NBC have poured staggering sums into the two wonderful symphonic programs that come to us free for the turn of a dial. Naturally the networks are happy when a commercial sponsor pays the bill, but, sponsored or not, these outstanding concerts have been kept on the air by their companies — a magnificent gift to the nation. The end of '37 brought the beginning of the jitterbug, heralded by the music of Benny Goodman. 1938: Until this year, people could take radio or leave it alone. Suddenly it was different. When Hitler's legions marched into the Sudeten, everybody rushed home to a news broadcast. On March 13, CBS invented the International News Round-up, calling in on the same program Edgar Mowrer in Paris, William L. Shirer and Ellen Wilkinson in London, Pierre Huss in Berlin, Bob Trout in New York, Lewis B. Schwellenback in Washington and Edward R. Murrow in Vienna. These names were then unknown to the average listener, but they were to become more closely followed than the greatest of the comedy stars very shortly. It is interesting how Edward R. Murrow became one of the most famous of news commentators. It was the result of one broadcast. He was Director of Talks and Education at CBS and was in Europe to arrange for a program of children's music for the CBS School of the Air when the Nazis marched into Vienna. There was no regular CBS news man there, so Murrow went on the air and told what he saw. He thought it was to be his first and last broadcast, but "Listen to Murrow Tomorrow" is a top-rated program to this day. He is one of the few newsmen who never worked on a newspaper. Bob Trout is the only other one of top stature who started reporting directly for the air. During the Sudeten crisis H. V. Kaltenborn went on the air eighty-five separate times, staying in the studio for twenty straight days, cat-napping between broadcasts, living on sandwiches and coffee, translating speech after speech from Hitler. Kaltenborn was brought up in Milwaukee, but he spoke fluent German (if his family had not chosen to be Americans he Would have been known as Baron in Germany) . He was magnificently equipped to comment on the coming war. He had broadcast news since 1922. His uncle had been a German Minister of War. He, himself, had fought in Cuba in 1898, had covered the Spanish Civil War, and had interviewed both Hitler and Mussolini. People hung on his words for those twenty days. Then Prime Minister Chamberlain took his umbrella to Munich and came back to tell the world over the radio, "I believe it is peace in our time." The nation settled down to its old pattern of listening to such fascinating new programs as Information Please, featuring the dazzling wits of Franklin P. Adams, John Kieran, Oscar Levant and Clifton Fadiman. The success of this super-intelligent panel astounded everybody. There had been gloomy warnings when Dan Golenpaul planned it. Too highbrow! The wiseacres were stunned when a huge following rallied to the call, "Wake up, America! Time to stump the experts!" Another quiz show that gained instant popularity was Kay Kyser's.Kollege of Musical Knowledge, featuring the first musical quiz. He came into his own when he put on cap and gown and started his show with "Evening, folks, how y'all? Come on, chillun. Let's dance." His cry, "How about that — students?" when someone missed an answer brought the studio audience into the act and they loved it. Quizzes, prizes, give-aways and audience participation all were gaining momentum. Hobby Lobby was evidence of the trend. So was Battle of the Sexes run by Julia Sanderson and Frank Crumit. Two young men had enormous individual impact on radio this year. One was Arch Oboler, a writer who had done some excellent playlets for Grand Hotel and Lights Out. Successful as these were, he was not happy. He knocked unavailingly at doors that might offer a chance at wider fields. In one last effort, he had a transcription made of his best effort, "The Ugliest Man in the World" which is now a radio classic. He barged into an NBC office and started his show before the indignant executive could have him thrown out. The result was that NBC signed him for a sustaining spot to experiment with new forms of radio drama in much the same way as the CBS Workshop was doing. In 1940, Oboler wrote Oxydol's Everyman's Theatre and some wonderful short plays now in several books. Beyond argument, he is one of the most distinguished of radio playwrights but when radio people talk over old scandals and mischances, his "Adam and Eve" is always mentioned. It kept Mae West off the air for ten years. The idea was an innocent one. Mae