Radio and television mirror (July-Dec 1942)

THE war has had its effect on the popular music trends, according to Tin Pan Alley experts. The public is switching over to the sentimental ballads and snubbing the fastpaced rhythm or "bounce" tunes. Swing leaders are worried and are rushing to add slower tempoed songs to their libraries. * * * Some of our better known, highriding dance bands have been guilty of sloppy stage performances and they are losing many former followers. Over confident, they have a tendency to clown too much during their numbers. * * * Helen O'Connell and Ray Eberle are the favorite dance band vocalists of the colleges, according to the annual campus poll taken by The Billboard magazine. Glenn Miller was voted the favorite band. * * * Enoch Light, victim of a serious auto accident, is making a splendid comeback, broadcasting over Mutual from a Connecticut dance spot. * * * Griff Williams lost out to Guy Lombardo for the Waldorf-Astoria roof assignment this summer, replacing the current Freddy Martin crew. THIS CHANGING WORLD: Alvino Rey and The King Sisters go into New York's Hotel Astor June 30 with CBS and Mutual wires. . . . Mel Marvin has enlisted in the Army and turned over baton and band to his former press agent, Esther Silsbee . . . Bunny Berigan is recovering from a siege of pneumonia. . . . Dick Haymes, former Harry James vocalist, has been bitten by the baton bug and is forming his own orchestra . . . Kate Smith has clicked again on records. 600,000 of Kate's platters were sold in the first three months of 1942. * * * One of the country's most famous band spots, Westchester's Glen Island Casino, may be taken over by the War Department. The Casino is located in a New York state park and the acreage is needed by Uncle Sam. Glen Island was the cradle for such bands as Casa Loma, Larry Clinton, Glenn Miller and Hal Mclntyre. * * * Incidentally, Casa Loma gets its first big New York extended engagement in quite a spell when it takes over the bandstand of the Hotel Pennsylvania on July 16, replacing Charlie Spivak there. It is expected the band will hire a girl trio by that time. * * * Athough the bandsmen are optimistic, there is little chance that the Coca-Cola "Spotlight Bands" will ever return to the air. * * * Song writer Teddy Powell, whose band is heard four times weekly over NBC, was inspired to form his own band by one of his own songs. Powell was listening to the radio when he heard some band give a half-hearted rendition of a tune he had written. He decided then and there that the "It's been luck," is the modest comment Les Brown makes on his spectacular bandleading success. Left, Betty Bonney, Les' pretty brunette soloist. Below, when Jerry W aid opened his engagement at the Hotel Lincoln in New York, its owner, Marie Kramer, was there to wish him good luck. best way to make the public appreciate his songs would be to play them himself. Powell is currently playing at the Log Cabin in Armonk, N. Y. * * * Johnny McAfee has quit Tony Pastor's band and joined Benny Goodman's to sing and play saxophone. * * * Ella Fitzgerald, like Dolly Dawn, has shelved her orchestra, and will now sing accompanied by a small rhythm trio. * * * There was a wholesale shakeup in Muggsy Spanier's band when the leader decided to take his crew on the road. Many of his star soloists elected to stay in New York. By KEN ALDEN Woody Herman's* vocalist, Caroline RADIO AND TELEVISION MIRROR