Radio and television mirror (July-Dec 1942)

VVkcCtk ,/vew worn C^xxSt «**l« ~ f » 77>/s is /)ow a radio star who is also a family man spends his vacation: ■George Burns takes his two children, Ronnie and Sandra, to a ball game. BUD ABBOTT and Lou Costello get their own sponsored program this Fall. Not only that, but the two comedians, who aren't anywhere near as foolish as they act, will have a say in the way the program is put together. It's their idea to have several different outstanding dancebands supply the music — not a new one each week, but a new one every three or four weeks. Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, and Harry James are the first three bands signed up. The definite starting date for the new series hasn't been set yet, but it will be early in October. * * * Bing Crosby's "vacation" consisted of making the rounds of various U.S.O. canteens, entertaining the men in uniform. * * * Speaking of vacations, Selena Royle played the name part on The Story of Bess Johnson while the real Bess Johnson was on a two-week holiday. * * * NASHVILLE, Terin.— During the week Sam and Kirk McGee are farmers— the honest dirt variety, not the gentlemen owners of pretty estates. On Saturday nights they turn into entertainers, and appear on the famous WSM program, the Grand Ole Opry. They've been Opry favorites for the past sixteen years, and have never missed a single Saturday night. In the off seasons, when their farms don't require their presence, the boys hit the road for personal appearance dates; and at the present time they're with the Roy Acuff Unit of the Grand Ole Opry Tent Show playing in Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. Sam, the elder of the two McGees, was born on May 1, 1894, on a farm near Franklin, Tennessee. He plays the guitar and the electric steel guitar, and furnishes the comedy for the brothers' act. His manner of delivering a monologue, in a sort of twangy monotone, has endeared him to listeners everywhere. Kirk was also born on the farm near 8 Franklin, five years after Sam. He plays the violin, the five-stringed banjo, and the guitar, as well as being the master of ceremonies for the act and helping Sam out on the comedy. Both Sam and Kirk are married, and their big farms adjoin each other about twenty miles from Nashville. Sam has four children and Kirk has three. * * * Don Ameche will once again be master of ceremonies on the Charlie McCarthy program when the brash little wooden imp and his boss, Edgar Bergen, return to the air September 6. Thus Don goes back to the post he held from 1937, when the show first went on the air, until 1940. * * * Mary Ann Mercer, singing star of Uncle Walter's Doghouse, has sold almost three million dollars worth of War Bonds and Stamps. To do it she has flown 31,000 miles and appeared before 81,000 soldiers and sailors. She confines her bond-selling activities solely to men in the service, explaining to them that by investing in the bonds they are insuring their future when they return to civilian life. * * * Saturday, November 28, is the date set for the beginning of next season's Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. There will be sixteen full-length operas in all, and they'll be heard on the Blue network as in former years. * » * BOSTON— Ruth Moss has had to coax, plead, smile, weep and sometimes threaten, but she has succeeded in bringing more than 3500 celebrities, mostly theatrical, to the Yankee Network microphones, and has made such a career out of interviewing them that she has become a celebrity herself. It isn't hard, now that she has an established reputation, to arrange interviews with important people. But back in 1936, when Ruth was only an unknown little girl, it was no easy task to persuade some temperamental By DALE BANKS Kirk and Sam McGee have been favorites on the WSM Grand Ole Opry for the past sixteen years. matinee idol to get up in the early morning, travel across Boston to WNAC's studios, and answer a lot of personal questions for public listening. Ruth used to get a number of polite refusals and occasionally a blunt "No!" but she persisted, and it's a tribute to her personal charm that she has never yet failed to get an interview she went after. Once the interview was arranged, all Ruth had to worry about was getting her guest to the broadcast on time, a problem that she still feels could best be solved by a couple of Grade A kidnapers. For Ruth's broadcasts have nearly always been scheduled in the morning — just now she's heard every day from 8:30 to 9:00 — and the only surefire way of getting an actor out of bed in the morning is to set off the air raid alarm. However, in more than 3500 broadcasts, only four guests have failed to arrive at all, and not more than a dozen were late, although Lee Dixon, the dancer, only saved himself from being number thirteen on the tardy list by dashing madly into the studio in his pajamas. The four who didn't make it at all returned to be interviewed later. Ruth's first interview was with Joe Reichman, the orchestra leader. She was so nervous that the only way she could get through the broadcast was by taking heart from Reichman's calm expression. Afterwards, she discovered that he too had been almost paralyzed with mike-fright, but had kept watching her and getting help from what he thought was her self-assurance. Ruth was born in Roslindale, Massa RADIO AND TELEVISION MIRROR