Radio-TV mirror (July-Dec 1954)

THE PHRASE THAT PAYS (Continued) Young Rickey believes "clothes make the man," so he helps daddy Ted select a tie. Bricks for a barbecue? Ted's always ready to rebuild anything "nearer to the heart's desire." The Browns live in a nine-mom house in a section of New York not far out from the skyscrapers but still miraculously open to sun, wind and stars. They bought their home from the man who had built it to the specifications of a house he had loved in Wales, and in the basement he had constructed fine organs on which no doubt many an old Welsh song had been played. Now the basement has been partially converted into a complete broadcasting studio, from which Ted's two other radio shows are aired — with wife Rhoda participating six mornings a week from seven to nine and evenings from six to seven over WMGM, New York. The Phrase That Pays, which Ted conducts alone, five days a week, is broadcast from a big NBC studio in New York. Rising time is 6:30 A.M. Just before seven, the engineer calls up: "One minute to go"— and they're on the air, Rhoda usually in a crisp housecoat, Ted in his favorite costume of sports shirt and slacks ("Casual, verging on sloppy," is his description of his outfits for these informal morning sessions). Sometimes Rickey wanders sleepily downstairs in his nightclothes, climbs up on Rhoda's lap and decides to say something on the program. Usually something helpful . . . such as the time Ted asked if he liked the soft drink bottled by one of the show's sponsors, and Rickey answered a very definite "No"— then quite unexpectedly announced that his preference was all for beer. He remembers all the commercials, and whichever one is uppermost in his mind at the moment is the one he talks about, so we never know what he's going to come up with, Rhoda explains, tossing her short-cropped hair in amusement over the drolleries of a little boy A very cute little boy, who is his mother's shadow. Bitti-Boo is Rhoda's shadow, too— Bitti-Boo being the pure-white midget poodle. The three other dogs are a gray midget poodle named Boysy, Hammy the Airedale, and Tima the terrier. A pampered lot, for whom a dog's me is something rather special. The Browns currently are in the throes of re-making their homestead, having just ripped out the old kitchen and put in a brand-new one. The dining room is practically finished-furnished and decorated in Provincial 41, led Brown emcees The Phrase Thai Pays, over the NBC Radio Network .Monday through Friday, 11:30 A.M. EST, sponsored by the Col ^'f^,0; ?d and Rhoda Brown »™ beard in the New York are. over WMGM, Mon. through Sal., from 7 to 9 A.M. 6 to 7 P.M. Ted's and Rhoda's broadcasts over WMGM give Rickey unexpected chances to prove the old saying about "out of the mouths of babes." But, around the Brown household, the phrase-that-pays-off-biggest for dogs — is "a man's best friend." They have four pampered pooches, including snow-white Bitti-Boo. style — and the living-room furnishings are being gradually assembled. Rhoda had a huge curved sofa made to her own design. "You know," Ted describes it, "one of those which are thirteen feet long and just wind and wind around." It's an easygoing, cooperative household, although Ted "tight call it "our crazy, mixed-up home," because nobody has any set schedule, except for the broadcasts and ■•he children. The grownups eat when they feel like eating. Their maids always get used to this sort of thing, after a while, and don't seem to mind if somebody suddenly decides to raid the icebox or do some fancy cooking. In an emergency of any kind, everybody pitches in, anyhow. They're that kind of close-knit gang. At the merest whisper from me that I could go for one of her cherry pies, Ro will whisk into the kitchen and bake me a beauty," Ted boasts. "She may not like weaning Up afterwards, but she is meticulous about cleanliness, and she loves to cook. She's so fussy about everyt y;ng being clean that we go on vacations armed with supplies to scrub out all the rooms we are going Jo inhabit, however briefly. At home, however, she Wees to let someone else do the (Continued on page 83)