Radio varieties (Sept 1940-June 1941)

HERE'S HOW IT ALL STARTED By JOAN BLAINE Joan Blaine, popular star of "Valiant Lady", analyzes the daily serial, tracing it's early beginnings . . . and gives readers a brief glimpse of her own background. ^&^^ JOAN BLAINE Now that I've been "Jocm Barrett" for over two and a half years on "VaUant Lady," every weekday afternoon, with rare vacations for a few days it's time to go over my radio work and to analyze this art form in which I work, the radio serial. I'll get myself out of the way first. "Joan" seems to be good luck for me. There's "Joan Barrett," and there was "Joan Houston," who stayed by me a long time too. It must be my ancestor James G. Blaine, who was almost president of this country, who transmitted my love of the stage to me. When I was a kid I was the gal on the debating team, you know . . . "Should The Government Run The Railroads?" or, for the sake of variation, "Should we Free The Phillipines?" I must admit that I didn't care much which side I took, so long as I got a chance to deliver a good rous ing speech. I won medals, certificates, and a silver loving cup that I've hung on to, sort of a good luck piece. It's too big for a vase, and too small for a punch bowl, so it retains its pristine glory! My love of oratory stood me in good stead, too, as it won a Northwestern University scholarship for me. I won first in all speech contests there, and got the thrill of my life when I won the Grand Prize in the Northern Oratorical league contest, competing agin' nine men from nine other universities. It's a wonder I didn't go in for politics! New York, with attendance at Columbia's Journalism School; acting in Chicago with the Chicago Theater Guild; and a concert tour from coast to coast, where I played the harp and did dramatic character sketches brought me to the stage in a serious way. I worked in California, New York, and in summer theaters, and enjoyed stardom on Broadway. I did movies, then I worked on radio shows out of Chicago's NBC studios. I recall such parts as that of Mary Marlin, in the show of the same name; Joan Huston in "A Tale of Today;" "Music Magic;" "Musical Keys;" "Welcome Valley;" and "Silken Strings." All this happened before 1937 and "Valiant Lady." I've worked in so many serials that I've done a lot of investigating into the history of the radio serial. While radio's version of the continued sketch has grown into a definite art form, its ancestry is long and honorable. Way back in the Middle Ages, in France, Spain, Italy, and other countries, a form of rapid-fire sketch called "Vaudeville" was developed. From this sprang modern vaudeville and the "revue." Since there were no newspapers (or radios!) in those distant days, the actors presenting the "Vaudeville" also included sketches based upon reports of contemporary events, often in ballade form. In Spain and the Latin-AmeriContinued on Page 25 Page RADIO VARIETTIES — OCTOBER