Radio varieties (Sept 1940-June 1941)

rm a Hollywood Farmer (Continued from page 9) and began to plant on it. i nave 361 acres in all so I cultivated a third of it and put it in sugar beets. I did a lot of the work myself, that is, as much as I could with movie and radio Work. And my very first harvest turned out just dandy. I not only paid my expenses, but turned a little proht. The next season was even better as I got to know more about sugar beets and how to raise them. I never raised sugar beets before, you know, though I did have my share cf farm work, both in Van Buren and on my uncle's farm in Oklahoma during my wanderings. I began thinking too about diversifying my crops. I planted some barley and black eyed peas and lima beans and had luck with all of them. And it was about that time that I decided to give up the house in Stone Canyon and build a home of my own right there on the land. Well, let me tell you, folks, I've never been so nappy in oil my life as I've been since we moved into the house. Why, time there passes so fast that when I get to the broadcast on Thursday it seems just like the day before that we did last Tnursday's. And that's a pretty sure sign a fellow's happy, 1 guess, when times begins to fiy that fast. There ore so many things to do around the farm it keeps every one of us busy from morning till night. I've got six hands now who live on the ranch permanently, and 1 hire as many as fifteen at harvest time. And there isn't a cne of them that's idle. I guess they like the soil as much 3S I do. Of my 351 acres, there's only six that aren't planted. That's the six I built the house on. It's not of them "style" houses, just a plain, white ranch house with eleven rooms, and believe me, we need every single one of them, what with the help and the Missus and the kids. By the time you read this, there'll be onotner one too, (and we've been prayin' hard everything turns out all right), bom right in the house. All the other children were bom in hospitals, but we didn't want this one to come anywhere but in the RADIO VARIETIES — NOVEMBER house. 1 was born in a house and so was everyone else in our family back in Van Buren, and I wont at least one of my kids when he grows up to be able to point to our house and scry, "That's the house I was bom in." We do all the iana work and all the hauling ourselves. 1 own two tractors now, and two trucJcs, and ail the farm implements we need. I also have two mules to do some of the work we can't do with tractors and when it comes to putting on the harness and hitching them to the wagon, I'm just like a kid. We also hcrve a circular saw with which we cut all the wood we need around the place. We build our own fences and sheds and I have two big bams in which to store aifaJa. I've started growing my own cufalfa already with the iaea in mind cf going into cattle raising next year. I've put 140 acres into aifaifa, and I'm going to buy up some of the lean and hungry pasture cows around here and fatten them up for the market. 1 expect to m a k e a prcLt on it, cf course, but nothing will give me a bigger kick than to see these cows dig their noses into the alfalfa and eat till they bulge. All my cattle will be beef catde. I never did core for show cattle. Well, so far we've worked hard and we've made the ranch pay for itself. I even flatter myseif, or maybe it's just the truth, that I could quit radio and movie work right now and live off that form. What's more it wouldn't make me unhappy. But don't get me wrong. Being a radio and picture comedian is my line. I'm in it because I like it and I aim to keep on trying to entertain you as long as you'll let me, even if it's 'till I'm so old I can't blow the bazooka any more. If anything, that farm of mine has made me work harder as a comedian than I ever did before. It's made everything in life seem more substantial and worth while. Maybe that's why God gave all of us way down deep in our hearts a hunger and a love for land. And I don't know of anything else but land that a fellow con still use after he's dead. RADIO'S SUPER SALESMAN (Continued from page 1.0) BRANDT was born Brandt Bloomquist at Lynn, Mass., September 28, 1907, but was educated on the other side of the continent at the University of Washington. An orchestra leader in his school days, he became first violinist on Station KOMO in 1921. Was chief announcer at WROK for 4 years and came to NBC in August 1936. A perfect blond, he is 5 feet 10^2 inches tall and weighs 165 pounds. He is conductor of the gossip column of the air known as Radio Parade. PEARSON, another ex-radio singer, sang in his sparetime over a Shreveport, La., station while working as a bank teller. He worked later in radio at Port Arthur, Texas, and on KPRC, Houston. He came to NBC in June 1935. Born in Chattanooga, Tenn., on May 3, 1909, he now may be heard as announcer on The Guiding Light for Procter & Gamble, on General Mills' Beat the Band, on Miles Laboratories' Quiz Kids, on R. J. Reynolds' Uncle Ezra and on the Fitch Bandwagon . BROWN, another ex-singer, admits he's a disappointed baritone. His early training pointed towards a vocal career, but he left the Cincinnati College of Music to study civil engineering at the University of Buffalo. Instead of following engineering, he took a radio audition at WGR, later moved to WLW in Cincinnati. He came to NBC in Chicago in 1932. Is 5 feet, 11 inches tall, weighs 140 pounds. Is regularly heard on The Story of Mary Marlin for P & G's Ivory Soap and on Backstage Wife. LYON, like Norman Barry, is an ex-sailor. He is also an exactor. He played juvenile leads in Cameo comedies in Hollywood, later joined Stuart Walker Stock Company in Cincinnati, played ■ in "The Poor Nut" on Broadway and entered radio as an annoimcer at WTAM in Cleveland. He is 5 feet 9V2 inches tall and weighs 145 pounds. Shows on which he appears as announcer ore Sach's Amateur Hour on WENR, Girl Alone for Kellogg, Uncle Walter's Dog House and Plantation Party . Page 23