Radio varieties (Sept 1940-June 1941)

Alec — the Music Box Collector JI^LEC TEMPLETON is in a fair way to open a music instrument shop providing the notion strikes him. For in his Chicago suite the "Puck of the piano" has a collection of musicana which is threatening to dislodge conventional accoutrements. ' As you enter Templeton's abode 70U may be surrounded by the rippling tones of a piano, the in composing such Templetonia as "Corelli in the Old Corral," "Bach Goes to Town" and "Mendelssohn Mows 'em Down." Still Alec finds time for his hobby. Some thirty-six music boxes compose the major part of the collection. Show piece is the ancient French box, a ponderous affair weighing forty-five pounds and estimated to be 150 years old. Alec Alec Templeton enjoys a secret joke with Edna O'Dell before a broadcast of "Alec Templeton Time." Miss O'Dell was a recent guest songstress on the program. "Alec Templeton Time" is aired each Friday evening at 6:30 and 9:30 (CST) over NBC. tinkling notes of a music box, the chime of a musical clock, or the majestic music of Mozart from a recording machine, the rhythmic beat of castanets, rhumba gourds, and a radio playing "Beat Me, Daddy." When Alec Templeton was a lad of two, he reached up on the parlor table in the Welsh farmhouse where his family lived and pulled down the family's ancient music box. For fear it would break, his mother cautioned him never to play it. He didn't, but he discovered another way to listen to its tune. By running his fingers over the roll (similar to a player-piano roll) he figured out its melody. Since that time. Alec Templeton has had a passion for music boxes, and as years passed, a passion for musical instruments of all types. Some part of each day is spent with his collection. There may be a rehearsal for "Alec Templeton Time" or he may be engrossed RADIO VARIETIES — JANUARY discovered it in the farm, house of some French-Canadian friends. It is entirely handmade and ploys twelve different operatic selections in a rich, bell-like tone. The European symphonium also is 150 years old. It is four feet long, two and a half feet high, three feet wide and plays fifty large metal records. Until recently the prized possession of a Hoosier admirer is the small spun-metal musical powder box. A fragile picture of a costumed lady is painted on a tiny china circle inserted in the lid. Among the other thirty-six are an Old English "Toby" jug, a cigarette box, beer mug, Swiss music box playing metal discs, a miniature grand piano and an old teapot which ploys two melodies in E major. Templeton's love for these odd music makers is known throughout the country. He is constcmtly advised by the public where he may procure them. When he was the guest at o University of Oklohoma sorority music box party, he come awoy with two instruments: one playing "The Sidewalks of New York" in B-flot, and the other, shaped like o flower pot. The zither is neglected these days — excepting by Templeton. He possesses on oncient one for which he hos invented a new scale based on the overtones of A flat. Its weird tones were produced over the air on "Alec Templeton Time" when he composed "Fantasy For Zither and Chorus." A Chinese bell, hundreds of years old, was presented to Alec by a San Francisco admirer. Alec claims it is o raritv because the tone is exceptionally clear. It is in the key of G. Castanets, rhumba gourds and sticks ore omong the exotic instruments Templeton ploys dexterously. Most unusual of this division is the __little_ brown-nutsized gourd which hos been hollowed out. When struck by o special wood hammer, it produces o high monotonous note. It originated in Jopan where it wos used to drown out mundane sounds while the owner was ot worship. And if oil these instruments were not sufficient, Alec will point out his concert grand piano, radios, record playing machines and several hundred records. However, like all true collectors, Templeton is constcmtly seorching for the "major prize." The "prize," in Alec's cose if and when he obtains it, is a horpsichord untouched by the mechonicol perfection of modem times. Once when Alec visited them he sot down at o harpsichord and played "Bach Goes to Town" with complete splomb — even though he hod never before played the instrument. Alec Templeton is the stor of the Alka Seltzer program, "Alec Templeton Time", heard each Friday evening at 6:30 ond 9:30 (CST) over the red network of the Notional Broadcasting Company. Page 13