Screenland (Nov 1934-Apr 1935)

12 SCREENLAND Radio Parade Nelson Eddy emerges from isolation in Hollywood to star again on the air and appear in his long-promised film. Gladys Swarthout, having won celebrity in opera and radio, will bring her talents to films in the near future. What with opera broadcasts and special radio contracts, Lily Pons, is a f am ilia r air star. Now she's signed for films. Noting some new stars who join the ranks as regulars in the lively march of broadcasting By Tom Kennedy THE turn of the mid-season milepost finds radio expanding the store of attractions upon which broadcasters, and the merchants who foot the advertising bills, depend to lure listeners around to commercially sponsored programs. In nearly every department of air entertainment we who turn the dials to suit our own tastes, have profited by the enterprise which has induced sponsors to otter such fireside diversions as Metropolitan Opera performances so splendidly elucidated by Geraldme Farrar ; the robust comedy of Beatrice Lillie ; the ever-so-pleasing and intelligently rendered vocalizing of Grace Moore, the fine baritone voice of Nelson Eddy, to mention but a few of the new attractions ushered in during the holiday season. . , . Speaking of Nelson Eddy brings up the reminder it was Hollywood that took this smooth and resonant voice out of air circulation, and now after a long, a too long absense, brings him back in a screen production of "Naughty Marietta," within a short time, we hope, ot his re-entry into broadcasting as a regular star._ Hollvwood for nearly a year has been promising the screen public Mr. Eddy in a film suited to the acting and vocal talents which he possesses in marked degree In fact Air Eddy has been Hollywood's first citizen of the "in a^ain out again, Finnegan" type for some time, publicitv&stories from the coast always putting him in some picture about ready to shoot, only to correct things with follow-up announcement that Mr. Eddy would be doing something else, but soon. But when everybody got to thinking this was just a gag, Hollywood, always unpredictable, rounded on itself, and Nelson Eddy actually started work before the camera as co-star with Jeanette MacDonald, the production being launched, under the direction of W. S. A an Dyke, toward the end of November. That Nelson Eddy is precisely what the film fellows know as "a natural," they discovered for themselves right in their own back yard, so to speak. Eddy reached Los Angeles in due course on a concert tour. 1 here repeating the success he had scored in previous concerts, the "Angelinos" who crowded the auditorium called him back for some eighteen encores. Before he could get back to his hotel, the films had him signed to a term contract. Retreating to the observation platform for a quick glance back at the terrain that has been left behind as the air express travels the second leg of its current season, there appears to have been achieved (outside of course, stunts contrived to suit the special and peculiar features of news events) only one successful departure from the amusement forms inherited by radio from the stage, the concert platform, and the screen. Even here, theVeneral form adheres to story development as it has been known even before the days of broadcasting. However, the success which has been earned— and that is the proper term for it— by those who are responsible for "The Gibson Family," reflects, it seems to us, enough glory for radio and the producers, and the authors and composers involved. _ . Here was an ambitious undertaking, a sincere ettort in the direction of something (Continued on page 94)