Swing (Jan-Dec 1953)

Page scan 000165 from Swing

Record Details:

Title:
Swing
Date:
Jan-Dec 1953
Publisher:
Kansas City : WHB Broadcasting Co.
Volume:
Swing (Jan-Dec 1953)
Leaf #:
000165
Language:
English
Subjects:
Radio broadcasting -- Missouri -- Kansas City -- Periodicals, Radio broadcasting -- Kansas -- Periodicals","WHB-AM (Radio station : Kansas City, Mo.) -- Periodicals","Kansas City (Kan.) -- History -- Periodicals","Kansas City (Mo.) -- History -- Periodicals","Cook Paint and Varnish Co. -- Periodicals","WHB Broadcasting Company (Kansas City, Mo.) -- Periodicals.
Collection:
Broadcasting & Recorded Sound
Format:
Periodicals
Contributor:
University of Maryland, College Park
Sponsor:
LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
The official magazine of Kansas City's WHB radio station, SWING printed far more than the station's schedule (which, as the title SWING suggested, relied heavily on music). From 1945 to 1953, SWING offered readers something eclectic every month -- profiles of entertainers on one page, discussions of citizenship in the postwar world on the next, with write-ups of nightlife offerings in KC, Chicago, and New York mixed in. WHB spent decades lobbying the FCC for clear channel status; the magazine's ambitious scope may have been part of the station's attempt to legitimate itself. But it was SWING'S first editor, Jetta Carleton, who later wrote a celebrated novel, that gave the magazine its distinctive style. -- Eric Hoyt, 2015
Date Added:
August 29, 2024
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THE CLOWN PRINCE OF BASEBALL 155 heroes coming through the clubhouse door." "Al, old boy," he used to say to himself as a youngster, "you've got to forget about being a fire chief. YouVe got to be a ball player when you grow up . . ." He went on to star at the High School of Commerce — where Lou Gehrig later starred. And the fact that he held the International League record for shutouts, and on four occasions was called upon to pitch both ends of crucial double-headers, is proof that he realized his boyhood dreams. Later, he decided to take a flyer with the Cincinnati Reds. But Clark Griffith signed him and farmed him back to the International League. The game between the Buffalo Bisons and the Jersey City Skeeters was not the first clowning incident for Al. His first act in organized baseball is said to have come off in 1914, when he came riding bareback into the ball park on an old plug mare at game time. He was preceded by a tiny colored boy in livery. The fans went wild — so wild, in fact, that it pleased the management. Indeed, everyone was pleased with Schacht that afternoon except the opposing batsmen who had to try to keep their eyes on his fastball. Schacht went to the Washington Senators in 1916. But an accident halted his pitching career in 1919. Still it marked only the beginning of his fame, for after a period of coachclowning with the Senators, he turned full-time comedian. Having never in his life earned more than $7,500 a season as a pitcher, his gloom -busting antics have paid off at an estimated rate of $30,000 a year. And augment' ing this income in the "off-season" is the famous Al Schacht's Restaurant in New York City, run and personal ' ized by Al himself. Proof of his love for the game is [ the fact that only once in his career has his act departed from a general baseball background. And this was during a World Series — in 1922. A man named Rudolph Valentino was hero of a picture called Blood and Sand. Al burlesqued the toreador act in the picture. He had a goat stand-in for the bull, put it in a taxi and sped to Yankee Stadium. Al wore the customary emerald baseball suit, and a bullfighter's hat, red sash, and all. His pockets were filled with cabbage leaves and this enticement kept the "bull" busy with no ifs nor ands, but butts. Armed with a wooden stave instead of a sword, he staged a first class "bull fight" and, needless to say, got the goat in the end. Wherever baseball is discussed they still talk about that one — along with a hundred other unforgettable antics of the amazing Al Schacht! "I'm getting married right after the game!"