Swing (Jan-Dec 1953)

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200 I keep wondering what would happen if Goodman started advertising something else, like toothpaste. "Avoid it at all costs," I can see in my mind's eye. "It contains irium! Your teeth will be so gleaming white it'll frighten the children into hysterics." It'd be kind of fun for a change. Fifth Birthday for Johns Hopkins IN its five years on the air, Johns Hopkins Science Review, the oldest educational program on the air (and virtually the only network show), has attracted a polyglot audience of surprising variety. "During the past three weeks," said Lynn Poole, its producer, "those who have personally mentioned the program to me include the following: a banker, taxi-driver, at least fifty parents, an airline hostess, a waitress, many children, an elevator operator, the building superintendent, and a number of school teachers." Truly science in these grim days is everyone's business. The variousness of the audience is more than matched by the variousness of the things it has seen — some of them fascinating, some pretty dull, some pretty funny. I think the most absorbing thing I ever saw on the program was motion picture film shot seventy-six miles above the earth, showing the curvature of the earth, the great cloud masses surrounding it, and the dense chilly blackness of outer space. A frighteningly lonely experience, it was. The duller ones, to my mind, have been those in which science turned matterof-fact and practical. How to harden the surface of a table, for example. That is for the women's programs. I prefer science in outer space or grappling with atoms. The funniest one was a bird expert who reminded me strongly of that old Robert Benchley short about the sex life of the amoeba: "I think — uh — there are fifteen million nesting birds in this country," said this man whose name eludes me. "I — uh — don't think anyone can challenge that — uh — estimate. We can thank the Audubon Society for — uh — counting. . . . Birds don't just sing for the — uh — functional thing. It's — uh — well, the male summoning the female. Some times, it — uh — means 'Stay out of my territory.' " He demonstrated some bird calls. "The rosebreasted grosbeak sounds like a robin who has — heh heh — taken voice lessons." He ended the lecture with the words: "Good birding!" which, I guess, is the rallying cry of all good bird-watchers. Good birding to you, sir! The show runs the science gamut from A to Z (astrophysics to zoology, in case you didn't know science ran such a gamut). There is a studious attempt to remain on top of the news. Two years ago when volcanoes were erupting all over the place, there was a demonstration of how and why volcanoes erupt. Krilium, the new soil conditioner, was on the program almost the moment it got out of the laboratory. Sometimes, the professors modestly claim a real news beat. They claim the first official discussion and scientific demonstration of biological warfare, much of which had been withheld from the public up until then. In fact, about the only scientific marvel left strictly alone by Johns Hopkins is Christine Jorgenson. The scientists refuse to be intimidated by the normal network taboos. A series on cancer employed such words as cervix, uterus, vagina, breast, testes, and ovaries, and also used drawings of many of those regions. There wasn't a single squawk from the public. In fact, the program was complimented for not pussyfooting around, indicating a degree of maturity not often suspected in network audiences. After the cancer series, one man wrote that he and his wife had watched a program on breast cancer. "Upon the conclusion of the program, my wife checked herself for 'lumps' and found a growth in her left breast. Surgery, which was performed within a few days, revealed the growth to be malignant. The growth was still in an early stage and the malignancy had not spread too far. There is no reason why my wife should not completely recover. I am sure that had we not watched your program, the malignancy would have gone unnoticed until it reached a stage where surgery would have been of no avail." After that letter the staff felt its program was indeed educational.