Variety (Aug 1932)

44 A mo REP OR TS IHiesdax, August 23, 1932 THREE KEYS Colored Rhythmic Trio 15 Mina. Suatafnina WJZ, New York Sob (Pease)» piano;. SUm (Fur- ness), guitar, and Bon Bon, vocalist —although all sing in trio alsoH- comprlse the highly touted Three Keys whom NBC made the mistake of overselling, saved only Jjy the facf that the trio is possessed o£ an intrinsic distinction which, in a itiiieasure, supports the over-gen- erous gobs of. ballyhoo accorded their big league radio advent. . ..'It was this fulsome exploitation which more or less prejudiced the Three Keys, some, of the radio com-> menta.tors even assuming an ad>- verse, preconceived captiousness to anything that couldn't possibly b? as good as all that-r-br such was the peculiar .ihental attitude ' of those who deal in ballyhoo themselves, but who; perversely, sometimes rer fuse to become inn'oculated too much with if. , It was thus that the Three Keys .^reciuired; . In all dispassionate fair*- ness to their "torrid stuff, review aind re-revlew quite a few times* to deRniteiy overcome this, captioud- ness which many in the profesh ' m&nifesteid against them. , For the trio is good---plenty! They're there with an oddrstyled rhythmic idea all their own, and they can take it onto anybody's pliatform and make the; customers uke It in person as well as via the jBike.. ■rit's ■different, - peppy, full of rhythm,.'nOyel and entertaining all In ohd. The Three Ke''s, -ln Sllto, boast the hottest guitarist this side of: Eddie liang, than whom'; there is' tio whomer In the futuristic school of - rhythmania. . These hot strings should intrigue the. collegre element .which plunks on something; or other. ^heh they get back to school and can tune in while they're supposed tO' be studying.' • • Trl6. hall, from. Chester, - Pa., and for \a ^ while ",worl':ed on .WCAU, Philadelphia,'under the billing of the: Three Blue Spades.; Probably as a result of the advance baliyhod put;oh by the network;-the PhlUy outlet new claims , that It .has the boys under contract, and has writ- ten NBC thfit legal efforts would be;' made to protect WCAU's rights to the team's exclusive servlceis. At the eame* time" several .' \aud^ agents .here and Philly are also claiming ai. ^get'in the pie.: ' Their" 0tuir is bluer than blue, as is superlatively heralded In the Ihr froductory spiel,'buti what Is more, the trio must be. .under, expert jguldance In their partiality, to. the famillaf type o£ melodic rhythmpa- tlon. They take ^Paradise/ for «xw aipple, do H niore or'less/straight ; (ait least as straight as -a'hot-qhi^ combo bt thid. chatacter dan do ItV iand, then.'go to towh'V With It, maklntir 'Paradise* llstdH very devil- ish. Sttmllarly, ' ' the melodlcally rhythmic 'Baby's Birthday Patty* Is an excellent substance, for their ahthdigs, at the same time not get- ting too fat away from It. , /3i;afl| like their /qeorgla Bo-Bo': apd the Qhale fblrderirol lei enough native-ht-de-hl for th«) straight Jazz addicts; : In toto. they are neither JCalloway not' Mills Bros. They are spotted at 10: 80 nightly for 15 mlhutes' oiii Thursdays, Frt- dc^ysK Saturdays , and Sundavo a generous opportunity to make their Impressloh on the public. There are .some who contend they should- have been permitted to ooze Into the public consciousness, for so. are gehulne, radio names made, but here's.^ trio that'll fast focus dial'^in attention. They're too re- freshing and. different to be denied .this sort of specialized attention. It's for this reason principally, possessing the .ba$ic wherewithal to .click, that perhaps the bver-bally- : hoo . was ■ somewhat out of • place. OAly the trade knows to what de- gree NBC went for the builder- upper. It Included a special one sheet, the llrst time ever gotten out on any iB,rtist, and the usual prop wires to the;radio editors^calling attention in superlative manner. A little judicious modesty down the line wbuld have had a better psy- chological effect all around. But, regardless, the Three Keys are clickers. KING KILL KARE Singing* Talk . COMMERCIAL WJZ, New York Wheatsworth, a subsid of the Na- tional Biscuit Company, picked this one as an early morning reminder for Its product. Unbilled single on the session tosses ptt a bit of whist ling, a couple of what are supposed to pass as comedy song numbers and a spasm, of chatter about old King KllL Kare aiid his merry crew. Besides this he lends the announcer a hand In dealing out the/plijg. For a. cheerio messenger of the new day there's too much of a raspihess to the lad's voice, with the style of delivery reminding something of the Walter O'Keefe manner. But to those accustomed to turning on the set upon arlfiing this likely won't mean a thing. Psychologists say it takes an in- dividual an hour or so to come into full consclousnesa after awakening. Curlpus sidelight on the plug ma- terial is it's failure to associate at lihy point the biscuit brand with >nUk. . OAec. bELMAIZ NIBBLETTS Vyith Pratt and Sherman Comedy Commercial KYW^ Chicago Advertisers remain perpetually sensitive ^bout spoofing in connec- tion with their product. But -When some advertiser does . let down its hair the result is often advertising so nicely sugar-coated as to be both palatable and appetizing. Such Is Delmaiz'Nibblets. To start with, there's imagihaijon behind that name. It's nothing more nor less than a can of corn. There are hundreds Of brands of canned corn, but Delmaiz Nibbletts invests the humble kernels with new dig- nity; They call their product 'corn on the cob without the cob.' Which proves that even the simple com- monplaces of mercantilism can be glorified. Pratt;, and Sherman are Intelli- gent lunatics who weave the story of their product Into their topsy-r turvy Idiocies. They use humbr to soften the blight of commercialism. By tomfoolery the message Is deliv- ered to friendly listeners and moi'e people will remember Delmaiz Nlb- blets happily than If the usual spell- binder, a-qulver/with culture and diction, assassinated good-will Mrlth a: typical advertising harangue. '■ ' Even the inevitable contest has a: certain brightness and worthy self- control. .Not Delmaiz Nlbblets but prosperity is the. subject of the one> sentence .essay to, be written 6n a wrapper. Prizes are $100 In cash Plus; 26 cases of corn each week. Listehers are supposed to send In; some observed Incideiit or anecdote from' their r neighborhood which prejaages the return of prosperity. For example: 'The. man. next: door had his. first hair cut In., four- months,' ,Or,. 'Mrs. .Johes has re- placed that- plate glass window that was bro'ke'n In 1929.' ' To give the.Idea and accentuate the glad tidings the program Itself culls from the; dally press various Items. that point the same way. After each announcement Rex Mau- pin's orchestra gives a chord In G to punctuate. . . A surprisingly effective program that remains Intensely commercial but keeps Its nonchalance.' Land. CHICAGO BASEBaLU Daily • Commercial WON—Quln Ryan WBBM—Pat Flanagan WIBO—Norman Ross WMAQ^Hal Totten WCFL—Bob Hawk WJKS—John O'Hare YOUR POEM FESTIVAL With Elmo R.uu,- Norman Pearco Sustaining . WPCH/New York Only on a New. 'fork outlet could anything of this stripe and type get a chance for release. .If jiny progtatn can claliii a class audience, distinctive unto Itself, here's the candidate, and a curious on6 at that. Once : a month the station sets- aside -one full hour for : the reading; of . contributed poems, , Idea Is an elaboration, of & daily quarter hour program conducted by Elmo Ru^s, the WPCH organist, and fratned along the same lines. Only In the' latter case Russ alone does the reading of the contributions. ' .For the monthly festival Russ Invltesy thC: contributors Into the studio and before the mJlke.. Around the elec- tric ear piece, they sit reading and applauding^ .one. .another's verses, making a truly appreciative aU-' dlence. liimlted 'as . may be the appeal of this session, It fit least affords an outlet of release for those gentle souls who have probed deep and . must tell the world of theh: findings. By the mob; or the general lis- tener, the program would be set down as the nerts. But Russ Isn't Interested in the mob or general lis- tener, but In that limited circle that writes poetry and enjoys reading It or having it read. Russ, ob- viously, knows better than to put it on raw. Instead he embellishes it with, various Instrumentlil trim- mings, feeding it out over the wave- length to the poets' friends, family and relatives to the accompaniment of an orchestra, organ or piano and frequently put to song. Much of It sounds brutal and that goes for both the versifying anid the declaiming Interpretation given by the reader. Occasionally a bit of talent streaks through. But judg. Ing from the verse fest put on Thursday (18) night, the nugget Is a rarity. Idea of the genre .then caught can be deducted from such titles as 'Love Is an Oasis,' 'West bury Avenue in Spring, in Autumn,' and 'On. S^ing the Statue of Peter Pan In Kensington Garden.' Free for-^all brought out a fiock of bom bastic reciting, ofC-key chanting and bad warbling that at times gave the impression that somebody was staging a gag or was trying to put on an Imitation of NBC's 'Station KUKU' session. M.c. of the affair, Norman Pearce, was described as the 'batchelor poet of the air.' Pearce read several of his own manufacture and at other Intervals told how he first came to appreciate the beauty of poietry, giv ing' freic[uent vent to his aWe finding so much amazing talent brought out by the festival. At one point Pearce, apparently due to his high state of enthusiasm, lost his sense of orientation and announced the program coming from station WMCA. But outside of that insig- nificant slip it was. a swell pow- wow, at least for the gathered poettzers and the dcclaimer of their works. Odeo, Another season of this-sort of thing and the Federal Radio Com- mission may have to step in. Or admit that the public should take anything that's handed 'em and like it. This is the second year of dedi- cating every afternoon of the sea- son to baseball. .Which would be okay If It was Just one or two sta- tions, but most of the time it's Im- possible to. tune InSanything except On a week-day afternoon it's bad enough,, but on Sundays with every- body that owns a radio a potential user thereof, forcing baseball from one end of the dial to the other is e^rossly Inconsiderate.- It may pos- sibly originate In the Influence the various announcers have upoii their stations. Quln Ryan Is station^ man- ager of WGN, Pat Flanagan Is a business-getter at WBBM and Nor- man Ross at WIBO is Important enough to be 24-sheeted oh bill- boards. These men and their con- temporaries-on the other stations live, eati think and privately tajk baseb'alL They pbsslbly find It hard to realize that maiur quite virile males are Indifferent to the dally labor of hired athletes. Certainly very few women. In the mass, care anything about baseball. Even more pointed Is the short'r sightedness of allowing professional sports broadcasts to cause the can- cellation of a program Involving the President of the - United States. That happened- Sunday (14) wheii Columbia barred the Hoover- Knights v of Columbus cerenionles out of Chicago while Its three stations, WBBM, WGN, -and WJKS duplicated each other broadcasting the same baseball game. .'Moonshine and-Honeysuckle' by I<ulu 'Vollmer admittedly one of the finest and most adult sustaining programs eVer developed on'the' radio and standard over WBBM for two years, was also cancelled be- cause the White $ox had a double- header. -Another freeze was . the 4Sth Highlanders, band of Toronto,, as well as many" other programs of varying Importance and popu- larity. Baseball; Uke the United States mail, a&pears to have the right of way on everything. This' paranoia -that a routine game or any ganie Is worthy of extended play-by-play reporting of six sta- tions-all at the same time has al- ready caused^ considerable resent- ment. It: Is true that summer Is the slack time. on. radio and that It's the time when anything and every thing' Is. slipped in and over. But still there's nb alibi for this Chicago condition which Is unparalleled any- where In the country. Unless the/Iiocal statlohs halt the practice or regulate It among-them- selves pressure seems inevitable for what It amounts, to . Is Just this: Thousands of receiving sets In the city of Chicago ue useless to their owners something like 160 afterr noons a year I Land, EYES IN THE,DARK' Episodic Sustaining WMBI, Chicago . j Rare Indeed to tune In on a re- ligiously owned station and pick up anything remotely intended as mere entertainment. Moody Bible Insti- tute forgets Itself sufficiently for halt an hour on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday to give its adherents installments of a con- tinued story by Jenoby Bird. True, there is a'Sunday school grafted into the tale and intermit- tent references to gospel, yet the story runs otherwise to mystery melodrama. And quite diverting in a simple forthright way.. Working up to a climax sufficient to bring many stay-at-homes back tO: the dials next day, It's a pink pill thrill for church people. Story is carried ' forward partly as a reading, partly as interpreted action by a narrator who is okay. But It stacks up as 75% author-26.% narrator. - Church propagandists would attract-^ more listeners with such bait than with their inevitable wheezy sopranos and bucolic barl^ tones; " Land; ENNIO BOLOQNINt With Roy Shields Concert Orchestra 15 Mina. Sustaining WJZ, New York Corking quarter hour concert In- terlude featuring BOloghini, Argen- tinian 'cello soloist, who happily breaks up his program with the lighter classics and more familiar better-grade ballads. Roy Shields conducted the ac- companying orchestra, both com- bining for -a very effective 15 min- utes; Abel. CBUS^ BT AUTO Lexington, Ky., Aug;'22. Charles (Spud) Spaiilding, 27, dance orchestra drummer, was killed here when an autCmobile on which he was wording slipped from the jack and crushed him. He was a member of Blue and White orchestra, radio unit. Inside Stuff-Radio No immediate probability of the American Association of Advertising Agencies revising Its policy toward the collection of commissions on talent. Nor Is there any possibility, of the agencies getting together and organizing their own talent burea^u or clearing house on talent Informa*. tlon. ■■■ , "■ -. When the commlsislon question first came up the Four A's officially- rejected the proposition made by the national nistwprks offering a 16%' cut on'talent bought through the chains', artists ^servIces. Agency body ruled at the time that Its members ^were not to accept any sort of commission on bodikiiig, linless the spilt was treated as a discount aiid the. full amount put to the client's credit. • Four A's has talcen the attitude that It would be better all. around for the agencies to negotiate for talent oh a net basis and avold'°incIuslon In the deal. any commission consideration. Although ho official stand has as yet been taken on the subject, the association's radio committer finds .no objections to an agency's charging a client 16% .on talent, dis- bursements. This 15% fee Is termed a 'plusage' and Is to be calculated on basis bf.the net costVof the talen^ to the advertiser. Four A's still holds that a. member must not under any circumstances accept for its own uses anything resembling, a commission on talent. Network Idea Was to have the proffered kickback pocketed by the agencies, with the cha|[na figuring that the inducement would keep the agencies from shopping around elsewhere. In turning dowii the NBC-CBS plan, the association condemned it as unethical and declared that no agency would be entitled for Its radio program services to any thing outside, of the 16% already added to the net cost of the talent. Latter feie, the Four A's figured, would be ample to reimburse the agenoy for the work i>ut In In selecting and'putting the program together.. That was the policy agreed on several months ago: and that Is the arrangement tha;t should continue to prevail, according to the view held by the directing minds of the association. Small minority In the organi- zation are contending. that the 16% 'plusage* doesn't fiilly . cover the overhead of theii: radio departments and that they should be permitted to accept a cpmmission from booking agents. But; Judging from the strong opposition tp'this practice voiced by the association's radio com^. mlittee,- chances of the. assoclati6h's adopting the minority's suggestion are extremely slight. Four A's.entertained iCor ft while the Idea-bf organizing Its oWn talent booking office but this has been definitely abandoned as Impractical and open to the very abuses that the members were trying-to get away from. : Robert Burns Cligar wants more concentration of listener interest oa its program and so it's, going to add a warbler to the Guy Lombard,o- isurns and» Allen combination. 'Vocal specialist, the'account is.-trying to find, will have to be possessed of a distinctive, arresting pair of plpfis, which, the sponsor hopes, will cause fans to banish from their attention everything but the voice coming from the loudspeaker. Commercial has no fault to find with either the Lombardos or the crossfire team. Combination Is drawing them to the dial as strongly as ever. But It seems- that surveys made by the advertiser disclosed that the program rates 100% auracul^r attention only while the.patter pair are on. As the clganhaker has it charted, If the listener weren't all ears ah4 mind during these chatter spasms he wouldn't get the drift of thelt'^ nonsense. * • Oh the other hand listening to the band doesn't reqiilr« 100% attention; The listener, according to the commercial's findings, can keep one ea^ peeled In the direction of the amplifier and with the other catch his bridge partner's wrong bid or the party bartender's query about standing for another roupd, .or tlie general conversation eddying around him. In fact, he. can. listen to a conversation, toss in an 'dccaslopal word 'Jir two of his own and even'read «, newspaper all at the' same time and yet be ietware of the Lombardp brand of syncopation. Biit that singleton-ear: state of affairs is deemed the wrong kind of concentration, and certainly nbt the .thing that makes for 'program consciousness.' And, as thie com- mercial sees It, without 'program consciousness'-on the part of the lis- tener there^s 'no assurance that the bankroilerr Is makinir the right; Impression. , ' _ ^ Concentration coralled while the comedy team Is on, the sponsor; hatf concluded, Isn't enough for the program's half-hour stretch. It has aa idea that a' singing volice charged with a flock of that magnetic is what the show needs to give It a bigger percentage of high-powered iittentlon* A prominent radio man of the British Empire Is a member of thei Australian delegation to the Imperial Economic Conference at Ottawa In the person of M. B. Duffy, president of the Australian Federation of Broadcasting Stations. Duffy is the owner of Station 3KZ, one of the 37 broadcasting studios of Australia, and he has brought along letters to show that programs from his station aire being heard in the United SUtes: . . Apart from affairs of state* Duffy Is primarily Interested In broadcast- ing and, following the Ottawa Conference, he is proceeding to Wash« Ington, p. C, tor a conference of his own. with ithe Federal Radio Com- mission with whom he has an appointment. He will also inspect various stations In New York and other U. S. cities before returning to Toronto to see some of the Canadian stations. At Ottawa he has been studying the set-up of the Canadian Radio Commission which Is scheduled to assume control of broadcasting In Canada some time In the future, after conference cares have subsided. Duffy explained at the' conference ,that Australia has two groups of broadcasters, a government chain and-the commercial or "B" stations. There are 360,000 licensed radio receiving sets in the Commonwealth for which an annual license fee of 24 shillings. (|6) Is paid. Duffy admitted a dearth of appropriate talent in Australia for ether programs, consider- able use of phonograph records being necessary. There are npw eight recognized manufacturers of radio equipment- in Australia. A movement is oh foot to establish a national or state orchestra, chiefly for broad' casting purposes, to stimulate musical taste. Duffy expressed the view that Canada should have a greater share of wave lengths In Its agreement with the United States on broadceistlng arrangements. Denial of the report wafting around, that he is resigning froih the Batten, Bartpn> Durstine & Osborne agency to Join NBC, Is made by Roy Durstini9. Rumor was that Durstine had been propositioned by the hetwork to take charge of its Spot broadcasting. Besides holding a v.p. title and a piece In the firm, Durstine is general manager piC the agency's - New'Tork office. Further reported that Durstine was slated for grooming as president of the network, with the Job to go to him In the event the RCA powers decided that M. H. AylesWorth's RKO duties demanded too much of his time. Broadcasting industry generally, however, doubted this phase of the report, being inclined to the belief that when it came to a showdown Aylesworth Would decline any such move and would ask to be relieved of the RKO hook-up in favor of a full return to his NBC post. Amos-'n' Andy completed four years for Pepsodent last Friday (19) and the statisticians gathered some figures . ,,- In 2i365 eiSlsodes the boys played over 100 characters. Previous to "^elr Pepsodentlng they were a team around Chi under the name of ^m and Henry. .^Holding a contract with Eddie Cantor for radio programs, Chase & inborn is pressing the comedian for immediate programs; Cantor, has flatly refused to go on the air while making his picture, 'Kid Fr6nl' B^ain,' on the Coast. Film still has several weeks to go, '