Variety (Aug 1932)

Tuesday, August 30, 19S2 RADf lO VARIETY 51 Inside Stuff-Radio Whllfl t^®"^®^^ against price quoting oh the air, Federal Radio Comralsh frowns upon it and the big networks^lscourage It. This accounts £pr the .laboriously roundabout script Ideas some of the programs ^utilize to convey price economy. Some are as humorous as they are Jhgenuous, ' For example QuB Van, in exploiting the Jitney El Toro cigar, has his ad spieler ballyhoolng . that 'this imported cigar costs only the price of a local phone call,' etc. It would have been a time saver to say 5c. and be done with It. Gem razors, to plug a prize package idea, goes about It through the xnedlum of a stooge character who is sent to the corner drugstore with a 60c. piece to piclc up one, and 'mind you,; you get change out of that 50c.' It takes all that and more phraseology to convey .that this prize package; which includes razor blades, cream, etc.^^ is probably, around 39ic. But such are .the network restrictions that this Info can't be ethereally conveyed. ' . '■; ■ ■ The lesser one-lung broadcasters have no such qualms or ethics. They come right out with , prices on their cut-rate clothing or whatever is being exploited. The price quotation thing seems to be the diffierence between a class advertiser going on the air for good will and institutional ballyhoo, and a catch-'em-quick merchant plugging his cut-price merchandise. Chicago radio stations were approached last week with a unique in quiry fronva man in ICenilworth, residential suburb. He Tyanted to sell his $30,000 home and figured it would cost him $1,100 or more in com- missions to real estate agents if selling it through the usual channels. So h6 wanted to spend part of that and advertise 'house for sale' over the air and'sell direct. • ■ TVGN, owned by the Chicago 'Tribune,' is understood to have flatly . (Continued on page 54) NIGHTI.V FROM THE STEEL PIER Atlantic City ti: .1. RRdio Station WFO Personal Management F. C. O'KEEFE Mllls-Bockwoli. Inc. 700 Seventh Ave., New York DUMB CRACKERS ROBERT BURNS PANETELA WABC Every Wednesday . E%'enlns nt 0 BURNS 'f allen Dir.: WM. MORRIS AGENXY The Biggest Smallest Attraction oh Radio and Stage HtadllninD—Orpihsum, Mlhneapolls, Aug. 30 Dir.: WEBER-SIMOM BITING HIS NOSE Sho'rt-Sighted Network P. A. An- tagonizing Newshounds Radio editors on several of the New York dailies are cooking on a network p.a. over what they term an 'unethical practice.' Instead of sending them the ma- terial exclusively on an angle re- quested, this lad, they claim, whips their columnists' ideas into stories and immediately makes a general release of them. Reciprocity When Blue Coal debuts on Columbia, Oct. 22, It will be the flrst time that one commercial will go out of its way to slip in a plug for another. It's, all part of the contract the coal company had made with Street & Smith, the mag and book publishers. ... In return for the credit given It on the coal session the pub- lishing house will furnish the scripts for the mystery play Interludes on the program. To- gether "with the free use of these stories Street & Smith has agreed to let the Blue Coal revive 'The Shadow' character, a figment that the publisheris had given heavy play while they themselves were on the air up to last season. COAST STATIONS REAP POUTIGAL HARVEST 8 GRATIS, W OKES 20 MINIMUM COMM'L For the eight weeks that Col- umbia carries 'Mdrch of Time' as a sustaining program 'Time', the mag, in turn guarantees to bankroll the show for a minimum of 20 weeks to follow. To avpid any kickback from its affiliates, the network saw to It that the contract for the com- mercial stretch covered every one of the stations taking the session on a sustaining, basis. Program when It returns to the chain, Sept. '9, will be produced out of the ad agency I'epresentihg the! mag. Batten, Barton, Durstlne & Osborne, with the latte^ collecting its fee from the network for the service until the thing goes com- meTcial, Nov. ,4. liOs Angeles, Aug. 29. Almost every station- lii town dropped standard commercials tOr night (Monday) to reap, a double- rate hiarvest from politicians seek- ing nomination in tomorrow's pri- mary election. KNX and KHJ have been getting most of the political play during past few weeks; but today all locals got in on the money, with scarcely anything on the air tonight but election chinning. LYMAN'S RETURNS Back on Phillips Sept. 29—Also Re- newed for Danderine Chi Radio Editor Goes Commercial—1st Time : Chicago,, Aug. 29 Charles J. Gilchrist, radio editor of the Chicago 'Daily News, has been signed to broadcast radio chat- ter oh the Reid Murdoch Monarch Foods program, starting Oct. 2 over WMAQ. Although newspapermen In New York are not strangers to the microphone, this is most unusual in Chicago. Hazel Flynn, film critic of the Chicago 'American,' formerly had a tie-up with a commercial program. Variety Audition Buddy Rogers' band was included in the batch , of six programs au- ditioned by NBC for Corn Products Corp., slated to hit the ether tlie latter part of September. Other acts given a hearing by the commercial were Lillian Cahill and Ned Weaver, May and Ethel, har- mony team; Cyrus Spragg, pianist; 'Red' Adams in a dramatic sketch; the Meloclarlons with Lew White, organist; the Ramblers, harmony trio, and Louis Katzman's orches- tra, and a serial called 'Murder In the Night Club.' Authors! Authors! Al Boasberg will write, ether cotn- edy material for Burns and Allen the next 13 weeks. Slgna.ture3 on the assignment were exchanged yes- terday (4). Arrangement does not altect Eu- gene Conrad's status nor that of the other gag contributors to the Rob- ert Burns cigar comedy team. Songwriters on Parade, act com- prising seven songsmlths, to the Steel Pier, Atlantic City, Sept. 2. Mey Lyons' band at Robert's cafe, Frisco, succeeding Bob !3pencer. HI THEREl says RAY PERKINS Tiies.-Thiirs. 7.30 P. M. BARBARSOLOIST Managreiuent M.B.C. KUZ N E TZ O F F a-o N I C O LI N A 24tH CONSEOCTIVE WEEK STEERO Program, Wednesdays, 10:15 a.m., WEAF Phillips Dental Magnesia w^thr drew froni Columbia Thursday (2B), but will be back on the same net- work with the Abei Lyman band Sept. 27. On his return Lyman will have with him a name m. c. and a new set of warblers. None of these have ias yet been picked. When the dentifrice called the session off temporarily last week it had completed a whole year's run on the chain, with Lyman the main attraction throughout. New con- tract guarantees the bandman a consecutive 39 weeks. . Lynian is also tentatively set to return to the Danderine show on the same network a day or two after the Phillips, opening. METRO, RADIO CO-OP. ON W Little Bits (Continued from page 48) lends a helpful hand as feed and interlocutor, injecting an occasional light touch with his expressions of amazement that sum up as Just so much hoke, but yet are needed as breaks In Terris' long-winded mono- logs. 'Strange Case of Mr. Grimby' turned out one of the more exciting tales from the Lucky Strike crime series. Though moving'swiftly and tellingly in the enactment, the plot grew a little too complicated towaird ..the end of the drama's first half, "but these knots were soon straight- ened out following the musical In- terlude. Villainy of the murderous Mr. Grimby was laid on. much too thickly for these more sophisticated days. Heavy's deeds and manner- Isms were reminiscent of the ten- twen-thlrt melodramas. Admittedly makes for mounting excitement, but on the other hand, when once the delicate line of credulity is broken it can also make for guffawing. Regardless of this tendency to oversqueeze on the melodrama, the series still stacks up as the leader of that .field and a big. credit to the author, John. Curtain. Erno Rapee's Viennese program, WEAF, was a peach. Himself of Teutonic extraction, the maestro's 'feel' for this sort of music probably explains much. It's in line with Rapee's NBC se- ries of nationalistic music.' Ireiie Taylor from Chi as Whiteman Replacement Paul Whiteman Is bringing In Irene TaylOr from the Edgewater Beach hotel,. Chicago, as warbler substitute for Mildred Bailey. Lat- ter goes on tour, as a single, for Publlx. Her differences with the maestro over salary demands haye been previously aired. Miss. Taylor has been on the air with Charles Agnew's orchestra from the Chi north side hostelry. Whiteman, when notifying the NBC Artists of his Intention to re-, lease Miss Bailey, expressly asked that she not be booked with an- other band. Warbler's contract with the network has until, next March to go. Air Hours at Auction Brussels, Aug, 19. Seems certain Radio-Luxemburg will open early In September al- though wave-length not yet agreed on. Broadcast publicity in English, French and German Is the new sta- tion's ralson d'etre and bids for air time are coming In so rapidly con- trolling company. Is thinking of put- ting the hours up at auction. Out- side of paid publicity, Radio-Luxem- burg will broadcast music and talks on the theatre, cinema and litera- ture. For theatrical criticism M. Lugnc Poe has been engaged. Whoever does the Gem razor spieling tried to essay kidding of the advertising, but it got to be quite Inane. Just because they re- peat 'but we'ra not supposed to ad- vertise the fact that,' etc., etc., doesn't take the curse oft it. Benny Friedman was Ed Sulli- van's guest star this night. The former Michigan quarterback could have used a little more discretion In describing hia prowess of shooting those forward passes,.Jt>ut. Benny Is known for hot being backward about himself, and the Nsivy capitalized on it one yer.:. : . r'or the rc-onactment of the Friedman grid stuff, sound effects of roaring crowds, etc., were etherized. Like Gem, which Is giving away its new blades, Bai?basol is plugging a new toothbrush 'with your own name embossed on the handle,' gratis for the asking to the Indian- apolis company, in exchange for name and address. . For Farmers' Wives Chicago, Aug, 29, • Separate from their forthcoming NBC network show, Reid Murdoch, maker of Mona;-ch Brand foodstuffs, goes on WLS, the farmer station, every Friday and Saturday at 8:30 a. m. Farmers' wives get up early. Martha Crane and a male quartet will seek to divert the home-makers. The giveaway thing is now get- ting to be about the best chock tlie' companies hiave on audience reac- tion, although that'.<3 no pa'i tlcuiarly satisfactory indication in vlow c£ the who.Iesalc c'li 'Mng .such iVee offers inspire. Western \>'. .-ii,.s ( i P.iul AVliite- nian have been notjL.y bad in sev- eral recent In.stances. Out-of-tov.'n listeners rooort that faulty en.tjU neering has made the kingdom of jazz seem more like a chop suey joint than the elegant Blltmore. - |. COAST Ant SIJUAL SET ■San Francisco, Aug. 29. After last week's preview of Its forthcoming NBC serial Golden State Milk Co. has decided upon Sept. 10 ias a starting date, putting on the continued sketch five nights weekly over KGO and KFI. Cast selected Includes Dorothy Desmond, Barton Yarborough, Charles McAllIijter, Anita Calfot and Jack. Mery. Chicago, Aug, 29» Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has asked and received assurances of "protec- tion' for its forthcoming 'Mask of Fu-Manchu' from N. Porter Caldwell, who controls the vaAio rights Xo all of Sax Rohmer's works. Radio ada.ptatl6n starts, over CBS from WBBM; Chicago, on Sept. 26, about two weeks before the Metro picture will. be released. Entirely different story wUV be. used on the radio proigrajin spon- sored by the Italian Campagana Balm. Publicity tie-ups between radio and screen are likely. Sax Rohmer, the English author, will appear or. the first broadcast being picked up In New Tork ahead of the, Chicago dramatiza- tion. It's Rohmer's premiere radio talk. Milton Charles, organist, back,at the Mastbaum, Philadelphia, afte^r six weeks in England. Has a prop- oslsh from the Bernstein string, of cinemas over tjiere" to do organlog presentation work next winter., . AND -HIS COnon CLUD ORCHESTRA ON TOUR Returnlne tb NBC. Network from the COTTON CLUB In .September - Personal - Management IRVING MnXS Mills-Roekwell, In«. r799 7tb Av«,. NMT York AHD HI/l MJK RmrniM iAM» BraadraitlNi inm '. COTTON CLUB, NiW V«rk Moadayi II.45.I2 p.n^ E.8.T. Wednetday Md Frldtyi . 12 to 12.30 ».■. ParMml UanaitBMrt ■ IRVINQ HILtS ■ Mlllt'RwkwttI, IM.' 799 seventh Av«., New -Vark eo^«"*'Ht*<J'o^^"'- *0» ROTHETTINa GtOBlFYlKG /Ae POPULAR SONG fESTERUD^^ .UMBIA-OMSI'KHDASr NETVUMK weo. y-AT, lojo lo:is e^x Management THOMAS G. ROCKWELL 790 Seventh A.v?., New Tfork