Variety (Sep 1933)

38 VARIETY RADIO Tuesday* Sefftember 26, 1933 Hoses' Drama Show in Costume B'cast No Threat to Legit; Actors Dse Scripts FRED STONE with Dok-othy Stone; What- Walter Thompson! gdwird . N«l(, Jr;, Th6 Revelers :^genby attempted ibr Union Ce^r^ c^^^SciAt^" Ife Instirane^J Co. at Carnegie Hall, y/jz, New Vbrk New York, Sunday (24) rilgl^t at Poj, his ra;dio debiut the veteran least Ijroujffiit home one. thing .for comeiaJa^ of . a hundred musicals the bro^idqastihg trade. And :that Is chose a. condensed version of 'Thie. that even with costumes and. iSceh- Red Milt' Since Victor Herbert 6ry there is little .excitement and. wrote the music this means that the color, to, be derived by a sideline scpre .still ^las soni.e.thing to offer, audience from a dtamatic prbgram But the book creaks at the joints to make such sideliiie attendance and .every ..gag. spells. 1905.: Some on a big scale popular. Compared j specimens'are perhaps, in order: to the atmospKere ¥ind entertain-. (^^^ follows cucumber merit created by the.broadcasting of salad; Walter^lndigestiori. Guest— a musical show, the limitation^ for You^ve got youir thumb-ini the soup; the drama are too many to encour- hptrilter^-rThat's all right. ; It Isn't age It as a regular, thing. hot. Guest—Where Is the fish? Affair at Carnegie was the first In Waiter—'I'm, sorry fish Is out, vrhich ii compiercial broiadcas* fMiffi' Q ' iin audience attended theatre, a dra> biatlc script strictly fashioned for j All of which that Fred fans are sentiinental old S° wffl^L^t^^?^' 'fi^^^^^h^"'^^^ ^^ '^e so glad to hear ©n incidents and episodes out oil ^. *iw,^. American histdry. ifegulax plotting Ff^*!^ tIfJt U %11 not iSa tS^^ ^ of the Sunday night programs Is 30 ] ^"^^ that it wiii not matter, minutes (CBS), but for the season's I^orothy Stone was the only mem- debut, occasion the llramatlzatldh ber of the family with the old isent ran a ^^uarter hour more: on his first mike adventure,. In the Only thing that gave S»inday contracted shows Xo follow night's event any eehiblance of the ?9-"Jai Gai^l^rand-the. mf^siis Will gliamor cf the theatre was the legit Participate, a,lthough at no 1,lme Will names and nca^r-nanies recruited for together. .That seems ,a the cast: Into the episode the writer pity as it would have been a :big had dragged almost eevry outstand- event; It seems likely that many ing figure of the civil war. > From tuned in Sunday (24) expecting to the angle of dramiitic sequericie and hear the whole family as the piib- general script confection It Was a "city did not make it clear but hodge-podge of hodge-^podges. Qf ^^^V^'^^^y tendied to give .the full the illusion of the theatre there was membership; imiprpssiori. ;little. CQnjured.,as-the actors In turn I Eldest daughter sounded swell as to6k their stolid stances before the I she'rendered ohe of Victor Herbert's mikes arid hopped around as so lovely ballads. Her voice was fliller many automatons In;.ihose portions and richer than would be expected. Where .an attempt was made at suggesting that the. radio Is strictly Stage movement, okay for her. That material que^- All players with the exception or tibn makes it hard to tab her pop AfGny Bates Post, in the role of Abra- for the ether. There have been so ham . Lincoln, worked strictly from many comedians the past year that scripts. Despite the costumes and I it's beginning to nicah something, the. flat pieces of scenery,, the facade although on the radio It is still pos- of a southern mansion, set up on the sible to be safe with puns that: were left end of the .stage, it was all a I told on the sidelines at square pretty disillusioning; process for the j dances. average loudspeaker fan. Gulf Oil runs its shows with Predictions; I ample zip. A(nnouricer Is almost Before the trailers parted for the telegraphic and the few. pauses broadcast Ilerschell. Williams,I between different items are So brief agericy staff-producer on the show, that a stop-watch would hardly delivered himself of a lengthy bit record; them. The Revelers, Sweet of prediction. What they were harmoneers, the lusty-lunged Ed- about to.see and hear, he. said, was "ward Nell, .Jr.? and Al Goodman's a ppecursor to television of the fu- slick music formed the incidental ture. He also tipped tiiem off to \ support to the Fred Stone part, the tact that the sound effects Whicii were a part, of the broadcast would not be audible to. therii be- cagise these effects, -taken from re cordihgs, are picked up from a turntable by separate mikes. Situ Land. IVAN FRANK BAVARIANS With Bexatl Kendall ^ COMAAERCIAL. atiori here createdli^iifcodd'spectacle I WRNV, New York in one spene of the script, as far I Characteristic sample of as the sidellners were concerned, I small neighborhood station when the players went through the I program: Not all commercial. verbal excitement about being en- gaged in- battle. Without the sound | the type But nearly all.' So often is the name of the sponsor repeated that the' suspi effects it was a thin and puzzling cion grows that either the station • , lor the advertiser strongly believes Whole air of the Carnesie Hall that listeners stay tuned in for only affair was pretty highschoolish or tpwnhalllsh. Laying it on thick In this direction were the two spea'k tra brought on following the broad cast. Thoy were Gen. Robert Lee Bullard, U. S. A„ retired, and Prof, Dixon Ryan Fox, an authority on American history. The general reminisced about his cadet days and the professor did a hands across the Mason-Dlxon line spiel. Near Capacity a minute or two so that the sales message must be ^repeated that fre- quently in order to gfet in on the turnover Selwyn Fur studio sponsored the 15 minutes caught, but the program just precedinff appeared to have the identical routine, namely, German music, German soloists, and Ger nian comment from Ivan " Frank There was scarcely a break between Frank's talk about a certain Teu Agency did a crack Job in the tonic eating house specializing in turnout it got for the show< HoUse, whidh.seats around 3.000, was near capacity. All Civil War vets avail- able around New York were^ap sauerbraten and the story of how the Selwyn Fiir - studio wa* prac tically giving, ajway. snappy, wiijter pelts for $15 to $45 witlii threis years' proached, as attendees and goodly free storage thrown in, repre!5entation from this source] showed up. Substantially repre- sented, fn the audienoe were the pa-, triotic and histoi'ical societies, with the Daughters . of the American I Bevolutlon and' the Confederacy in- cluded-. Included' in the Cast of the broad- cast Wore Minor Watson, Tom ChaU Some of the . curse was wiped off the ^ program by the English-speak liiig ihnouncer, RexaU Kendall This gent is fluent. Moreover he bring's big-time..ideas to-a small time station. ■ He almost kecips that horrible repetition of the name,'ad- dress^ prices, arid exquisite quality "^.^o'f^r; ■'r??«^nVf': r*'^°« seeming .so bad. Kendall has W^itl-Ar >^o^pir^^i.o^ a soft approach to advertising, Sr^ii23Si?^S^2S te^^^S^ Cordner. One of the pl£yers .out of "J^?J^^'',?^^^^^^^^^^ ^^'^fn^^^ the drama's cast doubled Irtto the' like this. Lana. dialoged plug that was, interpolatild ■. half way through the program. Here the afrency showed' a defective piece | ^ of judgnjjent. TO. maintain the. il- lusion all aroiind it might have'been better to .have had the plug .read- from the ^jidelihe's, or the trailers KROGER TWINS Mu^ic, Sbhg, Chatter COMMERCIAL WbWO, Fti Wayne One of the oldest running pro srams froni this Hooslcr station closed altogether ayd the rpaninsr pjfteen minutes three times a.week done in .Xronl of this curtain with (Turiri.^- mornings makes" direct" ap- the participants, anybody but those ppai to housewives. Sponsored by rm tne, . -ca.st j^ ^—,^— =^|^tlte=loealT^uriit=:Off=the?grocery:^eon" cern,. the programs get down tb Newkii-k Is KMTR Boss | Jf^'fJ^ ^^"^^ ^""^^ ^"-^ ^^^^^^^^ Hollywood, Sept. 25. Kroger Twins are two male voices In a shakc-up at. IvMTR, Van C. who deliver about three curren Newlcirk, formerly traffic manager tunes with aid of piano and mando at KHJ, goes to the Hollywood sta- lin accompaniments. Voices carry tion as program manager. nicely and arranRements are gen e. Sharp Minor becomes staff or- ^mJnnf Tf '^ni, ^H^^^n^"^ _ , . , - ^rr »„.» M"notint of punch, Betty Kroger is eanist in place of Don Vlncenthand jntfoducod to giv4 the.lowdoWn on Fred Fpwicr, formerly of WBBM, domestic menus and the usual .*?pe Chicag , gets the p.a. berth, sue- olal.s which tlip stores are f^«tiiring, ceeding Dean Metcalf. I Baral. Cbicago Ad Agencies Radio Execs (Auociatod with the Show or Performianee, End of Radio). N, W< Ayep 1C4 W, Jackson Blvd. . Najaton' McGulre. Igrton7»uratin0 born. 221 N. La Salle St. George- May. laekeit-Saniiple- Hummert 221. La .Salle St Edward Aleshlre. jr. H. Peterson. Critehfield . Michigan Ave; Frank Steele. Poremus & Company . 208 S. La Salle St./ H. Ray Hendereqn.: Erwin, Wasey A Co. 23Q .N. Michigan Ave. William Weddell. Charles. Daniel Frey 333 N. Michigan Ave. Larry Triggs. Gundlach Advertising Po. 40.0 N. Michie^n 'Aye. Ir.vlng.Boaenbloom. Henri Hurst & McDonald 620 N. MiQhlgain Ave. A. . Decker. ii«tland-Enoel 646 N. Michigan Ave. Kenneth Ring. Lord & Tliotnas 919 N.~Mfchil»n AVer ■ Henry Seillngen Mattesoh, Foqarty, Jordan 307 N. Michigan Ave, H. . Weller. McCann- Erickson 910 S. Michigan A.ve. Raymbnd Atwood. . Hays McFarland ^33 N. Michigan Ave. Dion. Bernard. MeJunkin 228 N. La Salle St. Gordon Best.. Ruthraiiff & Ryan 369 N. Michigan Ave. rank Steele. J. Walter Thompson 410 N. Michigan Ave. Thomas Luckenbill. After appearing on the La J^alina prbgram with Kate Smith for two years, Nat BrUslloflC suddenly qnlt to make records for Irving MllliB; Didnit-lilco the i d e a nf Biiftfalning work, even thoUgh .Ted .Collins, Kate's mariager,^^ paid for seven ad- dltiono^l men In his .band. Brusiloff had appeared With Kate on the ra- dio, in^Vaudevllle, and was taken along to iSolijrWood last winter to appear in • her picture. Jack- Miller,' Kate's plariist, will conduct, her ni- dio programs. rograms Senator Robert F. Wiagner .and Postmaster General Jahies A. Far- ley will aippear oh WOR Oct. 3 for the benOUt of Catholic Charities. i?re3ldent Ropaev'elt and' Patrick Cardinal Hayes will follow'the next night. - Both .broaidcasts .will, be from the W'aldprf-Astoria hotel. Stem looming Again At this writing: there Is a deal on for either Abe Lyman's orches- tra or Phil. Spitalny's to go Into the Paramount Grill for the fall seiELSon. With Whlteman at the Paradis;e,. Vallee at the Hbliywood, Ted Lewis or Guy Lomljardo pessl- bly at the Palais Royale, arid either Lynian or Spitalny at the jParamourit, Broadway night liife is destined tor big things. Remote' interviews Out After 500 hours of experimenta- tion dealing -with the use ^ot ilines two ways, the sponsors of that all-Amei'icaii football show decided it was beat to. have Christy Walsh present, when he Interviewed, the various coaches. Which will be done after .the bpehing :show when six coaches are offered for a^ opener. — HAL TOTTEN Spbrt^ Talk 15 Mins. COMMERCIAL WMAQ, Chicago ^ Totten is handling 15 riiinutes of sports summary daily for the Pabst Blue Ribbon Malt company, beer accounts having a^lways been sports talk , sponsors, even In the pre-3.2 days. Aimed directly at the mascti line ear and stomach, It flgures. as the next best thing to the sports paefe. Totten has been doing regular running, spiels on the baseball games here for some years, with this talk flguring as an extra. He knows his sports and talks with au- thority. Most of his chatter is taken bodily and with credit from the Chicago 'Dally News,* with which the WMAQ station is tied in; Show Is handled, well. YE HAPPY MINSTREL With Ford Rush, Pat Sheveli ic Kid Show COMMERCIAL WABC, New York WCAU, Philadelphia, prlginates this shbw which was extended to include WAjBG as - a Suridaiy attraction at 6:45 for the juvenile dia,lers. By theatrical istandards it^s. far from good but this classiflcatlon , has to be modified to ^ jibe with , the fact tbat ainied strictly at iOryear-olds there's no .telling what results may be obtained. Adults are tradition- ally poor judges of what the infan- tile -mind fancies. It's a hodge-podge of Jlriglc- dingle tunes .by the musicians and roiy-pply singing slightly off key by Ford .Rush, That the. program has been extended from JPhiladelptiia to New. York may answer any cavil 'Wirefft^H|^?^lirri3S6iiSPf,-=Ieeffis=fs^ isflcd. That usual line of approach to the irifantile mind which is used with out exception or' restraint-by all cereals is employed by Wheateha Namely, 6at Wbeatena, little boy if you want to ^row up to be either a policeman, fireman, halfback, or Indian Chief. But then npbbdy seerhs to have suggested a better wiay to make little boys, nag their mammas into buying a certain cereal. Land. Air Line News Bf Nellie Rerell WOR engineers are cpriducting ih.^ tensity tests for a new outlet in. Cartereti N. J.. . . .Ford F.i. sports. columnist^, who broadcasts >.,.viiy over WOR , la on T . bew U^-vaudeviile-Hrfr~.i- cult.. . .Ethel Waters may sing oniy spirituals when she bpws oh her, neW commercial in October,.. .Don Gar^ hey has landed- the General Baking Company plum, fte .will be the. nar- rator in :their. new.prbgram when it goeis on WOIt in tlie near future.... WARD, Bropklyn shiali watter, ex- acts .a fee from the juveniles ap- pearing on Its children's projgrams .. ..Joan Hensman In.trafflc depart- ment NBC, was recently married, to James May, . nbn-i>rofesslonal.... yictpr Young turned out two tunes In one weekK .'Blue River" and 'I'd Be .Telling a iile"^ .,. ^Mary iyicCby will be. the guest soloist oh the first' of the 'Threads of Btapplness' programs when they start on CBS Friday...... The Barry Holloways NBC press have a boy at their house. ' Mrs. Hollow.ay was on the Associated Press.... ..Bide .Dudley, who was re- cently appplhted WQR's dramatic critic, had been given an additibhal assignment to be the regular speaker on that' station's Footlight Echoes bn Tuesday nightfs.i Golden Rule Beraihan Teddy Bergman was set With a contract tb support Fred Stbhe bn his first NBC program but was told that an actor, long unemployed, could hold down the job satlsfac-^ tpriiy. Teddy was nice enough to Withdraw In favor of his brother artist. Short Shots jack Fostdr, fbrmet:' radio critic World-Telegranii' is III at his home in New Roohelle... .Mary Charles, one pf the original CBS buildups, has returned frbm England,, arid is being auditioned, at her former alma- matpr.. ...The Texaco. Oil Coriipany.. tried tlje Sisters .of the Skillet three .w^eks In a row and found, the response so good that they signe'drthem. untilUd. Wynn's returh, 0<^t. 31....'Little Italy,', a new script* series concerning Amer- ica's 'melting pot,' the east side of New York, will start over CBS Oct, 3, for three times weekly,.. .Frank Singheiser's are learning lullabyes ..Fred Waring orchestra Will go on tour the month of October, play inig BufCalp, Chicago; one-nlghters and Philadedphia, in that order The Old Gold programs will be broadcast from the roa4 with War ing paying the wire charge.., .It reriiained for an American violinist, Albert Spalding, to beat all the other noted .fiddlers, such as Ja^cha Heifetz, . Efram • Zimbalist ~ - and Mischa Elmah, tb the wire/arid will do what the others niight feiar to do; play Popular seleotioris .. . vFord Bond has returned to work after losing thirty pounds and ha,ving all of his teeth extracted,.. ...Jap Glide, CBS publicity chief, was confined to" his home-by illness, last iweek, just after stepping into his new position.;. .Maxwell: House Show Boat , lias been a year on NBC,, and has the original cast with some ad ditipns... ,Rpxy /gags that Diek Lie- bert, Radio, dity organist, insists on booking urider .the laborers' NRA cO.de rather than the artists' divi slon, claiming that playing the or gan is riianual labor!. .. .Nick Lucas arid the Cia^a Loma orchestra appear to be all set. for that Pepso dtjrit face powder program., i .Jay Dennis and 'ted. Reese, a cbriledy teain doing songs and patter, have been given three spots a -week on T^RfrrrlCainTar^Cleli^^ Major Bowes' radio family, ccle brated her sixth anniversary with them last Sunday. . . Scrambled Notes Neither CBS nor NBC threw any parties in connection with this year's radio..show at the Madison Square Garden... .'Real Life Dramas' have been purchased by. the B. F. Good- rich Rubber Company for Radio discs throughout the country.... Stand |3y Robert Simmons goes sustaining Oct. 3, 10:46 p. m. jirogr'am, with jerry. S.ears orchestra. Sears is a. newcomer to. ra,dIo.... Mauro Col- - tphS, chief WMCA organist. Was khishted .by ..theJKlnjj of Italy an<i_ made a Chevalier of the drown..!* Jack Arthur, captured the lead In 'The Enchanting Hbur.' Audrey Marsh,. Al. and Lee Raiser, Jean Gilr bert, Roxanne and her orchestra arid Basil Ruysdaei as narrator, will be on the same, program Monday nights WOR,. ...Bnrlc Madriguera returns to these shores on Sept. 28.....Thai Lone Star Rangers, 'Tex' Ritter, Eddie'Connprs and George Shackley. will return*"to radlb in. October.,. Harlan Eugene Read> WOR's c6m« hientator, Is the editPr of cpmmer-' clat text books.. ...Pa,ppy, Zeke'an4 Ezra, WMCA, are not real hill biU lies at all. Pappy was a vaudeville actor with the -real Broadway .ac- cent ... i Howard and Hansen,.'. who have' been on the Saks program foj. three years, will go bn WOR sus- taining—-^Ray Perkins has joined the Rhelngold Beer program... Gene Austin, who made 'Bluo Heaven' famous, is in New York dio- ing vaudeville .and radlb, and look* ing twenty pounds lighter and yot^hger.... .Irving Kaufman .returns to CBS with the Floor Wax ac- count... .David Freeman is writing the new Lulu McConnell series. Mrs. Tim Sulliyan Is out of the hospital, but left the twins there for some special nursing. ....Tony'Wons has a new dog to take the place of Patsy, who. was killed by an auto ... .Dr. Moses Nathanson and Aiipe Schneiderman are back- on WMCA with 'The Voice of Jerusalem' pro- gram after a trip abroad for new laterial... . Charles Peck on WHOM is nine years old....Mystery GThef returns to NBC Oct. 4....Robert Barton, WLTH's program, ^director. Is the former stage acrobat cause Kathleen Gordon, WGR music librarian, married Edward Walker; of the New York TIriies station, Wags refer to It as. 'the union of gin and Scotch'.. . .Lew White has - been picked up for an addltibnal 26 weeks from the Benjamin ;.MOore Paint Company .; . .Helen Morgan is, going in for radio seriously. Besides her CBS, which started last Sunday, she was atiditioned ht NBC tor that rvery secretive jprograni. .r,. Philadel- phia Public Ledger Will syndicate Thbrhton Fisher's WMCA talks. >. . Herman Bernie wires from Holly- wobd that MGM has taken up its option on George. Givot's services. He must pay his own wire charges if he broadcasts'... .Frank and. Flo, fprmerly on Salada Tea three nights a Week and forced to glye" it up when Frank had to go to a hospital for a serious operation, are back on WO R. T jiey ar jLunder their former, ^billing, -'The Strollers.' riving Away Adults CBS is plenty worried abput the. large .number of child script acta that clutter up the network be- tween five and seven-thirty. All are commercials and bring in a big- revenue; but do not make for good program balance. Network feels that music between these hours is the thing. *