Variety (Oct 1933)

88 VARIETY RADIO H E P O R T S Tue^day^ Oct«>ber 24^ 1933 n JEWISH 1/2 HOUR G9neral P6pc(s Jewish Littid Symphony, Ghetto Serenaders, Aaron Rosen Songs, Musio 30 Minutes. WINS, N*w York As an example intelligent en- tertainment plahnihgr for. purposes of teachii)g maximum results In a foreign language, this program is probably : excellent.. No star names, but Jaid Qut with the Idea of i^leasV tng'Jewish audlehces of the.'widest possible rahge. Annouhcementii in both .Yiddish and Bnglish and the commercial plugs not too overdone, as is unfortunately . so frequent in _foreign4a^guag6 broadcaist?.-^ — There's a very good, orchestra, quite evidently built for the purpose as evidenced .by 'th<6 reed overtoneq. A fine choral en&emble also; and the liurhbers .chosen 'seem tb. Indicate thought: on .somebody^s part. After- noon tsaught; for InstAitce, there were two. -Victbr Herbert numbers, ?Sweet Mystery qf Life', and 'Gypsy Sweet- heart*, tli Yiddish translations, plus a couple original tfiddish songs.-music to ^hioh Va's written by Aaron Rosen,- the announcer/-and ' quite good,- too- -Vocal and orchestral numbers were interchanged with .-ft violin, ^olo. about center for. change of pac^e. . • . . J " " Taken ^or grante.d in" these, pro- grams, that children are not" likely; ^to be-listenerajs-Sinee-they-iiatujaM^ go for^ Bheilsh, theVlanguage-'they'^ Use in echools and play. Therefore- the.entlre>Appeal is to adults, oven in the flales spiels .iwhlch, 4n, thl?. case, happened to be Pqat Toasties,. vl^foUceable; toQ. was thi^ delicacy V^itH Which repetition wti6 avoided in'i\Vitchlng Tr6ni' English to Yid-" dish and back. Opening the pro^ gram, • naturally lit English,' an-: nouncer got in hla sales talk* then, turned iihe program pver to .Bos^n.: , He, .after a perfunctpry TU tell y.oli about, Fpst Toasties. later,' went directly .into the program. Abbiit cientef he got Itt-a few" woi'ds th6n swflS^d to the English announcer for'iJferfunctory station announce- ment.E^or a llntoh,. again, switch was...made wit&oui repetition, the bane ,o£ most-foreign, programs with W-Unsual. announcements. Kauf. LA TRIS.UNA HOOr SbhoSf Muste. '60 Mins. COMMERCIAL WQV'. New York 'La Tribuna' Is An Italian hevri- i>aper published in New York. This hour Is sponsored and ha,ndled by them, although It la commercially ' paid for by about eiight small con cerns. With that many, backers, it would seem as though somebody might have had a good idea to put forward for entertainment purposes, but hone of them seemingly both iered. It's a full hour and pretty bad all the way.^ First,, of cbyrsei there's the basic fault.of too many..'sponsor^ With a resultant oveiQbse of ad spieling. .,.,Annojuiiicfir»Jn^ngIlsh,..4(Q£^^ the Whole list of sponsor names to istart off, at the end and toward center. Captain Garofolo, of the newspaper, gives each ieidvertlser a separate.- buildup • In between each number, this in straight Italian; Beyond that, however, the pro gram is built wrong because sup posedly an Italian hour, but with liothlng Italian outside of the an nouncem^ents. A "pretty good BO' prano sings 'Kiss Me Again' and other aongs. A pretty good orches- tra plays 'Toreador' arid other eongrs. It's not bad entertainment (or wouldn't be for 16 minutes)^ but ^ It's not of the calibre to appeal to ^ Italian trade, and there's nothing ■ there to keep Italian listeners in m terestedv They can get, better en ^ tertainment that they can under- istaixd and respond to at least as well by turning the dial in either direction, and without an overdose of sales talk about candles, coal, cigars and other subjects. KaUf. 'MEN OF DARi Incidents' 30 Mins. COMMERCIAL WJZ;>Nev)r York A more ambitious program than, fur firms usually bahkroll. It fol- lows rather closely the general lihes of ^ a hero glorifying eerleB. of half- hour programs attempted last win- ter by Qeneral Tirie in Chicago and which, incidentally, caused Hays MacFarland ligehoy plenty of trouble. Difficulty in Aislng the historic facts of living or recently, dead, heroes as radio material, is. obvious^ The writer Is cramped by'a need for-j!ejhaining:authej»tift-a.o4.futthejr cramped by the inadaptibillty to the air of some of the- best situations In the hero's career. Thus when General: 'One Arm'. Sutton is in China the climax of his adventure Vtrith a barbarous Chinese general cannot be handled by radio since it is primarily pictorial; There l9 a -shQt and the announcer breaks In to say that Sutton killed the gen- eiral, and' escaped from, the army cialhp. . Both feats smack of the iniraculous, oiid yet they are cpv- dred ih a single sentence. Pinal episode of Suttbn'iS career finds him in Vahoouver lining: quietly as a jnarrted tnanv A cable-' ^gi*am from the Orient arrives. And filL-^o'J.i^**^ »fiJ;m''i-^!f^Jl&hBAKEBS'BROADCAST HENRY U MENCKEN With Willfum Luna«lk Frank Black 'In a Baer Garden* 30 Mfna. Sustaining WJZ, New Yorfc Editors^ Ilka aorpbati, apparently oherlsh secret ambitions to do comedy. And ■omotimed they make the grade. Mencken does. He's .quite funny in a low Dutch back- room style. Heavy on. hokum and light on literary, embellishmenta,; Mencken's act, bla first appearance on the air, got over oh Ita laughs and robustness, For a gag vhe led the NBC orchestra^ which speedily got out of his control. In gloriflcatlon of beer'Mencken has a.great deal to iay. Beer drink-, ers, unlike gin,isruz^lers are virtuous men who. might slap t^elr wives but never stab them. Beer drinkers are also better, singers than hard likker imbibers whose tonsils are paralyzed 4ind-.they—thereforoj liavdj AflL mtrM. tbne that, renders , quartets, Intoler- ^ able; Mencken is . he-man all the. way and a pretty good speaker. What makes him a rOdlo possibility is his reputaitlbn iaind sense of. humor. Hiis comments range toward the" wise- cracky epigra:m. Thus/he flh(ls that jazi affects him like theology.. He favors a' light-alcoholio content' for beer, claims that beier with too much alcohol is simply foamy gin; Almost'all beers taste, good to hint and he calculates that a g<^od por- tion of the smartTSeemlng lager talk is really bunk without basis in fact; Land. true. regard •this as the mark of heroism? As a .direct sales proposition the. commercial copy on a program like >this' will .Inevitably .smack of ex- ceselvfr claims. A beSit letter con- test, is used. To compete for a free coat contestants must make, a per« sonal call at a .furrier to get a book- let containing the conditions of the cbhtfest. It aU bolls down ultimately to, how well the program holds its. lis- teners. In the case of General Tire they- finally condensed their men of valor down to 10 minutes or less and filled In with mUslc. Dramatizing the scattered true life incidents of I/bria-fide heroes was a tough iob open to criticism for not sticking to facts-on one sideand not being suffi- ciently graphic On the other. And there's a limit to the ability of sound effects to covet up .action that the radio can only , suggest, not show. Walton Butterfleld, stage and film writer-director, is handling the scripts. Stodkie Allen's b'ographies in Argosy' are the material source. Land. ♦ H MM > M M t♦ M ♦ » ♦»♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ ♦4 4♦♦♦♦♦ M^ : Station Entertainment Average [ > ♦ » • >»♦♦♦» M ♦ » » ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ # ♦ ♦ »♦ ♦ * » ♦ oh ; this well liked POLISH PROGRAM Spot AnnoMhoements Songs, Music " ".W AAT; . NeW JerVey- — — ^t-— - — Foreign language proig^rams have ^^ar"S|>scJ?illzed~tleKl~inid "niust-birbutlt" along spctlall^ed lines, but that doesn't mean letting go of all. prin- ciples ond rules of entertainment, There is not enough natlvo element In this broadcast to hold Polish ^peaking people that dial It In. There's a rather haphazard (or sO it so^ds) orchestra that does pretty niearly ^il the entertaining. One number, and the announcer tells listeners about the marvels , of Dr. nmpty-dumpt, ^le best dentist on Delancey street. Another quickie by the"band^nd=two nrlnutes=more are taken up for a description of the piano rolls that "can be purchased in Stanaslowsky's store In Passala That way all the way throuish. 'Ml announcing In I»olI^, no help to the stray listener who just happens to hit the program by accident, trhlch may be Just as; well, since the'program's not planned for him. But there's too much saleismanshlp «nd hot enough ent6rtainment, even it tfte entcttalnment were (fOod. And iOn the day^ca^ughtthe entertainment was detldedly not* Aatt/. AMERICAN REVUE George Beatty, Ethel Waters, Dor- sey Brps., Joe Venuti Comedy, Songs, Band COMMERCIAL WABC, New York American Oil started off (22) tliis Sunday night series on CBS with a teaser campaign. Whether the teasing idea will excite enough curi- O8ity~to-bring-^em-tuning-in-on"8uo~ cessive occasiono is of little con- sequence. Package of enterta,ln- ment that the refiner has wrapped up for 'em here should suffice to do that Job eftectively. For a newcomer to the kilocycles George Beatty, vaude monologist, did well by himself and all con- cerned. 'Voice and manner were all in his favor in thei m.c. portions and his gags had enough la'igh sub- stance to help ease the way. Regis terlng solidly was the Ethel Waters personality. Impression she left with the 'Hamlet' number out of .'As Thousands Cheer' and 'Stormy Weather' gave assurance of a regu- lar air clientele foi- Amoco, Sizzling jasizbloglcal excerpts by the Dorsey Bros, ensemble .with Joe Venutl's. violin weaving in a tuneful oblig- gato, round out the frame nicely. Listeners on the initial session were told that the Identity of the sponsor couldn't be revealed Just yet. That would come in the near future; but meanwhile they were to. vehiember. two slogans, 'The Ameri- cans" are. cording,' and 'The Ameri- cans are marching ahead from 'MaliSe to Florida/- and . by remem-: -berlng-ther-e-Jwras a reward in store for them; Program is limited to a hookup of IB stations in. the east and hear midwest. Odec, Comedy,' SohgM;' COMMERCIAL V WJZ.. New York . JOe 'Peiin^t sn6uld.be able to ihake this Sunday evening half hour pass- ably .diyertln^., ..Couple years ago thO; dough , rollers gave a similar comedy ' Stanza' the 'bird; advisin.^ Flelsehm^hn'yeftst. that It- had^-the .wrong Slaiit.on thie baking guild's tastes in en tertainment.. Baking, ran the plaint,, was a serious business and if Flelschmana wanted to give it. a goodwill boost, over the air the program should be of a similar ser- ious and dignified denteanor. Flelschmahn subsequently Junked the comedy spasm and replaced it with the most' serious .and dignified' 'Show then .oh the air, 'Great Mo- ments from American History.' That a later survey showed they weren't listening may havio: had something to do. with the switch back to the. hotcha line of sir diversion^ As one of the comics Standard Brands has playing its program cir- cuit, Penner Is beginning to show the earmarks of the J. Walter Thompson, mold. Ooicmltted to him are a t>uhch of gags studded with certain peculiarities that are sup- posed to' jpass foit* personality. In his .case It's haliwittish giggles and a . couple or Sloans, such as 'Do You Wanna Buy a Duck?' haphaz- ardly . Interpolated and. overworked. Last Sunday (16) night's episode had Penner starting off with 0, mess of . soggy gags, but toward, the end the comic brightened long enough to show that he can deliver if the ma- -terla.1. la there.—Qjily_ thing -that marred these latter, few moments was a tendency to wait fortlaughs from the studio sideline mob and to crack' about this audience's slow- ness in catching on. Perhaps the majority listening on the kilocycle end experience a isimilar. lack of the qui Vive. Fault in either Case could easily be traced to the obtusity of the gags tliemSelves. As long as Ozzie Nel son stuck to his orchestral assign- ment he was okay but when the script forced him Into the role of feeding Penner the results showed defective Juderment. But the breaks nevertheless were with Penner. For most, of the crossfire another feed Officiated, one decidedly experienced and adept at the Job. Singing phases of thie show passed muster. Sharing the load here were Harriet Hllliord and an unbilled man In the band. - Through this session Fleischmann confines itself to .putting on the in- etitutiohai tomtom for the major consumer, of its product; the baker. It's the sahie refrain that's, dished out; take a day oft from kneaidihg; your own. and patronize your neigh borhobd^ baker. Odec. STATION CKLW Windsor, Oni. Reviewed Thors; Oct. 12 Peak hours 7-10 p.. m. ■ 7:.6o, *Myrt and Marge' station two years and locally. 7:16; Also . .chain; ^Just Plain Bill.' Advertising Kolynos but for entertainment Value rather low. Hasn't been on this butlet very long and not very vrbll liked. Too much, of a copy of oth^i; .dally serials. 7: io. Honeybby Jind Sassafras is the only locally produced program on this station most evenings.. On Jthis Htatloh for O ver a yea r. Com- ppsed of two colored gentlemen aim^ their troubles. Not at all imita;tive of the A-A duo and'enteptalning on Its own. Bather mlxied aiipeal.. Sponsored by iSnggfas Jewelry Go. 7:45. Chailn program of hews events from GBS Boake Carter. "Very high, class appeal, »; 00. The Happy Wonder Bakers offering a nice entertaining program of music A little too much , adver- tising gab but still, oke. 8:15.. BarbOsol ofTerlng-Bd. •.G. Hill and< Singing Sam. . Second hews oOmmeivtaltor. within an hojvir. 8:3or Fletcher's Castorla ,wlth a new .projgrarau featuring- Albert Sit'alding and Conrad ThlbaUlt. ;FrQm th^ chain.-^"Skay. -^^^r 9-^06; ~ *Gult ka;s-bflfer-fttg:Iw^ with a high class apt>eaU Ftom the chain. 9:15. Kate Smith from PhlUy without a chain sponsor; but with. a. local advertiser strung alohif after her. JVI.e0.ium type appeal 9:30. White Owl Cigar offering a. nice all around program ^il;h ]U>mT i}ardo and Biiirns and Alleni Been on this outlet for a long time and very popular. PERFECTION BAKERS Norman Link COMMERCIAL WOWO, Fort Wayne Norman Link, established WOWO artist, headlines this commercial. He sings about three current hits and-work s-oyerti me^nnounclng for, the sponsor, and. then telling ^is" next numbers. Fred . Tangeman, formerly with Victor Meyers' band, plays a sock- time piano which is good. Trumpet, banjo arid violinist also share in the music end and step put once for a reprise. Perfection Biscuit company is be- hind this regular feature. Nothing new lli arrangement, but delivered by accomplished performers which accounts for its extended popular ity. Comes on at 11.45 a. m. FRANK LUTHER AND COMPANY Musical Reviia. Disk COMMERCIAL WENR, Chicago 'Frank Luther and Adler-lkans' is the commercial name of this show which may suggest that the show is for Adlerika, proprietary medl cine. ilTor the product and presiantation the Luther show Is a.ces. It fits exactly into the disc and patent iWKIieiH6=fleld;"D0Wn^tQ'^level=wIi:liF Luther running through the disc in that 'hello folks' manner.. Talking somehow to the elder members of the family circle, though not point- edly so. Specializing, however, on old.-time, times Inter-mixed with vocal parlor games that can be put on the air. Entire program flavored with 1890 sentimentality. Spiels at the front end of the .show are practically identical, a bad feature. Dull repetition of the same (Continued on page 44) JSTATION WMCA .New York City Reviewed Thursday^ OoL 19 Peak Hours 7 to 10:30 p.ni. WMCA is New York's only full- time outlet without chain affillatibh. It's the station that a group of Wall Street scibhs took over .On an oper- ating lease from. Donald Flamm a few. months ago with the Implied purpose Of making it the originat- ing point of a contemplated , network. It operates on 1,000 watts and main^ tains an unusually unimpeded posU tlon on the dial as far as the metro- politan area is concerhed. Inter- spersed between most of the fol- lowing progrrama were spot, an- nouncements. 7:00—Clem McCarthy. Sports re- view. Prior to being brought In here by the new management to head Its spbrts staff McCarthy was NBC's turf expert. Resume of the day'is sports events are neatly regi- mented and pithily phrOsed. Lingo, delivery and the personality they suggest make a crack fit for the pprpoHea^f-thts^frTninuteS r'-—- 7:16—'Five-Star Final'. Drama- tization of the day's news. Dialog- ing and acting are of the tabloldy kind ' and with , a vengeance. It's all done with a sense of misplaced emphasis and awry grasp, of dra- matic essentials. Allotted major at- tention on this- installment was the current mayoralty campaign. Speech excerpts from only two of the can- didates—LaGu.ardia and McKee— were included. Latter's contribu- tion had all the earmarks of a rec- ording. Rates as obvious imitation of 'March of Time'. 7:30—^Dorls Fisher and Rennie McAvoy. Flirtation harmony and patter act that makes things-easy on the ear as long as the girl's war^ bllhg has the mike to itself. Flair for giving a number of the torch genre something different In emo- tional interpretation is hers. Also in h,er favor is a suave and lyrical pair of pipes; iGag interludes pro- ject some . sorry specimens, but the bl-evity of these passagfts helps ali around; ■ ' 7:45—Billle Dausbha. Another siriging' act. While- the .j?revIous program had only a piano in sup- TJortr~this-. one-- -included- a_ ..studio dance combo under. Bob Harring'^ baton. Girl here also mixes some iCetching, melody on pop themes, but showed little that was distinctive in the way of style. Instead of being of help in cueing into her songs, the talk exchanges .with the anhouncier were not Only clumsy but annoying Assigning him to straijrht an- nouncements would give the warbler a chance at leaving a favorable Imw pression. 8:00—Three Little ..Sachses. Har- in the week by Sachs, installment furniture house. Material in both warbling and patter is small time Highpoint of. appeal consists of reeling off the birthdays of sxipposed listeners; 8:16—Aurora Cottone. Concert pianist whose fine techfllque and ar resting interpretations made every mohient of the 16 she was. on a pleasure. Program included the 'Submerged Cathedral' by Debussy, and Lazst's 'Etude in F' Minor' Operator In cbarga could, have been bf aid had he kept his eyes on the needles and his fingers on the vol- ume controls. 8 :30—'The Metropolis'. Half hour of badly, written and acted dramatic drivel' MHt Lewis wtia given credit oa author; and Charles Martin as producer. As a Corse :Payton com- bination of the air they, rate' by themselves. i9:'O0—Jean LeVal and Leonard iSowlhsr*. Concert .Contralto and: tenor in' repertoire of operatic ex- cerpts, -folk airs and American standards that rested nicely enough on the ear. Roderick Graham pilot- ed the brchestra.1. background. 9^30—^Pappyj-Zekeand-Ezt«r.—Hill-r-: billy, turn holding, tbp poigltton In popularity among the; regulars on this station. Combines, slick- har- mony with •well-balancedv'Oomedy interludes.. . Does Its thrice-weekly stinit before dtudio audiences.' Tick- ets tor these events,are absorbed weeks in tidvahceV 10: bo—Charle's' Hart. Another tenbf in concert' repertoire with Robert Bower the jStafC conductor in charge. Ballads and spirituals were this lad's specialty, . and listening beypnd the second. number was no easy task.. , . / Odec. STATI V Los Artgeies" • — ReV!eWi*d-:Wetl;;--0.a^^ Peak Hours: 'T* jio lO**^ ', X^ack of atr s'nibw'manshfp and a faulty spacing of programs resulted in the three peik Kours being almost Wholly devoted t* talki'-Football ma- terial was handed V to the 'listeners twice during theisntead^.and on the one short musical Rrogram-r-haif the 16-mins. was devoted .tp lengthy and boring .advertising spiels. 7: 00—Edgewbrth'S 'born Cob Pipe Club of Virginia,' the NBC feature from the East. Released locally and coastwise for a year and popular with the llsteners-ln, at this neck of'the woods, who" go heavy for the hill billy and oow . yodellng type of material. 7:30—A one-timer. The Califorrila mounted band as background for uninspiring talks by football coaches )in games to be held, the following Saturday. Band an ama,teurlsh af- fair and program not guaranteed. to hold ah audience for a half hour. 8:00—Amos'n* Andy. Sure of get- ting dialers as this is still a heavy bet. 8:15—Don Carney's dog stories*. Commercialled by Spratts.and ema- nating fromi San Francisco this is a spieling of a human Interest canine yam. Might hold for rabid dOg fan- ciers, but isn't hot enough for a general audience. 8:30—rOne Man's Family, also from NBC,. San; Francisco, is popular with the serial fans., and heis' a large femme appeal. ^ 9:00—Another NBC program from San Francises, 'Old Memory Box,* 'is'iBrfp^iaiym'TimsiMrsrrsTfflns^ devoted to old time songs. Irving Kennedy, baritone, has an excellent voice, but there's only time for tw.O vocal numbers and a brief piano solo because half the time is taken up by paid announcements. 9:16—Although football figured in ah earlier progriam Herb Dana is on for 16 mins. from NBC, reviewing previous- games and giving a polly- anna for officials 'who are never in- fluenced by the gate.' Faulty diction. 9 :30—Disc of 'Eno's Crime Cliies." Hot locally for the followers of mys- tery air yarns. Bad placing, how- ever, for it's another 30 mins. of dialog. * 10:00 — Still another 15-min, of talk; 'Rlohfleld Reporter Of the Air.* Very popular, especially In the rural sectiohs, where they tune in for. hews before, hitting the hay. Station WFAA Dallas, Texas Reviewed Friday, Oct; 13 peak Hoursf 7-.10 P..M> 7:00—Three. Wax programs (all "Skits) for -80- minutes, cutrin by studio orchestra, to separate. Okay" for dialers who like dramatics. Triflie too heavy for other listeners. 7:30—First NBC wire, in good taste, and balance, well liked here. 8:00—Second NBC wire, contrast from above, holds up good. 8:30—Peak entertainment froiu third NBC wire. Tempoed to catch them all, young and old, 9:00—President Roosevelt's talk. Tremendous ^audiencei-i$f^ courser^:. 9:30—Local commercial, fine spir- itual singing. Goes smooth with the elders, who are the targets, and welcome relief from the band-vocal- comlc set-up. 9:45—National wax orchestra in jnelodles ear pleasing to tired bodies near bedtime. .10:00—The program they stay up to catch—Amos 'n' Andy. After this program local dialers-amble for the hay. Great entertainment for family folkSt