Variety (Jan 1934)

32 VARIETY WtAOt E P O R T S Tuesday, January 9, 1934 ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ ♦ ♦ ii Station Entertainment Average WTIC, HAPiTFORO, CONN. Reviewed Dec. 27 Hours: 6-10 p. m. WTIC, operated by the Travelers Brdadcastlng- Service, a subsidiary of the Travelers insurance Co.,.,ls a 50;000-\vatter with a range that seitds .itf! broadcasts.as far west, as Australia and as far east ias central Eui-ppe.. Is located in an extremely advantageous spot for long-range transrrtission, but is limited to half- time. There are hopes, however; -the Federal Radio Gommlsslon will soon give the station full time. The station has a good reputation as the training ground of network mate- irial, having broadcast the first pro- grams of such talent as Rudy Val- leei Seth Parker, Tastyeast Jesters, Bob (\yhiteman Revue> L,a>vrenc6, and others; At present it is cbntrib- utihg nwJre than two . hours bf music ieach week to the WEAP wing. <)f NBC, for it maintains a staff of 50 musicians,. , and ■ evidently has, the cash to do things In a big wayv 6:0&—Wrightsvllle Daily .Clarion provides a neat method of .cram- iping a number of three-minutie an- nouhcen^ehts into one spot* Paiil Lucas and/iPred Wade, local favor-, ites, carry on- a dialog in the. piress- room of a hick daily, reading the ads supposed, to he for tomorrow's edition. Interlarded are phonograph records, the editor believing, that, .miistc helps him in his; editorial duties. _. " .6:30—Sotigs Without Words, pleasant string niusic by a house unit, 6:46^Your Folks and Mine, piped fi'bm WEEl of Boston to WTIC and other : transmitters of the so-calleid New England: Net. whlctai includes WJAR, Prdvidente; WTAQ, Worcesr ter, and WCSH, Portland. Tour Folks Is homely fanlily stuff, with. John Phllbrick, musical comedy star, and Francc^s Demar^st,. old-time opi- eretta favorltjB, In leading roles as Pa and J^a. .. New England Dressed •Ru:k is isponsor; • (TiXJO^Molle prograin,: from net- Vi-ork, with Shirley H owar d and the jesters,, three fprriier WTIC boys. 7:16—Merry .liifadcaps^ a good all- around dance combination led by Norinan Cloutler. Their stuff has no individual Quality, but they can do any style, and do it creditably. At present they .are dedicating this half-hour to the Civilian Conserva- .tion Corps, baiiging out requests from the lads working in reforesta- tion camps. The boys' tastes ap- pear to run toward hot numbers, such as 'St, Loiiis Blues.' :46-:TNews and Views, by Pro- fessor John S. Custer of the ojcclu- sive Avon Old Farms School, broad- cast under auspices bf Connecticut Council on international Relations. Good stuff for that portion of the audience which likes dope on woi*ld affairs; Custer does well, but never seeks to inject: color irito his corti- mchtaries. . 8:00—Royal Gelatine program, from nietwork, with Bert" Lahr and George Olsen's orchestra, 8:30—El e c tr i cal tralhscriptibh,. spionsoi'ed . by Kopper's Coke, of George Frarne Brown's old WOB: series. Main Street. Clean and clear transcription. Main, Street. Is the same old stuff, but has .its following.; 9:00—Russian Balalaika Oriches- tra^ directed by Serge idrladilin. Fif- teen- minutes of :^tring music that can. ishatter the nerves Of a listener who doesn't adote a banjor or a guitar. - , ' 9:15—Electrical trahscrlprtlon of Don Bestor'^s bandi with Ray Por- kihs ^s coniedian. Very fd^zy.Mn-. distinct. Sponsored by Rheinauld 9:30—Institutional pirogratn, The Travelers! Hour, with 40-plece con- cert combination, and 12-voice chorus directed by Christian iCriens. Mostly classical music, but with ^ood variety. KTiens makes special arrangements , for this half-hour. His compositions are rather heavy and slo'W', but they don't nettle the listener who likes to read a .bbbk beside the radio set: This Travelers Hour Is split In two, one half betiig 1>rbadcast on Mondaiy' night, the other, half on Wednesday nlg^t.- Monday night program is set to a fEister paice and featur.es a SS-'plece band^ with some slick special ar- rangements, by Ben Bbnell, (Seorge Koenig and Carmine .Cappola.' The Revere Sisters, were heard In this program by Paul .Whiteman, who adopted them as his Rhythm Girls. The same imltt under Gloutler's baton,, is broadcasting Friday after- noons over &2 stations «n the WEAF-NBC chain. 10: 0»^From this hour until 1 a.m. wnc. takes all NBC features, oon- sistingly mostly of da,ncei music. ROBERT BENCHLEY With^ Howard Mairsh and Andre Kosteianez Comedy, 8«ngs^ Band . 15 Mins. COMMERCIAL WAlBCr New York . For its twice weekly contribution on General Motors' setup aicrdss the CBS evening board, Buick hasn't contributed anything that the braiid's dealers will likely point to with pride. It's one of those musi- cal frames cut strictly to CBS stu- dio pattern, with Bob Benchlejr slipped in to give it a touch of the lighter side. On the first two Samples, Monday (25) and Friday of last week, Benchley did. well by the light angle. His bits wer6 ex- ceptionally light . Of humor, . As his topic .for Christmas night Benchley elected a ghost story. In support were several kid stoogea whose task it was to interrupt him with guffaws and Bronx salutes. It was a sad quality of humor. Friday night's program had him expatiat Ing on the money question but the razzberrie's were missing. Wliat he had to say may have passed muster in print but filtering out of the loud speaker it had nothing to associate it wittr the fellow who through his recital of 'The Treasiu'er's Ileport* a few years ago got. himself some stage and screen attention. Arrangeinerits plied; by Andre. Kd- •fitelariez as tisual go In • heavy for the brass while backing up Howard Marsh, tenor from .leigit, is the mixed choi-us that a KostelaneiS pFodtictipn is iaisd never withobt. Both Kosteianez and Marsh were, on General Motrtrs' payroll last sear son. the former as part of th Pon.;- tiac show and :Mar9h as the wsir- bliiVg sfandy for i'r.lgldaire.' Ray • Collih.<5 does ably in laying down the plug b$ivrage with its cen- tral .theme stressing. BiUck's latest .selling appendage, 'knee action wheels.'- Odrc. GREGORY RATOPF Dialect Comedian COMMERCIAL WEAF^ New York Ratoff, whose dlS'lect is becoming a cherished enthusiasm of cogno- scenti and an amusement of the hoi polloi, was Supposed to do some chores, on the ether for Eddie Can- tor, but that .deal fell through^ No details on . why. Possibly a con- fllction or a. matter of money. Any- how, Ratoff finally materialized on the loiidspeaker under the aegis of Impresario Vallee. For radio Ratoff la a bet with Some ifs. Greatest of these would niaturally be a proper radio con- veyance. His. gilt-edged dialect as yet hasn't been marred by selif-con- scious exploitation. Naturalness is the key to Its charm and While an actor as canny aS. Ratoff knows a hundred ti'icks of accentuation and exaggeration there is no attempt to hoke it up. He will be well advised not to succumb to temptation. For Vallee the routine employed was a reworking of the persistent salesman idea used in his recent personal appearances. Ratoff pest- ers Vallee to distraction. Every reiaction of Vallee brlnga f Of th a hew sales talk by RafbfE, who sells a dozen things. Finally Vallee shoots Ratoff in a fever of aggrava- tion and Ratoff survives to attempt to sell Vallee a bullet-prppf vest. Land. ELIZABETH GUTMAN {9^ssian Songs 15 Mins.. Sustaining WMCA, New York Miss Gutman has a vibrant voice of rather low register •vvcll adaptod =to^the=Russian-=-^oi^t^of=-ithviigr-==:.She- explains in advance of I'.endltibn some, details about the various numbers. Where they originate and the genex'al nature bf the story In some Instances she sings in EhgUshi but mostly in Rus.'^Ian.Llcr English Is without accent. She is apparently an American wlio i.s familiar with the Soviet country. • At this time, with Russian lately recognized by Uncle Sam, the Gut- man 15 minutes takes oh a topical aspect susceptible of greater explol tatlon than presently given. Land. JACK PEARL ^ Royal Gelatine Revu* with Cliff Hall, Peter Van 8tetfd*n Orcfi. Music* Gagi 30 Mins. COMMERCIAL WEAF, New York Jack Pearl'a career for Royal GelatlnO takes on added Interest to the radio trade because of his quick wash-up early this year for.-Liucky Strike after being a big favorite for the cigaret last season.. With one persbn's guess ,in . ridlo proby ably as reliable as the next the question, of Peiarl's , current stand- mg in popiilar favor Is ah ihterro-: gation with cohfllctlnjg responses. Some observers, among them G. W. iiill deem his vogiie to have ebbed. Another body of oplhionj holds there is still plenty of coin to be extracted from Baron. Munchausen. Pearl, comes uhdbr Royal Gela- tine's mantle as ah 8 P. M., show bver NBC (WEAP) for Wednesday airing. It's a good tinde and a good night. And Peter Van Steeden's music is -big league support. So P'earl starts with lots of advan- tages. Pearl Is the premier radio expo- nent of the guestlon-and-answer school, of comedy. In the theatre this has been largely Identified with burlesque from the. ranks of which Pearl graduated. Of equal impor- tance in this technique of :audience- milklng is the straight man or feed- er. Pearl, hfes one of. the best straight men in bi"'iness, ClifC Hijl^ whose support: Is like a sturdy steel jglrder. One great liability belongs to the Jack Pearl kind of comedy. It's hot funny In itself, but depends .almost entirely upon delivery. Probably nobody works harder to. get. laugbs than PearL His energy In perform- ance is teri'ific, ' He must constantly i^l l>ack on ni.anaerlsxns. tricks. and sdieer noise. He uses theatrical hyr draulic pressure) to lift his audience to a pitch of hysteria-.and then, by a process! of artificial stimulation keeps the moscular reflexes of laughter working; This is easily no- ticeable In a theatre when Pearl Is on the sttige. The audience is made to laugh . almost autonaatlcally without knowing why. In cold analytical, inspection be- side the loudspeaker Pearl's tricks are deflated. Althoygh the studio audience came over t)ie mike In roars of merriment the occasion or cause for the amusement was most- ly lost upon the radio listener. In- deed for the Inaugural program on behalf of Royal Gelatine the mate- rial used by Pearl was conspicu- ously flat, and insipid. A^eadlng of' the script stripped of the bene fit of Pearl's personality would elo quently bear this out without a doubt. Of course, . It wouldn't be quite fair as a test since' the naa terlal plus the personality makes -the comedian and one can scarcely be . judged without the other. Material, however. Is of far more Importance to radio than to the theatre. P^rl will quickly exhaust and bore his audiences if the ma terial must always be carried by the sheer force of Pearl's vivacity and Hall's superb powers of gloss- ing inferior gab to sound like gems of wit. Baron Munchausen routine of ex- aggeration, the frequent interpola tions of Vas Ton There, Sharlle?' and the gutturallsms are all used It's the liuCky Strike program transferred to Standard Brands. Advertising copy stresses the fragrance of Royal Gelatine in ad- vance of combination with hbt water, the disreputable odor at the same point in the process of prep- aration of their competitor's prod Uct, and the general 'dated' idea used for Standard Brands' other products, Chase &- Sanborn's Coffee and Fleischmann's Yeast. In other words. Royal Gelatine tastes nice and doesn't poison the intestinal tract. Land. RADIO PLAYHOUSE Lawrence Stander,.Gertrude Niesen, Ishatn Jones. Comedy,, Songs, "30 Mins. COMMERCIAL WABC, New York , Ex-Lax has. replaced the Lulu McCohneli portion of' the Monday night event with what it describes as 'comedy dramas.' While fumbling around with the comedienne's air career the agency on the account engaged for her an elocution teach- er to overcome what it thought were articulatory impedimenta. What the agency could, use now is some one with a sense bf comedy to pick the scripts for the revised program. 4^ LriLaolcpyng- Jhe. fi^' st. p^^^ 'e(Ty"drarrias' it"wns obvious that the aseiicy had. been influpm^od by the i<ucce»s that the Eddie Caiitor- t'hrise & Sanborn whirl has had with Russian dialecticians. Lots of dialoot but nothing funny to gb with it. Combined in the script was the moldlcst of plots and a mess of .slap.<'tick that ml.«<.<^ed fire in every inrTredi<>nt. Jcitrude Nio.son is still spotted for a brace of torch numbci's and Lsham .Tones to .serve up an ooca- aionnl s.v^fop-'tod Inf.prlitdo. O'lrc. GINGER ROGERS Songs COMMERCIAL WEAF, New York Inger Rogers, prominent as filrii ingenue, appeared with Rudy Vallee,'s Fleischmann Vairieties. from. Hollywood (28) as bne of four filtn celebs during that full hour. She sang a couple Of songs.from recen'^ film musicals in -Which she has ap peared. Radio microphone wasn't very kind to Ginger Rogers. Her voice is not basically musical so far as the testimony of the kilocycles is pertinent evidence^. Something of her style and vivacity does. creep abross the spaces, but, lacking . a view of her attractive per,son, the audience gets . an unsatisfactory sample of the girl over the radio. Land. FRED ALLEN . ^ . \, Sal Hepatica Revua with Portland Coffap Mary McCoy, Scrappy antbartr SonaMnitna 4> Jaek Smart, Ferde Grof* Oreh. Comedyf Music 30 Mine. COMMERCIAL WEAF, Npw York In the latter, longer and better part of Frbd Allen's inaugural pro- gram (3), . which was typicallyt whboplngly aind rolUcklngly AUen- esque the' laughs came; fast and comic. ideas tumbled over one an- other in rich prbfusioh. In the: opening few minutes and Ihtroduc- tory session,- getting the revtie onto the air; for the first time, the results were less successful. But the bril- liant comedy tempo of the . Imagi- native rubberneck tour of New York City squared and erased the non- Allenesque beginhiiig. ;- Allen's great advantage ior radio is the twist he gives thlnss,. His comedy has ai tinge of the. Intellec- tual about It. But never esoteric. It's the smart patter superimposed upon familiar . Americana that at once "renders .him and his stuff, ca- pable of pleasing the -cognoscenti and the hoi polloi simultaneously. Musib Of Ferde. Grofe is good music and the singrlng of the Four Songsmlths aind others, is good sing- ing,- buit' essentially: the Sal Hepatica Revile Is Fred Allen plus Interrup- tlohs, comment, and cross-fire ^om PortIa:hd Hoffa. Incidentally the comic's wife .haia developed a sing- ing-talking style . of delivery ihat's' eixcellent. It- has an Allcerlii^W'on-. derlandlsh qualky of dementia.. Some doubt a.s. to the commercial copy. It seems a trifle too explicit and graphic. Hard to know Just hov^ a laxative can get its message over and istay within the limits of what, rightly or wrohgly, the canons of refinement bar from polite dis- cussion. Sal Hepatica doesn't bother being subtle. Allen's type of comedy .wears weill and grows. <:;omlQ writes nxost of his own stuff and his Inspiration seldom Jags. His ear' for droll ex- pressions and phraiseology is as acute as his genius for topsy-tnrvy thinking. Oljvlously he is the kind of comedian who has to be given, a free rein. At the same time there is a minlmuin of need for supervl> sioii of. his material because lie Is too clever ever to h9.ve to be off- color. Presence of Allen and comedians of his high grade of humor on the air will gradually make It pretty tough for the phoney comlcis. Land. Alabama tHREE Girl Singers 15 Mins. Sustaining WMCA, New York Alto 'eemed to be . having a bad night (2$) when this trio was re- viewed. Whatever the cause^ the trio was off key for entire strains. Pisciples of the modern notions In harmony, the girls were okay when keeping on the track.. Prob ably this type of singing tends, to produce the dangers of disharmony more readily than - more conven- tional warbling. ' Land. STROLLI Songs 15 Mins. COMMERCIAL WGY, Schenectady Strolling. Tom Is a deep-throated baritone heard for 16 minutes several minutes weekly, via WGY's tumtalble.«The Russell Miller Mill ing Company of Minneapolis, manu facturers of Occident Flour, is the sponsor. In -voice, singing style and chuckle. Strolling Tom is remlnis cent of Harry Frankel. He may not be quite as sweet and as folksy as Singing Sam was on the shavihg- cream. shot,: but otherwise he uses the same mike technique. Features old numbers, particularly ballads, and does them well, in keeping with, his billing, he whistles softly Cor the sigii-on and sign-off. Strolling Tom handles smoothly the advertising,' of -which there Is too much. However, these discs cairry nfiOre entertainment than Is usua.lly found on morning broad casts sponsored by flour, concern. ..Jaco. WILLIAM SC.OTTI Orchestra . With Dbrot iiy,_R otay, _^ ^ HShel Mbntclair 15 Mih$. Sustaininq WOR, Newark Very nice dansapatfon Is givpn out by this aggregation' picked up by the Newark transmitter from the Hotel Moiiclalr, New York. It comes through at the dinner hour just as a grateful adult population is ready to scream for merCy frbm any more of those kid programs. Dorothy Rotay sings engagingly with the boys. Land, BABE RUTH Club for Boys Radio Disc 16> Mins. Commercial WOR, Newark This program nilght.be described, without undue harshness or' sar- casm, as a gigantic conspiracy to ^Ornswoggle the boys of America by an elaborate arrangement of bait. In combihatlort with clever stalling. Program* is In '15 minutes urifold- m^nt, most of it explanatory, talk that ;do^sh't explain, and is an amusing study in tfiodern advertis- ing, and raerchahdisihg for . thoise -who can . or will reiad between the lines./ Indeed, the script of the first- installment would, be worth printing Verbatim. . Main-objective of the program , is to uSe Babe Ruth to obtain a wide audienco among..the baseball-wor-.. shipping lads and then to turn those kid? into a reglniehted: avalanche of pressure against their parents' and all automobile-driving: adults in genersil. For to bebome m,embers ;of Babe ;iluth's - Club the kids must either drive or ride Iii'an automobile into ah EiSso gasoline, station, ~ This qualification oh the terms'of membership Is: followed by a; whole elaborate rIgama,role, all .designed, logically -enough, .to increase the patronage of Esso gas stations. Fact :that the boy must show Up •with ah adult and caniiot write or obtain the necessary documents for membership in the club except by driving ihto the station rules out all poor kids and others not in a po- sition to. contrlbuto to. the further enrichment of Eaao. Obviously it is figured that aii adult will probably buy petrol-, and lubrication .when stopping, get the Babe Ruth Club newspaper and other printed niate- rlal, without , which the delights <tf mythical fraternity with the Sultan, of Swat is. hot .available to young America.. Autographed photographs, auto- graphed, -baseballs and baseball gloves are the prizes of the contest. And named In that order they rep- resent the probabilities of reward. For a grand Inducement and kid-, exciter there Is promised for 60 kids' from all over the nation free trips to Babd' Ruth's training camp this season. .No details on the .date, duration or style, of. these trips are given 6ver the air. Ruth, who talks like Al Smith in a heavy, foggy voice, Is represented as' in attendance at a session Of the Babe Ruth Club, There are various kid. characters—^Blff, Pat and. Fat— vi^o presumably are to be a stock company for the meetlners. All sorts of excitement of athletic nature is promised. Ruth speaks sentiment- ally of the public-spirited business men (£isso) making all these bless- ings possible. He also alludes to his great fondness for kids. It need hardly be stated that Babe Ruth, that legbndary hero, Is as fine a juvenile drawing name tis any commercial could place on the air. He guarantees an audience. Pro-- gram is. probably Just complicated enough to please boys at the age when anything partaking of the se> cret society or high adventure, na- ture Is irresistible. As for the ulti- mate merit of the trade between EjSSo and the growing generation, in terms of future good will of those who win nothing for their efforts but. a machine-autographed photo, is,' like foreign debts, not for mere strap-hangers to worry about. Land. HOUSEHOLD MUSIC BOX With Anthony Ca.ndelori'Orch Musi 15 Mins. . COMMERCIAL WCAU, Philadelphi These quarter-hour broadcastSi Household Music Box, coming from' Studios of WCAU, Philadelphia; de- voted to cpmppsitlons by well known writers, iJxcellent string ensemble. (Anthony Candelorifs), with male solbists alternating (Theodore Ern- nbscTay. A l&rief resume of com- poser's' career, tied in with musical selections. From time, to time the Household Music Box pianistk (Charles Linton and Clay Boland) do swell special arrangements. Some of the. melody makers cov- ered to date have been George M. Cohan, Cole Porter, Jimmie Mc- Hugh, Lou Gensler, IrVirtg .Berlin, Noel Coward, George Gershwin, Jerome Korn and Jimmie Handley. IntorcBtlng program, with good commercial angle. Watera. GILLETTE BLUESTREAK Dramas Radio Disc 60 Seconds COMMERCIAL WOR, Newark. Gillette has niade a series of 26 brief discs for spot broadcasting. This Is presumably a .typical sample. J. H. Neebs of Detroit, is the. agency and World. Broadcasting the .wax- etcher. In the paltry oherhilnute inter- lude there is a signature, a blurb, a dramatic Incident, aino.ther blurb, and a signoff. To have done aU thi and avoided Creating a jumbled, uri- intelligible mass of noise Is a vic- tory in itself. One-minute discs are apt to' hit a pretty low average from the listeners standpoint with only the brevity excusing them at all. Dramatic incident in this case was' the cbmiiient'on. the smooth- hess, of Bill's cheek as revealed to the person ..who was 'it' in'a game of blind man's bluff. Bill's cheek is as soft as down because he uses GIU lette bluestreak razor biadea. Lah KOPPERS KOKE With Clarence Fuh rmannj Mary Quigley, Pete Woolery, Ruth Car* hart^ Carlotta Dale, Larry Tate Miisic, Specialties COMMERCIAL ^W-CAU,^Philadelphia —^^-^-^^^ This new program, appropriately- titled Housewarmihg,' premiered New Year's eve on stage of WCAU Studio Auditorium. Nicely con- structed, tuneful half hour, though In tough spot, following the Old Gold broadcast, more than holds its own, iand is sure to get plenty of listen- ers. Clarence Furhmann's orches- tra (25 pieces), with male and femme singing ensemble, did some grand arrangements, credited to Lyn (Continued on pago 85)