Variety (Mar 1936)

41 VARIETY KADI KEPORT S Wednesday, March 25, ,1936 'MORNING MATINEE' With Ben Bernie Orchestra, Edna Woolman Chase, Gladys-Swarth- out, Nellie Revel I. 45 Mins. MACY'S (cooperative) Thursday, 9 a.m., EST WOR, New York (.Donahue ft Coe) Department stores have not pone , In for radio on the grand scale as a rule because of the cost of talent. This Donahue & Coe cooperative set-up permits local store cut-in sponsorship of a network; (Mutual) program. By spreading the cost of the name orchestras, Nellie Revell and other talent the local stores arc able to have the type of attention- commanding entertainment that presumably guarantees a large listening audience yet without over- loading the advertising budget. On paper Its a nifty merchandizing notion. Ben Bernie led the parade of top- flight orchestras; It was nine o'clock in the morning and Bernie hadn't been to bed (this being his Idea of the best way to safeguard. his own appearance at such an hour). Bernie of course Is a regular he-vampire where a radio microphone Is con- cerned and even , at nine a,m. he's 'romantic' for the dames. Which is of course carrying out the pro- gram's f undamental thesis. 'But the pulJL and draw of a sue-; cession of orchestras will depend on the showmanship manifest in their presentation. Showmanship is a factor that was slighted in the initial Morning. Matinee. Program brought its personnel to the mike without continuity or build-up other than routine, announcer and m.c. introductions/. Consequently an ab- sence of blendingx and easy-flowing program development is a point for criticism, Nellie'.;Revell who has been a steady fixture on NBC with her chummy and chatty - interviews is the chahge-of-pace from the music. Nellie is permanent but the orches- tras change each week. Nellie is a lady conversationalist of experi- ence'and showmanship and should add the human interest note, to the program; Donahue: : & Coe must, however, provide a better framework for the" •program as a program: it is not enough to . book good talent and then strand it in front of a micro- phone. The * bigger t the" attraction" the greaterthe ifefed for supervising showmanship in order" to.' get' the full-values inherent in the talent. Morning Matinee, ; if it continues with stars of a calibre , equal to its first batch, naturally commands at- tention. There's no competish at nine a.m. Setting of ihe first pro- gram, however, did not approach in. excitement. the expectancy engen- dered by its: impressive, list of artists. It never got hot. : And His ORCHESTRA "ZIEGFELD FOLLIES OF THE AIR" EVERY SATURDAY—WABC 8-9 P.M., EST Columbia Network Goast-to-Coast • 4 STAR RATING FOR SOLID YEAR LEON And Hi ORCHESTRA LOWRY HOTEL St. Paul, Minn. I'll., Muslo Corp. of America IV. Mgr.. HERMAN ItEKNIR BEN AY VENUTA SUNDAY ...... MAR. 29—10 P.M. TUESDAY .... MAR. 31— 6 P.M. WEDNESDAY ; APR, 1— 5 P.M. WABC—and Entire Columbia Network Exclusive Manftsrcineiit CBS ARTISTS BUREAU Personal Mitnitgrmcnt JII.E.S AJMtKKTI. fil* Mndluon Ave, Sew York City GEORGE M. COHAN... . 'Song and Danes Man' with Walter Gilbert, Charles D. Brown 60 Mins. LUX (Lever Bros.) Monday, 9 P. M. WABC, New York fj'.. Walter Thompson) George M. Cohan did a series for Good Gulf gas a year or so ago and is in no sense a stranger, both com- mercially and on special sustainers, to the - kilocycles. This, however, was his first attempt at an hour- long radio adaptation of one of his ow'n plays and easily his most pre- tentious radio acting chore. Four decades of assorted show- manship experience stood out in the Lux performance of 'The Song and Dance Man.' Unusual indeed,. as the Lux stage director, David Gar- rick (phoney billing) pointed out, is the combination of a guest star who is also his own author and what it means to have a guy who understands both scripting and writing wasn't; hard to realize, for this session stood out among the; Lux radio productions. Cohan must have had plenty to do with the con- tinuity. If he didn't do it, his in- fluence, at rehearsal'is strongly sus- pected. It was definitely Cohan- esque... Unlike so many legit . and film Stars who come to radio, it is evi- dent that George M. devotes brain power to his broadcasting problem, tie has the showman's intelligent awareness of the conditions he must cope, with and he adapts his mate- rial • and his tempo to fit the re- quirements. He tailored his 13-year- old salute to a vaudeville porkerpo into a steadily-paced constantly- bellevable and frequently-touching radio epic. Using 'epic' advisedly! . Walter Gilbert and Charles D. Brown carried the other two chief roles , very ably. Indeed the whole production was well cast. There again Cohan's influence is suspect- ed,, as he was always devoted to a well-weighed choice of supporting players. But Cohan himself, with his customary contempt for ardu- ous self-assignments and page-long speeches, as Happy Farrell gives radio a truly memorable perform- ance. In the. coughing and chok- ing-up bits at the audition he final- ly gets the flops on, the song and dance man was acting as acting usually ain't on the radio. And when .delivering the routine about wanting moire than anything, to be a good s. and d. man, but refusing to be a bad one, the about-rto-sob reading of the lines was wailopy listening.' . Cohan hypoed the Lux. stanza. It leaped into a gallop before he was through. And he made it abundant- ly evident that any time he wants to line up a series of radio dramas it is—or. should be;—a' clear-all- tracks special. Announced as the author . of 51% plays, his own archives will supply plenty of ma- terial. Land. EDDIE DOWLING With Rav Dooley, Helen Ward, Benny Goodman's orchestra Music, comedy 30 mins. ELGIN WATCH Tuesday, 10 p.m. EST. WEAF, New York • ijf, Walter Thompson) There are some good ingredients here, but. the. mixing job as evi- denced by the'first stanza (17) n.s.g. Program does not play to over- whelming opposition from other webs, and with the right touches is in a position at this hour to reap a moderately satisfying harvest. But before the hay is hauled In, it's going to take some industrious sharpening of the sickle. Where the opening shot teetered, was on the matter of dividing the time equitably between 'three batches of talent, each of which is high-bracket stuff. In short, Good- man and his band, with Helen Ward, need ample display space, especially with Goodman's strong catering , to the ripening swing trend. Dowllng and Dooley are 'In the . same boat, necessitating- a big pond for them. The division of duties.thus is a. ticklish job which so far lias been approached with rtrepi- datidn. Production is doubly hard because there are no lesser .lights among the performers who could be used simply as pace dividers and breaker's. Goodman's account of himself was peppy, and yet suave. He's got. what it takes when it comes.to serving up piping hot rhythms. One number consisted of a swing trio (clarinet, piano and drums) going to work on a sizzling number with'a frenz 1- that couldn't help but sock. Goodman, for the rest of the stanza, had plenty of stretch In which to perform. ITolen Ward, warbling once with the band, passed her entrance require- ments. .. DowHn^'s m.r.'Ing proved smooth enough, although it was particularly the close of the program that showed him to best advantage. Ditto for Rac Dooley. Early in the stanza both of them tried to jab in little two-line gags that faltered for lack of room, and some of the gags were pretty cheesy, in the homestretch, however, a chance to unlimber proved more advantageous,. Rearrangement could feasibly be' made where thev would be moved out of some of their-cramped quar- ters. The two-line gag stuff just' BENNY Fl Songs 1 COLGATE-PALMOLIVE-PEET Saturday, 8 p.m. WABC, New York (Benton & Bowles) For the* past month a Broadway bestseller story has been 'The Strange Case of Benny Fields.' This Is the,story of the peculiar quirks of fortune that befell an experienced graduate of big-time vaudeville who Is suddenly 'discovered' by a street that-knew him by sight, name and performance for 20 years and by an advertising industry that, with characteristic program short-sight- edness, would not buy him when he could have been had cheap,-but waited to pay larger fees when other people's enthusiasm convinced the self-doubting judgment of the Madison Avenue kind of showman' ship. So. now Benny Fields is on the Palmollve idea of the 'Ziegfeld Follies.' Every Saturday at eight for the next two months at least he Is set to give radio a bombardment of the type of songs he has ; beeh singing for two decades. And which is now suddenly and Incredibly called 'hew.'. Fields has been broad- casting Intermittently since 1931 with his wife, Blossom Seeley, her- self a queen of rhythm and as plausible a candidate for 'discovery': (if that's the vogue nowadays) as her team-mate. Among their air ap- pearances were guest spots on the Fleischmann Yeast varieties. ... Oct. 27, 1931, Variety, reviewing Seely and Fields on WGN, Chicago, wrote: 'What they do to a number , is not simply to croon it or render it softly and sweetly. They build a. sons into a miniature produc- tion. They make a story out of it. That is something radio, should embroider its call letters into. Anything that can bring.a new twist or an enhanced tech- nique to radio entertainment ought to be- given sober con- sideration. Fields' baritone ob- bligato to Miss Seely's heated melody Is abundantly persua- sive.' Fields sang-four songs on the Ben- ton & Bowles program Saturday night. ' Sang, them with the assur- ance and ease and sock that no newcomer, however talented, ever quite has. In the smooth blending of. continuity, and lyrics, and in the fullsome round intestinal baritone richness of the voice, it was old stuff suddenly become hot stuff. And for once the studio , audience .reac- tion in' its hand-to-hand music sounded real and spontaneous, and not : staged. Fields who used a megaphone for hot singing before Rudy Vallee left Yale and who was boo-boo-ba-doo- ihg while Bing Crosby was a school hoy. in Spokane is working along lines even somewhat, unique for himself. He evidently and perhaps wisely wishes to sidestep any grounds for* comparison with younger but better known person ages. Benton "..& ' Bowies gave him a strong Continuity buildup. Perhaps too. strong as such buildups often work in reverse ratio. Fields can and did make good on the puff stuff but that still doesn't lessen the probable soundness of not gushihg- it-up too heavily. Land. ALEXANDER KIRK LAND, REED BROWN, JR. Dramatic 15 Mins. FLEISCHMANN Thursday, 8 P.M., EST WEAF, New York (J. Walter Thompson) Two topflight legit juves, Kirk- land and Brown, Jr., were hurriedly drafted to take the place of Rich- ard Barthelmess for the sketch portion of the Rudy Vallee broad- cast. The short notice given them to select and rehearse a script is probably the chief reason for the negative results achieved. Sketch concerneU a famous aerial explorer and his brother, the former a coward and the latter, who pilots the plane, disgruntled because his blood, relative gets all the credit for doing nothing. The windup re- sults in the . killing of the pilot by the alleged -explorer after they had been grounded in the Arctic wastes, with the murderer explaining later that his brother had gone insane and killed himself. There was little suspense in the 16-minute vehicle and Alexander and Brown, though able actors; could not bring it up to scratch. One of the longest sketches ever presented bn the Fleischmann pro- gram, It was also one of the dullest. Scti<o. doesn't click.. Dowling could also take tucks in his sugary lines in places. This is heard on radio by people listening in small groups and doesn't register as in'theatres. Miss Dooley's precocious child routine is an ace card, and is played with just the right touch of sophisti- cation to match Goodman's ad- vanced form of strumming. Combo has okay personality, but couldn't completely find Itself in several of those snippy time bits. Edga. Mary Aloi has returned to WSYR (Syracuse) after a siege of the measles. CANADIAN HOCKEY BROAD- CAST With Foster Hewitt, Gordon Sin- clair,. Roland Besudry, .Louise King/ Beau Summers, Jimmie Shields, Carroll Lucas orchestra Hockey, Music, Songs, Talk GENERAL MOTORS OF CANADA Saturday, 9 p.m. Till Fi ish of Game CFRB, Toronto (MacLaren) General Motors hockey broadcast Saturday (21) marked the end of the fifth season for this largest hookup commercial in Canada; 39 stations . from ' coast to coast. A' third of the fan mall comes from the U. S. Set-'up is Unique in that it is a two-language proposition for these National Hockey League play-offs for the world's championship, if teams are .-"playing in Montreal, broadcast goes put in English arid in French simultaneously; if game is being held in New York, Boston, Chicago- or Detroit, broadcast 'is picked up in the Montreal studio and then translated into French and piped to the seven stations covers ing Pr.ench-speaklng areas in Canada. Game in French, is only about a minute behind the English broadcast which goes to 32 stations across Canada. Foster Hewitt does the. actual broadcasts other than in Montreal, where he and Roland Beaudry broadcast from ..the same booth simultaneously, Hewitt in English and ,Reaudry. in French. Both are tops on play-by-play recital and- enjoy a heavy following. It is Beaudry who translates Hewitt's running story into French for the out-of-Montreal games. When play is held up. owing to injuries -or" Hewitt becomes a little incoherent with excitement; the glib tongue of Gordon Sinclair takes up. \ Some- times he .has a wire rigged-, up in the dressing rooms ■ or gives per- sonality spiels on the players. Sin* clair has also' been using guest- stars this season. Worth mentioning that the guest- stars have to be a bit of a steeple- jack as : gondola-booth is up in the rafters over centre ice, George Raft and Little. Jack Little were among the guest-stars who quit cold when they saw the climb ahead. They were interviewed in the con- trol room, Season's cost to General Motors is about $200,000, or -just under $5,000 a broadcast, this mostly for land wires. 'Hewitt has. been an- nouncing for five, years. This is Sinclair's first season oh this com- mercial since his return from Ethi- opia.. In addition to using the largest hook-up of any Canadian ether advertiser, GM broadcasts are probably the . most popular special -stunt here.- First year they used CFRB, Toronto, only; second.year used five Ontario stations; third year 51 stations, but latterly cut down to 39 to save duplication and costs. Present set-up gives a com- prehensive coverage of Canada plus seepage over the U. S. air-waves. Fan mall from America is heavy. Another peculiarity is that the broadcast is for the duration of the game and usually runs well past the hour. At one game in Toronto iri '34, for instance, the game started at' 8:30 and continued until 3:29 a.m. until the tie was broken by the Maple Leafs slipping one past Bos- ton. Pro"rra*n th's season is also using Jimmie Shields and Louise King, singers; also Carroll Lucas and a 33-piece band, latter getting $400 per broadcast. Rights for each game in Toronto puts $500 into the Maple Leaf Gardens treasury. Land wire charges approximate $4,000 per broadcast. In other seasons, as henchmen to Hewitt have been Bobby Hewitson, 'Toronto Tele- gram' sports writer;- John Holden, actor , who knew nothing about hockey; Gordon Castle; ..John Por- ter, captain of the Canadian team which won the hockey champion- sMn )h the '28 Olvmplc Games. Foster and Sinclair' broadcast from the Gardens; singers and or- chestra from CFRB, Toronto, dur- ing . game intermissions. Beau Summers is m.C. Stay.}.' THYRA SAMTER WINSLOW Talk 15 Mins. WOMEN'S PLACE Mon., 9:30 a. rri. EST WABC, New York Thyra Samter Winslow, novelist, is a new CBS talker on Monday mornings, with material aimed primarily at women listeners. Her hand at sifting news-gl§anings is apparent in the variety assembled at this hearing. Copy started with' a good samaritan tang, discussed, front-page visitors, dipped into the current 'Ziegfeld Follies' production, and folded with a Lenten diet menu* Opening bit was the weakest, con- cerning doing that good deed regu- larly. Otherwise it's smooth. A homey hour, smacking of a typical ladies home journal idea. Miss Win- slow's radio voice relays well. Br SONGWRITERS' OPPORTUNITY CONTEST <•. „ With Joseph E, q \ t Singer ' Songs, Talk 30 Mins. Sustaining Sun.,"" 1:30 p. m. WMCA, New York' .Difference, between this se-ss-k, and the one that Pat Ballard is con- ducting on WOR. New York, is that the contest angle at WMCA has several branches and the eveni la marked, by considerably more show- manship. Direction of the WMCA program is shared between Joseph E. Howard, who has written a raft of successful ballads, and Dolf Singer, who has but one hit to his credit but has authored considerable stag stuff. Pending the arrival of a sponsor with prize money, the pair are seeking to work up amateur song writers, by offering to put the best lyrics submitted to music or to write a lyric around the best title;. . Between these two task? Howard relates hbw he came to write some of his lilts and Singer engages in crossfire arid puns, some of which are good and others not. The duo are inclined to over-kid the stuff submitted. Even though most of it is brutal there is a chance of this policy frightening off the more timid would-be songsmlths. Without these sophomoric contributions the reason for the program would run thin. An example: of the incoming titles that the duo have to contend with is 'They're Trying to Put Too Much Red in the Red. White and Blue, but Our Flag Doesn't Need a. Transfusion,' And around this they actually built a lyric. Occasionally a submitted lyric lends itself to melody confection, but fruits forthcoming so far indi- cate that the odds against a sal- able article are at least 5,000 to 1. The tune that Howard thinks has commercial possibilities is to be turned over to the E. B. Marks Music Publishing Co., with the amateur lyric writer getting 600 copies for himself and a contract giving him a third interest in all royalties that might be brought by the song. Amateur lyrics as melodized by Howard get. their airing, by. singers regularly Connected with WMCA, with the latters' treatment fre- quently covering the defects of the written wares. Proceedings could be perked 'up somewhat by having, the origin of one of Howard's songs dramatized in brief but pointed fashion and by eliminating Singer^ 6plash *ot Joe Millers at the fore-' part of the program. Stanza offers, good merchandising possibilities. Odec. Bill Perkins is back at WFBL (Syracuse) after recurring trouble from a fishbone which caught in his throat while vacationing at At- lantic City last summer. It finally sent him back to a Philadelphia hospital for surgical attention. No ir on. i_ ' tourI IV ABC 9;30 P.M. EST Wednesdays COCA-COLA X EXCLUSIVE MANAGEMENT ROCKWELL-O'KEEFE INC. WILLIAM MORRIS AGENCY * 9° Bermudiana. Bermuda NBC Dccca Record* V 0 E X C l U b i Vr MANAGEMENT ROCKWELL - O'KEEFE INC. EXCLUSIVE MANAGEMENT; ROCKWELL-O'KEEFE I.N.Q.j ALEX HYDE musical director WHN new york