Variety (Aug 1939)

32 VARIETY Weducsdajt August 23, 1939 VHF. FOVR STAR NEWS IVith Graliam MacNamee, H. K. Baukhaee, Bill Stern, Nola Lux- ford IS Mins. Palmer Bros. Matresscs Sun, 5:15 p.m. V/JZ, NBC-Blue, N. T. ■ fTuckcr Wayne & Co.). Tdea t^chind this newly sponsored newscast evidently is to present the four most popular features of a daily zittwspaper within 15 minutes. That's crowding a lot into small space, with the result that the tee-off broadMst iiO) was dull and uninspired for the major part of its air period. Graham MacNamee m.c.s and pre- sents general news; Baukhage ema- nates from Washington with news of the Capitol and international aiTairs: Nola Luxford presents the women's angle in the headlines, while Bill Stern is on sports. Program got a rather dull start from MacNamee; he told about Sat- urday's (19) rainstorm, forest fires and the milk strike in sing-song fashion. There was absolutely no spark in his chatter, though it may be the sponsor's (mattresses), idea not to awaken anybody. Baukliage detailing Washington's reaction to the mounting crisis in Europe, picked up the pace considerably. An experi- enced (Capitol journalist (he was for- merly one of the editors of the United States News), Baukhage has also had considerable experience on local radio as a news commentator. He's something on the order of H. V. Kaltenborn, though side-stepping any over-dramatics. Pace dropped again with Nola Luxford, who spouted some gush about Mary Pickford . and Buddy Rogers; the marriage of Brian Aherne and Joan Fontaine, and the nuptials of Tai-zan' Weismuller. It sounded like so much balderdash coming after Baukhage's dissertation on the seriousness of Europe's affairs. She was on a General Motors radio fash- ion show a few years ago. Bill Stern's staccato sports talk, taken up chiefly with baseball scores, gave the program a comparatively fast windup. It sounded like ma- chine-gun fire in a still night. ' With three commercials spotted, program is too heavy on sponsor- plugging. All the comforts and prices of the mattresses are extolled. II it continues as is, the program will undoubtedly be well-slept, Seho. A.SK-IT-n.\SKKT' Wllh Jim McVVilliaros MIns., Thurs., H p.m. EDST COLGATE DENTAL W.\BC-CBS, New York . CBciiIoii & Bowles) This is a return*.r for Jim ^.'cWil- liams with his ac.idemic style of quiz show, olTering the same $25, $10 and S5 prizes to three of the four contestants, and the 'class' (studio udleiice) chiming in with the cor- rect answers when one of the com- petitors falls down. Now of familiar pattern, the re- turn of the Colgate Dental show to the air for another semester is sus- ined only by the ni.c.'s profession- ally good-humored spieling, plus, of course, just how the sales graphs terprol the show's popularity. Ap- jarcntly the results in the past have jccn good, because the entire CBS eb o( 61. stations, including eight om the Rockies to the Pacific, are linked up for the McWilliams show. Considering the $50 cash outlay and the- free toothpaste to those hose questions are used, it's a cheauie for the sponsor that un- doubtedly gets extra-value results for such modest investment. McWilliams' returner'was marked by (1) an unusually colorless quar- tet of contestants; two femme and two male, and (21. by what is a de- parture for this type of m.c.ing— the mild ribbing of the machinist- contestant's pronunciation of 'foist.' There have been occasions oh audi- ence shows when moronic mikesters ere even wider open for a nifty om m.c.s who refrained, however, .<:o this emphasis on the 'foist' could have been overlooked. In the Q. and A. cycle, McWil- liams. a veteran of the varieties, might start thinking up a little switcheroo on the formula. It's now pretty stylized. The idea of the ask-it-basket is no longer new, and pro[cs."!.lon3Uy warm manner of shepherding the show isn't quite enou.Qh. The commercial plugs are held In reasonable restraint. .Abel. JESSICA DBAGONETTE Songs 39 Mins. Thursday 8 p.m. WJZ^NBC, New-Xork Away from radio for some time on a concert' tour, Jessica Dragon- ette returned on a 'Welcome Jessica' airing which included short congrat- ulatory talks by Lenox Lohr, prez of NBC, and Orrin Dunlap, radio editor of the New York Times. Gra- ham MacNamee m. c.'d and Harold Sanford, NBC conductor, directed a house band. It was a one-time pro- motional ihot. Program proved a llstenable half' hour, teed oft by a classical selec tioii directed by Sanford. Miss Dragonette covered a nice range in good voice, using 'I Poured My Heart Into a Song.' 'I Dream Too Much' and 'Can't You Hear Me Calling, Caroline,' latter augmented by a choral background: Lohr and Dunlap didn't take too miich time, the former expressing his pleasure at Miss Cragonette's return and Dunlap telling of her early radio days and the reason for her layoff, MacNamee's comment was adequate. 'THE bORDEN MURDERS' With Beatrix Lehmann, Flnlay Cur- rle, Thelma Paige, Esmee Gnllan, Bryan Herbert, Jack Lester, Helen Henschel and Sydney Keltb Dramatic Reconstruction 40 Mins. Thursday, 9:30 p.m. BBC, London Never-solved mystery of the brutal killina ct Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Bor den at Fall River, Mass., in 1892. was served up from the original evidence sheets, neatly reconstructing the events that preceded the murders and the investigation that followed Alwyn Whatsley's script was neither play nnr olain narrative, but Intro duced the main characters of the at fair, though mixino the cross-exami nations to give continuity and un fold the sequence of events. This way it made grioDlng dramatic en tcrtainment. and allowed the listen er to do what the jury was unable to—»in the guilt with reasonable certainty. Conviction and sincerity ■ of the pro.iram was greatly aided by the studied acting of Beatrix* Lehmann as Lizzie Borden, centrepiece of the notorious tragedy.. The circum stance of her long. Interrogations was given almost rhythmic intensity by a simple ohrase of 'No, sir,' re peated ana'm and again in a delib erate tone In answer to her per sistent examiner. Esmee GuUan. character as the Irish serving woman, scored many points, and the diction of Jack. Lester as the qu' 7.SV well conveved the untiring de termination of the law to orobe the affair to its depth.. An introduction and <!umminc wo, together with con nectin" remarks, were handled wi' (•"onomv of words by Rupert Op'i'd. but the nattern of onestion purl ,-in<;w°>- it«elf develooed its own of the occurrence for the listener. D'ARTEGA Ml'SIC With Jimmy Shield.'^, the Norsemen, Rosamond Ame» Band, Sonps IS Mins. ENNA JETTICK SHOE;} Sun., 5 p.m. WEAF-NBC, New York (Marschalk & PraM) Enna Jettick tested out tlii.i com- bination, phis Bud Hulick as m.c. as a half hour program on WABC. CBS N. Y. key, last season for 13 weeks. The setup as it now stands is much more compact and makes a pleasant quarter-hour of entertainment of a late Sunday afternoon. It's packed with a well-chosen assortment of current melodies and sells itself ef- fectively all along the line. This in- cludes the brief sales palaver of the stanza's shoe stylist, Ro$aniond Ames. D'Artega's outstandini? arrange- ment for the occasion w.ns framed arolind 'Sunrise Serenade.' while Jimmy Shields, one of the better romantic tenors on the networks, lent much femme ap|)eal to the show by way of 'I Poured My Heart Into a Song' and 'Only a Rose.' The Norsemen (4) joined the bnnd for other current pun,, tunes and helped fade out the program with a hymn, 'Abide with Me." Enna Jettick has a hookup of 80- odd stations for this one. Odcc. STRANGE AS IT SEEMS' Variety Novelty ~:0 Mins., Thurs.. 8:S0 p.m, EDST PALMOLIVE SHAVE WABC-CBS. New York (Benton & Bowles) John Hix's 'Strange ias It Seems' has a better chance on the air than his N. Y. World's Fair sideshow has been doing. It may even par Hix's vogue in his syndicated cartoon strip and via his shorts. The potentiali- ties are there. Fertility of material alone will restrict it. Sample of this was evidenced at its Thursday night (17) premiere, a ipotty proceedin.e. The Paul Revere dramalet was a shade too static; Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Wright's talking sound effects from Hollywood (which Walt Disney recentlv took over, after the son of Harold Bell Weight first debuted it on an NBC sus- tainer) was better; the dead man who piloted his plane back behind th^ French lines was also somewhat of a letdown; and the linking of Haley's comet with the birth and death of Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) picked it un again. As the title implies, its gamut Is elastic. The ghost story formula seems to be most dominant, how- ever, for no other reason, perhaps, than that the mike technique best encourages sucli melodramatic dis- coursing. That should be switched. Pithier and saltier sidelights should punc- tuate it. There ^re plenty of Hixims that could lend themselves to proper nterruption of the tempo. "The nlanting of the oddity about the ex- tent of gold-per-person is an illus- tration, with the answer coming as a finale topoer. Show pattern is replete with pos sibilities. combining the educational, melodramatic and novel with the eerie and the metaphysical. Those arc t^nough elements to insure audi- ence appeal for enough listeners, Worst shortcoming were those commercial plu?s for Palmolive brushless and shaving cream. Alois Havrilla .<:picls the oroceedings and save for livc-talent interrupters, like the Gilbert Whites from the Coast, the rest are stock dramatic people Incidentally, perhaps what enhanced the Whites, apart from their genuine basic novelty, was tne brief but wel- come ch.Tnire of pace with some music. Otherwise the half-hour show is solid g.nb. Abel. Judy Talbot, now regularly on WCN-Mutual wires, and particularly on the 'Your Sunday Date' show, is showing reitiarkable. improvement. Formerly a rather thin-lonsilled canary, she now evidences newly tuned pipes that are several tones lo'.'er than her previous pitch. In- stead of sticking to strictly rhythm and boop-a-doop songs. Miss Talbot has twitched to the bett - musical comedy numbers and i- performing them with a surencss of toite and a firm quality. TUNE-UP TIME' With Tony Martin, Kiy Thompson Rhythm Singers, Djivid Lau'hiin, Andre Kostelanetz Orchestra, Oan Seymour (announcer) Musical 30 Mins. ETHYL GASOLINE Monday, 8 p.m. WABC-CBS. New York (B. B. D. A- O.) Returning after a short summer layoff (21), this stanza has made m.c. roohi for Tony Martin and also allots him some singing chores. Mar- tin's singing is on the right side of the ledger, but his verbal stint is strictly wasted time. HnopLi about always wanting to siiii; with Kostela- netz, and the coy references to the sponsor, are the kind of thing that the gals who dish up cooking recipes during the daytime specialize in. For a show of this calibre, the jabber' is a drawback. Martin's position as . \.c. is none too enviable at that. Kostelanetz is silent throughout (when he.does get in a rai'e word here and there the accenns a- tittlercumtstfl'SOjttffi. David Laughlin, a new tenor, sings one number quickly and is off. That leaves Martin talking to Kay Thomp- son,- or to-Dan Seymour (who imme- diately lets go a sales blast), or to himself. Maybe the m.c. part of it had best be forgotten. . As a sinijer, however, Martin has poise and fine delivery. He nts into this end best. The m.c. business is makeshift and, therefore, largely pointless. . . Kostelanetz's music is pretty much under wraps, if. the o"enins stanza is to be a fair sample of what's to follow. That's sonxewhat unfortu- nate, too. There's altogether too much singing, with the Thompson aggregation, or Martin, or Laughlin chiming In continually. Kostelanetz really had only one chance—on' Ravel's 'Bolero' — and when -the studio audience spotted it they broke into cheers. That should be a cue. While Kostelanetz's style no longer is the novelty it once was, it never- theless is grade A wtrlcmanship and as such deserves elbow room. Any house band can rip out simple back- ground music. As a whole the program has fine Ingredients, but i>oor production evaluations are making it a hybrid. Let Martin sing, not read boilerplate, and let Kostelanetz play, and not simply hammer out chords for back- grouiid. That's standard, but at least not hodge-podge. Edga. Bea 'Wain slipped into the Lucky Strike Hit Parade Saturday night 19), neatly handling her two as- signments. She's a happy addition to- the program, contrasting nicely with the voices of Lanny Ross and the Merry Macs (4). However, she could conceivably be used more often than the two numbers she ated on this airing. Did the open- er 'Over the Rainbow' and 'Stairway to the. Stars' near the finale, both adaptable to her style, Lanny Ross and the Macs, backed by the exceptional arrangenients of the Mark Warnow-dircctcd studio orchestra, got ovei- in their usual swell style. Ross did the No. 1 tune for the week, 'Moon Love.' Macs socked home 'Beer Barrel' . and Hand lAe Down My Walking Cano' latter weaved in as relief from the popular stiifl;. Announcer on the show had a particularly bad time, tripping himself often. It was one of those nights for hun. Europe is hovering on the brink of war and America still has 10,1)00,- 000 people unemployed, but these two stark circumstances have ap- parently not lessened in the least the predilection of many U. S. citi- zens to work themselves into a lather over an Issue wlilch involves tradition. Deferring to-' the wishes of department store operators, 'President Roosevelt has announced that he Is thinking of proclaiming Nov, -23 as Thanksgiving Dav in- stead of Nov. 30. and WOR, Newark, last Friday night (18) invited per- sons with conflicling points of view on the proposal to speak uo. They did, for IS minutes. The av.ifumcnts stressed the economic angle, rather than the traditional. A housewife said the change was okay with her because it would give the family more time tu cat up the THYRA SAMTEB WINSLOW Commentator 13 Mins. Sustaining Tues.-Wed.-Frl.. 11:13 a.m. WOR, New York Thyra Samter Winslow's cosmo- politan background as a writer is a promising buildup to this thrice- weekly sustainer. Ostensibly a pro- gram for comments of notable inter- est to 'women, Miss Winslow's initialer yesterday (Tuesday) morn- ing was a rambling, meaningless talk that only sketched her major premise. She ran the gamut of topics, from the kitchen to discussion of 'Wizard of Oz' (M-G ), which opened at the Capitol, w. Y,. Thursday (17), In line with the careles.sly prepared pro gram. Miss Winslpw mentioned, the oicture as opening at the Cap on 'Monday.' Slie invites listeners to write her suggesiing topics for discussion.- BREEZING ALONG With Vicky Colamario, Melody MeO; Vic Campbell, Gordie iUndall's Band 30 Mins.; Local Sustaining WGY, Schenectady 'Breezing Along' dijes th3l fairly well for. a summer show and with a limited hudget and warmup. Occa slonally splutters or fails to mesh perfectly, but on the whole program moves with acceleration. Members of Randall's house orchestra have in dividual innings. Randall even join in punchline warbling, a la Lou Holtz's 'O Sole Mio' on Vallce Hour. Campl>ell writes, produces and em cees the show, although on one shot heard Announcer Al Gill (Zink) paced .it zippily . One quirk for which li.ileneF?-may not particularly care is the 'comedy by an Irish 'philosopher.* He's the usual brogue-affecting stage Irish man with a bunch of old, elemental jokes and stories. No one has clicked as an Irish comic, in American radio, this one probably will not break the rule. Miss Colamario. a WGY standard pops nicely s/ilh the band. Melody Men harmonize smoothly. Could fill a bigger spot. Instrumental 'com ment,' to recitation of strange facts by Campbell, is a mild novelty Campbell 'translates', the musical talk, sometimes necessarily. Randall's smaller unit gets in hot lid:;. His is a capable outfit, considering many types of music it play:;. . C:impbo!l emcees competently, Jaco Follow-Up Comment DINAH SHORE Songs 15 Mins. Sustaining Thurs., 6:16 p.m. WJZ-NBC, New York Dinah Shore ranks with the best vocalists broadcasting has to offer. ■Voice is imbued with warmth and flexibility which is coupled to an appealing, distinctive style and good arrangements. Enunciation al.so rates, it being clear even in the speediest tempos. She covers 6 wide range, too. When caught she handled 'Apple for the Teacher,' 'Middle of a Dream,' Melancholy Mood' and 'Especially for You,' all well done. Orchestral background contributes much to the solid impression. House band and singer work together smoothly and the band, stood out solo on 'Alone Together' this airing. NOAH'S ARK' Parlor Game 30 Mins. Sunday, 7:20 p.m. BBC, London Popular feature in English Sunday programs is the type of parlor game In which listeners can take part A ide.j Thanksgiving Day leftovers turkey jobber was against the „ beaause turkey growers required a.< much cool weather as poiisible for the gobblers to fatten up; thev don't eat so heartily or. take on weight in warm weather, A calendar manufac- turer decried the possible rejection of 250,000,000 calendar pads for 1940 because of the. shift in dates. A de- partment store executive slated that it was the greatest thing ever jfor hi.s held, because it would allow for an extra week of Christmas shoppinc A cranberry grov/er said that auv date would be all right with him ai long as people ate lots of cranber- ries. Stan Lomax, WOR sports com- mentator, wound up the cliinfcst bir relatmg What effect the change in date might have on 'he bo.xoffice of eoUege football. Erin O'Brieiii Moore, newcomer to the cast of 'John's Other Wife,' BiS,)- Dol's standby serial on NBC, has bQen shouldered with one of those sustained emotional roles and her initial appearances have disclosed a close adeptness for the assigninenL Miss Moore, receiving feature bill- ing, plays the wife of John's brother, Rodger. In this serial something disturbing-to the characters is con- stantly happening; somebody is al- ways beset by complications. If the cause isn't a woman, it's something not far removed. The serial kceit.s itself wrapped with • vicarions ex- citement for the housewife. Clarienre Buddington Kelland, on 'Information Please' due to illness ot Clifton Fadiman, did fair to middlini; after a slow^ awkward start. Kel- land, who previously guested as an c.\pert, has an older, more querulous voice than Fadiman; also lac',>s the latter's glib, quick smoothness. It was obvious that matter of time and signals had the novelist a little flus- tered. Kelland threw In several, odd- sounding noises that seemed to ba a combination of a sigh and a grunt. He was not without wit, although it tended to be.caustic.. As when he retorted to- Christopher - Morley, 'I would, hate to hear her second be.it loke.' Morley, Incidentally, deliv- ered well during half hour. Ha possesses the combination of know!-- edge, flippancy and brashness thiil: enable the 'regulars* to register. AI^• pai-ently he was the one who termed, a question 'lousy.' Losses amounted to $50-^hich foe the program. Fadiman was due tu return last night (Tuesday). Georga S. Kaufman substituted for hiui once before. 'Adventure ot the 13tb Club' wan presented Sunday night (20) as the loth of. a series of weekly mystery dramas, pivoted around Ellery Queen, 'gentleman detective,' a type similar to that of-the "Thin Man.' Guest-participation is included in tha program, with each Sunday finding a quartet of persons who, according to the program, are notably repre- sentative of their fields. Sunda.7 night the quartet consisted ot pho- tography experts:.Margaret Bourke- White. of Life mag, and wife of Er.-i- kine Caldwell, the novelisj,; Harry easier, picture editor of thVj^- Herald Tribune; James W. Craylipn, news editor, Associated Press PMto Service, and Dan Doherty, Fok Movietone news editor. They were supposed to solve the mystery, fol- lowing the. dramatization, from the clues given them, but all failed. Yarn had for its setting a Broad- way honky tonk, and a grue.'some murder of a tiny freak woman. Pro- gram was so fantastic that it ap- proached downright silliness. Queen did as well as may be.expected with "uH^^"u ^'^t i^''^"'"''^^'^' *?^»ie trite theme, ably bssisted by l''„Vc'=^A'I!^f„^^'l^^nf?MTn".^.1»;4»^ Manan Shockley and the rest of the ants, passed on to general knowledse ^ production far exceeded tlie tests, and has now fetched up with ^r:' an idea of strong, novelty value that' '' made nice entertainment. It's a gag that can't be repeated often but It might be developed in other directions ad infinitum. BBC got into the studio ei'^ht volun- teers, none of whom knew what he or she was to face. Men lined up against women, and object of the contest was first to make the noise of any animal named by ^he emcee, then to give the collective noun for groups of fauna, thirdly to recite a .stanza dealing with a selected beast, and last to, sing a snatch of. song on the same lines. Efforts of competi- tors to simulate noi°es of lions. H. V. Kaltenborn's broadcast fwm Paris Sunday night (20) over CBS may have had a ."disappointing edge for many listeners, even though it was highly enlightening and rated as one of his most significant programs / "^ since the Munich pact. Kaltenborn had for more than two weeics been floating around .England and France, interviewing the two country's po- litical bigwigs and publicists and. it was natural to assume that lii.s broadcast of last Sunday would con - tain some thread of personal opinion on the outlook of war or peacH. What the program amounted to. elephants, gibbons and such snecies aside from the hearty blackslappi"« provoked many laughs, but players; it gave the French, was a case of were not without their buttons,, as; nimbly sidestepning what his listen- instance the one who, when asked to. ers wanted to know, to wit, did it make the noise ot a giraffe, coun-1 look like war? Kaltenborn stres.scii tered by declaring he didn't know. the circumstance that, in contrast giraffes made arty noise at all. They; with his last year's visit, the French don t. were letting him speak without Collective nouns also yielded some benefit of censorship or supervision, wild Imaginative guessing, and fun 1 He described the feeling ot con- really warmed up when victims '. fldence that prevailed among French struggled to think up animal poems. I statesmen; ouoted them as declaring or, more of an ordeal still, to chant j that there would be no new Munich snatches of appropriate songs. Some pact or Nazi appeasement, and said attempts, were very gallantly made,! that he was assured by the.se cohiiiet notwithstanding, and some very rcr | ministers that France will fight if mote classical allusions surprisingly, Poland becomes Involved in a war pulled out by contestants. | with Germany. He added that the . Pace of the show was welt held; French have an'advantage over tlic up by^ emcee Freddie Gri.sewood. | British in that thj former hove, ul- who jockeyed his pla.vers along! ready fully digested the idea of w-iv nicely as well as introducing osides and were not in a mood of great do - for audience benefit. Neil Munroj orehension as was-the situation i' also rates for balanced presentation.' England.