Variety (Jan 1940)

88 RADIO Thirty-fourth VARIETY Anniversary Wednesday, January 3, 1940 ARE EDUCATORS BUM SHOWMEN? I need not say that the intriguing title of this article is not of my se- lecting, but its import will hardly escape any possible reader. It is sometimes said that you can- not, indict an entire nation and the same thing is true of the genus edu- cator—a word, by the way, which I greatly detest. There ^re tens of thousands of these persons, both male and female, abroad in the land. Some of them have a very shrewd feeling for effective publicity methods, some are highly successful self-advertisers; others are remote, aloof, futile, and uninterested in publicity stunts. All they want is to be let alone to do theif jobs or to* follow their hoobies in peace. When one of the latter variety is called upon to gain public notice and promote some educational interest, he is apt to be pathetically inept. But what are the ends for which an 'educator' may naturally seek publicity? I fear it must be admitted that • for a few of these gentry the first personal pronoun embodies the al- pha and omega of the alphabet with ' which they are predominantly con-1 cerned. In this they are like all the other thousands of self-seeking in- dividuals, save that they exploit to their own purposes the institutions with which they chance to be con- nected. Here, for example, is an ambitious young college instructor with a strong exhibitionist complex, who leaps at the first opportunity to make B violent radical speech at . some po- litical rally. He is referred to by the press as 'Professor X of Win- throp College.' This gives the pub- lic the impression that he represents the views of this possibly venerable and reputable institution—which he does not. It also confers upon him the title of professor, one which he may never actually attain and one which he certainly will not gain for many a long year. From the point of view of the ^■auth in question this may be ex- cellent showmanship, but only if he wishes to get out of college life into some other form of activity. The College he serves is not keen to be thus gratuitously drawn into the cir- cle of acrimonious controversy, nor to be credited with having among its professors an undistinguished and irresponsible stripling who could get no hearing for anything he said were he not connected with the staff of the institution he misrepresents. So it just depends what you are after whether this sort of thing is 'bum' showmanship or good. Fortunately, the number of persons of this type Is never very large in college cir- cles. The educational executive who needs to publicize his institution may and does resort to various de- vices. An increasing amount of so- called institutional advertising is nowadays in evidence. Circiilars, k; often with illustrations that rival K the advertisements of summer re- W; sorts, newspaper and magazine ar- tides ftxploiting the institution and the author, public ceremonials into which eminent names can be intro- duced, radio deliverances of various &^ds, all these and innumerable other devices are employed. No trick of proved efficacy is over, looked, and addresses by the execu- tive on important occasions are wel comed as affording inexpensive pub licity of great value. Conservative and well-established Institutions look askance upon much of this kind of thing and some col lege presidents will not even give Interviews to reporters. This pro cedure may itself have a certain publicity value. At all events, I can testify from experience to the fact that while it may not provoke a very friendly attitude in newspaper of- fices, it saves a great many head- aches ahd measurably protects the executive from incessant newspaper telephone assault, by day and by night, much of it cbncerned with trivial rumors from which the predatory reporter hopes to concoct a sensational story possibly of front page value. -' In the radio fraternity the feeling has been all but universal that edu- cational folk have only the remotest appreciation of what constitutes an effective broadcast and insofar as broadcasting involves showmanship, either for the speaker or for the in- stitution he represents, the scholar has been given a very low rating by trie radio experts. This unflattering Judgment is probably in most cases quite justified, although many edu- cational people would regard the opinion as in fact highly compli- mentary for they entertain a pro By JAMES R. AISGELL (.Educational Counselor, NBC. Former President, Yole University.) they identify with radio, One wide- ly known American university presi- dent, for example, has repeatedly stated, both. publicly and privately, that the typical radio program is tripe. Of course, some persons like tripe, but the remark in question was not intended to be commenda- tory. Despite the fine musical programs, the informative news releases, the admirable speeches and discussions which the radio offers, to say noth- ing of dozens of other highly' valu- able services, the tone of the radio is still in the minds of teachers all too- of ten associated with inusty and shop-worn vaudeville jokes, with silly and sometimes offensive .dra- matic sketches, and invariably with what they consider the endless ob- jectionable advertising. There is, I think, a considerable gulf set between the publicity stand- ards which at least the leaders of our educational world regard as con^patible with the dignity of the institutions they serve, and those which are generally prevalent in the press and in radio. I would not for a moment maintain that this dis- tinction is absolute, for there are many varieties of men and institu- tions in educational work, and the press and the radio in their sphere each present widely differing ideals and practices in their representa- tives. Nevertheless, the point I am making has real substance and it accounts in large part for the fact that our American' advertising fra- ternity appears often to regard the 'educator' as a 'bum' advertiser. My own impression is that the validity of this judgment rests almost entire- ly upon one's conception of the proper aims of advertising, and es- pecially the justifiable aims and methods of all educational publicity. There are some poor performers in every profession, but I think that in general the educational brethren know and handle their job with a high degree of wisdom and intelli- gence. SOME TELEVISION 'HRSTS' as compiled hy JOSEPH N. KANE BIGGEST HOOK-UPS (of 1939) CBS Client Stations Liggett &. Myers (Whiteman).... 9B Texas Co. (Ken Murray) 96 R. J. Reynolds (Bob Cro.sby).... 92 R. J, Reynolds CBlondie') 92- Ford .82 Chrysler (Bowes) 81 Phillip Morris 80 Colgate ('Hilltop House') 77 Colgate CMyrt and Marge') 77 Sanka ('We. The People') 77 NBC Red Client Stations Jello (Benny) 99 Chesterfield (Waring) 85 Maxwell ('Good News').......,.. 85 Firestone (Wallenstien) 84 Turns (Pot O' Gold) 82 Carnels (Goodman) 81 Kraft (Bing Crosby 75 Fitch (Bandwagon) 75 Lucky Strike (Kyser) 69 Raleigh (Uncle Walter) 67 NBC Blue Client Stations Sloan's ('Youth vs. Age').... 105 Sherwln (Met Opera). 89 Alka-Seltzer (Barn Dance) 89 Bugler ('Plantation Party') 79 Canada Dry ('Info, Please'). 65 General Foods CAldrich') 64 Jergens (Winchell) .. 64 Jergens ('Parker Family') 64 Adams Hats (bouts) 61 General Foods ('Dr. Malone').... 57 Apparatus to operate any considerable distance was demonstrated April 7, 1927. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover was both seen and heard by a large group gathered in the auditorium of the Bell Telephone Lab- oratories, 463 West street, New York city. On this occasion the television systems operated over both wire and radio networks between Washington and New York city. This was the first time there was ever presented to an audience a complete radio broadcast of sound and scene. Regular programs were telecast over Station W3XK, the Jenkins Lab- oratories, Washington, D. C, on July 2, 1928, at 8 o'clock and continued for an hour every Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights on 46.72 meters (6,420 kilocycles) for distant reception and 186 meters for local receivers). Silhouettes were first broadcast Comprehensive demonstration of the possibilities of television talking picture reception in the home took glace in New York City Aug. 20, 1930, when a halt-hour program broadcast from two stations was received on screens placed in a store in the Hotel Ansonia, Broadway and 72nd street, the Hearst Building at Eighth avenue and 57th street, and at a residence at 98 Riverside Drive. On these screens appeared the images of perform' ers talking and, singing' in the studios of the Jenkins W2XCR television station at Jersey City and the DeForest W2XCD station at Passaic. The distance, approximately six miles, was the greatest transmission, and the longest completed in this country. Harry Hershfleld, cartoonist, was mas- ter of ceremonies, introducing George Jessel, Arthur (Bugs) Baer, Health Commissioner Shirley W. Wynne, Benny Rubin, Diana Seaby and other entertainers. Mutual Client SUlions Lutherans League 64 Ironized Yeast ('Good Will') 50 Lydia Pinkham' ('Experience').... 50 Wheeling Steel (amateurs) 46 Gospel Association 40 Phillies (Sam Baiter) ........ 20 Outdoor demonstration of television was held in the offices of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, New York City, on July 12, 1928. Scenes which were enacted in the open air appeared almost as plain as those taken in specially designed studios. Broadway play with its original cast was telecast June 7, 1938, by NBC and John Golden, Broadway producer, over W2XBS operating on channels of 46.6 megacycles for picture and 49.75 megacycles for associated sound. The excerpt was from Rachel Crother's comedy, 'Susan and God,' with Gertrude Lawrence, Paul McGrath and Nancy Coleman then playing at the Plymouth' theatre, New York city. Exact replicas of the play's setting were built for the broadcast. Weather map telecast from a land station to a land receiving station was sent from Radio Station NAA, Arlington, 'Va., Aug. 18,' 1926, and re^ ceived at the Weather Bureau Office, Washington, D. C. The demonstra tion was arranged by the Jenkins Laboratory, Washington, D. C. Moving picture was telecast June 13, 1925, at the laboratory of C. Fran^ cis Jenkins, Washington, D. C. The broadcast was sent out by Radio Sta tion NOF, Bellevue, D. C, and was witnessed by Secretary of the Navy Wilbur, Dr. G. K. Burgess, director of the Bureau of Standards, Stephen B. Davis, acting secretary of commerce, and others. Talking picture had its world (television) premiere as a theatre attrac- tion on a seven-foot screen at Proctor's theatre, Schenectady, N. Y., May 22, 1930. The theatre's orchestra was led by a life-size radio-television image of its conductor who, in a laboratory a few miles away, wielded his baton as he received the music of his men by telephone. Other performers contributed to the demonstration by gesture, vocal music and instrumental selections. The demonstration was arranged by Doctor E. T. W. Alexan- derson, consulting engineer of the General Electric and the Radio Cor- poration of America, to show the possibilities of television as a mode of entertainment. Mobile station for televising outdoor events was station W2XBT, con- sisting of two large- motor vans containing television control apparatus and a micro-wave transmitter was completed by the RCA Manufacturing Co., Camden, N. J., and. turned over to NBC Company on Dec. 12, 1937. The television events were, relayed to micro-wave to a tower transmitter in the Empire State Building to be rebroadcast. ' Book review May 3. 1938. Ernest Boyd reviewed Sidney A. Spencer's 'The Greatest Show on Earth,' a new work which combined photographs and text to explain the economic problems of mankind. Political campaign use of television was on October 11, 1932, when the Democratic National Committee broadcast a television show from the Columbia Broadcasting System, New York city. Unscheduled event televised as it occurred was Nov. 15, 1938, by an NBC Mobile Television Unit which focused its lens on a fire in an aban- doned barracks on Wards Island. The unit was assigned to taking pictures of a swimming pool when the fire was noticed. On another occasion, the Iconoscope recorded the falling of a girl's body from the Time, and Life building, N. Y. 'Wedding ceremony telecast, first in the history of the world, took place May 2, 1931, in the television studio of W2XCR-WGBS at 055 Fifth avenue. New York, Miss Grayce Jones was married to Frank Borie Du 'Vail, a found contempt for much of what television engineer, by Dr. A. Edwin Keigwin. Telecasting During 1939 By BOB LANDRT A question mark still hovers over American television at the end of 1939, and in England the war has locked the door until further notice. The American question mark was drawn by the Federal Comunications Commission and underlined by the nosedive of sales expectations in New York City, which did not pro- duce 500 retail buyers for television sets at asking prices and with exist- ing program service. Television's gains in 1939 were in two fields: 1. Publicity—it was even more successful than the Nazi propaganda machine in winning headline battles. 2. Craftsmanship — the intensive schedule launched in connection with the N. Y. World's Fair has built a backlog of showmanship experience. While the, prophets continue to predict television's real dawn as 'oc- curring anywhere from five to 60 years hence, the professional observ- ers could see and hear that the rate of progress in America was encour- aging. This writer viewed English television in both 1938 and 1939, and the comjjarison was not unfavorable to American efforts. British Broadcasting Corp. has had a more vigorous training in actual production and was, as of last Au- gust, less bound down to the author- ity of the engineer. The director and the writer (in other words, im- aginative showmanship) had emerged to an extent not yet duplicated in America. But the toilers at Radio City are on their way and not as out- classed as some BBC stay-at-homes have been led to believe by such British visitors to Manhattan as D. H. Munro, who seems to have implanted in London a conception of RCA-NBC skill based on CBS information. Gerald Cock, another BBC visitor to America before the war clouds gath- ered, was apparently more generous in giving the Yanks some credit, The British for some years have, of course,, cherished the hope, very plausibly, of making Uncle Sam look like a silly old dear in television. In the first halt of 1939 the headlines in ■VivnibTY were enough to support a case that they were actually doing so. There were several very signifi' cant experiments with sporting events, notably boxing bouts, and the 90-minute drama was scoring some memorable evenings. The Bri- tish may be diddled out of their advantage by the unlucky acci^ dent of mobilization. A long waf will give RCA-NBC plenty of oppor- tunities. Not that RCA-NBC isn't worried where the money is to come from. The FCC's chary attitude isn't con WHEN RADIO WAS OUT TO LUNCH By JAMES L. CONNERS Schenectady, N. Y., Jan. 1. The free-and-easy schedule o( early-day broadcasting, compared to split-second allotment of time in a big station's programing of today, was vividly illustrated to a WGY official who recently broused through 1923 logs. At that time, when the Schenectady transmitter was -only a year old, broadcasts were not limited to quarter, half-hour or one-hour periods. No definite limits were set; in fact, station went on and oft the air most casually^ Frequently groups of musicians arrived late at studio, in which case Kolin Hager (then 'the voice of WGY' and now its man- ager), A. O. Coggeshall (present pro- gram pilot). Bob Weidaw or Carl Jester filled in. On Jan. 10, 1923, the log shows WGY broadcast from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., signed off until 5:30, re- turned tor Hager to solo 'Down 'Vir- . ginia Way,' shut down, signed on again at 6 p.m. for 25 minutes, and the broadcasting day was ended. The following day, WGY broadcast in- formation at 6:42 p.m. concerning a stolen Maxwell. The log of May 30, 1923, states sim- ply: 'Holiday—station closed.' In 1923, it was a common practice to in- terrupt a musical program for a talk on almost any subject, presumably to achieve variety or to give artists a breather. A March 14 program by Schenectady Women's ■ (ilub, which included two readings, was broken into by Hager for a soundoff on 'Three Centuries of Tobacco.' A popular comedy then, according to 1923 logs, was the . broadcasting of phonograph record, 'Cohen at the Telephone.' In that year, WGY Players, radio's first dramatic group, broadcast full- length air versions of these Broad- way shows: 'The Green Goddess,' 'Mrs. Temple's Telegram,' 'Ready Money,' 'The Third Degree,' 'Secret Service,' 'The Price Chap' and 'Why Smith Left Home.* Same year saw the Georgia Minstrels make their air debut and click so resoundingly their programs were carried by wire to WJZ, New York, and WRC, Washing- ton. This was one of the earliest networkers. Hager, Coggeshall, Ells- worth Page and Joseph Culhanc were the Minstrels. A rube program, with the Corn- huskers orchestra, including the late Edward H. Smith, Ed St. Louis, John T. Hill and James Montgomery. Eddie Rice, violinist heard on WGY's initial salvo in February, 1922, and a consistent broadcaster in the early days, is still around as leader of the Symphonettes. A young elocutionist, Dorothy Golub, who gave a reading of 'The Sunset Line* on July 13, 1923, Is now Mrs. Dorothy Spira, 'the voice of Central Markets,' heard daily on WGY. Shots by the General Electric and American Locomotive Company bands were then standard radio fare. SEATTLE PIC EXEC BUYS INTO KIRO Seattle, Jan. I. Al Rosenberg, one of the top execs of the Hamrick-Evergreen Pacific Northwest theatre chain, has bought into KIRO, CBS outlet. Rosenberg said he purchased the stock person- ally as strictly an investment, Tiie theatre biggie will not be active in operation of the CBS outlet, but will be called into conference pertaining to showmanship angles from time to time, officers of KIRO say. Announcement of Rosenber;;'.'! stock acquisition waS made by Saul Haas, one of the station top men at Christmas tree party held in the studios, when the theatre magnate was introduced to the staff. Besides the regular presents for the staff, Haas presented each member with a sizable bonus check. genial to the development of _ a money-eating gadget like sky-pic- tures. . Fucther^ hearings on televi- sion are scheduled for this coming February. Meantime sets at $600 (plus $50 installation charge) arc not exciting any parade of buyers.