Variety (Aug 1940)

24 RADIO REVIEWS PS^mfr Wednesday; August 7, 11940 ,. ^ London,; July 16. V I Radio history: Syais made Sunday .(14).; via. the .flrst shot-by-shot de- scription,, in all timei'of an aiir battle. Staged :; pvfEr Dover Straits and fecorded by Charles Gardiner, BBC. fipecial events man. Epic occurrence came to listeners, via - (delayed wi^x but retained all; the tense associatibh of actuality.- Affair might have been a, racetrack commentary; in the streamlined handling by. Gardiner^d^ highsfppts, in the daylight air-iight, as. Nazi bombers dived and Air Force fighter planes, chased ihem: in the death stakes. it;:vi'as, as heard a class A thrill. . ; '' ;.■ BBC would hatiiraily deny the ele-^ rneht of showmanship, btit; hard; to take. is. the ' explanation .air \ authority offered for . its recording unit, just 'happening' to : bie on the spot,. Crew may have, waited a week: atop those old chalk cliffis, a cinch - locale fpr action, and wlien came the Niazi . at- tack on a convoy oi mertharitmen, not a .thing: Was missing. Listeners had the scene spread before them—: a stretch of water,. .a line of ships; and three; waves of enemy bombers hui^lihg out.of the clouds: on a dark mission.' But their bombs ■dpn't cpn- nect^you got that diill, indescribar .tie sound of 500 ;p:ounds of spent destruction-rthe cphvoy's safe, here's the British .flight. Machine guns rattle, and then a Veil Pt ipy fi^bm Gardiner that might have been •They're Off!'r—but instead he: said <Got Him! One pornier. hit^ the. sea! and a yoice tells : sPmeohe's jumped, . the parachute's drifting slowly across a clbiid-^how many >yere the 'crew? The. rest, of . the Gi&Tmzxi bombers streak for home, their fighter sup- port; winging . in protectipn ;biit chased ami. hazed every unit of a mile..:One's .avj|gy, two?s away, tliree —no, riot the third; Chalk up an- Pther Messerschmitt to the Chalk; Cliff brigade.. ;' . 'Broadcast aired 'here iollpWing Churchill's speech. No two ingredi- ents were^ eVei: mixed fpr a better tonic to Britishers. ' - GEORGE M. COHAN , 'This Is Our Side of the Ocean^ CITIES, SERVICE Friday, R p.m. WEAF-NBG, New York ; The mopd, pf patriotic self-pon- sciousness and earth-lpve which has gripped Americans foi: the piast ^ear has 'lately taken a slight tangent , tof ward the drill grounds a^ the; a"-^ noyance stiage ripens, intp . anger. And George M. Cohan, whpse ear has ever been acute to th'e; mbpd and the idiom pf Yankees, crashes through at this precise point With the first sPng of American rion-belliger- ency which allows Americans to be* at least musically,, a littlC; tough.. ■ There iS ai strong hint. Of .about-to- j?et-.sore American . fighting spirit in his 'This Is Oiir Side of the Ocean. The constant reprise of the phrase 'can you;hear--can ypu hear-rover there?' is clearly urtderstandable. It may dp more than a bundle of notes from the State Department; ; Gbhan personally introduced the number on the Cities Service half- hour at.8 p;m,;iast -Friday .;<2)... The program isensed the. memorable na- ture of the occasion , and had the chorus up in the song. It was built into a -prbduction and brouight back at the curtain fpr a: repeat. . George M. said at the start he hid been iust dying to get;a;chance to ping the . number in; public. That's the kind Pf . a sPng it is—something that was. gotten off the chest. It has the pbetic . simplicity Pf amule^kickv Land. » » ♦ M f ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ M » » ♦ ♦ » f» ♦ f> Television Review^ Earl .Ganimons, WCCO, Minneap- plis, statibn manager, had 60 mayors of Minnesota; towns "and their wiyes -to^a-^cock-taii—party^^at—Ibe^JIpteL Nicollet. They were in for the Aquaitennial sumnier festival. OTIS and ELEANOR; CLEMENTS 'Rio. Grande SeredadersV Western. Act- 15 Mih£.-Local;; . Sustaining' Daily, 7 p.m. : WTRY. Troy, N. T. Rip Girande Serenaders (Otis, and Eleanor Clements), who recently cut several records for. Bluebird,, do a quarter-hour of western arid.: fa- miliair numbers , each riiorning.; She pilays accordion, sings and chatters. He works on 'guitar and fiddle* Vo- cals and annbunces.. ;For, a small local radio turn, it is fairly good. Accordidning' is; standout; young lady has some finesse and ability to improvise.;. Otis . dpes most; pf t'he warbling, in a; fair voice, Partner occasionally joins for harmony. Bbth dp quite a little ad lib talking and laughing. Remarks dp riot al- ways come through riiike clearly, particularly vvhen femme speaks. I Clements'; uses the; drawling, -fiHCTidly—technique_olLlpj;oie5§ic^ westerners iri tabbing re^uestSi etc Jaco. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ M ♦ > » ♦ f» » ♦ f » ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ > ♦ t CHARLks ALTHOFF Rube' Comedian 8 Mins, RCA-NBC, New York Like the bid Loew's circuit Ipved flash acts, where the girls danced dPwn steps on each side of the stage/: that's how the late Alexander. Parir tages,: Pacific coast king :Pf vaude- ville, loved fiddle-playing, rheumatic- jointed,; hPkum-spraying Charley Althoff. When; Althoff finished one tour: of the; Pan time the bid; Greek penciled. him in. to begin all over again; This; wasn't, just because F'an- .tages was eccentric, which he was, but becatise he considered -Althoff veiy funny, ;Whi<flv he was. ;And still ].<?, on the evidence of the newest of the ::entertainment mediurnS, televi*-- sipri. ■•';.: '■■.;;■■.•.; ^ -^v';..:-^"■■;.■■ . Althoff is one of thbse perfprmers who can Work dead center under the camerais. He ean get a lot bfjactioii- without moving arPund much.. The nozzle went down: to his. boots; phpe or twice as "he beat but .the xhythni. Or there was an occasipriai close-up to emphasize his comedy; clumsiness, getting his thumb stuck in a knot- hole, etc. . Most of the. time he just sat theire and Ipbked.: straight, at the camera ia.nd fiddled, gabbed; wheiezcd arid carried Pn. He projectedva cer- tairi high-spirited,. . unpreteritiolus, :iet's-haverfun, cPuntry' store nos- talgia,"..;"-.: ; :it was; surprising and pleasing to see the gobd old vaudeville hbke get actPss, even though the prPfessipnial observer-; khew, ; instinctively, that Althoff must have, had a feeling he was, falling .because there .was no audience and—shades, bf Walla Walla on an opening matinee!—no applause. Althoffi ;in full .rpakeup" as the make-believe bid codger, registered as Jphbtogenic^ Lots of characterizit tion caime through the big tube. An<t bts bf good giggles; : •. Landi THE DRUMS OiP .OtJDE' With Maurice Welles, Pat Calvert, Carl Karbord, Jack; Cherry, W. O. McWatters,. James Swift . 20'Mins; ' . RCA-NBC, New York With India not very convincingly painted on the canvas backdrbpi, ainJ a kilted sentinel mu.ggirig : into thf camera;.the story Pf 'Drums of Oude' takes, off. in the reign of Victoria It reminded .viewers immediately that the British .have been often. be- sieged.; This time a handful of Scots iplds the garrison -while .the regi ment, gohe Off on a missipn, is over, due.- ■ ' .;;,."v :. The rPom is this headquarters bi' the officer in charge. He wears plaid trousers, from the rental • cos. tum.er's.. Beneath the room is the powder magazine.; If : the natives get it there'll be trpubie; The sense of ; massacre; is in the air and the Weird ; native drums keep soundirig inte rmit tently. That; reminds . the ifialor to piJii-njp-'-Ti-iTap-dooFr-a loPk doWn. To riiake sure the'pPW' der is still there. While the crisis is gPing pn the major gets' around to declaring his undyihg love for an English widow who plays- the piano and talks,: bu: later; she -gives. 4n arid kisses;: hirai, although ttp to that point she geemec F^w-Qp Comment Yes, We Have No Television A new tenant, frequency riiodulation/ havirig secured the girpund floor lease trbm the FCC television (arid we mean .HCA), has been dblijged to hiove upstairs: in the spectrum.. To do so will take tim^—arid more riipney —and mechanical readjustments in the Empire State Bld^.; transriiitter. Whether it will also require mechanical readjustments in riiariy Teceivirig sets jn the -New •'Ybrk City, are is. riot certain. Owriers of sets can wait and sbe. They will have to be ait least as patient as RCA. Meantime, a televisibn set is alsP a radio s<^t and a gopd one. Televisibrt will return In 4Ue lime,; perhaps Octpber i, but:dpn't ;bet; on television being ready/ion: nhat precist day,; or your new apartment. ,; : ■ : . \ ,; IThie curtain .came down" Jast Wednesd|ay,, that being the last day of July. • At; the cbhclu^ion of ;;thb usua;i evening hour^ Alfred Morton; t^^ tbleyisiprii chief,; came before thie icbnoscbpe; and thanlced the; set pwriers; as 'partners in: a great experiment'. "Then he said good night and televisibn was w'irapped.up in dusters arid turned bv.er to th^^ The prograrii that .kissed;;th:e seas, goodbye revealed miich that was okay,: and iome that was still left-fpbted and doubleithunilied. , NBC now has 15'months, of practical, pi'bgramming behind it. ; The only cbriiparisPris virb'uld be to the televisibn; of the British Broadcasting Co.; hui as there is: rip'BBC televisibn at the;mo^ment, and no RCA-NBC television e.ithei*,. the ppint . Would be labored indeed, particularly in view of: the :present- warin weather.;; ■; ": ::"--\'';. ■ ;'■■•■■^^-;■'■■■■•-^7■■ ...v.. ■ ■■; ';'>■ .'v'-.. ;- - -^'"^ / : Suffice that the farewell, prbgi-arii; was worked with a single 'nbutralVs ;ing, wherein fourv inusicians, - led by. Eugene Jelesnik, played Europ€an-^ like : music very pleasantly.;; ; A series of singers and ohe comic; ied:, to; draniatip ■afterpiece, '"I^ Druriis of. Oude.' by Austin Strong.;: Between' each huriiber the kaleidoscope, toy of childhood, w.ias artfully borrowed t6 create; entire' acte effects, rioliunlike clheriiatic wipe-offs^ Turn pf the :firial teleyisibn ppr^^ individually reviewed below.-.;•;'•■ ;': ■:■ .■;■•;.-;;■-■': ■■ :■■ ;-'..■'■-'•>.' ; y ^ FCC Grants Three Licenses : --; . Washington/' Aug. 6. Licenses were issued tp three television stations last week following FCC , inspection bf their operating plants, technical iriventpries, and personnel, rosters. Licenses ■ under the no-commercialization rule;went to University . of Iowa, Allen B. DuMprit and Cplumbia. Previously DuMoht arid the . National Broadcasting Co. received papers.: DuMont was given permission to use Channel 4 for W2XVT at Pa.ssaic; CBS for Channel 2 for W2XAB at New York,: and U. of I. foi> Channels 1 and 12 for W9XU1 at Iowa City. Strings were tied to^e latter, which; must riot interfere with any other plant using the same ribboris. Granting of the CBS .request, foreshadows either denial or assignment to anpther stripe of Philcb*s Philadelphia plant, it was believed..-; 4-to-l to . noniinate herself to be a sister to him always; In the; next ropm the telegraph iis showing signs of having .been cut.. An Indian waiter in a bath-towel is sneaking up behind people with knives, but the people turn just in time and don't get killed, or realize they, were about to be. The. sentry, v^hp mugged into the camera at the start, is dispatched offstage by havirig his throat cut... Juist when ypu cari't imagine what will happen riext there is the sound of Scotch bagpipes playing and the regiment is back, the massacre is off, the pirogram is over. It seems hardly necessary. to add that it was all pretty corny. ■ Land, THE SOVTHERNAIRES (4) Negro Quartet 10 Mins. RCA-NBC. New York It wasn't too easy for the director to decide how to. group these four j&fegrx>,malej5in gers. At one, point the back row tenor seemed'\o~be~sWing-:- ing into the picture like a; debu- tante swings into focus when Jerome Zerbe approaches in the Stork Club. That awjkward, 'hie, top,' effect was a reminder of the little difficulties of stagecraft that still trouble Ameri- can television. It proved a small trouble, however, and soon over.; After a time the obvious merit bf the quartet obscured small niatters, like not quite seeing. their eyes at moments. Class .showed through. And natural Negroid poise carried off an extended sequence of numbers for an entertaining sessibn all the way, '■ .. Land, AMELIA HULL Singer RCA-NBC, New York Miss Hull registered satisfactorily iri a big picture hat and sang nicely, but after some moments that .down- ward glance turned but to. be in the direction of the printed lyrics, which she held in her hjnd. It never looked good to read the music in show busi- ness and it' looks just as: bad in tele- ' vision. \.;' . ■ -. : This fact evidently hit the - direc- tor between the eyes, but quick, and the cameras thereafter caught the singer at the wsiistline so the mem- bry-refreshing memo was happily out of sight. ■:,; '.- -:.;:■ This : unprpfessional detail flawed the whole appearance. ; Land* ' ELEANOJK_STEBER\ Singer RCA-NBC. New York Miss Steber revealed an ixcep- tionally sweet-toned voice and lots of coaching. Her features reflected sharply on the inverted riiirror- pf the receivmg set, suggestirig that she was photogenic. A full-volume singer, she uses, her mouth and neck muscles easily and there. was none , of: the sinewy picr torial effect some singers give on occasion over television* Land, Lucy Monroe, one of the most ac tive (and most reliable) of the radio .guest singers, brought her fine tbne and professional authority to las; week's 'Musical Americana' ; with Raymond Paige. The program now tighter and generally improved. Miss Monroe is a type of guestee thia ; helps guarantee that. Joey K earns orchestra, house band at WCAU, Philadelphia, : enliven* ing CBS daytime sustaining spbts spots several times weekly since first being , given a chance , during the rer cent musician's strike against re- mote pickups. Band is being groomed for dance wbrk and needs little ; nibre ; currying to attain its aim. When caught it punched homp, with a hefty wallop, a series of balanced, well written arrange- merits—neatly varied between sweet and drive stuff;, Kearns is a clarinet Elaying leader, and impressive at is work. He and several other musicians from the band make up a small unit called the 'Little Col- onels,* along the line of Bob Cros- by's Bobcats. They turri .out sizz- ling bits, well colored for such few pieces. Sigmurid Spaeth's road company 'Information Please,' called 'Fun, in Print' on behalf of Rogers Bros. Silver, is an improved show since its debut—While the- Info'-analogy -is inevitable, the; titular 'print' makes for a set pattern. There's good va- riety and nice pacing by Dpc. Spaeth. : Stuart Allen, featured vocalist with Dick Himber for a long time,* now heads his own tiptojp band from Grpssinger's .upstate IJ. Y. resort ho- tel. Allen is on via WOR several times a week and gives out with carefully -primed arrangements plus his own appealing tenoring.