Variety (Aug 1940)

RADia V<Jnc6d»y» August 14» 1940 b Marred by Lei^ and Pacing m^m^ f rammeU iflaukr Promise Weiss X. Walter ThoBipMii Aicney f«Bf* /^—y f_ lat Muhial Won^t^^I^^^ Him oh Annaal Lux SWlncaTMha pi. ' ii . ■ 1.- 111 II' i Ii By BEN RQPE0 San Francisco, Aug. 13. National Assbciatioh: of Brbpd- casters. made .its first: att at dp- Ing a Gridiron Glub satire on its own Indijistry last Wednesday night (7) <luring the. dinner ivhich closed: the association's convention: a the re- sults were: imore .interesting than exciting. Muth (Credit ^s. any way d Ed Kjriby, the: NiA,B;'s promotion director, lor; the innovation. It was a welcome reliei^. f^ the stuffy song, talk and dance shoWs that have ior years been the second desserts ol these, convenlibii dihneK^ Thie ideas, issues, practices and persohalitif s which served ' as the: targets of the bladder swinging,were' timely and pertinent, but the profes- sional touch was lacking: most of the timie. liie: fun-rpokirig was captioned. ■Greienier tastures.^ , With the ex- ceptidh, . of the opening scene, in Which the Federal Gommiuiieatioh Commission was on the receiving end of som6 cute needling, the show was badly.; overwritten,: clumsily played and poorly ; paced.7 It ran much too long. : tittle Onisltandinf Only outstahding performances were those, of the blackface pair: in the role Of . the Lord: and. Gabrieli" with the latter majting it always evi- dent • that he. knew how to. build Up a line into a laugh. The script opened with, this twOsome in some crossfire . which led to the creation of radio. In -the *next scene seven young fellows, togged after Disney's dwarf characters, came' romping on the stage to the tunes of ?Heigh-Ho' and 'mistle While (ASCAP) and after a song and daiice bbout, their work as FCC commis- sioners the troiipe took seats at. a table and behind name cards marked Payne, Craven, Walker, Fly, Brown, Thompson and Case. Each imper- sonator, excepting Btown's, carried with him a toy re^^^^^ his own: specialty in ;the department, character; in Brown'^ spot kept his pan hidden most of the time behind a ;large book captioned, 'Governor Cox on Politics.' ; In the satire of a . typicial FCC session \^hich ensued the innuendo^ and references drew lots of laughs from the insiders. . .AJsd the parodies on such sohgs as ILOve for Sale' (ASCAP), which became Time for $ale' and 'St. toiiis Blues,' which . lyrifcs. were converted into the; 'FEC Blues.! and a bit of stripping by one of a line of six shapely lookers. There was niuch chatter during this same scehe about the procedure of getting a franchise frOm the commission; but -the .audience! rieactiohB were not so hot. the central character In the struggle for' recogrtition is: an appll cant called 'T. J. Slowie,' which gives vent; to 'ihis exasperation with a parody on'Chlbe' . (ASCAP).. Frorn the FCC the action hopped to the office 6f this selfsame Slowie, equipped now with a license, station and multrple headaches. In: this rambling bit the objects of wise- racking ranged from 'public Ihterr st* and irames C. Petrillo (AFM irez) to AsCAP's 'field goodwiir men,* Dr. Studebaker and Blackett- Sample-Hummert's business placing methods. It was at about this point that the. dinner . attendees! started dozing oft, but there Were few walk- outs^. ■'■■V .0. 'V'. "rhe show 'started at aronnd 9.45 end y<)und up at around 1 iai m. The place was the California building in the San Francisco Fair on Treasure Island; J; Kenneth Jories was credited as co-vyriter and producer. Cat Poesh't Tune New Castle, Pa., Aug. 13. Station- WKST here figures it has spme remarkable listeners, but it still :;doesn't have 100%^ coverage. T^ie other day a dis- traught housiBwife phoned the station and bought spot an- nouncements to.seek the return of her trained canary, which had escaped from its cage^ Then a nearby suburbanite took an- nouncements to advertise two lost Irish; setters. . • The dogs; were returned: the same day the . anriouncements were airedi; but there hasn't been a trace of the canary. ' Wick Crlder, of the J. Walter Thompson publicity staff, dei>arts Aiig. IS for h swlhgaround of 17 key cities Of the. east and midwest. He will prime the publicity pumps for the return on Sept. 9 of the Lux Theatre of the Alri Calls On all ;statiqns, radio editors arid others iri every centre Irivolyed. -4' Guaranlee j Pur4 Gets First Commercial, Fels Extends R. ..'NBG reorientation. of .authority, following the election of Frank Mul-^ leh to be general manager, have the following. departments reporting to Mullen, who in turn reports io Niies Trammell: Bed Sales Blue sales Program ■ Informatioh (pi"ess). ■.■'Xegai' ■ :'.' stations: " , •■■' :■ Continuity Acceptance Treasury Chicago West Coast 'Washington . Reporting separately io Mark Woods, as NBC's number three ad- ministrative official, are: Artists Service Engineering Television . General Service Radio Recording Auditing - V ■ V . International Trammell" will hiavc three aides James R. Angell, Clay Morgan and John Almonte. . Philadelphia, Aug. 13. Starting neit' Moriday, ; Aug,' 19, WFIt's 'Golden Bars of Melody' becomes the first commercially spon- sored program for the Quaker State Network, regional conceived back in 1936 for political airings by Roger W. Clipp, WFIL general manager. Deal was inked by Clipp with Cyril G. Fox, sales and manager for Fels Naphtha Soap Co. to expand the sponsorship, of the local show to seven additional major ; cities throughout the eastern half of Penn- sylvania joined in' the web. Stanza started on WFIL early in May and currently pumped to Bridgeton, N. J., for WSNJ listen- ers. Includes • solo singing of Rhona Lloyd ■ and ^tirue; stories of early frontier life as handed down in Miss Lloyd's family. Golden Bards' will continue to originate at the. WFIL studios, feed- ing to WGAL, Lancaster; WKBO, Harrisburg; . WORK,: Vork; WRAW, Reading; WEST, Easton; WAZL, Hazeltpn, and WSAN, AUentown. WIBG'S JOB PROMISE TO DRAFTED : Philadelphia, Aug. l3. Paul P. Harron, WIBG prexy, has given the staff official notification that if any have their numbers called for conscription, they don't have to Worry about tlielr jobs. It'll be waiting for 'em when they get back. Breckenridge, Sherwood Set for Canada's Series Montreal, Aug. 13 BBCl is rebrpadcastlng entire series of 'Let's Face the Facts' programs which achieved world-wide fame through the initial Dorothy Thomp son talk aired over the Canadian Broadcasting. Corp. network. Radio • papers : in England,; Australia anc New Zealand have asked permission A •. ^ n !• f I I to publish the talks. John Lane, UUltS KadlO tor Army British publisher, wants to bring the ^ ^ I whole series out in ^ook form. . ; Frederick Birchall, Gregory Clark, Florence Reed and Frederick Grif- fin have- already spoken. Others slated to speak are Henry Breckeri- ridge, who brokeVwith Lindbergh over the flier!s antirBritish attitude, and Robert E. Sherwood. Sherwood served. with the Canadian forceis in the last war. Art Mayhew, Son of Fern And Madera of Vaude, Albany, Aug. IS. WABY, precedes several Ital« ian-musle' commercials . (spon* fored by macaroni eompanies, etc.) with'.the . statement! 'This program has been checked and found • to contain no foreign propaganda,' . Both singing and announcing on the half-hours in Italian,. Extensive alterations are in prog- ress on the sixth floor of the Na-. ional Broadcasting Co. at Radio I Zity, New York. These changes are )rought about by the recent aleva- .lon. of Niles Trammell to the presi- ilency and the transfer from RCA of Frank Mullen as NBC genieral man- ager. . ■■ / •: :■•■ Several: of the changes will see the restoration of various executive comforts identified with' the M. H. Aylesworth regime, but. banished by Lenox Lohr when hV-was head of the : web. V TThis includes the barber chair in a Si^iall room adjacent to the suite Tranirriell will occupy.- A Jnas- sage room will also be restored from its recent character as a file closet. The dining room ,wh ich has served James Rowland Angell, NBC's edu-. cationai director as an office, will reblossom. as a refectory for clients and. agencies. Mullen will move into the' corner vacated by Trammel!. Mark Wodds, who will be number three man at NBC, will have the next office and pattitions : . bein^ . knocked out: nearby for the secretaries arid: imme- diate .clerical staff of the two execs. Rearranging of space necessitates hew offices for Angell and Clay Mor- gan, both of whom classify as presi- dential aides (besides having other, titles and duties). About $15,000 in remodelling will take place. San Francisco, Aug. 13. Lewis Allen Weiss explained last week that he agreed to line up the Don Lee Network with Broadcast Muslo, inc., after Niles Trammell, NBC prez, and Edward Klauber, CBS executive v.p., assured him that in the event they worked out a deal with the American Society of Com- posers, Authors and Publishers, they would not Insist on tiie insertion of a 'favored nations' clause in-the con- ■ tract. Trammell and Klauberj Weiss added, told them they.' would . give him this promise In Writing. ASCAP has agreed to treat Mutual on a different basis than NBC sind Columbia because of .Mutual's coop* erative setup and Weiss wanted tg malce sure that this difference would be preserved in the .event ,.of a settle- ment with; ASCAP. A 'favored na- tions' clause would require ASCAP to apply the same terms to all three, webs, ONBl < Red Bank, N. J., Aug. 13. Art Mayhew, 23, has resigned from station WBRB to join the United States Army for a three-year period of enlistment. He's now with the Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth. Young Mayhew, who was an an- nouncer and singer with the statioji for five years, is the son of the old vaudeville team known as Fern and Madera. Mrs. Mayhew Is now man-? aging the radio station and her hus- band is a prominent . Red Bank per- sonage. The son grew up In radio station environment and can turn his hand to nearly any ordinary task called for in broadcast operation. Duiane D. Jones, executivie v.p. and general irianageir of the New. York division of Blackett-Sample-Hum- mert, is leaving this agency and taking the Bab-O account with him. Jones is joining the Maxori agency and leaving with him is Henry Turn- bull, who handled the account at B-S-H. Bab-O's shift becomes ef- fective tomorrow (Thursday) but Jones himself moves in Monday (19), Jones has been with Frank Hum- inert for over eight year's. . Lainny Ross* Gonceart: Lanny Ross and Florence George, coloraturo sbpranO, will co-star in a concert in Milwaukee, Aug. 20. ., . Event will be under the direction of the Milwaukee County Park Com- mission. - Net for First Half of 1940 Is $2,957,276^Report TaxeiB, Other Fiscal Details Net profit of Columbia Broadcast- ing System and subsidiaries in- creased more than $200,000. In the first six months ended June 29 as compared with first half of 1939. Net profit for the .26rweek petiod was $2,957,276 as compared with $2,732,- 527 for the six months last year or equivalent of $1.72 per capital share against $1.59 a share in 1939. Net income before interest; de- preciation, federal taxes and. mis- cellaneous income'was $4,138,735 or about $500,000 ahead of last year. CBS gross income for the 26 weeks was listed as $24,952,293 or more than $3,7SO,00Gi ahead of the $21,195,532 reported for the first 26 weeks last year. Results for both quarters re- flect the operations of Columbia Re- cording Corp. and Its subsid com- panies,, acquisitibn of 100% owner- ship of which was completed by Columbia Brbiddcasting during 1939 Noted by CBS that the provision of $^14,000 for additional federal in- come taxes on earnings in the first six months this year, chargeable under the Jurte 25,1940 Reveriue Act were made out of the earnings for the second quarter of this year. Of this amount, $56,300 represents the provision required in connection with earninjgs for the first quarter of 1940. Earnings: statement was issued the same day that the board of directors met and declared: a 45c dividend on Class A and Class B shares. It's payable Sept. 6 to stock on record, Aug; 23. Mayor of Salt Lake Aroiiscis Citizens onKDYL; Got New Fire Equipment Salt Lake City, Aug. 13. The .power of radio as a potent factor in civic affairs has been proved here by the purchase of some $55,000 Worth of fire fighting equip- ment by the local fire department, an addition which can be largely credited to 'The Mayor Reports,' a program introduced over KDYL, On this program • Mayoi" Ab Jen- kins of automobile racing fame an- swers questions on civic problems sent in by the listening audience and incidentally, gets in . many a plug concernlng clvic situations which he considers disturbing. Mayor Jenkins' descriptions of Salt Lake's antiquated fire fighting equipment aroused such a hue and cry in Salt Lake that Old horse drawn vehicles remade into motor ized equipment with solid rubber tires hav^ been replaced with most modern of . hook- and' ladder turn outs. ■ In addition, 16 men have been added to the force. ' Police : department has also been on the firing line and now the tight ening up of traffic safety regulations are definitely noticeable. No results as yet on the latest campaign, poor street lighting^ but then that has only, had a few weeks of airing. Program was originated by the KDYL ptogram department as, a sus taining but is now written and sppn. sored by the editoirial departmeht of the Deseret News, evening news paper. Hollywood, Aug. 13. . . Radio will have to get along with- out Blng Crosby unless he is per* mitted to. sing tunes turned out. by. the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. That is the decision announced by the warbleir in the war between ASCAP and the National Association of - Broadcast- ers. \ . Crosby, is serving notice that his new contract with the J. Walter Thompson agency, , which handles the Kraft Music Hall air program, will be renewed in December only with an inserted clause allowing his withdrawal if or when ASCAP songs are no longer available for - his broadcast. Pointing out that . neither himself nor hls fellow air songsters are tak« ing sides hi the ASCAP-NAB quar- rel, Crosby asked: 'How can ona publisher (meaning Broadcasters. Music, Inc.) supplant 137 publishers by the first of the year?' In other words, what'll we have to sing?, Larry Crosby, the star's brothef and personal business manager, ex* plained that neither side in the coni troversy has had any consideration for the name singers on the air. He; said: V ' ''-'..C ;. 'There are 1,109 authors writing ASCAP numbers, and their; work^ are being made available through 137 publishers. Bing and other sing- ers need this flowr of songs. Bing, .himself, eats up around five tune^ a weeky and the oiily place he can get them is through ASCAP.' m SPEAKS AS WWJ TICKS OFF 20TH ANN! Detroit, Aug. 13. Dr. Frank Black, NBC's musical director, will direct WWJ's aug- mented«concert orchestra during sta^ tion's special fete celebrating its 20th anniversary next Tuesday (20). Ruby Mercer and Conrad Thibault; net- work vocalists, and Mischa. Kottler, WWJ concert pianist, will assist. . James Lawrence Fly, chairman ef FCC, will speak during program, which Is being produced by Jack Hill, of WWJ, and announced by Vic- tor Linfobt. Show, hitting ozonfli at 10:15 p.m., will mark 20 years el broadcasting. by Detroit « News- owned WWJ, which claims to be first station In America to air regu- liarly scheduled programs. SOIIJNOSBERY HAS SAVAI^NAH George . P. . Hollingsbery Co. has been selected exclusive national rep- resentative of WSAV, savannah. Rep firm has off ices in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta and San Francisco. Percy Faith Auditions Percy .Faith, Cainadian conductor who receritiy batoned several: 'Car- nation Contented' shows out of Chi- cago for Carnation evapiorated milk, last week auditioned a new musical program for the same sponsor. Erwin-Wasey obtained the musi- cians, . singers ■ and arrangements, leaving Faith merely to conduct.