Variety (Aug 1940)

Wednesday, August i4» 1940 RADIO REVIEWS 31 With J«l>n Mclntyrt, AUn Reed, lack Smart, Gretehen Davidson, Cdnr Stehll, Walter Vaughn, Jeiuiettc Nolan, Jackie Grimes, Tommy Donnelly, Bobby Eeadlck, IVarren Mills, Bill Bedfleld, Charles O'Connor, Bay Bloch orch tS Mins.' : ■ . PHltIP MOBBtS Sanday, 8:30 P-m. ^ WABC-CBS, New Vprfc , New series for PhiJip Morris makes, three the -ciggie firm now has on the air; the ^othe^. ■Ivvp heing heard Tuesdays and Friday nights, 'Crime Doctor,' 'a kinda whodunit -with you-decide-it-f or-yburself ah^le, is scripted by Max Marcih, the impr*jsa"o °' "''^^'^ also writes the 'Perfect Grime' dramatic spot on the same .sponsor's 'Johnny Presents' show Fridays, On the basis of laist iSunday night's (M) edition,, 'Grime DoctOF' is a likely commei'-. cial bfct>:; its. only cQmpetitidh: 'One Man's Family,' •: iymph program and a forum. ; Forrtiiat " of the show is. a p^^ ■ parole' board, with one of the cons teliing.his story :in an ieffort'td win . release from the clinkv^^ ^ y is. a . combination of first-perisbni narrative and d.raniatiziatiori, after which each of two members of the rparole board ;expfess opihiohs for and against his ^ telease. Listeners are then asked to eend in letters advocating phe side or the. btherV best of eabh kind to re- .cieive. prizes of $50, with 10.. bthef $10 prizes to be/awarded, ; Prize letter angle should provide a strong listener pull, with the yarns themselves strong enough tp hold at-- teritiori.: One caught ■was" a piush- .vovcr for sympathyi -yet the chariac- ters .wer< beliievab and -the action well paced. :V.'.^: ■ Production was oirtly so-so,- With a iew .transparent sound . effects and a couiple of islpw :iJiCkups, but the -actf . ihg was cbnyincing; particularly Alan Reed CTeddy Bergman ) -as; the, ' tbugh-luck .cdn. .Ray Blbch's 6rche.<!- . trai handles the bridging anid Philip .Morris' .'familiir iriusical . theme, the, bit from Ferde. Grbfe's 'Grand CahV yon Suite.' ' • Pageboy Johnny also contribiute.«! : .the usual • 'Gall' for Philip Mor^ris' aighiture; : Two/ main commercials . Jh Charles O'Conridrs characteristip drawl plugged medical recbmmehda- tipns for the clg's eiiite .bh the throat and made a pleaserbfeiieve-us apbeal. ' - ■■ Hobe. .■ LOBETTA TOUNG With EUlott L^wls, Cy Kendall 'Angel' SOMlns. CBS Forecast Nb. 9 Monday, S p.m. : . KNX-CBS, Holly wood •Tailored to the taste of the dis-' Mbnday/9:30 p.m: P. G. WODEHOUSE SEBIES With Edward Everett Horton, Alan Mowbray, Helen Wood, Myra , March, Donald Morrison 'Leave It to Jeeyea' 30 Mins. CBS FORECAST NO. 9 ^ taflers with a ililm star throwri in to lift .it but of the niili ruin of chapter plays. Its chances of jbihihg the net's regulars next fail Will 'depend in hp small measiu'e..on the mail re- WABC-CBS, New York Columbia hais now unveiled liine of its proposed , 14 summer public auditions. Of thie. nine programs tb date,.two ate doubtful entries, .seven iare plausible and. arbong; the seven «!non<?P cni!.^if»rt «,i^Knnt^ ;,.,ii;r,^ l^biir seem; of especial commercial sponse, solicited without pulling [metit: These four; to recapitulate, punches. As a serial starter it; pro.ved t are, respectively, Raymond Paige's a good selling sample of What is tb 1 'Battle of Music,' Alfred Hitchcock's .^QF STARS AND STATES' ;. .. with: John Boles, Knox Manning, Nan Grey. Virginia Vale, Don . Barry, .Dickie Jenes, Texas. Rant- ers^ Lee O'Dahiel ■ 60 Mins. CBS Forecast No. 7 Mondayi 9 p.m. WABC^CBS, Kcw Tork. Described, ias: a- '48-chapter bibgra j)hy of America', the premise of this proposed Columbia \ series - is the preiiriise of Major Bowe?' salute tb Podunk—-lavish, natipri-wide praise for a locality, here a state instead of a city. As the 'hook'for the produce tipn the Weekly change of guest stars ' Is to include personalities from the atate saluted;.. ... 'c -' ■ An hour pi'oyed much tbo long for the . entertainment .possibilities, and the Battle of the Alamo .was re ; fought again for thevbth tirne on air and screen with fesiilts ver;^ close to boreHpm. - Parts bt the dialog' were" breezy and the long-winded but hu- morpiis spiel of W. Leei O'Daniel, governor , bf Texas and ;himself a hillbilly emcee. Was droll: But on the whole it was nbt cpnipact and speedy. Fpr conimercial purpose."? It needs trimming and fixing. ' Land. ppme il the cork is pulled Under.. ilousewives should find this tale of the, Red Cross a meaty morsel, some- thing to duck the dishes for. if the introei" is any indication of What is. in store; a:s the PliliFhanger linfolds. Heavily in its favor is Loretta Young; who would give: it its early piill. The crack Silver Theatre combo of Glen- hall Taylor, producer, and True Bbardman, seripter, will take care Pt.it the rest of the way:. They;know femme values in: the: kilocycle sense. In this tale of the angels of iriercy; Miss Young is given ample bppb'r-^ tunity to display niany. facets of her acting: talent.: .She.opehs as a grand- mother, writing her memoirs, skips blithely iiito lighter romantic ma- rnents and then pluhge.s fuH tilt into heavy dramatics: It was nb easy as- sigiimeht but she took the emotional hurdles in stride. In apprbved cme^ niatic cutback style,' the play unfPlds in retrpispect,, allowing for the full play bf the star's versatility. .Ell iott Lewis, local stock player, performs pompetently ehbugh with what little he has to do but.shbtild figure prbmi- rierttly in the chapters to cbnie.. For What is. a serial without a mdle heart-throbber; ^ . ;: Miiin ingredients for the com- pbunding of such. fare were crowded into the initial stanza. That's the presentatiort aspect for the check-^Writers. : For that i^eason it may have listened a little jerky in ■^pots but. considering its primiary tnissipn it showed no lack bf jproduc:- tiori skill. . RPniance,' hif!h drama: devotion to duty, and the all powerful theme; of the Red - Gross 'sjpurted briefly tb give off a-robntage effect but bridged- without. letdoWn to: the knob spinners. Those tricks are Pld istuff tp GBS Producer Ghacles Vahda and the Taylor-Boardman ;duo,; - - ■ Tale didn't get far enough along to hierit ari appraisal of the drarhatic content contained in. the full series: Miss Young quits schoolmarminfr in a huff when:accu.$ed of dLvprs indi.s- cretioiis and -is aboiit to le^ve: the rnidwest town for keeo.*; when a flood maroons the corrimunity:. She plunge." , into the rescue work and takes over until a . Red Gross, director arrives on the .<;cene. - Gradually getting over her disdain of What is to her a dpminceririg attitude: .she sparks to his mahlinessj Once the: danger over, he repairs to other parts to carry, but his work bf mercy.. She follows abd therein romance;. takes hPld, Then; cpmes the plea for letters 'if you ; want to ^^hear the rchainibg chapters.' . . ^ Helm, Suspense Series, Dave Elman's Life bf the Party novelty and the pro- gram* Whose credits lie above . this stretch'^)! type. A' HbllywPPd effort by, adaptoi: Stuart Palmer and director . Ken Niles to translate P. G. Wodehoiiise to, radib, ; this Sample Was conspicu- bujsly successful.^ ' . :■ The stbry, 'Leave It to Jeeves' was told with sharp, clear strokes. It had a beginning, .a middle and an end, characteristics of the Wode- house short stories Which seena obr vious material for radio and, best of all, Which exist numerously as a reservoir to draw upon. "The. de- liciously addle-brained Bertie Wbb- ster and his valet, and bralii truster;' the priceless Jeeves, are" ; pair whose extenjsive literary adventures provide, in , ready-made form, the makings . of: a swell radio entertain- ment. While not a universal' audi- ence in terms bf radio circulation,, the magazine and book readership of Wodehouse relpresents achieved suc- cess in other popular media. Suc- cess-snobbish and cbmediah-allergic sponsors Avill probably appreciate that. .: . ■■}.■) . The yarn bf, the rescue of Bertie from a gold-digger unspun oh Well- oiled bobbins. With Edward. Everett Horton arid Alan Mowbray a sure- fire English team.' The. continuity, was tight, the dialog generously bor- rowed : from the original texts 'and intelligently edited to further pace and clarity 1 The whole, thing was steadily diverting with frequent and strong giggles.; Supporting; parts werb in proper hands. .' The spontaneous gaiety of this Wodehouse type of farce, and-the fact that it would be the only com- edy dialog show of its genre on. the air; makes it seem a challenge that advertising agencies, even those that hate everything they didn't think of themselves, may have to recognize as a hot bet. : ■ . Land. 'THE LIFE OF THE PARTY' With Dave Elman, Harry Salter Or- "• chestra' Navelty 30 Mins. CBS FORECAST No. S Monday, 9 - p.m. WABC-CBS. New York ; Dave Elman, impresario of 'Hobby Lobby,'• has a bright bit of easy-go- ing novelty entertainment in "The Life of the Party.'" 'It is an odds* and-ends kind of program^ half au- dience participation, half profes- sional, a mingling of prominent per- sonages of talent and unknowns with eccentric' apcpmplishirients.: It is . rerhiniscent of Elman's own 'Hobby Lobby' and of 'We, the Peo- ple' and of Mort Lewis' celebrity minstrels, and of all the nut inter- views and. parlor game stunting that has bobbed up in recent seasons. It was smartly - backgrounded: and bridged by Harry; Salter's pi-chestra. • Radio is usually keen for the show that supplies comedy withbut needing a . four-flgure comedian. This one promises to achieve good chuckle results at nominal over- head and would seem to rate hiigh among the most-likely-to-be-spld of the varied showcased samples in .tJie CBS Fbriecast series. Elman, with a canny sense bf Jizarre values built up through his famiiiarity: with hobbyists- - devised strainless half-hour that began with a gent who tapped out music and. dance routines on a . typewriter and boncluded with ■ a quartet com- )osed of members of the Brooklyn Dodgers. . Mixed in was a gent from ioboken who creates tunes from a fire extinguisher, and a Brboklynite who squeezes the palms of his hands together to render 'Mary Had a Little Liarnb.' Fred Hall contributed gem bf nostalgia, an old :Nicklep- deon film parlor piano rendering mood music. David Ross-delivered, straight, an Elizabeth Brbwning poem and the vivid Hildegarde from the niteries did a song in which the French sentences had English end- tigs. For vslapstick, Shirley Wayne, the fiddling mama from 'Hellzapop- Jerry Smith, yodeling cbwboy, With station WHO, Des Moines, for five years, taking, a. leave of absence to make 'The Range Busters' for Monogram in Hollywood starting production Sept. 1. rnnoHAL REraRENWnVES EDWAIO PEimr A dx - ON THE NBC RED NETWORK 'EVENING CALL' With Agneis Moorehead, Dwight Weist, Ilerbert Tost, James M;c- Callion, Josephine: Lyons, .. John Mclhtyre, Lawson Zierbe, Elliott Reed 30 Mihs. 'S.ustainihg "■' Saturday, 8 p.Ha. WJZ-NBC, New York Dwight Weist, one of the busier radiP aptprs, made-his .first try as a script: writei? with a lugubrious piece ■ called -Evening Gall,' 'adaptec ! from a story by Alice Be'al Parsons, • on last Saturday night's (10) edi- tion of the NBC Radio Guild, series i- over the, blue net (WJZ). Howard ; L. Nussbaum directied and a cast of i AFRA regulars, including Weist, did ;- • ... •. ' ■■ — '■' -'" • ;- ;:• - the emoting.: It Was grim going. Gu9 Vail told, via 'We, the Pebple ' ! Yarn about a homicidal maniac — ' who gets Joose on a stormy night to threaten with an ax the summer residents of a cottage on remote Loiig Island wavered between creeps and comedy, without quite- being either. Subject of crazed killers is in doubtful taste at best and in this case suffered from : inept handling Characters were distinctive, but the I script was cluttered with more of i thenii than Weist was able to handle. As a result, he failed to keep most of them included in the dialog, so and on 10th anniversary of death of Joe Schenck, a touching, nostalgic story of careers which took them from operators of a Brooklyn trolley car in 1919 to the peak as a har- mony duo. : One angle which may have caused li.steners to wonder was fact all Van's emphasis seemed to be on musical comedy -rather than vaudeville appearances, the ' latter being more familiar to the run of people. No reference to Jack Lait> tag, .. 'Pennant Winning Battery of Spngland.' Van, who ha.s done considerable broadcasting since Schenck passed away and who reads a script in. same firm baritone that he, u.<!es in singing, made a gentle plea that patrons 'remernber': .enter- tainer.<; no longer in' spotlights" He explained twosome's first real chance; a party, given by G. B. Dillingham, to which tiiey werie summbned When a performing monkey became ill, and Fib Ziegfeld heard them while . one or two people,:had .long speeches, the others might as well have gone out to. rehearse another program. / Fact that there Was not a single .'scene change or break in the entire script also made the action seem static. . There was one serious flaw in logic. It wa.s- several tijrnes explained by the maniac's father that he had left the ax in the chopping block could find it. Later Where his son ^ . ; Jie prbrtiised to keep it. hidden" in. fu 'lure. Yet, in explaining why he Bob Hawk is properly, precise yet. hated his home, the lad said his ingratiating: as occasion demands in I parents made him Work too hard emceeing 'Take It Or Leave It,' the 1 always forcing him;- to. ■ chpp' woPd' \Such lapses, as well. as. thie failure ;to keep .an the characters present in the dialog, should have been caught by the director. Acting Was gener dbuble-your-mohey show on Sunday nights ibr; Eversliarp. . .it's; a fa.^t- growing audience-participatiqner. the idea of pyramiding $1 up to $64. . . . seven double-up sequences,, making ' ally competent within the limits bf =lor sturdy audience appeal. ; the. script. Hobe. 'ORIGINAL YANKEE SWAPPER' With Carl Moore, Bay Girardin, Art King . 15 Mins.—Regional H. P. HOOD Sb SONS, DAIBIES WEEI, Boston * Borrowed from Robert Sagen- dorjph's New Hampshire Magiazine, 'Tlie Original Yankee Swapper' is designed to appeal to New England shrewdness and Yankee trading in- stinct. Swap lists : aire .;distributed through 5,000 H. P. Hood ice cream dealers throughout New England and can be had free. Listener.s are in- vited to jend to; the magazine's offices in Dublin, N.; H.. de.'fcriptibns bf articles they will swap for tho.<!e in the published Msts, Pr fpr any- thing else in particular. ■ : At each broadcast, diffeierit swap- pers are invited into the studio and are interviewed. Last show' caught, one interview was gagged cleverly. Man wanted tb exchange something in return for some knicknacks fPr his whathpt. Another concerned Mrs. Sagendorph, wife of magazine pub- lisher,: A young Woman wanted to swap her baby for a shorttime while she and her husband went on vaca- tion. Mris.' Sagendorph took in the child, said it was an easy Way to . get one. ,"■ Carl Moore. WEEI handyman, takes the main assignment as", the head swapper, Ray Girardin, his sometimb stooge, assists. Plugs for Hood products, especially ice cream, are handled by Art King. In plugging the products.vhe stresses; 'value re- ceived' as in swapping. Program lasts pnly 15 minutes and moves along rdther swiftly. It was sometimes 'forced,'' and could stand either a little humor, or more serious trading but pthjerwise looks like a smart merchandising idea for New England. Riley. pin* tossed in ' some wallflower grouch patter. ; v: The time sped by pleasantly, sug- gesting that the program is simple, practical and commercial. LatmL "I • • just like local programs! YOUR BEST NATIONAL SPOT BUY ANEW APfltOACHTOTHE NEW YORK MARKET , FORSYTHE, SE.^MON, and FAR- RELL Variety . ;;;.-. Saturday; ii:IS. ^ - - BBC, London. Wired from: the New. Hippodrome theatre, Goventry; t'hbse 'Yankee ; funsters seemed to tear the house tb I i bits. Topical gags around war, Nazi . chiefs and' patriotism bad the abdi- i ence wild. Nor could, radio li.stenei-s ' cpmpl.aih. . Act \vas solid with the ' patrons after m;c. explained that Seamon and Farr^ll were. booked. tor .the Wafihiiigton and the .safety of U.S.A.. but preferred tb stay.: and 'take it.' ■ ■ .•■ ■;,.-.-: ' ' ; , Al this-ratc of eoihe they'll collect. . I n 37 3.9 scattered titles and towns of the West, where 99% of Western retail sales are made, CoVumbia'i brilliant programs are listened to rega/arly at niglit... just as though they were local shbws! Big audience^low cost With mie liytcntrs,, during>z<?r^:qua any other network in the AVcst, Columbia-Pacific ' Springboards your program off" to a better start;. ..tb * bigger audience. Yet you-can fill the Western air with your programs for as little as $397.50 per broadcast (daytime—^time - .rfW talent). That's less than JE .jjjf for each, of the 3974 towns in Columbia's daytime primary .coverage area! .' One market—i}ne campaign ^ Cplum^ to span the West's great \ distances, to surrnount its difficult; terrain, It. merge* t)ic',c thousands bf scattered communities into cwr easily ■ lold market... spreads your sales story wherever sales are made ... no I .]•.» hundreds' of costly, trPublesomc . little schedules, but cver-so-simply in one overall rfgional campaign. ; --,,',■: . - : 'l-p sell the richest per capita market in the' nati , (106 Westerners buy as miich as 142 other Americans!) ,-: . u^c the network whicH covers all thc West--^with.'*l<H;.al" .. :. potency—for as little as I 3^ per town. Use the... A/ DIVISION OF THE COLt-'MBIA BROADCASTIKG SYSTEM. - '.'Palace HcteJy SauTi'attcisce--€Qlumhid Sjuare^ Los Angelts Keprf!*nt«d iiy RADIO SALES: Kevr Yofk...Ciiicago...Detroit...Charlotte, N. C.