Variety (Dec 1942)

•I MJUilO REYIEWB Wedne«day» December 9, 19i2 Singing Master of Ceremonies KEEP AHEAD With mmmm Every Friday 7:30^ P.M. WOR THANKS TO ROY DURSTINE CHARLES FUREY For Making This Possible Also Thanks to HARRY MAYER HARRY ANGER FOR REPEAT ENGAGEMENTS EARLE THEATRE, Wash. and IZZY RAPPAPORT LARRY GOLDE MICKEY ALDRICH FOR REPEAT ENGAGEMENTS HIPPODROME THEATRE Baltimore A FEW PRESS NOTICES VAKIKTV, X. Y. Now topllner IB Jerry Cooper, a lype of baritone whoao ballads are fctchlDK as hie personality. He runs tlic tfiimut of the surefires but ,'ella them with distinction. He .was ro:iiuiT<1 with Ed W>*nn*s musical on iir<i;uiuay Inal season. WOULD TBLBORAM, N. T. V\'fiy down yonder In New Orleans —whore the blues were born—Is where Jerry Cooper, singing star halls from. The handsome baritone, whose voice sioros nightly at the Broad- way biHtro and whose success spread meieoilc throughout the show world In the past few years, was practically i'iiIkocI with the sound of the blues iti liiK eiirt. MI.X.MI HERALD His last picture role appearance of Importance was with Dick Powell In ■Hollywood Hotel,* and his last ma- jor stage engagement was aa tb* load In Ed Wynn'* 'Boys and Olrla logetber.' which recently closed in .Now York after a 39-week run. Cooper Is a handsome, six-foot Juvenile with a wealth of experience as the starring attraction In many of Ills country's Teadlng nigbt olubi and ihsotrcs. HIS engagement at the Koynl Palms will be limited, doe to prior commitments In Hollywood, where lie Is scheduled to aUrt work on a new picture In April TAPS AGENCY 1610 Broadway N«w York City Telt. COIumbua B-IBW-'tTW •THREE-THIRDS OF THE NEWS' Bankare, John Gvnther, Robert St. John; director, Blayno Botcher Now* 1» Hins. ANDREW JEBOENB CO. Siuidar> 9 p. m. WJZ-BIue, New York (Lennen ft 4f<tchell) Jergens rushed In the Baukage- John Gunther-Robert St. John com- bination Sunday (6) as a replace- ment for Walter Winchell while he is on a Government mission. If the account hopes to keep even a goodly part of that high listening rating built up by Winchell, it will have to do lots of reshuffling with this pinch- hitter. Each of the three men in the combination is a well - establishea name with plenty of mike experi- ence, and each commentator's pres- entation bears that indubitable sense of authority, but there isn't enough novelty or illusion of excitement in the program to peg It above the av- erage news-commentator inning. The pattern of "Three-Thirds of the News' undoubtedly looked good on paper and perhaps sounded Im- pressive on any auditions recording. "The three-way allocation called for one commentator to reel off the spot news, another to take the hottest item and explain its significance, and a third to take an item also and give it color and 'pulse beat.' The prom- ises didn't seem to come off. Bauk- age, who led oS the threesome, struck a tempo and delivery which was in sharp contrast with the speedy, staccato style of Winchell; Gunther's treatme.;t of the Tunisia situation was crisp and interesting, but most of his analysis sounded somewhat dated, while St. John, ranked as one of the finest color re- porters in the business, earmarked for himself an enlightening, if not quite pertinent, dissertation on the success of the Serbian guerrillas. 'Three-Thirds of the News' creaked in making the corners on the debut occasion, but, with a spot as warm as this one, there's good reason to beieve that the underlying idea can click, providing the parts are prop- erly adjusted and showmanly oiling is applied. Odec. ■FRANKLY MR. FEEBISH' Cast: Joe Curtin, Chester Stratton, Junius Matthew*, JOhn Frank, Adolph Greene, Alvln Hammer, Judy Tuvim, Betty Oomden, Elaine Kent Writer: Neal Hopklng Director: Lester Vail 30 Mlns. Sustaining Friday, 11:30 p.m. WEAF-NBC, New York With the repair of radio receivers inevitably due to become a serious problem, due to lack of replacement parts and shortage of technician- service men, it's moro than ever im- portant to networks and stations to help maintain audiences by keeping sets in order. As a move in that di- rection, NBC broadcast a program Friday night (4) explaining the im- portance of caring for receivers properly, and methods of doing so. As a straight spiel on such a topic would probably be a sura tuner- outer, it was presented as a comedy- dramatic fantasy and, as such things go, was tK>th amusing and Instruc- tive. Tabbed 'Frankly Mr. Feebish,' the yarn told of the capture, trial and conviction of the little imp (those Gremlins again) who devotes his life to getting into radio sets and put- ting them on the blink. Having suc- cessfully tied a can on Feebish, the radio repair man, Pete Parsons, de- livered a lecture to the 'Jurors' on what to do and not to do for best results and longest service from sets. Program was brightly written by Neal Hopkins, had a musical score by Tom Bennett, chorus and orches- tra conducted by Paul LavaUe and was deftly directed by Lester Vail. Joe Curtin was narrator, Chester Stratton was properly direct as the repair man, and Junius Matthews gave Feebish a faintly feline sug- gestion. John Frank, Adojph Greene, Alvin Hammer, Judy Tuvim and Betty Comden were on the show as individual acton, not In the capacity of their nltery-vaude troupe, The Revuers, Hobe 'TRUE STORT THEATRE OF THE AIB' Cast: Henry Hull, Betty Fnrness WrIUrsi Sig MiUer, Loots Vittez Dlreotori Nornun Livingston 3» Mlns. HOWARD CLOTHES Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. WOR-MBS, New York (Red/Ield-JofiTistone) Howard Clothes, which formerly ^onsored 'Bulldog Drummond' on WOR and a small Mutual hookup, is now bankrolling another meller aeries, 'True Story Iteatee of the Air,' on a similar n«i In this case the prpgrams ara adapted from •True Story' mag yam«, with Henry Hull as star and m.o. On the basis of last Wednesday night'a (2) broad- cast, Howard apparently believes its customers are mora biterested in what thoy wear than what they hear. Chapter caught waa oalled 'For- ever in Love With You/ a teeth- orltter about how • baby'a death twlstad Its mother'* emotional life Into knotf, There were several points glaringly unexplained or un- ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦»♦♦♦* > ♦♦♦ FoUow-op Comment : * *********************** Jimmy Ikarante stuck his schnoz into the 'Camel Caravan' Friday nlgbt (4) on CBS and stirred up a pretty full potion of laughs. Schnoz- zola was given a good script and from there on his delivery counted to the hllL The listener could just about see his comedy leer when he answered Jimmy Wallington's ques- tion: Take Lana Turner's sweater away, and what has she got.?' Dii- rante said, 'Are you kiddin'?' and it was a loud cackle. Schnoz also man- aKfid to hold up the courtroom trial afterpiece of the program. The comedy premise of this bit was pretty forced, but Durantc's efforts to pro- nounce 'Irrelevant' was almost worth the otherwise six or eight-minute lull. Thin Man' offered a passably ab- sorbing murder yarn Wednesday night (2) on NBC, but its romantic whimsy was a trifle coy. Parker Fennelly registered as a 'character' rural sheriff, while Claudia Morgan and Les Damon were, as always, the sleuthing couple. As usual, there were several Inferentially sexy lines it. the script. The Woodbury signa- ture via Sonovox is kinda corny. And the audience mikes are tuned loo high. Easy Aces' was funny Wednesday night (2) on WJZ-Blue, as Goodman Ace was verbally hogtied by his sappy secretary and Jane. There were a couple of fast lines in that script, too. . . . 'Mr. Keen" was a standard crime story the same night, the only novelty being some sermon- izing bbout juvenile delinquency. . . . The problems of youth were treated earlier the same day in the "Big Sister' serial, via CBS, with two teen-age kids talking marriage. Part of Carlotta, the young girl, was nicely played. Julian Funt now gets air credit as writer. . . . Estelle M. Sternberger, discussing the Bev- eridge report in England, impressed with her comparison of it with social s.vurity In the Scandinavian coun- tries (via WQXR) Wednesday eve- ning (2). . . . News about Paul Mc- Nutt and the draft law revision was slighted in most of the early-evening news programs Saturday (5) on New York stations. . . . Gracie Allen whacked across a flock of solid laughs Wednesday night (2) as guest on the EMdie Cantor show, with Can- tor making a strong pitch for gas rationing at the sign-off. . . . Kate (Continued on page 33) 'AN AMERICAN IN ENGLAND' With Joseph Joltan Writer and DIreotor: Noroun Cor- win Documentary 30 Mlns. SastalBliig Tuesday, 10 p.m. WABC-CBS, New York CBS last Tuesday (1) resumed for five broadcasts Norman Corwin's 'An American in England' series, with New York the originating point this time, and the 30-minute event was anything but warmed-over an- ecdote. It was a scintillating am- alc I of foreign reporting, phllo- sophical observation and political understanding. Corwin's comments on the current life of a community in East Anglia, through the narra- tor-role of Joseph Julian and a sprinkling of actors in native lingual bits, were richly dressed in human interest and barbed with disillu- sioned retrospection, but the script scored its deepest affect on the lis- teners' sensibilities during the last few minutes. Through his British characters, Corwin limned the currents of moral, economic and political yearn- ing that have become part of the after-the-war consciousness of the British people. As one character in the piece remarked, 'If we can't have these changes after the war, and if it looks s though a new brand of reaction might set In. then • we have just been wasting our time.' Listeners to this program must have recalled this statement and felt the poignant contrast when, a couple days later, W. P. Witherow, presi- dent of the National Association of Manufacturers, declared, 'I am not fighting for a quart of milk for every Hottentot, or a TVA on the Danube, or for governmental handouts of free Utopia," Odec. convincingly motivated, and the sappy happy ending was obvious from far off. In other words, a standard True Story mag yarn not improved via the air. Henry Hull was acceptable as m.c, and, not surprisingly, just a trifle brisk as the worried hubby. Betty Furness did reasonably well whh the unrewarding part of the emo- tionally warped wife. Only other part in the script was a squaUlDg infant. Intro slogan, Truth u stranger than fiction,' was Intoned through a filter, arid the organ cues leaned toward super-meller stuff. There's some transparently canned studio 'applause.' Hon;ar<jl commer- cial copy was commonplace. Hobe. 'OBLIVBR V» FBOH EVIL' With DenaM Crisp, Agaes Hoor» head, WaNer Abel^ Jeaa HerahoU, ■ay Colllnii eondootor, Bobert Aimbrastef t writers, Geeife Faolk- ner, Bernard O. SchoeBfeid; diree- tor. Cat Kohl. •0 Mlns. Saitalnint Sun,: 2 p. m. WJZ-BIue Not the best example of hate-the- enemy preachment, this special pro- gram reminded too often of the em- barrassing ostrich-like attitude of the democracies prior to 1939. In pleading to 'Deliver Us From Evil,' the script more than once practically screamed 'Why wasn't the Nazi evil stopped in those early Hitler years? Why was the Italian hyena permit- ted to murder and conquer defense- less Ethiopians? Why wasn't Hiro- hito slapped on his chopsticks when he first proclaimed his intention to devour the Orient?' Considering that the democracies have tasted too often the 'too little and too late' gall, it's probably best for American consimiption that war radio programs stick to the post- Pearl Harbor script. That treach- erous attack is perhaps the best re- minder of why and what we're fight- ing. A German infant being bap- tized in the religion of the fuehrer and for the war glory of the state; the arrest and murder of a German school teacher for daring to say that 'Negroes are human;' the murder of a priest, chiefly because he preaches the teachings of Christ: the story of an American missionary who treated the gas burns of Ethiopian natives visited by Mus.so's civilization—these have all been so often repeated as to be old hat. But again they're re- peated here. On the other hand, the more recently vivid Nazi extermina- tion of the Czech village of Lidice was given a comparative briisholT by this program's writers. War propaganda should date Itself from the awakening of the democ- racies, rather than their sleepy years. The United States and the United Nations are now on the offensive, everywhere. We are fighting Nazis. Japs and the Fascist jackals—and that's the most patriotically dramatic script there is at the moment. Cer- tainly a better theme than the al- most-.sympathetlc treatment of Jap civilians: namely, this script's telling of the young Nip factory worker who dies at the loom making uniforms for the Japanese army. When the war is over this type of program would be justified, with few changes, as a reminder to the democ- racies not to permit national evil to rise again anywhere in the world. As was repeated to Agnes Moore- head, playing the role of an Amer- ican mother whose son died in an air raid on Germany, this country's boundaries are global, and that crime against humanity, no matter where it occurs, must eventually reach us unless quickly stamped out at the source. Deliver Us From Evil' was a play projected In narration style: Donald Crisp, Miss Moorehebd, Walter Abel, Jean Hersholt and Ray Collins were excellent in their respective roles of narrator, mother, and murdered vic- tims ol the Nazis. The Idea was an- other 'Bury the Dead' variation, with the dead explaining to Miss Moore- head why her son had perished in a raid on the Rhine. At times the writing was brilliant, as when one victim said, 'We did not die quickly —in a great burning moment. We were slowly murdered.' On other occasions the script was way off for a big league effort—notably in the weak dialog given the priest charac- ter,><^ith what he had to say made even worse by over-acting. The murder of Lidice was written In the style of cheap melodramatics; that was rare baloney about Hangman Heydrich and the violets. One of the program's best fea- tures was the musical score, with no air credit expressed for that fine backgrounding. Robert Armbrustcr 'BDHOB. DETECTIVE' WHh Tromaa Harper, Joe Ripley Writer*: Tromon Harper, Bruco Chapman IS Mlns. GROVE PILLS SniHlay, 6:30 p. m. WOB, New York (Seeds) Click of Rex Stout's 'Secret Weap- on' series, on which he debunks Axis propaganda, has naturally inspired a number of variations of the same general idea. Along similar lines, and also like several newspaper fea- tiires, is this 'Rumor Detective' pro- gram Sunday nights on WOR-Mutual for Grove's bromo • quinine pills 'with an endless hitch-hike plug for B-Complcx vitamins). The Office of War Information, the Army. Navy and other Government departments are supplying material for the show. Potentially it's a passable program. In general structure it's much like 'Secret Weapon.' Various rumors are cited by Joe Ripley, with Troman Harper knocking each one on the head, sometimes via dramatized bits. As heard Sunday (6), the principal drawback was Harper's over-em- phatic rebuttal. It would have been more impressive if he had used quieter, less insistent manner of speaking, letting his overwhelming facts tell their own story. At the clcse Harper offers several 'true rumors' favorable to the U. S. cause. Hobe. OVER HERE' With Ronald Colman, Jano Froman, Bob Barns, Virginia Bruce, Bay Eberle, Gene Krupa, Walter O'Kecfe, Fanny Brice, Hanley Stafford, James Walllngton, John Vandercook, Igor Oorin, Comedy, Drama, Talk, Music SO Mlns, U. S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT Saturday, 8:30 p. m. WJZ-BIne, New York The Treasury Department has en- dowed this new series with two-fold purpose: one is to sell war bonds and occasionally pitch a plug for some other Government agency, and the second is to convey to our armed forces abroad some idea of what the folks are doing at home to aid the war effort. For that globally distrib- uted audience the network later shortwaves a recorded version. Last Saturday night's installment not only had lots of production spark and well Integrated entertain- ment, but it did a s'well job of point- ing with pride to achievements on the home front. To John Vander- cook, staff commentator, fell the task of translating it from the latest Gov- ernment reports. After a brief nota- tion on the anniversary of Pearl Har- bor, Vandercook recalled in statisti- cal array America's armaments pro- duction story for the past year. The source of the program shut- tled between New York and Holly- wood. Ronald Colman did his cus- tomary slick job of m.c.lng and clothed an excerpt from the book, 'I Escaped From Hong Kong,' with a huge emotional Impact, Igor Gor- In's singing of the Russian military number, 'Meadowland,' Impressed as the highpoint of the program's musi- cal content. Walter O'Keefe and the team of Fanny Brice and Hanley Stafford contributed plenty to laugh about. Another bright vocal mo- ment came from Jane Froman, and Virginia Bruce and Bob Burns, air- ing from Hollywood, proved surpris- ingly well paired in a cross-fire rou- tine. Odec. conducted and. were It not for that orchestration, these 60 minutes would have listened more like 600. Scho. 3.000 ROACHES Is what tho Iad>- adverthwd for. Hrr lease wus op naS she iironiiaed to iMTo Uw apart meat la this same con- dition In which she found It. JAMEN MADISON pmllfto writer for radio. Ktage and ncrrm. Kftm Scotchmea aeree tliat nr new GAO 8UBET h ■ood Toloe tor one dolUr.. P.O. Box Itt, Orand Central Aanez, New York. (Watch for a veu) gag every week) 15000 WAml MY AM) WOff In the Salt Lake Market NBC's Parade of Stars keeps 'em listening to KDYL SAU UKI CUV UTAH'S^ ONI.T MBO. Station