Variety (Jul 1943)

34 RADIO REVIEWS Wednesday, July 7, 1913 JAMES MELTON With Joan Roberts; A! Goodman, Chorus (12); James Wellington •Writer: Don Johnson Director,: Jack Wyatt Songs. Orchestra XEYACO Sundayr 9:30 p.m.; 30 Mins. WABC-CBS, New York (Buchanan) Even if Fred Allen should elect rot to return in the fall and, in- stead extend his vacation into the winter months, Texaco could go on exercising its Sunday evening CBS franchise with no lessening of its radio pride! The musical package trundled into the Allen spot last weekend (4)' won't gather ."the mas- ter wit's rating, but, over the ensu- ing weeks -it will-escpnce . itself in the minds of a goodly percentage of listeners as one of the brightest and most delightful .examples of its genre on the networks,.. The pro- gram is- expertly compounded and exudes an air of up-to-the-minute radio. Iri any event, it ranks many notches above what has come to be accepted as ..time-holder quality. James Melton, who not so long ago made the passage from radio to the Metropolitan Opera, returns to a reg- ular network niche with augmented aplomb at giving with song, and deftness in projecting in speaking personality. Sharing the spotlight with him is Joan Roberts, who sky- rocketed into legit stardom via her performance in the. current Broad- way musical,. 'Oklahoma.' Miss Roberts' superior talents for inter preting a ! romantic ditty, come through , the- loudspeaker as effec- tively as. they do on the stage; She's a mike natural. Her. head tone's leave nothing wanting in the'way of clearness; and her flair for selling a lyric is likewise no wit unimpeded by this' medium. It would be. to the series' advantage if, after Miss Roberts has -become somewhat at home at the mike, .more lines were assigned ; her. . The youngster packs a million-dolfar personality on the stage and there's no reason why a substantial portion shouldn't be able to make itself felt oyer the air. The opening program's repertoire was. suavely integrated. For tier radio debut, Miss Roberts did 'Peo pie Will Say We're in Love' (from •QklahonW) and 'It Can't Be Wrong,' and they were darbs. . Melton, who is an ingratiating, m.c., struck vocally rich with 'Song of Songs' and his leadership of the. chorus In I've Got Plenty of Nothing.' A ,medley of war songs served as the finale, and the choice was not only fitting but sock entertainment. Al Goodman's orchestral direction proved, as usual, a prime ingred ent in the' broth. The program' fine timing and sweep reflected both good production and a baton with plenty of savvy. Oder ADVENTURES OF NERO WOLFE'. Cast: Santos Ortega','.' Joe Julian, Mary Janc : Hlgpy, Ed Latimer, Berry Kroeger, Carl Frank, Lew White Writer:-Louis Viltez Director: Illman Brown 30 Mins.; Mon., 8:30. p.m. . J. B. WILLIAMS CO. WJZ-Bluc, New York (T/iompsoii) . Rex Stout's lusty gumshoe. Nero Wolfe, and his. tough assistant sleuth. Archio arc the latest whodunit heroes' oh the networks. They join such vet kilocyefe dicks as. Sherlock Holmes. Bulldog ' Drummond,, the Thin Man. Mr. and Mrs. North Mi. D A , Ellery Queen and the I Love a Mystery' - trio. . Producer-director. Himan Brown, who's quite a mystery impresario already, . has this newest stanza,., through .the Thompson acenCy. for William's shave cream and:: after-shave lotion, replacing True or False.' : ' „.„,,„. 'The Adventures of Nero Wolfe is pretty much -standard guess-who hokum and therefore likely to draw a sizable audience Its chief dis- tinctrorrts--the^olorfUl^eKonalities of its two lead characters. Not only are Nero and Archie a couple of vigorous guys with a zest for enjoy- able living and the ability to sling a vivid vocabulary, but they can pene- trate a complicated murder case with the best. As heard on- the opening show Monday night (5), the yarn it- self was merely acceptable, but the characters provided the punch. As usual, Brown's pacing was swift and clear, tew White supplied the.at- mospheric organ cue musit. Carl Eastman read. the commercial copy for Williams' 'glider', shave xream and Aqua Velva. Hobe. FITCH BANDWAGON With Freddy Martin Orch, . Tom Reddy, Alex Dreier. Jimmy Mc- Hugh 30 Mins.; Sunday, 7:30 p.m. F. W. FITCH CO. WEAF-NBC, N. Y. (L. W. Ramsey) The summer replacement show for Fitch is a decided improvement over the formula of presenting a different band each week under Toby. Reed's m.c.'ing, which prevails the rest of the yeav.. Steered by Tom Reddy. formerly of WHO, Des Moines, and provided with a more listenable script, the initial show Sunday (4) proved to be a very acceptable and Interesting program. Freddy Martin's orchestra,, and a changing series of songwriters re- sponsible for hit tunes, will occupy the period for 13 weeks. Jimmy Mc- Hugh. one of the most successful of • the melody-millers, was the open ing guest and between his adept han dling of lines and Martin's perform- ance of tunes he has authored, the start was auspicious. There were a few weaknesses in the' script, but they were , minor' in comparison to the usual Fitch writing. Reddy's probing into McHugh's history and the source of his- inspirations for tunes was well handled. Perhaps the one fault of this pro gram was the way- the tunes . au-r thored over the years' by.. McHugh were done. There was a tendency to cram, too many of them into .a medley, thereby destroying the value of the bit as a whole. People, par- ticularly those in hinterland areas like old. tunes (and McHugh is re- sponsible for many of the best) and to skip: through only eight bars or so of a song is a mistake. It would have been much better to orally recount most of : his achievements and play two or three of "the best all the way. through. -■■.' Martin's -performance of the .songs was fine. His band is an ideal selec- tion for this show, since it's, style is flexible enough to handle all types of melodies/ It used choral arranger ments frequently on McHugh's ma- terial and the effect was'good. Par- ticularly impressive- was the inter- pretation of a new McHugh number, •Say a Prayer for the Boys Over rTjhere.' Alex Dreier, news commentator, cuts in from Chicago (show ema- . nates from California) for the final five minutes. His delivery of latest news events is clear and well-spoken Wood. SNEAK PREVIEW' ■ Cast: Dean Jagger. Edward Baqnello. Lily Valente, Stefan Schnabel, AI- llstair Kyle, Jack Bubln, Don Mor- rison, Perry Schneider, Paul La- Valle Orch . Writer: Mort Lewis Director: George Wlest 30 Mins.; Sun., 5:30 p.m. WJZ-Blne, New York : ,-. Under the somewhat misleading title of 'Sneak Preview." the Blue network is offering a showcase, of new programs, -each the sample of a possible series. It's along the lines of Columbia's 'Forecast' series of several seasons ago, though appar- ently with a limited budget. As_in the case, of 'Forecast,' the continuity stresses the idea that the listeners are to be the judges of the samples and a mail response-is invited. ; The opener ■ for the series was 'America, the Beautiful,' a serious drama by comedy writer Mort Lewis about the patriotism of immigrant- Americans. It was a moderately im- pressive show, though indicating lit- tle prospect for series development. In general, the . program itself , was better proselytizing • for the Ameri- can democratic, ideal than it . was drama,- The story was .fair, though lacking emotional impact, but the production and performances were unimaginative and uneven. The format presented a N. Y. evening public school attended by immi- grants, with a flashback story of one of the adult students, a-freedom-lov- ing Pole. Dean Jagger- narrated. ■ Perry Schneider, introduced' as. heading such an actual school in N. Y., guest- ed on the stanza to read a closing spiel. Hobe j » <♦»♦♦♦»♦ M >*♦♦♦♦♦» ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ . :: Fbllow-np Comment :: '■ ' ♦ ♦ > M' t « ♦ ♦ ♦ « > M ♦ ♦ M « » ♦ ♦< ' Chase &• Sanborn's summer series (NBC) still has eight weeks to go. but it seems to be a good bet that it reached the acme of musical enter- tainment; as far as this series is con- cerned, on last Sunday's (4) broad-, cast. Everything meshed so perfect- ly and the performance produced such rare enjoyment in the genre of popular music, that it's hard to con- ceive' of the show's pilots coming even within reaching distance of this event- The : program was divided into two sections,: and' each was a darb of showmanship and execution. The first section offered, a revival of the original Rhythm Boys: namely. Bing Crosby, Al Rinkef and Harry Barns, and the 10 minutes of raillery, vocal- izing and special business that - en- sued was a treat of uncommon di- mensions. The trio's interpretation of 'Mississippi Mud' would undoubt- edly become' a 'lHOSt' for record col- lectors if- it:were recorded. It was in the second section that the pro- gram took to the heights of brilliant musical entertainment. The script material was a medley from George Gershwin's 'Porgy and Bess," and what Dinah Shore and Crosby, sup- ported by Paul Whiteman's sterling orchestral background, did with the vocals can best be described by bor^ rowing a phrase from the swing ad- dict's lexicon, namely, "out of this world.' C. &--S: and its agency oh the program, J. Waiter Thompson, might do well to repeat this very s'am combination and repertoire be- fore the summer series is ended. The listener appreciation would be im- measurable. JOHN NESBITT With Carmen Dragon, Harlow Wil- cox Talk: Music . JOHNSON'S FLOORWAX Tues., 9:30 p.m.; 30 Mins. WEAF-NBC, New York tNeedliam, Louis-fi Brorby) John Nesbitt, who has carved out quite a remunerative career as teller of stories, is back at this stand for his second summer while Fibber McGee and Molly take their 13 week vacation. The Johnson Floor wax assignment tilts Nesbilt's pro gram alliance on NBC to two a week, the other being his stint with John Charles Thomas for Westing- house each Sabbath matinee. -.. With Johnson.-Nesbitt ..is under no writ to extol the marvels wrtiught. by . his employer-organization. The program hues to the formula of his 'The- Passing Parade.' Anecdotes, both, strange 'and trite, toss, oh. the swells of .bombastic, rhetoric. The words weave enough of a hypnotic sense to hold the listener, even, though the welter of adjectives and adverbsrhave an: obvious tinge .of padded embroidery. Aiding: the tale- 'spinner in his dramatic spirals is an orchestra batoned by Carmen Dragon. The scoring, as prepared' by Dragon, fits neatly and is kept down to essentials, -. For his opening (29) event, Nes- bitt : shuttled between. :tha .anecdote about -an old Army colonel, who 'proved that he was more ' than- a martinet in a moment of danger on a training '■ camp's- obstacle course, and a second edition- of- his- 'Memo to A. Hitler.' • In the latter piece, Nesbitt,. adopting the phraseology of a- business letter, recalled to Hitler the accounting. he must eventually make for the holocaust that he had set off.. The second edition was not on a par with the (test, - Harlow Wilco'x, himself no slouch as a word-roller,, doubles-from intro- ducer of the Nesbitt. recitals to re- taling the household delights of the Johnson article.. Odec. Bob Hope broadcast over NBC Saturday (3) by way of BBC short- wave for the first time since his ar- rival in England to entertain Ameri- can troops.- With Morgan Beatty, NBC's, chief London newsman,-func- tioning as m.c, Hope mixed his usual brand of localized gags with, some serious sidelights on his current touv under the auspices of '.USO'.-CauVp Shows, Inc. Iri the Hope troupe, which, Beatty disclosed, had in its first week played 30. camp shows plus numerous' appearances in hospitals are Frances Langford, Jack Pepper and Tony Romano. Beatty -also re vealed that they have' been working 18 to 20 hours a day and averaging less than four hours, of sleep daily. Ethel Barry more guested Monday night (5) on.'Cavalcade of America' on WEAF-NBC for du Pont. She read the narrator-lead in a revival of Stephen Vincent' Benet's . The People Speak,',which the Council for Democracy aired two years ago. Be cause,' of Miss Barrymore's exag gera.tedly mannered performance and the: over-emphatic direction and pro duction, it was impossible for a first time listener to judge the quality of the script. Bob Hanhon guested Thursday night (1) on the R. & H. beer pro- gram on WJZ, New York, to intro his appearances' on the series for the next few weeks, substituting for the Jesters. He fitted into, the stanza picely, particularly in a duet of 'They Can't- Take That Away From Me' with Diane Courtney. The latter also clicked with a solo- of 'All Or Nothing At AH:' It'might be an improvement to give Miss Courtney a few lines of continuity about her songs to underscore her. personality and add character to the show. John B. Kennedy ribbed left handed golfers and lefties in general Thursday (1). on-his news commen- tator series on CBS for Chevrolet The humor was a. bit sledgehammer but was nevertheless worth a laugh He got into the subject by reporting' that among the requests for athletic equipment from the U. S. armed forces overseas., there have been relatively few bids for left-handed golf clubs. 'SILVER THEATRE' With Kay Francis, Preston Foster, Felix Mills Director: Hank Booraem INTERNATIONAL- SILVER Sunday, 6 p.m.; 30 Mins. WABC-CBS, New York (Younp & Rubicam) After International Silver had de- cided to drop Edward Murrow and recapture its old half-hour slot for the revival of 'The .Silver TheatreV series, the account- was. faced, with the alternative of picking up a cheap show for the summer or offering a cut-rate version of 'Silver Theatre itself, The "cut-rate"'flavor,was quite apparent in the opening installment (4) of the summer, program group. Perhaps it was due to the choice of script and the : awkward-stance of the temporary m.c, Preston Foster, but last Sunday's (4) event; certainly lacked the finish, the bounce and. the. know-how that have been associated ith 'Silver Theatre' the.past several years. • ' ' ■ - The scripts used during these nll- 13 weeks will, in each instance be repeat something taken out of the Silver Theatre" file, merely dusted off and equipped with a film name and otherwise cast from the mem-, bership rolls of the: American Fed- eration of Radio Artists. This, it is figured: will keep the . weekly cost down around the. $3,000 mark, where- as the regular fall and winter budget (prior to Murrow's adoption) ran in the neighborhood of $6,000. The piece-chosen for 'Silver's' re- , ival was 'Murder. Unlimited. 1 by Robert Riley Crutcher. Although in keeping with the series' predilection for.light and farce comedy, the script, didn't nick the: risibilities. Kay Francis, as guestee, plugged away diligently at the role of a crime- smitten newspaperwoman, leaving behind, her lots of clamor but little point of. characterization. Foster, who occupies the niche formerly filled by Conrad Nagel,. gave- the inv pression of being all dressed up for the journey;, but dubious about his jlace in the vehicle and the route. ?elix Mills is there, as he has been from. the inception of the 'Theatre' 1937), for the musical bridges. The : sales story is, as usual, split between the manufacturer's sterling silver-and silver plate brands, but with the added war angle. The pur- chaser may not be able to get all that he wants of a brand, right away, but f he exercises the war bond buying habit he will have what it will take to get these additional pieces when the company converts from . war work to its regular, business. Odec, JOAN BROOKS With Walter Gross Orch 15 Mins.; Mon.-Frl., 11:15 p.m. WABC-CBS, New York Joan Brooks, who's been around in New York radio and niteries for several years, first as one of a trio and then as a soloist,.is.now. getting late-evening sustainer buildup across the' board on CBS. She has a warm, soft voice and an effortless, languid brand of singing. Her enunciation is; good, her phrasing fair and her handling of mood bal- lads beginning to have a distinctly individual style. She's weaker on high notes and rhythm tunes. Gen erally, she seems a definite prospect for the future. • When caught Friday night (2) she offered 'Don't Let It Bother You," 'It's Always You.' 'You Must Have Known' and 'Red Sails in, the Sunset.' Walter Gross' orchestral accompani- ments, particularly the piano flavor, were excellent. Opening theme for the program is 'If You Were the Only Girl in the. World,' in which Miss Brooks substitutes 'boy' in the lyric, and the closer is 'I'll See Ydu Again.' The intro continuity refers to. the singer as 'the girl with the voice you won't forget' Hobe Several stations used melodies of the late George M. Cohan over the Fourth, but-only one in the east de voted a program in memory of the star who would have celebrated hi! 65th birthday. This show, originat ing at WCAU, Philadelphia, for thi OBS network, went on Monday (5) at-midnight, .hardly an advantageous .-time; It was the final in a series of 12 programs called '95 . Minutes frorh Broadway,' written and narrated by Powers Gouraud. 'Give -My Regards to Broadway' . themed the broad cast. Gouraud sketched Cohan stage career.: dating, it from the turn, of the . century and Cohan's ■■• first legit click,. 'Little Johnnie Jones.' followed the next year with '45 Minutes • From Broadway' • which' cued in -{Mary. 1 This was followed by '50 Miles From Boston^ which had Cohan's- 'Harrigan' a top num ber. Johnny Warrington's orchestra played the program. Mutual had been requested by the Treasury Department to broadcast the launching of the liberty ship George M. Cohan, which slipped from the ways at the Fairfield Beth- lehem yards, Baltimore, on Sunday (4) with Eddie Cantor the m.c, but the station could not make the cover 'THE ARTIST REVIEWS ART' With Fernando Puma, Helen Waren 15 Mins ; Frl., 10:30 p.m. WEVD. New York Artist. Fernando Puma and his ac tress-wife Helen Waren are the new est to.try to bring the discussion of art to the air. It's a worthwhile at- tempt, but. like previous, ones, doesn completely overcome the basic diffi culty of expressing a purely visual subject in oral terms. Fine arts is a fafrly esoteric matter in any case. In addition, even those who appreciate art are frequently unable to express in words just what any /particular paintings mean -to theni. Or,- if. chey are articulate on the subject, their reaction may be quite meaningless or incomprehensible to others. All of which tends to make art tough mate rial for radio. ' The present , weekly series suffers from the additional handicap of sounding too obviously read, although the spiel is supposed to take the form of informal confab. Puma seems somewhat 111 at ease and stiff. , Miss Waren,is more relaxed but when she has a long speech she tends to give it an actress'reading. . Hobe. age. Cantor said:- -'If thefe ever was one man who was, a symbol of our great. nation, that man was George M. Cohan. ,,;He waved the flag be cause he . loved it. He gave it ^permanent wave'.' Comedian' daughter christened the vessel, crowd of 20,000 roaring approval the boat entered the waters of Chesapeake Bay, while the hand played 'Yankle Doodle Da.idy.' Can tor sang several of Cohan's songs, ..'WOOD THEATRE OF AIR' With Jane Wyman and Waller Reed Writer and Director: Paul Pierce Dramatic PROCTER * GAMBLE (DREFT) 15 Mins.; Mon.-Frl., 3 p.m. KFI-NBC,Hollywood (Blackett-^flmple-HtiJmiiert) This serial is the work of many hands. It was started by-Harry Maiz- lish of KFWB, passed,along to Music Corp! of America, which in turn sub- -^'tted it to the agency,,and a sale to ,,.e soapmaker was made, on the theory that a successful nighttime formula, should do as well in broad daylight. P.; & G. decided to give Hollywood one more chance, having irevidusly flubbed out with Shirley Temple (Ivory • Snow-Dreft) and Arch Obole.r (Oxydol). Then, again, " sponsor was tiring of 'Lone Jour- —y,'.and figured that for the coin it was paying scripteuse Sandra Mich- -fl it could throw something more l the glamor side into the'niche. It all adds up to: a chapter-play takeoff of Lux, Screen Guild, Silver Theatre, etc., on the poor relative side. As Hollywood .shows go, this is - modest little package.and wraps up »r little more coin than any of the top agonizers. Talent used is drawn from the studio featured bracket and the material adapted from old films. Idea is to spread one picture into five installments, giving the program a weekly change policy. ■ For the:premiere performance, an RKO oldie. 'Bachelor Mother' was chosen probably- because; of its easy, adaptability to serialized formula and not too abrupt in its' breakaway from the tear duct wringer that had gone before. Evidences of rough spade work to get the new series grooved didn't kick up enough static to be noticeable, and Producer Paul Pierce got through the initialer. creditably enough. Jane Wyman. and her vis"- vis, Walter Reed, trouped through in facile stride and made the yarn- about the department store counter queen left with a doorstep foundling believable enough.. After the brief dramatic flurry, Miss Wyman trailer- izes the next day's doings. Next week: Ellen Drew in 'Fifth Avenue Girl:' To the sponsor's credit it may be said that he's bending over iri hi? gratitude to the studios for making their scripts and players available. Actually, studio and player credits * consumed more time than the com- mercial. Excelsior! For . the opener, P. & G. took only a short plug at the finish.. RKO even got a mention for one of its current releases, which had nothing to do with the play or play- ers on the warmup. ^Although series got underway Monday at 7:45 a.m.. it was not heard here until 3 pjn., two days later, due to James Petrillo's ruling against de- layed transcriptions with music air- ing within 24 hours of the live and not later than three days. The organ takes the rap here. Helm. CHICK CARTER' With: Bill Llpton, Jean McCoy and Slephan Schnabel Writers: Walter Gibson and Ed Grus- kln- Director: Fritz Blockl Mon. through Friday; 15 Mins.; p.m. Sustaining WOR-Mntual, New York Same scriplers and same network that offer 'Nick Carter' to the adult audience Tuesdays 9-9:30 p.m. are now serving up his 'son. Chick.' to the late afternoon juve dial twisters. A 'surprise' appearance of Nick on the initialer Monday (5) helped'con- firm the family ties and set the stage for a ragged, episode. Success or failure of the series hinges on the audience's acceptance of the premise that Chick, a teen-age adopted son inherited Nick Carter's keen deduc- tive powers. Except for the link with the reg- ular Carter show and the injection of Nick into the script, there is little to distinguish it from the usual comic strip offering. The opening episode was confronted with one obstacle which it failed to clear. Time usu- ally, devoted to building up. the daily climax was partially consumed ih- troducine characters and setting the scene. With the consequence that the hero met -his nemesis, Stephen Schnabel (Rattler) before the proper suspense (even for a; 15-minute.epi- sode) was created. The acting wasn't great - guns either. Bill Lipton and Jean McCoy went through the^r lines without adding, to or detracting anything from the script. . The heavy was grossly overdone In a beer barrel voice that at times became unintel- ligible: As for direction, it must as- sume, responsibility for failure to build a suspenseful climax. 'MEN AT SEA" . ' Cast: Norman Lloyd, Rod Hcndrlck- son, Allan Stevenson, Roger De Kov.en, George. Putnam, Ian Mac- Allaster, Richard Sanders, Maurice Mlnnick, Merle Kendrlck <Mxh Writer: Milton Geiger Director: BUI Sweets 30 Mins.; Snn.t 6:30 p.m. Sustaining WEAF-NBC. New York . Through the Office of Waj Infor- mation, 'Men at Sea' is being, pre- sented on NBC. in cooperation with the National Maritime : Service and' the U. S. Shipping Administration, in tribute to the -Merchant Marine (Continued on page 3B) -