Variety (May 1946)

46 Wedtaday, May 1, 1945 Radio Reviews Continued from p*gt U Moral was stated plainly, pointing out (tie vital importance of everyone taking a blood lest every six months. Series being so good a public serv- ice function for a small indie station, perhaps it's a little-captious to com- ment on the obvious quality of script and performances. Writing could have been more exciting, and the acting a little less stodgy. Other- wise series merits much praise. Pro- duction was simple and satisfactory. SHIMMERS' BENEFIT FOB CR1PFLKD CHILDREN With King Cele Trio, Roy Rogers. Rob Hope; Spike Jones orch. Dinah Shore. Tom Harmon, City Slickers, Don Wilson. Harry Von Zell. an- nouncers Producer: Vie Knlfht - 311 Mins.: 8:110 p.m. Saturday (27) W.17.-ABC. N. Y. Some of radio's lop' aerformers combined in a pleasing melange ot high-jinks fen- sweel charity's, sake on Saturday night (271, Sparking a benefit show which .aimed at pub- licizing the Shriiicrs' cash efforts in aid of crippled children., the artists did nobly in keeping the listeners in- lerestcd despite interjected tributes to the Shriners' laudable efforts. Mixture oi music, comics, tomfool- ery and straight talking homage had enough of everything to get the point across without audience ennui. Show slarled socko with a duet sung by announcers Don Wilson and Harry Von Zell. From then on .n, things kept nioving. Bob Hope, as always, had the audience with him before ho started. Hope cracked smartly and to the point though, once in a while, the studioites got in his way with prolonged yakking and clap- ping. King Cole Trio did nicely with an off-in-a-minor key summation of "Paper Moon." The sweet rendition sliding off sharply to raffish sound effects plus clanking and howling, a Spike Jones specialty, was done up brown in "Laura.'' Dinah Shore, sans voice (she's been indisposed several weeks i did a tidy bit of two-Angered maneuvers on the piano. Tommy Harmon w as sincere and pleasing iri a straight lhank : you to the Shriners for their work. on Miss Simms' show. But Riggs did gat oft to a good start, Kate Smith, like Tennyson's brook, goes on forever. Signalizing com- pletion of IS consecutive years on CBS with Friday's (28) program, the singer ran through nostalgic pro- gram in typical sentimental style, eminently demonstrating why she retains her durable hold on her large public. With voice as fresh, musical and appealing as ever, Miss Smith reprised a few of the many song hits over the years, from her theme song, "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain." and "I Surren- der Dear" on her 1931 opening pro- gram, to her avowed favorite, "God Bless America." Byplay between singer and her mentor. Ted Collins, Was simple and ingratiating, to add to the personal touch. ♦, ■ ♦ ^Follow-up Comment: Tommy Rife*, out ot the service and with none of his ventriloquistic skill lost, came back for his net- work warm-tip last week (261 as g nest a r on the Ginny Simms show. Slated as the summer replacement for the show when Miss Simms starts her seasonal hiatus, following this week's stanza CD. Riggs got himself set wilh the program's habitual lis- teners for a run that ought to satisfy everyone all the way around. Riggs handled his dummy, "Betty Lou." in the usual manner, making of her an impish , brat but likeable. Which is probably the only way to do that type ot act. Of course, he'll have a tougher time keeping the en- tire halt-hour going than he did with the two'short spots allotted to, him Th« first derby hot wot mad* by J< Knapp of South Norwalk, Conn. In 1850. It wot named after the Derby In England. „ children to I***- — WIP WSP WAS THE FIRST RADIO STATION IN PHILADELPHIA IS FIRST IN THE NUMBER OF LOCAL ADVERTISERS 610 K. C. ■ » MOTIUl'S 3rd MARKET AFfHMTf 5000 WATTS KtneseHTEO nationally bv •SO. P. HOUINGBEtV CO. "«SLi**»' wip • im Squibb'j "Academy Award" show on CBS brought Wall Disney's "Snow While and the Seven Dwarfs" to the air lasl Saturday night (27). and the choice was a happy one. The half- hour resolved ilselt into a stanza of lovely charm, beautiful music and excellent acting that did great credit to the producers ot the air version of this famous fairy tale.. Nearly all of the characters made famous'in the Disney Technicolor film.- as Well as most of the songs popularized by the picture, were en- compassed in the skillfully woven radio adaptation by Frank Wilson. Dee Engelbach gave the show top direction, and Leith Stevens handled the music with a know-how- that made solid beauty oiil of flimsy fan- tasv. Phil Hanna. replacing Felix Knight on the "Sunday Party" Hires show, maintains the. good musical quality of the show. His vocaling is on par with other participants, and lie makes a nice impression with his lightweight- gab. He set his characterization as a- very proper young mai< on his initial airing (28) lo provide.a touch of comedy to this show'which.doesn't have a full-time member of the staff to perform that chore. Louise Carlyle and the Phil Davis orch and chorus, the other musical components in the show, gave good accounts of themselves. Transcription Reviews Continued from page tt courses in Army and Navy posts throughout the country during the war. Joel Sayr« dialog plays the part of "Joe Bishop," the eager-lo-learn Spanish friend of Pedro Domecq's Orthodox educators will probably squirm over their approach.: Their dialog is "painless pedagoguery." They also make a pitch about "cul- tural, social and business reasons for learning foreign languages," tying in with the Good Neighbor policy: have a lot of fun humming and whistling tunes with Spanish titles, a la "Pa- loma." "El Rancho Grande,"'; "La Cucaracha," etc.: and are generally easy on the ears, both sounding like seasoned radioiles and slaying away from any hint of pedantry. Duncan Pirnie is okay as announcer. Sayre, together with Ivor Arm- strong Richards, Harvard semanticist and author of "Basic English," has without any question put an awful lot of effort into boiling the course do\vn to a working vocabulary of 850 basic Spanish words. It's literate, non-stuffy, but. to gel back to the idea of a bankrolled where's the coin coming from? There doesn't seem to. be a great, many possibilities of school-station tleups. a la U. of Rochester and WHAM, nor many de- partment stores like. Maison Blanche, to use it'profitably.- 'Mike. ' CBS Claims Lead in Drive On Bigotry Via Serials Editor, Varietv: In (lie- Followup Comments April 24. the review ot a juvenile serial says that this serial ". . .. making the dangerous (from the entertainment point of view i experiment of adding to ils escapist-adventure formula the : normally-heavy burden of a mess- age, has made the segue successfully, and earned ilsclf a rackful of en- comiums. Perhaps the'first daytime strip io add such guts to ils pvogram. 'Superman' has now embarked on' real adventure—combating bigotry mid intolerance." It is difficult. I realize, for you and your reviewers \o cover all shows and their subject matter. May I therefore rise lo move that the "perhaps" in the above paragraph be struck out? CBS' serials 'The Spar- row and the Hawk" and "Cimarron Tavern" have since last summer dealt with the subjects of bigotry and intolerance, with their respec- tive heroes-combating these in sev- eral' of the sequences. First Larry Menkiii: and la}er Charles Oussman. in "The Sparrow- arid the Hawk" have dealt wilh the evils of racial intolerance in story sequences. Felix Holt, who writes "Cimarron Tavern." though writing a hangup Western, has drawn clear parallels between our own govern- ment's shamerul treatment of the plains Indians, a minority, in the post-Civil War days. Earlier than this, lasl summer in fact, he dealt wilh religious intolerance. .C'/inrles 4'. .Monro*, Division or Program Writing. CBS. "THE CORNCERT KINGS" With Paul "Heiile" Trletscb. Gabe Ward, Kan Trletscb. Gil Taylor Writer: Mary Buchanan Producer-Director: Mike Conner 15 Mlns. Co-Op it Station* (World Broadeasfiiif/I "The Corncerl Kings" are really those old washboard-pounders, .the "Hoosier Hot Shots." predecessors of Spike Jones, the "Korn Kobblers.'' Freddie Fischer, etc. They've been peddling their own particular brand of corn via the airwaves for 17 years now. so anybody who has the au- dacity to criticize their ear-blasting tintinnabulations has also lo be re- minded that they've made a wonder- ful living out of it. The four—"Hezzie" Trietsch on washboard. Gabe . Ward on , clary. Ken Trietsch on guitar and about IS other instruments, and Oil Taylor on bass—are now. being presented by World Broadcasting on 156 unusual half-hour programs. They're out of the ordinary because only the mu- sic—three to four tunes to a 16-inch platter—is transcribed, while the scripts go out lo stations separately. This is what World calls its "Audi- Flex" feature, meaning that the Bhow can thereby be adapted by the spon- sor to his particular format. In Cleve.-FM ; Continued from page 12 D'Artega & Hinchliffe Wax Couple of Packages With D'Artega and' his All-Girl Orchestra back from Uvo years over- seas entertaining troops," the band- leader has organized his own pack- aging outrii. -.D'Artega and Hinch- lirte Productions. Two halt-hour show.- arc already waxed, and being orferud lo agencies. One i.-. •'Rendezvous With Ro- mance." featuring the femme orch. The- oilier i> "Finger of Fatilasy." mystery thriller wilh music, featur- ing D'Artega and an all-male com- bination. Another D'Artega musical. "Victory Villa." auditions May 1 for a cigarcl sponsor. Bess Myerson. "Miss America l!Mo." is spotlight in "llcnclezvous" and "Villa." A fourth D'Arlega show. "Follow The Band." is being offered by Ray- mond Knight Productions. residents of Akron. Telair recently yanked ils bid in Akron, preferring instead the more profitable Cleve- land market. FC'C's known prefer- ence for local operators may have some efTccl on the company's changes in Cleveland. Officers of Telair were princi- pally officials of the Firestone Tire i &' Rubber Co.. who teamed up to 'get into .KM on their own when their company decided not to enter the radio field. Interest also focused on testimony of Bill O'Neill, operator of WJW. for a Cleveland outlet. O'Neill, an official or the General Tire & Rub- ber Co.. testified that W.1W now charges twice the commercial rale for programs on "controversial sub- jects." Idea is that such slots push sponsors off the air. usually get kick- backs from- listeners.'and generally upset the station's stair.' Another bidder was United Broad- casting Co.. licensee of WHK. whose chances may be somewhat afl'ecled by fact thai FCC only last week okayed a grant to the company' in nearby Columbus. However, as a slandard licensee, company is con- ceded good chance of winning out in | the Cleveland FM market. ! WGAR. Cleveland, also wanted to : gel in the FM pic-lure. Prexy of : WGAR. George Richards, also has j majority block of W.IR. Detroit, and | holdings in KMPC. Los Angeles. ! Testimony brought oul that his prin- cipal residence is L, A. NBC's BID NBC-owned clearchannel slalion WTAM made a strong bid. Should ! I FCC okay a grant to WTAM, NBC I ; will chalk up its third FM grant i ' to dale—more than any other net. ! Most unique.bid from.a newcomer) , was thai of the F.lyria-Loi'ain i jBroadcasling Co.. a group of promi: ; , nenl Ohio businessmen who propose : i l<> bring FM service to entire Lorain I county, including Oxford. Klyria and j 1 olher small Ohio communities. other words, "he can spot his «»m mercials in each program whei™« his special requ remonts dictate, and with slight script changes, can tii in his sales message so that it hi comes^an Integral part of each brol gram. H It also means the sponsor can take advantage of the local an nouncer's popularity with listeners by having the announcer read not only the commercials but -th» scripts. ,c Scripts are by Mary Buchanan und she does a good job. considering her peculiar assignment. This was to take a list of the "Hot Shots " re- corded numbers from World's li. brary and weave a "plot" around them. Miss Buchanan achieves a certain amount of suspense by not naming the number.'; to be played- listener is thereby intrigued by a de-' scription of the tune and bends a more attentive ear. There are "The Fireman's Bride ' "Dude Cowboy" and "Sentimental Gentleman from Georgia" attending a garden party on one platter a trip around the world ("Toot Tool Tootsie, Goodby," "Breczin' Along with the Breeze" and "From the In- dies to the Andes" on another; a hillbilly clammeroo ("The Bcrrvs and the Nutts," "Hillbilly Wedding in June" and "I Like Mountain Mu- sic" t on a third, etc. The same listeners who've been tuning in the "Hot Shots" on the "National Barn Dance" for the past 13 years will listen to these e.t.'s. Judging from the ratings, that's a sizable portion of. the':population. Mile. Every Weed sta-; tion ij a sales winner (or (he advertisers it serves. And Weed and Company's ulaft of trained representatives wins many tints in the radio, time" selling derby for all their clients, all year long. ■\ \h ( < )MP.\\\ RADIO STATION REPRESENTATIVES Km Twt • ItttM • Cfeiup • Mad Dttrttt • Sat Fraomn • Ml*** EILEEN BARTON Currently EILEEN BARTON SHOW NBC Network Coast to Coast MERCURY RECORDS Personal Mki". : (leorgc H. I lvans ]>ir.: William Alinris Agivicj