Variety (May 1946)

44 Wednesday, May 15, 1946 Radio Reviews Continued from page 34 the importance of a head of cabbage used as payment for mending; shoes for a airl's birthday present. This was tirsl time mother and daughter had hc-ImI together, and event hod therefore a special appeal. It should have awakened listeners lo the food crisis at hand. Broil. "ItfiO BALLROOM" With Tom, Dick and Harry; Char- lotte Morris Producer-Director: Gordon Vand- over 25 Mlns.; Mon.-thru-Frl., 12:3* p.m. Sustaining WJ.ID, Chicago Antediluvian vaude and radio singing trio has been booked into this indie as part of new live pro- gram policy. With no sponsor, en- tire show is strictly off the cuff and some of the stuff would feed starv- ing Europeans for the rest of their, lives—on corn pone. As a unit,-trio still puts a tunc over in oldtime song-and-dance fashion, but there aren't enough songs. Major portion of the time is spent in gab and hoary gags, with an occasional listener's letter tossed in. While the letters might be genu- ine enough, they are certainly hand- picked, of the '•hope-you-get-a-spon- sor-real-soon - ' variety. . Accompanist Charlotte Morris takes an occasional piano solo, and compares well with about any sta- tion pianist around. Good' ideas shown, although the. boys' brpak it up occasionally with some unappre- ciated patter. - Show might do well with, a homey aud. but hot weather's liable to pop some of that corn. Tonim. "IN A WORD" With George Hogan. Carl Warren 15 Mlns., Sun., 1 p.m. Sustaining won, n. y. A gentleman named Dr. Joseph T. Shipley has written a book called "The Dictionary of Word .Origins." It may be an interesting, even ex- citing piece of literature. But it's dull radio, at least as aired on WOR last Sunday (12). George Hogan and Carl Warren kicked the idea of word origins around for a quarter of an hour, but it was a dead ball they had between their goal posts. Some of the stuff- was, mildly informative, if any one cares for the mccoy history of the word Tuxedo, But aulhcnticity doesn't rule out showmanship — and that's precisely what the stanza lacked. Show preemed under title "Take a Word," and was rescheduled to "In a Word" from here on in. Maybe the producers saw the writing on the wall, reading: "You take it, I won't have it." Cars. GENERAL ASSEMBLY DISCUSSION Wlih Milt Berkowllz Talk 15 Mlns., Mori.-Fri.; 6:15 p.m. WONS-Hartford With Governor Baldwin calling a special emergency meeting of the General. Assembly, station WONS hopped on the promotion- bandwag- on to give a nightly round table pat- ter discussion of legislators activities of day. This lo-minute gab session with lobbyists and legislators is held in the office of the lieutenant gover- nor under' the guidance of Ralph Delia Selva. Mikcman acts-'as mod- erator and feeds lead questions to participants. On cthering heard he DETROIT'S AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTHV CELEBRATES ITS S»lh YEAH 90 MILLION CAES AGO... ^ 'n march 6,18%, the horseless buggy made its Detroit debut—at a Horse Show! Three months later, Henry Ford's first auto chugged through the streets, and a new industrial Detroit was in the making! When WWJ, America's first radio station, began broadcasting 26 years ago, the Automotive Industry welcomed ,its voice as a potential selling medium. WWJ spoke forcefully through the years, and an cver-incrcaaing audience listened— and bought. On May 29-Junc 9, Detroit's Automotive Industry celebrates its Golden Jubilee, and WWJ is proud of the part it played—arid continues to play —in the industry's growth. NIC tavc Hrtwvk A<»cfa«* fM JMm W0M 950 KILOCYCLES /SOOO WATTS AMtllCA'f PIONEER ■ ROADCASTINO STATION— Hut fa Omlnit. HhM*«m«iMta: THF GfOtCf P. HOUUtGUtt COMPANr 'OWNED AND OPERATED BY THE DETROIT NIWC was unable lo handle show and a station mikcman, Milt Berkowitz, held the reins. Station gabber opened show with explanation or days activities and resultants and let rein's fall to floor with participants interrupting each other in more or less uncontrolled manner, all but slugging each other in pros and cons of issues involved. Elhcring is good example of what can be done in field of public serv- ice, with feather going lo hat band of station execs who are responsible for its -creation. lis educational and extremely timely.. Eck. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ jFollow-up Comment: ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ S.Lady Cavendish, the former Adele Astaire, in a guester on the Tex Mc- Cravy-.Jinx Falkenburg program over WEAF-NBO '(»>, was informed by McCrary that "Vav.ievv said you had the best voice in radio and should have a program of your own —you need only a husband to take over this show." The erstwhile mu- sical comedy-star then proceeded to demonstrate he was right. She possesses a buoyant charm : and a sense of humor which distinguishes her from anyone heard regularly, on the bigger shows. In the midst of an interesting re- port on her letter-writing activities at the Rainbow Club in London, Miss Astaire turned serious. The English were wonderful people, in peacetime as well as during the blitz, she said. English girls "are good dancers; they learn quickly." English women are "not made a fuss over—as they are in the U. S.—but I am rootin.? for a change growing out of the war." Jackie Kclk's assignment on the Saturday night CBS Continental Can's "Celebrity Club - ' has increased lo the point where he's the main- stay on the show, which makes that program highly reminiscent of other variety setups. His style,of comedy is too familiar to be> outstanding and in addition/material he's being fed doesn't contain the greatest writing. But with other ingredients on the show including Margaret Whiting and on sesh caught, Lucille Ball, it makes par for the variety course. "Gang Busters" did a workman- like job on. Saturday's (11) drama- tization of the recent Alcatraz riots. Script took a rough survey of condi- tions preceding the outbreak to in- dicate that the prison grapevine was aware of the flareup.- and gave out with a plausible explanation of how the cons got the initial stock of arms. Program also went into the background of the break leaders in order not to have any sympathy wasted on them: It was among the first fairly complete dramatization of the riot on the Rock. Waterman's, incidentally has renewed "Busters" for a 52-wcek period. L~ Life's Credo Continued from page 12 the air only; it became respectable only when frozen between covers. Now, Hutchens offers counsel of despair. He makes three principal points: (1) Radio is so repetitive that no program, once its format is set and the critic has discussed it, is worth further attention; (2) radio is so ephemeral that the critic is virtually talking to himself when he discusses a show that the reader could not possibly hear, since re- broadcasts are so rare: (3) no one, least of all the network producer or ad agency, gives a damn about the critic's opinion. Hutchens was well-lhoughl-of in the trade when he held down the Times radio job. And he proves through this piece that his radio judgment was better then than his logic is now. The first two points, examined carefully, contradict each other. The third proves only that more criticism is needed. As long as radio criticism (sec V.miikti's survey of radio editors in the issue of Jan. 23, 1946) is confined to a handful of people, with most of these dike Hutchens himself) using it only as a corridor to greener pas- tures—so long will radio criticism's effectiveness, be at a minimum. One other point made by Hutchens is worth mention. He says that, anyway, nobody can be a radio critic because such.a guy would have to be an expert in every field or knowledge, from agriculture to atomic fission, economics and in- ternational politics, drama and all types of music, etc., etc.. Hutchens should read the book column of his own newspaper, where daily oracles dispense wisdom on all these subjects and more. Maybe they're not entirely dishonest. Maybe they !lake only one consideration into ac- count: Within its • medium—what- ever' that medium—is it a good show? It could be Einstein or Kath- leen Winsor; Convin or soap—is it a good show? ' . Corj. Tele Reviews , Continued from page M , of run-through in the broadcasting studio. The show must, therefore, be put down to experiment—an experiment that came off as a one-shot, and would probably, come off again with this group, but one that docs not at all cue anything like a solution lo the tele director's rehearsal prob- lems. Cars. "RADIO CITY MATINF.K" With Warren Hull, emcee; John Gnagy, Irma Smith, Ward Dons- van, George Rector,.MaffI McNel- lli, Sally Vlotor, Virginia Sale, Louise Martel, Ben James Producer: Peter Barker. A Writer: Edward Mills. Tech. director: Stan Peck. Sets: Bob Wade 8«, Mlns.; Mon.-Wed.-Frl., 1 p. m. Sustaining ' WNBT-NBC, N. Y. Marking the flrst daytime live video show since before the war NBC television teed off Monday (13) with "Radio City Matinee." Appar- ently realizing that the housewife is the only member of the family who will be able to take an hour off from the day's chores to watch a television screen, the NBC producers aimed the new show for the distaff audience— and it proved to be' a very good ve- hicle. ,. Chief factor of the new show was the manner, in which the NBC pro- duction staff took advantage of the fact that television offers sight as well as sound. Six of the eight seg- ments featured personalities showing women, how to do things, and each of them made the most of the.visual aspects of the medium. Remaining two segments,' rung in strictly for entertainment, featured vocalist Ward Donovan, who gave out with a' brace .of sentimental oldies de- signed to bring nostalgic reminiscing from the listeners, and Virginia Sale, with amusing impersonation of a farm housewife. . ^Camera work throughout the per- formance was in keeping with the demonstrative qualities of the show Whether John Guagy was showing his audience how to draw pictures or Irma Smith was showing the women how to arrange (lowers in a vase, the cameras, after- first establishing an intimate contact with the instructor via a closeup. then concentrated on what the instructor was doing. ■ Be- sides the former, this featured John Reclor demonstrating how to prepare Hollandaise sauce; Sally Victor and Maggi McNcllis demonstrating the milliner's art; Louise Martel showing what type toys to buy for the mop- pels; and Ben James, via an amusing takeoff on the street-corner hawker how to use the latest kitchen uten- sils. Warren Hull, erstwhile ,fllm star for Monogram, wrapped the pro- ceedings up nicely wth a good em- cecing Job. Each of the performers proved to be a distinctive video personality, who can be brought back for suc- cessive shows without the audience tiring of his face. Program contained several "open- ing night" errors, such as the fact that several of the segmenls ran overtime, causing the show to go 10 minutes over its allotted time. Such minor setbacks,- however, can easily be ironed out during future per- formances. Web is assured of as wide a listening audience as possible for its new venture. And. inciden- tally, the show offers innumerable opportunities for advertisers to tie in Stal. "Famous Jury Trials" production on WABD last .Thursday (») per- formed a rare justice to video's po- tentialities. The half-hour show was tightly welded around a sound dramatic idea, that was visua'lly pro- jected with pace a.nd credibility. Giving a big lift lo the overall qual- ity were the first rale performances of. Beverly'Roberts and "Alan Bax- ter, whose work in films has im- parted a visible camera know-how'. Rest of the cast also came through in excellent form. The hull-dozen set- tings used in developing the story were modest affairs bU a triumph of ingenuity in creating an effect of realism out of a few scraps of wood. Camera work in shining the locale from setting to setting was adroitly handled and came close to equalling the polished transitions of motion pictures. A slight tendency was shown, however, to shift camera angles more frequently than was de- manded by the script. Although here. too. the effort to escape the static frame is a step in the right direction. Format followed the established lines of opening with a narration ex- i plaining tint central ideas of a ci'jmi- 1 nal case, then having the slory dis- solve into its dramatized elements, j The courtroom scene provides the ; base of operations lo which the story always returns, thus imposing a quality of unity to the plot structure Story built up to a sharp climax but the ending was managed too 'me- chanically to answer all the ques- tions raised at the trial. Greater Hub Council Set for Third Confab Boston, May 14. Keynoter of third annual spring conference of the Radio Council of Greater Boston Saturday (18) at the Boston University College of Busi- ness Administration will he given by Keith Higglns, ABC veepee. Talk will be broadcast from WCOP, local ABC outlet, from 1:30 to 2 p.m. All-day conference, themed' "Bos- ton's Radio Goes Forward." high- lights Leland Bickford. editor in chief Yankee Network News Serv- ice; Hollls Baird, engineer of Ilia 20th-Fox ' television station in Bos- ton; Daniel Bloomfleld, manager Re- tail . Board of Trade: Frederick Bailey, account exec, WORL; Polly Brown, radio director of Cabot ffgency; Harry D. Goodwin, promos tion-publicity-merchandising mana- ger, WCOP; and Harvey P. New- comb, radio director, Frost agency. Sioux City—KTRI has expanded its news staff with the recent ad- dition of L. T. "Ben" Walsh as city editor. lUftereDun and 3raditt9timeet rt2 tMC VCMCI OF TUB «WM SKACMC*