Variety (May 1946)

34 KAMA RKVIKWS Wednesday, May 22, 1946 TONIGHT ON BBOADWAY" -KRAFT MIJSIC MAM." Will. Connee Boswell. Ted Husing,! With Eddy DuchIn. Bali Doyle. Bay Block orch and I King Cole Trio, Buss Caw * chorus: Jan Murray. Joe Besser.M Orch: Dave "Doodles Weaver, 5"rl Sande" quests;' Ken Roberts,] guest; Jim Ameehe, announcer announcer Writer: Charles Speer Pruducer: Stephen Van-Cluck- 7,9 -Ulns.: Mon.. 10:?.i p.m. SCHICK RAZOR WABC-CBS. N. V. (Biou-> Tin* Biow agency threw this vari- WrHers; Lou Mellter. Hal Goodman Producer-Director: Maury Holland 3« niln., Thur., 9 p.m. KRAFT FOOD C O. WKAF-NBC. N. Y. (J. Wilder Thompson!.' Willi Bins Crosby now pfT Kraft Music Hall, and Edward Everett Hoi'lon npl moving in for a few ciy show tOKethor iiv a liiiriy. aiMl •l^e^'btiause'of'iUm commitments it's in on a six-week trial basis on a lhi<s -- nCW - summer show was. rather 3S Monday night, hookup.. els now. ifs got everything; Thursday 16) , I,:i,km • i! ill.-- hill 1 _ as it preemed last Kddv Duchin's piunislics were lops, 'there was little complaint to limited CBS As it stands in it Imi the kitchen sink: but production-wise, it unfortunately strings out like a succession of vaude i ' n ^ c _ af;i( j nsl jytilena Miller's vocal acts with not much attempt made , izm „ an( , (ne King Cole trio did its al integrating them into balanced'j i-|)vtiimic - stuff w-ilh good effect, whole. Call ii a mish-mash (lo ve- 1 D j ve •poodle.':" Weaver, who came piise Mary Livingston's Sunday.! ((VC| . i<> «i'ie.«t from N. Y.'s Ruban nixhl crack: "If you came in lnle you. B | ell brought some blue .stuff:..with didn't inish mash"). him and was dangerously close to The show as heard this, week (20i ... had some refreshing musical inter- ludes, with the vocals of Connee Bos well and Bob Doyle, and the Ray Bloclt orchestra and choral orches- trations, its strongest talking point. It * possible that Eversharp-Schick Razor can still salvage an .entertain- SO-minutc musical melange the Boswoll-Doylc-Block the line of censorship. But . regard- less of the entertainment value of anv component part, the whole thing added up to stopgap filler. Morton had better come up for the summer fast. Not much of a Crosby audience will be held for long with tiic kind of interlude whipped up for Lookout, Sister! Personal laughter on the air can be a precarious thing. Es- pecially for women. It can de- stroy an entire performance stu- diously constructed. A harsh ov coarse feminine laugh doesn't sound well any-, where. Radio magnifies that raucousness. Some- show - women. • from "names" to obscure girl singers with bands, seem completely un- aware of their laughter being tin irritant, unattractive.. or both. Their best friends won't tell themW Somebody should. It's important. It's so impor- tant that it's more important to know how to laugh than when to laugh. •-1£>rik out, sister! "BOOKS ON TRIAL" With Sterling North, emcee: William Bradford llule, Fletcher Pratt. Wil- liam Bradford Hule; announcer, Ed Stokes Producer-Director: Raymond Kali 3* Mins.: Moh., 8 p.m. LITERARY GUILD OF AMERICA W1IN, N.Y. lAln.rircl.l S(ie/,/ieiiii> "Books on Trial" is cxi-clU-nt radio. The legalitv or its airing by WHN. Melro-owncd N. Y. indie, is some- thing Tor the learned justice of the Supreme Court to decide (see..sep- arate slory i. But it's compeh+it as showmanship, relevant as lo format, ■and full of sock -material. lis prech) Mondav night l'2(H' brought some- thing iistcnable and woilliily so to the air. , It so happens that Sterling North, among whose many boxoffice. chores is that of lilerarv emcee Tor the N.Y. ESQUIRE SPORTS REVIEW" Post, is probably the abk-sl book With Paul Barnes, John Jacobs, critic in N.Y. at this ■ w _\!_'| l . l, l>; 1 _5!.f; 1 ,!'i > .l* jug around parlay. ... Bui the attempts at comedy with Jan Murray, and Joe Bcsser on the guest list were far from assets. There's a fadeout capsule, loo. with Ted IIusing doing an interview bit ion this occasion Earl Sandei. but what it's doing on this show is slricilv one of those $64 hangover questions from the other Eversharp show. The Eversharp-Schick Razor com the summer debul. Cars. "THIS WOMAN'S WORLD" Willi Susan B. Anthony 2d. Eunice: Hill: Perry Harden, guest: John McKuifbl, announcer Producer-Director: Beatrice Mel- llcher 15 Mlns.: Men.-Fri.. 11:15 a.m. Sustaining WMCA. N. Y. • Working on the premise that "women should make the world — . . . their home rather than the home movcials as handled by Ken Roberts ; lheir w01 -(d." Susan B. Anthony and get pretty much the same, emphatic f.{., lm j ec Hill,' both successful career treatment (with even a pickup on w0111en attempt to prove on this wordagei as the Sunday night pen- - ncw „ n ow .that this can be a worn- and-pencil plug wrapup. Rose. . aij ... w , 01 . (ct Antl ( | lev do a good job : " i of it. , .. "SERENADE FOR STRINGS" Formal consists of informal dis- With Jean DeslaurlerV orch - and • cussions on subjects of especial ^n- Neil Chotem. pianist I teresl to the distaff listeners. Be- Producer: Maurice C. iRusiry) Davis I sides gabbing about the prob ems pf 3# Mins.: Sun., 19:3o p.m. j the housewife and such relatively SiisUinng ! unimportant matters as concerts and CBC-Trans Canada-Mutual ! exhibitions, however, the duo also Longhair itenls in the lighter vein j work over the more pertinent _qiies- make for ideal listening in this I Hons of .world: politics, the foodrsay- airer Show, obviously designed to i n g program, etc. Intelligence evi- catch the Sunday eve stay-at-homes. | denced in the latter confalis shoiild does a hep followup job after the ! do much to help their listeners catch comparatively academic syiiiph 0 n to what's going on outside then- broadcasts loading the p.m. air.- ■ homes. Program not aired from the slu- ; At the show caught In >.. the dio coming from the Hermitage oh j'Misses Anthony and Hill brought in the' mountainside. Acoustics prob- ! as their guest Perry Hayden. a Mich- lem has been adequately met. but ; jg an wheat miller and trustee of the audience reaction via applause is i -Golden Rule Foundation:" Tying kepi off the air. This makes for a j j„ |,j s two jobs. Hayden outlined the bit of a let down feeling after each.: , ja ,-t housewives could take in sav- niimber, but program is paced well- „,g food that will be shipped to Eu- enough lo catch up on the lags. 'rope. Discussion was highly infor- Orchestra played three items with : mative and provided for interesting Neil Chotem doing a sock job in the • ij slei1 j n j, piunislics for "Rhapsody Symphon- ; ■ 0 ne bad spot occurred when the ika" by Turina. Chotem just. does , j w0 women broke into the middle the one spot but could easily have., of tne discussion to plug their pro- taken another to make for better | «,. am- congratulating themselves on program, balance. A lougish orches- 1 fheir "fivst week's anniversary. Prob- iral piece like the Halvarsen's "Pas-| ;ll) | y j usl an afterthought for them, sacaglia" en a Handel theme could i j Jllt j t WO uld have done much bcl- Ue subbed with something shorter lo )er either al the beginning or the : others Writer: Ken Houston Prodnrer: Alan Flshbuni ... Music: Rex Maupln's orch . 30 Mlns.: Tues, 9 p.m. (CDT) Sustaining . WENK.rABC, Chicago This hew dish should belie all re- ports that Chi can't produce as good radio 'programs as New York or Hollvwood. Aired in conjunction with' Esquire, magazine, the show has snap, good continuity, and boasts of a very adult job of writing by Ken Houston. As sport reviews : go the program is iinusual. Does nol' deal with spot news or gossip but with -little-known., facts of sporting history thai are pertinent to the contemporary sport- ing scene. Opening program fea- tured a skit "should ' baseball play- ers be unionized'.'", plus a significant incident in the life of Joe Louis- how drinking a glass of water be- fore an amateur light-heavyweight bout disqualitled him for being overweight, making his mind up to join the pro-heavy ranks. Also dramatized was the invention and operation of the mechanical bowling pin seller—a seemingly dry subject, but . made interesting by clever handling. Listeners get information • besides . game scores, and the clever format- earned Hooper should appeal even, to the, large and him to. emcee this show, therefore was something of .a brainstorm in it- self. The guy's hep in letters, and projects his authority lo the job iii front of the mike. A real nersimalily in his own right, the N.Y. listener who's interested in books therefore is launched properly from the very tact that •North' acts as show's "High Magistrate." New switch on the show eamsfrom fact that 12 members of sludio audi- ence sal "in judgment-'-on value of the book. Item in this, instance was William Bradlord Huic's controver- sial "The Case Against the Admirals.' Defending Huie was. American Mer- cury's mercurial Tex McCrary. whos already earned-his air comeuppance by 'chattering-.every ayem with his wife. Jinx Falkenbiirs .0:1 WEAF iNBCK And naval writer Fletcher Pratt look up the cudge's against the volume. Under North's llrm and seemingly fair guidance, Pratt and McCrarv swung away al eavrh other, with no holds barred. Huie himseif was sort of in the middle of the thing: mavbe he was ' only being modest; but the pro. k con slugging was: fasl and furiuus, and moved the show along at good pace. Only real hilcii in the proceedings was an overlong middle commercial. But with the plug cut down to knee pants, show should move smoothly lo a wcll- Cnrs. "HOWARD K. SMITH FROM LON- DON" With John Allen Wolf, announcer IS mlns.; Son, 1.45 p.m. Sustaining ' WABC-CBS. N. T. Howard K. Smith, succeeding Fa Murvow as chief or CBS' European ' news staff when latter returned to U. S; lo become CBS vecpec and' di- rector of public affairs, shapes up a s a fine substitute as news anulysl on basis of premiere program Sunday (19). Correspondent-journalist (he wrote "Lost Train 'From 'Berlin'.'? now headquartered in London, ana- lyzes week's international develop- ments as viewed from the British capital. Sunday's program was aulliorita. tive-sounding. delivered in sensible language, with the week's news highlights pointed up quickly, sim- ply and intelligently. - Smith's voice has aiv eager, plausible qualitv, and his .interpretations make sense. He not only listed news highlights—the British-India problem. Moscow. Creece. Romania. Italy—but gave, the reaction of the average Britisher to this news, as well as his own interpretation. He saw a menace in« Minister Bej-in's Obtuse foreign policy in Ifflrly. Spain and Creece and said so. He found Ihe British govt's, domestic policy meeting with the man-On-the-streel's approval; its foreign policy not, Fifteen-min- ute airer is quite worth listening to. Brov. important female and which nor mally shies away from , the average run-of-the-mill sports review. - Catching on at the start with a short, snappy number by Rex Mau- pin's. orch the show slides along without a stop for the full 30 min- utes. Timing is excellent and cast and orch do credible job with a fast and intelligent script. Outstanding is Paul Barnes whose deep, quiet pipes add dignity to the show. As narrator he sparks pro- duction that is both fresh and en- tertaining. Fooie. give the guest soloist a second shot. 1 The "Kamarinskaya" by Glinka. ' .which teed off. and the second "Cas- sation" by Mozart were ace items : and beautifully played, with Jean i Deslaurier getting the most of the I deftly phrased string passages. Program comments are kept lo a j minimum, which makes for the lis- | teners getting their money's worth. 1 Ln:«. : end of the show. Slot. "SCREEN TEST" With Jack Mitchell, Dwlght Brown. Ralph Maddux. John Allen. Leo Dawson, Norvell Slater. Lynn Blg- ler, Elmer Baughman 3» Mlns.. Wed., 9:3* p.m. (CST) INTERSTATE THEATRES CIRCl'IT WOAI, TQN. San Anlonln "STAR-SPANGLED WAY" With Tallulah Bankhead, Jack Ben- in. Ingrld Bergman. Charles Bover. Eddie Cantor, Paul Muni. Ginger Rogers. Waller Wanger. Joe DISantii, Abby I-ewln: narra- tor, Ben Grauer: announcer, John SUgle. Writer: Ira Marlon Producer-director: Wiley Adams Music: Bernard Green S«. mlns., Thurs. (18). 1«:3« P"» lone shot) UNITED JEWISH APPEAL WJ/.-ABC. N. Y. The cause. was great, the time ripe, and the big guns lined up and eadv. but the result was a not-too Interstate Theatres Circuit, with : resounding pop'. With much fanfare headquarters in Dallas, come 'up! and a galaxy of names. United Jew- witli this opus to attract worm i.ish" Appeal had a potential which weather crowds to its houses. It is : was not'nearly milked to its fullest, claimed to be the only quiz show : An association of Jewish charities, devoted entirely to the motion pic- ' U.IA has done probably the best job tore industry. It should serve . its' of publicity and fund-raising of purpose. Show is expected to hit : any organization of that. type, bul key Interstate Theatre houses in centralized planning was seemingly Dallas. San Antonio. Houston .and-| absent; in this special program. An Ft. Worth. Currently it is being aired I imposing array of talent was rele- here from the stage of the Palace gated lo a task of pedestrian preach- Thealre in Dallas through Wi'AA nig", sole .strength of which lay in and over the Texas - Quality Net- appeal of the names. ' work.- Eddie Cantor opened the effort "KAYO QUIZ" With Milch Betters 1ft Mins.: Mon.-Frld.; 8,«0-«:15 p.m. KAY JEWELRY CO. WTHT-Harlford This across the board jackpot quiz show has won wide popularity in the local area: It's presented in adequate fashion by Milch Betters. It's a telephone deal. With Betters calling listeners for answers lo ques- tions. Calls are aired in lop-sided rashion. Only Betters is heard! Tel- ephone participants stay off ether. Questions are of educational nalurc and are concerned mainly with his- tory, geography, 'etc. For each listener failing to answer properly, value of original $5 a-ward is bumped $2. Passes to a local theatre go to those who fail to answer questions. Local lie with library' and school svstem has enhanced the value of show considerably, with library nightly posting questions and an- swers. Betters gives a straight mat- ter . of ract presentation of ques- tions and answers to his listeners. Hoking and gagging would brighten show considerably. As stands now, show maintains high popularity be- cause of cash awards. Eric. Television Reviews "MUSICAL BREAKFAST" With Helen. Lynn, The Syncopalors and Howard Tnpper IS Mlns.' Sustaining 9 a.m.; Men. lo Fri. WGY,. Srhenerludy Surprising is WCiY's willingness 10 let this show—a clambake more than a musical breakfast—ride in its present haphazard : fashion. The participants seem to enjoy the stanza and lo believe in Ihe "humor of the script Dialers may think differently. The program does not constitute good radio—certainly not from a 50,000 watler of WGY's standing. There is a good deal of clowning and kidding, in an apparent attempt to create a light, casual, off-the-cuff touch. The latler requires a differ- ent type of talent and surely more rehearsal, than one finds here. Some of Ihe broadcasts sound as though there had been insufficient prepara- tion—unusual for a program in which A. O. Coggesliall. program manager, has a hand. He and Harry Brown, of WGFM. alternate in the production. Helen Lynn, featured singer, does not have too much voice or style. Reading of lines is mediocre. How- ard Tupper. one of the station's re- turning veterans and ' a capable, straight, serious miker, is out of his element with the corny clowning. Instrumental imil. alternately led by Gordie Randall and Frank Glenn, could do belter. Jnco. Jack Mitchell is m.c. or "casting director" with a box office on-the stage which pays off correct answers from the audience. He is ablv as- sisted by six local announcers, Mad- dox. Allen, Dawson, SJater. Bigler and Baughman. who are stationed in various parts of the house and select persons for the "screen test.'' Correct answers lo the questions, .ranging from song titles to names of artists in certain pictures, pav from $1 to $30, plus the opportunity to win. some gift offered br: a'Hol- lywood star, plus a jackpot art-aid which starts at $50 and increases in that amount each time it is missed. Dwight Brown is heard pJuving the organ for the musical song titles as well as "Paramount News On Parade," which is program's theme. Plugging for present and coming 'attractions is heard twice during the evening with tasteful invitation to "relax at your favorite Interstate. Theatre" in good taste. Andy. with a talk on the virtue of giving and Palestine as the hope of d:p."s. Charles Boyer followed, defining the meaning of the. American flag to Europeans today. Ginger Rogers, only one of the group to rewrite her script followed with' much the same theme as other two. Ingricl Bergman, Jack Benny, and Tallulah Bankhead then came in that order, with much replitive. material. So much more than the show's re- dundancy could have been done that disappointment overshadowed pro- gram's message. Joe DiSantis and;-Abby Lewis' did "CONSOLE RHYTHMS" With Don Reynolds, George Strindt Writer: Easter Straker Producer-Director: Howard Miller 15 Minn.: Mon. through Frl, U:1J a.m. Sustaining WIND, Chicago Chicago has inherited a good thing.from KMOX. St Louis (via WHA. Madison, and WTMJ, Mil- waukee)—namely. Don Reynolds, former vocalist with the Horace Heidt'and Griff Williams bands. Guy is a definite threat to incumbents in the tenor' league. He', speclilizes in ballads—pops and standards—but can hack out a rhythm number with the best of them, and his diction and phrasing are excellent Show caught had him jiving "I'd Be Lost Without You" fFollow-up Comment] AAA* * * * * - '» - . ^ j j - . — » IfVVVIIflfl Bob Ballin, who produces (he Jack Benny, show.- doubled as "monkey sound effects"'on last Sunday's (19) program out of New York for one of a succession of gag routines thai gave the Benny, session an above-par laugh payoff.- Ballin even got bill- ing—as did the quartet of scripters. Fred Allen guested oil the program (Benny moves over to the Alley next week) with the comedy team parley again demonstrating how lop showmanship can hypo radio pro- gramming. "RIGHT OB REWRITE" With Richard Wilder, Doreen'Lang, . Gretchen Davidson, Marie Torre; Dick Eastham, emcee: others - Producers: Gil Fate*. Frances Bow Director: Miss Bass Set: Jim MeNaughton 20 Mlns.; Thursday (It), g:fto p.m. Sustaining WCBW-CBS, N. Y. " CBS production slaff has come up with a basically good idea in "Right or Rewrite" but one that needs plenty of rewriting to catch on. ■ Show is based on an original quiz idea revolving around a journalist's acumen. As it worked out al Hie precm on Thursday (10> night how- ever, the quiz was interesting Onlv to the four judges selected from the studio audience, with the program dragging too much to elicil anv in- terest from the viewers. Idea is for the Lee Wallace im- provisation group-'to.acl out a short dramatic skit. Emcee Dick Easthum then reads an account of the ski I from a newspaper, sentence by-sen- tence, which contains several factual errors. Participants are judged on how many errors they catch, with the winner getting u year's sub- scription lo a N. Y. daily. Draggy aspect . came in al the opener with the way Easlham. had the thespei's re-enacl short segments of each sentence. . whenever there was any question as to whether the.- newspaper story was in error. View- ers had already seen the entire skit performed, and il 'was a liltle too much to take to have to watch parts of it again. Elimination of the re- enactment would do much to lighten the show and bolster its interest Improvisation group, making its se.coi)d television appearance, was the show's brightest spot Trio com- posed of Dick Wilder. Doreen Lang and Gretchen Davidson did a lop job in the short skit, and proved through the short repeats, when the lines differed from the original, that its work is actually ad lib. Judging from group's performances in Ihe last two weeks, CBS program chief Ben Feiner has a real find in them. Easlham's emceeing job was n.s.g. He showed no traces of humor, the quality so important to the job. Jim McNaughton's set and the work of the cameramen wore good. Stal. short dramatic mte\aude limnh g and giving the. old schmaltz to "Al- ^reSeTm f^JT^ ^A^^^t fine fashion and. filling in between with swingeroos of "Pagan Love Song" and "Maybe" in the Milt who looked to America as then- hope. Paul Muni followed them up, and closer was Walter Waiiger, head of UJA. Music by Bernard Green was okay throughout, with a me- lange of traditional Americana fitting well into the broadcast Ben Grauer's narration was good, - but somewhat limited by meager material. Toiiim. Herth manner. Theme is "I Got Rhythm." . One thing definitely wrong with the show is its title. It sounds like "Tonsil Rhythms." 'Ifike. F. H. LaGuardia showed himself a real showman with lasl Sunday night's (19). broadcast on ABC. Week before, he had slapped down the National Assn. or Manufactur ei-s. challenging NAM'S motives, in' the organization's fight vs. OPA. Since G. W. ("Johnny") Johnstone is on the NAM Hackery side now it's understate that NAM insisted on.a radio answer "same time, same program", etc. It got it—but good, • LaG. opened his show with about a minute of harmless stuff about housing, then turned the mike po- litely over to John C. Gebhart NAM's research director. Latter was to talk exactly 3 min.. 20 sec onds—length of LaGuardia's attack of tiie week before. H • took 20 seconds extra and was ■ ■ ved lo run over (at c^nc msor, (Continued on page 42) "MR. - and MRS. NORTH" With John McQuade, Maxlne Slewarl. Tito Vuolo, Patricia Shay. Dan Haggcrty, Joan Marlowe. Alex- ander Clark. Efram Zlmbullsl. Jr„ Bob Lied, Vinton Hay worth. Mil- lard Mitchell, Vaughn Taylor, Mort Stephens, Russell Morrison Producer-director: Fred Cor Tech. director: Reld Davis Set: Bob Wade 1M Mins.; Sunday (19), 1:2* p.m. Sustaining WNBT-NBC. N. V. Whatever the formula for staging excellent full-length plays in .the limited confines of a television stu-. dio, NBC has definitely discovered it. Preceding Sunday'? (12 > video pre- sentation of "Blithe Spirit" was con- sidered by many viewers as the best tele program- they'd ever :;een. This Sunday's (19) telecast of "Mi', ana Mrs. North" was similarly sock. -It s been said that television, as a unique medium, would haire.to develop lis own unique form of entertainment but if these shows are any criterion,, adaptations of successful legit shows will have a definite place, in the video picture. Adapted-ftom the Broadway show, which in turn was based on the Frances and Richard Lockridgc mag series, the televised version of "North" could be compared favorably in every phase-of production, acting and direction to the .best in enmmer- (Continued on ptige 42)