Variety (Oct 1947)

24 " RADIO REVIEWS WcjnegJay, October 8, 1917 One could no more quarrel with the new Ford Theatre as a 60-min- ute dramatic production than to pre- dict that Lux Radio Theatre is a potentially promising show. Like its aged predecessor, Ford Theatre manages to capture all the-assorted techniques and heightened values that are so essential to the success- ful integration of borrowed proper- ties for radio. Certainly there's no quarrel with FORD THEATRE With Howard Lindsay, emcee; Mason Adams, Jan Martin, Horace Bra- ham, Karl Swenson, Santos Or- tego, Lyn Murray orch, others Adaptation: Lillian Schoen Producer: George Zachary Script Editor: George Faulkner 60 Mins.; Sun., 5 p.m. FORD MOTOR CO. NBC, from New York (Kenyan & Ecfchardt) the painstaking care and preparation that Kenyon .& Eckhardir's radio dept. put into the new show, as was certainly reflected in last Sunday's (5) initial presentation, a jivey adaptation of Mark Twain's "Con- necticut Yankee." Nor with the ex- pert production it received at the hands of radio's able George Zach- »ry. Nor again in the lineup of more than capable acting talent poured into the presentation. Rather, the quarrel lies in the very fact that one might just as well have been ringing up the curtain Sunday on the Lux stanza, or again on "Theatre Guild of the Air." -Which in no way minimizes its sometimes superlative qualities as ■ "borrowed radio." The case in point is, if there's a Ford Theatre in radio's fu- ture, one that will enhance its own prestige and that of radio's, it would lie rather in helping achieve a long-, needed development of original dramatic writing for the air. The premiere "Connecticut Yankee" was not the answer. Nor will it be found again in next week's "Great Mc- Ginty" adaptation. In its original blueprint for the Ford show, Kenyon & Ejkhardt made much of the fact that the Sun- day afternoon showcase would serve as a coast-to-coast testing ground for a number of vehicles specially writ- ten for the program and that it would pay $2,000 for each original accepted for performance. Which, in terms of filling the needs for a strictly radio theatre and encourag- ing writing talent for the medium, makes considerable sense. Equally encouraging was Henry Ford II's reported statement that he'll go along for a three-year bank- rolling regime to give the whole idea sufficient time to jell. But Ford's patience and K &E's bid for fresh writing talent still possess little more than promissory values. Thus far one can only weigh it on the merits of last Sunday's presen- tation. In adapting. "Connecticut Yankee" to radio (marking the first time the Mark Twain saga has been given air treatment), Lillian Schoen let out all the stops in remodeling it to present-day tempo, thus even height- ening the contrast. It was a rewrite job that occasionally paid off hap;- pily; at other times it suggested a straining for effect and laughs. Un- fortunately, the Twain spirit wasn't too often in evidence. Howard Lindsay as emcee of the show is a sort of vice-president in charge of footnotes, filling in be- tween acts, with the prefatory com- ment and the afterpiece. There's an unfortunate deadpan quality about his air voice. Lyn Murray's orches- tra shapes up as a real asset on the basis of its assist on the premiere. • This is a Ford institutional show, with Henry Ford II on hand for the first show to set the modus operandi, with an explanation that some com- mercials may from time, to, time project themselves. Otherwise, there was a commendable bending-over- backwards to keep the 60 minutes plug-free. . Rose. AMOS 'N' ANDY With Freeman Gosden, Charles Cor- rell. Lasses White, Eddie Green, Jim Basquetlc, Ernestine Wade, Wonderful Smith, Jester Hair- stone, Jubalaires (5), Jeff Alex- ander orch (15), chorus (8); Bur- nt Wheeler, Ned Le Ferve, an- nouncers Writers: Robert Ross, Arthur Phil- lips, Robert Fisher, Robert Mosher, Joe Connelly Producer: Glenn Y. Middleton 30 Mins.; Tues., 9 p.m., ET LEVER BROS. . . NBC, from Hollywood (R;ut)iraut7 & Ryan) As straight commercial entertain- ment, "Amos 'n' Andy" is a solidly successful series and, of course, a choice advertising buy. Back for another season for Levers in the Tuesday night powerhouse on NBC, it retains the credibility, humor and •warmth it had in its original 15- minute version, but with the half- hour length permitting more scope^ the additional characters giving greater variety and depth, and the musical interlude lending a pleasant change of pace. Above all, the per- sonalities and performances of the stars, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, hold the show together and supply the sock listener appeal. The commercial handling, too, is exocrt. There is the familiar "Rinso white" product signature, with clever sound effects, commercial voices and the other standard de- vices which irritate habitual radio critics but hypo sponsor identifica- tion and underline sales points. Fur- ther, Lever is now using a skillfully simulated "salesman," rather than an announcer, to read the commer- cial plugs in a fplksy, non-profes- sional style. It continued with the same artfulness as on the season's preem, it should spark plenty of salts. When all that has been said, how- ever, there remains a serious ques- tion about "Amos 'n' Andy" beyond its straight entertainment and com- mercial effectiveness. That is ■whether, from a sociological per- spective, such a series serves the best interests of the public. It is admittedly a complex matter, with much to be said on both (or vari- ous) sides. But in the increasingly explosive contemporary, world, with inter-group relationships a delicate factor, it is a question that grows progressively sharper. Obviously, "Amos 'n' Andy" is • efi'ectionately intended blackface. Also, it presents the Negro in an amiable light. Unquestionably, too, most of its listeners, including Negroes themselves, regard it as innocent, enjoyable entertainment. However, the point has been raised repeatedly in recent years, whether certain types of dialect comedy, of which "Amos 'n' Andy'' is an out- standing example, do not tr.nd to reinforce racial stereotypes and, in so doing, help to perpetuate the Enyth of inherent racial inferiorities. Many students of the subject be- LENNY HERMAN Business is really booming at New York's Hotel Astor. With Lenny Herman's name back on the marquee for an indefinite period, the payees are wearing a path to the Astor's Broadway Lounge. Lenny's "Biggest Little Band In Radio" is a prime favorite with Lang-Worth's 500 station affiliates. LANG-WORTH, INC., NEW YORK Heve that one of the basic'. causes of bigotry is the myth that certain races are endowed by their creator with inherently greater intellectual powers.' They further believe that this master race fallacy is' bolstered by stereotype thinking, such as the shibboleths that Negroes are by nature simple, credulous, irrespon- sible and happy-go-lucky, or that Jews are naturally avaricious, smart and tricky, or that Irishmen are inherently pugnacious; improvident and drunken, etc. . There is obviously a distinction between dialect comedy in general and that which is based on racial stereotype. One is authentic folk humor and is properly cherished by race relations students and general public alike. But comedy based on racial stereotypes, in the opinion of many people, fosters ignorance and superstition, and is socially harmful, even though its own vic- tims may not recognize it as such. It is also, of course, lazy craftsman- ship, since it depends upon the most hackneyed of stock characteriza- tions and conventional situations. Hobe. CLUB 15 With Bob Crosby, Andrews Sisters, Jerry Gray Orchestra. Producer: Cal Kuhl Director: Diana Bourbon 15 Mins.; Mon.-Wed.-Fri. 7.30 p.m. CAMPBELL SOUP ; CBS, from New York '(Word Wheelock) A fast, tuneful and well turned show based on an idea similar to Chesterfield's Supper . Club is this new one using Bob Crosby five nights weekly, with the Andrews Sisters and Modernaires splitting vocal chores. Andrews trio works Monday-Wednesday-Fridays and the Modernaires Tuesday and Thursday, the latter segments using name guests while the Andrews shows do not. , This particular program was well done. Operating' on a minimum of script and a maximum of music for a 15-minute period (five tunes and none hurried), Crosby and-the An- drews trio, ably backed by a excel- lent orchestra under Jerry Gray (former Glenn Miller, arranger), presented a lively, nicely paced pro- gram. Starting out with "Smoke, Smoke" by the girls and Crosby, the talent ran through a standard ("Back iri Your Own Back Yard") by the trio, another pop ("How Soon") by Crosby, a new polka from' "High Button Shoes" by the trio, then a finishing ballad "Apple Blos- som Wedding" by Crosby, which wasn't wise since the musical por- tion of the show finished with a slow-tempo tune—and Crosby didn't do it well. • How five tunes plus the rather long Campbell Soup commercials are packed into 15 minutes without a tight feeling is a tribute to the production. But .it's done. It's that minimum of conversation that does the trick. A good show. Wood. ) Crosby: Tip Top Tope j —— - —— ~ — 1 — - mini _ F Any resemblance between this show as aired last week (1) and as aired Oct. 16. 1946, is purely co- incidental. The preem platter of Crosby's brand - new transcribed show last season was flat, tinny, choppy, more novel than entertain- ing. Last week's kickoff of the Groaner's second season on wax was a socko triumph over the it'll-never- work boys. Radio headliners tied to a weekly "live" sked must have greened-up with envy as they lis- tened to this solidly entertaining^ crystal-clear airer and recalled that Crosby put the stint on ice last August. Show seemed, to this reviewer at least, to have picked up markedly in quality of the reproduction, even over the final platters of last season —a fact apparently attributable to a switchover from acetate records to German-made "magnetaphone" tape recorders to transcribe the program. Show is now edited on tape, then transferred to platters. Result, as it came through last week, is the most "live"-like tones yet fed over net- work skeins. Aside from the stanza's achieve- ments in waxed fidelity, however, it is additionally improved 100% as an entertainment article. A formula has been arrived at, as an outgrowth of last season's trial-and-error ex- perimenting, in which El Bingo seems perfectly at home. Format has none of the rigidity of, say, Bob Hope's show, but rather allows Cros- by to croon and caper through the half-hour in a leisurely, old-hat manner. Overall effect is a recap- turing of that offhand air which made the Groaner's • Kraft Music Hall inning such a fave. Preem opened with a couple of janitors sweeping out a studio "be- cause Crosby's coming back." "That's a reason to sweep up?" one of them cracks. "His baggy pants'll sweep I A & C: Co-oped Corn ) Perhaps when Bud Abbott and Lou Costello go a la Bing Crosby with the Oct. 15 broadcast and feed their show over ABC from a disk, things production-wise will run more smoothly than they did on last week's (1) teeoff. The fumbling that went on with the cue could have been worse, but that opening night wasn't the sort of impression that a local station, whose job is to sell the program, can exact]}' tout with pride. The fluffing of lines on an A & C ABBOTT AND COSTELLO With Lou Krogman, Frank Nelson, Martha Wentworth, Susan Miller, Les Baxter Singers; announcer, Michael Roy Producer: Don Bernard Director: Ted Toll • Writers: Eddie Forman, Paul Con- Ian, Pat Costello, Martin Ray- away, Len Stern 30 Mins.; Wed., 9 p.m. CO-OP ABC, from Hollywood . episode is no cause for the removal of anyone's epaulets and brassbut- tons, but when the proceedings go awry to the point where an an- nouncer, determined to get in his chore as written, has to vie with the chorus for a hearing, with the vol- ume of either mike fading in and out crazily, then it's not even small- time production. (In Chicago, where the debut was caught, the broadcast got off to still a worse start. There were 10 seconds of dead air between the playing of a disk that A & C had cut for their local sponsor and the actual beginning of the network stanza). Aside from the shaky production the stars and their supporters were pretty much in the groove. An A & C writing stable can't go wrong be- cause its precincts are fairly well circumscribed. The material is as familiar and earthy as a drugstore's menu. To cite one joke in this par- ticular script: Abbott—"What do you know about Marconi?" Costello —"I know it's not as good with meat balls as spaghetti." In this particular script Jane Russell re- ceived but one mention, but the comics were as prodigal as ever with their "helmet the hat" routines. In their efforts to plant identity of network A & C waxed quite puckish, even slipping in a dig at their previ- ous network checksigner. There was a reference to "another network with 15 presidents" and contrasting bow to ABC where "nobody is president and everybody works." A & C apparently know where to sow goodwill when the program's a co-op and there's still more selling to be done. Absence of an orchestra on the show, because of the Petrillo ban on co-ops, didn't seem to have an ad- verse effect. The a capella touches of the Les Baxter Singers served well where a bridge was needed and the group wove a pleasing back- ground for the vocalist, Susan Mil- ler. This girl, whose outstanding quality is warmth, not only knows her way around a pop number but she's exceptionally deft with the lines. In addition to the special record made for the local account, the A & C series allows for three com- mercial cut-ins. They come at three minutes after, the halfway mark and at 28 minutes after, That arV* up to plenty of co-oping. Odcc.-.. up the place." Groaner walks in leading a live moose he corralled on his summer hunting trip. His brother Everett was out front "strapped on the fender of the car " Crosby said. Thus intioed. sans fan- fare, the show perked along at a jaunty pace. Crosby's pipes never sounded better than when he swims into "My Heart Is a Hobo." He was in top form too in a medlev of "Mam'selle," "Chi-Baba" and "Peg BING CROSBY SHOW With Peggy Lee, Rhytbmalres. John Scott Trotter's orch; Gary Cooper, guest; Ken Carpenter, announcer Producer-Writer: Bill Morrow Director: Murdo McKenzie 30 Mins.; Wed., 10 p.m. PHILCO ABC, transcribed in Hollywood (.Hulchins) O' My Heart" and in his closing "Who Knows How Much I Love You." Gary Cooper was a natural as a teeoff guest, pernlitting Crosby to go into his old cowhand act for a round of cutuppery with Cooper as a pair of tough hombres. of the west. Gags were fast and fancy, with Cooper obviously enjoying the fun. Highspots were their duoing of "El Rancho Grande" and a ditty about all cowboys being movie stars. Whole sequence was capital stuff. Peggy Lee, a .regular from last sea- son, returned with a neat chirping of "It Takes a Long v Long Train." John Scott Trotter's backing throughout was tops. Ken Carpenter's Philco plugs are models, pleasantly in- tegrated or smoothly sequed, and wonderously non-irritating. It'll be surprising if the Bingle doesnt make Hooper's honor roll early this semester and stay there, if he continues to tape 'em as elicko as this one. Don?) FIRST NIGHTER With Olan Soule, Barbara Ludy, Rye ■ Pillsbury; announcer, Larry Keating Producer-director: Jack Ainley Writers: Virginia Safford Lynn, Nor- wood Chamberlain, Jack Kelsey 30 Mins.; Sat., 8 p.m. • CAMPAGNA CO. CBS, from Hollywood (Wallace, Ferry & Hanley) To the trade, and, it is easily assumable. to the listener, "First Nighter" may rate as class B enter- tainment, but to others, like the sponsor and actors, it's got a deeply sentimental connotation. The Cam- pagna Co.. which concocts the Italian Balm lotion, put the show on the Blue Thanksgiving Day, 1930, and even kept it on during the. war when it couldn't furnish the prod- uct to retailers.' Unlike the average sponsor, the owner of Campagna didn't regard "First Nighter" as just part of an advertising campaign, comparable, say, to an ad in a magazine. It was! a prerequisite to the job that the leads go through the mixing and bottling plant and they fre- quently were guested by the owner at his home near the plant's site in lower Illinois. The program with him was as much a matter of pride and sentiment as comparative photos of his first and latest factory site and- the bill of lading on the first batch of bottles he shipped out. He always sought to make the leads of "First Nighter" feel that the jobs were theirs, as the older employees at the plant, as long as they wanted to stay. And that's the way it happened. They stayed until they decided to move to Hollywood or the Coast. "First Nighter" took a sabbatical in early '46. In the 16 years it had but three leading- men and three lead- ing women. Don Ameche and Irene Wicker was the first com- bination. Ann Seymour and Les Tremayne followed and Tremayne stayed on as a team with Barbara Luddy. who came in nearly 10 years ago, and when Tremayne moved to the Coast, Olan Soule, the present incumbent, took over. As for the "Mr. First Nighters" Charles Hughes, who has long since disap- peared from the business, was the original and for a time Bret Morri- son filled that role. The "family" idea even extended to the director. Joe Ainley, has been throwing the cues on "First Nighter" since the mid 30's and when Cam- pagna decided to resume broadcast- ing it found that Ainley was settled in Hollywood and so to keep the | family the origination was moved out to him from Chicago, where "First Nighter" originated and has heretofore been produced. "First Nighter" was the pre- cursor^. the rash of "theatre" and "playhouse" format that broke out in radio, especially network, in the early 30's. With the years it has changed none in the format, in the mores of the lead characters or in the quality of writing. The cheaper romance magazines come or go or adapt their gibber to the current idiom, but "First Nighter" stays snugly and smugly within its mold of artificial tete-a-tete, mossgrown situations and piffly plots. Back there in the 30's it did a much-cited- VOX POP With Parks Johnson, Warren Hull; Don Hancock, announcer Director: Rogers Brackett 30 Mins.; Wed., 8:30 p.m. AMERICAN EXPRESS ABC, from Pittsburgh (.J. M. Mathes) One of the best established and participation giveaway shows on the air, "Vox Pop" has returned this fall- with its format intact. There's still the plethora of fancy gifts to make dialers ooh at the program's gener- osity; there's still that slight, and probably deliberate touch of corn that's slanted for the rural fans, and there's still Parks Johnson and War- ren Hull swinging the show around ABC's key outlets with their unfail-: ing enthusiasm. There's a solid formula underlying this show which,- although not copping any top Hoop- eratings, pays off the bankroller in plenty of human interest. . Initial stanza originated in Pitts- burgh with the program giving a' bigger pitch to Paramount's picture, "The Unconquerable," than to Amer- ican Express. Gary Cooper, star of- the film via Coast wire greeted the participants who were chosen to tie in with the pic's title. John- son and Hull achieved several touching moments in their inter- views with this group of persons who showed a fighting pioneer spirit in surmounting their troubles. Best" spots involved two women, one a farmer who operates her place single-handedly, and another who built her own home after being dis- possessed. Show was warm and homey despite a fluff by Hull in which he confused Cooper with Clark Gable. Plugs for the traveler checks had a pronounced similarity to the Arid commercial with a voice through a mike filter booming, '^Safe in your pocket, safe at home, safe wherever ypu travel." One expected to hear, "safe under your arms, too." Other- wise plugs were okay in length. flerm. then selling job for Italian Balm, and it's not easy to break senti- mental attachments. For the dusting off occasion last. Saturday (4) "First Nighter" stuck- closely to form. It was something about an English girl who comes over with her baby and her ex-Gi husband has to learn to love her all over again. The threads of the plot made little sense and the sit- uations still less, but the "must" payoff of all "First Nighter" scripts was 'there: boy and girl kiss. Rye Billsbury presides as "Mr. First Nighter" and the sound effects man has his usual two innings of simulating the traffic around Times Square and there's still the "color'' chatter about curtain going up, in- termissions, etc. "First Nighter" may be far from ready for radio's SVith- soman Institute but it could stand some revamping of this "color'' pitch. Campagne was never one to lay on the blurb thickly. All it seeks to get over now is that Italian Balm is back on the market, and that the user will find it as dependable as it was before the war. Odee.