Variety (Mar 1949)

9» RABIO REVIfiWS Wednesday, March % 1949 FESTIVAL OF MUSIC; FESTI- VAL OF SONG , Miih. LoDKlnes Symphonette, Miihel Piastro, conductor; Cbor- aliers and oroh, Eurene Lowell, oondnctor; Walter Hendl, cuest;. Frank Knight, announcer Producer; Alan Cartoun Writer: Harrison Cowan ' 30 Mins., Sun., 2 S p.in, LONGINES-WITTNAVER CO. CBS, from N. Switch in times on Sabbath afternoon airers affords ottportun- ity for the unusual setup of one sponsor on two musical programs ; in one afternoon. This is. the Lon^ : gihes-Wittnauer Co., sponsoring a symphonic "Festival of Music" on CBS Sundays at 2 p.m. and a vocal "Festival of Song" same afternoon at 5 p.m. Combo (or each segment, for that: matter) forms one of the more attractive offerings on the air that day—a credit to everyone concerned. The earlier program, featuring the familiar, accomplished orches- tral ensemble of Mishel Piastro, presents an appealing list of light ; classical numbers for the most gart, attractively orchestrated and eautifuUy played: Program heard Sunday (27) included the Overture to "Martha," Grieg's Norwegian Daiice No. 1, Lis2;t's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, Lehar's "Merry Widow" Waltz, "Till I Wake," and themes from the first movement of Tchaikovsky's first piano con- , certo, with Walter Hendl as gifted soloist. Commercials were just as easy to take-^simple, not overdone, , «nd certainly I not high-pressured. But the "Festival of Song," with the. excellently-trained male chorus called the Choraliers, under Eugene Lowell, was really a sur- :prise. With a program consider- ably lighter in vein, yet all of worthy calibre, these singers put • on a. half-hour that was a treat. ; TheirS ' is a robust male chorus, iwith wholesome solid arrangements x^none of the fancy frills, the weird or even feminine caco- phonies that spoil some of the other radio vocal , groups. Group has some excellent, unnamed solo- ists, too. Orchestral backing is also neat and high-grade. On Sunday (27), etae heard "Here Comes The Sailor," "Gypsy Sweetheart," "Song of Songs" "Me and My Gal" and two numbers that espe- cially stood out for their unusual appeal—"Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming" and "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill." Orchestra did it- self brown on two instrumental numbers, "Beautiful Lady" and "La Bamba." . Bron. ABRIVAL OF THE DELAYED PILGRIMS With Bill Lazar. E. A. Krum- .schmtdt, Rober de Koven, John mcGovern, Bryna Raeburn, Joan Laser, Leon Janney, Santos d'Ortegra, Arnold Robertson; Ben Grauer, narrator Writer: Peter Lyon Producer: Ted Hudes Director: Frank Papp 30 Mins.; Thurs.,(25), 9 p.m. WNYC, N. Y. Continuing its drive agamst the unfairness of the existing displaced persons act, the Citizens Commit- tee on Displaced Persons is fipng another transcribed broadside at the law's deficiencies. In "Arrival of the Delayed: Pilgrims," a half- hour platter aired over WNYC, N. Y,, Thursday (25) as well as some other stations^ it was urged that the new Congress consider a "just" law that would remedy the faults of the present act. Pointing out that the law as it now stands will only, authorize ad- missions of about 200,000 individ- uals, the documentary-styled pro- gram showed that entry to the U. S. means a "second birth" to a DP, while on the other hand it was noted that thousands of other war homeless will be denied this privi lege. Purpose of this public serv ice program is commendable. But unfortunately an attempt to pack too many thoughts into the stanza tended to hamper an argument that otherwise might have been more forceful. Show draws a parallel between 'the pilgrims of 1620 who sought a new life of freedom and democracy in the new world. But rather than devoting much time to the case history: of a Polish DP who was barred from America due to his failure to be a DP camp inmate prior to Dec. 22, 1945, greater emphasis should have been placed on what the McGratJi-Neely bill will do to correct the gaps of the loosely drawn existing act and why the public should support the new measure. Use of canned speeches of Sen- ators Pepper and Chavez protest- ing the original bill at the time it was up for Congressional con- sideration is also so much water under the bridge, even though im-: portant arguments are reprised. A large cast under Frank Papp's di- rection did what it could to get across the message. Ben Grauer's narration helped as did the musical backgrounds of John Gart. Gilb. From the Production Centres HARRY SALTER MUSICAL DIRECTOR Stop the Mu«ie—ABC ; Pays to Bo .Ignorant—rCBS THE EMPTY CHAIR With Margaret O'Brien, Roger deKoven, Joseph de Santis, Jim Boles; Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt^ guest; Frank Gallup, announcer Producer-Director:: Jack Lloyd Writer: Alvin Yudkoff 15 Mins.;Thurs. (24), 9 p.m^ WNEW, N. Y. Produced for the National Con- ference of Christians and Jews, this transcription was an effective dramatic presentation of the or- ganization's message. The story dealt with the experience of 13- year-old Mary Nolan, played by Margaret O'Brien, who learns about the viciousness of intoler^ ance when a bookie beats up a Jewish Candy-store owner. Then she writes an essay on "The World We Want to Live In," sponsored by the NCCJ, speaking out for the "warmth of brother- hood and understanding." The guesting of Mrs.. Eleanor Roose- velt was neatly worked into the drama, the late President's wife being billed as speaker at a dinner for the little girl. Mrs. Roo.sevelt made an eloquent plea for an end to prejudice. The production was smooth and the cast excellentj with Miss O'Brien giving a moving perform- ance. Bril. - THE CISCO KID With Jack Mather, Harry Lang, . othera. ■ , Directors: Hildreth Sanders, Paul Pierce Writer: James McCracken 30 Mins.; Sun. (20), 3 p. m. Sustaining' WOR, N. Y. Based on the characters created TEXAS POWER & LIGHT SHOW With Elmer Baughman, Richard ' Provenson, Billy Mayo and. orch, Gregory Baker 30 Mins., Fri., 8 p.m., CST TEXAS POWER & LIGHT CO. WFAA & WFAA-FM, Dallas - From the penthouse studios of WFAA each week comes this new series of airings by the local utility company. ^ It's ' a, ■ variety show which should please the entire family and prove a goodwill by O. Henry, "The Cisco Kid" is a I bujWer for TP&L. Program fea- topnotch saddle soap opera. When K**""?* P'l^y Mayo and a 24-piece the show debuted seven years ago orchestra in selections by the old Cisco was a cowboy Casanova, mak Ing love to western senoritas while getting into and out of scrapes. In this new edition, Cisco leaves «ex alone, but he still has a pen masters and popular concert favorites. Music served up is easy to listen to. Each week there is a different guest vocalist. On this second air chant for riding into trouble. On '"^ Gregory Baker, baritone, was the episode caught, Cisco and his r"vf^il"n,^;„i,w. w, . i. ^ ■' pardner Pancho were picked up by I „ Jwfl^^'J.I?'"^" "^^^ ^^^"^^ « the sheriff of Broken Cinch for a Ha-^ratiye, . . Texans, bank robbery they didn't commit. The actual crooks, out to divert the town's attention from another bur- gling job, stirred up a mob Which $et out to lynch Cisco and Panchb. But the hero escaped, foiled the robbers and saved Pancho from the necktie party. The story had, therefore, an anti-mob violence im- pact. "Cisco" is well scripted, with a : careful handling of suspense values. The central characters, ably played by Jack Mather and Harry Lang, speak with a Mexican accent, but without offending. It's good "they went that-a-way" fare; Bril. Let's Texas," which was devoted to a tribute to Thomas A. Edison.. Baughman has a pleasing voice and puts across the messages very well. Richard Provenson turns in a smart job as announcer, keeping the show moving along at a smooth pace: Program shows neat pacing and production. - Andy. WOMEN'S WORLD With Mary Aileen Ranney ; 55 Mins., Mon.-to-Frl„ 9 a.m. Participating WROW, Albany Miss Ranney, who uses the tagi "Mary Aileen,'' on the air, moved from the Office staff of WROW to the directorship of women's pro- grams and this feature, when Louise Benay retired. She has gained a certain flexibility of voice, ease of delivery and facility at reading copy, but she still must travel a long road. Her voice, while dear, remains hard and flat. The articulation is unusually slow and precise; the reading is not always smooth. Manner is friendly. Show is divided into sections, with transcribed.music, recipe and fashion hints, Hollywood gossip and the like^inuch as Miss Benay set it up' Miss 'Ranney does plenty ; of plugging for participating spon- laiK sors. Diespite a brief half Way news " " roundup, the program runs long, probably too long. Jctcb^ fJV mW YORK CITH ... George Wolf, assistant tele director fpr Foote, Cone & Belding, is a country squire, now being domiciled in suburban Rye... .Ed Kobak. Mutual prexy, hopped plane to Chi Sunday (27)—but not for NBC- affiliates cruicial powwow— Martin Weldon, of CBS, helping Na- tional Council to Combat Blindness with radio publicity Sam Elfert, WLIB program director, father of a boy, Jason Louis. Mother is edi- torial assistant on N. Y. Post-Home News... . Charlotte Manson named Miss National Five Arts by the National Five Arts Award, lit. and song- writing contest offering $100,000 in prizes and fellowships . ..Herbert L. Bachman. has left ABC to head up new research department for Headley-Reed, station j-eps .., Franklyn Pulaski doing an Army docu- mentaiy film in March; . . .Man who brought Horace Heidt and Dick Contino togethet after their split said to be James C* Petrillo. Rift was caused when a Heidt pressagent talked the young accordionist into leaving. Phil Alampi, WJZ farm news director, to address Newtown, N. J„ Rotarians today (2)... Joe Franklin of WMCA's "Antique Record Shop,'' penning tome: of anecdotage about vaude greats... Starting Monday (7) Dick Todd will get hiS own 11 a.m. cross-the-board musical show on ABC... . Robert Quarry, ex-J. Walter Thompson, has joined ■ Lester Lewis as contact man... .Robert D. C. Meeker appointed veepee of the Nat'l Ass'n: of Radio Station Representatives^ succeeding Adam ' J. Young. Jr., <who resigned v.. :Bill Todman,- co-producer of ''Winner Take All," "Hit the Jackpot" and "Beat the Clock" off for'Florida hoU- ' day . « Red Barber to Vero Beachi Fla^, Monday (28) to cover Dodger spring training with Judson Bailey Mary Margaret McBride has left by. plane for Hati, originating her WNfiC program from there. She's accompanied by Her manager, Estella H. Karn... . Arthur Maitland and Katherine Emmet added to the cast of "Backstage Wife";. . Anne Marie Gayer, James Van Dyket llaskeU Coffin and Louis Sorin to"Front Page Farrell." Johnny Desmond has gone to Chicago for a week's guest stint on •Don McNeil's "Breakfast Club" program;. . Dick and Mrs. Leibert re- : tum«d Friday (25): from a two weeks' skiing vacation in Canada.. . . Staats Cotsworth and Jan Miner did an original "Crime Photog- rapher" sketch '(written by Cotsworth) at the American Photography show last week at the 71st Regiment Armory. Mutual's, "Great Scenes from Great Plays" received award from Pulpit Digest Friday (25), day show went off the air. However, it's reported program will return to MBS next fall.... Radio, actor Allan Stevenson playing Henry Norris in "Anne of the Thousand Days".. Leonard (Buzz) Blair, producer of "Town Meeting," to wed Emily : Emery, ex-ABC studio operations, March 11.:^.vH. R.; Baukhage to lecture to Wisconsin Road Builders Assn. in Milwaukee . i.. Don Han- cock on five-day vacation in Miami.. . . ABC vip. Frank Marx to be on j! panel representing industry engineers in discussion with FCC at NAB* engineering conference, April 9.... Martin Agronsky to speak before joint meeting of UN Council and Foreign Policy Assn. in Philly, March 9. . . Gail and Harry Ingram, who write, produce and direct "Tales of Fatima," have been signed to write "Inner Sanctum".. .. ABC, MBS and CBS will air an hour-long special broadcast, "One Great Hour," with cooperation of 76,000 churches March 26. at 10 p.m. ' It will be prepared under the direction of Robert E^ Sherwood and Erik Bamouw... "Beat the Clock'' (CBS) will be heard cross-the-board at 4:45 p.m., starting March 7, in iEtddition to its regular Wednesday evening airing. HOLLYWOOD BROADWAY'S MY BEAT With Anthony Ross, Gene Carson, I league club, when asked: by a girl " ■ ' '" ' " " I participant on the "Club House" quiz over CBS (26), if ball-players pay attention to the televising «Sf garfies, replied, "No, but they like to kiiow what is going over the radio." Emcee Red Barber, who Paul Luther, Joan Lorring, Mau rice Gosfield,: John Forsythe, Les DamoUr Louis Van RoOten ' Writer: Peter Lyon Director-producer: John Dietz 30 Mins.; Sun., 5:30 p.m. CBS, from New York "Broadway's My Beat" is another whodunit with an . incidental Gotham background that should appeal to the mystery fans. After EDDY DUCHIN SHOW With Tommy Mercer; Jane Fro- man,, guest; Ken Roberts, emcee 15 Minst; Tues., 9 p, u. Sustaining WNEW, New York This cuffo transcription series produced by the Navy sells recruit-1 showgirls and the ing for Navy fliers via Eddy Du-1 corpse. This show is Sidney N. Strotz made it official last week that he's giving up hit roving assignment with NBC and anchoring permanently Here . . ^ . HaiTy Ackerman solved Columbia's problem of filling iof; three weeks : be-; tween the time Spike Jones moves to Saturday night and Ozzie andl Harriet come over from NBC to head up the Sunday lineup.. Rather: than "waste" a new show on such short showcasing, he decreed double duty for "Escape," now airing Saturday a.m. Name players will adorh: the Sunday cast.. . .Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt due in town this week and will cut her ABC records with daughter Ann for 10 days... Rita Wil- liamson, widow of Dud, who owned and emceed "What's the Nahie of That Song?", won the first round in her court-fight to regain i^Qhtrol of the program from Don Lee:..; .Robert Kintner, executive veepee of ABC, around for two weeks but dividing, his time between Hollywood and Arizona... Mutual expunged the George O'Hanlon show after 17 weeks, but no sponsor interest. Bernard Schubert, who packaged the comedy piece, is striking up a deal with another network. Radio News Club, which threw the book at G. A. Richards, resulting in an FCC hearing for alleged slanting of the news, riiay do a fold if the members persist in absenteeing at meetings. Prexy Jim McNaniara: and others threatened to walk when only 15 of the club's 70 merobe« showed up at recent session.... After an eight-yeaic absence* Dort* Gilbert (Wolf's daughter) is back scripting for Gene Autry.. .Jim Jordan, 3tt, son of "Fibber and Molly,'' will bone up on television under the wing of Norman Blackburn at NBC in New York.. Dorothy Thack- rey passed a short visit here with her son and then retraced her steps to New York... Walter Lurie around to look over the crop of avail- ables and whip up some new shows for Mutual .. Hal Fimbcrg has been pressed into service by Harold Jovian to inject some sanity intQ Jim Hawthorne's program before it is presented to CBS for showcasing. His wacky clowning around the turntable failed to smoke out any spon- sor interest on ABC... Mark Warnow is hot too eager to return to thP^'Vinh'wnnc'i"" ''"^ if American Tobacco's Vincent Riggto wants him back me y^iMo nouse ^n the Hit Parade he'd probably start packing... John Deering, whose voice cracked in mid-broadcast some years ago, has completely recov^ ered and is now back at his old trade of announcing... Larry Bern* hospitalized for his annual checkup.... Bob Crosby was renewed fpr another semester by Campbell. .. Gag going the rounds is that even NBC's test pattern: in the east got a two-point rating from lioppen , .... ... . . , , -r. r . , T T T T-T-: / > ;: Followup Comment: Jacliie Robinson, Negro second baseman of the Brooklyn National had conducted an adlib interview with Robinson; laughingly com- mented, "You shouldn't have said that." Barber referred to the fact Robmson handled a sports pro- a brief nod to the glitter and 1 gram on WMCA six nights a week -1 -» i... „. _ . this winter. When a boy reported that he would like to become a Sports an- nouncer. Barber said, "Jackie and I will have anothe'r year or two in which to ■ glamor of the Main : Stem, Peter Lyon's script slips into a familiar groove of dicks, taxicab ..drivers, mysterious marked; by chm s music. Program opener was ] smoothly meshing . production a^salute to the Naval Air. Station gears; solid performances by an I younger folks begin taldne uvc, at Pensacola, with Duchm, a for-1 ace cast and some firstrate musical The Dodger athlete, who snoke ^J^^Jl^l commander, | scoring by Robert^ Stringer. | with ea.se, poise and sincerity .. ™ u._ ^ ., ., about the work Which he and Roy liV CHICAGO ... Dorothy Miller, WBBM education director, ho.sted at III. Women Voters League... .Alton Farbcr of ,1. Walter Thompson agency, off .to L. A. for National Kids Day Foundation . .Bob Lewis new contin- uity writer at WGN,,. ABC'S "Junior Junction" back March 26 after three week layoff.... Evelyn Knight guest singer yesterday (D o" WBBM's "Melody Lane .. George Guyan new WGN western sales manager... MBS visitors included program veepees Phillips Carlin, chatting briefly on his war service. Vocalist Tommy Mercer was also billed as an ex-tar, having served as a seaman first class. - Duchin, of- course, plays with a . solid beati and wraps up a good musical show, with some standout . solo passages at the keyboard. His guest, Jane Froman, gave an excel- lent chirping of "Begin the Be- guine." Commercials plug the training the naval air service offers youtb. Bril, On the preem (27), the yarn eon- jperned the murder of a New York j Campanella, Negro catcher-team drama critic. Anthony Ross, play- mate, had done at the Harlem ing a detective on the Broadway Y.M.C.A., and its part in combat- beat, is never fooled by the flock i ting juvenile delinquency ob- of fake clues, and his deductions served, "I am off already''--refer. lead straight to the guilty party. The murderer was a hackic, father of a chorine who was done wrong by the critic. Despite its formula tone, however, the program man- aged to sustain interest throughoui D broadcast before the ] Walter Lurie, and owner Alex Warden of KMON, Great Falls Mont, lolks begm taking over." WGN's "Mr. Heartbeat" contest prize now jumped to $15,000. Phil Wood, national sales manager of WFMJ, YoUngstowhi 0.> mov- ing to WKOW, Madison, March 3 . : . . Neil Weed, of Weed & Co., on biz trip covering 14 cities .. .Gil McClelland, MBS promotion mi^nager, on sick list.. WBBM has switched title of "Your Daily Almanac" w : "Patrick O'Riley's Show... Radio Features, Inc., appointed Ett»«*^ Samuelson district sales manager with offices at Kansas City, Mo.. George Hollingberry on Coast biz trip . . .Titiie buyer Dorothy Ayr** from Morris Swaney agency to Henri, HUrst, McDonald;. . John ffS^^ rington celebrating 13 years with WBBM... Norma Schneider to NBi' script dept. replacing Carol Someirville, who is bowing out for-roar- riage career.. . . Vaughn Monroe to. air from Aragon via WBBM Marcn . 12. . .Glenn Uhles now assistant manager at NBC after two. stretch with ABCSylvia Mlkelson and Ketth textoF of AJJy» "Honey Dreamers" plotting June wedding. ring to the fact the radio stint had ended and he was heading for the Dodgers' training camp at Vero Beach, -Fla. Barber will originate "Club House'' from that point, pre- senting President Branch Rickey as the first guest Saturday (5).