Variety (April 1953)

HADIO REVIEWS 39 Wednesday, April 29, 1953 PftFTRY OF OUR TIMES Wth Katherine Anne Porter Producer: Gioia Btanjoni Director: Harry F rm ee 15 Mins.; Sun., 11.45 a.m. NBC, from New York • ... 1 * fine idea has been translated intn an interesting, offbeat radio Sides! no doubt aided and abetted hv recent enthusiasm for readings on the stage and tele. Show-has Katherine Anne Porter, one of America's distinguished shortstory Vtvlists, reading complete poems, chiefly lyric, from a large literary treasury. Why there hasn’t been more of this is a mystery, for poet- ry and poets, communicating mu- sically one person to another, are a healthy antidote to the mechanis- tic mass-movement culture of our times. Miss Porter’s first selections, de- livered with deliberate and clear articulation, came from Robert Frost Wallace Stevens, E. E. Cum- mings and Louise Bogan. Living poets will be featured at the be- ginning, with backward dips into such masters of the last century as Emerson, Poe, Melville, Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Best impressions were made by Frost’s “Mending Wall” and “Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening, In which the poet’s earthy, colloquial New England rhythms were felt through Miss Porter’s cultured voice. Other se- lections were musical but suffered from a sense of radio rush. There should be more pause between poems, since each creates a fragile mood. With greater sense of ease and timing, and careful avoidance of selections too literary, this prom- ises to be a soothing and engross- ing radio series. If thd selection is expanded to include (as a change of pace) some amusing minnesing- ers as Ogden Nash, E. B. White and Phyllis McGinley, for instance, the program might become a pop- ular hit, perhaps even reviving a mass interest in poetry. The series is produced in asso- ciation with the Lighthouse for the Blind, a non-profit organization dedicated to the rehabilitation of blind persons of all races, colors and creeds. It is heard In New York as part of WNBC’s three- hour “Kaleidescope” program on Saturday afternoons. Horn. Schenectady — Dave Cameron has added a 15-minute ‘‘Friendly Fireman” program, for children, to his WRGB schedule. NEWSREEL With Tom Whitmore, Tom March, Lee Masseyj Sid Knight, an- nouncer Producer - director - writer: Todd Branson 45 Mins.; Sat,, 12:15 p.m. Sustaining WWCA, Gary, Ind. This 45-minute rundown of the past week’s local news happenings and that of surrounding areas should be of interest to the in- digenous population, Topics dealt with are varied and production and delivery by station’s reporters give program added'dramatic effective- ness.^ Some of the taped interviews didn’t come over too clearly on show caught, but this is a mechani- cal problem that will probably vary with conditions. , Airer heard took in such local subjects as a house destroyed by fire and another home razed by the explosion of a gas line. Also, the death of an Indian a lawyer, the accidental death of a native lad buried alive by the cave-in of a makeshift tunnel while playing soldier, a labor dispute, sports news and an interview with a Gary j law enforcement officer. A potent pitch for radio along the lines that it’s big and growing was also delivered. Jess. Cleve.’s WGAR Ups Biz 20% for 1st Quarter Cleveland, April 28. WGAR’s answer to strong radio- TV-newspaper advertising compe- tition was a firm 20% increase In local business during the first quar- ter of the year. Also boasting a “firm rate-card policy” for local trade, station pointed out that all newscasts are ‘‘virtually sold out following the purchase of Jack Dooley’s “11 O’clock News”' by Second “Federal Savings. WGAR’s “MerCHAINdising” Plan to grocers also chalked up more than ‘‘$100,000 additional food products advertising revenue during 1952,” according to general manager Carl George, who added that Bill Mayer’s “Mayor of the Morning” is virtual SRO 'in the 6 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. disk stanza. Station bolstered live program- ming with two new vocalists, Louise Barber and Carl Paradiso, featured with Norman Knuth's Sfarlighters. PfifiltiTY Radio Follow-Up I Since April 6, Bill Leonard has been presenting an unusual tape- recorded documentary on his WCBS Radio program, “This Is New York” (Monday through Sat- urday, 9 to 9:30 a.m.). Running from eight to 10 minutes a day, the special series is an eye-opening glimpse of “The Making of a Slum.” Leonard and his writers, Fred Freed and Martin Weldon, were attracted to the neighborhood— the Cathedral Heights section in West Side Manhattan—by a grow- ing crime wave. In the 24th Po- lice Precinct, of which Cathedral Heights is a part, more than 25 crimes a day have been reported to the police. Investigating the area, the Leonard team found a larger story in the physical and moral disintegration of a neighbor- hood, the making *of a slum. Re- cording of the story in the actual voices of people of the neighbor- hood took three months. The series reveals the seamy side of a once-good neighborhood •j— bookie joints flourishing, solici- tations by prostitutes, narcotic us- ers and pushers, kid gangs carry- ing zip guns, racial prejudice di- rected against Puerto Ricans, fear and violence. It also points the finger at one major cause—un- scrupulous landlords, “slum run- ners, who carve up apartments into one-room flats and curtail services and charge rents of $20 to $30 a week.” Through such practices, one 12- story building had its annual in- come jumped from $129,000 to $260,000 in eight years. Where 300 persons lived in a building, there are now 1,200, Talking with civic leaders, Leon- ard and his reporters found gen- eral agreement that a cure lies in new housing, more civic participa- tion and a fight against prejudice, “more education in what is Ameri- can.” Yet, as the radio series comes to a close this Saturday (2), Leon- ard wonders if the growing slum will be stopped. Some neighbor- hood leaders speak of a rebirth, of morality in the home and govern- ment. Leonard has testimony of broken laws, but indignation has not replaced general public apathy. ■Horn. BEST PLAYS With John Chapman, narrator; Ar- thur Kennedy*, Leon Janney, Wendell Holmes, Stevo Hill, Producer; William Welch" Director: Edward King Writer: Ernest Kinoy 60 Mins.; Fri„ 8:30 p.m. NBC, from New York This- full-hour series of Broad- way adaptations, based on selec- tions from the Burns Mantle “Best Plays” books, returned to NBC last Friday (24) with topnotch pro- duction of the Thomas Heggen- Joshua Logan drama, “Mr. Rob- erts.” Sofne of the saltier Navy lingo has been laundered in Ern- est Kinoy’s radio adaptation, but most of the humor that shone through this hit when It opened on Broadway in February, 1948, still sparkles in its AM transmutation. Naturally, not all the values of the original have endured the transplanting to another medium successfully. For one thing, Log- an’s inspired visual gags lost their punch when delivered in a purely audial form. The business of En- sign Pulver appearing in soap suds after firing a test firecracker, and the shocked horror on the face of the nurse when she learned the crew had been watching her bathe in the nude through a telescope— both bellylaugh-provokers — in- duced only chuckles when suggest- ed verbally. For another thing, the dimen- sion of the original characters be- came a trifle subdued and altered. Arthur Kennedy, assuming the lead role created by Henry Fonda, was quite believable as the heroic lieutenant, running the old bucket of a ship between the shores of Tedium and Monotony, but the complete charm of the character was not fully developed as on the stage. Wendell Holmes played the tyrannical sourpuss of a captain well, but because the audience couldn’t actually see him bluster when he found his palm tree hoist- ed overboard, his vehemence was somehow less sulphuric. The transition of Leon Janney from the cowardly to the brave Ensign Pulver was too sharp- ly made within one hour to be al- together acceptable. Interestingly, though, one performer who ap- peared in the original Broadway production, Steve Hill as sailor Stefanowski, seemed* even funnier on radio, because his rough, slangy intonation made him stand out as a distinctive character. John Chapman, critic for the TRUCE OR TREACHERY With Tex McCrary, Jinx Falken- burg" Producers - directors: Bob Klein, Sheila Kelley Writer: McCrary 30 Mins,; Fri. (24), 8 p.m. NBC, from N. Y. With the Korean prisoner ex- change and renewal of peace talks frontpage news last week, NBC scored a neat job of programming via the spotting of “Truce or Treachery” in the 8-8:30 p.m. slot Friday (24). Comprised primarily of tape recordings made by Tex McCrary during his recent visit to Korea (Feb, 10-April 6), airer had impact both in news content and human interest values. Show included taped interviews not only with men in actual com- bat, but also with South Korean president Syngman Rhee, Adlai Stevenson (who was also in Korea), the son of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Gen. Mark Clark and the mother of a Marine lieutenant who died in action. Highlighting the chatter sessions with the fighting men was a background of shellfire and a general aura that a war was being fought. Various ideas were brought into focus through state- ments made by McCrary and the interviewees. These included Gen. Clark’s vehement condemnation of the Communists, Stevenson's feeling that the end of the Korean con- flict wouldn’t end the threat of war in the Orient; Rhee’s over- whelming faith in President Eisen- hower, McCrary’s cautioning in line with the program’s title and the feeling expressed by the dead Marine lieutenant’s mother that her son was wasted. Aiding McCrary in an in-between tapings narration was his wife, Jinx Falkenburg. Production by Bob Klein and Sheila Kelley was firstrate. McCrary, incidentally, began a week-long series of articles on his Korean visit in the N, Y. Mirror Sunday (26), which includes most of the material heard on the broadcast. Niche for show’s one- shot Was vacated by “Parade of Bands.” Jess. N.Y. Daily News and editor of the “Best Plays” books since Mantle’s death in 1947, introed each act in a pleasantly sophisticated way, spicing the Prolog with his own theatrical reminiscences. He has a friendly radio voice, and should prove, despite the alleged venom of theatre critics,*a welcome host for the rest of tqe series. Rnsk. QUANTITY: 17 COAST-TO-COAST HALF HOURS WEEKLY QU A LIT Y: FOUR SHOWS IN THE "TOP TEN"... REASON: CHOOSE THE RIGHT PARTNERS... c ART LINKLETTER AND GROUCHO MARX... 9 - ... and 16 associates who have been with us more than six years* * Moving to Our New Building May 1st 8321 Beverly Blvd. Los Angeles 48 York 6291 JOHN GUEDEL PRODUCTIONS • » *A!I V.P.'s, naturally: Irv Atkins (15 yrs.), Walter Guedel (15), Eleanor Rowland (12), Jackson Stanley (11), Robert Dwan (10), Bernie Smith (8), Dorothy Nye, Martha Proudfoot, Marty Hill, Dick Pettit,, Ed Mills/Martin Work, Gene Rountree, Hy Freedman, Helen Whitwere and Ed Tyler.