Variety (Dec 1929)

Wednesday, December 18, 1929 RADIO-MUSIC VARIETY 59 The Air Line By Mark Vance The '^-ll" period WJZ Is a plug for the NBC artists' bureau. Gives the studio staff & chance to do Its •tuff. Dave Grupp talks on big biz and market Investments. May be a' reason. Hudy Vallee's music had BO outsi de band as a side counter on WEAF for the Fleischmann hour. Vallee baiid imitating others took him away from the slow tempo for . the time. Selberllne Sliigers XWEAF) sure have some male quartet.^ They strive for novelty and make It. James; Milton a standout. Whammed Stiff Checker Cabbies back on WOR ■with Murray Kelner directing or- chestra. Usual dance numbers. Thanks to nifty piano playing the Iiohn & Fink Serenade' WJZ put new life into some of the old boys; fe-i; stance "Ole' Man River." It's thi.": apparent eflCort to change pace that, will help the topical numbers whammed to death by ajlr bands. Champion Sparkers WJZ reviving some former. famous sports events' by Phil Carlin doing the broadcast. The world ' series between the Tanks and Pirates interesting as Carlin did it. Aviation •WOR continues aviation talk; dull-to the bird-who only knows that airplanes fly. Bernard Levitow and "dinner music". from WABO up • to .u^ual Levitow standard. Levitow attends strictly to hla mu- sical knitting. Rundback's (WABC) usual umpty-ump .ptuff., Midweek iging (WEAF) .better .than visual for vocal effect; Mixed Voicej?. f ' . .Farmers \ r. Not. much food for city "dwellers In the banquet talks from the Amer- ican Agricylturists. Trade. and Mark (WJZX anothier, of the Lam- bert-HIUpof, vociiT layouts.' / Andy Sanella gets workout 'Hew His. musickerd' Showing - 'tmproyement. Dialog dfejuge from 'WO]S(~ -didn't register. Cinch- the^ True. Pjitfective story from'WABC didn't..win.'Even attempt : to • freshen by comedy didn't help i miiph. Talked Itself into eJ^hfiugtlon. Dave Mendoza arid orchestra'reeled bfC some more goOd music for the Maxwell House pe- riod WJZ. • Hard Worker Lone Star Rangers (WOR) get some pretty neat harmony vocally, John White still warbling ditties from the plains. Their program doesn't hit confliction any wiay, Some zippy music during Atwater Kent period WJZ. Victor program WEAF.fltrong on classy, music. No hot syncopation on WEAF until midnight as National Grand Opera followed Victor, presenting "Mar- tha'.' under Cesare Sodero's direc- tion. Little doubt that this Sodero person is one of the hardest work- ers for air results.' . Lightning or Man Lightning himself on the air is Jack Pillman broadcasting the hockey game from the Garden. Fillman has no equal on this sort of miking. Red Lacquer and Jade WOR rather arty and why not? Get a load of the announcing: "The quintessence of reality and out of its arm?, truth." Following Fill- man's hockey spieling the studio shoved the Swiss" Trio into the breach. Some subdued stringed music, Sahford Bates, supe of U. S. pris- ons, from WABC on what can be clone to. make prisons safer for criminals, Charles Johnson's band got hot from WMCA, . WRNT had some dreamy music by the Three Dreamers, Chiiiese Class Howard Emerson-and orch from WOR ambitious. Playing Chinese restaurant in- Brooklyn stepped out of its dllnce character 'and" irteeled Ofe flVe favs from Victor Herbert's works. Emerson deserves credit for the try. Jimmy Durante, the old nose master of the Clayton, Jackson and Durante aggregation, shook up his batting order. The ;achnozzler stepped up to the milfe ahesul of Lou Clayton and - gave the fans to understand that Clayr ton, Jackson and Durante would give them better air service and proceeded to do so. More singing And clowning . than, just humdrum band music. Hal Kemp from WEAF got a bet- ter score than usually. Guy Lorn-' bardo made "St. Louis Blues',' hum'. And--Arin="L$ftf-again chariged-h,^^^ organ routine. spiced without touching .scandal. High time WRNY and the Varsity Vagabonds dropped football for an- other atmospheric subject. Johnstone and Saltpeter Droll humor in Will B, Johnstone (N> T. World) Interviewing Harry Saltpeter, the World book reviewer, who has turned author with "Dr, Johnson: and Mr. feoswell." On "WRNY and a feature Idea the sta- tion should follow with other celebs, Evelyn Hoey< musical Obm^dy girl, guest of Brown Bllt Footlights: (WABC). Her first song was her best. Program striving for novelty in routine. Some more nifty music from Rosario Bourdon's orchestra during Cities Service Concert <WEAP), Not a bad foursome of warblers from WABC for EVersharp ommerclal. Another act of "Niaughty Marietta" from WJZ gave ensemble workout as well as soloists. Philco has shown enterprise in broadcast- ing musicals like this. Still Laughing Somebody sang "Laugh, Clown, Laugh," on WABC. Good idea for WPAP to use "What was termed "electrical, transcription" on records for M-G-M shorts. Gives station decided variety of program. Billy Artz getting results fi'om his. band during Planters' Pickers (WEAF). Arty routine came over WABC dur- ing Curtiss Institute period. Koestner'c Symphony Vau Heusen period (WOR) of usual calibre, w'ith Helen Ricbards heard to advantage. Joseph Koest- ner's huge orchestra on WJZ .for Armour program getting better all the. time. Claudia Muzio, soprano, did some top-"no ting effectively. Pollack Back Mystery Hour with another epi- sode of a meller radio serial on WEAF. Still in experimental stage, Ben' Pollack back on air-via WABC. Pollack built up following and then dropped from air. Vincent Lopez on . 'WEAF did some sweet ivory manipulating on 'IMighty Lak a Rose," Lopez band .also working up piccolo effects. Park Central hotel music (WEAF) didn't sound so good. That Story Shortage Hollywood, Dec, 17. Number of film studio story scouts are checking on radio progi*ams using sketches to see if they hold any material for plctiire plots. Collier's Weekly hour is looked upon seriously here bie- cause It features at least one. story a week wherein, the yarn is told in play form. Cehanovsky, Met baritone. "An Evening in Paris" was a mixture of song, talk and child's play. Spotting for hours is plenty important. " Emergency Crews Two Jewish periods in one eve from the same station (WMCA) might best serve Its commercials were they farther apart. One sells noodles and matzoths for the Good- mans, the other is a plug for Chase and Sanborn products. Some pretty good singing, one ensemble coming Over effectively. WMCA does more zigzagging of its pickups, due to lack of commercials, perhaps, or big biz-passing it up for the NBC or Columbia networks. Thus a studio emergency outfit is always doing yeoman service. Generally a stringed combo or a handy soprano^ Voice of Firestone, WEAF, had Vaughn deLeath doing double duty on the' warbling; Franklin Bauer's gone On vacation; ' Miss deLeath is one. of the few radio regulars who doesn't tire. A,' & .P". Gypsies ap- parently striving- for. more, class. Programs getting' heavier, Louise Bave, soprano, good "voice; Oliver Smith, tenor; at times sounds "bet- ter .than others. Being Himself Will Osborne now Will Osborne on a regular Columbia system pe- riod. From WABC he did a Vallee, Orchestra keeps Howard Fashion Plates, WABCi from doing nose dive. Bob Sherwood and his circus tales fWjZ) have become the running brook of the NBC, Pierre Kaye (WEAF) and his music gab being Paul and RKO Paul Whlteman whipped In one of his best Old Gold hours In some weeks Dec. 10. Had the Bros Sis- ters assisting with probably the best vocal arrangement of "End of the Rd"ad" yet heard. Plenty easy on the ears from WABC. Whlteman has been speaking into the mike lately. Not so long ago just the suggestion of doing same would chase him down the block in mad flight. Contrary to the Wliiteman rise, the RKO hour, WEAF, fell off. Relsman's orchestra a pleas- ure, but slow outside of that. Evi- dently in a spot as they let Margaret Shilling repeat. RKQ apparently building this soprano up for a vaude toUr, Nice voice, but if she's going to sing twice on the same program there's got to be some attention paid the selections. RKO ether en- tertainment has spurted a bit of late, but last week's schedule wouldn't prove it. Schnozzles' Weak From two to three Sunday after- noons can keep you in a chair if you're listening to WABC and Roxy's symphony hoUr. Last week's feature was the descriptive "Vic- tory Ball." Interesting and excel- lently rendered. A big orchestra which knows how. If Clayton, Jack- son and Durante had to depend on their ether ability they'd be split- ting that lone tuxedo between thein from necessity, not habit. Boys Just don't seem to care unto the point of it being doubtful if their enticing trade into Les Ambassadeurs^ through WMCA. Material they un- loaded late. Sunday night can go as the first laugh they ever copped in Minneapolis. Might appreciate it out there, but odds on they lost more listeners than they gained In New York and Phillie. Band Is okay. Trio better lay off themselves rather than: have the air thing hurt them. Spots It won't be long until c6mpetitive placement of programs will figure more prominently in ;thft radio lay- outs, ^ome of the regular -weekly periods have found easy sailing on general comparison between NBC and the Columbia system. Even NBC seems to be weak sistering it ag.^i.nst some of the big mpnied pro grams. Take three simultaneous , pro -franii^-^T[nd-=^vhat-have--you-?.:j.=^YJ2L -offered Chesebrough Real Folks, while the sister station, WEAF, had the General Motors Pai'ty, with WABC (Columbia) serving "An Evening In Paris." No dice needed in the shake, hei-e as to which would get the preference from the dial playei'S. Chesebrough ia the yokel hoke stuff which of late has been prettv vaporish entertainment. Gen- eral Motors had grand opera celebs, Its last "party" featuring George - Roxy Back ; Roxy back on duty with his Gang, WJZ: Male quartet a standout. In- gram Shavers in vocal and orches- tral program, WJZ, over nicely; popular numbers played with zest hy Sam Lanln's miisickers, Ce-Co Couriers, WABC, had Merle John- son doing double duty./ Directed his band and also played a seix solo of his- own composition, "Vajse Ele- gante," Oke. Norman Brokenshire pleasing in a sales talk on Ce-Co tube.s. Edison program;" WJZi dedicated to Charles Dana Gibson.. His fa- vorite music played. Judging from selections, C. D. is sentimental. Good orchestra, no matter What type of numbers. Physical Culture hOUr, WABC, going from bad to worse, Mellers were spotty, but more of the sexy, gag nOw worked. Evidently considered better selling atuff for the air. That spieler for the Union Label period, WMCA, indorsed a human . betterment . principle; jio doubt got nine rahs fi'pm the union-* ists and a dozen razzes from the churches. Radio Leaders at Capitol In Behalf of Couzens Bill Washington, Dec, 17, Broadcastersi. have never been backward in asking Congress, for special legislation. At present they are seeking to have the commission control one grand organlzatiori, with the .station to pay fees^to sus- tain the commission. All of the radio leaders both in broadcasting and manufacture, have been here the past weelv urgr irig the Senate interstate commerce committee, sitting on the CoUzens bill for a commission to control all coinmunlcation, to create that mo- nopoly. Couzens bill wants the .commission, but says nothing on the cOhiblnation, Hearings resulted in making pub-. lie figures on profit and loss of the broadcasters. Radio commission submitted 340 answers to question- naires sent the Industry. Of these 168 made a profit—172 did not. Lat- ter, however, kept the losses within the ^10,000 mark. Selling lO-Min. Canned Stuff to Small Stations A' unique service for Independent radio stations is being launched by George Fecke, formerly radio con- tact, man for M-G-M.. . It is a 10- hilnute canned radio program with dialog, singing, specialties, .iill to be recorded by established performers, and made available to small sta- tion? at weekly service fees. ' . Idea has been considered before, but this Is .the first, time a definite service has reached the. point of cutting records, Fecke, sent out the first. experimental program last 'week,. Programs are tjade-labeled Vaud-a-Torie, Records are now. being made In New Tprk at the S.bn'ora building. Fecke Obtained his radio experi- ence through handling Hollywood gossip material provided to radio stations by M-G-M. This was writ- ten out for announcers to read. WOR's Tinfjo Killer . "An Evening in Paris," WABC, advertises a perfume.. By the time the participants get together . it's quite a conglomeration. Troupers on WOR a time killer at best.. General Motoirs, WEAF, copped everything with its Metropolitan g, o. music. And that Russian sure can sing. Not an explosive pair of pipes, but melodious and certain of its range. Ken-Rad. Cabin Nights, WJZ, has a g:ood quartet and piano playing that is nobody's businessfl Later Guy Lombardo got the air- light for his music during Burns' Panatella period, WABC, And the Ponce Sisters had an inning, . Four Dusty Travelers stepped into the Dorian stringed outfit's old WOR period. Best results on the vocal harmony. "The Eternal Question," WEAF, wasn't as engrossing as ex- pected. WMCA slipped in some studio artists and they did well. And from the Hotel Roosevelt WOR offered Governor Roosevelt as the principal speaker at- the National Child Labor Committee's gathering. Organist Strike Over •Albany, N.-T., Dec. 17. Strike of organists In three of the four Stanley-Warner housies here, has been settled. Strike, on for almost, five: weeks. The walk out was the result of dismissal of one of the organists in the Ritz theatre when Stephen Boisclair was engaged as director. Status now same as before-the. walkout. WLW'S STIEF BATE . station WLW, Cincinnati, a pow- erful, broadcasting unit, and One" of the stations picked up or the late dialings in other and far distant cities, and for this reason possess- lHir"'awunusual^f)Gsition-among-in=: depend6nt stations. Is selling Its own tlm6. It Is still loosely tied-ln the Co- lumbia network, but under a vast- ly Increased rate that Is eald to cost the Colurribia chain money through its proportioning Cincinnati on its accounts at a much lower scalp than WLW is now able to de mand and get. Fox British Music Rights Jimmy Campbell and Reg Con- nelly, .of the 'English publishing firm bearing their nanries, are In New York negotiating with Pat Flaherty for. the British rights to Fox's Red Star Music Company. Their contract ' with DeSylva, Brown and Henderson, which ex- pires about Jatl. 1, will not be re- newed. . Jimmy. Campbell departs for the coast at. the end. of this week, where he -will remain for about a month, Connelly will re- turn to England shortly. "Taps" Suit Settled Suit of "Taps" Schornstelh, or- chestra booker, against Jan Garber, has. been settled out of court. Gar- ber has agreed to pay "Taps" $1,000 in Installments as arranged by Atty. Saul Godwin. • "Taps" wanted $6,050 on claim that Garber was to have continued under his booking until Jan. 1, 1930, but had broken away in July, also owing other bill£». $200,000 'SPOT' POLICY; DISKS FOR 40 STATIONS That spot-broadcasting is coming into favor over chain hookups by big ether advertisers, phis the use. of canned music, Is indicated by a plan about to be put into operation by the Congoleum-Nairn, of Kearney, N. J, Company has ap- propriated $200,000 for air adver- tising to take in 40 different stations In as many cities over a series of eight week periods, employing all thfese'stations for five days each . week, vOne reason for this is thiat under the "spot'/ plan the company can, select the most powerful station in any locality where a chain may have Weak link. Another is the at- taining of desirable hours on the clock regardless of sector, Though seemingly more expen- sive, whatever overhead the iadver- tiser may contract by spotting' separate stations, the general cost is reduced by the decrease in enter- tainment charges through use of the . disk programs, CongoleUm'd campaign, put through The Erick- sbn Co,, also agents for Technicolor,, will supplement the musical end of the broadcast drive by 15 niinute talks to be given at each station on separate days by one of a group of eight, women home economic "ex- perts selected for the campalgrt: Music will comprise. 15 minutes of each program, every program then running a half hour. Ot the eight women, selected to tour the various stations, one Is a former editor of a womaii's mag- a,zlne, while three . others formerly, worked for the Home Institute of the New Tork "Herald *rribdne," ' ■ Sm^dley prown, tn^rketlng^ direc- tor of the Erickson Co.; doped-^'ttib: the Idea, Church Plug Euclid Avenue Baptist Church yin Cleveland had a group of Sunday school children on the platform in slickers using "Singing in the Rain" as part of the minister's sermon on being cheerful in the face of trouble. CAKUSO OVEETTIEE OUT Pittsburgh, ■ Diec, 17. Musicians local last -week forced Ellas Breeskin, conductor at Penn, to lift overture" after firstday. Breeskin had number in which hie introduced Caruso's voic«> on record, augmenting this with his pit "ag- gregiatlon. Operators local had agreed with musicians not to run any npn-syn- chronlzed discs. BETAIN CUSTOII In line with a custom started last year, thie American Society Is pay- ing off American and foreign roy- alty checks to authors and com- posers at the end of this Week as a Christmas gift to the boys. Federal Radio Coniiiiission ' Worries About TelevisioD Washington, Dec. 27. Coming^. of teleylslpn and visual broadcasting: Is going t,o present plenty of trouble for the federal ra« dio commission, says the annual re- port of that body to Cbngress. *■ This will require sjpeclal -wave lengths, with the biroadcasting ot motion pictures estimated to re-. quire a band in Excess of 1,000 kilo- cycles to give satisfactory - result*: Halle!tt's Long Jump Los Angeles, Dec. 17,' Mai HalJett'and orchestra,, after* closing at the Ambassador hotel/ Los Angeles, proceed, to Ithaca, N. T„ to play for the^ three-night festlvitieB that go With the Junior Prom of Cornell University, The band receives $2,000 for the engagement. BECOBD AND mil SEBIES Los Angeles, Dec, 17. Neal Abel and Walter Percival will make a series -of 20 records dealingr with the adventures of "Wildcat," colored hero of Hugh Wylie's " Saturday . Evening Post stories. Records are being made for the Sheel Gil Co., which Will use theia for national and sectional broad- casting. Abel "and Percival, have, also secured the screen rights for the Wylie stories and will make theni as shorts. 6IASIT MISINFOBHED Seattle, Dec. i7. Just before his last: performance of ah eight months''engagement as musical director, at the Fox, Sam- pietro received word that his mother had died. Going on with a solo, Sampletro rushed to Portland Immediately afterward, to find his mother alive. Sight of her son so litimulated her that Mrs. Sampletro Is recovering. As heac. of the Warner .music fn^ tereistij, one of Herman Starr's first mo-ves is -".o order the removal of the music holding coporatlon offices to the fl£th fioor in the Warner build- ing, ■ ~ Change -will take place within a ■week. Music interests are the last of the brothers' subsidiaries to be brought- in. . Bonaldson Betnrns. Walter Donaldson returned to New York'Friday. Donaldson hais been:..JMltlngLJ5gn^3 -on thc_ ^Cpagt^ since last July. Davis-Coots-Engle's Nine Davis, Coots; & Engle is printing nine of the 11 numbers in "Song o' Guns." . This Is an umisualiy large joad, to reach publication from one pro-' d action. ')