What's on the air (Nov 1929-Feb 1931)

WHAT'S ON THE AIR Page 21 Daily Except Sunday and Saturday, 10 a. m. to Noon JOAN BARRETT, of the Radio Home-Makers' Club, I recalled a belief from her not i so distant childhood when they were j trying to find a name for her fif teen1 i minute period on Tuesdays at 11:45 a. M.; at that time she tells hundreds of thousands of women how they can make money at home. She thought of the rainbow, symbol of hope and happiness, and they called the program "Pot of Gold." Now, the pot of gold is no longer out of reach at the end of the rainbow, but easily accessible through the wave-length that brings the Radio Home-Makers' Club to you. Thousands of women have written in since Miss Barrett started the program two years ago, telling that her talks have proved a veritable pot of gold to them. Every Tuesday Joan describes a new way by which home-makers can add to the family income through some fascinating industry to be carried on at home. Among recent suggestions were "Mushroom Farming," "A Tourists' Inn," "Home Weaving," "Personal Shopping," "A Day Nursery" — ideas for town and country dwellers. Miss Barrett never recommends anything that has not first been actually tried and proved. Whenever she hears of a woman who is carrying on a business at home, she immediately gets in touch with her and goes thoroughly into the plan. Because of her own experience with running an interior decorating service at home, she is able to judge the possibilities of the business, and she often suggests improvements to the originator. Though Joan Barrett is still in her early twenties, she has already tried so man)' angles of the business world that one could not choose a better confidante when faced with the necessity — or desire — to fatten a slim purse. After finishing a course in applied arts at the Pratt Institute, New York, she worked her way to Paris and studied interior decorating at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts, in Fontainebleau, while earning her expenses by writing for magazines at home. She became a member of the staff of the Radio Home-Makers' Club two years ago, to direct the interior decorating broadcasts. A few weeks after Joan joined the club, Ida Bailey Allen, the president, decided to install a pin-money department. Joan Barrett offered to do the first broadcast. She became so imbued with the idea behind the new program that she asked to be allowed to continue the period — and she's been directing it ever since, together with her interior-decoration program, "Harmonies and Contrasts," on Mondays at 10:3 0 a. m., and a weekly arts and crafts period, called "Busy Fingers," on Thursdays at the same hour. EVA LA GALLIENE! To the American public that name symbolizes an elevated type of stage (and now radio) production that is vital, wholesome and startlingly fine. "Saint Eva" is what her company fondly call Miss La Galliene. The title is pertinent; few mere humans are possessed of the volcanic energy that has made of this slight person a master producer; an actress without a flaw; master of French, German, Russian and Danish, with a passing knowledge of Italian, Greek and Spanish; possessing superlative musicianship; playing the piano, piccolo, guitar and harp. Miss La Galliene at first found radio acting dirticulr, which is usually the experience of good actors and actresses. Even now, though she is quite at home before the microphone. Miss I i Galliene seems to be enacting her role for the benefit of a visible audience. She has a theory that it takes twentj years to make an actor, ten of which should be given to self-improvement. Five months of radio acting, she thinks, equals five years on the Stage. WHEN the manufacturers of Johnson and Johnson products decided they had enough melodrama in their radio programs a few months ago, they began to cast about for a musical program. "What the radio listener wants is lively, snappy melody, delivered by artists who combine personality with ability," was the conclusion they eventually reached. A search for such artists immediately began and resulted in the signing of Vee Lawnhurst, pianist and vocalist; Don Byron, tenor; Lucien Schmidt, 'cellist, and Murray Kellner, orchestra leader. With this cast of characters the building of Tek Music programs, heard every Tuesday night through an extensive National Broadcasting Company network, began. That, the program builders guessed right in their selection of talent and type of program was immediately evidenced in the volume of mail reaching stations broadcasting the programs. Miss Lawnhurst is among the most colorful of the artists on the broadcasts. She accompanies herself at the piano in her vocal selections. Singing and playing the piano are the two things she likes to do above all others, and she never "has a case of blues that can't be sung away." "The Solemn Old Judge" seems a strange cognomen for George Dewey Hay, director and chief announcer for WSM, the Nashville station; rather a contradictory one, as the young man's slogan is, "Never fail to broadcast a smile," and to date, after seven years of announcing, he has not been found wanting. But the title was one under which he wrote his quaint dialect stories for the Commercial Appeal before his radio debut, and it stuck. His own fine personality, coupled with a keen wit and discernment of human nature, won for him in 1924 the first annual cup award as the most popular announcer, presented to him at the first Radio World's Fair. Guy Lombardo. director of the Robert Burns Panatela program on CBS, started on his radio career in Chicago playing in a night club across from a cemetery. One can possiblv see the advantages in such a location. Don Amaizo, new CBS character who is brought to radio by the American Maize Products Company, will never be seen nor will his voice ever be heard. As a violinist only will the listeners be conscious of his presence. What's ON tut Air mail should now be deluged with requests tor his picture. Did we tell vou about the CBS visitor who thought remote control « as .t new-fangled phrase for hypnotism?