What's on the air (Mar-June 1931)

April, 1931 WHAT'S ON THE AIR Page 0 "Martha tftt wood -ftmbrosef.Weemr Jfedy 1/ciHee RAYMOND KNIGHT is not only "Ambrose J. Wcems" of "Cuckoo" fame (Saturday at 10 p. m.), but, as "Bill Borcalis," presides over the Clicquot Nigh/ Club. MARTHA ATWOOD, NBC soprano, is heard on several sustaining programs each week. And now IRENE BORDONI is a regular radio artist; as Co/y's Playgirl, she may be heard over CBS each Sunday evening at nine. The same wavy hair, but an even jollier smile, marks this new picture of RUDY VALLEE, which will go straight from this page into the scrap-books of all Rudy Vallee Club members. hotel, only to find the lobby desolate. Not a bell-hop graced the staircase and there were no guests to be seen. Mrs. Holt sped upstairs in panic, which grew more intense as she espied a crowd gathered at the door of her daughter's room. Fearfully she joined the group and saw Vivian standing on the bed in night-dress, reciting lines from "Hamlet" to an appreciative audience. Radio's littlest actress is Edith Thayer, the Jane McGrew of Hank Simmons' Showboat. She is four feet eleven inches short. Aside from her dramatic ability, Miss Thayer has won considerable fame as a soprano. She sang leading roles in the original companies of "The Firefly," "Pom, Pom," "The Geisha," "The Chocolate Soldier," "Naughty Marietta," and others. While still in White Plains High School, Bert Lown, WABC-Columbia orchestra leader, rounded up a group of musicians who obtained dozens of dance engagements and finally attracted the attention of Frank Munson, head of the Munson Steamship Lines. When the shipping magnate lightly suggested one night that they might sail for South America aboard one of his steamers, the band of striplings appeared aboard a Munson liner the next morning just as it was about to sail. Taken by their audacity, Munson engaged them, and, before they had time to realize what was happening, Bert and his fellows were steaming down New York harbor and wondering how they could explain the sudden departure to their families. Richard Gordon, who plays Sherlock Holmes in the NBC dramas founded upon the famous Conan Doyle stories, and heard Monday nights through the NBC network, was rushing to a rehearsal in the New York studios. The hostess informed him that the rehearsal was scheduled for Studio D. For the moment Gordon could not recall on what floor the studio was located. He inquired of a pageboy. "Down the west corridor," directed the page, and turned to the hostess. "Gosh!" commented the youth, "Sherlock Holmes — and he can't find a studio!" Miss Louise Rice, who is heard each Thursday morning on an NBC-WJZ network, recently had an amusing experience. Miss Rice offers to analyze the handwriting of her radio listeners. A letter came to her from one of her radio audience, asking for a character analysis of the handwriting. This enterprising person not only typed the entire letter, but also typed her name and address. Miss Rice has been in a quandary as to how she can send an analysis, as she has not as yet been able to discover character in typewriting. Don Becker, of WLW, has adopted the title of "ukulele consultant," since a recent morning when a little girl called him on the phone at the conclusion of one of his early ukulele programs. "Please, Mr. Becker, I can't get my ukulele tuned right. Will you listen to it?" her shrill voice piped. Then, plink, plink, plink, plink, came over the wires as she plucked each string. "Tunc the G string a little higher," advised Becker, and listened while the little miss brought the string up to pitch and hung up with a thrilled "Thank you." Ernie Hare and Billy Jones, heard weekly through an NBC network as the Interwoven Pair, have been broadcasting regularly since 1921. In October of that year they faced a microphone, looking like "a tomato can hung from a crane," in the washroom studio of old WJZ in Newark. They did a program of songs and patter — exactly the same type they do to-day — that lasted an hour and a half. At the end of Jones' and Hare's ninety minutes their accompanist put the station's first piano concert on the air, against the protest of the program director, who didn't know how such an innovation "would take." Two minutes later officials of the Westinghousc Electric and Manufacturing Company, listening in from half a block away, called with congratulations. Brad Sutton has joined National Radio Advertising, Inc., as director of dramatic programs. He is the same Brad Sutton who is known to millions as "Old Forty Fathom;" the same Brad Sutton who went down to the sea to broadcast, for the first time in radio history, a program from the sea. ytlelrjlle, Jeanne €anol jYa/daf/ardi yponaJrilon Jimmie (jveen _ MELVILLE RAY came out of the World War with thirteen wound stripes and no profession. He was singing in a harvest-field when an opera singer heard him and tent him to Cincinnati to Dan Beddoe. Now he is one of WLWt most popular tenors. JEANNE CARROL, contralto; NAI.DA NARDI, program director of WMCA and WPCH, and MONA TRILON, soprano, are featured in the "New York Notes" (p. 12, this issue). JIMMIE GREEN and his orchestra have made a host <<l friends while broadcasting from WHAS in Louisville in March. (This picture is used by courtesy of the Musk Corporation of America, in answer to the requests of many listeners.)