Radio stars (Dec 1938)
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THE POWER BE OF MD COLLEGE PARK THRONE AT NBC FRANK MORGAN
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RADIO STARS Poor fun aU for itb- date* Romeo , a dral lack-lustre hope Her her mp°r ,assa&e IttU school teeth Ann that gW>? al care- \0t \vou\d start vhen a g[ t\ has a sm»ei Vlosv poP u\ar Sue \th lpana rll. brig'' for and spa' A7, Too(l> \d be »f 8 feling-) Keep your smile lovelier with lpana and massage! HOW SWIFTLY masculine eyes and hearts respond to a lovely, attrac- tive smile! And how pitiful the girl who ignores the warning of "pink tooth brush," who lets dull teeth and dingy gums cheat her of life's fun. Don't be foolish — don't risk your smile. If you see a tinge of "pink" on your tooth brush— sec your dentist. You may not be in for real trouble, but let your dentist decide. Usually, he'll tell you that yours is a case of lazy gums, deprived of vigorous chewing by mod- ern soft foods. He'll probably suggest that your gums need more work and exercise— and, like so many dentists to- day, he may advise "the healthful stim- ulation of lpana and massage." For lpana is especially designed not only to clean teeth but with massage to help the health of your gums as well. Massage a little lpana into your gums every time you clean your teeth. Circu- lation within the gum tissues is aroused — lazy gums awaken — tend to become firmer, healthier— more resistant. Buy a famous tube of lpana at j our druggist's today. Adopt the common- sense dental routine of lpana and mas- sage as one helpful way to healthier gums, brighter teeth— a radiant smile. TRY THE NEW D. D. DOUBLE DUTY TOOTH brush For more effective gum massage and cleansing, ask your druggist for the new D.D. Double Duty Tooth Brush.
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RADIO STARS WHY WAS CLEOPATRA Authorities appar- ently agree that kissing, on the lips, as a sign of affection, did not begin until after Cleopatra's time. She died in 30 B.C. and the custom seems to have been established well after her day. Cleopatra had one other misfortune, too. She used skin lotions, but did not have the famous Skin Softener — Italian Balm. Her lotions were mixed, undoubtedly, with "a little of this and too much of that" — but today, no guesswork is permitted in making Italian Balm for milady's skin. Here is a scientifically made skin-softening beauty aid that will help to keep your skin smoother and softer— fresher-feeling, more kissable and thrilling to the touch. In Italian Balm you get not only a skin pro- tection against chapping and skin dryness. You get also the costliest ingredients used in any of the largest selling lotions— yet the cost to use Italian Balm is negligible because it is rich, full-bodied and concentrated; not thin or watery. Try it FKEE. Send coupon below. Italian Balm CAMPANA BALES COMPANY 601 Linrolnway, Ilatavia, Illinois Gentlemen : I have never tried Itoli, Balm. Plea.e send FKKE and postpaid. VANITY liotile LESTER C. GRADY, Editor,- ELLA RIDDLE, Associate Editor ABRIL LAMARQUE, Art Editor BROADCASTING HAS ANYONE SEEN BETTY LOU? 6 WEST COAST CHATTER by Lois Svensrud 8 BATTLE OF THE SEXES 10 BEAUTY SINS by Mary Biddle 12 TITO AND HIS SWINGTETTE 16 ANNOUNCEMENT 18 THE POWER BEHIND THE THRONE AT NBC by Jack Hartley 20 HOW RADIO CAREERS BEGIN by Gene Harvey 22 SHE SCOOPS TO CONQUER by Mildred Mastin 24 IN THE RADIO SPOTLIGHT 26 EMBARRASSING MOMENTS by Ella Riddle 28 ARE RADIO CONTESTS ON THE LEVEL? by Rita Lowe 30 PUTTING THEIR HEARTS INTO IT 32 RADIO RAMBLINGS by Arthur Mason 34 ANYTHING FOR A LAUGH! by Fred Waring 36 STARS WITHOUT BALLYHOO by Everetta Love 38 BETWEEN BROADCASTS 40 THE STORIES BEHIND FAMOUS FIRST FACTS by Joseph Nathan Kane 42 WHO IS GERSHWIN'S SUCCESSOR? by Jerald Manning 44 THE BANDWAGON by Jerry Mason 46 BACHELOR QUARTERS 48 FOR DISTINGUISHED SERVICE TO RADIO 50 PLATTER PATTER 58 Radio Stars published monthly and copyrighted, 1938, by Dell Publishing Co., Inc., Office of publication at Washington and South Avenues, Dunellen, N. J. Executive and editorial offices, 149 Madison Avenue, New York, N Y. Chicago advertising office, 360 North Michigan Ave. George Delacorte, Jr., Pres.; H. Meyer, Vice-Pres.; J. Fred Henry.Vice- Pres.i M. Delacorte, Sec'y- Vol. 13, No 3, December, 1938, (No. 299986), printed in U. S. A. Single copy price 10 cents. Subscription price in the United States and Canada $1.00 a year; Foreign Subscription $2.00 a year. Entered as second-class matter August 5, 1932, at the Post Office at Dunellen, N. J., under the act of March 3, 1879. The publisher accepts no responsibility for the return of unsolicited material.
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RADIO STARS "Beautiful Women w»7/ never let you starve, doctor — just cultivate a bedside manner!" THE 'ower that rivets eyes to the screen, that chokes back tears, that grips the heart and sets pulses leaping. Yes, it's one of the greatest dramas since films began! The young doctor tempted ... a world of luxury and beautiful women within easy reach but the cry of humanity calling him back to the citadel of his youthful ideals. ROBERT OONAT Rosalind RUSSELL ITADEL A KING VIDOR PRODUCTION Based on the novel by A. J. Cronin with RALPH RICHARDSON REX HARRISON EMLYN WILLIAMS Screen Play by Ian Dalrymple, Frank Wead, Elizabeth Hill. Addi- tional dialogue by Emlyn Williams. Produced by Victor Saville A METRO-GOLDWYN-M AYER PICTURE With everybody writing a col- umn, I don't see why I should not take a crack at it myself. ★ ★ ★ My idea is to tell you about some of the Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer pictures and personali- ties. And folks, I've got the in- side dope on everything that goes on in the world's greatest studio. The late Will Rogers said all he knew was "what he read in the papers." All I know is what I see on the screen (and what my spies at the studio report to me) . You've read all about "The Citadel" in our advertisement on the left. It's made of the sterner stuff. Merrier, gayer, is "Sweethearts", which, with appropriate fanfare, brings us once again that thrush-throated pair, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. ★ ★ ★ "Sweethearts" is their first modern musical. Modern as the dialogue by Dorothy Parker(the "glad girl") and Alan Campbell. Hunt Stromberg, who produced "Naughty Marietta", "Rose Marie" and "Maytime", and Director W. S. Van Dyke II, are the sweethearts who give us "Sweethearts"— and it's all in beautiful Technicolor. And if you want to hear more about pictures, write for my little book, "The Screen Fore- , — r-r^i cast," M-G-M Studios, Culver City, Cal. It's free! Just call me lea MOTION PICTURES ARE YOUR BEST ENTERTAINMENT! 5
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RADIO STARS HAS ANYONE SEEN BETTY You've heard her with Tommy Riggs, but A Heart-to-Heart Talk with VARADY, Eminent Beauty Authority "Few women know the power of their lips in en- chanting men." says Varady, world-renowned authority on beauty and feminine charm." Yet every woman knows her lips are the most glamor- eductive in- struments of rom "Therefore, I say toall girls and women — giveextra time and at tenl ion tomaking your lips attractive "And that is exactly win I oiler you my new "black lipstick creation — Varady'! Midnite Rose Shade. De Tommy's barber is wondering if this is a gag. Yes, he's heard the young lady on Quaker Party, Saturdays at 8 p.m. on NBC-Red, but he's never really seen her. His secretary gives Tommy an amused look. She knows very well that Betty Lou ives only when Tommy changes his voice, and you can't see a voice, so there! 6
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RADIO STARS LOU? where is she? (Above left) "We've heard Betty Lou talking in your apartment," these ladies tell Tommy (below right), "but we've never seen her." Careful there, Riggs, this doorman won't stand for any funny business! Betty Lou is an okay kid and he likes her, but you can't keep track of a phantom! She IN HER SLEEP Your skin, like your heart, must never cease working. Help it stay vital, beautiful, youthful looking; use this ''skin-awakening" cream. Your skin, to stay lovely, must work all day long and all through the night. Woodbury Cold Cream which contains a skin-enlivening element — a skin-stimu- lating Vitamin — helps rouse sluggish skin to keep it busily working. By encouraging your skin to greater activity, Woodbury helps it stay fresh and vigorous. Woodbury Cold Cream is a basic cream. It tones and stimulates the skin; cleanses the pores thoroughly; brings needful oils to lubricate the skin. And in this lovely beauty cream you have germ-frce purity down to the very last dab in the jar. Let Woodbury Cold Cream, with the skin- stimulating Vitamin, cleanse, tone and arouse your skin. $1.00, 50*, 25*, 10*. 4 (jJoodlniAij't SEND for Trial Tubes of Woodbury Creams John II. Woodbury, Inc., 6796 Alfred St., Cincinnati. Ohio (In Canada) John H. Woodbury, Ltd.. Perth. Ontario Please send me trial tubes of Woodbury Cold and Facial Creams; 7 shades of Woodbury Facial Powder; guest-size Woodbury Facial Soap. I enclose 10c to cover mailing costs. Name
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RADIO STARS . . . and that calls for a napkin that fits firmly, comfortably— doesn't bulk, doesn't show! * Kotex doesn't show — thanks to its flattened, tapered ends. Users say "it's less bulky — it fits!" * Kotex is made with a special patented center section that guards against spotting. if Kotex can be worn on either side — both sides are fully absorbent. * Kotex stays Wondersoft — it's cushioned in cotton to prevent chafing. * Only Kotex offers three types — Regular, Junior and Super — for different women on different days. (' Trade Mark fUl. V. S. Paltnl Offitt) KOTEX SANITARY NAPKINS zxxx LOOKS like Dorothy Lamour has been reading her press agent's brain-storms. For Dottie is show- ing all the well-known earmarks of "going Hollywood" — and go- ing fast. She's trying to break her contract with NBC and, rumor has it, is trying to break matrimo- nial ties with Herbie Kay. Maybe the fact that Paramount moved her into their star dressing-room, for- merly occupied by W. C. Fields, has put ideas into her purty head. W . C. is still tops around the studio. Drops in every once in a while for a visit with the boys and regales them with choice stories of his travels. "Now the last time I was in Tahiti," he was musing the other day. "Er, by the way, any of you boys been to Tahiti? No? Well, that's swell! Now there's no limit to the lies I can tell." M-G-M has been clamoring for Fields to be the wizard in The Wizard of Oz. But Mr. F. had to turn dozen that chance — and the $150,000 — because he's going to do a little opus for Universal, titled You Can't Cheat An Honest Man. THERE'S a new and exclusive club at the NBC studios. So far, membership has been limited to the five charter members Pablo Ricardo, Latin-American violin- ist, conducts two programs over NBC. Fannie Brice's new home was deco- rated by none other than Baby Snooks.
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RADIO STARS WEST COAST CHATTER BY LOIS SVENSRUD The latest lowdown on air stars' doings in the film capital (Left) Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone are back for another season of super-entertainment. Andy Devine, Don Wilson, John Scott Trotter, Jack Smart and Anson Weeks. Eligibility requirements are high — 230 pounds or over. Anyone who has the caloric consumption necessary to make that grade can become a tried and trusted brother "Fat Feller." IF THERE are those among you who think Nelson Eddy doesn't have what it takes — drop around the NBC studios after a broadcast. It takes four ushers to get Nelson out of (Continued on page 74) Edward G. Robinson and Claire Trevor go to town in the Big Town CBS series. • Millard Shorts, noted American painter, pictures the century- old hospitality of friendly Haivaii — when natives greeted visitors from across the sea with luscious fruits. wiZU VOLE VU<jeajQ)(U&JiUce, — judo Uc DOLE PINEAPPLE JUICE FROM HAWAII
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RADIO STARS Use them singly or collectively .and see the thrilling improvement! A BUDDING ROMANCE NEED NEVER BE NIPPED BY AN \Ki/J AUtaeffiae-Iton^tbl- ish...and presto „ conceal P^J^'Af eye-circles-with Hide-it HIDES SKIN BltMISHES_ US s,'-de. Hence rP'eX'0ndeterm;nee Pe^ctnarmon^ "our mafc .a e lnS beyond an wh; ^'•••flatter- ed- Marve] you've experf. WH'TERoilftF BLACK IN THE STICK ... IT TURNS LUSCIOUS RED ON YOUR UPSI V /TTl Your lips, framed in bewitching i I sneak xvild praise for this color, V1 ^V.pslick that turns magical JilacK ^ smooth l^Yo^VwitTo^trsheerno^ ' t°"' Hs faithful indelibility ...to llting nullity V-nffor the temP - -^lySo -race, IOC / BLACK LIPSTICK TURNS RED ON YOUR LIPS At Leading Drug and 10c Sizes at 5c a If unobtainable. CLARK-MELLNEK CO., Dept. 15-N 666 St. Clair St.. Chicago I enclose 10c (U. S. A. Only) each for the following: Hide-It: U^'0"t \JJ/edium U Brunette Q Sun Tan □ White Rouge Black Lipstick: □ Light □ Medium □ Park Xamc . Frank Crumit watches as Julia Sanderson questions a male contestant. The pitting of men against women is designed to prove once and for all which are smarter. Julia takes on another masculine battler. The program is broadcast over NBC-Red each Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST. The West Coast show is heard Mondays at 9:30 p.m. PST. Frank awaits an answer from this lady combatant. The questions are all prepared by the Molle question board comprised of the editors of the Quiz Digest Magazine.
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RADIO STARS A new quiz show makes its debut General Julia, of course, is for the women. However, they're not doing so well! Gloria Stuart (Hollywood Star) TELLS GIRLS: "Smooth MA/DSme "EXQUISITE HANDS are essential for feminine charm", says GLORIA STUART* co-starring in Columbia's "The Lady Objects." "A little regular care helps keep a woman's hands smooth and lovely." Try caring for your hands with Jergens! Used regu- larly, it prevents chapping! I lovely hands. With Lanny Rc i "The Lady Objects' How to help keep Your HANDS Smooth and Soft Her husband, Frank Crumit, heads the men's army. He's right proud of them, too! HAND SKIN SUFFERS from loss of natural moisture, when ex- posed to cold and wind, or frequent use of water. Looks coarse and older, feels harsh. Girls, furnish beautifying moisture for the skin by using Jergens Lotion. No stickiness! Jergens con- tains 2 ingredients, so effective to help whiten and soften the skin that many doctors use them. Quickly soothes chapping! Use Jergens regularly for soft, smooth hands that kindle love's flame. At business — have a bottle in your desk drawer; at home — keep Jergens in kitchen and bathroom. Use after every hand-washing. Only 50^, 25i, \0i — or $1.00 for the special economy size — at any beauty counter. Its 2 effective ingredients help even rough, neglect- ed hands to bedelightfully soft and velvet - smooth. jEl&eNslMON FREE: GENEROUS SAMPLE See-at our expense- how wonderfully this fragrani Jergens Lotion helps to make red. rough, chapped hand* Co.. 1648 Alfred Street. Ci erth, Ontario) Slrte Cily.
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RADIO STARS TR SKIN frequently reflects how we feel. In business and social contacts we like our friends to tell us how well we look. The laity now recognizes— as physicians and scientists have for years— the vital im- portance of rich, red blood, as the founda- tion of strength, energy, and a clear healthy skin. for that tired let-down feeling It is well known how worry, overwork and undue strain take their toll of the precious red cells of the blood. S.S.S. Tonic brings you new strength and vitality by restoring your blood to a healthy state, and its benefits are cumulative and en- during, in the absence of an organic trouble. improves the appetite Further, S.S.S. Tonic whets the appetite . . . foods taste better . . . natural digesti\e juices are stimulated, and finally, the food you eat is of more value ... a very important step back to health. You, too, will want to take S.S.S. Tonic to help regain and maintain your red-blood- ceIls...to restore lost weight ... to regain energy . . . and to give back to your skin that much desired natural glow, reflecting good health and well being. You should note an improvement at once, but may we suggest a course of several bot- tles to insure more complete and lasting recovery. Buy and use with complete confidence, and we believe \ou, like thousands of others, will be enthusiastic in your praise of S.S.S. Tonic for its part in making "you feel like yourself again." At all drug stores in two sizes. You will find the larger size more economical. BY MARY BIDDLE Irene Rich, the personifi- cation of eternal youth and beauty, has a cure for stay-a-beds. If you will make up your mind to get up promptly, your clothes, face and disposition will benefit by that extra time you have to spend on them. ON THE theory that we are all sisters under the skin, and that it is no easier for a glamorous radio star to diet or take a cold shower than it is for you or me, I resolved to learn some of the methods employed by said stars to keep themselves on the straight and narrow path to beaut}-. Now it's not every woman who cares to admit past errors and weaknesses — even after her reform — so, it was with great trepidation that I ap- proached Hollace Shaw, Eve March and Irene Rich with the plea that they confide in me the temptations they faced to backslide in their beauty routines, and the ways in which they overcame such temptations. "Fresh as paint," was the reply I deserved to receive from these girls. However, they were good enough to listen to my impertinent ques- tions and, once the ball of honest confession was started rolling, to give me some inter- esting and worthwhile infor- mation on How to Keep Young and Beautiful. Eve March, who has the same freshlv scrubbed, shin-
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RADIO STARS Have you been guilty of these particular beauty sins? IIIIIIIIIIIJ ing beauty as Hepburn, was the first to break the ice with this admission : She so loathed the nightly face- cleansing routine that she had even clambered into bed, make-up and all ! Because Eve's beauty sin is one of the gravest and commonest of all beauty faults, how she eventually triumphed over it is of particular interest to everyone. Eve says that bv adding a few drops of perfume to the last rinse water a lovely fra- grance is imparted both to the water and one's skin. This faint fragrance so relieves the monotony of an other- wise dull task that Eve no longer succumbs to that beauty sin. Eve has a trick, too, for taking the boredom out of hair-brushing. You, who brush your hair faithfully, will be as interested in this as the many of us who moan and groan and even, I'm sorry to say, skip the ritual entirely most of the time ! She props a good book on her well-lighted dressing table and reads while she brushes her hair. Thus, the enter- taining diversion passes the time in such a pleasant way that there is no temptation to cut short the number of brush (Continued on page 14) Eve March, heard frequently on Grand Central Station, bears a marked resemblance to Kathar- ine Hepburn. Eve's beauty sin was that she loathed the night- ly face-cleansing routine. Hollace Shaw, coloratura so- prano, has a solution to that common sin — unlovely finger- nails. She also gives us some tips on how to make regular exercising both easy and fun. Vert vis IN FOUR QUICK STEPS * 1st STEP Mixing Takes a Minute 2nd STEP Applying Takes a Minute 3rd STEP Resting For 20 Minutes 4th STEP Rinsing Off Completely Look how easy it is for you to make the Linit Complexion Mask at home: *Simply mix three tablespoons of Linit (the same Linit so popular for the Bath) and one teaspoon of Cold Cream with enough milk to make a nice, firm consis- tency. Apply it to the cleansed face and neck and relax during the twenty minutes the mask takes to set. Then rinse off with clear, tepid water and pat the face and neck dry.
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A gay perky shade of Rit will make your costume sparkle . . . bring compliments galore. See how quickly, simply you get professional results . . . because Rit's new formula contains"neomerpin". . .makes cloth soak in the color. ..makes colors fast without boiling. So easy ... so much /«»... you'll 'DYE' LAUGHING! KILL THE HAIR ROOT perfluous hair privaU-ly ; Following directions with ordinary The Mahler Method posit! v of successful use ustrated Bookie Remove Superfluous EXPECTANT Consult your doctor regularly before and after baby comes. Ask him about easily cleaned Hygeia Nipples and Bottles. New patented ridge prevents nipple collapse. Tab keeps nipple germ- free. Don't take chances. Insist on Hygeia, the safe nur- . sing bottle and nipple. ~ V* SAFEST RADIO STARS strokes which your hair needs. In fact you'll probably give it a few extra ones if the story is particularly exciting. Incidentally, this is a fine way to find time for that "heavy read- ing'' you are always planning to do "tomorrow."' Even a professional manicure doesn't last forever, so cracked nail polish is a sin against of inspectir ger-tip onlv i frequently observed auty. Are you guilty i nonc-too-perfect fin- decide to fix it some other time .' Then why not do this routine task of manicuring while list- ening to a good radio program? Hol- lace Shaw, a true radio lover, has fixed herself a little "radio manicure kit" that she keeps near her radio. While she listens to her favorite pro- gram she freshens her nail polish. Try this. You'll become acquainted with new programs and new stars, while your hands will always be lovely ! Don't you think most of us gals are inclined to do things about our figures in spasms? Maybe Saturday and Sunday we'll exercise with vim and vigor. Monday, we'll exercise half-heartedly. Tuesday we'll think about exercising. The rest of the week we'll do nothing about it ! Well, Hollace says she is no hardier than the rest of us, but she believes she has found the underlying cause of a good part of the reluctance to exer- cise regularly ! She says it is due to the inconvenience of exercising. Now that she has shifted her bedroom fur- niture around so there is a nice clear space right in the center of the floor, and keeps a comfortable old bathing suit easily accessible, there is no more temptation to skip the exercise period ! She makes it easy for herself to do the tilings she should. What does it matter if her bedroom is not quite as decorative as formerly? It is still neat and attractive — while her figure is just about perfect ! You, too, can easily do as Hollace does. But before I get carried away by the beautiful thought of all of you with trim, svelt figures, I must re- mind you that even the best figure does not show to advantage unless it is well-groomed! If ever there is a sin against beauty it is the practice of stubbornly shutting eyes and ears to the alarm, and snuggling deeper into pillows, while those precious minutes, so necessary for good grooming, tick away ! So, it was that I turned to Irene Rich, who has a reputation for perfect grooming and poise, in the hope that she could produce a "sure cure for the stay-a-beds !" Unfortunately, Irene said, there is no tonic or patent medicine that will open our eyes wide and send us bouncing energetically out of bed at Joan Field, one of the air's most accomplished violinists, was discovered at the age of five by Victor Kolar, conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Kolar was her first teacher, but since then she has studied with many masters, among them Piastro of the New York Philharmonic. 14
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RADIO STARS the first brrrr of the clock. The desire to stay in bed is all in the mind. By cultivating a new state of mind, we can get up without reluctance. Yes, we actually can arise eagerly! The first step in creating this new state of mind is to resolve hefore retiring that yon will forget that the alarm is to remind you of the time. When the clock goes oft", resist that old habit of turning over for another wink or two. Instead, tell yourself, "Here is a new day." Immediately begin think- ing of this day — the things it holds for you — the things you wish to ac- complish in its course. And then what, says you? Well, you'll get up — that's all ! It works, because I've tried it. However, don't fool yourself into thinking it is simple to change a whole lifetime's way of thinking overnight ; it calls for will- power and practice. Just think, though, how nice it will be to have those extra minutes and actually to enjoy getting up! Now Mary Biddle, your beauty editor, will do a little confessing! Oh, yes, I've been guilty of beauty sins, too. I think the worst sin of which I have been guilty was my way of get- ting so busy and interested in my work that I neglected to see that my make-up was fresh and every hair in place before dashing out on the trail of "something new" for the column ! Have you committed this sin, too? If so. then you will be interested to know that I checked this fault by placing mirrors near doors ! I can't get out of my office or house now without seeing myself. This silent reminder that "all is not well" keeps me, and will keep you, too, on the beauty path. This talk of make-up sins reminds me of the number of badly made-up faces one sees as the day wears on. There are all too many girls who will carefully apply make-up at their dressing tables in the morning, but whose subsequent beautifying is ex- tremely sketchy. How to keep these willful wanderers in line was quite a problem until I conducted a survey of office desks and handbags. I dis- covered, then, that these backsliders were slipping because they were not provided with sufficient cosmetics to do a good job, or attractive enough cosmetics to arouse any interest in the subject! If this has been one of your sins, then why not make it easy for yourself to look your best all the time? Put on your list of "I want" Christmas presents all those items needed for handbag and desk that will remove the temptation to slip from the beauty fold. There is another very common beauty sin, and as the cold weather is here with its insidious temptations, it is doubly important that it be called to your attention at this time. Namely, that luxurious, soul-satis- fying practice of taking very hot baths must be stopped ! These ex- tremely hot baths are bad for all — and especially for you who have dry skins. Add a perfumed water sof- tener or a bubbly bath oil to your tub and focus your attention on their delights instead of the cooler tem- perature. You should not find it so hard, then, to forego the steaming hot tub which dries your skin and causes that scaly, chapped feeling. Before I leave you I want to say a thing or two to you on the subject of keeping young and beautiful. First, think of yourself as a grow- ing person in an ever-changing world. Remember that time does not stand still. Never feel that you , "know it all," for what is the style today will be out of date tomorrow. You should resist the temptation to be satisfied with the old hair-do be- cause someone in your grammar school days told you it was becoming. Don't look scornfully at the girls with frapped finger-tips or silver-shadowed eyes before trying them out your- self, in the privacy of your room if you so desire, to prove the lift they may give to the spirit, and the fresh- ness to the appearance ! Dare to keep an open mind to the new things and to try them yourself — then you have risen above that most regrettable of all beauty sins — "getting in a rut!" Your supreme adventure of life is love . . . and love is yours with the seductive lure of No. 3 Perfume. This entrancing perfume magically makes you a gay enchant- ress . . . stirs the pulses and throbs the hearts of those around you. Let No. 3 Perfume bring you romance to- night and every night. At leading drug and department stores, in $1 and l5c sizes. Smart tuckaway size — for your purse — only IOC at all ten-cent stores. PARK 6- TILFORD Other famous odeurs: Adventure/ Cherish) Gardenia/ Lilac/ and No. 12. TIT]
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RADIO STARS RADIO GOES HOLLYWOOD Today it is difficult to find an outstanding program which does not originate in Hollywood. And fewer still are the radio performers who do not appear in pictures ... or movie stars who aren't on the air. The radio and the screen are one. Radio's gone Hollywood. So, RADIO STARS Goes Hollywood Radio Stars conforms to the change. From its very inception, it has been a magazine devoted to radio personalities. But, today, radio's performers are Hollywood stars, and a radio magazine is, in effect, a movie magazine. RADIO STARS merges with MODERN SCREEN Next month Radio Stars will be combined with MODERN SCREEN. There- after you'll meet all of your favorite Radio-Movie stars in the pages of MODERN SCREEN, beginning with the January, 1939, issue, on sale every- where December 1st.
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without extra cost! A good- will gift to your chapped hands! Try Hinds at our expense! Extra Good -Will Bottle comes as a gift when you buy the medium size. No extra cost! A get -acquainted gift to new users! A bonus to regular Hinds users! Money Back if Hinds fails to soothe and soften your rough, chapped skin. If the Good- Will Bottle doesn't make your hands feel softer, look nicer, you can get MONEY BACK on large bottle. More lotion for your money — if you are pleased. You win— either way. This offer good for limited time only. MONEY BACK! Buy the medium size— get the Good- Will gift bottle with it. If Good- Will bottle doesn't make your hands feel softer, look nicer, you can get MONEY BACK- where you bought it— on large bottle. If you've never used Hinds, try it now— at no risk. Find out for yourself how good Hinds is. Even 1 application makes dry, chapped skin feel smoother'. EXTRA LOTION! Nearly 20% more Hinds— when you buy this Hinds Good-Will bar- gain! More of this famous, fine hand lotion for the money than ever before. Use Hinds before and after household jobs. Coaxes back the softness that wind, cold, heat, hard water, and dust take away. Used faithfully, Hinds gives you "Honeymoon Hands . " Also in 10c, 25c, $1 sizes . HINDS GOOD-WILL BARGAIN C"W TOILET GOODS Copyright. 1938. Lehn A Fink I ■ Con>.. Bloomfield. IINDS HONEY tr ALMOND CREAM FOR HONEYMOON HANDS 19
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T-HE POWER BE-HIND BY JACK HANLEY ■■jjjj^HHH^HI Here is John F. Royal, dynamo in human form and one of the busiest men in the world Tall, white-haired a ruddy-faced, John Roy is an ex-newspaperm and ex-theatre manager. AT NBC's transmitter in Long Island, huge generators produce the electrical current that keeps their signal on the air. And perhaps equally important to the chain's opera- tion is their dynamo in human form, John F. Royal. It's hard to coin a descriptive phrase about John Royal. He doesn't fit any pattern, unless one might make the pattern a cross between a whirlwind and a high-tension power line. As program director of the NBC chain, Royal is the supershowman of the world, presenting not one, but seventy-odd shows a day to an audience of millions. On his word, oceans and continents are bridged by radio ; when emergencies arrive he makes the split-second de- cisions ; whips together a whole new show in an hour or so when a star is too ill to "feed" the waiting network. One of the busiest men in the world, three hundred phone calls a day come to his desk, and his day is a fourteen- hour one with every hour geared to a pace that would wear down an ordinary man. But there's nothing ordinary about John Royal. The tall, white-haired, ruddy- faced ex- newspaperman, ex-theatre manager is a tough man in a tough job. His friends — and you'll find them not only at Radio City but in prac- tically every corner of the globe — may swear at him occasionally but they all swear by him. The breeze that zips past you in the office corridors at NBC is probably Royal on the way to one of his innumerable conferences or ^ meetings ; the telephone receiver that roars, JgfLfe smokes and crackles against the ear of some 1^^^^ luckless department head, likewise, is probably drijj^^ ' John Royal expressing his disapproval in his ^i^K °wn characteristic way that leaves the victim a shaken and gasping thing. And two hours later you may see the same victim at lunch with Royal, the perfect host, providing fine food and drink, a man of infinite charm, blue eyes sparkling and a friendly grin lighting his full Irish face. He can roar like the Bull of Bashan, and coo in practically the same breath. There's an awful impersonality about his raging storms, but they're never grudges. Once the calm has come, it's all forgotten and he is his usual pleasant self. But when Royal really is mad he grows very white and very quiet. Those are the times that anything can happen, but they don't occur very often. Speaking from the standpoint of experi- ence, John F. Royal is perhaps the only real showman in radio. He's an authority on opera, on sports, on the legitimate stage and vaudeville, on aviation. He can judge, with equal appreciation and competence, a Tos- canini symphony broadcast, a popular crooner or a boxing match. Former division head and theatre manager for B. F. Keith, his approach to entertainment problems is that of the trained show- man ; his newspaper and publicity experience has given him a nose for news, and makes him equally valuable to news and Special Events departments. He has, too, an almost uncanny sense in auditions ; the ability to pick out the one thing that's wrong, to hit upon the idea or personality that has potential possibilities, land on it and bring it out.
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T+IE T+mONE AT Royal skims through a newspaper in nothing flat. He can read six of them in the time the average person takes for one, pulling out the stories that really mean something and retaining the salient points. And you can call him up in the middle of the night with an important problem to be decided and get an immediate answer : "Yes — we'll do it," or "No — it won't work that way because . . . we'll do thus-and-so." In a business where seconds of time are of paramount importance, this ability to reach a split- second decision is invaluable. Particularly since his decisions are almost always right. There's nothing of the super-dignified stuffed shirt about Royal, but an aura of importance surrounds him, nevertheless. Not knowing him, one is aware of him the moment he enters a room, feels the force of the man's dynamic personality. A backwash of pure energy seems to follow him as he breezes from interview to conference. As Vice President in Charge of Programs, John Royal works fourteen hours, and is responsible for seventy-odd programs, a day, not to men- tion endless conferences. Bandleader Victor Young is with him here. Things are always happening around Royal and there's a tradition in Radio City that by some mysterious means Royal is always listening in when anything goes wrong over the air. His job and the way he does it are exciting, and he loves excitement. He's been known to follow parades for blocks and he likes fireworks. Probably because, like a contemporary known as George M. Cohan, Royal was born on the Fourth of July. The time was 1886 and the place East Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ever since he's been old enough, Royal has managed to set off a fire- cracker on his birthday, wherever he might be. One year when in Italy, Max Jordan, NBC's European repre- sentative, had to arrange the matter with the Italian officials, but that evening John Royal set off a loud salute to celebrate his own and his country's birthday. While still a boy, Royal's father died of tuberculosis. For years it was a bugaboo of his that he might also be susceptible to the disease. Whistling, he heard, built strong lungs, so young John, for hours on end, made the air horrible with his piercing whistle. From the same motivation he took up athletics and tells how he used to tie strings around his chest, breaking them Sandow- fashion by expanding. His love of sports carries up to the present ; he's been known to hop in a plane and fly five hundred miles to watch a game of football or baseball he particularly wants to see. He played football and baseball at school, but now his per- sonal athletics are confined to handball — a very strenu- ous game as Royal plays it — and an occasional golf match. He's not much of a golfer, but he tears around the course at a terrific rate, is too impatient to search for balls in the rough, preferring to drop a new one. His victories are as much a matter of wearing out his opponent by the sheer speed of his pace as outplaying him. Hardly a single major sporting event has passed without Royal's presence, how- ever. He saw Dempsey batter Willard, Carpentier and Firpo, and Tunney beat Dempsey. Before that, Royal watched one of the greatest fights in history when Sam Langford met Jack Johnson. He took his son to Cleveland to see Bob Feller pitch against the Yankees, and, in line with his love both for aviation and big events, he came to Boston from Cleveland to witness the arrival of Lieutenant Smith on his round-the-world flight. During his school days Royal decided that perhaps he should be a merchant. He opened a little candy store opposite the school. Every few minutes he'd stop to count over his takings and incidentally to sample his stock. The venture was not a success because he ate himself out of business, the beginning and end of Royal's commercial career. His first job was as night office boy on the Boston Post. The paper being willing to buy free-lance stories on "space rates" of something like fifteen cents per printed inch, Royal decided he had the scoop of the century when he tracked down a story in his locality of a petty thief who had been caught stealing lead pipe from washrooms. Elated, Johnny wrote 406 pages of copy and turned them in to the night city editor; was crushed when they landed in the waste basket. Later, he was promoted to day office boy. This job was fairly profitable, since he purchased editions of other papers for all the editors and the profit between the price he received and the wholesale price he paid made his earnings more than that of many reporters. Nevertheless, when he was finally made a cub reporter, at the age of eighteen, he went at his job with charac- teristic vigor. It was before the days of elaborate news services, and papers did their own district coverage. By a lucky break, the snubbed cub saw a man robbed and thrown off a bridge. The night editor rewrote the story and gave it an eight-column head. The next dav Royal basked in the glory of (Continued on page 68)
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Cifies SerWce star Lucille Manners was typist in an office, saved her money for singing lessons. BY GENE HARVEY Entertainers weren't born that way. Here's what some of them did before mikework claimed them dajor Bowes is still a real estate operator and :ontinues as manager of the Capitol Theatre, N. Y. WHERE do they come from — the stars of the radio; the singers, orchestra leaders, comedians, actors we hear on the national networks? Have they all followed their individual professions all their lives before bringing their talents to the microphone ? As a matter of fact, the record shows that there is no one highway to radio success ; rather, a series of winding trails that originate in hundreds of widely different and far-flung places before converging in the broadcasting studio. The
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Tommy Dorsey's vocalist, Edythe Wright, worked in a coffee shop on the New Jersey College campus. RADIO CAREERS BECJIN "names" of today's radio roster frequently have originated in theatres, orchestras and concert halls, of course. But certainly as many have come to radio stardom from behind counters and typewriters, from sand-lot baseball fields and the depths of mines. Take singers, for instance. One crooner was a profes- sional pugilist ; Buddy Clark was a law student, as was Bing Crosby. Nelson Eddy worked as a reporter before radio found him ; and Morton Downey, who returned to the air for Mutual, was a salesman of such varied stuff as phonograph records, silverware and insurance, besides a brief career running a donkey engine in a freight yard. So you never know — the man who delivers your milk to- day may be crooning through your loudspeaker tomorrow ; the girl who takes your dictation at the office may be the prima donna of a big commercial next year. Lucille Manners prepared for her radio career by pound- ing the keys of a typewriter in a small New Jersey office, and she was not a secretary — just a stenographer. Star- dom on the Cities Service program "was a far-off dream, then, but she spent every penny she could save from her salary for singing lessons. In spite of the skepticism of friends and associates, she studied with the best teachers she could afford ; got up an hour early each morning to practice before going to work. And the fragile, blonde Lucille belied her appearance by showing the tenacity of a bulldog. This sounds, of course, like a typical success story. Well, it is — except that few attain the success that has come to Lucille. Then there's Edythe Wright, the attractive young vocal- ist with Tommy Dorsey's orchestra over the NBC net- works. Edythe didn't come to radio from behind a typewriter, but neither was she a glamour gal of stage or screen. Before radio found her she was engaged in the prosaic job of running a coffee shop on the campus of New Jersey College, at New Brunswick, in order to work her way through school. While still coffee-shopping through college she sang over a small local station and substituted for the girl vocalist in Frank Dailey's dance band. Dailey was a friend of the Wrights, and his singer was ill. Through this, Tommy Dorsey heard her . . . and now, so do you. Oh yes — and there's another typist-singer starring in the radio firmament. But the twist to Sara Rehm's story is that she's still working her typewriter five days a week for the Wheeling Steel Corporation, with a metamorphosis into a radio soprano sensation on Sundays in the Musical Steelmakers program, which is composed entirely of talent recruited from the company's mills and offices. Most musicians — like vocalists — have been interested in music all their lives. But not all of them have wholly musical backgrounds. There's Russ Morgan, for ex- ample, who, in immaculate white tie and tails, conducts Music in the Morgan Manner at the swank New York Biltmore and over the air. That's a far cry from a grimy coal mine in Scranton, but that's where Russ used to work. True, his father was a musician as well as mine foreman and started young Russ' musical education when the boy was eight. But when he was old enough, Russ got a job in the mines and only shook Scranton's coal dust from his clothes when he went to Philadelphia to join Paul Specht's orchestra. His history from then on is entirely musical. Eddy Duchin, too, was only a part-time musician at first, with piano as a hobby. He became interested in orchestras while working as a waiter at a boys' camp and organized the other waiters into a three-piece orchestra. While studying pharmacy he {Continued on page 66) 23
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S-HE SCOOPS TO Newspaper reporter, author and air columnist, Mary Margaret McBride's life has been one hard, swift search for stories Born on a farm in Missouri, Mary Margaret is fond of animals. Pierrot is a goat she brought back from France. 1 There's nothing of the sophis- ticate about Miss McBride, as her listeners know. She inspires confidence and friendliness.
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BY MILDRED MASTIN m MARY MARGARET McBRIDE once chased the Shah of Persia all over Europe to find out if he really carried pearls and diamonds in the folds of his garments. She finally caught up with him in Paris, and he was wearing a dark, tailored suit, with nary a jewel in sight. If Mary Margaret was disappointed in the Shah, she was pleased to get the story. Her life, for years now, has been one hard, swift, continual search for stories — first as a newspaper reporter, later as an author, arfd now as a columnist on the air. She's gone beneath the sea, above the clouds, under the earth, around the world, watching, listening, asking questions, always hurrying on the trail of a scoop. Mary Margaret doesn't look like you expect a successful newspaper woman and radio columnist to look. Right today she could go back to the Missouri farm where she came from and be perfectly at home. She has soft, dark eyes that light up when you talk to her, and clear pink and white skin that is rare in sooty New York. There is nothing of the sophisticate about her. She's the kind of woman who would look out of place with a cigarette because she wouldn't know just how to hold it. She'd probably light it as if it were a candle. When invited to a smart cocktail bar, she orders a cup of tea and, without thinking, always takes off her hat. She admits that at dinner parties she usually spills something on her front. And once when a friend lent her an ermine wrap to wear to a very swanky affair, Mary Margaret refused to check it because she couldn't bear not to show it off, then, in a burst of guilty con- science, told everybody who admired it that it was borrowed. . A woman of quick sympathies and deep understanding, people easily confide in her. She still considers as her most harrowing reportorial experience the time a woman confessed to her that she was a murderer. No one — least of all Mary Margaret — suspected the woman of murder. Suddenly in the midst of an interview, the woman, feeling instinctively that Mary Margaret was understanding and could be trusted, blurted out the story of a murder she had committed, unburdened to her the details of a perfect crime. What would you do if an undetected mur- deress confessed her crime to you? For weeks Mary Margaret led a life of troubled days and sleepless nights, trying to find an answer to that question. Was it her duty as a law-abiding citizen to tell the police? Should she betray a trust or shield a murderer? She had heard vaguely of people who shared such secrets being, in the eyes of the law, an accessory after the fact. She had visions of a trial, notoriety, even prison. She was also haunted by the fear that the woman, having regretted her confession, might do away with her, too, since dead men tell no tales. Just about the time Mary Margaret, torn by fear and pity and duty, "had reached a decision, the poor woman suddenly died. Mary Margaret allowed the story of the secret crime to be buried with her. And there the matter ended. Of course, this ability to inspire confidence has been a big help to her on Tier never-ending search for stories. A scientist, notoriously tight- mouthed about his work, will open up and tell Mary Margaret exciting incidents of his most recent expedition. A jade collector, known to be impatient with people w3io are ignorant on his favorite subject, finds himself telling Mary Margaret all about jade and inviting her to see his collection. Her note- {Continued on page 54) 25
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IN^+IE RADIO The camera casts its eye on some important radio personalities if*
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Joan Edwards, vocalist with Paul Whiteman's band, is Merry Merc Ted McMichoel and What's My Name Budd an expert pianist and wants to become a song writer. Hulicfc combine their talents in a bit of harmony. Skinnay Ennis makes music on Bob Hope's new show, Professor Quit, now under a new sponsor and heard at and Carmine Calhoun sings swing with his orchestra. 8:30 Saturday nights, is still assisted by Bob Trout.
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Agnes Moorehead says her most embarrassing moment occurred when a dramatic scene and a violent fit of hiccups arrived at once. EMBARRASSING MOMENTS IF YOU have ever felt that indescribable hot feeling in your face, known that a gorgeous shade of crimson was suffusing your physiognomy/ and wanted to sink as rapidly as possible through the ground and out of sight, then you have something in common with all of radio's star per- formers. It is a safe bet that not one of them has been spared his embarrassing moment, particularly since broadcasting is fraught with so many pitfalls, a business in which anything can happen and all too frequently does. What makes it even worse is that an air artist has an unseen audience of millions and most often a studio audience of hundreds to witness his discomfort and laugh at his dilem- ma. His face has every reason to become very red, indeed. Bill Stern, NBC's ace football announcer, still has night- Fred Allen's quick wit failed him when something unexpected happened. mares when he remembers a certain program he conducted in Texas. Two colleges were to meet in a neutral town for the play-off game, and Bill had arranged to broadcast the arrival of the teams, college bands and rooters as their trains pulled into the station. The first Special was due at ten a.m., and a few minutes before that time Bill had everything in readiness — mikes were set up and an orches- tra in the main studio was supplying music until the time for the show to start. Suddenly he heard the shriek of an engine whistle in the distance and rushed to the station- master's office. "Is that the Special coming now ?" he called. "Sure, son. She'll be here in a minute," drawled the station-master. Stem raced back to the radio {Continued on page 70) 29
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Professional judging services, such as the Reuben H. Donnelley Corporation, are hired by sponsors to take care of the thousands of contest entries. BY RITA LOWE DIALING dollars has become one of America's favorite pastimes. Tune in almost any station, day or night, and you will find some golden opportunity to enter a contest and win a prize of a thousand dollars, a trip to Honolulu, an automobile, or even a coffee percolator. It was in the depression year of 1932 that people began to wake up to the possibilities of over- night riches by air and jotted down requirements from their loud-speakers to make, draw, write or solve some- thing which would bring them prizes running into thousands of dollars in cash or merchandise. Since then, the radio contest has grown in popularity by leaps and bounds, until there are now more than fifty thousand people in the United States — clever, unusually intelligent, with the time to devote to it — who are making extra money out of contests. They even have their own magazines, which list the contests of the month, publish letters from winners and critical reviews of contest entries which did not win prizes. In 1936, when the sponsors of Amos V Andy ap- pealed to their listeners for a name for Amos' and Ruby's baby, they received more than 2,250,000 entries, each entry representing a purchase of the sponsor's product. A soap contest brought in about one million soap wrappers (Camay) ; a cigar sponsor (Cremo) ran a contest for seven months on the air, at the rate of eight thousand entries per day, twenty cigar bands per entry, and so on, which proves without a doubt the value to sales increase of these promotional events, and the enthusiasm with which the public receives them. ' This year, a banner year for contestants, has brought them richer returns than ever, with one sponsor (Ivory Flakes) offering every week for five weeks a 1938 automobile, equipped with radio, plus a thousand gallons of gas and one hundred dollars vacation money; and with another sponsor (Royal Crown Cola) completing a contest of several weeks for which fifty thousand dollars was paid to 1,525 persons, whose names were published with a grand flourish in a full-page magazine advertisement. From the beginning, skeptics have maintained that these contests were an out-and-out racket. People who philosophically swallow their losses in the stock market look upon their failure in a radio contest as a result of fraud. But, even if the advertising agencies and their clients were disposed to run a dishonest contest, and certainly they are not, they must keep themselves beyond reproach because of the danger of indefensible lawsuits. The broadcasting companies, the Federal Radio Com- mission and the Post Office Department maintain a stern lookout for anything shady. Then, of course, no advertiser wants to sponsor a contest which would be run in such a fashion that he would lose customers and gain everlasting ill-will for his product. It is only natural that there was confusion when contests first became a fad. A sponsor would find that he was unprepared to handle the inordinate quantity of mail which poured in upon him after a prize announcement, and unintentional oversights would result. For example, there would be duplication of prize-winning answers, failure to publish the list of winners, or to acknowledge every entry. But, today, radio contests are run on a large scale, with a carefully-worked-out efficiency technique for the handling of mail and judging of entries — large staffs of workers who do nothing but read and sort out the letters, specialists from appropriate fields of business or the arts to select the winners, so that there couldn't be the slightest suspicion of fraud. In 1932, before the running of contests was so reg-
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ARE fcADIO CONTESTS ON THE LEVEL > You'll find the truth here, with information as to how contest entries are handled and judged Donnelley's system guarantees Impartial and speedy selection of winning entries. Here are a group of judges at work on one of the large contests. imented, one sponsor, the Jones Metal Stamping Company of Saturnalia, Ohio, had a very sad and expensive experience which was typical in those days. Mr. Jones was highly elated at receiving forty thou- sand letters a week on his contest, until he discovered that his factory would be utterly unable to take care of the mail, having neither the space nor facilities to handle it. He had to spend some fifteen thousand dollars for extra space, clerks, executives and, later, five judges, so that the company might be freed of any suspicion of partiality or prejudice. But, in spite of his judges, Mr. Jones received more than seventeen thousand angry "nuisance" letters after the winners were selected. Here are samples of them : "Gentlemen : / wouldn't buy one of the Kitchen Mechanic mashines you make under no circumstancis. My wife and myself worked for two weeks on your contest and our anser should have entitled some kind of prize but no. You did not even tell us you got it. We know now, you dirty crooks because you were afraid it would show you got it. Probably some relatives got these prizes. I have told George Sampson from who I buy lumber as well as hardwear if he carries your lousy mashine I will buy all my needs from someone who don't. Yours (Signature)" "Gentlemen : We are all a little disgusted with a company which hitherto had enjoyed such a thorough respect and con- fidence in our family. When your radio program first went on the air, we felt a personal gladness in the fact because our own kitchen boasted one of your Kitchen Mechanics, a priceless assistant to my wife in the prep- aration of food. We had decided to get one of them for our married daughter as a Christmas gift. But that is unthinkable, today, thanks to your contest. Our youngest daughter, who is at (Blank) College and an honor student and who has specialized in advertising, sent you one of the cleverest solutions to the contest problem \ou possibly could have received. Her answer was posted on the bulletin board of her advertising class at college because of its excellence, and now zve are asked to believe it unworthy even of honorable mention by your judges. Under the circumstances, you (Continued on page 52) 31
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Joyce (Anne Teemcm): I'm so unhappy. My mother hates me — be- eause she knows I know she killed my father. I loved him so! (sobs at intervals). Edna (Helene Dumas ) : It isn't hard to understand, Mrs. Gold- berg. They're just two kids that fell in love, that's all. It's natural. PUTTING THEIR How realistic performances have THE GOLDBERGS serial has become an epic of the air- waves, and as such is still enjoying one of the longest and most successful consecutive runs in radio history. In 1928, Gertrude Berg, a Manhattan housewife, conceived the idea for a radio serial about a Jewish family. Without any previous entertainment experience, she finally succeeded in selling the idea and building a hit program from it. Mrs. Berg not only continues to write the scripts herself, but she has endeared herself to listeners as Molly, the loving wife and mother of the Goldberg family. She has thought and lived this character for so long that, when she's before the mike, she can actually sense and experience all the emotions which Molly is supposed to be feeling. Jake, the irrascible but kindly Mr. Goldberg, has been played since the program's debut by James R. Waters, veteran stage actor. He's so completely wrapped up in the role that he even finds himself worrying about his radio family as much as he Edna (Helene Dumas): Jake (James Waters): I Molly (Gertrude Berg): Look, Joyce. Don't you tell you, Molly, I know Oy — I'm so nervous and think you d feel better if something is wrong. I can flusterated — I can't remem- you got it all off your feel it in here. Everything ber the name she said. Let chest? Spill it to me, honey, is not as it ought to be. me think — was it Bradford?
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Molly (Gertrude Berg): Haha. That's funny, Jake. Don't you think so, Samele? Oy, (sigh) it makes me happy to see you happy. Joyce (Anne Teeman): Sammy, you don't believe me, do you? Nobody trusts me, either. And even you don't believe or trust me. Joyce (Anne Teeman): They're chasing me, Sammy. Why don't they let me be happy? I'm afraid they'll take me away from you. +HAKTS INTO IT won laurels for The Goldbergs does about his own. To Roslyn Silber and Everett Sloane, playing the parts of the youthful Rosie and Sammy isn't work. They both throw themselves into the characterizations with such enthusiasm and intensity that they are actually Rosie and Sammy as they face the mike. The same holds true of Anne Teeman, who plays Joyce, and Helene Dumas, who is Edna. Despite the artificial studio atmosphere, lack of make-up, costumes and scenery, a witness to the broadcast would soon forget that he was watching actors and actresses, so expressive are their faces, words and gestures. So completely do they "put their hearts" into their work that they are one with the characters they portray. Aside from the universal human interest and appeal of the story itself and the superlative quality of the script, it is this intense realism on the part of the cast which has brought popularity to The Goldbergs. Rosalie (Ros- lyn Silber): Oh Mama, dar- ling! I'm so glad — I'm so happy. Every- thing is fine now. Isn't it wonderful, Mama, dear? Joyce (Anne Teeman): Oh, I'd die first be- fore I'd go back there! You won't let them take me, will you? They aren t coming, Sammy, are they? Really? lake (James Waters): Now I want it understood that I'm the head of this house. I will not stand for any more of this shilly-shallying. Molly (Gertrude Berg): Are you looking so happy, Jake, because you're really happy? Jake: Is it a crime I should feel good. Molly? Jake Goldberg (James Waters): Hallo-hallo-Mol- ly? Yes-yes-this is Jake. Don't worry, Molly, every- thing is under control.
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(Left to Right) Annie, Zeke and Judy Canova have good reason to look happy. They are now cast members of one of the air's big-time shows, The Chase and Sanborn Hour. Instead of two Strouds you now have the three hillbilly Canovas. RADIO 11 AMBLINGS BY ARTHUR MASON Concerning celebrities of the air, what they're doing and plan to do in Broadcastland, USA 34 AFTER vainly trying the skill of all the leading dummy-makers in the country, Edgar Bergen still pursues his quest for a spare copy of Charlie McCarthy. A number of carvers have made approximate replicas but, since movies and photographs have made Charlie's saucy face so familiar, approximation is not sufficient For the ordinary ventriloquist, a dummy would last a lifetime with reasonable care. No dummy ever before assumed the im- portance of Charlie McCarthy, and Bergen shudders at the thought of theft by a souvenir hunter, loss in an accident, fire or any of the dozen mishaps that might lose or destroy the crudely carved little manikin. In the latest effort to provide a duplicate, Bergen had a plaster cast of Charlie's head taken. The carvers will work from the cast to create a wooden model. BANDS seem to have been adopted officially this season as the proper medium for advertising cigarettes on the air. Four of the major brands are pinning their hopes to swing or sweet. Camel has Benny Goodman, Lucky Strike its Hit Parade, Tommy Dorsey for Raleigh and Kool, and Russ Morgan for Philip Morris. Exceptions are Chesterfield, which has ended its four-year asso- ciation with' the Kostelanetz orchestra to engage George Burns and Grade Allen; and Old Gold, which returns to the air with Robert Benchley. IN SPITE of the anti-Semitic propaganda that hi across the Atlantic from the Fascist nations of Europe, The Gold- bergs continue a serene course with no trace of an attack on racial grounds. Small repercussions were expected to pop up in the fan mail. So far, the expectations have been groundless. On die contrary, the letter files of Gertrude Berg, creator of
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Ill (Left to Right) Emily. Sally, Virginia, Frank and Louisa Vass. As The Vass Family they're heard over NBC on the National Barn Dance the National Farm and Home Hour, Breakfast Club, Club Matinee and NBC Jamboree. Singing is their specialty. The Goldbergs, include warm tributes from Protestant, Catholic and Jew alike, praising her for the spirit of toleration she is indirectly spreading by her sym- pathetic, comic treatment of a simple Jewish family. THE recent broadcasts of Amos V Andy from a hospital is another example of the extreme measures troupers take to avoid missing a program. With Charles Correll in the hospital, scripts probably could have been rewritten to account for Amos' absence for a few days. Nothing of the sort was considered. The program's headquarters moved from its office and studio right into the hospital, and Correll, despite weakness from an operation, missed no day on the air and worked on the writing as usual. Stoopnagle once found Budd in a state of collapse late in the afternoon of their broadcast day. A doctor frantically worked over the prostrate Budd to summon up his strength for that program. From there he went to a hospital for a couple of weeks, emerging only for the radio shows. Jack Benny, threatened with pneumonia, almost had to be restrained by force because of his insistence that he would make a scheduled appearance (without salary) on the program of his old friend, Fred Allen. The combined insistence of a doctor, Jack's wife and Fred himself was needed to keep Jack in bed. It is no uncommon sight in a radio studio to find a laryngitis-stricken singer undergoing treatment by a physician offstage between songs. When any per- former does miss a broadcast, you may take it for granted, he is unable to walk or speak. A STRANGER znsiting the Kate Smith studio after a broadcast zvould go away puzzled about who is the star of that show. Kate would be quietly out of the way, dressed in the white apron to which she changes from her black dress immediately after the program ends. Chances are she would be cutting the cake that always is part of her dressing-room furnishings. Musi- cians, page boys, anyone who drops in, is Kate's guest at the cake cutting. She'd be asking how they are, about one who had been sick, etc. Her announcer and manager, Ted Collins, would be speaking in the florid style radio and theatrical stars usually give themselves. The "wows" of the last pro- gram, reassuring the sponsor that tonight's show was great, plans for next week are still greater — that's the Ted Collins theme and spirit. They are a strange pair, Kate and Ted. Kate is a quiet, domestic sort and Ted supplies the Broadway strut and shrewdness to the team. They are connected by warm friendship as well as business ties. Results of their association have been mutually beneficial. Ted has become a rich man; Kate has outlasted all the popular singers who rose to stardom in the seasons when she was having her own rise. In the radio busi- ness, much of the credit for Kate's enduring success is given to the wise managerial manipulations of Ted Collins. Kate never has been permitted to take a pro- gram when there itKis any possibility of its failure. FIBBER McGEE has started another season without the aid of Molly, his partner in robust comedy. In spite of a year of rest and {Continued on page 62) 35
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ANYTHING Ribbing and kidding is to a performer what WHEN a comedian or an orchestra leader gets into the star class, something pretty dreary confronts him. He must employ a production and business staff, and unfor- tunately the world is full of people who believe that the way to please the boss is to treat him with the utmost respect. They have the idea that big shots love to sur- round themselves with "yes men" and that the thing to do is to learn how to express acquiescence in as many ways as possible, from "Uh-huh" to "That's right." A big shot in show business finds an atmosphere such as this deadly and withering to his own personality.. The very stimulus to his rise to fame was opposition. He becomes lost, unsure of himself and miserable when all he hears is "yes." What he longs for is a good counter- irritant to the doldrums of success, somebody who is capable of opposing him with a twinkle in his eye, some- body who can make a big shot feel stimulated, jolly. In medieval days, kings and lords had court jesters for this very purpose, clowns who dared to say what no one else dared to say — and got away with it because they were funny. It flatters a big shot, surrounded everywhere by obsequious assistants, to have a crack or a quip made at his expense. It also keeps his feet on the ground. Ben Bernie's a maestro who would be sunk if he were surrounded with earnest, respectful folk. He has a mar- velous sense of humor, and many of the cracks he has used with such success on the air originated through impulses to kid around with and rib those people with whom he was associated in hours of preparation and rehearsal. Therefore, it is necessary for Ben to gather around him people who are stimulating to his sense of humor because they themselves possess the gift of gab. Bernie has been fortunate in this respect. His secretary and "shadow," Eleanor Smith, is not only such an ideal gal Friday that she loads her pocketbook with cigars for Ben, but she has a quick tongue and realizes that there are many times when it is more necessary to say "Oh, yeah ?" than "Yes, sir." Take the morning in the office when Ben flew into a rare "temperamental" rage because Eleanor interrupted him for an important telephone call. Ben's words were something like this : "Didn't I tell you not to bother me ? For the love of blankety blank. The blankety blank thing has been ringing all morning. I haven't had a chance for the script. Everybody wants something. I haven't even had a chance to get any lunch !" Eleanor's eyes snapped. "I see no reason why you should be so hungry, Mr. Bernie — you seem to be fed up." Ben's baleful expression changed to one of startled sheepish- ness as he picked up the telephone. In a moment he was returning Eleanor's spoofing smile with a grin. His tone, as he spoke to the person who had called at this inoppor- tune moment, was eminently "human." Eleanor's crack had relaxed him and he returned to his gag conference in jovial spirits. Eleanor used to be secretary to a Supreme Court judge, and she admits that it took her a while to catch on that people in this business must turn even their most disgruntled moments into laughs, because ribbing and kidding is to a performer what skipping rope is to a boxer — it keeps him in good condition. In 1933, Ben hired a pianist named Harry Bailey. Harry Bailey was a good pianist, all right, but he was a dandy
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FOR A LAU4+I ! skipping rope is to a boxer— it keeps him in good condition rehearsal cut-up, too, and kept the gang in top form. The trouble was that Harry's cracks got so good that he was persuaded to take up gag-writing as a profession. Into this breach stepped Buddy Clark, who is known to the radio audience as a romantic singer. Buddy is now the main wag of the Bernie outfit. Ben simply cannot bawl anybody out or strike any "big shot" attitudes during rehearsal or the irrepressible Clark lets him have it. Per- haps Ben realizes that Buddy's ability to talk back is an important psychological com- pensation for the rest of the boys in the band, who would like to do so themselves on occasion. A certain amount of discipline is, of course, neces- sary, for if all the boys were mad-men Bernie would never get anywhere at rehearsals. The meeker ones feel avenged and happy, therefore, when Buddy puts over a crack. The other day at rehearsal Bernie sud- denly got big shot. He turned to Buddy and glared. "Please, no more clowning today," he said. "I'm very tired and I'm very busy and you know I'm auditioning vocalists this after- noon." Buddy grinned in a menacing way. "That's funny," he said. "I was auditioning comedians all morning." When Paul Whiteman's band goes on the road, Irving Strouse attends to all the details of itinerary and generally "nurse- maids" the boys. For instance, each of the musicians is pro- vided with an itinerary sheet which warns him, in advance, of show schedules and train schedules and includes a lot of useful miscellaneous information, such as where to get shirts laundered and where the best restaurants in town may be located. The important feature of Irving's schedules is that they flaunt a sort of fraternity club sense of humor that takes the kick out of a lot of the resentment "the boys" work up during a grind of one-nighters. Irving tries to make a gag out of anything unpleasant for the sake of the morale of White- man and the gang. This is one of his chief values to the King of Jazz. Let us glance over a typical Strouse itin- erary. Here we see that it was necessary, at one point in a recent tour of the South, to take a long "bus jump." At the conclusion of the information as to the time and place of departure by bus, Irving remarks: "This is a stinkola of a jaunt but it couldn't be helped — remember that the boss is really a Whiteman." Dave Clark is an old newspaperman who is constantly sought out by stars and gag writers for the reason that he is a gold-mine of laughs and a real challenger of wit. Stars ask Dave to dinner, or to visit them for the week- end, for the specific reason that it's a pleasure to be ribbed Fred Waring and hi: the air Saturdays at by him. Dave's too independent to be on anybody's pay- roll and prefers to live the life he loves — which is to wander up and down Broadway in a rapture of double- talk and do everything but sleep at Lindy's. He has no respect at all for "big names," and he dares to make quips at the expense of those who pride themselves on wit. Orson Welles still tells a story about the day he and Alexander Woollcott were walking down Broadway together and ran into Dave. "Dear me," said Dave. "Here comes Susan and God." Joe Cook, who prides himself at proficiency in double-talk, can't win with Dave, but he doesn't mind being the fall guy when Clark deals out the last word. He tells about the time he was arguing with Dave about trends in radio humor. He thought he had Dave convinced when Dave slammed his fist on the table and shouted, "I may be wrong, Joe, but I ain't far from it." Joe gave up. The lad who is responsible for taking Tommy Dorsey down a peg or two, and making him love it, is Skeets Hurfurt, hot tenor. He's the practical joking type of boss-baiter who believes that actions speak louder than words. There was a time when Tommy, driving the boys pretty hard at rehearsals during a New York hotel date, got his band feeling pretty much like a bunch of kids constantly being bawled out by the study-hall teacher. Skeets formed a conspiracy with the boys to rib Tommy back to good-humor and to the "treat us like an equal" basis. One night when Tommy stepped up to the band- stand, each time that he gave the boys the one-two they went into an off-key, sour version of Sentimental Over You as the second chorus of every number they played. Before the evening was over, Tommy was laughing his head off and saying, "Please, will you, fellas?" and the morale of the band was^back to normal. Fred Allen, as everyone knows, is a hard-working, almost grim, comedian who spends seventy-five percent rjf the time he's not on the air writing in tiny, precise long- hand and sweating over what will be laughs on the next show. "Uncle" Jim Harkins, Allen's "front man," general majordomo and assistant of the Allen shows, knows Fred's hermit-like activities, knows that all he wants is to be let alone during his working hours, and knows Allen's distress at being interrupted with the millions of requests with which such stars are hounded. But occa- sionally he has to trap the lion in his lair, and if he didn't have a goofy sense of humor many of these occasions would be disastrous. At such times he often turns Allen's desperation into a grin. On one (Continued on page 69) Pennsylvanians are on 1:30 p.m. EST on NBC.
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May Singhi Breen and Peter de Rose, the Sweethearts of the Air, have been winning friends with their songs and patter for 14 years. STARS WITHOUT BY EVERETTA LOVE RADIO is a "folksy" business. Tbe programs that have been most popular, year in and year out, are not the big commercial extravaganzas, but those featuring simple, true-life dramas, songs and helpful talks by broadcasters who get to the hearts of the people. They have a faculty for making listeners feel that they are real friends, living, breathing personalities, and not just actors on a stage. These "stars without ballyhoo" are found, for the' most part, on the daytime schedules, particularly in the mornings. Without any great publicity build-ups, or any special attention paid to them by the broadcasting companies, they have maintained their following through the years, piling up fan mail and building such a place for themselves in the affections of their listen- ers that their fans would feel an actual physical loss if anything happened to take away these friendly neigh- bors of the airwaves. On the NBC networks we find a genial crowd of artists who have kept the morning hours bright ever since the first days of radio. Their names are house- hold words, their popularity still assured. On this list are Breen and de Rose, the Sweethearts of the Air, Vaughn de Leath. famous as the "Original Radio Girl" and "First Lady of the Air," the Landt Trio, Phil These friendly neighbors of the airwaves are lasting
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Frank Luther, composer and tenor, is still another of the veterans. They've stuck together through the years in business and socially. Joe White is another of NBC's old- timers. From 1925 to 1930 he was known as The Silver Masked Tenor. Now in his twelfth radio year, he's heard on the Walii Favorites show. BALLYHOO Cook, Jolly Bill Steinke, Sam Herman and Frank Banta, Joseph White (The Silver Masked Tenor), Andy Sannella, Gene and Glenn. Frank Luther, Alice Remsen, Nellie Revell. whose Neighbor Nell is a Sun- day morning feature, and Tom Terriss, with his fasci- nating travel stories at an early hour on Sundays. It's interesting to note the air of informality, of good-fellowship, which these stars have that's so differ- ent from the formal presentations of the evening. Here is the very heart of radio. To them, radio isn't just a job — it's the opportunity to make personal contact with the world, not as an audience, but as people interesting to know. Here, the human element is injected into broadcasting. May Singhi Breen and Peter de Rose, for instance, have been on the radio for fourteen years as the Sweet- hearts of the Air. May is internationally-known as "The Ukulele Queen." Peter, a brilliant pianist, has composed such song hits as Wagon Wheels, Muddy Hraters. Someivhcre in Old Wyoming, Somebody Loves You, Oregon Trail and the beautiful symphonic number, Deep Purple, which Paul Whiteman's orches- tra plays. Peter sits at the piano and plays the accom- paniment for the Breen and de Rose numbers, singing softly into the mike. May stands very near, cuddling her ukulele like an infant, blending her voice with Peter's. The effect is intimate and soothing. May often announces their numhers (Continued on page 59) favorites because they reach their listeners' hearts
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BETWEEN - ■ BROADCASTS A pictorial peek at air favorites' pet pastimes when they're at leisure s with four programs a week, Katt ights catching up on correspondence Ted McMichael, one of The Merry Macs, lives up to his name as he gives a friend a surprise hot-foot. Madaline Lee (left), who is Genevieve Blue on ^mos V Andy, strolls with Helen Wood of Those We Love.
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Announcer Del Sharbutt's story-telling ability makes him a popular guest at social gatherings.
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IF YOU'RE ONE of those typical American radio listeners who believes implicitly that Robert Fulton built the first steamboat, George Washington was the first President of the United States, and Elias Howe invented the first sewing machine, then you should listen to my weekly broadcast of Famous First Facts on the Mutual network. I believe this show can prove to you how wrong these notions are.' After fourteen years of traveling the highways and byways of this nation, checking and rechecking the history of American inventions, I have become somewhat of an authority on who did this or that first, and where and why. Frankly, the gathering of "first facts" has become more than just my life-work — it has become almost a fanaticism with me. This unique occupation has made me realize that there are virtually thousands and thousands of unsung inventors, artists, workers and other individuals who have accomplished great things and yet, through their own modesty or some twist of fate, have never received and may never enjoy the faintest spark of recognition from posterity. Thus, it is an indescribable thrill to unearth, in some obscure corner of the globe, a truly elusive genius whose heart is more in his work than in seeking the glare of the spotlight. For over a decade I have visited libraries, interviewed descendants of forgotten inventors, kept the midnight oil burning while I pored over rare papers, legacies, and visited historical societies and dusty museums. And, like a fool, I thought I could do this work without the aid of radio. It was impossible, for only radio could bring me nearer to the people I wanted to meet, those who might be able to help by supplying missing scraps of information otherwise unattainable. Since the inauguration of Famous First Facts several months ago, it is gratifying to find that radio listeners are more than willing to help. Better than fifty letters a day stuff my mail box. They come from individuals who feel they are able to supply some missing clue in many of the problems which have bothered me for years. Others make interesting claims as pioneers in unusual fields. From these letters I have been able to cull a mass of absorbing data for some of my new volumes. But there are other aspects to the aid which radio has given me. On this program many people come to me with their claims to fame in varied and unique fields, from the first woman cab driver to a descendant of the inventor of condensed milk. Drawing upon the over- whelming mass of data which I have gathered during years of research, usually I am able to support or reject these claims. Most cases have been fairly authentic. In the event I do not find them so, the person making the claim has quietly accepted my decision as final. Here, for example, is a cross section of some of the "first facts" I have been privileged to offer the radio audience since my air debut. One of the first figures who comes to mind is the man who built and successfully flew the first monoplane. Today, school children from ocean to ocean are taught the exploits of the world-famous Wright brothers. I have no desire to detract from the glory which rightfully is and has been theirs, but today if you visit any large airport you will naturally find that the great skyships which now span our corv tinent in less than a day are all single-winged craft. Military planes, too, are trending in this same direction; almost every record-holding plane in America has been of the sturdy, simple monoplane construc- tion. Yet Orville and Wilbur Wright believed in and experimented only with the bi-plane, or double-winged aircraft. In 1909 it took vision and courage for an American to build a monoplane. Today only a handful of Americans know his name. It gave me great pleasure when Dr. Henry W. Walden, a New York dentist, visited the Mutual studios and told the great radio audience the true events of his epochal achievement which has never before won the attention it deserved. Every year, everywhere, the grand institution of Mother's Day is observed in each state of the Union. Yet how many of my listeners had ever before heard of the quiet, modest little woman — Miss Anna Jarvis — who traveled from Philadelphia to tell for the first time how she was inspired to begin this touching, national custom? On another occasion I featured Charles E. Duryea, whom my records show to be the builder of the first (Continued on page 72)
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sk ''IP' "nic. and erf _.*«r#;.
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Scott, Could, Ellington and Crofe ^ are all possible candidates, but can 1 any one of them fill the place left by America's greatest composer? W+IO IS BY JERALD Raymond Scott's melodic and rhythmic sense and his unusual creative ideas are similar. Morton Gould's creative abil- ity seems endless, and he has all the necessary attributes. Ferde Grofe's collection of musical pictures of America makes him a likely contender. Duke Ellington has been called the Negro Gershwin. He is considered a melodic genius.
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WIN'S SUCCESSOR 7 THE RANKS of the great are small. As soon as one member leaves, a new candidate steps up to enter the exclusive society. The vacant one's place is taken but never is the cry of "The King Is Dead, Long Live The King" shouted. For the kings of the great cannot be re- placed. Enrico Caruso died. New tenors were hailed. But there will never be another Caruso. Will Rogers has left. There have been pretenders to his throne, but it will always be vacant. Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey retired. There have been new champions but there will never be another Babe or Manassa Mauler. George Gershwin is gone. Gershwin, the young East Side genius hailed as America's greatest composer. The one man who most successfully was able to catch and put into music the heart-beat of a nation. Gershwin is gone. Who is there in music today who can step up and fill the space in the ranks that his departure has left open? I wanted to find out. I thought the only way to do it was to ask those men who conduct music. Conductors who have played the works of Gershwin and are now playing what the new candidates offer. I began to make the rounds. I went from one important conductor's office to another, and the reaction I got was interesting. There were some who said : "Gershwin is alone. There will never be another like him. There is no composer in America today who can be mentioned in the same breath with George." There were others who mentioned possible candidates for his place. Each agreed that those candidates had yet to prove themselves. And there was one man who did not hesitate to speak and predict. The man who is called the Dean of American Music, sponsor of the Rhap- sody in Blue, one of Gershwin's closest friends, the conductor who best knows George's work. He is Paul Whiteman, and here is his answer to the blunt question: "Who is Gershwin's successor ?" "That's a large order to fill, but I think Ray- mond Scott is this era's ace composer. Like all people of greatness, he has a positive, definite trademark on everything he writes. He is very much of this age and has a marvelous technique for 'mike' writing. What I like best about Scott is that he gets better with each new thing he writes." Just as he sponsored Gershwin, Paul is now centering his attention on Scott. He is the first to play new Scott compositions, for example. So there is Raymond Scott as the first nominee. After my tour of the experts, the rest of the candidates line up to include, at the top : Morton Gould, Duke Ellington and Ferde Grofe. Before you hear about each of these gentle- men, I'd like you to know what Frank Black had to say on the subject. Black is musical director of NBC and was an intimate of Gershwin's. He has an encyclopedic knowl- edge of music and musicians and a habit of saying what he thinks. "The stuff those people are doing," he said, "is not as good as what George did when he first started out." As to Raymond Scott as a possibility, he added : "Gersh- win never gave a damn about perfection of performance. Scott strives for perfection. Scott's music is dependent upon the way it is played — his Quintet makes it. Gershwin, certainly, didn't compose that way. "Gould? — A babe in arms! "Grofe? He possesses an enormous amount of talent, but not a spark of what Gershwin had. Ferde is essentially an orchestrator, an arranger — a talent which George lacked completely and which would have made him even greater. Grofe is a descriptive, photographic writer. Gershwin composed pure, absolute music. "Ellington? — He is the Negro Gershwin. I don't think he has what may be called 'profundity,' but he is a terrific melodic genius." But he agreed that all four are heading in the direction of the paths Gershwin took. Andre Kostelanetz, an- other Gershwin friend and admirer, refused to commit himself. He said no one has approached Gershwin yet. He agreed that the candi- dates included the four we (Continued on page 64)
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THE BANDWAGON All about popular orchestras —how Sammy Kaye "arrived" BY JERRY MASON SAMMY KAYE is undoubtedly the music trade's outstanding example of a guy who wanted to make money out of orchestra leading and found the best way to do it. It wasn't just a matter of dollars and cents with Sammy. He liked music better than any other profession he could think of — including civil engineering wherein he boasts a collegiate degree. Sammy's way to orchestral money is simple and almost obvious. He surveyed the band scene and, be- ing a bright lad, made two discoveries : (1) The surest way of all to orchestra success is through the build-up of radio and (2) The boys with sweet bands and a style make money longer and more often. Logically, he had to start with discovery number two. He did. He graduated from Ohio University in 1933. He led an orchestra all through college, but it was one of those student affairs that copied any big-time band it liked. Every other number sounded like somebody else until Sammy slipped out of his Cap and gown and went to work in earnest. His first step was to stop swinging. His second step was to develop a style. That second step was designed for radio, on which he had his eye. He decided to stereotype his band. Knowing the power of the airwaves, he wanted a band which a listener could identify after listening to it for thirty sec- onds— announcer or no announcer. After kicking around for a year or so and increasing the organization from the original five pieces to its final eleven-man group, Sammy opened at Cleveland's Cabin Club in the winter of 1935. He high-pressured the Cabin's owner into putting in a radio wire. It belonged to NBC and it was Sammy's first. So now he had both essentials and he began to perfect his style. Among other things he wanted a nice easy rhyme that people would remember and associate with the band. He and the boys first concocted 46 Music In the Romantic Way — Played By Sammy Kaye. That was pretty good — but not too hot. So they kept trying until they hit on Swing And Sway With Sammy Kaye. Everybody liked that one, so it stuck. Then the singing titles came in. You probably remember that idea as beginning with Gus Arnheim 'way back. Up until 1935, Sammy had had the whole band sing the title, but that got too complicated so he finally turned it over to the vocalist as a solo job. Sammy seems to have had a profound pity for the poor radio announcer — he wanted to reduce his work to a minimum. He also wanted to keep his band down to a minimum. The more men you have, the more expensive. That was simple arithmetic, so Kaye limited the organization to eleven men, including three vocalists, a -trio and a glee club. Sammy himself plays a clarinet — according to him, he's not very good so he only plays on special occasions. All in all, though, there is ;io waste motion in the Kaye crew. Every singer plays an instrument and some men double. When Sammy hired a man to play second trumpet,
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he bought an electric guitar and told the new trumpeter to learn how to play it. That trumpeter now knows how. He's never had a lesson, but Sammy told him which strings were which, and every time an arrangement is made a chart is drawn from which the electric guitar man works. That diagram is so simple that you or I could pluck the strings when and where necessary. Sammy uses the instrument only to back up sweet vocals, but he likes the effect there. In August, 1936, the band was stranded in Pittsburgh with no job and faint prospects of one. But Sammy per- suaded Bill Green to give Swing and Sivay a three-week trial at his Casino. He also talked him into putting in a radio wire. The combination resulted in a six months' contract and the entrance of Kaye into the big-time ranks. The following summer he landed a job at Point Pleasant, N. J. Again he persuaded the owner to put in a radio wire. That was three times in succession. Definite proof that Sammy was sold on radio. And most observers nowadays agree that radio sold Sammy. That winter — 1937 — he was hired by the Hotel Statler in Cleveland. It was Sammy's first big-league job and the kind he'd been hoping for. He had built his band for a hotel room. His music, like Lombardo's, was aimed both at those who just sit around and talk and those who want to dance. That job — with its regular broadcasts — was the last push needed to carry Sammy over into the big-money brackets. He now has his style down pat. It's sweet and slow. He has never played a swing number on a radio broadcast. But he's smart enough to vary his pace when he gets on a theatre stage or a dance floor. There he really blows it out. But on a radio broadcast, where the people who make bands listen, he keeps to his stereotyped formula. You listen to eight bars and you know it's Sammy Kaye. Any- one who makes a habit of listening to orchestras cannot possibly miss it. In the course of our discussion, I told him I thought his style was just about as corny as they come. That remark nearly produced blows. *'My band is not corny," said {Continued on page 56)
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BAC-HEJ.01? QUARTERS Life was anything but smooth, as lived by three musicians in their new Hollywood home (L to R.) Slcinnay Ennis, Claude Thornhill and John Scott Trotter live together on Maravilla Road. The boys also get along nicely when they play golf. Claude thinks maybe he pulled a boner when he left his wife for temporary bachelorhood to do arrange- ments for the mad maestri. He's the wild-eyed gent. | $3 m
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Two bachelor bandleaders conduct a dish-washing mara- The cooking was another problem. Skinnay, whose orches- thon. It was fun at first, but Skinnay and John Scott tra is on Bob Hope's show, thinks John Scott is better soon found they were too busy for such menial chores. at baton-waving for K.M.H. than he is at spoon-waving. Then came a brilliant inspiration in the person of Prunella. And with her came order, efficiency and a plentitude of good food. Her three employers are so happy about it all that they've agreed not to disagree about anything from now on. If this state of affairs continues, we may expect bitg things from Messrs. Ennis, Trotter and Thornhill.
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on vet oson \o 9 que eve* 1*5
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RADIO STARS WOODEN ANNIVERSARY .More Like a Honeymoon! Smart Wives use this extra beauty care. . . they cream EXTRA "SKIN-VITAMIN"into their skin' Princess — H. R. H. Princess Maria Antonia de Braganca (Mrs. Ashley Chanler) is a great believer in cream- ing "skin- vitamin" into her skin. She says: "I'm glad to get this extra beauty care in Pond's — the cream I've always used." Vitamin A, the "skin- vitamin," is necessary to skin health. In hospitals, scientists found that this vitamin, applied to the skin, healed wounds and burns quicker. • Now this "skin-vita- min" is in every jar of Pond's Cold Cream! Use Pond's night and morn- ing and before make-up. Same jars, same labels, same prices. Earl's Daughter— Lady Cynthia Williams, popular member of British aristocracy, has used Pond's since her deb days . . . "Now I'm more enthusiastic about Pond's than ever. Extra 'skin-vitamin' in Pond's Cold Cream helps provide against possible lack of it in my skin." (above) At her ancestral home, Waldershare Park, Kent, England — introducing her baby daughter, Juliana, to the hounds. Amazing Pond's Offer "Any wife would be foolish not to take ad- vantage of Pond's new 'skin-vitamin' beauty care! I've always used Pond's. It softens my skin . . . gives sparkle to my make-up." Charming Hostess, MRS. CHARLES MORGAN, III rbftj popular in New York's young married set # Statements coni-frning the effects of the "skin-vitamin" applied to the skin are hased upon medical literature and tests on the skin of animals following an accepted lahoratory method. Tone in on "THOSE WE LOVE,' ft, 8:30 P.M., N.Y. Tir Copyright, 1938, Pi Pond's Program, le, N.B.C. 51
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RADIO STARS CERTAINLY WAS LUCKY WHEN I MARRIED YOU! ARE RADIO CONTESTS ON THE LEVEL? (Continued from page 31) Now — read her secret FRANCO- AMERICAN Spaghetti is one of my best helps," she'll tell you. It means tasty, appetizing meals without long hours in the kitchen. It means being able to serve cheaper meat cuts and left-overs and get compliments 00 them! It means a nourishing hot lunch for | the children in next to no time. Its zestful, savory cheese-and-tomato sauce makes Franco- American far superior to ordinary ready-cooked spaghetti. Try it. Franco-American SPAGHETTI Made by the Makers of Campbell's Soups £e*idfol FREE %ecifie> J?at>£ Campbell Soup Company, Dept. 6312 Camden. New Jersey. Please send me your free recipe book: "30 Tempting Spaghetti Meals." Name (print). Address City _ will understand why I have purchased for my married daughter the machine of one of your competitors. Yours very truly, (Signature)" Thus, it seems that men and women, unlettered or of obvious refinement, feel equally a sense of having been cheated if do not win a prize, particularly if the names and addresses of the winners are not known to them. That is why sponsors make a practice now of announcing the highest winners on the air and publishing the rest of them in their newspaper or magazine advertisements. Or, better still, they mail a list of the winners to every contestant. Good-will toward the product must be maintained, otherwise the contest fails to attain its goal, no matter what vast pub- licity it may have brought. That is why most sponsors announce, nowadays, that their contests will be judged by a pro- fessional judging service which assures the entrant of efficiency and impartiality. The most widely-known of these pro- fessional contest services is the Reuben H. Donnelley Corporation of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. This company, which has judged many of the largest and most successful contests on the air, has a system of judging which inspires con- fidence in both sponsor and contestant. First, every entry is actually judged, thus allaying the suspicion that winning entries are "pulled out of a hat." Second, the element of human misjudgment is mini- mized through setting up a standard pat- tern against which entries are measured and rated. Third, judging is done as speedily as possible. Donnelley's has such an extensive organization that prompt selec- tion of the winning entries, an important point with the contestants, is guaranteed. Recently, Donnelley's handled 250,000 en- tries within four days. Let us see in detail just how this work is handled to assure fairness and impartial- ity. The procedure has two phases: (1) the purely mechanical operations and (2) the actual grading and judging process. The mechanical operations are handled economically when laid out for straight line production. As the mail comes from the post office, it passes down a production line in which each operator performs a pre-determined operation involving certain steps, which, of course, vary with the dif- ferent types of contests. The following staff instructions would be typical of a slogan contest requiring proof of purchase with dealer's name on an official entry blank : ( 1 ) Face all addresses one way and sort by state. (This operation is omitted if the sponsor does not require an analysis of results by state or territory.) (2) Open envelopes on opening machine. (3) Remove contents and check for proof of purchase. Where proof of purchase is omitted, stamp the entry blank "N.P.P." (No proof of purchase). (This provides legal proof of ineligibility.) (4) Cut off all the entry blank except the section covering the contest entry, con- testant's name and dealer's name. (This is to speed up the subsequent handling and sorting. The entry blank should be de- signed to permit this treatment.) (5) Assort alphabetically, by name of contestant, and stamp all multiple entries "Dup." (This avoids mailing more than one acknowledgment to each contestant. The operation may be omitted where no acknowledgment or list of winners is to be sent, but it is advisable to send such a list.) (6) Address envelopes for acknowledg- ing entries or for mailing of winner lists. (7) Re-file all entries by last word of slogan. (This brings duplicate entries to- gether. ) (8) Subdivide each group of "last word" duplicates into next-to-last word. Where necessary, file to third word to identify all exact duplications. In this manner, the strictly mechanical portion of the job is completed and the entries are now ready for judging. A pattern is set up, a chart of checking points, against which each entry is measured. A typical chart for the preliminary sorting of entries looks something like this : Pre-requisites : 1. Must not contain more than 000 words. 2. Must mention name of product. (As- suming this to be specified in contest rules.) Give credit for the following : 3. Soundness of thought. 4. Pertinence. 5. Conciseness. 6. Intermediate rhyme. 7. Alliteration. 8. Pun. 9. Unusual swing or lilt. 10. Any original or unusual thought. From this chart, the "Primary Judges," as they are called, discard the obviously unfit and ineligible entries and pass to the "Junior Judges" all entries which have even the slightest chance to win. The Primary Judges are liberal in their judgment, and always give the contestant the benefit of a doubt. The Junior Judges are young men and women with special training in English. They continue the process of discarding the poorest entries until they have reduced the total number of approved entries to ap- proximately three times the total number of prizes offered. From now on, each surviving entry blank requires a permanently attached "Rating Sheet." This Rating Sheet itemizes the points which will be considered by the "Senior Judges" in evaluating each entry. Here is a typical Rating Sheet for a slogan contest — bearing in mind that the pre- requisites of product-mention and other fac- tors have already been considered : Rating Sheet 1. Conciseness. (Not the minimum num- ber of words but rather the minimum num- ber used to convey the thought. 12 words, in some cases, might be more concise than 6.) 2. Lucidity. (Clarity of expression and meaning. ) 3. Human interest. 52
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RADIO STARS 4. Originality. (Not an obvious imita- tion of a well-known slogan.) 5. Good pun, rhyme and /or alliteration. 6. Good tie-up to product. ( Emphasizing value or quality, or benefits accruing to user. ) 7. Miscellaneous. (Exceptional degree of selling punch. extraordinary lilt or euphony.) When the Senior Judges have checked the entry against this schedule of seven points, it receives a rating of anywhere from 1 to 7. This method delivers the entries to the " Executive Judges" in sequence according to ratings earned, and permits the Executive Judges to modify or confirm the judgment of the Senior Judges. In so doing, they have for their guidance the exact reasons why each entry received this particular rating. ( The Executive Judges are executives of the Donnelley Corporation.) This method assures each contestant equal and thorough consideration and also provides legal protection for the sponsor against contestants who honestly believe in their claims, as well as by those who sue in the hope of settlement for the nui- sance value of their suits. Thus, we see with what thoroughness and efficiency the entries are handled, and that invariably the winners are fairly selected. It seems cruel to eliminate con- testants because they omitted some simple requirement of the contest, the writing of the name in full, the using of pencil instead of ink or typewriter. But. the assumption is that anyone unable to follow simple rules is not likely to have a prize-winner's men- tality. There are many complaints from con- testants, naturally. They cannot imagine that anyone could have produced better ideas than theirs. Or. if they are among the winners, they cannot understand why they do not receive their prizes immediately. Roth the National Broadcasting Company and the Columbia Broadcasting System have special employees who devote all their time to the problems of contests held on their networks. At CBS, in New York, Miss Araby Gilmore receives telephone calls, many of them in broken English, which she must answer as diplomatically as possible, explaining to minds which do not seem to comprehend the enormity of the mail received in contests, that prizes will be sent along as soon as humanly pos- sible. One woman called her every day or so for two weeks to asl not received a small conte she had won. It was a pin duatu y she had ize which he wanted as a high < iilmore's sentiments were touched and she kept on that particular job so zealously that the pin was received in time. Miss Ethel Gilchrist of NBC has simi- lar experiences with contestants' calls and letters. She says that occasionally there are "thank you" letters and they are, in- deed, appreciated. There is no doubt that the radio contests have made many things possible for the fortunate winners wrhich never could have been managed otherwise. Miss Sarah Turk, of Austin, Texas, an en- thusiastic radio listener, was the winner of a thousand dollars in a recent contest, and she wrote gratefully to the sponsors that the money would enable her to make a much-anticipated trip to Europe. In the spring of this year, the Contest World held its third annual National Con- test Popularity Poll, with more than three thousand readers voting and submitting their opinions on radio contests. Here are some of the answers in reply to the ques- tion: "Did contesting help you in any way ?" "Yes — it helped me to express myself more clearly." "Contesting has increased my vocabu- lary." "Contesting has helped me to make busi- ness contacts which I otherwise would have been unable to make ; has introduced me to people I otherwise would not have met; and has taken me to places where I other- wise would not have gone." "The prizes have helped us through the Mystery Contest the Philco Radic testants had a ? sleuthing. John ) :, the "Phyl" Coe ■ed this spring by ioration, the con- ourse in amateur ly, a young artist of Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, won the first prize of five thousand dollars ; a wo- man, Miss Elizabeth Henderson of Port- land, Oregon, captured the second prize of a thousand dollars ; and the five-hundred- dollar third prize went to Ephraim P. Winters, a newspaper editor of Potsdam, New York : and, among the forty-eight hundred-dollar winners, was John A. War- ing, a W.P.A. worker, of Minneapolis. To these grateful citizens — and thousands of others — radio has given an opportunity to engage in an entertaining and profitable pastime, one that they may rest assured is definitelv on the level! ISNT SHE? That's what they'll say about you when you enhance your charm with Maybelline Eye Beauty Aids — the eye make-up in good taste. When you darken your lashes to long, sweeping loveliness with Maybelline Mascara it seems as though Nature made them that way. Maybelline Mascara goes on easily and stays on perfectly. It is harmless, tear-proof, and non-smarting. Give your eyebrows definite grace and character with the Maybelline smooth-marking Eyebrow Pencil. It's perfectly pointed to form trim, tapering contours. The slightest touch of Maybelline Eye Shadow blended on your eyelids gives them that misty, luminous effect. Be your most adorable self by giving your eyes this added loveliness today* Attractive purse sizes of Maybelline Eye Beauty Aids are ob- tainable at all 10c stores. EYE BEAUTY AIDS 53
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RADIO STARS YOUR HAN THIS NEW, EASY WAY Apply just a few golden drops soothes as it smooths away roughness and redness. There's an Important Ingredient in Chamberlain's not gen- erally found in other lotions, to keep skin soft, smooth and young. There's never a trace of stickiness and you don't have to shake the bottle. That's why so many prefer Chamberlain's. Attractive hands are yours for the asking if you ask for Ckomberlain's at Drug. ..Department Stores re!g\\sM aad Toilet Goods Counters t§iJ> EMmMEWMMmnBEM CHAMBERLAIN LABORATORIES, INC. DES MOINES. IOWA Please send Free "Carry-Size" Chamberlain's Lotion. NAME STREET CITY-STATE MAIL THIS COUPON TODAY Good only n U.S.A. ^T^^^SmART, up-to-the-minute designs. Pins in 2 v^^l^ colors with any 3 or 4 letters and year. Hand- m lomeSlerlmg silver rings. Oldest, largest makers; VJjJ1' famous for quality 44 years. Write for catalog. f* BASTIAN BROS. Dept. 51 Rochester, N.Y. SHE SCOOPS TO CONQUER (Continued from page 25) book is always with lier. Her friends sometimes say : "You don't ire invite Mary Margaret to dinner un- ss you invite a story for her." Once, a man seated next to her at a dinner party i suddenly that he was her story, is furious ! For a long time he wouldn't say a word. But Mary Mar- garet, with her frank interest in his work, her naive disappointment at his silence, finally won him over. He talked, gave her a grand story, and then, for good measure, agreed to be a guest on her pro- gram some day and talk some more. This he did, and they're friends now. In spite of her years in New York, her travels over the world, she keeps a kind of fresh-from-the-farm simplicity. It's a simplicity which gives her a kind of poise that the most sophisticated person can well envy. A poise that makes her perfectly at home wherever she is, and at ease with whomever she meets. She was one of the reporters, some years back, sent to meet Prince Christopher, son of the then King of Greece, when he arrived in this country. She boarded the ship and joined the group of newspapermen who waited nervously to greet a titled man. Prince Christopher was one of the first members of European royalty to visit the United States in the post-War era, and nobody knew, then, just how to greet him. Mary Margaret listened with amused amazement while the newspapermen dis- cussed the problem among themselves. Should they curtsy? Were you supposed to kneel ? She was aghast to see "hard- boiled" reporters worrying and fidgeting because they didn't know how to approach a prince. When the great moment came, Mary Margaret simply said good morning, just as if he were a neighbor, and confessed to him that she was disappointed because he looked much like any other nice-looking man. The Prince laughed and told her she reminded him of the little boy who, upon meeting him, cried and cried and couldn't be consoled. When they asked him what was wrong, he sobbed : "He hasn't got a crown." Her natural approach with the Prince, incidentally, won for her one of the finest scoops of her writing career. Charmed by her simplicity, the Prince talked to her willingly. Up until that time, practically nothing had been written about the per- sonal lives of royal families. To Mary Margaret the Prince poured out his story. He told her about his childhood in the great royal palace. Of how, on rainy days, he and his brothers were permitted to get their bicycles and ride them around and around in the throne room. Of how the palace, so grand, so impressive, actually wasn't very comfortable to live in. Of its one bathtub— and that in his father's, the King's room — and how it ran rusty water and harbored water bugs. When her writing job was ended, the farm girl from Missouri and the Prince from Greece parted friends. You have a feeling that when she was a little girl, and poor, her mother instilled in her the belief that as long as you were neat and clean and honest, you were as good as a princess. Thus, a person's sta- tion never impresses her, but what he is does. She's so honest, it's sometimes a nuisance. Once she did a story for a national magazine on Anne Morgan. When the story was published, Anne Morgan was pleased and amazed at its accuracy, because, she said, in her interviews Mary Margaret hadn't taken a single note. In no time at all people were hearing from Anne Morgan what a marvel this McBride woman was — remembering with precise accuracy every detail of her conversation. Well, as a matter of fact, Mary Margaret had taken copious notes. But the small note-book, as usual lay in her lap, and she scribbled without looking at it. Miss Mor- gan hadn't even noticed the note-taking. As soon as Mary Margaret heard rumors of Anne Morgan's mistaken opinion, she began frantically to try to correct it. She phoned people, she wrote denials, she worried and fretted, and finally gave up. Most people, it seemed, believed Anne Morgan, anyway. In her radio work she refuses to accept as a commercial any product she doesn't believe in thoroughly. This kind of hon- esty never fails to amaze business asso- ciates. Before accepting a sponsor for her program, she investigates his product, visits his plant, uses his product in her own household for a while, and then, if she doesn't think it's the best on the market, refuses to take it on the program. It's simply that she can't honestly advise women to use a product that she herself wouldn't use. Nothing upsets her so much as having people question her sincerity. People sometimes write her, saying : "I can't be- lieve that you really eat all the things you pretend to have in front of you while you broadcast." One letter like that ruins a day. It's absolutely true that while she yums-yums over a delicious pudding or a choclate cake, she's devouring it then and there. Ask the man in the control room. It drives him crazy. He must watch care- fully, and soften, as best he can, the sud- den click of spoon on china, the handling of dishes. He has confessed, too, that he watches in terror lest a blob of whipped cream be flicked into the microphone. It seems that the microphone is such a deli- cate instrument that one speck of whipped cream could completely ruin it, besides messing up the broadcast. So far, there have been no such casualties. Food is still her most exciting experi- ence. She tells, shamelessly, of visiting an inn famous for its desserts and eating fifteen desserts in one day. She couldn't bear not to taste them all. It's her pride that she is willing to taste anything that's served as food and enjoyed by some peo- ple. As an experience, she's eaten so- called delicacies ranging from rattlesnake meat to raw fish. Her favorite food, though, is still hot biscuits and Southern fried chicken and the kind of food her mother used to cook for Sunday dinner down on the farm. ^H>e£y ma£e up... aAvayi. with the new POWD'ti BASE stick Keeps powder and make-up on until removed. No nose or face shine. Non-visible; non- greasy and waterproof. Simple to use; achieves that velvety, flattering complexion. Flesh — Rachelle — Brunette — Suntan. 10c— 25c— 50c— SI. POUJD'PIISE Hampden 251 Fifth Ave. N.Y. 54
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RADIO STARS It's typical of her that a few years ago, when she was assigned to make an ex-king tour of Europe, as the basis for a series of stories, she took her mother along. Most reporters would never have thought of doing this, but Mary Margaret had always dreamed of taking her mother away from the farm, showing her the won- ders of foreign lands, the adventures of traveling. The trip was a hard one. It meant scurrying to all parts of Europe, tracking down dethroned monarchs who were in hiding or in exile. Most of them were, naturally, resentful of intruders, and proud. Rut the quiet little farm woman from Mis- souri had a way with ex-kings. She felt sorry for them. And she treated each one, not as a monarch, but as if he were an unhappy little boy who had been mis- treated. Several of them were fanning, and to them Mary Margaret's mother gave friendly advice on the subject she knew best. They found Manuel, ex-King of Portugal, raising ducks in a little English town, and there they had a delightful visit, swapping stories on the problems of duck raising. The former monarchs, suspicious of most people, talked freely of their sor- rows. Some of them even showed Mrs. McBride and Mary Margaret small boxes of earth, cherished soil from their native lands which they still loved and to which they could never return. The shrewdest reporter in the world could never have un- covered the human, touching stories that Mary Margaret and her mother were told. However, like any good reporter, many of her best stories are the result of sheer nerve and fearlessness. Her first scoop — in her early newspaper days — was a story about stunt flying. Aviation was fairly new then, and few people had been up in a plane. Most of the material written about flying was frankly second hand. When her editor told her to do a story on stunt flying, Mary Margaret did what was to her the obvious thing — she arranged to go up with a stunt flyer. Her editor was horrified. He refused to assign her to the story. If she wanted to do it, if she came back in one piece, if she wrote the story, he'd publish it. But he wouldn't assign her to so dangerous a task. She went out to the field dressed in her best clothes. The flyer gave her pants, a jacket, goggles, a helmet. Since ships in those days were open crates, they strapped her in, and the stunt flyer took off. There was a breath-taking ascent. The wind tore at her helmet, the noise was deafening. Suddenly she felt the plane stand on its nose and go into a whirling motion. By some miracle it straightened up. The pilot turned around, grinning, and shouted against the wind : "That was a spin.'' Then they went into loops, barrel-rolls, wing- overs, more spins — all the hazardous ex- citing stunts. When they returned to earth, photographers from her paper were there, nervous friends were on hand to greet her. Later an acquaintance asked her : "What was the most thrilling part of the whole thing?'' And she answered quite honestly, "Getting my picture in the paper.-' They actually had run her picture, in the borrowed thing togs, along with her story. She is still an aviation enthusiast. And one of her radio programs that pleased listeners most was the story of her flight to Europe on the Hiiideiibitrg. When Mary Margaret came to New York, one of the first things she wanted to see was "the street with the park in the middle of it." She had seen it in the movies. Today, as a kind of fulfillment of an old dream, she lives on that street. For all her love of the farm, and all the nos- talgia it holds for her, she probably will never return to it. There arc no micro- phones down on the farm. Besides, she also loves New York. Her fondness for the sight of golden wheat bowing before the wind, for the sweet smell of new- plowed earth after a rain, for a country kitchen fragrant with baking bread, is last- ing and sincere. But she finds equal rhapsody in the sight of New York's sky- line studded with lights, of a ship coming ter afternoon, brushed with snow. She's one of those rare people who sees beauty Right now her dream is to have a white garden, a garden with nothing but white flowers growing in it. But even while she talks of white tulips silhouetted against evergreens, and white roses climbing a pastel wall — even when she shows you, enthusiastically, the white-garden plan which a landscape gardener drew for her — you know she'll never plant one. For she could never resist a clump of purple pansies here, a delicate spray of blue del- phinium there, and violets. Yellow roses would tempt her, and old-fashioned holly- hocks, and sweet peas in a hodgepodge of color like they had down home. She's that kind of a person. A \blume of Pi™ .for his or her Old Gold -en Christinas Here's one "volume" that will never get tucked away in the book shelves to gather dust! It's filled with 100 Old Golds, the cigarettes that are as double-mellow as Santa's smile. And it costs no more than two regular "Flat-Fifty" packages. What a handsome gift it makes! Give him this "True Story of America's Double-Mellow Cigarette," and you'll give him a whole volume of smoking pleasure. Ladies will be thrilled with this Old Gold gift, too! It looks like a rare edition, richly bound in maroon and gold. TUNE IN on Old Gold's "Melody and Madness" with Bob Benehley, every Sunday night starling November 20th, Columbia Network, Coast-to-Coast 2 Open it up and you find 2 regular "flat-fifties" of Old Golds (100 cigarettes). 3 Open one of the "flat-fifties" and en- yAmerica'sdouble- niellow cigarette. 55
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RADIO STARS THE BANDWAGON ( Continued from page 47) • Put your eyes in the holiday mood — liven them up with Kur- LASH's flattery! Curl your lashes up from your eyes, show off their size and brilliance — and sing carols with the wide-eyed, angelic look that only Kurlash gives! Learn what shades of eye make- up are becoming to you — how to apply them skilfully! Send your name, address and coloring to Jane Heath, Dept. E-12; receive — free — a personal color-chart and full instructions in eye make-up! fTHE KURLASH COMPANY. Inc. Rochester. New York. U. S. A. Canada: Toronto, 3 FEMININE HYGIENE A TO the perplexed woman seeking to do away with the bother of measuring and mixing solutions, we suggest Boro-Pheno-Form. This forty-six year old product is widely preferred for Feminine Hygiene because it needs no water or accessories for its use. Each dainty supposi- tory is complete in itself. No danger of "over- dose" or "underdose." v Soothing, harmless, odor- |)r Di ^n^'c 'ess. At all drug stores. f IC'rC 5 Boro-Pheno-Form PPEEI Mail Coupon today for ^-^v ritCC. "TheAnswer';-an inform- ^SZZtP: ative booklet on Feminine Hygiene. Dr Pierre Chemical Co., Depl.l4-N 162 N. Franklin Street, Chicago, III. Please send me booklet "The Answer. Name _ _ _ „. Address _.; _. Town State 56 Mr. Kaye with dangerous emphasis. "Our syncopation and our ideas are just as modern and streamlined as any outfit you can name." I said : "Sammy, you're wrong." He said: "Jerry, you're wrong." We left it at that. GESTURE Xo rivalry in radio is quite so great as that between the two big chains. So here's a little incident that makes you •wonder : Eddy Duchin began liis new commercial series over NBC in September. First re- hearsal was called for a Friday. But. in all of gigantic Radio City, there zvasn't a rehearsal studio which wasn't occupied. Linger over that situation for a minute : an important new radio premiere; thou- sands of dollars invested; a billion-dollar skyscraper with the last word in radio equipment — and not a studio which the stars of the new program could use. The solution zvas just as odd as the situ- ation : CBS offered to lend NBC and its client a studio. So Eddy Duchin and his band rehearsed on Friday in a CBS studio for a program that made its debut on a Monday night over NBC. PIPE OF PEACE Closer than Walter Winchell and Ben Bernie are Bernie and his cigar. You think of Ben and you think of his to- bacco cylinder. Ben's face would look positively nude without that stogie. So the years have passed and Ben and his cigars have been inseparable pals. All went well until Bernie made the fatal mis- take of signing up with a sponsor who manufactured pipe tobacco. Ben, think- ing not of what lay ahead of him, in- serted an ad in Variety — that primer of show business — telling all about himself and his new sponsor. His sponsor needed only one look at that ad to reach a trem- bling hand for the telephone. For there was pictured Ben and his cigar — and he was supposed to sell pipe tobacco! That little crisis passed and all was well until word came that new decora- tions were being planned for McGuin- ness' Tavern, a favorite Broadway resort. And one of the new murals depicted radio's Ole Maestro accompanied by his never-missing cigar. Quickly, an em- ployee of Mr. Bernie's office was dis- patched to see Mr. McGuinness. The lat- ter was impressed with the solemnity and danger of the situation and agreed to re- move the cigar from Ben's mouth. Just to make sure, a scout was sent out the next morning to see if that fateful cigar had been severed so that sponsor and Ben might rest easily. But — cut to the quick was the scout when he observed that the cigar hadn't been moved an inch — not even to dust an ash. He quickly inspected the empty room, reached in his pocket for a penknife and delicately and hastily removed the cigar from between Mr. Bernie's lips. Then he drew pencil from pocket and filled in that denuded space with a neat cupid's bow. Today Mr. Bernie strides up and down Broadway with a pipe. A pipe in which he may smoke his sponsor's tobacco. But who knows what he does in the privacy of his little room? PAGE DAVE ELMAN Harry Salter is musical director of Dave Elman's Hobby Lobby — the program which has hit top-flight success because of its novel idea. Each week a group of oddly assorted people are presented who tell all about their unique and interesting bobbies. Week after week, Harry has watched the parade of every imaginable kind of hobby. Finally, I asked him about his hobby. It seems that Harry has never had one ! TURNING OVER A MUSICAL LEAF After many long years, Al Goodman has reached the disheartening conclusion that there is very little future for straight musical directors in radio. The only niche for them is on the super-terrific variety shozvs, and even there they arc buried at the bottom of a large mass of talent. The only way out, Goodman feels, is to build a reputation as a dance-band maestro. He reached this decision after the latest of several odd experiences. His name was submitted to some of the advertising agencies in the process of building new radio shozvs. "Al Goodman! Who is he?" was the general attitude. All this despite the Goodman back- ground : conductor of radio's Showboat, Beauty Box Theatre and Ziegfeld Follies of the Air. Creator of the Hit Parade style in 1935 and director of the series eight times — more often than any other leader. Conductor of more than 150 mu- sical comedies and operettas on Broadzvay. ■waving the baton for such names as Eddie Cantor. Al Jolson, Frank Morgan, Fannie Bricc, Ethel Merman. But now he wants to forget about all that. He wants to drazv on that tremen- dous background of his and bring forth a band to compare with Lombardo or Duchin or Clinton. He has even invented a catch phrase to compare with the best — "Al Goodman and his Everybody Dance Music." All this may give you some idea of the poiver of radio. FURTHER PROOF That Al is right (and that we were right in the first place) is proved by the fact that the aforementioned Larry Clin- ton's brand-new outfit has walked away with two commercial radio shows for the new season. They are the Tommy Riggs program and the production starring Bob Benchley and Clinton, set to start on No- vember 20, over CBS.
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THE MODERNAIRES Radio's best quartet is the outfit which graces the Paul Whiteman program — the ifodemaires. Their harmonies started back in Buffalo when Bill Conway and Chuck Goldstein shared the driver's seat of a pie-wagon. Then they wanted a three-handed bridge ?ame and added Harold Dickinson. But instead of playing bridge they played a record of the old Rhythm Boys and learned how to imitate them. They turned into a quartet when a sponsor said be didn't want a trio but could use a four- some. After Ralph Brewster, of Kansas, joined them they didn't get the job — but it wasn't Brewster's fault. The sponsor wanted an octet or something. Using an odd assortment of names, they've worked for practically everybody in radio. With Ozzie Nelson they were known as the Wizards of Oz. You might remember them, too, as the Collegians. They finally settled on Modcrnaircs. Both Whiteman and the boys are well satisfied with their new job. The oddest part of their connection with Paul, though, is that he auditioned them in Buffalo eight jears ago and refused to hire them. DRUM SCOUT Drummer Johnny Williams of the Ray- mond Seott Quintet is well known for the eerie effects lie gets on the skins. Partic- ularly effective is the unusual drum pass- age in Scott's Egyptian Barn Dance. Investigation reveals that Johnny's work RADIO STARS Herman F. Krausser, NBC's piano tuner, works six nights a week from 1 :00 to 7:30 a.m. tuning 38 grand pianos. is no black magic — it's just the special drum he uses on those occasions. He picked it up in a Boy Scout shop. "Scout Model No. so-and-so — designed especially for drum and fife corps." EXPERT Andre Kostelanetz, returned from his South American trip, decided to clean out his office files during one of his few leisure moments. He came across a tele- gram dated in the early part of 1935. It was addressed to Boake Carter, who at that time was suggesting programs for his listeners to turn to. The wire read: "IF YOU WANT TO HEAR THE WORLDS GREATEST TROMBONIST LISTEN TO THE CHESTERFIELD PROGRAM TONIGHT STOP HIS NAME IS TOMMY DORSEY ANDRE KOSTELANETZ" ONCE OVER LIGHTLY The bands are up to their old tricks of horse-trading again. Trumpeters Yank Lawson and Charlie Spivak of Bob Cros- by's crew have switched to Tommy Dorsey —making Tommy's brass section close to perfect. Pee Wee Erwin, the ex-Dorsey No. 1 trumpeter, is now working for Raymond Warnow Scott. . . . Pretty Texan Louise Tobin vocalizes with Bobby Hackett — one of the better swing outfits. Louise took the job because she was tired of staying home by herself in the evenings. Her husband works nights. He is Harry James — Benny Goodman's first trumpeter. Jimmy Shields came up to NBC to audition for the Eddy Duchin program. Eddy looked at him with a faint gleam of recognition in his eyes — -"Don't I know you?" He did — Jimmy won third place in the national talent audition Duchin held two years ago. Shields, incidentally, is now featured vocalist on Eddy's program. . . . Chick Webb and Ella Fitzgerald rate high among the jittery-bugs. Ella is one of those gals who is everybody's friend. When the band played at a Harlem theatre, Ella spent her intermissions play- ing soft-ball with the kids who flocked to greet her at the stage door. STOPS HIM IN HIS TRACKS! "BLIZZARDS ROUGHEN A1Y SKIN? NO? / PROTECT MY SK/M WITH POND'S VAAJ/SH/A/G CREAM. /T KEEPS MY SK/AJ A//CE AA/OSOET/A/SP/TE OP SA/OtVAA/O IA//A/D" CORONATION -YEAR DEB — DAUGHTER OF THE FAMOUS ROUMANIAN DIPLOMAT, AND GRANDDAUGHTER OF THE COUNTESS OF OXFORD AND ASQUITH "Pond's Vanishing Creo away little roughnesses the extra 'skin-vitamin' i always v brings to i as grand for smooth .y skin." NOW BRINGS EXTRA "SKIN -VITAMIN TO HER SKIN* Now Pond's Vanishing Cream brings to its many users this extra beauty care — it con- tains Vitamin A, the "skin-vitamin." This vitamin is necessary to skin health — and skin that lacks it becomes rough and dry. But once "skin-vitamin" is restored, it helps skin be- come smooth again. Now you tan smooth some of this necessary vitamin into your skin with every Pond's creaming! Same jars. Same labels. Same prices. * Statements concerning the effects of the "aldn- vitamin" applied t iln- <kin an- based upon medical literature and testa on the ^kin of animals following an accepted laboratory method. Tune in on "THOSE WE LOVE," Pond's Program, Mondays, 8:30 P.M., N.Y. Time, N.B.C. 57
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RADIO STARS TO INTRODUCE TAYTON'S SILK-SIFTED POWDER 24 KARAT GOLD FINISH GOOD LUCK CHARM BRACELET PLATTER PATTER ?ET OF GLAMOUR MAKE-UP FOUND IN SILK-SIFTED POWDER i introduce TAYTON'S silk-sifted powder hc.nitiful J4 karat gold finish charm brace- vith four good luck charms attached— a 24 t gold finish horse shoe, four leaf clover, ...ne and l.hielnid. de-igned exactly like the Mte »"r..us beauty. Praised l.y powder in your 10c lat goes around the 0c to Tayton Com- 7th Street, Los An- bracelet. NOTE: : no::; to TA \ iu.V one! Cover broken, short, thin nails with Nu-Nails. Can be worn any length and polished any desired shade. Defies _ detection. Waterproof. Kasily applied; remains firm. No effect on nail growth or cuticle. Removed at will. Set o£ Ten, 20c. All Sc and 10c stores. NU-NAILS FINGERNAILS 4042 W. Lake St.. Chicago Nervous, Weak, Ankles Swollen? Much nervousness is caused by an excess of acids and poisons due to functional Kidney and Bladder disorders which mav also cause Getting Up Nights, Burning Passages, Swollen Joints. Backache, Cir- cles Under Kvcs, Kxcess Acidity, Leg Pains and Dizziness. Help your kidneys purify your blood with Cystex. Usually the very first dose starts helping your kidneys clean out excess acids and this soon mav make vou feel like new. Under the money-back 'guarantee Cystex must satisfy com- pletely or cost nothing. Get Cystex isisstex) to- day. It costs only 3c a dose at druggists and the guarantee protects you. WANT A U S- GOVERNMENT JOB? START $1260 TO $2100 YEAR Thouundi 1939 Mail Coupon . / FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, . Of-pt. C261. Rochester, N. V. rSns: Rush without • U:\iy.i_- Bcatin' and Pop Goes the Weasel or On the Bumpy Road to Love and There's Honey on the Moon Tonight. Bea Wain, who has decided to leave Clinton to free-lance, is the principal attrac- tion on a new recording by Larry. She sings the operatic My Heart is Thy Sweet Voice and the ancient A Pretty Girl Milk- ing Her Cozv (Victor). Good luck, Bea. CLASSICAL If you really want some fun along the classical lines, get hold of Victor's Lieu- tenant Kijc Album. Recorded by Kousse- vitsky, it is the music from a popular Rus- sian film. Good blues, lively tunes and a lot of musical humor. Popular Debussey's Iberia is the other ace of the month. Conducted by John Bar- birolli and played by the New York Phil- harmonic, the album definitely belongs in any growing collection. Arthur Fiedler's Boston "Pop" Orches- tra does a varied job — everything from a minuet to swing — on Pop Goes the Weasel (Victor). Then they've also done a two- part arrangement of the Skaters Walts. Both of these old standbys are good. Another charmingly entertaining collec- tion is the album of the Fantastic Toy Shop. Ballet music, it is played by the London Philharmonic, conducted by Eu- gene Goossens (Victor). Marian Anderson, great contralto, sings two of the spirituals of her own race : Trampin and / Know Lord Laid His Hands On Me (Victor). An unforgetable record. —J. M.
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RADIO STARS STARS WITHOUT BALLYHOO {Continued from page 39) and dedicates them to different listeners. Then, every day. she reads a "Secret of Happiness" which seems to find great re- sponse among their fans. They send birth- day and wedding greetings, and answer requests for songs from sweethearts, happy and unhappy. In 1924. May and Peter sent greetings over the air to Mr. and Mrs. A. Martini of Jersey City on their golden wedding anniversary. Last spring, they sent greetings to the same couple on their sixty-fourth anniversary. The followers of Sweethearts of the Air never leave them. One fan, Florence Camillone of New Rochelle, New York, has been keeping a scrap-book of clippings about Breen and de Rose for eight years. She has kept a record of every song which they have done on every program. If they want to know what songs they did on a certain program three years ago, all they have to do is telephone Florence! In their fourteen years of broadcasting. May and Peter have been off the air only two weeks, during which time they were married and went on a honeymoon. To celebrate that event. Peter wrote When Your Hair Has Turned to Silver. They have never been late for a broad- cast. But they had a close call once. That was during the blizzard of 1933, when they were living in New Rochelle. They were the only Westchester County broadcasters to get to their programs on time. They gave themselves three hours to drive twenty miles, and made it by ten seconds. Peter rushed to the piano to play their theme song, still wearing his overcoat and heavy boots, while May sang until her fingers were sufficiently thawed so that she could play her uke. Sammy Herman was not so fortunate. Sammy, the noted xylophonist who has entertained for years with Frank Banta at the piano, lived in Pclham. He couldn't get his car started. Trains weren't run- ning. So, Sammy stood in the road in snow up to his knees, and finally thumbed his way into New York. He missed his show by two hours, but Peter had filled in for him, with a piano interlude. These stars hold to a rigid routine which keeps them toeing the mark and makes them all sympathetic brother-slaves to the alarm clock. By the time you sit down to breakfast, they are already on the air. When the alarm clock rings, they can't stretch and take another forty winks. There's no time to lose. Missing a train may mean missing a broadcast. Most of these early birds of the air shun night life in order to retire early. In order to do their best job, most of them get to bed by 10:30. For five years, the NBC Red network was opened at 7:00 in the morn- ing by the Japanese xylophonist, Yoichi Hiraoka. Yoichi never failed. When he was tempted to ignore his alarm clock, his wife Aould come to the rescue witli a wet towel. That always roused him. One of the mysteries of radio has been the hearty laugh and cheerful nonsense of Jolly Bill Steinke on the Jolly Bill WHY PAY MORE FOR Don't BE wasteful and buy extrava- gant shelf trimmings when your shelves can be just as smart and colorfully dressed in 5<t Roy ledge! Royledge is excellent taste. Decorators have used it in model kitchens and closets. They recommend it because it is attractive, practi- cal, thrifty. The embossed, curl-proof edge needs no tacks, no laundering. A dust cloth keeps it clean, and it lasts a whole season. Royledge is so popular that every 5-and-10C, de- partment and neighborhood store carries a host of new patterns to match other home furnish- ings. Look for ROYLEDGE — 5c or IOC packages. You'll see that good decor doesn't need a fancy price. Roylace, 99 Gold Street, Brooklyn, New York. IDEA : Save laundry and improve table service with ROY LIES - the radio-advertised doylies. Si and lOc a package. MPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT Please turn fo page 18. 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Ask your druggist tomorrow for Admira- cion Olive Oil Shampoo-Treatment and if your hair doesn't wake up with new softness and beauty, we'll refund your money. NOTICE Admiracion now m the famous Olive O And the new Ad women who preft makes two shampoos — advertised above, on Foamy Oil for ther. Know the Thrill of a ^Lovely, Clear Complexions Popularity, pood romance are the l flawless skin. Tha linrss Kivi'S you pi 1 11R -I, mild. Hi.- mak. . of ST1 W;T S I. ANA TIV10 ('l)MI'Ol'M) TAUI.KTS will -lolly son.i you tlicir specially written fa.souu i in_- 1 klet : "AIDS TO ISIC.U TY'' . . . i W!,.i. every woman should do to mako the most of iier looks and lier personality). It contains scores of helpful beauty hmts that may be just what is needed in your case. Ties booklet is yours free, if you will write for FREE SAMPLE STUART'S LAXATIVE COMPOUND TABLETS and a FREE copy of AIDS TO BEAUTY" . . . what every woman should do. Send tiamo and address now. Send to F. A. STUART COMPANY Dept. 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RADIO STARS 0-0, when the Captain barks "Thomp- son—Get out some Beeman's— Pass it around — Let's get our minds on something pleasant — Relax." Even the Coach had to grin. "Learn a lesson from Beeman's," says he. "That fresh tangy flavor scores every time. Got a tang to it that drives away that weary feeling. Just think how fresh that flavor makes you feel and you can score like Beeman's does." We did, too. and Jane programs at the unearthly hour of 7:15 in the morning. How Jolly Bill can be j oily when he has had to get up at 5 :30 in order to get down town and do his daily stint on the air is more than any layman could ever figure out, but for years he's been doing it. There's no mistaking the heartiness of that laugh, either. It's one of the trademarks of Bill Steinke's personality. Kid listeners all over the country know it and love it. Bill is one of the fraternity, too, who stands ready to rush to the assistance of any early broadcaster who needs it. One morning there was a near-calamity on the program of the Don Hall Trio, which was composed of Don Hall and two girls. It was two minutes until eight o'clock, the hour when the Don Hall Trio was supposed to give the call to breakfast. The two girls were there, but Don was missing. The girls had rushed page boys to the drug store where the seven o'clockers, their programs finished, were enjoying their counter breakfasts. At one minute of eight, the studio door flew open and in rushed Jolly Bill, Bradley Kincaid, with his "Houn' Dawg Guitar," and Muriel Pollack and Yee Lawnhurst, the two- piano team, ready to lend a hand if Mr. Hall didn't show up. Miss Pollack had a piece of toast in her hand, but she sat ready at the piano. At a quarter of a minute before eight, in flew Don Hall, his violin out of the case, and he com- menced playing the theme song when the engineer gave the signal, as though not a thing unusual had happened. One of the most popular of the "un- ballyhooed" stars is the Landt Trio, which has been on the air since 1928. The Trio, made up of Carl, Dan and Jack Landt, was formed in Scranton, Pa., where the boys ran across an old friend, Howard White, one day in his bakery, and discov- ered that he had a piano in a back room of the shop and spent hours playing it. The Landts had been doing a little radio singing, so they got together and even- tually landed at NBC, New York. When Howard White died two years ago, they took Curley Mahr as their accompanist, and carried on. For years, the Landt Trio's program was called On the 8:15. Commuters in hundreds of suburbs timed their departure for their stations by the 8:15. On April Fool's Day the boys decided to play a joke on their listeners. The signature of their program was the sound of a train pulling out of the station. On this occasion, they started the program with this sound effect at 8 a.m., instead of signing off with it at 8:15. As a result, hundreds of commuters were confused, scalded their throats with hot coffee, and rushed from their homes only to arrive at their offices fifteen min- utes early. They protested by telephone, telegraph and letter, and the pranksters were duly remorseful, but they did have the satisfaction of checking up on their following. In the nine years of their broadcasting at early hours, the Landts have had many unusual things happen to them, but none were rushing in to do their program at the NBC studios at 711 Fifth Avenue, and were followed in by policemen. The cops wanted to arrest them as suspects in the robbery of a nearby bank. The boys had overslept and had a stubble of beard which made them look like suspicious characters as they ran into the building. Then, to top it off, Carl was carrying his guitar and the cops were sure that the case was full of bank notes. It took no end of explain- ing by the NBC employees to keep the representatives of the law from going right into the studio and pulling the Trio off the air. "Our songs were a little shaky that morning," they recall. No star has been more beloved than Vaughn de Leath, the first woman singer on the air, who is still heard almost every day over NBC. It was back in 1920 that Vaughn was invited to experiment with that new thing called "radio," and became the "Original Radio Girl." In fact, Vaughn can be credited with originating crooning, because when she was doing her experi- menting with radio, she noticed that loud soprano notes often crashed into the radio tubes, with damaging results, so she pitched her tones lower and softer, made her voice throaty and "modulated." Today, with all the self-importance and formality attached to the big revue shows of the air, it is a pleasure to watch Vaughn de Leath at the piano, playing her own accompaniments to her easy singing, keeping one eye on the clock as she does her own timing, now as in the first days of radio. Nothing fazes her. Once, two porters, acting on mistaken instructions, walked right in during the middle of her broadcast and moved out one of the two pianos which she was using with an as- sistant. She ad-libbed and went on with her show. Her self-assurance comes of the years when all the programs came from one studio, and anything could hap- pen. Vaughn puts a great deal of the per- sonal element into her programs, carrying on a dialogue with her announcer, and giv- ing heart-to-heart talks to her fans. Her advice is popular, for she gets a lot of fan mail which she always answers. Two girls are kept busy helping her at this job. "I like being neighborly," Vaughn says " — swapping jelly and home-made bread across a back fence." And, that's just what radio is to her and to the other members of this free and easy crowd — a back-yard fence. On NBC's eighth floor in the mornings, you are sure to see Joe White (Joseph White, The Silver Masked Tenor) visiting with Vaughn, May and Peter, Sammy Herman or other members of the gang, after he has finished his broadcast with Jerry Sears' orchestra. Joe's name is still magic to the steady daytime listeners. From 1925 to 1930, he was known from Coast to Coast as The Silver Masked Tenor and appeared on the Goodrich Tire programs wearing a silver mask. When he was touring the country with the Good- rich Silver/one orchestra, he had a chance to learn the great extent to which the radio had built up its favorites. Cheering crowds greeted him everywhere. One morning lie was standing in front of a theatre which advertised the presence of The Silver Masked Tenor. A man struck up a conversation with him and asked him if he would like to meet the tenor. "Do you know him?" Joe asked. "Sure, I know him," the man answered. "He got part of his face shot off during 60
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RADIO STARS the War. That's the reason he wears the mask. If you'll meet me here at the the- atre this evening, I'll take you backstage to see him." That, says Joe, was the nearest he came to being introduced to himself! He is still being billed as The Silver Mashed Tenor, and gets fan mail from all over the country, from people who have held him in affection for more than twelve years. This happy, friendly bunch of veteran artists have stuck together through the years and form a distinct social crowd of their own, with May Breen and Peter de Rose at the head. May and Peter are famous for their parties, at which you'll find all of the "gang" — Wendell Hall, Vaughn de Leath, Billy Jones and Ernie Hare, The Happiness Boys; the Landt Trio, Sam Herman, Welcome Lewis, Mil- ton Cross and Kelvin Keech, the popular announcers ; Graham McXamee, with his tall stories which the gang loves; Joe White, Nellie Revell. Phil Cook, the per- ennial favorite comedian, always carrying on in three or four dialects to everyone's amusement ; Bill Steinke, Vincent Lopez, discussing numerology with anyone who will listen; Paul Whiteman, playing his favorite party prank of giving people "the hot foot" ; the Revelers, who have helped to make the Cities Service program a favorite for a decade ; Robert Simmons, Annette Hanshaw, Gene and Glenn, when they are in from Chicago; Bertha Brain- erd. Phillips Carlin and George Engles, XBC executives ; Mathilde Harding, Jud- son House and last, but not least, though he is on the short side, Andy Sannella, the wizard of the steel guitar. Andy, with his orchestra, is a real "star without bally- hoo," since people have thrilled to his guitar for more than ten years and, for the past five, have hailed him on the Manhattan Merry-Go-Round. May and Peter's parties are distinguished for their tricks, electrified chairs, dummy cigarettes and dishes, glasses with holes in them that spill water on the guests, chairs with rubber legs, in fact everything to keep people in an uproar. And, everyone gets up and does a specialty. The parties are given at the drop of a hat — a birthday party for Bertha Brainerd every year, a party for "the sons and daughters of NBC," at which all the gang bring out their children and show them off, a party to celebrate someone's wedding anni- versary. It's a "folksy" set. It makes one won- der if the younger daytime crowd, the stars springing up now, without any spe- cial help from anyone, will have a similar congenial circle after they've been on the air for ten years. There are the cute brother-sister team. Jack and Loretta Clemens ; Dorothy Dreslin, of the lovely soprano voice ; George Griffin, the lyric baritone ; Maurinc Ward and Florence Muzzy, a two-piano team whom the morn- ing listeners have heard for four years now over NBC ; and Amanda Snow, who is fast building up a great following for her simple songs, to mention a few. Perhaps ten years from now, these art- ists, too, in point of service and amount of fan mail, will have proved their un- shakable positions in the affections of the public. K LI) E When it's swingtime and dancetime. she'll never be lonely again. What a difference since she discovered Blue Waltz Perfume! There's something actually tantalizing about its lovely, floral bouquet. Perhaps you'd find greater happiness, too, if you'd remember to say "Blue Waltz" when you buy perfume and cosmetics. Blue UJolta 10c at 5 and 10c stores. Q BLUE WALTZ PERFUME • FACE POWDER • LIPSTICK • BRILLIANTINE • AND IT'S SO EASY WHEN YOU USE THESE GRIFFIN POLISHES GRIFFIN A. B. C. LIQUID WAX requires no brushing or polishing. Just spread it on ... it dries to a real shine in a jiffy! GRIFFIN A. B.C. WAX POLISH in the famous jumbo tin with the easy opener for the nearest thing to a professional shine at home. It's water-re- pelling! All Popular Colors GRIFFIN THE GREATEST NAME IN SHOE POLISH
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RADIO STARS HERE'S THAT NEW BLACK LIPSTICK that magically changes to your own personal shade of a new, more alluring South Sea RED the instant it touches your lips! jr ~ — t RADIO RAMBLINGS (Continued from page 35) in the cA moonless South Sea night, black as a pocket... a Voodoo tire. ..'tis the night of the Love Dance, during ■which charm-wise maidens conjure the hearts of their mates-to-be. Black Magic! And now. ..for YOU. ..all the witchery of this intense South Sea moi new BLACK MAGIC shade of TATTOO. Black as night in the stick (yes, actually!). ..but the instant it touches your lips it magically changes to the exact shade of teasing, pagan RED that your own natural coloring requites... different on every woman. Tour ou~n personal lipstick! And oh! how it lasts on your lips; hours longer than you'll ever need it. Today... regardless of what shade of lipstick you've always used. ..try BLACK MAGIC. You'll find that it works like a charm — that it IS a charm — that it makes YOU more charming. $1 everywhere. Five other thrilling TATTOO shades too: CORAL . . EXOTIC . . NATURAL . . PASTEL . . HAWAIIAN TATTOO YOUR LIP5 4oi komfrnctl 0 Z5 \ TOOTHPASTE Be a Radio Artist SINGERS1— ACTORS - WRITERS ANNOUNCERS IN DEMAND — Radio — America's fastest growing industry — big pay — short hours — fame and success. Thousands possess valuable undiscovered talents. Are you One? I- this golden opportunity passing you up? Don't wait another minute, send now for vour FREE audition chart. A new, scientific method of determining your ability. Discover your niche in radio's hall of fame. This vitally important queston is the key to your future happiness — fame and wealth. There is ab- solutely no obligation. MAIL TODAY RADIO ARTS ACADKMY - Studio 14 3819 W ilohire Blvd., Hollywood, Calif. Ruth FREE Audition ( hart to me. Name _ AddreM treatment, she still is not sufficiently recov- ered from her nervous breakdown to risk the strain and worry that accompanies a weekly broadcast. The program has been moved from Chicago to California for the sake of Molly's health. Possibly she will be back for occasional programs and, be- fore the season is out, she may be heard regularly again. A VOICE from the past brought back by Fibber McGee's program this season is the tenor of Donald Novis, missing from the air almost entirely ever since his de- bacle in the radio version of Billy Rose's Jumbo. Donald had seemed to be just on the verge of stardom that year. He came to radio as a winner in one of le old Atzvatcr-Kcnt audition contests. His progress as a radio singer was not meteoric hut it was consistent. After three seasons, Donald's clear tenor had brought him to a point where he seemed ready to become a formidable rival for Frank Parker, James Melton and Lanny Ross, the leading tenors of that year. Prospects were still brighter when he landed the tenor lead in Jumbo, which promised to be the big new show of that season. When Jumbo flopped on the air, Novis had to stay with it because he was tied by con- tract. The program got small attention. So did Donald Novis. By the time that season of comparative obscurity was over, he found sponsors no longer eagerly bid- ding for his songs. Donald has been in no distress in the intervening years. He spent one season on a program heard on a Pacific Coast net- work and occasionally was guest star on a national network program. Vaudeville appearances have been lucrative. The Fibber McGee program is the first regular network engagement he has had, however. The tragic part is that progress toward stardom in radio, once it is inter- rupted, seldom is resumed with the old impetus. TFD HVSING is swaggering through another football season with the same bra- vado that has made him at once the most annoying, fascinating, exciting and enter- taining of all the sports announcers. Back- ing up his egotistical microphone manners, of course, he has a talent for quick-tongued and accurate reporting scarcely approached by any of his competitors. At the risk of life and limb, Ted once belittled a great Minnesota team as he broadcast one of its games. The team hap- pened to be having an off day' and Min- nesota partisans felt no more kindly toward him because his slighting remarks were only for that day. Ted confessed a little uneasiness when he went up to Min- neapolis to cover another Minnesota game the next season. He believed a bag of wafer dropped on his head from a second story window would be the least he could expect from the irate Minnesota fans. During that visit, Ted turned on another facet of his brilliant personality, sat down one night zvith a crowd of sports zvriters and football fans and left Minneapolis as a popular figure. He once deliberately angered dignified old Vale by referring to its team as "sons of Bull Dogs" all through one broadcast, knowing very well that the term might easily be construed as opprobrious and offensive. He caused himself to be barred from Harvard's stadium by calling a Har- vard football team "putrid." Theoretically, such outbursts as these may not be contributions to good sports announcing. They do add a spice to Husing's performance at the microphone, though. Any game may bring another of his historic and outrageous vocal antics. WITH the percentage of failures so high among radio programs, some sort of a medal should be pinned on the Chase and Sanborn radio overlords for their consistent record. In the past five years, the Sunday evening Chase and Sanborn hour has had eight changes of program, the majority of them landing among the most popular shows of their particular season. Five years ago, the program was taking Eddie Cantor to the peak of his popu- larity. None of his subsequent radio ven- tures has hit the same fantastic success. Rubinoff was developed on that program and Jimmy Durante had his best radio series there as a summer substitute for Cantor. When Cantor finally left the program, a daring experiment was tried. Deems Tay- lor was engaged to stage a series of grand operas in English, using Metropolitan Opera stars. The program was not as popular as expected and another experi- ment replaced it. Major Bowes' Amateur Hour had its first network hearings, with results still fresh in memory. The Major was lured away by larger salary and once more the replacement was far off the beaten path. A. L. Alexander's Good Will Court was brought in and set the whole nation de- bating, condemning, praising — but listen- ing. Opposition of lawyers to a radio pro- gram handing out legal advice resulted in a sudden court order, banning the pro- gram. With only a few days to assemble a substitute program, the one outright failure was marked down in the record. That was Haven MacQuarrie's Do You Want to Be An Actor? — a failure by con- trast with the hour's earlier achievements. All through these successful years, this Sunday evening hour had been one of the less expensive radio shows, spending around #5,000 a week or less for talent. Its current show with Charlie McCarthy is its first big financial splurge. The total salaries of Edgar Bergen, Nelson Eddy, Don Ameche, Dorothy Lamour, the Canovas, large orchestra and guest stars from the films run up to almost #15,000 every week, making the show one of the highest-priced on the air. But again, Chase and Sanborn owns the most popu- lar program in radio. MENTION of the Good Will Court ban is a reminder that the hour still flour- 62
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RADIO STARS ishes in a small way despite the ban. It mined to NBC from the Mutual network and is now back there again, sufficiently revised to keep out from under the pro- visions of the ban. No legal advice is given now. The advice is entirely emotional, usually urging the applicant for help to look into his heart and find the right course. THIS radio season has started zvith an unusually long list of absentees among the comedians. Head man is Phil Baker. Some others are Tom Hozcard. the Stroud Twins, Lou Holtz. Joe Cook, Frank Fay, Block and Sully, and the Marx Brothers. A NEW entry among the evening come- dians is Ransom Sherman, for years a hard-worked announcer and general cut- up on afternoon programs out in Chicago. He has a fertile and occasionally amusing vein of nonsense but, because he has al- ways had several programs a week to write and put together, his comedy always suffered from hasty preparation. This fall a sponsor has been found to concen- trate the Ransom talents on one Friday evening program every week. He may become the next successful comedian de- veloped strictly by radio without benefit of vaudeville or theatrical training. PAUL WHITEMAX'S recent selection of an All-American swing band in a magazine article is a stunt that only Paul would dare to try. No other bandleader would brave the wrath of all the musicians left out of the selections. The only way to avoid trouble would be to pick a 788-piece band — or to be Paul Whiteman. "01' Pappy." the musicians around radio and Broadway call him with affection. Some other bands may be more popular at the moment but musicians still consider it a special honor to land a job as horn blower or orchestrator with "Pap." Their respect is understandable. Run through today's list of popular bands and see how few date back to the jazz era that happened right after the War two decades ago. There are Paul and Vincent Lopez — and that's about the end of the list in big- time brackets. ONE possession of the nczv Max Rein- hardt-Adolphe Menjou program is the most temperamental director in radio. The fiery gentleman is long-haired, nervous, excitable, impetuous Bill Bachcr, who has careened through a cyclonic career the past eight years. Last season Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer put him in charge of its Thursday evening radio program, then being launched. The first couple of programs zvere a fiasco. Bill stepped out, charging that he had not been given stars or authority for a successful show. He did more titan merely quit. Broken hearted, nerves shattered, he hurled him- self into strict seclusion, seeing no one, taking no phone calls, until his wounds and pride had healed. He tried to assemble several other programs during the summer for prospective sponsors, but his prospects seemed cloudy until late fall when he bounced up again, more important than ever, with the biggest new shozv of the fall season. ber lighkloS,coZ?** dark er beauty. £h*nd>s Gla<ly h- • AT DRUG COUNTERS EVERYWHERE MARCHAND'S 60% OF ALL WOMEN WERE BORN BLONDE g'J*';jl Opera star Helen Jepson can blow a mean note, even on an antique horn. It is from her large collection of old musical instruments. 63
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RADIO STARS WHO IS GERSHWIN'S SUCCESSOR? (Continued from page 45) . . . Jtike. Ikti Beware of outgrown shoes. They ruin baby feet. Save your baby's feet. Buy inexpensive Wee Walker Shoes and change to new ones often. Carefully proportioned lasts afford barefoot freedom and correct support. Wee Walkers have the shape and other features endorsed by authorities. Wee Walkers cost less because they are sold nation- ally through store groups with tremendous buying power and a small profit policy. See jr >v them — compare them— in the Infant's $*CT?IT,C'\ Wear Department. Sizes up to about age ■ySSfiJT* 4. For baby's sake accept no substitutes. W. T. Grant Co. S. S. Kresge Co. J. J. Newberry Co. H. L. Green Co., Inc. Sears, Roebuck & Co. Charles Stores F. & W. Grand Stores G. R. Kinney Co.. Inc. Isaac Silver and Bros. Metropolitan Chain Stores, Inc. Schulte-United Stores Lincoln Stores, Inc. ad day* Reduce the pain Save your nerves ^ No narcotics * /# TABLETS ~W Genuine milk-oils . . . resembling natural human skin oils . . . bring amazingly quirk result*. Gel this all-purpose cremc at department, drug, dime stores and beauty shops. WART CREME OF MILK CREME CONTAINS MILK-OILS BLENDED WITH OTHER OILS 64 discussed. Yet lie definitely pointed out that no one, so far, has exhibited the ireadth and all-inclusiveness of Gershwin's alents. Scott, Gould, Ellington, Grofe — they are •our candidates. The experts agree sasically that these four are the most likely nominees. All have potentialities. All are writing American music free of European influences. All are honest, sin- cere workers. Here they go up on dis- play : RAYMOND SCOTT Scott, as you all know by now, is the 29-year-old younger brother of Mark War- now. His real name is Harry and he became famous when he organized the fabulous six-man Quintet. He started out as an electrical engineer and was doing very well in school with that subject when he decided to switch over to the Institute of Musical Art. But don't think that Scott just stopped being an engineer, because he didn't. Some- thing like half of his music is built with engineering principles applied — to such things as microphones, amplifiers and transmitters. After his graduation from the Institute, he took a job at CBS in the house band. Mark was responsible for that, and he it was who held the baton over his kid brother most of the time. It was also Mark who was responsible for introduc- ing Harry's first compositions. The pair of them are supposed to have plucked the Scott label from the telephone book to avoid mix-ups. Mark played Scott's first successful piece in 1932. It was called Christmas Night In Harlem. You may remember it as being a little different from his later works, which now include twenty- five successful ones. The Quintet, actually, was Scott's first major work. He got together with five other members of the CBS house band. The combination was Dave Wade on trumpet; Lou Schoobe, bass; Dave Harris, saxophone; Johnny Williams, drums; and Scott at piano. The line-up is the same now, with the exception that Pee-Wee Irwin plays trumpet. In creating new compositions and ar- ranging for the Quintet, Harry likes to use his engineering training to get new acoustical effects. Before one of their regular recordings is made, the boys take recordings of their rehearsal periods and keep on with the practice records until the number is perfect. Scott is supposed to compose the same way. It is said that he has never written down a note of his music. He gets his ideas at the piano, plays them, the members of the band get it that way, a record is made and you have a new Scott composition. That system of composing applies to the Scott titles you are familiar with. Such things as Powerhouse, Twilight In Tur- key, Toy Trumpet, War Dance for Wooden Indians, Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals and the others. He has just finished Siberian Sleigh Ride and Bumpy Weather Over Newark and is now working on Twenty-Five Women In a Dead Man's Bed. All this doesn't sound much like Gersh- win. However, some authorities point out one very essential similarity: Scott has much the same melodic and rhythmic sense that George had. But they say Scott hasn't the depth of Gershwin. That's one phase of the younger Warnow's work, how- ever, that no one can pass on yet. At present Scott is working on a series of compositions which hardly anyone knows about. There are several long symphonic suites and other heavier musical forms in this group. CBS is turning over to him a symphonic orchestra with which to ex- periment. If this combination pans out the way Scott's intimates expect, then we'll be able to compare him with Gershwin on more points than melody, rhythm and un- usual creative ideas. Right now, Harry — still a young man- has aroused much the same attention that Gershwin did when he started out. MORTON GOULD Even younger than Raymond Scott is Morton Gould. Now twenty-four, he was eight when he was awarded a scholarship to the famed Juilliard School of Music. His career is a phenomenal one — his ac- complishments just as fantastic. Together they make him a very strong contender. Gould began playing the piano when he was four. At six, his first song was ac- cepted for publication. At ten he entered New York University's School of Music. When he was fourteen he began compos- ing serious music. At seventeen he was making a lecture tour of Eastern colleges. When Gould was twenty-one he heard Leopold Stokowski conduct the Philadel- phia Symphony in his Choral and Fugue in Jazz. This year Fritz Reiner, conduct- ing the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, played Gould's American Symphonctte No. 2. After the performance, Reiner asked the young composer to write a symphony. The request was filled and it will be played by the Pittsburgh Symphony on December second. Alfred Wallenstein introduced his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the composer himself as soloist. In September, '36, Gould began a series of modern music broadcasts over WOR. which were heard nationally after MBS was founded. He now divides his time be- tween conducting, composing and arrang- ing. He is considered one of the best ar- rangers in the business. With the exception of opera, Gould has used almost every kind of music form. He has written an American suite. Three symphonettes. Two symphonies. A con- certo for piano and one for violin. Four piano sonatas. A five-movement ballet suite. Then there are his shorter creations —Deserted Ballroom, Lullaby to a Nezv Bom Love, Continental Serenade, Man- hattan Polka and Robot, All in all, Gould has had more than forty compositions pub- lished. has had more then forty compositions pub- butes. Primarily, his idiom is entirely American. He is writing both light and
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RADIO STARS more profound music His Descried Ball- room, for example, is something like Scott's Powerhouse. Some say that it is a superior piece. Gershwin himself had Gould orchestrate his / Got Rhythm for him. That is an- other interesting sidelight. The young man knows the modern music scene thoroughly. His musical background is unusually good, his creative ability seems endless, his work is free from any sort of foreign influence — and he is only twenty-four. DUKE ELLINGTON Percy Grainger, noted composer-pianist- conductor, was director of New York Uni- versity's School of Music when he com- pared Duke Ellington's compositions to those of Bach and Delius. Others have called him the world's foremost composer of jazz, the greatest Negro composer who ever lived, etc., etc. and etc. Extravagant as some of these descriptions sound, the Duke probably deserves all of them. Graduating from high school, he won a scholarship to the Pratt Institute, a well- known art school in Brooklyn. Before he left, though, he got a job in a Washington dance band as pianist. That position fin- ished any idea of art as a career. He arrived in New York in 1924. He brought along four other musicians and tried to find work as a five-piece jazz orchestra. It was a tough struggle. Duke gave up once and went home — but he came right back. In '26, his break arrived. He and his boys went to work at the Kentucky Club. That was the period in our life when jazz had gone high-class. It was polite and polished and rather boring. Duke changed all that. His was a six-piece outfit at the Ken- tucky. It began to create attention. Hear- ing the talk along the Main Stem, Irving Mills, big-time music publisher and man- ager, dropped in on the Duke, put him under contract, increased the band to twelve pieces and began to build him up. In 1927, he went into Harlem's Cotton Club and started to attract the carriage trade. Radio, theatres and records completed the Ellington build-up. From the beginning, Duke has composed. Without a doubt, his is the most eloquent voice of the colored race. Jazz and swing and modern music have been based to a large extent on Negro blues and Negro rhythms. In that Ellington has no peers. He is best known for his Solitude, I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart, Mood In- digo, Sophisticated Lady — these and his other magnificent popular numbers run up into the hundreds. Each is individual, each is a new kind of expression. In this field of smaller, popular forms, he is said to be as great a master as Gershwin. But in the larger field, too. Duke is ap- proaching Gershwin. He says nothing about it and makes no claim to greatness. But he has and is doing work far ahead of the more popular form. His Black and Tan Fantasy is a great deal more than a good jazz piece. His Creole Rhapsody is a two-part work with unusual musical merit. Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue, lichocs of Harlem, Reminiscing In Tempo and Symphony In Black are acknowledged as great and good works. Now, he is working on two compositions which will be almost a test. The first is a piano suite which Paul Whiteman in- tends to introduce in concert this fall. The second is an opera. The opera is some- thing about which Duke is reluctant to talk, yet he has been working on it for ten years. During the past five or six months he has almost finished it. It is called Boola. Running three acts and covering three centuries, it will be the mu- sical history of the Negro race in America. Ellington has composed the music, written the libretto and orchestrated the entire work. Boola is his alone. He is already the Negro Gershwin. But he may be a great deal more. FERDE GROFE George Gershwin reached the peak the hard way. So did Ferde Grofe. Gershwin was a piano player in a music publishing house. Grofe had to struggle up to com- posing from arranging. He was one of the best arrangers in the field but his ambition was to compose. Yet all the lead- ers he knew preferred to listen to his ar- rangements than to his compositions. Grofe's background is solid. His mu- sical training is well-grounded and varied. More than anything else, the Rhapsody In Blue first called him to public attention. When the Rhapsody was written, he was working as arranger for Whiteman and his was the arrangement that Paul played when the composition was introduced. Critics have always attached great im- portance to the Grofe arrangement in evaluating the success of the Rhapsody. Ferde has been heavily responsible for the rise and acclaim of "symphonic jazz" — the sort of thing which gave Whiteman the title of King of Jazz. Song of India, as played by Whiteman in dance tempo, was one composition that helped start all the talk. The arrangement was Grofe's. Peculiarly, Grofe's chief difficulty as a composer seems to be his arranging talent. He writes with both orchestration and music in mind. His music depends a lot upon the sounds he can create for various instruments. Gershwin, on the other hand, was never a good orchestrator. It is a talent he could have used and which, de- spite its drawbacks, may help Grofe. Ferde has worked in the larger form — principally suites. You know most of them, or at least the frequently played parts. There are the Grand Canyon Suite. The Mississippi Suite and Tabloid. Each is descriptive and each is designed to give a musical picture of some facet of America. As Frank Black pointed out, his work is photographic and descriptive where Gershwin's wasn't. But Grofe is thor- oughly steeped in what he is doing — which, of course, is a collection of musical pic- tures of America. Whether he will develop the melodic, rhythmic touch of Gershwin remains to be seen. So there are the four. Whether one will step out to close in that empty space in the ranks is a question to be answered by the years. Judging from my conversations with the experts, the answer is still "no." George Gershwin had the essential talents that all four possess. None of the four own — so far — what this one man had to offer. The gods seem to have taken his one talent, divided it and let it scatter. TROUBLED BY CONSTIPATION? Get relief this simple, pleasant way! < You sleep through the night Ex-Lax is good for every member of the family— the youngsters as well as the grown- ups. At all drug stores in 100 and 25^ sizes. Try Ex-Lax next time you need a laxative. Now improved — better than ever! EX- LAX THE ORIGINAL CHOCOLATED LAXATIVE Say Goodbye to Dull, Drab Hair In one, simple, quick operation, Lovalon the 4 purpose rinse, does all these 4 important things to your hair. 1. Gives lustrous high- lights. 2. Rinses away shampoo film. 3. Tints the hair as it rinses. 4. Helps keep hair neatly in place. Use Lovalon after your next shampoo. It does not dye or bleach. It is a pure, odorless hair Approved byGood House- rinse, made in 12 dif- kceping Bureau. 5 rinses ferent shades. Try department sEores" 2 rmse Lovalon. You will be size at ten cent stores, amazed at the results. LOVALON —the 4 purpose vegetable HAIR RINSE 65
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Pertussin stimulates these glands to pour , out their natural moisture so that the annoying phlegm is loosened and easily raised. Quickly your throat is soothed, your cough relieved! Your cough may be a warning signal! Why neglect it? Do as millions have done! Use Pertussin, a safe and pleasant herbal syrup for children and grownups. Many physicians have prescribed Pertussin for over 30 years. It's safe and acts quickly. Sold at all druggists. PERTUSSIN The "Moist-Throat" Bthod of Cough Relief JEWELED WRIST WATCH p f OF ANY EXTRA, Simulated *>/,., *>jPJ 1939 diamonds set in N^S^Ug^f Quality Watch. %&"SiS%2Vtn VPf."'' Small as a Rich 1,30, 14k Gold. »■»*' Dime. Jeweled. Accuracy Guarantee enclosed. WATCH is yours FREE of any ex- tra charge with every ring ordered NOW and paid for promptly on our easy two monthly $2 payment plan (total only $4). Remember, the cost of the watch is included in the price of the ring . . . YOU PAY NOTHING EXTRA for the (Watch! Wear 10 days ON AP- PROVAL! Send NO Money with border! We trust you. Mail cou- pon now. We pay postage. Your package comes at once by fturn mail. •••••••••••••••••••• GOID STANDARD WATCH CO.. Dept. T-3212, Newton, Mass. Rush offer. □ Lady's Model □ Man s Model N A ME ADDRESS 66 HOW RADIO CAREERS BEGIN (Continued from page 23) joined the union and earned extra money playing local dances. He played with Leo Reisman at the Central Park Casino, graduated from school as president of his class. Then instead of going into a drug store, he went back to Reisman and music. Rudy Vallee, too, worked in a pharma- ceutical atmosphere 'way back when. The drug store was his father's. And Dr. Frank Black, head of NBC's music department, is a graduate chemical engineer. When he graduated from Haverford he was offered two jobs : one as a chemical en- gineer and the other as pianist in a hotel. He went to Harrisburg, to the hotel, and never returned to chemistry. For diversity of talents — aside from radio — and really expert versatility, meet Joan Blaine, heard on the Valiant Lady program. Joan has been in pictures, seen her name in lights on Broadway in the legitimate theatre, and before that had practiced law as head of a gold mine's legal department, doubling up with running a mine hospital as head nurse during an epidemic. Before that, Joan was an in- fant prodigy, a school superintendent and a concert platform singer and harpist. And she worked with entire success at all of those before she went into radio — which she did in order to stay at her father's bedside before he died. By the time he had passed away she was so busy and so enthralled by radio she forgot all about the five-year movie contract she had been offered, and carried on in radio. Before Curtis Arnall began as a radio actor in 1932 he appeared on the stage. But Arnall's work was not always in the- atre or radio. Back in Omaha, Nebraska, Curtis Arnall was known not as the hero of Pepper Young's Family, but as a prom- ising young stockbroker It was while working with the Omaha brokerage firm that he became interested in a local Little Theatre group, and every night forgot stocks and bonds for make-up and foot- lights. But that was only for fun ; it didn't pay anything. It was two years later that he finally abandoned the brokerage busi- ness to go to Honolulu with Mabel Talia- ferro's repertory company. When he re- turned to the States the die was cast : he was an actor, and has been ever since. orators or elocutionists. Don Wilson, who as a salesman. While exploiting his vari- ous lines — drugs, oil, gasoline and coal — Wilson got together with a couple of other fellows and formed a harmony trio. It was so successful that they gave up their jobs and went on a tour of the West. An ad- vertiser who heard them in San Francisco put them on the air for a year, and for the next year Wilson and one of his pals put on programs in Los Angeles. Then he took a job as announcer at KFI. But equally, in fact even more round- about was Special Events announcer George Hicks' road to the microphone. When he was a kid, George didn't know what he wanted to do but, being willing to try anything, he started with jobs as a day laborer. Brought up in the lumber country, he worked in sawmills, door fac- tories, logging camps and ship-yards. He's been a truck driver, a ditch digger, a hard- 'ware store clerk and haberdashery sales- man. But Hides' career was not yet rounded out. He was once a hand in a pickle factory, went north to Alaska and south to Panama; got a job on a freighter as a sailor and drove a car across the American continent. Hicks acquired his schooling the same way ; he's gone to the College of Puget Sound in Tacoma, U. of Washington, and Corcoran Art School — none for more than a year. Ready to en- roll in a school for consular service, George saw an ad for a radio announcer and answered it along with two hundred other applicants. He was terrible — but the oth- ers were worse so he got the job, in Sep- tember, 1928. By November, 1929, he had become an excellent announcer, and NBC took him to New York. The field of sports, also, has produced several radio personalities. Ford Rush, star of Mutual's Wheatena show, came to radio from the baseball diamond. Starting as a sand-lotter, Rush was ordered to come south to Bradentown, training headquarters for the St. Louis Cardinals, where, the then manager, Miller Huggins, looked him over. If Rush had had a better pitching arm he'd be one of the Cards now; instead, when Huggins turned him down, he got out his guitar and tried working as an entertainer, winding up in radio instead of the pitcher's box. Sam Baiter, Mutual sports commentator, was a former Olympic basketball star, and still referees games in Los Angeles. Another far cry was the jump Harry Einstein took from a job as advertising director for a chain of seventeen stores into the stupid, funny stooge known as Parkyakarkus. "Parky" came by his Greek dialect in his youth. His father was an importer, dealing with many Greeks, and young Harry used to mimic the dialects he heard just for laughs. He never thought of utilizing this talent through school, where he distinguished himself at football, debating and dramatics as well as landing the honor of class orator. His first job was an ad solicitor on the Boston American. In 1932, Joe Rines, the orchestra leader and Harry's friend, persuaded him to do a Greek comedy bit on Rines' program. The sponsor was so delighted that he signed Harry to a twenty-six-week con- tract, and Einstein was both ad man and comedian. He became a New England sensation, and in '34 met Eddie Cantor while in New York for a week-end. Cantor needed a dialect stooge, signed Harry and thereafter he worked at his job all week, then commuted to New York week-ends for the Cantor program. Finally he was offered the chance to become Cantor's associate full-time, and after debating with himself a while he gave up his job to be- come Parkyakarkus ; a name, incidentally, which originated through his habit of say- ing to office visitors : "Sit down and park your carcass," and which he has patented. Bill Bacher, CBS director of the Texaco show, came into radio through an unpaid
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RADIO STARS dentist bill. Bill was Dr. William Bacher, D.D.S., L.L.D.. M.A., B.A., and a practicing dentist in Bayonne. X. J. In liis spare time he studied law and took that degree It was in 1932 that a patient, who was unable to pay his bill, gave Dr. P.acher a couple of tickets to a broadcast. Bill, who had never seen a broadcast, ac- cepted and attended the show with a friend who was in the advertising business. He didn't like the show, so he wrote a let- ter to the directors outlining his criticisms which were so valid that he was invited to come in to see them. In the course of conversation it was discovered that Bill Bacher not only could criticise but also could make constructive suggestions. He was offered a job at a figure that made him accept and close up his dental office, to become one of the leading directors in radio. Oh, they come from all parts of the country, all walks of life, the great of radio. Take Johnny, who calls for Philip Morris. Five years ago Johnny Roven- tini was a page boy in the Xew Yorker Hotel. A man came in. sat down and asked him to page a friend. For five min- utes Johnny wandered around calling at the top of his voice. When he returned after failing to find his man he was told that he had passed an audition for a radio job: the man in the easy chair was a radio agency man. You all know the genial Major Bowes as entrepreneur of the Amateur Hour; some of you may know him also as direc- tor of the Capitol Theatre. But before busying himself with radio, Major Bowes was — and still is — a highly successful real estate operator, dealing mainly in the- atrical properties. The Easy Aces. too. or at least Good- man Ace. came to radio indirectly. Ace was a newspaperman for many years as re- porter on the Kansas City Journal-Post, then dramatic critic and column conductor. In 1928 he broadcast a radio edition of his column, calling himself The Movie Man. It was a year later that he started the Easy Aces over a Kansas City station with his new wife of one year playing op- posite him. Ace had been wooing Jane since they were kids at school. Easy Aces was an immediate hit, and they've been on the major networks almost continuously ever since. Gertrude Berg is a refutation of the be- lief that radio writers and actors need a stage background. Mrs. Berg came to radio with only one thing behind her : she had been a housewife and mother. True, she had been trying her hand at writing ever since childhood. She would study the characters around the family's summer hotel in the Catskills. and write skits which she presented at the entertainment evenings. But when she finally placed The Goldbergs with a radio station she was so ignorant of radio that she didn't know what it meant when she was told the program would go on "sustaining." Xot long afterward, a sponsor took up the show — and the rest you know. Bob Burns had a checkered career be- fore radio. Though he has played half a dozen musical instruments since child- hood and was first cornetist in the Van Buren City Queens Silver Cornet Band, he worked for a living selling hay, piloting a river ferry, raising peanuts and playing, along with his brother, in honky-tonks. He wound up selling advertising in Chicago, when the War came. Bob served in France with the Marines and back in the States organized an orchestra and con- ducted it in night spots in Xew York. He invested the money he had saved in a car- nival concession wheel game and cleaned up $8,000 in a month and a half. After eight years in carnivals he came to Holly- wood and picked up a few parts in pictures, but nothing really important happened un- til he went to Xew York determined to get on the Vallee program . . . and the rest is history. But there's one big radio star who is ab- solutely unique in his pre-radio career. Xo one else — except Charlie McCarthy — came from a tree ! Richard Crooks (right), distinguished American tenor starring for his eighth consecutive season on The Voice of Firestone, is shown aboard the U. S. S. Indianapolis as guest of Vice Admiral Adol- phus Andrews, Commander Scouting Force, United States Fleet. BLACKHEADS- LARGE PORES Caused by Simple Mistake! Avoid it with Sem-pray Jo-ve-nay ! You yourself may be causing those nplv because they do rsh rge pores and black- m, so hatetui ! Every day millions their pores large and conspicuous not realize the danger of applying fresh Downtown shopping ... at a party . . . out comes the pow- der puff. Never dreaming of the trouble they are causing, they rub, rub, rub all the stale powder, all the dust and dirt that have accumulated on the face, right into the pores. This fills up the pores . . . packs them with dirt that is difficult to remove . . . makes them large, dark, ugly. REMARKABLE! CREAM-IN-A-STICK ! What can you do when you're away from home and your face needs powder? Remove old make-up first, with Sem-p Jo-ve-nay ! Carry it in your handbag ... it comes in j metal case as easy to use as a hp-tu-k! With Sem-pray Jo-ve-nay you can cleanse your skin perfectly in a few quick seconds before applying fresh powder! It will remove every trace of dirt and stale make-up from your skin. Your face powder will go on beautifully and s " effect will be fresher, younger, lovel YOU NEED NO OTHER CREAM Sem-pray Jo-ve-nay is more than a cleansing cream. It is a complete beauty treatment, a combination of oils . . .blended by a long, slow secret process. You need no other creams when you use Sem-pray Jo-ve-nay. Generations of lovely women have proved it is the only preparation needed to keep the skin clean, soft, ' Always Young". Stop causing large pores and blackheads! Start using Sem-pray Jo-ve-nay regularly, morning, noon and night, and always before 'ter' You can get Sem-pray Jo-ve-nay at all good cosmetic counters, small size 10c, large size 60c, both in dainty metal caies. Or mail this coupon now for 10c size. sem-PRflY jovenflv Elizabeth Husted, Sem-pray Jo-ve-nay Company Dept. ti-M. Grand Rapids. Michigan Please send me your clever purse-size c Sem-pray Jo-ve-nay. Enclosed you will fii to cover cost of handling. Name Address- City THE ODERN IDEA FOR IYGENES . . . when your doctor advises femi- jnine hygiene ... a dainty, white, anti- septic suppository; ready for instant use . . . melts promptly at internal hody tem- perature, to form a soothing antiseptic film . . . freshly scented; no other odor . . . in- dividually sealed; untouched by human hands until you open . . . scientifically pre- pared by the makers of "Lysol" disinfect- ant . . . box of 12, with full directions. S1.00. ii y !j i j ] i J
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RADIO STARS DO YOUR EYES safely in your purse at all limes. Ask for Camille Cream Mascara at department, drug and 5 & 10c stores — 10c. Black, Brown or Blue. Camille Inc., New York. cimti MASCARA ith Duily Pink and Ebony Vanity POWER BEHIND THE THRONE AT NBC (Continued from page 21) ,yel 9stl 39*1 "I used to almost cry about my hands. They chapped so easily. Then a nurse suggested Frostilla. I use it regularly ... a little goes far . . . and now my skin is soft and satiny." Use Frostilla yourself every time you've had your hands in water. Made with costlier ingredients, you can feel the difference. 35c, 50c, $1.00 sizes in U. S. and Canada. Travel size in better 10c stores. FROSTILLA for Lovely Hands 68 having the dean of the local reporters pat him on the back, tell him they "ought to work together on these things." At twenty-four Royal was assistant city editor, and later acting city editor for two years. In his reportorial career Royal covered the first radio story — the classic exploit of Radio Operator Jack Binns' C Q D distress signal at the sinking of the 5. 5. Republic. He still has photostatic copies of his signed story on that and other yarns. 1910 was a big year in Royal's life. He had gone to Europe for his paper, inter- viewed fifteen opera stars in their homes and watched Maissant try to fly the English Channel. When he came home there was an argument over salary, and he went to work for the vaudeville magnate, B. F. Keith, as publicity man. Keith wanted more advertising through the New England territory and he was assigned to write copy for cards to be posted about the territory. Word came that there was no appropriation for a bill- poster's salary and Royal, reasoning shrewdly that this might be one .of Keith's famous "tests" of loyalty, offered to get the cards up himself. He bought boat and train tickets all over the territory, put himself into a natty new pair of overalls and slapped B. F. Keith poster cards all over stations, fences and walls in the territory — even to slapping them on the top of Mt. Washington, which desecration aroused plenty of indignant comment. Keith liked Royal's ideas and zeal and he was made manager of a Cincinnati theatre. Shortly afterward he shifted to the Cleve- land Hippodrome, one of the most import- ant houses on the circuit. Managers, in 1916, were more than mere figureheads waiting for main office orders, and Royal was more than an average manager. The best was never too good for Royal's house, and the standards of the New York Palace, key house of the circuit, were his. Bookers who sent him shows he thought inferior heard from him in no uncertain terms ; his reports on acts — many of them now famous performers — are still preserved and furnish chuckles today to the stars who were blistered or damned with faint praise by Royal. And a good report really meant thing. When the Cleveland Palace was built, >yal superintended the job. Still the Stormy Petrel of the circuit, he burned the wires with bitter complaint at weak bills, insisted on the same quality as the New York Palace. And not long after that the new medium, radio broadcasting, came into being as another outlet for Royal's show- manship. On a local station he presented one of the first radio variety bills, comparable to the star-filled shows today. Came a letter from B. F. Keith that he'd have to stop fooling with radio — which Keith considered opposition — or be fired. The general con- sensus was that Royal was crazy, fooling with radio, and perforce he gave up his air shows, retaining his interest in broadcasting nevertheless. As time went on and the Keith organization had a shakeup, Royal, who was then head of the Mid- Western di- vision, became increasingly dissatisfied. He was approached by the head of WTAM who asked him if he'd like to go into the station as program director. "I don't know anything about it," he said. "I didn't ask you that — do you want to?" was the answer. He did, and when NBC bought the station Mr. Aylesworth. then President, suggested that Royal come to New York. He didn't like New York much ; thought the town was phony. But one day in October, 1931, while there on a business trip, he saw crowds on Broadway staring through telescopes at a flagpole sitter. He went to a telephone and called Aylesworth, said he'd take the job. "Why," Aylesworth asked, "did you change your mind ?" "If New Yorkers are small-town enough to pay ten cents to look at a man sitting on a flagpole, it's okay with me," he said. When he came to work at NBC he ar- rived cold. Department heads, anticipating a "purge" and shakeup, were amazed to dis- cover that he arrived without stooges, without a retinue of "Royal men." He still hates "yes men." At this first meeting of department heads he said : "I'm new here. You've all been doing a grand job. Just keep it up." Those who anticipated having to teach him his job soon found that they were drawing upon him for ideas, decisions and support. A hell-raiser and whirlwind in his own department he will, however, toler- ate no criticism against it from the outside and will valiantly defend his own people from it, in purely Irish fashion. All his associates agree that he would have made a wonderful prosecutor. No one gets by with anything when Royal begins a cross- examination. He pins down every fact, drags out of a prodigious memory every detail of a conversation held weeks or months before to bolster his point, and batters down defenses, evasions and alibis. He hates lying or double crossing, but his witness-stand tactics are not for purposes of intimidation. He merely wants the facts — and he gets them. He has no use for compromise. In dif- ferences of opinion he may say : "Very well, then — do it jus! the way you want to." And if all works out nothing more is said. But heaven help the one who turns out to be wrong ! His storms, however, are as mercurial as his many faceted personality, leaving no aftermaths. Most of his associates agree that much of his raging is a shield for the kindest, softest Irish heart in the world. But he'd throw anyone out of his office who suggested such a thing. Royal, too, is unable to say "I'm sorry." But he apologizes for a mistake in his own fashion. One very competent woman head of a department was on the receiving end of a devastating blast from Royal, by tele- phone, which happened to be unjustified. Later in the day Royal discovered this, but saying nothing about it, invited the woman to have luncheon with him. He supplied an excellent meal, from cocktails to cham- pagne and fine foods in between, with, how- ever, no word of the recent storm. Finally
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RADIO STARS she mentioned it, as well as the fact that it had been uncalled for. "Oh," he grinned, "next time I do that just say 'Phoney' to me." Sure enough, a few days later came an- other horrendous bellowing on the lady's phone. Recalling, she said: "Oh, phooey to you !" There was an instant's shocked silence ; then Royal laughed and said : "You win !" A great habit of his is scribbling "See me on this" across some letter or paper, then sending it to the person concerned. And while he doesn't make himself inac- cessible it's something of a trick to catch him in his office, with the result that the "see me" letters pile up. One of the boys collected a sheaf of them, all bearing the Royal "see me," clipped another paper to the top reading "Suppose you see me!" Royal did. Admittedly a driver, Royal, used to the theatre's seven-day-week, comes in almost every Sunday. Even though it may not be necessary he wants at least one of his department heads to be there also, if the net result is only sitting around chinning. So the others alternate in coming to the office Sunday, to keep the boss company. He has the knack, too, of doing the right thing at the right time; of making just the right gesture, whether it be solicitously standing in the wings with a towel for the maestro. Toscanini, or sending coffee and sandwiches to control men on a late shift. And they're more than mere gestures — he's sincere about them. And he covers a very real shyness by raging if anyone ever tries to thank him. His acquaintances and friends are legion ; he can hardly go anywhere in this country or abroad without finding a dozen or so persons he knows. And while one is ad- mittedly either a Royal "fan" or completely baffled by him. he has many more friends than enemies. Working with him is some- thing of a strain ; one has to be able to "take it." for his sheer nervous energy will wear down a man who can't. But of all those associated with him daily none seems to resent him. Certainly, life around the Royal man of radio is never dull ! ANYTHING FOR A LAUGH! Continued jrom pat/e 37) such day "Uncle Jim" sought out Allen in a hotel room, which he had rented to get utterly away from the world. He thought he had fooled everybody, even "Uncle Jim." So when the latter appeared. Fred looked up from his drawing board and peevishly drawled, "You know I can't be disturbed, today of all days. It cramps my style." "Uncle Jim" gave a spoofing smile and picked up a page of Allen's manuscript where he had crowded those famous tiny scrawls of his into as little space as possible, as if his life depended on an economy of space on paper. "Your style's been cramped for years, and you've done all right," he said. Fred smiled. "Okay, let's have it." My particular blues-fader is Scotty Bates. You have never heard Scotty on the air, though if you've ever attended one of our stage shows you've seen him — the goof who wanders in too late with the announcement cards and who clowns around a lot with Poley McClintock. I never know what Scotty's going to do next, on the stage or off. Once, right in the middle of a solemn glee club number, he rode across the stage on a velocipede. I take my glee club numbers very seriously. I was rather offended when I heard the audience laughing. I guess it was about 1924 when I met Scotty. I was out on the Coast with the Peiuisxlianians and we were making our first really big hit in Sid Grauman's the- atre. The band had come up pretty fast and I imagine the business of being famous had got me. At least, I liked all the head waiters to recognize me when I walked into a restaurant for dinner. One night I went to the theatre. There weren't many seats and I raised pretty much of a ruction with a kid usher for not seeming more anxious to find me a couple. He listened to me with a look of unmistakable disgust. "Who do you think you are?" he asked me. This is an old question, and not very original, but some people can put an awful lot into an old chestnut like that. I told him who I was. He didn't seem to give a hoot in you know what. He had a very funny voice and he looked very funny, just a fresh kid with a mad face, telling me off. I had to laugh. I asked him to come around to our theatre some night. Now Scotty couldn't play anything but a ukulele, and that very badly, but* when we left Los Angeles I had hired him. I gave him a job — that of building up a music library and keeping it in order. But it was Scotty's sense of humor I had actu- ally hired — that and his peculiar ability for making me feel human. High pressure can make temperaments and temperaments can make people crabby, and if they have a little power along with the crabbiness they can take it out on other people. I know I'm on the safe side as long as Scotty's around to turn it all into a laugh. I have had any number of tiffs with him. I have even fired him. But he's an audacious clown and I have to have him around. The last personal appearance tour we made', the boys in the band were feeling a little sour on me on account of my in- sistence on a freshly shaven crew, freshly pressed uniforms, etc. Scotty took a way of telling me off that the audience also en- joyed. He refused to shave and would come walking lazily onto the stage like some old stumble-bum, his clothes sloppy, scratching his head, etc. I couldn't help laughing, and besides I was beaten at the start because the audience loved his goofy pantomiming. What could I do? I don't know that there is any moral to all this. But it occurs to me that this season there may be certain innocent young things who wish to be associated with radio stars in the radio business, as assis- tants. And I would offer them this advice — take the job seriously but not the star. Never be awed or frightened by a show business personality or you will never un- derstand him, nor he understand you. -YOUU NiVfR MIH • WITH A PACK OF TEABERRK Sht Red Package! CLARK'S IEABERRY GUM 69
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RADIO STARS Barrington HAND CREAM A Nadco Quality Product PORTABLE sale i ' Brand NEW! 1,1 1 10 -Day Trial — Easy Terms ■world-famous Feat h--r» - .rtabtea nodeU — up-to-date etreamlir days trial— Easy International Typewriter Exch., Dept. 1261 Chicago fMN3H ■#\r^0/ Improvement Guaranteed lVv/0 or Tuition Refunded / 1e jadgel Strengthen and master yonr i ffifurinfl Uawnjt— but by scientific alien* with DEFECTIVE Voire*. Write for Free'voice Book Learn WHY and HOW you can now havu the v v.... mat It under 17. we require parent's signature With i»»n.im n ••«»• anteed-will you faithfully follow instruct...!,-' II so. WR1TK: Perfect Voice Institute, Studio 7219, 64 E.Lake St., Chicago WAKE UP - YOUR Without Calomel — _ And You'll Jump LIYEK Out of Bed in the JBkt I E Morning Rarin' to Go ^* ■ ™ The liver should pour out two pounds of liquid bile into your bowels daily. If this bile is not flow- ing freely, your food doesn't digest. It just decays in the bowels. Gas bloats up your stomach. You Bet constipated. Your whole system is poisoned and you feel sour, sunk and the world looks punk. A mere bowel movement doesn't net at the cause. It takes those (rood, old Carter's Little Liver Pills to get these two pounds of bile flowing freely ».nd make you feel "up and up." Harmless, gentle, yet amazing in making bile flow freely. Ask for Carter's Little Liver Pills by name. 25c at all drug stores. Stubbornly refuse anything else. 70 EMBARRASSING MOMENTS (Continued from page 29) engineers, shouted, "Take the air," and the entire staff worked frantically to clear the lines. The engine appeared around the bend and Stern began to prepare his breathlessly waiting audience for the big moment. The train drew nearer and nearer, reached the station but, to the announcer's horror, kept right on going ! Then the astonished Bill got his first full view of the train he'd begun to describe. It was a lengthy freight loaded with squealing pigs ! What could he do? His only alterna- tive was to keep on talking, so for ten long minutes an amazed America was treated to Bill Stern's glowing word pic- ture of the passage of sixty-two box cars, what railroad companies they belonged to, how many pigs there were in each car, and how they squealed and grunted. This is one experience which Bill will never forget, and there is a certain station-master whom he's still not inclined to forgive. Fred Allen is one air star whose quick wit helps him to master nearly any situa- tion, but there are occasions when even a master comedian may be completely stumped. As you know, on nearly every Toivn Hall program there comes a time when an apparent outsider interrupts Fred in the middle of a scene or monologue and begins to heckle him. It is an extremely funny bit of comedy business, always good for laughs. But it wasn't so long ago that this same gag situation backfired on the mighty Allen.* The program was progressing famously and Fred was in the midst of his repartee with Portland when, all of a sud- den, a man dressed in rough work clothes appeared from the wings and approached the microphone in somewhat unsteady fashion. The audience howled with glee. Here, they thought, was another of the Allen hecklers. The man reached the mike and shouted into it in no uncertain terms : "Listen, Allen, you gotta stop razzing Jack Benny, unnerstand?" The great ad-libber was completely stopped in his tracks. He had never seen the man before in his life, and this was once too often. He couldn't have cracked back at him if he'd wanted to, because the great Allen had been struck speechless by the unexpectedness of it all. Benny's defender, it turned out, was a stagehand with a couple too many under his belt who, for all his pains, lost his job. It isn't always the unexpected which strikes momentary terror into the hearts of broadcasters. Often the fine Italian hand of some practical joker is responsible. For example, there is the case of Mark War- now, Columbia's conductor extraordinary. His program of dance music was scheduled to go on at two o'clock one afternoon. The orchestra was assembled, instruments tuned and music ready. Mark stood be- fore the band, baton raised, ready to give the starting signal. The hands of the studio clock reached the dot of two and down came Warnow's baton. But the boys just sat. Desperately, he again signaled for them to begin. Still nothing happened. Mark was panic-stricken. Had his boys gone on strike for some unknown reason and left him holding the bag ? What should he do next? In the midst of this awful quandary the band members rose in a body and, amid loud guffaws, shouted "April Fool" at the dumbfounded maestro. Mark feels, and rightly so, that this moment of his distress is hard to beat. He hopes, too, that he'll never have to experi- ence such mental torture again and that some day a little bird will identify the wag who thought of setting the clock fifteen minutes ahead and perpetrated the whole horrible joke. Ted Husing has. Morton Downey to thank for an awkward moment which might have been a desperate one had there been a studio audience. But if there had, it never would have happened and there would be no story to tell. Ted, who is one of the best sports com- mentators on the air because of the spirit he puts into his accounts, was giving a fifteen-minute descriptive discourse on an important sporting event he'd just wit- nessed. He was in one of the tiny studios to which visitors are barred, but because Downey was a friend and an air artist himself, Ted told Mort he could come in with him. Standing at the mike in his shirtsleeves and talking from a sheaf of notes he'd taken that afternoon, Husing was completely carried away by the excite- ment of the scene he described. So en- grossed was he, in fact, that he didn't even notice Mort, armed with a pair of scissors, approaching him from the rear. Nor did he feel his suspenders being snipped. It wasn't Until his trousers began to descend around his legs that Ted became aware of his state of dishabille. His first im- pulse was to reach down and pull himself together, but that would have necessitated pausing in his talk. So, since there were only Mort and the engineers to witness his discomfort, he remained as was until the broadcast ended. Afterwards he joined the boys in their hysterical laughter, but it will be a long, long time before he will trust Downey to sit in on another of his shows, be it private or public. Agnes Moorehead, featured with Ben Bernie, on The Mercury Theatre and The Mighty Shmv, says her most embarrassing experience occurred one night when she was doing a particularly poignant and tragically dramatic sequence in a radio script. Came the difficult scene and with it a fit of hiccups ! There wasn't a thing to do but carry on, letting the hiccups fall where they might. Fellow actors rushed up with glasses of water, but she had no time to drink them. She couldn't hold her breath because she had to speak her lines — so she just talked and hiccuped to her everlasting chagrin and embarrass- ment. Edgar Bergen has never gotten over this and Charlie isn't likely to let him for- get about it. It happened when the Messrs. Bergen and McCarthy were making their first big hit on the air, and how it hap- pened Bergen can't imagine. But he actu- ally appeared at the studio for Rudy Val- lee's Coast-to-Coast broadcast without his suitcase — the one in which Charlie is trans-
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RADIO STARS ported from place to place! There was no time to send home for the deserted dummy, so Bergen went on the air without his im- pertinent friend at his side. Of course, radio listeners at home could detect no difference, unless it were the lack of ap- plause by a highly indignant studio audi- ence. Bergen can't remember a time when he was more ill at ease, or when a pro- gram seemed to be a more complete flop. Ben Bernie and Arline Blackburn have pulled similar boners which left them posi- tively aghast. Ben recalls the time when he had one of those little gadgets which, when pressed against someone's hand, gives the person a shock. At one of his broadcasts he was introduced, rather vague- ly, to a man in the control room. And, since Ben is one who never lets a good opportunity slip by, he put the gadget into use as he shook hands with the stranger. The man. as you might expect, let out a terrific yelp and Bernie laughed uproari- ously— until he learned that the stranger was his new sponsor whom he had not met before. Arline, who stars on Pretty Kitty Kelly, walked right into an awkward situation when she was introduced to a gentleman who seemed to have an active interest in her program. Anxious to be pleasant, but knowing nothing about the man, Arline made light conversation and finally asked if he were employed by the company which sponsored her show. Her blushes came fast and furiously when he replied that he was employed by the company — in the capacity of president! It was but a short time ago that Jack Berch and His Boys did a walloping good job on the last number of their rifteen- minute show. When it was over, Jack breathed a satisfied sigh and in hearty tones congratulated his co-workers. "We sure put that one over, didn't we. Boys?" Which was all very nice, except for the fact that the mike was still on and sur- prised listeners were treated to this un- rehearsed bit of self-approbation. There is a certain sound effects engineer on the Gain) Busters program who quite unintentionally embarrassed both the cast and himself. As you know, sound effects play an important part in the presentation of the exciting crime stories, and since so much shooting is necessary to the action, the sound effects men are forced to reload their pistols with blanks whenever they have a spare moment. On one show an actor spoke the line: "When the clock strikes three that's our signal to get go- ing." The sound effects man promptly sounded the chimes once, then twice, and went back to reloading his gun. Several seconds, which seemed like hours to the cast, elapsed before the man became con- scious of a deep silence. With a start he realized that he had neglected to sound the third chime on which the whole plot and the next line depended. He immediately rectified his error, but he still shudders to think what might have happened had he not come out of his fog as soon as he did. Recently, on a Paul Whiteman pro- gram, Joan Edwards found herself in a ticklish spot. The broadcast was being presented in a large CBS playhouse, and Joan was given the cue for her number. She waltzed up to the piano and started to seat herself on the stool — which promptly did a nip-up and crashed to the floor. As Shirley Howard swings a song. though that weren't bad enough, Joan had to go on with her number, singing and playing her own piano accompaniment at the same time while half-crouching before the keyboard. She stayed in this position until some kind person righted the stool and shoved it under her. There are a number of radio no doubt wish that their voices them completely instead of prod garbled and idiotic phrases as example. Announcer Ray White ars wno id failed ing such ;se. For blushed brightly when he introduced Bide Dudley, veteran of stage and screen, to a nation- wide audience as "the well-known drama critter." After an awkward pause he tried to recover his vocal equilibrium and blurted out, "I mean, the well-known drama cricket." Bide did a little blushing, too! Bess Johnson's master stroke made her feel pretty silly. In doing a commercial announcement, she was supposed to say : "Just spread a little on your shaving brush." Instead, she came out with "saving bus." Similarly, Milton J. Cross is re- sponsible for : "There were little red paper bells, Christmas trees and much whistle- toe." And Bob Trout for : "Ladies and gentlemen . . . ex-President Hoobert Herver !" Kelvin Keech, NBC announcer, has two such tongue-slips to his credit. The first occurred when he was reading the narrative introduction to an air play about sailors and the briny deep. The sponsor nearly collapsed when Keech ended a dramatic build-up by referring to "the tall, high- masted slipper clips"! The second was when he produced the classic "loud clap of thunder preceded by two squeaks of light- ning." Also, when John Xesbitt of Passiny Parade fame was supposed to say : "The attendant places the nozzle of the hose in the tank," he first bungled it with "nobble of the hose." Then he tried "noggle of the hose" and finally blurted out "hozzle of the nose." with which he gave up. Ben Grauer surprised himself and a cer- tain lady air guest by saying in honeyed tones: "Mrs. , we are dcepful greatly . . ." And last but not least, there was the Pep Breakfast Pood announcer who pulled the following : "Ladies, when your husband wakes up in the morning — dill and lust- FROM HOLLYWOOD COMES SOMETHING A/eiU TO LET YOU SHAPE YOUR LIPS AS YOU LIKE THEM! 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The kidneys are Nature's chief way of taking ex- cess acids and poisonous waste out of the blood. Most people pass about 3 pints a day or about 3 pounds of waste. If the 15 miles of kidney tubes and filters don't work well, poisonous waste matter stays in the blood. These poisons may start nagging backaches, rheu- matic pains, leg pains, loss of pep and energy, getting up nights, swelling, purfiness under the eyes, head- aches and dizziness. Don't wait! Ask your druggist for Doan's Pills, used successfully by millions for over 40 years. They give happy relief and will help the 15 miles of kidney tubes flush out poisonous waste from the blood. Get Doan s Pills. .A 7 DAY 5HAMP00 FOR BLONDES..! You Keep the BRILLIANCE, LUSTRE and LOVELINESS this Shampoo Gives Blonde Hair for a WHOLE WEEK! Ends Dull, Between -Shampoo Look ! A single wash with this amazing new type shampoo in stantly removes the dull, dingy oil and dust laden film that leaves blonde hair lifeless, mouse-colored ami -old" looking, and enables you to keep that "jrST SHA.Mi'OOKlJ" look, all week. Done in ?. few minutes and at a cost of but a few pennies. New Hlondex gives your hair that glorious, lux trous, shimmering radiance that usually comes only in childhood. All shades of blondes find New Blondex leaves their hair lighter lovelier. Start BLONDEX today. Sold at all stores. 72 American gasoline automobile. Through his son he told listeners how his embryo auto, grand-daddy of the efficient, noiseless vehicles which we see everywhere today, was brought into being, how it proved its worth against obstacles which now seem ludicrous to us, and finally won a place in the life of America. During that broadcast it so happened that another pioneer of automobiling was listening in at his Brooklyn, N. Y., home. He was, as near as I can ever determine, the oldest veteran of the continual battle between pedestrians and autos. For when Duryea told about the first accident on record when an early Duryea car struck a bicycle and knocked its rider to the pave- ment, A. J. Wilbert called on the telephone after the broadcast and admitted he was the unfortunate bicyclist. "First facts" must not necessarily be of nation-shaking importance. Many triv- ial yet interesting exploits are also fit subjects for the broadcasts. Among them are such personages as a descendant of the inventor of the first safety pin, the first man to ride a bicycle at sixty miles an hour, the designer of the omnipresent Buf- falo Nickel, a man with the tale of the first rubber heel, and a lawyer who, years ago, conceived and broached the notion of the first NRA. Listeners often ask how I chanced to start on my long career of "first" seeking. It dates back, as I have said, a good many years to a period when I was a journalist, contributing to everything from the Con- fectioners' Journal to a casket-maker's pub- lication. I finally received an important commis- sion— to prepare a book on American in- ventions. That is how I set out on my exhaustive research. The more I delved into the records, however, the more con- fused I became, and finally arrived at this conclusion : That much of the historical data taught in our schools is sheer baloney ! The credit always seemed to go to the in- ventor with the best publicity agent, and the little man, too engrossed in his be- loved work to advertise his exploits, was simply lost in the shuffle. One of the most interesting features about these "firsts" is that they always disagree with preconceived notions, directly contradicting many facts taught as gospel truth in our schools. For example, steam- boats were successfully operated twenty- five years before Fulton sailed his Cler- mont, and a practical sewing machine had been in operation fourteen years before Klias Howe, Jr., obtained his sewing ma- chine patent. But never do I make any statements for which there is not full and indisputable proof. The old adage, "There is nothing new under the sun," is still as true as it ever was. Many things which we con- sider novel or even revolutionary today were actually first done by the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Carthaginians or other enterprising ancients of both hemispheres. I think my favorite story is probably the obscure tale of a certain inventive genius. I uncovered it in the little Ver- mont town of Brandon, for it was here that the first electric motor sputtered and sparked its erratic way. An apprentice blacksmith named Thomas Davenport, without a penny to his name and gravely in debt, once walked thirty miles to view a new marvel called an electro-magnet. It impressed him so deeply that Daven- port threw common-sense to the winds and managed to borrow seventy-five dollars with which to purchase this strange device. He lugged it back to Brandon, took it apart, built a bigger one, until finally he evolved the principle of the electric motors which today do so much of the world's work. Through the trying weeks when debtors pounded at his door, Davenport's wife stood by him nobly, even tearing her only silk dress into strips that he might have the expensive cloth for his electrical experiments. Here, to me, is the perfect example of the self-sacrificing devotion to an ideal which marks a genius and, at the same time, by his indifference to fame, keeps him from finding a place in our history books. Imposters have never bothered me. Acquisition of many books and papers which I have bought, begged or borrowed, possess the only records extant on the sub- ject under discussion. Often it is impossible to secure the origi- nal records for my collection and I am naturally forced to have photostatic copies made. These include facsimiles of every- thing from crumbling manuscripts and let- ters to almost-illegible gravestones. I re- call one exciting moment in northern New York State, when, after crawling through the wilderness of an abandoned cemetery, I came upon the headstone for which I had been looking for several hours. I brushed aside the weeds and prepared to take a picture of it with my Graflex camera, which as you may know, has a folding top over the ground-glass viewing screen. The top snapped open as I bent over the camera and a very excited little garter snake flew out into my face and then wig- gled away through the deep grass. How he ever got into the camera I shall never know, but after this episode in the lonely .graveyard, it was days before my pulse returned to normal. I can thank radio, however, for giving me an entirely new angle on the compilation of Famous First Facts. It has proven to me beyond a doubt that people are eager to give credit where credit is due and to learn who are the real inventors, geniuses and pioneers in all the fields of endeavor. Consequently, each week I find a wider sq.urce of material presenting itself for my broadcasts. Without the cosmic coverage of the mi- crophone I might never have discovered these "firsts": Dr. Henry Louis Smith president emeritus of Washington and Lee University, who took the first X-ray pic- ture in the United States and owned the same equipment with which Roentgen an-
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HOUSEKEEPING I HINTS The new handbook for home- makers . . . for the new bride, the ambitious but inexperienced wife, for every woman who wishes to run her home effi- ciently and well. It fills the needs of every house- hold. Short cuts in housework, home gardening, sewing, cook- ing, laundering — a thousand and one helpful suggestions which will save you time, work and money! Today, at any newsstand or five-and-ten, ask for HOUSE- KEEPING HINTS. It is the only magazine of its kind, and it costs but a dime! nounccd the discovery . . . Colonel Charles R. Morris, who devised the system by which men were drafted into the World War. and blindfolded President Wilson when he drew the first names out of the globe . . . Addie M. Van Patten, first li- censed woman taxicab driver in New York in 1925 . . . Merkel Landis, who conceived the idea of the nation's widespread Christ- mas Savings Clubs . . . John Hanson Bris- coe, nine-year-old descendant of the first President of the United States, who proud- ly told Famous First Facts listeners how His great-great-great-grandfather headed the first Continental Congress while George Washington was still riding up and down the country dodging musketfire, thus proving that old John Hanson was entitled to the unofficial title of "The Father of His Country." My career as a fact-finder has its hu- morous aspects, too. A lot of people, listen- ing to the radio program, have come to the conclusion that I am an authority on anything that ever happened first. Indus- trial concerns have offered to hire me when suits arose over priority claims. And one optimistic devotee of the Sport of Kings thought it would be a lucrative idea if I would pick the horses that would come in "first" at the race tracks ! Yet, in all my life, try as I may, I have never been able to pick the first horse in any race I've witnessed ! What has it all gained me ? That's a question I can answer without the slightest bit of hesitation, for the thrill of cham- pioning the unsung, gaining recognition for unheralded American ingenuity and delv- ing into the nation's unwritten but vital history, is all the rich reward anyone could ever ask. STATEMENT OF THE OWN EKS [ I I I ' MANAGE MENT. (THCrEATION. ETC.. REQUIRED BY THE ACTS OF CONCH ESS OF AUGUST 24, 1912. AND MARCH :(, l!i:i:j Of 11ADI0 STARS, puhlislieil monthly at Dunellen, N. ■« .l.i m y. f„r October 1, 1938. GIVE YOUR LAZY LIVER THIS GENTLE "NUDGE" FOLLOW NOTED DOCTOR'S ADVICE. FEEL "TIP-TOP" IN MORNING! If liver bile doesn't flow freely every day into your intestines — headaches, constipation and that "half-alive" feeling often result. So step up that liver bile and see how much better you should feel. Just try Dr. Edwards' Olive Tablets, used so successfully for years by Dr. F. M. Edwards for his patients troubled with constipation and sluggish liver bile. 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RADIO STARS WEST COAST CHATTER {Continued from page 9) the grounds. They stand on the running boards of his swank roadster and beat off the frantic fans. We hear that back in his reportorial days Nelson had even the hard hearted Ladies of the Press going in circles. In those days he didn't sing a note — but he did have red hair! FANNIE BRICE is having the time of her life in that new Beverly Hills home — the first she's ever owned down to the last shingle. The house is perfect in every detail, both inside and out. The interior, incidentally, has been decorated by none other than Baby Snooks herself. What surprised us most 'were the beautiful por- traits hanging in the hall and living-rooms. "Those?" said Fannie airily, "Oh, yeah, I did those, too." THERE are no parties given at the Brice home, but the latch-string's always out — and a mob is always there. The latest rumor to reach us is that Fannie's been over at Paramount teaching Claud- ette Colbert some torch-singing tricks. Claudette has a song in Z_aza which had her stumped — and scared. What it needed to be put over was the Fannie Brice tech- nique. Fannie not only gave the tech- nique, but two days' coaching thrown in. DON AMECHE didn't let his studio in on the news of his arrival from Europe. In fact he didn't let anyone know about it except lack Benny. And the two of them sue d out to Yosemite for a week's fishing. On their return they tried to keep the trip quiet, too. But when finally cornered. Jack admitted they hadn't done so well. "The fish just wouldn't bite," he said sadly. "We tried every bait we knew — worms, bugs, fish eggs — everything. Why those fish wouldn't even go for Hedy Lamarr !" KENNY BAKER has really struck it rich — and there isn't a person in Holly- wood who begrudges him his good for- tune. It was just four years ago that the "timid tenor" "was working as a day laborer on Boulder Dam in order to raise rent money. Noiv he's back in town after making a successful English picture and has two movie contracts to choose from here, besides tempting recital offers from all over the country. "Sure, I'm pleased as punch about it all," Kenny told us, "But the very best is being signed up by Jack Benny again. Say, you can't beat that gang!" EDGAR BERGEN doesn't get perturbed very often, but recently he was consider- ably agitated because the studio informed him that he would have to give up his latest craze — flying. But Bergen being an ingenious guy, as even Charlie McCarthy admits, is now feeling fine — thanks to a new craze. It's motor-cycling. He has the latest model with the highest speed, which enables him to zoom up the tor- tuous trail to his mountain home in no time flat. IT WAS a gala night at Los Angeles' famed Cocoanut Grove when Morton 74 Downey opened there with Anson Weeks' orchestra. All the Who's Who of radio and screen circles were there to contribute glamour and applause. And so, of course, were the Bennett sisters — Joan, Constance and Barbara, who is Mrs. Morton Downey in both private and public life. The Dow- neys, en famille, are the guests of Joan. The family, you know, consists of Mich- ael, Sean Morton, Lorelle Ann, Anthony Patrick and a new baby who may rate the name of Corrigan. DICK POWELh' and Joan Blondell celebrated their second wedding anniver- sary the other day by giving a "baby pre- view." Star of the performance, two- months-old Helen, slept peacefully through the zvhole show. THEIR children don't keep Ma and Pa Powell home every night, though. In one week they were seen at La Conga, learning a new rhumba step, and twice at the Palomar, swingin' a mean shag. The Palomar is a dance hall frequented by high-school and college gangs, usually the most rabid fans. But Dick and Joan weren't even asked for an autograph, so intent were the jitterbugs on keeping legs and arms unsnarled. LOOKS like the Lane girls are doing all right for themselves after review notices on their latest picture. Even Eddie Cantor admits that Four Daughters is a better show than his five daughters. "But Donald Novis, after a long absence, has returned to the air on Fibber McGee's show. The man at the left is his brother Ed, a voice teacher. Printed In the V what burns me," says Eddie, "is that Warners' Four Daughters will get a long run at the box-office while my five get only long runs in their stockings." DID YOU hear about Eddie's newest protegee, Ruth Hilda Summer? A young immigrant on Eddie's boat coming back from Europe, she begged for a chance to play the piano on the program the last night on board. Eddie ivas so impressed with her ability that he's signed her under personal contract. She'll make a concert tour of the country — and a few months ago Ruth Hilda zt>as washing other people's clothes back in Austria. JOHN NESBITT was completely baffled and befuddled when he arrived in Hollywood and was confronted by the strange vernacular of radio and movie studios. So he's now authoring a Hand- book of Hollywood Lingo for any of you who might find yourselves in a similar spot. In the book will be liberal English trans- lations of such phrases as "kill the spot," "let 'em roll," "on the nose," "dub it in," "sync the dialogue," "hit the arc" and "muzzle the baby" — all of which make good sense to those in the know around town. VISITING John this month has been Lady Faith Montague, daughter of Eng- land's Earl of Sandwich and sister-in-law of the Passing Parade commentator. Lady Faith's "a good egg," in plain American, but that broad English accent makes her host a little leery. "It'll probably be the ruination of me yet," says Nesbitt. "Why, I'd just met her at the train before coming to the studio for a broadcast. And dog- gone if I didn't hear myself say right into the mike, "This is the Pah-sing Pah-rode 7* DIDJA KNOW: That when Amos (Freeman Gosden) ivas ill in the hospital recently, the program was broadcast from his bedside? That Amos 'n' Andy have yet to miss a performance? That Andy (Charles CorrelT) is due to become a proud papa in December? That Irene Rich slipped into overalls and slapped on a fezv coats of paint at the NBC studios for the sake of sweet publicity? That Frank Morgan has bought a )iczv yacht, the Dolphin, to take the place of the Katinka? That Bob Taylor is to keep right on being a he-man in pictures? That Wallace Beery will break Bob's nose in his next M-G-M thriller? That the Stroud Tzvins plan a personal appearance tour of the country now that they're off the coffee hour? That Lucy Gil man, 15-year- old radio actress, will play Jackie Cooper's girlfriend in Gangster's Boy? That she appeared with him three years ago in a radio dramatization in Chicago and has carried the torch ever since? That Bing Crosby and Andy Devine chugged home with a boatload of fish after just a few days in Mexican waters? That no one ivas allowed to visit William Powell during his recent illness but his mother and Mrs. Jean Bello? . 8. A. by Art Color Printing Company. Dunellen. N. J.
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