Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-07-25
RADIO DEVELOPS ART OF
SPEECH, HASKIN SAYS
Daily Letter by Frederic J. Haskio

WASHINGTON, July 25.-If you
haven't a million dollar face to bring
you fame in the movies, don't be
too down-hearted. Maybe you have
a radio voice.
With radio being developed and
with all sorts of entertainment and
information broadcasted over the
country, the profession of talking
appears to have a brighter future
than ever before. 1t may even be
imagined that in a few years the
movie-struck element of our popu-
lation will be replaced by a few
million individuals all eager to send
their golden voices out to a breath
lessly waiting world.
Perhaps this is an exaggerated
forecast. The fact remains hal ra-
dio is bringing the human voice
greater prominence than it has en-
joyed for some time.
If you listen in often, you are
aware that all kinds of voices are
sent through the air. Some are far
distinct than others. A few
have that indehnable atmosphere
that we call personality, while many
seem fiat and toneless.
Miss Dagmar Perkins, president
of the National Association for AM
erican Speech, says that radio de-
mands a speech technique Of its
own. The speaker who faces a
b~roadcasting outfit is often pain
fully aware of the great and unseen
audience he is to address. He real
ICES that he must speak clearly in
order to be heard in Arkansas. And
he Is only too conscious of the fact
that he must depend on his voice
alone TO get the message across.
The result of this state of mind is
apt to be an artificial grafton of the
old fashioned type. The speech
comes out at the end of the appara-
tus, somewhere in the United States,
in the impressive but doleful tones
of a man making an announcement
through a megaphone.
Miss Perkins has been talking
over the radio lately, and while she
could not hear herself talk she made
some experiments with voice pro-
duction and persons listening in re-
ported results.
She found that personality can be
transmitted by radio no less than
by telephone. The best effect was
VDtaAAAG0 HlA1AA a. IN 0oA -
in normal tones as If she were con-
versing with friends. When she
told a humorous story she laughed
a little. When she made a serious
statement she tried to put serious
ness into her voice. The listeners
reported that the speakers individ-
uality was carried ove the air waves
in such small details as these.
Audience Can Not Respond
1t is not an easy proposition to
throw ones personality into the
voice in front of such an impersonal
audience as a broadcasting machine.
The speaker faces the machine and
starts out with a clever story which
ordinarily would put his audience
into a responsive attitude. He tells
it as expressively as possible, and
then automatically he pauses for the
response. In the thick silence which
follows he gets a new conception
OF what it means to deliver a speech
straight through to the end without
any help or stimulation from the
people addressed. His brain IN
derstands the situation perfectly, but
the funny story seems as fiat in his
ears as If the audience had really
been on h spot and had greeted
it with cold disapproval.
Moving picture stars have told
of the difficulty of acting without
the help of an audience. 1t is
equally wearying to make a speech
to an unseen world and to be just
as animated and forceful as though
the crowd were there. Yet this is
what the radio demands. Moving
picture actors have learned the diff
hcult art of pantomime. The sue
cessful broadcaster will learn to ex-
press his personality as we'll as his
message by radio. The art of speech
may be developed in interesting and
subtle ways.
Whether listening to radio voices
good and bad, is going to make US
more sensitive to defects in oui
speech Is another question. The
telephone does not seem to have ac'
complished much in that direction
Miss Perkins says, however. thai
interest in the speaking voice is Ger
tainly increasing. When the asso.
citation for American speech was or.
ganized less than three years ago
few people gave a thought to tn,
technique of talking. Scarcely az
article written on the subject coulC
be found in current literature. Now
the association eays that speech il