The Washington times., 1925-06-03
GRADUATION NTALKS0NWCAPBILL
ROrnping Around
the
Radio Dial

/ The three one-act plays during
i lWanamaker's anniversary program
over WRC last night were intense
ly interesting-not only an enter.
ltainment, but as q demonstration
lof the success Of radio drama
Beginning with q comedy satire
/ on the domestic problem, The
Real Thing" the Irving Players
presented in rapid succession two
more, a tragedy, Values and
farce, The Leap Year Cir" All
three were entertaining and enjoy
able, particularly the first two. The
last was a little exaggerated and
not very clever.
values" dealt with q shallow
and self-pitying wife who thought
she was being imposed upon by
her husband, who was working too
hard. and not devoting much time
to her amusement. She allowed
their small child to play unAttend,
ed In the streets, and was finally
brought to her senses when the
little one was killed by q speeding
truck.
In THE Leap Year Girl" several
girls in q girls school plotted q
scheme by which one Of ne girls,
who had worked herself into an
infatuation with a man who walked
past the school every day carrying
a bag and looking much like a pny-
sician, could mee9 the man. IL
turned out that he was a piano
tuner.
'The Real Thing was q satire on
the employment problem, AMI pre-
sented an employment agency In
which the Independent culinary
artists instead of seeking positions,
were sought by housewives. The
housewives were the ones who filed
applications and did the waiting.
All three of the plays were well
acted and clearly presented. They
were particularly fortunately select
ed, each having small casts and few
changes Of scenes. And although
the plays themselves would not
stand much competition, IN these
days, when. radio drama is IN it's
infancy and any play presentation
Is a rare accomplishment, they DID
very well.
The presentations merely gave
US more confidence in the belief
that there is a great future for
radio drama, and that local sta
tions are missing their greatest op-
portunity by not developing 1t. IN
these summer days, when there is
such airth of good broadcast ma
terial. It would be a great boon
for radio to have q little one-act
play every day or two.
We moved our set to the window
and sat out on the porch In the
moonlight all evening, escaping the
heat and enjoying the program
more than during any warm even
ing yet. And the entire bill was
good.
one OF the real features of +he
evening was the talk by Ernest l..
Greenwood on "Unscrambling the
Traffic Mess. It was one OF the
than a. political subject that we
have heard over the air for long
time. Mr.. Greenwood's first couple
of paragraphs were his best. He
said:
During the year 1923 there
were in the United States just 1S1
deaths from smallpox. Yet at the
mere mention of the word whole
communities rush to the doctor to
be vaccinated. During the same
year there were 1880 deaths from
street and highway accidents, OF
which 10000 were incident to the
automobile. The most conservative
estimates for 1924 show an increase
of about 5 per cent or approximate
ly 10000 fatalities as q result OF
the daily use of nearly $4,000, 900
motor vehicles Of all kinds.
In addition to these appalling
totals there occur each year some
where between $4,000 and 700, 900
serious personal injury accidents. In
spite of the enormous amount of
publicity which has been given to
these figures there seems to be
little indication at the present time
of any general Improvement in 1925
and the situation il rapidly BE-
coming intolerable, IL it is not
already so.'
The remainder Of his talk, which
was the first Of a series by traffic
experts which will be broadcast by
WRC and WIZ. New York. dealt
more specifically with the new traf-
fic code in the District. He told OF
the results so far and Of the ma
tional conference called by Secre-
tary OF Commerce Hoover last fall
to discuss the terrible situation,
and the work it accomplished
much of which is now incorporated
in the local traffic code.
The address was a strong COM
mendation for Director Eldridge
and his work, but we noticed that
Mr.. Greenwood did not mention
the headlight provision, though he
touched on nearly every other i'm
portant section of the code. Alto
gether, the talk was the kind we
like on the air.
MlS.sPFII cOMPOsER's