The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1927-10-15
GRATING CHAMP
ON THE AIR

aabA
Some strange freak Of Nature
blOtted the West and most Of
the North and East out of radio
receiving sets last evening and
permitted only Dixie to pass
through loud speakers. Florida
stations were most VOciferOus,
Tampa, Clearwater and Jackson
vile providing loud : and clear
programs. Baltimore with VIDAL
and WCAO aud WIZ and WEAF
of New York were also audible.
But that is about all. There was
not much noise, and, naturally,
interference and fading did not
figure because the outside sta
tiOns were simply not tuneable.
Senior Arturo Garcia Fermenu, Of
Mexico City, the new worlds cham
pion high school orator, and two
new feature programs were the
chief outputs of loud speakers last
evening-all of them coming to lis
teners as Washington broadcasts
and each Of them being distinctive
in its own way. The young Mexican
orator was introduced to the WRC
audience as an unprogrammed fea-
sare in the late broadcasting hours
by Main Johnson, editor of the
Toronto Star. Miss Dorothy Carlson,
of Salt Lake City, the United States
entrant in the contest, finished
fourth.
Both WRC and wMAL provided
new feature programs during the
course of the evenings exercises.
The WRC contribution was an
nounced as a super oil heated
sOloist" and turned out to be a
'cellist of fair Accomplishment who
played a recital of Is minutes dura-
ton that was not hard to hear.
From WMAL came a more ambf-
tious effort, and three types of mu-
steal entertainers under the name of
a Musical Forum" Frank Kim
nell, whose voice sounds very much
like the very able announcer of the
Brunswick programs, did an excel
lent job Of announcing the three So
loists.
ANNOUNCER REAL
STAR OF FORUM
In fact. the chief feature Of the
Forum, in my ears. was the very
clever and informative announce
ments. This type of descriptive in
PRODUCTION of music we believe is the
chief need of radio programs. The
stars presented by Mr.. Kimmell were
Gertrude Henneman, pianist; Martin
Mallory, baritone. and Frances Far
rar, soprano. Miss Henneman Is a
well-known concert artist Of st. Louis
and made her radio concert debut in
last nights program, which, we are
informed, is the forerunner Of a Sc
ries.
From WIZ we picked up this
weeks edition of ''Retolo Tales"
which was o. Henry's story. Little
Specks in Garnered Fruit" The
story was unusually well done. We
thought We caught the name of
Hazel Dawn In the announcement of
the cast at the end of the broadcast,
and we know we heard Charles Ellis
and Wright Kramer announced as
part of it. With such a cast the
story of the welterweight champion,
who sailed forth in search Of peach
for his bride, through a rather ter
rifle adventure, should have been
well presented-as we have remarked
it certainly was.
In the Rosario Bourbon orches-
trail effort under public utility sub
sfdy the most distinctive thing we
heard was two movements of the
Ballet Egyptien," which were very
well played. The W.. B. and A.
quartet sang a hit better than we've
heard them heretofore, while the
Lord Calvert quintet was not quite
up to its regular standard, its last
number being an arrangement of
Fritz Kreisler's Apple Blossoms"
which Is a corking string quintet,
but seemed to be very poorly ar
ranged for the Lord Calvert con-
tingent.
Louis Kaufman and his Anglo Per-
SLAMS played not only their program,
but added an extra number that was
| unprogrammed and turned out to be
the best thing they did all evening.
Their closing feature. on the pro-
gram, was The March of the
Sardar," from Ipollitow-Ivanoff' s
Caucasian Sketches'-which we've
heard, the Kaufman outfit do much
better. Having a bit Of time on its
hands-even though 1t did drag out
the 'Sardar" number until one
could almost hear the tones being
stretched-the orchestra added in
the Village" the second of the
Caucasian suite. and provided a
most vivid musical picture of an
Asiatic town drenched in scorching
sunlight with lazy musicians inton-
ing weird air that later becomes a
rapid dance.
Ben Bernie opened his WEAF sea-
son in Characteristic way in the
Album" Of the Columbia Broadcast
ing System came to us from WCAO,
Baltimore. in refreshing measures.