Evening star., 1928-10-07
''Graharn
BY GRAHAM McNAMEE.

1
have just been making a triI
around the radio shows. There was /,
great deal Of talk about television ant
e. erybody seemed to think that home
and theater outfits would be ready
Within year or two. Engineers anC
inventors who are studying and work.
ing on television told me it would com:
soon enough, but not SO soon as people
think. They have whole lot to do be.
fore they can throw up a big picture
and they will have t. work out SONS
way to get room enough on the air
Five or 10 years off is my guess.
I Anyway, it is near enough to make a
| broadcaster little nervous when he
thinks of millions of people looking al
him, as well as listening to him. I re-
member when Phil Carlin and I first
began broadcasting, seven years ago,
almost cracked up one night. when
was talking into the microphone and
discovered that a button had come of
my vest. l felt like all those listeners
! were peeking at me through a million
] keyholes, and jerked my hand up over
my vest to cover the place of the lost
| button. In the future, radio broad
casters will have to think about things
! like that. l suppose there will be Spe-
cialists in television makeup. Just as
| there are now in moving picture and
| stage makeup.
| 1 have recently given three song re-
citalS on big hoOi1-upS. ia rather sing
dozen times before big audiences than
once before the microphone. Long ex-
perience doesn't help you much in get
| ting rid of this nervousness. suppose
talking or singing to an audience which
you can see and talking to radio audi
cnce of millions may be compared
somewhat to old-faShioned and modern
warfare. The old-time soldier could see
his enemy and knew whether his shots
had landed. The modern soldier lies in
| hole and presses button and never
knows whether he hits anything, OF
what he is ui' against. I have heard
soldiers tell of the strange nervousness
due to not being able to see the enemy
or get hand-to-hand action. That's the
way it is with broadcaSting now, and ]
suppose it will be worse when they get
television.
think Latin people. particularly
| Italians, win be magnificent in tele-
vision broadcaSting, as they are now in
voice broadcaSting. A Latin can't do
much without gestures, but If he is free
to gesture he can say and do a lot
When We broadcast grand opera. ] love
to watch the Italian singers. At first,
the mike looks just as fiShy-eyed to
them as 1t does to any of the rest of US.
but when they sing note or two they
forget all about their nervousness
They rip loose and make love to the
mike and fight it or argue with 1t or
implore it--whatever the opera calls for
with all the gestures they would use
on the Metropolitan stage.
remember when / was a boy there
was an old doctor in our neighborhood
who had kicking horse. 1t always
used to kick at him when he put the
crupper On. Somebody told him that If
he tied its ears so it couldn't lay them
back it couldn't kick He tied its ears
forward and never had any more trouble
with kicking. The Itali.ns or French
can't talk or sing without gestures, and
they are lucky in having this habit of
gesturing. which, relieves them of all
nervousness Watching them in the
studio, I've often made bet myself
that If you tied up their arms they
couldn't sing.
Englishmen and Americans never
quite get over this nervousness in broad
casting. They are too much like horse
with his ears tied up. remember an
nouncing speech once by famous
orator who had been addressing big aU-
diences all his life. While we we.t
waiting for his turn noticed that
kept tearing up bits Of paper end
justing his neCktie and putting
glasses on and off, A reporter
him his name. He Missed the
through cienched teeth-he We
nervous. As usual he was more at
when he got under way, but he toll
afterward that this was the hart
Job he had ever done 1t was cool
the studio, but he was wiping the per-
spiration from his face.
When / started broadcasting at the
old studio in New York, Phil Carlin and
l made up the staff. Now the broad
casting company occupies five floors in
15-story building on Fifth avenue with
Stah OF Ais persons. There are now
about 1000 men and women engaged
regularly in radio broadcasting, and the
number is increasing right along. ]
mean by this regular broadcaSterS and
do not include the army of musicians,
lecturers and public men and women
who do broadcaSting.
OF course, the mechanical achieve
ments Of this period in making radio
what 1t is have been tremendous. On
the artistic side, too, broadcasting has
made vast progress. BroadcaSting has
continued to grow in taste and intelli-
gence along with the public When we
first started, the bulk of letters and tele-
phone calls were in behalf of jazz and
popular music. remember we didn't
get much OF response from offerings
like TschaikowSky, which we tried at
first. Now, after seven years. / should saw
| that at least 80 per cent of our COM
munications are in approval of the best
classical music, with demand for more
OF 1t: This, I think, is partly due to the
development Of the radio to a stage
| If