Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-16

ERE'S tale to wiring your
hearts. A young continuity
writer told it to me the other
A. 4 night at the studios. He was
fairly new around the place
and had been assigned his first big
continuity for daytime programs and
Jazz orchestras.
He did a lot Of research on the pro-
gram, which needed accurate historical
data and good atmospheric touches, and
then retired from public life for while
to work on his script.
It was finished 1t was cast, 1t went
into rehearsal. It was rewritten, recast,
re-rehearSed.
The day came The young continuity
writer's radio set was gone over that
afternoon by a service man. and after
a haSty dinner he rushed home to await
the hour when his own words should
issue from the loud speaker.
In the meantime a storm blew up
and the writer's antenna blew down.
He tore through the rain to a friends
house, and although said friend was
having intense static from the storm,
he managed to tune in on the program.
At the close, with his heart soaring
and his mind in happy whirl, and tit
must be said) ready for praise and en-
couragement, the writer thanked his
friend for his cooperation.
mot at all, old boy" said the friend.
"Awfully glad to have helped you out.
Good night"
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is
just one of the cobblestones on a radio
writer's road to fame.
Glad to Learn Trick.
If you we're an orchestra leader, play
ing in a big New York hotel, would you
know how to attract that crowd of col
lege boys which do so much to build
up popularity? Although 1 have no in
tention of ever being caught before an
orchestra with anything in my hand
learn the trick.
Bernie Cummins, who has recently
burst forth on the networks, told it TO
me the other night. Bernie says 1t all
depends on remembering faces. When
ever q couple stops near him on the
dance floor and he recognizes the man,
CumminS grins in a very friendly fash
ion. Almost always the young man
comes over, shakes hands and intro
duces his girl. Then CumminS allows
her to choose the next number for the
orchestra.
Does it 60 over big? Well, it always
convinces the girl that her escort knows
his way about town, the young man is
battered and he always comes back
usually bringing a new girl, such being
the present fashion. Incidentally, Cum
minis used to be prize fighter back
home in Akron, but he didn't stay at 1t
long enough to let it spoil his looks.
I'd call him slender, but not too slight,
and he has dark hair, olive complexion
and very regular features. 1t wouldn't
Il 40 fva IaA tnlI IL les
some day. Cummins really took up the
prize ring because he didn't want to be
q musician. He had music all around
him when he was q boy-hiS family was
musical-and he learned lot about It,
but he wouldn't have anything to do
with it professionally. The ring was
an escape.
Soon he landed in vaudeville singing
and hoofng-and one day when he was
playing in Cincinnati and getting pretty
tired Of living out of a trunk he heard
that Q night club needed an orchestra.
CumMinS didn't have one, but he sold
1t to the night club anyway. 1t wasn't
until four years later, when he was
booked for the Biltmore Hotel in New
York, that he gained the courage to
take up the baton. THE whole trick
Is in rhythm" he confided. Its the
same in conducting dance orchestras
as 1t Is in boxing and dancing. If ycu
haven't got it you can't succeed in any
OF those lines" Just to prove that he
wasn't kidding. Cummins gave me SAM
pies Of his style in all three, and saw
what he meant. I imagine he might
have been f1rSt-rate boxer If he had
kept to it, for the best men I have ever
seen in the ring added rhythm to all
the rest of their qualities
"PenrOd" a Natural.
Since Tarkingtons "Penrod" has
taken to the air-and quite happily, too
there has been a feeling around the
studios that this is radio natural"
1t just couldn't help being good. And
We are beginning to have q strong sus-
picion that Howard Merrill. the clever
kid who plays the lead in the show, is
Just about perfectly cast. After the
initial performance, Booth Harrington,
who chronicled in book form all the