Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-10
''Grahar1n

Possessing a good singing voice usec
to be the best recognized method oil
| getting job as an announcer. Ever
today most of the mike men can pipe
| up a tune when called upon without
much straining of the vocal cords OF
| the listeners ears.
Years ago it was handy for an an.
nouncer to be also singer, because
the station directors wanted to have
someone around the place whom they
| could pitch into holes when schedules
went to pieces. Nowadays q good sing
| ing voice seems to 60 with q. gooo
| speaking voice, very often; and when
you get one you get the other.
It turned out that way recently
One of the younger network announcer;
| Is George Boucher, who was with the
National Broadcasting Co. In Washing
| ton and New York, and few months
ago went over to Columbia.
George has first-rate speaking voice
and a mighty pleasant personality, but
| until a short time ago everybody
thought his mike talents stopped right
there.
But during a recent political broad
cast there was one of those hiatuses
which had to be filled. Ordinarily an
orchestra in the studio would have been
catapulted into the breach. But one
of the program officials had heard
George humming in the control room
and called upon him to go. on the air
with one of Chester Frosts melodies
without rehearsal.
That's a tall order-going on the
air to sing for the first time without
any preparation. Even some veterans
would vince at the idea. However
George did remarkably well, and at
the end blushed nicely at all the COM
plimerts.
But then the secret came out. Al
though nobody around the studios had
known anything about it previously,
George had taken second place in one
of the Atwater Kent additions, and he
had been a singer all the time. He
just hadn't wanted to make anything
of 1t until he had studied further.
4 n **
Two very we'll known radio people
famous, you might call them-had to
go all the way to Europe to become
acquainted with each other I suppose
everybody around the studios would
have taken it for granted that Vaughn
de Leath and Rosaline Greene knew
each other, but 1t turns out they
didn't.
Each knew the other by sight, but
come up. Miss de Leath, just about the
first broadcaster there ever was, had
been singing on one program exclusive
ly since about the time Miss Greene
came on the networks. and, since that
program never made use Of actors, the
two never came together.
But this Summer each went to
Europe, and they met when they Wis
tied Oberammergau to see the Passion
Play" Already, Miss Greene post cards,
they are fast friends.
Well, the old harmony team of
Smalle and Robertson, whom veteran
when two lonely American singers met
In London. You can't tell what might
come of these things.
Incidentally, broadcasting brought
together, a few months ago, two singers
who had known each other in Chicago
about nine years ago. Ford Bond and
Neel Enslen were soloists with choruseS,
and even helped each other direct some
of the same vocal groups.
But they drifted apart, and for more
than seven years each lost track of the
other. Meanwhile Bond became a
radio announcer in Louisville, and
| when he came to New York a few
months ago. he found Neel Enslen at
the network microphones ahead Of him.
They are still reminiscing, and the last
I kneY Bond was trying to figure out
a radio program in which he could
feature Enslen, either as singer or as
announcer. Bonds ambition, by the
way, has turned somewhat from sing
ing to the building OF programs, and he
is responsible for the Southland Sing
ers, one of the comparatively new fea-
lures.
Several times I have been asked
why, for the sake of complete au-
thenticity, Negroes aren't cast to play
Negro roles on the air. My answer
usually has been that sometimes they
are, but 1t is true that most Negro
parts are taken by white actors.
The trouble is that the educated
Northern Negro talks so much like q
white man that it Is sometimes hard
to tell the difference on the air, and
the man who speaks naturally in dialect
| is Asually inexperienced, so that It takes
much too long to work him into the
| part.
In addition, the experienced and in
| telligent Negro actor, when asked to
play a part in dialect, sometimes goes
| the whole way and Is practically I'M
| intelleigible to Impractical white ears
For broadcasting no pronounced dia-
| lect must be allowed to go to the limit
| for, without the aid OF sight, many OF
| the lines must be lost until the ear
becomes used to 1t. and some OF the
| Southern Negro dialects are so rich
| that they must be diluted for the great
mass of listeners. -
It's hard to get a NegrW to do this
It sounds false TO his ears. He's right
~ no.,rsa @roaHn his nuyf1 mint 0f view