Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-26
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES 3. TRAcEWELL.

I already is too much butting in On such
| matters in these great United States.
| Some people seem to think that a
| speaking acquaintance, or even friend
! ship, permits them to pry into the
| lives of others. In regard to its heroes
the American public pushes shamefully
| into their private lives. with utter dis
regard of decency and common sense,
or even caution, for who can say that
! he may not wake up tomorrow a hero"
| of some sort or other, due to. the ram
pant and militant spirit of publicity
which sweeps the land?
| X
Radio announcers, in particular,
| arouse the ire of those who will well
=, come the advent of the voiceleSs set.
While they realize the necessity of the
man and often are forced to applaud
him for a difficult piece of work well
done, they could well dispense with his
far from gentle miniStrations.
| Perhaps it Is the bright and breezy
attitude, or pitch of voice, which CRATES
most on their nerves. AnnouncerS. in
! the main, take on either one of two
characteristics-they become either in
tensely gay and poppy" or they tend
toward a deep, gruff seriousness.
| Their best quality is that they have
studied. to some extent, at least, the
mechanics, as it were, of broadcasting
the human voice, and get 1t out over
the wire with better effect than do so
many of the speakers and singers. This
is due. no doubt. to longer acquaintance
with the medium.
There are almost as many styles of
approach on the part of radio speakers
as there are SpeechifyerS. Some are
nervous, many insist on dropping the
"g" on the end of all words climaxed
with ling" 1t sounds particularly
sloppy over the air.
Others will cough, clear their threats
and go "a-hem." Some shout. Others
CRATE. Some, let us say it regretfully,
even spit into the mierophone. 1t
sounds that way, anyway. All of this
| goes to show that pleasant speakers
are made, not born. The fact that
one is invited to make speech before
microphone doesn't mean much any
more. Their voices come Tuning and
| spluttering through the clouds from
| those who do not care for them can
do is to tune them out, which they do
great deal more regularly than some
would care to admit, or know.
/ 4 4 4 X
We are afraid that Prof. PEBBLES new
| set will not meet the needs of some
|
| band Of listeners. There is the man,
for instance, who cannot abide radio
sopranos. The new set will do nothing
for him, since it shuts off only on the
frequencies of the spoken voice.
This brings up horrible thought
will announcerS take to singing their
praise of foodstuffs and so on in order
| to get them by their invisible censors?
Many products ION the air" already
/ inn0TnnFQta 1iVaer q ND
| closing strains. Imagine an entire
speech in operate form!
! Doc PEBBLES set won't cut out the
| jazz bands for those who do not care
| for jazz bands nor will it end the
aerial careers of tenors, either canned
or whole. The writer here confeSses
that to him there Is only one worse
thing than radio speech, and that is
the radio tenor. A Russian baritone,
too possesses great powers of irrita-
ton, but luckily radio announcers have
given up the bad habit of labelling all
such singers as Russian" Perhaps
they found they sang the same in any
nationality.
| Prof. PEBBLES set will evoke the bless
ings of the world by banning forever
! the radio play, with its inevitable
charmer. its inevitable Englishman, its
| inevitable hero, heroine and villain.
The radio play always comes on just
| when one wants to listen to music. Or
its excited dialogue, winging out
through the neighborhood, gives every
one the impression that family quar-
rel Is going on. The radio play-or
blood pressure of listeners (no "in,''
please notice. and spoils countless sup
| pers The new PEBBLES radio will be
worth its weight in gold.