Evening star., 1930-06-15

- ONE weeks ago I discussed the
dilemma of an announcer who
wants to be dead sure Of the
~ pronunciation Of a certain word,
and looks 1t up, only TO find
the dictionaries somewhat at logger
heads. A couple of my readers thought
was smiling at dictionaries in gen.
eral and took me to task little for
becoming so uppity Well, crave for
giveness If I sounded that way, but l
meant to do nothing more than to
point out one of the perplexities we
come up against in this strange busi-
ness of broadcasting.
On such words as Derby" for in
stance. I suppose the most sensible
thing to do in this country Is to gov
ern the pronunciation by the occasion.
The Earl of Derby, for instance, likes
to have his name pronounced as II 1t
were spelled with an A. I'm all in
favor of letting him have 1t that way
every time he visits this country, but
to me the hard black hat will never
be darby" AS for the race of the
same name, take your pick.
But I got into one the other night
where no dictionary could have helped.
ISuuy NdllCC dllQ L were hJ OOQo ONCI
the pronunciation of Caribbean" 1t
was necessary that we should agree
because both of us had to use it in
| the course of the program. When
went to school was taught to speak
| 1t with the accent on the second sylla-
| BILE, but when Rudy came along the
| teachers were all for the accent on
| the third syllable. We both thought
we were right. and we resorted to the
authorities. Rudy won. The third
syllable now has all the weight OF
authority behind it, and bowed to the
inevitable, but when / got on the air
the old way asserted itself and the
word came out with the accent on the
second syllable. And a moment later
Rudy followed me on the mike with
the right pronunciation-and a gentle
| kidding. That was a case when even
a dictionary didn't help.
And, might add, received all the
| letters commenting on the incident that
I, for my uncautious moment, deserved
But 1 don't feel quite so badly about
errors of this sort as 1 suppose I ought
| Even when ones business is talkinE
there are little odds and ends OF
peculiarities that can never be COM
| pletely dropped. And have q hunch
our listeners like US better for making
occasional slips.
| -
Watching q dramatic program beinr
broadcast the other night was amused
to notice that, with all the advance!
that have been made, directors still
sometimes have to cut the scripts, ever
while the program is on the air, Il
make them come out on time.
reminded me of an incident that hap.
pened about three years ago.
think Gerald Stopp was the direc'
tor of the program and the leading
role was played by Beverly Sitgreaves
The program was running a bit over
time, and Gerald decided to make {
cut in Miss SitgreaVeS' part. She wa
a trouper and he had no fear of rat
Ting her by running his finger dowI
the script to indicate TO her the poin
in her lines to which she was to Jump
He was right; it didn't bother he
at all. In the most composed manne
you ever saw she remarked, quite dis
tinctly, yes, Mr.. Stopp, understand
I'll make the cut" The mike was wild
open and she went on with her par
as if nothing had happened
But fine actress was very nearl,
choked to death on the spot.
X
Cutting a dramatic program on tn
air sometimes does queer things. Yer
non Radcliffe, who directs "Harbo
Lights" was told one day, just as al
hour dramatic program went on the all
that he'd have to knock out Is minute
of it to make way for very specia
event. Florence Malone happened t
have the leading female role, and wha
Radcliffe did with her part while sh
was playing it was a caution. A coupl
of times he even knocked phrases ou
| nf xTrt1fc hA hod oil
!, started. But Miss Malone never battet
an eye. Only person thoroughly ia
miliar with the play in question coult
possibly have noticed 1t.
However, Leo Stark, the Australian
actor, had very fine comedy role
which didn't have much to do with tn
action, but which offered excellent op
portunities. Several times during tn
program Leo approached the mike u
take a part in scene, only to motto
from the jumps that the scene hat
been cut out. AS time went on, it be
came quite evident that he probably
wouldn't have a chance to say NOR
than long live the king" at the end o
the big scene. And, as Leo stepped VI
to the mike, in the last five seconds, Z
deliver his one remaining line, Rad
cliffes fatal pencil pounced on 1t, an
the announcer went into his sign-eh.
Leo was mournful-"I might as wei
have stayed at home" he complained
but to some program executives VIII
were present, the little studio coined
was worth the fee of an unused actor.
Some day that annoying rustic o
, paper which is frequently heard Il
radio programs will be abolished, but a
present it doesn't look as If there wer
anything to be done about it.
Some directors like to have the page
of scripts loose, so that each page ma
be dropped quietly to the floor as sool
as it has been read. This avoids tn
rustic, but it also allows the pages T.
become shuffled. So many director
, have been startled to find actors jump
ing whole pages, that now most of then
insist that the sheets be fastened to
gether at one corner. But they Ger
tainly do rustic when they are turned
FASTING each sheet on cardboard help
a great deal, but pile of caribbean
| isn't easy to handle before the micro
phone, so that's out.
Gregory Williamson, the production
man on Frontier Days" has been ex
perimenting with dampened paper TO
scripts. Just before the program goe
on the air he has each page of ever
script wiped lightly with dam
sponge. He believes he will be able Z