Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-24

/ gram e'ee was 70 30 on the ar. he
seemed dreadfully tired, but after his
own address he sat down to listen TO
the rest OF the speeches. 1t was too
much Tor him, however, and two or
three times he nodded of to sleep.
he Is 9 JOY to annourcers and engi-
neerS. He has an engineers strict re-
gard Tor perfect functioning Practi-
cally all his radio speeches nowadays
are mace from his study In the White
House. ABOUT four minutes before he
| IS TO go on the air he approaches the
microphone. He speaks q few words
INTO ie so the engineers may adjust the
| controls to the volume Of voice the
| President will use Then he waits
quietly until the announcer mods to
him that he has the air.
| HIS speeches are perfectly timed.
Usually ne has a watch beside him,
| and he keeps one eye on it while he
reads his manuscript. His Judgment of
pace Is excellent, but he has been
known to drop paragraphs from his
speeches. TO make them end at the
proper time.
When he speaks in public he reads
from a little black book, which Is usu-
any unnoted by the visible audience.
Announcers standing several feet be-
hind him have noticed that he turns
the leaves In q most urostentatious
manner.
An announcer at an outside function
| never has to worry about when the
President VIII speak. On one occasion
the preceding speeches, which were not
to be broadcast, ran short, and the
chafTWoman was about to introduce the
| PRESIDENT. With slight smile, Mr..
Hoover walked over and engaged her
In casual conversation. And until the
| announcer gave him the nod indicating
that ne had the air the President
stalled" And then he turned and
smiled at the audience, as If admitting
he knew they were In on the secret Of
| the delay.
The President has a special micro
phone manuscript stand, which no one
else may use. It is kept in the studios.
| and at the end Of Mr.. Hoover's term it
VIII probably be presented to him, fol-
| lowing the precedent set when presi-
dent Coolidge left the White House.
| X 4 II X
Say what you will about New York.
there is one place where people must
always be on their very best behavior,
and that's the bruadcasting studios.
Ihere are parts of the city where the
prohibition laws don't seem to mean
very much, but the liquor ban is strictly
enforced in the studios. A few drinks
are likely to damage the quality of an
announcer's or singers voice, and a
| SllgnC muddle- medicines on the part
OF any one concerned with a program
might easily throw it In confusion.
Guests invited to the studios are al
ways watched carefully for signs of
drinking, and sometimes, when there &
doubt, there aren't any more seats
inside the studio doors. Once a man
who appeared to have himself under
control went asleep and fell out of his
chair, much to the discontinue of the
performers. Since then there's been 8
| rule.
/ Smoking is out of favor, too. Not
only Is the fire hazard to be considered
i'm spite of steel and concrete con-
stTuction-but even the otior of smoke
dtSturb5 many singers. Those who have
been requested to stop smoking IN
studios and control booths have included
high officials Of several great companies
and brigadier general
Swearing Is habit that is discour-
aged among all persons whose duties
bring them into the studios. It Is just
barely possible that circuits might In
advertantly be lift open, throwing q
careless phrase on the air and into
! thousands Of homes. 1t might happen
and so swearing LIS out.
/ 1t used to be the custom for some Of
the broadcasters to bring sandwiches tC
| Tile SbOQ1Oos WIl1CIl GA1Cy utu44CAlCO III Oul
| moments in long rehearsalS. You cant
observe table manners with q script In
one hand, q sandwich in the other, and
q director ready to pounce on you If you
/ shouldn't be on the alert, but that didn I
| end 1t. Crumbs from the sandwiches
attracted mice. Mice might gnaw their
way into delicate apparatus, and now
sandwiches are barred, too.
X X x
1t is something of q tradition in the
newspaper business that q man who
writes well can't talk for sour apples.
They always tell of the job hunters
who brace the city editor and say,
Listen, never could talk myself into
Job, but let me have a typewriter and
I'll show you that you need me on
your staff"
But several newspaper men-snd
very successful ones-haye proved there
isn't anything In it. A well known
New York columnist's daily ether
ramblings have caught on for fair;
listening to Floyd Gibbons has become
a cult. Another colunlnist, broadway
registrar of vital statistics, is making
Main Street like it, and there are
probably more to come.
Another writer who recently batted
| for Floyd Gibbons on the air was per-
l
quite at ease-before the mierophone,
and on the occasion of that and his
other broadcastS the fan mail INDICATED
a hearty appetite for more.
Alexander Woolcott put In several
weeks as master of broadcaSting cere-
monies, and the listeners said they
liked it. Woolcott, like other writers,
had overcome his terrors Of audiences
by lecturing long before micropnones
came along.
And there have been punches OF news
paper men on the air for single pro.
grams, Some of them have been scared
stiff, but not one funked his job. one
even got such kick out of it that ne
wangled small part in radio drama
and then wrote a column about 1t.
Among other newspaper men who
have gone mike" are Tex O'Retlly, The
Fortune Hunter" and Glen Mccarthy,
who reports horse races for the ether.
Sports writer's have gone on the air
several times to amplify radio reports,
and they'll probably do more OF u IN
the future.
And so I think the myth that writers
can't talk has been pretty nicely ex-
ploded. They can't all talk, of course,
but they are really just as articulate rs
the other folks.
A very sad tale has reached Our audi
lions department. It's from q young lad
in Pennsylvania, a coal miner, VINO
wants to come to New York to sing Tor
the radio audiences. He was scheduled
for an addition on Tuesday, but ne
wrote to say that he had had a little
trouble, and wanted poStponement.
zone week after I got fired from the
coal mines" he wrote, II went down to
the mines To see nv gang. i sang one