Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-01

E EMMETT hALFAOkA. WHO gAkeS ule
~ popular roles Of Cephas and
Laith in the Seth Parker pro-
IL grams. was in Washington
Tuesday arranging for the stage
setting of old New England atmosphere
that will be used in their show ut Con-
stitution Hall tomorrow night. Every
piece of furniture In MA" parker's
sittin' room has to be just right to suit
Seth, for it is the aim to present the
setting exactly as 1t Is done before the
microphone.
When Mr.. Kilpack appeared here his
arm was in sling, the result of spill
| on the ice in New York when out skat-
ing recently. But his croakfng voice,
which greatly resembles that of q mel
lowed bull-frog, was unimpaired. OF
course, that is merely the voice Of
Cephas gruffiy speaking.
Mr.. Kfpack Is head of the dramatic
department of the famous Brooklyn
Institute, and jack of all trades when
it comes to the radio and the stage.
In the Washington show he will appear
as Cephas, while John Whitcomb will
take the part of Laith Pettingal That's
because the two have to be on the
stage together.
Mr.. Kflpack is an old hand at the
radio and is one of the original men,
bers of the seth Parker cast. The
creation of the role of Cephas, who is
about the most popular of the Sunday
night visitors, was the result of acct
dent. In telling an anecdote at the
studio one night Mr.. Kilpack used that
peculiar croaking voice which is now
known to millions. Hold it." Seth
Parker shouted when he heard it in the
midst OF writing some script. Around
that voice was written a new role for
the Sunday evening gatherings"
AS evidence that Seth Parker has lost
none of his hold on the Washington
public, the tickets for tomorrow nights
performance were sold out long ago.
But there will be another show
A. entirely new cable system for
n linking broadcasting stations, en-
bodying new advances in the tele-
phonic art designed to permit them to
render musical notes more faithfully
over wider range of frequencies, is
being laid by the American Telephone
& Telegraph Co. With a test circuit
1900 miles in length already operating
successfully, between New York and
Pittsburgh, the new system win be ex-
tended as rapidly as possible to en-
brace all of the IS ZOO miles of tele-
phone lines utilized to link radio sta
tons into networks for programs Of
common origin.
Highly technical in character, the
change viii probably not be noticed by
radio listeners, although it is intended
to provide more naturalness to the re-
production of musical performances on
the radio. Where the frequency range
In present radio telephone lines is
oPn1fYHA * IL
will widen this to sos, 900 cycles.
The limit Of human audibility is
around 10000 cycles, although some
people can hear notes as high as 10000
and q few even higher. The pipe organ
attatns the lowest note among musical
instruments at about 16 cycles and the
piccolo the highest at 4,6O8 cycles. The
highest G ON the piano Is 4,096 cycles,
the lowest 80 cycles. The harmonics
OF the notes determine the fidelity,
color and distinguishability Of musical
instruments.
Telephone lines have to be specially
engineered for broadcast programs,
since their present 1906, OOO-cycIe
limits are considerably above the 800
2,700-cycle band occupied by the voice
on ordinary telephones. Radio trans
mitters may also have to be altered to
take advantage Of this new advance in
transmission technique. Then, too, an
Improvement will be needed in receiver
and loud speaker design because prac-
tcally all Of those now on the market
cut on between 1000 and 5000 cycles.
The radio networks are the largest
customers Of the telephone company
spending an aggregate Of nearly $4,000,
600 ON tolls every year.
X n \
InR. FRANK H. vIzETELLY. the
~ man who as editor Of Funk &,
Wagna1fs New Standard Diction-
airy, has acquired vocabulary of 455,-
600 words, recently inaugurated classes
for announcers which he will conduct
as consultant on pronunciation to the
Columbia Broadcasting System.
When he met the Columbia an
nouncers in the new pronunciation
school for the first time, DR.. Vizetelly
advised them to avoid the idea that
there Is one cold, hard and uniform
method of utterance that every one
should observe. Environment has pro-
vided. us with much variety, he de-
clared, and the charms of American
speech are many and various.
"No one" DR. VizeGelly continued,
should expect to make over an adult
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