Evening star., 1932-08-14
Behind the Microphone
BY THE RADIO EDITOR.

SuCn PRESENTATIONS dS Ile OdLIlc-
dral hour, and $500 copies of
vocal music from operas and
operettas in special song collec-
tions.
Mattfeld said the Columbia Ii
brary is called upon to supply
about 800 programs each week
throughout the year, and that an
average of 40 new orchestrations
per week is turned out by the
music library. Each requires from
four days to a weeks effort for
one arranger.
THE Three Keys, N. B. C.'s new
l. est harmony finds, know
music, but their arrange
ments are all mental" as Bob.
their pianist, explains. None OF
the trio reads music. The boys
listen to a composition and then
whistle it. When all have learned
the melody they get together and
work out their own arrangement.
They never use music All of their
work is memoriZed.
X
Mrs. Alma Culp of Lee Hall, Va,
charter member of the Corn Cob
Pipe Club, who admits to 73. years,
hasn't missed a meeting since the
club originated it's weekly broad
casts almost five years ago. Regu-
larly every Wednesday night Mrs.
Culp drives into Richmond, where
the programs are presented, and
participates in the singing and
dancing, occasionally with a glass
of water balanced neatly on her
head.
Broadway crowds Shrieked In
glee the other night, we are told,
when a famous practical Joker
came to grief. Ole Olsen, of the
comic team of Olsen and Johnson,
heard with Rudy Vallee, saw his
chauffeur driving up to the Times
Square Studio. Ole quickly
snatched a couple of bags of pea
nuts and rushed to the curb with
the idea of showering them over
the driver. But somebody had
left a banana peel on the curb,
and Ole went into the gutter in
reverse, almost in front of his own
car.
COLUMBIA engineers recently
~ were confronted with the
problem of inStantaneouSly
alternating the music of Victor
Young's Orchestra, playing in Co
lumbia'S New York studios, and
the singing of the Mills Brothers
quartet in Chicago.
A study of the problem revealed
that the program wires feeding
out of the Columbia studios to
the major cities east of Chicago
could be formed into a gigantic
circle encompassing 20 major
cities. This wire loop, having a
circumference of $4,000 miles,
might be likened to a one-way
street. If the loop were broken in
New York studios and the pro-
gram was fed from there, the
music would travel the complete
circle through Chicago and l9
other cities, arriving back in the
New York studios on the other
end of the loop. Likewise, ii the
loop were broken in the Chicago
studios, Chicago could feed the
program over the circle, through
the New York studios and back
again to Chicago.
The rest was merely a matter
of operating procedure. In both
the New York and Chicago
studios loud speakers reproduced
whatever music or speech hap
happened to be on the great circle
of wires. At a given cue the circle
was broken in New York and the
opening strains of the Young Or
cheStra sped to Chicago over the
circle. The Mills Brothers stood
in the Chicago studio and listened
to the orchestral selection from
New York. Their cue to begin
singing was the striking of four
notes on set of chimes by the
orchestra.
AS the ring of the final chime
faded out the New York studio
engineer joined together the
parted ends of the circle of wire,
the engineer in Chicago opened