Evening star., 1932-05-30
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

1t used to be a radio, but now 1t u
just talking machine.
What gave promise. to many of us, ol
becoming the most fruitful musical in.
strument of the ages, has turned itseli
into q perfect aerial geyser Of gush.
Music Is side issue, nothing more.
The old-time talking machine" really
did very little talking; most owners pur-
chased musical records, only occa-
sionally indulging in straight record
ing of speech.
One grew very tired of "Abie on the
Telephone" and that sort Of thing
Even the great speech of Marlowe, The
Quality of Mercy" from THE Merchant
Of Venice" was held in reserve by the
average phonograph enthusiast. to bt
trotted out on special occasions.
1t was talking machine"-that Is
it could talk, but nine-tenths Of its out
put was musical.
The radio, which began as music
machine, has turned itself into louc
speaker. flguratively and literally.
This was all the more evident to those
cid enthusiasts who found themselves
turning on their sets less and less as the
ycars went by.
When they did tune in fer what they
hoped to be an hours diversion, in q
musical sense, they discovered that they
had become very much out-of date.
If somebody wasn't making a speech
then some one else was singing. (Tht
old human voice, in a fancy setting.
II no one was talking, then severa
scmebodies were buSly screaming al
each other in the guise OF drama.
II none of this was going on, ant
mostly some of 1t was, then a very ETH.
cient-sounding announcer was doinf
cne Of two things:
/. Telling the audience about some
thing they had just listened to, or
q Telling the 100000 what the!
would listen to next.
So largely has the use of the human
voice grown upon the broadcasting sta
tions that operas were put on the ali
with intermittent comment while th'
music was going on. thing unheart
Of before in the history Of art.
Maybe this auditors experience hal
been exceptional, but it seems as i
every single time he has turned his SCI
on in recent months somebody has beer
running of at the mouth.
He wonders how many other persons
Immediately switch the set of, too. ant
60 back to their paper, or book. o.
conversation, or garden. or theater. Of
other occupation, or amusement.
Even musical programs must be laie
in supposedly foreign settings, and tht
announcer must declaim as follows:
The moon is tinting the water!
golden. Far to the east the great
mountains stand aloft in silent majesty
while the people of the town come dowr
to the waters edge to see the boat CONT
in. There is mystery In the air, ant
the orchestra plays Majestic Noun.
tains, Don't Fall on Me-"
1t Is all rather silly.
The auditor. sitting in his living
room, surrounded by his family and hi,
books, his furniture and his familiar
walls, wonders what the words have tc
do with it.
Why did the broadcasting station
have to go to all that trouble. to take
somebody's time to write/the words, and
somebody else's to say them?
He asks himself honestly, Does the
descriptive bit. continuity, or whatever
1t is called, add a single blessed thine
to the program, as far as the listener
is concerned? And isn't the program
for him. after all, or does he Just sup.
pose that it Tsp"
If this sort Of rant is gotten up to
appeal to the famous mentality of a
13-year-old child he feels as If some
distinguished psychologist has woefully
underrated the aforesaid mentality.
There is nothing a bit backward
about the mental processes of boy ol
that age. He should be treated BY
others, we suspect, exactly as he re-
CARDS himself, as sentient being with
considerable powers of appreciation