Evening star., 1934-11-18
Radio-less Days Urged
To Speed Up Prosperity
Broadway Song Writer Claims More Goods
Would Be Bought and Consumed
If Fans Left Dials.

, And so we have depressions, opined
Caesar. while the fires of depression
are consuming our public buying
power" he declared, American in
dustry, like Nero, keeps fiddling away
and in its most ingratiating tones
seems to Groom: sit down, America,
take off your shoes, put on your
slippers, get out that robe, put a
little tobacco in your pipe Or a
cigarette between your lips and I will
help you enjoy being lazy and show
you how to kill the evening without
spending a single penny"
x* X
no RADIO comics evoke audible
- laughter or merely smiles by
their gags? Jack Benny, Eddie
Cantor, Ed Wynn and the other come
dians of the air might like to know,
for theory has been advanced that
no one really laughs when listening
to broadcast performance, however
funny. The man propounding the
theory is M. Clement Vautel, writing
IN the French Radio Magazine. He
AYERS that in order to laugh outright
one needs the actual presence of the
performer, the atmosphere of place
OF entertaipment and the contagion
that propinquity to other persons
induces.
Is M. Vautel right? Writing in
World-Radio of London, "Rectilinear"
says the question is one each listener
must answer for himself.
For my part" he states, "I think
M. Vautel is very near right, but not
quite. In the ordinary way the Jokes
which would make one laugh aloud
IN theater do not achieve their OBJ
Ject when they are broadcast, but I
do not believe it is absolutely impos-
slble to laugh when one is sitting in
front Of loud speaker"
X
TO NEW YORK'S famed Tin Pan
l. Alley, radio has become a Co.
Hath that devours music faster
than the facile pens of the authors
and composers can produce them.
That, in substance, is the contention
OF the American Society of Authors.
Composers and Publishers in asking
dismissal of the Governments anti
trust suit charging, 1T with monopoly,
and in which radio figures as one of
the music users complaining against
allegedly "eXtortionate" royalty de-
mands of the society.
In a 42-page brief replying to the
Department of Justices contention,
the society claims that a single broad
casting station on the average plays
more than 500 musical titles in full
day of operation. These run the
gamut OF old-time, modern, domestic,
foreign, popular and classical num-
bers. The daily program of broad
casters, it is further contended, in
wolves from 81 to 26 separate songs of
different authorship, nationality.
character, taste, fancy and appeal.
In round figures, it estimates that 80
devoted to musical works, as distin-
guiShed from speech.
The continued broadcasting of mu-
Sical compositions. the society con-
tends, "has tendency to Surfeit the
public and to destroy the popularity
and value of musical compositions
within few weeks after their publica-
ton"
The spectacular and unprecedented
growth in the popularity of radio as
an entertainment medium, according
to the society, has changed the musical
habits of the nation. II states that
piano sales have declined from $685.
$4,000 in 1925 to $4,000 900 in 1881.
Phonograph records sales have shrunk
some rs per cent during the same
span. or from s22,SOO,oOO in 1925 to
$4,869,000 in 1881. Sheet music sales
are said to have decreased more than
20 per cent.