Evening star., 1935-11-24


radio listener to another, what have
we TO be thankful for?
First of all, let's give thanks to the
broadcasters. This season, for the first
time, the radio moguls have ceased to
look upon listeners as morons who'll
never progress beyond a mental age
of Il. And the result is that the
listeners cup and his loudspeaker
overflow with lot of consistently good
entertainment. That's very flattering
| to the radio audience, of course, and
It's also sound business for the broad
| casters.
Give thanks also for the new level
| to which radio drama has risen in a
season, which not only brings such
stars as Helen Hayes and Leslie How
ard regularly to the microphone-bu
| in which almost all the dramatic fare
on the networks shows a gratifying
| improvement over that of years past.
THEN chant paean Of thanksglv,
ing for increasingly varied musical
programs-programs which aren't all
light, popular selections, although
there is much excellent light music on
| the air. Remember the first venture
away from contemporary popular
music-when, for "a time. every Or
chestra felt moved to include lots Of
nice, honey Stephen -FosteriSh selec-
tions? Then they went so far as to
include some mildly highbrow Wagner
and Beethoven and List. Now they
dare go all the way-and a 1885 model
sponsor has no fears at all about COM
ing across with some Dubussy. Ravel
and Stravinsky. He's even apt to 60
ultra modern.
Gratitude also is in order to radios
technicians and producers who have
had hand in staging well-produced
shows-to the newspapers who are
realizing more and more that radio
is field in which the reading public
has intense interest-to the brand-new
practice of tagging some shows with
the name of the script writer so that
| the audience has a chance to learn
who writes the good ones and who is
responsible for the bad productions.
Be particularly thankful for Sig
mund Romberg and his music, not to
mention the dignif1ed handling of the
commercial plugs on his show. Those
ad blurbs are offered for just what
| they are - commercials - and hence
don't bob up to interrupt the music
or lines of the show. A bit of thank
| fulness for Andre KostelanetZ's music,
| too . and the splendid Sunday con-
| certs by the New York Philharmonic
! Symphony, of those two big motor
companies =. for Freddie Rich's So
phisticated Penthouse Parties for
the Monday night Radio Theater
for the fact that Joe Cook gets back
/ to guest-star on the air occasionally,
even If he has no regular contract,
and even if he does air an old gag
about once broadcast.
| ALL ready. We were. to say con
gratulations But what does
Harry McNaughton do but up and
deny that he and Jean FAIRIES are
married? Word got around in New
York that the Bottle of Phil Bakers
program and Miss FAIRIES, society lass
of Westchester, N. Y, would wed last
Friday However, McNaughton him
self tells us that he and the young
lady are engaged, but that no we'd
ding date has been set.
The Revelers, back from Europe
only a few days, bowed in on the
N. B. C-WEAF $50 pm. concert
Friday night. The boys weren't ex-
actly barred from Germany, but they
say they might as well have been. In
line with Germany's ban on jazz. the
Revelers were asked to conf1ne their
programs to folk songs and marches.
So they checked out of the country
and came home.
Wonder if it's a sign of the times
that hill-billies are on the wane? Any
way, WOAI has swapped its hill-billy
program for German band :.
Georgette Cohan is being auditioned
at N. B. c., but no contract as yet
.. neither has Neiela Goodelle, whose
sponsor goes of the air December 81,
which will probably be remedied any
minute, for La Goodelle has a lot of
what it takes. Make an advance New
Year resolution to listen to Lew
White. He has signed for 25 weeks
at the organ beginning January l.
KATHLEEN WELLS is gone. But
memory of Show Boats former
singing colleen will long persist as
radios typical Irish beauty-fair, with
jet black hair and laughing green
eyes, You would know that even
death would come in spectacular
fashion to the 24-year-old singer,
whose brief life was spectacular. She
was killed in an automobile crash the
other day. not many months after
she made the jump from dress model
Squelching those rumors that the
March of Time hasn't been successful
| in its latest guiSe as a daily feature
and would return to its original one
night-a-week formula, this broadcast
has been renewed at Columbia to do
a Monday-to- Friday stint with Barry
Mckinley taking prescribed rest in
EAO14Ods t1IC SEOL1oO4 VI 41o d4GC1AOOI1
soap show is auditioning for some new
talent :. Kay Thompson may return
to the air soon as the songstreSs with
an orchestra being readied by Karl
Kress of Gus Haenschen's outfit
and Helen Jepson, after an interlude
in Hollywood, may return via the
Beauty Box Theater.
QOY CAMPBELL'S Royalists are
~ getting almost cosmopolitan.
There's a new voice in the group. 1t
belongs to Florence Starr. the first Of
the Royalists who doesn't hail from
Kansas. She's Californian.
The intellectuals are hard put to it
these Thursday nights making up their
minds whether to dial N. B. C.'s edu-
| 1f k1@n