The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-11-30
WAVELETS
ny I'D uEAHGY

CONSCIOUS caravan 70 WAIH ana
the Mutual Network tomorrow night
at $50 TO 900. Titled your Du-
bonnet Date" the program which
viii be heard over more than 80 sta
lions from coast-to-coaSt, formerly
was broadcast saturday mornings
over another network. Sharing the
program will be vocalist Lima Ro-
may, maraca shaking singer; and
Don Rodney, who has been termed
the Caribbean Sinatra.
Cugat,.s first two broadcasts will
originate from Hollywood where Mr..
x Is on the film spot. The show
then shifts to New York and the
Mutual Radio Theater so that Senior
Cugat can fill an annual engage
ment in New York's swank Waldorf
Astoria.
Cugat, who pioneered in rumbas,
sambas, congas, has two other ac-
complishments. He Is devastating
caricaturist. He speaks a brand Of
English that few people can in
terpret, including himself.
He was born in Barcelona, Spain,
on January LIST, 1900, to parents
whose ancestry Is numbered among
the proudest in Spanish history.
The date gave him an suspicious be-
ginning, for Spanish custom accord
ed special privileges granted by the
King to those born on the first
day of new century.
When he was three, his family
removed to Havana, Cuba, where the
young Cugat made friends with an
old violin maker across the street
and thereby determined on m,lsi-
cal career. He studied conscienti-
ously to the point where he be-
came first violinist at the Grand
Opera in Havana at the age of IS.
1t was then that he was urged to
come to the United States to study,
which he did. Cugat then went to
Europe to continue his studies,
which eliminated in a wide variety
of concert engagements. During his
European tours he was spotted" by
the famous Enrico Caruso, who
engaged him as assisting artist for
a year, the last year, 1921, of the
Italian tenor's life. 1t was while
travelling with Caruso that Cugat
became interested in caricaturing
for the famous opera star was also
talented in cartoon art and spent
many hours instructing his young
accompanies.
Cugat's realization that he was
not destined to be the worlds No. /
concert violinist made him suddenly
discontinue his musical career for
a position as cartoonist on the Los
Angeles Times" where he remained
for one year until he found 1t i'm
possible to be funny on schedule.
So he organized six-piece orches-
ira of Cuban friends who knew only
native rhumbas and went into the
Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles as
inter1nission orchestra. After three
years he was discovered by Rene
Black, then Maitre d'HOtel of the
Waldorf Astoria, while Black was
on a business trip to California for
the Waldorf. A recommendation OF
the little rhumba band to the preSi-
dent of the Waldorf won their first
New York engagement. Since that
time, Cugat, has leaped high in en-
tertainment popularity.
A salute to the scores of modest,
unpublished theatrical performers
travelling all over the world to en-
terrain U. S. armed forces will be
given on Vox Pops broadcast dedi-
Gated to USO-Camp Shows, Mon
day, December 6, 8 p. m, over CHS.
In CHS Playhouse 4, New York.
Parks johnson and Warren Hull
will interview rank and file ordin-
airy show people whose names are
not famous-seH sacrificing actors
and actresses who are earning far
less than they could on cafe and
theater engagements, to make hun
dreds Of thousands of American
fighting men laugh, cheer and sing
with their "live'' shows.
Travelling to foreign stations by
plane and troop-ship, SOLDIERS In
greasepaint" have given four and
more performances daily, for
months at a time, to audiences Of
a few CTS in tent to 10000 troops
standing on an airfleld. They've
played in noon-day tropic heat,
ploughed through jungle mud and
dug foxholes to dodge Jap bullets
in New Guinea and the Solomons.
They were In Sicily and Italy i'm
mediately after our invasions. They
have future top bookings on the
ruins of Berlin Tokyo.
Last weeks broadcast Of Salute
to Youth" on NBC demonstrated
graphically what real troupers we
have in America. Jane Froman,
guest singer, appeared in q wheel
chair, a vehicle which has been hers
since the Inflated Lisbon Clipper
crash. And Quentin Reynolds, 'front.'
line reporter, was on crutches, the
result of an attack OF sciatica.
Jimmy Dlrante's engagement at
/ the Copacabana in New York will
before eight weeks. Jimmy and his
partner, Garry Moore, arrive in New
York this week to broadcast over
CHS Friday nights. The Schnozzola
has to return to Hollywood though
by March to start work IN the
filming of "Ziegfeld Follies."
Joe Gotten, America Ceiling IN
limited Sunday program star, has
good and fast company In Van
guard Films "Since You Went
Away" It includes Lionel Barry
more, 1ngrid Bergman, Agnes
Moorehead, Jennifer Jones and
Monty Wooley.
Helen O'Connell, who left Jimmy
Dorsey's orchestra to become one of
the nations newest solo attractions,
will be heard with Barry Wood in
the Treasury Star Parade'S" quar-
ter-hour, the week Of Dec. 5. It's
the second Of three weekly tran
scriptions.