Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1944-04-07
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The Wireless: Radio historian
Harriet Van Horne quotes a medico
as saying that listeners to the day.
time soap operas expose themselves
to increased blood pressure, noe
turnal rights, vasomotor instability,
vertigo, castro intestinal disturb
ances, profuse perspiration, tremors
and a slight touch of tachycardia"
OF course, that doctor is talk
ing about only those who LIKE the
programs Marion Coveridge,
the minor (she's l4), packs wallop
with her ballads Sunday ayems via
NBC Too many radio testers
really believe the studio audiences
bowls as legitimate. The result is
that the comics are getting care
less. What brings big laughter in
studios often brings yawns in the
parlors.
The Love Letter of the Week:
From Quentin Reynolds book, 1.-The
Curtain Rises: "Most of what l
wrote in the diary is nothing but
gossip. Still I suppose if thou
sand years from now someone were
to dig up the Winchell columns of
the l920s, he would get a pretty
clear picture of life here during
those hectic days. You cannot dis
miss gossip columns by saying they
discuss only trivial things. To a
great extent they reflect the age in
which we live"
Editorial Dept Novelette,: 1t hap
pened in the city room of one of the
Big Town gazettes Two of the
boys were back to say hello
One (who has never been out of the
country wore the army oak leaf
:. The other wore the gray-green
of the marines, with a couple of
hard-won stripes . Tippled and
clustering, the Major called upon
the Marine to salute . The kid re-
sponded quickly After all, he
had been only copy-boy; the Ma
jor had been an editor, if you please
1t was tight, tense moment
:. A real editor looked up from
his work with studied puzzlement
Tell me-" he said in clipped,
quiet, carrying syllables, (which one
of you was it who killed six Japs on
Guadalcanal?" The Major
waddled out the door The kid
was too modest.
Midtown Vignette: This is one Of
those shawt-shawts that caress the
eyes and ears He is a very
young member of Fortress crew
now being rehabilitated after serv-
ice among the flax in Europe
He has most of the campaign rib
bons but no medals for outstanding
heroism . Two of his buddies
have several The lads had
few hours leave last night and de-
cided to 60 to one of the night spots
with their buddy and his bride
And because he had no silver star
or other medals-the other two
didn't wear theirs.
The Magic Lanterns: Hollywood,
which has too often pictured a kick
in a Jap's pants as the pay-off for
Pearl Harbor gets down to cases
in 1.-THE Purple Heart" Here's
flicker that brings the film colony
up to date. Its story gets inside
you and twists and burns with its re-
port on the Sneakanese Savagery.
The tale is told not with a ladle, but
with a typewriter of cold steel. Dana
Andrews, Sam Levene and Richard
Conte are superb as the captured
fliers Nora Bayes gets her
biog sung and danced in "Shine On
Harvest Moon" a rich load of We
old TYNE nostalgia. Its typical of
the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS musicals,
and you can't imagine anyone not
reveling in some of the memories of
the big town before it went soft on
crepes suzettes and laced shoes.
In the forthcoming film of Nora
Bayes' life - "Shine on Harvest
Moon" they omit this incident
Nora once wired E. F. Albee, the
vaudeville magnate: beginning
next week my salary must be s1O,-
900 a week" Albee replied:
Your salary will remain 81 900 per
week" Nora opened as sched-
uled, but after singing eight bars of
Take Me Out to the Ball Game"
she stopped the music and told the
audience: That's 81 900 worth of
my act"-and walked off.
Then there's the one about the
playwright who was called upon to
make curtain speech He ram
bled on and on, with words going
round and round looking for an idea
. . When he came to the phrase
II am speaking for the benefit of
posterity'-a heckler in the audi
ence drove him from the stage with
the squelch: Eyes, and if you aren't
quick about it, they'll be along to
hear you"
No colyurn on stage stories would
be complete without one about John
Barrymore, whose pungent wordage
v,,ora ~ yollpn Tho.