The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1944-03-28
WAVELETS
By ED LEAMY

No more do the comedians yearn
to be Hamlet. This I learn from
the usual reliable source" SO dear
to newspaper correspondents. Now
they want to be Hemingways.
Practically all of the top funsters
in radio have written or are now
writing books. These tones range,
to coin an expression, from the
ridiculous to the sublime, and vice
versa as the case may be.
Latest to announce a forthcom-
ing book is Joe E. Brown, star Of
the new "Stop Or Co. quiz on the
Blue network Thursday nights. His
volume, to be published in August
by Doubleday, Doran, is titled your
Kids and Mine" and concerns his
adventures in three trips overseas
to entertain at the fighting fronts.
AS an author, Joe E. is in dis
tinguished company. Jimmy Dur
ante, the nosey and illustriouS ILL
terate heard with Garry Moore on
CHS Friday nights, is also penning
an epic which Simon and Shuster
will market 1t concerns his fabu-
lous career from the days when he
lathered faces in his fathers bar
bershop, up to the present.
Others who have turned to the
typewriter when not busy with
radio gags are Ed Garner, with his
"Duffy's Reader" Colonel Lemuel Q.
Stoopnagle and his biography tag
ged, "You Wouldn't Know Me From
Adam" (for which another come
dian, Fred Allen, wrote the preface)
and Bob Hope, with an overseas
account called IT Never Left Home"
George Jessel, who used to be in
radio, also wrote a book and Eddie
Cantor is credited with couple OF
them.
SO it begins to appear that, If
you want to get on the best seller
list, you first have to establish
yourself as a radio clown. Imagine
such boys as Durante and Joe E.
Brown crowding Pearl Buck and
Edna Ferber for literary honors!
But, it is happening. It's one of the
vagaries of some very unusual times
to say the least.
Eddie Pola, debonair young di-
rector of "Deadline Dramas" heard
each Sunday over Station WIZ at
1900 midnight, once was a profess
sional dancer of no small skill.
It was while Pola resided in Lon
don, England, about a decade ago
that he possessed burning ambi-
ton to become a music hall enter
tainer. He entered an amateur
Charleston competition, then one Of
the dance RACES of the era, and won
it before throng of 10000 in Albert
Hall.
There's an odd tale about Pola's
triumph. Early in the afternoon of
the day the contest was scheduled,
the 'Deadline Dramas" director de-
cided to scrutinize the dance floor.
A short test convinced Pola the floor
was too slippery for good dancing, so
he hied himself to bootmaker and
had his shoes repaired with rubber
soles and heels.
The precaution gained results.
While other competitors slipped and
struggled through their maneuvers
on the glass like floor Pola's feet
remained Solidly theron and gained
him the honors. He was given a
contract for professional appearan-
ces and went on tour for period
of six weeks.
At the end of that period Eddie
decided it was too difficult a way
to earn a livelihood and retired
from dancing to enter radio produc-
ing and directing. He's never re-
| GREETED the decision.
When he was boy, Eddie Arnold
used to "hoodel" at the COWS to bring
them in at milking time. The Ten
nessee Plowboy has developed his
boyhood "hoodeling" into distinct
| i've yodeling style, which he will
demonstrate for Grand Ole Opry''
listeners when he sings 1.-The Cattle
Call" on Saturday, April /, at 1890
p. M, EWT, over NBC. In keeping
with the occasion, that April Fool,
Whitley Ford, the Duke Of Paducah.
describes his comic adventures in
learning the art of the dance, which
he defines as "nothin' but huggin'
set to music" Roy Acuff and his
Smoky Mountain Boys add three
tunes to the festivities, the noun.
tain tune, Call Old Rather" the
sermon in song, "A Hundred and
Forty-Four Thousand" and the rail-
road song, might Train to Mem
phis." Minnie Pearl continues her
laugh provoking quest for romance
and exits singing Sparkling Blue
Eyes. Mack McGar's mandolin
solo is "McCleod's Reel" the Old
Hickory Singers harmonic "Wher
the Roses Bloom Again" and Jimmy
Riddles harmonica speciality is
Echoes from the Hills. Rachel
and Oswald sing about the Fire
Ball Mail" and the popular square
dance, Turkey in the Straw
closes the show.
Betty Lou Gerson, the "Birming-
ham Beauty, who portrays news
paperwoman Anne Rogers in Blue
Network broadcasts of Hot Copy,
is a languorous southern-born belle
but there's not a trace of the vel