Evening star., 1947-02-17


casting to the Russian people. BY
pm, the first of daily series of hour
long radio shows, concocted by our
State Department and beamed at the
U. S. S. r., should be on the airways.
The departments ONCE of Interna-
tional Information and Cultural Affairs
is not unfamiliar with this sort OF work
The Russians will make up the twenty
fifth language audience reached in
peacetime by OIC's radio division.
But this one is something special and
it is getting special handling. More
than few Americans, since the prof.
ect was announced, have expressed
the view that here is great chance
to bore our way through the so-called
iron curtain" and give the Russians
political earful. They are likely to
be disappointed in the programs worked
out by Charles w. Thayer, the smart,
young (3D chief of the international
broadcast divisions carefully assembled
Russian section. Very definitely, this
will be kid-gloves operation. The
Voice of America plans to speak to our
+ Soviet friends in dulcet tones.
Today, for example, on behalf of the
United States, sweet young lady will
greet our new audience in perfect Rus
sian. She will tell them who we are,
and where and when they can hear US.
She will say we hope to explain our
problems to them and to tell how we
are trying to solve those problems She
will quote President Truman on the
Importance of the new venture
Next come IL minutes of domestic
and foreign news, presented as objec-
lively as possible. After that, a talk
on the relationship between our Fed
eral Government and the 48 States.
Uater, when the Russians know us
better, we will tell them about Chekov's
influence on American literature and
how Horace Greeley's writings affected
the thinking Of Marx and Lenin.)
Have You in My Blood, Baby.
Following 10 minutes of American
folk songs and brief discourse on
recent medical developments in the
United States, an orchestra will give out
snappily with Cole Porter's 1--WE Got
You Under My Skin" The Russians
will be told this means, IT have you In
my blood" The experts decided Mr..
Porter's phrase might confuse a dia-
lectically minded audience.
Then, after quick summary of head
line news, the Voice of America will
sign off. It will be 10 pm. in Moscow.
For more than three weeks the broad
cast division has been holding "dry runs"
on the Russian show at its New York
headquarters. This has meant hard
work. Each day program was pre-
pared and presented exactly as though
it were being put on the air. Instead,
it was merely recorded. Then the ex-
perts want to work on it, criticizing,
adding, pruning. The next days pro-
gram showed the results of this effort.
The Russian section caught itself
making few mistakes in these rehearsals,
but the ones they found were worth
catching 1t was discovered, in this
way, that one commentator had been
referring to cosmetic rays" when he
meant "cosmic" He was letter-per-
feet in the language, but when he left
Russia people didn't talk much about
cosmic rays.
The test period also developed con-
siderable controversy about the busi-
ness of saying good night, at the end
of each program. Originally the sign
ing speech was intrusted to the same
young lady who opens today's show.
She breathed the final good night in
the sweetest way imaginable, with a
lingering, up-swept lilt which, even in
Russian, had a strangely disquieting
effect on all who heard.
There were objections-some felt such
"noctidictory" warmth was little out of
place. At last it was regretfully decided
to turn this particular announcing job
over to a male voice, and the Russians
will be sent off to bed tonight with a
polite but matter-of-fact salutation.
They will never know what they missed
These are trivialities, of course, but
they are parts of an overall problem
which is by no means trivial. What can
the United States do to get its story
its problems and hopes, its ideas about
man and his world-known and under
stood?
Telling Our Side of the Story.
It is important that the world know
and understand U.S. The forces which
oppose us abroad find we are an easy