Evening star., 1948-08-08
For Radio Listeners
By Harry Macarthur

Last Monday night the American
Broadcasting Co. established def
fitely again that radio can come to
grips intelligently with problems of
today when it sets its mind to it.
Radio sounds fairly silly, or at best
sophomore, too large part of the
time, but it was anything but that
last Monday night at 9 on the ABCs
portion of the air. The occasion was
the presentation of Robert Saudek S
long planned documentary, Com
munism-U. S. Brand"
Communism-U. S. Brand" at
tracted the sardonic attention of the
New Yorker magazine few weeks
ago after a rumor that it had been
abandoned because writers who were
neither pro-Communist nor anti
Communist could not be found
Morton Wishengrad, the writer Sau-
dek chose to whip the program into
shape, already has established his
position among those opposed to
communism, all right. but he did
not resort to the emotional ap-
proach. His "Communism-U. s.
Brand" was a tightly knit, dramatic
well-documented script.
Tonight we are interested in
facts" said the narrator. THE evil
dence will be ours, the conclusions
must be yours" 1t was evident con-
tinually from then on that ABC in
tended to be blunt and forceful
rather than polite and objective
about the dangers of communism to
democracy.
The case-history approach was
adopted to tell the story of Com
muniSm-U. S. Brand" Its central
figure was Phil Blake, an idealist
who embraced the Communist pipe
dream, never to learn until it was
too late that his fancies were bred
of theological hashish. He got his
card and took the party oath-"I
pledge myself to rally the masses to
defend the Soviet Union, the land
of victorious socialism. pledge my
self to remain at all times a vigi-
liant and firm defender of the Len
mist line of the party, the only line
that insures the triumph OF Soviet
power in the United States"
He was indoctrinated in the party
methods, learned to control unions
by confusing and firing less-pur-
poseful members, learned to shout
"Red-baiter" when accused Of COM
munism. He learned to use honest
liberals by trickery in Communist
front organizations, learned to re-
verse glibly with the party line sci
In Moscow, the party line which has
reversed itself seven times between
1919 and 194S
The picture established by Com
munism-U. S. Brand" was any
thing but one of a political party
willing to battle in the hustings or
even terms with other political par
ties. 1t was a firmly established
picture of an enemy of the United
States busy at work within its Dor.
ders. The conclusion it drew, pu
in the mouth of liberal betrayed
by the cynical Communists, wa:
"You can't trust a Communist. It!
too damned bad, but that's how it is.
Well written and well acted
"Communism-U. S. Brand" was {
shining feather in the cap of MI
Saudek and his ABC documentar,
unit. 1t will be repeated tonight a
$50 (WMAL) and you will find i
well worth your while to listen.
X X X X
NBC wants it known that Samm.
Kaye is not giving it away, no mat
ter what it may have sounded lik
on his 80 You Want to Lead
Band" show the other night. Tim
ran out just as the announcer wa
listing the load of prizes. And tn
prize we're adding to the jackpo
tonight is =" he got out befor
he was cut off, to be followed in
stantly by another announcer VIII
cut in with "NBC, the Natior1a
Broadcasting Co."
u X X X
Televiews:
.Television apparently being tn
miracle that is bringing back vau
deville, WJz-TV. which will be tn
ARC vjda0 "6apShiD !" has chosen