Evening star., 1951-08-28
On the Air
Weep Cusses,
Allen S Quiet
|On New Show
By Harry Macarthur

record on which Vice President
tof the United States flouted the
Federal Code by cussing on the
air.
| 1t also become the first panel
show on record to get well past
its midway point before the mod
erator-and it was George Allen,
of all people-said one word.
!: Neither of these untoward hap
penings is likely to be repeated
in the near future. Remaining
quiet for II minutes in the midst
lof an argument is probably a
record for Mr.. Allen and he can
not be expected to do it again,
even If he has to throw in that
yarn about the time his football
team lost a game 292-to-0.
Vice President Barkley is not
likely to repeat his offenSe soon,
either. since he must know that
under the Federal Code any one
who uses obscene, indecent or
Iprofane language on the air is
subject to fine of not more than
$4,000, a sentence of not more
than two years in prison, or both.
So far he is in the clear, since the
FEC considers isolated cases of
this sort accidental and not
worthy of the attention of the
Department of Justice.
4 *#
In fact, if Mr.. Barley would
like to know the truth, an FEC
spokesman says the words he used
are heard most often on panel
and discussion programs uttered
'under stress by people who don't
know what they're going to say"
In other words, consider the
source.
What the Vice President really
said wasn't so terrible, of course.
He just told a couple of harmless
anecdotes. The punch line of one
was to the effect that something
was damn slow" in happening.
The other was a yarn about
Charles Dawes, who once told the
then Senator Barkley that this
(the vice presidency is a hell of
a job
It might even be news to pres
ent generations that this language
once would have been considered
profanity. No less an authority
on spoken American than H.
L. Menken considers these
waterlesS oaths, to be sure, totally
lacking in either emphasis or
originality. They are, these days,
not much more than synonyms
for very" and they don't do any
more for a sentence.
Still, if you are old enough to
have had your mouth washed out
with soap the first time you tried
to lend color and force to your
speech with either of these for
hidden words. you could have had
nothing but envy or awe for Vice
President Barkley Sunday after
noon.
This Man of the Week" pro-
gram, incidentally, should turn
out to be a welcome addition to
your televiewing. The plan seems
to be to surround well-known
figure with argumentive men, also
well-known, who agree and dis
agree with him and pepper him
with questions. This can be lively,
even without any cussing.
The Hollywood Touch-A great
deal of hullabaloo and fanfare
preceded the launching of a new
Itelevision program called Young
Mr.. Bobbin" (WNBW-Sundey
1880 p.mD, which also made its
debut this week. AS so often hap.
pens, the great expectations were
not matched by the actual per-
formance.
Jackie Kelk is the star of Young
Mr.. Bobbin" and is, understand
ably, happy to be graduating from
the Homer role in radios "Aldrich
Family" The graduation can't
properly be called progress, how
ever. Young Mr.. Bobbin" is a
fairly routine situation comedy
about a routine bumbling young
man on the threshold of life in the
business world. The opening ad-
venture had its amusing moments
but the best that can be said
right now is that this won't hurt
you a bit, but you wouldn't miss
lit, either.
The rather frightening thought
is that we'll have a great deal of
OF this sort of thing if Hollywood
is permitted to become the tele-
vision capital 1T has promised it
will become when the coast-to-
coast TV network becomes a real
Iity. These things will roll off the
ASSEMBLY lines like the standard
run-of-studio motion pictures, as
shiny as new automobiles and as
faithful to the pattern.
Entertainment will be subject
to the fear of offending with orig
Iinality and TV scripts will be re-
duced to the lowest common de-
nominator before camera turns
Well have slickly produced shows
glibly acted and handsomely
photographed, but innocuous repe-
titions of the formula.
There undoubtedly will be q
place for a lot of these programs
in television, but we had better be
vigilant lest Hollywood take over
i III it does, we might as well &c
. to the movies.
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