Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-08-03
On the Air
Fast Music
Is No Boon
To Director
By Harry Macarthur

"a television show to plague its
director never will be counted and
Icatalogued. There will always be
ione more unexpected disaster lying
in wait for a man who thinks he
has provided against every possible
mishap.
Today'S victim of this unfor-
tunate fact is Joe Browne, who
directs the new Heritage" sum-
mer series, which WNBW is send
ing to the NBC-TV network
Wednesday nights at 8. The first
Heritage program this week
reached its conclusion, much to
Mr.. Brownies dismay, noticeably
in advance of the end of the time
allotted to it.
The unforeseen mishap which
gave the Heritage" director all
| that dead air and nothing to fill
it with but theme music may have
been happening for the first time
Anyhow, radio and television pro-
Educers and directors have been
Operating all along on the theory
that different performances by the
same man of a given piece of
music vary only a few seconds in
time. Different pianists, for in
stance. may play Chopin's Minute
Waltz" in anything from SIS sec
onds to l minute and As seconds,
but each plays it in about the
same time every time.
What happened to Heritage"
was that the National Gallery Or
chestra, conducted by Richard
Bales. sharpened up enough on
the air to play selection late in
the program 40 seconds faster
than it had been played at re-
hearsal. WNBW's dead air was in
embarrassingly plain view, all over
the NBC-TV network.
X x
Disastrous as this may have
seemed to those involved, it did
not keep Heritage from being
welcome addition to the summer
televieWing. A television visit to
the National Gallery of Art is both
Q rewarding and relaxing way Of
spending an evening hour.
The orchestra conducted by
Mr.. Bales is, as many Washing
ton music lovers know, a good one
and it sounded fine Wednesday
night in its playing of Haydn's
symphony No. 88 in G." John
Wards moody Night Music" and
some other selections pertinent
to the programs theme-culture
in Colonial America.
The sound pickup by the.
WNBW engineers was excellent
and the music had crispness and
clarity.
No televiSion visit to the Ma
tional Gallery can match the real
thing, of course, but it does have
the advantage of expert guides.
This weeks was John Walker,
chief curator of the museum, who
treated the viewers to some enter
tanning lore about Stuart, Copley
and West during the first inter-
mission in the concert. In the see
ond intermission Rose d'Amore
takes over for an interview with
modern American composer,
her first guest being Mr.. Ward,
the Might Music" composer. The
announcer for Heritage" is Frank
Blair and, while he wasn't as at
ease in the surroundings WedneS-
day night as John Kieran was
week and half ago. he is COM
mendably unobStructive "host-"
Some of televiSion'S studio tricks
must be left behind on a location
Ijaunt like this, of course, but the
loss of camera latitude seemed
completely worthwhile in this
case. The gain is in program con-
tent.
There is just one concluding
comment in this welcome to Her
itage." Producer Ralph Burgin
and Director Browne, happily
li.lave let the music speak for itself
without cluttering it up with Wis
ual diversions.
X X 4
Week End Guests:
Saturday: Ella Raines, Mildred
Bailey and Lanny Ross. on Faye
Emerson's wonderful Town"
I (WTOP-TV-9 PM The
Mello Larks, on The Doodles
Weaver Show" CWNBW-10 PM
/. . Peggy Lee and Johnny Des-
mond, on Songs for Sale
/ (WTOP-TV-10 PM Paul
Hoffman,, on "Chronoscope"
/ (WTOP-TV-11 PM
Sunday: Gene Baylos and Mel
Torme, on Star of the Family
(WTOP-TV-6:30 PM E. Jane
Harvey, on Summertime Revue"
(WMAL-TV-7 PM Mar
garet Phelan and John Cecil
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