Evening star., 1953-08-05

'Mr. Hunnicut|s Hair Shirt
Woven of Old Movie Morals
By Harry Macarthur

suitable for showing on mid
day Comics"
Though he is an extrovert who,
many suspect, would do anything
for laugh, Mr.. Hunnicut has
given serious thought to matters
of television programming, espe-
cially programming for children.
He feels. for one thing, that
young viewers will take education
happily If it is not labeled as
such and entertains while it
educateS.
He is not merely guessing,
either. He has two sons, aged z
and II, and has had plenty of
opportunity to observe the effects
of television and the reactions of
the young to it. He walked in
on the Hunnicut boys the other
afternoon, for instance, and
found them engrossed in a film
on forest conservation. They
were learning something but no.
body had told them that and
they were glued to the TV set.
Mr.. Hunnicut also has caught
his sons using some fairly shoddy
grammar on occasion and traces
every "ain't" to overexposure to
TV Westerns. Something, he
thinks. ought to be done about
that language.
From his mail, Mr.. Hunnicut
has discovered something about
his MONDAY audience, too. His
young viewers, the letters indi-
cate, prefer silent comedies to
the newer talkies. Mike also pre-
fers them, because the Silents
give him a chance to have fun
providing dialogue, running COM
mentary and sound effects. He
thinks it nice, too, that Snub
Pollard may become star all
over again.
Mr.. Hunnicut is not new to
Washington broadcasting.. He
has had other chores in other
cities since, but he first came
here 20 years ago. He was turned
down as an announcer by WMAL
because of his Southern accent,
but in no time at all he was
playing piano and singing over
WRC and NBC.
He has had a piano close at
hand ever since. an affinity
which makes it normal for him
now to be involved in a contest
for young pianists on his WNBW
show. This has raised its prob
lens. too, as in the letter from
the little girl in Silver Spring.
She didn't have any piano to
practice on, she wrote in her
childish scrawl, so she couldn t
enter the contest. But she had
saved up $12 and did Mr.. Hunni-
cut think that the winner of the
contest, who would win a new
piano, would sell her the old one
for $12. Mike fervently wishes
he knew where he could lay his
hands on a $12 piano.
Mr.. Hunnicut and his wife,
Polly, incidentally, were WASH
ington broadcasting's first Mr.
and-Mrs. team, back in the early
1930s. They also have done some
television together and Mike
would like to do show like that
one again.
"The only trouble is" he
muses.. "she looks so good on
television that it makes me look
like her father"
x n X X
NOBLESSE OBLIGE-If you
have been startled by some of
those announcements on WTOP,
you may be losing faith in your
ears. The sound of one radio sta
ton not only mentioning but
praising a competitive radio sta
ton is an unaccustomed one, but
that's exactly what you have
been hearing. In case you have
missed all of this, the startling
departure in broadcasting has
been WTOP's airing at intervals
of congratulations to WRC on it's
30th anniversary. 'The record
of WRC," says the announce
ment, composed by no less con-
tinuity writer than WTOP Presi-
dent John Hayes, lis enviable."
Television had better be on
guard; those radio fellows are
ganging up.