Evening Star Newspaper, February 23, 1930, Page 60

A%TE SUNDAY STAR, RUDY' TO SING FOR - THE ‘FIRST LADY Mrs. Hoover Will Be Honor Guest at Club Breakfast. Concert to Be Broadcast. Rudy Vallee will sing his songs for the First Lady of the Land in Wash- ington Tuesday afternoon, when Mrs. HerBert Hoover will be the guest of honor of the Congressional Club at its annual breakfast to the wife of the President. The breakfast will be at noon and a radio picture of the affair will be broad- cast by the National Broadcasting Co. from 1:45 to 2:30 o'clock in the after- noon. Valiee and his Connecticut Yankees, well known to radio listeners through the Fleischmann hour and other N. B. C. programs, have been engaged to provide entertainment for the affair, and Vallee will sing several of the numbers that have made him famous. Mrs. Porter H. Dale, president of the organization and wife of Senator Dale of Vermont, will open the broadcast program and will introduce Mrs Hoover, who, however, is not scheduled to make an address. The breakfast will be held in_the Hall of the Americas of the Pan- American Building and will be attended by several hundred women prominent in Washington social activities. Among them will be Mrs. Edward Everett Gann, sister of Vice President Curtis; Mrs. William Howard Taft, he:self a former First Lac Mrs. Curtis D. Wilbur, rs. Chavies Evans Hughes and other prominent women. In the evening Vallee and his or- chestra, the Connecticut Yankees, will provide music for a dance in the au- ditorium of the National Press Club. D. A.R. TO PRESENT SERIES OVER N. B. C. Program Designed to Stimulate Tendencies in International Thought. The National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, yesterday completed arrangements with the Na- tional Broadcasting Co. for the broad- casting of a series of 10 half-hour pro- grams designed to “stimulate in the minds of the American people the meaning of present-day tendencies in national and international thought. In requesting time on the air the or- ganization declared its speakers “will discuss specific problems, one side of which already has been presented over the radio.” Mrs. Lowell Fletcher Ho- bart, president general, who requested the time. stated that the foremost men of the country had been invited to #peck in the series. At the present time the National Broadcasting Co. is giving a half hour each Saturday night to the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom for discussions on ‘“Peace.’ This series started several weeks ago, and will continue for the duration of the London Naval Conference. For the D. A. R. series the National Broadeasting Co. has put aside the period from 7:30 to 8 o'clock Thursday nights, beginning this week and con- tinuing until May 1. Spetial All-Request Program. The Dutch Master Minstrels will cele- brate the completion of a year and a half on the air with a special all-re- quest_program over a National Broad- cast Co. network March ~ New i‘ield for Battery Sets. “The move toward installation of radio sets in automobiles, airplanes and motor boats has opened up an important new field for battery receiver development. Behind the BY THE RA F ever “Amos ’'n Andy” run short of gags for their daily comedy broadcasts the National Broadcasting Co. networks, they have only to fall iback on their fan mail to find material enough for another 10 years of laughs. l The amount of such mail, goes without saying, is tremend- ous; but what amazes Correll |is the high percentage of genuine humor found in the great ma- ijority of letters. The two radio comedians, inci- dentally, just recently received one fan letter which they prize above them all. This came in an envelope which was addressed neither by name nor to any radio station. It bore merely a pen figures. Above these is the legend {the ambiguous | York City, N.Y.” | Yet this letter was delivered without hesitation to the New York headquarters of the Na- tional Broadcasting Co. and turn- ed over to Oorrell and Gosden. address, ‘“New Kansas City, and inclosed an in- genious set of “elastic shoe laces” designed especially for Andy after ;w:’ring him complain about his eet. “Your old friend Pat Pending was in Kansas City and we be- came very good friends,” Mislin wrote. “As a result I made these shoe laces just for you. A smart {man like you can follow the di- rections for wearing, and don’t forget to explain the situation to Amos. Perhaps, he’ll want some, too.” Both Am6s and Andy admit they didn’t know what they were starting when they introduced Pat Pending into their programs. A deluge of similar names based on abbreviated symbols flooded their mail for several weeks. But not all the letters are writ- them are extremely serious. One of the most serious notes, they say, is the funniest they ever re- ceived in_ their lives. This was the one from the Treasury De- | partment’s Boston office inclosin, income tax forms for corporations and mailed to “The Fresh Air >&a§(lc3b Co., Inc., care of station i * ok ok % | THERE are words and phrases | it’s best not to use on the air, |according to announcers and pro- | duction men. They are no naughty words, either. The ban is not a question of morals but of diction. Known as “bad air words,” it is part of the radio director’s job to find substitutes, if possible, for them when he prepares a script for broadcasting. And in such commonplace “scripts” as the daily stock market reports come some of the trickiest and hardest words to enunciate before a microphone. For example, the combination of sounds resulting in “general railway signal” causes many an- nouncers to hesitate. has to read it everyday during the stock reports, but every so often it reaches the listeners as “gen- eral wailway signal.” The reason is that the tongue must perform certain acrobatic movements in order clearly to enunciate every isyl!able, ‘Tongues will slip. | “explosive” consonants are hard air words. For example, “indubi- any given condition, makes the through | it| iand Gosden when they read it |and ink sketch of two black face | |“I ain’t agonna do it,” and below | It came from Karl J. Mislin of | ten in a humorous vein. Some of | B Some one | Words with what are known as {tably,” not easy to handle under | Microphone DIO EDITOR. ,aloud to get the meaning of this | —are difficult to handle. Sibilants, too, at times are not | pleasing, though a person who has good diction does not find them very troublesome. Any actor with the slightest trace of a lisp or a hiss in his voice just goes all to pieces over such a phrase as “sixty-sixth in a series of serious sessions.” The word oscillation all by itself has been known to stump some would-be radio ac- tors. Continuity writers know many of these words and manage to keep most of them out of the scripts that reach the actors. When it is found impossible to substitute words, the director watches for them and takes time out to give the actor with the handicap lines plenty of time to master them. * K ¥ % THE theme song, which is now holding undisputed sway over the motion picture industry, is looking for new fields to conquer according to Arthur Bagley who directs the Tower Health Exer- cises for the Metropolitan Insur- ance Co. Out of a total of 20,000 letters he received last month from members of his radio exer- cise classes, one brought the sug- gestion that a theme song be written and adapted to the exer- | cises. | Bagley, while giving the sug- | gestion consideration, does not {favor it. “For. more than five |years the exercises have been | broadcast,” Bagley said. “Im- mediately preceding each class the Metropolitan chimes are sounded. These chimes are as ‘vttnl as the music accompanying the exercises. To add a theme song would be gilding the chimes.” N one stride radio broadcasting moves up to a commanding po- sition above the amusement cen- ter of the world, with the Na- tional Broadcasting Co.s an- nouncement of a new Times Square studio in the New Amster- dam Theater Building, former home of the Ziegfeld “Follies.” At the very heart of Broadway, high above the principal arteries of the entertainment world, the National Broadcasting Co. has | taken over the entire New Ams- |terdam roof and transformed it |into one giant broadcast studio as an important addition to ‘its elaborate quarters at 711 Fifth avenue. By this move the New Amsterdam room completély loses its identity as a theater, to be- come the focal point of N. B. C.’s coast-to-coast networks, reaching an audience numbered in mil- lions, on the occasion of impor- tant broadcasts. And the radio system acquires a strategic location in the mathe- matical center of New York’s en- tertainment whirlpool, where it may bring to the microphone noted stars of the Broadway stage {who were formerly unable to |leave the footlights long enough | to address a nation-wide audience |at an hour when greatest num- | bers were listening. Acquisition of a Times Square | studio, National Broadcasting Co. officials state, is a relief measure designed to solve the problem of congested studios at the Fifth Avenue headquarters. Desire on the part of sponsors to invite guests to witness their programs, and a nightly stampede of the | curious, anxious to see their fa- | vorite radio performers at work, |are mentioned as factors prompt- ing the move. Engineers and designers of the | WASHINGTON, D. The Ace of Croone The popular Rudy Vallee, who is Theard regularly over WRC and the Na- tional Broadcasting Co. network. He is coming to Washington Tuesday to direct his Connecticut Yankees in two special programs, one at the Congres- sional Club, where Mrs, Herbert Hoover |is to be the guest of honor, and the other at the National Press Club. Grid Classic to Be Described. A foot ball game of 25 years ago, when Michigan and Chicago battled in a grid- | iron classic, will be described by Phillips Carlin in the Sparkers’ sport drama on WJZ and stations Thursday. Features to Be ltu;ult. Numerous features of the annual convention of the National Education Association convention at Atlantic City will be broadcast by WPG. Composer to Feature Program. Harry Armstrong, who composed “Sweet Adll.fl'ee." is to day. The program number of Mr. Armstrong’s melodies. Series of Organ Recitals. A series of recitals by leading or- ganists is being broadcast on Sunday evenings until May 11, by WTIC. The organist tonight will be Lynwood Far- num of the Church of the Holy Com- munion in New York City. 5,000 Registered Lil{énerl. ATLANTA (#).—Dr. Marion M. Hull, Atlanta physician, who conducts a radio Bible class from WSB, has more than 5,000 registered ul‘lnm scattered from | London, Ontario, to Miami, | C., FEBRUARY 23, 1930—PART FOUR.” F OUR engineers could capture and tame the static one hears in the background of most short-wave trans-Atlantic rebroadcasts the production men in the studios would have to look ho further for a perfect reproduction of the sound of waves for marine settings. It is so real- istic, in fact, that while I was in Phila delphia last week an acquaintance | asked me if the storm at sea he had heard while listening to one of the in- ternational programs had done any se- | rious damage! Smile if you want, but he is only one of thousands, apparently. But let me say now that what so many thought was the sound of the ocean was just plain static. | The ocean had nothing to do with it. | Once radio waves leave the transmitting station, nothing can affect them but electrical disturbances. A whole war could be staged between the transmitter and the receiving set and not a rifle shot would be picked up. But a thun- | derstorm nearby might very well sound | in the recelving set like a couple of | wars rolled into one. Speaking of waves, I was asked the | other day how wavelengths are mea- sured. Well, I can't remember the names of all the instruments used, but it boils down to the fact that the num- | ber of radio waves hitting a certain | spot in a second can be measured by the proper instruments. This number gives one directly the frequency, or number of kilocycles. Scientists know that radio waves travel with the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second. Waves traveling at that speed and ar- riving at given point at a definite time interval must necessarily be a cer- tain definite distance apart. And that figure is the wavelength. So far as the dials on receiving sets are concern- ed, meters and kilocycles express the same thing in different terms. ‘Wanted to See Them. But when a dear old lady came to the studios some weeks ago and asked to be shown where we kept the wave- lengths, the studio staff was stumped. She wanted to see them badly and she wasn't at all satisfied when the hostess, badly puzzied but trying to be obliging, told her they are kept at the transmit- ters, 30 miles out of town. | While g through the pockets of |an old suit that my wife wanted to throw away I ran across a year-old note from my mother-in-law, inviting us to a dinner of turkey hash. It was good hash, too, but with it goes the story of a gift that almost went wrong. During the preceding Fall a friend had written us he was sending a turkey | for New Year, but when December came |along we were on the Coast. I remem- | bered the turkey too late, and wired to i my mother-in-law back in New York to watch for its arrival. When she got the wire—and this is the story she told us over the hash—she drove to the apartment, only to learn the turkey had arrived a short time before, but that in our absence the apartment house_would receive no live stock for |us. But the express wagon must be |in the next street. She and the chauf- |feur tried a dozen streets and stopped a lot of wrong wagons, and finally, when it became late, she had the chauffeur drop her at home and continue the search alone. i Chauffeur Has a Time. | finally found the turkey at the express depot, to which it had been returned. but by that time all the butcher shops | were closed and there was no way of | | having it killed. So John strapped the | | turkey. crate and all, to the trunk rack |of the car and drove home with it to | his own apartment. That night he re- | | leased it from the crate and allowed it | |the run of the kitchen. Next morning | there was no turkey. John opened the | window and looked on the fire escape. | No turkey. No turkey down in the court, either. He gave up the search and went back to the living room, and there was old Texas Tom, mad all over, | erched on the nearest thing to nature Fe could find in & New York apartment —the unlighted 0. Afterthat Jopm couldn’t kil him. So he went out and found a friend who agreed to do the job provided John ment. John was willing; in fact, he thought he needed some himself. Back they went and took quite a lot of en- couragement. But it wasn't enough. Late that afternoon John and his friend arrived at my mother-in-law’s apart- ment, quite damp with gin and tears, with old Texas Tom wrapped up in a blanket like a baby and gobbling away for dear life. They were sure she could find a larger gas log for his perch. Being a practical woman, she sent John and his friend hone to bed and called in the corner butcher. But a gas log still makes me think sadly of that lone- ly and bewildered old gobbler trying to find a homelike spot in New York. Stokowsky and the Blues. ! W. C. Handy, the man who wrote | “St. Louis Blues,” “Beale Street Blues” | and “Memphis Blues,” and is known throughout the musical world as the father of the blues, was seated at a plano in our studios one day recently playing the piano part of Gershwin's “Rhaj ly in Blue.” He seemed to be enjoying it, and when the studio door opened to let in a visitor he paid no ‘memion. ‘The visitor listened for a moment, and walked quietly across the studio until he was but a step behind Handy. He watched with a smile of fl‘)‘:?d enjoyment until Handy had fin- He was Leopold Stokowsky, conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and one of the last men in the country many of us around the studios would have suspected of liking jazz. But, after all, musical celebrities aren’t very much :flven to riding high horses, at that. | It was only recently that Walter Dam- | rosch happened to be in a studio while IGeone Dilworth was conducting, and WHY TAKE CHANCES? Call Shepherd 3044 or Clev. 0263 for RADIO SERVICE Satisfaction or % Charge Brent Daniel (Formerly of Bureau of Standards) | calmly obliterated himself. The chauffeur—John was his name— | yhena]] three men were conducting on | Yorite of mine. | Saturday night, I saw Edwin PFranko would supply a bit of liquid encourage- | age, faciated By ] perhaps mi Up the drumsticks and beat away right merrily until the number was finished. He did it as naturally as he would have picked up a book in his library. Elman Grabs a Violin. Mischa Elman, once scheduled as so- loist on a program, turned up missing when the announcer looked around for him before anmouncing him on the program. It was several moments be- fore Elman was noticed among the first violins of the orchestra, where he had | miaio-—iook | Goldman and Damrosch together, en- | man out, but lhlm‘! believe 1've ‘much. This solemnly delivered misinforma« tion reminds me of an experience Rei- nald Werrenrath had on a recent con- cert_tour. lnunaolhhmmln the Middle West he sang to Me Only With Thine Eyes.” He felt that he had sung it well and he wasn't very much surprised when, at the end of the concert, an old man stepped much he had enjoyed his singing of that particular number. Werrenrath thanked him but the old man went on, And once, | “Yes, that song has always been a fa- You see, my grand- | father wrote it.” Which was news to Werrenrath, for joying themselves immemsely watching | When Ben Jonson wrote the words 300 B. A. Rolfe conduct a program of dance | YeATS music. Leaving musicians aside for a moment, Charles Evans Hughes is the most unassuming man who ever came to the studios. We had a reception committee waiting for him the last time, but he arrived so unostentatiously that he almost got all the way into the studio without being natice the whiskers. “regular gu At last I have joined Mark Twain's class. You remember that once he had to announce that the report of his death was greatly rated? For the benefit of the gentleman who sat be- hind me on the train when I was com- ing back from Detroit not so long ago, able to totter about from one assign- | ment to another. As it so often happens, the man be- hind me and another got to discussing radio and before long they got around to programs and then to announcers. My own name came up and the man behind me began to open up on his friend. “Listen,” he said, “Graham McNamee died of the flu two years ago, but they hushed it up. This man that announces under the name of Graham McNamee today is another man, a sort of unde study the radio peop! pened. They look something alike, too, but T saw the real Graham McNamee man.” Well, T always knew this broadcast- ing business was enough to wear any HEAR—See for Yourself Clear Wonderful Tone Magjestic RADIO Easy to Own Louis & Co. 7th at G N.W. , in spite of Our pages call him a I should like to announce that I am still | and I saw the other at one of the world series games and they aren't the same | , the tune was an old one. That old man must have been a cousin * of the one who arrived at the studios some months ago and asked for a jott in our continuity department. He an- nounced himself as the author of “The Merchant of Venice.” He was prom- ised a job if he'd write a sequel as good, but he hasn't come back yet. Second Real Folks’ Opera. Real Folks are preparing to present their second opera via the N. B. C. The one selected has not been announced, but it is stated by Mayor Thompkins that there will be no animals in the cast, as when “Carmen’ was presented. Trying to get a cow on the stage stopped the first opera. Looks Back on Early Days. Radio fans like to think back to those early days of broadcasting. For in- stance, C. R. Van De rt of Batavia, N. Y, points out that he has “had a wire in the air since KDKA was born in a garage. No foolin’!" 0ld Companys anthracite means Safe, ical Heat every Sunday, 6.30 p.m. WEAF & Assoc. N. B. C. Stations OLD. COMPANY'S LEHIGH ANTHRACITE L & N.00. 11 ro‘[ected by Glass that canmnot Ely in the New [5 Aid to Prison Discipline. sensitive galvonometer needle | National Broadcasting Co., it is A recent survey of the use of radio in prisons indicates it has been an aid in attacking the problem of prison disci- pline. —_— Circus Again Popular. After being considered “dead” for sev- eral years, the old-fashioned circus is again on top of the wave of popularity in England. Since London society has taken up the sawdust attractions at Olympia the circus there has been go- ing strong. Three circuses have been appearing at Manchester and tented at- tractions are billed to appeer in many cities, where large circuses have not been seen for years. Performers who left English soil for the continent to secure work in the last few years are returning to be greeted by capacity Washington's Tube Center POST-STANDARD GUARANTEES Wi RICE: tested Genuine MARATHON TUBES Meter Tested = i 49¢ 280 i 569c = (89¢c ELIMINATORS At Lowest Pri 224 245 SPEAKERS ACCESSORIES ’ 8. POST STANDARD 816 F St. N.W. 423 11th St. N.W. Open Until 10 P.M. jump all over the dial, indicating that it has certain qualities found not best for broadcasting. “Apa- thetic” is another, and “peep,” simple and inoffensive as it may ‘ielem in print, often causes trou- e. | that cause “pops’—say Model 91 — Early English _desig: America Matched Butt Wal- nut center panel overlaid with genu- ine Australian Lace- wood. Graceful bowed front ac- centuates cabinet beauty. Price, in- cluding Majestic tubes— $137.50 Easy Terms THE now revealed, have been at work since November transforming the | without equal in the world. More |than $75000 has been spent to |date on necessary reconstruction Any combination of letters and installation of special appa- “pop” ! ratus. HUB Seventh & D Sts. N.W. former theater into a radio studio and Sixes ihs From all quarters, warm-hearted praise is pouring in for the complete equipment of all the new Graham Eights and Sixes with shatter- proof safety plate glass. It reveals widespread public appreciation of the Grahams" protection against the greatest danger in motoring today. It is difficult to imagine any thoughtful man willing to subject his family to the ever-present threat of glass not shatter-proof ’I:) extract from an eight-cylinder car the performance qualities which make an eight worth while, requires manufacturing accuracy of the highest order. The idea that fine manufacturing must necessarily imply a high price is given a flat contradiction, however, in this new Graham Eight. The utmost which an eight can yield in powerful, rushing, responsive performance is here—the utmost in high class, substantial engineering and manufacturing. Adjust your expectations to the highest ideals you have ever held of an eight and then see how fully they are realized in this very splendid car The New Graham Eight is outstanding at its price, by reason of its 100 horsepower, its marvelous performance abilities, its beautiful and comfortable Graham-built bodies. Its eight-cylinder flexibility is increased, and superbly controlled, by the superfine Graham three-speed and four-speed transmissions. Standard Eight, $1445and up. Special Eight, with the exclusive Graham time-proved four-speed transmission and de luxe bodies and trim, $1595 and up. Stand- ard and Special Sixes, in many body types, $895 and up. 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