Evening Star Newspaper, October 26, 1930, Page 89

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, OCTOBER 26, 1930 T Tragic Stories Behind Radio Voices Brenda Bond, formerly a featured star of many musical comedies and reviews. She easily made the jump from Broad- way to broadcasting. BY GILBERT SW AN. Sketches by George Clark. OU tune in on Station SOS. And out of the air come the usual combina- tions of singing and orchestrating and dramatizing and talking. Perhaps, this very night, your dial has brought into the living room, the dining room or the apartment the voices of a dozen persons, all strangers to you. But hearing them day after day in some form of radio presenta- tion you think you know them. Maybe you don’t know their names. But you know the characters they play in certain produciions of the air. These characters may have become part of your daily life. But what’s behind that voice? Did it ever occur to you that scores of old- timers of the theater, for whom the curtain might otherwise have fallen, have found their chances for comeback on the air? Or that there might be stories as strange as anything fiction has to offer—just behind that voice? Suppose you had been a beautiful actress, for instance. And that there was every reason to believe that fame lay just ahead—in fact, was sitting at your knee. But the theater has eyes, thou- sands of eyes. And the camera has an even keener eye. And then something happensd— something that would have ended a stage ca=- reer. Some tragic accident that left its blight. Disfigurations that made it difficult ever again to face an audience. Careers seemed to be over. A dozen different eircumstances might have been involved. And then came radio—and broadcasting of enter- tainment., N:ew hope—new opportunity! After all, the voice still was there! After all, they were actors and actresses! And out there, in tens of thousands of homes scattered over the land, who could know the difference? Who could tell that behind a lovely voice might be some tragic accident? Who could tell from the voice that time had spun its web—that the Broadway breaks had been bad—that a hun- dred and one things might have happened? And, whatever might happen in the theater, what difference did it make to the man, woman or child tuning in and connecting with that far-away land of illusion? But let me tell you just a few stories: TAKE the very charming Virginia Gregori. Perhaps you don’t recall hearing the name. Well, she appears in scores of parts on the N. B. C. n2twork. She started out with the New York Theater Guild, and went to Eva Le Gallienne’s remarkable group of repertoire players. The plays produced by these groups might be known to the man-on-the-street as “highbrow.” Miss Gregori was on her way to be a real actress. And tken one day she was cast in a role that required a certain type of hairdress. She went to an expert in such matters who recommended a type of electric treatment. It was late afternoon. In a few hours she chair while an electric gadget was applied. Something went wrong. A spark of fire—and in a moment her hair was aflame. She nar- rowly escaped death. And she was marked for life—the theater was lost to her. She bought a wig, had her scars doctored and called it a day. In so far as the stage was concerned—well, that was that. But broadcasting came to her rescue. You'll hear Miss Gregori in those serious dramatic produced from time to time. She ap- in the Ibsen programs—playing the leads. voice of Hedda Gabler goes out over the —and who knows, and who cares? It's the charming voice of a charming performer. 'AND then there’s Florence Malone. She’s a member of the Radio Guild, one of the high spots of the ether. Florence was known to Broadwayites of another generation—the playgoers who remember Guy Bates Post's “Masquerader.” She met with an accident in which her face was cruelly scarred. And so the curtain was lowered for her. Today she's & member of the Radio Guild, the high-hat Fortunately They All Have Happy Endings, for Broadcasting Has Saved From Failure Many Great Actors Whose Fame Had Been Cut Short by Some Unfortunate Accident. The whirl they left behind them . . . barnsiorming through the small towns and playing one-night stands in the “opry” house . .. days which their radio fan mail brings back. organization which sends dramatic interludes on the air, Her last role on Broadway was in “The Ladder,” a play which will go down in history as the Main Stem’s most costly success. The producer, an oil magnate interested in meta- physics, spent millions keeping this drama alive. Then there is Harvey Hays. . Broadway has scores of his kind. A fine actor who never could get the right show. Hays had a veritable genius for picking the wrong show. If he were to have reached in a haystack made of successful manuscripts he would by some evil intuition manage to pick the wrong one. Unless you know your Broad- way this may sound slightly incomprehensible. Yet some of the best stars in the bright light belt have all but expired from a series of bad plays. Some strange jinx seems to hang over them. Alice Brady, one of the most interesting of actresses, is an excmple. In something like five years she managed to jump from one the- atrical failure to ancther. Too bad, +f course—but that's how it is SO it was with Hays. He just had the hard luck to be cast in plays that wound up in Cain's warehouse. And this shadow trailed him season after season. And while it's all very well to be a good actor, it’s also essential to have a play that pays salaries at the end of the week. ¢ That's one reason you'll find him acting radio parts today. He2's possessor of one of the finest speaking voices to be heard on the air. You may remember him from “The Bells,” or any one of a dozen other radio presentations —that of the “old ploneer” in the western dramas put on by the Empire Builders, for instance. As a matter of fact, since the drama took to the air any number of famous old-timers of the theater have become important radio fig- ures. Many of them were thrgatening to slide into retirement, but here, playing to an audi- ence they cannot see, they enjoy the applause of fan mail. Ferhaps one of the most famous of troupers of yesteryear is to be found backstage of the N. B. C. studios. His name is T. Daniel Frawley, and if the bushmen of Australia or the hinterland folk of the Orient and India know anything about drama it’s his fault. Not so many years ago he was known as “King of the Barnstormers.” There’s a Jegend that he has taken more companies to more faraway spots than any troupe manager. Be that as it may, I recall when, as a lad reporting events on the San Francisco water front, Frawley would come through almost every season—sometimes headed for Honolulu, some- times striking out for Japan, China or heaven knows where. Whether success or failure greeted him—he’d be right back another year. A showman of the old school—and here, 10 to 20 years later you'll find him doing pretty much of everything around a broad- casting plant—directing, stage managing and playing parts associated with N. B. C.’s Radio Guild. Almost anywhere you turn in these days of play production upon the air you'll be apt to come upon some well known figure of the theater of yesteryear. MAYBE you can even remember back to the days of the Henry W. Savage operettas. They were the days of “the road,” and Ivy Scott was a leading figure, singing leading roles in the grand old Victor Herbert music shows, pioneering with Puccini operas; ap- pearing in the first productions of “Girl of the Golden West” and “Pagliacci.” Or meet Lionel Adams. Back when you and I and all the rest of us were just so high he was leading player in Hall Caine's “The Chris- tian"—shades of Julia Marlowe and Viola Allen and all the rest whose names have gone down in theater history. He was the original John Storm of “The Christian.” Oh, yes, and there was “Ben Hur"—remem- ber, with that amazing stage contraption which brought a chariot race before the eyes! Adams plays a dozen character and straight parts in air productions today. So does Percival Vivian, who played Ibsen for years and now appears with the Radio Guild players. He's the highbrow clown of the air— the fellow who plays all the Shakespearean comedy roles—such as Toby Belch, Falstaff and Bottom. It was something like 25 years ago that L’Estrange Millman was a stock favorite. And William Courtleigh still doubles between the e and the air. or ybe you remember Helen Holmes, heroine of a score of movie thrillers of another day. Her name and face were known from coast to coast in connection with those perilous adventures which went running serially from week to week—particularly. a series of railroad stories in which she took the throttle and saved the train. You don't see her any more, but her voice comes to you more often than perhaps you realize. Molly McIntyre is an importation from Lon- don stock companies, and Effie Palmer was a character actress; Burton Churchill played the lead in “Alias the Deacon.” Leo Stark was comedy lead for the Shuberts over a period of 15 years, appearing in scores of operettas. He's Harvey Hays picked all losers until ke picked the “mike.” a “heavy” on the air. But in “The Student Prince,” “Maytime” and a score of others he was the clown. Clarence Derwent is a-Shakes- pearean veteran. He was among those who played in the revivals at Stratford-on-Avon. Now you’ll find him playing broadcasting leads. So it goes—a large and glamorous parade of the grand old troupers who used to play in the “opry house.” Hams and stars alike, “the road” is gone for them, and by this interesting change in entertainment mediums they still reach the audiences before whom they once played. AND they like this. They get a great kick upon receiving mail from towns where they once barnstormed. Almost any of them has a dozen letters from old admirers who had not forgetten them. And some have even re- ceived time-yellowed programs from tank towns of America, reminding them of the “days ~ when.” But for the air retirement or change of oc- cupation would have faced many of them, and many would have passed into oblivion. Of course the radio also acted in the other direction. It provided openings also for a large number of the younger stars, which was most opportune at a time when so many performers of real talent are pounding the pavements of the New York theatrical district. Every radio station: forecasts a popular Winter for the the- atrical type of radio entertainment. An example of the younger star with stage success behind her who has been won over to the mike is Brenda Bond, whose performances in a series of musical shows and operettas assured her a carcer. But this stage future she seems definitely to have put behind her in favor of the invisible audience of the air, <S’(oung and old, rising and falling star, the radio has opened a new and most promising fleld to both. ” Uncle Sam’s Jobs. Continued from Fifth Page given psychological tests, these men ranging fn intelligence all the way from genius to feeble- mindedness. Now the results of the pioneer work is to find wide application in industry. The Army’s first two tests, though now superseded by greatly improved instruments for group testing, were found to be an invaluable aid in the classi- fying of men according to their relative abilittes, Suppose a high school boy takes the new g=n- eral-ability tests now being devised by the United States Civil Service Commission. And suppose that he makes a score equivalent to the average for drug clerk or telegraph operator. His father or teacher can then tlvise him defi- nitely that he should not seek employment as teamster, painter or blacksmith, for he can do much better than that and would, as a matter of fact, never be contented and happy in those occupations. On the other hand, he would find it very difficult to “make the grade” as eivil engineer or chemist. WHEN the public high schools closed last Spring, diplomas were presented to about half a million young American boys and girls. Of this number, approximately 43 per cent ap- plied for admission this Fall to colleges and normal schools. The others—nearly a quarter of a million young people—will for the most part be searching for their own niches in our great industrial system. How to steer the course of this small army of would-be workers so that they may be of the greatest possible economic usefulness to themselves and the community as a whole, so that they need not push older workers out of employment in the crowded vocations and so that they can attain the maximum of happiness and success—this is a problem of rapidly ime creasing importance. And Uncle Sam’s interest in his nephew’s success in securing the right job is not content alone with this plan for vocational guidance, Although the fact is not very widely known, the Government operates an employment serve ice with a junior division which has as its sole purpose the giving of aid in placing young people between the minimum legal working age and the age of 21 years. The problem is being approached scientifically.