Evening Star Newspaper, June 16, 1935, Page 63

Y Use of Microphones Brings New Téchnique . Voice Volume Not Essential With Amplifier Aid. Freedom of Air May Be Political Campaign Issue. 80 she By the Radio Editor. years from now the concert singer who can be heard more hailed as a marvel with phenomenal voice volume. And that o k I than 10 rows back, without the aid of a microphone, may be . in contrast to the tremendous ear-ringing qualities of such ”preunt-dny artists as Tibbett, Martinelli, Chaliapin or Galli-Curci. To the lay reader this may sound ridiculous, but it is caushl:g the impresarios of the concert hall no little concern. They pl -- the blame squarely upon the spell of the microphone. Grand opera may still be the zenith of success in the musical world, but it admittedly has lost singers no longer depend upon much ground to radio. Youthful development of their voices so they can be heard in the Metropolitan Opera House. They know * mastery of the microphone, through which a whisper can be increased in volume so it will sound like a roar, can win fame and fortune these days. Since the advent of big-league radio during the last dozen - years or so, there have been few outstanding additions to the ranks of concert stars possessing the natural qualities of a Caruso or Galli-Curci. There : they now turn to radio, where probably could have been, but success is easier to attain, and | - for which the training is far less rigorous, The trend toward the “microphone voice” is readily apparent. That does not necessarily mean that all future vocalists will be crooners, although many of them are tossing their lot to the type of rendition made famous by Rudy Vallee. It does mean that prac- tically all newcomers in the vocal art are learning to perform with the aid of the microphone. For example, a majority of the singing stars of today who appear in vaudeville and motion picture houses depend upon the microphone. may not be able to hear them direct sitting in the front row, but the pub- - lic address system takes care of it. - A man seated at the volume control acts as the voice regulator. By the turn of the control he can increase or decrease the pitch, as he sees fit. Radio artists know the man seated n the control room—or “riding the gains” as it is called in radio parlance —is a very important individual. It s recognized he can make or break an artist by elactrically controlling his voice volume. Another thing well known to singers s that their fine vocal qualities can be prolonged if they do not exert themselves by constantly attempting to fill a concert hall without the aid of artificial volume-boosting, or, in other words, use of the microphone. Many old-time concert and theatrical artists, though few really famous ones, have turned to the crooning type of performance for both radio and theater. Perhaps the most notable example of a loud-singing performer who has turned real crooner is Eddie Cantor. In the hey-day of his stage career he used to gallavant up and down the foot-lights singing at the top of his voice, so even the galleryites could hear him. Now when Eddie performs before the mike, he cups his left hand over his left ear, to shut out other noises, straddles the mike with lips hardly an inch away, and whispers. He can't be heard for 20 feet. But through the loud speaker his voice * sounds just as it did from the stage. It simply is a case of stepping up the volume electrically. “Little Jack” Little, too, a radio product, sings naturally in a virtual whispering voice, which has to be *boosted.” He needs a microphone in his stage act as well as in the studio. The radio trend has been coped with to a certain extent in musical comedies. Practically all show houses now are equipped with public address or sound systems, used for the talking movies. In duets, hidden microphones 1 often are used. In chorus perform- 10 ances, where there is a male soloist, he usually is placed behind a mike in one of the wings. Gradually, how- ever, the trend is toward the use of microphones for all solos. y Even in night clubs the microphone has become a more or less indispensa- ble part of the entertainment para- phernalia. The night club, however, more or less belongs to the radio era, #o this is not- surprising. All these signs seem to point to the day when grand opera without micro- ° phone “treatment” will be as obso- = lete as oustles and hoopskirts. In- stead, there probably will be the “grand opera of the air,” with the © Yausts and the Rigoleftos still sounding as powerful as before, but * actually crooning their tunes into the microphone. More than likely, the audience also will see as well as hear “the performarnces, because by then * " there most certainly should be prac- tical television. ALR!ADY simmering, the national political pot being prepared for the nominating conventions due about & year hence shortly will have the fires of radio oratory built under it. In addition, the subject of radio itself may be thrown into the stew, with the Republicans and other anti-ad- ministrationists seizing upon freedom oh!“them«npmthl campaign le. Two developments of the last week - Indicste the importance politicians at- ‘tach to American radio. First, the Republican Committee named a young Boston radio executive, Thomas Goggan 8abin, assistant to Chairman Henry P. Fletcher in charge of broadcasting. Filling the post nearly a year earlier than usual, the Republicans made Babin director of radio effective June 14-15—just about two weeks after they “++had cleaned up the remnants of their . Jhalf-million-dollar biil for use of radio in the 1932 campaign. Sabin is a native of Dallgs, who for the last seven years has been em- ployed in a commercial capacity with the National Broadcasting Co. He comes to Washington from Boston, = where he was sales manager of two of National ! The Democrats have not yet se- Jected their radio director for the forthcoming campaign, and may not do so until after the convention next Kansas City, who handled the job in 1932 and who now is_secretary of the incidentally, still owes $152,000 of the half-million-dollar bill for “radio time” which it ran up during the Roosevelt campaign — $107,000 being owed to N. B. C. and $45,000 to Co- B for the possibliity that radio 1t for the y - issue, it You | ;ship on radio programs, including po- litical broadcasts, | It develops that secret orders went out last January to the F. C. C.'s field engineering staff in the 20 offices it maintains throughout the country. These men, all technicians and chiefly civil service appointees, were instruct- ed to begin a surveillance of radio station programs for several hours per week to determine their “regularity”— not merely as to quack medical talks, lotteries and fortune-telling schemes, religious atacks, etc, but also as to “libelous, slanderous attacks upon in- dividuals, officers or Government of- ficlals.” | | - OFY.W.C.A.OPEN Executive Committee Ses- sion to Be Held Tomor- row Morning. An open board meeting of the Y. iw. C. A. will be held at Vacation | Lodge, Cherrydale, Va., at 11 am. | Thursday. Luncheon will be served. | Registrations are being taken by the administration office through Tues- | day. The Executive Committee will meet tomorrow at 11 a.m. in the adminis- | tration building. Park View Chapter will meet Tues- |day at 11 am. at Vacation Lodge. Cherrydale, Va. A picnic lunch will | be served. Miss Mabel Gook, secretary of the pate in the program of the 4-H na- tional encampment this evening. Girl Reserves Banquet. | The Girl Reserves of Central High | School will give a banquet in honor | of the Girl Reserve High School grad- | | uates tomorrow at 6 p.m at the Y. W. | C. A. | The counselors for Camp Stay-at- | Home will meet in the Girl Reserve Club rooms tomorrow at 4 p.m. to make plans for the camp program. The Girl Reserve Glee Club, under direction of Miss Mary Burnett, will give a 15-minute program for the 4-H national encampment at the Syl- van Theater tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. ‘Triangle tours of che Y. W. C. A., sponsored by the indus‘rial and edu- cation departments, have planned a |bus trip for the week end of June | 22-23 to Natural Bridge. |'Y. W. C. A. at 1:30 pm. Reserva- tions must be made at the industrial | K streets. | The clubs of the industrial depart- ment have planned a picnic June 20 | to Haines Point, leaving Seventeenth | and K streets at 5:45 pm Wednesday Afternoon Ticket. The Wednesday Afternoon Women's Club is having an outdoor picnic on | the Mount Vernon Highway, June 19. The Green Line bus will leave 614 E street at 4 pm. The hostesses are Mrs. Thomas Edwin Brown and Mrs. John T. Schaaff. The children’s music nour will meet the direction of Mrs. R. E. Espy. The children's recreation hour will meet tomorrow at 4 at 614 E street with Miss Virginia Grifiith. Kamp Kashlert will be hostess for the Jessie Smith Sunday school class from the Petworth Methodist Church next week end. The Drake Bible Class of Calvary Baptist Church, to- gether with their wives and friends, will hold their conference also at Kamp Kahlert Sunday. Radio Features and Notes Loretta Young, Hollywood star. will take the leading role in the Radio ‘Theater's version of “The Patsy” on WMAL at 1:30. She will be supported by a Broadway cast. ‘The internationally known two- piano team of Jacques Fray and Mario with Victor Kolar’s Symphony Or- chestra on WJSV at 8. They will fea- ture “Spanish Rhapsody,” that network’s New England stations. | 8K | Girl Reserve department, will partici- | Bus leaves | or education office at Seventeenth and | at 614 E street Priday at 3:30 under | THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., JUNE 16, 1935—PART FOUR. L 4 Dramatic and Singing Stars Face Microphone Elaine Melchoir (left), who plays the role of A: ar in the Buck Rogers sketches on Columbia. Teddy Lynch (right), dancer and dra- matic star of several Broadway productions, who is contributing to Cobina W right’s program on the same network. Rosaline Greene (lower), is one of the stars of Capt. Henry's "Show Boat” programs, N. B. C. (Copryright, 1935) Short-wave broadcasts of the British | Dol Tosadicinn Widhia, Empire service, directed toward Can- RADIO PROGRAMS AND FEATURES OF THE STUDIOS “Gibson Family” Called Duplicate of “Show Boat” Names of Actors Changed, But They’re the Same Voices, Says Dixon—However, It Remains Good Entertainment. By Peter Dixon. T E greatly changed Gibson Family program, ballyhooed at its Inception as “radio’s first original musical comedy,” is now on the air Sunday nights. I heard the program last Sunday. With Charles Winninger in the lAddP e, the reju- venated broadcast moves at a rapid and entertaining pace. But I am wondering just how the listening public is going to react to Uncle Charley’s Tent Show, as the Gibson Family is now titled. The Tent Show is almost a facsimile co Show Boat. Winninger becomes Uncle Charley instead of Ca; of the now famous ain Henry. There are two blackface comedians who aren’t Molasses 'n’ January, but who use a somewhat similar routine., In fact. except for a change in locale and names of characters, it’s hard to tell that you aren’t listening Conrad Thibault singing. ‘The Show Boat is really loved by listeners. Whether these same listen- ers will resent this obvious duplica- tion of the show and indicate their resentment by slighting the sponsor’s product, or whether they will philo- sophically decide that there is room on the air for two programs of the Show Boat pattern remains to be seen. In radio circles, the advertising agency and the sponsor responsible for the Tent Show are being severely criticized. But you can't get away from the fact that the Tent Show is pretty good entertainment. SO)‘E one who is too bashful to sign his name sends the following little bouquet to this column: “How much did you get paid to advertise Louis Prima? We have had enough of noise makers like White- man, Rich, Waring and other jazz players without your boosting more. Your article about Prima is a bunch of lies.” Congratulations, Mr. Prima. You have been bracketed with the great! ALLYN JOSELYN, actor, cracked his leg again and is back on crutches. He just recovered from a bad leg break a few weeks ago . .. Will Osborne has recast his band and it'll | be plenty torrid when next you hear | it on the air. A LONG ISLAND schoolboy named | Ray Noble, who wins roller skating derbies, and Youngstown's, Ohio, county relief director, Ray Noble, complicate things for Ray Noble, the band leader. There are | pleces in the paper about them and | he has to pay for the press clippings | . . . Mitzi Green still playing thea- | ters . . . Bary McKinley taking it | easy this Summer on the place he's rented near Old Greenwich, Conn | ... Ferde Grofe writing “Hollywood | ada but heard widely in the United | Ballet.,” & sulte which will be pre- States, will go on an enlarged sched- | sented at the Hollywood Bowl this Summer . , . Phil Spitalny plans now Eastern Standard Time. ule on July 1, according to advices to take his lady orchestra to England, | WMAL 630k WISV 1,460k On & Bus Elder Michaux | WOL 1,310k AM.! 00 :15 10:00 |Vogues and Vagaries 10:15 |Gould and Shefter 10:30 Maj. Bowes’ Family |10:45 ' - |Southernaires ‘The Funnies |String Quartet | ) Church of the Air Patterns in Harmony Songs of the Church |Listening Post | Tony Wons |Samovar Serenade Reflections Tabernacle Choir |Sunday School Lesson [News Flashes |Organ Music | Words and Music | Violin_Concert |Dixie Harmonies Hawaiian Melodies Ladies of the Air 11:00 Maj. Bowes' Family 11:15 |What Home Means 11:30 University of Chicago 11:45 - b P.M. nity Matinee Music Hall of the Alr I ‘Tabernacie Chotr Romany Trail Foreign Program |Hit Tunes rmm Guild lblck and George 915 |_9:45 {10:08 10:15 10:30 | | 10:45 11:00 11:15 | 11:30 11:45 AFTERNOON PROGRAMS P.M. 12:00 |John Shields, tenor 12:15 Road to Romany 12:30 |Aerial Columnist 12:45 (Words and Music Music Hall of the Air [Dr. Ralph W. Sockman 1:00 Sally of the Talkies N e 1:30 The Aristocrats _1:45 |Lovely Lady | “Your English” Musical Interiude |Radio Theater Compinsky Trio | He, She, They |Lucille Pierce Ferguson Salon Music News Flashes {Lrving Harriss' Orch. 12:00 | 12:15 | 12:30 | | 12:45| l.n:y- Dan The Old Timer Spires of Melody inuh Tower Joanne Edwards, songs | Ttalian Trio |Shepherd Boy 2:00 |Levitow Ensemble e AR 2:30 Penthouse Serenade 245 | 4 - Radio Theater Sunday Vespers Symphonic Hour Church of the Air |Joe Brown’s Kiddies |Joe Brown's Kiddies {Jubilee Choir “Hln'! Hershfield 1:00 | 1:15] 1:30 1:45| 2:00 2:15 | 2:30 | Roses and Drums Tea Time |Pireside Chats Wash.-St. Louis Game Crumit and Sanderson |Canadian Band Grand Hotel Amateur Night Ed nell mm’finm Music ‘Choral Singers News Flashes Old Pavorites {Radio Novelties b <o Sports Resume EVENING PROGRAMS, Joe Penner “ Roadways of Romance ‘News—Music |Orchestral Music “Old Tolerable” |Bill Coyle Btfln_l srrbhflly Evening Album Rhythms :t Eight Heu!unm “On Broadway” |Douglas Stanbury silken Strings it & iCornelia Otis Skinner 'Ghost_Stories Sunday Evening Hour “« “Five Star Final” “ “ Carolina Tenor Good Will Court E P Isador Philipp, pianist “« . Wayne King's Orchestra Benay Venuta ‘Congressional Opinion | Good “Will Court Revival Meeting News Flashes Braggiotti will be the guest srtists | — | S N“'l-illm_ tins Shander Glenn Lee’s Orch. T - - ‘-V Oreh. Beauty That Endures Prankie Masters’ Orch. |Lotus Land Family Circle Charles Stenross’ Orch. Slumber l:our Sign Ooff IMorning Devotions Three Little Words Joe Hayme's Orch. Frank Dailey’s Orch. ot EARLY PROGRAMS TOMORROW. Elder Michaux Dance H\lll“ c - - Sign 15858 o 858585 00| namely GSL, 6110 kilocycles; from the British Broadcasting Corp. Heretofore heard four nights weekly gt 10 o'clock, Eastern standard time, | they will after July 1 be heard nightly. GSC, 9:30 | 9580 kilocycles and GSD, 11750 kilo- | two more pictures . . | eycles. Programs will consist of news, live talent, recordings and various other features. The service {s part of the wod-wide Empire broadcasts carried throughout the 24 hours of the day and directed toward various parts of the earth, chiefly for reception in the British dominions and colonies. SRR I S . . « . Amos ‘n' Andy' Switch. “Amos 'n’ Andy” will switch net- works July 15, marking first change in their broadcasting schedule since they made their debut nearly six years ago. After that date, the famous radio team will be heard over the N. B. C. “red” network instead of the “blue.” The time of the broadcast has not been changed. | Prance and Italy for a month of con- | cert appearances after he's filled his two-month engageemnt in Rus- sia . . , Once upon a time, says Ed | Lowry, there was a man who wanted :30 | They will originate in London, being | !0 invest in a good, sound business. 45| carried on three short-wave stations, | S0 he bought a radio station . . . | Jack Benny and his script writer, | Harry Conn, have been signed for . Gogo DeLys, | the singer, has her own exclusive de- signer, who plans all her clothes. She is Lucy, her colored maid . . . The Revelers and James Melton reunited | on the new oil program over C. B. 8. Sunday night . . . Ben Bernie's son Jason has left private school in Con- necticut to join his dad in Cata- lina . . Andy Hayes, singing with Enoch Light's orchestra, was trained | for the priesthood . . . Nick Dawson, author-hero of “Dangerous Para- | dise.” invited to talk before the Chi- cago Dramatic League during its an- | nual meeting in July. Tl'mODORB WEBB memorizes entire scores with the greatest of ease, but he hardly ever remembers his own telephone number . . . Richard Himber and his crew leaving early in July for a series of personal appear- |ances . . . Hank Halstead and his FOREIGN SHORT-WAVE STATIONS cITY. Barranquilla Berlin .HJ1ABB .DJA Berlin . Berlin . Berlin . Berlin cseseensse Eindhoven Geneva . Geneva Guayaqu Havana ....ceeee....COC Huizen ... +eses.PHI Jeloy .. Lisbon . London seeeevccnces London London London London ..RV50 (Pontoise) Paris .......... (Pontoise) (Pontoise) PRADO Riobaml| . Rio de Janeiro, Rom € sesceepee ROME .asssesssensens Sydney ....oee...VEIME Valeneia .........¥VERV STATION. MEGACYCLES. -HOURS, 6 to 10 p.m. 505 to 9:15 p.m.; 9:30 to 10:30 p.m. 12:30 to 2 am., 3:45 to 7:15 am, 8 to 11:30 a.m. Noon to 4:30 p.m. Noon to 4:30 5:05 to 10: 45 to 6.45 9.57 15.20 8.02 11.76 9.54 15.28 1033 6.11 6.15 15.22 7.80 9.59 6.87 w - o =3 =is wsa [ TN ] ) S8 s58 6.01 10: am. except Tuesday and ‘Wednesday. Noon to 6 p.m. 3:30 to 6 p.m. Tues, Thurs. and Sat. 12:15 to 5:45 pm.; 11:30 pm. to 1:30 am. 6tos g\lln, 10 to 11 .m. es., Thurs., t. and Sun. e D B Bgghon .8 g ® o o NuCa o 28 &= 58 named ; to Show Boat. They've even got | outfit staying on at the Park Central until Labor day . . . Sale of “The Tulsa Blues,” the first song Willard Robison | ever wrote, enabled him to from his | first Deep River Orchestra. Once | Robison and his orchestra were stuck | in the little mining town of Henryetta, Okla., flat broke, and they traded | coples of the song for food. It's good news that Robison and his Deep River | Orchestra are back on the air again, Sunday afternoons, with Loulie Jean Norman of Alabama the featured soloist . . . Radio Theater inaygurat- ing ® new series of evening programs Monday, July 29, over C. B. 8. Hour- length plays, with cinema and stage stars featured are going to be offered ; Monday night stay-at-homes, CHRLS’N)PHER MORLEY joins the literati who have taken to the air; the new program on which he is fea- | tured was started last night on C. B. 8. | .« With him are Verginia Verrill, the young singer from California; | Johnny Greén and his orchestra, | Jimmy Parrell, Marjory Logan and the Eton boys . .. The Ranch boys. featured with the Morin Sisters on N. B. C.’s new Sunset Dreams program. are the cowboy trio which sang “The Daring Young Man on the Mlying | Trapeze” in the bus scene of the movie “It Happened One Night"” , WNEW joins the ranks of the ama- teur glorifiers with an amateur dra- matic hour. Chorus in Final Events. :THE Children’s Community Chorus of Thomson and Gordon Centers, directed by Esther Linkins, will finish their first season with two final ap- pearances on Tuesday of this week, when they will brosdcast a program over Station WMAL at 3:30 p.m., and ‘Tuesday, June 25, When they will assist {in a piano concert by students of Celia G. Luce, offering a variety of choral numbers, assisted by other | young singers, members of the Esther | Linkins Voice Students’ Club, includ- ing Charles Burton, Judy Conklin, Susan Mylrose, Sylvia Radisch and Marjorie Reed, ~ | The accompanists who have as- | sisted the Children's Community Chorus this season are Louis Dale | Leeds, Barbara Brown, Karlian Meyer, Ione Hoffman, Jean Bon Durant, Stanley Lyles and Vera Robertshaw, ;lnd among the concerts given since | last Autumn are included those at the | Thomson Parent Teacher meeting; Christmas carolling in District of Co- | lumbia homes and institutions; at the | E street branch of the Y. W. C. A.; at Gordon Community Center; at the | children’s festival circus of the Com- munity Center Department, and the Jjunior festival of the District of Co- lumbia Federation of Music Clubs. | The chorus will continue to meet | each Wednesday afternoon at 3 o’clock in Thomson Center, for rehearsal of next season's programs. N ‘Woman's Benefit Association. | Liberty Union Review, Mrs. Helen | Luckett, president, will meet in the | club rooms tomorrow evening. Bright- | wood Review, Mrs. Lillile Lambath. president, will meet at the same time | at 306 Kennedy street. | A class of young women will be initiated in the club rooms Wednes- | day evening by the Union Team and Guards under Mrs. Patrick. Mrs. | Mary Killeen will preside, and Mrs. Etta King, State field director, will be | guest. Final preparations will be made for participation in the parade and pageant of the Cleveland con- vention the week of July 15. RENOVIZE . Partieular Renoyist W, DISTRICT 6553 Dignify_your home. riy's” Jour” howe. Phone " Ebe: ~ 0 « your home for Partieular AUT RAPIO OFFICIAL PHILCO SERVICE L.S.JULLIEN, 7. 1443 P St.N.W. NO.8076 L FREE INSPECTIONS oo A SRR ST T LY 938 F ST. N.W. FORD SUNDAY EVENING HOUR b= Fray and Bragiotti Pisnists L] WJSV Tonight 8 to 9 O’Clock Eastern Standerd Time