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IN THE RAD /0 MIRROR<br />
NOTES TO MYSELF ON MY MEMO PAD<br />
SAY a good word for the chains who've been wise<br />
enough to make summer rates so attractive for<br />
advertisers that the listener -in isn't robbed of<br />
his favorite programs during June.<br />
Better still, more new summer shows have started<br />
than ever before. Ethel Merman, Mat Baer, The<br />
House of Glass, Tony and Gus, Frank Black's and Howard<br />
Barlow's symphonic programs, and others are evidence<br />
that many sponsors now refuse 'to accept the<br />
mistaken theory: "There's no listening public in the<br />
summer." It's been the other way around in past<br />
years; few good summer shows, ergo: few listeners.<br />
sAY<br />
a good word'for Stoopnagle and Budd and their<br />
radio burlesque hour. It's the most refreshing<br />
thing on the air these days, I'd:say. And what amuses<br />
me is that its devil -may-care attitude toward radio<br />
entertainment and its willingness to point out that<br />
some programs are just a lot of hot airwaves, haven't<br />
frightened off potential sponsors. My spies tell me<br />
that several advertisers are bidding for that program<br />
-and it wouldn't surprise me if a deal were closed by<br />
the time I see this in type.<br />
T'S a natural -the idea of a sponsor getting behind<br />
the world series' broadcasts. What a listening pub-<br />
lic- probably the biggest that can be corralled by any<br />
program! If I were a manufacturer, that's the spot<br />
I'd pick. I'd feel that my commercial announcements<br />
were heard, but really heard. If, as now seems likely,<br />
the astute Mr. Ford gets the broadcasts, I'll bet he follows<br />
that splendid policy of his: keep commercial announcements<br />
short and to the point.<br />
S`<br />
UCH tragic and touching devotion, that of James<br />
Wallington for his dying wife! Every one along<br />
radio row has held his breath, wondering if the fates<br />
would spare Anita, who lay in a hospital bed, kept<br />
alive by the blood- donations of some of radio's most<br />
famous folk. Jimmie stayed close to her, day in,<br />
night out, even moving a bed into her hospital room<br />
so that he ,could be at her side to attend to her every<br />
need. But not even his great devotion, nor that of<br />
thcir hosts of friends, could keep the gallant flame<br />
from burning out.<br />
AM I getting old and crochety? Or am I justified in<br />
my irritation at the attitude that views radio as a<br />
finished, perfect entertainment medium. I don't like<br />
to use the phrase "in its infancy" -but I keep wondering<br />
what we'll think ten years from now when we<br />
listen to recordings of some of this and last year's<br />
popular broadcasts. Do you remember what a masterpiece<br />
we thought "The Birth of a Nation" was?<br />
Have you seen it lately? If so, do you see what I<br />
mean?<br />
Radio broadcasting today is a grand, glamorous<br />
affair, just as movies were in the old days -but let's<br />
wait a while before we start talking about perfection.<br />
After all, radio is only -here I go-in its infancy.<br />
how many people- agree- with- me when<br />
WONDER-<br />
I say that I'd like to hear Mae West permanently<br />
on the air. After listening to her a few Friday nights<br />
ago on the CBS Hollywood Hotel hour, I realized just<br />
how much radio is missing when it passes up the<br />
blonde Hollywood actress. Without a single blush I<br />
admit that Mae seemed to me to be the brightest spot<br />
in sa bright spring array of exceptional talent. As<br />
lead in dramatic interludes or as mistress -of- ceremonies<br />
for a musical program, she'd be swell.<br />
INTERESTING', what Ruth Waterbury told me during<br />
her recent visit from the Coast. She pointed<br />
out that the California folks miss many of the best programs<br />
because, except for the few that are rebroadcast,<br />
they come in too early! People on the Pacific Coast<br />
are just leaving work when the Atlantic Coast listeners<br />
are settling down for their favorite eight o'clock program.<br />
Well, and now daylight saving even adds an<br />
hour to that embarrassing gap of three hours.<br />
AND<br />
now -get really mad for a moment, Mr. Editor,<br />
and say your say about the common practice<br />
among comedians and gag writers of clipping jokes<br />
from magazines. Those jokes were invented by hardworking<br />
joke writers who sold their product to the<br />
magazine for one to five dollars. Those jokes are not<br />
common property! They belong to the magazines who<br />
bought them. People who use them without credit<br />
to their owners or pay to their authors, are stealing<br />
them and no blithe admission of the practice changes<br />
the spelling or appropriateness of the word Theft!<br />
Here are my frank, personal opinions on what's right and<br />
what's wrong with radio -with casual comments on this and<br />
that. Do you agree with me? Whether you .do or not,<br />
write me; prizes for best letters are announced on Page 56.<br />
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