Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise., February 18, 1938, TOWN WEEKLY MAGAZINE, Page 7, Image 24

About Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953

Image provided by: University of Maryland, College Park, MD

                
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ICELAND'S GIFT TO RADIO
Born in Reykjavik, Iceland, twenty-five year? ago. Nrda
Day began her career as a blues singer at Tacoma. H ash•
ington. Scoring a hit in her first chance on radio, she
now sings over an NBC network.
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS COMPETING
IN RADIO PROGRAM CONTEST
HIGH SCHOOL students who
aspire to become radio writers,
producers, actors and musicians,
are being given a chance to pro
duce.
For the National Broadcasting
Company, in co-operation with
Scholastic, the American high
school weekly, is sponsoring the
first nationwide contest for the
best fifteen minute all-high
school-student produced and
planned broadcast.
The programs may include
music, drama, talks or variety
entertainment of any kind.
Scripts must be original and
written either by students en
rolled in the school or by in
structors or coaches regularly
employed by the school system,
or by both students and instruc
tors.
Teachers and radio or drama
tic coaches may plan and direct
the broadcasts, but only students
may actually take part in the
presentation.
Programs which include dra
matizations of books, stories or
poems must show the source of
the material and, if copyright
ed, written permission from the
copyright owners must be sub
mitted with the script.
Beginning with local elimina
tions, the winning school will be
selected in each of the four
Time Zones (Eastern, Central,
Mountain and Pacific Time).
First place winners in each
of the four time zones will par
ticipate in the grand national
finals which will be broadcast
over a coast-to-coast network of
the National Broadcasting Com
pany in May.
Rrizes, which will be award
ed on the basis of originality,
radio showmanship, human
values and entertainment, will
be four velocity microphones of
the type used in NBC studios.
Applications for entry and
audition will be handled by
Scholastic magazine.
Designated local radio sta
tions throughout the country
will listen to the initial entries
and the decision whether or not
the school is to be represented
in the zone finals rests with
them.
Zone finals will be judged
from electrical recordings of the
programs.
All auditions and recordings
must be completed by April 10.
THINGS HAPPEN WHERE DOROTHY THOMPSON 'HAPPENS 7
DOROTHY THOMPSON, fa
mous columnist and NBC news
commentator, can’t resist the
great open spaces even when
living in crowded Manhattan.
With her husband, Sinclair
Lewis, she lives in a spacious
apartment oveidooking the Hud
son on Riverside Drive. They
have a young son, Michael
Lew’is.
Miss Thompson w r as
in Lancaster, New York, the
daughter of a Methodist preach
er.
She attended Lewds Institute,
Chicago: Syracuse University,
and the University of Vienna
and later received honorary de
grees from Tufts College, Med
ford. Mass.; Syracuse Univer
sity; Russell Sage for Women,
Troy, New York; St. Lawrence
University, Canton, New York;
ahd Oberlin College, Oberlin,
Ohio.
She tried social service and
advertising before beginning
her journalistic career in 1920,
when she first went to Europe.
Things happened wherever she
“happened” to go. She arrived
in Ireland the week of the kid
naping of Arehbishap. Mannix,
TOWN WEEKLY MAGAZINE SECTION
"STATIC"
i>y
LAW RENCE W ITTE
LUCILLE MANNERS has two
powerful radios in her home but
is proudest of a small crystal set
she still uses on occasion. The
soprano star of the Friday night
N BC concert series, was a very
little girl, with a very little curl
right in the middle of her fore
head, when her cousin bought
the crystal set and let her hear
music through the earphones.
“Actors can’t carry a serial
program from day to day if the
material isn’t there,” claims
Marion Barney, featured in
“Pepper Young’s Family,” daily
NBC script show.
“They may be able to make
one or two performances sparkle
through acting ability despite
mediocre lines but they can’t
keep up the pace for any length
of time. It’s the material that
maintains the suspense and in
terest, that makes the dealer
tune in again the following day
*to find out what happened.’
“The writer of ‘Pepper
Young’s Family,’ Mrs. Elaine
Sterne Carrington, has mastered
the knack of building up sus
pense and human interest and
evidence is shown in the fact
that this serial just celebrated
its 500th consecutive perform
ance.
WE SELECTED recently the
stars who. in our opinion, were
outstanding for 1937 and in
vited TOWN readers to submit
their own selections.
The results, of course, showed
many differences of opinion.
Most of TOWN’S radio fans
agreed with our selection of
Jack Benny as the year’s best
comedian. Eddie Cantor polled
the majority of votes of those
who differed.
Many readers preferred Fib
ber McGee and Molly to George
Burns and Gracie Allen as the
best comedy team.
Lanny Ross won heavy sup
port against our selection of
Bing Crosby as the best male
singer.
Our nomination of “Big
Sister” as the best serial re
vealed a host of backers for
“David Harum.” “One Man’s
Family” was revealed as the
best-liked dramatic program and
Jimmy Fidler gave Boake Car
ter, our candidate for best com
mentator, a run for his money.
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DOROTHY THOMPSON
Likes Great Open Spaces
in Milan the day of a steel
strike, in Vienna the morning
of the first Karlist putsch.
She traveled from Vienna to
Warsaw in evening clothes the
night she heard of the brewing
Polish revolution, gave the world
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MAN BEHIND BENNY’S MAXWELL
F r orn this battered trombone, wash boiler and assorted
odds and ends, Pinto Colvig (left) produces the wheezes
and groans for the ancient Maxwell featured on Jack
Benny's Sunday evening hour.
"AIR CHAUFFEUR" MAKES "MAXWELL"
WHEEZE, GROAN FOR BENNY
“HOW DO you make Maxwell
sound like a Maxwell when it
isn’t a Maxwell?”
This in effect, is the most
frequent question asked of re
cent weeks in the thousands 6f
letters Jack Benny has received
in regard to his sound-effects
auto.
Pinto Colvig is the man re
sponsible for the development
of the apparatus which is the
“Maxwell of the Air.”
It is he who operates it so
skillfully that many persons are
its first news of the uprising
by outwitting the military cen
sorship that had been set up
when Pilsudski began his march
on Warsaw.
For a while she headed the
Philadelphia Public Ledger’s
Central European Bureau in
Berlin, gave up this job to be
come a free lance journalist,
interviewed Hitler in 1932 and
wrote a book about it.
Her comments aroused such
ire that she was expelled from
Germany after the Nazis came
into power. She lectures contin
ually and tells her views of
domestic and foreign affairs in
a newspaper column.
Her greatest extravagances
are*telegrams and long distance
phone calls. Her pet aversions
are politicians who think the
world can be reformed over
night. Favorite diversions are
swimming, riding, gardening.
She is 5 feet, 6 I A inches tall,
weighs 145 pounds, has gray
hair, fair complexion.
Miss Thompson broadcasts
her “People in the News” pro
gram Tuesday evenings over
the NBC-Blue Network,' Fridays
over the NBC-Red Network.
prompted to inquire whether or
not Jack has a real Maxwell on
the stage of the NBC studio.
Colvig. Hollywood’s most un
usual sound effects engineer, is
a veteran of both radio and
animated cartoon sound effects.
He was consulted regarding
effects for the venerable Benny
vehicle following the first broad
cast on which the Maxwell was
mentioned.
H e uses the “south end” of
the trombone for the sound of
the car’s starting motor.
The battered washboiler with
mounted electric motor gives a
perfect imitation of a rickety
jillopy rolling down a bumpy
road.
The rattle, cowbell, steel
plate, and coffee can mounted
on a board, when beaten with a
wooden hammer, create an illu
sion of things dropping off the
Maxwell.
The mechanical effects, to
gether with whistles, screams,
chugs and wheezes supplied by
Pinto himself, constitute the
working parts of Jack’s famous
Maxwell.
Jack calls the talented sound
effects engineer his “air chauf
feur,” and no name could be
more accurate.
For Colvig is the only fellow
who’s ever actually “driven” the
Benny bus.
LIKE Phil Baker’s “Beetle"
and Edgar Bergen’s “Charlie
McCarthy,” Benny’s Maxwell is
a rich source of gags.
Many of the heartiest guffaws
traced to the Benny program
come byway of this mythical
auto.
In this day of ever-increasing
difficulty in obtaining gag
material, Benny finds his gas
buggy a handy solution for
saript i troubles, , . ■ . i
7