Kilocycles

We note here two of a number of popular air features which start on new spots in order to hold summer audiences. Gladys Swarthout celebrated young American contralto, will star in the series sponsored by a tire manufacturer on Mondays at 8:30 p. m. starting tonight. With Miss Swarthout appear a vocal ensemble and William Daly’s Symphonic String Orchestra. In deference to the summer months these artists will offer a less formal type of program than was characteristic of the winter series.

Joe Cook begins next Monday at 9:30 p. m., to make his weekly microphone appearances for the warm weather season. This spot replaces the one he filled on Saturday nights. Joe Cook is the most recent addition to the list of Broadway comedians on the air and is scheduled to leave soon for Hollywood to make a motion picture. Both these programs are heard over the WEAF coast-to-coast network.

WALTER DAMROSCH PLAYS GERSHWIN WORK

Ten years ago Dr. Walter Damrosch, then musical director and conductor of the Symphony Society of New York, commissioned a young composer named Gershwin to write a piece for his orchestra. The “Concerto in F” was the result and the work was played for the first time on December 3, 1925, with Dr. Damrosch conducting and Gershwin at the piano. The popular conductor will lay aside his baton tonight at ten long enough to perform at the piano while his orchestra is playing the second movement from this work by George Gershwin, The “Concerto in F,” recognized as one of Gershwin’s outstanding compositions, was dedicated by the composer to Dr. Damrosch.

CHINATOWN CALLING ON A NATION-WIDE NETWORK

Radio continues to take the mystery out of unfamiliar peoples and customs. The Columbia System was quick to realize the universal appeal of the spiritual fervor in a Negro church, and picked the most representative for a nation-wide series. Now the WABC network will enter San Francisco’s Chinatown on Friday, June 15, between 10:45 and 11:00 p. m. and give listeners an intimate glimpse of every day Chinese American life. The broadcast will emanate from the Chinatown Telephone Exchange of the Golden Gate City. Loo Kern, whose father founded the exchange twenty-five years ago, will be interviewed by the division manager of the local telephone system. Kern will tell how the business of this exchange is conducted, how calls are made by name instead of number, and how the operators have to understand several Chinese dialects as well as English, in order to serve 2,000 Chinese clients.

PLANS FOR A NEW CITY CHARTER

New York audiences will recall a WEVD series launched last summer under the general heading:

“The Truth About Our City Departments,” which was part of an anti-Tammany campaign by civic leaders. Most of these speakers are now active heads of the city administration, and include the present Mayor LaGuardia, Raymond Ingersoll, Paul Blanshard, Langdon Post, etc. WEVD is following up this prophetic series this summer with a new program to be called:- “Plans for a New City Charter.” The directing heads of six or more important civic and political organizations in New York City will participate. The organizations invited are The City Club, the Citizens Union Socialist party, League of Women Voters, Citizens Budget Commission and City Affairs Committee.

WMCA CONDUCTS DRAMATIC SCHOOL

Out of some 1,800 applicants to WMCA’s new free radio dramatic school, Charles Martin, dramatic director, has selected fifty pupils who will attend classes two nights each week, at the station’s studios. The students were chosen through a series of eliminations. It is stated that none of these students has had previous professional experience on the stage, screen or radio. The classes will continue throughout the summer months. Such an investment of time and effort in developing a dramatic group ought to produce an organization particularly adapted to radio work.

NEW PUBLICATIONS FLOURISH IN LITTLE AMERICA

Word has come to the armchairs from the Byrd expedition that no less than three publications are now being published in the frozen circles of Little America. With nothing to do but tabulate scientific observations and attempt to keep warm, it is not surprising that this group of hardy explorers is breaking the ice in the literary field. Carl Peterson edits a daily newspaper called “Radio Press,” which is made up of items of world interest picked out of the air. The second effort is a weekly, “The Barrier Bull,” edited by Dick Russell, with a circulation of eight typewritten carbon copies, and an editorial policy which is stated in three words – “Insults For All.” The third publication will be a revival of “The Snow Shovel,” a monthly journal.

RADIO SHORTS

Helen Menken is so successful as a guest star that she has been called to make her sixth guest appearance in eight weeks during broadcasts of “The Big Show” over the WABC network Mondays at 9:30 p. m…. Senator Charles L. McNary of Oregon, Republican minority leader, will speak on “Some Political Reflections” over the WABC network Friday at 11:00 p. m…. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Victor Kolar, starts a new summer series of concerts from the Century of Progress Exposition ove the WABC network starting June 16 at 9:30 p. m., and will be heard every Saturday thereafter at the same time, as well as Sundays at 3:00 p.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:00 p. m…. WEVD has recently discovered a striking youngster who seems headed for radio fame. Her name is Alice Walters, seventeen years old who was first heard during WEVD’s community program called Jamaica night in “The Heart of New York,” She now has a regular spot of her own on this station every Saturday at 8:00 p. m…. The Compinsky Trio makes their regular weekly appearance on the WABC network Sunday at 1:30 …. Baby Leroy, twenty-two-month-old film star will make his broadcasting debut over the WABC network Sunday at 10:30 p. m. He said to be the youngest performer on the air.

NEWCOMERS IN OGUNQUIT

Daisy Atherton, Molly Pearson Charles H. Crocker-King; C. Norman Hammond, Frederick Roland, Marie Adels and Cecile Wulff, have been added to the acting company at Walter Hartwig’s summer theatre in Ogunquit, Maine.