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72-9031 GIBSON, Jr., John Stanley, 1928- THE BROADCAST INTERPRETATION OF TED MALONE, The University of Oklahoma, Ph.D., 1971 Mass Communications j University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFLIMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED | THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE THE BROADCAST INTERPRETATION OF TED MALONE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY JOHN STANLEY GIBSON, JR. Norman, Oklahoma 1971 THE BROADCAST INTERPRETATION OF TED MALONE APPROVED BY DISSERTATION COMMITTEE PLEASE NOTE: Some Pages have indistinct print. Filmed as received. UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS For his cooperation and permission to pursue the work, Ted Malone receives my sincere appreciation, and warmest thanks. For their special assistance, I want particularly to thank Mary A. Redmon, Special Collections, William Jewell College; P. Caspar Harvey, retired Professor of English at William Jewell College; and Robert Wogan, Vice President, Programs, NBC Radio Division, New York. I also wish to express my gratitude for the gen erous assistance of the library staffs at Texas Tech Uni versity and the University of Oklahoma. For their advice and suggestions, I am grateful to the current and former members of my doctoral committee at the University of Oklahoma. Professors Ansel H. Resler and Sherman P. Lawton, deceased, gave initial inspiration. Professors William R. Brown and Paul A. Ruggiers patiently encouraged the study. Professor Gordon Mills made valuable appraisals to improve the study. My special thanks, and the major credit for whatever is of worth in this study, are due to my advisor. Professor L. Brooks Hill of the Department of Speech Communication. Professor XXX Hill's confidence and insight always provided direction and encouragement for my work. For my wife, Cecelia, and my children, whose sacrifices have been monumental, no expression of thanks is adequate, save, "without whom, nothing." IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES vii INTRODUCTION . 1 Chapter I. THE EVOLUTION OF BROADCAST INTERPRETATION 13 Origins of Broadcast Interpretation . 14 The "Golden Age" of Broadcast Interpretation ...................... 24 Broadcast Interpretation and American Society: 1930-1950 .................. 35 The Decline of Broadcast Interpretation 44 S u m m a r y ................................. 53 II, THE EVOLUTION OF TED MALONE 55 Introduction ............. , 55 The Early Years, 1908-1931 56 Network Years Before the War 69 The War Years and After , . 78 S u m m a r y ................... , 87 Ill, THEME DEVELOPMENT AND ADAPTATION: EXTRINSIC FACTORS OF COMPOSITION 89 Introduction ................ 89 Universality ............... , 90 Individuality ................ , 104 Suggestion .................. , 108 Interrelationship of Extrinsic F a c t o r s ........... .. 117 Summary ...................... 118 Chapter Page IV. THEME DEVELOPMENT AND ADAPTATION; INTRINSIC FACTORS OF COMPOSITION............ 120 Introduction ................................. 120 Unity and H a r m o n y ............................. 121 Variety and Contrast........................... 128 Balance and Proportion ...................... 134 R h y t h m .......................................... 138 Interrelationships of Intrinsic F a c t o r s . ........... ........................142 Summary ................. l44 V. PRESENTATIONAL METHODS: TED MALONE'S USE OF THE CONVERSATIONAL M O D E .................. l46 Introduction................................. l46 The Conversational Mode: An Overview of Ted Malone's Dominant Presenta tional M e t h o d ............................... l48 The Conversation Mode and Ted Malone: A Program Analysis .................... l60 S u m m a r y ........................................ 173 VI........... CONCLUSION............................. 175 Summary and P r o j e c t i o n s ...................... 175 Suggestions for Further S t u d y .......... I83 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................... I86 APPENDIX .................................................194 VI LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Personal Pronouns ............................ I56 2 . Rate o f D e l i v e r y ............................ I 57 vxx INTRODUCTION The history of radio broadcasting reveals program presentations of almost every imaginable content. One of the program types widely popula* with national and local audiences off ed interpretative reading of poetry and descriptive nrose. Announcers and other broadcast person alities shared the works of well-known ai»0 little-known poets and writers. Occasionally, on special broadcasts, authors interpreted their own material as part of variety programs or as educational features.^ ’’Readings” became a 2 frequent entry in the broadcast schedules of the day. Broadcast interpretation was popular during a period characterized by social and economic upheaval. The atmosphere of the nation during radio’s birth and progress was constantly changing from an era of Victorian principles A. M. Sullivan’a ’’New Poetry Hour” on the Mutual Network (WOR). and Harriet Monroe’s Poetry Magazine program on NBC (WEAF) were of this typ'i. The latter program introduced such later luminaries as Vachel Lindsay, Edgar Lee Masters, and Carl Sandburg. See ’’Radio Check List,” Newsweek, November 9, 1935 p , 25. 2 For example, see the weekly program schedules of Sunday editions of the New York Times ; January 5, 1930, sec. 8, p. 15; April 6, 1930, sec. 10, p. 15> January 17, 1932, sec. 8, p. 15; October 21, 1934, sec. 8, p. 10; and February 4, 1940, sec. 9, p. 11. 2 and tastes to a more socially conscious, less restrictive society. The "roaring twenties"--marked by flappers, vaudeville, prohibition, jazz, talking pictures, gangsterism, and business expansion--gave way to the gloom of the depression and recession of the thirties and then to the chaos of the world war of the forties. The companionship of radio, the voices from the ether, prompted listeners to express themselves by writing to the broadcasters who, in turn, discussed the correspondence and programmed to audience tastes. Thus, programs of broadcast interpretation frequently reflected the social milieu through presentations of contemporary literature of inspiration and comment, pro viding a combination of the classical and the common, the educational and the entertaining, the sophisticated and the 3 slapstick. Of the few broadcast interprétâtionists recorded in the history of radio, Frank Alden Russell, whose Ted Malone programs spanned three decades on local stations and national networks, perhaps best represents the initiation 3 In addition to any number of editions of the New York Times' Sunday schedules, see Marjorie Longley, Louis Silverstein, and Samuel A. Tower, eds., America's Tastes; 1851-1959 (New York: Simon and Schuster^ I96O), pp. 22? and 245 , and Harrison B. Summers, A Thirty Year History of Programs Carried on National Radio Networks in the United States 1926-1956 (Columbus: Ohio State University, 1958), passim. and prime of broadcast interpretation. Russell's acceptance by more than a generation of audiences sets him apart from other practitioners who somehow failed to main tain the appeal that characterized the Malone broadcasts. He epitomizes the art of broadcast interpretation, thereby characterizing a major dimension of radio in its "Golden Age" and reflecting the social and intellectual climate. This study focuses on the broadcast interpretation of Ted Malone, tracing the development of the art, examining the career of Frank Alden Russell, and analyzing selected Ted Malone programs. To clarify the nature and scope of the study certain terms require definition. Interpretation is defined as the creative oral reading of literature. Broad casting refers to the oral transmission of material over radio and television, but in this study is mostly concerned with radio. Broadcast interpretation is a contrived term which differentiates Malone's activities from the other types of broadcasting, such as announcing or newscasting, and restricts such references to programs especially of an interpretative nature. The primary justification for this study resides in its potential historical contribution to the biography of Ted Malone, to the art of broadcast interpretation, and to Milton Allen Kaplan, Radio and Poetry (New York: Columbia University Press, 19^9)» PP• 207-210. See also the comments of President Binns of William Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri, Appendix, below, pp. 213-221. k the social and intellectual history of the "Golden Age of Radio." By focusing on a specific performer of broadcast interpretation, rather than on the background of an author as most interpretative studies do, better understanding of the character of the reader in his role as communicator is possible. At the same time, the study produces insight into the values of the art as reflective of the period and as contributory to the educational and cultural worth of radio at the peak of its popularity. As a contribution to the theories of interpretative arts, this study reveals the emphases placed on naturalness of presentation, on the necessity of responding to audience tastes, and on the realization that, regardless of so-called "literary art," materials of lesser quality may better reflect society and its values. Other studies deal only indirectly or cursorily with the subject of this study. Although some works mention Ted Malone, none discern his career or analyze