Je ssi~a Dragonette Gl,°aham MeN amee Andy Sap-nella Nit Wit Hour Mary and Bob Phil Cook And Othe1" Features RADIO STARS from the Studios of DONALD MCGILL L UCIEN R U TMAN Baritone T enor WOR-WEAF W'EAF-WOR Americall OPera Company WALTER I{IESEWETTER 3 3 West 67th Street New York Telephone: Trafalgar 8063 , ... BRO\X' NIE PEEBLES Mezzo-SojJrallo Calladiall Natiollal ADELE VASA Railll,' ays MARY S ILVEIRA Coloratllra SOjJrallo W' OR- WEAF Lyric Coloratlira SojJral1O \X'ABC-WEAF-WOR W'OR-W'ABC Americall OPera Com pallY Americall OPera ComjJally Americall OjJera Company © Cl B 60264 f2A()I() FOR ~HE LIStCENER Volume I Number 3 February, 1930 CONTENTS On the Cover: Norman Brokenshire By Gaspano R icca Jessica Dragonette . (Phot ograph) 2 What Light Opera Role Do I Love Most to Play ? By Jessica Dragoneffe 3 The Muscular Diva By Clifford McBride 6 What Price Announcing! . By Norman Brokenshire 7 Andy Sannella-a Real Miracle Man of Music By H erbert Devins 10 Andy Sannella By Gaspano Ricca 11 Have You a Little Nit Wit in Your Home? By William Schudt, Jr. 13 Taught Self to Play Banjo-Roy Smeck Now T eaches Thousands, By Da~id Casein 16 McNamee "a Great Guy," Oscar Writes His Girl Friend, Margy By P. H. W. Dixon 17 "Quaker Girl" Starred on Broadway (Photograph) 19 Rector Again Points Way to Epicurean Delights By Florence Smith Vincent 20 Radio's One-Man Show, phil Cook, Is Marvel of Versatility, By Gene M ulholland 21 Mary and Bob Start Their Third Year of Air Wandering By Jean effe Barnes 23 One of the Immortals By Martha Beaffie 24 A Case for Television ( Photographs) 25 Majestic Hour Experiment Portends New Era in Conducting By Brlic~ Gray 26 An Open Letter to Mr. Average Fan from Mrs. Upstate Lis tener 28 Static from the Studios 30 N ew Meteor Flashes Across " Blue Heaven" By W alter Pres ton 3 1 Ether Etchings 32 Editorials H Challenging the Grownups (Photographs) 36 Program N otes 37 Enrique Madriguera, Master of Jazz and the Classics 38 Li steners' Forum 39 R adio in the Home . (Edited by Mrs. Julian H eatb) 40 The Announcer Speaks for Himself: Marley Sherris 42 The Bi g Ten-Best Selling Popular Songs of the Month 44 A T ypical Radio Week By Joyce Sears 44 The Itinerant Listener-" He Tunes In and Reports at Random" 46 Bruce Gray, Editor Con tribu ting Editors: Allen Haglund H. Raymond Preston Mrs. Julian Heath Walter H. Preston Willie Perceval-Monger K. Trenholm Publish ed m onthly by RADIO R E \ 'UE, I XC., Six H a r r i< ~ n Street, New York. X. '1., T elephone: \\' a lker 2677·2678 ; L'ptown Office : Room. 121 5, Hot el Knickerbocker, 120 \ Vest 45th Street, X ew York, N. '1 .. H. Raymond Preston, President: Benjamin F . Rowland, \ ' ice-President; \ Valter H . P r eston, Secretary and Treasurer; George Q. Burkett, Advertising ::IIa'1al!er. ::II anuscripts and phot o­ graphs submitted for publicat ion must be accompanied by sl1fficient postage if their r eturn is desired. AdYertising rates wiII be gladly furnished upon application. Second Class Entry P endng at P ost Office, X ew York, X . Y. Copyright, 1930, by R adio Revue, Inc. A ll rights reser\'ed. Printed ·in L'. S. A . Subscription Prices: United States, $ 2; Canada, $ 2. 50; Foreign, $ 3; Single Copies, 25 c 2 RADIO REVUE Jessica Dragonette N BC Soprano as Nadina Popoff in uThe Chocolate Soldiern Composing a Letter to Lieutenant Bumerli FEBRUARY, 1930 3 What LIGHT OPERA Role Do I Love Most to Play? · Frankly, says the dainty NBC prima donna, it is difficult to single out anyone, since each character has its own particu­ lar lure and fascil1a- tion. Havillg played sixty­ five roles over a per­ iod of tll/O and a balf years, the erstwhile leading lady of the Pbilco HOllr, N BC, attempts to analyze the best known char­ acters and discover a preference. By JESSICA DRAGONETTE HAT character do I love most to play? I have fond of the theatre. For weeks afterwards I would act been asked that question so many times! Frankly, the entire play for my playmates, taking all the parts my­ W it is difficult to single out anyone, since each self. What was a childish game has grown into a de­ character has its own particular lure and fascination. lightful and absorbing occupation. While I am playing Fifi in Mlle. Modiste, for instance, I Character-study is of all studies the most intriguing think she is my favorite; or, again, if it is Sylvia in Sll/eet­ to me. In the subway, on the street, in the theatre, the hearts, I am sure she is-and so it goes with all the light market place, at tea, in department stores, in restaurants opera personalities I portray. -wherever people are-I find myself absorbed with As far back as I can remember I have loved to imper­ countless mannerisms and iodiosyncrasies that go to make sonate people. As a child, I was permitted to go to the up characterizations. The way people walk, talk, act; theatre once a year-that was on my birthday! That the way they use their hands, all these things interest me. day stood out as a notable day indeed. I was passionately These bits of life that I have from time to time observed RADIO REVUE are tucked away in Fusion of Music and Drama the pigeon-holes of my mind and un­ In light opera, there is, of course, the two-fold inter­ con s ciously find pretation, the music~l as well as the dramatic. They are their way into the so completely united, however, that it is difficult to divorce b u i I din g of a one from the other. Rather the one enhances the other. character. For example, Arms and the Man, by George Bernard Shaw, is complete drama. In The Chocolate Soldier the drama Must.Know is heightened a hundredfold by Oscar Straus's music. Proper Walk I shall never forget the first character I created in light opera over the air. It was The Merry Widow, which I "But why", you have since played several times. I had never done any­ may ask, "must thing like it before and all sorts of difficulties l~omed up you know how a -principally the fact that I was playing SOllia to Mr. character walks in Donald Brian's Dallilo. He had created Pri1lce Danilo order to play her some twenty years before. How was he going to be recon­ over the radio?" ciled to me! I was so 1927! Suddenly I thought Merry Oh, but I must Widow and gradually I felt her personality descending know! The walk upon me. I was no longer myself-in fact, I was left far sets the tempo of behind, still wondering, while another I, as Sonia, joyfully the scene. Long sang The Merry Widow! b e for e my en­ Of course, one naturally likes best the character one t ran c e in Mlle. admires most or finds most appealing. The tastes and Modiste, for exam­ sympathies of my audience are varied and definitely selec­ ple, I was walking tive. Everyone does not like Zorika in Gypsy Love. Yet up and down in someone else prefers the dark, romantic girl far beyond the studio, looking the quaint and prim Prudellce of The Quaker Girl. It is back to see if the only by loving all my characters that I can understand gentleman was still their varied personalities. f 0 I low ing me. Otherwise, I could Radio Enables True Portrayal never have given a As Marietta, ill "Naughty Marietta" t rue picture of Some times an actress on the stage cannot play a cer­ Fifi, out of breath ~ ::!'1 character because of too great physical differences. and expectant, during the scene with Hiram Bellt. This fact has made for "type" -casting, which is discussed Do you remember the scene . so frequently in the theatre. between Barbara and the two Radio, of course, removes soldier-deserters in My Mary­ this handicap. Since the es­ lalld? Barbara cajoles the men sence of personality is mental with a song about "Old John and emotional, the radio ac­ Barleycorn" and gets them tress who can project with intoxicated. She knows they mind and spirit the potent intend to kill her lover, Cap­ qualities of her role gives, per­ tain Trulllbul1, when he passes haps, a truer portrayal than the house where they are bar­ does the actress on the stage ricaded. Barbara shoots one who merely "looks" the part. of the men just as he is aim­ All this is not as difficult ing to kill Trumbull. She has to arrive at as it would appear. saved her lover, she knows, With certain basic principles but the strain of the situation set down, characterization be­ has made her hysterical. She comes a matter rather of com­ alternately laughs and cries. I bination. First of all, a char­ was truly weeping in the cli­ acter must be universal in max of this scene, but the soul. Then whatever exter­ crescendo began with the ca­ " -\ qualities- are added must joling of the two men. be inevitable, potent and sure. Before I do a scene, I ask Weave through this human m y s elf certain questions: being, in varying combina­ Where is my character com­ tions, charm, caprice, subtlety, ing from? Where is she go­ lovableness, gayety, mischief, ing? Wha t has she been do­ generosity, wit, courage, gal­ lantry, or naivete; add to these ing? Whom has she seen ? Leauillg by Aeroplalle to Fill a COllcert E1lgage­ This helps me to play the lIl ellt in Baltimore.