Read the Mad Story of the Emperor of Op Era
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READ THE MAD STORY OF THE EMPEROR OF OP ERA Complete Programs to Be Broadcast Week Ending March 11 Nan Grey and Robert Cummings, heaJd in the roles of Kathy Marshall and David Adair on "Those We Love," Monday night, NBC AEA 8 7 B Posies achievements, and new understanding of his amazing world. We have chosen to devote our edi- Think of that the next time you hear torial page this week to a tribute to as his voice. Remember that there labors worthy a gentleman as these eyes and a man who, in the last century, would ears have beheld. Who among us has have been feted by kings and dukes, not heard the National Broadcasting whose instruction would have been re- Company's "Music Appreciation served for children of royalty or those Hour"? Who has not heard the high other fortunate ones who could afford but kindly inflection of the dean of that to find their way to his studio. eleven -year -old program, Mr. Walter There labors a man whose distilled Damrosch? experiences, from his witnessing the This program, as well as Doctor immortal Richard Wagner conduct to Damrosch's participation in it, is de- his intimate association with every signed to give to those of us who have great musical event in America for not had the advantage of a musical three-quarters of a century, are at the education all we need to know in order disposal of us and our children for the to enjoy and understand opera and mere flip of a switch. symphony. In consequence, it has To say that such a privilege is an- come to be employed in thousands of other miracle of radio is to sound trite schools and home-study groups. How and stuffy. We do not mean to sound many of us realize, as we sit listening, that way. But say it we must, for in just what we have got in that program. our opinion nothing that broadcasting Consider the music student of the has ever done is of greater importance last century. He traveled miles over or of more lasting benefit than the pitted roads, across frontiers, to the work of Walter Damrosch and his NBC home city of the great music -master. "Music Appreciation Hour." Then he worked at any task he could find while he studied and practised and Commercials studied again. Sometimes the master Walter Damrosch, worthy gentleman would not have him. Often he could ... Commercials are too long. We don't not get together the means of reaching say so; the listener says so. In par- the master's side. ticular, daytime commercials are an- But now the master comes to us in noying and irritating. They insult the our parlor. Make no mistake about it, RADIO intelligence of the listener. They pre- Walter Damrosch is a master. School- tend to be one thing and turn out to children listening today cannot be ex- be another. They take too much time pected to appreciate their great for- DOUBLES YOUR RADIO ENJOYMENT from the entertainment offered. They tune, for that is not the way of children, are uttered by insincere young fools but some day they will learn that their 731 PLYMOUTH COURT, CHICAGO, ILL. who think the listener believes what he teacher was one of the musical giants tells them. They misrepresent. of his day. that they placed him on a musical pin- He wrote an opera, then a magnificent The above opinions come to us in nacle that Te Walter Damrosch's father was a well- no other conductor in Amer- Deum inspired by Dewey's victory letters from listeners. Lately, they have ica has reached. at it, known conductor in Europe when Rich- Manila. When he played both come more rapidly than ever. Whether ard Wagner was conducting at Bay- Under his baton Tschaikowsky's President Theodore Roosevelt and Ad- advertisers are taking more time or Sixth reuth. In 1870, he brought his family Symphony was heard for the first miral Dewey were in the audience. employing louder -mouthed announcers time in America. to America at the invitation of a Ger- And many others. Every year brought new triumphs, new or misrepresenting, we cannot say. But man choral society. Three years later, we can use this means of telling spon- Walter was singing in the newly or- sors that the public in rapidly increas- ganized Oratorio Society just formed ing numbers apparently believes those by his father. Four years later, the CONTENTS things are happening. Such a situation is same auspices founded the Symphony Radio's Responsibility 1 Hollywood Welcome 14 bad from every point of view. Society, and then the elder Damrosch Camouflaged Ballader 2 Hollywood Showdown 15 There is one quick and simple rem- began to conduct German opera at the Highlights 4 Television at Work, edy. Follow the example of the Ford Metropolitan Opera House. Playbill: "Those Happy Man in the Box 16 Motor Company. Its commercials are By now, Walter was eighteen. Gilmans" 6 Let's Look Backstage 17 pleasant, authoritative and easy to take. Though tender of years, his ability Irene Beasley Makes a Plea 7 Listening to Learn 18 was already so recognized that he had Musical Giant: Wagner 8 This Week's Programs 19-34 become conductor of the Newark Har- The March of Music 10 On Short Waves 36 Nominations monic Society, while at the Met he was Radio Newsreel 12 Puzzle, Birthdays 39 Some of the most impolite studio an unofficial assistant. Then, in the Airialto Lowdown 13 Records, Mr. Fairfax 40 whistlers have been ejected. But many midst of the season, the elder Dam- remain. We should not give up our rosch sickened swiftly and died. Be- M. L. ANNENBERG, Publisher efforts to bar them from every studio. cause no one else understood German CURTIS MITCHELL, Editor Let each listener who does not like his music, Walter Damrosch became the entertainment marred by whistling now Vol. 8. No. 21 March II, 1939 principal conductor. At the age of elect himself a RADIO GUIDE Listening twenty-three, he took the Metropolitan Rapto Gmpn (trade Mark Registered U. S. Pat. Office). Volume VIII. Number 21. Week ending March 11, 1939. Published weekly by The Cecelia Company, 731 Plymouth Court. Chicago, Illinois. Post, on guard against whistlers. Let Opera Company on tour. One month Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office, Chicago, Illinois, February 24, 1932, under art of him report to the editor of any pro- March 3, 1879. Authorized by Post Office Department, Ottawa, Canada, as second-class matter. Copy- later he conducted his first perform- rignt, 1939, by The Cecelia Company All rights reserved. M. L. Annenberg, President; Arnold Kruse. gram on which he hears such uncouth Secretary; George d'Utassy, General Manager; Ed Zoty, Circulation Manager. Unsolicited manuscripts ance of the New York Symphony Or- should be accompanied by stamped, self-addressed envelope for return. Ten cents per copy in the United sounds. We are preparing a blacklist Stales. Subscription rates in the U. S. and possessions and countries of the Pan-American Postal Union: chestra, and was acclaimed so highly six months. $2.50; one year, $4.00. Subscription rates in foreign countries: six months, $3.50; one of programs which, when we invite year, $6.00. Remit by postal money order, express money order, or check drawn to order of Kanto that he was elected permanent con- (Mine Currency sent at subscriber's risk. them into our homes, insist on abusing ductor. So many other honors followed the privilege. Nominations are in order. 8/21 P GREAT AMERICANS THINK ABOUT RADIO RADIO'S RESPONSIBILITY BY RAY LYMAN WILBUR - PRESIDENT LELAND STANFORD UNIVERSITY imaginative workers, by arranging in precise terfering with the freedom to have the radio used by all in order the facts concerning certain natural forces gath- every orderly and wholesome way. It must be as free from ered over many years, gave to the twentieth-century absolute control as the air through which it moves. We can world the phenomenal achievement we call RADIO. Con- prevent contamination of that air but not the right of anyone sidering all of the equipment of civilization, this great new to breathe it. invention has had more prominent world spread in just a In the maelstrom of the Great War, propaganda played a few years than any similar discovery. It has carried the vital part. It has been used recently with almost incredible words of men everywhere, outspanning every other means effectiveness to serve the purposes of the dictators. For of communication, crossing all boundary lines. them, the radio has been nearly a perfect device. Their use The wide spread of this miracle of modern science sets of it must challenge the serious thought of every person who it apart as an instrument of peculiar power. If pushed as an believes in the rights of free men. instrument of any single -interest group, whether government The radio is an instrument to reach the mass of men or business or education, its use in a biased manner is almost who are moved by feeling rather than by thinking. This inevitable. If the force of its influence be honestly recog- makes it imperative that the American radio be more positive nized and responsibility accepted on the highest idealistic in its acceptance of the responsibility created through this plane, radio can be the agency to bring the human family combination of power and emotion. into a closer, more pleasant and more peaceful relationship. As a means either to increase antagonism or to reconcile In these first decades of the twentieth century we have conflicting viewpoints, no other force can be so potent as the been aware of the deep plowing of the social soil throughout radio.