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Secrets from the Diary of a Radio Heckler PAINTING AT THE HIGHEST PITCH TIIE AGE of ten, Charles Carlile wanted to and set about their daily practice ses judges spent many an hour of dehale before they could be a professional basebaJJ player when he grew sion. They became so engrossed in decide between the two. They finally gave the award up. By the time he finished high school, he was their practice on this occasion that to Charlie's rival. Donald Navis. much more practical in hIS vIewpoint. He still they did not even hear the bett sum· The quality of Charlie's voice, however. won him liked baseball but he decided that a much moning them back to class. The indig the recognition that he deserved and he was eng~ged Amore sure way of making a living was stenography. Ar:,. nant teacher captured them in the as a sustaining artist by CBS II \\as not long before c:ardingly, by attending business college he perfected school yard and hauled them bodily he was launched on a successful career by obtaining himself in the art of turning words mto pothooks and back to the class room. his first cotylmercial. lie is now heard on a coal pro then back into words again Puttmg his stenOgraphy The conventional punishment, gram Sunday nights over NBC and is kept busy filling 10 ImmedIate practICal U'>C. he went to work for a sport· ~taying after school. was met~d out engagements at various New York theaters and night ing goods house m his home town of Providence, R. I- to them and they sat fidgeting at clubs. That doesn't sound very much like the right begin their desks while the teacher sat down He still devotes a great deal of his sp:lre time to ning for the ~tory of a radio tenor whose voice is heard at the piano to work out the det:lils painting and the walls of his apartment are covered with every week throughout the natIOn; of an amateur artist of the fottowing day's music lesson. his own portraits of fritnds in amI out uf radio. whose palfltings of his friends are so good that many a She was surprised to hear a clear professional artist would be proud to have produced \'o\lthful voice break into the tyric them. Yet. that, in brief, is the story of Charles Car· of the song she was playing. She ree Iile's life up to the time when he entered the Atwater o,llni7.l'd its quality at once and so Kent auditions. enth\ISlastic was she that the same Pitching is the biggest word in the slory of his eve n i n g she called on Charlie's successes. lIis baseball pitching indirectly· brought about mother. Mrs. Cnrlile promptly aT· his vocal training; the pitch of his voice won him his rnnged for the boy to take vocal les first radio contract; and the high pItch of eothusiasm sons. with which he attacks his al'ocation. portr~it painting, At school, Charlie also began to exercise his artistic IPves hIm that needed relief from the strain of radio talents. I [is sketchllS of school mates, although crude work. in many cases showed much facility and were close like Charlie, as a boy and as a youth, had no idea of nesses of the subjects. taking up music as a career. His vocal talent was by lie had finished his course at business college and no means unrecognized but he himself as wet! as his was working as a stenographer m a sporting goods house immediate circle of friend~ and rebtives merely looked at Providence when he read in :t local newspaper about upon hIS smging as an entertaining parlor accomplish· the annu:ll Atwater Kent auditions. He decided to enter ment If II had not been for his boyish obsession. base· the local contest and he was chosen to represent his bat!, he prohably never would have taken a singing lC5son. home town in the finals at New York. There he and While other boys \\ere reading the dime novels of another tenor outstripperi the ('ther contestants but the the day, Charlie was u~ually busy studying baseball Je(:ord books or reading stories about the diamond heroes whose pictures adorned the walls of his room CHARLES Ty Cobb. Napoleon LaJo!e. Christy Mathewson and all CARL1LE Ute rest. But he was stitt more interested in perfecting The walls 01 his bis own skitt at the ·game . apu1mtnt are cDvtrt!d with his lie used most of his lUnch hour at :<.Chool prac_ portraits ot ticing pitching. I Ie and another boy hurriedly friends. consumed the contents of their lunch boxes one day BEST of CONCERT HALLS in A GHOSTS' PLAYGROUND ECAUSE of an llccidenta! discovery by" Lew engineers to study the qualities of the White, NBC organist, the Cuban government chamber. They experimented e:<temively is turning one of the subterranean cham~rs of and corroborated the findings by White. historic old tolorro Castle into a concert hall. They worked out plans for clo~king A great dual pipe organ is being installed and the walls at strategic points with drapes IhreeB times a year, when White visits Cuba, he will play that would tend to control the excessive a con~rt engagement on the mighty console. acoustic qualities of the room and the in White long ago fetl in love with the lazy. tropical stallation of the big dual pipe organ is atmosphere of Cuba and it has been his custom to expected to be completed in time fOl travel three times a year to Ilavana for a vacation. The White to play his first concert when hl'" old Spansh fortress has always held a peculiar fasc)na. makes his next visit to the island. lion for him. On every visit to the island, he would White is looking forward to this ex spend hours wandering throught its corridors and sub- p'crience with great anticipation and lovers terranean dungeons, where political prisoners were COJ1. of organ music in Cuha, who listen to fined after the old fortress had been turned into a White regularly on their radios, are also wallmg WIth prison. impatience for the opportunity to hear him play in lie drank in every word of the stories told by the such strange surroundings. f;Uides about the thousands of distinguished prisoners their histories and their fates. On the occasion of one of these visits to Morro Castle, White was wa)ldcring around one or the great underground cham hers when he accidentally dropped a REAL RADIO COWBOY-No Bull! coin. White was amazed to hear a series of reverbera· il ESE yodding radio cowboys are not all ·'So whatf" s:lid Gene. tions of musical quality sweep through the vast room, phoney. ·'Welt," Guy responded, ·'I'tt bet you can't ride that finally dYIng out in a long note of indescribable This was demonstrated recently when bult." I"Wcetness. Gene Autry. who does his cowboy singing over "I allow as how' c,m," Gene remarked coolly. [t seems that the Spanish builders of the old fortress T. WLS, ChicI!go, and Guy Bush, star pitcher The bull was backed out of the shed, a rope adjusted had inadvertantly constructed a "perfect acoustic ball," of the Chicago Cubs, went on a hunting trip to the around his middle and Gene climbed aboard. !-Iead down which would make the most scientific efforts of acousti Michigml n·orth woods. and tail up, the angry beast headed through the woods. cal engineers look like the work of amateurs. It seems'that the pair of nimrods had blazed their with Autry hanging on to the rope. White· continued his experiments by dropping coins way through the wilds, spreading de.ath and destruction Near a big pine tree, the bout ended much more of various sizes in different paris of the big room. A ;among the small game, and after three days reached suddenly ·than it began. When the others rushed up, half doll.u dropped on the floor brought forth a deep, a lumber camp near the· town of E1can:lba. When Gene they found Gene I?icking himself up out of a snowbank, . belt·like tone. A quarter produced a similar' effect but and Guy barged into the camp, there was a big, red bull "I !old Y9U so," panted Cpy, as he arrived on the hlgh'er 1n tone. A dinie brought forth a shrill, flute tied tip in a ramshackle·shed. scene a little out of breath. "He threw you didn't like note that echoed an,1 rHchoed for an ulibelfe'veable As soon as Guy caught sight of the bull, he let out he?" 'length ohime. a ·yip. • .. • "He did nOI." was the indignant reply. "'The clanged 'The CiJban 'goverriment evinced immediate inferest ' ··Look here, Gene," he said, "I've heard a 101 about rope busted." in White's disco,·ery .. and assigned a corjl~ . of acoustical what!. a.·cowboy , and. trick. .• 'rider you ... re." An9 he held. up a br.oken end of rope to. prove it ,. z BEARDING Radio LIONS In THEIR Native LAIRS llcr Then along came a lot 01 publicity abuut "poor sale,glrls recognized me, and I figured they'd think It Jane froman . sll("s missing mony movIe contracts be was siUy if 1 bought a rolling pin-so-" her vOice cause she can't [cad line~"-and she suddenly decided tr~iled of! in a laugh she Just wouldn't stuller anv more Consequentl\' she "So what"" demanded Gt'orge anxiously was speaking slowly- thmking ouT everv sdJable befnre "So I bought a kitchen table." she confessed.