PROGRAMS FOR WEEK BEGINNING SEPTEMBER 25 z/ eleVision 9 CENTS dilartlza Curt Dulcet Duo Page 33 THEME SONGS: WHERE DO THEY GET THEM? Page 4 BEDSIDE NETWORK: HELPS VETS GET WELL Page 34 rile dar Inspires the Pen about Your Letters All letters to Ethel Morse, 5124 West 131 Street, the Ear Inspires Haw- Jan Larkin, 7402 Earldom, Playa del Rey, the Pen thorne, Calif. Calif. Department should in- I wish to clude name and full address of salute the business I have been listening to acumen of the Alka-Seltzer people "Mr. the sender. Name and/or ad- in sponsoring Keen" for about four months, and Fred Beck .. , if you the only dress will be withheld on writ- listen to his utterances long enough reason I er's request. you are bound do is because Opinions expressed to get a headache. there is nothing in the letters printed His broadcast of August 9, in which are those he insulted else of interest on of the senders and the British Navy, was .. as for the star, do not nec- particularly offensive . then the essarily reflect the opinion next day he sounds like he of he deplored the lack of has mush in Radio and Television Life. understanding between nations! How his hypocritical can you mouth. Would it get! I would be possible to see like to say how much I enjoyed his a two-week vacation. His picture of Betty Sterling, 15021 replacements Charles Russell? South Hawthorne were all wonderful, particularly Steve Allen. Charles Resell I like him as Boulevard, Lawn - "Johnny Dollar." dale, Calif. llave you tried dialing "Jig Silent Partner,' Faye Emerson's Would like to Name and new comedy address withheld, Los Angeles, show, Thursday, KFI. 8:30 Pad.? see a picture of Calif. Gene Norman. I Our family thinks that the pro- listen to his gram "Perry Mason" Mrs. Florence Owen, address withheld, Los "Eastside Show" is one of the Angeles, Calif. finest on the air. It sounds like it is faithfully! Gene Norman really carefully written and such How about an article and picture wonderful acting too. We also en- on Robert Q. Lewis? Who is he, what joyed "P at Nova k" and "Quiet is he and why? Edith P. Long, 350 West Fourteenth Street, San Pedro, Calif. Please" and wish they would return When Editor Evelyn Mosby was in to the air. "Dragnet" on Friday night the East. she interviewed Robert Q. How long, oh how long, are radio match for the story at u is a marvelous program. date! near future listeners to continue to be tortured by those awful commercials? Why don't advertisers realize that the buying public is composed of neither children nor morons, but of intelli- gent adults? They are succeeding in taking all pleasure out of radio lis- tening. Tuning out the station for the great majority of commercials becomes very monotonous, but listen- ing through them is torturous. The only other alternative is not to use the radio. The mere name of many products is enough to give one the shivers. RADIO and TELEVISION LIFE Member Audit Bureau of Circulations Sept. 2.i, l9:9 44 Vol. 20. No. ('ARI. M. RIGS BS, Publisher Published Weekly at saes Angeles, California. linciorxs and Editorial Ofrirea: 1361 Selma Asti., laws \ngele. 28 (Hollywood Station/, California. Phone Hillside arm. Radio and Television Life was entered as Serond ('lass Mutter September 1/, 1918, at Law An- geles, under Art of March 3. 1879. Prepaid Subscription. 81.3o year, 52.34) xis months in C. S. A. Foreign, 5:.00 year. Single (copies on sale at leading Independent /:roar. in South- ern California. Single Copies by mail l/ir. Ad- dress all remittances and correspondence to Radio and Television I.ifr. Subscribers please allow two weeks fur change of address or to start a subscription. EYEI.I' V A. RIGSBY, Editor Editorial Department: Assistant Editor, Joan Ituchanan: Trlrsisiea Editor, Jane l'elgram; l'rrra.t Editor, (:aye Howe; Art Director, Ray Wheeler; Log Editor, liai Julian. Hardness Department; General Manager, K. W. l:wis; Office Manager, Georgia ('aywood; ('irrulation Manager. Fred Krennwald. Here is a good mixer! His name is Walter O'Keefe. His number one specialty All material used by Radio and Television Life is mix- is specially prepared by its own staff ing gags and guffaws. (For Campbell's Soups on the NBC writers, "Double or Nothing" pro- and reprinting in whole or in part witl t gram II a.m. P.T.) With publisher's permission ... FISHER'S BISKIT MIX-ANYONE can be a mixer! It's strictly forbidden. tn- EASY to turn out tender solieited manuseripts can nut be accepted or biskits, double-quick calce ... even waffles ... without fear returned. of failure. Fisher's Biskit Mix gives you real home baking . STREAMLINED! Ads eelising infirm: San Fen nriwo: Rogers For the RED Look SPOT with the name "Fisher's" through it when you Parrott, 68 lost Street; ('birago: E. J. Pow- buy! AdverItsernrnl ers. :3 E. Wacker Drive. Page Two antfQ99 September 25, 1949 "Straight Gal" Comes Nome Shirley Mitchell Played Straight for Almost Every Comic in Radio, Returned to Local Air Shows to Take up Where She Left Off Before By Joan Buchanan ITs ALMOST traditional that Davis show and comedy parts with when a pretty young actress Jack Carson, Jimmy Durante, Red gets married and leaves Skelton and "Fibber and Molly" Hollywood, the rest of the among others. She married young profession mentally says Dr. Julian Frieden and left for New as forever. Domes- her husband had to PRETTY SHIRLEY MITCHELL is goodbye York, where ,ilf, adept at the gag lines as she is on settles in ( usually around the complete his residency at New York ticity the straight ones. Shirley does that rollick- hips) and the career flies out the Post -Graduate Hospital. She also the down to doing even more ing Southerner, "Leila Ransome" on window. settled "Gildersleeve" show, has had Southern Shirley Mitchell, pert young come- roles than she had in Hollywood. honey, do her as the "Mouse" on friends actually plead, "Oh, dienne and "straight woman," cur- You heard bah us all!" ICBS-Grant rently heard as "Penelope" on the "McGarry and His Mouse," as the youah Suthinah Joan Davis show, demonstrates that young wife on `Tales of Willie photos.) neither a career nor marriage need Piper" and on "Gang Busters," "Cav- suffer when you combine them. Two alcade of America" and 'Counter- years ago, Shirley forsook her role spy." She was most pleased at be- Back Home of "Leila" on "The Great Gilder- ing able to do really sinister char- When the Friedens moved west sleeve," the society snob on the Joan acters on "Perry Mason." this year, Shirley stepped off the plane and hurried right over to the "Gildersleeve" rehearsal. Apr GAG LINES, STRAIGHT LINES AND SNAPPERS RUN RAMPANT HERE-it's the Dr. Frieden settled into work at Joan Davis show. Shirley plays the unbearably arch "Penelope,' Willard Water- the L. A. County Hospital, estab- man is the long-suffering department -store boss and Joan is the cause of it all. Shirley lished a practice in Beverly Hills, performed similar services as "Barbara" on an earlier Davis show. and the couple bought a home in Sherman Oaks. "I'm an excellent cook," Shirley offers brightly, not with any self-aggrandizement, but rather with a sense of discovery. "And I have Dinah Shore to thank!" Dinah and Shirley were roommates in the days before Miss Shore met Mr. Montgomery and Miss Mitchell was introduced to Dr. Frieden. Dinah (Please Turn to Page 8) VERY LOW IN COST. VERY HIGH IN FLAVOR & NUTRITION. Look in the Frozen Food or Meat Dent. AT YOUR FAV DRITE MARKET Page Three CARMEN DRAGON HAS DONE some interesting theme -song work with familiar folk tunes. For ABC's "Rail- road Hour," he did an exciting adaptation of "I've Been Working on the Railroad"; for the "Baby Snooks" show, he did a racy version of "Rock -a -bye Baby"; for "Family Hour of Stars," an arrangement of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." (ABC photo.) with Fred," which fits just as well! Donald Voorhees's lovely theme for "The Telephone Hour" proved to be so hauntingly popular that it was completed and published under the title "Bell Telephone Waltz." Bernie Green's original music for "The Fat Man" was expanded by the composer and included on a program of seri- ous music by the ABC Symphony under the title of "The Fat Man Polka," a satirical dance. More Than a Theme Meredith Willson's "You and I" was developed from the theme he wrote for the Maxwell House show and proved to be such a popular bal- lad that it topped the "Hit Parade" for many weeks. His newest theme, "Every Day," has also been pub- lished and is an equally tender bal- lad. Themes taken from other sources that have become identified with a program: "Love in Bloom" has got- ten to mean but one thing-Jack Benny and his frustrated violin solo. But did you know that it was Bing Crosby who introduced it in an old movie musical, "She Loves Me Not" -score by Ralph Rainger? And that Benny's rapid-fire sign -off (with a mad, mad, drummer) is "Hoorah for Hollywood," from an old Dick Powell musical, "Hollywood Hotel"? Y TIME Is Your Time" prings inevitably the thougt.t of the nasal tenor ,)f Rudy Vallee; "Wher. the Blue of the Night" means Bing Crosby and "Thanks for tie Memory" is Bob Hope.