 Radio's own show, Behind the Mic. Radio with a switch of a dial, radio brings you tragedy, comedy, entertainment, information, education, a whole world at your command. But there are stories behind radio, stories behind your favorite program and favorite personalities, and radio people you never hear of. Stories as amusing, dramatic, and as interesting as any make-believe stories you hear on the air. And now, that's what we give you, the human interests, the glamour, the tragedy, the comedy, and information that are behind the mic. And now presenting a man whose name since the beginning of broadcasting has been a byword in radio, Graham McNamee. And good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the radio audience. We've had some people on this program who make their living out of radio in unusual ways. But I think our next guest tops them all. His name is Milton Herman, and he makes his living by dying. Milton, will you tell us about it? Yes, Graham. I guess you can say I make my living by dying. I specialize in playing the parts of heavies, that's to say, villains on programs, rats who almost invariably get theirs in the end, and the listeners are glad of it. For two years I played killers and true detective mysteries. I had the dubious distinction of playing the parts of two gun Crowley, babyface Nelson, and other thugs in gangbusters. I was lefty in the well-known sketch, Skyscraper, which was repeated five times on the air. Tough guy. Oh, I wasn't a gangster in that, Graham, but I fell off the top of a building and died that way. For the past ten years I played sourdoughes in Death Valley days, and for five years I was with Warden Laws. Is that so? What were you in for? Just the program, Graham. My characterizations are derived from observation, and not experience. Well, Milton, do you mind giving us a few examples of your peculiar art? I'd be glad to, Graham. Here's one way I frequently have to die. In this, a squealer is facing one of his mobs. I tell you, Dutch, I couldn't help it. The cops gave me the third degree. I didn't want to die. They made me. Oh, no. No, I didn't want to talk. I tell you. Dutch, Dutch, you're not good. Give me a chance. Put up that gun. Dutch, no! Howdy, you heard falling wasn't Milton. His life insurance agent just fainted. Is there a different technique, Milton, when you're bumped off by a knife? Yes. It's a longer drawn out, and you can feel the knife. A knife guy to have at a party. Now, would you like to hear death by strangulation? I sure would, if you're sure it'll work. Well, in this one, I'm a night watchman in a silk warehouse making my rounds. Well, everything seems to be all right in there, I guess. I don't know how the audience feels, but I got chills playing tag up and down my spine. In programs like Death Valley Days, I sometimes have to die of thirst. See, I'm a prospector, and I'm trying to make the next water hole under the burning sun of the desert. Water. Water. Gotta get the water hole. You vouchers, you aren't going to get me. You're never going to get me. Water. Gotta get the water hole. For a soft drink sponsor, I just step in with, folks, you don't have to die for lack of a drop of water. No, sir. Go to your nearest grocer and buy six-pot thrilling example, Milton. Well, Graham, how about this? I'm a riveter on a scaffolding way up on top of a building when suddenly... Thank you very much, Milton Herman. Thank you. It goes sometimes amusing, sometimes exciting to the people in it. This week, as a salute to Radio's 20th anniversary, we present a whole series of oddities about the early days of radio, as told by a man who has New York's oldest daily newspaper column on radio. It dates from 1924. The radio editor of the New York Daily News, Ben Gross. Suppose you tell us about some of the odd happenings of the early days of radio. Well, Graham, one of the strangest incidents that I can remember concerns a man who came to see me in my office. He was almost frantic as he walked in. I tell you, Mr. Gross, I keep hearing a radio station in my head. I hear music and jokes and station announcements, while it's driving me nuts. You hear it now? No, not only... When I'm only at home, I don't hear it through our radio. I hear it when the radio was turned off through my own head. You know, Graham, I thought that man was crazy. But later I got the entire story. It seems that this man weighed in a carborundum factory, and the filings of the carborundum had become embedded between his teeth. Now, living near the transmitter of a large radio station, he was actually receiving that station's programs through the filings in his teeth. You see, Graham, he had become an animated receiving set. That is odd, Ben, very. How about some more oddities? Got any more? I certainly have, Graham. Well, I remember one instance, some years ago, when Rudy Valley was at the height of his amazing popularity, and he was almost worshiped by his listeners. One time, I happened to print in my column a remark saying that, perhaps after all, Tuscany knew just a little more about music than Rudy Valley. And you should have heard the phone calls I got. Say, how do you come, Princess, to talk about Valley? Rudy knows more than his little finger about music than anybody else in the business. Hey, Mr. Gross, what do you mean right now about Rudy? If I ever meet you on the street, I'll squint your eyes out. And now, Graham, come back with me to the early 1920s. Were they glad to get radio acts in those days? Why, you just walk into a studio, pay a friendly visit to some announcer, and he might come up to you and say... Say, listen, Smith was to go on the air tonight to sing, but he just sent word someone asked him to a party. He isn't going to show up. Can you sing, play the piano or tell jokes? If you can, we'll put you on right away. And Graham, I finally remember when all the stations on a network had to be mentioned by the announcer at the finish of a program, don't you? That's right, ma'am. Before the day of the local station breaks for identification, we announced all stations on the chain from New York. Phil, Colin, and I used to vie with each other for a couple of years just to try to show which one could rattle off the most call letters in one breath. The sign-off sounded something like this. This program has come to you through stations W-E-A-F-W-R-C-W-T-A-G-W-G-R-W-O-W-C-A-P-W-A-C-W-T-A-M-W-C-W-E-I-W-J-R-W-J-K-S-D-W-C-C-O-W-D-A-F-W-G-A-N-W-C-S-A-W-I-C-W-L-I-T-W-S-A-I. Want any more, Ben? Want any more? No, no, that's enough. Well, Graham, those were the days, weren't they? Yes, they were, Ben. No doubt of that. Thank you very much, Ben Gross. Salutes a program you love. We in radio believe that radio has a tradition of which it can well be proud. A tradition of good programs that linger fondly in our memory. And so each week, we bring you a star or a part of a program you use to hear. A program you love. This afternoon behind the mic, salutes real folks, written by and starring George Fram Brown. Real folks with one of the most popular programs on the air between 1926 and 1932. Remember? Each week, millions of people throughout the country awaited the next episode in the lives of Matt Tompkins, who is the mayor of Tompkins' Corners, as well as the owner of its general store, his wife, Marthy, and their friends. Real folks. And now an episode of Real Folks with the original cast of George Fram Brown, Elsie May Gordon, Irene Hubbard, and Ed Whitney. There's the evening train whistling for Hunter's Bottom. That's Tompkins' store over there. I see the lights on in the kitchen. Mr. Tompkins seemed to be making apple butter. And Elmer, he's the boy they adopted, is earning his allowance by wiping the supper dishes. Matt's up in the store all alone. It looks like he's trying to pry up a floorboard. Oh, beautiful to walk in the steps of the savior, stepping in the light, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Cracky. Oh, what's the matter, Mayor Tompkins? Well, it's neat. I didn't see you. I hit my finger. Where'd you come from? Oh, I come in the side door. Oh, what you turned up the floor for, huh? Oh, just cause. Why don't you go out and find Elmer? Run out and play. Oh, Elmer can't play. He gets the dishes wiped. Oh, hello, Marthy. What's up, Elmer? You're doing, Matt. I'm doing something, Marthy. Matt, you see the article in the paper about putting your name up for the state assembly? Yeah. Oh, I didn't hear you say nothing about it. Ain't you pleased? Are you, Marthy? I want anything you want, Matt. Oh, why don't you rest? You look worn out. You worried about Snead Yeager's family? No, I can straighten them out in a day when I have a mind to. Well, there is only one thing that could get you in a state like this. Now tell me the truth. Is it policy? Marthy, if I was sent to prison... Prison? Yeah. What on earth could you be sent to prison for? Stealing. Yeah? Why, you never stole nothing in your life. Well, of course I never. But if some folks thought maybe I'd get some of her politically, they could make me look out like a thief and put me out of the running early. Marthy, do you remember Miss Jones coming in here about two weeks ago? Two weeks ago? Don't you remember the day she came in here with a little package she wanted me to keep them safe? Well, she had some jewelry in that package. There was a small string of pearls with a diamond fastenin. Hmm, she's got a big diamond sunburst. Hey, that's what caused the trouble, that sunburst. Miss Jones got nervous about having that jewelry up at her sunny Crassivilly there. She asked me to keep it here in the safe. Oh, Matt! Hey, I took them, and I insisted on giving her a signed piece of paper shown I'd received them. That big diamond sunburst is missing. Missing? Yeah. Oh, friend, did you discover it was gone? Thursday a week. Oh, why didn't you mention it before? Well, I didn't want to give up hunting. I kept thinking maybe it was my fault for not putting the things in the safe like she asked me. Oh, why didn't you? Oh, the old safe's a light. Anybody could break into it. Where'd you hide them? I've been wearing the pearls around my neck under my undershirt. What would you do with the pin? The first night I had them jewels here. I hid the diamond pin down in the flax seed. Oh, where else did you have it? One night I had it in the navy beans, and then the next night I took the sunburst out of the beans and I pinned it way up under a banana on the stalker. What night was that? It was Friday, wasn't it? Well, yes. You're hollering you sleep that night. Saturday morning there's... it was safe and sound pinned in the banana. I took it off in a whirl all day. Then Saturday night I hid it under the rat poison. Sunday evening before we went to service I took a look. It was gone. Oh, dear. Well, why don't you talk it over with Judge Whipple and some of your good friends? Judge generally dropped in for a few minutes talking. Oh, not yet. I'll hunt for a day or two more. Yes. Now I'm going to do some hunting myself. All right. Hi, ma'am. There's the judge now. Just pretend like nothing's wrong. I'll be right back. All right. Oh, good evening, Judge. Good evening, ma'am. I'm sure a man did you hear anything about the Jager family. What do you mean, Judge Whipple? Right here. They haven't enough to eat down there. Oh, a land sakes. Need Jager plays around here every day. Seems chipper or he was around here tonight. Oh, well, that's good. Perfect to intrude. Bonjour, everybody. Good evening, Miss Jones. Mayor Tompkins, I had the funniest dream about you last night. I dreamt I was being shown through a penitentiary. Oh, good evening, Miss Jones. Oh, good evening. Mayor Tompkins, I'm really dropped in to collect those things. I'll have for safekeeping. I'm mad. I'll tell her. Just a minute. It's my duty. I'll tell her. Miss Jones, I'm aware in your furrows here around the neck. But your big diamond sunburst pin, it's gone. But maybe we'll... Don't, Mayor Tompkins. Surely you're joking. Oh, I only wish he was joking, Miss Jones. Oh, that sunburst, it was such a unique piece. He gave it to me when my oldest son was born. Well, Miss Jones, we'll make good for it if we have to lose the store. Matt, is this the truth? Yeah, it is, Judge. What's worse, looks like it put up a job to me. Well, Matt, if this comes out in the papers, it'll mean goodbye to your political career. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. Wait, don't pinch my arm. I'm going for four. Fine. Out soon enough, if you're telling the truth, you tell your story to the mayor. What's all that fuss out there? Mayor Tompkins, look what I've found missing a plan within your backyard. Oh, Mr. heavens, my sunburst. Well, I didn't know who's it was, but I know it wasn't to his. I figured he stole it. I did not. Well, besides playing through it from school, it's taken to steal it. I have not. I never stole nothing in my life. Now, wait a minute. Here, please. Snead, did you steal this? I didn't intend to, Mayor Tompkins. No, sir. No, you answer me honestly. How did it come in your possession? Oh, well, I was passing a store one day last week, and no one was here, and I sneaked in and swiped a banana. All the bin was stuck to the banana, so I just kept it. I thought it was some kind of a prize or something like finding candy, and I'd been playing with it. I was neat. After all the years we've been such good friends, why would you want to swipe one of my bananas? Why didn't you ask me for one? Gosh, Mayor Tompkins. My pa ain't got a job, and ma has to work away from home. I was always so worried and crossed. All other kids at school have got a banana or orange or something for lunch. When I took that banana, I was hungry. I wish I was dead. Oh, selfish and miserable, I feel. Worried about the diamond ornament and there are hungry children in the world who wish they were dead. Just need, Yeager, you've taught me a great lesson. From now on, I'm going to be perfectly charming to that breadman pest from the income tax bureau. Just need, don't you want to ride home with me in my car? Gosh, could I, Miss Jones? Hey, are you riding in a station wagon or you're a mausoleum? Station wagon. Come along, Steve. Good night, Mayor Nixon. Wait a second, Mrs. Jones. I'm going. Oh, yes, Judge Whippell. Good night, Mayor Tompkins. Good night, Miss Tompkins. Good night. Well, they're gone. Yeah, it's like having a prayer answered finding that sunburst. Martha, are you very tired? I guess I'm not tired, you are. Why? Would you go over there to the groceries and pick out a lot of good staple things while I lock up? I'm going to take them down there to Sneed Yeager's house first thing in the morning. Of course I will, Matt. There's a whip of will. Yeah, I heard it. My, don't it sound pretty? It certainly does, Martha. I guess there's a lot of folks way high up in politics tonight that wishes they was back living beside the country road listening to a whip of will. Irene Hubbard and Ed Whitney. And here's a little behind-the-mic touch. The part of Mrs. Jones was played by George Frame Brown, who also played Matt Tompkins. And the part of the boy, Sneed Yeager, was played by Elsie Mae Gordon. Behind the scenes of the broadcasting business in minor capacities are men and women, some of them with unusual talents. For instance, those of you who visit the studio on the 8th floor of the NBC building have often met our next guest without suspecting just how unusual he really is. He's in charge of the pages on that floor. But he does a good deal more than that in his own right. His name is Addie Amor and we're going to have him tell you all about it. Addie Amor. Hello, Addie. Hello. Addie, besides working as a page at NBC, what do you do on your own time? Well, Mr. McNamee. Oh, cut that Mr. McNamee stuff. You're a celebrity now, Addie. Come on. Well, Graham, I'm the master of ceremonies of three programs on a small New York station. Programs which I originated. What are they? One is a program called the Coffee Club. The second is called Back and Forth and it consists of household hints. I do that program with a woman collaborator and the other program is called the Swing High Club. It's a program for jitterbugs. Oh, I know all about jitterbugs. A jitterbug that follows all rhythm and no neighbors. Well, I'm a bit of a jitterbug myself. When I was at the fellow of the college, I played cornet in my own band. Oh, you did. Well, how did you happen to come in and be an NBC as a page boy? Well, I'll tell you, Graham, later on I had my own band in Boston and we played at the Westminster Hotel following Mal Hallett. I got that question about my coming NBC. Yeah. It was love, Graham. Love. You mean Cupid hit you with a microphone? I had a girl in New York and I was so unhappy being away from her that I gave up my job in Boston and came to New York and got married. But why didn't you stay in the band business? Because my wife wanted to lead a normal social life and not hang around until three in the morning waiting for me. So I got a job at NBC as a page figuring that I could make contacts with radio celebrities and that it might be a good way for me someday I might get a job as master of ceremonies on some big program. But don't you do more things musically than play the cornet? You mean the songs I've written, Graham? That's it. I've written four songs which have been published. The latest of them is called The Sky Without the Stars. It was published recently by Broadcast Music Incorporated and it's been played a few times on the networks. Rudy Valli told me that he was going to play it soon on his program. Good. Imagine, folks, and he's just one of the boys who shows you into the studio. And now, ladies and gentlemen, one of Radio's popular songstresses and I mean that, the lovely voice Mary Small will sing Adi Amor's The Sky Without the Stars. And just like the sky is the sky I'm just like the sky. The broadcasting station throughout the country sponsored an essay contest in the Connecticut High School. This contest and the $100 prize offered for the best essay on the subject of the American system of broadcasting. Why it is best for Americans? It was won by a 14-year-old boy, Neil Axel Blake of Hartford Public High School. Because we think his essay is not only interesting but a timely slant on radio, behind the mic has invited Neil to read an excerpt from it. Neil Axel Blake. Neil, will you please go right ahead and read a little of that essay of yours? Thank you, Mr. McNamee. Often I think that the radio has become so thoroughly a part of us that we fail to realize how much we owe to its mysterious power. It enters our homes at will, past locked doors and barred windows. Its power to send information, entertainment, instruction, scientific achievement, the truth into 84% of the homes in this country has made every citizen more sensitive to the dangers that threaten, more determined to keep America what our forefathers made it, the land of the free. How different the scene abroad where the government restricts and hampers. There the dictator argues, am I not the supreme wisdom? Should not my people learn from me? The account is no longer a sports of happy homes of freedom but of hate, destruction and death. I'm devoutly thankful that I live in America for here the radio, will all its power for good or evil is the instrument of democracy. Long may the American system last. American broadcasting policy helps to keep this continent the promised land. That's swell Neil, thanks a lot. Thank you Neil, I shall play. I've been in radio a long time longer than I like to remember sometimes and I've heard a lot of unusual stories about radio but I don't think I ever heard a story as fantastic as the behind the mic story that will be told us by our next guest and yet he assures me that every amazing detail of it is absolutely true. Our guest is Dave Elman, whose new program, Contact, is fast growing in popularity. The story concerns an appearance on another delightful program of his, Hobby Lobby, a show which dealt with people's unusual hobbies and here is the creator of that show, Dave Elman. Hi Dave, exactly what was that fantastic story behind that appearance on your Hobby Lobby show? Well Graham when I had been on the air with Hobby Lobby for just a week he called me on the telephone and gave me the telephone number of a woman who had a talking dog. Did you say a talking dog? Yes, so as soon as he hung up I phoned the owner of the dog and I said to her, hello? This is Dave Elman in New York. I've got a new radio program called Hobby Lobby. Yes Mr. Elman. I was told that you have a talking dog. Is that so? Yes, that's true. It seems hard to believe. You're on the phone. I'd like to hear him talk. Just a minute, I'll call him to the phone and have him speak to you. Hello? Is that really a dog that's told? It is, I'll have him say a few more words. Say I love you. Say I want you to come to New York and appear on my program next week. I think that's the most amazing thing I ever heard. Well Graham the mistress and her two dogs arrived in New York. Two dogs? One dog named Lady. She told me that Lady was Prince's closest companion and that Prince might not perform unless Lady was along. Well I called up the newspaper and they sent reporters to my office to hear the dog. Oh the dog really was wonderful. He talked beautifully. Now Prince, come on. Say I'm Nora. Come on, say I'm Nora. Prince, I'm Nora. I'm Nora, I'm Nora. Oh that's wonderful. Can they talk enough for an interview? Can they talk? Well Prince was really in great form that day but more and more reporters came into my office and as they did of course the office naturally got hotter. Well Prince suddenly stopped talking. His mistress explained that dogs perspire through their throats and when the temperature of a room gets over 70 degrees the perspiration in the dog's throat made it impossible for him to talk. Well to cool the dog off we tried ice water. Then someone suggested ice cream. We tried three different flavors. The only flavor he would eat at all was chocolate and then he talked again. Well as I said before this was one of my first programs and it was very important to me that everything go off successfully. Then with the other dog, Lady, trailing along we brought Prince over to rehearsal before the show and put him on a table before the microphone. Come on now. Talk Princey, come on. Nice Princey, come on Princey, talk. Say are you sure that ladies being here isn't disturbing them? Oh no, Prince he likes Lady. Maybe he doesn't like the shape of this microphone. Let's use this other mic over here. Maybe you like that. Come on over here Princey. Come on now. Come on Princey, talk. Speak, speak. Well I couldn't get that dog to talk at all Graham at the preliminary rehearsal and then to make things more difficult as mistress told me that we couldn't put him in front of an audience because he never worked before an audience before and would be scared. So at the last minute we took Prince and his companion Lady to a small studio which we had air conditioned so it would be under 70 degrees. It was so air conditioned I almost froze. Well the time came for us to go on the air. That dog just had to talk or it would ruin my show. Finally we got to Prince's spot and I introduced him something like this. And now ladies and gentlemen you will hear this Daniel Webster of the dog house. Prince, well he's having a little difficulty. Maybe he doesn't want to talk until he sees his lawyer. Come on Princey, say I love you. Say I love you. Ladies and gentlemen we seem to be having a little difficulty getting Princey to gap just now but keep listening and you'll hear him. Well that room was ice cold Graham but I never sweated so much in my life. I could see the crumbling ruins of a perfectly good show and then suddenly to my amazement his mistress turned to the other dog who was also in the studio and said All right Princey since you won't talk Lady will come on Lady now you talk say hello Aunt Nora come on Lady. Hello, hello Aunt Nora and so Graham the stooge who we never knew could talk stood in for the star and spoke his lines instead. So just as we promised we did have a talking dog on Hobby Lobby even if it wasn't the one which was originally scheduled. Well thank you Dave Elman that was a mighty good story. Thank you and hot, I mean the cold dog. What a story. Be sure to listen next week when behind the mic we'll bring back to you a few minutes of a favorite old program Harry Hawleck and the A&P gypsies with Harry Hawleck himself conducting and more of the human interest the glamour, the comedy, the drama that are found behind the mic. This is Graham McNamee speaking good afternoon all. This is the National Broadcasting Company.