 Radio's own show, Behind the Mic. 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 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, Graeme McNamee. Thank you, Gil Martin, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the radio audience. We've said that there's plenty of human interest behind the mic. And if you still have to be convinced, just listen to this story told by the singing star of the Eddie Cantor program and one of radio's favorite songstores, Dinah Shore. Dinah, will you tell our Behind the Mic audience that story about the truck driver who was such a fan of yours? Well, Graeme, he was a fan of mine who had often written requests for songs. I got the details of this story through a letter which he wrote me. Here's the story the letter told. Give me shore. I want to tell you about something that happened to me. As I've written to you before, I'm an independent trucker. I owned just one truck. A few days ago, I was bringing up a truckload of perishable goods from Florida to New York. I had a time limit in which to deliver the stuff or lose a contract that I needed badly. Two days from New York, my helper came down with some awful stomach cramps and I had to leave him in a hospital. I took the wheel myself. I'd been driving for about 40 hours without getting any sleep because, as I told you, I had to get my truckload to New York in that time limit. Keeping that contract meant a great deal to me because my business was in pretty bad shape. Cheap. I'm tired. Boy, what I wouldn't give for a little snooze right now. I could pull up the side of the road here and grab a little shut-eye for just a few minutes. Can't do that. If I ever start sleeping, I won't wake up till tomorrow. Gee, I'm tired. I gotta do something to keep awake. I'll try tuning on the radio. Now we bring you the voice of Dinah Shore, one of radio's favorite singing stars. Last time I wrote her, she promised to sing I'd Dream of Jeannie with the light brown hair for me tonight. I wonder if she will. Dinah opens her program by singing I Dream of Jeannie with the light brown hair. Say, she is gonna sing it. Good girl, Dinah. Boy, I gotta stay awake to hear this. Let's see. Four more hours and I'll be in. It's just got up. I won't have no trouble from now on. And did you reach New York okay and on time, Dinah? Well, Grammy wrote me the letter. That ought to prove it. Well, thank you, Dinah Shore, for a great story and, of course, always for your fine singing. The sound effect of the week. Each week behind the mic presents some unusual sound effect which was used on a program of the past week and tells exactly how it was done. On the Bishop and the Gargoyle program this past week, this sound effect was used to denote a character being placed under a guillotine and having his head bobbed. I think it was the hero's hobby. This jovial sound effect was accomplished by the sound man on the Bishop and Gargoyle show running a piece of metal up and down the side of a door to produce the sound of a guillotine knife falling. And then to complete the picture, taking a padded mallet and hitting the side of a wicker basket. There she goes. We're going to let you in on something that is really unusual and genuinely behind the mic. A young man, a member of the NBC guide staff, wants to try out for an NBC announcer's job and he's going to do it on this program. We have the chief of the NBC announcer's department here, Pat Kelly, to give him the announcer's test. Pat Kelly. Hello Pat. Pat, before we proceed with the audition, please tell our listeners what experience a man must have in order to become an NBC announcer. Well Graham, to get on a New York station he has to have at least two years professional announcing experience. To get a job in one of our out-of-town stations he has to have at least six months announcing experience and of course the qualifications we think necessary to make a good radio announcer. When you test your announcers before giving them jobs, Pat, what do you look for? Graham, the boys are judged on personality, voice, showmanship, their ability to project personality through the loudspeaker and the ability to think fast and to describe events as they occur. They should also be able to read with style and without conveying the impression that they're reading in an artificial way. The tests that we will give our would-be announcer this afternoon are designed to cover these qualifications. We have our candidate here at the microphone, the NBC guide whose regular job is showing visitors through a studio and who is now going to try for an announcer's job on one of our out-of-town stations. He's ready to proceed with the audition and this is an actual test. Are you ready to listen to him, Pat? Yes, Graham. But before I go into the control room to listen to him, let me say, ladies and gentlemen, that as his first test, our candidate will tell about himself and his background to enable us to hear his voice and to get an idea of his ability to sell himself. Because we feel that a man who cannot sell himself could not sell a commercial product or the program he's announcing. Now, I'll go into the control room, Graham, and will you describe the audition for our listening audience? All right, Pat. Now, Bill Huck, Mr. Kelly is ready to listen to you. It's going to be tough, but the best of luck. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm speaking to you for the purpose of trying to become associated with your announcing staff. Before proceeding with the audition, I should like to tell you my qualifications and experience as an announcer. I attended Duke University where I was a member of Duke Players, the dramatic organization on the campus, and the Fata Alpha Phi, National Honorary Dramatic Fraternity. I graduated from Duke with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. Having had some experience on a smaller station, I felt further and more valuable experience could be gained by coming to New York and the center of the radio industry, the national broadcasting company. The announcing class here at NBC has been of great value to me, because I've learned how to read on the air, how to pronounce difficult foreign words, and in general, the requirements of a good radio announcer. But now, after this resume of my qualifications, we'll go on with the audition. Ladies and gentlemen, the next test is designed to show the candidate's adaptability to different types of sustaining and commercial continuity and news copy. First, you will read a commercial of the punch type. If hot weather or household cleaning wears you out, I'll tell you how thousands of other women keep fresh and happy. For your fault may lie with what you use to clean. You may be working too hard with an ordinary, lazy, inactive cleanser. So instead of cleaning this hard way, I urge you to switch to the amazing, quick acting cleaner, two million women now use. And now the next commercial is to be read in a conversational style. My buddy, my buddy. Nobody quite so true. This program is in honor of the most loyal buddy you will ever have. Your dog. Presenting dog heroes. Thrilling stories about heroic American dogs. Sponsored by the makers of the wonderful health-aiding food for dogs. For our next test, Bill Huck is going to read a news bulletin to see how well he can handle this type of copy. Here's your bulletin, Bill. Here's the latest news from the United Press. Athens. The Greek War Ministry claims the Greek advance continues on all fronts. Vast stores of warm materials are reported captured from the retreating Alliant Italian forces. And Athens claims Greek cavalry and British planes are spreading panic among the fleeing columns. London. German long-range guns shelled the Dover area for more than an hour this afternoon. No damage or casualties are reported. This news is from the United Press. Further details will be found in your newspapers. And now for the final test, Bill Huck is to introduce a musical program to improve his ability to add lib. An ability every announcer must have by describing the studio from which the broadcast is taking place. Ladies and gentlemen, we continue now with our musical program which is coming to you today from the Ritz Theater in New York. And before introducing the first number, I should like to tell you something of our surroundings here. This theater is located on 48th Street, just west of Broadway in New York's famous Times Square. This is not one of New York's largest theaters, being conventional one, though, having the usual balcony, boxes on either side, and the orchestra, which today is mostly full and provides accommodation for approximately 750 people. But now, to get back to our program, which features another one of NBC's famous musical aggregations, Ernie Watson and his orchestra. NBC listeners have frequently heard the works of such celebrated composers as Bach, Guno, Musconi, Mussorgsky, and many other masters of classic music. However, today, Ernie Watson brings you Love Is. Well, that finishes the audition, and here comes Pat Kelly to give you his criticism, Bill. Well, I suppose you'd like to know about the audition, Bill. I certainly would, Mr. Kelly. Okay, then. I'll give you my frank opinion if you don't mind. Not a bet. I made a few notes while I was listening to you out in the booth. I find that your voice is satisfactory. Though, of course, a little voice training wouldn't do you any harm. It would develop a richer quality, especially in your chest tones. However, the voice is not the most important thing. It's no more important than having a violin. If you can give a man a violin, he's still not a violinist. If you give a man a voice, he's still not an announcer. But I think you have the vocal qualifications for announcing. Your pronunciation and pronunciation, your articulation, are all good. Though, you do have a tendency to slur final consonants. For example, watch words like speaking. There is a G on the end. Your salesmanship, commercial punch. You have a punch all right, but I think with a little practice and experience, you will be able to make it a little more convincing than it was. Your conversational copy, a reading of commercial conversational copy, I mean, you like the ability to get sentiment into that little my buddy, my buddy. However, I'd rather you avoid sentiment than to try too hard and get sentimentality. Further practice, training will help that. In ad lib, you have the ability to put words together and to make a fairly conclusive picture. In other words, you have what an announcer must have, the ability to keep the show going. And I think you'll make good. And I hope in the very near future, we'll find a position for you as, as really an NBC announcer here in New York someday. Thank you very much, Mr. Kelly. Thank you both. Pat Kelly and Bill Huck for giving us a real behind-the-mic scene. And boy, I'm mighty glad such tests were not in vogue when I broke into radio. Salutes a program you loved. We in radio believe that radio has a tradition at 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 used to hear, a program you loved. This afternoon, behind the mic, salutes one of radio's most famous orchestras, Harry Horlick and his A&P Gypsies, which was on the air for 10 years from November 1926 to September 7th, 1936. We will recreate part of the A&P Gypsies program with leader Harry Horlick himself, leading the orchestra in arrangements that made his music famous. Harry Horlick and the A&P Gypsies. You are listening to the familiar two guitars, the title of the composition with which the A&P Gypsies greet you each Monday evening. The Gypsies are here, ready and waiting to begin their hour of entertainment. Horlick and the A&P Gypsies now play a composition of Harry Horlick's Sen Sigan, Harry Horlick. Now did you... We'll be back a lot of years, Harry. And thank you, Harry Horlick, for recreating a part of your A&P Gypsies program. Just to hear the selection of two guitars played by you gave me a thrill and I'm sure it affected our listeners to whom you have given so much pleasure the same way. Better's from listeners. Each week we invite the listeners to behind the mic to write us questions about radio and the three or four we consider to be of most general interest. We have answered on the air by the radio editor of some outstanding magazine or newspaper. This afternoon's questions will be answered by Mr. Mel Spiegel, radio editor of the New York Morning Telegraph. Mr. Ralph Vogel of the Bronx, New York asks this question. I listened a great deal of European broadcasts and I would like to know if you can tell me when was the first transatlantic broadcast to regular radio listeners and from where did it originate? Well, Graham, the first transatlantic broadcast originated from Coventry, England. It was picked up at Elton, Maine and transmitted by wire to WJZ in New York and from where it was broadcast. This first transatlantic broadcast was in 1924. L.A. Carroll of Beverly Hills, California writes in to ask this question about firsts. I had an argument with a friend as to what was the first coast-to-coast broadcast and when was the event broadcast. Will you please let me know? The first coast-to-coast hookup was on January the 1st, 1927 and consisted of a broadcast of the Rose Festival Parade and the Rose Bowl football game from California. Yeah, and I had the pleasure of being at the mic all at day, Mel. One of my real radio thrills. Miss Dorothea McCann of Darlington, Maryland asks this, how is it that a star can appear on his own show as Jack Benny did recently and then right after that appear as he did on the Screen Guild show, which is on a different network? Well, the reason Jack Benny was able to appear on these two programs which followed each other on different networks is that the NBC and the CBS Studios in Hollywood, California from where both shows originated are right next to each other. As you remember, Jack did not appear in the first few minutes of the second show, which gave him time to travel from one building to another. Thank you, Mel Spiegel, for answering those questions. Ladies and gentlemen, the scene of our true behind-the-mic story today is in a dressing room of an NBC studio on Thursday evening in June of 1934. It's an hour before the opening broadcast of the famous Maxwell House showboat. The two blackface comedians of the show, molasses in January, whom you all remember and whose real names are Pat Paget and Pick Malone, are sitting in their dressing room near the studio. They're in the middle of giving their script a final reading. Well, well, well, dog on my time, molasses, old fraternity sister. How is your little dog getting along? Uh, January, you mean my dog Corset? Boy, why you call that dog Corset? Because I keep him tired up all day and let him out at night. Aw, sweet. Pick. Pick that golden number. Sure will, boy. Well, come on now, let's get along with this. OK, next line's yours. All right, now here I go. Tell me this, yeah. How's you getting along with your E-flat fiddle-footed gal's papa, molasses? Well, they don't let me in the house no more because last time I was there, I got in a fight with a papa and stepped on his pipe. Well, what's the matter with the man? I don't see why he should be so mad with you. There ain't nothing so terrible about stepping on the old man's pipe. Yeah, but this was his windpipe. That's all right, boy. That is funny. You know, this looks like a good script tonight. Yeah, I think that windpipe gag is a great kicker. It's a killer. Let's go out and get a cup of coffee. Yeah, well, all right. Now wait till I wash up a little bit, will ya? OK. Oh, say, by the way, how's your wife getting along, Pat? Oh, not so good, pick. Ever since she had that operation of hers, she hadn't come along the way I hoped she would. Oh, boy, now listen, don't worry about that. That Arizona air is great. It's gonna fix her up all right. Well, I sure hope it does. I got to let her from the doctor a few days ago and really got me worried. Oh, well, now wait a minute. There's no use in worrying about it, Pat. Oh, boy, listen, you know dog going well, Diane's gonna be all right. I'll bet you'll be having her back with you before very long. Now you wait and see. Now wait till I get this soap out of my eyes and we'll go grab a cup of wrench down. OK. Well, come in. Telegram for you, Mr. Padgett. Telegram? Well, thanks, huh? Yeah, boy. Oh. Oh, Pick. What? What's the matter? What is it, Pat? Diane. What? She. She passed away in the sleep a little while ago. Oh, gee. Gee, I'm sorry, Pat. I can't. I can't believe it. Just don't seem possible, son. I know. Oh, Pick, I'm gonna miss her. Yeah, I know. That's all right. I know you well, sure. But I'll be right back in a minute, Pat, oh boy. Huh? Where you going? Well, I'm going out and find out about the trains. There's a train out there that gets out there, don't you? Oh. I'll be right back. Now, wait a minute. I'm gonna tell Bill Betcher that we won't be on the program tonight. Yeah, yeah, go on. Oh, wait a second, Pat. Yeah, what is it? Pick, come here. What? Don't do that, son. We got eight minutes of material in the show. I know. Well, they won't be able to fill that in without messing up the whole program. Oh, but listen, wait a minute, Pat. You can't argue. Listen, it can't do any good whether I'm there a few hours earlier or later. I know. She wouldn't have wanted it any other way, anyhow. She was in show business herself. I know that. But do her any good. I wouldn't go on this show any show ever. But it won't. It won't do nobody any good. Oh, but Pat, now, now, not really. You don't, you don't think you'll be able to go out there? I am. Pick, listen. Listen, son, don't tell this to anybody after the show. All right, boy. I won't say nothing. And when the Maxwell House showboat went on that night, little Flutty, do you flat ape, you? How you getting along with that farm of yours? We had a little explosion on my farm yesterday. An explosion? How was that? Well, I fed a chicken some layer of bus feed. You fed a chicken some layer of bus feed? Yeah. Well, how come the explosion? She turned out to be a rooster. You don't know. Well, no wonder. See, I hear you get some very early down on that farm of yours. Yeah, that's right. In fact, five o'clock in the morning. That's AM. How come you get up so early? I use a parrot and an alarm clock. A parrot and an alarm clock? Yeah. Do the alarm clock wake you up? No, sir. But the alarm clock wakes the parrot up. And boy, what did parrot say wake anybody up? Yeah. Well, boy. That's unusual. You know what? I should smother to replenish. Yeah. I got another pet out there. Yeah, what's that? A whip nip. A whip nip. And again, the actor's creed, the show must go on. Had been given further proof. Not in a novel, not in a play, but in a really true behind-the-mic story. January was played by January himself, Pic Malone. Well, asses was impersonated by Ward Wilson. Be sure to listen next week when I will talk with NBC news commentator Fred Bates, who will tell you from London how he gets the news he broadcasts. And more of the human interest, the glamour, the comedy and the drama that are found behind-the-mic. To be speaking, good afternoon all. Behind-the-mic is written by Mort Lewis, original music written and conducted by Ernie Watson. This is the National Broadcasting Company.