Golden Age of Radio

SAY HELLO TO . . . MARION CLAIRE—soprano star of the Chicago Theater of theAir , on Mutual tonight at 10:00. Chicago is Marion’s hometown, and she returns to it for these broadcasts after a glamorous career in opera and movies. She was a child violinist when she was ten, playing with symphony orchestras. Later, applying her talents to singing, she went to Milan, Italy, to study, and made her debut there in 1926. Once she appeared at a command performance before the Crown Prince of Italy. In America, she’s sung with Chicago Civic Opera Company, and in the movies you saw her as Bobby Breen’s mother in “Make a Wish.”

John Conte __the announcing voice on both the Screen Guild and SilverTheater  programs on CBS, is one of the youngest announcers on the air. To be exact, he’s twenty-three, with years of experience behind him—including a year of being the object of Gracie’s radio affections on the Burns and Allen show. He sums up: “I always know what I wanted so I went shead and did it.”

Bill Cullen __was a pre-med student at the University of Pittsburgh when lack of funds made him turn to radio. His first job was as an announcer at KDKA. This made too tough a schedule along with his pre-med work so be switched and became a Bachelor of Arts. Next he tackled New York and joined CBS. Now he’s m.c. on the Winner Take All program and announces several of the other popular shows of that network.

Ben Cooper Young as he is, Ben Cooper, who plays Brad on the second Mrs. Burton show (CBS, Monday through Friday, 2 PM, EST), longer surprised when Ben turns up for a rehearsal dressed in a colorful and complete cowboy outfit. He’s merely getting the feel of the costume, because his idea of The Thing To Be when he’s grown up is a ranch owner and he wants to be ready to step right into the part when it comes along. He goes the whole way in preparation too. He’s up on what the average rancher eats and is learning how to cook scrambled eggs and flapjacks. Nor is he entirely impractical about his dream. He already has his own horse, named Gypsy. He rides very well and he hopes that someday soon he’ll meet the owner of Republic Pictures and get a chance to work in western movies. That’s a two-edged plan. Get the idea? Ben will be practicing more, while earning the money with which to buy his dream ranch. Ben was born in Harford, Connecticut, in 1933. No one in his family was co...

SAY HELLO TO . . .  FRANK DANE – one of those versatile actors whom you’ll probably hear a couple of times today without knowing it. On Arnold Grimm’s Daughter he plays Jim Kent, and on The Story of Mary Marlin he’s “Never-fail” Hendricks. Frank is Danish, but came to America as a child. He says that his biggest handicap as an actor had been learning English and getting rid of his Danish accent. He began his career on the stage, and still is enough of a stage actor to have one important mannerism in front of mike—he always needs enough room to swing his arms. He made his network debut in 1928 and has benn on the air ever since.

ON THE AIR TONIGHT: Elmer Davis and the Ne ws, on CBS at 8:55 P.M., E.D.S.T., tonight and every night in the week. Through all the exciting and frequently horrifying events of the last year, CBS listener have learned to appreciate the quiet, logical news analyses of Elmer Davis. This quiet, middle-aged man never gets hysterical, never lets the horror of the day’s happenings betray him into illogical conclusions. In a world gone crazing, he usually makes sense, and that’s something to be thankful for. Davis’ broadcast comes to you tonight from a small studio just off the busy CBS news from in New York . He has an office there, with a large colored map of Europe on the wall, where he spends most of his time, keeping a watchful eye on all the news that comes in over INS and UP wires. News despatches that he thinks are important, he puts aside, and makes notes from them for his broadcast. He almost never uses a script, and occasionally doesn’t even have time to jot down rough not...