Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • Page 71

CILIULOID TO TH BL I Radio and Motion Pictures Join Jhiands 1 ln Production Thaf Gives Outstanding Film Stars Cfiance fi Mike Talents te.v ri ft I 4 nvf lSf -x iiSp7 JllM: Wlllili XX NSWIHIMI I "Fanni BdcwhoM "Baby Snook." lillipSiy I character hat risen to new heights PSP vV 4 Xlllililillil fame by way of radio everything. Snooks also hat ft big mouth just like mine. And when she cries the rafters shake! "In reality Snooks had her sixteenth birthdays few months ago. She came to life in 1921 through a song, 'Poor Pauline' which was the rage during the run of 'Perils of starring Pearl White. "At a party one night I sang the song as a small child would ting it.

My friends enjoyed it so much, that thpvuBtfpstM that I An it that 'wa1 i ptly illiP pill ilBialr lllli! -i; Vllllllllr te I Connie Boewell, famed Yocalisf. who Is one of the regular cast of the NBC-IPO transcontinental "Good News membeje of the of 1938." Robert Taylor, who hat won new following as radio matter of ceremonlet. By JACK BURROUGHS GLAMOUR, glamour, who's got glamour? said the screen star in her most glamorous tones, "I've got glamour "And who," queried the imaginary interlocutor, "has glamour plus?" "I'll have glamour plus," replied the screen star, "when I become a radio personality as well as a screen sdme-body." viic iiukii, tuu, as tci tain heads realized when they launched upon the air "Good News of 1938" lanes. As personalities and an augmrnter of radio stars'' fol lowings, "Good News of 1938" has. proved its practical value to those to whom personality, glamour and a large following are a without-which-nothing proposition Robert Taylor, master (jf ceremonies, and Frank Morgan, comedian, have found thatihugfe radio1 followings have been added to their respective armies of screen fans.

After a couple of decadeV ofsuccess with "Baby Snooks" on the stage, Fanny Brice met with enthusiastic and widespread acceptance when she brought Baby Snooks to the mike. The cast" of this M-G-M radio show, which is offered transcontinental over NBC, and which has helped to give a steel temper to the link joining cinema and radio, is made Up of the following regulars'. Robert Taylor, rtipster of Fanny Brie and "Baby Snooks," Frank Morgan, Connie Boswell, Henley Stafford, s. Meredith Willson and orchestra, and Max Terrs' M-G-M Chorus; Betty Jaynes, soprano; Allan. Jones, baritone, and Judy Garland, popular singer, are also heard on this program from time to time.

EXPOSING the "Good News of 1938" production to the analytical X-ray, we find that the skeleton form around which tjie finished show is built consists of three basic Ideas the home" town stock company idea, the concert hall idea and drama from current M-G-M pictures. Robert Taylor is the central figure around which the entire production is built. "Good News" from "Good News" by De Silba, Brown and Henderson, is the theme song heard at the beginning and at. the conclusion of each broadcast. This selection fades into "Always and Always" from "Mannequin." Th traditional theme- of the series is the Meredith Willson composition "Thoughts While Strolling." Ed Garner, is producer of the show, which is authored by members of M-G-M's writingstaff.

The production originates in trie El Capitan The-. ater on Hollywood Boulevard and is presented in a Colonial stage setting. The radio week begins in real earnest for the members of the "Good News" fi cast on Wednesday morning.when rehearsals, of the program are Dress rehearsal is held -on Wednesday night. On Thursday, just before the program takes to the air, the members lV- stage; V'S ivjjjss nan, now a lamuus piay" was the first to write a routine- for Snooks. Soon after the lata Dava Friedman took the character and it nearly two years before got the true Snooks as she is today." MEREDITH WILtSON, whose or chestra not only provides the musical background for the "Good News" program, but is featured As an entertainment unit on the program as.

well, realized his life's ambition when he was 12 years of age. That was 20 year! ago and Meredith's dream was to conduct an orchestra. This realization of the Willsonian ambition came to pass in Mason City, Iowa. "He learned to play the piano when keyboard," says. Meredith's NBC biographer.

"Then he turned. to the flute. He had been a member of the Mason City Orchestra for two years when the unexpected departure of the leader, elevated him, in spite of his youth, to that position. At fourteen he looked around the family circle and an nounced nis intention to go to xvew York to study music, and the Willson family, accustomed by this time to sur--prises, agreed. rThe lad traveled East, all alone, and years, still alone, lived in.

New York, studying harmony and composition at the Institute of Musical Art, and flute with George Barrere." John Philip Sousa heard Meredith play when Meredith was 17, years of age, and engaged him as flute soloist with his band. After traveling with Sousa for three seasons he joined the New York Philharmonic orchestra. For five years he played solo flute with that organization, under several fa- J.lif.4i. Tftpftqwl JJlUUtl IUUUUIIiUIS, luuuuillg Juavaimn, Mengflberg and Damrosch. During this period of his career he became a member of the New York Chamber Music Society.

Several years ago Meredith came out to the Pacific Coast, directed a broadcasting system and conducted the Seattle symphony orchestra. From Seattle he Went toHollywood where he wrote the incidental music for Douglas Fairbanks' "Iron Mask" and other motion pictures. From Holly wood he came to San Francisco and eventually became gen eral musical director of NBC's Western division. of the cast are put through their in a full dress rehearsal. The show is presented before' a studio audience of 1500 persons and there is a waiting line of several hundred fans outside the theater each week.

This show, first radio and screen tie-up; to be effected on a big scale, did not have a definite, set formula when it made its debut last Fall. Gradually the present set-up took form put of the mass of material and talent. Some film, stars may hayg the idea that there is no such tKfng as radio technique as differentiated -from motion picture technique, but Robert Taylor is quite definitely not one of that Misguided number. He has no illusions whatsoever on that score. Since assuming the reins as master of cere-1 monies on the "Good News of 1938" program, Taylor has not only become actually aware of radio technique, but has set about patiently and industriously to nerfect himself in it.

He does, not confine his efforts to going over -his own lines, although he does this with painstaking thoroughness. When he is not at work behind the. microphone he studies the script of the entire show with all the intensity of an am-bitious student who is preparing for a finsl examination. Taylor was so well received as master of ceremonies that he was given the emcee spot permanently. His venture into the radio field in this capacity has had highly favorable results as far as his professional 'career is concerned.

Radio has enabled him to demonstrate that he has- a Sdio artd that iLxegisters a favorably through cation trip to Europe. He had arranged to leave the show and had actually set his sailing date but due to listeners' demands for the Morgan brand of comedy he called off his trip. "Baby Snooks" may not sound like it to the dialers of America, but she is 16 years old. Snooks did not create anything more than a mild stir until Fanny gave her a chance behind the' mike. The mike turned be exactly what the 16-year-old ihjjaqt had been waiting for ever since her cradle The aging baby that had been trying without success to set the entertainment world afire for years became an immediate-v favorite with the Na tion's dialers.

She clicked so thoroughly" with the "Good army of customers that Fannygave her a permanent place in the cast. This was not the only result of Baby Snooks' introduction to the air lanes. Baby Snooks became a blessed cinema event. As a result of the wedding of Radio and Cinema, another film star was born. Here is what Fanny Brice has to say concerning her now famous creation: "I picture Snooks as a child of four and "one-half years.

She must do only what a child of that age would do-without being too fresh or unreal. It has become such a part of me that I know instantly whether or not Snooks" is overstepping her character. "Whenever I see a group of children I stop.nearby and listen to what they're saying. I get a lot of material that way, because children are all really very much the same. "In appearance, Snooks has the face of a mischievous cherub, happy and smiling, but plenty, curious about the medium of the mike as his film personality registers upon the screen.

FOR several years Frank Morgan was a popular motion picture comic, but his talents as a laughmaker were not given an outlet over the air lanes until he made his radio debut with the "Good News" company. How com- Eletely he clicked wih the dialing pub-c was demonstrated not long ago when he began making plans for a va- Betty Jaynes, young soprano heard frequently on "Good News" program OAKLAND TRIBUNE. MARCH 27, 1 "yy'Ky- A 1933.