11:15 Tues.-Thurs.-Sat.
WINS-MBS.
Morton Downey is back on the air-waves for his favorite soft
drink at 11:15 P.M. three times weekly, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays,
over the Mutual Network coast to coast.
In a program which is entirely different from the homespun
songs and poems which he used to broadcast during the daytime, Downey is now
specializing in what he calls his own kind of sooth-singing: soft, sentimental
ballads and tunes.
With Downey on his new program are a quartet of male singers
who provide soft, melodic background for Downey’s silvery voice, and an
intimate orchestra of eight under the skillful baton of Carmen Mastren.
Born in Wallingford, Connecticut, the son of the local
fire-chied, Downey is probably the Nutmeg State’s most famous good-will
ambassador and most popular citizen. Nutmeggers remember him as the kid who
used to sing at Elks’ benefits for nickels, accompanied by a friend who played
the accordion. And they also still talk about how he was bounced from a job as
candy-butcher on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad because of his
irrepressible yen to whistle while he worked.
It was through one of the talent scouts for Paul Whiteman
that Downey really got his first big chance. That was when he was singing at
the Sheridan Square Theater in New York, and a representative of Whiteman
offered him seventy-five dollars for singing with the band.
Fame came quickly, and soon the Irish troubadour got equal
billing with the Paul Whiteman radio band. The band and Downey went across the
Atlantic several times on the S.S. Leviathan, and then Downey toured with
Whiteman during the thrilling days of the “Rhapsody in Blue.”
Soon Downey was really on his own, a star in his own right,
singing in the smartest clubs and hotels of this country and Europe. His first
Hollywood appearance was with Fred Waring and his band in one of the first
cinema musicals, “Syncopation.” After another seven-month tour of continental
night clubs, Downey returned to New York to open his own Delmonico Club, the
scene of his first United States radio broadcasting.
In the past sixteen years, Downey has sung over every major network
in this country and many in Europe; he has traveled more in foreign countries
than any other American singer. Those requests for special songs have come from
more than 10.000 people, including the late Franklin Delano Rossevelt and the
Duke of Windsor.
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