Golden Age of Radio

ON THE AIR TONIGHT: Helen Hayes , starring in a different half-hour play each week, on CBS at 8:00, E.S.T., rebroadcast to the West Coast at 7:30, P.S.T, and sponsored by Lipton’s Tea. Unless you’re a fanatical devotee of Charlie McCarthy (or unless you live in the Pacific Time Zone, where Helen and Charlie aren’t on at the same time), you couldn’t do better than to tune Helen Hayes in tonight. Most radio acting is good, but hers is magnificent. You’d never guess than Helen was one of America’s greatest actresses if you watched her rehearsing her radio shows. She loves radio, but is quite willing to admit that other people know more about it than she does. No displays of temperament ever go on at a Hayes rehearsal, and afterwards, when the script has to be cut so it won’t run overtime (it always does have to be cut, too), Helen goes home and lets other people wield the blue pencils. “ I’d only get in their hair,” she explains. Besides acting on the air, Helen is starring ...

< LAST MINUTE REHEARSAL FOR CAVALCADE OF AMERICA FINDS MEMBERS OF CAST DILIGENTLY CHECKING SCRIPTS FOR LAST MINUTE CHANGES> <DIRECTOR HOMER FICKET (SEATED UNDER FLAG) GIVES THE ENTIRE CAST A QUICK RUN THROUGH THE SCRIPTS BEFORE AIR TIME.> <Sound effects are an integral part of the show, requiring the most experienced men.> <Edward Jerone , versatile actor, plays Abe Lincoln one week, and a bit part the next.> CAVALCADE OF AMERICA TUNE IN WEDS. 8 P.M. E.W.T. (NBC) When the Cavalcade series was first presented eight years ago, few people in radio thought it would succeed. Likely to be tagged as “long-haired” and an “educational program” those in the know felt that a show devoted to historical drama would find a very small listening audience. But Cavalcade has proved that Americans are interested in their country and its great names. The producers of the show were far-sighted enough to see that if the program was to have any real value,...