Greetings From Hollywood

This Week
Hollywood Radio
Tungee's Gold – Cape Horn
Writers Notebook: Maxwell Perkins

The LUX Radio Theater
During the depression years of the 1930's radio was the center of family life. Americans listened in for Orson Wells' Mercury Theater, remember War of the Worlds, Rudy Vallee, Eddie Cantor, Tom Mix, Jack Benny, Fibber McGee and Molly. Then there were the news folks Jimmy Fiddler from Hollywood and Walter Winchell with that great staccato delivery from New York.
And that's a good sample of what radio had to offer in those days, but the show that got the most attention was on the air for more than twenty years – The Lux Radio Theater.
When the audience tuned in they heard the familiar voice of Cecil B. DeMille announce, 'Greetings from Hollywood.'
And those were the words that would be spoken every Monday night to open the next production of The Lux Radio Theater.
But to get the story straight we have to go back to 1934 when the show originated from New York and featured abridged versions of Broadway plays.
Broadcasting from New York, the series premiered at 2:30pm, October 14, 1934 on the NBC Blue Network with a production of Seventh Heaven starring Miriam Hopkins and John Boles in a one hour adaptation of the 1922-24 Broadway production by Austin Strong.
However, from the beginning the New York version of Lux Radio Theater suffered from a shortage of adaptable plays, and when the ratings began to sag, they had to make drastic changes if they were to keep the show alive. They made those changes, moved the production to Los Angeles and hired Cecil B. DeMille to produce the show.
As it turned out the DeMille name was magic to theater goers and almost from the beginning the Hollywood version of The Lux Radio Theater was a hit.
It is said that 40 million listeners tuned into the show to hear Cecil B. DeMille say, 'Greetings from Hollywood.' Then he would introduce another radio adaptation of a famous Hollywood film, and as often as was possible they cast the film's original actors in the starring roles.
For two decades, from 1936 until 1955, Lux, the family of soap products from Lever Brothers, sponsored this highly successful program. The allure of Hollywood, the highly-paid big-name stars and films were what got the audience to tune in; behind the scenes however it was pure radio with a top company of faceless radio players handling the lion's share of the work.

Hollywood's first presentation of The Lux Radio Theater was 'The Thin Man' on the night of June 8, 1936. Broadcast from its Vine Street Studio with original stars William Powell and Myrna Loy supported by W.S. Van Dyke, James Seymour, Minna Gombell and Porter Hall.
Van Dyke announced that they were honored by a distinguished Hollywood audience, 'Bette Davis, Jimmy and Lucille Gleason, Bob Armstrong, Ollie Olson of "Olson and Johnson", Stu Irwin,: Mr. and Mrs. Leon Schlesinger?'
Then he added, 'Maybe it would interest you to know a little inside information on the show we're doing tonight, "The Thin Man" was a best selling novel by Dashiell Hammett. Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich wrote a swell script. William Powell and Myrna Loy played the parts. They played them beautifully! Because Powell was just Powell, and Loy was just Loy, both of them wisecracking all the time and clowning right through the picture! And it is evident that people liked it. It has been very interesting to figure out out how they'll tell this story on the radio. Bill and Myrna had a lot of fun getting it ready for you, just as they did making the picture. And from the original story, from the original motion picture cast, we have, and are fortunate in having, Minna Gombell, Porter Hall, William Henry, and Thomas Jackson here tonight. So here we go, with William Powell as Nick Charles and Myrna Loy as Nora in "The Thin Man."
Here they come, Bill Powell and Myrna Loy!
VAN DYKE:
We're in a fashionable cafe?, The Montmartre, in New York City. It's Christmas Eve and the well-appointed dining room is filling rapidly. From the bar comes a good-looking young fellow of about thirty-five. Tall casual and worldly-wise, he's Nick Charles, a well-known private detective, played by William Powell. And he's waiting for his charming wife Nora, played by Myrna Loy. As he takes his place at the table, a young girl on the other side of the room recognizes him and hurries over.
DOROTHY:
Aren't you Mr. Nick Charles? The detective?
NICK:
I am. Yes, I'm Nick Charles.
DOROTHY:
I thought I recognized you. My name is Dorothy Wynant.
NICK:
Oh yes? How do you do?
DOROTHY:
Do you mind if I sit down for awhile-
NICK:
No, but I expect my wife in a few minutes if you don't mind explaining your presence to her
DOROTHY:
Of course! That's my fianc? over there at the other table-
NICK:
-Oh, well that makes everything all right, doesn't it? Sit down!
DOROTHY:
Thank you.
For more snappy dialogue go to You Tube: Click Here

Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing – Excerpt
(Continued)
The barometer had been steadily dropping along with the temperature. And not to be caught with his sails billowing out full when the gale struck, Foster had done the prudent thing by taking off large sections of canvas. All the sailors in the rigging were holding on a bit tighter as the running sea preceding the high wind caused the masts to sway like some giant pendulum swinging it's circle and exerting enormous centrifugal force.
Tungee was on the port side of the fore royal yard and saw the sky light up with a flash followed by the rolling crack-bang thunder bouncing off the building waves. Jeff was on his right Dobbs and the kid were below on the fore upper topsail completing their furl.
"Hang onto to what you've got now, men. The wind from the squall line is going to hit any minute," Tungee yelled.
Dobbs declared, "I've got me a grip on this here foremast that lovers just dream about, mate."
Cheny raced from the quarterdeck and took a position halfway between the main and foremast, leaned back and yelled new orders. "Yo, fore and main top men spill and secure your outer and inner jibs and all stays.
The men in the rigging had just gone to work on Cheny's order when the man in the crow's nest bellowed, "Land ho."
"Give me a point and what you see," Captain Foster ordered.
"Broad on the port bow, sir. They are distant, sir, but they are hills, make no mistake about that, sir."
The skipper knew that Wellington was behind them, present position had to put them off the Strait of Magellan. The crow's nest must be reporting the hills of Punta Arenas.
"Give me a distance," Foster demanded.
"I'd reckon a score of miles, sir."
"Helmsman, we'll wear ship to a starboard heading of one hundred ninety five degrees."
The MFC was nearer land than the skipper had intended and with that starboard maneuver the ship would likely be on a collision course with the storm. But Captain Foster figured it was better to stick his bow into the turbulent waters rather than drift toward the shoals and in the end be broadsided and slammed onto the rocks by the storm's fury.

All top men had returned to the deck and ducked inside the forecastle by the time white pebbles began to bounce off the mast and decking.
Tungee held onto a lifeline and made his way back to the quarterdeck where Foster and Cheny stood just outside the chart room observing the helmsman. They would soon find out how the ship handled in a real storm. She had weathered some rain and gale force winds, but nothing like old Cape Stiff could dish out.
Tuck Rogers was at the wheel and was as good a helmsman as you'd ever want to see, especially on tack and close haul sailing. By the time hailstones began to collect in the scuppers, intermittent sprinkles of freezing rain started to fall. The sea was running wild and a monstrous roller built up and moved ominously toward the starboard bow. The big one missed, but all of a sudden the men on deck were looking down at a trough below.
Captain Foster yelled, "We can tie the wheel down, if you'd like, Mr. Rogers."
"If you don't mind, I'll stick with her for now, sir."
"You feel you have some steerage then."
"Aye, she's a bit cranky, but that's to be expected in these crazy cross seas."
The ship rode the top of that giant wave for a few brief moments and then she plunged and dove down into a canyon. Dirty gray walls of water churned up on either side of the ship and they still hadn't hit bottom. When those huge walls collapse we'll be overwhelmed, Tungee thought. They bottomed out and he was forced to his knees. He knew the sides would come crashing in, but they didn't. Those gray walls held. The ship was in the pit of the trough and just as fast as they had fallen to the bottom they were spat up and out again.
The wind was not much more than gale force and it was somewhat dryer than they had expected, so the skipper ordered a modest sail change. "Call out the watch, Mr. Cheny. "I'd like to set the stays and jibs."
Tungee peered into the black night and worried about the overcast and how the captain planned to navigate when there was no chance to shoot the stars.
And before the night was done, the MFC had collected a veneer of ice that covered both deck and rigging. The storm raged and screamed as it blew in off the South Pole and sent the thermometer's mercury retreating far below zero.
For more on Tungee's Gold go to Amazon book page: Click Here

Writers Notebook:
May 17, 1945
Maxwell Perkins, editor to Hemingway, Fitzgerald , Thomas Wolfe and other famous writers, in answer to a young aspiring writers letter that came to him from overseas during the war.
Excerpt: '...I shall be greatly interested to read the story when it comes. I should think you have seen plenty by now, but I do not think you need to be impatient to put it into writing. I think, in truth the best writing is done long after the event. When they've been digested and reflected upon unconsciously... I don't mean that you should not write about all this now, but the best of it can only come after all the experience has been yours for a long time, and you have absorbed it and can see it in perspective. So don't worry about the time element.'
'As to perhaps a couple of years in college, I should think that might be of great advantage, in a general sense, but don't try to learn about writing there. Learn something else. Learn about writing from reading. That is the right way to do it. But then it can only be done by those that have an eye and ear, by seeing and listening. Very few of the great writers had that formal education, and many of them never mastered spelling and grammar. They got their vocabulary by reading and hearing. But the way they teach literature and writing in college is harmful. It results in one getting into the habit of seeing everything through a kind of film or past literature, they're not seeing it directly through one's own senses. It makes it so that when ever a man wants to write, for instance, an amiable old drunken Irish rascal he cannot do it as he really sees him, but has to do it as Thackeray saw him and pictured him in Captain Costigan. I should say that a couple of years in the newspaper business would be much better for one who wanted to be a writer than a couple of years in college. But there you are, of course, other advantages do come from the college....'
Of course there have been many changes in college writing courses since the 1940's, but still much of the advice Max Perkins gave that young man would be valid today. ed

Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels Tungee's Gold, The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
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