Life, 1924-08-14 · page 23 of 36
Life — August 14, 1924 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes how radio announcers' informal, flashy style is influencing formal public speakers, particularly school principals and superintendents introducing performers at events. **The Setup:** Traditionally, school officials introduced programs with staid, formal language ("We will now listen to a piano solo..."). Radio announcers, by contrast, use quips, breezy informality, and showmanship to entertain audiences. **The Satire:** The article imagines a principal adopting radio-announcer mannerisms when introducing a student pianist named Gracie Jamison. Instead of formal decorum, he uses slang ("old scout," "swell little girl"), rambling commentary, and exaggerated descriptions ("splash 'em all up and down this keyboard"). **The Point:** The author worries radio's casual, entertainmentfirst approach is eroding traditional institutional formality and dignity. The absurd example (suggesting audiences wear rubber boots) underscores how inappropriate this style is for schools. This reflects 1920s-30s anxieties about mass media's cultural influence on established institutions and decorum.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
To a Boyhood Flame S™ HEART of long ago, Ere | approach you now, Tell me if yet your heart may know Our vow. Tell me if through the years You have remembered still Tenderly saying—soft, my fears!— “Twill.” Answer me with your cyes! Is there the old regard; Lives on the faith that ever dies So hard? Is yet your loving bent As in the morn of life? For if it is I can’t present My wife. James K. McGuinness, The Radio's Influence QOMEBODY—it may as well be you “ —should give serious thought to influence of radio announcing upon platform manners of this country. many and decorous years platform imners have been conservative and xed. The superintendent, or principal f the school, has arisen and said: “We ill now listen to a no solo, ‘Whis- ring Waves,’ by Miss Gracie Jami- Or, even more formally: “A citation, ‘The Village Blacksmith,’ by Master William Henry.” Nothing ore was expected of him. But a change has come with the io announcer. Nightly, he intro- ces with quip and flippancy the people 1 the program, And in proportion to s wit and breezy informality he is pular with his audience. He is half ¢ show. Are superintendents and hool principals presiding at “enter- tinments” to follow his example, to limic his ways? Will the staid, frock- oat manner be superseded in little red and other—schoolhouses by the easy pontaneity of the radio method? Judge for yourself. Your opinion is of value. Instead of saying, “We will now listen to a piano solo, ‘Whispering Waves,’ by Miss Gracie Jamison,” the superintendent or principal will whirl in as follows: “Aha and again aha, whom have we LIFE « here? As I live and breathe it's little Gracie Jamison, all dolled up in her best tib and bucker, I mean her best bib and tucker. Well, come right along here, Gracie; come right up here on the platform and do your stuff. I dare say your pa and ma down there in the audience will let you come up here if you ask them. How about it, Jamison, old scout? You've got one swell little girl there, I'll tell the world. Now folks, Gracie Jamison is going to sit on this piano stool and tickle these ivories for you. She's going to play ‘Whispering Waves’ for us, and if you never heard waves whisper before, you're going to hear ’em now. Reg ular waves, full of spray and things. Gracie’s going to splash ‘em all up and down this keyboard. I don’t know but 21 every one of us ought to put on his rubbers. All ashore that’s going ashore. Now then, Gracie, turn on the waves. Miss Gracie Jamison, folks.” Parents favoring the new or radio method of introducing their children will signify it by saying, Aye. trary-minded, No. A. HH. F Back Again THE absent-minded professor care- fully tied a knot in his shoe-string “There,” said he; “that will remind me to take the darned shoe off at night.” E = Did you learn to swim this summer ? Mayeette: Twelve times. THE DESERTED VILLAGE IF EVERY ONE IN NEW YORK OBSERVED OLD HOME WEEK. comicbooks.com