This night’s broadcast of Empire Builders was billed as a “comedy-drama,” and an “intimate and delightful summertime experience in Glacier National Park, replete with the feeling of the great out-of-doors, romance, music and adventure.” Contrasting with this episode, the broadcast of November 25, 1929, was about a Glacier Park winter, and it produced a certain amount of criticism for being untimely in its theme. The consensus seemed to be that tourism promotion of Glacier Park should concentrate on the appeal of visiting the Montana Rockies in the summertime, and not draw attention to the frigid starkness of winter. Still, the November story was a deliberate vehicle for portraying some of the colorful atmosphere of Glacier Park and its Native American neighbors, so the setting in winter conditions was deemed perfectly suitable for a November broadcast. By February, however, the railroad was now prepared to start its annual campaign of turning listeners’ thoughts to the upcoming summer. It was time to get people thinking about and planning for an excursion by rail to “America’s playground.”
As for the comedy aspect of this program, it is useful to
understand some of the feedback the company was getting about the popularity of
Empire Builders, especially as
compared to other offerings on the air at that time. Polls taken by various
entities showed that the most popular program on radio was Amos ‘n Andy. It was
pure comedy, and although it would not play as well today, that show featured
two Caucasian actors who specialized in portraying what was regarded at the
time as a very funny stereotype of uneducated Southern Black men operating a
taxi cab service in New York’s Harlem neighborhood.
More than one year into its run on radio, Empire Builders was developing a strong
foundation of regular listeners. One man in Portland, Oregon, wrote “this is a
very cheap form of entertainment to us, as you know, and in these winter months
it is a great delight to know that a program such as your Company puts on is
going to entertain for an evening.” A lady from South Dakota wrote “you can’t
know how good that train whistle sounds to us who live 65 miles from the
nearest railroad. There are many here in the ranch house living room who are as
eager as we to get the ‘Great Northern’ hour.”
This episode, titled “Thriller Films, Inc.,” was another of
the handful of Empire Builders
stories written by Wyllis O. Cooper. It featured as a main character the head
of a movie company (Thriller Films), a man who spoke with a strong accent and
whose comments were laced with Yiddish idioms. He was presented as a
stereotypical Jew. Oy vey.
A press release put out by Harold Sims described the
program:
With Glacier National Park
The Old Timer,
incidentally, has the time of his life in his first experience in the movies,
where he “pinch hits” as a Swiss yodeler.
Harvey Hays, as the
Old Timer, and Virginia Gardiner are the featured players. Incidental music is
by Andy Sannella’s orchestra, and Bob MacGimsey, harmony whistler.
Harvey Hays came to radio from a background in stage acting.
I’m not aware that his talents included singing, or yodeling for that matter.
On the other hand, Virginia Gardiner was billed as both an actress and a
singer. Announcer John S. Young opened the broadcast by saying “you are
listening to Empire Builders, a presentation by the Great Northern Railway.
With you again will be the Old Timer, played by Harvey Hayes, and Miss Virginia
Gardiner, who sings as well as acts the leading feminine role.”
 |
| Miss Virginia Gardiner, the lovely young ingénue of Empire Builders "who sings as well as acts." Portrait by Clayton Braun. Brooklyn Daily Eagle |
The Thriller Films, Inc. broadcast opened in the office of
Phil Levy, president of the movie company. He had called a meeting with the
various principals of the studio to review what projects they had to work on.
LEVY: Everybody is here, huh?
SECRETARY: Yes, Mr. Levy – everybody except Miss La
Belle. Her secretary ‘phoned to say she’d be a little late.
LEVY: Oy, that dumb blonde! Always she
keeps us waiting. Temperament maybe she’s gotta have, but when she was Yette
Lobovitch back in Hoboken
ALL: Yes, Mr. Levy.
LEVY: Without La Belle we’ll going to
get along. Start it out the conference, Harry.
HARRY: Well, Mr. Levy, you’ve turned down
the last eight stories the continuity department has sent in –
LEVY: Turned ‘em down! Why shouldn’t I
turn ‘em down? Am I president of Thriller Films, Incorporated, or ain’t I?
Thriller Films is our name, and thriller pictures we should make. Am I right?
ALL: Yes, Mr. Levy.
Levy announced to the assembled group that he thought the
public was tiring of stories with a Western theme, and that it was time the
company tried something with a different feel to it.
LEVY: Yesterday I am reading a
newspaper, and I read it an ad which says about Glacier Park
HARRY: In the what, Mr. Levy?
LEVY: Alups, Alups – maybe you don’t
understand English? Alups – mountains, which is by Switzerland Glacier Park
Some of the comic effect was driven by Levy’s awkward accent
and broken English. It also seems to have been drawn from his role as a head-strong,
heavy-handed, and somewhat ignorant or even dim-witted leader of the movie
company.
LEVY: Now, Harry, I want you should get
the continuity department to write me a story about the Alups. Maybe we could
have some thriller rescues by glaciers and dogs and stunt men –
HARRY: And a mountain-climbing sequence –
LEVY: And fellers riding on elpenstocks –
HARRY: But you don’t ride alpenstocks, Mr.
Levy. An alpenstock –
LEVY: Am I president, or ain’t it?
Elpenstocks we’ll ride in this picture, if we have to train ‘em ourselves!
It was at about this point in the proceedings that the
high-strung and tempestuous Yvonne La Belle announced that she had no intention
of trotting off to the remoteness of Glacier National Park to shoot a movie –
backlots and soundstages were more her speed.
LEVY: Now, listen, I should tell you
something. Yet – Yvonne La Belle! Maybe you’ve forgot you’ve got it a contract,
only why I don’t know myself, because you’re always saying you won’t do things.
Glacier Park Montana Glacier Park
LA
BELLE: (Bangs table) You just take a
picture of my going – It’ll be the biggest thrill you ever put in your tin
cans. My public –
LEVY: Oy, your public always is it? I ask
you do I listen to that all over again when already I can say it backwards. Get
out and let me think … Harry, you should get the continuity boys busy right
away, and bring me six stories from the Alups by three o’clock so I can choose
it the best one.
So now the stage was set for two strong-willed individuals
to clash over the planned movie to be filmed in Glacier Park. Harry and the others
left the conference room, but Miss La Belle stayed behind to try to press her
case about not travelling out to Montana.
LA
BELLE: Say, Phil, listen to me.
LEVY: Didn’t I say you should get out so I
could do some thinking? Wot?
LA
BELLE: Now, Phil, you shouldn’t try to
high-hat me. I’m not gonna step one foot off the lot here. Now, wait! Just slip
this reel on and think it over. My contract has only three weeks more to run –
just three weeks. And I’ve got an offer to go in the talkies –
LEVY: Talkies, with that phony accent
which you’ve got it! You’d be forgetting and talking Yiddish like your mother –
olav hashalom – and rooning good fillum. Better you stay by me, ain’t it, so I
can make you a real star!
LA
BELLE: A real star you should make
me! Always I am billed like “Yvonne La Belle, Queen of the Thrillers.” Should I
spend my whole life being a thriller? Dramatic I’m going to be and dramatic you
should never make me, with guns and horses and mountains and bad men all the
time. My public wants me dramatic, Phil, and don’t you forget it. I’m done with
thrillers!
LEVY: Maybe you think so, Yetta, my girl,
but this time you’re gonna go with us by Glacier Park
LA
BELLE: Well, don’t forget, Phil Levy,
it’s only three weeks till my contract’s up. If you don’t finish this picture
in three weeks you can finish it without me – and whether you like that or not I
don’t care.
LEVY: Oy, what a laugh! Never have we
failed finishing a picture in two weeks! You’ll be with us all the way through,
Yetta – and I’m gonna go along by Glacier
Park
The story shifted to the veranda of Many Glacier Hotel in
Glacier Park where the Old Timer and a young woman named Lenore were taking in
the view. They spied a boat approaching with “the movie people” returning from
a filming session near Grinnell Glacier. Lenore explained to the Old Timer that
she knew Levy’s leading man, Harry, when they were kids together back in New
York. The boat reached the Many Glacier dock, and Lenore introduced Harry to
the Old Timer.
PIONEER: Harry, I’m glad to know you. Can’t say as
how I’ve ever met many moving picture celebrities.
HARRY: I’m afraid, Old Timer, you’re giving me
too much credit. I hope to be someday, but ---
LENORE: Harry, you are! Old Timer, I just know
that millions of hearts go pit-a-pat over the hero of Thriller Films!
HARRY: Yeah, a picture hero. Woos’em, love’em
and saves’em – on celluloid. As the real thing, really I’m an awful flop
The group moseyed into the hotel lobby as Lenore’s friend
Ruth appeared. Lenore hinted that she would be participating in a bit of
entertainment about to commence. Just then, a man announced Andy Sannella and
his orchestra, who began to play. At the conclusion of their song, Lenore was
introduced to the assembly. She sang a song with Sannella’s orchestra
accompanying her. The continuity identified actress Virginia Gardiner as
Lenore.
(SONG
– VIRGINIA GARDINER WITH ORCHESTRA)
VOICE: Thank you Miss Lenore. The folks
certainly enjoyed that. Don’t run away though, we’ll want some more … And now,
folks, we have another guest – a young Louisiana
Robert Hunter (“Bob”) MacGimsey really was an attorney from
Louisiana. He even served as an aide to Senator Joseph E. Ransdell of
Louisiana. But a fateful encounter with recording artist Gene Austin led to
MacGimsey’s being lured to New York to record his unique whistling. His first
recorded performance was on Austin’s “Blue Heaven” in September, 1927. [MacGimsey's harmony whistling solo begins at the 2:36 mark]
Bing Crosby recorded
“White Christmas” in 1942; the song it dethroned as best-seller of all time was
“Blue Heaven” with Gene Austin and Bob MacGimsey.
The next morning Lenore and her friend Ruth set out from
Many Glacier Hotel to watch the filming activity up by Grinnell Glacier. They
were surprised to bump into the Old Timer. He admitted to having been talked
into participating in the film in some minor role as a yodeling Swiss
character. The girls cajoled him into yodeling a bar or two.
GIRLS: Oh, perfect! Splendid!
PIONEER: Y’know. I feel like one of them St.
Bernard dogs. An’ then again I may be an admiral in the Swiss Navy!
RUTH: To tell the truth, you look just
a little bit – a wee bit like a disappointed bull-fighter … I didn’t know Swiss
mountaineers wore costumes like that!
PIONEER: (CHUCKLES) And I’ll bet the Swiss don’t, either. Y’know,
that little fat feller over there came to me last night and just naturally
talked me into being a Swiss mountaineer for him. He argued so hard there was
nothin’ else to do. So here I am, costume an’ –
VOICE: (OFF) Hey, where’s that old fellow that was to be
the gal’s father? Hey, Old Timer, c’m’ere! All set to shoot!
PIONEER: ‘Scuse me, girls, I hear th’ call o’
duty.
To my knowledge, Harvey Hays was never billed as either a
singer or a yodeler. I’d be surprised if he did his own yodeling on this
broadcast.
Phil Levy came back to the fore and began directing the
imminent action for the film.
LEVY: Now, give me a listen for just a
minute. Yesterday we shot the scene where Yet – Yvonne is aban-aban – where
she’s left on the ledge by the willain, so she should starve to death,
aber the hero comes by and he pulls her up. So now we’ll gotta put Yvonne down
there on that ice ledge and make some long shots by her hollerings she should
be helped. Am I right? Wot?
ALL: Yes, Mr. Levy.
LEVY: Now, Frank, you set up your
camera here, so you should get a long shot down over the edge by the place
where we’ll gonna put La Belle, and the rest of the boys should hang her over
the edge from the rope. How far is it down there anyway?
DIRECTOR: Only about fifty feet, Mr. Levy. If she
should fall, though, or if the rope should break – y’know I don’t like this
idea at all!
LEVY: You should like it or not. Am I
the president, or ain’t it? Besides, we’ve got to have it a good thrill, I’m
a-telling you, and this is gonna be it. Come on with them cameras! Well, what’s
biting you, Yvonne?
Yvonne La Belle, movie starlet, announced her contract had
expired fifteen minutes ago. She made an awkward attempt to negotiate with Levy
(blackmail him, really) for another thousand dollars to finish the picture. She
lorded over him the fact her face was plastered across several cans of finished
film. Levy was tight with his money, and refused to be buffaloed. La Belle
stormed off, and Levy fumed in despair. Harry came to the rescue by suggesting
Levy consider using Lenore as a stand-in for La Belle. They looked enough alike
that with a little make-up, and no close shots, they ought to be able to
complete the filming. Levy was clearly an impulsive man, and he immediately
began to lure Lenore into taking La Belle’s role for the remainder of the
shots. Harry cut him off and explained things to his friend Lenore.
HARRY: Now, just a minute, Mr. Levy – you
let me handle this, (TO LENORE) Lenore our high-hat star has pulled out, and
we’ve got just five more scenes to shoot to finish the picture. We’ve got to
have a couple of long-shots of the girl down on that ledge below here – and
then two or three of the girl and her father, and a final sequence where the hero
– that’s me – rescues her. Are you game, Lenore?
LENORE: Oh, Harry, I’m thrilled to death! Of
course, I’ll do it. Won’t people notice the difference, though?
HARRY: No, we can take care of that with
trick camera angles. La Belle’s costume’s over there, and you’re just about her
size and coloring. Want to try?
Lenore hurried off to change into La Belle’s costume in
preparation for being lowered over the cliff for the thrill-packed, terrifying
scene. In the meantime, the film crew turned its focus to filming the Old Timer
taking his part by shouting down to the heroine on the cliff.
DIRECTOR: All right. Now you stand here, Old Timer,
and peer over the edge. Now register fear and horror. Now shade your eyes with
your hand. Yell, now –
PIONEER: What’ll I yell?
DIRECTOR: Oh, anything’ll do –
PIONEER: All a-b-o-a-r-d!
DIRECTOR: All right, now, that’s okay. Let’s try it.
Up a little with those reflectors, boys. Ready – action – go ahead, Old Timer –
camera! (WHIR OF CAMERA – UP) Look scared. Horrified, now. Now shade your
eyes. Yell, now –
The crew filmed the Old Timer’s scene (although this time he
hollered “H-u-r-r-a-y!”), and then they turned their attention to Lenore and
getting her down the cliff face. Levy asked if Lenore was ready to proceed.
LENORE: All set. Come on, Ruth, and watch
your little pal put on the thrill stuff.
RUTH: Yeah? Hope the rope don’t break!
LENORE: Oh! Such a happy idea!
HARRY: Grab on to that rope, you boys. Here
let me make a loop for her to sit in. There! Not scared, are you, Lenore?
LENORE: N – o – o – o.
As she was lowered down the cliff face, Lenore yelled out
about being bounced against the ice. The crew lowering her slowed things down,
and she told them things were fine. She was misinformed. The cameras began to
roll, and the action was getting intense, but just then the Old Timer shouted
for everyone to halt – the rope was fraying and about to snap! One of the men
surmised the rope must have been cut against the ice. He shouted for the men to
“pull’er back quick!” Harry jumped into the confab and insisted they not do
that – to haul her up at this point would be too perilous. Instead he reasoned
they ought to continue to lower her onto the ledge below. The men continued to
lower her down, but then the Old Timer saw they had stopped lowering her, and
yet she was still ten feet above the ledge. Curses! Someone grabbed the wrong
length of rope – it was too short!
Just when things looked their most bleak, they realized
there was no other rope available. Lenore was still hanging there, ten feet
above the ledge. Harry yelled down to her to just relax and not move too much.
He explained that they did not dare pull her back up because of the damaged
rope, and he warned her to grab hold of the ledge should the rope break before
they could work things out.
Levy had his own idea for how to be helpful:
LEVY: Maybe you should let her drop. A
good shot it’d be!
Lenore seemed to see something useful in Levy’s idea, but
she had her own take on how to manage it:
LENORE: (OFF) Oh, Harry! I’m going to slip
out of this loop. It’s only a little ways to the ledge. I’ll drop! I think I
can make it!
HARRY: Hold’er steady men. (CALLING) For God’s sake, be careful!
PIONEER: There – she’s free – she’s hanging –
she’s going to drop. Oh --- she’s slipping --- she’s slipping over the edge ---
(CALLS) Hang on! Hang on! --- If we
can’t pull her back, she’s gone!
I think it’s fair to say this is part of the “drama” portion
of the “comedy/drama.” Harry yelled at the men to hold the rope steady, and he
grabbed it and went rappelling down to the ledge. The Old Timer was in an
apoplectic fit as he hollered down to Harry to be careful, and then raised a
cheer when it was clear that Harry and Lenore were both safely back on the
ledge. Levy was always focused on thrills on film, and money.
LEVY: Oi, oi, such a picture.
Don’t you tell me you should run out in them cameras and you’re fired!
CAMERAMAN: Got it all, Mr. Levy, got it all.
LEVY: Oi, oi, feefty dollars
she’ll get! Fifty dollars!
With the kind of helpful timing found only in a 30-minute
radio production, a park ranger rode up just then.
RANGER: Well, how’s the
picture business this morning?
LEVY: Oy, ranger,
have you got it a rope? My leading man, and his salary is five hundred a week
on contract, is down there, and he couldn’t get up again, with a
sprained ankle the girl’s got. Have you got it a rope? Please, have you got it
a rope?
RANGER: What’s the
matter with you? Loco? Anybody that’s down there doesn’t need a rope.
PIONEER: No, he’s all
right, Ranger. But the leading man and the new leading lady are down there on a
ledge – ‘bout fifty feet – and they haven’t got any way to get up. Let us use
your lariat, will you?
RANGER: Sure – my lord,
yes! Here, shove the noose end over the edge. I’ll tie it on to my saddle, and
Rex and I’ll pull ‘em up. Go ahead –
With great dramatic flair, first Lenore and then Harry were
pulled up the cliff to safety. Lenore was weakened by the ordeal and more or
less collapsed to the ground. Harry got topside, shook the rope loose, and
dashed to her side to comfort her. Levy was ecstatic about getting it all on
film, until the hero and heroine of the moment held each other in a tight
embrace.
HARRY: Where’s Lenore? Where is she?
Is she all right?
PIONEER: Right here, Harry – safe as
anything!
HARRY: Lenore – sweetheart, dearest!
LENORE: (WEAKLY) Harry!
Oh, Harry!
LEVY: Quick, Frank, with the
cameras – get the clinch. Better than that I’ve never seen, ain’t it? Shoot –
shoot – why don’t you get it?
CAMERAMAN: No more film in the retort, Mr. Levy!
Levy was crushed to have missed the chance to film his idea
of a perfect ending to the film. But Harry tried to soften the blow.
LEVY: Oy, such a break! Never will we get
such a clinch again!
HARRY: (OFF)
Oh, yes, you will, Mr. Levy. We’ll be glad to do it again for you,
anytime.
PIONEER: (Chuckles)
So that’s what you call a fadeout, is it?
Then, as was the case each week, the Great Northern
Railway’s publicity men had the final say:
ANNOUNCER: Glacier
National Park Saint Paul ,
Minn.
