MRS ROOSEVELT NEARLY "MISSED THE BUS"

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 34, 3 February 1939, Page 6

MRS ROOSEVELT NEARLY "MISSED THE BUS"

By

J. Gifford

Male

Philip Mygatt, Advertising Executive Who Passed Through Auckland Recently, Has Handled Big Radio Programmes, But His Nastiest Moment Was When...

ON the mimeographed "Who's Who" I received at the purser’s office on the Mariposa, when she passed through Auckland recently, he was described as "Mr. P. F. Mygatt, of New York, who is proceeding to Australia to carry out. executive duties for the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Company." In the circumstances I- was quite justified in expecting an elderly, adipose, go-getting American, a "‘live wire’ who was going to show Australia just how the advertising game was conducted in the States. He would probably, | speculated, be an Elk, or a Shriner, or a Buffalo, or all three. I was pleasantly disillusioned. Go-getfer Philip Myaatt may be, but he doesn’t look it. He dresses in a tweedy, almost English style, and he looks absurdly young for anybody described as an executive of the largest advertising firm in the world.

R ADIO advertising .is what Mr. . Mygatt Specialises in; not exactlv radio advertising as New ‘Zealanders understand it, but rather the writing, production and supervision of ‘super’? and stunt programmes. . And the chances are that in the very near future he will be introducing something new to Australian listeners in the way of programmes. There’s also a chance that Mr. Mygatt will be coming across to New Zealand for a visit. His firm was started in the 1870’s by J. Walter Thompson, an old sea captain, who commenced as.a buyer and seller of space in newspapers, but, through typical American tenacity and enterprise, built his firm up until when he died in 1916 it was a

already a very important advertising agency. The scope of its activities has also expanded. It is still interested in the buying and selling of space in newspapers and periodicals, but that is only one department. Head office of the organisation occupies two whole floors of one of the broadest buildings in New York, and there are branches all over the world. New Medium > UST as in New Zealand and Australia, the advent of commercial radio brought specialised problems for the American advertising agent, and few agents found they could ignore the new medium. It is in the radio side of J. Walter Thompson’s business, as I have indicated, that Mr. Mygatt has specialised. eS ET I Ca ra

Flesh-and-blood and bigger and bigger names are indeed the watch-words in American radio to-day. Walter Winchell, New York’s famed keyhole columnist, earns more for his high-pressure, soap-sponsored broadcasts than for his daily column in the ‘‘Mirror.’’ Bing Crosby, Don Ameche, Bob Burns, Charlie McCarthy mean just as much-Don Ameche more -in radio than they do in films. It was Mr. Mygatt’s firm that was responsible for building Charlie McCarthy into a radio personality; responsible indirectly, therefore, for his phenomenal success in films. Mr. Mygatt knows Bergen personally. He had seen him doing his act in the Rainbow Room in the Rockefeller Centre and also in a small roadshow. Then J. Walter Thompson talent scouts became _ interested, and he was tried out. Sle

HERE was immediate scepticism. How could a ventriloquist and a dummy possibly be a good radio act? Stage or films maybe, but certainly not over the air. But Bergen and McCarthy were an almost immediate success, and by the end of 1937, six months after their radio debut, they were among the top-liners in radio. One of the most important programmes which Mir.. Mygatt has written and supervised is the Lux Radio Theatre, a feature which is put over with a tremendous amount of sensation and spectacle. Stunts such as a transcontinental relay by Noel Coward from the New York Theatre at which he was appearing in ‘‘Tonight at 8.30°’ were all in the day’s work. But the programme which Mr. Mygatt most of all enjoyed looking after was Eleanor Roosevelt’s weekly session for Ponds, which he assisted Mrs. Roosevelt write and put over. He has a _ whole-hearted admiration for the very energetic Mrs. Roosevelt, as indeed he has for all the Roosevelts. ‘‘They’re a very smart bunch, the whole lot of them,’’ he says. No Dilettante IN spite of the almost legendary number of her interests and activities, Eleanor Roosevelt is far from being just a busy dilettante. Hyerything she tackles she tackles very efficiently. An experienee Mv. Mygatt had with Mrs. Roosevelt illustrates admirably that lady’s initiative and self-possession. It happened the night Son John married Ethel Du Pont. That same night at seven 9’elock punctually, Mrs. Roose-

velt had to go on the air, wedding or no wedding. Five minutes to seven came but it brought no Mrs. Roosevelt, although she had promised faithfully s*. would be there. Three minutes to seven, and Mr. Mygatt began biting his nails and calling for the emergency script. One minute to seven and Mrs. Roosevelt swept calmly i: as though nothing had .happened, and went on the air as per schedule. She explained to Mr. Mygatt afterwards that, owing to the thousands of curious sightseers, thea Du Pont estate, where the wedding took place, was closely guarded, and when she came to leave she found all the driveways and exits were blocked. : Undeterred, she left by the kitchen door, located her chauffeur, drove across country. for a mile, and broke through a fence to a highway. Orson Welles A BROADCAST of exceptional interest which Mr. Mygatt was privileged to hear was Orson Welles’s sensational *ersion of H. G. Wells’s ‘‘ War of the Worlds.’’ He still cannot understand how it was ever ‘allowed to go on the air, and why the dangerous potentialities were not seen during rehearsals. Regarding his new work in Australia, Mr, Mygatt is enthusiastic, although, as he points out, he has several new problems to contend with, among them the absence, in Australia or New Zealand, of networks comparabls in magnitude and coverage with the NBC and Columbia networks in America.