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"Bottle Washer Writes on Paine for Broadcast"
" 'Please listen in tonight,' a correspondent urged some weeks ago, 'to WNYC's new Hall of Fame dramatic series. The cast is, of course, unpaid, and the script writer --myself--also unpaid. The subject of the broadcast is Thomas Paine.' The writer is a bottle washer by trade.
"Such simple pen and ink notes sandwiched into the daily stack of high-powered, expertly prepared publicity material remind us of the thousands trying to find a place in the radio sun. WNYC, the municipal station which gave our bottle washer his first chance, has done that favor for many others. It has gained such a reputation for its activities that many young actors auditioned by the networks are directed by them to WNYC for training under Ted Cott, the station's talented young drama director.
"Among his authors, Ted boasts a truck driver who writes delicate poetic dramas and a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society specializing in social plays...
"Radio drama is an expensive proposition and WNYC hasn't any money for that purpose. Instead it has managed to gather a faithful hard-working group of authors and actors who, working without pay, turn out some remarkably good work. The station now has four regular weekly dramatic productions, the most ambitious being the Saturday Radio Playhouse, an experimental air theatre using only original scripts. Others are the Monday Hours of Destiny show, the Hall of Fame on Thursdays, and Let Freedom Ring on Fridays.
"If none of the WNYC group has yet gone on to sensational success in radio, a number of graduates have made the grade in fair fashion...Included in the WNYC dramatic troupe are a number of actors who won't let their real names be used. They are announcers for all networks who want to keep a hand in dramatics, and find Ted Cott's organization the only one open to them."
Excerpts from: Carlton, Leonard, "Bottle Washer Writes on Paine for Broadcast," The New York Post, October 18, 1938.
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