PUTTING SHAKESPEARE OVER

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 137, 6 December 1930, Page 25

PUTTING SHAKESPEARE OVER

It may be a ETfle slow iv coming, 'considering Shakespeare started his, theatrical business some three centuries ago, but the bard is going to get the right sort of advertising at last, says the Boston "Christian Science Monitor." The Chicago Civic Shakespeare Society is putting Shakespeare "oh the air," so that the "millions of the unseen Tadio audience" will know what a really,fine product the society has to offer in its playhouse. Along with a knowledge of the virtues of certain brands of tooth paste and tires, the public is to be acquainted with tho excellent qualities of Mr. Shakespeare's output. Ju&t tune in to WMAQ at 5.45 p.m. on Mondays. You will learn that you get tho best in the market if you insist upon the label, "Avon." Oh, not in so many words, for the radio series is given by professors and experts of tho theatre, men not so in their speech, but it is more than likely that the message will be there. Dr. Arthur C. L. Brown, of Northwestern University, for example, will devote his period to a talk" on

"Shakespeare's Use of Words in Hamlet." If he doesn't leave his audience with a desire to get the genuine Shakespearian vocabulary and no substitute; it will be a surprise to everybody. A battery of Shakespearian scholars has been engaged. The announcement does not mention any fabulous -salaries paid to them, but it assures the prospective listeners that they represent "the finest Chicago has to offer in Shakespearian culture." The first two programmes are to be given by Dr. John Mathews Manly and Prof. C. B. Baskerville, of the University of Chicago. Actual samples of the civic theatre's classic fare aw to be given later b,y Hart a member of the company. The second year of Civic Shakespeare in October. The venture, is backed by a public utility executive, Harley L. Clarke. The only unbusinesslike thing about Mr. Clarke's polie.T is that, he refuses to take any profit out of the enterprise. If Shakespeare proves a "sell out" this season it means just that much more money for Rosalind's costumes or for paying Hamlet's salary.