AMERICA’S “FIRST LADY”

Grey River Argus, 20 May 1938, Page 11

AMERICA’S “FIRST LADY”

BROADCASTS BY MRS ROOSEVELT. £6OO for fifteen minutes is the fee paid to Mrs Franklin D. Roosevelt, wife of the President of the United States. It should attract notice, for a single address, even in America, where large fees are an everyday occurrence. That sum is, however, paid for a series of speeches of a quarter of an hour each in a "sponsored programme.” Mrs Roosevelt’s popularity and therefore, her advertising value are attested by the fact that her “fan mail*’ amounts to approximately 100,000 letters a year. This number 1 includes letters relating to her broadcasts and other matters. Well known as a writer and public speaker, the early directors in charge of her appearances, were, apparently, so afraid of offending her, or seeming to interfere with her that they never asked her to rehearse before the microphone so that they might time her speech to make sure that it filled exactly her allotted time. They were content to take a chance that she neither exceeded nor fell short of the minutes arranged for her. Later, the direction of her broadcasts was placed in the hands of Mr H. Calvert Haws, who has had a wide experience of broadcasting. At Mrs Roosevelt’s first broadcast he followed what his predecessors had done and did not time the address beforehand. On that occasion he was amazed to find that, instead of speaking for the nine minutes allotted to her, she finished in eight minutes. A pause of a minute is a very long time in the American broadcasting world, and sets most of the people in the studio dithering. That would, no doubt, have been the case then, but for the presence of mind of the conductor of the band which was to follow Mrs Roosevelt. Sensing what everyone was feeling, and .with barely a moment’s hesitation, he gave the sharp beat for attention with his baton, and the next instant “the air” was eloquent with music, which filled out the odd minute proceeding his own programme time. Such a contretemps could not he allowed to occur again. Mr Haws, therefore, counted the number of words in Mrs Roosevelt’s manuscript, and found that she had spoken at the rate of 135 words per minute, so that during the eight minutes she had spoken 1080 words. Her next ’script he found, contained 1700 instead of the 1200 or so required. In other words, the manuscript needed twelve minutes to be put over “on the air.” There was. obviously, only one thing to do in the circumstances —cut the manuscript to its proper length. Mr Haws did it. When Mrs Roosevelt arrived at the studio, the cut ’script was handed to her and she was told what had been done. Instead of being annoyed or put out, as so many women holding a distinguished position would have been, she smiled approval, read through the address in its abbreviated form, and broadcast it like a professional!

In spite of the large fees she receives, Mrs Roosevelt makes no money by her broadcast addresses. All her fees are sent direct to a'philanthropic society, which distributes the amounts to the various institutions to be benefited.

Like every other broadcast speaker, Mrs Roosevelt is not immune _ from public criticism On one occasion, it has been related, a man, amazed at hearing the large fee she received, wrote that, in his opinion, no broadcaster was worth so much money.

“I think that you are perfectly right that no one is worth two hundred dollars a minute,” Mrs Roosevelt replied. “I never dreamed for a minute that I was. I do not feel that this money is paid to me as an individual, but that it is paid to the President’s wife. It puts money into circulation. The money is spent for a good purpose, and these people would not otherwise be helped. Therefore, I think I am perfectly justified in doing it.”

The result of doing exactly what the director desires is that Mrs Roosevelt has become an exceedingly efficient speaker “on the air,” with a technique so enormously improved that the people who engage her feel that they will get full value for their money, even though it costs them over six hundred pounds every time she broadcasts for a quarter of an hour