RADIANT HEALTH BY RADIO.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 September 1928, Page 8

RADIANT HEALTH BY RADIO.

(By W. F. Bullock.) NEW YORK, July 12. American's, are strenuously attacking “Blue” Monday, the first working day of the week, and so named from its attendant slump in energy and good spirits. They are seeking to drive the “grouch” out of life, for they are convinced that it is bad for business and bad for the home. The morning breakfast, according to the new ideal, must (be a thing of smiles and sunshine, with each member of the family playing the role of a sunbeam.

•Pursuing this elusive ideal for myself, I visited the master show for obliterating the blues and bad temper. It is run by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, which has 12,0> employees who are encouraged to come cheerfully to work.

The high priest of cheerfulness, Arthur Bagley, is a gymnastic instructor who .has brought the science of exercising to a line art. He has his own studio' on the 27th floor of the company’s famous skyscraper in Madison avenue, and from it he broadcasts each morning his message tt over 2,000,C00 people. They live as far north as Canada, down south t' Vashingfon, and west as far as Pittsburg. Six stations carry his live-wire talk to these faithful followers of sound living.

Each day of the week has its name : Monday is “Smile Hay,” Tuesday “Cheer Day,” and Saturday becomes “Pep Day.” Here is the invitation to join the morning jerks: “Goofl health is a rich prize—the joy of life To after it ! Tumble out 'of bed and pme in on the Metropolitan Li health exercises. They’ll put vim ir. rnur mus-les, air in your lungs, set your blood tingling, put edge on your appetite, and help you at your befit.

The exercises continue for a quarter of an hour, five lessons for the varying hours' at which people rise. The idea is that the -family shall spring' hut of their beds together, throw ! open • the sitting-room window* artd in ' their pyjamas . run ~ happily through'the light dri11..,Since fun" and merriment are the order of the! day, the instructor has 'evLed "i\tf sermons which touch the whole range of emotions that any noi- : mil' family may he- supposed to own. There is plenty- of laughtpr, much ■ sentiment;! with a good dose of wise advice. A piano gives rhythm to the movements and is a subdued melodious 'mk-gromid to the running comments of the instructor.

His lively talk is the feature of the lady duty. From hooks he culls line'of poetry which brighten his theme—■n fact, he showed me a whole ' library Tof cheerfulness gleaming from bis office walls. Beside his microShone is a table carrying a varied of squeaking toys 5 such qs can be bought 3 ' anywhere for. a- few penc< These he uses to am use..the children and to lure them into the family circle'; ' 'V' ■ • - Much of his talk derives its value from the twelve hundred letters which daily pour into the-office. They contain a hundred 'and one suggestions which can -bring the instructor ihto intimate touch with ~-that vast audience he never sees. Here is one I read: “My father and mother' are celebrating their golden wedding on Saturday. They always listen in, and so please play ‘Ramona,’ they love the music.” Certainly “Ramona” will he played and the old couple congratulated on their anniversary.

The joys and troubles of his classes become the object lessons from which Mr Bagley is able to draw vitality for his morning chats. They come direct from life. Recently he drew an imaginary picture of a husband going off to work and saying good-bye to his wife and family as he left home. Some days later he received a letter from a woman who said that his little picture had been the means of drawing together again herself and her husband, estranged by nothing more than too many years of proximity. /This intensified form of muscular Christianity has . its amusing side. The dollar is not forgotten. It is a magnificent advertisement for the insurance company and maintains the health of, policy-holders. One employer wrote that with the entry of his work-people into the morning exercises their efficiency had increased 20 per cent.

It may therefore he surmised that the “hang-over grouch” will soon he a relic of the past in America and all citizens will be as happy as singing birds. When the instructor stands before his microphone he is the personification of his own philosophy. He never lets his audience down, but as 1 listened to bis easy banter, to bis poetical ideas on tbe virtue of cheerfulness (sometimes a little too sweet), I wondered whether, like the clown, he might not carry beneath his surface smile some of those disturbances that afflict mortals outside the land now overflowing with milk and honey.