Salt Lake Telegram | 1937-11-17 | Page 12 | 'N. T. G.' Peers Back through His Album

'N.T.G.' PEERS BACK THROUGH HIS ALBUM By LOUIS SOBOX Down Memory Lane With Nib Thor Granlnnd (N. T. G.) . My Memory Lane is a crowded one, turning and twining through the yeara and filled with a kaleidoscopic array of mental pictures art galleries I can always turn to in retrospect. Introducing prize-winning beauties beau-ties to ringsidera at Broadway's gay Hollywood restaurant is a far-cry from my early days in Swedish Lapland, Lap-land, where my father kept a trad-ing trad-ing post Nine giant Viking uncles (my mother's brothers) maintained the spacious farm, far north of any railroad. We lived In a great house with monster fireplaces in every room. Here, surrounded by jagged mountains, tilled fields, roaring rivers riv-ers and irrigation ditches, I spent my boyhood. Learning to ski came as natural as learning to walk. Then, at the age of a, I voyaged to America. There were two weeks of terror in the horrible storms around the north of Scotland. Scot-land. We settled in Providence, R I., where my outlandish clothes made me the butt of everyone's humor. Tolls Long Honrs Paced, with poverty, I toiled aa paper carrier for the Providence Journal, rising every morning at 4 and pounding the city psvements with my heavy bag. Then to school KuntITf "In the a rtrrnPon, when 1 went back at work for the evening route. At IS. I joined the staff of the Providence Tribune aa high school correspondent and spacs writer. At 17 I became sports editor, dramatic dra-matic editor and acting city editor. edi-tor. Although my three positions on the Providence Tribune sound Impressive, Im-pressive, pay was meager, and so I "doubled in brass" aa press agent for the Convict Ship and seversl local theaters. A show called "Hanky Panky" came to ths Providence op-1 , era house. On its opening nignt I , was introduced to Marcus " Loew. Colonel Felix Wendelschaefer, the-' the-' atrlcal tycoon of Providence, in-' in-' formed me that Loew wished to en- Providence with him. I traveled to ; California through Canada and I back. Driven by .youthful enthusi-; enthusi-; asm and joy In my work, I rushed in where trained press agents feared to tread and set a new record In space-grabbing. Then New York. The great, seething city frightened me. I wss lost and dumfounded. I was a total failure. Through ths kindliness snd patience of Loew, I was passed on to dear, sweet Nellie Revel, who literally lit-erally took ma by the hand and showed me what to do. Conducting In Person' Vivid memories of glamorous years. Mae Wast stalking into my office and demanding to know why she wasn't more conspicuously billed. The arrival of ths first five-reel five-reel picture. Then the first "In Person" series of vsudeville shows. Mary Miles Mlnter, Doris Ksnyon, Clara Kt I ii ball Young, Maurice Coatello (who sometimes brought his little daughters, daugh-ters, Helens and Dolores, to the theater). Pearl White of serial fame, Crelghton Hale, Florence La Badie and Marguerite Snow. New theaters, new stars, new friends. I mset Clara Bow and Introduce In-troduce her on ths stags for the first time. I discover Nancy Carroll Car-roll at an amateur show. Barbara Stanwyck (Ruby Stevens),' Ruby Keeler and Claira Luce compete in a dancing contest. Then radio. I found WHN buried in ths wilds of Brooklyn snd brought It to Marcus Loew. I wss genersl manager, announcer, program pro-gram director and everything but the engineer. Initials N. T. G. were then used for the first time to conceal con-ceal my real identity. Great stars regarded radio as s new toy. I brought Harry Richman from his cellar cabaret, the Ringside, Ring-side, owned by Benny Leonard, and began a friendly feud which has its counterpart in the comic radio battles bat-tles of today.