OCR Text |
Show 1 HCTBON p"ATION JiE!ICATIONTil il Cornet P .. "., )LEASE take a seat along the mezzanine, sir. The next tour of Radio City begins in approximately approximate-ly five minutes," piped the charming hostess as she handed the tour tickets to Bob Johnson. Only two days remained of the week for which Bob had saved all year. Vacation in New York gosh I It had been wonderful . . . Coney island, Grant's tomb. Statue of Liberty, Lib-erty, Central park . . . meals in Greenwich village at the "Captain's Bell," and the night in Chinatown. Only two things remained on Bob's schedule a night ride on the Staten Island ferry and this tour of Radio City. Bob was 25, tall, blond and tagged as the rugged type by the hometown home-town bobby soxers. After his graduation grad-uation from Mascoutah high school, he had gone to work at Carl May-hew's May-hew's filling station and garage. Everyone in the Illinois town said that Bob was a born mechanic. Although Al-though Bob had been to nearby St. Louis many times, he always had longed to come to tha big city. Now his dream visit had blossomed Into reality, but it was drawing rapidly to an end. In 36 hours, he would be on the Pennsy speeding westward once again. "But it sure was worth it," thought Bob, as he Joined the group of 14 or 15 people which had gathered in the mezzanine foyer of the RCA building. He only casually noticed the girl who semed so deeply engrossed en-grossed in the showcase full of modeled hands of eminent NBC conductors. con-ductors. He had been looking at the unusual display only a few moments when the petite tour guide called. "Please step forward to the elevator, ele-vator, folks. I am Helen Barry. We're happy to welcome you to Radio City. In the course of this tour, we shall visit the studios, show you the Inner workings of radio and conclude by attending an actual broadcast of the Fred Waring show. "Now I think it would be nice to know your names, and especially where some of you are from. We'll let you begin, sir," she said as she pointed to the portly man in the vanguard of the little group. "We're Mr. and Mrs. Albert Fisher from Cedar Rapids, Iowa," from the dignified gentleman. The others dutifully chimed in. "Elmer Petersen, St. Paul, Minn." "Eloise Miller, Altoona, Penn." "Bob Johnson, Mascoutah, 111." "Mr. and Mrs. Mark Brown and tons, Gary and John, Chicago." "Anne Strong, Vandalia, HL" Partly because she came from nearby Vandalia, but more because of the soft, resonant quality of her voice. Bob turned quickly to inspect the young lady thus identified. As he looked into her self-confident, smiling face, he remembered the young lady whom he had noticed while waiting for the tour to begin. Her round face with its even, pleasing pleas-ing features made him think of Illinois, Illi-nois, somehow. It seemed that she was symbolic of the wide, sweeping prairies of his home state almost a breath of refreshment In the crowded elevator. As the group emerged from the cage after a rapid ascent, Bob crowded ahead among the others until he reached Anne Strong. "Miss Strong," he stammered, "I overheard you say you were from Vandalia. I'm from Mascoutah, and I've been to Vandalia lots of times." "Yes, Bob, I heard you say you were from Mascoutah," answered Anne casually, as though she and Bob had been friends for years. "Are you enjoying your visit here In New York?" she continued. "Oh, you bet!" replied Bob. "I'm going back tomorr " "If you will step this way, please, we will enter the sound effects department," de-partment," interrupted the guide at this point, and Bob didn't quite finish his sentence. "Please observe, and I shall demonstrate dem-onstrate how sounds are simulated with the most simple devices," the girl continued as she entered a glass-enclosed glass-enclosed booth. "For example, to create the sound Impression of a trotting horse, we simply take these half cocoanut shells and clap them together sharp- gether. Each seemed to be deeply engrossed in his own thoughts. "Now we shall televise some of you," the guide announced, and you can observe how you might appear ap-pear on a television broadcast." "Would you like to be first, Miss," she asked, indicating Anne. "Oh ... I guess so," replied Anne, stepping forward. As he watched her enter the enclosure en-closure under the glare of the lights for the television view. Bob again was aware of the undertones of feeling feel-ing created by Anne's vibrant personality. per-sonality. He couldn't help but note Anne Strong recognized that the remote fultter of excitement within with-in her was due to this young man rather than the wonders of radio. ly. The plop, plop, plop comes through your radio at home just like the trotting hoof-beats. If we wish to make your mouth water with the sound of frying eggs, we need only crinkle bits of cellophane before the microphone. "When we wish to reproduce telephone tele-phone calls, we use the filter microphone. micro-phone. . ." The voice droned on and on, but Bob had lost interest in radio. He was infinitely more aware of the slim young lady at his side. Her arm had brushed against him as the group crowded forward to watch the sound demonstration on the other side of the glass partition, and Bob was shaken by the tremour of excitement ex-citement aroused by this brief contact. con-tact. Anne Strong, too, recognized that the remote flutter of excitement within her was due to this young man rather than the wonders of radio. When Anne left Vandalia, she had decided never to return. It was such a provincial little town, she thought, and 6he felt sure Bhe couldn't stand spending the rest of her life there. Of course she knew that one didn't go to the big city to achieve fame like a Horatio Alger hero; but at any rate, she would be free from the petty gossip gos-sip and restrictions of small town life. Anne was considered the best beautician in Vandalia, so she was quite confident that she would experience ex-perience no difficulty In finding work in New York. But for a few weeks, she planned to "see the sights" before be-fore going to work. Only this very morning, she had decided to see Radio City. As they left the sound effects' room and moved along the corridor toward the television demonstration, Bob and Anne walked silently to- with possessive pride when he overheard over-heard the lady from Pennsylvania remark about how lovely Anne appeared ap-peared on the television screen. Then Anne was bade at his side. "How did I look. Bob? Was I terrible?" ter-rible?" he inquired. "You were wonderful!" said Bob, and Anne seemed to understand and interpret the feeling in his voice as genuine. "When are you going back to . Vandalia, Anne?" aked Bob, as they followed the group along the corridor. "I wasn't planning to return to Vandalia . . . ever." All the elation seemed to drain out of Bob when eIk answered. For the swiftly moving machinery which carries us so rapidly into the future already was busily at work creating fantasies for Bob. Across the miles, his thoughts had planned how he would borrow Carl's car to drive to Vandalia to see Anne. But Anne wasn't going back; she was staying In New York. "That concludes our tour of Radio City. I hope you have enjoyed your view behind the scenes in radio," came from the girl guide to jerk Bob back to reality. Turning to Anne he asked: "Since I'll probably never -see you again, how about celebrating my last day in New York with me? It can be your farewell salute to Illinois." Anne said, "O. K., Bob, what's on the schedule?" Spmewhat sheepishly, Bob told her his plans, and they set out together. They visited the art museum, lunched at the open air restaurant in Central park, shared a bag of popcorn at the Bronx zoo and en-Joyed en-Joyed dinner in a Slovakian restaurant restaur-ant below Third avenue. They brought the happy day to a close with the ride on the ferry. As they walked slowly toward the hotel where Anne was staying, she asked quietly: . Where do you live in Mascoutah, Bob?" "Since Mother died," replied Bob, "I've been living in two rooms over the garage where I work. I batch. It's not a bad place. There are five rooms there, but I use only two of them." "I just wondered," said Anne, "thought I might like to send you a postcard some time. It's been great fun today. Bob. You're the first person in New York with whom I've felt really friendly. And you had to come, all the way from Illinois." Illi-nois." She paused as they drew near the hotel entrance. "I hope you have a nice trip home," she continued as she extended ex-tended her hand to him in a farewell fare-well gesture. "Thanks for a very nice day!" "Gee, Anne, I had a swell time," said Bob. "Glad I got to know you. Maybe we'll see each other again some time, who knows." They were both silent for a few moments. Then Bob shuffled his right foot around before he said, "Well, so long," Anne," Anne noticed the droop of his shoulders as he shuffled off down the street. Two weeks later, Carl came Into the garage and shouted to Bob: "Hey, Bob, who do you know in Vandalia?" Bob looked up somewhat surprised, sur-prised, asking, "Why?" "Letter here from Vandalia for you, and it looks like a female's handwriting to me," bantered Carl, "Ummml Smells good, too." Before he looked at the trim handwriting, hand-writing, Bob knew that a certain beautician bad decided mat the bij city wasn't so good after all. |