Old MacDonald

The prima donna of radio's war commentators is stoop-shouldered, professorial Hans von Kaltenborn. In his zyth-floor sanctum off CBS's busy news room, few dare disturb him between broadcasts except the man who brings his meals, prepared to his taste by his German baroness wife. To the bustling, unshaven CBS staff during the last busy weeks, H. V.'s finickiness, as well as his pontifical microphonotony, has brought many a chuckle. One night last week the listening world as well as the studio staff enjoyed an almighty howl at H. V.'s expense.

Announcer Frank Gallop (who announces the Philharmonic in season) walked into the soundproof news studio ten minutes before H. V. was scheduled to take the air. On the network was the Alibi Club period. Waving cheerily at the engineer in the control room, Gallop sat down before H. V.'s microphones. To a control-room engineer in these critical days, a wave from an announcer means only one thing--clear the air. But Announcer Gallop, still thinking he had ten minutes to go, tried a whimsical sort of warmup of his announcement of Kaltenborn Edits the News. He intoned it to the measure of Old MacDonald Had a Farm. In his sanctum, H. V. heard the announcement start over his loudspeaker, grabbed his jumbled notes, rushed into the studio in time to hear himself introduced to his public as:

Aitch

Ve-ee Kaltenborn

E-Yi, E-Yi, O!

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