Nobler Oboler

A shade chastened was Radio Writer Arch Oboler (TIME, March 17) after a week in which even Variety had taken a stick to him as Radio's Bad Boy.

There had been a mix-up the week before when Greta Garbo, whom Oboler thought he had bagged for his March of Dimes program (TIME, Jan. 26), turned out to be uninformed of the fact, and failed to make her advertised radio debut. Garbo partisans and Oboler resenters--two large classes--waxed bitter about "high-pressuring" and "committing big names in advance of their consent." Others merely observed that Mr. Oboler had been a little too busy for his own good.

One of the things he was busy about was a new series of Plays for Americans, to be broadcast by NBC on Sunday afternoons at 4:30. For the first in the series, produced last Sunday, voluble, begoggled, little Arch Oboler went to Manhattan with fair Olivia de Havilland, the leading lady. Although protesting that he was being made a fall guy in the Garbo matter, Arch was meditative about the state of his radio art.

"Good sense is coming back," he said. "This is no time for ego inflation." Oboler pressagents, used to getting almost daily suggestions from the Prodigy, were inclined to treat this as another one; but pressagents have no souls. The fact remained that Oboler, who brought to radio drama the unabashed showmanship of a Zanuck, was doing his Plays for Americans free and on his own motion (seconded and guided by NBC). The first one, Johnny Quinn, U.S.N., had its hokey qualities, but it was well directed (by Oboler), nicely played, and it turned a wise guy into a hero for a better reason than because the formula was surefire. The reason: a free world needs more heroes.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.