Kate's Appeal

The Treasury soft-pedaled the matter. But it was no secret in the radio industry that there had been too much personal publicity for stars, too many unfulfilled bond pledges. In the Fifth War Bond Drive, all concerned were determined to handle radio appeals in a more impersonal and conservative fashion.

If evidence illuminating this decision was wanted, it was available last week in a document (Psychology of a Bond Drive) produced by Columbia University's Office of Radio Research. It recorded the results of a questioning of some 1,000 New Yorkers concerning their reaction to radio's part in the Third and Fourth War Bond Drives. Particularly interesting were the comments of 100 citizens specially cross-questioned about Kate Smith's 17-hour radio marathon over CBS (total pledges: $39,000,000) on Sept. 21, 1943. Those comments told a lot about the U.S. radio audience. Some of them:

P: Kate's katydidoes were a "sporting event" to some. One man listened in a saloon where book was made on how long she could keep it up. It was "almost hypnotic and compulsive." Said a woman listener: "We never left her that day. We stood by her side. I didn't go out all day, except to go shopping. Even then I was anxious to get back and listen. Of course, my sister was holding down the post in the meantime and could tell me what had happened."

P: Some listeners' sales resistance collapsed from sheer exhaustion. Explained one: "She was getting you so on it, I couldn't stand it no more. I said, 'Dammit, I'm going to telephone right in and that is the end of it. I'm going to bed and forget about it.' My husband said to me, 'You are not going to go to bed until you get on that damn phone and give the bond in.' "

P: Although many listeners were deeply moved, others ("usually better educated and more sophisticated") resented Kate Smith's emotional approach. Said one: "It's a sad commentary that the American people have to be entertained to make them buy something as important as war bonds."

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