Spoolers

An unwary dial-twirler in New York is likely to tune in on some strange and wonderful giveaway shows. From an "overstocked surplus warehouse," the listener has been offered "at laughably low prices, sweaters in two styles--turtle or V-neck. Just state what kind of neck you have." Or how about a ten-day course on "How to Become a 97-lb. Weakling"? Or a Handy Burglar Kit, containing jimmies, canvas gloves, crepe-soled shoes and "aliases you can use over and over again --for example, Benjamin Franklin and Mary, Queen of Scots."

Such broad spoofing of radio's best-known institutions is the specialty of Bob & Ray, a pair of deadpan comics whose four programs seem to crop up at all hours of the day and night on NBC's network and local schedule.*

Bob Elliott, 29, and Ray Goulding, 30, who began joking with each other and the listening public as announcers on Boston's station WHDH, moved to Manhattan last summer and began with a 15-minute afternoon spot on NBC. As their popularity has grown, so has the number of their shows. Their newest spot, at 11:30 a.m., is sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive-Peet, which dropped a soap opera called King's Row in favor of the boys.

Bob & Ray's "dramatic" interludes are not-so-gentle burlesques of just such shows as King's Row. Playing all the roles themselves, they have produced Mr. Trace, Keener Than Most Persons (The Leaky Refrigerator in the Efficiency Apartment Murder Clue), Jack Headstrong, the All-American American (now working on an interplanetary motorcycle), and Mary Backstage, Noble Wife ("There's usually an amnesia case or a brain operation going on"). Another character, played by Ray: Mary McGoon, a composite of all women commentators and home helpers (her cure for a cold: goosefat in an Argyle sock, hung around the neck).

A writer helps them think up ideas, but the comics use only an outline for a script and make up most of the gags as they go along. They will earn about $150,000 apiece in 1952, but they insist that there is nothing difficult about their art. Explains Bob: "All we do is listen to the radio and watch TV."

* Radio: Mon. through Fri., 11:30 a.m.; Sat., 8:30 p.m.; in New York only, Mon. through Sat., 6-8:30 a.m. TV: Tues. and Thurs., 7:15 p.m.

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