Cinema: Broadcaster Banned

Gullible Radio Gossiper Robert Garrett was last week barred from all Hollywood studios, then fired. His indefensible offense: broadcasting over Los Angeles radio station KEHE that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer officials had propped up dead Actor Robert McWade (TIME, Jan. 31), photographed the back of his head to complete a scene in Of Human Hearts. To backers of New York’s proposed Berg Bill, designed to bring radio slander under the libel laws, Hollywood’s resounding reproof of Gossiper Garrett brought great satisfaction; to harebrained radio gossipers, pause.

While the National Association of Broadcasters convened last week in Washington, D. C., not a mention was made of Cinemactress Mae West or her now celebrated Adam & Eve air skit. But when Senator Burton K. Wheeler referred to ”entertainment which transgresses the standards of decency & good taste,” every one of the 436 N. A. B. members present knew what he was driving at. Just in case someone might have forgotten, Variety’s widely-read radio section carried a full-page, $400 advertisement, in big bold type: ”Salutations! National Association of Broadcasters . . . from the CHAMPION of the box office, MAE WEST. . . . Remember me, boys!”