Hoosegow Harmony

A unique radio program went coast-to-coast and (by short wave) to U.S. troops abroad last week. San Quentin on the Air is a by-product of the inmates of the famed prison outside San Francisco.

San Quentin's format has had almost no change since it went on the Pacific Coast air two years ago. Its theme song, Time on My Hands, is gone (Helbros Watch Co. snapped it up), but the rest of the show is still there. There is a rendition of We've Got the Lord on Our Side ("The Devil's out there waitin'; it's either us or Satan. . . .") or a similar melody by the 26-inmate glee club. There are selections by a 22-piece orchestra, which sometimes tackles a Rachmaninoff prelude "in the style of the San Quentin Orchestra." There are vocals by prison songbirds; a short speech by smart, humane Warden Clinton Duffy; a few words, for instance, from the inmate who has donated the most blood to the San Quentin blood bank.

Clink Concerto. In its first two years San Quentin (Mutual, 7:30 p.m., Tues., P.W.T.) has become reasonably professional and picked up thousands of loyal listeners. It is the first prison show to go coast-to-coast. When Warden Duffy and Mutual's Pacific Coast affiliate, the Don Lee Network, first agreed to give the program a try, two years ago, San Quentin wags referred to the broadcast as "Concerto in the Clink." One inmate, looking over the crowd at the first broadcast in the prison mess hall, observed: "Those boys are lucky. This is one audience that can't walk out."

It has since become very unhealthy to make such cracks in San Quentin. For merely blowing one sour note in mid-solo, the first trumpeter had "the freeze" put on him for days by the inmates. Variety acts are out. The convicts decided they were undignified. They work hard on their show, sometimes rehearsing until 2 a.m. When a Don Lee producer suggested that they could avoid this by using simpler musical arrangements, the musicians said they did not want to sound like "a bunch of lop-eared cons."

John Alexander Hendricks, lifer, combatted wartime priorities by asking his many friends to bring him one board each. They brought enough for a stage. The inmates have plenty of uniforms to broadcast in: white shirts and orange-striped trousers for the glee club; dark trousers, cream-colored tuxedo jackets, and boutonnieres (when the prison garden is in bloom) for the orchestra.

1939 B.D. Warden Duffy does not believe in discussing the crimes of his performers. At least one has got a good job (radio announcer) on leaving San Quentin. That, says Duffy, is one of the show's purposes: to help the prisoners in society when they are released. Said one San Quentinite recently of the radio cast: "There's more life in this handful of guys than there was in the whole prison back in 1939 B.D.*

San Quentin on the Air would like to get a commercial sponsor. A facetious inmate suggested Yale & Towne Mfg. Co. (locks for safes, etc.), but he would have to meet the program's dignified standards. As it is now, Mutual pays the line charges, the San Quentin inmate fund pays for uniforms, instruments, sheet music, etc. The program would also like a drummer. No doubt one will turn up.

* Before Duffy.

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