Belligerent First

Eddie Cantor's ping-pong eyes and small potato voice have abetted many a vulgar nudge and giggle, but nobody ever thought of suppressing him as a menace to public morals. Nevertheless, last week that is just what happened to him. NBC cut Eddie Cantor off the air, in the middle of his act. In Manhattan he and Singer Nora Martin were telecasting an old tune, We're Having a Baby, My Baby and Me, which Cantor sang in the 1941-42 Broadway musical, Banjo Eyes. NBC found some of the lyrics and some of the comedian's bodily illustrations of them, "objectionable."

Blazed Cantor: "I'm blazing mad at fellows who tell you it's all right and then sneak around and cut you off."

Almost lost in the shuffle was the fact that the show was the first commercial U.S. telecast by relay. Because television waves, unlike radio waves, are not reflected earthwards from the sky, no station can broadcast beyond its horizon (usually about 50 miles). Television impulses cannot be sent clearly by telephone wire, and coaxial cable, which does carry them, is unavailable because of the war. So to reach Philadelphia, Philco set up an automatic relay halfway between New York and Philadelphia. This picked up the telecast from NBC's Manhattan station WNBT, stepped it up to its original power, sent it on for rebroadcast from Philco's Philadelphia station WPTZ.

The relay, which Philco hopes to manufacture if it is adopted, worked well enough, but on prewar television receivers Eddie Cantor's stifled image was anything but clear.

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