400,000 Hopefuls

In a Radio City rehearsal studio last week, a 15-year-old girl in a bright-beaded dress sang a ragged version of Secret Love and then went into a tap dance that showed more vigor than precision. When she had finished, she stood, thin-armed and anxious, staring toward the control room where Director Lloyd Marx and Associate Producer Wanda Ellis were judging the auditions for the 1,000th performance of the Original Amateur Hour (Sat. 8:30 p.m., NBC-TV).

Marx turned on his microphone, said: "Thank you, ah ... Betsy. We've got your application form here, and we'll let you know if you're selected for one of our shows." The girl turned dejectedly away and was joined by her tense-lipped mother, who slipped a coat over the girl's shoulders and spoke to her in a fierce whisper as they went out the door. The next aspirant, a moon-faced young man, was already at the girl's place before the studio mike. He burst thunderously into the Largo al Factotum ("Figaro! Figaro! Figaro!") from The Barber of Seville.

Skip the Gong. Over the past 20 years Director Marx and Associate Wanda Ellis have listened to more than 400,000 such hopefuls. Each week Wanda Ellis weeds out the worst of the contestants, and then Marx and Producer Lou Goldberg join her to pick from the survivors six acts to compete with the winner of the previous show. All worked for the famed Major Edward Bowes until his death in 1946. They formed a partnership with Bowes's lawyer and Ted Mack, the current master of ceremonies, to create the TV version of the show, which has been on the air since 1948.

M. C. Mack has carried on the major's tradition of putting an end to applause by repeating "All right, all right, all right ..." But he was too softhearted to continue the major's gong-banging when a contestant lost the audience's favor. Mack conducts rambling interviews with the amateurs, cracks heavy-handed jokes, generally contributes to the cornball atmosphere that satisfies both sponsor Pet Milk and the largely rural and small-town audience that stays tenaciously faithful to the show.

Frozen Singers. After the big moment on the air. most of the amateur performers fall back into obscurity. But some have gone on to fame & fortune, including Opera Singers Mimi Benzell and Robert Merrill, Ventriloquist Paul Winchell, Dancers Vera-Ellen and Ray Malone, Comedians Jack Carter and Bert Parks, and such singers as Teresa Brewer, the Mariners, Monica Lewis and Frank Sinatra (who appeared on the show in 1935 as one of a quartet called the Hoboken Four).

After studying a generation of amateurs, Wanda Ellis concludes that the current crop has more poise and knowledge than its predecessors: "There used to be so many cases of stage fright--contestants would freeze up, cry, faint. That seldom happens now. And today's amateurs know a lot more about music; often the oldtimers didn't even know what key they sang in." Other changes: today, there is more pop singing than classical, and TV has brought a boom in pantomimists and interpretive dancers. Oddly, the number of comedy acts is steadily declining. The only thing Wanda Ellis finds depressing about her job is the songs. She explains: "For a while all amateurs were singing Believe; then they were all singing Stranger in Paradise; now it's either Answer Me, My Love or Secret Love. They always sing the top hit song."

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