State

He Introduces the President The next lime you hear some¬ body say: “Ladles and gentle¬ men. the President of the United States!” you ran be praetieaiiy certain that the voice belongs to a young fellow from Durham. tti/ LEWIS E. ATCHISON ANYTIME you hear the Colum- Winston Churchill broadcast his bin Broadcast i ng System an- trans-ocean address to the British l nomicer say: “Ladies and Homo Guard and got the shock of Gentlemen, the President of the his life when “Winny” casually rnited States,” you’re listening to the -trolled into the room where the dulcet voice of a native North Caro- microphone was set up, wearing soft linian, Mr. and Mr*. Vickers’ little 1*^1гоот slippers with his initials boy, Lee. embroidered on them. A graduate of Duke University, "1 was surprised to see how small where he majored in physics and won hr really was," said Vickers. “But a Phi Beta Kappa key— which In- was a prince of a good fellow and didn't come in a f’raekerjack box— very friendly." Lee almost had the Lee is night supervisor at Washing- role of putting Churchill on the air. ton's powerful WTOP. As one of tin- but a British Broadcasting Company city’s better announcers, he rates tho announcer, assigned to that task, ar- top spot of putting the President on rived at the last minute, tho air any time the Chief Executive “President Roosevelt,” says Lee, has a message for the nation. “is swell; a good fellow from the word Vickers, who will ho 32 in Decern- go. He always has a good word for her, got his start in radio parked be- everybody and is easy to work with." hind a guitar in’ the “Dixie Lander*’’ The President, he disclosed, has orche.trn, featured every Saturday quiteastudioaudiencewithoutadmit- afternoon on WPTF at Raleigh. He ting any friends because it take» about doubled in brass, so to speak, as r,o men, technicians, engineers, an- vocnlist but can’t recall any talent nouncers, cameramen, etc., to put scout* breaking an arm or leg fight- |,im on. And before you can get a mg to sign him. pass to the White House, admitting But the radio bug had taken a working press, announcers and others, huge bite out of his epidermis and the Secret Service goes through your in ho plunged to stay. He sang his way through Duke with Les Brown’s orchestra, which later became one of the country's top hands. Worked in Durham Lee was a slatT announcer for WDNC the first night it opened in Durham, and before long the greener pastures of Washington were beckon¬ ing. He arrived in the Nation’s Capital with some misgivings in 193S. It was April Fool's Day. In his present capacity, Vickers has met most of tho “names” that make headlines throughout the nation, as well as numerous interna¬ tional big shots. He was at the White House when Prime Minister Editor’s note: Lewis F. Atchison, who wrote this story, is a young Washington news¬ paperman, member of the staff of the “Evening Star” and a native Washingtonian. Bob Erwin, who has been writing “Watching Washing¬ ton” for a number of years, will enter the Navy on June 29. He has been breaking in his friend, Atchison, to the Tar Heel colony in the nation's capital, and the accompanying article is Lew’s first piece for publication in THE STATE. past history with a fine tooth comb, ferreting out a lot of things some of the applicants don’t even know about themselves. Even easier to work with is Mrs. Roosevelt, who has a perfect sense of timing. Vickers recalls how the President’s wife saved one show by talking extemporaneously four minutes when the script was com¬ pleted before time was up. She also has the knack of cutting any talk to cud tho program on time and making it sound ns though if was the proper conclusion. Variety of Experiences Lee has had varied experiences and one of the funniest happened the night a staff announcer forgot about a national program coming up and went home. Lee was supposed to break into the national hook-up with a local commercial plug from another studio, but with no other announcer available, ended up doing both pro¬ grams. They say lie soorehed the carpet dashing back and forth be¬ tween studios. Then there was the time he bad an important Government official ( Continued on page twenty-four)