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Over the Back Fence By HANK HENRY Imagination aroused by soundmen By HANK HENRY One of the most vital jobs in network radio for more than 40 years belonged to the sound-effects man. Radio appealed to the imagination, and performing radio dramas required more than just the spoken voice. There had to be sounds so the listeners could "see" the story through imagination. The idea of having someone provide sounds came almost simultaneously to the radio pioneers at stations such as KDKA in Pittsburgh and WGN in Chicago. Their early experiments were duplicated a few years later when the networks were formed. Before telling about it, I should point out that everything that was broadcast in those early days was live. There were no audio tape recorders then. The only recordings available were made on large metal discs coated with black cellulose acetate, but these were usually made for archival reasons, and the sound was far from perfect. One of the first sounds created for radio air was a galloping horse. All that was needed was a tray of sand or dirt and two halves of a coconut shell with leather straps over the ends. To make the sound of hoof beats, the operator picked up the halves and pounded a tray of dirt or sand that was on his cart. With a little practice, he could duplicate the sound of a horse galloping. Some sound men even mimicked the whinny of a horse as it came to a stop. The sounds that were created in the studio ranged from the noises of people walking down a street to the clatter of dishes in a restaurant. A thin sheet of flexible metal could be made to sound like thunder or a cannon fire. Some of the sounds were actually made by the real thing, such as firing a .22 caliber blank from a starter pistol into a large empty tin can to give it resonance. In the 1930s, in those pre-tape days, almost every radio drama program was done twice -- once for people in the Eastern and Central time zones, and another for the Mountain and Pacific time zones. Mistakes would happen, no matter how much rehearsal time was spent. Many of the dramas were a little different in their two live versions. Here is a story that I heard about 50 years ago. It may simply be radio folklore, but chances are that something like this actually happened during the broadcast of a live drama: Villain: I'm going to shoot you! Sound: (faint click of a misfire) Villain: I said, I'm going to shoot you. Sound: (Silence) Villain: On second thought, I have a knife, and I'm going to stab you to death! Sound: (Ka-Pow) A good actor in early radio had to be ready for anything. The soundman's job really came into its own after World War II. In the late 40s and early 50s, some programs, such as Jack Webb's "Dragnet" and CBS's "Gunsmoke" used two or three soundmen on each program, even though by then hundreds of sounds were available on special recordings. William Conrad's rumbling bass voice made Marshal Matt Dillon seem even more menacing than James Arness's mid-range voice did later on television. Conrad tried out later for the TV part, but the fact that he was short and fat outweighed his wonderful voice. Sound-making was so good by the 1950s that a whole string of sounds could move the action along without a word being said. "Gunsmoke" had Matt Dillon walk through a saloon's swinging doors, the conversation was suddenly hushed, chairs squeaked as they were pushed back from the tables, and a gun was fired. Dillon said, "You shouldn't have tried that." Another outstanding use of sound effects was in Jack Benny's comdey show. Mel Blanc even did some sounds with his voice, such as trying to start Jack's Maxwell. A remarkable series of sounds rolled whenever Jack announced that he had to go down to his vault in the basement. Listeners heard a pair of feet walk across a wooden floor. Then a door creaked, followed by more steps on concrete, dripping water and flapping bat wings. Finally Jack would arrive at the vault, where an elderly guard would be standing by. You had to hear it to understand how funny it was. Soundmakers found work in other places, too. Movie makers began using sound effects shortly after the advent of "talkies," because the microphones of that day were limited and did not catch all of the sounds. Today, sound effects are not dead. Soundmen and soundwomen are still working in film studios, doing their magic after the film has been developed and edited, adding the little sounds that make a motion picture seem so real. (Hank Henry is a retired Jackson County commissioner and a former radio and television announcer. Call him at 772-9055.) Prime Times front page Mail Tribune front page Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA