Radio: Midnight Hits Manhattan

When it’s midnight in Manhattan, it’s 11 p.m. in Cleveland, St. Louis and Chicago, 10 in Denver. This simple fact of U.S. time zones may soon make big names out of several little-known dance bands. Last week, with Washington’s curfew on nightspots about to cut Manhattan’s big bands off the air at the stroke of 12, the networks were combing the Midwest for late hour fill-ins. Some of the substitutions planned: Chris Cross (Denver) for Tommy Dorsey and Guy Lombardo; George Sterney (Cleveland) for Louis Armstrong; George Hamilton (St. Louis) for George Olsen and Leo Reisman; Boyd Raeburn (Chicago) for Tony Pastor.

Radio generally was pleased by the curfew. Many a stay-out-later with no place to go may now stay home and twiddle the dial.