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As master of ceremonies for Lux Radio Theatre, De Mille is sometimes absentminded. Near season's end last year, he announced that the next Lux bill would be "Sidewalks of New York," his offhand reading of the script's Sidewalks of London. He rarely misses a performance. Once when he was ill he had himself conveyed to the theatre in an ambulance, did his bit from a stretcher with a hospital intern and nurse looking on.
Top price for stars on the Lux program runs to $5,000 a performance. One hundred and ninety-seven famous performers have appeared in the show to date. Valuable by-product of their visits is a sound-effects drum which all of them have signed. Estimated worth of the drum today is $9,000, and the sound-effects man hates to hit it for fear of ruining autographs. Marlene Dietrich has been almost obliterated from the effects of hurricanes and earthquakes.