Opera and Opus

Hearty is David Sarnoff's dislike for Horatioalgerian accounts of his 42 years upon earth. To inquisitive reporters the chunky, bustling president of Radio Corp. of America always hands out three mimeographed sheets listing in chronological order all his important dates, including his appointments in the U. S. Signal Corps, in which he now is a reserve colonel. Some Sarnoff dates:

1891: Born in Uzlian, Minsk, Russia.

1900: Came to the U. S. "in July."

1906: Became an office boy in Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co.

1911: Equipped a sealing ship with radio and went to the Arctic as operator.

1914: Contract manager for Marconi.

1919: Commercial Manager of Radio Corp. after it absorbed Marconi.

1921: General Manager of RCA.

1930: President of RCA.

Last week David Sarnoff added the following to his chronology:

1934: Elected a director of the Metropolitan Opera Company. Chairman Paul D. Cravath promptly put Director Sarnoff on the executive committee to ponder the Met's problems along with Otto Kahn, Myron Charles Taylor and Mrs. August Belmont.

RCA's interest in the Metropolitan arose from the fact that for the last two years its subsidiary, National Broadcasting Co., had been putting the Met's Saturday matinees on the air as a sustaining feature. Currently the Met matinees are being sponsored over the NBC chain by Lucky Strike which contributes some $100,000 per season to the Met treasury for the privilege. But last week Met Director Sarnoff wanted to talk less about broadcasting grand opera than he did about a new RCA opus.

Proudly he announced that the Federal Radio Commission had approved RCA's application to expand its domestic radio system, which has hitherto been confined to a transcontinental circuit between Manhattan and San Francisco. In Chicago, Washington, New Orleans and Boston RCA will erect stations to compete directly with the telegraph companies. And between Manhattan and Philadelphia it will start the first domestic radio facsimile service in the U. S. If successful, RCA hopes to expand this type of service throughout the U. S. Such a move would put RCA in a strategic bargaining position for the huge communications merger on which the Washington Brain Trust has been at work for months.

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