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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 1955)
o Wednesday, November 30, 1955 MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE FIVE Writer of Singing Commercials Finds Work Harder Than Pop Song Assignment By WILLIAM EWALD New York OJ.P.) You can ' have your Gershwins, Berlins and Porters. We'll take Hank ; Sylvern. e Sylvern is a composer who sings not of one heart, two lips or 16 tones, but rather of bras sieres, grape juice, and instant fruit dessert. To his public, Sylvern Is known as a musical director on radio and TV. He has worked in that role for guch shows as "Sus pense," "This Is Show Business, 'Nick Carter" and "Boston Blackie." Right now, he labors in the CSB-TV vineyards on "The Morning Show." But there's another unsung side to Sylvern the side on which he is most sung: Sylvern writes singing com mercials. "I guess " says Sylvern, "I've written more than 100 of them, You name a product and I've -worked with it salad dressing,; "Another thing. If you've been Grange Phoenix Grang The men of Phoenix Grange prepared and? served a ham din ner for the ladies on Nov 22 Installation of new officers fol owed. Past-master Roy Bolz was in stalling officer, assisted by Edith Poe as marshal, Margaret Bolz fes emblem bearer, Mabel Quack- enbush as regalia bearer, Doro thy Loffer as musician, and Hat tie Hendrickson as chaplain. 0 Immediately before the din- ' ner, Phoenix HEC met and elec ted the following officers for the coming year: Chairman, Velma ; Johnson, vice-chairman, Olive Floyd; treasurer, Maude House; and secretary, Mona Ferns These officers will '-be installed at the December HEC meeting. Upper Applegate Grange The following officers 'were elected by the Upper Applegate orange and serve for the en suing year: I Master GeorA Redhead, over 4 seer. Pearl Byrne; lecturer, Ed- ; na Sawyer; steward, Ed Finley ! assistant steward, Menno Bach I mann; chaplain. Kathleen Scov ell; treasurer, Mamie Winning- nam; secretary, Ethel M. West; I gatekeeper, John Byrne; ceres, ; Grace Buck; pomona, Irene j Culy; flora, Hazel Byrne; lady ; assistant steward, Mildred Red t 1 head, and executive committee ! members, Fred -West, James I Winningham and Omar Culy. ! The HEC ladies have been given an opportunity to serve ; the 4-H Leaders' association in ; their annual dinner. Dec. 6 at ; 7:30 p.m. at the YMCA in Med i ford. I Upper Applegate Grange 1 members appreciate the ccnsid- eration shown by the Leaders' ; association, and help offered by ; other Granges to aid in this ; project, as fund raising possi bilities are non-existent until a j new hall can be built. , The chaplain reported Mrs. ; Lee Port ill. Mrs. Port's daugh ; ter is with her at present. The ; Grange wishes her a speedy re ; covery. coffee, raisin bran chewing gum." Difficult Assignment The way Sylvern sees it, a good singing commercial is an in finitely more difficult assign ment to tackle than a pop song. "There's no room for gilding the lily in a jingle," says Syl vern. "You have to be far more clever to write one. You have to get your message over in as clear and concise way as pos sible, but still be entertaining. soap and : listening to singing commercials lately, you may have noticed that the whole approach is changing. Everyone is looking for some thing offbeat now." Offbeat, Sylvern is. He has written a mambo for the Nation al Guard, a boogie for an auto manufacturer, a blues for a chewing gum maker and a 54 second miniature oratorio to push the sale of Israeli bonds. "I try not to think conven tionally in my instrumentation," he said. "For some jingles, I've used a 21-piece orchestra, for others, just a piano and a bass." Some of Sylvern's most-prized musical experimentations were put into play through jingles. For one commercial about a movie, he used a bassoon, viola, fiddle and snare drum. For a tele vision maker, he employed a trumpet, alto flute and novi chord. For another commercial effort, he combined, so help us, some bagpipes, drums, two oboes and a bassoon. Like most jingle writers, Syl vern starts with a "fact sheet" supplied by the ad agency. The sheet singles out the selling points of the article to be plug ged. Sylvern sometimes starts with a musical idea, sometimes with the- words. "Some of my jingles last as long as 55 seconds. But one was only seven seconds long," he said. "It's not uncommon to la bor two or three weeks on one. However, I remember conceiv ing the central idea for a beer commercial in five minutes." Sylvern not only writes his jingles, he produces them too. As a result, his pay for a single shot ranks among the highest in the business as much as S2000. . They're satisfying artistically, too, he reports. "The 'good ones catch on just like a popular song. I've heard people whistling them in buses and restaurants and in the streets. Why, I even whistle them myself!" Japan Firm Suspends Egypt Rocket Sales Tokyo U.R) The largest trading company in Japan said today it has suspended efforts to sell rockets and rocket launchers to Egypt for the time being "owing to the circum stances." A company spokesman blamed the cold war for the decision to reverse this policy just when Egypt became interested. The Communists had not started sell ing arms to Egypt when the original offer was made, spokesman said. HOW ABOUT TARPAULINS Any desired type of canvas covering for any pocpose. Te)t s yoor needs. BURK'S 314 East Main St. S&H Green Stamps SSt'WStWStOPEN WEDNESDAY NIGHT UNTIL 9:00 O'CLOCK KIND TO ROOKIES ; New York (U.R) The Police ; Departnjnt met the cold spell ; today by transferring 1,000 rookie policemen, who have been unable to purchase winter uniform overcoats, to patrol cars. A like number of old-timers will go on foot patrol until the weath er moderates. 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