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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.
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; New York (U.R) The Police
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A like number of old-timers will
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