Peachy-Keen

Jim Hawthorne, a young Pasadena disc jockey, used to be bored with his job ($85 a week). Sometimes he would sign off with a sneer: "This is KXLA, the 10,000-watt jukebox." But he is bored with his job no longer.

One night, without notifying his bosses, Hawthorne suddenly turned his show into a carefree, wit-loose "Hellzapoppin on the air." Next day, before the station had time to fire him, the place was snowed under with fan mail. By last week, the scattyboo platter session was being broadcast over five Southern California stations ("the net-to-net coastwork of the Oh-So-Peachy-Keen Broadcasting Company"). Both ABC and Mutual were dickering for national network rights. Hawthorne's salary is now $450 a week.

The Hawthorne formula is a well-stirred ragout of one part Henry Morgan, three parts Arthur Godfrey and a dash of Colonel Stoopnagle; it is a blend of the outrageously unexpected and the shaggy dog joke. In the middle of a recording, a voice may suddenly announce: "I've got cole slaw in all my pockets. I'm cold." Sometimes Hawthorne heckles his lovesick records. "What are you in the mood for, honey?" he will ask during the opening bars of a song. "I'm in the mood for love," the record croons back.

Whatever adults--and sponsors--may think of such carryings-on, Hawthorne and his peculiar banana-split lingo have become the rage of Southern California's younger set. Most popular root word is "hogan" (example: "I was driving my carahogan in from Pasadena-hogan so I could get a hoganburger"). The young folks also overwork Hawthorne's favorite adjectives: keen, peachy-keen, and oh-so-peachy-keen.

In Hawthorne's hands, commercials get rough justice. When a plug is due, he bangs on his "attention getter" (a pair of crash cymbals) as a red alert to the audience. Most of the transcribed commercials are played at either very slow or breakneck speeds, so that they sound like either a foghorn or Donald Duck. On one occasion he treated his listeners to ten minutes of Bach, with interpolated comments and seal yelps. Conductor Mark Warndw, after hearing a Hawthorne show, said judiciously: "He's half haw, half thorn."

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