OUT OF THE AIR

This is almost as much Stella Karn's book as it is Mary Margaret's, for Stella was the spark plug that made things happen throughout Mary Margaret's radio career. Here is the story of that career -- of how Mary Margaret got into radio, despite a voice and a manner that refuted all the rules, and proved that what Scott Lucas called ""the common touch"" made for identification with the radio listeners everywhere. How they will love every line of this replay of ""The Program"", ""The People"", and ""Home"". She has not only the gift of conveying a sense of the common touch, of being a little more naive and unsophisticated than her listeners (while concealing a rare ability to touch the heart of the matter, to draw people out to talk about themselves, to seize upon a concept and put her ideas across). This book is a portfolio of big people and a few small people, great people and simple people, people in theatre and films, in literature, in public life. Now and again there are extraordinarily revealing bits about Mary Margaret herself. It's fun reading, for those who have listened in on her programs, for those who have been her guests- and for all who feel they-know her. Not straight autobiography to be read in continuity, but a book to pick up and read at random.