Willie Winn

In London, Paris and Berlin

They listen in to Willie Winn.

This couplet, chanted by Gregory Edward Toole (microphone name: Willie Winn), is an idle boast, for his voice carries no farther than 1,000-watt WAAF (Chicago) can send it--about 100 miles. Chicago hears Willie Winn every morning predicting how each of 96 horses will finish in the afternoon's races. And Chicago plays his tips.

Red-faced Tipster Toole is sponsored by the R. B. Clothing Co., brings as many as 1,500 people to an R. B. store when he makes a personal appearance. Although he works for a $75 weekly salary, he appeals to his horse-betting listeners to win him bonuses, declares on the air that he makes no money at the tracks, that a bet placed by Willie Winn poisons the horse. After he began broadcasting for R. B. last June, his sponsor promised him a 1938 Buick coach if in two weeks he could bring 500 new accounts into the store. He appealed directly to his listeners. Within nine days 500 racing fans opened accounts, won Willie his car.

Last week, Track Wizard Toole told his listeners to use the money they won on his tips to buy an R. B. $16.75 suit or overcoat. To each of these purchasers the sales clerk gave a silver dollar to be dropped into a box for Willie Winn. When at week's end he unlocked his box, there were 342 silver dollars for Willie. Since he is a broadcaster of uncertain habits and sudden impulses, the WAAF engineer keeps an alert finger near the control switch, ready to snap him off the air if he should start heading for the stable.

As Tipster Toole tells it, his horse-picking career began when he went broke in 1929. His explanation: "I had played the horses a lot. I decided to get it back where I lost it." Although last week of his 500 choices in 185 races, 248 finished in the money, he claims no wizardry for Willie Winn, says he takes a bottle of bourbon and a racing form, goes through both simultaneously.

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