Throckmorton's Giant

"There stood an enormous lady giant. She was a good 20 feet tall, with nasty little red eyes and scraggly hair. . . . She carried Jack into the castle and set him to washing the giant's supper dishes from the night before [deep sigh']. And no hot water! As he was finishing, he heard a terrifying sound. Clump, clump, clump! Someone with size 36 shoes was coming down the stairs. . . ."

This modernized version of Jack and the Beanstalk, told in roguish tones and with many a froggy giggle, has held thousands of moppets glued to the phonograph. It has also kept radio's Hal Peary well stocked in golden eggs. As Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, the befuddled buffoon he portrays for NBC (Sun., 6:30-7 p.m., E.S.T.), he got $40,000 for recording Jack, Puss in Boots and Rumpelstiltskin in a four-record album for Capitol Records. ("I did it just for a lark," said he, "and didn't expect to make more than carfare money for it.")

Last week, as his "Stories for Children" reached 142,000 sales, Peary was busy cutting a second set, The Brave Little Tailor (based on Grimms' Gallant Tailor who killed "seven at one blow") and Cinderella.

Too heavy (186 Ibs.) to lose a slipper without knowing it, Peary has had a Cinderella's good fortune. Since he left Fibber McGee & Molly as a straight man in 1941, his show has held its own among favorites. Last week, he entered the top 15 with a Hooper rating of 16.8. He is even better as a storyteller. He sings, growls like a giant, laughs like a villainous ogre, wails like a princess with a pea in her bed. His tag line: "By the way, you better . . . turn over the record . . . while I light a cigar."

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