ALL THINGS considered, it comes as a minor miracle that The Voice of Firestone has celebrated a 25th anniversary. For all that it's a very pleasant show, the Voice has had the misfortune for several years now to be pitched up against Arthur Godfrey and his Talent Scouts, the sort of competition that doesn't leave many folks around to watch anybody else. In the high-pressure radio-TV world, where ratings are usually the only things that matter, this would seem to make the Firestone show an extremely unusual item.
Nonetheless, Nov. 30 marked the 25th anniversary on the air and the Voice people went to town. They expanded their usual half-hour to an hour for the occasion, booked in six singers from the Metropolitan Opera instead of their usual one or two, doubled the chorus and added ten members to their 48 piece orchestra.
The initial broadcast of the show (which was on radio, of course) took place on Dec. 3, 1928, so the anniversary actually was pushed up a few days. The TV version debuted on Sept. 5, 1949 which makes it one of the more aged items on TV also.
It is held in some quarters that the original reason the Firestones went into the music sponsoring business was that Mrs. Harvey Firestone, Sr. was intensely interested in music, with the rest of the family not far behind in their fervor. Mrs. Firestone demonstrated her love in a very material way, being the composer of both the opening and closing themes on the show, If I Could Tell You and In My Garden.
Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of The Voice of Firestone is the elegant and economical conducting of Howard Barlow, who hardly ever lets on that he knows the TV cameras are trained on him. Mr. Barlow, an old hand in the music business, was once CBS musical di- rector and frequently conducted the crack CBS Symphony Orchestra.
When asked why The Voice of Firestone sticks pretty much to the well-worn, familiar operatic and musical comedy classics, he explained that it wasn't due to any lack of flexibility on his part or on the part of the sponsor. But any time they try to ring anything outside the standard repertoire they are inundated with mail from irate fans.
One major reason why the Voice has been able to stay on all these years without large ratings is that it's what is called an institutional show; that is, more interested in public good will than in selling tires. The Firestones want as many people to watch as possible, but they still refuse to deviate from their purpose of presenting top singers doing top- flight music.
As a matter of fact, practically every major opera singer in the U.S. has appeared at one time or another on the show.
Incidentally, the Firestones were the first ever to sponsor a television broadcast, doing so on a one-shot program way back on Nov. 28, 1943. It just may be that their audience was so small then that anything afterward seemed like an improvement.
Actually, although the audience pull of Godfrey is greater than that of the Firestone program, it's probable that every one of those Firestone fans will still be tuning in ten years from now to enjoy the old familiar strains. Just as they've been doing these past 25 years.
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