Brief Biography

O N THE EVENING of October the tenth, Gang Busters returns to the airlanes and Brice Disque Jr. '25 will again be enmeshed in the subject of crime for another twenty-six weeks. For Brice writes GangBusters.

Born in Fort Assinnaboine, Montana, June 21, 1904, Brice found himself the son of a U. S. Army Cavalry officer. Thereafter, he lived in many parts of the U. S., as well as the Philippine Islands, and arrived in Hanover one September day in 1921 faced with the problem of entrance examinations. He became a member of the class of 1925.

Several parts with The Dartmouth Players and victory in a one-act play contest convinced Brice that the theatre was his oyster. And so in 1925 he ignored the protestations of his patron-father and trudged about New York City in search of a literary-dramatic career.

First adventure came with a job as cub reporter for the New York Evening Post. But the neophyte actor-dramatist soon found this type of "bulletin writing" tedious and turned to the stage where he was lucky enough to get a job with Walter Hampden's repertoire company. With Hampden and Ethel Barrymore he won the right to be a member of The Actor's Equity Association playing in Hamlet, TheMerchant of Venice and Cyrano de Bergerac. Stock company acting and other Broadway productions followed.

But—was acting what Brice wanted? The income was precarious and there was a certain monotony in putting grease paint on one's face night after night.... .And so Brice wrote a play. He still likes the title: Lyric for Jazz.

Today, four full length plays languish in the files of Brice Disque's desk—unproduced. Another is in the works. But only its title exists: Reunion Those plays are the result of four years Brice spent in the banking business—trying to get new business and getting enough money to finance the luxury of playwriting.

But Brice was merged out of banking (four mergers in two years) and he scanned the uncertain vocational mountains. and valleys for a possibly profitable occupation. He selected radio. Through his friend and classmate, Al Perkins, Brice got a job writing radio scripts for NewsWeek magazine Later, he became radio director for News Week.

Here, at last, was an opportunity to turn to profit many experiences and possible talents. Radio!. .. .Soon Brice was writing for the radio March of Time Then he assistant managed the radio department of King Features Syndicate For a time, he wrote free lance scripts for many network radio shows And, finally, he became associated with Phillips H. Lord (Seth Parker to many of you) and with Mr. Lord's productions of By KathleenNorris, Mr. District Attorney and GangBusters.

And so, if you happen to hear the sirens and machine guns of Gang Busters these fall evenings (Fridays at 9—NBC Blue Network) you'll know that the guy behind the guns is Brice who once wrote for TheDartmouth,Theßemaand TheTowerzhovx what he thought was art. Radio, he will tell you, is quite a bit more profitable and considerably more popular—considering the ten million who listen to Gang Busters.

But Brice is determined that one day a curtain will rise on one of his plays.

BRICE DISQUE '25 AND FIANCEE, RADIO ACTRESS MILDRED BAKER While at right istshown the writer of radio's "Gang Buster's" in a creative mood in Hanover, N. H., in the spring of 1925, as caught by the camera of Secy. Parker Meriow 25.The Disque program (Fridays, c, p.m., N.B.C. Blue Network) is popular-estimated10,000,000 listeners.