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POISE 

thirty-three 

Called "America's Alarm Clock," this product of Catholic schools is the nation's favorite early morning blues chaser.

caused Don to open the broadcasting studio proper to visitors. 

That incident is also one of the most poignant memories of the nation's beloved master of ceremonies. A U. S. Marine, dying of tuberculosis, who for years had been a regular listener to the program, asked that he be allowed to witness one of the broadcasts. Rules were waived and the sick man was brought to the studio where Don McNeill and Walter Blaufuss directed their entire program to him. Don declares that no program was ever more appreciated. It was indeed a public work of mercy, and the sick man awaited his death more happily because of it. 

Largely as a result of popular acclaim regarding this incident, today the exception has become the rule. Everyone is welcome to the "Breakfast Club" studio, and the cast is always ready to go out of its way to make some shut-in - human ones this time - happy.

This opening of the studio to the public has added an unexpected and gleeful feature to the program. A joyful trick of the M. C. is to invite a member of the audience to the state and have him take part in the program proper. Pro tempore cast members and audience alike get a big kick out of the always laughable results. 

Excursions through the studio audience, a regular thing on the show, bring as unexpected results and as much for spectators and radio listeners as the many other lively McNeill antics. In this last feature, however, Done proves himself a genuine family man by his forever picking a child visitor for his memorable thumbnail interview. 

Mothers and grandmothers are invariably flattered highly when Don stops before the little ones - and the more so because they all know how very proud he is of his own three boys. 

The nation rejoiced with the genial Irishman last St. Patrick's Day when he stopped the broadcast to announce that a nine-pound boy had been born to the McNeill household at St. Luke's hospital an hour and a half after the dawn of St. Patrick's Day. The boy was proudly name Robert Patrick.

Don and Katherine's other two youngsters are Tommy and Donny, respectively aged six and eight. Both attend Sts. Faith, Hope and Charity school in Winnetka, Ill., in the daytime, and make life for their dad a rough and tumble affair the minute they return to their home in Kenilworth. 

[[image: Don McNeill with sons Tom and Donny]] 
[[image caption]] Little Tom and Donny with their Dad [[/caption]]

[[image: Don McNeill and wife]] 
[[image caption]] Mrs. McNeill and Don. A good Catholic family man, his laugh-provoking programs are noted for their cleanliness. [[/caption]]