THINGS TO COME A Run Through The Programmes

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 8, 18 August 1939, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run

Through The Programmes

T is not easy to trace the history of nur- ] sury rhymes. If, long ago, they were printed at all they were seldom printed on anything substantial enough to survive the curious hands of those for whom they were intended. But Llewellyn Etherington has dug fairly deep and, for example, produces Old King Cole from a book published in 1632, and Three Blind Mice from a source 330 years old. He will talk about his discoveries from 1YA on Friday, August 25, at 8 p.m. Lucky for Both It was a lucky chance that prompted a Christchurch lad to call at 3ZB studio for an audition one very wet Saturday. The programme department was in need of some special items to keep listeners’ minds off the weather and the disappointment of missing their usual sporting interests. In Jack Brown they had just what was required — snappy cowboy. songs. Since that Saturday Jack and his guitar have been a feature on the weekend programmes. He Hovered in the Air The great Nijinsky, with his extraordinary power, was in his element in the ballet "Spectre de la Rose." So wonderful was his leap at entrance and exit, that it was thought he had used specially prepared shoes, or a

mechanical contrivance. When he leaped vertically, he seemed to hover in the air in a perceptible bird-like pause, before returning again to earth. Memories of the ballet "Spectre of the Rose" will be presented from 2YC, Wellington, on Tuesday, August 22, at 9.23 p.m.

Ogboddy’s Nose It’s that man Ogboddy again. He has diff culty with his memory, and proves the danger of using tricks to keep it working. To remember the name of poor old Snell he sniffs, hoping to think from "smell" to "Snell"; but starts instead to talk of "Wrench" and "Spink," much to Mrs. Ogboddy’s disgust. Listen to 1YA at 9.45 p.m. on August 23 for the BBC feature, "Poor Old Snell." From Screen to the Air Not many listeners are so pre-occupied with their sets that they cannot find time to take an interest in films, so it is an event of double importance when one type of entertainment can be compared with the other. From Station 3YA, for instance, a broadcast at 9.5 p.m. on August 20, of " The Case of the Frightened Lady," the Edgar Wallace thriller, will remind many that the film of that name first put Emlyn Williams (author of " Night Must Fall") in the public’s eye for horror men. The coming broadcast is an NBS production. What Do You Know? "Musical Knowledge," 4ZB’S new session, is becoming one of the most popular sessions broadcast from that station. Records are played and listeners are asked questions, such as: "Who is the artist?" "What instruments are being played?" "What is the title of the number?". Lionel Sceats, who conducts the session, was inundated with 600 replies to the first competition. Pearls and Pearlers Science has come to the aid of the pearl fisherman as it has come to the aid of every other industry, but there is still a good deal of diving that is as primitive as it was in the old days around the north coast of Australia, where large fleets of pearl luggers still work. O. E. White visited these parts a few years ago, and in a series of three talks from 2YA, beginning at 8.44 p.m. on August 21, he wil) describe pearlers’ methods. ~ Wellington’s Whale A whale does not come ashore every day, so when "Mac" of 2ZB heard about the unfortunate humpback which was discovered stranded between two rocks in Lyall Bay Beach, he sallied forth with a microphone, and 2ZB’s listeners were surprised to hear a lively commentary on the event. The result

" of the broadcast was seen in the afternoon when thousands of cars lined the streets to Lyall Bay, full of curious folk wanting to see a dead whale. But there were "Things to Come" which created a different kind of interest a few days later. Soprano and Guitarist If a person can speak two or three languages, that is good; if he can speak four, that is very good; and five is excellent. But Olga Coelho, Brazilian soprano and guitarist, speaks six languages — English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Russian. This visiting artist will give her first broadcast from 1YA, Auckland, on Friday, August 25, and she will be interviewed from that station at 6 p.m. on Thursday, August 24. Calisthenics in the Cold With ice upon his beard and breath tinkling musically as it falls to the studio floor, a gallant officer from the Physical Welfare Branch has maintained his lonely vigil every morning of the last cold months. Hot, warm, or freezing, the early morning broadcasts of physical exercises continue unabated. The fourth series will be heard from the YA stations at 7 a.m. each day from August 20 to September 2. Fantastic Japan The Japanese love precise beauty, yet in the last two years they have done things to the Chinese which have shocked even those who witnessed the Boxer rebellion atrocities, The Japanese love ceremony and good manners, yet Edgar Mowrer says that the Japanese nation is bellicosity personified. This country of fantasy and contradiction is to be featured in the "Man Through the Ages" series from 4YA at 8.37 p.m. on August 24. Local Talent When the Wellington Melbas, Macfarlanes, -and Moncrieffs have been culled on August _.26, listeners will be able to look forward to 2YA’s broadcast of the national finals of the Melba Bequest Scholarship from the Wellington Competitions on September 2. Meanwhile, entrants (usually 40 or 50) will have been given a preliminary hearing in the 2YA studios for the radio voice competition. They Were Not Amused When Verdi wished to use Victor Hugo’s play, "Le Roi s’Amuse," for the basis of an

opera, the police flatly forbade it. After all, they could not allow a king to be presented as a rather dubious character. Verdi, however, saw possibilities in the plot, and refused to use another. Finally, the king was changed to a duke, the high intrigue to low. intrigue, and then everything went smoothly. "Rigoletto" is the name of the opera, which was written in the amazingly short time of forty days, and was a complete success. It will be heard from 4YA, Dunedin, on Sunday, August 20. Music-Hall Masterpiece From all the old-time theatre and musichall items which have lately been broadcast we have discovered no idea so attractive as

the idea of having a hook suspended from a rope or attached to a pole back-stage, so that artists who failed to amuse might be neatly jerked out of sight-and harm’s way. There was life in the theatre in those days. Hear some of it in "Hail Variety," the BBC recorded feature to be played from 2YA on August 21, at 9.5 p.m. On Catching Fish It is a curious fact that much more is heard of fishing introduced into New Zealand than of native fishing, if we except the big game fishing in the North. A man will talk all evening about catching trout, and newspapers give a lot of space to this form of amusement (or mental aberration) but we don’t get much about catching the New Zealand fish of the eatable variety, nor does the average New Zealander know very much about their habits. G. S. Thomson, of: Dunedin, is going to supply some of this information in a series of talks from 4YA, beginning on Wednesday, August 23, at 8.40 p.m.