A LITTLE GIRL'S AMBITION
Gladys Moncrieff Wanted To Be A "Washer-lady"
_ NCE upon a time in Australia there was a little girl who loved her dolls. They were very real to her-real people who were glad or sad and she never tired of playing with them. One day someone gave her a toy tub and a set of tiny pegs. In no time at all she had hammered two sticks into the dry Australian soil, tied a piece of string across, and set to work. Off came their clothes-every one, to the last small sock. In and out of the sudsy water they went till the little girl was wet right through her apron. By the time she was pegging them on her line she knew what she wanted to do when she grew up. She would wash clothes for ever and ever. She would be a " Washer-lady." When the little girl grew bigger she liked best all the Cinderella kind of stories about marrying a Fairy Prince. But both her father and her mother were "Professional Players"-and so, very early, her dream of good fortune changed. Being a Princess seemed rather dull, there would be nothing more.to be done-but she knew exactly what she would do if she married a Stagemanager. That would be different — a Beginning instead of an End. She would walk and talk and act and sing in a way that would make everyone who heard her enchanted. ? One day in Wellington I stopped and spoke to an old man pasting Show-bills
ea a on a hoarding. He said that all his life he’d been a Punch and Judy man. "T used to go to the small towns in the neighbourhood of Geelong," he said. "There was a little girl with a marvellous voice. She used to stand away up among the rafters of the shearing sheds and sing to the men. They all worshipped her." It was the little " Washer-lady " whose Prince had to be a Stage-manager. As for wanting to enchant people with her singing-she was well on the way to success. Her name was Gladys Moncrieff. And she will broadcast a programme especially for you from all the National Stations at 5.30 p.m. on Thursday next, September 14. For Your Entertainment: MONDAY, 5-6 p.m. 2YA: Talk by Ebor. Airman’s monthly talk 3YA: Stamp Club: 4YZ: 5.30 p.m.: Toyshop Tales. TUESDAY, 5-6 p.m. 2YA: Original Play WEDNESDAY, 5-6 p.m. 4YA: Travel Man. THURSDAY, 5.30 p.m. All National Stations: Gladys Mone crieff is to sing and talk to you. FRIDAY, 5-6 p.m. 2YA: Mr. Jackson, the whaler. SATURDAY, 5-6 p.m. 2YA: Mrs. Crawford’s Special Choir 3YA: "Eyes of the World."
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 11, 8 September 1939, Page 27
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445A LITTLE GIRL'S AMBITION New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 11, 8 September 1939, Page 27
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