Meet the LADIES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 28, 5 January 1940, Page 49

Meet the LADIES

Te: Director of 1ZB’s Happiness Club, Joan Sutherland, was christened Edith, and was born * on a farm at Manaia, just out of Hawera in Taranaki. She lived there until she was nine, when she went to boarding school. As a very tiny child

she had a natural urge to express herself in colour, and her talent was encouraged by a certain Mr. Hutton, R.A., who was a great friend of her father’s. In later years she set up a " Creative Art" studio of her own, and her scenic work became known to thousands who visited Auckland cinemas, where the stage curtains and decorations were always, or very nearly always, " by Miss Edith Sutherland." Going to England in 1938, she became actively interested in the business end of the film world, in Wardour Street and Elstree. She became New Zealand President of the Women’s International Film Association and also wrote several film scenarios. While in London she met scores of interesting people — playwrights, composers, authors, professional actresses and actors, including Lilian Braithwaite, Bebe Daniels, Ivor Novello, and the New Zealand cartoonist David Low and his wife, with whom she passed many happy hours. Little gatherings and talks in her Auckland studio are remembered by all Joan’s friends-and she has many. Now she metaphorically dips her brush in a more conspicuous colour. Her little intimate talks on cheerful and happy living are to be heard, not only by the chosen circle of friends, but by six and a-half thousand members of the Happiness Club, and anyone else»who cares to listen.