NEW COMMERCIAL FEATURES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 91, 21 March 1941, Page 11

NEW COMMERCIAL FEATURES

Several Interesting Programmes On The Way

have started or will be starting in the near future from the ZB stations. They include "Academy Award," a C. P. MacGregor production featuring several well known film stars, " Secret Diary" and "One Girl in a Million," ‘two programmes for women, " Real Life Stories," produced by the CBS, and "Imperial Leader," a dramatised biography of Winston Churchill. "Academy Award" is a: series of complete half-hour plays produced for the MacGregor studios by Kimbel S. Saint. The series is introduced by a one-hour presentation of "Pride and Prejudice," a special radio adaptation of the Jane Austen novel which was recently filmed with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. Star of the first series interesting programmes

start from 2ZB on April 1, 1ZB on April 8, 3ZB on April 15, and from 4ZB on April 22. It runs to 117 episodes, and when it ends it will be followed by "One Girl in a Million," which is described as "the story of Sally, who married a man she didn’t know." "Real Life Stories" has been running in America for six years, and has proved one of the most popular programmes on the air there. The scripts have been made available to the Commercial Broadcasting Service, and a series of them has been produced by Bryan O’Brien at the head office studios of the CBS. Many well-known Wellington repertory players have leading parts. "Real Life Stories" starts from all the ZB stations on April 7, and will be

is; Ona Munson, who plays a featured part in "Gone with the Wind." She is followed by Gale Page, another wellknown Hollywood star. The half-hour plays alternate between comedy and straight drama. One, for instance, is a thriller entitled "The Castle of Santa Maria," the theme of which is the adventures of a young woman who inherits a castle in Haiti which is reputed to be haunted. "Academy Award" will replace the "Guest Announcer" feature early in April, and will be heard over all the ZB stations every Tuesday and Thursday from 8.0 p.m. to 8.30 p.m., and from 2ZA on Wednesday from 8.15 to 8.45 p.m. "Secret Diary" "Secret Diary,’ which is in some ways reminiscent of " Hope Alden’s Romance," was presented with the June Award of the American publication Radio Review for the outstanding dramatic show on the air during that month. It has already proved a success over the air in Australia. It consists of dramatised diary entries, and tells of a woman’s concern over the love affairs of her daughter. The part of Elsa Morgan, the woman who keeps the diary, is played by Nanette Sargent. "Secret Diary" will be heard from Tuesday to Friday at 10.0 am. over the four main ZB stations and will

heard at 7.30 p.m. every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The Life of Churchill "Imperial Leader," which was made in Australia and is now on the air in every State of the Commonwealth, has already started from Station 2ZB, so many listeners will have had an opportunity of judging its merits for themselves. Legionhaire, the Melbourne producing unit which made " Imperial Leader," is one of the few Australian studios which have been able to sell productions in America, and with the present pro-British feeling in the U.S.A., together with the admiration for Churchill as Britain’s man of the hour, there is every chance that "Imperial Leader" also will be sold there. "Imperial Leader" is a serious bio+ graphy of Churchill from his early days at Sandhurst and in the Boer War, through his turbulent career in politics, through the Great War, up to the dramatic moment last year which brought him to power. "Imperial Leader" is played at 7.15 p.m. on Fridays and at 8.15 p.m. on Saturdays. The feature has already started from 2ZB, and will start from 1ZB this Friday, March 21, from 3ZB on Friday, March 28, from 4ZB on Friday, on April 4, and from 2ZA Palmerston North, on April 11.