FILM STARS SPEAK FOR BRITAIN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 96, 24 April 1941, Page 8

FILM STARS SPEAK FOR BRITAIN

Radio’s Big Anzac Night Appeal

LTHOUGH they A live and work far away from their beleaguered homeland, Hollywood’s large colony of English actors and actresses has contributed generously to Britain’s war effort. Some of them-David Niven and Laurence Olivier are two-have. returned voluntarily to England for’ active service in the forces. Those who remained in Hollywood have helped in other ways, by raising money for War purposes, by giving generously themselves. The biggest job yet attempted by the British stars in Hollywood was a radio appeal some months ago for funds for the Canadian. Red Cross. It took the form of an hour’s entertainment, interspersed with appeals, and was broadcast from Hollywood where it was performed before an audience of 3000 people, over the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC and a big hook-up of American stations. Some of Hollywood’s most farious stars contributed to the programme-Mary Pickford, Ronald Colman, Anna Neagle, Madeleine Carroll, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh. C. Aubrey Smith, Herbert Marshall, Merle Oberon and Gloria Jean to mention only a few, The occasion also marked the first broadcast by the Dionne Quintuplets, who, introduced by Dr. Alan Dafoe, broadcast from: their nurgery in Canada. ~

This is the programme which, recorded by the C. P. McGregor Studios and made available by Sinclair Carruthers of Radio Features Ltd., will be broadcast over 17 New Zealand stations on Anzac Night, this Friday, April 25,

in aid of provincial patriotic funds. At intervals during the broadcast a telephone appeal will be conducted over the same New Zealand-wide network of National and Commercial stations. Telephone exchanges throughout the country will remain open to enable contributions to be telephoned to the various centres and acknowledged over the air. Both radio services, the Post and Telegraph Department, provincial patriotic councils and local patriotic committees are all combining to make this broadcast appeal the most spectacular of its kind yet attempted in the Dominion. There can be no doubt that the entertainment presented will command a huge listening audience. Adroitly compéred by comedian Alan Mowbray, it varies from light comedy items to dramatic recitations and _ straightforward appeals, with Britain and her ‘hour of need running through it as the connecting theme. Thus Anna Neagle, star of Victoria the Great and Sixty Glorious Years, recites the "Prayer of the Red Cross Nurse "; Herbert Marshall reminisces about London to a musical accompaniment of "The London Suite," concluding with the quotation "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life";

and Mary Pickford, recalling Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s "Do you hear the children weeping, O my brothers?" pleads the cause of British refugee children. In introducing the Dionne "Quints," Dr. Dafoe makes a moving appeal on © behalf of the Red Cross, and the "Quints" themselves sing a medley , of English and French songs. Reginald Gardiner gives his celebrated imitation of several locomotives; Betty Jane Roe, a light contralto, sings " Danny Boy’; and Ronald Colman gives a short recitative address "To England." One of the most moving items is Madeleine Carroll’s reading of the

New York Times’s leading article of last July-‘"It is twelve o’clock in London. Hitler has spoken and Lord Halifax has replied..." Gloria Jean, young singing star, sings two light numbers, and C. Aubrey Smith, dean of the British colony in Hollywood, recites Kipling’s "Ballad of the Camperdown." Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, who were married not long ago, both contribute items. Olivier, now a member of the R.A.F., gives a lively rendering of "Once more unto the breach, dear friends..." the ringing exhortation Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Henry the Fifth before Harfleur.

Approximately 20 minutes are taken up with a one-act play entitled This Other Eden, which features Gene Lockhart, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Binne Barnes and Freddie Bartholomew, The scene is a shelter somewhere in London during an air-raid, and the theme is the humour and pathos’ of the life of the average Londoner, who, in the midst of terror and desolation, still seems more preoccupied with cricket results and his domestic problems. The programme will begin over the 17 New Zealand stations at 7.30 p.m. with an explanation of the purpose of the appeal and a reminder to listeners about telephoning contributions. This will be followed by the

first portion of the entertainment, after which at approximately eight o’clock, a short address will be given by the Hon. W. Perry, M.L.C., DeputyChairman of the National Patriotic, Fund _ Board. Acknowledgment of the first donations will then be made over the individual stations in the network. An explanation of the zones into which the country has been divided for this purpose is given in a panel on this page. From approximately 8.8 p-m., the programme will

consist of entertainment interspersed with acknowledgments of gifts. At ten o’clotk country telephone exchanges will close down, but the separate stations will continue to announce donations for another 15 minutes, when, at 10,15, all stations will link up again for the announcement of the latest Dominion result. Should the stations still have unacknowledged gifts on hand, they will probably continue to announce these, and link up again with 2YA for the final result. In any event, full instructions will be given during the evening. It is expected that the telephone appeal will reach into every corner of the country, and naturally a big job of organisation has fallen on the shoulders of the Post and Telegraph Department.

here are 350 exchanges in New Zealand, and 2000 telephone offices in outlying districts. As Anzac Day is a statutory holiday, only 82 of the 350 exchanges would normally be open after eight o'clock. .Exchange _ staffs and other officials, however, have been asked to stand by vol-

-untarily and provide sufficient staff to handle the heavy traffic expected between

7.30 p.m, and 10.0 p.m. A country listener who wishes to contribute has merely to phone his nearest exchange or telephone office. He will be thanked for his donation and asked to listen in to the station which will be covering his district. The donation will then be passed on to the radio station for acknowledgment and to the central organisation at Wellington where it will swell the New Zealand total. Listeners in the cities and larger provincial centres whose telephones are connected with automatic exchanges will be notified over the air on the night of the broadcast which mumbers they should phone their donations to. These numbers will also Re listed in local newspapers.

It is expected "that toll traffic from the exchanges to the broadcasting centres will be extremely heavy, and that there will be few post and telegraph offices which will not be working at full pressure. In larger centres a good deal of extra staff will be required, and here local patriotic committees will play their part. Volunteers, two to a telephone, will take down lists of donations as they flow into the larger exchanges. In Wellington over 50 additional telephones are being installed. The collection of amounts promised over the telephone presents another problem of organisation, and both local postmasters and patriotic committees will play their part. For four days-fol-lowing the broadcast, postmasters wiil

collect donations, issuing receipts. om» Patriotic Fund receipt books. After this, the collection of outstanding amounts will be undertaken by the patriotic committees, By courtesy of the Post and Telegraph Department, gifts by money order will be free of the usual commission. In past radio telephone appeals, very nearly 100 per cent. of the money pro-

mised has been collected, indicating the interest listeners have taken in the appeal and the earnestness of their'desire to help. The number of people making bogus donations or unauthorised gifts on behalf of other people has also been very small.

The total amount of money collected -and it is confidently expected that it will reach many thousands of poundswill be distributed among the provincial patriotic councils, and will eventually help to provide comforts for the fighting forces both in the Dominion and overseas.