Items From The ZB's

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 115, 5 September 1941, Page 25

Items From The ZB's

Parade is a conclusive demonstration of how the tastes of the average listener determine the relative popularity of light songs. In this- programme listeners are asked to place a number of songs in their correct order of popularity, this being determined finally by a comparison of the sales of records and sheet music at one of Wellington’s biggest music houses. In a recent Hit.Parade, for instance, most listeners agreed that "Sweet Little Headache" was the most popular tune among those played, with ‘" Music, Maestro, Please," "Will You Remember?" "Thanks for the Memory," "Paradise in Waltz Time," and " Lords of the Air" following in that order. First to place them in that order of popularity was Miss V. Cross of Rintoul Street, Wellington, who won +a prize valued at £2 5s. + % * ICHOLAS ' MATTHEY, the gipsy violinist, whose picture appears on this page and who is one of the artists featured regularly in Pageant of Music, the Sunday night feature, was born in Russia, his father being one of Moscow’s best known conductors. He started his career at the Conservatory of Moscow, and later went to Bucharest where his talent so impressed Queen Marie of Rumania that she personally undertook the furthering of his musical studies. After a period in Germany, he went to America, where he was acclaimed as the greatest gipsy violinist of his day. He remained in America, where he is a popular vaudeville concert and radio artist. Many of the compositions he plays are his own. * % * HE Enemy Within, the spy drama dealing with the activities of Nazi agents in Australia has proved so popular at 2ZB that it has been decided to play it three times weekly instead of twice. Playing times are now Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 6.30 p.m. * * * , ROAMIN’ in the Gloaming, the title of a new programme which will shortly be heard from the ZB’s could refer to none other than Sir Harry Lauder, who, after a lifetime of entertaining, is still, at the age of 72, singing at concerts for the forces in England. In.the last war, Harry Lauder was one of the greatest personalities on the entertainment front. He gave concerts throughout the British Isles, in France and abroad, his Harry Lauder Fund raising over a quarter of a million pounds for the troops. Alexander Scott, who is compére of the new programme, is a personal friend of Sir Harry Lauder, and relates various incidents in the great comedian’s life going as far back, as his tour of America in 1908. On that tour he was hailed not so much as a comedian as a character actor, the billboards even announcing him as the " World’s greatest character actor." The songs introduced include, of course, matiy old favourites, but several will be mew to New Zealand listeners. gs HE new 2ZB programme The Hit