THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 137, 6 February 1942, Page 3

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

HE adventures that befall a country girl on her arrival in a big metropolis are dramatised in Grand City, a new George Edwards serial, which will take the place of The Mystery of .a Hansom Cab at 4YO. It was written by Sumner Locke-Elliott, the adaptor of The Laughing Man, Hard Cash and Jezebel’s Daughter, and is acted by a cast well known to New Zealand listeners — Nell Stirling, John Cazabon, Lorna Bingham, Hazel Hollander, Lyndall Barbour, and others. There are some typical characters in Grand City-a rough, kindhearted steel millionaire; an old Swede whose simple ambitions are cruelly destroyed by' a murderer; a. dissolute polo player; and members of the idle rich living in duplex apartments. The first instalment will be broadcast from 4YO, Dunedin, at 8 p.m. on Thursday, February 12, Worm-Catching You can dye your hair and paint your toe-nails red, you can wear your nose powdered or unpowdered, but there’s really nothing you can do to change yourself. Your clothing is the only part of you that can be altered or renewed at will, and so it provides a rich medium for the expression of woman’s artistic and creative impulses. Thus do we find the phenomenon of fashion. But whereas fashion should be the outward reflection of some physical or emotional change in the inner woman, it has recently shown a tendency to plunge ahead of it, and instead of

woman dictating the fashion, fashion now shows a tendency to dictate to her, so she must spend a proportion of her time keeping abreast of it, or, better still, ahead. And if she is keen to do so she cannot do better than listen to Ethel Early’s fashion talk from 3YA next Tuesday morning, for, as we all know, it’s the Early bird.... The Good Gold -Days "Eureka! Eureka!" cried Archimedes as he leapt out of his bath and bounded down the streets of Syracuse. And what

had Archimedes found? The schoolboy says the soap, modern advertisers would have us believe that it was an improved gas range, the scientist suggests it was his Principle. But whatever Archimedes discovered or recovered, his joy was as nothing compared with the triumphant abandon of our West Coaster (see illustration) on first discovering a nugget that wasn’t just an empty tin. And probably anyone accosting our prospector at this happy moment (when, as the hymn book has it, "Every prospector pleases") would find that a heart of gold was beating beneath that tattered shirt. But if you want to hear real stories of the golden west from one who really knows you can’t do better than tune into 3YA next Monday, February 9, for a talk by A.P, ("There’s Gold in Them Thar Hills") Harper, veteran New Zealand explorer and mountaineer. When Jitterbugs Jitter There are not many genuine jitterbug haunts in this sober little land of ours-and perhaps some people think that’s just as well — but on Tuesday, February 10, would-be jitterbugs may hear from 1ZB a real "hot" jitter show in the Hello from Hollywood session at 7.30 p.m. The show will come over from the Palladium, dance hall de luxe and popular jitterbug night-spot, situated just behind the famous Radio City, hub of American broadcasting. The orchestra will be that of Henry Kenton. A Disclaimer Probably a good many composers would like to be able to say they had written a song as fine as. Schubert’s Erl King, but not so one young musician of Dresden. Franz Schubert of Dr who lived from 1808 until 1878 is sometimes conf " with his more famous

namesake, who died in 1828; and it was he who, in 1817, wrote to Breitkopf and Haertel, the music publishers, as follows: "I beg for inform you that I received your esteemed letter of ten days ago, in which you enclosed a manuscript setting of Goethe’s Erl King supposed to be by me. With the greatest astonishment I beg to state that this cantata was never composed by me. I shall retain the same in my possession in order to learn if possible who sent you the stuff in such an impolite manner, and to discover the person who had traded on my name. I am greatly obliged by your kindness in sending me the manuscript." The Viennese Schubert’s Erl King will be heard from 1YX on Tuesday, February 10, at 9.25 p.m., sung by Alexander Kipnis. A.R.P. Round about our big cities you will see all sorts of quaint little mounds behind which boomerang shaped trenches are cunningly concealed. If you walk along the main streets you will notice little heaps of sandbags in front of the more expensive public buildings. And all these things show us that certain preparations have been made to cope with a possible emergency, so that when enemy bombers zoom overhead we will know what to do. We shall go to our underground shelter if we’ve got one or we shall shelter in a slit trench or we shall stand to our posts. But we won't just stand. gazing at a bomber long after the alert has sounded without taking some steps to protect ourselves. That’s

why we can’t understand the nitwit in our jllustration. He heard the alert some time ago yet he didn’t even bother to get his feet out of the danger zone! Why doesn’t he dig a shelter trench in his mattress and go"underground? Or at least drape a camouflage net over the bedstead? We feel that he’ll deserve some harsh words in "The Mosquito Pest," a Health in the Home talk to be heard from 2YA on Wednesday morning, February 11. Topping Not so very long ago the chief cities of New Zealand were entertained by the solo tour of a gentleman who in all humility refers to himself as The Great Levante. Our dramatic critic last week actually went so far as to take his six-year-old daughter to a pantomime which features this gentleman. But Mr. Levante didn’t do anything with a top-hat. Now there are lots of things you can do with a

top-hat. You can wear it to a fashionable wedding, You can knock the top out and make a chimney for a little house like the one Peter Pan and Wendy lived in, Aunt Daisy might give you directions for. painting it in some gay colour and using it as an umbrella-stand. But, of course, by far the most important use for the top-hat is that it can have things produced from itself ad infinitum — white rabbits, bunches of carrots, coloured balloons (not barrage), and poultry. So we’re wondering just what kind of tophat selection Paul Whiteman and his orchestra will produce for listeners from 3YA at 7.30 on Thursday evening, February 12, Versatile Spaniard Not many composers take monastic orders and become recluses, but one famous exception was Antonio Soler, the 18th century Spanish composer, whose Concerto in G Major for harpsichord and organ will be heard from 4YA at 7.53 p.m. on Monday, February 9. He was the son of a Catalan military bandsman and from the age of 23 he was organist in the monastery at the Escorial, taking his vows there. He composed church music prolifically, as well as comic operas and music for comedies performed in the Escorial} and plenty of music for the keyboard instruments. He invented an instrument which demonstrated the mathematical division of the octave into equal parts and also wrote a tract on currency exchange between Castile and Catalonia.