Items From The ZB's

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 149, 1 May 1942, Page 21

Items From The ZB's

READY wit in a radio contest A sometimes means ready cash, judging from an experience recently in an Information Please session at 4ZB. Don Donaldson, who is 4ZB’s "Professor Speedee," asked a competitor which Biblical character made use of the jawbone of an ass, and against whom did he use it. The character was correctly identified as Samson, and his opponents as the Philistines. "How many Philistines did Samson kill in this highly original manner?" asked "Professor Speedee." The competitor was well beaten, but after a moment’s thought he replied airily, " As many as he managed to hit, I suppose." He was awarded full marks. * * * HE LEGION OF DEATH, a new serial starting soon from the Commercial stations, is an escape into the fantastic life of Central European court and diplomatic circles in the days before the Great War, when the motor-car was just beginning to oust the fiacre as a handy place for the whispering of dark secrets, and duels were still fought for the favour of a beautiful woman. The story, which opens in Budapest, concerns the wartime wanderings through Russia, France, and Africa, of a certain Baron Karl Taranska, who is exiled following an affair involving a Countess Elsa Heldenstrom at the Hungarian court. An Australian production from the B.A.P. studios, it features several radio actors whose voices are already familiar to ZB listeners. " * HE part of Baron Taranska in The Legion of Death is played by Arundel (" King of the Cads") Nixon, while Elsa Heldenstrom is played by Katrin Roselle, a young Viennese actress who came to Australia to play lead in the stage play I Married An Angel. Her distinctive accent and her freshness and vivacity make her a good choice for the part. Others in the cast are the New Zealand girl, Lola Kelly, who has been heard here in several radio serials, Ronald Morse, Frank Bradley, Harold Meade, Queenie Ashton,* and Ron Randell. There are 26 episodes, and the action includes all kinds of desperate adventures in European capitals, on slave ships, in the Foreign Legion, and in France during Great War I. The Legion of Death starts from 2ZB on Saturday, May 2; from. 1ZB on May 16; from 3ZB May 30; and from 4ZB on June 14, and it will be heard every Saturday at 7.15 p.m. % e- . 6@ ‘THE "Give and Take" quiz, which ‘" 4ZB has been presenting every Monday evening on behalf of the All Purposes Patriotic Appeal, was to have finished on April 14. So many listeners asked for its continuation, however, that arrangements have been made with the local Patriotic Council to extend it.