THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 162, 31 July 1942, Page 2

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

N these days of movie advertisements we rather expect to be told that every show is a show of shows. This, however, is the title of the new series which will be heard from 2YD in the Curtain Up session at 8.0 on Sunday evenings. You will get glimpses of a number of shows in the form of such famous theatrical stars as Gladys Moncrieff, Peter Dawson, Strella Wilson, Harold Williams, Heddle Nash and others. Other new serials which listeners should watch for are Cloudy Weather, adapted from Joan Butler’s novel which will run on Sundays, and One Good Deed a Day and Silas Marner (adapted from George Eliot’s famous novel), both of which begin on Friday, August 14.

Music, Maestro, Please! After all that "Marsyas" has been saying about the need to encourage local talent, he has only himself to blame if the recital from 4YA next Wednesday evening by the " Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street" does not measure up to his expectations. The name of the compére, Doc. Ricardo McMutt (non-nordic, surely?) does suggest ‘that the society’s repertoire may not be all that the society’s title suggests, taking it at its face-value, but at best we can but wait and hear, as the Earl of Oxford and Asquith would no doubt say if he were here to-day. ; Proverbs, XIII., 3 It may be true, as Rousseau said (and some propaganda seems to bear it out) that man invented words to conceal his thoughts, but there are few who would deny that to-day words are more positive in their influence. So much power is to-day vested in words-both in the mouths of the just and of the unjustthat we make no apology for drawing particular attention to the talk "The Danger of Words", which L. S. Hearnshaw is scheduled to give from 2YA next Monday. We may make fun of the abuse of words, as Ian Hay did 25 years ago when he pointed out that in the Army a spade was called not a spade, but "a shovel, Mark I, infantry, for the use of." But we can’t carry such fooling too far or there will come a time when our words deceive no-one but ourselves, Two Plays There are two NBS productions of Graeme-Holder plays next week, the first "Dr. Shalmaneser," from 2YA on Wednesday, August 5 and the second, "Portrait of Mr. Sitlington"’, from 4YA on Sunday, August 9. Dr. Shalmaneser is a Jewish surgeon who saves the life of an anti-Semite director, but the obvious denouement of a grateful dictator freeing the Jews from ghetto and concentration camp is disregarded in favour of an ending that combines ingenuity and poetic justice. "Portrait of Mr. Sitlington" the programme tells us, is "an unusual character study of a man who would not see past himself and his own affairs", which reminds us of the story of the man who could not see what was under his nose and was advised either to grow it larger or shave it off

Friday week, on the eve of the C.J.C.’s Grand National Meeting. We ourselves temember-after all, one is bound to remember much when one has been ejected at Ellerslie, turfed out at Trentham, run in at Riccarton, and warned off at Wingatui-many such incidents. There was the lynching of Great-Aunt Agatha, for example, when some excitable punters found her offering the favourite a blackball in. the birdcage at Brighton. But, as you will have gathered, there is a personal flavour about our own reminiscences which convinces us that it is just as well that F. C. Thomas is doing the speaking on Friday week. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Wit and Science Station 4YA is trying a new experiment with their Winter Course talks this year. Instead of a solid five weeks on one topic followed by a solid five weeks on another, listeners will find a series of talks on "Humour in Literature" sandwiched between a series on "Science Advances". But if you hear one week that operations are now performed on the brains of lice to produce a particular variety of vaccine or that the electric charges in your body are strong enough to run the engine of a car, don’t

just throw back your head and laugh, but look first to see if you are listening to a scientific fact. Dr. B. Howard will begin the first series on August 4 with a talk on "Wit and Humour" to be followed on August 11 by Dr. S. N. Slater, on "Old and New Methods of Discovery." Lauder Than Ever On August 4, 1870, a certain Mr. Lauder of Scotland called the neighbours in to wet the new baby’s head. They called him Harry (or perhaps Henry on the Sabbath) and hoots, mon, he’s still going strong, entertaining the troops just as he did away back in 1918, Whether we can roll out "It’s a braw bricht moonlicht nicht, ye ken" as incomprehensibly as can those over the Border, or merely utter the series of English noises that sometimes pass: for Gaelic, we shall tune in, for old time’s sake at least, to hear Sir Harry singing about the bonny banks and bluebells of Scotland when "Andra" of 2ZB marks the comedian’s birthday in his session next Tuesday. Best-Selling Serial

The claim that it is "the biggest Best Seller of All Time after the Bible" is frequently made for the American novel In His Steps, by Charles Monro Sheldon. That claim might be difficult to check in these days of Green Valleys and Gone Winds, but in New Zealand anyway, copies of In His Steps are sold out. However, if you wish to make the acquaintance of the Rev. Henry Maxwell, of Raymond, U.S.A., you can still do so by listening-in. A new radio serial deals with the problems that face this parson, who tries to follow in the steps of Christ, in the face of rack-renting landlords, callous industrial bosses, and others. It has already begun at 2ZB, and will begin from 1ZB on August 3, from 3ZB on August 10, and from 4ZB on August 17. In each case it is heard at 2.15 p.m., from Monday to Thursday. A Breadful Question "Are you Old-Fashioned?" is the arresting title of the "Health in the Home" talk from 2YA on the morning of Wednesday, August 5. It will be interesting to hear just how the health authorities propose to decide whether you're old-fashioned or not, Will your Mental Attitude Date be computed in much the same way as your Intelligence Quotient, by a series of carefully standafdised test questions? And if so what form will the questions take? Apart from opining that "What do you,think of the Modern Girl?" is an obvious question in any attempt to locate the Mental Attitude Date we have no suggestions to offer.

altogether. But probably Mr. Holder will find some means (would the Health Department suggest carrots, we ask ourselves?) of curing the unfortunate Mr. Sitlington’s myopia. Up and Over Devotees of the Royal and Ancient Game, sorry, the Noble Art-dammit, we mean the Sport of Kings-anyhow, racefans will be interested in the talk "Early Steeplechase Incidents," which F. C. Thomas will broadcast from 3YA on