ANOTHER "MILITARY SECRET"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 333, 9 November 1945, Page 19

ANOTHER "MILITARY SECRET"

The Truth About A Popular Session

NOTHER of those stories which can now be told concerns Station 2YD, Wellington. Station 2YD had received many requests fer light entertainment from members of the forces in camps throughout New Zealand -and in the nearer Pacific Islands, so it organised a "Revue Company of the Air." Each week for three years it has been presenting shows which gave listeners the impression that they were actually from the stage of some military camp. Preliminary announcements each night referred to a full house, the conductor of the "pit band" raising his baton, the rise of' the curtain, and the nervousness of first artists to appear on the bill and break ‘the ice, and so on, There was not a flesh-and-blood artist among them-they were recordings. The show was unusual in many ways, and the success of the illusion was shown by a letter from some people in the North Island. A family argument developed over the names of some of the artists. The head of the house was so sure that it was a stage performance that he inquired if some of the people on the hill could be persuaded to appear at a concert in the home town. Many thousands have enjoyed these sessions, which went under the general name of "For the Boys Off Duty," but it meant much research in the programme department. Section after section of records was combed through for variety records which could be made up

into a non-stop half-hour show each week, In the three years, 1,500 items were presented without repetition. Certain parts of old recordings were sandwiched in with modern arrangements, to assist the illusion and to make it appear that a big stage performance was going on. On October 31, Station 2YD presented a recall of the most popular items, in a full hour’s show.