THE BREATH OF LIFE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 547, 16 December 1949, Page 10

THE BREATH OF LIFE

a jester?"’-thus Margaret Bull, aged 79, from her wheel chair in a home for retired actors, when visited by Wilfred Pickles in his Have a Go series. Margaret had played with Julia Neilson and Fred Terry in Sweet Nell, was almost twenty years with the D’Oyly Carte Company and gave us Jack Point with a verve and flair which was equalled by her colleagues when it came their turn to be interviewed. Pickles has a way with him, and is at his best in a session like this when his own showmanship is matched-and sometimes bettered-by other showmen. After Miss Bull came Harry Pollock. Asked what he liked best, he said "Old Burgundy-I can drink it till it runs out of my ears." Then Frank Dix, aged 78, who wrote over one hundred and twenty pantomimes with Arthur Collins, appeared in most of them, and whose greatest dislike is soft drinks. Frank’s display and his beautifullymodulated voice made one conscious of the ghost of an old time theatrical, hat slightly on one side of his head, poking someone in the rib with his cane and calling him "laddie." Add to this group May Nelson Ramsay, 83, who was "born in the Highlands unexpectedly," and who told us with a spirit undiminished by age, her experiences in heavy Victorian melodrama at Sadler’s Wells, and we had a session which I, for one, enjoyed unreservedly. We were back in an era of hansom cabs and gaslight, stage door johnnies and Gaiety girls, with Henry Irving and Ellen Terry hovering somewhere in the background. They were all delightful, but how I’d hate to be the matron of that particular institution, the clash of personalities at times must be terrific. Itma has no successor. It may never have one. But there is a spirit and attack in the best of the Have a Go series which is at least reminiscent of the Tommy Handley setup. There is the same drive and feeling for humanity which bubbles up like a yeast through: the more turgid and pretentious offerings, and it is in sessions like these that radio scores over any other form of presentation. I mentioned previously how well the old timers in Arrowtown came over the air. Another similarly successful broadcast was the recent 2YA Women’s Session which gave us Mr. Reid, Wellington’s last remaining "cabby." Early Wellington came to life as he remembered, and if there is such a person as a typical New Zealander, it could be Mr. Reid. Colloquial, hearty, completely at home in front of the microphone, he was wisely given his head, and didn’t he love it! So did I -and we could do with a lot more of this kind of broadcast where the minimum of editing, allied with the right questions asked at the right time, gives us a fully rounded and _ natural personality with a story to tell. 4 ND so, good fellow, you are

Sycorax