ALAN MULGAN KNOWS OUR HISTORY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 553, 27 January 1950, Page 19

ALAN MULGAN KNOWS OUR HISTORY

FEW days ago Alan Mulgan rounded off fifty years of journalism in New Zealand. In that time he has not been continuously with newspapers, but he has never ceased to. write for them, and he has also found energy for the writing of books. He is a valued contributor to The Listener, and for many years his articles under the pen name of "Cyrano" have been a weekly feature of The Auckland Star, a paper of which he was once Literary Editor. The connection between journalism and broad-

‘casting, indicated by the number of people who have moved without difficulty from one to the other, is especially. noticeable in Mr. Mulgan’s career. His work for radio began in 1935, when he became the first Supervisor of Talks for the Broadcasting Service, which was then under board control} but he did mot become widely known as a broadcaster until he retired from that position a little more than three -years ago. Much notice was taken of his autobiographical series, \The Making of a New Zealander, now being expanded for publication as a book. He has also done a great deal of other work that has not brought him directly to the microphone. It may not be generally known that he collaborates with Dr. G. H. Scholefield in preparing the daily feature from Stations 2YA and 2YC, Today in New Zealand History. © A broadcaster may be successful for different re&sons. He may have an interesting personality and an easy de-

livery which: allows him te get immediately into touch with listeners; he may have an attractive vo which gives colour and life to the material that is being used, even when it is not intrinsically- valuable; or he raed have knowledge and experience, and facility of expression. The ideal, of course-rarely

found-is the combination of knowledge, personality, and .a voice which comes warmly and agreeably through the microphone. Alan Mul- | gan is effective because he brings to broadcasting the special equipment of. a writer and journalist. | Even for a member of | a profession where curiosity is rated highly, his interests are unusually wide. He has history, essays, poetry and a novel. Few men know more than ~he of the wider background of : our history which bg age in people and customs and ways of living as well : as political and economic facts. He is learned in cricket, and he has an islander’s interest in ships. His memory holds | tenaciously to what it, receives, so that on almost any subject he can be interesting; and in most cases he will have an anecdote to round off the story. Journalism. has taught him to he careful of facts:

authorship has carried him beyond facts (although never out of their reach) into imaginative writing; and his ability and training are supported by a capacity for hard work. At a time of life when most men are looking for feisure, he sits down in his’ house at York Bay (with the harbour against his window) and scribbles indus= triously in handwriting which only two or three people can decipher. He is to be seen in the streets of Wellington, a tall "man leaning into the wind, his hat a little battered after many encounters with gusty corners, and in his hand an® attache case which is invariably full of books. As likely as not, he is making for one of the buildings in which the NZBS keeps its various depaftments. And the next instalment of Today in New Zealand History may be on its way to the

microphone,

M.H.

H.

: ys is the first of a series of personal sketches of people who have become widely known in broadcasting.