Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 659, 22 February 1952, Page 24

Open Microphone

By

NEWS OF BROADCASTERS, ON AND OFF THE RECORD,

Swarf

FRANK A. SIMPSON) and Bryan O’Brien have been closely identified in NZBS_ broadcasts recently — but scarcely as closely as seemed to be implied on page 43 of last week's "Listener." The photograph there, as most readers would be aware, was that of Bryan O’Brien-oa recent study by Spencer Digby-and not of Frank Simpson as the caption suggested.

curious about the piece of music used to introduce both the BBC’s Paul Temple serials and the ZB stations’ Going Places and Meeting People, and have asked for the title. Suggestive of travel -by train in particular-it is part of ~"Coronation Scot," composed by V. Ellis, and played by the Queen’s Hall | Light Orchestra. listeners have been PJ %

(CHILDREN taking the BBC's Broadcasts to Schools programmes a month or two ago were the first to hear

a new poem, The. Ballad of Kon-Tiki, written for. broadcasting by Ian Serraillier. The poem tells of lashing up the balsa wood, and of the storm, and of the sea creatures who later came to the raft. The ex-

citing scene of Herman’s rescue by Knut follows, and the climax of. the ballad is the wreck of the raft. The work ends peacefully with the arrival of the Kon-Tiki’s crew on the island of Takume.

FAMILY AFFAIRS

By a at I TANCY HARRIE, pianist and novachordist, who is heard with John Thompson in Four Hands in Harmony, is in private life Mrs. Lee | Like Joy. Nichols, she is

expecting to have a baby next month. Lee Humphreys is at present leader of The Knaves.

John Thompson is leader and arranger for The Duplicats, and also their pianist. Warwick Ransom and his Rumba

Band feature Nancy Harrie and Crombie Murdoch as pianists. Ransom is well up in the presentation of LatinAmerican music, has made.a_ large number of recordings, and when not busv with his band

~ ae represents a_ wellknown music pub- «

lishing house. Esme Stevens, who sings with Dale Alderton and his Orchestra, is Mrs. Alderton. She is also one of The Duplicats. When Artie Shaw was in New Zealand he chose Esme as his vocalist while broadcasting in Auckland. Alderton is a trombonist and also the male singer in The Duplicats. Julian Lee, blind multi-instrumentalist, as well as having his Electrotones, plays in many of Auckland’s dance bands. He was the featured ‘player in Auckland’s recent Swing Concert. John Mackenzie, cinema organist, and town traveller for an Auckland firm, has his Trio, and is also responsible for Uncle Zeke’s Music Store. Occasionally he relieves at the Civic Theatre’s organ console. He has made recordings under the name of John Mackenzie and the Astor Dixie Boys. ts Ps ft

FRANKIES LAMENT

HE ballad of Frankie and the man who done her wrong (which, . when we were younger and in the right con-

dition, we trolled to our own ukulele accompaniment) has

come into tne news again, for Frankie is dead. No one knows -just when and where it began, but there are over 300 versions of

Frankie and Johnnie. Frankie Baker, a young woman in the Negro district of St. Louis in 1899, was sure she inspired it, says Time. "When her man (Albert Britt) two-timed her, Frankie tongue- | lashed him; when he pulled a knife on her she shot him dead. Tried for murder she was acquitted because she killed in self-defence. People in the streets began, singing the ballad of Fran ie at her and they kept singing it’ ds she moved westward. Mae West sang it in

the Paramount film She Done Him Wrong; then RKO did a picture called Frankie and’ Johnnie. Frankie Baker complained that everybody but her was making money out. of her song. Her travels ended

in Portland, Ore., where for the past few years she lived on relief in a ramshackle frame house. Neighbourhood kids sang her song outside her window." Last January Frankie died at the age of 75. Perhaps the most popular recording of this song broadcast by the NZBS is Guy Lombardo’s, with Jenny Gardner as vocalist. mi

BIG SHIPS AND LITTLE

MEMBER of. an old. seafaring family and for many years a. shipping reporter, S. D. Waters has a photographic memory for ships and the’ men who sail them, as everyone who listens AB

to his broadcasts on Ships and Shipping knows. Whether he

is. talking about four-masters or coastal scows, triple expansion engines or diesels he has a wide listening public, not only among people who are connected one wey or another with ships. Sid Waters was a shipping correspondent at Lyttelton when the port was a base forthe Antarctic expedition ships-Scott’s Discovery and Morning in 1901-04, Shackleton’s Nimrod in 1907-08, Scott’s Terra Nova in 1910-13, and Mawson’s Aurora in 191l1-and played a leading part in high pressure news-gathering for his

paper. Mr. Waters also wrote a good deal about Admiral Byrd’s expeditions.

In*1941 he joined the Naval staff in Wellington as_ Intelligence Officer, and» now he is working as © War Historian. for the Royal New Zealand Navy. He has written . three books, Clipper «Ship to

Motor Liner, Ordea: by Sea, and Pamir.

SOME of the leading dance bands in America are now basing their musical style on that of the late Glenn Miller, whose work has become popular among NZBS listeners to dance sessions. Among them there are particularly the orchestras of Ralph Flan-

nagan, and of Tex Benecke, who took over Miller’s band. "The ‘be-bop’ ‘style has just about gone out,".,. a. Wellington dance band expert told’ me the other day. "Verey few people could understand it, let alone

dance to it,’ he said. "It has, in fact, slipped so much that big bands who tried to retain it dwindled down to trios, quartets, quintets, and perhaps sextets — with the. exception ‘of Stan Kenton, whose orchestra, which is, of the concert type, is specialising in progressive jazz." The "narne" bands in the United States, he added, were swinging back to the "Dixieland" style. which makes the melody clear and unmistakable, and is therefore good for dancing to.