Another Helping of "Me and Gus"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 730, 10 July 1953, Page 18

Another Helping of "Me and Gus"

"| KNOW by test," «a reviewer wrote in The Listener about More Me and Gus, the tales of rural comedy set in Taranaki, "that old men find these absurd goingson of Mark and Gus in Mossy Road wildly funny. . . I wonder how it appeals to young men up there in the mud today?" Whatever the answer to that one may be, it seems to appeal ‘at the other end of the ‘scale if a letter from a | six-year-old recently re‘ceived at 2YA can be taken as typical. Addressing herself to "Dear Mr. Tomlins," this little Nelson girl wrote: "Please will you do some more funny things so we can have some more Me and Gus books. Thank you for the other ones, we just love them, How many children have you and Violet? Is Rosie married? We are sorry "Me is dead." And _ she goes on to ask some questions about other = human and otherwise, in the books. young and old who’ like to hear about Me and Gus-who heard the original series and want to hear more-are now to have the opportunity to do so. More Me and Gus will start

from. two. stations on Tuesday, July 14-from 4YA in Countrywomen’s Magazine of the Air at 11.0 a.m. and from 2YD at 7.45 p.m.-and from other YA and YZ stations-during August and September. The first story is "The Enemy Within," an account of how Mark set about giving his, home borer treatment. In other stories listen--ers will hear about Gus and his dog, pig trouble, Gus’s big deal, a"night at the circus, "My Cousin Ernie," the drought, the ploughing, auto-suggestions, Gus’s seven-wire fence, and about how

Waterloo. Like the earlier series, More Me and Gus is read by Bill Beavis." Francis Jackson, who adapted Me and Gus for broadcasting and publication in book form from the original book by Frank Anthony, told The Listener that he got most of the stories for More Me and Gus on the spot in Taranaki, where the events on which they are based actually happened. Readers of The Listener will recall the interview in which Mr, Jackson described his meeting with "Gus Tomlins." Since then he has been back a number of times, and it’s in the bar of the local pub, served by the same barman who was there when Frank Anthony lived in the district, that he hears the stories"one leading to another like a chain reaction." Anthony, who is of course the "Me" of the stories, used to call in at the pub on sale, days. Mr. Jackson has had many letters from people who lived in the Me and Gus country and knew the characters in the stories. One man who heard them broadcast from Radio New Zealand wrote from Perth, Western Australia, recalling that Frank Anthony played the violin well and provided the music for open-air dances on the Te Popo bridge: Both the Me and Gus books continue to sell well, and Mr. Jackson thinks the original book had a relatively small sale because it was published soon after the depression when people didn’t want to read about the hard times after the First World War-and probably didn’t consider them a fit subject for humour.