Close-ups and Backgrounds

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 776, 4 June 1954, Page 16

Close-ups and Backgrounds

HE best-known and most-heard "personality" in New Zealand radio, Aunt Daisy, is a natural for the Portraits from Life series running nationally in Women’s Sessions this year, and not long after she returned recently from her Pacific Islands visit she faced the microphone to talk about herself. The result, in a somewhat condensed form, will be broadcast in YA Women’s Sessions at 11.0 a.m. on Wednesday, June 16, and will be recorded.also by 3YZ and 4YZ for use later. Aunt Daisy has been in radio, on and off, for a long time-she first went on the air as a singer even before the days of the A. R. Harris Company; and she confesses in this programme that at one time her ambitions were divided between becoming a missionary and an actress. She resolved the conflict by getting married instead, and as she explains having "a bit of both." Another interesting piece of her early life story she tells is about her experiences as a school teacher in Taranaki. It was when she was reportfang for duty at a country school after four years as a pupil teacher in New Plymouth that the headmistress greeted her with a remark that anyone else might have found devastating, "I can’t see that you are going to be of any use whatever." The blow didn’t crush the i

future Aunt Daisy, for even then she must have been developing the philosophy which has apparently stood the test of time, and which she explains for the benefit of listeners in Portrait from Life. This feature has already become a popular one, and at least some of the Portraits are to be heard by a wider audience in evening sessions. Others who will tel! their story in Portraits to be broadcast during the year include the Hon. Mrs. Hilda Ross, Miss Mabel Howard, M.P.., and Mrs. Helen Wilson. Portraits from Life is one of a number of new Women’s Session programmes being heard nationally this year, and several others will be introduced this month and in July. The first of these will be Alex Lindsay Talks About Music, in which the well-known violinist and conductor of the Alex Lindsay String Orchestra will once a month discuss musical topics. This will be broadcast from the YA stations, 3YZ and 4YZ, and dates already fixed for the first talk are 1YA, on Tuesday, June 8; 4YZ, June 9; 3YA, June 15; 4YA, June 17; and 2YA, June 22. Mr. Lindsay starts with a homely comparison be- tween music and cooking, which he says have a great deal. in common, and goes on to declare that music is primarily an

emotional experience. At the same time, he says, most of us listen to music too much with the heart and not enough with the head, so that we never grow tired of hearing our old favourites over and over again. Next month Mr. Lindsay will consider means of increasing discrimination, and therefore enjoyment, in listening to music. Talks which give a background to the news have been’ broadcast in YA

Women’s Sessions for some time, but from Tuesday, June 15, they will be heard on link from all YA stations, originating from each stafion in turn. This will give listeners in all centres a wider variety of viewpoints on the news than any one station has had up till now. The first of the national Background to the News talks will be given from Christchurch by J. J. Saunders, Senior Lecturer in History at Canterbury University College. Two — national book review programmes for women will be introduced in the YA and 4YZ sessions next month. The first, on adult reading, will be heard during the first two weeks of each month. The reviewer for? July will be Josette Bryan, who is librarian to the Air Department, Wellington. She will review two novels. During the second two weeks of each month news of children’s books will be heard. The first of these talks will be given by Anthony Bartlett, of the NZBS Head Office Talks Section, who will review Noel Streatfield’s The Fearless Treasure and Antonia Ridge’s Puppet Plays tor Children. Reviewers for both programmes will be drawn from all over the country. With the introduction of more womén’s programmes on link, 3YA_ will-from Monday, June 14-fall into line with other stations and broadcast its morning Mainly for Women at 11.0 a.m. instead of at 10.0 a.m. .