Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 890, 24 August 1956, Page 18

Open Microphone

NEWS OF BROADCASTERS ON AND OFF THE RECORD

TROUPERS

W HEN Laurel Mather (above), of The Boy Friend Company went along to 1ZB for a Women’s Hour interview, she got rather a shock. "I was expecting to have a quiet chat with Marina," she said. "But when I got to the Radio Theatre it was full of people and I, in skirt and jumper, was the one they had come to see. I hadn’t real-

ised that Doctor Paul was so popular in New Zealand." Listeners had

been told in advance that Miss Mather plays the notorious Elizabeth in this serial, and they turned out in strength. On two points Miss Mather was able to reassure them: Doctor Paul was likely to continue indefinitely, and she has not forsaken the serial for the stage. "When we were touring with The Boy Friend .in Australia I had to fly from Brisbane and Melbourne to record further episodes in Sydney," she told us. "And when the company came to New Zealand I had to stay behind for a couple of days and record another 13 programmes. No, I was not the original Elizabeth, although I have been playing the part now for five years. For a year

before that it was played by Neva CarrGlyn, and I had to do a careful imitation because, you know, a change of actresses is so unpopular. But over six months I was gradually able to introduce my own voice, and not a fan noticed." Laurel Mather was born in Australia, but went to school in England, where she worked for 10 years with repertory

companies and the BBC before returning to Australia in 1949 to compere ABC variety shows. She is married to a radio producer and writer, Maurice Travers. In radio and on the stage Miss Mather has had many "wicked lady" parts, but in The Shadow of Doubt, an NZBS play heard recently, she was able to atone. Later this year she will be heard in The Sleeping Partner. Another member of The Boy Friend Company who has worked with Miss Mather in Grace Gibson radio productions for the past five years-though not in Doctor Paul-is Minnie Love. She should be well known to New Zealand listeners as Portia’s personal companion, Miss Daisy, in Portia Faces Life. Miss Love first faced the microphone 15 years

ago in some of Gladys Moncrieff’s musical comedy and variety shows on the ABC. She isa fine character actress, too, and in 1954 won the Macquarie Award for the best supporting radio role of the year. Born in England, Minnie Love was for several years on the London stage before coming to Australia. She has been visiting New Zealand since the First World War. *

COMMENTATOR

RESTLESS after 15 years as a schoolmaster, and frustrated by the outbreak of war in 1939, Rex Alston might still not have become one of the BBC’s outstanding sports commentators if he

had not been asked to billet a member of the BBC Music

Department during the war. Rex was a little reluctant about the billeting, but his guest turned his thoughts in the direction of broadcasting, and after a spell as an announcer he did his first running commentary in 1943-on a wartime cricket match. How good at his new job he became listeners will know who have been enjoying his broadcasts as a (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page)

member of the BBC team during the current cricket Test series between England and Australia. Rex Alston was born on a Tuesday, and seems to have had something of the grace prophesied for Tuesday’s child, for he became a fine athlete and a player and captain for Bedfordshire in county cricket. Harold Abrahams, who wrote about him not long ago in the Radio Times, recalls running with Rex in a Cambridge relay team against Oxford in 1922, and in the following March, while Mr. Abrahams was President of the University Club, he had the pleasure of awarding him his "Blue" for the 100 yards. Rex Alston’s career as a cricketer

and Rugby footballer everituslty lured him from the running track, but his participation as a player was cut short by an injury when he was 30. However, the practical experience he acquired was to serve him-and the listening publicwell in his commentaries later on. * ;

MODERN STYLE

\WELL known in Wellington and the Hutt Valley, where he played in many dance bands and orchestras, and quickly becoming known in New Ply-

mouth, Sam -Moses is a pianist who started nlavine earlv

in life and gradually drifted towards the modern style. He will be heard from 2XP on August 29. While in Well-

ington Sam had many engagements at 2YA with a bass player assisting, but he is playing solo at New Plymouth. At the other extreme he has appeared with 11piece dance bands. His favourite ~ pianists are | "Fats" Waller and Frankie Carle. "I had | never seriously consid- | ered radio work, but I) was urged by the Inver- | cargill studios to look | into it while I was visiting there for a New Zealand Billiards Championship game," Sam says. Billiards is another of his big interests. Sam Moses does not attempt the "bop" style, but prefers a style of playing in which the harmony is more easily acceptable to the majority of the people.