Bo Do Deo Do
T was a happy thought of the NZBS to invite A. R. D. Fairburn to compére the recording of The Boy Friend, by Sandy Wilson, in Sunday Showcase last week. Mr. Fairburn, armed with a "sprig of rosemary and a damp handkerchief," took an avuncular and nostalgic look at the twenties, that enchanted vanished world of flappers and jeunesse doré neck-to-knees, and _cloche hats, which brash young Sandy has dared to make the terrain of his witty period piece. Mr. Fairburn enlivened the occasion ‘with agreeable accounts of his inglorious battles with the Charleston, and other memories which evidently still retain their power to wound. Stimulated by his words, I found myself back in the twenties. Look, said Memory, at that hollow-eyed tot peering unseen at his parents and their friends successfully negotiating the Charleston; and what songs are those, vaguely stirring? The Stein Song? Bye-Bye Blackbird? And who is that stealing into a matinee of The Jazz Singer? Enough: although I have no rosemary, I shall soon need a handkerchief myself. And Mr. Wilson, although he was only six when the twenties ended, clearly understands the fragrance that so many people attach to that oddest of decades. He has caught its foibles with a wickedly accurate grasp, yet in doing so has touched a vein of genuine nostalgia, such as the charming waltz with which the preposterous Madame Dubonnet recalls an episode of her vivid youth. Sandy Wilson seems beautifully to have judged where absurdity ends and fragrance begins. :
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19560824.2.43.5
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 890, 24 August 1956, Page 21
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254Bo Do Deo Do New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 890, 24 August 1956, Page 21
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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