Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 912, 1 February 1957, Page 18

Open Microphone

NEWS OF BROADCASTERS ON AND OFF THE RECORD PS oe. aa 2) ef ere ae ease

FOR HOME MILLINERS

No&tT long back from a year’s study overseas which she spent in London and Norway, Kay du Toit (above, right) is specially enthusiastic about the embroidery she saw in Norway. Embroidery, she explains, is really her first love. An

Englishwoman who came to this country about 10 years ago, Mrs. du Toit is arts and crafts and millin-

ery tutor in the Department of Adult Education at Otago University. She chose to visit Norway, she says, because of the great interest in New Zealand in overseas embroidery, particularly Hardanger embroidery. This is a distinct type

of very fine drawn fabric work — finer than the English version-which takes | its name from the Norwegian district of Hardanger where it was first done. "I thought I might be able to find another Norwegian locality with its own distinctive type of embroidery," says Mrs. du Toit, "and I did indeed come across a traditional type of black and white embroidery which I brought back with me to teach in Otago-for the first time, so far as I know. Since I’ve been back -some of my pupils have produced some very beautiful cloths in these types of embroidery." Mrs. du Toit did not neglect her interest in hats during her study leave, for in London she took a refresher course -in millinery. As you might expect it’s only rarely that she actually buys a hat, and to help other women who would like to be able to say the same-also their husbands-she recorded for ZB Women’s Hour a series of practical talks on home millinery. In these she explains. concisely and clearly the various stages in hat-making, taking the would-be home milliner from the first step to the finishefl hat. There is topical emphasis on the new season’s "important" hats in New Zealand and advice on renovations- and ‘even on cleaning father’s panama. In fact after hearing these talks listeners

should know a great many of the milliner’s secrets. They are now being heard from X Stations. t

CHANTAL

HE charmingly broken accent of Mademoiselle Chantal Mompoullan, a vivacious young lady from Curepipe in Mauritius, has become very popular over ‘the past year with the men of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition and the Royal Society’s Expedition

in the Antarctic, who are kept in touch with events at home by the BBC’s

weekly programme Calling the Antarctic, broadcast specially for them. Some time after the transmissions started a telegram reached the BBC requesting "Less Grandma, more glamour," and a series of Continental gramophone records

called "Chansons de Chantai" and presented by Mademoiselle Mompoullan was promptly introduced. The response by cable showed that although ice and snow might be the everyday surroundings of the men in the Antarctic, their hearts were anything but frozen. "Merveilleux, je suis seul avec mes reves," read one. Others said, "More accent on the accent" and "More Miss Mauritius." Mademoiselle Mompoullan was one of those chosen to take part in the round-the-world Commonwealth programme Voices Out of the Air on Christmas Day, when the BBC in London called up the Magga Dan, on its way to the Antarctic with the main party of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition on board. Mademoiselle Mompoullan joined the BBC’s Overseas Services as a studio manager at Christmas, 1955. Before that she worked as an announcer in the French Service of Mauritius Radio,

COSMOPOLITAN

[N 10 years the Sydney Symphony has become one of the outstanding orchestras of the Commonwealth, and at the time Sir Eugene Goossens resigned was making a name for itself internationally. With Goossens gone some anxiety was felt that its high standards

might deteriorate before a new resident conductor was decided

upon. A new conductor has now been announced by the ABC, and his appointment should cause pleasure and relief. He is Russian-born Nicolai Mal!zo, now an American citizen, and internationally famed.

Speaking of the new appointment, the General Manager of the ABC, Charles Moses, said: "Our overseas advisers, who have known Malko’s work for years, report that he is a truly cosmopolitan musician with an extensive ‘repertoire, both symphonic and operatic. He .combines maturity with a lively musical imagination, inexhaustible energy and a jolly personality which makes him extremely Popular with orchestras." Malko arrives in Sydney in April after a tour of Norway and Sweden. Discussing his appointment he said in London: "I am very happy indeed at the prospect of taking up the conductorship of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, especially as I have heard so much of its high standard of playing. I am no casual performer of music: I believe it is an essential part of man’s development, and I know that

Australians are conscious of this too. I shall be very proud to share in Australia’s future musical development." Nicolai Malko has made many recordings, and those with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Danish National Ore chestra are especially well known. *

CONTACT

"(NCE the aviation virus gets into your blood stream you can’t get rid of it," says Bertram Cornthwaite, seen at the bottom of the next page, who has been connected with the aviation world since

he left school. However, it does not seem to be an unpleasant virus. for he

says quite firmly that as far as he is concerned it is the only occupation-there is nothing he would rather do. As a result of this intense interest and love of anything to do with aeroplanes, he brings an experienced touch to his monthly programme, Airways and Air-

craft, heard at 9.15 a.m. from YA and YZ stations on the last Tuesday of each month. He has found since he came to New Zealand in 1950 that there is a tremendous interest here in anything to do with aviation. He feels that although there are some people who are interested from the technical viewpoint, for most it is the glamour of speed and world travel which is the attraction. He tries to include in his programme news items

about aero engines, airline operations, or movements of aircraft-in fact anything to do with planes which he feels might interest listeners. In his capacity as the technical representative of the New Zealand subsidiary of a large British aeroplane concern he receives a great deal of information about the air world in the form of magazines, drawings and films. Mr. Cornthwaite served his apprenticeship in England with a large aircraft manufacturing company and learnt to fly

in 1935. Since then he has, in his own. words, "done all sorts of things in aviation." Aviation, in a way, tends to spill over into his spare time, too. He’s chair-_ man of the Wellington branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society and also on the committee of the Wellington and Wairarapa Gliding Club, a bunch of for-ward-looking types who banded themselves together last year and are now just about ready to place an order for their first sailplane. Beyond that, whatever time is left seems to be absorbed -by the numerous chores which in New Zealand seem necessary for the maintenance of a house, garden, car and wife. Incidentally, the most intelligent thing he has ever done, he claims, was to marry a girl who was also involved in the aviation world, as this allows him to talk shop at all hours of the day or night. me SMOKY DAWSON, the Australian version of Hopalong Cassidy, proved recently that these once simple characters can move with the times. Smoky is under contract to advertise a certain brand of tobacco, so when a cigar firm approached him to advertise their wares he had to refuse. But it was not*long before he had worked out a solution to this problem. He set about training his horse to smoke with a result that can now be seen on billboards all over Australia.