Presentation

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 914, 15 February 1957, Page 17

Presentation

EDITATING on several miscellaneous programmes I’ve heard this year, I have come to the conclusion

that one reason why some of them vaguely disappoint is the lack of what cinema-managers call "presentation." Now that long-playing records are ubiquitous, it is comparatively easy to schedule sessions like Jane Froman Sings, Groucho Marx Entertains, or Frankie Carle Plays. But it is a poor long-playing disc-cover that does not supply enough information to enliven the introduction of such programmes. Some artists and pieces are so wellknown that introductory remarks would be irritating; others would surely gain something from a word about the artist or song. Rack my memory as I might, I could not remember from what particular films the: Groucho numbers came, and mentally damned the announcer as a benighted non-Marxist. Nor could I follow more than a few phrases of a group of French "pops," which even a list of titles would have illuminated. Station 1YA rarely helps us out; in the more shirt-sleeved atmosphere of 1YD the nude numbers are often clothed in a decent commentary, Something of the technique used so ably in Sunday Showcase introductions would brighten up for me, at least, sessions which sometimes sound as if they are unwinding from some aerial sausage-machine.

J.C.

R.