Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 922, 12 April 1957, Page 20

Open Microphone

NEWS OF BROADCASTERS ON AND OFF THE RECORD

COMINGS AND GOINGS

HERE seems to have been quite a bit of coming and going between here and England among members of Henry Rudolph’s group lately, for when we talked with him the other day about his new series of broadcasts, Serenade to Music, he said that one member of

the Capital Quartet, Bruce Chandler, had returned from England

: just in time to take part, while another, John McDonald, had left for England since the programmes were recorded. Then we found that the soloist, Daphne Ellwood-whose picture is at the top of this column-had also been overseas during the past few years. Daphne Ellwood is not a new name to listeners-turning over our own files we found a picture of her as far back as 1951. But since then, she tells us, she has been awarded a_ Fellowship Diploma of Trinity College, London, and has taken leading roles in productions of The Mikado, The Golden Legend,

Messiah, Hamilton Dickson’s light opera The Gypsies, and New Moon. And, of course, she has broadcast a number of times-only a few months ago she sang one of the leadirig parts in the NZBS_ Springtime offering, Blossom Time. Daphne Ellwood made her pilgrimage to England in 1954. "I went with my husband on a_ working holiday," she says. "I didn’t study or take part in any performances, though I was auditioned and accepted for a television programme. Unfortunately, our passage home was arranged for before the day I was to appear. However, I found that by attending opera and listening to the wealth of wonderful concerts by world artists both in London and Italy I was able to learn a great deal more than by performing-that wat, of course, in- ‘the limited time I had. Serenade to Music is being heard from YAs, 3YZ and 4YZ at 8.15 p.m, on Wednesdays. +

ADVISER

ITH advice on bridal gowns, goingaway outfits, and all the other trimmings connected with weddings, Beverley Heal, of 1ZB, is these days making the problems of the Easter bride her own. Assistant in the Women’s

Hour, Beverley is conducting the Easter Bride Session at 12.30 p.m. each day.

England, Australia and New Zealand have at one time or another been Beverley’s home. She was born at Trentham, but spent quite a bit of her childhood in England and Australia. Then when she was 12 she came back home to do her secondary schooling in

Wellington. Beverley’s interests, like her places of abode, are somewhat varied, and include the theatre, ballet; music and food-‘"the more unusual the better." Her interest in the theatre goes well beyond a seat in the stalls, for she has acted in amateur productions with Tauranga MRepertory, Grafton Theatre and, the Auckland Theatre Club. She is fond of cats, she tells us, and would like to own a Siamese. And outdoors? Well, she’s an enthusiastic skier, though she ‘admits she seems to have trouble coping with skis, sticks and so on; and she’s interested in _fishing and yachting, and, in fact, pretty

well all sea sports. Before joining the NZBS Beverley was for two and a half years on the staff of a‘monthly women’s magazine-‘"as general dogsbody,"’ she adds. Ss

NEWS OF JAY

~~ LISTENERS who remember Jay Wilbur’s visit to this country 10 years ago-he talked of settling here, but eventually went to Sydney-will be interested to hear that he has decided to divide his time in future between Australia and South Africa. Not long

back in Sydney from a 10. months’ trip

. abroad, which include three months conducting the Cape Town Orchestra for concerts and broadcasts, he is due back in Cape Town for more concerts and broadcasts in July. Among old friends he met in South Africa were Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth, who have now settled there. During his recent stay in Londonwhere he worked years ago with such people as Charlie Chaplin and Sir Seymour Hicks, Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon-Jay Wilbur and a friend spent an entertaining night which began with

coffee in an espresso bar run by Ivor Moreton and Dave Kaye, and continued in "a little place in Soho," where they heard the latest trend in dance music in London-a_ skiffle band: two or three guitars, a washboard and a "thing" that operates as a bass, "The washboard," says Mr Wilbur, "is simply what mother used to scrub her washing on-a board covered with a corrugated sheet of metal. The player has it on hi8 knees and he wears three or four thimbles on his fingers. He produces the rhythms by sliding up and down the corrugations and doing a bit of tapping. He also has other little things like cowbells, which he plonks from time to time. The bass player has an empty wooden tea chest, with a broomstick tied to one corner. A bass

string stretches from the other end of the broomstick to the centre of the chest, and he pulls on the broomstick and tightens the string so that it gives forth a higher or lower note when he plucks it. There’s a vocalist as well."

The music-popular numbers of the day and the skiffle bands’ own type of song, like an English calypso-is all played by ear. These bands have become so popular that one has been given a contract by a leading recording company.