Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 926, 10 May 1957, Page 18

Open Microphone

=_ -- iad NEWS OF BROADCASTERS ON AND OFF THE RECORD PP LBP LOL

PLAYFUL PROFESSOR

An F any New Zealanders have not been impressed by a display of books about philosophy in the foyer of New Zealand House in London, they might have changed their minds at the announcement that A. N. Prior, Professor

of Philosophy at Canterbury University Col-

lege, was giving three talks on the BBC Third Programme (writes J. W. Goodwin from London). Although these practical and explanatory talks have the general title of The ‘Logic Game-

"logic, like other games, is a_ strict exercise in combined operations’they are playful only in a_ professorial sense. When it came to the third talk, by the way, the BBC had to announce that the recording had been destroyed "most unfortunately,’ and that the script would therefore be read by another person. Another New Zealander has been commended in a different way by the BBC. A leaflet issued in connection with a series of

television and sound programmes on mental illness lists useful books. One is Facts About Mental Health, published in Christchurch and written by Dr K. R. Stallworthy, the son of a former Minister of Health. aS

gid WHEN he was in Australia recently, Ashley Heenan’s experiences included sitting in on a recording session by the ABC Light Orchestra. "There are only 14 players," he told us, "and the arrangers write for this particular number, but by the time the balancing has been done it sounds like a forty-to-fifty piece band. It’s rather an unnatural thing to. sit in on, as’ I couldn’t even hear the singer in the studio. It seems

to be almost a form of artificial music. Most of the players doubled instruments according. to the requirements, and they’d double instruments in the same work. In the brass the fundamental group was two trumpets, horn and trombone, all of whom doubled each other’s instruments." .

ROLLING stone, we've been told often enough, gathers no moss, and that, we imagine, is the point of the title of three talks by Frank Tully now going the rounds of YA stations. Frank would probably be the first to admit that he’s a bit of a rolling stone, for he has a liking for the mountains and the outdoors generally. Wairarapa born, he was at school at Nelson College, and had a spell as a newspaperman in Wellington before he 4

went overseas with the New Zealand Forces. Going into action in Greece, he was taken a prisoner of war, and he had some odd experiences working on farms in prison camps in Austria. When he came back home after the war, Frank worked at a variety of jobs. He has tried his hand at gold prospecting and growing tomatoes commercially, he has been a land agent and, recently, a factory worker. Outback, one of his great interests is wapiti hunting, and listeners will recall that he was heard not long ago in Wapiti Country. His two talks No Moss cover other plunges of a man who calls himself "a desperate swimmer in the labour pool." The first is about his adventures in the agar seaweed collecting business. and the second

(continued from previous page) (2YA, May 14, 4YA, 4Y¥Z, May 15) covers in down-to-earth fashion some of his experiences catching opossums and goats-especially opossums. "Opossum catching is hard work, whichever way you go about it," Frank says. "Skinning and. stretching the skins is done at night, so it’s usually midnight or early morning before you get to bed. The real trappers run up to 200 traps on a line, so they go short on sleep and can lose around two stone in weight in a three-month paseon-

COCKNEY

ERA LYNN, a slim, tlong-faced . Cockney girl, became famous when she .broadcast to servicemen during the

war years and completely won their hearts with a series of programmes en-

titled Sincerely Yours. Born in London’s

poor Hast Mam district, Vera began singing when she was seven, mainly at Masonic dinners and charity benefits. At 11 she sang with a juvenile dancing troupe called the Kracker Kids’ Kabaret, Then about three years later her voice broke during an attack of laryngitis, and it came out, says Vera, "slightly lower and not so noisy." This must have been an improvement, for by the time she was 15 she had her own troupe. She broadcast for the first’ time in the mid-1930s with Joe

Loss. Later she sang for 18 months with the Charlie Kunz Orchestra, and then for a spell with Ambrose. While with Ambrose she met the clarinettist Harry Lewis, who is now her husband and manager. But it was through her wartime broadcasts that Vera really won fame. Her clear boyish voice singing about the white cliffs of Dover made servicemen far from home feel that things could not be as bad as they seemed, and brought. her a_ thousand letters a week from all over the world. When Vera’s daughter, Virginia, was born just ,over 11 years ago, she dropped singing for two years, and her career seemed to have ended. But she came back with a new poise and assurance and the same appeal of warm sincerity. She was particularly successful in 1952 when she visited the United States. and ap-

peared seven times with Tullulah Bankhead in The Big Show. Her record "Auf Wiedersehen" not only made her the first British singer to top the "Hit Parade © of America," but sent her to the top of hit parades in six other countries as well. Back in Britain, Vera went into the stage show London Laughs, which ran for over two years, and sang again for the BBC in Let’s Meet Again. Recently she signed a contract with the BBC to appear in their television and sound programmes.