Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 944, 13 September 1957, Page 20

Open Microphone

NEWS OF BROADCASTERS ON AND OFF THE RECORD

COMEDY TEAM

\VJHEN Simon and Laura, Alan Melville’s stage and screen comedy, takes the air as a serial this Sunday (September 15), it will give listeners another chance to hear two of the most popular and versatile players in broad-

casting. For the stars of the serial-which

contrasts the _ affectionate behaviour of Simon and Laura on the air with their constant private quarrelling-are Moira Lister and Hugh Burden. Both are well known for their comedy parts. South African-born, Moira _ Lister first played on the stage when she was six, and once appeared in Johannesburg with Sir Seymour Hicks. In fact, it was he who told her she should go to

Britain, and the story goes that she did so on the strength of a bet on a horse. It paid £120. After a bit of coming and going between Britain and home she settled in England during the war. New Zealanders will know her best for her film and radio parts-she was formerly Tony Hancock’s girl friend in Hancock’s Halt-Hour. The Love of Four Colonels and Present Laughterfor which Noel Coward chose her to play opposite him-are among her stage successes. She has been teamed with Hugh Burden before, in Terence Rattigan’s French Without Tears. Hugh Burden, who as Simon is expected to range from affectionate public cooing to belligerent private quarrelling, qualified in more than 20 years on the stage. In his time he has been oat

an aristocrat at one extreme and a seedy tramp at the other. Hugh also is a Briton from across the sea, for he was born in. Ceylon, where his father was in the Civil Service. Incidentally, he is a blood relation of Mrs Patrick Campbell. When he was only 16 he was given a leading part in a school production of Journey’s. End. At that time his parents wanted him to be either a lawyer or a musician-he is, in fact, a talented pianist-and Hugh himself couldn’t make up his mind be-

tween writing and acting. As it turned out, he did both. After Journey’s End he went off to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and at 22 made his first West End appearance in Edgar -Wallace’s The Frog, "in return for the modest payment of £1 a week." Two years later he had his first play produced*-altogether he has written five. Invalided out of the army, in which he spent two years during the war, he made his radio debut in 1941. Playing since then in everything from Shakespeare to farce, Hugh Burden has _ become one of the busiest of broadcasters, Simon and Laura will be heard from: YA stations, 3YZ and 4YZ at 4.0 p.m. on Sundays. *

COMPOSER

"HE composer Phil Pomery, whose songs are being heard in the series New Zealanders Wrote These (YAs, 3YZ, 4YZ, Wednesdays), only just missed being born a New Zealander,

for ne came here irom London when he _ was

three. mie took Nis frst music lessons when he was 14, and at 20 began to write songs. Ten years ago he had his first song published, in the United States. This was "You Got the Makin’s of Love." Another, "Please, Moon," reached second place on a Hit Parade about six years ago. A piano novelty which he called "Lynette" after his daughter, took third place from about 500 entries in a competition for composers at Rotorua. Phil, whose picture appeared in last week’s Listener, runs a greengrocery business in Whangarei.

LTHOUGH M. G. Adams has spent more than 15 years on the accounts side of broadcasting, he was entering no new field when he recently left his job as District Chief Clerk and Accountant at Wellington to become Station Manager at 1YZ. He has acted as Station Manager at 2ZB and 4ZB on a number of occasions, he reminded us, and held the same position at 2ZA for three months during the Royal tour. "Besides," he said, "the Accounts Section of the Service probably gets a wider appreciation of the work of the Service as a whole than any other.¥ (continued on next page

And that, we gathered, was one reason he had so much enjoyed being an NZBS accountant, :

MANAGER

After long spells of duty in Dunedin and Wellington, Mr Adams should be happy in his move to Rotorua, for he was born in the north, and so far has spent something like half his life there. His father was in the drapery business at Dargaville, though the family moved nearer Auckland when Mr Adams was only seven. There he went to Mount

Albert Grammar School and Auckland Univers-

ity College, and out of swotting and working hours became interested in surf life-saving. He was an original member of the Piha Club, and later became a judge and an examiner for the New Zealand Surf Life-Saving Association, secretary and treasurer of the Auckland Association, and a member of the Wellington Association and of the New Zealand Surf, Council. His other sports were Rugby and tennis"but I wasn’t outstanding at either." Mr Adams has always been attracted to broadcasting, though he had five years in an Auckland’ accountant’s office before a vacancy at 1ZB gave him the chance to do something about it. That was in March, 1937. A few months later he went south to spend a year at 2ZB. A long association with broadcasting in Dunedin-it was to extend over about 12 years-began late in 1938. During the war, however, Mr Adams spent a year in the army, followed by several years in the Ministry of Supply. For three years before he came to Wellington in 1950 as District Chief Clerk and Accountant, he held a similar position in Duriedin. Up till the time he moved to Rotorua he had been House Manager for the National Orchestra in the Dunedin and Wellington districts ever since it was formed. Married since 1949, and the father of three young children-two girls and a boy-Mr Adams will tell you he has no time now for outside interests. He admits, however, that he served on his local school committee for a year before leaving Wellington, and he praises the work of Home and School Associations. He is not a keen gardener, but enjoys gardening when he has to do ‘it. In his spare time he reads a good

deal and is specially interested in historical fiction. Many listeners will remember Mrs Adams as Gwyneth Froude, a former Shopping Reporter at 4ZB. Mr Adams has found several old colleagues on the staff at RotoruaMarjorie Green and Alf Sanft were. at Dunedin in his time, and "Slim" Somerville was attached to the Concert Sec-

tion while he was in Wellington. Station 1YZ, he is glad to find, is very much a part of the community, with interests extending beyond Rotorua to the whole Bay of Plenty. The need to keep in touch with other centres in the Bay and to record local artists and speakers takes him once a month to Tauranga and Whakatane. As an example of the station’s interest in local affairs, Mr Adams mentioned that the activities of schools outside their ordinary school work has recently been covered in several programmes, One of the most unusual of these activities was an exchange of tape recordings with schools overseas.

MAINLANDER

a ANOTHER Mainlander who has done well in the North Island, the baritone Walter Gale, who broadcast from 2XP this week (September 11), did not take up singing seriously till he was 30. Born in Geraldine, Mr Gale is now Dairy Inspector at Stratford. Be-

fore going to live in Taranaki he com-

peted successfully in the 1951 Wellington Competitions, and the same year broadcast several times from 2YA. One of his busiest years since then was 1953, when he sang bass solos for the Stratford Jubilee production of Messiah, and played Pooh Bah in a New Plymouth production of The Mikado. Mr Gale has since sung the bass solos in Messiah for the New Plymouth Choraji Society. Besides his more serious singing, he played the male lead in the Stratford Operatic Society’s production of Rio Rita. In the past two years Mr Gale has broadcast regularly from 2XP, and has been heard as a soloist in radio shows.

a ACE-CARDS as well as broadcast concerts are marking the Elgar centenary celebrations in England (writes J. W. Goodwin from London). One of the most charming tributes to the com‘poser was at Worcester, his birthplace, where each event at a recent race meeting had a distinctive Elgarian flavour: Chanson Plate, Enigma Plate, Pomp and Circumstance Handicap, Gerontius Plate, Elgar Centenary Handicap, Nimrod Stakes. Among a few musically named horses, Free Song gained only a third, and Swan Lake a fourth. With his gift for translating the English country scene into music, it would be surprising if Sir Edward Elgar did not gain inspiration from the races, where he always enjoyed a day. It is a Lombard Street tradition, however, that he composed "Land of Hope and Glory" while waiting for his bank-book to be made up.