Voices You Knew

New Zealand Listener, Volume 41, Issue 1054, 6 November 1959, Page 6

Voices You Knew

"\ HAT happened to old So-and-so?" Recalling a well-remembered voice from a Breakfast Session, a character from a play, a pop singer, a pianist, people in broadcasting ask this question of one another quite as often as they’re asked it by other people. Where are the voices we once heard on the New Zealand air and now hear no longer? Some, of course, went quietly into re-tirement-some which once caressed us with the sentimental phrases of a pop song now sing lullabies to their children. But what about the others, who chased opportunity overseas and didn’t come back? The other day The Listener set out to discover how much it could find out about them in a day’s nattering to people inside the Service and out who might have kept in touch. It soon found, what experience should have indicated from the start, that a long way from home people might keep in touch with their families and sweethearts, but they don’t keep closely or constantly in touch with their colleagues or even their friends. It was more a question of hearing something that someone had picked up at second or third hand, or had read-or thought they’d read-in an overseas journal. Still, in 24 hours quite a bit of gossip had been committed to paper. And because we _ believe-no offence intended-our readers will be

as interested in it as we were, we pass it on on this page and the next. It’s a case, of course, of all .care and no responsibility-but then whoever did retail gossip with his hand on his heart? Naturally drawn*to where the lights shine brighter, actors seem to have gone overseas in’ considerable numbers. In his office off the Wellington Production Studios of the NZBS, the Supervisor of Productions, Bernard Beeby, turned over the pages of his casting books and Pointed out names to William Austin. "Bernadette Cdnty-remember her as Miranda the mermaid? ‘She went to London and became a Windmill girl-' that’s the variety theatre that ran nonstop through the blitz. Then she became a production manager for a TV company and married her boss. There was. Paddy Turner-she did a lot of young women parts after she returned here from Australia. I remember her Euridice in Point of Departure, and her Teusret in The Firstborn. She went on a Government bursary to the Royal Academy, and the last we heard she was doing very well in TV and BBC shows, She was in the serial The Wake of the Long White Cloud with Inia Te Wiata, and she had a part in the BBC production of This Day in Fear." When Paddy Turner played in Point of Departure here John Carson-Parker

was Orphsus. He too has been in England for some years now, first playing and later producing for repertory in Sheffield. But about two years ago he went to London, and a mail from the BBC only the other day brought pictures of him in a leading part in a BBC serial Orbiter X. Very well known for his work with the New Zealand Players, John Carson-Parker-he now calls himself simply John Carson-was the man who played twin brothers in Ring Around the Moon. Now he has twin sons of his own. Michael Cotterill was another heard in many NZBS plays who later made tours with the Players. His most recent engagement in England was in repertory on the South Coast, following a thin time when he had to take a 9 to 5 job in London. When we mentioned Frederick Farley’s name it brought an immediate association with Shakespearian parts. Familiar as both a radio actor and a reader, Mr Farley was also a producer for the Community Arts, the Wellington Thespians and Repertory. He went to London as a producer at the Q Theatre, and the last time Mr Beeby heard of him he had a part in the London production of Tiger at the Gates, Giraudoux’s play about the Trojan War. Vivienne Martin, who was seen in the film version of The Belles of St Trinian’s

and whose BBC experience took her into television and into a leading part in the steam-radio variety series Mr Bentley and Mr Braden, is well established as a comedy actress. She began in Productions as a filing clerk long before her acting ability was apparent. (Incidentally, her brother, Ross, after several years of good work in the Talks Section -remember his programme on the first ascent of Mt Cook?-took a doctorate at Canberra for his work on trade unionism and later studied in London.) Mr Beeby admitted it wasn’t easy to be up-to-date about the doings of theatre people. "They change their jobs all the time, and a struggling walk-on one month may find himself in a good part in the next. If they have a job for six months it’s a long engagement." Talking with Elsie Lloyd, Supervisor of Women’s Programmes for the Commercial Division, we mentioned the name of John Gordon, once an anmouncer at 1YA and 1ZB, and as it happened quite recent news of him was in an airmail letter on her desk. "At the moment I am eating leeks in Wales doing an Australian character for BBC television," he wrote. This is by no means John Gordon’s first part for the BBC. He has appeared in both steam -radio and television productions, and Jessie McLennan, who preceded Mrs Lloyd in charge of women’s programmes, wrote from London that in a recent TV play, when he had appeared with Russell Napier, John’s beard had gone-only his eyebrows remained. Both were familiar to the many who saw him in New Zealand Players productions. Round and about we heard news of other actors and actresses. Virginia Stott, now married to a producer, Mark Brackenbury, has never been out of work since she finished her studies in London under a Government bursary. Mostly in repertory, she has also broadcast and appeared on televisiononce with the Russian ballet in a play about the life of Pavlova. Alan Rowe,

who was in the NZBS Richelieu before he first went overseas in 1948, and in L’Aiglon when he was back for a few months in 1954, has made.a place for himself on the West End stage and in British TV. Ted Furby, who had several parts in productions while he worked as an NZBS clerk, has recently been stage designer for the Dundee Reper-tory-he "did the much-praised set for his company’s presentation at the recent Edinburgh Festival. And John O’Sullivan, another old NZBS boy who did some work for Productions when home on holiday recently, is free-lancing successfully as a radio, TV and stage actor in Sydney. It was an easy step from actors to announcers, especially as the names of announcers kept coming into our. conversations. Besides, a Voice is likely to graduate or gravitate from a station microphone to a productions studio. So many announcers seem to have gone elsewhere that we began to wonder how the Service managed to keep — going. Lindsay MacDonald, who was an announcer at 2YA and known to a wider. audience as one who took his turn reading the 9 o’clock News, was an obvious starting point, for everyone seemed to have heard him recently doing a newsreading job again-from the BBC. He is now a full-time announcer in the Overseas Service and besides reading the news sometimes introduces Radio Newsreel. Lindsay now lives in Dorking, within driving distance of London, where he and his wife-formerly Betty Holland of the NZBS-have a flat. When he first’

arrived in London he studied the organ under Maxwell Fernie, and in Dorking he is able to practise in the local church. Michael Miles is another NZBS announcer who has done well overseas, though in quite a different field. Once heard from 2ZB and 2ZA, he went to England by way of Australia and Singapore. He has acted as host, or quizmaster, in many BBC steam-radio programmes but is best known for his Take Your Pick, heard from Radio Luxembourg and seen on ITV-on both of which it has had top rating. Michael lives in Middlesex with his English wife -he met her in Singapore-and two children.

A former announcer at 3YA, Owen Leeming, is now a producer with the BBC Pacific Service and is also making a@ name as a poet. He has read poetry, including some of his own, on the Third Programme, on which he recently presented a programme about New Zealand verse. Alan Martin, who became well known as a contract announcer at 1XN, went to London to become a producer for Associated Rediffusion, where an-. other New Zealander, Alan Morris, who last worked for the NZBS as a producer at 3YA, is also working-as an outside broadcasts sports producer. Michael Hutt, an announcer at 1ZB and 4ZB, where he was the Professor in Information Please and heard in other studio quizzes-he was known for his gift of the throw-away gag-went to England just after the war and when last heard of was an interior decorator in London. He has done work on several big liners, including the Southern Cross. Michael Forlong, who announced from 2ZB-Elsie Lloyd remembers doing her first outside broadcast with him-went to the National Film Unit and later overseas, where his bigger jobs have included second unit direction for Alexander the Great. Phil Buckingham, an Englishman with a beautiful R.A.F, moustache who did Royal Tour commentaries all over the country, went back home and in a recent letter mentioned sporting commentaries for commercial Many, of course, have made the grade in Australia also. Brian Adams, from 2YA-he’ll be remembered for Show-time-and Norman Griffiths, from 4YA, are both ABC announcers in Melbourne.

And two who have gone to production jobs in commercial radio across the Tasman are Gordon Grimsdale, from 3ZB, and Peter Whitchurch, a 2ZB announcer who was probably best known throughout the country for his Ships and the Sea. Chris Venning, who was in his time both actor and announcer, went to broadcasting in Fiji, and when we last heard was still there. Nan Dobson, who did 4ZA Women’s Hour, is now in Canadian TV. Responsible for the spoken word on the air, the NZBS Talks Section normally has little enough to say for itself, but some of its officers are broadcasters and not all have stayed at home. Trevor Williams was heard in some good docu-mentaries-one or two of them made at sea-and some humorous talks before he went to Sweden, where he’s still in broadcasting. Married earlier this year to. a Swedish widow, he has a young stepson and expects to be a father before the end of the year. Lawrence Constable was a senior talks man when he left New Zealand after a career which had started around the time when he had a part in One Man’s Family, one of the first ZB serials made in New Zealand. Now a BBC talks producer he has made a number of Picture Parades and recently wrote and produced a more ambitious programme about the Aldeburgh Festival which has not yet been broadcast in this country. William: R. Roff was best known as a documentary writer who did much of his own narration-many listeners will remember his series about oil made after a trip to Singapore and nearby islands. Now doing a doctorate at Canbera, Bill Roff has recently been in Singapore again, this time gathering material on its political history. Two Auckland women are among other Talks people. who have spread their wings. Poppy Dale seems to have done so almost literally. Her stay in London included work at a Knightsbridge fight club as well. as work for the BBC, but she is now teaching English in‘ Parisand very happy to be there. Shirley McNab, who has been away rather longer, did a good deal of contract work for the BBC but lately has been in secretarial work. Though we’d set out thinking of voices in a fairly literal sense, we'd always

meant to salute musicians and others. If in the event we didn’t do so adequately -well, a day is only 24 hours long and a poor devil can hold a pencil only when it’s so long. But we had time to find out and pencil enough to record that of former conductors of the National Orchestra Michael Bowles is now director of the Indianapolis Philharmonic Orchestra and recently published a book on the art of conducting; Warwick Braithwaite has for the past few years been chief conductor of the Welsh National Opera Company and still does a good deal of recording; and James Robertson has been occupied almost entirely by opera since he returned to Britain-he has toured as senior conductor with the Carl Rosa company and as guest conductor with the Sadler’s Wells Opera. Two former members of the National Orchestra, Basil Charles and Bernadine Wood, are in the Sadler’s Wells touring orchestra. There was even less time to look at the field of light entertainment, but we did remember seeing Terry Vaughan ourselves, playing the piano in the pit at For Amusement Only in Melbournethough Terry, who went to a top job in the Australian theatre, was able to reassure us with a smile that he was only really filling in till the new man arrived. Jack Dobson, who produced many shows on the New Zealand air, is another who has done well in Australia-he is a big man in ABC light entertainment. Julian Lee, the blind pianist from Auckland, is working in Sydney night clubs; and Paul Walden, who went overseas quite recently, has already been heard in a Commonwealth programme from the BBC. Another New Zealand singer who went to England and was singing for a time in the 33 Club is Pat Otway, a member of one of the Korea Concert parties. But Pat at our last report had married an army officer and had apparently given up the bright lights. é That seemed to be all, apart from the fairly long list of people no one had heard from lately, until someone remembered that one of the biggest of them all- C. G. Scrimgeour-had the field all to himself in Communist China, where he is said to have a top job in radio and television, ~*