Here and There

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 21, 2 December 1932, Page 5

Here and There

A Review of this week's Programmes

By

TRIPLE

GRID

"Wurzell Flummery.? 4. A. Milne’s one-act, play. "wurzell Flummery," which — will be proadeast from 1YA on Monday next, would hardly have been written but for the War. A "Punch’ _ writer, Milne found the usual of young subalterns not to his taste, and as a way of amusing himself took to writing plays. "So we began with ‘Wurzell Flummery,’" he’ admits. © "She wrote, I dictated. We did not estimate money or publicity but, of course, secretly hoped it might be so. ‘When we became tired of it we took long walks together." "wWurzell }iiummery" was first produced by Dion Bycicault at the New Theatre, London, in April, 1917. It is pure "Punch," pure A. A. Milne; @ light farce, unspoiled by gravity or rancour, The point of the story is that Crawshaw, to inherit a fortune left by his uncle, must change his name to Wurzell Flummery, "probably the maiden name of his grandmother or someone like that." ; Katherine Mansfield. The fairies showered gifts into Katherine Mansfield’s cradle, about whom a talk will be broadcast from 8YA on Monday, and a storm of applause and eulogy still surges around the name of this \ gifted woman, who proudly is acclaimed in the . country to which she belonged, and upon the ‘literary history of which she shed such distinction. Dogged by weakness, pursued by gathering shadows, she yet left a legacy of lambent fancy and crysballine prose and verse that render her immortal. With many of us the medium of language is a poor and clumsy vehicle with which to convey impressions of life’s great spectacle, and we are spellbound by the range of vision possessed by this New Zealand-born girl, her superhuman powers of observation and analytical dissection of man’s frailty, as exemplified in her brilliant stories. Perhaps her letters, written in a far country, hold greatest appeal of all, so human are they, so poignant and enthralling. Catching at beauty with both hands, the stars in the heavens irradiated her wistful journey, a weeping child by the wayside spelled tragedy, and every branch against the evening sky and red rose on a ruined wall held a message. Nobly courageous, magnificently gifted, Katherine Mansfield has left a very goodly heritage to the English people. oo Don Cossacks. Records of Don Cos: gl sack’s Ohoir are fairly Well known to gramophone and radio enthusiasts, and it is nothing out of the ordinary that a recording of that famous combination is to be broadcast from 8YA on Monday next, The Cossack, that glamorous figure that has been dominant in Russian history over the centuries, is a sorry picture to-day. Like so many characteristic figures of the Russian empire, he has been absorbed into Sovietism and is disappearing. Go to a Cossack village to-day and you witness the sorry spectacle of the brutal Jaw administrator of the empire. You see them in groups, no longer in their colourful uniforms, no longer practising sword thrusts from A» their ‘well-trained and fiery mounts, but just idling or painfully tilling the land that the Government has allotted them. Their steeds, like their independence, have. been lost to the State, and their arms-well, ask any group to produce a sabre and it is doubtful if any member could muster up even the faintest resemblance of what was once the possession of every Cossack. The Cossack has, alas, gone forever.

Boys in Town, The "Boys in Town" are to give a concert from 4YA on Monday next. I wonder what pranks they will get up te. You know, the town boys of to-day are not a bit like the boys of your day and mine. You remember the pranks in election night, tor instance, when there was no wireless to keep everyone sitting over the fire, Everyone used to come to town to see the numbers go up. Of course, they had horses then, and things were different. In our town the youthsyes, I was one of them-was particularly wild, aud when horses and buggies were left while owners crowded round the post office and talked about the effect of the election on butterfat prices, we were at work among the horses. Old Mack’s buggy was harnessed to the grey mare through the fence, the wheels from Ted Walling’s gig were hidden under the church, the britching-straps from someone else’s harness were cut almost to the last thread, and Bill Jones, who had left his steed in the stable, found it somehow in the hayloft. Yes-boys were boys then.

Optimism, Christmas optimism front 2YA on Tuesday sounds , good, Without doubt, the depression has been made worse by calamity howling. No, I am not overlooking the fact that there are more out of work than ever, or that the prices of primary products show little improvement, but I do say that a lot of it is psychological. The wan look you see on people’s faces and the mournful tales you hear about the times is more often a result of worrying about the depression than of the depression itself. Of course, better times will come, money will begin to flow, and. the unemployed figures will begin te diminish. 'The rusted wheels of industry, will begin to turn over again, and it will be forgotten that there was ever a depression. What is lacking to-day is optimism-or shall we say factism? People are not facing the facts-they are either blindly ignorant of the plight of the other fellow und are not doing their bit to help things along, or they are calamity howling, and like the uncivilised natives are throwing dust about their heads and beating the air because something has gone wrong. No, This is a time when confidence is needed, and. it is those with confidence who will come through, . Paul Whiteman. It is marvellous what a man will do for the woman of his’ heart. Gene Tunney took up professional boxing to get money, and now, stranger still, Paul Whiteman (whose records ‘are frequently broadcast) has reduced 100 pounds for the woman. who is now his wife. Once a man of tremendous bulk, the famous Whiteman was the butt of columnists’ quips and the caricaturist’s delight. They even predicted that the next event of major world achievement would be a non-stop flight round Paul Whiteman. But Whiteman began to extend his conducting business, and wanted to- apply his ability to a home, but to his proposals of marriage accompanying the dozens of roses he sent each day, she invariably made the same reply, "Reduce if you’d seduce, weigh in if you’d stay in, make the count or take the count." So Paul saw his doctor, went on a diet-not a painful one, either-lost 9 hundred pounds, and married. But it was expen: sive, he admits, for besides 400 dollars for his doe tor, a complete new wardrobe was needed. Hverye thing has changed except his infectious smile, his innate good humour, and the vigour and speli- that was and still is his personality. Old-time Numbers. Many old-time numbers are broadcast these days, and there is talk of a return to old-time dancing. I am not surprised. Broadcasting is responsible, for with the large number of records and items now going over the air, it is utterly impossible to write new numbers fast enough, so the old have been resuscitated, given a coat of paint, and ree issued. And when the old numbers come back i¢ is only natural that the steps that were danced to them should come back also. But I think we can go even farther than the dances and the records. I think we can go right to the people of to-day, the younger generation-the generation that has not known war. They are different somehow. There is a different code; they are more serious, and have a truer appreciation of values than those who were morally unstrung by the war. ‘They are Victorians who have been given a coat of paint-they are the youth of 19382, and I have a lot of faith in them. peda 7 radio not a little to blame for this return, ther (Continued on page 22.)

HIGH SPOTS IN THIS WEEK’S PROGRAMMES Wurzel Flummery. 1YA, Monday. Christmas Optimism. 2VA and:2ZD, Tuesday. Aeolian Orchestra 1YA, Thursday. Royal Choral Union 2YA, Thursday. Cecelia Singers 4Y A, Thursday. Old-Time Dance Music 1VA, Saturday. THE TALKS The English Cricket Team in Australia. ' IVA, Thursday. Mata Hari 2V A, Thursday. "Te Kooti" 4V A, Thursday. "Dougal-A Dog Story" . IVA, Friday. "The Breadlines of New York" 4YA, Friday.

Here and There (Continued from page 5.) Te Kooti, Te Kooti, who will be the subject of a talk from 4YA on Thursday next, was one of the most: parodoxical of chieftains. Starting his career as a-more or less religious Maori, who :was. described by the. settlers of Poverty Bay as "difficult,’ he was transported to the. Chathams without a trial, later to escape and become one of _ the most crafty leaders whose generalship was second only to that of de Witt. The terror of Poverty Bay, northern Hawke’s Bay, Taupo Plains, and the Waikato, and for years an outlaw with a price of £5000 on his head, he lived to mix on equal terms with white men, to shake hands with a Minister of the Crown, and to die in the respectability of a full pardon. He was a dominating personality, a master of guerrilla warfare; a general whose word was ‘law, who thought out his plans carefully and executed them with enterprise, energy, and completeness; a man of relentless ferocity, who would break through the best Iaid cordons and reappear where least expected. He was the principal figure in the last series of campaigns that when finished were to leave New Zealand in lasting peace. John Drinkwater. On Wednesday next, at 4YA, John Drinkwater’s a will be broadeast. Like so many brilliant men of letters, he was at a total loss at school (I was, too), and he cheerfully admits this: "I once won a form prize,

but as I had stayed in the form for two years they couldn’t help giving it me. I also got a chemistry prize, but how, I cannot conceive." Although interested in literature, Drinkwater was sent into an insurance office, where he stayed for twelve years, until with the establishment of the Repertory Theatre he gave up insurance and became its manager. At the age of 21 he published his first book of poems,

which was.not kindly received. "I sent a book to an tncle with. the request that he should buy it. He sent me a postal order for 2/6 with the advice that I should give up writing as one should drink.’ With the publication of "Abraham Lincoln" in 1918 the poet dramatist came into his own. His style is free. "I make notes,’ he admits, "to get the background, then discard them and write quickly." ‘ Cesaroni. After a long absence from the 2YA_ microphone, Lucien Cesaroni, operatic bass, returns next week. I am looking forward .to hearing this maestro, for Cesaroni every inch is an artist. Coming from a musical family well known in the realm of Grand Opera on the Continent, he has been acclaimed by the world’s leading critics as one of the greatest contemporary Mozartian interpreters. In this country he is more widely known as an operatic bass of exceptional talent. He has produced opera. many times before the microphone, and as "Mephistopheles" in "Faust" he is in his element-a truly great actor and singer. Professor James Shelley, M.A., who is frequently heard broadcasting from 3YA, is professor of education and dean of the faculty of mental and moral sciences at Canterbury College. Recently returned from a lecturing fellowship in U.S.A., the professor has had a brilliant career, An Englishman by birth, he graduated M.A. from Christ’s College, Cambridge, and in 1910 became lecturer in education at the Manchester University. As a major ee aet te

in the R.I.A. and later chief instructor in the War Office School of Education, he .gained military experience. From \, the Southampton College, to which he ( was appointed professor of education in 1914, he came to Canterbury "alone in 1920. Mata Hari. Continuing his. war adventures, Major-General Merlin will tell 2YA listeners.on Thursday next how he met Mata Hari, the German spy, whose name stands out far above that of all: other spies of the Great War. A native of the Hast Indies, and a murderess fleeing from cynosure, she came to Paris before the war, where she attracted attention as a vaudeville star, A woman of unusual beauty, sensually mystic, endowed with a rich imagination, a flair for the sensational, the ‘sentimental. and the practical, she possessed the ideal characteristics of a secret service agent. And these were recognised by a German master agent in Paris. . She became absorbed in the labyrinth of the spy system that was to make her a traditional figure in world history. Around her has been woven a net! of highly imaginative literature-no. spy story is too absurd to be associated with her name; no deep-rooted intrigue too treacherous. But the life of Mata Hari is romantic enough to need no embellishing, and the story of her work dramatic enough to need the aid of no fiction. Between the mythic purple altar of the Kanda Swany, where her life of romance began, and the rifle range of Vincennes, where it ended, there is the width of three continents. It required the talent of Mata Hari to bridge the gulf. Her origin was as she chose to make it; her end was none the less her own choice.

*. ‘"Dougal"’ A Dog Story will be told by Mr. S. F. Temple, from 1YA, on Friday, December 9. * *