IN THE WAKE OF THE WEEK'S BROADCASTS

Radio Record, Volume IX, Issue 14, 11 October 1935, Page 14

IN THE WAKE OF THE

WEEK'S BROADCASTS

What ‘News? THIS: age iof speed seems to have bred.a prodigious ‘impatience in-at least the average. city: dweller. As if vit makes a hoot of difference. to the ‘ultimate fate of: the five: shillings .or . the’ fiver:one may: have laid:on:a horse, or the All Black team, whether people getthe results at 5 am, 7 am., or w p-m.! There are plenty: who wake early and metaphorically chew their -finger-nails while waiting for the 7 o'clock announcements of the All Black matches, and others who cannot bide ‘in patience between the time-2 remote race-has finished and the time its result ig announced at.perhaps 7 p.m. ‘This almost neurotic anxiety to. find things ‘out at the very earliest possible ‘moment has become more marked in the last week, since the opening of hostilities in'Abyssinia. There-must be thousands of people like those several who have personally expressed their desire for news, news, news almost every hour of the day. from the broadcasting stations, so that they may know im~mediately whether another. thousand Ethiopians or another hundred Italians -have been murdered. This class of person is patently unreasonable, for it is not the function of the national stations to supply their listeners with hour-by-hour reports of bloody engage>ments any more than it is expected that they should provide a running commentary .on the fat stock markets. Tf such an overseas service were deemed necessary it would be incumbent on the’ Broadcasting Board to arrange for a special ‘cable service at enormous expénse, for no rational person would expect a daily newspaper. to keep its office boys: running to the . broadcasting stations with ‘cable. duplicates’ from a service’ for which the pay heavily enough. ’ Cinema Relay JAT short notice it was announced by 2YA last week that a relay would be carried out from the Plaza Theatre,

Wellington, of Grace Moore’s singing in the film "Love ‘Me Forever." The occasion was 2 special charity night on behalf of the Health Stamp Cam‘paign, the premiere on Saturday evening being attended by -the~ Vice-regal party, the Prime Minister, and the Rt. Hon, J. G. Coates, At 9.5 p.m. the first song, "Il Bacio;" came over the air from the theatre with excellent. clarity, the sustained last.note being :the only fuzzy tone altogether. About quarter of an-hour later the station again linked up With the Plaza, and this time they broadcast Grace Moore in ‘"Funiculi, Funicula," followed after a couple of minutes of dialogue by the ever-popular "Quartet" from "Rigoletto." The lat-. ter number, instead of being merely a quartet, was announced to be a combination of 40 voices. The genera] effeci of the interpretation was pleasing. but without being able to see the crowd of singers, one could hardly everlook + certain raggedness in parts which prob-, ably would have passed unnoticed in the . theatre. The novelty of the relay had its appeal, and the voice of the soprano lost little of its quality in its extra reproduction stage. It was a welcome interlude among the dance musie. "Football Songs" [N several New .Zealand. programmes last week was’ Paul. Robeson, the famous American negro singer. Robeson, who is a fully-qualified lawyer, has made two important screen ap-pearances-as "Emperor Jones" in the film adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s

play, and as Bosambo in "Sanders of the River," an English film that had a record-breaking run in New. Zealand re--cently. It is curious how a film appearance will help a star’s radio popularity. Before "Sanders of the River" Robeson was fairly well known, but there were still plenty of radio fans who were a little hazy about him. Since the film was shown, 90 per cent.

of the listeners don’t need the announcer’s remarks to know that Robe-son-is on the air. An Amertcan paper said. that he made the African songs in "Sanders of the River’ sound "alarmingly like American college football songs." Interest in Maoris. Me. TANO IFFAMA’S series of talks "from 4YA on some of the old Maori personalities of last century are finding an interested audience. It has been a pleasing feature of the national programmes generally in the last few months that talks on the native race of this country and performance of some’of their music have been given 2 good share of programme time. ° It is strange that New Zealanders on the whole take .so little interest in the Maoris. One of many visitors who have become interested in the race is Miss Florence Tory, who: arrived in Auckland ‘by the liner Niagara on Monday last week. Miss Tory, who is an experienced broadcast speaker, under the name of Tory Bic, hails: from Canada. She is looking. forward with great interest ‘to making. a. study of the Maori people and their ‘legends while-she is in New. Zealand, with a view ‘to furthe:-

ing her range of material in this parti-. cular field of entertainment. Miss Tory has provided herself with most complete data about Canada in the last few years, and this information has been used for a- series of talks.. She 1s also a versatile writer and performer of plays and sketches, and has been associated with the Canadian Chataquas as a director, Judges Speak RECENTLY Wellington was treated to a set of talks from 2YA by ~ judges in some of the sections for the Wellington Competitions Society’s Festival. Miss Irene Stone, who judged the dancing section, was particularly interesting, and gave listeners some good advice about the young dancer. Many mothers who aspire to. have their little girls "do a dance" for the visitors after the youngster has been to perhaps a couple of lessons were taken to task by Miss Stone, who explained the fallacy of this idea of dancing progress. Her hints to mothers and to dancers themselves were most valuable; and a bigh compliment was paid to those who undertook tuition of young dancers in Wellington. It was refreshing to. hear some commonsense and straight speaking from this: authority: instead of a lot of- unnecessary and misleading back-scratching which is so often indulged in by people in this position.