PERSONALITIES ON THE AIR

Radio Record, 14 April 1938, Page 16

PERSONALITIES ON THE AIR

Kr, — MONG New Zealand provincial pianists who have ; made good is Mr. Lionel Harris, LRA.M., A.R.C.M. At the moment Mr. Harris, who hails from Gisborne, is staying in Wellington and is to play from 2YA on Thursday, April 21. After a course of study under Mr. Irvine Moore, of Gisborne, Mr. Harris went to London to the Royal Academy of Music, where he came under the experienced and expert care of Mr. Frederick Moore, his former teacher’s brother, and Mr. Egerton Tidmarsh. Many New Zealand musicians will recall Mr. Frederick Moore’s visit to this country a few yeurs ago. His lecture-recitals proved most stimulating. Mr, Harris is a successful recitalist and keen on two-piano work, o> DON'T WEAR Let Harry MusYOUR grove tell a story sALVES IN FRONT! of Gladys Mon crieff, now happily recovering from her recent accident in Australia, "Gladys was. so slim when she first won popularity that she asked me whatever she could do to hide her thin shanks from public ridicule. 1 showed her how to pad her legs out SO as to deceive the cash customers, but alas, I gasped when I saw her come on the stage-the pads had slipped and ‘she appeared in the thickest pair of

ankles that ever distinguished a prima donna! She learned her lesson from that occurrence, If you are going to deceive, take care you do deceive: don't Wear your calves iu front!" Station SYA listeners will hear snare Moncrieff. on Saturday, April 23.

v4 waar DID Radio offers unique facilities for the reGLADSTONE SAY? creation of history. In this it goes, and. will go, beyond anything the commercial stage can do, a point to be remembered whenever pros and cons of these respective media are under discussion. "The Sheffield Outrages," or "Trades Unions at the Crossroads," is a case in point, In the play we glimpse various scenes and meet historic figures who ine Clude that persuasive advocate of the trade uviou cause, Fredrie Harrison, and also Mr. Gladstone, upon whom

Mr. Harrison makes a pronounced impression. The historic interviews take place at No. 10 Downing Street, and, if nothing else, the play should _ settle once and for all the vexed question, "What did Mr. Gladstone say in 1869?" The dramatic interlude, "The Shetfield Outrages," will be presented at 2YA on Wednesday, April 20. THE BLACK During his lengthy MAN’S engagement at the REVENGE! Piccadilly Hotel, the late David de Groot, played to audiences which included many distinguished people in all walks of life. These people preferred restful music, as distinct from blaring, uerve-racking jazz-so aptly termed by De Groot, the blackmun's revenge on the white man! In that splendid restaurant, he numbered among his audiences Rachmaninofi, Chaliapine (who never failed to blow him a kiss when some item specially pleased him), Backhaus, Jascha Heifetz, Mischa Elman, Moiseiwitsch and others. David de Groot, violinist, will be heard in 3YA’s dinner music session on Saturday, Apri] 23. RELAYING BOTH Before Archbishop FATHER Redwood died, we AND SON. had in New Zealand two archbishops who both came from Staffordshirethe other one, Archbishop Averill, has served the Church of England here

since 1891, when, a young man of 26, he arrived to take charge of St. Michael’s, Christchurch, Amid all his multifarious and sometimes perplexing duties, His Grace has kept abreast of modern thought and to this day is a prencher of power and outstauding eloquence. He is preaching at St. Mary's Cathedral, Auckland, on the evening of Easter Day, April 17%. Hig sun, Rev.

W. W. Averill, preaches in the morning at All Saints, Auckland. Station 1YA will relay both services. MADE FUN The bassoon is ofOF ten called the low THE BASSOON. comedian of the orchestra. This im. polite title is not altogether fair. It is mostly the composers who are to blame for the bassoon’s comic reputation, because they were not long in discovering that it could make noises of a most humorous description. While Handel, Beethoven and Tschaikovsky all gave the bassoon dignified work to do Dr. Pepusch, that admirable pedant of the eighteenth century, wrote a concerto for six bassoons representing six grunting pigs, and the flute a sucklingpig... too bad, Doctor! In modern times the "Lucy Long" variations have become almost a London (Queen's Hall Prom attraction. The Auckland Municipal Band features something similar for bassoon and trombone, in the humoresque, "Miss Lucy Long," on Sunday, April 17. Station 1YA relays this programme, HE TELLS THE Ina book of a little STORY over 200 pages, OF MUSIC. Dr. George Dyson presents a succinct outline of the development of music. This is certainly one of the best sunimaries of the musical history of the West. Born at Halifax, Yorkshire. Dr. Dyson began a brilliant career first at the R.C.M., then abroad as holder of the coveted Mendelssohn Scholarship. He was later music master at thé schools of, successively, Osborne, Marlborough, Rugby, Wellington and Winchester. He is a talented and prolific composer. Taking the name of his book for a title, Dr. Dysorr has reeorded » splendid lecture-recital, "The Progress of Music," which will be featured by 3YA on Wednesday, April 20. TINKER WHO It is remarkable WON that one of the IMMORTALITY, greatest masters of English prose was a tinker by trade, and had but the rudiments of an education. Yet such was John Bunyan, author of the most popular book ever written, except the Bible itself. He had his own ideas about religion. He preached on these in season and out of season, served twelve years in jail for doing so, wrote sixty books in his sixty years of life, and became so widely known and influential that he was called "Bishop of the Baptists." He wrote, in part, his masterpiece, "Pilgrim’s Progress," during his confinement in Bedford jail. This great Englishman is the subject of a talk at 3YA by Mr. A. W. Stockwell, on Wednesday, April 20. BUT ENGLISHMEN On his particular ARE Saint’s Day, the CASUAL. Welshman honours St. David, the Irishman St. Patrick, and the Scotsman St. Andrew; but the Englishman seems to take little interest in St. George. Perhaps it is that St. George was too legendary a figure. Yet St. George’s Day offers a glittering array of reasons for national pride. April 23 is Shakespeare’s birthday, and he died on that day. It is the anniversary of the raid on Zeebrugge by the Dover

Patrol. It is the name day of our King. It is England's Day. Station 2YC will honour St. George's Day with a special programme, in the course of which, at 8.30 p.m., there will be relayed a speech by the Hon. Walter Nash, M.P., from the Combiued English County Societies’ Celebration on Saturday, April 23. OLD SOLDIERS A concert party WHO came to life out in NEVER DIE. Salonika in March, 1917, when a young second-lieutenant gathered a few of "the boys" together to entertain the troops. The new party was christened "The Roosters," after the campcommandant, Captain G. N. V. Roose. "The Roosters" have been going strong ever since. They sing old songs and new; they display the old spirit: the burlesque and stunt are as of yore and make the sides of their audiences ache with laughter; they still flourish, because old soldiers never die. Station 2YA listeners will near "The Roosters" in the music, mirth and melody session, Thursday, Aprij 241. WHEN BESSIE The amalgamaCAST tion of two newsA SPELL! papers in Masterton, the "Wairarapa Daily Times" and the "Wairarapa Age," calls to mind a reprint of a portion of 4n amusing concert report in one of them over 40 years ago. Thus did the "Wairarapa Star" (later the "Age’’) refer to an encore demanded at 4 concert given by Miss Bessie Doyle. "The audience was charmed,

delighted, spellbound. It sat entranced beneath the spell of heavenly music. It could not help itself. Six hundred éyes were riveted. three hundred mouths extended, then six hundred legs and six hundred arms moved fran. tically. and Bessie Doyle was encored." "Humour in Theatrical] Criticism" is the subject of a recorded talk by Col. John Atkinson, at 1YA on Thursday, April 21. HER SENSE Like every storyAND teller, Jane Austen SENSIBILITY, knew her world. It matters not that it Was a small world. "I work," she said, "on a little bit of ivory two inches square. Her own life wag on the scale of those she described. In her 42 years of life she did nothing particularly exciting, but she did bring about a reyolution in the English nove] by substituting reality for illusion, observation for fantasy, and wit for sentimentality. Describing a certain locality, she once wrote: "Our neighbourhood was small, for it consisted only of your mother." Her books were exquisite miniatures by a very sensible and very conscientious observer. At Station 1YA on Friday, April 22, Mr. D’Arcy Cresswell will reng extracts from Jane Austen’s "Pride and Prejudice." NO LONGER THE Time was when the OLD "German Band" GERMAN BAND. was the butt of English comie papers. One of the most modern groups Germany has yet produced is Oscar Joost’s Dance Orchestra, and it is as far removed from the old-time "German Band" as Nazism appears to be from sweetness and light. The appeal of this fine show band is in no way limited by the nationality of its members, for this capable leader provides entertainment of an international character with excellent "vocals" in English. He features from time to time, musicians from other countries and thereby maintains a supérlative standard. The Oscar Joost Dance Orchestra will be heard in 1YA’s dinner music programme on Monday, April 15. BROADCAST Back in New ZeaIN land is Betty RenAUSTRALIA ouf, of Hawke’s Bay, who has been broadcasting for some months in Melbourne, from stations 83UZ and 8AW in the famous "Swallow Shows" featured by Hal Perey Productions. Undér the name of Elizabeth Renouf, she has worked with most of the well-known radio personalities, ang her Australian broadcasts have embraced a yariety of character parts in plays and sketches. While over there she his also made numerous recordings. AS well as her studies of every aspect of commercial broadcasting and microphone technique, she has completed an advanced course of speech-training. Dramatic work has long been Miss Renouf’s main interest, for her father, Arthur BE, Renouf has been associated with the repertory theatre for many many years, and is well known over the air as a raconteur of Maori stories in Napier, where he is the president of the Drama League.

No. 25 AS THE ARTIST SEES THEM BROADCASTERS