HE SANG HYMNS TO LIVE

Radio Record, 15 July 1938, Page 12

HE SANG HYMNS TO LIVE

-By-

WILTON

BAIRD

Land Agent Brought Hymns To Radio When The Land Bubble Burst In American Depression.

N old man, nicely dressed, wearing an overcoat, felt hat, suede gloves and polished boots, sat on a public seat in the small triangle of reserve land as I came out of the headquarters of the NCBS in Wellington. He sat quite still, with a blank look in his eyes. In his gloved hands he held the pole of a banner that stood in the air so that people might read it, of not. In front of him was another elderly man who wore spectacles and a grey moustache. He was bending forward while the pigeons delicately trod all round him and came up to peck at the food he held out in his hand, , Alt the time the trams and the motor-cars rushed aloug down the street and the people hurried by. The banner said: "What think ye of Christ?" No-Time to Think HE old man in the overcoat did not move. He might have been sitting there for hours. The pigeons came up to the other elderly man to be fed. The trams and the people went on tearing down the street. They didn’t seem to have much time for thinking of anything at the moment except getting home from work. ROBABLY on an ordinary week day I would have joined the crowd and hurried past, unnoticing as well, if I hadn’t Just been hearing a selection of music at the fg me

Seuuadlo a MMOMeHtL before. . T he selection was from the new NCBS feature now being broadcast from the four commercial stations under the title, "Hymns of All Churches." "Hymns of All Churches" is heard at the four stations now at 8.45 each morning from Tuesdays to Fridays. It is to be heard on Sundays as well. On the weekdays, it seemed to me, it might well be like the banner of that old grey inan; but a banner more artistically presented. with a quieter appeal, more in keeping with our ideas of everything in its tight plaee, yet none the less chalienging. HD new feature is dropped in

to the morning session straight after breakfast when the rush of getting the men off to work is over and the women of the house can relax. It makes a moment’s pause before the day’s work is taken up again. Quietly and indirectly, in its own way, it asks the old man’s question. The hymns themselves-which cover almost every known religion, from Jewish to Roman Catholichave been recorded in America by a singer named Iemerson. HER his Lymus, through the great American network, reached the ears of 19,000,000 listeners. They went on to Australia, where they have won a Commonwealth-wide audience, Now they have come to New Zealand. — In the States, over 200 country schools use "Hymns of Ail Churehes" as their morning devotion. "F SHALL never furget my first impression of Emerson," says an Australian visitor who saw him in the New York control-room. ‘Tall, distinguished, be was singing one of the Lymns be loved and had taught millions the world over to love. As he sang, his head thrown back, his blue eyes sparkling, he appeared inspired." Love For All Hymns HE has a love for all hymns-old Protestant hymns and familiar Gospel melodies; dignified Latin chauts a thousand years old and the simpler Catholic songs in English; Hebrew anthems that have come straight down

Tom the Ula Testament: the hymns of Weslev and the hymns of Mary Baker Wddy. Even ‘the negro spirituals, t he hymns that these simple people. made out of the great _ Bible’ stories, are included, There’is one that Hmerson and his choir sang that was sung in the famous negro play. "Green Pastures": Old Ark she reel, Old Ark she rock, Old Ark she’s sitting on the mountain rop. There _ is. the slow, glorious music of "Come, Jesus, My Beloved," sung to the music of an old Italian master SINGER BM ERSON’S life has been woven round the hymns that he (Cont,-on p. 41.)

_. Hymns to Live | SINGER EMERSON" ~ (Continued from page. 12.)

began. singing as a boy of eight, years old, . In his Chicago apartment is a spinet piano. Here the family gathers While" Emerson’s 17-year-old daughter . plays.as her father sings-not dance tunes or Swing,. but bymns. ; ‘When Hmerson. went to college his ‘hymns: were part of his life, He sang them on ‘Chataqua and Lyceum platforms dtiring the summer.. He went to Wall Street where he sold stocks and bonds. and still sang his hymns. : During. the war he joined up as a naval aviator and Jater. as flying in.structor, and he sang in’ churches and . privately for his friends, this time he was a .real estate agent in Miami, Miami. boomed madly, burst badly. Emerson lost the million dollars he had made. . Ruined now,. Emersen said to wife: "L am going to earn my ' living as.a singer of hymns." __ Ii began his radio eareer on the spot. He took his portfolio of. hymns ' to the radio’ station in Miami and made his debut in’ 1929, .Hé sang in New York... He learned of a programme vacancy in ~-Cincitinati and asked for an a _. ‘he studio’ gave. him a week: to prove ’ thatchis hymns would find ‘an ‘audience. > One brandeast. was, enough, ' Letters poured in from thousands of ordinary people, from clergymen ot all sects. . Seven years from: the time he start‘ed in’ Miami hig session bécame part of n regulat Programme. on. { he U.S.As net: work, vie Emerson tells a story’ about his hymns. "There is a little old lady whose. sight’. has completely" gone, For -her tie sings ‘at ‘her request, "Open My ‘Eyes ‘That: I’ May’ See."