PERSONALITIES ..ON THE AIR..

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 25, 2 December 1938, Page 8

PERSONALITIES ..ON THE AIR..

NE of the most successful sketches ever written is Seamark’s ‘‘The Ole in the Road." Many years ago- the author broadeast it himself, at Savoy Hill, with Myles Clifton as the Dude. Later on he gave the sketch to Clifton, who played it in music-halls all over England with consistent success. The idea is a conversation between a belated reveller and a nightwatchman presiding over a hole in the road that had been in his family for years. Of course the sketch had to be recorded so that its amiable nonsense could circle the empire. As the Dude, Myles Clifton is as successful in his record as he was on the halls, and for partner (the possessive night-watch-man) he has the skilled assistance of George Graves.

AVA SYMONS AND HER VIOLIN

3YA listeners . will hear this sketch, "The ’Ole in the Road," on Friday, December 9.

In the middle of the seventeenth century the picturesque town of Botzen in Tirol

boasted a very proficient maker of violins. His name was Matthias Albani, and he had a son of the same name who, following, in father’s footsteps, also made vio-

~ .% lins. The younger Matthias ventured farther afield than his father, and went to Cremona, where he worked for several years, probably with the great Amati. He then settled in Rome and, combining the best of two styles, German and Italian, he made violins which still pour out their ravishing tones in the hands of brilliant violinists the world over. There: is an Albani instrument in Wellington, whose lucky. owner is. Miss Ava Symons, the brilliant and popular ‘violinist. ‘ iit

Just how much Matthias, jun., contributes to the listeners’ delight when the sound of his fiddle is heard over the air only Ava Symons could tell.

DELYSIA HAS TEAR IN VOICE

2YA listeners will hear Ava Symons, violinist, with Gertrude Johnston, pianist, at the Hutt Valley Liedertafel Concert to be relayed on Thursday, December

When © B. Cochran was once in the audience at the Olympia, Paris,

where he had gone to see a star dancer, he noticed, playing a part of some half-dozen lines, a young woman who appeared to possess @ curious magnetism. This young woman had a "tear in the voice." That gift cannot be acquired. And

as Mr. Cochran has told us, you can sit with your eyes shut in any theatre and know that you are listening to a big artist directly the voice gives you a tremor down the spine. When ultimately the owner of that voice, Alice Delysia, joined up with the Cochran company, she started at £6 a week. In a very short time she was actually in receipt of £500 a ‘week in a New York production.

NOTED FEATS AT THE PIANO

Alice Delysia will be heard at 4¥A in the recorded feature, "C. B. Cochran Presents," on Wednesday, December 7.

Aecou1 plishing with apparent ease feats of pianism that seem almost

superhuman, Alexander bOrowsxy, Lettish virtuoso, enthralls his hearers with an art that conceals art. Born at Riga, he studied first under Annette Essipoff, coming later under her husband, the famous Theodor Leschetitzky, the teacher of Paderewski, Mark Hambourg and Paul Schramm,

TWO OF THE SAME KIND

Alexander Borowsky, pianist, will be heard at 2YA on Tuesday, December 6.

It appears there are two Gerald Moores, both pianists, both . on the records, and

both apparently Londoners, Gerald: Moore, No..1, is the accompanist to classical singers who record for ‘HLM.Y,,.and- grace London’s. most: fashionable high-class . concerts, Gerald Moore, No. 2, known as Gerry Moore,- is a jazz pianist,

who records for Parlophone. Gerry is still on the right side of 35, and secured his first engagement at the Hendon Cinema, where he played more for wie fun of the thing than anything else.

DISTRUST OF DEMOCRACY

Gerry Moore, pianist, will be heard in 4YA’s music, mirth and melody session on Thursday, December 8,

Carried off in 1831, at the age of 61 by cholera, Hegel, Germany’s greatest

philosopher of last century, dI1strusted democracy. One of his last works was a scathing analysis of the English Reform Bill of 1631. This explains quite a_ lot. He understood English aspirations and temperament about as little as many understand his complex philosophy. Hegel himself said:

"One man has understood me and even he has not." And yet this prematurely old, eccentric, pathetic little pedagogue was destined to dominate German philosophic thought. He was happily married to a girl of scarcely 17, and he was so shy when lecturing that he coughed interminably, fumbled with his notes, and fiddled with the lid of his snuffbox.

f IN TOUCH WITH REALITIES

8YA listeners will hear a talk on Hegel by Rev. A. C. Watson, M.A., on Wednesday, December

Ranks of our New Zealand clergy coutain a good proportion of men who

have experienced life in ali its phases. Among them is the Rey. L. J. Boulton-Smith, who began life in a bank but is now a Baptist pastor of 20 years standing in Australia, the United States and New Zealand. Born in Christchurch, Mr. Boulton-Smith was educated in Australia, and at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, and Georgetown College. He knows life in mining and lumber camps, and has had country and city pastoral experience. He is interested in social settlement work. Youth work, Sunday-school activities and Toc H., and when leisure permits he has his hobby of literature. On Sunday morning, December 4, the service from. the Vivian Street Baptist Church, . Wellington, at which, the Rev. tL. J. -Boulton-Smith will preach ‘as usual, will be relayed by ras Se ae