COMEDIENNE WHO CRASHED BBC

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 28, 23 December 1938, Page 4

COMEDIENNE WHO CRASHED BBC

Vocalist Got BBC Contract / At 48 Hours’ Notice Sings From 2YA During Brief Visit

AUSTRALIAN girl who "crashed" the BRC on impulse one day three years ago, vocal comedienne Muriel Lee Petty is on a brief visit to New Zealand. New Zealand listeners will. hear her from 2YA on December 22 and 4, One of Melba’s proteges, she took up singing in Australia and went into J. C. Williamson shows, "! always got the dud jobs," she said. "If the lead in ‘Rose Marie’ got ill | had to go on in the part and then go off again." She had an audition for the ABC ang was turned down. Says this

dari little lady: "I think the office boy auditioned me that time." So three years ago- she went to London to study singing under the maestro Gwynne Davies. She hated Loudon. Three times in three weeks: she packed her bags

to leave. Then one day, walking down the Strand, she decided she must do something. On the spur of the moment she rang the variety producer of the BBC and asked for an audition. She got it next day. Forty-eight hours later she had signed a contract with the BBC. For three years she has done work for the BBC, for Radio Luxemburg and Normandy and for variety and pantomime in the West End. BBC yariety manager, Mr Gordon O'Connell, is partial to Australian voices, says Miss Petty. He thinks they have a striking warmth of tone, possibly due to the climate. ao