RADIO OPENS ANOTHER MAGIC DOOR TOWARDS WONDERS OF THE FUTURE

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 31, 13 January 1939, Unnumbered Page

RADIO OPENS ANOTHER MAGIC DOOR TOWARDS WONDERS OF THE FUTURE

‘First New Zealander Ever To Be Televised Tells Of This Modern Miracle At’ BBC’s Alexandra Palace

Wy © ® First New Zealander ever Prto be televised, Kevin Staunator, one of this country’s ablest younger journalists, who *~has just returned from a visit . to England, in this article tells of the vast strides of the new nadio art. ag ® Another record set by him «on his visit was that of being "Sthe youngest person in the world {and also the first New Zealander) ever to stage any promotion in London’s huge wz Royal Albert Hall-a catch-Nas-catch-can wrestling match etween well-known wrestler Earl McCready and Ruben Wright. @ After a year in London, which he did work for some of the national dailies on Fleet Street and for the BBC, he declined 1 permanent post in London journalism, returned to New Zealand, believing that experience abroad should be applied in one’s own couniry. HO said there is nothing new under the sun? Thirteen thousand miles across sea-watcr in a leisurely country called England flourishes a new art, a new science, a new entertainment.... And they eall it TELEVISION! "« Sit by your home firesideif you live anywhere within "@Beventy-five miles of London-4"town-press a button, twirl a dial and watch the events of the world, in sight and sound, unfold themselves on a little 10-inch by eight-inch screen vight before your eyes. That’s the modern miracle. ..° From stage coaches to ... motor-cars, from balloons to aeroplanes! Those were mere steps. But television came from nothing. It is the something new under the sun the wiseacres said couldn’t exist! TEN years ago radio was in its infancy. It was a young-: ster no more lusty than is tele‘vision, with whom its fortunes ave linked inseparably. Ten years!

And the number of television viewers in London and the Home Counties has doubled, trebled, in the past six months. Ten years! . And plans are laid so that television gradually (and not so gradually at that!) will be available to viewers all over Great Britain. Ten years! And even today the London market for radios is on the deeline because people hold to old sets awaiting the inevitable broadening of television’s now restricted programmes before buying their part of the newest

and potentially the greatest medium of home entertainment. Ten years! ...In ten years maybe television will have reached out to this little piece on the edge of the world. And theu, perhaps, a stillyoung New Zealander may | be excused for remembering . that he was the first of his countrymen ever to be televised. That will bring the

memories a-flooding back. Ten years! its Birth Notice {N August, 1936, the British Broadeasting Corporation’s London Television Station at Alexandra Palace transmitted its first test programmes; the birth notice of the most notable baby in the world of public entertainment had been published, 1987! And the London Television Standards (which mean little to you or me, but lots to those concerned with

the technicalities of the modern miracle) had heen set; television had proved convincingly that its potentialities were vast -so vast that still they are only partially comprehended. Tt was in the same year that a young New. Zcaland -journa-. list;;ambitious. to. learn something: more than the little he already. knew about the two greatest organs of publicity (the modern ‘newspaper and

modern broadeasting), erept unnoticed into that timeless centre of affairs-London.... His departure more than a year later was almost equally unnoticed. But in that year he had contrived to make at least one faint, only microscopically discernible scratch on the broad page of history.... He had become the first New Zealander ever to be televised, .. . And the process was repeated on more than a dozen occasions, BBC Features [rt happened that, additionally, he was responsible for an effort to interest the British public in a sport widely popular in New Zealand-ceatch-as-eatch-ean wrestling. And in association with him was that great gentleman and great wrestler, Earl McCready. Tt happened, too, that catch-as-catch-can wrestling makes interesting material for television programmes, so _ that Earl MeCready was invited by the BBC to feature in a series of exhibition bouts. And your young New Zealand journalist went along to offer such technieal advice as he was able and to referee the encounters. Once a fortnight for a period of more than six months, until a prior commitment called McCready to South Africa and inclination your New Zealander to his home, these television demonstrations of twenty minutes each were held. His Highness the Aga Khan, Prunella Stack, Ely Culbertson, Sybil Thorndike, Stephen King-Hall, Gracie Fields, Lord Wakefield and Jack Doyle-these were some of the personalities with whom I shared the honour of the Emitron camera ‘‘eyes’’ and the boom microphone. Whether they were as flattered as I is moot point indeed! {Turn to Page 2.)

Television's Magic Door---Continued from Page 1.

In The Limousine REMEMBER that, for our initial ‘‘Ally Pally’’ (Alexandra Palace to you) appearances, Earl and I were driven the seven miles from Boadcasting House to the Palace in a BBC luxury limousine, complete with liveried chauffeur and footman. But, as the BBC got more used to having us around, the limousine changed its shape until it became the charabane used for the conveyance of the Corporation’s staff. And that was all to. the good, for it gave us personal contacts. with the rank and file of the men who are responsible for the everyday | occurrence of this modern miracle. vce of the BBC’s research into television is still a elose and jealously-guarded secret. Casual visitors to the studios are severely discour-| aged. It is said that recently a party of members of the British Parliament asked to make a tour of the studios-and permission was courteously but firmly refused. | So that when we persuaded the BBC to invite the touring Australian cricketers to witness Parl McCready’s demonstration from within the studios, it is doubtful if Don Bradman and his men appreciated fully the signal honour that had been dene them. Once we smuggled in a mem, ber of the New South Wales Legislative Council-but only by passing him off as McCready’s second! TELEVISION and film studios look much alike-but the lighting in the television studio is rather fiercer than that employed in the film studio. Having tried in both circumstances, I know that a five-yard prance under the lights at ‘Ally -Pally’’ is much the more strennous work. : It may be true generally that "horses sweat, men perspire and ljadies merely get warm." But not so under the lights of the television studio. There, if ladies show a disposition for exercise, they share the fate of horses! I know that, after twenty minutes’ gyrations under the lights, the wrestlers were not the only ones in need of the cleansing baths provided!

FoR three hours a day {recent intention was to expand this} service), the BBC offers television viewers "live" material, as distinct from films. Sindio programmes yange from the lightest type of variety act to grand opera. They include iNustrated talks, music, ballet, revue, art exhibitions, fashion parades and frequent appearances of people prominent in the news. Current news-recis are shown daily. But these studio and film transmissions are only half the story. In 1937 the BBC took delivery of its first mobile television unit (a second was completed recently), which made television -possible from practically any point within. twenty miles of the transmitting station. Mobile television was inaugurated on Coronation Day. Now no event of wide interest within the range of the mobile unit goes untelevised.... So that viewers in their homies have watched tennis matches as they were played at Wimbledon, a play from the actual West End theatre, the test cricket at Lord’s, sheep-dog trials, the Lord Mayor’s show, the Cenotaph ceremony on Armistice Dayanything and everything as it happens, seen and heard! , ORE and more, experiments are being made with large-screen television, But home-viewers know that a very satisfying picture, with a wealth of detail, can be obtain-

ed on the 10-inch by eight-inch sereen. Receiving sets are now available for less than £30. Television is to the stage and screen what journalism is to literature. From the opening of the first door in the early morning to the announcer’s closing message at night, the fever of Fleet Street (hub of the British newspaper world), pervades Alexandra Palace. ... But that is just part of television, production methods for which are not being without their influence on those employed in films. TN earlier days television make-up was @ grim and ghastly business. Lips were painted a bright blue; eye-brows achieved a George Robey quality; facial hollows had to be filled in and jaw bones accentuated by dark hues, Nowadays the aim is to achieve a healthy = sun-tan,

Women use normal ilip-stick, with the addition of delicate shading to bring out the beauty of the-eyes. For men a liquid foundation is used to bring up the sun-tan shade. Dark complexions are lightened, fair darkened. It may have been a tribute to my own good looks, or a concession to my unimportance in the scheme of gs, that never at any time was I deemed in need of the attentions of television’s make-up artists. Undeniably attractive ladies and admittedly handsome men were subjected to as much titivation as Oxford Street bill-postings; but I, a New Zealander, was ailowed to appear before television’s public in all my pristine loveliness! Ear appeal! Eye appeal! Television has them both-and nowhere better illustrated than by the two charming and talented girls, Elizabeth Cowell and Jas-

mine Bligh, the one dark and the other fair, who are the BBC’s television announcers. Miss Bligh took an appreciative interest in the wrestling demonstrations; but the stuff of which Miss Cowell was made is apparently not quite so stern! I recall that, having made her announcement of the demonstration, she would turn her back on the wrestling mat and push a finger firmly against each ear-beeause if she heard the commentary she believed she would be ill, and if she saw the demonstration she knew she would! iG stores and London’s pubs provide televisions sets for the diversion of their customers and clients, The 1938 Radiolympia (the world’s greatest radio exhibition, when some £2,000,000 of radio equipment is sold), was an all-tele-vision effort and boosted enormously the sale of television receiving sets. The BBC, in its work of popularising the service, is many

marches ahead of its German and American rivals-the only other countries where the term "televisjon" yet has practical application. Ten years! Perhaps in that time, but certainly ,little hefore, television will penetrate to New Zealand. but the enormous expense of effective programme distribution (special cable facilities are necessary in order that wide areas may be covered), the difficulties of programme organisation {with all its wealth of resource the BBC finds it difficult enough to maintain its daily schedule of a "flesh and blood" show), as well as other factors equally impertant but not of sufficient general interest for discussion here, make New Zealand all its 13,000 miles away from television at the present ime, "| | should not advise making, your radio "do" an extra year; so that you can then buy a television set. Your next radio is likely to be equally old-fashioned before the "modern miracle" is made evident on this southern edge of the world!