MICROPHONES

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25833, 18 June 1949, Page 4

MICROPHONES

Sir, —I would like to give my opinion on the use of microphones at variety shows, etc. I think, and I am sure many others of your readers think, that you would be able to hear twice as well without microphones at these shows. If any of your readers went to “Hellzapoppin,” they must agree that it was difficult to hear sometinjes what the people were singing and saying when they used these microphones. But if any of your readers went to Stanley Holloway last week, he could be heard quite plainly without these awful microphones. Stanley Holloway is not the only person who didn’t use these microphones. Oscar Natzka did not use them; the Old Vic Company did not use them; and the Italian Opera did not use them. In the olden days they did not use microphones, but the variety shows were twice as good as they are now.— Yours, etc., D.N.C. (2). June 16, 1949. ROAD SAFETY Sir,—ln relation to the matter of road safety, I think Jas. Hill is a man of vision. I agree with all he has written. All power to him. I don’t think that many cars driven at 20 or 25 miles an hour leave the road. Nobody seems to be able to do anything to caution fast drivers. I think a shutter must drop over their minds, because they have to stop 10 times as long when they meet with an accident and hurt people, sometimes fatally.—Ycurs, etc., MILLTCENT C. MARSHALL. June 16, 1949.