TV Viewers Televised In Selwyn Street Home

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30056, 14 February 1963, Page 16

TV Viewers Televised In Selwyn Street Home

Away from the scheduled routes for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on their visit to Christchurch is the city’s most elaborately dressed private borne. Even if the Royal visitors do not see it, the Selwyn street home of Mr R. H. Stillwell, a city councillor and member of several other local bodies, is impressing the district’s children with the importance ot the visit, and television viewers will see the decorations and some of their fellow viewers.

Mr Stillwell, as a hobby, runs a theatrette in which he shares his television set with his neighbours and their children. During the special early showings of the Royal tour. Mr Stallwell, a retired showman and dance promoter, has been rushing home from local body committee work to turn on the set for his young audiences. Lart evening a television

cameraman was in the audience taking shots of the boys and girls and the television set on the stage. Earlier, he had photographed Mr Stillwell’s home-made decorations.

His front lawn carries a large arch bearing the Maori welcome “Haeremai” and New Zealand emblems surrounding a framed coloured portrait of Her Majesty. Mr Stillwell has been generous with red. white, and blue bunting. Union Jacks. New Zealand Ensigns, and glittering patriotic mottoes. In his front window is a model of the Queen's Coronation crown. About 30ft from the ground, and dominating ■ the Spreydon skyline ail

night, is a red, white, and blue mast topped with a crown and a New Zealand Ensign. Floodlights pick out the main features of the decorations at night—"and the electricity meter goes round like a merry-go-round once they are on,” Mr Stillwell says—and festooned coloured lights help to make Selwyn street a bright spot.

Since his retirement from show business Mr Stillwell has shared his enjoyment of films and television with his neighbours, and his Christmas and New Year parties have attracted more than Spreydon residents. Children from the nearby Spreydon School have been regular visitors this week to see the progress of the decorations, and Mr Stillwell’s garden has been the subject of at least ore girl’s essay. “If it helps to imbue the children with the importance of the Royal visit and the value of the Commonwealth— I still think of it as the British Empire—then all this work has been worth-while,” Mr Stillwell said. Mr Stillwell intends to have a holiday in the East, with Hong Kong and Japan as his immediate objectives, within the next few months. His main worry is what is going to happen to his regular television viewers who have come to depend on his th->atrette for their entertainment. and who already go home crestfallen when they see a sign “No TV tonight” on the evenings Mr Stillwell 'attends City Council and I Drainage Board meetings.