Tribute to Tex Morton

Press, 10 January 1984, Page 13

Tribute to Tex Morton

Robert Lane — or Tex Morton as he was known by most people — was a man of many parts. Morton was a country and western singer, hypnotist, sharpshooter, actor, magician — in fact almost anything in the entertainment line.

New Zealand-born, Tex Morton was a great showman, both here and in Australia. He died in Sydney on July 23 and a few days later a special tribute programme was presented by Jim Healey on his “Country RFD” series. After many listener requests for a repeat broadcast, tonight the programme will be presented again, on the National programme at 7.30 p.m. The tribute features just some of Morton’s many songs along with excerpts recorded over the years.

Pavarotti The opera superstar, Luciano Pavarotti, can be heard in selections from a gala concert given in London’s Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philhar-

monic Orchestra conducted by Kurt Herbert Adler, on the Concert programme at 9.40 this morning.

The programme features arias by Puccini, Clia, Verdi and Donizetti.

Fantasy

Today’s short radio play (National programme, 11.15 a.m.) is “The Creatures” by Joyce Rowland. It is a short fantasy in which Geoff and Peter encounter some strange, terrifying alien beings. They rush to tell their companions, Shirley and Betty, but not before Peter gets “zapped” by one of the aliens. Peter’s recall of the event is affected and so eventually a brave, or foolhardy, sortie is undertaken to check things out.

The play was produced for RNZ by Ross Jolly, and the cast includes Tim Bart-

lett, Duncan Smith, Eva Radich and Katye Platt.

‘Codebreakers’

“The Codebreakers (19181941)” is the topic of (Concert programme, 9 p.m.) the second of five features on the history of espionage, written an presented by historian, Dr Christophe Andrew, of Cambridge University.

Spying took to the air and Britain’s codebreakers invented the computer. History has still to reveal the full effects on the outcome of the World War II of the cracking of Hitler’s codes and the Enigma Machine. The Americans coveted Winston Churchill’s Code and Cypher School where a university went to war and schoolboy genuises learned to speak Japanese in six months.