A.B.C. recalls 50 years’ broadcasting

Press, 15 May 1985, Page 18

A.B.C. recalls 50 years’ broadcasting

By

Allan Francis

THE BIG BROADCAST Fifty years of A.B.C. Broadcasting. Various artists. A.B.C. RECORDS L70233/4. In 1972 the 8.8. C. produced a lavish gilt two LP set marking the first 50 years of broadcasting. The celebrations took up 127 items of snippets of events, f treat and small, from such ofty figures as Lord Reith and King George or Alistair Cook down to Joe Loss and Tommy Handley. The A.B.C. has now done much the same thing. In Elace of Hitler and Mussoni they have enlisted Eisenhower and General ■ Montgomery, in place of Essie Ackland they have Gladys Moncreiff (far from disgraced), and their 50 years dates from 1932 to 1982. Elsewhere, there are many items in common, Vera Lynn singing “White Cliffs,” the abdication speech by Edward VIII and other 8.8. C. announcements. Once more we ard swept doen memory lane, transported down the corridors of power, the joys, the hopelessness, the stengths and futilities of pre-war events. Like Paul awaiting a reply from the Corinthians, poor old Chamberlain waits in vain for a response from Germany. Churchill snarls and Hitler rants, Sir John Curton quietly announces through his nose that the Japs attacked Darwin, cold English voices list German atrocities, Donald Bradman discusses non-underarm cricket, Dame Lotte Lehmann sings a few lines from “Fidelio” and in the end Chamberlain gives up the ghost as a letter writer. World War II is the centre piece, and indeed tends to dominate. It seemed that in those six years most of the compulsive entertainment, as well as drama, was inspired. Dame Vera Lynn closes the chapter with “When The Lights Go On Again” and we are back in “civvy” street. It was never to be the same again. The uneasy peace also had its problems,

but to ease the pain there were compensations in the shape of Dick Bentley, Fred Hartley, Churchill’s peacetime overtures about the “Iron Curtain” and a terrible piece of so-called “Classical Jazz” that sounded like dishwater Gershwin. Being committed to Britain, Australia had much in common with it and many events ran parallel in both countries. However, how Edmund Hillary got into the Australian act is a puzzler and here one might suspect is the first sign of Aussie duplicity — if you don’t count Phar Lap. Taking roughly about the same time as a full-length movie, the saga flicks by as one’s life might pass before the eye (or ears), with only the peaks showing. None is long enough to get boring or too involved too deeply before the pattern shifts. The Queen’s coronation is followed swiftly by her first visit to Australia in 1954, the welcoming cries of an Aussie lady — “ain’t she luvverly.” Operation “Wombat” is brushed aside equally dextrously by Fred Hartley — and not a moment too soon. It is astonishing how many prime ministers come and go. The variety and quality of the 158 items is equally amazing. It is impossible not to be impressed with the programme, the essentially Australian flavour adds much to the im-

portance of the occasion. Their accent is unmistakeably Australian because it is so much worse than ours. Small points such as Edmund Hillary or 100 metres at the 1956 Olympic Games can be cheerfully overlooked in the face of the greater merits. Though forgotten, half forgotten or familier, the pattern of events provides a fascinating kaleidoscope of 50 years history. Will Radio New Zealand lay it all on the line in the same way?