SINGER'S RETURN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22917, 21 December 1937, Page 15

SINGER'S RETURN

STAGE AND RADIO WORK AUCKLANDER'S EXPERIENCES. After 15 years abroad, most of which was spent either on the stage or in commercial broadcasting, Mr. R. McK. Geddes, formerly of Auckland, returned by the Awatea yesterday to spend Christmas with his family. Mr. Geddes, who travelled extensively in England and the United States as a professional singer, is now :in business in Sydney.

Leaving Auckland originally on • a«v count of his health, Mr. Geddes joined a J. C. Williamson company in Australia, and gained considerable experience on the stage there before travelling to England. For a year after his arrival in London he played in "Rose Marie" at Drury Lane, and later was a principal with Oscar Asche in another successful production at the Gaiety Theatre. A contract with Arthur Hammerstein took Mr. Geddes to the United States. He played in "Golden Dawn" in New York and Chicago, and subsequently accepted a broadcasting contract. "I had seven and a-half years in American commercial radio," Mr. Geddes said yesterday. "At the end of that time I had an opportunity to go into business, and. finding; it a little more stable diet —the theatre and broadcasting at my age are not as steady as one would like—l accepted." Mr. Geddes recently left his London appointment to join the staff of the Australian Drug Company, Limited. The unusual experienci of broadcasting from London to New Zealand came Mr. Geddes' way in 1935, when he took part in the special Christmas programme which was re-broadcast by tb» Dominion stations.