LIFE IN A BROADCASTING STUDIO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23527, 16 June 1938, Page 19

LIFE IN A BROADCASTING STUDIO

SUCCESS OF DUNEDIN GIRL

After an absence of four years, during which time she earned distinction as the popular and versatile radio actress of Station 4BC, Brisbane, Miss Jessie McLennan has returned to her home town. Dunedin theatre-goers will remember Miss McLennan for her fine work in early Repertory Society productions, and some will be surprised, and possibly disappointed, to learn that this gifted performer, who from childhood had cherished an ambition to go on the stage, has now a strong preference for the radio as a medium for her art. It is the variety of the work that makes it so fascinating. Miss McLennan says. The years at 4BC, Brisbane —prior to these she was broadcasting from a Sydney studio for a few months as “Aunt Jessie ’’—were packed with experience that included announcing.

recording, acting, and even copy writing. The members of the studio staff of this station, which is one of four privately-owned commercial stations in Brisbane, are mainly experienced professional actors and are of varying nationalities —French. Dutch, Scottish. Irish, and English. Plays are in constant rehearsal, for the demand in Australia at present is for more studio productions and fewer recorded plays. Some of Miss McLennan’s most popular radio roles have included “ Mata Hari ” in the broadcasting version (written by a Dutchman who “ blew in one day on his way from the East) ” “ Lady de Winter” in “The Three Musketeers,” Mrs Goodbrew of “ The Goodbrew Family,” Cassie in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Mrs Winifred Watch in “Down Our Way,” and Penney in “Peter and Penney.” Miss McLennan was playing the leading role in “ VictoriaQueen Empress” (a broadcasting version of Victoria’s life story) when she was called to Dunedin. The story is in a series of 26 half-hour episodes, broadcast weekly, and is directed by the studio’s well-known producer. Max Sorelle. . . ~ More and more recordings of studio plays are being made in Australia, Miss McLennan said, and advertisers who come to buy “ time ” are given a selection of records from which to choose their favourites. The advertisements themselves, which come at the beginning and end of each feature, are often highly original. One firm’s sales talk went something like this: “Well, Bill, I suppose they want to hear about this

motor spirit of ours—yes, I know it s no good, and no car could ever gel up a hill on it— but you'd better tell them just the same.” This method “ took bn ” with great success, but, needless to say, it can be overdone—not all advertisers share that particular sense of humour. Australian radio stations do much for charity. Not long ago the Brisbane studio heard that the little convalescents of the children’s hospital at Montrose had caught the knitting “ craze, but had neither wool nor needles. “ So we put over an appeal, and there was a terrific response,” said Miss McLennan. “We drove down to the hospital the following day with the back of the car laden to the hood with wool and needles of all descriptions.” In addition to its studio staff the station has its own commentators on football, cricket, yachting, and racing —especially the last-mentioned, “for the Queensland people cannot do without their two-a-week race meetings.’ Of the friendliness and hospitality of Queensland people Miss McLennan speaks highly. New Zealanders m Australia—excluding that section who sit in their clubs criticising and condemning those around them—are well liked, and usually manage to secure good positions