STATE THEATRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23985, 7 December 1939, Page 7

STATE THEATRE

STORY OF "THE TELEPHONE “Mr Watson! Come here! I want you! " So ran the first complete sentence ever heard over the telephone, excitedly shouted by Alexander Graham Bell when laboratory acid burned a hole In his trousers! It was heard by his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, who was so impressed by the importance of the event that he immediately set it down in his note book among a myriad of diagrams of experimental phones. “ The occasion nad not been arranged and rehearsed as I suspect the sending of the first message over the Morse telegraph had been years before,” Watson declared. ‘‘ for Instead of that noble first telegraphic message—’ What hath God wrought? ’—the first message of the telephone was rather unimpressive. - Perhaps, if Mr Bell had realised he was about to make a bit of history, he would have been prepared with a more sounding and interesting sentence.”

But of course Bell had no thought ct talking for posterity. Rather he wanted to help men talk, and he dreamed of spanning continents with the human voice His Is a dream of accomplishment that symbolises the tradition of America—the stirring romance of one who dreamed and struggled, loved and achieved. In the deafness of lovely Mabel Hubbard he found his inspiration and in her love the faith and strength and courage to realise his dream One of America s most thrilling stories, it Is told with power, humour and profound humanity in Darryl F Zanuck’s production of The Story of Alexarder Graham Bell, which will be opened at the State Theatre to-morrow Another immortal character joins the motion picture gallery of the great In this Cosmopolitan production for 20th CenturyFox, In which Don Ameche (m the title role), Loretta Young (as Mabel Hubbard), and Henry Fonda (as Tom Watson) share top honours. Irvin# Cummings directed the film with Kenneth Macgowan associate producer, which was accorded the firsttime signal honour of being previewed at the San Francisco World s Fair.