VICENT RYAN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 222, 19 September 1936, Page 11

VICENT RYAN

APPEARANCE IN WANGANUI GARRISON BAND FUNCTION The Wanganui Garrison Band has been fortunate in securing the services of Mr. Vincent Ryan, the noted Australian entertainer. He will be featured at the band’s Sunday night concert at the Majestic Theatre on Sunday week, September 27. If Vincent Ryan settled down and became serious he could put up his sign, and the letters M.P.S., and Ph.C., to his name, and be ready for business. He took his degree in chemistry at the Sydney University before deciding on the stage and radio as his career. At the moment he is under contract to the New Zealand national broadcasting stations and enjoys his work as a comedian. He said recently that at the back of his mind he had always had a hankering after the

stage and was happier amusing people than at anything else. He will not choose between the stage and radio but asserts that both are equally interesting for the comedian. The artist can develop his own personality on the radio, even more than on the stage, he says. Australians have developed a hnm1 : our of their own, he maintains. For that reason English comedians were not always a success in Australia. ■ Australians preferred a broader type of humour. They did not appreciate the subtleties of the English style. Community singing, said Mr. Ryan, had come into great favour in Australia and. chiefly through the Australian Broadcasting Commission, large amounts had been raised for the hospitals. Generally it was the most popular weekly event on the programmes. In New South Wales all the money raised was devoted to equipping the hospitals with radio sets and earphones. Some of the hospitals cost from £3OO to £4OO to equip, and there were only a few now without their

radios. The sets were installed in the hospital by the Postmaster-General’s department, which reduced the expense. When his contract expires in New Zealand, Mr. Rvan will leave for England. His only appearance in Wanganui will be on Sunday week.