Sounds Historical for Sunday 12 April 2015
8:09 Today in New Zealand History 4’32”
Auckland and Wellington were linked by telegraph, 12 April 1872.
8:15 Homework 0’09”
Three mystery voices.
8:16 Artist: Nancy Harrie (piano) 3’26”
Song: I Can’t Believe That You’re in Love with Me
Composer: Gaskill/McHugh
Album: The Colourful Piano of Nancy Harrie
Label: Zodiac
Nancy Harrie involved in most aspects of popular music in the 1950s and 1960s, was the first pianist on television during a 1951 experimental broadcast. She died in 2000.
8:21 I Saw Them Fly 13'59”
A 1955 series of talks, introduced by Arnold Wall Jnr of 3YA Christchurch, in which Frederick Carpenter, who grew up in the village of Farnborough in the United Kingdom, recalls watching it become the centre of British aviation and his friendships with early aviators, from 1903 until the end of World War I. Part Three.
8:36 Artist: Eddie Howell 2’55”
Song: I’m in the Mood for Love
Composer: McHugh/Fields
Album: Polite Company
Label: Zodiac
Howell came from Whakatane.
8:41 Insight 1976 – the Smallest Show on Earth. Part one 7’39”
This week The smallest show on earth? – the film industry in New Zealand. The film industry is usually associated with Hollywood. However New Zealand has its own film industry story, eighty years ago this month the first motion pictures were screened in this country and it wasn't too long after that pioneer filmmakers were shooting film in New Zealand.
Henry Gore of Dunedin shot HMS New Zealand at Otago Heads and the wreck of the ship, Tyrone in 1913 for the new Queen’s Theatre. Rudall Haywood explains how he had to write the script, build the sound camera, processing equipment, photographic equipment and print the copies in the 1920s and 30s. John O’Shea of Pacific Films was an independent filmmaker of the 1950s and 60s and active in the Wellington Film Society. Derek Morton of Talking Pictures, explains how they tried to get commercial productions to pay the bills and make art films in between when time allowed. John Pettigrew made a number of films for the Education Department, he says he wasn’t keen on commercials but these films gave him the opportunity to make interesting films. Independent filmmaker, Geoff Steven comments that the N.F.U., the major producer of films in this country should have the freedom to explore the boundaries of cinema but haven’t. The manager of the Film Unit, David Fowler defends their productions saying, “… we make promotional films… tourist films… made for a specific purpose… nothing wrong in making films that will attract trade and tourist dollars… but by no means, are our films bland.”
8:49 Artist: Andre Lavalle Trio 2’56”
Song: Me Que Me Que
Composer:
Album: Polite Company
Label: Zodiac
8:53 War Report Episode 31 6’20”
With no idea of the carnage to come at Gallipoli the New Zealand home front was focused on minor matters. The wife of the Governor General urging woman to knit two pairs of socks for each serving man and the Wellington Chamber of Commerce refused to use pencils made in Bavaria by Johann Faber and was eager to buy from British manufacturers who were of necessity now providing higher grade pencils. General Andrew Russell, commander of the New Zealand troops reflects on the quality of the volunteers and the death of tennis star Andrew Wilding in action in 1915 is described. Newspaper reports indicate that the destination of the New Zealand troops is still not publically known, just days before the Gallipoli landings
Music – extracts from:
Artist: John McCormack
Song: It’s a Long Way to Tipperary
Composer: n/s
Album: Oh, It’s a Lovely War Vol 1
Label: CD41 486286
Artist: Bill Murray
Song: Sister Susie’s Sewing Shirts for Soldiers
Composer: R P Weston/Herman Darewski
Album: Songs of World War 1
Label: CD Geoentertainment 557331
9:05 As I Remember 2’41”
Our Family Holiday in the 1930s by Cliff Couch of Paraparaumu, read by Phil Smith.
9:11 Artist: Rex Jensen 2’32”
Song: Portrait of My Love
Composer: West/Ornadel
Album: Polite Company
Label: Zodiac
9:15 Homework
Three mystery voices.
9:16 Old Bill's Story (part four) 11’29”
Read by Lance McCaskill, recorded in 1956. This story was told by an old drover to Bill Blackadder of Springs Junction who dictated it for recording by the NZBS. It tells of an 1876 cattle driving trip from the Waiau River in Canterbury, through the Cannibal Gorge (Lewis Pass) to the Robinson River on the West Coast.
9:29 Artist: Esme Stephens 2’48”
Song: Sixteen Reasons
Composer: Post
Album: Polite Company
Label: Zodiac
Hit in 1960 for Connie Stevens Chris Bourke writes: When she was just 19, Auckland singer Esme Stephens performed in her home town with one of the greatest bands of the jazz era. In 1943, as part of the “American invasion” of US troops on their way to fight in the Pacific, swing star Artie Shaw visited in New Zealand with his US Navy band. He had hand-picked the musicians from his jazz peers who had been called up or volunteered. Shaw and his uniformed cohorts arrived in New Zealand fatigued and disgruntled after months of playing jazz in hot, sticky, hazardous war zones. On the morning of 1 August, during a rehearsal for a concert that night at the St James Theatre on Queen Street, it was suggested that perhaps the band should have a female vocalist perform on a couple of numbers.
9:35 Miss Great Britain, visits New Zealand 7’18”
In 1954 Miss Great Britain Pat Butler visited New Zealand and was asked about her beauty contest experiences.
9:43 Artist: Lou and Simon 2’33”
Song: Now is the Hour (Po Atarau)
Composer: Trad
Album: The Maori Lou and Simon
Label: Red Rooster rlp4CD
Lou Clauson and Simon Meihana were a comedy pop vocal duo based in Auckland. They both originated from the South Auckland area with Lou Clauson coming from Drury and Simon Meihana from Pukekohe. The pair recorded a total of fifteen singles between 1962 and 1967. Lou, who is credited with introducing chicken and chips to New Zealand, died in December 2013.
9:47 World War One in Sight and Sound 10’35”
Diane Pivac and James Taylor of Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision introduce a new website “Anzac Sights and Sounds”. It hosts WWI-related audio and film from New Zealand and Australia. Diane and James describe the site and play some extracts from the material used.
- Teenage soldiers and a boat full of blood. Seventeen year old Daniel Patrick (“Pat”) Lloyd of Christchurch was among the New Zealanders who landed at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. He witnessed the carnage caused when boatloads of men came under heavy machine-gun fire from the shore. He survived and went on to serve in France where he won a Distinguished Conduct Medal for ‘gallantry in the field’. Fifty years later Pat took part in an anniversary ‘pilgrimage’ by New Zealand veterans, who returned to Gallipoli to retrace their footsteps and visit the graves and memorials to fallen comrades. (Recorded in 1966).
- The Daisy Patch “It was absolute murder – or suicide, whichever way you like to look at it.” On the 8th of May 1915, the New Zealanders launched a series of unsuccessful attacks across an open field of poppies and daisies in the south of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Former kauri gum-digger and school teacher, Joseph Gasparich of the Auckland Infantry Battalion was among them. The action known as “The Daisy Patch”, saw the New Zealanders charge across open ground against Turkish troops who were dug into well-concealed trenches. They were met by heavy machine gun and rifle fire, with disastrous results. As Joe Gasparich recounts, wave after wave of New Zealanders were felled. The New Zealand infantry suffered 835 casualties and by nightfall the Allies had lost 6500 men killed or wounded and advanced just 500 metres. (Recorded in 1968)
- Treating Gallipoli’s wounded – Dr Agnes Bennett. Dr Agnes Bennett (1987-1960) was born in Sydney, Australia. She graduated from medical school in Edinburgh in 1899 and from 1905 worked in Wellington, New Zealand as a general practitioner and then as medical officer at St Helen’s maternity hospital. When war broke out she offered her services to the army but was turned down because she was a woman. Undeterred, she instead paid her own passage to sail to Europe to join the French Red Cross. She was sailing through the Red Sea in May 1915 when word reached the ship of the casualties arriving in Egypt from the Gallipoli campaign. As she recalls in this recording made in 1959, she disembarked as soon as she could and began working in the over-stretched military hospitals of Cairo. The army offered her the status and pay of a captain. (Recorded in 1959).