From the New Zealand TV Weekly. January 23, 1967
Auckland
Usually worn and weary, but better oft’ financially, are the television and radio folk who have been on the holiday resort bandwagon. Resort crowds are usually co-operative and comparatively easy to please, but some of the facilities for staging shows are pretty thin, according to most of them. Bigger package shows headlined such established popsters as Sandy Edmonds, Lew Pryme, and Howard Morrison. Personalities from Radio Hauraki were used for guest spots at Orewa, while acts included Allison Durbin, Gerry Merito and Max Cryer. Wonder how he got on with his famous mink sweater in that heat? . . . . Mike Bellinger and your correspondent put up similarly atrocious performances to cop the most improved players
titles in the annual Cinema Industry golf tourney . . . . Auckland had Napoleon Solo, alias Robert Vaughn, as a 45-minute-between-flights visitor just before Christmas... Still trying to think of an odder nature story than the touching tribute to Keith Bracey recently. He copped an accolade as softie-of-the-week
for carefully trundling two live (and unsolicited) tadpoles to happier habitation in the Domain duck pond. Reminds me of a Central Otago friend who once had a whitebait as a pet in his washtub. Some foolish relative pulled the plug unwittingly. Exit the little finny friend. . . . Can’t imagine anyone else but Graham Kerr turning on champagne and strawberries as a breakfast for TV writers, most of whom are still burping reminiscently. . . . Little Folksingers teacher John Tremewan wedded his helper Tip
Revell pre-Christmas. They came out of the church to find their 34 pintsized poppets lined up with la cere- monial archway of covers from their new record, Come Go With Me.
Who wants 34 kids on their honeymoon?
Wellington
Producer Brian Bell says there was a quite tremendous
response to the NZBC call for actors to take part in the Actors Workshop as a preparatory step to mounting the corporation’s first drama series. The first workshop will be in Wellington beginning about January 28 and will run through April, the second at Auckland from about April 8 and the third in Christchurch soon after that. The first play is due to go into production in July... Meanwhile Brian has completed, with Alex McDowell, another in the Profile series that began with the excellent one on Ngaio Marsh. Current subject is artist Toss Woollaston. Two more subjects are being lined up... Wellington’s new transmitter on Mt. Kaukau is to be opened officially in February by the Prime Minister... NZBC Director of Engineering Mr Harrison is due to retire in February... Popular newsreader Alan Lyne, the man with the enigmatic smile, plans a trip to Eng- land for a year... Listener Editor Monty Holcroft may be persuaded to stay on for another twelve months after his planned retirement date of June 30. There were 25 applicants for his £3,035 a year job (about £750 a year more than the Editor of the NZBC News Service gets). Apparently there are some complications, linked with appeals, and this will have to be sorted out at the February meeting of the corporation.
CHRISTCHURCH
Interesting to note thalt although North and South Islanders have differing views on quite a lot of subjects, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch TV addicts all agree that Danger Man is the best viewing currently offering and Town and Around in each centre comes next. Seems that Auckland is not so news conscious as the Capital and City of the Plains, running ninth there compared with fifth further south... Some local viewers becoming rather conscious of the fact that the NZBC is pumping an overly large flow of propaganda material on to the screen such as the British Ministry of Information’s handout, Calendar, and, for that matter, Rae Pritchard’s little piece, to name just a couple of programmes. No doubt this stuff comes cheaply, if not for nothing, but’s not much of a bargain for viewers... There has been little evidence of good local newsgathering and interpretive reporting on the local front for some time now. . . Dame Ngaio Marsh of Cashmere back home again after a spell in London where she found, contrary to expectations, that TV in that country has not proved a menace to live theatre but is, if anything a stimulant. Viewers seeing actors on TV then wanted to see them on stage, she said... Really unseasonable. Christmas-New Year ‘weather helped pack Christchurch theatres for afternoon matinees, but theatre managers glumly reported evening averages were just normal
indicating that telly still keeps folk home nights.
DUNEDIN
Sign of the times? At a function the other day, several slightly more than middle-aged ladies were heard to re- quest the pianist to play Dean Martin’s theme song, Everybody Loves Somebody. The very young pianist didn’t know it! Seems Dean’s fans are in the older age groups... Marion Craighead, technical director at DNTV2 has announced her engagement to Tony Hawker from Rotorua. . . . . This being Festival Week in Dunedin, local TV staffers are having a busy time of it. Outside Broadcasts include the the Official Opening and crowning of the Festival Queen, the vintage car rally, the procession, the A. and P. Show, Festival bowls, and a Surfing Carnival. report. While some of these events will occur within regular transmission times, altogether DNTV2 will be operating for something like ten hours extra... In between Festival features, DNTV2 has the task of recording the Festival National Orchestra for playing around the country... Other OB’s planned for the near future are the Otago Tennis Championships on February 4, and the South Island Horse of the Year Show at Tahuna Park on February 26.
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