SIDE ONE
Born: 11.7.15. Father pioneer penal reformer in Australia, superintendent of Shaftesbury Institution. Family emigrated from Dumfries in 1830. Pioneering family. Father fought in Boer War. Brought up in liberal atmosphere. Lived a mile from landing of first settlers. Saw building of Sydney Harbour Bridge. Moved from Sydney to Parramatta. Then to Bathurst. Then Goulbum. Followed in wake of colonial expansion. Built first crystal set in 1930.
Worked on sheep stations. (Digresses on science programmes he put on at the BBC during the war with the leading scientists of the day). Began working as a teacher on £1 per week.
Applied for announcer's job at radio station 2WL at Wollongong, owned by local electrician. Big newspapers bought in to radio. Big coal industry buUt up in the area. Did every job on this little country radio station. On the air 14 hours a day. Paid £8 per week. Describes the variety of programmes he made. Radio became important in building up community feeling among a scattered population. Keith Murdoch building up interests at the time. (Digresses on time he had David Low write "cartoons for the air" on the BBC). Loneliness of living in a large empty country. Poor communications. Radio helped fill this gap. Australia isolated from Europe. Twelve weeks sea voyage. Test match commentary broadcast simulation in studio based on tables sent from London at end of every over. Applause supplied by leather flaps in studio. Produced by Charles Moses at ABC. Some shops had radio and scoreboard in window. Crowds watched on pavement, in the middle of the night. After a couple of years applied to Australian Broadcasting Commission to make programme on young ideas. At audition abandoned {H'epared script and spoke his own ideas. Became an announcer. (43'57")
End of Side 1.
SIDE TWO
Then started programme "Young Ideas" for listeners of his generation. Big audience in the outback. Got into trouble over programme on youth unemployment. Got statistics from Premier of NSW through family contact. Used these in his programme. Produced by Paul Jacklin, who was a young Orson Weles. Pressure from politicians to sack him. Protected by his chairman. Minister threatened the whole Commission, but backed down. Programmes on "New World Movements": world political systems and organisations, and national political issues. Then became Talks Editor as well as producing his own programmes. Further programmes on hobbies for the young. Sent programme notes through the mail. Nationwide coverage. Technical side of ABC run by the Post Office. Couldn't move their own microphones. In 1939 sent to Melbourne to start up short wave service. Had to forestall comm^cial stations getting in on it. (Australia had only Trade Commissioners. Diplomacy handled by British Foreign Office.) Set up in two weeks. Went on air exactly on schedule.
(43'27")
SIDE THREE
Service settled down, broadcasting in several languages. Trusted in accurate translations. Problems with drunks on the air. Broadcasting to Australian troops in Middle East. Then asked to go to London to broadcast in BBC Empire Service. Lefl Australia in 1940 by flying boat across the Pacific. Interviewed by Lowell Thomas on NBC. On to London via Bermuda and Lisbon. Description of BBC Overseas Services. Types of programmes and speakers. Censorship. Had to schedule services on local times of recipient. On duty when Pearl Harbour announced, U.S. networks never broadcast anything recorded. Speakers had to turn up to broadcast in the middle of the night. Knew of D-Day landings from pre-recorded speech by Eisenhower. Details of handling the radio coverage of Normandy landings. Memories of Chester Wilmot, Stephen Potter and Geoffrey Grigson. Committee for literary programmes. Studios in Peter Robinson’s, [Department Store] 200. Oxford Street. Also knew George Orwell and William Empson. Experience from Australian local radio very useful. Repairing the damage to Anglo-Australian relations after fall of Singapore. (44’17“)
End of Side 3.
SIDE FOUR
More detailed memories of programmes broadcast to Australia. Personalities involved. General Birdwood, Lord Nuffield, Thomas Wood, Arnold Haskell. The importance of Australia to him. Returns to memories of childhood, and details of life on a sheep station. The National fabric. Meeting Alistair Cook and Ed Murrow. Procedure for royal broadcasters. The bombing of Bedford College. J.B. Priestley. Reithian atmosphere Jean Melville, concert pianist (GIS’s aunt). (44’23")
End of Side 4.
SIDE FIVE
Left the BBC at the end of the war. Wrote to J. Arthur Rank suggesting cinematic version of his broadcast features. The need to project Britain in postwar world. Rank already incensed by narrow versions of events portrayed by March of Time. Started counterpart called This Modern Age. Headed by George (later Lord) Archibald. Other board members Earl St. John and Sascha Galperson. Castleton Knight brought in from Gaumont British. Sergei Nolbandov appointed producer. Edgar Anstey and Basil Wright contributed. Production team included John Monck, Robin Carruthers, Eric Cross and Peter Baylis. Access to all Rank theatres and benefitted from British quota. Mentions political argument with Rank. Film on postwar housing problem: Houses for All. Favourable reaction from Aneurin Bevan who was impressed by Rank’s social conscience! Film on Coal Crisis highlighted neglect by previous mine-owners. Filmed in Palestine during the mandate: two units, one covering the Arabs, the other the Jews. There during bombing of the King David hotel. Recollection of conversation with Ernest Bevin, foreign secretary. (44’.11”)
End of Side 5.
SIDE SIX
More on Palestine. Meeting General Cunningham. Found difficulty in reconciling political and cinematic disciplines. Became head of English radio at U.N. Headquarters at Lake Success. British Ambassador showed Palestine film to the Security Council. Goes back over further incidents during time at This Modem Age. Back to the U.N. Television side of the U.N. given to CBS. A disaster. Farce of Gene Autrey programme. Personalities involved included Gielgud, Olivier, Ruth Draper, Danny Kaye and Marlon Brando. Thorold Dickinson recruited to run U.N. television side. Became press officer for Dag Hammarskjold. Memories of the Congo. (43’27“)
End of Side 6.
SIDE SEVEN
Detailed memories of Dag Hammarskjold: his background, interests, personality and his work in many parts of the World. The establishment of the fiirst U.N. peacekeeping force after the Suez Crisis. Anecdotes and details of time during the Congo uprising in 1960. Describes the anatomy of the Congo crisis, and its consequences. Many eyewitness memories. (44’02”)
End of Side 7.
SIDE EIGHT
Further memories of the Congo uprising. Detailed descriptions of the forces at work. And the personalities. Van Bielsen, David, Serge Michel, Corporal Mobutu. Patrice Lumumba fomenting riots over the radio. Used his experience in radio to immobilise the transmitt er. Describes the circumstances of Hammarskjold’s death, and his own ideas of what really happened. (43’45")
End of Side 8.
[END]
