RADIO TIMES, ISSUE DATED APRIL 23, 1937 Televiing the Coronation Proceion I SUPPOSE thi i the firt time in the hitory of the BBC that we are committed to an enterprie with apparatu of which we hall have had practically no experience before the event. Thi, added to the importance of the occaion, would have been a caue of ome anxiety had we not had great faith in the admirable technician reponible for the equipment. Peronally, that confidence goe with a conviction that our activitie on May 12 may well be a landmark in the growth of one of the greatet invention of all time. The Pot Office engineer have already connected Hyde Park Corner (jut wet of the lodge), Broadcating Houe, and Alexandra Palace by mean of pecial co-axial cable. The ection from the control poition in Hyde Park to Stanhope Gate i actually an offhoot from an underground circuit of cable planned to link up the maximum number of likely ource of programme material within Central London. Thu, we are relying in the main upon direct co-axial cable connection with the Alexandra Palace tranmitter. But a a tand-by there will alo be a van equipped with an ultra-hort-wave tranmitter for feeding the programme to Alexandra Palace. Neither the control van nor the tranmitter, however, i complete at the time of writing, but we are counting upon delivery in time for experiment ome day before May 12. Down at Haye, at the moment of writing, work i proceeding furiouly, o that the equipment can be given a try-out ; and when Alexandra Palace ' goe over' to Hyde Park Corner there will be no need to apologie for ome lape or other. Since the televiion ervice tarted lat November, we have tranmitted a number of outide broadcat in the ground of Alexandra Park, limited to a range made poible by comparatively hort length of Emitron cable connecting the ite with the tation control room. Televiion addict (and believe me, you will oon become an addict when you have a et) have already een demontration of golf, archery, heep-dog trial, hore, model aeroplane, locomotive, a boxing match, and antiaircraft gun in action. Much ueful experience ha been gained. experiment. They were ucceful a But May 12 i quite another thing. Apart from the importance of the event, televiion will be on trial. The unknown factor make it all the more exciting a a propect. It will be far more than an experiment. To return to the equipment, I have mentioned the main connecting link. There are alo the eparate Emitron cable connection from the control van to the camera poition at the arch of Apley Gate, and the eparate ound circuit for the poken decription and tele-et communication. Three Emitron camera will be ued. When I ay ' camera ', pleae remember there i no film about them. Emitron camera are opticalelectrical device which make poible direct (and practically intantaneou) tranmiion to GERALD COCK, Director of Televiion, reveal hi plan your et at home. They are the miracle worker which never fail to grip the imagination even of a hard-bitten taff whoe buine i continually with them. One will be on the pavement level on the north face of, and cloe up to, the main arch, at a height of about five feet. Thi i to televie Their Majetie and the whole of the Proceion in cloe-up (about ix feet away) a they approach the arch. The econd, about ten feet above ground level, on the plinth of the main arch, will be ued for ' etting the cene', for mid-hot of the crowd and the Proceion until the latter approache up to about ten yard. The third, on the oppoite plinth on the outh ide, will alo be ued for ' etting the cene ', and afterward for ' following ' the Proceion a it diappear into the Wellington Arch on Contitution Hill. A microphone will be there for a commentary by Frederick Griewood. We believe that decription hould be retrained, the picture and incidental ound playing the chief role ; that, in fact, quick-fire commentarie have no place in televiion. A cat-iron method of enuring that the camera-men can follow the poken decription quickly and accurately ha not yet been devied, but we have arranged for them to hear the decription on headphone. Speed and accuracy in ynchroniation of decription and picture will depend upon the initiative and technique of the camera-men, in whom we have very great confidence. There will, by the way, be few viible ign.of activity at the Gate. Viewer may be intereted in the reaon which prompted the choice of Apley Gate. A poition had to be found which would combine everal characteritic. The afternoon un had to be behind the camera, and preferably upon the object to be televied. The elected ite had to allow cloe-up becaue of the mall receiver creen, o that at leat one camera would be within ix feet of the proceion, and a nearly a poible on a level with the window of the royal coach. The camera had to be cloe to the control van and tand-by tranmitter, not further than a hundred yard. We had to be remote and afe from a huge crowd o that the apparatu could not be put out of action inadvertently. And, finally, the view had to be a extenive a poible to do jutice to the occaion. Had we, for example, been at the northern face of Wellington Arch, the un would have been directly in the eye of the camera. Will the televiing of the Coronation proceion mark the beginning of a new era in televiion? In my opinion, much of the facination of televiion, and to a great extent it future, i bound up with actuality, a virtue which it alone poee, and which the new reel, with it time-lag, mie. In direct televiion, the viewer will learn and appreciate that the picture he i watching in hi home i the picture he would be eeing at that very moment, were he with the camera, and not one that ha already taken place. Whatever anxiety may be felt a to the ucce of thi particular tranmiion, with the rik of brand-new apparatu and unknown condition, it i urely compenated by the probability that a new tep forward, the remote relay, will be inaugurated at the mot hitorically important event of the year. 1 do not believe that the reult will be diappointing. 7 Thi view of Apley Gate at Hyde Park Corner, looking northward toward the Park itelf, how the trategic poition that will be occupied by the televiion camera. The poition of two camera are indicated here: a third, on the far ide of the plinth of the main arch, about ten feet above the ground, will televie hot of the crowd and the proceion a it approache down Eat Carriage Road.
10 RADIO TIMES, ISSUE DATED MAY 7, 1937 PLANS for the How the broadcating and televiing of the Coronation ceremony and proceion will be carried out by the BBC The plan on thi page how Wetminter Abbey a it will be arranged for the Coronation Service, with the Throne of the King and Queen, their Chair of State, and King Edward' Chair, in which the King i anointed and crowned. The plan how alo the poition of the BBC oberver in the Triforium and Annexe, and the poition of all the microphone by mean of which the Service will be broadcat. All thee microphone, a well a the many other microphone along the route, are connected with the Control Room in the Abbey, hown in the picture on the oppoite page. The poition of the televiion camera at Hyde Park Corner i hown on the plan on page 12. A pictorial plan of the route, with the poition of all the BBC oberver, and a decription of the Coronation Service, will be found in the Supplement in the centre of the paper. The full programme of the Coronation broadcat i on page 59. ON the morning of Wedneday, May 12, not only Britain but the world will be awaiting the broadcat of the Coronation of Their Majetie King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Thi will be the firt time the Coronation of a Britih overeign ha been broadcat, and a far a organiation goe it will be the mot difficult broadcat ever attempted by the BBC. But if all goe according to plan it hould be eay enough for litener to follow it all the proceion of the King and Queen from Buckingham Palace to Wetminter Abbey, the hitoric ceremony in the Abbey, and the great proceion back. Televiewer will alo ee the Royal proceion paing Hyde Park Corner, and the State Coach only a few feet away. THE ABBEY CONTROL ROOM THE key poition to the whole broadcat i the BBC Control Room on the South ide of the Abbey, hown in the plan on thi page. The control point i ituated in two mall room belong- "BBC. ing to the Dean' Verger, between the Abbey itelf and CONTROL ROOM j-^g Tj) ean ' Houe. Here, from early in the morning of Coronation Day, two men will control the complicated broadcat. They are S. J. de Lotbiniere, Director of Outide Broadcat, and R. H. Wood, Engineer-in-Charge of Outide Broadcat in the London area. The picture on the oppoite page how the Control Room with Wood at work. A you will ee, line connect thi room with every one of the 58 microphone that will be ued to broadcat the ceremony, except the televiion commentator' microphone at Apley Gate. Beide handling all the BBC broadcat from place a far apart a the Embankment and Contitution Hill, and ending the programme to Broadcating Houe, thi Control Room will alo have the tak of upplying the loudpeaker for the Office of Work tand along the route ; the loudpeaker in Wetminter Abbey itelf, which will make the word of the ervice audible all over the building ; and the ound track for the companie authoried to make talking film.
RADIO TIMES, ISSUE DATED MAY 7, 1937 it CORONATION A radio tranmitter will be in readine on the roof of the Abbey to provide a wirele link with Broadcating Houe in the unlikely event of an emergency ariing through the failure of other mean of communication. There i another Control Room, in Middleex Guildhall, oppoite the Abbey (ee. plan in Supplement). Thi econd Control Room, where H. H. Thompon, Outide Broadcat Superintendent Engineer, will be in charge, will be reponible for all the broadcat by foreign commentator to their own countrie, arrangement for which are alo being made by the BBC. There will be ten foreign commentator at the Guildhall, each in a ound-proof box, and four more oppoite Buckingham Palace ; they include repreentative of the Argentine, Belgium, Czecholovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Yugolavia, and the United State. Their commentarie will go through the Foreign Control Room in the Guildhall before paing to the International Trunk Exchange of the G.P.O. But even for the foreign broadcat, the ound that give life to the commentarie including thoe from the Abbey itelf will come through the one mall Control Room in the Abbey hown in the picture below. A for televiion, the televiion control room i on wheel. A control van will be drawn up ome 400 feet Wet of the camera at Apley Gate (ee plan on p. 12), linked by pecial cable to the camera and microphone on one ide, and on the other to Broadcating Houe FROM CONSTITUTION FROM GREEN PARK, BUCKINGHAM PALACE b SXJAMES'S PALACE HILL FROM PICCADILLY CIRCUS 4 \i/ ^ BROADCAST and Alexandra Palace. Alongide the controj van will be a econd van containing an ultra-hort-wave tranmitter capable of ending the viual part of the programme by wirele link to Alexandra Palace if for any reaon the pecial televiion cable hould fail. THE PROCESSION SETS OUT The broadcat begin at 10.15 a.m. By that time eat-holder in the Abbey will have been there for hour. Mot of the proceion to the Abbey will have arrived. (Remember that there are numerou proceion to the Abbey ; coming back, there i only the one grand proceion ecorting the newly-crowned King and Queen.) By 10.15 the proceion of Queen Mary will be on it way. The proceion of the King and Queen will not yet have et out. The firt broadcater will be the BBC oberver outide Buckingham Palace (John Snagge) and at Middleex Guildhall (George Blake). They will decribe the cene a the crowd wait for the King. 10.30 a.m. The broadcat witche back to the Palace ; and to the inide of the Palace thi time. The next BBC oberver, A. W. Dobbin, will peak from a room looking on to the inner courtyard where the King and Queen enter the State Coach. It i from thi room that the King himelf will broadcat at night. A oon a the Royal proceion leave the Palace, Snagge will ee it and report. A the proceion tart down the Mall the broadcat will hift to the Abbey, where Howard Marhall will et the cene [continued overleaf FROM WHITEHALL, TRAFALGAR SQUARE,, EMBANKMENT FROM MIDDLESEX W V V GUILDHALL FROM ST.MARGARET'S > 111 CO CO < ctf Ul H (A 2 i L z H «rt UJ ^ z Q m u» 1 1 1 1, 2 > ' " W-I.I ^? > > > 1 ' 1 M Ijt 1.J. 1 ^..' l ' > mm u ^ TO OFFICE OF WORKS LOUDSPEAKERS u u u TO ABBEY LOUDSPEAKERS TO FOREIGN CONTROL ROOM TO SOUND-FILM APPARATUS
12 * RADIO TIMES, ISSUE DATED MAY 7, 1937 PLANS FOR THE CORONATION BROADCAST (contd.) nd give litener an outline of the olemn ervice that they are to hear. He will be tationed in the triforium, high up beyond the altar, and with him will be the Rev. F. A. Iremonger, Chaplain to the King and Director of Religion in the BBC. Before 10.45 a.m. the proceion hould have reached the Cenotaph In Whitehall, and from the obervation point in the Minitry of Labour building fronting on Whitehall, Harold Abraham will decribe it paage through the treet that ha been called the Heart of Empire. So into Parliament Square and the entry to the Abbey, decribed from Middleex Guildhall by George Blake. The next broadcat come from the Annexe, built out before the Wet Door of the Abbey. From the poition hown on the plan on p. 10, looking down on the Hall of Aembly, Michael Standing will have the difficult tak of decribing the Great Proceeding into the Abbey until the Service begin with the Anthem ' I wa glad when they aid unto me '. THE ABBEY SERVICE There will be no broadcat commentary on the ervice itelf. A the plan how, 28 microphone will pick up everything that i aid and ung, and the majetic rubric of the hitoric ervice will be read by Mr. Iremonger from hi poition in the triforium. There will be one break in the broadcat ; at the mot olemn and intimate moment of the Communion Service after the Sanctu, during the Prayer of Conecration and the Communion of the King and Queen the microphone in the Abbey will be hut off, and inger in St. Margaret' Church will broadcat a Communion hymn. Apart from thi, litener will hear everything in the ervice from the Recognition of the King by the People and hi taking of the Oath until the final ' Te Deum' well out triumphant, and Howard Marhall decribe the cene a the King and Queen move down toward the Wet Door. THE PROCESSION FROM THE ABBEY Here come another change in the broadcat. By now it will be, probably, 1.45 p.m. When the proceion leave the Abbey on it long journey through the treet, the BBC will not attempt to decribe event in detail. But litener need not be afraid of loing touch. There will be microphone along the route on the Embankment, by the tatue of King Charle in Trafalgar Square, at St. Jame' Palace, and at Piccadilly Circu and the arrival of the Royal coach at thee point will be told in ound, with any neceary comment by de Lotbiniere in the Control Room at the Abbey, till the nerve-centre of the broadcat. Some time after 2 p.m. the head of the proceion will reach Hyde Park Corner, and here it will run the gauntlet of the televiion camera, for the firt time tranmitting a hitoric event. With them at Apley Gate will be Frederick Griewood, whoe tak it will be to upplement the televiion image that are going out. The plan on thi page how clearly what televiewer will ee. Before the proceion come in ight the camera will give view of the crowd and the tand inide the Park, and acro Hyde Park Corner to St. George' Hopital and Wellington Arch. When the proceion reache Stanhope Gate, on it way down Eat Carriage Road, the telephoto len will give viewer their firt ight of it. Then a it near Apley Gate the camera will come into cloe-up, until the State Coach pae through the gate, within a few feet of the camera. Finally, televiion will follow the proceion, by mean of the camera on the South ide of the gate, until it pae through the Wellington Arch leading to Contitution Hill. BACK TO BUCKINGHAM PALACE Griewood' commentary will be broadcat only to televiewer, but litener will come into touch with the proceion again when it croe Hyde Park Corner and pae do.wn Contitution Hill. Here i another broadcating point, and Thoma Woodrooffe will review the whole cavalcade. It will be nearly two-and-a-half mile long and take threequarter-of-an-hour to pa, but he will not attempt to talk all the time. The ound of the marching troop and the band will help litener to make their own picture of what he ee. Now the lat tage of the journey ha been reached. Snagge, outide the Palace, will have been litening to Woodrooffe' broadcat, and he will upplement it a the proceion circle the Victoria Memorial before it enter the Palace gate. So litener will be able to follow the King and Queen back into the inner courtyard, and even perhap to follow the progre of the King a he goe to the balcony to peak to the crowd outide. Thi plan how the poition of the televiion camera at Hyde Park Corner, the televiion control van, and the portable ound tranmitter ready for ue if tranmiion by cable fail
8 RADIO TIMES, ISSUE DATED MAY 21, 1937 THE SUMMER EIGHTS AT OXFORD A commentary on the racing in Diviion I will be broadcat on Monday evening LIKE o many traditional Englih intitution, Eight Week at Oxford ha developed about thoe tea and ice on the barge between aunt '. But there i till an air of romance out of a limitation. The ummer race between race, watching the hifting crowd on the the crew of the different College have become a pictureque ocial occaion. The narrow river of Oxford and Cambridge towpath, the river crowded with punt and canoe, and the hope of the College mutering on the float below. produced the bumping race. A the boat There are four Diviion, and four proceion of the boat to the tart. cannot tart abreat, they tart at interval and From the purue each other over the coure, each trying top of the barge you ee your own crew puh to overtake and ' bump ' the boat ahead. Bumping off from the float, and you raie a cheer a race mean plenty of action, and on the they go. The proceion i a colourful a a narrow, winding river the pectator can be cavalcade of blazoned knight. Each College almot within reaching ditance of the boat. ha it own colour for inglet and oar, and And beide eeing the boat they can ee each only the mot knowledgeable pectator know other. The charm of intimacy pervade the how. Given good weather (and the weather can be gloriou at Oxford in May), Eight Week i a colourful how. From the Univerity Boathoue, from which John Snagge will broadcat, you look up the river, lined with College barge bearing the College arm, their deck crowded with people, all gaily dreed though the vivid hue of rowing blazer put the gayet ummer frock in the hade. The crowd have changed in the lat few year. Now that women have their own place in Oxford life, Eight Week i no longer the fetival of ' the iter, the couin, and the them all. But there are ome thing anybody can recognie, like the lilie of Magdalen, and the men of Chrit Church in the blazer and traw hat in which they row down to the tart. There are thirteen boat in the Firt Diviion, and they tart at interval of two length. The lat boat in the Diviion tart a mile and a quarter from the finih ; the firt boat ha a horter coure to row. It i quieter down there at the tart, and more buine-like. Coache with huge revolver, tiny coxe holding the bung that keep the boat in it poition, counting off the quarter-minute and the lat ten econd between the minute gun and the tart. The gun goe again, and they're off. Every nerve trained to catch the boat in front of them before they are caught by the boat behind, every man in the boat litening for the revolverhot from the bank that will tell them they are going up (one hot mean they are within a length, two, within half a length, three, within a canva, four, overlapping). Round the bend of the river in ' the Gut', pat the bridge to the Green Bank and the barge, till the running upporter and even the coache with their revolver are lot in the cheering crowd... And o to the finih, unle they have the joy of bumping or the bitterne of being bumped. When that happen, both boat pull in to the bank and let the ret go by. Eight Week ha it humour too. There are the vigorou bump that ink their victim, the College econd boat that threaten to bump it firt, the canoe that cannot be got out of the way jut before the racing eight are due. (There wa a canoe once in the middle of the river with two girl in it, after the boom had cloed ; they were paddling frantically with their back to each other, one in the bow, one in the tern, and both on the ame ide, o that the canoe didn't even go round and round.) But the chief thing we have to hope for on Monday i that there will not be too many early bump, and that ome boat will be coniderate enough to bring off a bump under Snagge' very eye. A. C. LONDO EW TPI I N CABLE Hard on the heel of the pecial arrangement for the televiing of the Coronation proceion come the permanent arrangement for further important outide televiion broadcat. Thi plan how the route of the ' balanced televiion cable ' that it i propoed to lay in London for regular ue in the televiing by the BBC of all kind of event of public interet. It will be noted that the route followed by the cable include everal familiar point from which it i anticipated that important outide televiion broadcat will be given in the future.
: ' : : 14 RADIO TIMES, ISSUE DATED JUNE 4, 1937 TELEVISION GOES OUTSIDE NOW that televiion ha it own outide broadcat, the preent range and future poibilitie of the Alexandra Palace programme have increaed immeaurably. Originally when outdoor cene were being tranmitted the televiion camera had to be con fleeted with the control room at Alexandra Palace by a heavy cable containing 22 conductor throughout it length. The camera wa thu ' tied ' to the control room and for technical reaon the length of the cable could not be made greater than one thouand feet. The cope of the programme wa therefore retricted, but a temporary olution wa provided by bringing into the Alexandra Palace ground a many intereting event a poible. Sheep-dog trial, riding leon, new car and old crock, demontration of every port from golf to archery ; all thee pro* vided excellent opportunitie, but alway within the confine of Alexandra Palace. With the advent of the Coronation, an innovation in televiion outide broadcat came into being. Emitron camera and a van containing control-room apparatu imilar to that at Alexandra Palace were intalled at Hyde Park Corner and the picture were conveyed to the televiion tation by a ' balanced ' cable linking Hyde Park Corner, Broadcating Houe, and Alexandra Palace. Thi cable connect with an underground cable ytem, linking everal of the mot important point in central London, which ha been laid by the General Pot Office. A plan of the route followed by thi cable wa reproduced in the RADIO TIMES on May 21. Lelie Mitchell, who, apart from hi dutie a announcer at Alexandra Palace, ha been cloely aociated with everal of the mot important outide broadcat in the ground, offer ome intereting comment. ' One of the great advantage of outdoor televiion ', he ay, ' i working by daylight. Intead of having to et the lighting arrangement well in advance, a with indoor programme, we can devote the time before the broadcat to traightforward rehearal and the placing of our artit and ubject in relation to the cenery.' # * # * One of the problem of televiion O.B. i that of concealing the microphone from the view of the camera. ' We have the entire circular panorama a our field of viion ', ay Lelie Mitchell, ' o it i frequently a problem to know where to place a microphone that hang a few feet above the head of the peaker o that it hall not appear in the picture. If there i any wind, the difficulty i increaed, a the microphone ha to be protected by a hood, which make it till more prominent.' * * * * Perhap the mot important point of all in televiion O.B. i that of how to make it clear that the event are really being een a they occur, particularly a the Emitron are confuingly referred to a 'camera'. Of coure, there i no danger of thi on unique occaion uch a the Coronation. The televiing of nationally-followed event known to be taking place at uch and uch a time will oon detroy the feeling that the broadcat might jut a well be a film of omething that happened hour ago: CORONATION TELEVISION The firt great landmark in out-of-door televiion wa the tranmiion of cene on Coronation Day by the televiion camera on the plinth of Apley Gate, Hyde Park, one of which i een in poition in the picture on the right. The three photograph above how how the televiion camera aw the proceion, in pite of bad weather condition. The firt two are view looking northward lip Eat Carriage Road, the third i outhward, toward St. George' Hopital.
RADIO TIMES, ISSUE DATED JUNE 25, 1937 17 'THE SUPER SET' a fantay of televiion by Mervyn Wilon
6 RADIO TIMES, ISSUE DATED JULY 16, 1937 MY FIRST TELEVISION S. P. B. Ma/ give a candid account of hi uffering before the televiion camera, with ome impreion of Alexandra Palace and general obervation on make-up and Adam' apple MY life, I have aid thi before, i full of urprie. Exactly thirty year after getting my Blue I received a telegram from the Preident of the Oxford Univerity Athletic Club to judge the Sport, O.U.A.C. v. England. It gave me great delight to celebrate thi totally unexpected honour by awarding two new (wa it world'?) record in event that I had never een before, much le practied. The Greek may have had a word for throwing the dicu or hurling the javelin, but they were after my time. The Olympic Game had not been heard of in my day. We ran very lowly let we hould be confued with the profeional, and we put weight and threw hammer becaue neither weight nor hammer could be of any earthly ue to anybody. In the ame week that I received thi invitation I got a econd telegram (two telegram in a week). It wa exactly fourteen year after my initiation into broadcating, and the requet thi time wa a ummon to Alexandra Palace to be televied giving to the combined eeing and litening world my view on the future of televiion. The Right Peron A I had never heard of Alexandra Palace and never een an example of preent-day televiion, I wa obviouly the right peron to pronounce judgment upon it future. Thoe who know me will not be urpried to hear that I accepted both invitation with alacrity. The time will come ome day, if I am patient, when I hall be aked to do omething that I can do. In the meanwhile I hate being idle. It ha taken me fourteen hard year to learn to treat the microphone with that confident affection that crooner ue. For year I ued to hy from it a from a watchful adder. It wa in America that I learnt to put my arm round it and whiper into it endearingly a into the ear trumpet of my great-aunt or the auricle of my grand-niece. Generou Interpreter Only now that I have come to regard the microphone a a generou interpreter of my bet thought, ifting the grain from the chaff anh hiding from my litener all my phyical imperfection, only now i thi perfect intermediary in danger of being wreted from me, and I am back where I wa before broadcating wa invented, both heard and een imultaneouly in the too, too tolid fleh. After fourteen year I have become acclimatied to the microphone. But not even after fifty year have I become reconciled to the camera. In all photograph I bear the look of a man who ha borne all miery and i hortly to be hanged for a crime he never committed. But the pain of ordinary photography ink into complete inignificance compared with the exquiite agony of being televied, a the pain of a fly in the eye i forgotten in the agony of upetting a kettle of hot water on one' bare foot. Broken Away from Blackpool? Firt there i Alexandra Palace. Broadcating Houe bear ome reemblance to a crematorium. Alexandra Palace give me the feeling that it ha broken away urreptitiouly from the South Shore at Blackpool. It i full of the kind of amuement that entail a long walk over ground barren of all but litter. Inide, Alexandra Palace become, to a modet, retiring man of my ort, infinitely wore. ' In all photograph I bear the look of a man who ha borne all miery and i hortly to be hanged for a crime he never committed', complain S. P. B. Mai. He certainly look rather unhappy with the telev ion bogey hovering over him. Firt I wa precipitated into the Make-Up Room. I have lived for fifty year without ever having had to ubmit to the indignity of being made up. I have alway had a neaking feeling that there wa omething a little ' fat', a little immodet about make-up. That i my country upbringing. I do not approve of liptick or face powder even for women. I watched my faintly proteting pale eyebrow uddenly ' beetle ', if that i the right word for blacken. Some odd concoction wa rubbed over the back of my hand to darken their lily whitene. Thee effort to make me look preentable were wholly ineffective. gla horrified. I tared at myelf in the Howling Dervih I think little of my face a God made me, but I have, with the paage of year, got ued to it. I can face it while having with comparative equanimity. But thi howling dervih that faced me wa not a thing that even I could look at for long without averion. Wa thi travety of the wellknown, the comparatively genial S. P. B..M. going to face the camera, talk to the eeing world? Like a man going to execution I wa given no time to think. I wa hutled quickly acro the corridor to a maive tudio the like of which I had een nowhere outide Hollywood. I wa blinded by the power of the potlight and terrified by the number of ladie and gentlemen appointed to control my movement for the next few minute. I wa not in the leat reaured by the udden appearance of a dazzling young thing dreed a if for the Dorcheter, who caually told me that he wa my announcer. I had bought a new oft hirt and tie for the occaion, but I couldn't be decribed a ' drey' by even the mot flattering critic. My dicomfiture wa completed by her perfection. No Memory Then I uddenly recollected that in televiion you don't read a before a microphone but prophey a from a tub, or flounder a from a pulpit. It i one of my wort hortcoming that I have no memory. It i not merely that I cannot repeat any two conecutive line of Shakepeare or Pope, but I cannot even remember any of the argument that I prepare o carefully every morning before my mirror. I mut confe to being eized with an appalling frenzy of fright (Continued on next page)
RADIO TIMES, ISSUE DATED JULY 16, 1937 MY FIRST TELEVISION S. P. B. Mai give a candid account of hi uffering before the televiion camera, with ome impreion of Alexandra Palace and general obervation on make-up and Adam' apple MY life, I have aid thi before, i full After fourteen year I have become acclimatied to the microphone. But not even after fifty of urprie. Exactly thirty year after getting my Blue I received a telegram from the year have I become reconciled to the camera. Preident of the Oxford Univerity Athletic Club to judge the Sport, O.U.A.C. v. England. It gave me great delight to celebrate thi totally unexpected honour by awarding two new (wa it world'?) record in event that I had never In all photograph I bear the look of a man who ha borne all miery and i hortly to be hanged for a crime he never committed. But the pain of ordinary photography ink into complete inignificance compared with the exquiite een before, much le practied. The Greek agony of being televied, a the pain of may have had a word for throwing the dicu a fly in the eye i forgotten in the agony of upetting a kettle of hot water on one'-bare foot. or hurling the javelin, but they were after my time. The Olympic Game had not been heard of in my day. We ran very lowly let we hould be confued with the profeional, and we put weight and threw hammer becaue neither weight nor hammer could be of any earthly ue to anybody. In the ame week that I received thi invita- Firt I wa precipitated into the Make-Up Room. I have lived for fifty year without ever having had to ubmit to the indignity of being made up. I have alway had a neaking feeling that there wa omething a little ' fat', a little immodet about make-up. That i my country upbringing. I do not approve of liptick or face powder even for women. I watched my faintly proteting pale eyebrow uddenly ' beetle', if that i the right word for blacken. Some odd concoction wa rubbed over the back of my hand to darken their lily whitene. Thee effort to make me look preentable were Broken Away from Blackpool? Firt there i Alexandra Palace. Broadcating wholly ineffective. I tared at myelf in the Houe bear ome reemblance to a crematorium. Alexandra Palace give me the feeling gla horrified. that it ha broken away urreptitiouly from Howling Dervih the South Shore at Blackpool. It i full of the I think little of my face a God made me, kind of amuement that entail a long walk but I have, with the paage of year, got ued tion Igot a econd telegram (two telegram in over ground barren of all but litter. Inide, to it. I can face it while having with coma week). It wa exactly fourteen year after my Alexandra Palace become, to a modet, retiring parative equanimity. But thi howling dervih initiation into broadcating, and the requet man of my ort, infinitely wore. that faced me wa not a thing that even I thi time wa a ummon to Alexan- could look at for long without averdra Palace to be televied giving to the combined eeing and litening world my view on the future of televiion. ion. Wa thi travety of the wellknown, the comparatively genial S. P. B..M. going to face the camera, talk to the eeing world? The Right Peron A I had never heard of Alexandra Palace and never een an example of preent-day televiion, I wa obviouly the right peron to pronounce judgment upon it future. Thoe who know me will not be urpried to hear that I accepted both invitation with alacrity. The time will come ome day, if I am patient, when I hall be aked to do omething that I can do. In the meanwhile I hate being idle. It ha taken me fourteen hard year to learn to treat the microphone with that confident affection that crooner ue. For year I ued to hy from it a from a watchful adder. It wa in America that I learnt to put my arm round it and whiper into it endearingly a into the ear trumpet of my great-aunt or the auricle of my grand-niece. Generou Interpreter Only now that I have come to regard the microphone a a generou interpreter of my bet thought, ifting the grain from the chaff ana hiding from my litener all my phyical imperfection, only now i thi perfect intermediary in danger of being wreted from me, and I am back where I wa before broadcating wa invented, both heard and een imultaneouly in the too, too tolid fleh. ' In all photograph I bear the look of a man who ha borne all miery and i hortly to be hanged for a crime he never committed', complain S. P. B. Mai. He certainly look rather unhappy with the televiion bogey hovering over him. Like a man going to execution I v/a given no time to think. I wa hutled quickly acro the corridor to a maive Studio the like of which I had een nowhere outide Hollywood. I wa blinded by the power of the potlight and terrified by the number of ladie and gentlemen appointed to control my movement for the next few minute. I wa not in the leat reaured by the udden appearance of a dazzling young thing dreed a if for the Dorcheter, who caually told me that he wa my announcer. I had bought a new oft hirt and tie for the occaion, but I couldn't be decribed a ' drey' by even the mot flattering critic. My dicomfiture wa completed by her perfection. No Memory Then I uddenly recollected that in televiion you don't read a before a microphone but prophey a from a tub, or flounder a from a pulpit. It i one of my wort hortcoming that I have no memory. It i not merely that I cannot repeat any two conecutive line of Shakepeare or Pope, but I cannot even remember any of the argument that I prepare o carefully every morning before my mirror. I mut confe to being eized with an appalling frenzy of fright (Continued on next page)
RADIO TIMES, ISSUE DATED JULY 16, 1937 7 BRITISH 'WIRELESS FOR THE BLIND' FUND THE Britih 'Wirele for the Blind' Fund iued, during 1936, 3,263 loudpeaker et and relay intallation, making a total of 29,037 et upplied by the Fund to blind peron throughout Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The majority of the et which have been upplied by the Fund are headphone receiver, the mot economical type of et in firt cot and maintenance. Even on thi economical plan the Fund wa in being for ix year before it wa able to upply et to every blind peron who needed them. The Fund i now making every effort to increae the number of loudpeaker et o a to meet in particular the need of the aged and infirm to whom prolonged litening with headphone i painful. T O Mr. Chritopher Stone, who made a remarkable broadcat appeal on lat Chritma Day, the Fund owe a deep debt of gratitude. Hi appeal ha brought in 19,770, a um which eclipe all pat record. Thi magnificent repone ha enabled the Fund to provide 5,695 loudpeaker et and relay intallation, and to ditribute them to all part of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The cot of et delivered ince the cloe of the financial year ha almot completely aborbed the balance hown in the account appended to thi Report. One hundred and fifty local ocietie and regitering agencie co-operate with the Fund in ditributing et to the blind. The Fund' Committee take crupulou care fairly to divide the loudpeaker et available to the eparate localitie, but, notwithtanding the heavy expenditure thi year, the Fund i in a poition to upply loudpeaker et only to a comparatively mall proportion of blind litener. The local ociety in each area i reponible for deciding the allocation of et according to the greatet need, and all application from the locality hould be addreed to it. The et upplied by the Fund have for the MY mot part been pecially deigned and manufactured. They are equipped with Braille graduation to facilitate tuning, and pecial attention ha been paid to implicity, reliability, long life, and economy in upkeep. Thi year it ha been poible to make ue of a tandard commercial et for ome eight hundred blind litener, after embodying in it certain additional afety device which were deemed neceary in order to protect the blind peron from any poibility of receiving an electric hock. IT i regretted that a certain number of relay companie, whoe intallation had been upplied by the Fund on the undertanding that free ervice would be provided to the blind, have felt contrained to withdraw thi conceion on account of the recent Government pronouncement, which they feel leave them with reduced ecurity of tenure. The account of the Fund ubmitted with thi Report give the income and expenditure for the year ended March 31, 1937, and alo the cumulative income and expenditure account from the beginning of the Fund, December 5, 1929, to the end of the lat financial year. The public, mainly in repone to broadcat appeal, have made the magnificent contribution of 105,325 13. 6d., of which approximately 95,000 ha, up to date, been expended on et and relay intallation. The Committee of the Fund deire in thi Expenditure. d. To Proviion of Wirele Set and Acceorie to Blind Peron 77,977 2 2 Salarie and Wage 4,496 10 8 Printing, Stationery, Advertiing, Propaganda, and Potage... 3,350 1 3,, Travelling, Exhibition, and Other Expene, etc.... 783 19 11 Exce of Income over Expenditure 18,717.19 6* 105,325 13 6 FIRST 1ELEVISION: By S. P. B. Mai at being called into the dazzling limelight, told not to cover my face with my hand, to hold my head up, and to be jut my natural elf. A a very pecial conceion I wa allowed to hold a map in my hand. If a map, why not a cript, I thought. But I had all too little time for conjecture. I wa on the air before I realied the number or vatne of the army of camera that kept running up to me and receding from me with an inconequence that made me feel that I wa on an extremely rough ea. Racing Camera I began very lowly to collect my thought on the ubject of Televiion. I glared with hut mouth and glazed eye into the lene of a dozen camera a memeried a if they were the eye of hungry lion. After everal year my lip opened. ' Televiion ', I heard myelf ay, ' Televiion, uh, ha undoubtedly, ye, televiion uh, undoubtedly ha a future.' Camera hurtled out of the ditance from all ide at once toward me. A man popped out from under my feet and took a photograph of my chin. Camera raced back into the far Shattered Illuion corner of the huge hall. A dim figure waved a piece of white paper at me, a warning, I thought to come to my peroration. ' I'd like ', I aid in a pate of word, hurrying let I hould forget the end of the entence half-way, ' to ee the delicate feet of the dancing Step Siter and the le delicate feet of Verity prancing down to bowl intead of jut hearing them on the air. But I don't want to ee the Adam' apple of full-throated tenor and tear flow down the cheek of impaioned politician a they tell u that their heart bleed for their country. For myelf, I have a grievance. For fourteen year my honeyed voice ha been mileading you into the belief that I mut be good to look at becaue I am good to liten to. Ala, the ight of my crooked mouth i even now taking all the honey out of my word.' ' One more illuion i hattered. You could bear to liten to me for an hour when you couldn't ee me. But now the limit of your endurance i reached in two minute. Televiion will bring the farthet land into your back kitchen. You can go round the world Report to expre it deep ene of gratitude to the general public by whoe generoity alone it ha been able to help the blind. By giving the Fund acce to the microphone on Chritma Day in each of the lat eight year, the Britih Broadcating Corporation ha made itelf and litener in all part of Great Britain partner in the Fund' work. For that partnerhip the Committee i profoundly thankful. IT hould be borne in mind that any regitered blind peron may obtain a wirele licence free of charge by preenting a certificate of regitration at any money order pot office. Information and advice will be given by the local ociety or regitering agency, the addre of which may be obtained from the local municipal authority. Any additional information which may be required by any donor to the Fund will be readily given on requet to the Secretary of the Britih ' Wirele for the Blind ' Fund, 226, Great Portland Street, London, W.l. Signed on behalf of the Committee, E. BEACHCROFT TOWSE (Chairman), W. McG. EAGER (Secretary). CUMULATIVE INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FROM THE INCEPTION OF THE FUND-DECEMBER 5, 1929, TO MARCH 31, 1937 Income. d. By Donation, Collection, etc.... 105,325 13 6 *Order given have ince aborbed the whole of thi balance 105,325 13 6 MY FIRS1 TELEVISION: By S. P. B. Ma'lS (continued from previou page) itting in your old armchair. That i an advantage. But your commentator regret that you have dragged him from the hadow behind your chair into the point of the picture. That i no advantage to him or you.' The camera ceaed from pirouetting and I at tolidly, vacantly tating into them, peechle at my daring. After another aon had paed I wa told that I wa off the air, and invited to ee the televiion ucceeding mine. It wa of a dog how. The Pekinee barked beautifully. I wih that I had een televiion before I pronounced judgment on it. Lilliputian Face For I did not know when I wa performing that my voice would tay life-ize while my face and form were reduced to the dimenion of Lilliput. So I approve of televiion o long a they keep the creen mall. You really wouldn't know that my mouth wa crooked unle I had told you. I eem to be about a needlely enitive a Byron wa about hi club-foot. One thing, I hall never mind facing an ordinary camera again.