4.3.1
This 500-word article is remarkable. It is the first considered advice by a wireless play producer. Here is Victor Smythe of Manchester 2ZY. His topics are technique and reception: casting (amateur or not? and 'voice balance') and Creating an "Atmosphere" in the Studio.
4.3.2
First some details on Manchester. This Station was one of the 'big six' (Introduction 2.2.7). Smythe is not mentioned in Cecil Lewis's Broadcasting From Within (January 1924). Mr. Godfrey, the Manchester Station Director, is praised there for his programming of music (162-3). Manchester began its drama on 18 July 1923, with its 'First Shakespeare Night' which was the play (or excerpts?), 'Twelfth Night'. Victor Smythe first broadcast, with the Station Staff, in 'a new Radio Sketch by Mr. Guy Reeve' (Saturday 21 July 1923 Manchester 9.15-10.15).
There followed 'An Empire Day Concert' (24 May 1923 Manchester 7.45-9) containing a play, 'Gentlemen, The King!' (Campbell Todd), four characters listed, and then a four-act drama in December 1923, which 'received congratulatory mail larger than anything received before or after for any evening programme at that station' ('The Radio Times' 14 November 1924 p 335). The Children's Hour team were photographed at a table with a microphone perched on it ('The Manchester Guardian , 12 January 1924 p 12), with the caption "2ZY Calling You".
4.3.3
After Smythe's article, the Manchester Station announced that it 'has formed a new company "The Planets" to produce comedy during the summer evenings' ('The Radio Times' 27 June 1924 p 3) and then broadcast 'Princess Sonia', a musical farce (8 July 1924). This was obviously due to Mr. Godfrey's musical programming, as mentioned by Cecil Lewis.
4.3.4
Now for 'The Play in the Studio' article. Smythe begins by advancing the merits of listening:
How many listeners have considered the great advancement which has been made in the power of "seeing through the sense of hearing" since broadcasting began?
He tells of a bringing a blind man to the theatre, to 'a particularly heavy drama, which depended solely on action throughout'. Then Smythe discovers that blindness was not a disadvantage and 'little had been lost' in the blind man's understanding. More corroborative evidence is given of the benefits of wireless listening:
I asked a doctor friend of mine whether he considered that our sense of hearing would be intensified as a blind person's by the constant listening to broadcast performances. He assured me that it was quite within the bounds of possibility.
4.3.5
I have discussed Smythe's points here and the 'blindness' topic in Beck 1999. In the 1920s, the B.B.C. instructed its listeners how to listen, assured them of the high status of wireless plays and positioned listeners in recommended 'listening zones' (my term), dominated and not dominated by the wireless apparatus.
Smythe then gives a succession of common-sense recommendations about Studio production. Plays should be selected for having, most importantly, 'a coherent story' and 'the dialogue should be strong throughout'. Farce is to be avoided as it 'usually relies on action more than dialogue'. He then takes on the issue of casting for wireless:
Up to now, a great mistake has been made in selecting quite good people, but not taking into consideration the question of voice balance. I lay stress upon this point more than any other, because one has heard one to two characters booming out their lines so that the whole atmosphere has been spoilt.
4.3.6
Interestingly, Smythe recommends amateurs:
There are times, however, when it is most important that you should have one or two in the cast with some experience of acting, but I have come to the conclusion that it is quite easy to get good people from amateur talent.
Are amateurs to be used in Manchester 'faute de mieux', in 1923-4? What was to become the Manchester 2ZY Station Repertory Company was first broadcast seven months after Smythe's article, on 26 September 1924 Manchester 8-10.30 (with 'The Third Degree' (Charles Klein)). Smythe was the producer and an actor, and actors' names such as Tom Wilson, D.E. Ormerod, R.T. Fleming, Dorothy Franklin and Betty Elsmore were heard for the first of many times. So Smythe wrote 'The Play in the Studio' before he got this team together. And the 2ZY Repertory Company kept together and extended their number right through to 1928 (and the limit of this research).
4.3.7
Smythe's final valuable points are about acclimatising actors to the Manchester Studio – 'Creating an "Atmosphere"':
I do not consider it wise to confront artistes with the microphone. My idea is to camouflage the microphone, so that it looks a little more pleasant than it does in its natural state. The next step is to set the Studio as nearly as possible as the stage is set in each act of the play. It is surprising how a light or two here and there, with effective shades, will maintain the atmosphere through the play. If a telephone is a "property" in the play, use it. If a meal is supposed to take place, a few cups, saucers and plates, knives and forks are used judiciously are sufficient for the microphone to pick up a very effective impression of the scene.
This is effective and creative advice. Indeed, in chapter 7 of my Radio Acting book, I deal with these issues in the modern studio: endowing radio props with meaning, creating an imaginative reality in the unappealing studio, keeping connected in the studio (Beck 1997). Again, Smythe is the first in a succession of references in 'The Radio Times' to the fearful 'meat safe' Reiss microphone, on its stand and hidden behind blue gauze (1.4). The Reiss microphone allowed a larger field so that the actors could move around and the set-up could resemble the typical domestic box-set of the stage one-act play. This studio set-up is what I call the 'fixed-stage' type. The Reiss microphone allowed a larger sound field for the actors, but there is a limit to what can be achieved in sound perspective and there may have been less distinction between near and a few steps farther away from the microphone.
4.3.8
Perhaps Smythe, in referring to the telephone, cups, etc. encourages actors to do Spot themselves. There is later evidence of this from Laidman Browne's reminiscences ('The Radio Times' 26 July 1946 p 4) of a Newcastle Station's Children's Hour play. Browne talks about wireless plays in Newcastle from 1923.
Smythe's last advice is the need for music in plays:
In a present-day revue, they play music to fill up "gaps" in the plot which have been overlooked in the dialogue. I introduce music to suggest something which is in the dialogue, and this can be simply supplied by a trio.
All in all, this is evidence of a creative producer engaging with slender resources in Manchester, and for the first time. It is all the more remarkable because Victor Smythe was at the beginning of a long career and I have found 'The Radio Times' listings of his productions in B.B.C. North in the 1930s.
Main Index | Chapter 4 Index | Section 4.4