RECORDS

Folkways record of Rawhide

best of irrepressible Canadian

A CURIOUS phenomenon. in
‘radio, no longer new but
still as novel as the day he be-

gan, is the irrepressible Max -

Ferguson — better known to
CBC listeners from Newfound-
land to Victoria as Rawhide.
(Heard in Vancouver: Monday
through Thursday from 6:00 to
6:15 p.m.)

His’ program includes witty
satires, parodies, and barbed
comments on just about every-
thing, including the CBC. With
folk music.and general non-
sense, this talented mimic — he
has about two dozen distinctive
voices at his command — runs
one of the. most popular Cana-
dian radio institutions.

Now Folkways Records has
issued a 45-minute helping of
“The Rawhide Little Theatre
Playhouse.” (12” Folkways FP
86-2, $5.95.) It includes a slight-
ly amputated version of the
famous Defense of Rawhide, in
which Rawhide’s friends defend
him from the charge that he is
“slightly more than pink.”

This “defense” is the kiss of

!

%

Vancouver 4, B.C.

.

“Times rauning out
This year why not give
a gift subscription to
the Pacific Tribune ?

Circulation Manager, Pacific Tribune, Room 6 - 426 Main St.,

Please send the PACIFIC TRIBUNE for:

“a notice announcing your gift will be sent to the person for
whom you subscribe.

death, of. course. Out of 50
million cowboy songs, his friends
ask, what does he play? “There’s
A Love Knot in My Proletariat,
Lenin on the Old Toprail, and
other “red” songs. The skit
originated while Ferguson was
under attack for his forthright
views, especially in slamming
Senator Joseph McCarthy.

The record also includes his
hilarious take-off on Wuthering
Heights, a devastating satire on
soap operas: The Nymph and
The Lump (with apologies to
Thomas Raddell, we hope), and
a skit on the CBC series for
correct English pronunciation:
So To Speak. The announcer
informs us that “Englitch well
spoke is a real euphemism.”

This is clever stuff, valuable
for entertaining and impressing
your friends, but (let’s face it)
it. doesn’t wear that well. You
won’t want to listen to it more
often than once a month or so.

ge nae

Tom Lehrer is a wit with
quite another approach, but his
satire is no less penetrating.

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One year
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ABDRESNE oo 2 a a ee :
cay eet gar ee ged Unies oe coer tie Yi
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PEN INGS ee ee ge §

Lehrer sings satirical songs bas-
ed on Tin Pan Alley banalities.

Lehrer Records No. 1 ($6.50) |

has 12 examples of his “so-call-
ed voice,” wonderful timing and’
mimicry, and clever lyrics of
Lehrer’s “own devising. His
broadsides at college songs, boy
scouts, atom bombs, race hat-
red, and other topics, embody
mature satire which becomes
downright savage at times.

In I Wanna Go Back To Dixie,
a takeoff on the Jolsen brand
of white chauvinism, he sings

nostagically of “whuppin’ slaves
and sellin’ cotton” and of

~““Swanee where the pellagra

makes you scrawny.” He con-
cludes this hilarious ballad with:

“J want to talk with southern
gentlemen

And put on my white sheet
again; * :

I haven’t seen one good lynch-
ing in years.

The land of the boll weevil

Where the laws are medieval

Is calling me to come and never
more roam.

I want to go back to the south-
land,

That ‘you all’ and
mouth’ land —

Be it never so decadent, there’s
no place like home.”

In The Wild West Is Where I
Want To Be, Lehrer satirizes at
once the intolerable cowboy hit
parade and the rape of Nevada)
by the atomaniacs. ‘Where the
scenery’s attractive and the air’s
radioactive” he observes, ‘Til
watch the guided missiles while
the old FBI watches me.”

‘There are lots more sallies
equally pricesless. It’s the best
thing to come this way since
The Investigator.

‘shut my

N. E. STORY

MUSIC

His example

GRRE

SS

Santa’

union workshop .

These smiling workers, doubling as Santa’s helpers, are
members of United Auto Workers’ Local 222 and its ladies
auxiliary, whose strike against General Motors — richest cot
poration in the world—in Oshawa, Scarboro, St. Catherines, Lon-
don and Windsor, is now in its third month. '

DRAMA

British production of
Hamlet thrills Moscow

STAR-STUDDED audience

of 1,200 last week acclaim-
ed Hamlet, first appearance on
the Moscow stage by a British
company since the Revolution,
with. 13 curtain calls.

Actors and actresses, writers
and leaders of Soviet cultural
life led the audience in applau-
ding the first night performance
which Moscow radio described
as “an enormous success.”

Produced by 30-year-old Peter
Brook and starring Paul Sco-
field as Hamlet, and 23-year-old
blonde Mary Ure as Ophelia,
Hamlet is playing at the branch

will inspire,

writes Joe Hill's sister

‘eg sister of Joe Hill hopes
“.. his ideas, his strong be-
lief for a peaceful, creative and
healthy world should also in-
.spire the present generation to
follow with renewed strength
in his footsteps.”

A letter from the sister, Mrs.
Ester Dahl of Stockholm,
Sweden, was published in the
November 19 edition of Labor’s
Daily, national labor paper,
published at Charleston, West
Virginia. November 19 was the
exact 40th anniversary of the
execution in Salt Lake City of
the Swedish-born labor song-
writer for a crime of which he
swore his complete innocence.

Her letter said:

“On the 19th of November, I
wish to send you a greeting

¥ and a heartfelt thanks to all

y
%

who have offered their time
and work in research which has

proved that my brother was
innocent of the crime for which

BIS PRC PEK EA EIS PIN PR PSS IK ERIS BEE PSS RS SE LS PS PRE VEE BEY he was executed.

“That his memory be cleared,
bright and beautiful, and that
you honor him on the 40th year
after his execution brings hap-
piness to me, his youngest sis-
ter.

“As his ashes were strewn
all over the world, so also do
I hope that his ideas, his
strong belief for a_ peaceful,
creative and = healthy world
should also inspire the present
generation to follow with re-
newed strength in his footsteps.”

,

theatre of Moscow’s famous Art

Theatre for 12 performances

before opening at the Phoenix
Theatre in London, on Decem-
ber 8.

All tickets for the first night
—and all subsequent perform
ances—were sold out long be
fore the curtain went up.

Nikolia Okhlopkoyv, vetera?

director of Moscow’s Mayako-

vsky Theatre, welcomed thé
British actors and actresses 7
a two-minute speech before the

curtain rose on a $6,000 set % —

Elsinore brought from Brital™
which will be left behind as #
gift for the Soviet theatre.

Greetings “the messengers of

’ the British theatre,” Okhlopko¥
said that Hamlet opening 19

Moscow “was an event of out-
standing importance ‘in oU!
cultural life.” Se

_ Then there was.a bouquet %
flowers from Russian actress

Alla Tarosova for Peter Brook

who replied in Russian. “We at@
happy to be here in MoscoW

where everybody is so good and

so kind,” he said. whe

The first night audience 1
cluded Svetlana Stalin, the laté
Premier Stalin’s daughter, olg
Knipper-Chekhova, actres®
widow of Anton Chekhov, com
poser Aram Khachaturian, bal

_lerina Maya Plysetskaya, DepU

Foreign Minister Valery Zor?

and other leading art and litet ~

ary personalities.

A party brought by thé
British Ambassador, Sir Willia™
Hayter, included foreign diplo
mats and the Bishop of Fulha™
who is visiting Moscow.

i

onor

—10 no 10

Refreshments

—0nHN6S—10r1

A000

—OMIOr

NFLY CONVENTION DANCE

‘Saturday, December 3 — 9 p.m.

Clinton Hall — 2605 E. Pender

- Music by the COMBO _

fl
°

ve

Admission - 50¢

omer omore

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 2, 1955 — PAGE 8

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