RADIO-TV

HAT’S television like in

the Soviet Union? That’s
not a question many of us
could answer.

But it could soon be a
question of interest to us all
if such good news as the ex-
change’ between. the Bolshoi
Ballet and Covent Garden
were followed by linking up
Soviet television with the
West European systems.

And that, in these days of

’ improved relations, is sure-
_ly not too much to hope for?
“With this thought in my
mind I recently asked Ralph
Parker, for long the corres-
pondent in Moscow of the
London Daily Worker and

before that the London
Times about Soviet televi-
sion.

He told me that about a
year ago he asked some of
the young people from Mos-
cow who were going to open
up virgin land in Siberia,
thousands of miles away,
how they felt about giving
up television, which had be-
come so much a part of city

life.
“Give it up?” one of the
youngsters replied. “We'll

have our own stations in Si-
beria before long.” And they
will.

For while some 15 or 16
stations have been built since
the war, the Sixth Five-Year
Plan will increase the num-
ber by 1960 to about 50. Mos-
cow has already between
two and three million view-
ers.

What sort of programs are
shown?

In many ways they are not
unlike our own, but the
weight is on concerts, ballets,
sports, fashion shows, with
talks on matters of health
and technological develop-
ment, plenty of films, news-
reels and up-to-date materi-
al on current events.

No give-away programs,
few special women’s pro-
grams, no commercials! But
there are several specialist
programs like the excelent
one for farmers which runs
every Sunday.

over-serious to us with our
overloading of light enter-
tainment. Soviet television is
considered as entertainment
for adults and is directed by
people whose interest is to
raise standards rather than
to lower them. Programs run

Soviet TV screens are generally smaller than ours,
the programs run from 7 p.m. to midnight — .and, of
course, there are no comercials.

All this may sound a bit -

What do Soviet TV
programs present?

from 7:30 to midnight and
can and do often overrun.

Viewing time for children
is from 7 to 7:30, with extra
time at ‘the weekends. Ani-
mated cartoons are the main
fare and, as we know, these
are imaginative and good
fun. I gather there could be
more variety, though, in the
children’s programs.

One of the liveliest offer-
ings and Ralph Parker’s fa-
vorite is a monthly maga-
zine called Art, which takes

viewers on outside trips to’

libraries, museums, looks in
On authors meeting their
readers, discusses new plays,
films and so on.

The technique of televising

plays is very high and they .

are shown in full, frequently
direct from the _ theatres.
When the Comedie-Francaise
was in the Soviet Union, its
three productions were
shown on consecutive even-
ings — in full and in French.
‘ Although some people may
have been able to follow
what was going on, it must
have been heavy going for
quite a few, and it is to meet
the needs of a wider public
that a second channel was
opened in February of this
year.
~-Experiments are now going
on for a third channel, and all

- sets now being sold have

three-channel control.

As with the stage, so with
films. Soviet television has
aecess to the whole of the
industry. Although this
makes it possible to show all
that is best in Soviet and for-

eign films, it is a drawback in.

the sense that it may limit
initiative in producing films
specifically suited to the new
medium.

Newsreels, always popular,
have been pepped up consid-
erably in the past months
with improved technique,
bringing filmed reports on to
the screen within hours of
the events.

The addition of a lot of
foreign material, reports on
visits abroad, and films from
Britain, the U.S., India and
so forth, has also added to

_hewsreel interest.

The first link has recently
been opened between Lenin-
grad and Moscow. Places like
Klin, 150 miles from Moscow,
can now pick up the capital’s
programs, and in turn these
link-ups may be a start to-
wards Soviet television com-
ing into Eurovision.

.

RECORDS

IM

Only 13 of 700 commercial folk
records are of Canadian music

VER 18,000 different LP re-
0 cordings are in national dis-
uibution in the United States,
the majority available in Cana-
da. Although many. are record-
ed in Europe (and some pressed
in Europe) most are made in
Canada by American compan-
ies or directly imported from
the U.S. This supply is aug-
mented by a trickle of direct
European imports.

A direct result is the total
absence of Canadian art music
on records — despite many fine
compositions like Claude Cham-
pagne’s Symphonie Gaspesien-
ne, and others — and a paltry
total of 13 recordings of Cana-
dian folk music, out of 700 in
this category. Yet our country
has a rich and colorful folk
heritage embracing many cul-

. tural regions, and a wealth. of

~~

tapes on file with the National
Museum, National Film Board,
and the CBC. ,

‘These are supplemented by a
“Rawhide” release, special re-
cordings like last year’s Toron-
to Jewish Folk Choir selection
of Jewish folk songs,. a few
classics by MacMillen and the
Toronto Symphony on Victor’s
second-rate Bluebird label, and
performances by Canadian cele-
brities: Zara  Nelsova, Eileen
Ballons, Glenn . Gould, © and
others. Unfortunately, the latter
have recorded everything from
Bach to Bloch — except Cana-
dian music!

* * *

The following is an attempt
to provide all Pacific Tribune
readers interested in recordings
with a brief review of Cana-
dian music available on com-
mercial recordings:

Canadian Folk Songs — 12”
Columbia SL-211 — 46 minutes

-— Price $6.95: Although sold at

an inflated price, this is the
best roundup of Canadian folk
music on a single record. Six
importent cultural groups are
covered. “Space limitations,”
state the excellent notes by Dr.
Marius Barbeau, our most dis-

tinguished : folk-lorist, “do not
permit inclusion of other groups

such as the Ukrainians.” Typi- ,

cal of field. recordings (going as
far back as dim pre-war discs
cut on a wind-up machine,) re-
production is often ‘poor, al-
though expertly handled by
Columbia’s engineers. It covers:

1. Iroquois: Seven examples
from the Grand River Reserve ©

in Ontario, ranging from the
Rain Dance (sympathetic ma-
gic) to: Gacowa (a social dance.
Group ensembles (with chorus,
soloes, horn rattle, water drum),
they have greater rhythmic
than melodic interest.

2. French Canadian: Ten vo-
cal by genuine folk artist, plus
2 reels and a Breakdown An-
nounce from this, the real
cradle of North American
square dancing. Included are
many ‘old favorites and songs
which deserve wider recogni-
tion like Je Pars Demain Pour

Les Hauts d’Ottawa, a lumber-

jack composition from the

eighteen-thirties.

8. Maritimes, English: Field
recordings: and three songs
sung by Ken Peacock, a folk
collector for the National Mu-
seum. They range from the 15th
century Carrion Crow to The
Foreman Jerry Ryan, composed
in 1940.

4, Maritimes, Gaelic: Cape
Breton Island, where Gaelic is
still generally known if falling
into disuse. Of the five items,
the two Milling Frolic Songs
(which used to accompany the
work of shrinking homespun)
are most appealing.

5. North-West Coast: Collec-
tion of these songs from the
Kwakiutl Bella Bella, and
Musquam Indians around Alert
Bay, was complicated by the
coast traditions of private own-
ership of songs.

6. Eskimo: Recorded among
the Caribou Indians on the west
coast of Hudson Bay, the ex-
amples include two petkroherk
(magic songs) and two poherk
(dance songs). The former are

appealingly ingenuous, their
Asiatic origin quite clear.

Ed McCurdy. — 12” Whitehall

850 — 3844 mins. — $2: Con- ,

sidering. price .and program,
this is the best single buy in
Canadian music.

McCurdy’s ::

wooden baritone may not be —

the best, but he handles’ his

material with conscientious ap-,
peal, supported by accordion’

(Vie Centro) and guitar (Nor-
man Chapman).

Five are from Helen Creigh-
ton’s Nova Scotia collection, and

the remaining ten from New- —

foundland or the Maritimes as
a whole. Greenwood Siding is
.a variant of the Cruel Mother;
Drymindown was _ collected
from . ex-Maritimer Mayor
Cates of North Vancouver. Per-
haps the best are Squid-Jiggin’
Ground; Hard, Hard Times;

* She’s Like The Swallow, and

Gay Spanish Maid,-but they’re |

all good, Reproduction fair.
Allan Mills. Newfoundland —

10” Folkways 831 — 25 mins. —
$4.25: Allan Mills is Canada’s

best known — and best — folk °

singer, with a wide CBC radio
and TV following. In this al-
bum he draws on our newest
province, one of. the oldest parts
of Canada settled by Europeans
and the richest repository - of
Canadian folk music in English.

A variety of cultural streams
have converged on Newfound-
land, including Ireland (Kill-
grew’s Soiree)
(the whimsical As I Roved Out

and England ;

and Time To Be Made a Wife), ~

as well as a heritage of gifted

native bards (Arthur Scammel: °

The Squid-Jiggin’ Ground).
Harsh living conditions are in-
‘dicated in A Great Big Sea Hove
In Long Beach, and fierce local
pride in the Anti-Confederation
Song. Other songs, like Jaek
Was Every Inch A Sailor, are
more properly part of the whole
Maritimes tradition. Reproduc-
tion excellent.
N. E. STORY
@® Further instalments of this
review will appear in fu-
ture issues.

It’s one thing on screen, another

N real life Princess Grace
Kelly may be assumed to
have followed her heart in mar-
rying royalty, since it is she
who has conferred the dignity
and prestige of film’stardom on
a moth-eaten court and the
prince who has bettered himself
by marrying into MGM.
Turning from the newsreel to
the main feature, however, we
find that in fiction the regal

Miss Kelly has not been so for-.

tunate. In The Swan, currently
showing around the province,
she still gets her prince. But
she has to give up the hand-
some young professor she is
in love with to do it.

Since the place is Hungary,
the time 1910 and the general
argument that she owes it to
her dignity and her family to
put herself in line for future
queenship, it will be seen that
the poor, misguided girl is on
to a pretty poor proposition,

For in a very few years time’

the middle European monar-
chies that seem so secure are

‘inanimate princess.

going to be on the skids and
the prince will find his throne
whipped from under him before
he can sit down.

But in 1910 nobody can be
expected to know this at the
provincial castle visited by
Crown Prince Alec Guinness in
the course of a tour of inspec-
tion of eligible princesses with
a view to matrimony,

The girl’s mother uses every
resource of ruthless general-
ship in order to engineer a ro-

- mance between the bored prince

and the inarticulate, practically
Everyone
even the young commoner in

live with her, agrees that it is.

unthinkable for the girl to mar-
ry anyone but royalty.
- In the days when films played
royalty straight, the outcome
would ‘have been different. An
upstanding young commoner
would have had no great diffi-
cutly in making a girl renounce
a throne for love. *

Now that it’s the fashion in

in real life for Princess Grace

films to mock princes and court
conventions for their pompous
absurdity, royalty seems to
have better luck with the girls.

This sentimental comedy,
written by John Dighton from
a play by Ferenc Molnar, starts
well with some brilliant satiri-
cal touches, contains some very
funny scenes, but ends by taking
its mock-sententiousness — seri-
ously. :

Alec

Guinness plays the,

moustached, slightly battered

prince with more charm

good humor than any Central
European prince eyer
Princess Kelly, a swan with the
face of a sphinx, looks beautiful
and real but is required by the
script to spend most of the film

impersonating an iceber®s,
which she does all too success-
fully. ;

Agnes Moorhead and Estelle

‘Winwood help to keep the fun

piece of slicked-up Ruritanian.
vbubbling in a nicely colored
romance.

THOMAS SPENCER

had.

June 1, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 8