Radio
Lost romance
Maureen Owen
whereas it is easy to switch from one television programme to another by remote control, no such convenient device is available to the radio listener, who often has to engage in constant knob-twiddling to stay tuned in to Radios 1 and 2 which, in the evening, are without the benefit of VHF. All the same there are times when Radio 2 repays the effort by providing en- joyable programmes of an otherwise undemanding nature. One such time is 9.30 on Friday evenings when a series called Old Stagers is currently being featured. Prior to last week's half hour on Gertrude Lawrence (who sang flat and sharp according to the late Beverley Nichols, but whose voice sounded fresh and womanly), there was a tribute to Tino Rossi the French heart- throb who died last October aged 77. The programme was presented by another Frenchman, Daniel Pageon, apparently well known to Radio 2 listeners, as he in- troduced himself by saying 'all Daniel is wis you again'.
In a way this `chanteur de charme', as Daniel described Tino Rossi, was all that ever went with the romance of radio. Com- pared with the staple fare of radio in the Fifties — news and weather bulletins and 'Saturday Night Theatre' — his charm was certainly shattering. As Daniel said, his light tenor voice had an amazing effect on women, and the fact that my generation of war children hardly understood a word of French only added to his mystery. I never saw Tino Rossi in the flesh and he didn't appear in many films; he was 'too shay' said Daniel. I am afraid I had forsaken him by the Sixties but this says more about tnY romantic staying power than Tino's, and shy or not his popularity continued throughout the rock and roll era, having started his career in the Thirties. Romantic to the end he was a smash hit at the Casino de Paris in his seventies and his songs well among the most requested by Radio 2 listeners in 1983. Although Radio 2 is not renowned Or doing programmes in depth I was a little disappointed to be given no biographical details whatsoever apart from the fact that Tino Rossi was born in 1907 and died in 1983 so I still have no idea if he was mar. ried, divorced, lived like a monk or other; wise. 'Let's just remember him as he vos, said Daniel firmly, and as the soaring sound of Tino Rossi singing 'Cattari' once more fed our hearts, I had to agree with his wisdom. It will be interesting to hear 11(1. Old Stagers handles the problem °,` biographical details when they do Hutch this Friday, but in general I have the feeling that muck-raking of a personal nature is on the wane, and not only on Radio 2, which has never gone in for it of course. A very different approach was &MO- strated by Russell Davies's 50-minn_ite, reflection on the life and empire of Wal; Disney, entitled Waltschmerz, on Raclin last Sunday. Again the private life is i' nored, but for different reasons I suspect' In this type of programme the hatchet is directed at a person's political °r ideological absurdities with a close focus on any possible neurosis or lack of Pr.,,,nfe Wait sional ability. Thus we learned that "'At Disney had an extremely limited talent as a draughtsman, was politically naived musically illiterate and 'paranoid', a wnr which anyway has really become rather debased. As a self-made man Disney had particular dislike of strikers, but to accuse the creator of Snow White and PinGccir° of naivety seems in many ways to be valve in itself.
Waltschmerz made me quite glad eci glaA 1 had never visited the rather regimet,f Disneyland or, worse still by the sound it, it, EPCOT the 'Theme Park' in whicies speaking puppet of Abraham Lincoln wags a finger at the kiddies warning then' `„ beware of foreigners. The big difference between a radio documentary and a wri,tteb, biography is that much can be gauged or' the voice, which in the case of Walt DisiVe sounded sincere, if bewildered; not 011 ,„ President Reagan in fact. He Inndestsve described the invention of Mickey Mkt 8 (his first cartoon character) as it quite a splash', when of course lie reconstructed the film industry, anc, „re readily admitted he had discovered colt' late in life. eY,s There is a tragic side to all this. Disn aim Was to hold complexity at bay for his child audience and he watched the analys- ing intellectuals, whose activities were a Perpetual mystery to him, with some depression. One disaffected animator went so far as to say that Disney represented the worst in American bad taste. What the documentary needed at this moment was a slx-Year-old child to stick up for him. Disney's business was to build dreams for children and there are few people, I daresaY, who can claim that their dreams are always in the best of taste. Highly suitable for reading out loud is Alain-Fournier's magical novel The Lost D°Inain, which is Radio 4's current 'Book at Bedtime'. But a serious drawback to the enjoyment of 'A Book at Bedtime' is that it now comes on three quarters of an hour earlier than its traditional time of 1 P.m., and earlier than this I cannot be.
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