"How are we going to keep them
on the farm after they've seen Paree?
We
are all aware that RTE television began on December 31st, 1961, with
a gala evening broadcast live from the Gresham Hotel. The show was hosted by
Eamon Andrews and featured a less than enthusiastic introduction from President
Eamon DeValera. However, RTE was not the first television channel on the island
as BBC NI TV went on air in July 1953, in time for the coronation of Queen
Elizabeth II while the commercial Ulster Television first broadcast in October
1959. But before any of these, artists such as Barbara Mullen, celebrated
pianist Charles Lynch, artist Sean Keating and the Comerford Irish dancing
trio, crammed themselves into a small television studio in April 1951 and
broadcast live, the first television station and programme to be broadcast from
and to the Republic of Ireland.
It
was horse show week, and as with 1923 when the RDS was at the centre of the
first Government sanctioned radio station 2BP, they Ballsbridge venue was to
host the first ever live television programmes created for an Irish viewing audience.
As one newspaper headline termed it ‘Irish Television Was Born Last Night’.
Pye,
with their Irish headquarters located in Dundrum, flew in seven and a half tons
of equipment worth £30,000 including transmitter, aerial and cameras via Aer
Lingus to Dublin Airport. The transmitter was installed in the grounds of the
RDS and an aerial erected. A studio was constructed in the tea rooms at the
rear of the grandstand, and the channel was ready to air.
A marquee was erected in the grounds and television sets installed where
visitors could watch live the show jumping from the main arena. But if anyone
rich enough to own a set in the greater Dublin area, reception would have been
excellent. The main reception for the first broadcast was held before an
invited crowd of 200 at the Gresham Hotel on O’Connell Street where twenty TV
sets were set up for everyone to get a view of Irish television. Broadcasts
continued throughout the five days of the Spring Show week. Commencing on May 1st
telecasts took place between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. from the studio, and after that
the cameras would move to the horse jumping arena, with the events being
televised with a running commentary provided. Sets were available to watch on in
the special tent and in the members dining hall.
The
opening broadcast was a 45-minute show with Ria Mooney acting as producer and
director. The shows for the rest of the week were produced by Roy Croft. Ria was a stage
and screen actress, artistic director of the Abbey Theatre from 1948 to 1963,
and later director of the Gaiety School of Acting. She was the first female
producer at the Abbey Theatre. She also was instrumental in setting up the RTE
Players in 1947.
The
Irish Independent reported,
The show was first-class and of a
very high professional standard. It was compered by Barbara Mullen, who did not
have much time to arrange with Hia Mooney all the rehearsals for the production.
First of all, Miss Mullen welcomed all the viewers, and then the camera moved
to Charles Lynch, the celebrated pianist, a T.V. veteran since 1937, who did
wonders with a piano. Miss Mullen charmed for a while again and then there was
shown a film of the operations of the B.B.C.'s television service behind the
scenes. This was followed by the famous Comerford Trio of ' Irish dancers, -who
performed to the accompaniment of violins and Uilleann pipes. Next Miss Mullen
moved across the set to Mr. John Keating, President of the Royal Irish Academy,
who was busy with a canvas, and had a friendly chat with the famous artist.
Thomas Studley of Radio Eireann then gave some wonderful samples of
impersonation of some distinguished persons. Angela O'Connor, of the Rathmines
and Rathgar Musical Society, seemed to enjoy her first television performance
as she sang " La Belle Parisienne." The real merit of television was
displayed in the scene from Donagh MacDonagh's " Happy as Larry " in
which Liam Foley and Ita Little performed to such great advantage. The whole
show was a credit to everyone connected with it. and though only an experiment
it was a splendid pointer to what could be done should a start be made on
television in this country.
Roy
Croft was a stalwart of Radio Eireann. He was born Harry Roycroft in 1922 and
was a natural entertainer. He began to compere and organise variety shows and
this led to Roy replacing Eamon Andrews at the Theatre Royal as the host of
‘Double of Nothing’. This exposure thanks to Andrews’s departure to London,
gained recognition at Radio Eireann. Roy originated Beginners Please, Ireland's
first broadcast talent show. In the days when radio was under the direct
control of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, there was a reluctance to
allow the public near a microphone, but Roy persuaded the station to take a
chance. It was an unqualified success, and Roy took the show around Ireland
with a system of regional heats. His catchphrase, "the beginners of
tonight may be our stars of tomorrow". The show opened the door for some
of the best-known Irish entertainers including the first on air performances by
Joe Dolan, Val Doonican, Paddy Crosbie of ‘School Around the Corner’ fame and The
Harmonichords, who later renamed themselves as The Bachelors. In 1961, Roy
compered a talent show in Cork as they sought new talent for the upcoming
launch of RTE’s television service. The winner of that competition was a thirteen-year-old
Rory Gallagher. In 1978 Roy was the chairman of the judging panel in Limerick
when a young Dublin rock band won first prize, U2.
In
the 1960’s when Roy married his wife encouraged him to get a ‘proper job’ and
Roy left Radio Eireann and joined Guinness’s as a promotions manager and
remained with the brewery until his retirement. He passed away in 2013.
Thomas
Studley according to the Equity website
Prior to joining Radio Éireann, Tom had already established
himself as a stage actor, featuring in many Abbey Theatre plays. The
constrictions of radio work limited his later appearances there, to “King
of the Barna Men” in 1967, “Aaron Thy Brother” in the 1968 Dublin Theatre
Festival and “The Drums of Father Ned” in 1985.
An extremely good mimic, Tom made memorable broadcasts as Sean
O’Casey and Bernard Shaw, and on retirement, had amassed an amazing total of
more than 1,000 radio performances.
Studley
died in September 2014.
The
instrumentalists The Comerford Trio were a Dublin Ceilidh band with an award
winning a dancing troupe from the 1930s under Lily Comerford. The musicians
were Marie McCrystal (Fiddle), Christina Sheridan (piccolo) and Mrs Davenport
(piano).
Barbara Mullen was an American-born actress well known in Britain later
for playing the part of Janet McPherson, the in Dr. Finlay’s Casebook on
television.
Mullen's parents were Pat and Bridget. Her father was from a fishing family on Inishmore island off the coast of Galway. He met his first wife, Bridget in South Boston, Massachusetts, where she had emigrated from Galway with her late husband, Patrick Crowe. Mullen was born in Boston. She made her stage debut as a dancer at the age of three. When her father returned to Aran, later contributing to the making of Man of Aran, the classic documentary film by Robert Flaherty, while her mother stayed in the U.S. to bring up their 8 children. Barbara would later marry John Taylor who was the cameraman on the Man of Aran. Mullen sang and danced in various theatres all over the U.S. and then moved to the UK in 1934 and began appearing on BBC radio including The Irish Half Hour.
The Irish Half Hour was a BBC wartime radio show
that began on Tuesday November 11th 1941. It featured artist was the great
Irish singer Count John McCormack who had been living in London at the time.
The first show featured mostly music from McCormack and the BBC Orchestra,
conducted by Leslie Woodgate. That show was compered by future celebrity author
Leonard Strong, whose parents were Irish.
The following week November 22nd, it was a
different type of show now featuring Jimmy O’Dea as his famous incarnation as
Biddy Mulligan, the Pride of the Coombe and sketches and skits featuring the
fictional rural Irish town of Ballygobackward. O’Dea ignored the threat of
German U-Boats in the Irish Sea to travel back and forth to the UK to record
the shows in Bristol. In total up to the final episode on December 3rd, 1943,
which was unusually pre-recorded to accommodate O’Dea’s panto rehearsal at the
Gaiety. In total eighty episodes were aired. The Radio Times advertised,
‘The Irish Half Hour with Jimmy O’Dea and Barbara Mullen specially
recorded for Irish men and women in the Forces. Compere, Joe Linnane.
Singer, Robert Irwin. Writer, Harry O'Donovan.’
The show was aired on the BBC Forces service
although some Irish regional newspapers were referring to it was the BBC
Alternative Service avoiding the militaristic term of ‘forces’.
According to the RDS report,
Four hundred people at a time were able to view demonstrations of
television in a portion of the Band Lawn specially arranged for the purpose.
These demonstrations were given by Messrs. Pye (Ireland) Ltd. A studio was
fitted, up in the tea gardens at the back of the grandstand and stage shows,
Jumping Competitions, Grand Parades and other features of the Show were
televised daily. In addition to the television receiving sets installed on the
Band Lawn, a number of sets were placed in the. Members' Hall for the use of
Members. On the Saturday previous to the Show Messrs. Pye (Ireland) Ltd. gave a
reception and dinner in the Gresham Hotel and a special show televised from the
studio in Ball's Bridge was seen by about three hundred guests, including the
President of the Society and some members of the Council: For the purpose of
giving this first public demonstration of television in Dublin, £30,000 worth
of equipment was flown from London to Dublin by Pye (Ireland) Ltd. These
demonstrations proved a great attraction and the Committee appreciate the
excellent manner in which, they were carried through.
The studios were described in the Irish Independent,
I turned the knob and stepped into
that modem Aladdin's Cave, a Television Studio. On my left were the artists
dressing rooms they have been spared make-up for the Ballsbridge telecasts and
on my right the works.
They were the size and shape of
three tall steel filing cabinets, except that they were all insides and no
outsides. tall blocks of valves and terminals and condensers of a complication
that is baffling to a man like me. The first, which ended on top like a film
projector, proved to be a film projector, but of the special type which, is
known as a " scanner." The next "cabinet" was surmounted by
a television screen, and I guessed it was a " monitor ". The third and last was the transmitter, which
is not to be tackled by anyone who feels ill at ease with three-point plugs and
fuse-boxes.
From the transmitter, I went
through a door into the studio proper and ended up with the television camera.
The studio was in odd contrast, the beam microphones, the tremendous battery of
powerful lights, and the cameras that occupy it. For the working end of the
studio proper had those grey backgrounds with dim black outlines which were
once the background of the professional photographer the sort of photographer
who took you holding your bowler over your heart while your other hand rested
on an antique pillar. Dominating the scene in which the microphones have to be
kept out of the picture, is the camera which looks something like a gigantic
square-barrelled Lewis gun mounted on a wheeled trolley on which the cameraman
sits. Then you stand before the camera, you see a glass eye and when the little
red lamp beside it lights you are being heard and seen by the world, for fifty
miles around. But what goes on inside it well. I’m afraid photo-electric
silvercaseum cells, electron gun assemblies Frame time bases and cathode ray
tubes, and all the rest are Greek to me.
A corner under the great awning over " the Band Lawn, has been screened off and as far as possible "blacked out ", to hold the sets, on whose bright screens you may enjoy the singing of Peggy Dell and Cecil Nash, the humour of compere Roy Croft, the magic of Albert Le Bas, and many another of our Irish artists, or even see the Jumping In the Enclosure without the bother of looking for a seat on the stands.
According to Le Bas’s biography ‘Oofle Dust’,
‘Oofle Dust’ is the story of
Albert le Bas, the softly spoken Irishman who was acknowledged as one of the
world's most outstanding magicians. A man at the apex of the ancient and
honoured craft of magic. A dream that took him from local carnivals in Ireland
during the 1940s to the hallowed stage of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, the BBC
studios, West End theatres in London, sparkling venues across Europe and the
USA, as well as appearances before royalty.’
It is the story of variety and entertainment in Ireland in the
1950s and 1960s. From opening Ireland's first shop for wizards and magicians,
performing on Ireland's first television broadcast to becoming the mainstay of
the hugely successful Jurys Cabaret, Albert shared his dream with Betty, the
love of his life. A life strewn with roses. Until the thorns appeared.
Thanks to the Pye television demonstrations, it was one of the busiest Spring Show with over 63,000 attending. Despite the enormous press attention given to the birth of Irish television, Pye did take out advertisements suggesting citizens did not purchase sets as this was only an experiment and BBC transmitter signals were difficult to receive in Ireland. Pye’s efforts were rewarded a decade later when the company won the contract to provide the transmitter network for the new TV service, RTE.
