Harold Forster, The Art of Advertising 1920's Radio. The Marconi Hero

 

Today the real success of an advertising campaign can be reflected in how memorable their campaign was. Coca – Cola’s musical ads, ‘I’d like to Teach the World’, their reappropriation of Santa Claus from his original green out fit to the Coke colours of red and white are instantly identifiable, ‘For Mash get Smash’ or ‘It’s Martini’ are still fondly remembered. In the 1920’s the print media was the main weapon of the advertisers to reach the public but in the early part of the roaring Twenties, a new pretender to the advertising crown was making it way to market, radio.

 

The Marconi company led the way with innovation in both transmitting and receiving, producing the most popular ‘listening-in’ devices for the wireless. To deliver their message, the Marconi Company used the newspapers and trade publications. In order that their products stood out from the crowd, in 1923 they commissioned a series of drawings used in newspaper ads encouraging purchases of their radios sets. They showed how valuable they were to enrich the lives of those who invested in the new medium.

 

They contracted an illustrator and artist to capture the ‘joy’ of radio listening and his work created a sensation in the newspapers and for their readers. Radio became a must have. The graphic illustrations, portrayed in an art deco style were stylish, appealed to the emotions and illustrated how radio could make like better. Advertisers were selling a dream; the world of radio was elegant no matter where you were or what you did. Many of the Marconi portrayals were of upper class people in decorative, modernist settings, creating a utopia often far from the lives of working class post war Britons. The purchase of a radio set was far beyond the financial reach of many of those who were still recovering from the First World War. Homemade crystal sets were extremely popular with working class listeners. Marconi’s advertisements exuded luxury and created a theme that the new medium of radio would offer everything including music, weather forecasting and information talks.

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The illustrations displayed a modern affluent Britain. The surroundings are plush set in drawing rooms, with quality furniture and fittings. The men are smartly dressed, with nearly all of them smoking a pipe or a cigar. The women are drawn in elegant dresses and crafted hairstyles. The ballroom scenes exude affluence and a rich lifestyle and spell the end of the live music era replaced by music through the wireless. Radio is a unifier of the family unit as the drawings feature parents and their children, even the children enjoying the radio broadcasts with their grandparents. One depicts what appears to be a teacher and her children outdoors being educated by the radio broadcasts. In one scene a couple have gone to the country to have a picnic in their automobile listening to the radio while the enjoyed their moment yet if you look closely, they are not alone as another man watches on from the tree line. The radio set is shown as the perfect accompaniment indoors or outdoors.  The reality however for many living in the UK in the early twenties, all of this high-brow living was aspirational.

 

 

By 1923, the British Broadcasting Company had just been formed and had taken over the running of the various stations around Britain operated by wireless set manufacturers. On 18 October 1922 the British Broadcasting Company Ltd was incorporated with a share capital of £60,006, with cumulative ordinary shares valued at £1 each and six major shareholders,

The shares were equally held by six companies:

·        Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company

·        Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company

·        Radio Communication Company

·        The British Thomson-Houston Company

·        The General Electric Company

·        Western Electric Company

Marconi was at the heart of transmitting and manufacturers radio sets. They wanted to cement their position at the forefront of radio, in a crowded field of manufacturers. Harold Forster was employed to produce a set of illustrations that would be used in the newspaper campaign for their premier product ‘The Two Value Marconiphone’. The campaign, which was broadcast at a national and local level, helped the Marconi Company maintain its lead as the main seller of ‘listening-in’ sets in the UK. The illustrations used in the advertisements had two different styles often used deliberately in the publication they were placed in to appeal to various classes. The more elaborate drawings appeared in national newspapers and trade publications, and often as half page advertisements while the darker, less crowded portraits appeared in regional newspapers.

 

Forster, in his late twenties in 1923, would have an illustrious career as an illustrator and an artist. He did not confine himself to the Marconi work, illustrating many products and brands. He was responsible for pre-war Black Magic chocolate illustrations. He produced a number of the famous World War Two posters commissioned by the British Government including the ‘Keep Mum, She’s Not So Dumb’ and ‘Forward to Victory’ posters. He would also produce iconic movie posters including for the Jack Hawkins action film, ‘Angels One Five’.

The Irish Presidency & Radio - Episode One Douglas Hyde

To commemorate the anniversary of the inauguration of our first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, we begin a series of articles looking at the role that radio has played in the life and times of Irish Presidents.

Episode One – President Douglas Hyde (1860 – 1949)

                        Uachtarán na hÉireann (President of Ireland) 1938 - 1945

Douglas Hyde was the first voice heard on the opening night of Ireland’s broadcasting service 2RN in 1926. In 1938, the defender of the Irish language was elected unanimously as the first President of Ireland, taking up residence in Aras An Uachtarain. The medium of radio was still in its infancy but it proved a unique form of communication to not only unite an island nation but to reach those who had left our shores to forge new lives in far off places like the United States and Australia. To celebrate his inauguration as the Irish President in June 1938, NBC in the United States presented Hyde’s one act play ‘The Twisting Rope’ which had been translated into English by Lady Gregory. The play had first been performed in Irish in October 1901.

On December 22nd 1938 President Hyde made his first broadcast since his election night and rather than it being aimed at those in Ireland, who had not voted him in, he was elected unopposed, the broadcast was aimed at the Irish diaspora in the United States. At 11.45pm Irish time, with equipment set up by Radio Eireann in his private residence at Ratra, Frenchpark Co. Roscommon, the President spoke to America. The operation was co-ordinated by Radio Eireann and the NBC networks office in London. A land line connected his home with the studios in Henry Street, Dublin and by cable to Rugby in England while a trans-Atlantic telephone line linked the broadcast with NBC headquarters at Radio City in New York.  The broadcast was aired in radio primetime at 6.45pm on the NBC network across the United States. The then 78 year-old President spoke in both Irish and English. He said,

“I feel that am bridging not, only space, but time, as am now renewing a contact which I made person some 30 years ago. When I was amongst you over 30 years ago speaking on behalf the Irish people was only humble worker in the cause for the restoration of our own language. “To-night again speak to you as my country’s representative, but this time I speak with a title, President of Eire. For myself, I still feel humble, but for country I feel proud. When visited your country more than a generation ago our native language was almost extinct as living tongue. Barely was heard outside the homes the poorer parts the country, and even there it was rapidly dying out, the State services, the professions, in business circles, among the traders the towns, had practically ceased to exist, except possibly as academic subject. The task before us who realised the rich heritage which we were in danger losing forever, seemed nearly hopeless. But, fortified by the determination of our nationalists at home and the generous aid of our friends abroad, we fought tenaciously to save our ancient language from further decay and to restore it to new life. To-day the Irish language, although not widely spoken yet, is recognised our Constitution to the national language of Ireland. Although the struggle for national self-expression has been long and intense the people Ireland have never become embittered They have all times sought to friendly with other nations, and more especially with your great nation, which her own children helped to found and develop and under whose friendly flag so many of them have found second home. In the name of Ireland, therefore, I wish to all citizens of the United States, and in particular to all of American and Irish descent combined, a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year’.

The message was recorded by Radio Eireann and rebroadcast for domestic consumption at 1.30pm on Christmas Day. His new status as President even afforded him the pleasure of listening to one of his plays being performed and broadcast by Radio Eireann that Christmas. On December 23^rd ‘Beith Chriost’, a nativity play was produced by Sighle Ni Dhonnachada for the station.

Weeks later in January 1939, President Hyde was once again due to broadcast on behalf of Ireland to the United States and further afield. As part of the New York World’s Fair a series of programmes from around the world title ‘Salute of The Nations’ would be broadcast across the US and globally by short wave. Ireland’s contribution would feature Hyde, Eamon DeValera and a host of Irish entertainers. Hyde’s broadcast in December from his home was a tortuous experience for the veteran Statesman. Despite the honour of being elected the first Irish president, Douglas Hyde was suffering the pain of loss. Just months before he was sworn in at Dublin Castle in June 1938, his wife Lucy (nee Kurtz) died on December 31st 1937. The efforts to broadcast from Roscommon as the first anniversary of his wife’s death approached. Weighed heavily on the President.

As each day from January 1st to April, a different nation would offer a glimpse of their nation. January 8th was Ireland’s turn and the programme would be introduced by Hyde, just as he had introduced radio to Ireland in 1926. On the day before the broadcast, Hyde sent word to the Radio Eireann director T J Kiernan, that ‘owing to the bereavement he would not be taking part in the broadcast. Kiernan told the Evening Herald that ‘no alternative arrangements will be made’.

He went onto to say that,

‘Mr. de Valera will broadcast for ten minutes, and Ireland's contribution will also include a selection by the Dublin Garda Ceilidhe Band and a group of songs. Mr. de Valera. he said, would probably speak a little longer, and, if necessary, the musical programme would be extended.’

The importance attached to the ‘Salute to The Nations’ was illustrated as Robert Wood, Assistant Director of Broadcasting and Television at the New York World's Fair, travelled to Dublin to make final arrangements for the broadcast. Wood told the Irish Press reporter that he believed that because of the large Irish-American listenership across America, the Irish programme would be extremely popular with audiences.

It will take place from 6.30 to 7 p.m., and will open with a greeting to America, to be followed by the playing of the National Anthem by the Station orchestra. Music by the Dublin composer, Victor Herbert, who won fame, in America, where he was very popular, was be played. A piece from his " Irish Rhapsody" entitled "St. Patrick's Day " was chosen. The Dublin Metropolitan Garda Ceilidhe Band provided a medley of hornpipe and reels, and Maire Ni Scully from Galway, and Michael Higgins sang in both Irish and English. The programme was carried by 342 U.S. radio stations on all the major networks and 45 stations in Canada, while the International Short Wave Stations at Schenectady and East Pittsburgh relayed the programme to Central America, Australia, Africa, and all over Europe.

The Inauguration of President Hyde at Dublin Castle in June 1938

1922, A Radio First for Castleknock College

While the medium of radio developed quickly around the world, in Ireland censorship rules and military disruption caused by the War of Independence and then the Civil War, stifled the development of radio broadcasting in Ireland. The ownership of transmitters was banned and amateurs operated in fear of arrest. Some though did try to develop radio especially as it moved from Morse point to point communications to mass communications with wireless telephony. Many of those who tried to advance the growing interest in radio were the clergy who found safety behind the walls of parochial houses and monasteries.

One of those was Father John Ryan CM who taught at Blackrock College and at one time had Eamon DeValera as a pupil. On Wednesday April 5th 1922, he is credited for having organised the first radio broadcast specifically dedicated to an Irish audience. For that unique occasion, the event did not take place in Blackrock College on the southside of Dublin but northside of the city at Castleknock College. The broadcast caused quite a stir in the media and while it was an Irish audience that would be entertained the broadcast itself came from Paris.

 Over a hundred students and interested amateurs filled the concert hall of the Castleknock College. The lecture began at seven o’clock and according to a journalist who was in attendance

‘The Reverend lecturer " tuned up" and throughout the hall we heard " dot and dash " from Clifden, Paris, Nauen (Germany), Karlsborg (Sweden), Warsaw, Moscow, and from ships at sea.

A gentleman in the audience actually took down and de-coded some of the messages there and then.’

Ninety minutes later the Reverend nervously checked him watch and then with some small adjustments to his equipment on stage, that had been supplied by the dealers Dixon and Hempenstall. The audience at Castleknock College were now so quiet you could hear a pin drop, were suddenly startled and astounded in equal measure.

‘Suddenly there crept through the hall sweet notes of a French soprano singing " La Patrie" - A pause - Now a baritone's full notes resounded in an appealing ballad. - Another pause - An orchestra playing most tunefully delighted our ears. - Another pause - Once again the soprano sang, concluding with the strains of "La Marseilles." Then a gentleman's voice was heard to say "Bon Soir mesdames, Bon Soir, messieurs'.

Imagine our amazement. We had heard a concert transmitted by wireless telephony. Then came the explanation. Father Ryan, having often heard music by telephony at his station at Blackrock, conceived the daring idea of writing to General Ferrie, at the Eiffel Tower Wireless Station, Paris, to ask for the transmission of some music by telephony at 8.30 p.m. on April 5, as he would lecture on "Wireless" that evening to the Castleknock students.’

The Paris concerts were broadcast on 2600 metres, normally aired in the afternoons as amateur listeners on crystal sets listeners to music concerts from Marconi’s experimental station at Chelmsford, 2MT, in the evenings. Ryan believed that relaying an English broadcast might incite passions after the recent end to the War of Independence. He contacted Gustave Auguste Ferrié (19 November 1868 – 16 February 1932), who was a renown French radio pioneer and inventor and appointed a general in the French army. In 1903 he proposed setting aerials on the Eiffel Tower for long-range radiotelegraphy. Under his direction a transmitter was set up in the tower, and its effective range had increased from an initial 400 km (250 mi) to 6,000 km (3,700 mi) by 1908. He would later develop mobile transmitters for military units which would be used by the French military during the First World War. It was fortuitous that the Paris Station based at the Eiffel Tower had significantly increased its transmitter power one month earlier. Father Ryan requested of the French General that the Paris station would organise and broadcast a special broadcast for the Irish audience at Castleknock College who were about to enter the Irish radio history books.

Paris sang to Castleknock, and Castleknock applauded enthusiastically.

Dublin's Pirate Radio Stations of the Early Twenties

The Irish Free State authorised 2RN to become the State’s official radio station and on January 1st 1926 it would officially go on air. Irish listeners, especially those on the East Coast, were already avid listeners to the new medium of radio. The sales of wireless sets had blossomed, with businesses like Hogan’s in Henry Street, Dublin supplying imported sets to those who could afford them. For those who could not afford them, a homemade crystal set gave them access to the airwaves. Listeners were entertained to broadcasts by London, Newcastle, Cardiff and Manchester amongst others. Following the formation of the new state, there was a divergence from the British laws that governed life in the country. Many of the laws were embraced by the Government including the British 1904 Wireless Telegraphy Act. Then in February 1924, the Irish Government implemented a licensing scheme for radio sets which was to be collected through the post office.

For many listeners south of the border, the arrival of 2BE in Belfast in September 1924 increased the urgency of having a Southern voice but there was division within Government circles as to whether the Free State’s venture should be commercially and privately run or State operated. In the end 2RN was a State body.

Many amateurs were building crystal sets to listen-in, but some inventive radio engineers were discovering that it was easy to turn their listening devices into transmitting devices. These amateurs were warned by newspaper columnists like ‘Radio Rex’ and ‘Jack Broadcaster’ that this was illegal and they should desist.

The so-called experimenters who were in actuality ‘pirate radio stations’ outside the law, were rebroadcasting British stations received on sophisticated sets in order that the amateur built crystal sets would be able to pick up a signal. This too was referred to in the newspaper columns with one declaring that,

‘Now I am informed that some people in what may be described as misplaced kindness are endeavouring to re-radiate received broadcast from their aerials to those of nearby crystal users. This is absolutely illegal and must on no account be attempted. You are not allowed to transmit. I shall be glad to assist those who try to locate offenders.’

On January 18^th 1923 in The Evening Telegraph, readers with an interest in radio was left in little doubt as to the legalities of ‘broadcasting’ rather than listening. It advised,

‘The position of the Free State in regard to the question of broadcasting, it may be taken for granted that broadly stated (1) Broadcasting of any kind is not legal yet in the Irish Free State. (2) That any instruments for the purpose of broadcasting are illegal. (3) That any attempt to bring in such instruments would be frustrated, the instruments of discord on-route would be sequestrated.’

Despite this information, an unusual pirate broadcaster turned out to be an attempted fraud and was exposed on the front page of the Evening Telegraph in November 1923. An authorised radio set dealer became aware of fraudsters who were selling sets at an unbelievably cheap price, purporting to receive all the British stations. He made an appointment to view the set and when the seller turned it on, he said that they were tuned into the Manchester station 2ZY. They listened to gramophone records and an announcer. After a period of listening the scam unravelled as the authorised dealer said that the announcers voice had a distinct Dublin accent. All was then revealed. The scammer and his confederate had set up a pirate transmitter nearby and was broadcasting the records and using a crude microphone to deliver the announcements pretending to be 2ZY. The ‘wireless set’ that they were trying to sell would barely be able to pick up a station that was just twenty miles from the receiver, it only contained a single value.  The uncover businessman remarked to the reporter that

‘The amusing part was that he had a rather clumsy contraption fitted up with the idea of humbugging innocent people into believing that the results obtained on his 'single valve set with a frame aerial were better than any of the demonstrations by the big wireless firms.’

He added

‘This kind of work is very good for experiments, but when it is done for the purpose of leading people to believe that they are listening to an actual station broadcasting, well it does general wireless work harm, first by making people suspicions and secondly by disappointing them by bad results.’

One pirate station seemed to make a genuine attempt to become the ‘Dublin station’ in advance of any officially sanctioned station. In May 1924, ‘The Grand Central Station Dublin’ was heard on the airwaves of Dublin on 390m medium wave. Reports said that on some of its broadcasts it suffered from interference from 2NO in Newcastle. The station broadcast from 9pm – 9.30pm. The ‘Dublin Studio’ as it deemed itself was located Northside of the city and introduced its pirate transmission with the announcement ‘calling Dublin, Glasnevin and everybody’. One writer to the newspapers wrote a critique of the broadcasts and offered some advice,

‘I would recommend that he is again whistling ‘Father O’Flynn’ for broadcasting that he should not blow directly into the microphone, as the result last night was more rushing wind that musical.’

The station carried on intermittently throughout the rest of the year with various reports appearing in trade magazines. They appeared to be coming from the one station although there were many experimenters as the frequency used was regularly on 390metres. In January 1925, The Radio Digest magazine in the United States reported in its ‘European Notes’ section that,

‘broadcasting is being carried out nightly from an unknown location near Dublin, Ireland, much to the annoyance of the Irish post office authorities who have been unsuccessful in their attempts to locate the illegal station’.

Pirate radio would be a thorn in the side of the authorities throughout every decade up to the present days with many pirate radio stations still taking to the air.