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Gus Gray - Special Correspondent

6/14/2014

6 Comments

 
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Two weeks ago I had never heard of this series.  While checking out a U.S. auction site I found a couple of Australian 16" Transcription Discs offered for sale.  One was a Disc of George Edwards Marco Polo series, not the missing disc containing the two missing episodes unfortunately.  The other was Gus Gray - Special Correspondent episodes 13 & 14.  I hadn't heard of it, but I checked our database and found it was an Artransa quarter hour serial of 52 episodes and first broadcast in Australia in 1942.  We had no representative episode held.

I checked the NFSA database and found that they had all 52 scripts, but no audio.  I knew I had found something special, but I had to keep my mouth shut until the auction finished.  A good friend and collector in the U.S.emailed me and pointed out the auction and asked about Gus Gray - Special Correspondent.  I told him I was already onto it.  He told me there were another four episodes in mp3 format in circulation (11,12,15,16).  Once the auction finished and I was successful, I sent out emails to the other collectors as well as researchers in the U.S. asking if anybody had or knew of any further episodes.  I found episodes 3 and 4 listed on Dave Goldin's U.S. website.

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One of the U.S. researchers I contacted was Jack French, Author and tireless researcher with a lot of contacts.  Jack immediately sent an email out to his contacts. One of those contacts, Dave Siegel, another author, researcher and collector also proved to be a big help.

Meanwhile the other Australian collectors confirmed they had no episodes either.  I sent Craig and Jamie copies of the 4 mp3 episodes.  Jamie Kelly then contacted me and we started working together to try and locate more episodes through our various contacts.

I had been in contact with Dave Goldin a number of years back and still had his email address so I wrote to him and explained the situation.  He checked me out with Dave Siegel and then generously, sent a wav copy of his episodes 3 & 4 to Jamie and I.  A copy is also being donated to NFSA in his name, for future Australians to enjoy.

Despite all the hard work and effort.  No other episodes have surfaced.  The originals of the 4 episodes in circulation in mp3 haven't shown up either.  Hopefully this blog will assist in bringing the search to more people who may have discs or knowledge.  Meanwhile we have episodes 03, 04, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 to enjoy and copies are being supplied to NFSA.

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I guess you are wondering what the serial is about and who was in it?  I have found articles and cast lists and include them here for you to read.  NFSA pulled the scripts and advised me that the 52 episodes were divided into two stories of 26 episodes.

Case No 1. The Nine Ivory Buddha's episodes 01 - 26
Case No 2. The Green Cross             episodes 27 - 52

Obviously, the surviving episodes we have are from the first story, The Nine Ivory Buddha's.

Scriptwriter Maxwell Dunn was responsible for the story and the lead cast was Arundel Nixon as Gus Gray and Neva Carr Glyn as his wife Pat.  Other cast members include Hilda Scurr, John Tait, Lloyd Lamble, Ronald Morse, Ward Leopold, John Bushelle, Fred Bluett, John Nugent-Haywood,  Rodney Jacobs and Vivian Edwards.

This is a top line cast with many famous names.  It is no wonder it was successfully sold to the U.S. for broadcast.  In fact, reading through the newspapers, the series was rebroadcast in Australia several times and the last time I found it broadcast was in 1957.  But that may just be the limitation in availability of Newspapers online, beyond that date and the lack in my own collection.

Still wondering what type of serial Gus Gray - Special Correspondent actually is?  Mystery Drama is probably close, how about deciding for yourself.  Thanks to permission from Mr Reg James, here is an episode to wet your appetite.  Thanks also to Amanda at NFSA for pulling the scripts and also to Jamie Kelly for working his contacts over the last week or so.  Lets hope we find more episodes.

Ian Grieve
6 Comments
Simon Hatfould
8/23/2014 02:05:52 am

Firstly - Congratulations on the blog. There is so little on the web about these Aussie serials and to hear episodes not previously available is fantastic!
Now the bad news. If you listen to the 4 episodes already in circulation - this episode 13 you have on this site is the same as episode 11.
It would be interesting to hear episode 14 to see if that is perhaps the same as episode 12.

Reply
Charles Slater
9/9/2015 09:00:47 am

The actor playing the title role in 'Gus Gray', Arundel Nixon, was also the voice of Charlie Chuckles, who, in the early 1940s, presented weekly radio dramatisations of Sunday Telegraph comic strips. It was a great favourite with youngsters throughout the land including one particular five-year-old who is now, 70-years later, writing this comment.
Purely for the sake of personal nostalgia, I would love to experience listening to one of these programs again. My fear however is that, being inherently ephemeral in nature (being revelant only on the allotted Sunday and considered valueless thereafter), Charlie Chuckles transcriptions (quite possibly acetates), would have been quickly junked or recycled. However, if by some miraculous circumstance any episodes did survive, I would of course be keen to know about it.
I also recall great puzzlement and consequent discussion among my (kindergarten) school mates one Monday due to an unexplained yet obvious change in Charlie Chuckles voice. Even the 'grown-ups' didn't seem able to enlighten us.
What I now know is that Arundel Nixon had, at a relatively young age, collapsed and died. His shoes had been urgently filled by another young actor by the name of Howard Craven.
We eventually got used to the new Charlie who, with the help of other radio luminaries, continued the vital task of bringing to life such diverse characters as Nancy & Sluggo, Superman, Ambrose Kangaroo, Henry, and wonder woman Wanda.
I do however recall that, even to the ears of a devoted 5-year-old fan, neither Messers Nixon or Craven, nor supporting players, seemed to take their 'Sunday Funny Paper' roles at all seriously. At times they appeared to be having even more fun then their 'Listeners In' 🎭 📰 😉

Reply
Charles Slater link
9/9/2015 09:37:53 am

CORRECTION:
In my recent 'memories of Charlie Chuckles' rant I referred to being in 'kindergarten' when Arundel Nixen died (aged 42). I meant to write 'primary school'. I was nine-years-old at the time; even I was dunce enough to be still stuck in kindergarten. 😐

Reply
Ian Grieve link
9/9/2015 02:40:39 pm

G'day Charles, I will put the show up on the blog in the next day or so. I don't have an Arundel Nixon episode I am sorry, but I do have a Howard Craven. I have put the call out to the other collectors to see if they have any. I am sure they will step up if they do have any.

Since you are a big fan of the show, do you remember the Charlie Chuckles badge? I have a couple of them. Originally I was told that they were for the newspaper club, but then another collector told me they were also used for the radio club. Do you remember any mention of the badge being associated with the radio show?

Reply
Kathy link
8/7/2016 12:08:42 am

This is a great post. Thank for share here

Reply
Bianca M link
12/14/2020 11:48:35 pm

Great reading yyour blog post

Reply



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    Author

    Ian Grieve has been Collecting, Researching and Documenting Australian Old Time Radio since about 1998.  He enjoys the thrill of finding and identifying shows thought to have been lost and then researching their history as well as the people involved in their production.

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