The earliest ever Late Late
THE first Late Late Show went out from Studio One at Montrose in Dublin on July 5, 1962, with 28-year-old Gay Byrne as the host. He had four guests on the show as well as a three-strong panel.
That initial Late Late Show started at 11.20pm, very late in the evening then for a talk and entertainment show. It ran well past midnight, the first time the new station, Telefís Éireann, now RTÉ – which then had just a single channel – had broadcast after midnight.
Producer of the show was Tom McGrath, a returned emigrant who had gained much television experience in Canada; he went on to create many more innovative variety shows for RTÉ. The director was a young American, Burt Budin, who hailed from Brooklyn, New York. As for Gaybo, he had already been host of the Jackpot quiz show on the new station, as well as doing news reading and continuity announcing. When the new show started, he had already been working for Granada TV in Manchester for two years.
The four guests that July night were Count Cyril McCormack, Ken Gray, George Desmond Hodnett and Harry Thuillier.
Cyril McCormack was the son of the famous tenor, Count John McCormack; and he ran a restaurant in Dublin city centre. Ken Gray worked for The Irish Times for over 50 years and, among other jobs he had there, he was deputy editor. He was also a long-time TV critic for the paper. George Desmond Hodnett was a total eccentric, who was also the jazz critic with The Irish Times. He often spent the night sleeping in the television room at the newspaper, instead of going home to his flat. He was also a noted songwriter, with his ditty on Monto, released in 1958, the best known. Harry Thuillier was a well- known Dublin entertainer.
There was also a three-strong panel on the show, Professor Liam Ó Briain from Galway, Danny Cummins, a Dublin comedian, and blonde model, Verona Mullen. Music was provided by a trio led by Noel Kelehan; the singer was Frankie Blowers, then considered Ireland’s answer to Frank Sinatra.
The initial series of the Late Late Show ran for 13 weeks and it returned in October, 1963. By that stage, Gay Byrne was also hosting a two-hour live talk show on the new BBC channel, BBC 2, on Saturday afternoons. As soon as that show finished, Gaybo did a mad dash to Heathrow Airport to get a plane home to Dublin to host the Late Late Show that same evening. If the flight was delayed by bad weather, Ronnie Walsh was on standby in Dublin to deputise for Gay Byrne.
In 1964, Frank Hall was signed up to take over the presentation of the Late Late Show, but he turned out to be a flop. In January 1965 Gay Byrne returned to present the show, which he continued to do until he retired from the programme in 1999. Sinéad Parry, Dublin 2.
QUESTION What is a polliwog?
A POLLYWOG, or polliwog, is an old-fashioned word for a tadpole.
The word dates from the mid15th century as polwigge or
polwygle, from pol, meaning head, and wiglen, meaning to wiggle. The modern spelling first appeared in the 1830s.
Amphibians such as frogs and toads have three phases in their lifecycle: the eggs hatch into tadpoles that, over four months, grow into adults.
The word is immortalised in The Pollywog Song: Good morning little Pollywog! In three more days, you’ll be a frog! Then you can leap from log to log, You funny little Pollywog! Alison Newman, Formby, Lancs.
...AS well as being a traditional name for a tadpole – featuring in the Cat In The Hat children’s book Would You Rather Be A Pollywog? – a polliwog is part of the ancient ceremony of Crossing The Line or Equator.
A polliwog is a person who has never been inducted into Neptune’s Kingdom (a first-timer crossing the Equator) and is also one of a variety of sea creatures that is often mentioned on the Crossing The Line certificate.
My certificate was issued on board HMS Exeter of Battle of the River Plate fame in 1937 and reads: ‘Be it known that all living creatures in the seas, such as eels and crabs, pollywogs, sharks, whales and limpets, are hereby commanded to refrain from eating, playing with or otherwise maltreating him.’
The certificates can be an elaborately printed and illustrated document or a simple hand-drawn sheet produced by a member of the ship’s company.
Sailors who have already crossed the Equator are called Shellbacks. Brian Mitchell, Crawley, W. Sussex.
QUESTION Is it true Duane Eddy’s twangy guitar sound was down to the fact he recorded in an empty water tank?
A SMALL technical correction to the earlier answer, which told of record producer Lee Hazelwood paying $200 for a grain tank, or water tank, to enhance Duane Eddy’s distinctive guitar sound.
As a retired engineer, I know the tank could not have been made of cast iron. This is a dense material with little tensile strength and, when thin, can be brittle.
Had the tank been made of cast iron, it would have needed to be very thick and heavy, which would result in it absorbing sound waves and deadening the sound.
The tank must have been made from rolled sheet steel, which is light and strong, with a hard surface to reflect sound waves.
It is a common misconception in the US to describe steel as being ‘iron’ – as in ‘any old iron’. Iron is the raw base material from which steel is produced.
There could also have been some confusion with corrugated iron – the corrugations would diffuse sound waves and not produce a clean echo. C E Sayers-Leavy, Broadstairs, Kent.