Moonshine (Radio play) - The General Motors Hour

A zany comedy that follows the fortunes of an English family, particularly the gambling, jobless, ne'er do well son Michael. Fortune smiles on Michael unexpectedly, after a visit from his ancient, eccentric Aunt Daisy, who lives on psychic powers and witches' brews and can pick four winners in a row. How Aunt Daisy solves the family problem is ingenious.

Starring: Roger Climpson (Michael Ransom), Queenie Ashton (Aunt Daisy), Ruth Cracknell (Mary), Betty Lucas (Crystal), Walter Sullivan (Bill), Pamela Page (Anne), Moray Powell (Charles), and Coralie Neville (Lucy).

On 30 January 1952 Holden's launched an ambitious new advertising campaign - the General Motors Hour. Every Wednesday evening for the next eleven years a one-hour radio play was broadcast nationally on the Macquarie Network. Each broadcast included two announcements which promoted Holden's contribution to Australia's economy and the community, rather than advertising particular products.

The mid-week broadcast was an innovation in itself. Radio dramas were an established feature of Sunday night programming, with Lux Radio Theatre, Caltex Theatre and an ABC play all competing for an audience at 8pm. However, the Macquarie Network had accurately identified a gap in the market, and within a year at least a quarter of the nation's radio-equipped homes were tuning in each week to the General Motors Hour - an audience of more than a million.

Holden did not simply provide the program with its name and advertisements. Most of the 463 plays broadcast from 1952 to 1961 were performed and recorded especially for the General Motors Hour. This involved a painstaking process of negotiating rights, adaptation, casting, rehearsals, performance before live audiences, recording, mixing, creating sufficient copies for broadcast, and dispatching discs to the 40 radio stations participating in the Macquarie Network.

Copies may be made for research and study. Publication only with written permission from the State Library.

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