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Dreaming of Tomorrow: Entertainment & The Arts
Ipswich people were very proud when the first program which appeared on Queensland television in August 1959 featured their own Hugh Cornish. Hugh had grown up in Ipswich where his father was Rector of St Paul’s Anglican Church and his mother was a well-known Art of Speech teacher. He gained performance skills at an early age when he competed in the Ipswich Junior Eisteddfod, once entering 40 different sections in singing, speech and piano. After spending time in radio, he joined Channel 9, the first Queensland television station to open. He was later program manager for Channel 7.
Well before commencement day, many people had already installed a television set and earnestly watched the test patterns. Sets were quite expensive and prices were usually quoted in old-fashioned guineas, probably to make them seem cheaper. A 169 guinea set, for example, actually cost almost £178. A “Festival of Television” was held in the Town Hall to encourage more buyers and twelve retailers took part, setting up displays of different brands. Once TV had started, sets were often placed in store windows and left turned on for people to watch.
Read more in Ipswich in the 20th century, Section 5 by Robyn Buchanan.
Junior Eisteddfod and choirs start
Myfanwy Sullivan started the Ipswich Intermediate Choral Society in 1950 to cater for young people too old for Junior Cambrians but too young for the senior choir. Their first concert was in aid of the proposed Queensland Conservatorium of Music. The choir later became the Ipswich Choral Society, but disbanded in the 1990s.
In the 1960s, the Cambrian Choir suffered from the introduction of television, but was well on the way to recovering its numbers by the early 1970s.
George Hogg formed the Orpheus Chorale in 1969. He originally intended it to be a small group but it grew rapidly and by the 1990s, had more than 100 members. The choir has been very successful in eisteddfod competition and in presenting concerts and musicals.
The Silkstone Eisteddfod had been started in 1927 by the Silkstone Methodist Church. The music sections originally had an emphasis on sacred music, while in the 1940s and 50s, the Speech section included Bible readings and a “Special Temperance Recital.” The eisteddfod has continued until the present day and its competitors include adults as well as school students.
Adult and youth choirs also continued to compete successfully in the annual Queensland Eisteddfod, held every Easter in a different provincial city. The celebration outside the Old Town Hall for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 included massed choirs. Lyla McGuire and Kathleen Gee (at rear) taking some of the Cambrian Junior Choir members to hear the Vienna Boys Choir c1950.
