Vale - Frank Hyde and Marcel Marceau
Sometimes the universe works in a strangely symmetrical fashion.
Yesterday's newspapers report the passing of 2 men who were at opposite ends of the vocal spectrum - Marcel Marceau and Frank Hyde.
A letter-writer to a British newspaper (I lost the citation - sorry!) suggests that we all observe one minute's noise to mark the passing of Marcel Marceau.
Seeing Marceau live was extraordinary. I was lucky enough to see him twice - i nSydney in 1977 and in Wollongong (of all places) in the early 1990s). For the length of each item. those invisible walls, flowers and strong men became real.
And as for Frank Hyde ... well, when radio in its truest form is described as "theatre of the mind", Frank must have been a 5-star director in that theatre.
His famous call - "It's long enough - it's high enough - and it's STRAIGHT between the posts" was the inspiration of a rather short-lived goal-kicking career for me as I had the misfortune to play rugby league at school in the 1970s.
More importantly, he was one of the few influences on me tha tsaid it was good to use your imagination. radio in its truest form makes you use your imagination because of the lack of pictures - hence the "theatre of the mind" label above.
I think that Mr Hyde must have understood this at some level, die to the way he described rugby league on radio.
So I here publicly record my debt to these 2 gentlemen, for showing me that there is more to life and imagination than what you see on TV.
