Tracking Shots
Flashbacks: New Zealand History on Film
Good Morning, Everybody
Born Maud Ruby Basham, but known to everyone as Aunt Daisy, New Zealand’s first lady of broadcasting was a committed optimist who talked fast, positively and very articulately, about household management.
Aunt Daisy’s first radio broadcast was made in 1922. By 1933 her week-day, 9am half-hour programme for women, broadcast on the 1ZB station in Auckland, was a huge success. In 1937 Aunt Daisy moved to Wellington, the ZB network expanded and her radio programme became a nationwide phenomena.
An endorsement by Aunt Daisy was a guarantee for success and it was not unknown for a new product she mentioned in the morning to be sold out by the afternoon. Her endorsements and advice were not limited to the radio waves; during the 1940s and 1950s Aunt Daisy appeared in several promotional films and newsreels.
Made an MBE in 1956, Aunt Daisy broadcast her daily programme with rarely a break until just a few days before her death in Wellington in 1963.
- Weekly Review no.268 (1,600kb)
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