ESYLT NEWBERY
[RADIO-TALKS]
Esylt Newbery was an lecturer on the Far East who had lived in the Orient for
nearly twenty years, first as a governess and then as a teacher at the Cathedral
Choir School in Shanghai. Once back in England she broadcast sporadically in the
mid-Twenties, oftentimes on the subject on Asian legends and ghost lore. A
number of her talks were broadcast as part of a regular Friday-night series,
Eastern Cameos.
[Newbery: describes witnessing “The Feast of Lanterns” in Kodzu in Japan: “I
saw two or three hundred people, all carrying lighted paper lanterns swinging at
the end of a string… It appeared that the people were holding the annual ‘walk of
the ghosts’ when the spirits of the dead return by special invitation to visit their
loved one on earth. ‘They come,’ he said, ‘from the ‘Land of Shadows’ at sunset,
and they must return at midnight’… [At] midnight…the market square emptied as
the people dispersed to their homes to fetch the little ‘Ghost Boats’ which were to
take the visitors home. We all went down to the river where the tiny fleet was
launched, none of the boats more than six or seven inches long, but each carrying
its tiny lighted torch or a lantern at the prow, and a little heap of food to sustain
the unseen voyager on the journey.
“The ghosts cannot come unless they are invited. In some parts of China they
build little houses for them, with real little gardens outside, and inside paper
chairs and tables with food set out, and bowls of clean water for the ghosts to
wash themselves after the journey. The people of the East are much occupied
with death and the dead.”
“…another year—1926—was with us. I don’t remember how it all began, I think
it was through meeting some of the Cardiff personnel at a Garden Party given by
the B.B.C. at Weston, but I began broadcasting from the Cardiff studios, and I
kept it up fairly regularly for the next three years. I did a long series at one time,
for fifteen weeks, every Friday night from seven till a quarter past. The ‘Talks’
were known as ‘Eastern Cameos’, irreverently known to the staff as ‘Miss
Newbery’s Camisoles’. Arrangements in those days were pretty happy-go-lucky.
The studios were only a couple of small houses in a terrace. I would walk in past a
commissionaire sitting on a chair near the door, and he would touch his hat with
one finger and say, ‘Good evening, Miss, you’re in Number Three.’ The room had
a silent swing door, a thick carpet, and was entirely hung with drapery. Even the
ceiling was festooned with it. One had to stand at a tall desk the whole time with
what looked like a large meat-safe in front of it. My paper, in my own
handwriting, would be on the desk, and lying beside it would be a card saying
‘Don’t rustle your papers’.
“After a bit an announcer would come in, say ‘Come for your Camisole?’ or
something equally original, and after the usual light signal, I would be
announced, and then left alone to read my paper. Sometimes a man would come
soundlessly into the room, take me by the shoulders and push me closer to the
meat-safe, or else pull me back. Sometimes I had a printed card on the top of a
short pole pushed before my eyes with ‘You are talking too fast’, or some other
bright remark. I never had to rehearse beforehand. Then, leaving my next week’s
talk on the desk, I left, having first had to stand still while the announcer,
breathing down my neck, would say, ‘That is the end of Esylt Newbery’s talk on
the Far East for this evening, she will be here again for another Talk at the same
time next Friday.’
“Then a brief pause, while we both looked for the light over the door. Then
would come: ‘And now, here is Fat Stock Prices for Farmers.’ For some reason I
did not understand, the Fat Stock Prices were not given from the studio in which
I had given my broadcast, but from somewhere else, and as soon as the notice
was given, the light flickered again, and we could talk. One dreadful evening,
when I though the light had gone, in order to make the announcer laugh, I put my
face close to the meat-safe and, putting on a broad Welsh accent, I said, before he
could stop me, ‘Now, there’s a luffly treat for you!’
“At that moment, to my unspeakable horror, the light over the door twinkled a
moment and went out.
“You should have seen that announcer! He doubled up with laughter, slapped
his thighs and danced all over the room. ‘Now you’ve done it!’ he said. ‘No more
camisoles for you, my lady! You’ll get the sack, you see!’
“But I never heard a word about it!
“One Christmas Eve, I was to give a broadcast on ‘True Ghost Stories’, and to
have half an hour instead of my usual fifteen minutes.”
[“When the Dead Return,” The Argus, September 25, 1945] “One reason for
that curious Japanese message of condolence when President Roosevelt died was
suggested by Esylt Newbery, in the BBC Listener for June 28. ‘Most people in this
country,’ she said, ‘have no idea how much the Japanese fear, not death, but the
dead. The Japanese believe that after death souls pass on to the ‘land of the
shadows,’ where they deteriorate in character, become spiteful and jealous, and
are restless and unhappy, always longing to return to this world. These spirits of
the dead are far more powerful and influential, the Japs think, than they ever
were in life, and the great thing is to propitiate them and keep them if possible
contented in the spirit world, for if once, they take offence they could do mortals
very great harm.
‘When President Roosevelt died insults of every sort came from Hitler, but the
Japs sent a polite message of condolence to America. And into the bargain, when
Stalin spoke at a diplomatic gathering in Moscow on the passing of the great man,
and proposed that everyone should stand for a minute’s silence in the late
President’s honour, the Japanese Minister joined in with alacrity. As far as I
know all this wasn’t in the least because the Japs liked or respected President
Roosevelt, but because they simply dared not do otherwise. In short—the Japs are
far more afraid of Mr. Roosevelt now that he is dead than they were when he was
alive.’”
ORIGINATION: 5WA, Cardiff (BBC).
DURATION: Various dates between 1926 and 1929.
PERSONNEL: Esylt Newbery (speaker).
EXTANT RECORDINGS: None.
MISS ESYLT NEWBERY (5WA, CARDIFF)
[Friday—4:45-5:00 PM]
July 30, 1926 “Folk Lore and Fairy Tales of
China”
Aug. 20, 1926 “Some Strange Chinese
Superstitions”
MISS ESYLT NEWBERY (2BD, ABERDEEN)
[Thursday—3:45-4:00 PM]
April 7, 1927 “Some Strange Chinese
Superstitions”
ESYLT NEWBERY (5WA, CARDIFF)
[Saturday—7:00-7:15 PM]
April 14, 1928 “More Ghosts, and other
Uncanny Happenings”
[Saturday—7:00-7:15 PM]
Dec. 22, 1928 “More Ghost Stories”