Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Saturday 27 February 1937, page 36
RADIO ACTOR Might
Have Become MONK
Strange Story of Peter Finch
Ask any radio personality for his most unusual experience and he would probably have to hesitate and
think a while.
Not so Peter Finch, talented juvenile lead now playing in B.S.A. productions from 2GB. For him the big adventure of life was when he nearly be-tt Buddhist monk!
IT is a story that might have
provided a plot for Rud-yard Kipling to write a new
kind of "Kim."
"I was living in India in charge of a guardian, as my father was on out-post duty," explained Pinch.
"My guardian was intensely inter-ested in Buddhism, and under the Influence of a travelling Buddhist monk he had my head shaved, put me in a long yellow robe, and sent me off in company with the monk to beg my way to Tibet, the land of mystery and monks.
"I do not remember much of the journey, except that we travelled In a filthy state, never cut our nails, slept on mats on the earthen floor at nights, and, having arrived at a village, we sat down with our beg-ging bowls before us, and waited for the villagers to bring us food.
"Fortunately for my career as a radio actor, an Indian officer, a friend of my father's, recognised me, put me in a rickshaw and sent me home.
"My most vivid recollection of the adventure," added Peter Finch, "was my first glimpse of myself, baldpated and filthy, in the mirror. I got such a surprise that I nearly fainted, and if I had any desire to be a Buddhist monk before that, I certainly had none after."
Born in England, he is French on his mother's side, and through her was connected with some famous French theatrical families. For a number of years he lived near Versailles, and with a little girl who lived across the way was in
Our Radio Sessions From Station 2GB
(Featured by Dorothea
Vautier)
?yyEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY
24: 11.45 a.m., "London Calling." 3.45 p.m., "The Fashion Parade."
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25: 11.45 a.m., "People in the Limelight." 2.45 pim., "After-
noon Tea Selections."
FRD3AY, FEBRUARY 26: 11.45 a.m., "So They Say." 2.45 p.m.: "Afternoon Cock-tail."
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27: 6.15 p.m., "The Music Box." 9.30 p.m., Cole Porter presentation.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28: 6.10 p.m., "Cavalcade of Variety."
MONDAY, MARCH 1: 11.45 a.m., "Things that Happen." 2.45 p.m., "Review of The Aus-tralian Women's Weekly."
TUESDAY, MARCH 2: 11.45 a.m., "Overseas News." 2.45 p.m., "Swingtime."
the habit of making up little plays in which the two of them figured as hero and heroine.
Since those days they have never met or corresponded. But a couple of months ago, looking through some old papers, Finch discovered the name and address of his one-time playmate. He wrote to her and discovered that she had joined the stage, and is to-day, as Cimestre de Monterai, one of the promising young actresses of the Parisian theatre.
In the few years Finch has been in Australia he has seen more of this country than most of us. There is hardly an outback town which he has not visited as a member of a touring company which travelled the length and breadth of Aus-tralia, presenting six-night stands in a huge bell tent.
Now Finch has settled down to the ordered, but none the less strenuous, routine of a radio actor,
AUL PETER FINCH.
with the B.S.A. Players. "It ls quite a change," he says, looking back on an adventurous 21 years.