Centralian Advocate (Alice Springs, NT : 1947 - 1954), Friday 2 September 1949, page 14


NEW PERSONALITY IN 'BLUE HILLS' A new personality has entered Gwen Meredith's A.B.C. serial I .'Blue Hills.' She is Auntie Gertie, I a rather unpopular but well-mean- I ing old lady, who arrives uninvited in Tanimbla to help the Gordons when Lee catches typhoid. This role will be played by forrner varriety artist, Ida Newton, who has now returned to radio as a character actress. With her husband Joe Brennan, Miss Newton was one one of the first Australian artists to enter radio. ? 'We were put on contract by the old Australian Broadcasting Company as a comedy team way back in the 1920's' recalled Miss Newton. 'In those days we thought radio was wonderful and it is still my favourite medium. It seemed marvellous then not to have to memorise lines,' she commented'. 'But these days radio lias developed into something more exacting.' As a variety star, Ida Newton specialised in singing French songs in a comedy team' with her husband. Together they have

toured nearly every Englishspeaking country in the world and have entertained troops in two world wars. 'Now that I am no longer one of the young ones,' she says, 'I am finding it most interesting to return to the microphone in character roles. Here I find the accents I learned in my variety days most useful.'