[SKRIVA] Sven Jerring - radio and sf play pioneer
- From: "ahrvid@xxxxxxxxxxxx" <ahrvid@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: skriva@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 10:54:32 +0200 (CEST)
(I write this in English since most people I know interested in Old time Radio
don't read Swedish. And, dammit, there's no spellchecker on this temporary
laptop, so bear with me for occasional errors.)
Sven Jerring - Radio Reporter No 1, who also began sf radio plays
I know that there were important radiomen in the early days of, say, US or UK
radio. But at least in the US several radio networks competed, whereas in
Sweden there was only one with *one* program, and no one could become so
important for his listeners as the radio reporter, beginning as the first
radio
annnouncer, Sven Jerring (1895-1977). I've just read two books about him,
Nils-
Olov Franzén's Sven Jerring, which is a biography, and Jerring's own radio
memoires Gamla våglängder och nya kanaler (Old Wavelengths and New Channels,
from 1959).
Jerring pqactically singlehandedly invented most things connected to radio
reporting, at least in Sweden. He was the first radio announcer (in Sweden
called "hello man"), he did the first outdoor reports, he made the first
sports
commentaries, the first children's programs, the first report from an
aeroplane, the first international reports (in place in other countries), and
he also while he was at it start the first science fiction radio plays (I'll
come to that soon).
From the beginning, he wanted to be a writing journalists. He published
small poems and funny stories in the magazines of the time (around WWI, during
the time he did his military service - and learned to dislike anything
military, and later while he studied at Uppsala University). A sideshot to
this
was that he for a while was hired as a junior official with Sweden's foreign
office. He was talented in languages; while intending to study French he also
took Italian, he got German from the ordinary schools. As a FO official he had
a posting in S:t Petersburg during the so called Russian revolution, staying
with an Englishman where he picked up decent conversational English - he also
picked up some, but not much, Russian. The experiences from S:t Petersburg
taught him a lot about violence and guns and politicians on the extremist
sides. He later became scared of the hateful voices of Hitler and Mussolini,
brought over with this wonderful new invention - radio.
In the early 20's he got a position with the publisher Åhlén & Åkerlund, big
in weekly magazines. One day the boss called him in and said he wanted him to
work with the "test broadcasting" the publisher was going to start with this
new strange thing that had become so popular in America.
This was in 1923, and Jerring was indeed the first (or one of the first) to
work with the new media. While radio was new, publishers, radio clubs etc
could
apply for licenses to broadcast, but in 1925 a state controlled monopoly, AB
Radiotjänst (Radio Services Inc) was formed and Jerring moved there.
Radiotjänst was formally owned by the newspapers, who wanted to control radio
so it didn't compete with the newspapers. Above all, they didn't want
commercial radio to steal advertising from the newspapers. In much, the
government controlled the monopoly, through a radio law, through channels in
the communications department and by having the last say when hiring the CEO.
The government and the press conspiring to create a monopoly is one of the
worst mistakes ever in Swedish media policy, in my opinion (but I won't go
more
into that).
Jerring proved to be a natural talent. He had a good radio voice, spoke
clearly, knew how to improvise and was full of ideas. He was soon to
beofficially dubbed Radiotjänst's No 1 reporter.
He did less and less "helloing" (announcing programs), though his voice
opening a program with the classic "Stockholm - Motala" is well-known to older
people (the Studio was in Stockholm - the transmitter in Motala). Instead he
did more and more reporting and programming.
Already in 1925 he began what is probably the longest running radio show
with the same host, Barnen's brevlåda (Children's mailbox), where he read
letters from children and invited some of them to sing in the studio. This
program ran, during seasons, every week 1925 to 1972. I remember it myself
from
where I was young, and Jerring became known as Uncle Sven (Farbror Sven). It
was probably the program he enjoyed most.
But he was also a master in sports cocmmenting. He covered the famous 89 km
long Vasa ski race for many decades, and his report from the Swedish football
(soccer to Americans) defeat against the Japanse in the 1936 Berlin Olympics
is
a classic. The Swedes were considered one of the best teams, but lost against
these Asian unknowns by 2-3. Jerring commented: "Japanese, Japanese,
everywhere
Japanese. Japanese who jump, Japanese who throw themselves, wildly fending off
Japanese. They are small, but indeed they are though." (So if a Swede today
say
something about Japanese, Japanese, everywhere Japanese - it comes from
Jerring.) One of the most important sports award a Swedish athlete can win,
voted upon by the radio listeners, is the Jerring Award.
Another major project by Jerring was to cover the New Sweden 350th
anniversary in the USA in 1938 (Sweden had for a brief period a colony in and
around Delaware). He went over there with a recording car and went around for
four months seeking up Swedish immigrants and all kinds of Swedish culture in
America. The interviews etc were recorded on vax discs and shipped back to
Stockholm, resulting in scores of programs. During World War II he also went
to
Finland, during the Winter War, and reported from the finnish Home Front and
helped raise money for Finland.
But as said, Children's Mailbox, was the program he loved best, and it was
there Jerring started with what was to become probably the first science
fiction radio plays in Swedish radio. One day a child asked him in a letter if
he had read his previous letter. Jerring, out of the top of his head, said
that
his servant, one Efraim Alexander (EA), must have forgotten to open that
letter. Soon he'd get questions about who this Efraim Alexander was, so
Jerring
had to actually invent him and give him some more flesh on the bone. EA, he
said, was an obnoxius, fat red-headed 15-year-old who had high toughts of
himself. Jerring began using EA in the program (playing the role himself with
distorted voice). This happened already in 1925, the first year of the
program's existence. Soon Jerring, EA and some other invented characters began
appearing in small plays, and then in bigger plays.
The figure of Efraim Alexander became immensly popular, and is claimed to
have been the first fictional character invented on Swedish radio. It was also
probably the first so called radio series of adventure (as compared to more
serios so called "radio theatre", which Radiotjänst had begun with already).
And the adventures Jerring, EA and his friends had were science fiction!
They would go in a "timerocket" to other planets, other times. Jerring
writes in his book:
Ancient times were explored, medieval times and the future, and in the
future our career could well have ended. We didn't fit into the 26th century,
when all individuality had been so radically devaluated that people didn't
even
have names, but numbers. Our exploits during this expedition was even written
about in the press.
Then follows a long plot summary of the adventures in the 26th Century in
which Jerring to save them must take part in a poetry competition and EA must
likewise prove himself in a boxing match. They are saved by two girls who say
they must do something to astound the (boring, too serious) world of 2500.
Jerring remember his old record player and the then popular record of "The
Laughing Policeman", which is played.
In another radio play they visited Mars, where two races were in eternal
war. One race could only talk through rhymes, and the other only by singing
(which certainly would make interesting radio!). EA saves the day, after
several adventures, by pulling out a rhyme dictionary. Another play is set on
the Moon.
The plays and appearances of the Efraim Alexander came 1925 until 1939 (with
a short popup in 1944) and in 1953 Sven Jerring wrote the plays down as a
collection of stories, named Alla tiders Efraim Alexander (EA of All Times),
which as far as I can make out is science fiction, satirical, humourous sf for
children but still. In the book I have in front of me, Jerring also provides
the very last EA story, "Full tid för tidraketen" ("Full Time for the
Timerocket"), a satirical trip to a place called Somdeskava (Asitshouldbe)
where everyone thing that he/she is best and everything is perfect. Under the
surface, they cheat and aren't that perfect, and in the end it is hinted that
the place they have visited is...Sweden.
The EA radio plays probably inspired the radioman Georg Eliasson to in the
1940's and 50's make his own plays about Pelle Krikonkvist - "Pelle
Krikonkvist
på äventyr" and "Pelle Krikonkvist på planetfärd" ("PK on Adventure" and "PK
on
a Planet Trip"), which were also very science fiction.
But Jerring wasn't finished after inventing the sf radio play. In 1931 he
played the part of a reporter in the serious sf radioplay "Månraketen" ("The
Moon Rocket"), probably written by the director Per Lindberg. This is the
story
of an American scientist with a crew of four criminals intending to make a
trip
around the Moon. The rocket meets some accident and the agony of the crew can
be followed through radio, commented by Jerring as a radio reporter.
But there's another story to that play. The day before, the German zeppelin
Graf Zeppelin was about to visit Stockholm. Jerring wanted to report about the
event from his studio window but couldn't see the airship. He therefore begav
improvising a grand description of the magnificent sight of the zeppelin. But
when the director Lindberg heard that he commented:
"That was the worst! Here you stand quoting long lines from your part in the
play and let them be about the zeppelin! You better change those lines until
tomorrow so nobody recognises them..."
I could add how Jerring in 1943 invited the press to hear the plans for the
new radio house in Stockholm. It would have new technology for "smelling
radio"
and a special room with a swear-word filer. Every bad word that otherwise
would
find its way out through the radio waves would be replaced by "Oh dear!". Some
papers bought the story, and didn't notice that the date of the presentation
was April 1st.
Sven Jerring became the most recognised and famous person in Sweden, perhaps
beside the king, in a time with only *one* radio channel, but he was privately
a very modest and to some degree shy person (he eg often avoided going out to
eat for fear of being recognised). Nowadays celebreties have hundreds of TV
and
radio channels, Internet, scores of glossy magazines, etc, but they're not
like
the real celebreties of yesterday.
They were superstars in a true sense!
--Ahrvid Engholm
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