Singapore, 1960s – Television and Radio (by Tim Light)

When we arrived in Singapore in 1961, one of the first things my father bought was a Sony Transistor Radio.  It was a very modern-looking device, not like the big brown wireless sets that we were used to back home.  The picture, I think, shows the exact model.

 

As I remember, there was, essentially, only one English language station, transmitted by Radio Singapura.  There were all sorts of programmes, including news, comedy drama, music of all sorts, and current affairs.  Unlike the BBC, Radio Singapura carried adverts.  We quickly got to learn the jingles for Tiger Oil and Brand’s Essence of Chicken.  The Tiger advert went something like this:

Tiger Oil.  Tiger Oil.

For fast relief of colds aches and pains.

It is used throughout the world.

You must get some right away.

Tiger Oil makes your day a happy day.

As well as the adverts there was constant political propaganda and patriotic songs.  At the time that Malaysia was being formed, we were treated to Malaysia Forever every hour or so.

Let’s get together. 

Sing a happy song.

Malaysia Forever. 

Ten Million strong.  

That soon changed when Singapore left Malaysia.

My favourite radio programs were a comedy whose name I can’t remember, and an American real-life detective series called The Mistakes They Made.

Also available – but only just – was the BBC World Service.  It was very faint, and would be accompanied by eerie electronic whistles and other sci-fi sounds, and it would fade in and out, but we liked to tune in for cricket matches and the English Football results.  It was quite frustrating, as just as our team’s result came on the radio would fade out or whistle, so we would only hear half the score.  Nevertheless, it was a Saturday night ritual, long after lights out, to listen to the results.  Given the time difference, it would be midnight when the results were read out.

One evening, in February 1963, we were driving home from somewhere.  An enormous crowd of people was gathered outside a shop window.  They were watching Singapore’s first television broadcast.  This was the first time Singaporeans had seen a television, and it must have been a magical experience for them.  Of course, it was in black and white, but nobody minded.  Everyone wanted a TV, although they were very expensive in the early days, and for the first few years we did our viewing at the Island Club, at friends’ houses, or in restaurants (where a TV was a big added attraction).

For most of the 1960s, as I remember, there was only one channel, and it catered for at least four language groups – Malay, Chinese, Tamil and English.  I know that there was more than one Chinese language in use, but I don’t know if TV Singapura catered for them all.  Such was the addiction of TV that sometimes we would watch the programmes even when they were in a language that we didn’t understand. Indian and Chinese cinema was very dramatic, and sometimes you could follow the story without knowing the language.  Of course, my favourite programmes were the American comedies (like I Love Lucy), adventure programmes and cartoons.

Eventually we bought a TV and had the pleasure of constantly trying to get a decent picture by adjusting the angle of the ariel, and playing with the vertical hold because the picture kept going round and round. 

How things have changed.

Related posts

1)    Days of Black and White TV

2)    One Scoop of Porridge

Majong Session (by Peter Chan)

For some strange reasons, I never pick up the game of majong, although I often watch my grandmother, my aunties or their “kakis” have their afternoon sessions. My grandmother only invited folks who were Cantonese-speaking and who lived in the Tiong Bahru SIT estate area. Sometimes my grandfather participated because someone backed-out at the last minute. So having male players was the exception.

Pic 1: My grandmother and grandfather at the majong table (circa 1959)

My very first introduction to majong was probably before I went to primary school. My grandmother was responsible for setting up the table and covering the top with the smoothest white paper my eyes ever saw. My “duty” was to greet each aunty and offer them their favorite drink. I was also tasked to do the refilling when ever I spotted the glass or cup empty. Chinese Jasmine tea and black coffee were the popular drinks. The drinks were placed on a small wooden stool next to each player. If my grandmother won the game that day, I was sure to get rewarded with my favorite “Ku Lu Yoke” from San Hoi San, the Cantonese cook across our flat. If she lost, she would not speak and I would not dare to ask her “what’s cooking for dinner”.

This game fascinates me. I always wondered why someone would shout “Pung” very loudly, utter swear words, open small little boxes below the table and exchanging little colorful plastic tokens. There was the “breast stroke” motion of moving the tiles around on the table, and arranging the tiles into 4 rows at 90 degree to each other. I saw each player taking turns to take the tiles from the center of the table. Then the game ended with a shout of “Pung”.

The game commenced shortly after lunch (when “Lai Dai Soh” came on the air) and ended just before dinner time because it was my uncle’s turn to listen to “American Top 40”.

Perhaps If I took to the game, I would have achieved wonders for my Chinese Second Language in school.

The first English song that I learned

To my more senior friends; can you remember the first English song that you learned? I am not referring to those nursery rhymes like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or Baa Baa Black Sheep that they taught us in school. Well I can; and it’s a song from 46 years ago.

It was blogging about that feathered visitor earlier that reminded me of this English song that I learned in 1962. I was in primary 4 in Braddell Rise School. Kampong kids of that era do not listen to English songs. Other than a few nursery rhymes, we never sang English songs.

But my teacher at that time, Mr Chew liked to sing English songs. One day, he brought his guitar to class and taught us this song. Surprisingly, after 46 years, I can still remember the lyrics ….. well at least some parts of it.

Yellow bird, up high in banana tree.
Yellow bird, you sit all alone like me.
Did your lady friend, leave your nest again?
That is very sad, makes me feel so bad.
You can fly away, in the sky away.
You’re more lucky than me.

……

Wish that I were a yellow bird.
I’ll fly away with you.
But I am not a yellow bird,
So here I sit, nothing else to do.


The song was Yellow Bird. Have you heard it before? If not, you can listen to it here.

Dining in the ‘old days’ (by Peter Chan)

Today where there are more avenues to pub, club, munch and dine apart from hot spots in the Orchard Road area. When I look back from my time, we have made immense progress in the F & B industry. So I don’t regret one bit that the “good ole days” have changed.

Fig 1: GH Café on the right side of Battery Road towards Bonham Street (circa 1960)

Fortunately for me my father was able to take me to those wonderful joints like the GH Café down in Battery Road and Polar Café in High Street. On my own, I could not afford to pay for a bowl of Hokkien Prawn noodle soup, not until I earned my first buck.

Whilst clearing my old junkies, I found this great menu list from the Goodwood Park Hotel to remind me of the time when I was able to sit down for a big nice meal at a time when only “Upperty Ang Mos” could do so effortlessly because it was charged to the company’s entertainment expense.

It was not really difficult for me to finger through the menu list to place my order. The Gordon Grill was famous for its tender juicy meat on the trolley; everybody knew about that. There was my old friend “Captain Wong” the Maitre d ‘Or who recommended me the best cut. “US Prime Tenderloin, 150 grams just right, medium to well done”, said Captain Wong. For the starter, I chose Scottish Smoked Salmon, remembering the unpleasant experience I had with the Scottish Haggis dish at the Tanglin Club bar. Then I decided on dessert which was cheese cake, a house brand of the hotel. You can bet nobody came close to this unless it was the Singapore Hilton. Today I was told that the Pan Pacific Hotel has the best of the lot. Then I rounded it with Irish coffee. A bottle of red white was not particularly exciting for me because I knew very little about wine – the “Year of Manufacture” and making suitable comments about its quality. I thought those things were very bourgeois. However if you like to know the reason, it was because a bottle would set me back at least $70. That was too much for the taste.

Captain Wong had looked at me very much amused but I did not catch the hint. It was actually too much for a native Singaporean because our generation never had big appetite for western food.


Fig 2: Gordon Grill’s menu list and the inside pages

When the bill came, I crossed the $200 mark which was still within my initial estimates. How nice to sign-off with an American Express credit card: I never forgot NEVER TO LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT. In those days having an American Express card was much sought-after than a DINERS CLUB. VISA and MASTERCARD had not made their presence felt until the 1980s. After I left the hotel, I came down with indigestion and a big bill to foot from next month’s salary.

Fig 3: Another of the inside pages of the menu

I just wonder how different was I from my children who are now young working professional with a bigger pay-packet than the time when I started working? Maybe if I was born 30 years later, I can join the “Sentosa Foam Party” but then I remember before there was a foam party, there was a wilder one called the “Wet T-Shirt Party” in Angeles City.


Fig 4: Captain Wong on the left standing and observing a waiter serving the guests

The next article I will touch on clubbing, again because I found an old poster in my store-room.

One Scoop of Porridge

In the early sixties, when television was not yet widely available because of the high cost of owning a tv set as well as the short transmission hours, our main form of news and entertainment was the radio. Unlike my friend Victor who lived in town, we did not have rediffusion in our kampong. Our favourite programme was the wuxia (Chinese pugilistic) stories told by the late story-teller Lee Dai Soh. But did you know that besides such stories, we also had radio dramas. These were usually in Cantonese and broadcast in the afternoon at around 2 pm, whilst Lee Dai Soh’s programme came on at around 6 pm. My siblings and followed these mini-series faithfully.

It’s been a quarter century, and of course I am not able to remember most of the stories that we heard, but a few titles remain fresh in my mind. The first one goes by the title of Yat Sat Chook (pronounced in Cantonese) or “一失足“。 This is actually derived from the Chinese idiom, 一失足成千古恨，回头已是百年身。Roughly this says that one wrong step can lead to a life time of regret. The reason why I could remember this title was because we gave it a nickname of our own. At the start of the programme, there was this announcer who read out the title in a solemn drawl - Yat …Sat … Chook. We thought it was rather comical and promptly changed the title to Yat Putt Chook which, in Cantonese, says, one scoop of porridge.

There were some stories which were actually adaptations of famous English classics. I seem to recall that Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre was one of them. Do you know what was Jane Eyre in Chinese? It’s 简爱. I also vaguely recall that Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights was another. It’s Chinese title was 魂归离恨天. Yet another one could be Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. But I have to admit that my memory could be playing tricks on me. It could be that I actually saw the Cantonese movies of these stories in the South Country Theatre in Kampong San Teng and got things mixed up. Anyway, I hope some of my older Cantonese readers like Zen or Frannxis can help me out.

But one title I am quite sure about was Lei Pik Wah (李碧华). Do you know what was the original title in English? It’s Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier; which incidentally was a wonderful love story with a bit of mystery. My siblings and I enjoyed this story tremendously.

I think my love for reading English classics could be attributed in some way to these radio dramas. Anyway, I hope my young readers have gained a bit of knowledge of Singapore’s history today. I bet your history teachers never taught you this in school.

It’s the 25th Hour, not 11th

This morning I saw a review on Channel News Asia by Melanie Oliveiro of the new movie, The Eleventh Hour. It reminded me of a wonderful movie with a similar name which I saw many years ago. That movie was The 25th Hour.

Once in a while you come across a movie that pricks your heart and causes you to think about it long after you walk out of the theatre, and which you can remember for years. The 25th Hour is one such movie. I think, my friend Kenneth who seems to like this genre of movie would have enjoyed it. But I doubt he has seen it because it is such an old movie. I saw it when it was first released in 1967 when I was still in secondary school. I liked it so much that some years later, in 1979, I borrowed a copy of the book from the National Library and read it. The movie starred the late Anthony Quinn and the author of the book was C. Virgil Gheorghiu,

The story is about the tragic events that happened to a simple Romanian peasant, Johann Moritz during World War II. Moritz’s misfortune began because he was blessed with a beautiful wife. A local captain who coveted his wife reported him to the authorities as a Jew. He was sent to a work camp but was subsequently "rescued" by a Nazi officer who thought that he was a perfect Aryan specimen. He was forced to serve as a model for the German propaganda. After the war, he was imprisoned and severely beaten by his Russian captors. As a final irony, he was charged with war crimes by the Allied forces for his role in assisting the Nazis, while all along he has been nothing but a victim.

If my memory serves me, I think the story ends when Moritz returns to his villge to find he has become the father of a boy who was the result of his wife being raped by a German soldier. Hope somebody will read the book and confirm if I remembered correctly.

++ Chew of this interesting line from the book: “God made so many things of no practical value, and yet they are the most beautiful of all”.

++ Melanie Oliveiro said this of the movie The 11th Hour; “You have a moral obligation to watch it”. Now that I qualify to watch movies at a discount (half price?) during week days, I think I will fulfill my moral obligation next week.

Days of Black and White Television in Singapore

Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity. A solemn voice reads out these words as a hand writes the symbols on a blackboard. This was the iconic introduction of every episode of the medical drama series, Ben Casey (which you can now see on YouTube here), a very popular programme shown over RTS, or Radio and Television Singapore in the early days of black and white television. And it was one of my favourites. Its rival was Doctor Kildare, which starred the dashing Richard Chamberlain.

Television made its debut in Singapore in 1963, the same year we merged with Malaya to form Malaysia. Initially, there were only two channels – Channels 5 and 8. At that time, in our kampong, there was only one family which had a television set. The owner, a Mr Low Thiam Aik would place his television outside his house for all the neighbours to watch. Transmission hours were from around 6 pm to midnight. Some of us even brought along stools to sit down in front of his courtyard to watch television right until the time when they played the Majullah Singapura.

Photo of our neighbour, Mr Low's house courtesy of his grandson, Lau Eng Leong

Subsequently, more households began to own their own TV sets. When our 7th Uncle who lived nearby to us, bought one, we switched to his home. Not much later, we too acquired our first TV set. Like my uncle’s, ours was a Siera.

In those days, transmission breakdowns were a common occurrence, and we frequently saw a graphic with these words: “We apologise for this breakdown. Normal service will resume as soon as possible.”

Photo of me (in singlet), my parents and my younger brother in front of our first TV set

Let’ see now. What are the some of the favourite programmes that I can recall from those days.

 I think the most popular programmes with us boys would be the cowboy Westerns. The two most popular series were Bonanza and The Big Valley. These two shows had some similarities. Both centred around families with 3 brothers and good-looking male stars. Lee Majors was the heart throb from Big Valley whilst Bonanza had their Michael Landon. Bonanza had its patriarch in the person of Lorne Greene whilst The Big Valley had its matriarch, Barbara Stanwyck. Other cowboy shows I enjoyed were Have Gun Will Travel, Maverick and Gunsmoke.

The children’s favourites were cartoons and animal shows. We loved those cartoon characters like Tom and Jerry, Daffy Duck, Woody Woodpecker, Huckleberry Hound, Bugs Bunny and so on. Of course there was also the Walt Disney show. When my children were small, I used to buy some VCDs of these old cartoons for them to watch. Somehow, I felt they were more wholesome compared to the modern cartoons. As for the animal shows, I can remember three. They are Flipper, Lassie and Rin Tin Tin.

Then of course there were the detective/crime series. The earliest ones I can recall were Everglades and Sea Hunt which starred Lloyd Bridges. Later ones included Starsky and Hutch, Streets of San Francisco which starred Michael Douglas. The most popular one was Hawaii Five-O, which starred Jack Lord. It had a very catchy title tune played by the Ventures. Like the tune from Bonanza, it became a big hit in the pop music charts.

Speaking of detective/crime TV shows, there is one from the black and white era that I think even the teenagers of today might know. It starred the legendary Bruce Lee in the supporting role of martial arts experts Kato. The show of course was The Green Hornet. Although in each episode, our real hero of the show only got to display his lightning-fast moves for hardly one minute, it was the highlight for us. I remember one particular episode where he got to fight a karate expert. In their first encounter, the bad guy sneaked up on him, bashed him up and slammed him into a huge dust bin. His ego was thoroughly bruised. But of course, at the end of the show we got to savour their showdown where he had his chance to vindicate himself.

We even had a spy series called The Man from U.N.C.L.E. starring Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo and the handsome-as-devil David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin. There was another one that I think many of you younger readers will know. Can you guess the title? I give you a hint. Not longer ago it was made into a successful movie starring Tom Cruise. Yes, it’s Mission Impossible.

But, not all the good shows were from U.S. The British gave us the ever popular The Saint starring the debonair Roger Moore as Simon Templar.

TV is incomplete without comedies and sitcoms. I Love Lucy, The Jack Benny Show, The Flying Nun which starred the evergreen Sally Field, Mr Ed the Talking Horse, Green Acres, Bewitched were some of the familiar titles. There was an interesting time travel series called It’s About Time. But my favourite was Get Smart. And then of course there were the hilarious Three Stooges and Little Rascals.

I have always enjoyed legal dramas. Back then the most famous lawyer was Perry Mason. Others included The Defenders and Owen Marshall. I liked Owen Marshall because the stories usually involved controversial issues. For example, there was one episode where the court had to decide whether or not to force a mentally-retarded girl who had been raped to undergo an abortion. Such dramas helped me in my General Paper.

We also had Scifi. You must have heard of Star Trek. The original series was shown in black and white and the main character, Captain James Kirk was played by William Shatner. Two other famous ones which were partly Scifi and partly supernatural, psychological thrillers were The Outer Limits and Twilight Zone.

There were lots more; and I have not even talked about the Chinese programmes on Channel 8. Heard of Wang Sar and Yeh Fong? But I must mention The Samurai which was popular not only in Asia but in the west as well. The hero was one Shintaro. Try to picture him doing battle with ninjas and their deadly star-shaped darts.

So if you young readers think that your parents’ days were ‘dullsville’, think again. Even though we did not have pc, or internet, there were lots of good TV shows to keep us entertained. And I should add that ‘parental guidance’ was not necessary then because most of the shows were far less violent and sexual in content.

Hiroshima 28

There's an article in this morning's Straits Times Life section of an interview with veteran Hong Kong director Ann Hui. She is well-known for movies like Boat People (1982), Summer Snow (1995). Both were powerful movies with a social message - the first about the plight of Vietnamese refugees and the second about a 40-year old housewife who had to take care of her Alzheimer's-afflicted father-in-law.

If, like me, you enjoy this genre of movies, I would recommend you an even older one by the title of Hiroshima 28 (广岛28）also starring Josephine Siao Fong Fong. The story is about a young Japanese woman who contracted the deadly leukemia arising from the effects of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima 28 years after the event.

The show was directed by Lung Kong (龙刚 - hope I got that right). Those who are old enough to have enjoyed the Cantonese black and white movies of the 50s and 60s may recognize this name. He was a contemporary of people like Patrick Tse Yin and Cheong Yin Choi, and often acted as a baddie. I remember one very dramatic scene of him acting as a drug addict but unfortunately cannot recall the name of the show.

He was probably inspired by the story behind the Hiroshima Peace Crane


Photo of Hiroshima Peace Crane courtesy of Kamoda.

I took this picture in December 1985 at a place called Ura Bandai, near Lake Inawashiro in Northern Honshu, Japan.

Related story: To The Movies