The Huron Expositor, 1979-12-13, Page 23,r(
ft,41,717irPtt.TO 4,8
m
StAFORTI4 ONTARIO ritiFtspAy DEcgmekii 1919 [Second Section Pages 1A ,8A)
WOW! —18 month old Jeremy Scott was awed son of Don and ChriStine ,Scott of Walton.
- .. by the experience of sitting on Santa's knee , • . : *. (Photo by Oke)
after the parade here Jeremy is the . . .
, . . .
. ,.,
•
THE CHIEF AND HIS FRIENDS—Brad Beuttenmil ler, dressed as a chief
for his role in The Huron Christmas Carol, visits with shepherd Trevor
Fortune and visitor Teddy Sills at Northside United Church's Christmas
concert on Friday. • < (Expositor Photo)
AND SHEPHERDS WATCHED—Jamie Wil bee .
helps brother Jeff adjust his shepherd's hood
backstage before Northsicle United Church's
Sunday School concert on Friday.,
htertattior •-• •
h�re are Canadian stars
Eric Shain thinks Canada has enough •
hockey stars but that "it's time we had more •
stars in the entertainment business,"
Mr. Shain is a country performer from
Western Canada who's playing this week at
the Commercial Hotel. -He's also a Canadian
musician who's taking a crusade for
Canadian entertainment to anybody that will
'Wei to him.
•
The singer at 29 is something of a veteran
in t* music scene. He quitschooL.when he
. was 7 years old and has been on the road
. .
• • ' •
THANKS SANTA—Cheryl Storey, daughter of Junior and Mary Storey of THE SCENE BACKSTAGE—Janice Underwood, dressed in an -
Goderich St. W. was thrilled to get a candy cane from Santa at authentic Woe! and 'linen Lithuanian costume, ornamented with
the toWn hail. . (Expositor Photo) strings of amber beads, helps "Mary", -played by Brenda Pullman,
ever since. First, he was a solo act and then a
sideman in bands for approximately eight .
years,' making the circuit of hotels around
the province.' Two years ago he decided to
become the lead singer and for**, a backup
band of his own.
His concerns about the Canadian
entertainment business include the facli of
promotion of native talent and the fact
recording companies or investors in general,
are afraid to invest in Canadian artists.
He 'said there are *ell over 20 • million
people in the country and about three million
of these people are prospective buyers ; of •
country records: The problem is he thinks
Nashville has brainwashed Canadians and
Canadian musicians. He said if Canadian.
country artists artists do decide to cut a record, they
head south to use the studios and musicians
in Nashville, while there are good recording
studios and plenty of unemployed ' backup
mu sicians right here at home.
NASHVILLE ATTRACTION •
He admits Nashville recording studios
are "old pro's at it" and that it sounds great
if a country a t can say he's been down to
Nashv' s record:
A miffing pop. artists have an easier time
rear ing the Canadian public, Mr. Shain
points ut there are country artists who have
made very successful careers in, Canada,
people like 'Tommy Hunter, the "king of
country in Canada" and Carroll Baker. He
alsci, mentions Anne Murray and Ronnie
Prephet, but adds they went to the U.S. to
make it before becoming stars at home.
Mr. Shain also criticizes Canadian radio
stations for ignoring their own talent. He
said it seems too bad that the Canadian
Radio Television Commission (CRTC) had to
tell disc jockeys to play 33 per cent Canadian
content on their programs,' •
Later this year, the singer is going to take
his first crack at breaking into the country
market with an album. Once the record is
cut, he said he's going to "push" it himself
by going to every radio station he can to try
and persuade disc jockeys to give the record
some .air time. The singer said if .a record
"clicks a little bit then the larger
companies, will jump on you." Ironically,
nest of those larger companies, he admits,
are branch plant operations of American
• owned companies.
If there's one part of Canada where'
entertainers do get recognition and support.
Mr. Shain thinks it's the Maritimes. He
points out it was a Maritime entertainer,
Eddie Eastman of Newfoundland, who was
recently riled Canada's No. 1 country male
• eittertatiper: lie said other Maritime based
entertainers like Harry Hibbs and Roy Payne
have Wide- very successful careers in eastern
Canada. -
STICK WITH IT
Whatever the ' future holds for the
Canadian music business, Eric Shain plans
to "stick with it." He said giving up the
music business now would be like someone
going all through university as a lawyer and
then taking an unskilled labourer's job -he'd
just be throwing away his training.
In case anyone thinks life on the road is
romantic, Eric Shain, said every travelling _
musician wants a home, maybe a• cottage on
a lake somewhere. But if you want to make it
in the music business, "you have to travel,
put up with bad rooms etc." He ;misses
having any kind of a family life, but after 12
years on the road, . he's also 'lured "by that
gypsy feeling." •
In the meantime, -Erie Shain keeps hopingi.,
Canadians, like their American
counterparts, will start backing up their own
entertainers.
By ALICE GIBB
Hilda Payne, Hensall correspondent for
the Huron Expositor and other Huron
County newspapers,' is retiring for the
second time, in 1975 she retired from
Seaforth Community Hospital, after nurs-
ing there for- almost ,20- &esti. This time,
she's retiring from: writing a weekly
column of news and thatch events in the
HenSall community.
' Mrs, Payne, who lives with her husband
Carl outside- of ilensall, on the banks of
Black Creek, came to Canada from
England in 1946 as a war bride. Her
daughter, 10 weeks old at the time, was the
youngest child on board ship, *The Paynes
settled first in St. Thomas, later lived in the
Village of Woodham south*est of Mitchell
and theft moved to Rental!.
She started nursing at the Exeter
hospital in 1954, and three years later
moved to the_Staforth hes.pliall where she
worked in the obstetrics ward, assisting iii
the Operating rem and emergency ward
on oecasiOn.
Commuting from Hensall had its dis-
advantages, and Mrs. Payne said visitors,
would Often come into the hospital and tell
her, "you won't get h9qtetonight," Sinee
shi' had frie-iidt in Sea -forth, getting
stortnstayed WAS Only a minor inconven,
knee,
Although Mrs. Payne will be writing her
last eolunin of Hensall news on Dec. 17,
she's promiSed to keep area- newspapers
posted about events in the comtnunity,
Mrs. Payne, who admits she didn't do
well in composition Or essai-writing as a
student, picked up her writing skills on her
own. She said she -Used to pick up .nevis
written by the late Maude Redden, HenSall
correspondent for many years, to deliver to
the Expositer, and thinks reading these
columns .helped her develop her own style
later on.
•
Despite her lack ofessay-Writing ability,
Mrs. Payne does retail that when she was
12; she and some other friends visited a
phrenologist, The man read the bumps on
her head and predicted she'd be a
world-famous novelist by the age of 18:
"Needleas to say, it didn't Come off," she
said laughingly.
In addition to publication in the Expos-
itor, Mrs. Payne's news is also carried in
the ZuriCh. Exeter and Clintotipapers,
Many years before Hilda Iltt„Yne started
her newspaper " career, the village •of
Bonsai' had its Own papertififOrtittlately„
it didn't prove to be a profit itaking
venture and the publication *as bought out
by Herb Turkheirn bf Zurich. Mr. Turkheim did keep a page inhis piper called
Correspondents have to go fo thenews
• the Hensall Observer however, in honor of
the former paper. Hilda Payne recalls that
Hensall residents were "proud of our
paper" and she feels it's a pity the word
"observer" has been dropped from the
title since the Zurich paper was taken over
by a new owner,
Hilda Payne said some weeks she seems
to be attending meetings every day, but
she usually leaves the writing of her
column to Sunday night and -Monday
morning. Originally she wrote it out in
longhand, but tiled taught herself to touch
type on 'her son's machine and now her
columns arrive at the Expositor neatly
typed.
GO TO THE NEWS
The correspondent has found that she
has to go to the news, rather than the news
coining to her. She said with a few
exceptions, she has to call after the news to
find, out who attended Meetings, about
personal visits, ete. When she decided to
take the column- on, she didn't realize she.
and her husband Would be heading south
for two Months each Winter to be near their
daughter, This has meant even vvhen an
Organization gets into the habit of tilling
her With reports of their itteetingi, they get
•
out of the habit when she's away and. hiVe
to be re contacted in the spring.
Hilda Payne became a correspondent to
earn a little additional spending - money,
since she and her husband were living on
one pension at the time. Now the couple
wants to be free to get away ft.(*) home for
longer periods, so Mrs. Payne has decided
to bring her writing career to an end She
admits she's really enjoyed her years Of
writing the column, but adds with a laugh ,
"people are very fast to point out any
mistakes." '
Over the years, she has added the
Hensall stockyard reports to the column
and news of the Hensall Kinette meetings.
One story which didn't quite, appear the
way she wrote it was the story of a Hensall
.grandmother 'visiting her new graft&
daughter for the first time, When one
paper Was laying out the story, the reboit
for the visit was mixed in with the Hensall .
stockyards report. so the, baby was
described in terms of her price per hundred
weight.
WIDER SCOPE
itt additiOn to personal news and
churclytelated events, Mrs. Payne has
tried to covet news of a wider scope. She
reported the story of a moped accident
which injured two area youngsters, wrote
about' an area farmer's cucumber -growing
business, on_ renovations to the Hensall
town hall and the story of an egg and butter
wagon which made the rounds in the area
M years gone by. •
She said two years ago, when she *as
particularly busy attending local meetings,
she came hotne one night to listen to the
. Qiieen+s Jubilee local address on tele-
vision. Automatically she found herself
with notebook and pencil in hand, taking
down the queen's speech.
Now that her column -writing days are
over, Mrs, Payne plans tO slip into gracious
retirement. She is going to' spend more
time with her music, do some knitting for
The Flower Basket boutique in the Village,
catch up on her reading and in the
%Unifier, continue to spend mOst of her
bine gardening or relaxing in the pool.
After all, it's her first real retirement.
She And her husband can also spend
more time With their married daughter and
only grandchild in California and visiting
their son in London.
Hilda Payne may never have beeethe the
novelist the phretiologiSt predicted, but
she has recorded the community events
HO& Payee which are so important to her neighbours.
$•
1
•