PETER DAWSON (Baritone)
DAVID WISE (Violin)
PETER DAWSON is tonight broadcasting from a studio for the first time in his career. He was born of Scottish parentage in Adelaide, South Australia, fifty years ago, came to England when he was twenty, and studied singing under, amongst others, Sir Charles Santley , one of the greatest of a century of British singers. Mr. Dawson then set about making his name by the odd process of changing it. He suddenly became Hector Grant , a Scottish comedian, and toured the circuit of the Moss Empire Theatres. But not for long, for he soon tossed aside the tam o' shanter and buried Mr. Grant. By 1909 he was making his first appearance in opera at Covent Garden Theatre in a season of German opera conducted by Dr. Hans Richter. Since then he has toured and toured again Great Britain, the British Colonies, the Far East and practically the world. There is no more popular artist singing today, and as evidence of that, his gramophone success attests. In 1904 he made his first gramophone record, and he has been recording ever since. The latest figures show that the almost incredible number of ten million records of Peter Dawson 's songs have been Bold throughout the world.
These are distributed over about
150 different items ranging from operatic excerpts to such familiar songs as Father O'Flynn and The Miner's Dream of Home. But part of Mr. Dawson's brilliance is his versatility. He is completely at home on any platform and in any programme.