Late 1940s · Organ and poetry, late evening

Nocturne

Quentin Maclean at the console, J. Frank Willis reading, and nothing else at all

Quentin Maclean came from the Trocadero in London to Shea’s Hippodrome in Toronto and spent the rest of his life as the finest theatre organist in the country. Willis read. That was the entire programme. It survives as a reminder that radio once had room for a form with no audience research behind it, no sponsor and no hook — half an hour of organ and poetry, late, for whoever was still awake.

1 recording · Toronto

Single surviving broadcast; Quentin Maclean at the organ, J. Frank Willis reading. Recording held by the Internet Archive.