"Now about Murphy Radio, I will try to put all my memories in a story for you though as you have gathered it was a fairly long time ago.

 

I left the Welwyn Garden Secondary School (now the Lemsford Grammar School) in 1947 and started at Murphy's after the summer break in the accounts department as a clerk, not a very onerous position. I can't remember how long that lasted but I eventually moved to the Hire Purchase dept, run at that time by Mr G. Thomas, and stayed there for about a year, I think. My next move was into Wages where I was trained as a Burroughs Welcome Comptometor Operator working with two other ladies and stayed there until leaving in 1950/51. My time there was fairly happy and I could ride to and from work on a bicycle, a shed was provided in the back yard of the factory for the safety of vehicles. Lunch was provided in the canteen for which we had to queue and sit at communal tables, I think we had to buy tickets for that but not certain. However my memories of the canteen were possibly somewhat different from most employees because that was where I enjoyed the rehearsals on a Monday evening of the Murphollies, which I joined fairly soon after starting work, with the idea of helping in the background on costumes and stage. I moved from that fairly soon to become part of the dancing/singing group and eventually ended up as one of the soloists, singing 'pop' music of the times and added ballads (such as Danny Boy) in my own 'spot'.

 

At that time the Murphollies was run by Dickie Wallace with the help of a group of murphyites... names I remember are Dorian Johns and Bert Thomas (also a singer), Don Carter - another musician, Viv Brown a pianist.  Dave Pickering, of the Funeral Services family, was a good friend of Dickies, who suffered at that time with MS I think and needed some help getting around. Dickie played the electric guitar, particularly in the Hawaiian scene we performed with the girls dancing in grass skirts and me singing the War Chant , which took a bit of learning I can tell you (in Hawaiian). I didn't always get it right at first , although I don't suppose anybody knew!! We also did a concert at the Community Centre at Woodhall which included a cowboy medley from a film of the time, "You can't get a Man with a Gun" was the song. I also remember performing a scene from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves with me as Snow White and two of the chorus on their knees as dwarves.  Our group of Amateur Professionals used to go around Herts, mostly on weekends, to entertain at village halls and to Hospitals or Homes that knew about Dickies talents as an entrepreneur.

 

Going back a bit in the time scale the staff were offered the chance of buying a cabinet TV at a good price, and my mother jumped at the chance as we would not have been able to buy one at prices of those times. So we had a very nice nine inch screen set in a quality cabinet with doors to cover the screen when not in use, a single ten inch speaker below and the whole unit was about three feet tall approximately and it came in time for us to watch the Queens wedding day, also my birthday, 20.11.1947. You probably have that among your pictures and ads of Murphy stock. [I think Isabella is referring to model V116, a sketch from a Murphy dealer's book is shown at the end of the page - Webmaster]

 

Another topic which may be of interest  is the annual Sports Day held by Murphys every year, with of course, a Beauty or Personality Competition. The girls all had to be "persuaded" to enter, and in 1949 Dickie Attenborough presented the prize, not to me, I came second,- mainly as a personality not being a great beauty, but did get to dance with him. The Murphollies were still going when I left in 1950/1 and I don't know what happened after that as I moved away from WGC. As you may have gathered I now live in Australia, in Canberra.

All the best and let me know how you get on .By the way my name is now Isabella and as I am married, Austin nee Marie Harris.

 

Yours with interest, Isabella".

 

Webmaster's Note:  The television Isabella refers to must have been the model V116, as it was the only model with doors that had been marketed by Murphy up to and including 1947.  I imagine the average family of the time would have certainly appreciated any discount - the full retail price of the V116 was £80.0.0 plus Purchase Tax.

 

All Material Copyright Isabella Austin and classicwireless.co.uk