THE PASSING PARADE. No. 1

A random series on experiences and conversations in my journalism career. All the people involved were spoken to face-to-face in interviews but some extra material by way of background may have been added to round out the experience, especially when looking back a considerable number of years.


JAMES A MICHENER


It was one of those moments when opportunity jumped out of the pages of a newspaper. All newspaper offices hold exchange copies of other publications whether locally, nationally or internationally. Often on slow news days a perusal of other newspapers could provide an idea for a local angle to be developed.

On this occasion, in early 1976, it was a brief mention that James A. Michener would be returning to New Zealand as part of the American bi-centennial celebrations during which he would be giving some public lectures, mainly in Auckland and Wellington that caught the eye. But there was also a reference that he hoped to do some travel in the South Island.


As a young general reporter on The Southland Times, in my third year on the job, I recognised it might be worthwhile contacting the Department of Internal Affairs, the government organisation hosting the legendary writer. So I sent off a letter, duly receiving a reply that Michener would be in Invercargill and would be available for a chat.


Never had so much preparation been done for an interview. My first contact with the Michener method had been his book The Drifters which struck a chord, as it would for many who grew up through those memorable 1960s. I had also most recently completed Centennial, parts of Rascals Paradise, and had consumed The Fires of Spring, The Bridges at Toko-ri, The Bridge at Andau, Kent State: What Happened and Why and A Michener Miscellany.


In most instances these were not small books but they had a captivating quality that got right inside the subject matter.


So the moment arrived, at Invercargill's Kelvin Hotel, right next door to The Southland Times as it happens. Introductions were duly made and the folder was opened with a set of questions laid out. First things first, what on Earth had made him come to Invercargill? Having been born and bred in Southland there was an awareness that not a lot of interesting people tended to visit.


However, it turned out that during his youth when studying in Scotland on a scholarship, Michener had visited a town on the west coast of Scotland known as Oban, and he wanted to visit the other Oban that he was aware of, on Stewart Island, across Foveaux Strait from Bluff, just to the south of Invercargill.


"I'd sooner come to Invercargill than go to a tourist spot. It's not majestic, or a great centre, but I have always been interested in it," he said. "I'm a trained observer. I love the world, and I have an affinity for what is going on in it."


But with the niceties aside, it was into his writing and its development. His experience in naval aviation with the US Navy in World War Two first exposed him to the South Pacific and its stories, most notably represented through South Pacific which became a top flight Rogers and Hammerstein musical and film.


That was followed a semi-biographical novel titled The Fires of Spring. Hawaii became another movie from his books and then he spread his wings with books like Caravans and The Source.

And then, of course, The Drifters.


"Pamplona was where it all started. My wife and I would go there and sit in a public square for a while and then young kids would find out who I was and start talking to me and firing questions at me. We would talk and argue over points. I learned while I was talking with these youths."


From that he developed the plot line of a story which caught the spirit of the youth of the age, unsettled and revolutionary as it may have been but also questioning and enquiring, an aspect that Michener appreciated – it was his own modus operandi.


Michener was also a patriot and at the time in the post-Watergate years he commented that while the US had enormous opportunities to accomplish good she contained within herself the seeds of her own destruction.


"This is more true now than when I wrote it. The day could well come when Japan could exist as a homogenous nation while the United States could have blown apart into four or five regions. [He wasn't far off the mark, replace Japan with China and you see his point.]


"We in the United States are a disparate society, with different religions and races. If everything goes bad we could fall apart," he said.


There were parallels in his observations of those days with modern America. He described the experience of Watergate which was notable for, as he put it, 'the actions of unelected men around the President, Richard Nixon' as being 'pretty frightening in a democracy'.


He hadn't been impressed by the influx of students into journalism courses as a result of it – that was leading to a lot of scandal-mongering as everyone tried to emulate Woodward and Bernstein, the journalists who broke the Watergate break-in.


His observations about a potential role for New Zealand in the future of the world were also interesting.


Keeping in mind the alarming rate at which the world population was increasing, he said Australia and New Zealand would have to deal in their own ways with the burgeoning population in Asia.


"It may be New Zealand's destiny to provide a surplus of educated people to emigrate overseas and pass on what they have learned," he said. New Zealand had a very good education system which produced an 'extraordinary' number of graduates who were literate compared to the US where people were leaving college unable to read or write.


Sadly our time was over at that point. Michener's wife Mari, and his Dept. Of Internal Affairs minder were conscious of the fact he had not long before suffered a heart attack and was on a prescribed programme which meant he had used up his time and would have to conclude the interview.




But the memory, as they say, lingers on. It was easy to understand why Michener had been able to relate to people of all ages in going about his work. His reasoned responses to questions, his friendliness and his basic class towards a young journalist setting out on the road was an example that has never been forgotten. Scouring through yesterday's newspapers from other regions had proven its worth yet again.

Payback for a miserable summer

It might be something of a payback from the miserable November, December, January, February and early March that we endured, but you would have to say the last month has been incredible weather.

Top of the list in value was a few days spent in the far south visiting Queenstown, Gore, Mataura, Invercargill and driving back through Central via Raes Junction.

Not a drop of rain to be felt, temperatures warm and Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu at their colourful best.

And then returning to the north, the welcome blast of humidity embraces you like a familiar blanket as you walk out of the airport.

But a few days in Mount Maunganui was just as pleasant although disappointing to see specks of oil still obvious on the beach from the wreck of the Rena on Astrolab Reef.

Here's hoping the Indian summer lingers a little longer.

The Great Kiwi rip-off

Another holiday period of the great New Zealand rip-off has been completed.

Yes, the now all-embracing holiday surcharge at cafes and restaurants throughout the land.

What a miserable tax on the general public the surcharges have become.

They are a cop out on the part of owners and it is well worth hunting out establishments who refuse to jump on the gravy train (pun deliberate). There are plenty of them out there and they are deserving of support.

Costs involved in trading on public holidays should be built into charges made during the rest of the year and any half-decent employer should ponder that when claiming staff on the job on public holidays need to be paid. Of course, they do, but those charges should be built into year-round trading instead of being foisted on the long-suffering Kiwi public.

A few cents spread over the year soon builds up.

The other option for these traders is not to trade on public holidays at all. They can't have it both ways.

As it stands the surcharge is a complete consumer rip-off and the sooner the greedies are targeted the better.

Lessons in History from John Key

So there we were. Basking in yet another Governmental meltdown and the Prime Minister John Key was saying we didn't need a Commission of Inquiry. We should all put the Nick Smith crisis behind us and move on.

Forget about the prospective embarrassment for his Government and the way in which a supposedly intelligent minister over-rode advice and the Cabinet Manual.

Forget about the balls-ups which seem to flow regularly from the Accident Compensation Commission? (There are times when it does seem appropriately named when so many 'accidents' emanate from it).

Not likely. But how would the world have advanced with the Keysian (the play on words is deliberate in these economically troubled times) notion that such matters should be forgotten about so that everyone could get on with their lives? (Notice how I managed to avoid the use of 'moving forward' that peculiar choice of words which seems to have forgotten the existence of words like in the 'future').

Never mind that's another blog.

But imagine Key on the steps of the Nuremburg Court House at the end of World War Two?

"Yes, there have been 50 million deaths, and we are very sorry about that, but that's behind us now, it's time to look ahead and strive for a better world.

"There's little point in raking over old coals."

Or, in Phnom Penh, after the uncovering of Pol Pot's evil in Cambodia?

"Well there have been millions displaced, perhaps even murdered. But really we should put all that behind us now. Kampuchea, er sorry, Cambodia has such a rich history it will rise again.

"Now, about those piles of skeletons over there."

Or even New York on September 11, 2001, or September 12 if you lived in New Zealand?

"Well yes, there has been some inconvenience created in the downtown area of New York, and Wall Street will be out of action for a few days, but really, once the dust has settled I am sure we can begin to resume normal lives and not look to waste billions of dollars in attempting to sort out the perpetrators of these deeds."

Perhaps the PM thinks he won such an overwhelming mandate from the NZ public on the need to disregard the Cabinet Manual, or in a worst case scenario - plain commonsense, that he can adopt the Churchillian philosophy of history treating him well because he intends to write, or rewrite, the history.

Er sorry, Winston Churchill he ain't and in a second term only a month or two old, his attempts to put the present behind him could actually result in the past outrunning the future.

SAD isn't the word for it

Maybe it's been due to the abysmally unseasonal weather to have hit Auckland, New Zealand over the Christmas-New Year holiday break. This is the time when living in the southern hemisphere is supposed to be all about living outside, getting some overdue sunrays, although not too many of them, on the body and reviving yourself for the year ahead.

In the instance of 2011-12 it was about finally getting over the heights associated with New Zealand regaining the Rugby World Cup – something the 'stadium of four million' had been preoccupied with for 24 years. While that was successfully achieved, it was not made any easier by the Cup final against France being replayed persistently on SKY Television's Rugby Channel, Auckland, and much of the North Island, lived under a permanent rain cloud which shows no sign of abating before March. And that's according to the forecasters who, it has to be said, do not hold any records for accuracy.

That left time for scouring the internet to catch up on some overdue reading of happenings around the world. With this in mind it was with disappointment that another leader in terms of his comprehension and presentation of sport beyond the result absented himself from the mainstream media. George Vecsey had a long and distinguished record of service with the New York Times. In that time he penned one of the great sports autobiographies on Martina Navratilova and among other books recorded a year of action in A Year in the Sun. Vecsey was different from your usual American columnist, he wasn't tied to American sports. He carved a name for himself in writing about football, or soccer, while his Postcards from the various Olympic Games he attended always provided a fascinating insight into activities and athletes not immediately obvious to the beat writers or the cheerleaders providing the television coverage. Vecsey will not be lost, however. He has joined the blogosphere and his material will be available at georgevecsey.com. It is well worth bookmarking right away.

Vecsey's switch has encapsulated a significant change in the literary world, and that is in the widest sense of the words. Another star who has emerged on the internet has to be Dave Zirin. He writes for The Nation in the US but also has his own website, edgeofsports.com. At a time when right wing politics have reached extreme levels in the US, Zirin's dialogues are a breath of fresh air and reason at time when both are in danger of swamping the great unwashed.

Dumbing down of newspapers and the loss of experienced journalists across the board was never more apparent than during the election coverage in New Zealand in 2011. Inexperienced reporters were easily side-tracked by media minders resulting in coverage being confined to flim-flam items and more akin to the society pages of weekend rags than actually providing anything of substance for voters to ponder in the most important event of the triennium. Little wonder that the voter turnout was the lowest since the 1880s. But it showed that if you make political coverage lightweight enough, and apologies for seriously mangling the message from Field of Dreams ("If you build it, they will come"), if you don't do it, they won't care. The consequences of indifference for any democracy are horrendous but sadly that is what is happening in New Zealand. But all is not lost, at least if you have access to the internet. NZ Politics Daily will go a long way towards filling the void the newspapers no longer care about, even moreso in the absence of NZPA.

However, it is not only newspapers. The publishing industry in itself is still attempting to come to grips with the advances of technology. The obvious demise of the heavyweight book-selling chains did not help but showed the appalling mismanagement has had severe consequences for the advance of knowledge, especially at the expense of the local economy. Why would you pay the exorbitant rates for books as these chains were charging when you could do so much better by buying cheaper, and faster, from overseas? Now publishers want the government to add GST to books purchased overseas as a form of disincentive to following the practice. Fat chance, especially as the number of electronic readers grow.

The miserable weather did nothing to change the view that commercial television has any redeeming virtues. An accurate description of what it has to offer is impossible unfortunately. Any attempt to watch it tends to coincide with lengthy advertising breaks or reality shows. And when the quest is for information in news programmes, it is back to the lowest common denominator. As for commercial radio...dear oh dear.

But what, if you think this is all doom and gloom, there is a reason. It may have to do with 'seasonal affective disorder'. This is exactly as it sounds, SAD, except it is usually something associated with winter rather than summer. But then again, that may say it all.

Fred the Needle tells his story

New Zealand rugby literature had always had a gap in it – until now.


The country's most successful coach of the All Blacks Fred Allen, his 100 percent record is almost Bradmanesque – the only reason it doesn't match that description is that his time at the helm was much shorter than the great Aussie batsman - has finally committed his life story to print.

Fred the Needle by Alan Sayers and Les Watkins. Published by Hachette New Zealand.

But in many ways his influence, on the game especially, was as significant as that of Bradman in cricket.

Allen, whose own playing career was marked by the spark of brilliance he injected as a lively and constructive first five-eighths, had the All Blacks from 1966-68 and, to the regret of many, decided to forsake a job he must surely have loved because of the politics of the Kremlinesque New Zealand Rugby Union of his day.

Allen did things differently, like allowing top-flight sports journalist of his day Alex Veysey into one of his team talks during a tour of Australia. Allen had thought it was only for background but somewhere along the way the wires got crossed and Veysey filed the story for the next day.

Allen's team talks were regarded as well worthy of hearing but the alickadoos back in the Huddart Parker building in downtown Wellington were unimpressed.

Sharing Allen's style with the world wasn't deemed appropriate. So rather than wait to be shot down, especially after he had refused to accede to the NZRU's request not to take Colin Meads, Ken Gray and Bruce McLeod on the famous 1967 tour to England, he resigned.

Normally it might not have mannered and the New Zealand rugby goliath would have rattled on. But New Zealand, in their unbeaten state, were shaping for a crack at South Africa in 1970, and a chance to finally win a Test series in the Republic.

However, Allen was not going to be the coach and to the eternal regret of his players, and the New Zealand public he wasn't at the helm when the tour occurred with the usual result.

All is told in full in his autobiography, penned by Alan Sayers and Les Watkins.

The great coach also talked about his desire to rid New Zealand rugby of the stodgy 10-man game which was almost strangling all who embraced it – a dreadful form of kick to touch, lineout, kick to touch, lineout, all the way down the sideline until reaching ground close to the line and pressuring the opposition into a mistake and scoring a try.

Allen had played his rugby in the spirited days after the end of World War Two with the famous Kiwis team which toured Britain, France and Germany to win a special place in rugby's annals for their celebration of life in rugby, freed from the restraints of conflict.

He wanted his team in 1967 to play similarly – and they did, unleashing a 15-man game which great Lions coach Carwyn James said later had transformed the game forever. James, four years later would coach the British and Irish Lions to their only series victory in New Zealand.

Because of his ability to inspire, there are many stories in his book that have not been published previously and they provide a sometimes emotional understanding of the forces that made him. His military service, his tough upbringing and his frustration on the 1949 tour to South Africa where New Zealand lost 0-4 are all part of the fabric of his life and have been faithfully recorded in a book which ensures his example will never be lost.

When placed alongside the earlier book written in partnership with TP McLean, Fred Allen on Rugby – more of a coaching book, the Allen method is well and truly captured for posterity.

Conquerors of Time goes e-book

Conquerors of Time has become available as an e-book and is available at the link below.

http://www.amazon.com/Conquerors-of-Time-ebook/dp/B004TVO7S2

You don't have to have an e-book to read it as you can download a reader for your home computer, it's called Kindle for PC, if you do a web search.

Remember the review comments for the book:

1: Roberto Quercetani's Review of Conquerors of Time (Translation)

"In these days of hustle and bustle there is an element of great joy in seeing a book dedicated to great middle distance athletes of over 70 years ago, especially one that has on it’s cover a great picture of Luigi Beccali and Jack Lovelock in perfect unison at the head of the pack at the Universiade of Turin in 1933.

"This was an indeed a great era, one during which the Italian equalled the world record of 3’49’’2 in the 1500 events.

"One could think that the efforts of those athletes pales into insignificance when compared to those of today and that their achievements should be just an obsolete memory, but in sport as in life, every generation is judged by its achievements and this book pays tribute to great athletic achievements of the day.

"Lynn McConnell from New Zealand is a historic journalist who has a strong attraction to the era and to the small group of middle distance runners that dominated the 1500m/one mile events between 1932 and 1936.

"Jack Lovelock, a New Zealander, is the principle subject of the study as the era culminated in his victory in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games and a world record of 3’47”8 ahead of the American Glenn Cunningham and our own Beccali.

"All the great races of the period are analysed with great attention to detail starting with Beccali’s victory in the Los Angeles games of 1932. The author has travelled the world and has contacted the descendants of his ‘heroes’ reconstructing in great detail the ‘entourage’ in which they lived and operated.

"To the most common names are added those of other great athletes of the age such as the Americans Bill Bonthron and Gene Venzke and the Englishmen Sydney Woodersoon and Jerry Cornes. The entire group is carefully dissected in splendid detail by the author.

"The men who ran in those days did so purely for enjoyment and National pride, but in doing so created history and in many cases formed great friendships that lasted for many years.

"Lovelock, who died tragically under a train in the New York Metro, is one of the athletes who have attracted the curiosity of historians - Of the books dedicated to him this is the most profound."

Athletics Weekly, Jan 21, 2010:

"Lynn McConnell brings alive a golden era in middle-distance running that few people today were around to witness. Conquerors of Time is the story of the race to win the 1936 Olympic 1500m title – a classic confrontation won by Jack Lovelock of New Zealand.

"The cast of athletes during the period was a who's who of milers. In addition to Lovelock, characters included: Glenn Cunningham, the world mile record holder from the United States; Luigi Beccali, the Italian who had won the 1932 Olympic 1500m gold; Jerry Cornes, the British runner-up in 1932; and Sydney Wooderson, the bespectacled hero of British athletics who would go on to break the world mile record in 1937.

"McConnell's book charts the progress of these runners, plus others, from the 1932 Games in Los Angeles to the Berlin Olympics itself. It also looks at what happened to them after their athletics careers were over.

"Such was the anticipation before the race in Berlin, the start was delayed slightly to allow Adolf Hitler to take his seat. The crowd was not disappointed either, as the race was won in style by Lovelock in a world record time.

"This is a terrifically researched book and a glowing endorsement has also been given by former AW editor Mel Whatman, who recently reviewed the book in Athletics International and wrote:

'Races at these distances are superbly reconstructed by Lynn McConnell, an award winning writer and editor from New Zealand who provides particularly acute insights into the career and personality of his compatriot thanks to reference to Lovelock's diaries.

'The other towering figures of that period are also well drawn and there is much for the enthusiast to savour in this 244-page paperback. It's a terrific, nostalgic story of the fascinating characters who contributed to an enchanting era in miling history.'"

Jamie McKay in The Southland Times, February 26, 2010:

"On a winning note, former Southland Times sports editor Lynn McConnell really has struck gold with his Jack Lovelock book Conquerors Of Time.

"As chronicled last week, the story revolves around the 1932-36 period and looks at the lives of Lovelock and his rivals for gold in the 1500m at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

"His two main rivals were the Italian Luigi Beccali (who won gold at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932) and the superstar American Glenn Cunningham, whom many considered the favourite for Berlin.

"The chapter on Cunningham makes compelling reading. Growing up on a remote farm in Kansas, Cunningham triumphed over terrible childhood burns in 1917 that left one leg shorter than the other and took several years of constant self-massage before he was able to maintain balance, let alone run properly.

"He escaped another childhood brush with death by hanging on to a cow's tail in a snow blizzard (a practice he'd developed during his recovery process to help regain his balance), the family cow getting him home safely to the barn when he would have otherwise perished.

"Then in 1928, as his athletics career was starting to flourish, a high school baseball accident saw him ignore the ongoing pain of several loosened teeth.

"It was only when he undertook a medical for entry into the US Navy at the advent of World War II that the full extent of the injury was realised.

"His teeth were badly abscessed, the dentist saying with all that poison flowing into his system, it was a wonder he could walk during his athletic career, let alone run through the constant pain he'd wrongly associated to his legs.

"For the record, Cunningham finished second to Lovelock in Berlin with Beccali third. Sports historians will thoroughly enjoy Conquerors Of Time."