Well HERE’s something remarkable, on multiple levels, William Hartnell on record in 1931 (hence why I’m filing it under music even though there is none, cos “film & TV” feels wrong)… a “one-act thriller” first broadcast on the BBC in 1927, then re-recorded four years later. I never knew until literally just a few minutes ago that this was even a thing; I knew he was in films from the early ’30s on, but I’ve never seen any reference to this until now. So that’s remarkable enough, and probably so is the fact that it survives, but, well, so is the fact that it was even made in the first place. Cos… why was it made? Was there a market for this sort of record? Cos I can’t imagine there being much of one somehow, and yet it was clearly a commercial recording, not just something pulled from the BBC archive or some such. I wonder who was buying this sort of thing.
As for the author, well, “Martin Hussingtree” actually turns out to be a place rather than a person… but the person using the name turns out to have been interesting, assuming there wasn’t another “Martin Hussingtree” out there. He appears to have been Oliver Baldwin, son of British PM Stanley Baldwin, and one of his other literary works was a book called Konyetz, which is described thus:
Konyetz is a dystopian science fiction novel written by UK politician and author Oliver Ridsdale Baldwin, who used the pseudonym Martin Hussingtree. Baldwin, the son of British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, adopted his pseudonym from a small village in Worcestershire near the Baldwin family ironworks factory in Wilden. The novel was published in 1924 and reflects Baldwin’s profound experiences during World War One, which transformed him into an avowed socialist.
The title, Konyetz, is Russian for “end” or “termination.” The novel depicts a series of social upheavals leading to the invasion of Britain by a Jewish-Bolshevik conspiracy. This invasion triggers a worldwide future war that culminates in the apocalypse and the end of civilization. The story combines elements of apocalypse, plague, and political turmoil, capturing Baldwin’s disillusionment with contemporary English politics and the global situation.
Baldwin’s novel is summarized by some as a strange yet striking forecast of the end of Western civilization, where a Labour-governed Britain faces bombing and gassing by the invading forces. The novel’s grim depiction of societal collapse and global conflict was undoubtedly influenced by Baldwin’s wartime experiences and his political views, which led him to become a Labour Member of Parliament in 1929.
I don’t know about you, but a dystopian novel about a “Jewish-Bolshevik conspiracy” destroying civilisation doesn’t suggest to me at least that the author of said book might be an “avowed socialist”… and yet Baldwin Jr was, very much, an avowed socialist. Mind you, per his Wiki entry, he also had an unfortunate run-in with Bolsheviks in Armenia during his post WW1, pre-parliamentary career (after which he was jailed in Turkey for spying for the Bolsheviks), so perhaps he was fine with socialism, just not a fan of the Soviets (and/or Jews)? I don’t know.
