Grace Gibson
Grace Isabel Gibson OAM, (17 June 1905 – 10 July 1989), also known as Grace Atchison and Grace Parr was an American Australian radio pioneer and producer.
Biography
Gibson was born in El Paso, Texas in 1905 and finished her schooling in California. She was working in radio in America, as a distributor of Radio programs, when recruited by Alfred Bennett, general manager of Sydney radio station 2GB who was visiting the USA. Together they set up American Radio Transcription Agencies (later Artransa Pty Ltd), which sold American recorded radio programs throughout Australia, and Gibson moved to Sydney, Australia in 1934.
Gibson was on a buying trip in the US in 1941 when Pearl Harbor was attacked and as a result she was prevented from returning to Australia for several years.[1]
She later set up her own company, Grace Gibson Radio Productions Pty Ltd, which became one of the biggest producers of Australian radio drama.[2] Gibson was awarded the Order of Australia in 1987 in recognition of her services to radio in Australia.
References
- ↑ Lane, Richard and National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, 1994, The Golden Age of Australian Radio Drama 1923-1960: A History Through Biography, Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, Vic
- ↑ Murphy, Lynne, 'Gibson, Grace Isabel (1905–1989)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University accessed 5 February 2012
External links
- Website for Grace Gibson Productions
- Read more about Grace Gibson, and listen to an oral history interview done with her on the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's website.
- For more information about women in early radio in Australia visit the National Film and Sound Archive's Women in Early Radio collection.
- Grace Gibson Productions at National Film and Sound Archive.
- Moran, Albert ‘Some beginnings for Australian television’, Continuum: The Australian Journal of Media & Culture, 1991, Vol 4 No 2