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Reg performs on his unicycle
Above
Reg tinkering with one of
his early microphones
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Now living quietly at Brighton in Sussex,
Reg Moores has led a varied life – inventor,
entertainer, ice skater and theatrical agent in
‘theatreland’ in London’s Shaftesbury
Avenue. But his main claim to fame is to have
invented the radio microphone in 1947.
A member of Adur Lodge No. 2187,
which meets in Brighton, his Masonic career
was constantly interrupted by being on tour
in different parts of the world, but he has
been in the Craft for 52 years.
The history of radio microphones
predates the Second World War. As Reg,
a life-long amateur radio enthusiast,
explains: “One of the greatest thrills was
with a simple one-valve unit, and high
resistance headphones, listening to police
cars in New York and Philadelphia, and
only using about a three-feet long piece
of wire – and indoors at that!”
It was in his role as entertainer,
particularly at charity ice shows and
exhibitions that the idea came to him to
put ‘voices’ to what were ‘dumb’ shows
using wireless microphones – to get the
spoken word over to the public
announcement system.
“I then set about designing what were
to be super-small transmitters, with what
materials and components could be
obtained, mostly from ex-government
surplus equipment. Many problems
presented themselves, such as the frequency
to be used, modulation and battery life,
remembering that at the time only valves
were available, being long before the advent
of the transistor.”
The final model was the ‘frame’ type,
with the microphone suspended from the
corners of a square metal frame, which can
be seen on old films such as Pathé newsreels,
but in this case the frame was the actual
aerial, with a socket in which could be
placed a ‘whip’ for longer range.
Shortly after the war, Reg contacted the
impresario Tom Arnold’s organisation and
their producer, Gerald Palmer, who thought
that the invention would be a wonderful
idea for musicals on ice, but was concerned
that skaters might have problems using it.
Reg redesigned the unit as a belt in a
demonstration for Palmer at the Brighton
Ice Rink, with television producer Richard
Afton present. Each costume had its own
microphone attached to a specially designed
‘voice’ funnel sewn into the underside of
the costume. A small split was cut into the
costume so that the semi-circular funnel
could catch the voice and direct it to the
microphone.
The musical which was chosen to try
out the new device was Aladdin on Ice, at the
Sports Stadium Ice Rink for its Christmas
show in 1949, an ideal venue to test out the
capabilities and reliability of the system. The
microphones worked perfectly during the
entire run of the pantomime, with no loss
of signals or interference. The radio
microphone was born.
Tom Arnold decided to try out the
microphones again, this time on a major
production of Rose Marie on Ice, with world
skating champion Barbara Anne Scott,
Michael Kirby – partner to the legendary
skater Sonja Henie – and a large supporting
cast and chorus. Reg had to produce and
operate at least six radio microphones for
this show.
However could these wonderful skaters
put over their voices as required while
skating? Tom Arnold decided it was too
risky, so the ‘mikes’ were dropped and
professional ‘dubbers’ employed, including
Shaw Taylor.
However, Reg was still active in his other
roles as a unicyclist, stilt skater, fire eater,
barrel jumper and ice comedian – he had
already made his appearance as a star in
Ice Fantasia for the BBC, the world’s first
televised studio ice show on 8 April 1949.
The radio microphones were presented
to the Science Museum, London in 1972.
These devices are now an accepted part of
entertainment as well as serious programmes
including interviews. In 1959, Bruce
Forsyth adopted one of these devices for
his popular London Palladium Sunday
night programmes. It is difficult to imagine
modern television without them.
But, indefatigable as ever, Reg went on
to the field of molecular spectroscopy, and
one of his nuclear quadrupole resonance
spectrometers was on continuous working
display for many years in the physics section
of the Science Museum.
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