Sue-On's initiation into the television production process was sort
of a long distance experience. I had worked a variety of radio and televison
shows with the Country
Gentlemen since 1962. In the winter of '65-'66 Sue-On's parents decided
that it would be best for her to continue her schooling in Winnipeg, where
she could be more fully immersed in Chinese culture. Here she was enrolled
in Miles McIntyre High School, lived with relatives and paid for her keep
by working nights and weekends at the New Canton Restaurant in Chinatown.
Undaunted by this imposed separation we kept in touch with daily letters,
weekend visits, and nightly telephone calls until the end of the school
year in June. Technology at CKX Studios had advance. They now were able
to record TV shows on tape, utilizing a giant machine that covered most
of a wall, so they were able to time-shift our shows so that they could
be seen at a later date in glorious black and white. In many ways this
was a welcome change as performing daily live shows in those days could
be quite stressful. On the negative side, however, the station found that
they could cut costs by showing the same shows over and over, until we
became so frustrated and embarassed by endless reruns that we just stopped
doing the show. Our daily noon show was taped during evenings on weekdays
but not even this important routine could separate the young lovers. Invariably,
in the middle of an important recording sequence, there would be a call
from the deck and I would bound up to the elevated control room to take
a call from Winnipeg. Although the band and television crew occasionally
grumbled, they were remarkably tolerant and understanding -- one of many
examples of how friends made our 2 1/2 year courtship possible.
Remarkably, within two years, Sue-On was actually on that same set
-- and had become the featured singer with our band which by then I had
renamed The Western Union - a name actually inspired by a Zane Grey novel.
In the early shows Sue-On made use of a Hohner keyboard which we had added
to the band -- she made good use of her years of piano lessons -- combined
with whatever knowledge of chording by ear that I could pass on to her.
Later when we trimmed our numbers down to a trio again to fit on some of
the pub stages, we had more need of a backbeat to cut through the crowd
noise. By this time we had visited the old Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville
where they were finally allowing an abbreviated stand-up drum kit. So,
with this as inspiration it was back to the wholesale catalogues from which
we ordered a snare, stand, high hat and a variety of zildjan cybals. We
then listened to what drummers appeared to be doing on record and... Shazam...
we now had what was probably the world's only Chinese girl, singing stand-up,
drummer in a country band.
The early shows were fun to do and opened up quite a few other doors
for us at the time. More and more, we were able to move from doing pub
dates and on to the larger audiences found in arenas, halls, military bases,
Winnipeg venues and summer tours. CKX started to put more time and money
into the shows so that there was a marked improvement in the sets, production,
announcing, guests, etc.
Over the years we have worked quite a variety of television shows
and many of them we have stored in our extensive audio and video tape archives
- a great memento.
Hillman TV and Radio Appearances
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Co-Op Neighbour Nights and Jamborees
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Daily Noon Shows
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Manitoba Exhibition Remotes
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The Country Gentlemen Ranch House
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The Western Union weekly show
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Guest Ranch
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Featured entertainers in Manitoba political rallies
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Russ Gurr Specials
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The first live colour broadcast from the CKX studios
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CKX-TV Anniversary Specials
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Telethons: Manitoba and Saskatchewan
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CBC National coverage on our large "Indie" catalogue
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Numerous Opry North live performances on national network
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Winnipeg and national coverage on our winning of the Entertainers of
the Year Award
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Performers and presenters in the MACA Country Music Awards shows
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Canada's First Video Album
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CBC Network TV shows culled from Country Music Week performances
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A Boggy Creek Mountain Music special where we had Dick Damron &
Family Brown as our guests
-
A Brandon Tonight Show with Colonel Alex Matheson in the Johnny Carson
seat
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Bill and Sue-On Hillman TV specials where we featured songs from our
On Tour In England album
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A variety of radio AM and FM shows on local, network on Canada, US,
UK and European stations
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Performed "Lady Luck" on Saturday Night Wrestling
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A twice weekly show on CKLQ where we featured shows from our collection
of Classic Radio dramas & comedies
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A daily morning show on FM radio
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Television and radio commercials for hotels, fairs, car dealers, restaurants,
grain companies, chemical companies, etc.
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Countless interviews on CBC, CKX, CKLQ, CKDM, and stations across Canada
during our summer tours
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BBC England half hour interview and spot on the BBC Night News
