Ron Robinson looks back

Oct 30, 2017 News

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– Freddie Kissoon chats with a cultural icon at the Demerara Cricket Club

FK – How many years have you chalked up in broadcasting and theatre?
RR – Sixty-one years in theatre and 52 years in broadcasting.
FK – Shivnarine Chanderpaul achieved twenty years of fantastic results in cricket and has an important street named after him. Yet nothing is named after a cultural icon like you. What are your thoughts?
RR– Culture and the arts have never been assigned priority in this country. I think that explains your question. Just take a look at the state of the Cultural Centre. Actually, culture is a victim of politics. President Burnham’s government built the Centre, another government wants to de-Burnhamise it, so the Centre becomes a victim.
FK– Your achievements are fantastic. My generation knows about you. Once there is the theatre and broadcasting, your name emerges graphically. Something ought to be named after you. I would suggest the Theatre Guild be given the title, Ron Robinson Theatre. I hope after the publication of this interview, we can see some movement there.
RR– Well, I will not suggest anything be named after me. It is for others to do so. When Mr. Hamilton Green was Mayor, he decided that a part of Hadfield Street where I was born be named after me. I heard nothing further up to this day.
FK– I am in my sixties and any Guyanese who lived in Guyana through the sixties and seventies will know Ron Robinson, the man who woke you up every morning with his music on the programme, “Good Morning Guyana.”
RR– Oh, yes, those were great moments in my life. I actually did a morning item on another radio, BGBS called “Beat the Clock.” then Rafiq Khan brought me over to the government owned station to do, “Good Morning Guyana.”
FK– Are there nostalgic feelings for that era?
RR– I want to say this. I believe our greatest period was the 60s and 70s. Earlier in the interview, you asked me if I want to talk about anything in the 21st century. No. I want to reflect on the 60s and 70s. I reminisce about life back then all the time. It is so great to sit and chat with a friend from that era; someone like Vic Insanally comes to mind.
FK– Compare that era and what we have now.

RR– Oh, there can be no comparison. Guyana and life were better then. Look, in that period, there was a greater appreciation for everything – the arts, literature, people. Younger people respected the older folks. Guyana today is uncontrollable.
FK– I want to talk about politics. Someone like you with your phenomenal annual satirical performance, “The Link Show” would have been influential in Guyana thus the politicians would look at you.
RR– Yes. Advisor to President Burnham, Elvin McDavid, took umbrage to being referred to a koala bear in the show during Burnham’s visit to Australia. McDavid was mad and he decided to pull the plug on the performance. I travelled to the Belfield Residence to speak to Burnham. The President said “The Link Show” will stop, if in any show there is no satirical mocking of Forbes Burnham, because it would mean Forbes Burnham Government did nothing worthy of mention for the entire year.
Burnham said he will look at the show for the following year and if there is no laughing at Forbes Burnham, then and only then would “The Link Show” be in trouble. That was the end of McDavid’s threat.
FK– Any other situation involving politics?
RR– I was offered the job of Minister of Culture in the seventies. When I refused it, President Burnham said he knew I would.
FK– Why you refused?
RR– I was just not interested in that kind of life. My life was the Arts and broadcasting
FK– After six decades in theatre and broadcasting, are you a wealthy person?
RR– No, not at all. I had a chance in 1969 to make money when I was offered a great job with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. I became the first Black employee of that bank. I returned to Guyana to pursue what I loved.
FK– Which play did you like best that you acted in?
RR– “Old Story Time” followed by “Driving Miss Daisy”
FK– This is funny now; I can’t help laughing. But I will still ask. I heard in your superb days, you were a ladies’ man
RR– Can’t say I refused all the offers that came my way.
FK– Anything, apart of the interview, you insist we must carry?
RR– Please mention that I respect Vic Insanally who was very good to me.
FK– One of the things I liked about you, when I first met you, is your lack of class elitism.
RR– I got that from my mother. She drove the concept of equality into me.
FK– Any regrets
RR– Yes, I wish I was still married to my first wife. I regret that part of my life badly.

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