Lynn Foster

Lynn Foster (1914-1985), was a playwright, radio producer and writer, a script editor and television writer. She was the first woman in Australia both to direct and write a major national radio show, this being the serial "Big Sister".

Lynn Foster
Born1914
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died1985 (aged 70–71)
Mosman, New South Wales, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Occupations
  • Playwright
  • radio producer
  • radio writer
  • script editor
  • television writer
Known forBig Sister (radio serial), Number 96

In 1945, she wrote a play called "Lost Generations", to aid in the sale of war bonds, and was given a letter of thanks from Prime Minister Ben Chifley.[1]

Biography

Foster was born in Sydney, Australia in 1914. She wanted to become a playwright. When she was nineteen Foster won second prize in a competition which led to a job offer with the radio station 2UE in Sydney. Slowly she began to develop through short pieces for their channel until 1936 when she was writing scripts for the Broadcasting Service Association with a team that became known as the Macquarie Players in 1938. Foster preferred to work for herself and wrote for many different patrons. Her career progressed through adapting radio scripts from America until 1942 when she became the director of Big Sister. The show held top ratings of the daytime programs during its five-year run and starred Thelma Scott, and Nigel Lovell. When it finished Foster directed Crossroads of Life.

She added a role for a friend, actor Peter Finch. He used his pay to cover the fare to London where his career bloomed. In 1949 Foster followed him and stayed in London, working in radio and television there for twenty years. She returned to Sydney in 1970 and worked on the television show Number 96.[1][2][3][4][5]

Grace Gibson from Texas formed Grace Gibson Productions in 1944 and hired Foster to be the company's first director. The following year Foster wrote Lost Generation and went on to become the representative commercial radio writers who were working to be able to transfer to Actors Equity which has developed into the Writers Guild.[1][2][3][4][5]

She moved to London in 1949.[6][7][8]

During her time in the United Kingdom she wrote The Exiles, described as a cycle of four plays and set in Australia between 1873 and the then present day.[9]

Foster died in Mosman, Sydney in 1985, aged 71.[1][3]

Select Credits

References and sources
  1. The University of Melbourne (29 May 2013). "Foster, Lynn - The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia". Woman. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  2. "AusStage". AusStage. 17 April 1947. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  3. Arneil, Chris (12 February 2013). "Lynn Foster". NFSA. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  4. Moran, A.; Keating, C. (2009). The A to Z of Australian Radio and Television. The A to Z Guide Series. Scarecrow Press. p. 171. ISBN 978-0-8108-7022-2. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  5. Doyle, Maryanne (28 February 2014). "Women leaders in radio". NFSA. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  6. "The WORLD of WOMEN". The Examiner (Tasmania). Vol. CIV, no. 256. Tasmania, Australia. 7 January 1947. p. 5. Retrieved 25 July 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. "One of the greatest television plumbs". The Croydon Advertiser and Surrey County Reporter. 23 January 1959. p. 5.
  8. "Authoress returns to Australia". The Sydney Morning Herald. 27 June 1964. p. 4.
  9. "20:45 – Sunday-Night Theatre presents: The Exiles: 1: The Bird Laughed". BBC Programme Index. 25 January 1959. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
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