Press News

Budapest, April 19, 2006

In this year, Dial-a-Tale commemorates its 50th anniversary.

"Hallo, hallo children, this is the Dial-a-Tale service!" This announcement was first heard by young listeners on April 15, 1956 – and the service has been existing ever since that time. The first tale (Wife of King Matthew by Emil Kolozsvári Grandpierre) was told by Juci Komlós. At that time, the service cost 60 fillers.
Dial-a-Tale service has always been a special point for the editor. In the fifties and sixties, he managed to win the most famous actors, and “cable tales” were told to children (and grown-ups remembering still their childhood) by outstanding artists like Éva Ruttkai, Iván Darvas, Ferenc Ladányi, Miklós Gábor, and Mari Szemes.
Telephone helps to establish a more intimate relationship between the tale-teller and the listener; children want to have tales told personally to them.
Nowadays, Dénes Liska selects first of all classical folk tales for the program. Even today, stories by Elek Benedek, the Grimm brothers and Andersen are a high priority. In the past fifty years, 10 thousand tales were recorded by Dénes Liska.
However, interest has markedly been declining these days, says the editor. In its golden days, the “cable tale” service was dialed 50 thousand times a month; nowadays, children prefer to entertain themselves with video and DVD.
If you dial the phone number 06-1-3171-888 in these days, you can listen to the tales that were told fifty years ago.
From the archives of the Dial-a-Tale service, a book and CD entitled “Cable Tales” was published in 2000 by Szabad Tér Publishers.