Ten huize van … is a Flemish talk show that first appeared on TV1 (Eén) in 1957.

Each episode, presenter Joos Florquin visited a Famous Fleming or Famous Dutchman and interviewed him in his own home. For three days he installed himself in the home of the person in question, while his camera crew shot footage. Most of the interviewees were from the political or cultural world. The first guest was Gerard Walschap. More than 250 followed. The interviews centered on the interviewees. They were able to talk freely and were only in the picture themselves. In other words, true oral history.

Over the decades, Florquin interviewed an impressive number of people. The interviews were written down afterwards, compiled and published in a series of books. When Florquin died in 1978, the program was also stopped for a long time.

Only in the 1990s did new episodes appear around “At the home of”, this time with Edward De Maesschalck as interviewer (34 episodes). From 2003 Frieda Van Wijck took over the presentation.

An overview of many of the interviewed:

Belpop is a TV program about the Belgian pop scene on Canvas. It refers to belpop, a collective term for music by Belgian groups. Since 2008, each episode deals with one artist, sometimes several artists get the floor. They talk about the past of belpop. Between 2008 and 2020, Luc Janssen did the interviews and voice-over. As of 2023, Bent van Looy took over this task. Also see a review of this last season here.

Jan Delvaux, contributor to the program, also published a book in 2011 entitled Belpop: de eerste vijftig jaar, in which he describes the history of Belgian pop music, from Kili Watch of The Cousins to the present.

Also see the following video on belgian music history: Belpop Bonanza #1000 – Een duik in 40 jaar AB geschiedenis

Between 1983-1988, Cees Heeren interviewed several people from Roosendaal for the purpose of his book De Trommelaeren van Roesendaele: een sociaal-cultureel beeld van de jaren vijftig en 60. The interviews covered the 1950s and 1960s. These 31 interviews are stored in the West Brabant Archives.

You may find a video of the Trommelaeren from the 60s here.

To celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen, the Netherlands, in 2023. This was accompanied by a special exhibition, which was celebrated both by employees as well as former employees and volunteers. A start was made the year before to speak with former employees. Femke van Drongelen had tracked down several people who had helped build the outdoor museum, and ten former employees were also interviewed. Here you may find a video about the importance of these former employees.

Their stories illuminated the history of the museum and the history of Enkhuizen. All kinds of beautiful stories emerged as a result. These were incorporated into the exhibit.

The following people were interviewed:

• Bert Kruissink
• Erik Walsmit
• Pieter Jutte
• Siemen de Boer
• Johan Jesterhout
• Victor Kersten
• Thedo Fruithof
• Ferry Walberg
• Sjaak Dangermond
• Sjaak Tromp

Annemieke Kaan interviewed Lou Lichtveld (1903-1996) for her doctoral thesis on history (RUU) on Suriname. Helman speaks about the government of the former Dutch colony and about his literary work.

Lichtveld came to the Netherlands at the age of 18, did journalistic work, studied music and developed into a (film) composer and film critic. He went back to Suriname in 1949 and held several public positions in the country. For example, he served as Minister of Education from 1949-51 and as Minister Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the 1960s. He also emerged as an inspiring figure in Surinamese cultural life. For his books he often chose the country as a subject, although he mainly addressed a Dutch audience. Later he settled in the Netherlands again.

Schmelzer (born 1911) recounts how he and his cabaret group joined the regiment of shock troops during the period in question. Songs are sung during the interview, accompanied by Schmelzer on the piano. Furthermore, he lists what the various members of the cabaret group of the time went on to do later. Among other things, Schmelzer himself was Foreign Minister in the Biesheuvel Cabinet from July 1971 to May 11, 1973.

Parts of the interview were incorporated by Jaap van der Merwe into his VARA radio series on the period 1940-45, broadcast during 1973.

Ernst Radius talks with Bob Bertina (1914-2012) about Dutch Catholics’ attitudes toward film after 1945. The relationship between Christians and film has never been unequivocal. Bertina was a film critic for the Volkskrant for many years, a member of the editorial board of several (Catholic) film magazines and involved in Katholieke Film Actie (KFA). In particular, it discusses the Catholic film censorship, organized in the Katholieke Film Centrale (KFC), in which leading film critics – besides Bertina Charles Boost and Janus van Domburg – played a role. Between 1945 and 1979, Bertina wrote about films in the Volkskrant. In his early days, film was still considered immoral by the Catholic Church. When the Volkskrant became a progressive newspaper in the late 1960s, Bertina welcomed it. He always sided with art.

Bertina explains the not unproblematic relationship between film criticism and film censorship. The premise endorsed by both ‘camps’, ‘work for good film’, was given different interpretations because the former reasoned primarily from an aesthetic point of view and the latter took a primarily moralistic stance. Bertina refers with approval to the brochure Film en moraal [Film and morality], which the progressive ‘filmpater’ Jac. Dirkse once wrote and in which he advocated, among other things, an independent relationship between Catholic film critics and the Catholic film censors.

Also see this article by Bertina’s that dives into Dutch film critique and Catholicism after the Second World War

The interview discusses the relationship between the Dutch Reformed Church and film. Reverend Willem Overbosch was involved in the realization of the Report on the Cinema Issue, which was commissioned by the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in 1946 and which advocated a critical but positive attitude toward film.

Also discussed are film censorship and, more specifically, the activities of the Centrale Commissie voor de Filmkeuring and the Film Center Foundation. This organization was founded in 1947 (initially under the name Stichting Kerk en Film) in order to give shape to the conclusions of the aforementioned report by providing information about film in Protestant Christian circles. Finally, the Prof. Dr. G. van der Leeuw Foundation, meeting center of church and art, is discussed. Persons discussed are: L. Eker, Dr. A. Dronkers, P.J. van Mullem, Prof. Dr. G. van der Leeuw and D. van Staveren.

The interviews were conducted on behalf of Philo Bregstein’s film Otto Klemperer’s journey through his times (1973, 95 min). Bregstein made this film about the German conductor and composer Otto Klemperer (1885-1973) on assignment for R.M. Productions. In these interviews, Bregstein paid attention not only to Klemperer’s life but also to the broader musical climate in Germany in the 20th century. Here, attention is paid to the influence of Mahler, Bruckner, Schoenberg and Strawinsky. The interviews are therefore useful for broader music history.

In the early 20th century, Klemperer’s unusual, modern opera staging attracted attention. Klemperer came from a Jewish family and consequently left Germany for the United States in 1933. After World War II, he settled in Zurich. The commentary accompanying the film is largely spoken by the conductor himself, compiled from the interviews. His daughter Lotte also appears in it. The production was later, on May 19, broadcast on German television (ARD) under the title Otto Klemperers lange Reise, which is in the Sound & Vision archives.

The following individuals were interviewed:

• Otto Klemperer (1885-1973)
• Lotte Klemperer (1923-2003)
• Katia Mann (1883-1980), the wife of Thomas Mann. After World War II, like Klemperer, she lived in Zurich. Thomas Mann was a great writer and public intellectual.

Bregstein also made a separate film in 1971 about the rehearsals leading up to the last concert Klemperer conducted in September 1971. This appeared under the title Otto Klemperer in rehearsal and concert (54 min).

The interviews with the Swiss farmer and painter Schäublin (1895-1978) were made for Bregstein’s television portrait of his life and work, entitled Boer and Schilder (farmer and painter) and broadcast by the NCRV on September 1, 1976. Bregstein conducted the interviews together with his wife, the painter Marline Fritzius.

Early on, the former bank employee Schäublin from Basel retired to the mountain village of Klosters to live as a farmer. In his spare time, he painted a total of about 15 works. However, except for a single exhibition, he kept them for himself. In the interview he talks, among other things, about the painter Grünewald, whom he admired, the writers Lev Tolstoi, Jeremias Gotthelf and Thomas Mann, and the influence he underwent from Buddhism and the writings of Lao-tse. He also talks about his view of hectic modern life and about his own work, in which magical-realist, expressionist and symbolist traits can be recognized.