CBC Digital Archives

Getting in touch

It was afternoon TV for homemakers, but Take 30 assumed women's interests went beyond recipes and child rearing. The program aired from 1962 to 1984, but may be best remembered for its late '60s/early '70s era with hosts Adrienne Clarkson and Paul Soles. The CBC Digital Archives has over 60 clips from Take 30, plus 12 complete shows from 1964 to 1971 with celebrity interviews and topics including teen sex, censorship, pornography and the back-to-the-land movement.

Adrienne Clarkson has blindfolded Paul Soles in order to test her co-host's "excellent" sense of touch. Soles feels his way through various items and correctly guesses peeled grapes, a book and nylons immersed in water but is stumped by onion skins. It's all part of the Take 30 episode devoted to the five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste and -- as seen in this excerpt -- touch. 
• The daily afternoon program called Take 30 launched in the fall of 1962. The show was aimed at giving housewives a 30-minute break from their chores before getting dinner ready.
• Take 30 was described as "entertainment with useful hints and chatter."
• Anna Cameron and Paul Soles were the show's original hosts.


• Adrienne Clarkson, a Victoria College lecturer and writer, started as Take 30's book reviewer and evolved to be the show's star host.
• During the show's almost 30-year-run, Take 30 didn't shy away from controversial topics including the birth control pill, Vietnam, dramatization of a rape case and sexual practices of teenagers.
• Paul Soles and Adrienne Clarkson were the shows longest-running hosts. Soles was the host from 1962 to 1978 and Clarkson hosted from 1965 to 1975.


• Adrienne Clarkson was billed as the "first performer of Oriental origin to have a daily program... in the western world." Clarkson later said she never felt being the first Asian to host a national show in Canada was necessarily a historic accomplishment. For her, being a woman on air was more important since there were very few women on camera back then.

• Executive producer Glenn Sarty said the show was able to get away with risky subject matters because it was an afternoon program aimed at women. That meant it was under the radar of CBC executives.
• Take 30 contributors included culinary favourite Jehane Benoit, consumer reporter Ruth Fremes and financial adviser Brian Costello.
• Take 30 was on the air from 1962 to 1983.

• Adrienne Clarkson left Take 30 in 1975 to host CBC Television's The Fifth Estate. She was also the host of the interview series, Adrienne at Large, and an arts related program called Adrienne Clarkson Presents.
• In October 1999, Clarkson was sworn in as the 26th Governor General of Canada. She is the first non-white Canadian Governor General, the second female, and the first without a military or political background.

• Paul Soles has been on CBC for six decades, hosting and starring in shows including Flashback, Beyond Reason, This Is the Law, Canada After Dark and Riverdale.
• Soles was the original voice behind Peter Parker in the 1967 TV cartoon series Spider-Man. In 2001 he took over the role of Shylock in Stratford Festival's production of The Merchant of Venice, after Al Waxman, who was originally scheduled to play the part, died.
Medium: Television
Program: Take 30
Broadcast Date: Oct. 28, 1965
Host: Adrienne Clarkson, Paul Soles
Duration: 4:42

Last updated: February 24, 2012

Page consulted on August 22, 2012

All Clips from this Topic

Related Content

1965: The great Northeastern blackout

The largest power blackout to that point in history leaves 30 million people in darkness.

Aboriginal rights: Chief of the tar sands

Peter Loughheed's made honourary chief; Adrienne Clarkson investigates land claims on the tar ...

Coneybeare cooks with Madame Benoit

Friendly Giant puppeteer and TV host Rod Coneybeare makes fondue with Take 30's Madame Benoît,...

Blackout '65: Civility in the dark

New Yorkers display grace as the blackout disrupts millions of lives.

Blackout '65: Betrayed by technology

Is the culprit for the blackout too much human reliance on machines?

Blackout '65: Where were you when the lights ...

The blackout hits during rush hour, leaving thousands of commuters stranded.