MODERN INFANT GENIUS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 10279, 10 December 1924, Page 5

MODERN INFANT GENIUS

JACKIE COOGAN IN LONDON.

The interest excited by the arrival in London recently of-Master Jackie Coogan with his father and mother, his governess and nurse, his secretary, his valet, and his servants is not quite without a parallel in theatrical history, declares a correspondent of the " Manchester Guardian." The famous William Henry Betty, " the young Jloscius," was only a little older than Coogan. when he came int > the limelight, and, like Coogan, the young Roscius was something of a traveller, going on an elaborate tour of the British Isles after his first appearance in Belfast. It appears also that the Press ag ;>t of 120 years ago might have held 'lis own with the trumpeters of modern' infant genius, for the " Morning Herald" had a lively account of the genius of this " boy not exceeding 12 years old, (who) reads and enacts all the principal of Shakespear'a characters in a stile of superiority that astonished the most experienced actors. ... Off the stage his manners are perrile, as he is often seen playing marbles in the morning and Richard 111. in the evening. He is rather short for his age, slight made, but has great expression of countenAlso we learn that, like the heroes of the modern Press agency, "he has a pleasant turn for repartee. _ Ihe Ldinburgh manager expressed his fears, at first rehearsal, that his voice would not fill the house. 'My dear sir,' replied the little hero of the buskin I beg you will be under no apprehensions upon that score, for if my voice does not fill your house probably my acting will." The puff was successful, and there were wild scenes when he appeared at the theatre; the doors were forced and the pit was so crowded that "numbers must have perished but for the humane attentions of some ladies in the boxes." Caricaturists were busy with pictures of excited Londoners, their clothes torn from their backs in the crowds which followed him. Naturally he had a rival, and there was "young Roscia,'' who went to the theatre with her mother and her nurse, and attempted to play lead at the age of ten; but this was a little too much for theatre-goers.