NEW YEAR'S EVE IN LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 52, 2 March 1929, Page 13 (Supplement)

NEW YEAR'S EVE IN LONDON.

SCENES IN CLUBS AND CABARETS. A New Zealand dancer in London for the first time could not but be amused at the lavish and apparently reckless expenditure of the West End dance palaces in their endeavour to cater for the smart set's ideas of dancing the «i year out and the new year in. write* Mr. W. E. Priestley, partner of Miss Margaret O'Connor. Yet when one considers that every night club, cabaret, hotel and restaurant in London vied one with the other in trying to achieve something new and exciting for their patrons, and when otie considers the high charges of admission, the result might have been anticipated.

At the Chelsea Arts Ball the theme of the evening iva-s "The Arabian Nights,'' and the affair has since been acclaimed as the most gorgeous feast of Oriental pageantry yet seen in London, not even excluding Oscar Asche's '"C'hu Chin Chow." The setting was by Edmond Dulac, and the art students from the various schools had worked for weeks on the various tableaux and scenes to be enacted. Of the 5000 dancers present, I did not see one in ordinary e\ening dress.

The continual popping of champagne corks mingled with the happy laughter of the revellers. This, and the unique and sometimes daring costumes on the floor, all enhanced by the wonderful setting. made it a never-to-be-forgotten night. At midnight there was one minute's silence and darkness as the okl year passed, and then renewed cheering as the broadcast chimes of Big Ben announced the birth of a new year. Then one by one the tableaux, so carefully prepared by the art students, were presented, the most striking being "The Parad® of the White Elephant" and the "Persian Marriage." It was not till foggy morning dawned that the last of the revellers finally sorted out their own partners. Though the artists' ball is perhaps the event of the New Year, it was rivalled by at least half a dozen of the better-known hotels and restaurants. Of these, the Savoy was the best, with its wonderfully-prepared jungle- with 200 gigantic illuminated butterflies hovering overhead. Scores of live monkeys and gaily-plumaged parrots chattered in the trees surrounding the dance floor, and added realism to a iama.--tically beautiful sight. Ihree dance bands supplied almost continuous music The Bitz was literally transformed into a fairyland of flowers and colour, the kevnote of which was a wonderful arrav of roses and rich-toned fuchsiasred 'and mauve—combining with wonderful effect. Not to mention the Carlton would be to omit one of the most striking of the Sew Year efforts, and though I did not see the decorations until they were almost dismantled I realised I had missed something worth seeing. To those New Zealanders who aro familiar with the Carlton it would have _ presented a unrecognisable sight. The ballroonMva? transformed into a Japanese warden, with realistic pagodas, illuminated with myriads of Chinese lanterns and surrounded by cherry blossoms.