AMUSEMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 172, 23 July 1929, Page 8

AMUSEMENTS.

"SHOW BOAT." Talking pictures have forged the link between the screen with its vast realm of: popular entertainment and the world of song and music. Now, for the first time, •music is being dramatised. The humour, the the inspirations and the human interest in popular and standard songs ■are being visualised in action and in the emotions of real persons, portrayed in . motion picture stories. The most striking I '- example of this blending of story, music and ' plot, it is claimed, is "Show Boat," Una-' yersal's talking and singing production •■* from Edna Ferbers best-selling novel of the same name, which will open at the Strand Theatre on August 2. The picture, .. besides its dramatic and romantic appeal, provides a veritable anthology of popular American music of the past half-century. , The way in which negro spirituals, which' have recently become such a popular form' of musical entertainment, were first intro« duced to the theatre-going public is shows ■in "Show Boat." They were taught to' a show-boat actress when she was. a girlMagnolia of the picture—and later she sang them in the variety houses of Chicago and New York, where the odd melody and' simple rhythm quickly popularised them. As Mangolia, Laura La Plante sings these songs in "Show Boat." Not the least important sequence in the picture is the picturised version of Florenz Ziegfeld's stage production of "Show Boat" in NewYork. This prologue occupies the first twenty minutes of the film. "Show Boat," it must be remembered, has been one of the greatest successes of the stage in both New York and London, where it ran' at Drury Lane. Besides Miss La Plante, the cast includes Joseph Schildkraut, Helen Morgan, Jules Bledsoe, and a hand of plantation singers. PIANO STUDENTS' ASSOCIATION. In the Lewis Eady Buildings, the Auck« land Piano- Students' Association was honoured by a visit from Dr. Markham Lee. In an encouraging address he praised ' the aims of the association and urged the' importance of a thorough study and" analysis of the items contributed by the students. The members were then privileged to hear several of Dr. Markham Lee's own compositions played by himself. They included a Prelude "Hesperides/' "Romance," and a collection of descriptive sea pieces, "Cliff and Tide Rip." Mr. Ellis Vipond played "Le Petit ane Blanc 1 * (Tbert). A paper on French music was read by Miss Joyce SI. Parker. Miss Mavis Hewson played "Clair de Lune" (Debussy), and Miss.AiLsa Walker contributed "Aragonaise," first reading some facts about the composer (Massenet). A duo, "Pour Bercer un Convalescent" (Halm), played by Misses Clare and Blackbunw followed, and the programme conchaed with Beethoven's "Countrv Dances/' an quartet form, played by Misses Clare. E. i Naughton, Blackburn and J. Parker. Th<J competition was won this week by Mr, Roy Collins.