A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 153, 30 June 1934, Page 3 (Supplement)

A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

LAZY DANCERS. PCEDLEWORK STILL FLOURISHING. ;(From Our London lady Correspondent.) Daneo teachers tried hard last season to wake up the people- who went to them for lessons. They insisted that dancing should have more "pep" in it, and persuaded everyone to learn some of the modified Charleston steps to cheer things along. For a tirao we all "pepped"' obediently, and we took up the 1034 quick-step with enthusiasm, even quite elderly people trotting contentedly round the room when the gay music started. But recent visits to night clubs and restaurant dances show that most of this energy was merely a flash in the pan. The majority of dancers arc now as lazy as ever. They will waltz if you like, and walk, very slowly and deliberately, through slow fox-trot and blues, but they will not bother to gain special knowledge of intricate turns and outside steps. The average Britisher never will work up enough Southern abandon to dance a tango creditably. After all, he argues, summer is coming, and the lazier the dancing on a summer night, and the less brain fag it entails, the greater the glamour. VILLAGE SHOEMAKER. There has just been arranged in one of the rooms of Bethnal Green Museum a replica of a village shoemaker's shop. Quite a romantic little etory attaches to it. All the fittings and tools used for its equipment have been transferred to London from the ancient shop of a village shoemaker and cobbler. This shop had existed in a Tudor cottage in the village of Holington, Warwickshire, ever since Tudor times. Moreover, shoemaking was carried on with much the same equipment in 1919, when the last owner died, as it was in 1729. The business had been in tho continuous possession of one family for nearly 200 years. Such an exhibit is particularly suited to tho district, for the Bethnal Green Museum stands in a part of East London where the making of boots and shoes is .one of the leading industries. PIANO BOOM. A musical friend tells me that the piano trade is experiencing a slight boom. It has been very hard hit, not only by the general depression, but also by such counter-attractions as the wireless and the gramophone. But now signs are distinctly evident of renewed popular interest in pianos. Part of the revival may, my friend thinks, bo due to periodical renewals. Even pianos do not last forever; but ho rather believes it is mainly attributable to wireless and gramophones giving lots more people an interest in music and a desire to be able to provide their own. Children are being taught the piano again. Another marked symptom is the way even wellknown West End artists arc being regularly engaged by big stores to play in their piano departments. This in itself suggests that tho younger pianists may find a new and lucrative means of earning money. The work is easy and the pay good. FROM TABLE TO STALL. I hear that plans are now being considered for another West End theatre, and one with a restaurant attached, so that patrons of the drama may dine in comfort, secure in the knowledge that they have merely to walk into their seats next door. Some cinema people suggest that in this matter tho new theatre is ccpying their example, but this is a gross libel on theatrical enterprise. Tho idea of a combined theatre and restaurant is at least CO years old in London. Tho Criterion Theatre used to be run en those lines, and a suburban house, ■the now extinct Pantheon, adopted the same plan. The film people will discover some day that here is nothing new under the sun. But a restaurant-theatre has to be wary on one head. Its menu must not be more attractive than its dramatic bill of fare. Otherwise the actors will find themselves playing to empty seats. A BEAUTIFUL CORPSE. At the Eoyalty Theatre we have a revival of "The Mask and the Face, by C. B. Fernand, which was first seen ten years ago at the Everyman Theatre, and proved a considerable success. It was then produced by Mr. Norman Macdermott, who decided that it had big possibilities after lote of other theatrical managers had turned the play down. Apparently, what they chiefly boggled over was the funeral scene, though this proved on production to be anything but a, funereal act, and, indeed, was full of humour. Even gloomy funeral scenes on the stage are, however, no novelty. They are at least as old as the first nic/ht of "Hamlet," and that is eome time ago now. What chiefly interests playgoers in the present Royalty Theatre revival is the sensational fact that the corpse will bo played by that delightful actress Jeanne do Casalis. A lively corpse, if ever there was one. EPIC NEEDLEWORK. Wo have got a long way from the Termysonian idyll connoted by "Man for the sword and for the needle ehe." But, even in these days of hectic feminist activities, needlework flourishes as prolifically as ever. And London, moreover, possesses some of the very best needlewomen in the wido world. This, at all events, is the view taken by the Victoria and Albert Museum authorities and they can point to some wonderful artists m needlework on. their own staff. Among the most interesting and valuable of the exhibits at this famous museum are dresses of various periods. These are kept in constant and exquisite repair by a staff of needlewomen whose work challenges any comparison, either with past exponents or foreign contemporaries. Repairing dresses onco worn by queens and reigning beauties must be interesting and romantic work. Piquant and poignant history attaches to many of the period costumes stored at South Kensington. WIGS ON THE GREEN. Something of a flutter has been occasioned among women golfers by tho new • regulations in respect of tho open eliampionehip meeting at Porthcawl. The LGU, to its honour, has always sought to stamp out anything which savours of professionalism in the ranks of its members. And it is made a condition of entry in the championship event that players shall not report matches for the newspapers. Everyone recognises that tho rule has been laid down with tho very best intentions. But there js some doubt as to whether it will be upheld hv the Royal and Ancient Club. The R. and A. in the past has sought to net over the difficulty by forbidding amateur players: to write, on the game "if journalism is not their usual and recognised vocation." The condition laic ,lown by the L.G.U. seems to go beyond thte» en«i there i« a possibility, I heai, tin* it may be challenged.