TATTOO TALENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 173, 23 July 1936, Page 19

TATTOO TALENT.

AMATEUR PRODUCERS.

HOW IT DEVELOPED. GREATEST MILITARY SPECTACLE. (Special.—By Air Mail.) LONDON, June 27. Aldershot Tattoo, the greatest annual military spectacle in the world, produced bv an "unknown" retired officer, ended this week. Within a fortnight work will be well on the way for next year's tattoo. And the tattoo of 1937 is to be the "best ever" in celebration of Coronation year. Thousands of tickets for that tattoo have already been sold. More than 1000 seats were booked this week by Dominion agents. Here is the story behind the tattoo, which from a simple military parade before Queen Victoria in 1882 has grown to such amazing dimensions that this year the half-million attendance mark has been passed. The late Lord Rawlinson was the originator of the public tattoo. He was anxious to provide better recreation grounds for the troops of the Aldershot Command. In 1920 the first tattoo was given. Three years later Rushmoor arena, made from War Office owned waste land, had been built —and 42.000-odd people paid for admission. Now the tattoo committee pays more than £1000 annually in rates to the local council. It owns its private electric power station, capable of providing more three thousand million candle-power.

Not a single professional producer is employed. The chief of the Tattoo staff is a retired lieutenant-colonel with a brilliant war record. Had he cared to turn his talent to other account he might well have proved the English De Mille . . . and wild horses would not persuade him to allow his name to be published. Then there is the Tattoo secretary, also a retired officer. He gives the whole of his time to the Tattoo and controls a large staff of full-time clerks.

Not one penny of the cost lias ever fallen on the taxpayer. The Tattoos, from their inception, have yielded a magnificent profit, controlled by a trust for the benefit of all ranks and their families of the Aldershot Command. Nothing is left to chance. Sometimes almost a year of research is devoted to one episode to ensure historical accuracy. The 1500 musicians of the massed bands had to memorise this year 53 pieces of music. Every single step taken by the 5000 performers was measured to ensure perfect alignment. Four thousand five hundred troops were employed in the Tattoo itself. This week a small army of workmen will begin to retnrf the eleven acres of Rushmoor arena ready for 1937; the 23 jniles of terracing and the stands seating 77.500 spectators will also be repainted. And behind the scenes, the producer and his assistants will be hard at work reducing to exact scale models the "surprises" they have already planned for King Edward's Coronation year.