VARIETY FORTUNES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 109, 11 May 1939, Page 9

VARIETY FORTUNES.

HOW THEY VANISHED. BANG WENT £160,000. STORIES TOLD AT REUNION. (Special.— By Air Mail.) LONDON", April 22. Five famous music hall >tars, veteran* of English variety, lunched together in a London hotel this week and swapped stories about the l»i<r fortunes they had lost—a total of over £100.000. Charles Austin (of p. C. Parker fame) said: "I lost £«0,000 backing horses over -'.> years. I even had a horse in the 19-J7

[Derby. Do you remember, Parker ? The jeolours were 'policeman blue' and white jstripes. Now the only betting 1 do is an occasional 2/ on the tote?" Harry Tate: "I had £37,000 invested in shares when the war broke out. It all faded away." Talbot OTarrell: "Put mv losses down at .£."30.000. I invested in cotton and a West End theatre—the Apollo— and in a few years it was all gone." Alice Lloyd (sister of the late Marie Lloyd): "I lost £20,000 one day in 102! l. To get that money I saved every I penny I earned. I never bought a ear, but travelled in buses. The money was invested in a stuckbroking firm. " One [night, in I!>2!>, when I was in New York \1 got a 'phone call from Lonodn to say [the firm had been hammered on the Stock lExchange. They told me my money had [all pone." I Vera Wootton: "My loss is a little one [compared with the others. I lost about ! £.1000 on racehorses in 1920 and 1921. [But I still have my racing colours."