A MUMMER'S LIFE.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17608, 10 November 1922, Page 15

A MUMMER'S LIFE.

WAR PROPAGANDA WORK,

Mr W. Mayne Lynton, the English actor who Anderson, the detective, in The Bat," which is at present running under the J- C. Williamson management at the Theatre Hoyal, has. had an interesting career, Che story of which is not" altogether a recital of the various managers he has piayed under. He started m life as an electrical engineer, but never having had much interest in ohms and watts and phases, he struggled out of a tangle of armature .wires on ti the stage. Like most good English actors, he was schooled by Sir F. K. Alter two and a half years as a he went to another of the school, Oscar Asch?, and wa3 put to the agi>ny of having to wrestle Henry Aiuley in -As You Like It" nightly in Lcndcn. Aiter that he went to Scotland, to stage manage "'Rob Roy,'.' which, with Hcdmont and Alica Estv in the cast, ran for twelve weeks. It was during that tour, when p'.ayin? Captain Thornton, that ho was accidentally stabbed by an actir named Herbert Benton. Once again over the border, Mr Lynton played in "The Manxman," Shakc-speare's Burnand's comedies, and at the London Lyceum figured in the cast of a nlay by Justin Huntly Macarthy, in which Mr'Mathcson- Lan:r plav"i the lesd. H? v.-a s a !st> associated with the late 'James Welch. William Grant, W. E. Hol'.cv.av (son of W. J. Hollowa-y), and wns for a time in vai^ville. Twelve years ago, hj« contracted to go to America, to appear in The Lie," with Marsaret Illington. but as they could not, hit it, he went en tour with Bon Grant playin<r Shakespeare all over the Ptates. He was with Goo. Arlws in "T)israe!s" in New York, with pothern and Marlow, played with Douelas in comedy, and with Annie Ihiss»!l in Shnkesppnre. He was in Cohan and Hj>rri«'s "Ptop. Thief,"«Corm>any. n"d then i"ith Bliiche Bates in "Half-an-Hour" in New York. "Just to show my luck," said Mr Lynton. "I have not br-on out of wwlc more than ei'ht days during my twelve yeaTs i« America. I don't moan that I have not boen out of the bill for longer, hut somehow or other I have alwavs managed to fix up an engagement without any lost time —the bi'-lvpr nf tho, Aiter the reason with Blanche Bates he went into pictures at Longbeach, under the late William Tay'.or, who was murdered six months ago in Los Angele3 under mysterious circumstances. Mr Lynton haa also appeared with Marguerite Clark in "The Seven Sisters," Mary Pickford in "Poor Litf.e Peppina," and Olga Petrova in "The Tigress." "I loathe the business," said Mr Lynton, when asked how he liked acting before the camera. "In pictures you seem to go back. To my mind it is demoralising—intellectually One has to sacrifice too much of one's manliness and individuality. For the time being you are a puppet in the hands of a producer—simply someone to carry out his ideas, which are not always of the brightest. I did not stick it long at the pictures, but went bacit to New York, joined Maris Tempest for a while, and was in "Lilac Time" with Jane Cowl. "I should tell you that when war broke out I got- in the line. I got into the Sportsmen's Battalion in London, but was thrown out because of my foot. That is how I came to be on the stage in America, However, after 'Lilac Time,' rather than go out on the road, I elected to play in 'The Man Whc Came Back,' and after eight weeks I was orderedi to report for service by the British Military Mi£sion, and went on a circus tour with the sth Royal Highlanders—propaganda work. That was in 1917. Our business was to | get recruits, and send them over the border to Canada. Do you know that we got 60,000 troops that way? I had charge of_the Buffalo area. It was full of Germans, Austrians, Poles/ and Irish—all anti-British, but by the time we got through Buffalo was the most responsive area. We sent 11,000 across the river. I was afterwards put in charge at Detroit, where I was stationed - for four months. Of course, when America came into the war, we went into uniforms, and became attachedi to. the Foreign Office, in which; job I remained until October, 1919.",. Since then Mr Lynton has ' figured i: George Cohan's "The N Genius in the Crowd," a dramatisation of R.'L. Stevenson's "Master of Ballantrae," "The Recoil" (a Grand Guignol type of play), "Sonia," and '"The Storm." Mr Lynton states that the success of "The. Bat" has. been phenomenal every'where: When the la«t mail left. England seven' oompani.es were out with this play, and. in London it looked as though it would run up till Christmas.- ' ,