LONDON LETTER A NEW DRAMATIC STAR FOR LONDON THEATRES

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27538, 21 December 1954, Page 12

LONDON LETTER A NEW DRAMATIC STAR FOR LONDON THEATRES

tFrom KEITH, EUN SON, London Correspondent ot ‘'The Press”)

LONDON, December 10. When Mary Ure, a 21-year-old blonde, woke on the mormng after the opening of Jean Anouilhs "Time Remembered,” she was a star, a new star. The previous night the audience had proclaimed the fact; that day the press supported their opinion. Mary -Ure had arrived and her performance was giving her Press ranking with the famous Vivien Leigh and tne equally sky-rocket success of Claire B But'all this success is not turning Miss Ure’s head; She has a year's rodtract at £lO a week; and success ot failure does not change its terms, " irost officially. With the press raving about her performance, Miss Ure walked as usual from her £2 7s 6d bed-sitter in Kensington to market in Hammersmith. .She was wearing dark tartan (she comes from Glasgow) tucked in a “h le -h*f? fur boots, and a yellow polo-neck sweater; but it was the happy aura surrounding the girl that attention, not the clothes. A vibrant personality. Miss Ure is fragile-boned and fair, with deep blue eyes She has spent three years at the Central School Of Speech Training, and in 1951 appeared in some York Mystery la y?; “Time Remembered” is at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, but will not be long before Miss Ure is in the West End, with a new contract.

Christinas Mail This Christmas business is getting completely out of hand, and nobody is in a better. position to appreciate that than the Postmaster-General, Lord De La Warr. Customarily at this period of the year warnings and appeals are issued, and Lord De JLa Warr had some figures to support his remarkg. In 1948, the last year that Christmas fell on a Saturday, the Post Office had to handle 500,000,000 letters. This does not include the parcels handled over what is grimly known in the Post Office as the Season of Goodwill. Steadily rising each year, the figure for 1953 was up to 660,000,000; and this year it is expected to pass over, the 700,000,000. Planning for this huge deluge starts, I believe, on the previous Boxing Day and continues for the 12 months. A considerable army, of 130,000 men and women, is recruited for temporary work, buildings have to be rented, fleets of trucks hired, and there are prayers said that Christmas will not be accompanied by snow. It might look pleasant on a Christmas card, but it causes chaos in Post Office planning. , . Another Election Problem. While writing of snow, it is as well to report it as a hazard to be faced by candidates electioneering in Inverness, a hazard which -southern members do not usually have to face here. Inverness covers hundreds of miles of bleak, Highland country; and great efforts are being made to push ahead the election before Christmas. Any delay might find more than half of the electors unable to vote because their area was snowbound. Many remember the harsh experience of 1936, when Mr Malcolm MacDonald, standing as a National Liberal, met and defeated Mr Randolph Churchill (Sir Winston Churchill’s son), who stood as an Independent Unionist. Thick snow prevailed throughout the campaign and made it a nightmare for all concerned.

Belfast Calling Belfast Northern Ireland’s Belfast is today a busy shipyard and seaport city with world-famous linen mills and a population of nearly 500,000. It has grown and prospered considerably in the last 300 years, besides mothering a family of Belfasts the world over. There are at least five other places bearing the same name—probably more—places named, no doubt, by the nostalgic pride of emigrants from Northern Ireland. Three are in the United States, there is one in the Transvaal and New Zealand hag one near Christchurch. Last week-end a special church broad** cast was made by the British Broadcasting Corporation from a church in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to the other Belfasts, with greetings from the Lord Mayor, Sir Percival Brown. The Lord Mayor would be pleased to hear from any New Zealanders who picked up the broadcast *in Belfast, Canterbury. Different Circumstances

Marda Vanne is a South African actress in her early sixties, seeking fame in England. She lives in a modest way at Cambridge. If circumstances had been different, Marda Vanne would today be hostess of Cecil Rhodes’s residence at Cape Town and the aide-de-camp of South Africa’s most feared man; for many years ago she was married for a short time to “the lion of the North,” Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom, who. has just taken over from Dr. Malan as Prime Minister of South Africa. She appeared on TV two weeks ago as the half-Ger-man mother of the Young Queen Victoria. In real life she could have' had a position of greater prominence.

London’s Vice Life Recent remarks criticising London as one of the most vice-ridden cities in the world caused a ripple of controversy for a week and then died away. Figures just released show that 10,345 women are convicted for soliciting to the annoyance of the public (soliciting itself is no offence) in England and Wales. Of this tally, more than 9000 were in the Metropolitan Police area. Their fines totalled £lB,OOO.

A Yank at Oxford Vince Jones is not the first United States citizen to attend Oxford Uni* versity. nor is he the first to pi a - Rugby lor his university in the match against’Cambridge, but he is only the fourth to do so. This former gridiron player from Longbeach, California, has had a career that has included shooting lions in Africa, crashing an aeroplane in the African jungle, and climbing Kenya’s snow-capped Kilimanjaro, besides stock-car racing as a relaxing hobby. But he was just like any other nerve-ridden undergraduate when the time came to trot on to famous Twickenham this week. It took him only a minute or two to settle down, however, and he was soon throwing his 16-stone weight about in approved style and using his 6ft 3irr to good advan. tage in tne line-outs. Cambridge has never had an American Rugby Blue. Snack Habits Have Changed The whole snack-eating habits of London are changing. A new type of coffee house is springing up all over this great city, pushing out the moth, ern American-type milk bar, which New Zealand has adopted. The new started two years ago when an Italian dentist, Dr. Pino Reservato; came to Britain to sell mouth-mirrors. He was so appalled by the coffee available that he stayed to sell the first Expresso complicated arrangement of engineering parts that produces rich, creamy coffee in the Italian style This idea has snowballed until it has become a fashion. One doesn’t go to ordinary coffee stalk now. Coffee is served in super mod-ern-style coffee bars from this supermodern machine.

Big; Money Racing Stirling Moss is not the first English driver who has been engaged by the German Mercedes-Benz factory to drive in their team. From 1937 to 1939 the leading English driver of that time, Dick Seaman, drove for them, but Moss, at 25, is fast becoming one of the greatest racing drivers Britain has ever produced. He is to be awarded the Gold Star of 1954, an award he also won in 1950-52; and he thus becomes the first driver to win the coveted trophy four times for road racing. Moss started driving competitively when 17. Last year he drove for Maserati and he has twice won the Tourist Trophy in a Jaguar. For his age he has driven more different makes of cars on circuits in Europe than any other British driver and he is the youngest member of the MercedesBenz racing team. It has been estimated that he will earn about £20,000 during the coming season, Which* will take him to Argentina, Monaco, Belgium, Holland, France, Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Mexico. Christmas Day Broadcast

This year the Queen is again in Britain and will broadcast her Christmas Day message from her home at Sandringham. The theme of the traditional programme linking the people of the Commonwealth is “the good neighbour” ideal. It is 22 years since the original 8.8. C. Christmas Day Programme was broadcast. Last year the Queen broadcast from her Commonwealth; and this traditional programme was produced in Australia. From the experience of those involved throughout the Dominions and colonies, as well as in this country, various modifications are being made to the programme this year. In addition, a complete recording of the programme is to be flown to each Dominion so that they, too, may have good reception. All in a Name If the Cunard Company builds a liner to replace the Queen Mary, now that the 81,000-ton giant is 20 years old, one name will be banned. Hiat is “Princess Anne,” for the name has been given to a 350-ton British trawler, which is to be launched this week at Beverley,, in Yorkshire. Already, the trawler has- been adopted by the pupils of the school at Sandringham, which looks after the children of the Royal estate workers. The trawler is to be named by one of the school’s teachers.

Price No Guarantee A big price lor a horse does not guarantee that the blue blood of the turf is worth every penny. The worldrecord price paid at Newmarket thii week for Festoon, winner of the One Thousand Guineas last April and the Coronation Stakes, was £37,800. Great hopes will be entertained for the foals of this brood mare, just as Mrs Elizabeth Graham (business name is A rden) will expect something from her Newmarket buy, the £19,950 full brother of Festoon. The same hopes centred on Adstock when he made the previous record price of £7560 in 1945. This horse sank without trace into the financial quicksand of racing. He won a minor event worth £345, and nothing else! Adstock ran the last of his 26 races in 1950, and was sold for £577 10s. Prince Christian, at £14,700, the top-priced yearling of 1951, changed hands this week for £315.

Development of Lifeboats The story of the development of lifeboats through the last 165 years is illustrated in an exhibition which has opened at Lifeboat House. The Original, which carried that as her namq, was a rough, primitive boat of 30 feet, costing £165. The latest boat produced recently weighed 28 tons, had two diesel engines, radio-tele-6 hone, a loud-hailer, an oil spray, a ne-throwing pistol, an electric searchlight; and she cost £35,000! Yet the Royal National Lifeboat Institution is still a voluntary body, financed by voluntary contributions. The costs amount to £250,000 a year, yet the administrative expenses are less than 4 per cent, of that amount, an indication of the economy that is practised.