Old Favourites And New Entertainment

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28888, 7 May 1959, Page 21

Old Favourites And New Entertainment

Old favourites and artists new to Christchurch will provide variety entertainment in the entertainment hall on the top floor of the fair buildings every afternoon and evening of the fair. The entertainment hall replaces the “Big Top” used last year, and will be the scene of stage and radio entertainment, which will also be televised throughout the fair.

Consistent with its policy of bringing in a new entertainment attraction each year, the fair executive has this year brought to Christchurch for the first time the “Flying Warrens,” an acrobatic troupe which has performed in Australia and the Palladium Theatre, London. The compere for the stage shows is Jack Maybury, the radio entertainer who has been a popular central figure at previous fairs. Among the new attractions on the stage will be those arranged for the fair by the International Brotherhood of Magicians, and the best feats of legerdemain that can be produced locally will be among the presentations. Ventriloquists, lightning sketch artists, and puppeteers will add to the novelty. “Stars in Overalls" should produce some good amateur talent. It is another new idea for entertainment at the fair. The rules are that factories and firms can enter a group of artists who have to put on a 15-minute stage show. It could be a short one-act play, it could be a pianist playing classical music and a group singing madrigals, although that is highly unlikely, or it could be anything else that provides entertainment, but all the members of

the group must work for the same factory or business. There will be leading artists from the Christchurch Competitions Society’s festival performing at the fair oh several occasions.

Judo demonstrations will provide something different, and displays by gymnasts have also been arranged.

A soundshell has been built in the open-air part of the fair grounds this year, and should provide an effective setting for the bands—brass, pipe and harmonica —which will be in attendance at the fair every eveqjng. The entertainment hall will hold a good-sized crowd; but the fair executive has arranged for the stage events to be seen by a widespread audience, for' at vantage points throughout the fair there will be television screens. Operating on a closed circuit, the shows in the entertainment hall will be televised around the buildings and outside, so that people looking at the industrial exhibits or the sideshows may pause to see something of the show going on in the entertainment hall.