Colonial grease-paint and gaslight

Press, 15 March 1980, Page 17

Colonial grease-paint and gaslight

Top of the Bill. By I . Reed, 1980. 98 pp. $5.95. Leading Ladies. By Jane Wordsworth. Reed, 1980. 91 pp. $5.95. The Bad Old Days. By Tony Nolan. Reed, 1980. 112 pp. $6.95. (Reviewed by Eric Beardsley) C. N. Bayertz, editor of the celebrated magazine “Triad,” wrote of John Fuller, the ageing but popular tenor of Fuller’s vaudeville company, that while he once had a shrill and tuneful little pipe, his voice in 1913 was not much more musical than a pig’s whistle. It was a shrewd assessment, but, alas, it was libellous. Fuller sang to a jury in the Supreme Court at Auckland, convinced them that his voice was more musical than a pig’s whistle, and was awarded $5Ol in damages. Incidents such as that enliven Peter Downes’s tantalising glimpses of New Zealand entertainers and entertainments since 1840. There really is no buisness quite like show business and in 140 years it has thrown up an abundance of characters and incidents to which he is unable to dp full justice in the confines of this slender, but absorbing and well-illustrated volume. It is neither a formal history nor a collection of biographies, but rather an authoritative and entertaining survey that effectively captures much of the romance and atmosphere of gas footlights and grease-paint, vaudeville and concert party, musical and opera before films and television made entertainment a more passive activity. The early colonists did not live by bread alone — Samuel Butler, after all. packed a piano up the Rangitata — and this record will help fill a gap in our knowledge, understanding and appreciation of how our forebears filled their leisure hours. New Zealand’s first real theatrical performance was in the Ship Hotel in Wellington in 1843 and when the Royal Victoria Theatre was opened later that year Wellington audiences revelled in humerous rip-roaring melodramas. Mrs W. H. Foley “from the principal theatres of England and

America,” gave Canterbury its first dramatic performance in the Theatre Royal in Lyttelton in 1858. Local talent developed — Tom Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company and its young star, Marion Mitchell, destined to become Mayoress of Auckland after an ardent courtship by a stage door admirer, Ernest Davis; Rosina Buckman, our first operatic star; the matinee idol, Lance Fairfax; Oscar Natzka; and the more familiar names of recent times: Howard Morrison, Johnny Devlin, Initiate Wiata, and the incomparable Kiri te Kanawa. Mr Downes knows and loves his subject, but the exigencies and format of the publisher’s “Famous New Zealanders” series have cramped him. A fuller meal would have been more satisfying than this (admirable though i-t'is) first course. “Leading Ladies” (unfortunate title) has nothing to do with the stage. It is a collection of 23 biographies, more sympathetic than objective, of women who made their mark .in and oh New Zealand in politics, the arts, the

church, sport or in other ways. The lives of many are well enough known and the book would have been of greater interest had the selection been more adventurous and included more women with a cause. The lives of Alice Burn, the dress reformer, Kate Edger, the first woman graduate, or Elizabeth McCombs, the first woman M.P. as well as other reformers, would surely have added more zest to a respectful and rather dull collection. In researching his books on New Zealand’s goldfields, Tony Nolan collected a great deal of information of no immediate use. In “The Bad Old Days” he has used some 250 extracts from early journals, books and newspapers to reinforce his claim that the “good old days” of colonial life were far from golden. It is a thin peg on which to hang a book, but the whimsical selection and mare or less appropriate illustrations cannot but whet appetites and encourage readers to turn to Nolan’s sources.

This series is good value. The wealth of historic photographs alone warrants the cost of each book.