WHIMSICAL WALKER

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 109, 1 February 1930, Page 29

WHIMSICAL WALKER

ENGLAND’S OLDEST CLOWN

England’s oldest clown, Whimsical Walker, now nearly an octogenarian, has lately been a prisoner in his native city of Hull, In the grip of bronchitis; but he takes a lively interest in the outer world, and as Christmas dr,ew near he found his heart before the footlights of Pantomime. The revival of. pantomime seems to cheer him, for it is a step toward the revival of the Harlequinade, which he has been looking for during recent years. Mr. Walker's father, over SO years ago, was manager for Cook’s Circus, when it was in the old Queen’s Theatre at Hull; and Walker pere wooed and won the landlady of the March of Intellect, a few yards from the theatre, where Whimsical Walker was born. He made his first appearance as a circus clown 60 years ago, and was shaking Leeds with laughter as he strutted around the ring of Adam’s Circus, making a great reputation all over the country, and steadily graduating for Drury Lane. There Whimsical Walker succeeded a long line of clowns, beginning with Joe Grimaldi, in whose time pantomime was nearly all Harlequinade. Gradually the Harlequinade has been pushed aside until it has almost disappeared. No longer does the clown in the closing fairy scene, bounce upon the stage, and with his arms up to the elbows in his baggy pockets wish us ail “A Happy New Year.” When a writer on the “Yorkshire Post” last spent a quiet afternoon with Walker, talking about famous clowns and “gorgeous” pantomimes, he said that Clement Scott, of the “Daily Telegraph,” once told him that the Harlequinade was doomed. The prophecy came true, but Walker would never believe it. “The Harlequinade,” he said, “consisting of clown, pantaloon, harlequin, and columbine must be a clever group; and as for my particular busi-

ness, it needs an artist to steal a string of sausages in the right way, to sit lightly on the baby in the pram, or to pick up a red-hot poker by the wrong end.” When Walker was asked what part of his business was most appreciated, he plumped for the Barber’s Shop. •‘But,” he added, “what a scream was our quiet lodgings! Pure pantomime —dumb show —every bit of it My “Quiet Lodgings” never failed and never palled. The winkling candles, the warming pan pusbed under the Pantaloon, the two-foot rat crawling over the bed, the procession of black beetles, and the massacre of a caterwauling crowd of cats! Just think of it! “My Barber’s Shop never failed to excite shrieks of laughter. It had a grand run. The lathering of the gent, in the chair, the disappearing bib, the three-foot, razor, the lovely lather, and the way I accidentally sliced off the gentleman’s head and provided him with another from the board of plaster images carried by a passing Italian, convulsed the kiddies.” Thus the dear old fellow went on, with eyes alight and a broad captivating smile. But fancy "Whimsey” as Hamlet! .He said he played a potted version arranged by Arthur Sturgess for Augustus Harris, and the show was given several times a day in Richardson’s Theatre at the Olympia Revels. The title of the burlesque was "Hamlet in a Huryy.” ~ „ “It was my business,” said Walker, “to pull out my watch now and then with a profound apology and skip the speeches through Inch of time, so we played ‘Hamlet’ in half an hour!. To see my podgv face as the prince was a scream, but you ought to have seen an old Scotsman we had playing the ghost, especially when he turned to me and sauT: -Hamlet ye keh, I’m yer father’s ghost!’ ” -