FAMOUS LONDONER

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 124, 18 February 1933, Page 11

FAMOUS LONDONER

Dick Whittington’s Origin

(Reuter—Letter to “The Dominion.”) While London children are flocking to tiie pantomime to see enacted the story of Dick Whittington, and Ijis Cat,” the scientists are making their annual attack upon the treasured beliefs of childhood. Tliis year it is Mr. E. V. Jarrett who is attacking London’s only fairy tale. He has been telling an audience of children at the Royal Institute of British Architects that the usual stories of Dick Whittington are “all rot.” Of course, while tiie researches of antiquarians have long since proved that there was a Sir Richard Whittington, Lord Mayor of London, they have also shown that he was no poor orhpan boy. Far from running away from London in despair, his commercial career was successful from the start, as he was the son of a wealthy landowner. His wife was not his master’s daughter, but belonged to n rich Dorset family. Pedants have tried to explain away his cat—some by connecting it with i “cat” or small sailing vessel by which they say he built up his fortune, others bv associating it with the black cats of witches or the mysterious rites of ancient Egypt. , IV Still, no matter what they say, Diek Whittington will live in his legend, and be acclaimed by the children at this season for years to come. His vitality lies in the fact that he is simply tiie male equivalent of Cinderella and the Cinderella theme —a career starting from poverty and rising to wealth, fame, and a successful marriage—is the stock plot of the novelist, dramatist, and; especially the film writer.