MIMES AND MUSIC

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 63, 11 September 1915, Page 11

MIMES AND MUSIC

(By "Orpheus.") THE "SHOWS. GRAND OPERA HOUSE. George Stephenson, "Fun on the Bristol," season closes to-night. Operatic Company, "Les Cloches de Corneville," 27th September. HIS MAJESTY'S. Fuller Vaudeville. * THE RING'S THBATRs! Pictures nightly. STAR THEATRE. Pictures nightly. NEW THEATRE. Continuous Pictures. EMPRESS THEATRft. Continuous Pictures. SHORTT'S THEATRE. Continuous Pictures. PEOPLE'S PICTURE PAXACE. Continuous Pictures. BRITANNIA THEATRE. Continuous Pictures. OPERA HOUSE. Continuous Picture*. J. G. Williamson's next pantomime will be "Mother Goose." Miss Lilian de Venny is being imported from. England to be the principal boy Miss Ethel Dane, of " Stop Your Nonsense " popularity, i« remainim? in Australia to play in " Mum's the Word," another of Mr. Beaumont Smith's productions. Mr. Redge Carey, one of the J. C. Williamson, Ltd., stage managers, has left Sydney for South Africa. It will be Mr. Carey's mission to prodnce "High Jinks" for the edification of South African audiences "The Squatter's Daughter" has been replaced by "Not Understood" at the King's Theatre, Melbourne, by the Bert Bailey Company The new play is by Mark E. Swan, and takes its motif from the poem of Thomas Bracken, the New Zealand poet. Sir Herbert Tree has found his experience of the variety stage so pleasant and so profitable that when the last mail left he had arranged to extend his tour, originally limited to four weeks, up, at least, to the end of August. "Trilby" in ,its compressed form has proved a great draw in the country. Corporal, Harry Gjedsted, who left Sydney with the sth Reinforcements of the - Ist Battalion on 25th June, is at present in the Ist -Australian General Hospital at Heliopolis, and is having bis wounds attended to by his sister, Nurse Gjedsted, who lefi for Egypt some .months prior to her brother. Corporal Gjedsted was well known in theatrical circles, having been treasurer with the J. C. Williamson companies for many years He has. a' brother (Sergeant Gjedsted) at the front, while a younger brother has just enlisted. There is perhaps no more delightful or universally pleasing form of entertainment than comic opera, and .with the possible exception of the classical dramas and grand operas no form of entertainment has such a long life and enjoys such general 'popularity New Zealand is starved for comic opera, and were it not for the amateur effort the position would be still more desperate. •, It is, therefore, pleasing 'to note that the Wellington Amateur Operatic Society 'is about to take the 6tage. again It has given us delightful performance* in "The' Geisha" and "'Paul Jones,", and with Mr Tom Pollard as producer there should be no doubt about the coming performance of Planquelte's melodious opera, "Les Cloches de Corneville," which is due at the Grand Opera Honee on Saturday, 25th inst. The cast — wholly amateur, not one performer has ever acted in a responsible role in .comic . opera before, so that there is none of the semi-professional element to distract the judgment) — is as followß :—Germaine, Miss Annie Sullivan ; Serpolette, Miss Isabel Wilford ; Gaspard, Mr. H. G. Shakes; the Marquis, Mr. 'Frank 'Charlton; Greincheux, Mr. H. Dunn,^ the Baillie of Corneville, Mrl Dave Kenny ; Gobo, Mr Shaw. The opera will be performed under the musical direction of Mr. Bernard Page, . who ' will make his debut in public in Wellington as a conductor ' on occasion. The father of Flo Graupner died early this year; and as the old man l was 88 and the youngest of four brothers, Dr. "Billy" Maloney, M.H.R., an old friend of the family, doubts the trutb of a re-cently-printed yarn that " the Dr Carl Graupner,, who boasts that he can provide the Huns with 'the most murderous gas on record, . is an uncle of Flo Graupner." So far as the family in Australia knows, the -last surviving uncle died thirty years ago. Dr. Maloney adds : " Poor Flo, it will be remembered, broke down, utterly in. health years ago; and her family has given _her all the skill that science could offer. Alas, without avail ! Now the destruction of their, factory by fire- has limited their resources; and an appeal may be made presently to the public, with whom the little woman was so great a favourite. Remembering . how many she assisted' in her career, I feel sure when' the appeal is made it will be answered so that there will be no. further need' to fear for her f uture. "— B ulletin. Mr. Lewis Waller and 3lr. Percy Burton' have,- by arrangement with Messrs. ' Frank ,Curzon and. Gerald dv Maurier, acquired the American rights in "Gamblers All," the play running at'Wyndhara's, London, and have entered "into j a partnership for its production in. New York next Christmas. Mr. Waller and Miss Madge Titheradge will 1 appear in their original characters, supported by an entirely English company. Mr.'Granville Barker will present "Androcles and the Lion" and "The Man' Who Married a Dumb Wife in the United States For that Miss Lillab. M'Carthy will again eross r the Atlantic, ' starting at Washington on llti October. Mr. Martin Harvey, also, is to pay America a return visit at the end of the year. He will remain there until the beginning of May, performing in a few only of the principal cities, the productions he takes with him being of an unusually big spectacular description. , Distribution of money by a- music-hall artist amongst members of his audience formed tho grounds of an appeal in 'the Divisional Court in London on 22nd July, the contention being that it was a lottery. Appellant was the superintendent of polke of Goldthorpe, Yorkshire, and he complained of the decision of the Doncaster Magistrates, who had refused to convict Mr. Eugene Sylvester, musichall artist, for conducting an alleged lottery. Mr. Green, K.C., for appellant, said Mr. Sylvester appeared at the Empire Theatre, Goldthorpe, as "Silas C. Gordon, the Yankee millionaire and comedy musician," and at the outset of his "turn" announced that, being possessed of a considerable amount of wealth, he would distribute some of it as he thought fit. He had two assistants named "Cyril" and "Percy," who went amongst the audience and distributed sixpenny postal orders. When a number of these had been given out, the artist asked : "Is there a bald-headed man there, Cyril?" When a man in the audience showed that he was bald, respondent told his assistant to "give him As to buy a. bottle of Tatcho." A woman who said she had a family of nine was given a shilling for each child and "one for tha old man.*' Following that, respondent asked : "Is there a man here with another man's wife?" ■On being told there was, Mr. Sylvester said : "Give her -a shilling and one for her hatband, and give him two shillings [{or hi* &-*-* &&"• (Laughta,). Oil

one occasion at a matinee a widow was given 20s. The police found that people visited tbe theatre in the hope of obtaining postal orders. Respondent said he did not think he was committing an offence, and the justices dismissed the case. Counsel submitted that the Magistrates had gone wrong in law, seeing that the whole scheme exercised by respondent was a lottery, in that it was a game of chance. Mr. Grimwood Mears, for respondent, said there could be no chance about the matter, as the artist chose the people to whom he gave the postal ordere. He might like people with fair hair or blue evee and give them money. The Lord Chief Justice, in giving judgment, said the main point of the case was whether it could be said that, even though the artist exercised no real judgment, but merely determined haphazard to whom he distributed the money, it was a determination by chance or a determination by the exercise of judgment. His lordship was of opinion that this was a distribution to be determined by chance, that consequently it was a lottery, and that the Magistrates ought to have convicted. The case must therefore go back to the Magistrates.