MIMES AND MUSIC

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 137, 9 June 1917, Page 11

MIMES AND MUSIC

<BY "ORPUBUS.")

THE SHOWB.

Grand Opeva House. — v Brandon-Cremer Company, U seas»n. J. C. Williamson Pantomime, 19th June. Allen Doone. 2nd July. J. and N. Tait, Sth August. Town Hall.— The Pierrots, in season. The Dandies, 21st July. His Majesty's.—Vaudeville. The King's Theatre.—Pictures nifhtly, Crown Theatre.—Pictures nightly. Star Theatre- -Pictures nightly. Our Theatre.—Pictures nightly. New Theatre.—Continuous Picture's. Umpress Theatre.—Continuous Pictures. Shortt's Pictures.—'Continuous Pictures. People's Picture Palace.—Continuous Pictures, liritannia Theatre.—Continuous Pictures, Everybody's Thoatre.—Continuous Pictures. Queen's Pictures.—Continuous Pictures.

Miss Catherine M'Donnell was dv« to open here on the .'lßth inst. in "Daddy Long Legs," but the J C. Williamson firm has altered the dates, and now the pantomime, "The House that Jack Built," will come instead, opening on the 19th inst. for * a six nights' season.

J. and N Taifc's new comedy company is producing "The White Chrysanthemum," a musical extravaganza by Leedham Bantock and Howard Talbot, at the King's Theatre, Melbourne, .with Barry Lupirio in the chief comedy role.

The late Mr. Harold Asbton, who died on 21st April, in Melbourne, left real estate valued at £1033, and personal property valued at £7160, to his brothers.

One of Melbourne's best-known citizens, Mr Robert Sparrow Smythe, who had perhaps done more to make that city known throughout the English-speaking world than any other, died on 23rd May at his home, Highgate, Deepdene. He had earned the title of the ''much travelled" by his business wanderings all over the globe, and had friends everywhere. His death (says the Argus) at 3, ripe old age will be heard of with regret in remote countries, just as it will cause sorrow among a very large number of people in Australia. Mr Smythe was a native of Lambeth, London, and as few men in Australia had seen more of this planet, so there were few more devout lovers of the great city than the late Mr. Smythe, who knew its history and curiosities almost as well as one who had never wandered beyond the peal oE Bow Bells. He was apprenticed as a youth to a leading firm of printers-—Robsqn, Levey, and Robson—to become a. "printer's reader." Mr Smythe's companion reader was the late Frederic Greenwood, founder of the Pall Mall Gazette, and a contemporary apprentice in the same establishment was the late Mr. George Fisher, for so many years a leading figure in New. Zealand public life. Early in the fifties Mr Smythe was recommended by hie medicaJ adviser to try the long sea voyage to Australia, as a sort of last, hope in an aggravated case of pulmonary weakness., That voyage not only provided a complete cure, but was the beginning of wanderings that made Mr. Smythe familiar with most ' of the inhabited portions of tha earth. Upon reaching Australia ho joined the ranks of the newspaper press, and in the course of hie journalistic experiences in Melbourne and Adelaide witnessed and described some of the historic incidents of the early days. But Mr Smythe in the early_ sixties discovered that, like Ulysses, "he' could not rest from travel," and he orfanised a smaJl concert party, hea,ded y two young French instrumentalists, Pousaard and Douay, Vhom he piloted for five years through Australia, Asia, and South Afi'ica. In the course of.this tour Mr. Smythe was the first manager to conduct a company of foreign artists Into Japan, after the opening of the treaty ports, the first to prove the "possibilities for professionals of the hill stations in the Himalayas, and the first impresario to cross the Orange River and "trek" through the villages of what are now the Free State and the Transvaal. Upon returning to Australia with a wide experience of the world, but little of its good things, Mr. Smythe devoted himself to concert management, until one day he "discovered" the Rev. Charles Clark's talents as a popular platform orator, and the field that Australia offered for lectures as a- form of entertainment. Mr Clark's first tour lasted over four yeaw, and, whether in Australasia, America, Canada, or South Africa, proved everywhere a quite remarkable success. Encouraged by this experience, Mr. Smythe determined to make the lecture business his specialty. A chance meeting with the; late Mr. F. W. Haddon, then editor of the Argus, in London led to an introduction to B. A. Proctor, the eminent astronomer?, who was induced to visit Australia. Then followed in quick succession visits by Archibald Forbes (the brilliant war correspondent), G. A. Sala, Dr. Ta-1-mags, Annie Besant, Moncure Conwaty, H. M. Stanley, and later, in conjunction with his eon, Mr. Carlyle Smythe, the tours, of Ma« O'Rell, Mark Twain, Charles Santley, and Sir Charles and' Lady Halle. Mr. Smythe's varied experiences in the course of his wajiderinsss liad made his mind a storehouse of pointed anecdote and good story, aavd he had often been urged to publish his reminiscences of the days when the "show business" in Australia and New Zealand was something of an adventure, and was even not without some features of romance; but he invariably replied that "it is so easy not to write a volume of reminiscences; besides, it is almost a distinction." Still, although Mr. Smythe would commit nothing to .print, his f-und of experiences made him a genial companion, for he was an excellent raconteur. He was also a capital letter-writer—in fact, his two hobbies- might, be considered social intercourse and letter-writing. He was a man of distinct personality, with a keen. sense ■ ajid relish of humour; and in a modest way he was a historical figure in early Australian Jife. Mr. Sm'ythe leares a -widow, who as Mlss Amelia Bailey, a'member of the Poussard and Douay concert party, a coloratura, soprano with a remarkable vocal range, was for many years a popular idol in the musical world of early Melbourne. ■ Mr. Carlyle Smythe, his son, has done a good deal of journalistic writing, and is also well known throughout AusU-a-la^ia. as conductor of tours for visiting "stag's."