SOCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 98, 23 October 1934, Page 13

SOCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

WOMAN PAGEANT "MASTER"

A FULL-TIME CAREER

By one of those odd and not-to-be-forgotten trends of popular fancy, pageants, a form of entertainment hitherto fairly limited in appeal, have grown to bo almost a craze in England, writes a London correspondent of tho "Sydney.Morning Herald." Last summer's good weather brought forth a perfect crop of them, and this year hardly a week of the season has gone unmarked by a pageant somewhere in England, and the two largest, the historical pageant at Runnymede and tho Pageant of Parliament at the Albert Hall, have been Social highlights. Thousands of performers, mostly women and girls, take part in the pageants, but few people who enjoy the spectacle realise what intense and highly skilled organisation goes into their preparations. BRITAIN'S LEADING PAGEANT MASTER. A woman, Miss Gwen Lally, is at present Britain's leading pageant master (and one of the few women pageant "masters" in the world). In a chat this week in her,cosy St. John's Wood flat she told me how, from accidental beginnings, the organising of pageants has grown to bo a full-time, all-the-year-rouiid career for her, her working "days" often extending from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m., and, incidentally, often keeping two secretaries employed. Miss Lally was the personality behind the recent Runnymede pageant, in which 5000 performers appeared. It was viewed by 15,000 people daily, and Miss Lally had tho spectacular task of directing it from the "crow's nest" above the centre of the grandstand, j whence she was in personal touch with every ono of the performers. Cunningly placed in the roof were loud speakers, inaudible to the spectators, but perfectly audible to tho performers. In front of her was a microphone and at one sido switches which flashed instructions to the band. On the other side was a prompter with a typescript i copy of the whole pageant and every entry and exit. The microphone"- could be connected with tho dressing tents as well as the arena.

A distinguished looking, grey-haired

woman who favours the ultra-severe, tailored type of dressing, Miss Lally is gifted with a particularly attractive low-pitched speaking voice. She was originally a Shakespearean actress, beginning her career at His Majesty's Theatre, and working for three years under Sir Herbert Trees-management. She has happy recollections, too, of working with Dame Sybil Thorndike for several years at the Old Vie, playing men's and boys' parts, and with Irene Vanbrugh, and she also had a year on tho music halls, playing a sketch lasting fifteen minutes, in which she appeared as characters ranging from Henry V and Hamlet to Beau Brummel, Charles 11, and a modern young man. As all h^r roles were masculine, Miss Lally believes she can claim the distinction of being tho only actress who has never worn skirts on tho stage. ' Some years ago Miss Lally was asked to produce Shakespeare's "Henry VIU" as an out-of-doors pageant play. She had never beforo worked as producer, but the experiment was so successful that she found herself becoming increasingly associated with pageants, until she is now occupied constantly with their production. HAS OFTEN TO BE A MARTINET. Miss Lally's personality is breezy, but when on tho job she has often to be a martinet. She will not allow any player who wears spectacles or a wrist watch to appear in the arena with them, and if there is demur will quickly replace them with other performers sooner than tolerate any anachronism. In 1931 an American film director offered a fabulous sum for a seat at the Warwick pageant. He did not mind where it was, as he did not so much want to see the pageant as to see the woman who could make thousands of performers act for nothing, he said.

Many of London's most notable young "lovelies" appeared at Runnymede, but, while making no comparisons, Miss Lally says that it is among villagers that she has found tho greatest acting talent. And she told me that quite the most arduous part of her work is that of keeping the thousands of performers and assistants on mutually harmonious .terms. Sometimes old village feuds which has lasted for 200 yeari have been buried when individuals were asked to work side by side in pageants.

Miss Lally has been booked for an eight weeks' lecture tour on her work in the United States and Canada. Sir Barry Jackson has entrusted to her a lecture on "Pageantry in the Theatre" at the Malvern Festival.