PLAYERS ON STRIKE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 126, 30 May 1944, Page 5

PLAYERS ON STRIKE

GLADYS MONCRIEFF 800-ED

oc SYDNEY, May 26. For the first time in her long .stage career, Australia's most popular singer Gladys Moncrieff, was boo-ed. me demonstration came not from an audience, but from actors and actresses who are on strike. Three J. C. Williamson theatres are involved in the dispute—His Majesty 3 and the Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, and the Theatre Royal, Sydney. . Gladys Moncrieff was boo-ed try a crowd as she left His Majesty's to drive to the Comedy. She played the lead at His Majesty's and sang at the Comedy. The Actors' Equity declared the strike because the three theatres, all owned by J. C. Williamson, Ltd., had included non-unionists in me casts. The theatres were picketed by the strikers, and only skeleton performances were presented to poor houses. While chorus girls urged people not to attend 'the Sydney Theatre Royal, theatre officials attempted to persuade them to enter the theatre. When chorus girls began handing out pamphlets to people in the street, the managing director of J. C. Williamson, Ltd. (Sydney), Mr. E. J. Tait, tried to push them away from the front of the theatre. He punched a bundle of pamphlets from under the arm of a member of the chorus and grabbed pamphlets from a member of the ballet. However, the girls succeeded in handing out many pamphlets. These stated that the improvised entertainment at the Theatre Royal was being presented by a few actors who were defying 99 per cent. of the Actors' Union.