SPOTLIGHT FLASHES.

Evening Star, Issue 12871, 21 July 1906, Page 12

SPOTLIGHT FLASHES.

[By Call Boy.] BOOKINGS. His Majesty’s Theatre. ‘The Fatal Wedding.’—To July 21. F. Andrews (Edison’s Pictures).—July 24 to August 4. Dr Nisbet (Lecture). —August 10. Dunedin Competitions Society.—October 2 to 12. H, Rickards.—November 12 to 17. J. C. Williamson (Tittell-Brune).—No-vember 19 to December 4. J. 0. Williamson (‘Squaw Mad*). —December 11 to 22. ‘ The Little Stranger.’—December 24, 1906, to January 5, 1907 J. and N. Tait iMdlle Dolores). — January 9, 11, and 14, 1907. West’s Pictures and Brescians.—Febrnarv 15 to March 2, 1907. J. C. Williamson (Royal Comic Opera Company).—March 7 to 21, 1907. J. and N. Tait.—March 29 to April 6, 1907. Princess Theatre. W. Anderson (Opera Company).—September 26 to October 10. E. Geach (‘The Man From Mexico’). — October 11 to 17. W. Anderson (Dramatic Company).—December 26. 1906. to January 22, 1907. Chas. Holloway.—March 23 to April 5, 2207. W. Anderson (Dramatic Company).—December 26. 1907, to January 25, 1908. Bland Holt.—November 25, 1908, to January 2.1909. Chas. Holloway.—February 15 to 27 1909.

I learn on excellent authority that one of the most promising London “stain’’ is anxious to visit Australasia., and has asked a gentleman concerned in colonial management to arrange a tour on terms. Seeing that we are to be afforded an opportunity of witnessing one of the latest London successes, ‘The Little Stranger,’ ini a few months, it may not ho uninteresting to state how the early Antipodean production comes about. When the Knight-Jcffries Benson was drawing to a close in Adelaide some two months ago, Air A r arna (at present in this City with the ‘ Fatal Wedding ’ Company) thought that ‘The Little Stranger,’ which was being player] with great puccess in I.ondon, would be a splendid drawing card for Australia. Being a personal friend of Mr Michael Morton, who had written the ‘ Resurrection ’ while Mr Varna was rtrure manager for Mr Beerbobm Tree at His Majesty's, London, he clodded to cable Home asking for the Australasian richts for (he ‘Stranger.’ and vitbin a few days a replvwas received mentioning terms, and the offer was immediately closed with. Air Meyncll being on the spot, be and Mr Varna put their beads together in regard to the tour, and they arranged with Mr Allan Hamilton to take over the business management Mr Hamilton immediately secured tie Carnival dates at the Princess, Melbourne, and it was decided that on October 20 ‘The Littla Stranger’ should make his bow lo a colonial audience. The season will be for three weeks, and will be followed by a like season at tie Palace. Sydney, immediately after which a quick run through New Zealand will be entered on, tho opening performance being given it Wellington on December 12, and the Dunedin season beginning on December 24. Of course the great difficulty with this nlay was to get a suitable child, and Air “Meynell, who left for the Old Country some tveeks ago, has advised bv cable that he has managed to secure “ The Baby,” which is interpreted to mean that ho has effected an engagement with the boy who created the principal part with Frank Cuxznn’s company at the London Criterion. ‘ The Fatal Wedding.’ on the other hand, depends for its success on a suitable exponent of a girl’s part, the little mother. , William E. Jones, one of the oldest of circus identities, died at Sydney, from heart failure, on the 4th inst. at the age of sixtyfour. Air Jones had been associated with almost every Australian circns of any note for over fifty years. In 1873 ho was brought out to the colonies as a tumbler and rider by the late Signor Chiarini, but of late i years he mostly went in for horse training, and paid several visits to Dunedin as assistant to the late Dan Fitzgerald, of Fitzgerald Bros.’ circus. Mr Reginald Roberts, of the Royal Comic Opera Company, underwent medical treatment Ln Sydney for a slight attack of appendicitis Air Bland Holt is doing excellent business at the Sydney Royal, his latest production being ‘With Flying Colors.’ Other Sydney attractions at present include the Marie Narelle concerts, an amateur production of the opera ‘Carmen,’ and Bostock and Wombwell’s Circus. The Willoughby-Ward Company are drawing crowded houses in Alelbournc at the Princess’s with ‘The Alan from Mexico.’ At the Royal, the Anderson Company are appearing in a new melodramatic production with the suggestive title of ‘The Asraesin.’ In the musical sphere, the recitals of Mr Edwin Lemaro on the improved Town Hall organ form a prominent feature. It is reported that Professor Hugo Heermann, the great violinist, who some time ago visited this colony, will shortly leave Frankfort-on-Alain to become associated with, the Chicago Musical College—the largest inriitution of its kind in the United States. Before taking up the post of violin professor formerly held hr Emile Sairret he goes to Paris lo act as one of the jury in the grand concouro of tire Paris Con■servaterv. ATls*-.' T/i’lah APCarthv, who was recenflv married to Mr Granville Barker, the actormanager of the Court Theatre, crested the part of Ann Wbitefield in ATr G. Bernard Shaw’s plar ‘Alan and Superman,’ and when the play was revived at the Court Theatre last autumn Mr Barker plaved the part of John Tanner, the man whom Ami captivates and mantes in opito of his determination to resist love and remain single. It is said that both bride and groom, like the author of ‘ Man and Superman,’ are vegetarians. The contract which Air J. C. Williamson has with Mr George Edwardes for the first option on all the plays produced by the latter in London has just been renewed for a number of years. If the visit to Australia of Air Charles iWaldron, Aliss Ola Jane Humphrey, and the other oversea members of Air J. G. Williamson’s new dramatic company had ended where it began, they would have gone away with very unpleasant memories of this land. In the first place, their boat (the Sonoma) was several days behind time, and only reached Sydney on Friday evening, the 29th June, at an hour which prevented the Health Officer’s inspection until tho following morning. No mail train leaves Svdney for Melbourne on Saturdays, lend thinking to save time Air WTliamson’s representatives burned the newcomers on board the Orient, which left at midday and |Was timed to reach Melbourne early on Monday morning. Instead of this, the tetearner ran into the exceptionallv heavy weather prevalent on the coast at the time and only reached the wharf at five o’clock sn the afternoon. A rehearsal was called for at seven o’clock the same evening, and thenceforward the company worked literally gay and night on the preparation of ‘The Squaw Man.’ and practirvwlly lived in the theatre for the whole of tho period, it re-’ bains to add that no hint of the strain thi a [continuous work must have entailed was jopservable in tho finished acting of the

members of the organisation on the open-' ing night. Mr G. B. Lewis, the , veteran Victorian actor and theatrical manager, who died at Melbourne this week, was born in London in 1819, and joined a circus as an equestrian at the age of fourteen. During the years 1849 and 1851 bo travelled the Continent, and performed in all the large cities. At the great carnival at Rome he received £IOO a night. His travelling was profitable, and he amassed a large fortune, and when he went to Australia in 1854 bo took with him £50,000. He built the Princess Theatre in Melbourne —then a circus—at a time when a common laborer received 22s a day. His management of this establishment was so costly that at the end of a year he paid 20s in the £ and withdrew, with a fortune of 8s 6d, to start life with again. He travelled the colonies j and China, and made another fortune, but 1 gave up the circus, and took to the drama i m 1864. He married Kate Edouin, and made several trips to India and China, making money fast. Latterly, however, he was not so successful financially, and he wisely determined to retire while he still possessed enough to keep .dm comfortably 1 in old age, but the financial crisis and bank , failures deprived him of nearly everything, and he died poor. Mr John Prouse and Iris son. Mr William Preuse, are expected to arrive back from England and America by the next San Francisco mail boat.

Miss Edyth Latimer, who toured Australasia as a member of Mr Wilson Barrett’s company, is to accompany her husband, Mr William Haviland, pi a, twenty-four-wcoks' tour of South Africa. The towns to be visited are Cape Town, Dux ban, Johannesburg, and Pretoria, and the plays presented will include Mr Corny ns Oarr’ft version of ‘Oliver Twist’ and Mr Kinsey Peile’s adaptation of ‘Tho Man Who Was,’ revivals of ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Oth llo,’ and the production of a new play of the Restoration period specially written by Air G. R. Sims. The record of the activities of the dramatic profession for the. benefit of sufferers from the San Francisco disaster stands as a monument to the generosity, unselfishness, and broad humanity of the players and others associated with the American theatre, unparalleled by any kindred showing by ;aiy other class or profession in the history of misfortune and its alleviation.—‘New York Dramatic Mirror.’

j Miss Leila Douhlcday, a musical prodigy from Melbourne, recently appeared in Sydney in the double role of pianist and violinist. There arc many people (says the ‘Telegraph’) who can perform acceptably on both these instruments, but it is exceedingly rare for a child of twelve years of age to accomplish the double success Miss Doubleday achieved. Though quite unknown to the Sydney public beyond the reports published of her reception in Melbourne, to which city she belongs, the Centenary Hall was I thronged, so that her brief visit will net • her £SO. Her Melbourne fund, which is j in the hands of a committee, amounts to • £6OO, made up of the proceeds of one concert and £3OO in subscriptions. In addition, thirty admirers in Melbourne have agreed to subscribe a guinea each per annum for five years. Miss Doubleclay is, therefore, enabled without delay to go to Lurope and cultivate her exceptional gift of music amid the best conclitions for its development. Hex* mother goes with her, and they leave at once for London. Miss Doubleday has yet to make her choice wholly of the piano or violin. It is not certain yet which she will confine herself to. Musicians of exi pencnce like Herr Hugo Heerman and Mr Marshall Hall advise no hasty ! decision. The right _ instrument will j ln , . 0 !* rno assert its pre-eminence, j -Miss Hi.da Spong writes to a Sydney I l rien d she is likely to make a tour of | Australia in two years’ time. She has j “long had it m her mind to come back to dtfir Australia, hut it was necessary to .1 make a name first. 0 Since leaving "Aub- : t-nua Miss Spong has made great headway ' on the comedy stage, and recently she . took the part in ‘Joseph Entangled ’ in New York. Her leisure time ; she passes with her parents on a comfort- : able estate of fourteen acres at Amityville, Long Island, only thirty miles from New loik. Mr W. B Spong, the refined scenic artist, who in well remembered in con.ne'’tion with the Brough and Boucicault Gbmpuny. writes that his daughter’s career is singularly unlike what it was in Australia “A play_fe produced in New York, and when it is taken to the country the tour generally extends to all parts of the Stated, and that takes up the whole year. One year, one play; so that Hilda has appeared m fewer plays hex - e in eight years than she did in eight months in Australia, and with ; few’ exceptions in comedy only. At the time of writing (May) she is just about to make an important change in her a.rrange- | meats. Up to now she has remained under | the management of the Brahmans, but this autumn she is going to star under the manI agement of Walter Lawrence, who has ; several tneatres in New York, and works [ fbe States through the Shubert theatres, j She opens in a comedy named ‘Lady Jim,’ j by a new author, who has fitted her with the part of a breezy, good-natured lady of the type that Orton furnished her with when she appeared here in ‘Lady Huntsworth’s Experiment ’ and ‘ Wheels Within Whe-Ls.’ Her success in these plays until the Press and public all over the State-; I makes me very sanguine in regard to her new venture, and I hope that, if not next year, at leart the year after, she will be paring a visit to Australia, in which case. I shall myseli see old Sydney again. Hilda is now playing in New York in a piece called ‘The American Lord,’ and is able to spend Sunday and Monday with us, but the piece has not caught on much, and we are hoping to see the season closed in time to give her a few weeks’ rest. The incessant travelling, covering some 5,000 or 6.000 miles in seven months, sometimes ten performances a week, is of a character which only the Strongest men and women can stand. _ If this is" true of those at the top, like Hilda, imagine what a life it must be for the rank and file, who cannot afford sleepers and the best hotels.’’ Mr William Collier was accorded a most cordial send-off from Melbourne on Wednesday, July 4. Tiie day is, of course, the greatest occasion for American celebrations (Independence Day), and this fact, coupled with the presence in Hobson Bay of the United States cruiser Baltimore, in- , spired Mr Williamson with the idea of making the farewell performance a, typi- ! enlly national one. Her Majesty’s Theatre j was therefore hung with flags, in which “old glory” predominated, and the officers and men of the warship were the raiests of the management. The presence of so many of their fellow-citizens in the audience reflected also upon the spirits of the j players, who never appeared to better adj vantage—a fact which the large assemblage j noted with evident appreciation. Last Saturday (July 7) Mr Collier made his first | appearance at Her Majesty’s Theatre, SydI ney, before an audience which fi’led every j part of the_ home, and gave every indica--1 tiou of their thorough enjoyment of that clever and laughable farce comedy ‘On the ; Quiet,’ which went with a roar from beginning to end. It would appear, indeed, that the Sydney season wall be a continued -triumph for the brilliant young comedian | Brinn, a new artist at the Sydney Tivoli, gives a clever and novel turn under the title i ‘ Pastimes on a Battleship.’ The opening scene is a battleship’s deck, whereon parade i some Jack tans looking to their duties. The captain, Brinn, enters with the trumpet’s ' flourish, and immediately gets to work. He 1 playfully fastens a 951b projectile shell to a chain, seizes the chain Between his teeth and swings the weight backwards and forwards over his head and beneath his legs. Eventually he allows the shell to- fall on his neck, runs it along bis shoulder and am, and thence to the ground. Any su'picious minds were set at rest by the fact that the shell in its short fall to the ground smashed a hole in the stage. Brinn’s next act was to twist a projectile weighing 1741b on the end of a ram. The other end of the run he balanced on his chin, then knocked it away, and received the full weight of the shell on his back, guiding it along his arm to a stout wooden platform placed at his feet by the attendant. This feat was followed by one of juggling -and strength, - pretty in effect. Brinn spun a steenng- 1 wheel on the end of an anchor. The anchor’s j other end he inserted in one of the handles ku£P steering-wheel, whkh had a, cor-

responding socket. Then into the handle of the wheel immediately beneath the one joined to the lower end of the anchor he inserted a gun »od. and balanced the whole structure ou his chin. The wheels revolved in different directions with pretty effect. Finally, five men hoisted tho-gun, carriage, and equipment into the air hy means of ropes and pulleys. The whole was lowered on to Brinn’s jaw, where he had fastened a socket to make a connection, and, with incredible strength, he ..balanced the full weight while the gun was fired by an assistant. -

The recent visit of the Vicnnee©- Choir to London wan duo entirely'to the’generosity of Herr Arthur Krtipp, -Who,, not content with giving the choir a’ wonderful dinner at the Savoy, defrayed the oast of the journey and the choristers’ stay in London. The ohoir, who were well received during their etay in the city, had the honor of singing before the King and Queen at Buckingham Palace on May 28. They numbered 225. It is reported that Mr Frank Gardner made an offer of £50,000 the exclusive control of the services for the next seven years of Mischa Elman, but the offer was not accepted. Three of the dramatic pieces recently secured for Australasia by Mr. J. C., Williamson have most evidently scored separate successes, according to^advices,received in Melbourne a few days ago. ‘ The Lion and the Mouse’ had a most popular reception wlven it was first staged in Loudon at the end of May, and the critics agreed in prophesying for it a long and successful carter. ‘Brigadier Gerard’ has been drawing excellent houses for months past, and it is still so strong an attraction that Mr Lewis Waller has postponed the dates of his next production. Last, but by no means least, Pinero’s powerful play, ‘His House in Order,’ though comparatively in its infancy, has already been translated into Italian, and as ‘La Casa in Ordine’ it* made a profound impression on the theatregoers of Milan a few weeks ago. The “ Besses o’ the Barn Brass Band,” which has been engaged by the Messrs Tait for an Australasian tour, will open at the Christchurch Exhibition in January, playing for a fortnight. There are thirty performers in this band, which comes from Wbitefield, near Manchester, and takes its name from a quaint old Lancashire village called Besses o’ the Barn. The band was organised in that place, then a little hamlet, more than a century ago, as a string band, and late in George the Third’s reign it became a reed band, and in 1853 a brass band. The Besses won their first prize in 1821, in a contest with the bands engaged in the coronation procession of George IV., and they won similarly the first prize at the Coronation of Queen Victoria in 1837. Since February, 1884, when Mr Alexander Owen assumed directorship, this band has won 151 first prizes, 24 second, and 18 third, in 190 competitions. In 1892 the Besses held every challenge cup in Great Britain. In September, 1903, they won the £250 trophy at the Crystal Palace national championship contest, which carries with it for one year the brass band championship of Great Britain and the colonies. The players are cotton-spinners and working men in other situations in the Midlands of England. Last year they were commanded to appear before the King and Queen at Windsor Castle, just prior to their tour through France. In Paris they appeared before President Lonbet and the British Ambassador. They made a great sensation, and the conductor was decorated. They are now tearing America, and will reach San Francisco so as to sail for New Zealand early in December. Their entire stay in Australasia will be limited to ten weeks.

The Royal Comic Opera Company have just begun a four weeks’ season in Adelaide, during which time ‘The Little iwichus,’ ‘The Shop Girl,’ ‘The Girl from Kays,’ ‘ The Country Girl,’ and ‘Paul Jones’ will be played. On August 11 the most popular of all Mr Williamson’s companies will be welcomed back to Melbourne in ‘ The Little Alichus. ’ A tremendous amount of interest was excited recently in London by a libel action brought by Air C. M. S. M'Lellan, author of ‘ Leah Kleschna,’ against Air Charles Hannam, who had declared in a letter to the theatrical Press that the drama was a plagiarism on his own play entitled ‘ The Coachman with the Yellow Lace,’ which, he asserted, had exactly the same motive, though one was a drama and the other a comedy. The case occupied the court for several days, and naturally a great crowd of well-known theatrical and society people followed its course with the keenest attention. Air M'Lellan eventually gained the verdict, asking only for nominal damages. During his evidence he told a romantic little story of how ‘ Leah Kleschna ’ came to be written. While he and his wife were in Paris their attention was attracted by a refined young girl whose actions were not always in accord with her appearance. One day they saw her evidently quarelling with a most pronounced-looking old scoundrel, and forthwith formed the opinion that she was acting under his compulsion. A night or two later Mrs Al'Lellan dreamt that she saw a woman burglar in their room, and it was that dream which gave Mr M'Lellan the first idea for the play which was subsequently to be so successful. Arrangements have been completed whereby Miss Tittell Bruno will commence a special four weeks’ season at Sydney on August 4, with the object of enabling Sydneyites to see her in ‘Dorothy Vernon, of Haddon Hall.’ It was the rearrangement of the tour that necessitated the visit to New Zealand being deferred. As already mentioned, this will begin at Wellington on September 5, Dunedin will be visited towards tho end of November.