OPERA WITH A HISTORY

Evening Star, Issue 18690, 19 July 1924, Page 10

OPERA WITH A HISTORY

‘THE BELLE OP STEW YORK.' SOME MEMORIES. Like ‘ Lcs Cloches’ and many other successful operas, no one believed in ‘The Belle’ at rehearsals at the New York

1 Casino, where Morton and Kerker’s opera first saw the footlights in 1897 (says a 1 writer in the Sydney ‘ Theatre ’). It had | been turned down everywhere on account of the Salvation Array scenes, in regard to which Morton, the librettist, was obstinate. The cast, pickedi from the stock Casino company, rehearsed bar “The Belle,” whose lines were read by the call boy. Edna Pettie, a chorus girl, called for a job, and the management, getting a brain wave, changed her name to Edna May and shoved the demure, plainlyclad girl into the role of “The Belle.” The first night was a sensational triumph. George Musgrove, thou running the London. Shaftesbury, came over to America to see the piece, and secured the English and Australian rights. Mnssv was said to have made a quarter of a million out of ‘The Belle.’ The gross proi fits of the first Loudon season were up- ! wards of £IOO,OOO. Most of the original American troupe went with ‘ The Belle ;to London, bar Dan Daly, the elderly | Bronson, who was getting £IOO a week. I" Call it £SO a week, Mr Daly," said Mussy. “Go to hell, Mr Musgrove,” said Daly, and 'walked out of the z'oom. The part of the polite lunatic was created by i Dave Warfield, a Jewish actor, whom Geo. Edwards once described as "the greatest artist he had ever seen.” America shai'es this view. Warfield made a big hit in ‘The Music Master,’ a play staged here by Hugh Ward at the Palace some years ago. London’s polite lunatic was Jimmie Sullivan. Frank Lawton, well-known in Australia with ‘ The Trip to Chinatown.’ and other troupes, played Blinky Bill as a whistling “tough” in the London show, and eventually whistled himself into a fatal consumption. Belle’s (first run at the Shaftesbury was 697 perI formanccs, and the run could 1 have doubled, but Musgrove, in a fit of temper, took advantage of a technical flaw and put up the notice. The American parties accepted it without discussion and silently sailed away. In truth they knew that a richer haiwest still awaited them in America, where the once-despised ‘ Belle ’ had meanwhile become an institution, too. Incidentally, Edba May’s salary was at the outset £8 a week, and might so have continued according to contzuct, but, of course, it did not. A strange yarn attaches to the English provincial rights. A scratch production at Mai’gate, an uncomfortable hotel, a bad dinner, and an unappreciative audience impressed Morton, the librettist, and Lederer, manager of the Now York Casino, with an intense desire to bo delivered, as you may say, from “Hull, Hell, and Halifax.” They snapped at an offer of £2,000 for their intez-est. At an eventual stock-taking it proved that the provincial rights had yielded the (Musgrove estate £87,000. And ‘The Bello’ is still a valuable property. Tiie piece was introduced to Sydney by Musgrove’s troupe at Her Majesty’s on May 6, 1899. Most of the principals were American, and the cast was: Bronson, Oscar Girard; Harry Bronson, Ghas. Kenningham; Blinky Bill, J. B, Rome; Polite Lunatic, W. L. Don; Snifkins, Percy Denton ; Billy Breeze, Tom Foster; Mugg, A. Jackson ; Portuguese Twins, Soalcy and Selby; Fifi, Bello Buckin'; Cora, Louise Boyce; Kissie, Beatrice Lennox; Mamie, M. Ferguson; and Violet Gray, Louise ilepner. Albert Whelan played a sinall part, and aftenvards, when Girard died, he played Ichahod Bronson. Gerald Coventry stage managed, and Alfred Moulton conducted. When the Pollards introduced the piece to New Zealand Die same j-car Whelan was the Bronson, succeeded in time by AH. Stephens, to the “ Bello of May Beattv and Polite Lunatic of Wm, Percy and "tough of Harry Q.uealy. Most of tho characters in the opera bad their prototypes in mummers on the American boards. Coin was Lilian Bussell, Snifkins was Dc Wolf Hopper, Pifl was Anna Held, and Mugg was Chevalier’s “Fallen Star.” The Bronsons were supposed to be tho Rockefellers, father and sou, and' Bill was Kid tho then pugilistic idol, and V iolet Glay was a stage version of General Booth’s daughter. Albeit it had a big first night in Now York, the piece was never a success there, and only lasted six weeks at the Casino; but Washington, Chicago, etc,, took it to their hearts, and the money poured in. Musgrove saw it at Philadelphia, and also signed up tho full American chorus, the first time tho members of “ the coal box ” had been taken from America to England. In the colonies our lads and lassies proved equal to the job. Florence Young, Rose Musgrove, and Olive Goodwin have been “Belles” in subsequent Australian revivals, and good representations of old Bronson were Fred Graham and Teddy Nable.