DEATH OF VAUDEVILLE

Evening Star, Issue 19774, 26 January 1928, Page 6

DEATH OF VAUDEVILLE

LIGHT REVUE THE DEMAND METAMORPHOSIS OF EHTEBTAMEHT Vaudeville with its heterogeneous collection of clowns and singers, dancers and acrobats, ventriloquists and master magicians from the East, each giving his or her turn and final bow, has had its day. Light modern revue is the public demand of to-day. That is Sir Benjamin Fuller’s opinion. Although the picture show had become a part of the community’s everyday life, greater strides would still bo made in film production, he stated. Yet, despite the counter attractions of the movies, the radio, and the gramophone, he believed that the living actors would continue to be brought in contact with those who liked singing, dancing, and that type of entertainment. ‘‘ I am afraid that the old-time vaudeville show has had its day. Whore, ten years ago in America, there were 100 first-class theatres running nothing but vaudeville, to-day the theatres could be counted_ on the fingers of one hand. Relatively, the same can he said of England and Australia; in the latter country, there are not more than half a dozen straightout vaudeville houses. The modern light revue seems to be more to the public taste.” That is the opinion of a man with extensive experience of his profession. He saw the birth of the music hall. It is forty-five years since he went to hear his father sing at the Old Deacon’s Music Hall, adjacent to the Saddlers’ Wells Theatre, Clerkingwell, London. And he has a vivid recollection of the chairman with his back to tho stage, watching the performers by a mirror above him. The chairman chewed a bk cigar; his red handkerchief protruded from his soiled dress vest; his cronies were on either side of the table thoroughly enjoying the bill of fare provided in those early days of the music hall. And Sir Benjamin also witnessed tne modernisation brought about mainly by Sir Oswald Stoll by his show, at Cardiff, a semi-waxworks entertainment first staged in 1890. The coming and going of the ADDougall crusade against the music hall vulgarity was also seen by Sir Benjamin. He has watched the pictures attracting the big majority of playgoers, and has worked in every capacity in the theatre and outside it. Sir Benjamin has a thorough knowledge of his profession, and he _ has freshened his knowledge by occasional trips abroad. “ I feel sure,” said Sir Benjamin to a ‘Star’ man to-day, “that, generally speaking, we are quite abreast of the times, and the support we get gives weight to my claim that we give value for money.”