FOOTLIGHT FLASHES

Evening Star, Issue 19894, 16 June 1928, Page 18

FOOTLIGHT FLASHES

[By LOITERER.]

Mr John Fuller is duo at Bluff by tho Manuka on Sunday, Mr Len Jackson, tho new English comedian now appearing at the Princess Theatre, who was secured by Mr John Fuller on his last trip to England, has appeared in many English productions, as principal comedian. Some of these were 4 Pockets,’ 4 That’s That,’ ‘Line Up,’ ‘Simple Life,’ ‘High Spirits.’ ‘ Gay Baby,’ ‘ Far East,’ ‘Ninety in the Shade,’ ‘Miss 1927,’ ‘ Miss 1928,’ ‘ How’s Things,’ 4 Don’t Say That,’ ‘Hello, Everybody,’ ‘Touch and Go.’ .Robert Roberts, who joined the Len Jackson Revue'last week as producer and character actor, was hero fifteen months ago at the head of the clever Bon Bon Revue Company. He has had wide experience in the production world, and in the last three years has written and produced three big pantomimes for tho Fuller firm. During tho Dunedin season of tho Fullcr-Gonsalez Grand Opera, commencing on Saturday evening, Juno 23, and extending to Saturday, July 7, thirteen night performances will be given and two matinees (Saturdays, Juno 30 and July 7). Ten different oporsis will be produced—a huge undertaking. ‘ll Trovatore,’ ‘Faust,’ 4 Lucia,’ 4 Rigoletto,’ and 4 Carmen’ will got two performances each, while 4 Norma,’ 4 Mignon,’ 4 Un Ballo in Maschcro,’ 4 La Traviata,' and ‘Barber of Seville ’ will each be played once only. Siguorina Flor, one of the prominent stars in the Fullcr-Gonsalez Grand Opera Company), comes from the Danish nobility. To a personality of i dainty charm she adds a voice full of charm and ease, and is very natural, lu the interpretation of Marguerite in ■ 4 Faust,’ she is said to embody all the naturalness and innocence of the character so wonderfully described by Goethe. In Sydney she also appeared in 4 Mignon,’ and won an instant success. The part of Mignon proved very suitable to Signorina Flor owing to tho personal charm with which she seems to invest every role she inter prets. As Elsa in 4 Lohengrin,’ also, sho proved fully equipped for a very difficult role requiring great technical knowledge of the art of song. Mr Louis Cottom, the dancer, vas married to Miss Violet Lister at Adelaide last month. Both are members of tho popular revue company tho Midnight Frolics. Mis Muriel Starr lias proved very popular at tho Palace Theatre, Sydney, where she is playing tho mystery drama 4 Whispering Wires.’ Her original season was to nave been a brief one, but she has already entered her fifth month. During the past few months the Fuller management has spent the best part of £IO,OOO in refurbishing His Majesty’s Tneatre, Wellington. Lace-web scats have been installed and cork lino, laid throughout. Lord Churston, described as a banker, of Lupton, Grisham, Devon, and Lancaster Gate terrace, London, was granted a decree nisi in the London Divorce Court recently against Jessie | Baroness Churston, formerly Denise |,Orme, tho actress. There was no do- | fence, and Lord Churston was given fthe custody of the four youngest chilLdren. The eldest child, a daughter, is 'married, and the second, a son, is the heir to the title. Lady Churston was accused of misconduct with Mr T. W. iWessel, of White House, Winslow, Bucks, who was ordered to pay costs. The engagement is reported from Australia of Pirie Bush to Miss Ellenor Scarfo, of Adelaide. Tho marriage will bo celebrated next mouth. Miss Scarfe is a real outdoor girl and a very fine horsewoman. Mr Bush has been a friend of the Scarfe family for some vears. He is a sou of Mr T. Bush, Wellington, and is appearing with Miss Margaret Bannerman in ‘Diplomacy. He started his stage career as a youth , with Fred Nihlo’s company. In recent years he has been associated with Irene Vanbrugh and Dion Boucieault, Renee .Kelly, and Margaret Lawrence. Mr Bush has also had some stage experience in New York and London. Mr John Brownlee, the young Geelong singer, whose return to Victoria with the Melba-Williamson Opera Company is one of the musical events of the year, considers that his most sensational stage experience was (luring the presentation of Strauss's ‘Salome’ one night in Paris. '‘Suddenly the lights fused, and twice darkness descended upon the Opera House,” he said. “It was a most impressive moment for this to happen, and, incidentally, added to the effect. The audience was waiting with its usual tenseness for the heal of Johu tho Baptist to be brought up on its charger from tho depths of the well. A sudden darkness fell and lasted for about three minutes, with the orchestra playing its ominous music. The silence of the audience could be almost felt. Truly, an occasion shat 1 shall never forget! It all seemed te ho so Scriptural and significant. This happened about three weeks before I left Paris. Some people thought that we bad contrived it for the sake of effect. Bur. no! It was, for once, a happy accident.” A critic, during the Fuller-Gonsalez Italian Grand Opera season in Australia, writes as follows:—“The music of 4 Norma ’ prepared tho way for a shoal of queries, partly based upon anachronisms. Beyond a doubt the stimulation of the season should induce a plunge into the literature of thc_ operas dry as most of it is to the ordinary reader. 4 Norma ’ was one of the most criticised of the productions, and many people opened their eyes widely when they heard the familiar melodies. 4 Why, we have heard that before,’ they exclaimed, and modern musical productions were referred to. That is ore of the mysteries of pretty melodies. They may recur many times, year after their creation, in works entirely wife rent from that of the original sotting. 4 Norma ’ gave food for discussion in musical circles of a purely technical character as well, particularly regarding the poverty of the music, in the accompaniments to the most beautiful melodies. Ballini died at an early age, and it is probable that he would have written better instrumental music to his operas had he lived to compose more of them. Some of the vocal music of ‘ Norma ’ is worthy even now of being placed upon the beautiful stream of modern fabric of instrumental colour pertinent to the dramatic situations, and tho tragedy of the iomantic beings who have tho centre of the stage.” It is forty years since this opera was produced in Melbourne, and its revival was a tremendous success. Mr Alfred Bishop, an actor formerly known in Australia, who had been blind since 1922, has died. His passing removes one whoso family roots had gone deep into theatrical history. Hia

JotfingS oa ffeo people of file Stage amf Sweea and oat the latest recorded Musis.

grandfather, James Woulds, shared tho management of tho Bath Theatre at one time with the great Macrcady. Mr Bishop first appeared on tho stage at tho Theatre Royal, Bristol, in January, 1885, in tho pantomime 4 Gulliver’s Travels,’ and after valuable provincial experience he began to make a name for himself in burlesque, which was one of the most popular forms of theatrical entertainment at that time. An early London appearance was at the famous Sadler’s Wells Theatre, in which he appeared in two plays on the same night. Ho was a member of the celebrated German Reed Company at St. George’s Hall for more than five years, and afterwards he played with the Bancrofts in such pieces as 4 Peirl,’ ‘The Rivals,’ and ‘Lords and Commons.’ Association with Henry Irving followed, and Mr Bishop accompanied Irving on his American tour in the early ’nineties. Returning to London, ho played with Wyndham (later Sir Charles Wyndham) in a variety of pieces. He played constantly until 1922, when ho was compelled to relinquish his profession through loss of sight. Among his later appearances were as Lord Loam in ‘ Tho Admirable Crichton ’ and as Jean in ‘ The Return.’ Miss Kate Bishop, who was tho favourite actress in Australia for many years, was a sister of_Mr Bishop, and Miss Marie Lohr was his niece. Athol Tier and Peggy Ross._ both of Australia, arc appearing in their vaudeville act in tho novelty melodrama, ‘The Spider,’ at the Winter Garden Theatre, London. They appeared here with the Fullers. John Ralston, the “heavy” of the J. C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Company, recently in Dunedin, is leaving with Mrs Ralston on a holiday trip to England when the company disbands at the end of the present Adelaide season. Byrl Walklcy, back in Australia from her New Zealand tour with ‘ Tip Toes ’ and ‘ Queen High,’ is going to Newcastle for a holiday, and she has-booked to sail for England by tho Narkunda in June. “I’m going to give_ it a year,” said Miss Walkley, “and if nothing marvellous happens to me during that time I am coming back to be domesticated and leave the stage.” The irony of fortune is in the London ‘Star’s’ disclosure that the_ late Harry Eelph, otherwise “ Little Tich,” the famous vaudeville artist, who resented a Sydney audience throwing pennies on the stage during his turn, died penniless, although he had been drawing £l5O a week for twenty years. During the last year of his life he earned nearly £3,000. Eight shillings, plus tax, will be the highest charge of admission made during the Fuller-Gonsalez Italian Grand Opera Company’s tour of New Zealand. In Australia, both during tho Sydney and Melbourne seasons, 10s ruled as top price, and both seasons were an enormous success. As a result of this extremely low charge of admission many people were able to see several of the operas, and in some instances seats were booked for the whole repertoire of fourteen operas. At the end of last month the Royal Welsh Ladies’ Choir was to have set out for a tour of Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, according to the Wellington ‘ Post’s ’ London correspondent. This is an organisation which has been in existence for over thirty years, the conductor being tho same lady who originally established it. Madame Clara Novello-Davies, the famous Welsh singer and teacher, is now in her sixty-seventh year. Very early she had the desire to let the world know something about Welsh singing and of linking the nation by song. An all-woman choir was the result, and so far back as 1894 they appeared before and sang for Queen Victoria at Osborne. As a sequel to tins they gave a command performance before the present King and Queen at Windsor a few weeks ago. It is almost decided that the next production of the company now appearing in Now Zealand in ‘ Tho Student Prince ’ and * Madame Pompadour ’ will be ‘The Vagabond King, wliich will be staged in Sydney at the conclusion of tho New Zealand tour. This has a reputation as a fine musical play. The music is by Rudolf Fnml, who was responsible for ‘ Rose Marie,’ and it is music of a far better class. New Zealand theatregoers who remember Lincoln P.luracr in ‘ Within the Law' on its first presentation here with Miss Muriel Starr will regret to learn of his death, which occurred at his Hollyood homo last month from an acute heart attack following a busy day playing in a comedy at the Roach Studio. Mr Plumer had been on the stage since early manhood, a successful actor in many New York productions; then with his wifo under contract to the Williamson organisation in Australia and New Zealand for several years; hack to the American stage again, then eight years ago to Hollywood and the pictures, where he remained till the day of his death. Ho was a member of the Masonic Order, an Elk, a member of the Lambs’ Club, the Two-Thirty-Three Club, the Actors Equity, and the Masquers. Lincoln Plumer is survived by Ins wife. Rose Spinny Plumer, to whom he had been happily married for thirty-one years.