THE WILKES OF THE 'BLACK DOG’

Evening Star, Issue 23189, 11 February 1939, Page 4

THE WILKES OF THE 'BLACK DOG’

FAMOUS 8.8. C. CHARACTERS INTERESTING STAGE CAREERS A bouquet of chrysanthemums was handed to the receptionist at Broadcasting House, London, a few Thursdays ago. “ For Air and Mrs Wilkes,” said the two women who brought it. . They did so as a charming acknowledgment of the entertaining naif-hours that they—and the rest of the world—have been able to spend on Thursdays at Mr and Airs Wilkes’s hostelry, “ The Black Dog.” Airs Wilkes took the chrysanthemums back to the house in the country that is her homo when she isn’t on duty in her bar parlour. Outside “ The Black Dog ” she is known as Sunday Wilshin —“ Sunday ” because she was born on that day of the week and her father had seen a play of the same name the night before. (She has a brother who was named Elgin for no other reason that the family passed down an Elgin avenue on the way to his chrsteiling.) A part in the annual play of a school of deportment that she attended when she was nine turned Sunday Wilshiu’s thoughts to the stage. Since then she has been seen on the legitimate stage in plays varying from ‘ Peter Pan ’ to ‘ The Greeks Had a Word for It,’ in musical shows and revue (she went to New York in one of Andre Chariot’s productions), and in films such as ‘ Nine Till Six ’ and ‘ Princess Charming.’ But, she says, she never wants to star in a leading part—as long as she has plenty of good comedy lines, she is happier playing second lead.

Her personal pleasures come in gar.* dening and motoring—she is, in fact, motoring correspondent (the first in England) of a woman’s journal. And one of her most pleasant memories is of the dear old lady who wrote offering to come along to “ The Black Dog ” on Saturday nights to help in washing the glasses. ' As Cyril Nash, Mr Wilkes led an adventurous life in several parts of the world before he Settled down at “ The Black Dog”—four years in the teak forests of Siam, two more on the Gold Coast, shipping mahogany to Liverpool, another in South Africa. But after the War (he served with the Somerset Light Infantry) ambitions that commercial life had kept dormant insisted on recognition, and timber became important only as the boards of a stage. He joined a travelling theatre (Hermoine and Angela Baddeley were among his colleagues), toured Britain with it, then appeared in a show with Peggy O’Neil. After that Cyril Nash was Gerald du Alaurier’s understudy in ‘The Last of Airs Cheyney.’ Then came broadcasting—and he reckons that since 1924 he has been on the air close on a thousand times.

Outside “ The Black Dog’s ” parlour, Air Wilkes, as Cyril Nash, is known as an expert breeder of schnausser dogs (he has published a book, ‘ Yours Faithfully,’ that is the autobiography of his favourite dog). , “ But my dogs can’t give me more pleasure,” says Air Wilkes, than ‘ The Black Dog ’ does—l’ve never been connected with a happier enterprise, and never so touched as by the kind messages that came to me from listeners when 1 was in hospital recently.”