OSCAR ASCHE’S MEMOIRS

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 November 1929, Page 8

OSCAR ASCHE’S MEMOIRS

FORTUNES WON AND LOST. LONDON, October 29. The newspapers give prominence to the story of Mr. Oscar Asche’s life, published to-day, in which Mr. Asche describes his career, including the days when he was down and out, “dossing it” on the Embankment, and the time when “Chu Chin Chow” made him London’s most successful actormanager, up to the present when, aged 58, he is setting out to redeem his fortunes after his bankruptcy. “My . fault is that 1 cannot sav'e,” says. Mr. Asche. He reveals that lie wrote “Chu Chin Chow” during a wet week at Manchester, when it was impossible „to go out. His wife,: Lily Brayton, suggested, “Why not write that pantomime you are always talking about?”. A shorthand typist was called in, and Mr. Asche dictated from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. The play was completed in London in a fortnight. “Chu Chin Chow” was shown to several producers, who declared that it was no,good, but Mr. Asche netted well over £200,000 in royalties' “Everyone, connected with it made a fortune,” he says. “Some kept it; I did not.”

Similarly, at greyhound racing he. lost money. -He then came to the money-lenders, and finally his farm in Gloucestershire from 'first to last cost £lOO,OOO. Mr. Asche considers that the most urgent improvement needed for the London stage is bigger theatres, with no seat above 5/-. They could thus compete with the cinemas.