REVUE MANAGER’S FAILURE

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 November 1931, Page 4

REVUE MANAGER’S FAILURE

<£lo,ooo LOST ON TWO.SHOWS. LONDON, September 9. Mr Andre Eugene Maurice Chariot, theatre manager, described as of the Prince of Wales’s Theatre, Coventrystreet, W., attended in the London Bankruptcy Court yesterday for his public examination, before Mr Registrar Stiebel. The gross liabilities, according to the debtor’s statement of affairs, amount to £60,284, and of these £44,407 are expected to rank for dividend. The assets consist of cash £l5, deposited with a solicitor for costs of the bankruptcy petition, and a bad book debt of £405. The debtor began business as a producer of revues in 1915. He had capital nrovided by his “backers,” and to \begin with his earnings amounted to £3,000 a year. In 1917 Chariot Limited was formed to acquire his business, and he received ninety-eight £1 fully-paid shares, and £20,000 in bonds for its goodwill. As chairman of the company he was paid £6O a week. In November, 1926, the company went into liquidation. Bonds amounting to £9,000 were then outstanding. Debtor acquired in 1917 the residue of the lease and reversionary, twentyone years’ lease of the Prince of Wales’s Theatre at a rental of £6,000 per annum, afterwards increased by £1,400 for the rights in a box and eight stalls. < Mr Chariot agreed that his obligations in connection with the theatre and another lease amounted to £7,900 per annum, but explained that he expected the theatre would earn £12,000 per annum. The theatre was never without a tenant, and did not feel the effects of the slump until last year. Chariot Limited‘ received the benefit of everything. He obtained nothing beyond his salary of £6O a week.

Asked by the Official Receiver whether he could say that he had lived within his income, the debtor replied that he had with the exception that perhaps he did not make enough provision for income-fax.

He was taken ill in June, 1920, with the result that two shows involved him in debts amounting io over £lO,OOO. On his return to business he found it necessary to mortgage leases and borrow £5,000 from moneylenders. These loans, however, only proved a palliative, liabilities amount, ing to £40,000 having piled up against him. In 1925, in order to get out of his financial troubles, he entered into an. agreement with A.G. (1923) Limited. The examination was concluded,

The debtor has given as the causes of his failure and insolvency liabilities incurred and accepted on behalf of third parties, and the slump in theatre business last year, and consequent decline in the value of the lease of the Prince of Wales’s Theatre..