WARDROBE QUEEN

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 30 September 1933, Page 13

WARDROBE QUEEN

LOSS TO BRITISH STAGE. ROMANTIC CAREER ENDED. Stageland has lost its cpicen of the wardrobes. Mrs Elorence Field, er Mrs Field-Wait as she was in private life, died a few weeks ago. For fifty years as wardrobe mistress she had dressed the stars of the English stage, and for the past fifteen years she was wardrobe mistress at Drury (Lane Theatre. Though she was 78 years of age and had brought up a family of nine daughters and one son, up to a few days before her death Mrs Field still Climbed the 200 steps to her office at the top of the theatre, and 'through her hands passed all the dressing of spectacles, involving scores of players. | Mrs Field began her work in eou-^

nection with the first production of “lolanthe" at the .Savoy Theatre in 1882. In the years that followed she worked at the Adelphi, the Gaiety, and Daly’s. She supervised costumes for Kate Cutter, for Marion Terry, for Marie Studholme and “The Jersey Lily." She was responsible for all the costumes for the first production of the “Merry Widow," when Lily Elsie played the widow. In 1914 Mrs Field embarked on a business venture in Canada, but lost everything, having even to sell the treasured diamond brooch that George Edwardes gave her as a memento of her long service. One of Mrs Field’s nephews who has attained eminence in the theatre is Mr Nelson Keys. He may be said to have started his career in Mrs Field’s draw-ing-room, for it was there, at the age of 12, he began to give his imitations, appearing from behind a screen,.