DAME CLARA BUTT’S MEMOIRS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 202, 9 August 1928, Page 5

DAME CLARA BUTT’S MEMOIRS

ALLEGED REMARKS BY MELBA AUSTRALIANS STIRRED. [United Press Assn.—By Cable— Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Press Assa.l Sydney, Aug. 8. Australians have been stirred through a reported reference in Dame Clara Butt’s memoirs, just published in London, of a paragraph in which it is alleged that Dame Nellie Melba told her when coming to Australia the first time: “Sing ’em muck; it’s all they understand.” Dame Melba has disowned saying the offending words, and as a result of an interchange of cables it is explained that the reference crept into the book without Dame Clara Butt’s knowledge. The publication of the book has now been stopped and efforts are being made to recall copies issued. BOTH LIDIES URGED TO BE CALM. London, Aug. 8. “What did Dam© Melba say in 1906?” asks the “Daily Express” editorially. “If we may venture an opinion, the advice imputed to her is sound as applied to any country, although it is of the kind better spoken than repeated in writing. After all, Dame Nellie will be remembered more for what the highbrows might unpleasantly describe as the ‘muck’ on her programmes than for classical selections. Tosti’s ‘Goodbvo’ and ‘Down in the Forest’ were her ace and king of trumps. She always kept ‘Home, Sweet Home’ up her sleeve. We urge both ladies to be calm. Muck raking may be the pastime of a certain type of politician, but it is not for dames.”