COMMAND PERFORMANCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 8, 7 December 1935, Page 10

COMMAND PERFORMANCE.

ROYALTY IN GAY MOOD. The King and Queen were laughing heartily within five minutes of taking their places in the Royal box at the Palladium for the recent Royal Command performance of variety (writes a London correspondent). It was one of the merriest evenings of Jubilee Year. The performances in aid of the Variety Artists’ Benevolent Fund had been postponed since May because of the Jubilee celebrations. Their Majesties and the Duchess of York were cheered by an audience of nearly 3000 on their arrival in the theatre, and by a large crowd which had waited for nearly two hours in Argyll Street to see them arrive. The King was wearing a white gar denia in his.buttonhole. The Queen was in a shimmering blue gown, and the Duchess wore an evening frock of silver tissue with puffed shoulders. The fund expects to benefit by £SOOO from the performance. The Royal box was decorated with yellow chrysanthemums and deep red carnations. There was a bouquet of large pink carnations before the Queen’s chair. The box was equipped with a miniature loud-speaker, which could be controlled by His Majesty by moving a dial placed by his seat. It was easy to-see that the Royal party had arrived in perfect holiday mood for the performance. AVith them in the box were the Dowager Countess of Airlie, the Earl of Muster, Sir Bryan Godfrey-Faussett and Sir Derek Keppel A rousing opening number called “A Flower Market” seemed to be well appreciated, especially for the antics of Nervo and Knox, Naughton and Gold, and Flanagan and Allen. " Joe Jackson’s famous silent comedy, turn as a tramp who, with the connivance of the audience, steals a bicycle, made the Queen laugh repeatedly. Stanley Holloway, with another monologue on the immortal Ramsbottom family, made the King sit back and chuckle frequently. He leaned forward several times to explain allusions to the Duchess of York-