DANCE BAND LEADER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22344, 15 February 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

DANCE BAND LEADER

MAN OF MANY PARTS M THOROUGHLY DOMESTICATED " NIGHT CLUBS DETESTED The idea that all musicians, artists, and actors are temperamental, inconsistent, eccentric in their private lives is a fallacy which has increased rather than diminished during the last few years, writes Mrs. Jack wife o the popular English.dance band leader. Yet my own personal experience teaches me that creative people are not necessarily odd in their behaviour. Consider for a moment the exacting demands made on such a person as my own husband; consider the strain of working ten and thirteen hours a day at perhaps the most difficult of all jobs —that of entertaining others. Do you really think that Jack has the opportunity or desire to be temperamental? The busy rounds of film making, appearances on the stage, broadcasting, recording, and rehearsing are sufficient in themselves to tax his mental and physical resources to the limit. Yet, in addition to the creative side of his work, ne haa to spend at least a couple of hours each morning in his office consulting his managers and secretaries, discussing important matters relating to his business, arranging new programmes, and fixing up contracts. No wonder, then, that my Jack, when he is at home, is thoroughly domesticated. Nor is it surprising that he should hate " night clubs " and detest so many aspects of the supremely sophisticated environment in which he

spends so much of his time. I once sat down and wrote a list enumerating his worst qualities.. They included untidiness and bad temper. But those are little things and, on the whole, Jack manages to be fairly domesticated.

We live in North London, in a house which Jack designed himself. Here it is that he relaxes, spending a good deal of his time in the garden, playing with Peter —our wire-haired terrier —and reading detective and adventure stories. I doubt if Jack could live without animals round him. In addition to Peter we have Benjamin, a huge Alsatian; Percy, another terrier, the quaintest little chap you ever saw, and one of the " sportiest " of dogs; and Nigger, the cat, an enormouß Persian. Oh, and I must mention David and Goliath, the two goldfish which I bought in the Strand one day for sixpence each. We also have three horses, .which are at the farm in Sussex, and when it is possible for Jack to leave his work, if only for a few hours, we fly down there and enjoy what we both consider the grandest of all pastimes — riding. Fortress the Second is an enormous mare, a steeplechaser, which Jack

bought some months ago. Melton, which Jack bought for me from the Master of the East Sussex Hunt, is a perfect darling and has a temperament like that of a aog, but I find him a little too much for me! Whenever he sees a fence or a hedge he thinks it is there for him to jump! But to me the best of all is old Robin, the one I always ride. He is a real " veteran," and his experiences during the War .would make a book well worth reading. When I see Jack in his riding-breeches and boots taking horses over five-foot-six jumps in the paddock at the back of the farm or out hunting, it is hard for me to realise that this is the same Jack I see a few hours later standing in front of his band on the stage, entertaining the publio. He is never more happy than when he is in the country, and honestly I think that is really the life for which he was cut out. Most men, although they won't admit it, have no understanding of the blending of colours, particularly where clothes are concerned. My husband is quite hopeless on all matters pertaining to dress, and leaves it to me to arrange all his colour schemes,