WAR ENTERTAINER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23719, 27 July 1940, Page 14

WAR ENTERTAINER

MR. TANO/FAMA'S DEATH . ASSOCIATION WITH THEATRE Well known for his association with soldiers' entertainments in France during tho last war and later with the theatre in New Zealand, Mr. Tano Fama. aged 56, of 7 Browning Street, Grey Lynn, died yesterday in the Wnikato Hospital. He suffered a heart attack about six- months ago, and spent many weeks in hospital, after staying with his sister, Mrs. A. J. McGovern, of Te Awamutu.

Before tho last war, Mr. Fama was an employee of the Post and Telegraph Department, and also a member of the staff of the Priino Minister, Sir Joseph Ward. He left with the sth Reinforcements, serving at base hospitals in Kgypt and France. With the rank of sergeant. he was wounded while streaeher-boaring during the Battle of the Soiunie, and thereafter was almost wholly engaged in entertaining. As a mem her of the New Zealand Divisional Concert Party, Mr. Fama became known as a versatile performer, with a penchant for comedy. After the war he was a principal of the "Diggers" touring entertainments, and when the company was disbanded in 1920 110 assisted in producing a Government publicity film, with which ho conducted a lecturing tour of the Dominion. In 1932 Mr. Fama joined Amalga-' mated Theatres, Limited, and was manager of various theatres throughout New Zealand, the last being the State Theatre in Dunedin. In recent years he contributed numerous humorous articles in periodicals in Now Zealand and Australia, and he had been working on a book about Pacific island life, his hobby being Maori folklore and tradition. Mr. Fama. is survived by his wife and three-year-old son. The funeral will bo held at Te Awamutu to-day.