NOTES BY LORGNETTE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1291, 26 November 1896, Page 17

NOTES BY LORGNETTE.

My Christchurch correspondent writes : —The Pollards finished up on Wednesday evening to splendid business. In fact, the season my be termed a phenomenal one. The company left for Dunedin on Thursday, where they play two weeks and then en to Invercargill, and will probably return here for three nights in December. —Mr Kent informs me that he has received a cablegram from Messrs Williamson and Musgrove cancelling the " Chinatown " dates. He also informs me that the dates booked to Mr Brough for his comedy company have been cancelled. This latter piece of news I am sorry for, as the Broughs are always welcome, and so far have always done good business. — There will be nothing here now till Christmas when the Ada Devoy Company play a short season. The new man who is coming along to the Broughs to fill Cecil Ward's place is Edward Ferris. He is young, handsome, and is said to have great ability. He was touring the English provinces with Miss Fortescue during her last tour.

Brian England, well known as; an actor here and long a member of Bland Holt's Co., is now a man of property in Kent, England. A lucky inheritance did the trick for Brian.

" The Serpent's Coils " is the name of Wiliiam Cosgrove's latest panoramadrama now shining at her Majesty's, Sydney.

Amy and William Gourliy, who are starring with "Tommy" Hudson's Surprise Party in the Golden West, made a big hit with a sketch entitled " That Awful Girl," it being a burlesque of grand opera,

The recent production of " Canaille " in Brisbane by the Potter-Bellew Company recalls the incident that ocetirred when it was played there a few year-, pc-vi ..s-y by the Achurck-Charring to; i ;.' >:>i >-tov.

Sir Arthur Palmer was Acting-trjvenut, and the management invited him to the theatre. He promised to come, but at the last moment sent Mr Charrington a letter declining to be present at a performance of " Camille," which he said "was unfit for ladies to witness." Mr Charrington read the letter to the audience and made some scathing remarks on the illogical and ungrarnmatical epistle, and wound up with a satirical reference to Sir Arthur's usually chaste language, which brought brought down the house and ensured the success of the piece.

Antoinette Trebelli and her companion, Mdlle. Vaudour y sail by the Mariposa for San Francisco on 2Sth November.

Sir Augustus Harris laid the foundation of his great fortune by a stroke of good luck. When he was a young actor earning no more than £2 a week, a gentleman possessing plenty of the " needful " came to him, and asked him if he would put a play upon the stage at Drury Lane. The gentleman was to bear all expenses. Sir —then Mr —Augustus Harris agreed, but at the last moment, when everything was

ready, the gentleman went off to South I Africa, leaving the unlucky Harris in the 1 lurch. Here was a dilemma. The I theatre had been hired, the play adver- ' tised—in fact, was ready for the first performance, and here was Harris with the remains of his last week's salary, which amounted to a few shillings, left with this ) huge undertaking. There were only two 1 alternatives for him —either to let it drop and pay all expenses, which amounted to a sum entirely beyond his power to pay, or to let it go and take its chance. He > decided on the latter course, with the 1 result that it caught like wildfire and was j his first success. If ic had been a miserable failure he would have been bankrupt for sevei'al thousands of pounds.

Infatuated Irvingites waited outside London Lyceum for twelve hours, so as to ensure a "first night" view of their much-mannerised hero in Shakespeare's " Cymbeline." They brought their damper and billies with thern, and all through a miserable chilly clay these fanatical devotees chewed and chatted and diecovered what an inefficient support a pair of bony or flabby legs are when called on to prop up an exhausted body from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. When the play began, a muchchafed, considerably - warped crowd, shedding hair pins and loose locks, fell into the front seats, and applauded furiously and indiscriminately, hoping to shake off the " slept-in-your-clothes " feeling, or their resemblance to stagnant, half-frozen dirty puddles. And then the critics gave the show universal " slops."— Bulletin.

The father of Mr Joe Tolano, says a Sydney paper, died recently aged 78. Away back ho was well-known as a manager in connection with the old. Lyceum and the Vic. He first produced " Arrah-na-pogue " here at the time Barry Sullivan produced it in Melbourne. Litigation ensued, and an injunction was unsuccessfully applied for to restrain Mr Tolano from playing the piece. He brought the first Maori troupe from New Zealand.

Clement Scott comes in for severe handling by the New Saturday Review, for his very eulogistic notice of the " Duchess of Coolgardie," now said to be the work of the Drury Lane manager, John Coleman, and an(y)other, as it is not a success. C. S. stated in the Telegraph the play formed " a very interesting study of modern colonial life, and that it furnishes very accurate information as to the details of Australian mining life." " Each of these statements is distinctly untrue," says the New Saturday ; " there is no more suggestion of colonial life, or colonial mining life in the " Duchess of Coolgardie" than is at present provided by the disturbed condition of Picadilly circus " (where the roadway is up for repairs). With which verdict an Australian (writes the Bulletin's correspondent) must agree after witnessing this AVestralian extravaganza. Billy Elton withdrew from the cast at the last moment from some disagreement.

Mr Newton Daly, Australian representative of the New York Dramatic Mirror, kindly supplies the following interesting extracts from that journal :

" Harry Jewett has joined Richard Mansfield's company for leading business. He left Margaret Fuller's company on September 17, after a successful season with it.

" Blanche Walsh reached San Francisco on Wednesday, September '3O, from Australia. She is under contract to A. W. Palmer, and is expected soon in New York.

" J. M. Barrio, novelist and playwright, is taking witli him to America a dramatised version of " The Little Minister," and a new play—" Two Kind 3 of Women " —for Charles Frohman.

" The company that played " Trilby,"in Australia played one nignt in Honolulu on their way home.

" Miss Millward and William Terris are to visit America with Huldon Chambers and Comyns Cut's '• i> >ys Together."

" Aubrey Boucicault, yon of Dion the "bier, was recently married at 03. Louis to Miss Nellie Hoi brook.

" One of the most unique figures in the theatrical world has passed over to tho great majority. Bessie Bellwood, the music-hall artiste, died in London on September 24. She had a notable career, and rose from obscurity to a popularity such as is attained by very few women on the stage. Her first New York appearance was in 1893.

" Patti has written a one-act opera for private production in her castle in Wales.

" Edith Crane is engaged by Maurice Barry more for his New York season.

'• Annis Montague Turner's mother, Mrs Cooke, died at Honolulu on August 13 last ; aged 84.

" Elsie Adair and her company of American players pUvyed at Honolulu recently en route for China and the Ea3t.

" Alice Barnett, recently playing in the London production of "The Telephone Ghd," is now in America. Her husband died just before she left England,"