MR CHARLES GODFREY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10589, 5 September 1896, Page 6

MR CHARLES GODFREY.

A FAMOUS LONDON ACTOR-VOCALIST.

Mr Charles Godfrey, accompanied by Mr L. J. Lbhr and the members of Mr Godfrey's Burlesque Compauy, will arrive in Dunedin this morning in the Mararoa. Mr Godfrey will make his first appearance on Monday evening. The bos plan was opened afc the Dresden yesterday, and judging from the advance booking there is little doubt but that Mr Godfrey and his brilliant combination will meet with a flattering reception. Mr Godfrey ha» met with enthusiastic receptions throughout Australia, where people flocked to see him. In the course of an interview with an Australian contemporary Mr Godfrey explained how he came to ■ii rite his first song as follows :--

All the songs I sing are favourites, because I don't sing any s;mgs if I don't liks the words. I only sins tho3e that have been written tor me, or which I have composed myself. Wheu I hist appeared oa lhe variety stage, after beiug attached to a' travelling dramatic company, some 20 years ago, with whom I played nearly every heio of the footlights known to tbeatrs-goers of that time—» range of rdlcs that wm -quite,a remarkable one, extending as it did through a long lirt of tragedies and melodramas, with Hamlet, Frince of Denmark, at one end of it, and Sweeney Todd.Demon l.arber, of Fleet street, at the other— 1 very soon came to high words with my manager. "Go' away and got some new songs," said that worthy, "aud don't come on this stage again until you've got "em." Ih a none too happy frame of mind, I started on my. nightly walk from tbe ltdgware' road home to Kennington. The salary of a comic singer liad not then began to rival that pt a Cabinet Minuter, and the marrow-bonu stsge

was the only conveyance that I, with my bundle of " prnps" kuapsacked . upon my back, could afford to patronise. Meditatinz upon the intractability of managers* in general, and* of the metropolitan sverseer iu particular, and wondering what on earth. I should write new songs about— I could not spare money to buy songs then—l struck into Hyde Park. As I trudged along the gravel path I say,two figures in front oi me—an old man and a young man. Thev wore evidently artisans, for each of them carried a bag of tools. The younger man was speeding along, when the other stopped short to light bis pipe. The son, for such he appeared to be. was still forging ahead, when the father cheerily bade him.," Hold on, Johnnie !" There the incident closed, as far as •' they were concerned. But " Hoid on, Johnnie I" was ringing in my brains. " Hold on, Johnnie !" soon got welded to "Hold 011, Jack I" and then the rest of a chorus speedily followed : " Hold on, Johnnie I hold on, Jack I Keep a little steady, boy, and hold a little back; You can soon get into trouble Through a very little bubble. So hold on, Johnnie! hold be, Jack I";' Before I reached Hyde Park Corner I had com- | pleted my song, and was in high glee with myself when . I turned into Watchhorn's, the great professional.hoUße of-call in those times, for the modest glass of bitter that I felt I was fully I entitled to. I met an acquaintance there, and 1 told him of tbe incident and of the song I had evolved from it. "That's peculiar!" remarked the friend. Instantly I was again on the warpath., V Oh, .nin't it peculiar!" was written on the spot. The two songs were duly turned on at the Metropolitan on the succeeding evening, and " Oh, ain't it peculiar !" caught the taste of the town and became the popular craze. It was my first successful song. A large catalogue could be filled with a record of the subsequent ones. Mr Godfrey has been delighted with Australia and its people, and it is to be hoped that he will carry with him a, favourable impression of New Zealand. His season in Duuedin is limited to six nights.