FAMILIAR FIGURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26847, 11 August 1948, Page 6

FAMILIAR FIGURE

MISS CICELY COURTNEIDGE ARRIVAL IN DOMINION Daily Times Special Service AUCKLAND. Aug. 10. A familiar figure on the stage and screen, Miss Cicely Courtneidge, the British actress, arrived by air from Sydney to-day. She will leave for Wellington to-morrow to open her New Zealand tour. Miss Courtneidge, who is better known to New Zealanders through her film and radio work, showed that her vivid and exuberant personality is part of herself and not just stock-in-trade, and' that even a night without sleep, a Tasman crossing, and a bad cold could not quench it. She was making her first visit to New Zealand and soon after her arrival asked if it was true that the Dominion “ closed up ” every week-end.

The opinion that films, radio or television would never oust the stage from its place in the world of entertainment is firmly held by Miss Courtneidge. Films had the advantage over the legitimate stage in the matter of cheaper admission prices, she said, but she still felt that the personal atmosphere of the stage was a great—and permanent—attraction. Miss Courtneidge has not done any television work, but her famous husband. Jack Hulbert, has been engaged in it recently in Britain. The stage showed no sign of decline in Britain. British people loved their theatre, and providing the fare offered was good,, theatres could always be sure of an audience.