STAGE GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 3197, 23 June 1915, Page 63

STAGE GOSSIP.

ihe first appearance in Glasgow in vaudeville of Mr Oscar Ascho and Miss Lily Brayton proved a big draw at the Alhambra. The auction of seats for Madamo Melba’s Polish concert in Sydney secured £6OO. Most of the auctioning was done by Melba herself. Mr Harcourt Beatty, the well-known actor, has gone to the, front. For some time before enlisting he was acting as a special constable in London. Mr W. A. Low, well known in Dominion theatrical circles, is in advance of the Bed Dandies Company, which will visit Dunedin during its tour of New Zealand. Mr Leo De Chateau, of Branscombe’s (Ltd.), will arrive in Dunedin with the Violet Dandies next week. The Violets commence a season at His Majesty’s on Monday. Mr Percy Macartney, of the Blascheck Company (which concluded its season at His Majesty’s on Monday), will return to Sydney after the New Zealand tour, but hopes to revisit the Dominion. On April 9 Miss Nora D’Argel (Nora Long, of Wellington) was Mimi, in a London production of “La Boheme” at the Shaftesbury Theatre. Frederick Ranalow, here with Melba, was in the cast. Madame Melba’s concert in Sydney in aid of the distressed Poles resulted in £6328 being obtained, and this, with the Government subsidy, will produce £12,000. The Union Jack sold at the concert realised £2OOO. Your Step,” Irving Berlin’s American musical comedy, at the Empire, London. Miss Irene Dillon, another well-known Australian, was also at the Empire when the last mail left. Montreal theatre-goers are to be taJced a penny a ticket for the benefit of the local hospitals. The lawmakers expect to raise £60,000 annually from this tax. Theatre managers there say £20,000 would be a large sum. Amateur opera in New Zealand:—Masterton, “The Toreador”; Palmerston North; “Paul Jones”; Wellington, “Les Cloches de Coruevillo.” Mr Tom Pollard has been engaged to coach and stage manage these productions. M. Francis de Bourguignon, the Belgian violinist who is touring Australia and New Zealand, was in the trenches before Antwerp. Fe was wounded so seriously that he had to be discharged from the ranks as unfit for further service. On June 5 a number of artists who have appeared before the Australian public left for America by the Ventura. They included Fred Niblo, Josephine Cohan, James,]. Cor-' bett, Dooley and Sayles, Pirie Bush, Enid Bennett, and Gertrude Glyn. Julius Knight and Co. will be on the West Coast for Christmas. The three pieces to be played are “A Royal Divorce,” “The Lady of Lyons,” and “David Garrick.” Nellie Bramley is appearing as Josephine. Ahead of the company will be George S. Holburn. Prior to ’caving for America last Saturday Mr Fred Niblo was presented with a handsome silver cup by the members of the company who had been associated with him for three years. Mr Niblo and Miss Cohan received some hundreds of farewell telegrams. Harry Corson Clarke and his wife, who is known on the stage as Margaret Dale Owen, have returned to New York after a four years’ world’s tour. Mr Clarke will be remembered here for his striking impersonation of Blackie Daw, in “Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford.” After a successful American lour Miss Tittell Brune is now taking the leading role in an All-British film drama, entitled “Iron Justice.” Miss Tittell Brune will be supported in her first film-drama by a strong cast, including Miss Sidney Fairbrother and Mr Julian Royce.

The Bert Bailey Company—now appearing in Sydney in a third revival of that perennial success, Steele Rudd’s “On Our Selection”—will return to Melbourne early in July to enter upon the lengthy tenure of the King’s Theatre, recently secured by Messrs Bailey and Grant. Says Daisy Jerome; “You see, I am a» acquired taste. You want to see me four or five times before you get used to me. Why, on the last night of ‘Come Over Here’ I was kept on the stage 30 minutes. For 10 minutes of that time I was making a speech, to the audience. I got about 30 bouquets.” Miss Aggie Thorn, who will be remembered as a member of the Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Repertory Company some years ago, has returned to the stage after a long retirement, and recently she left Australia with Mrs Fred Niblo,„gd:io is going to assist her to obtain an engagement in America.

Allen Doone has with him in New Zealand to-day practically all the members of the company he started out with nearly five years ago. Among these are Edna Keeley, Tom Buckley, Frank Cullenan, Maurice Lynch, Onslow Edgeworth, Clive Farnham, Ethel Grist, Ethel Bashford, and Connie Kyte. Mr John Hopkins, who has been associated with the theatrical enterprises of Edward Branscombe (Ltd.) for two years past, left for Sydney on Friday by the Manuka. He has severed his connection with Branscomhes (Ltd.), and is to pilot a concert company headed by Mr Peter Dawson through Australia.

George Bar mini, the producer of “The Man Who Stayed at Homo,” the spy play, at Melbourne Theatre Royal, received the news of the drowning of Charles Frohman in the Lusitania with deep regret. For some years Mr Barnum was under the management of Mr Frohman in New York, not as a producer, but a comedian. When the “Girl in the Taxi” Company returns to Melbourne, it will be seen in the successful musical comedy, “The Girl on the Film,’’ a really excellent skit on the “movies.” Messrs C. H. Workman, Field Fisher, and W. H. Rawlins, and Misses Dorothy Brunton and Florence Vie have excellent parts in “The Girl on the Film.” Actors who are well known to Australian theatre-goers and are now a.t the front include Claude King, Fred Moyes, and Templer Power, all of whom were members of Miss Nellie Stewart’s company; Mr Hugh Buckler, who had lately been managing his own comnany; and Mr Halliwell Hobbes, here first* with Miss Ethel Irving, and later with Mr Lewis Waller. Mdlle. Viceroy and Messrs Hoogstoel and Goossens. who have been specially engaged to appear with the Belgian Band in Australia, have achieved a great reputation in Belgium, France, Germany, and other European countries. Mile. Viceroy is one of Europe’s leading dramatic sopranos, and her eminence is testified by the fact that she has been regularly singing at the Grand Opera House, Brussels. News has been received in Sydney of the

death of Mrs Alfred Dampier, who was living at the time in America with her son, Fred, and her daughter. Rose Dampier. The deceased actress, who was aged 66 years, died from a stroke of paralysis on March 8, at her residence, Reading, Pennsylvania. During her long and active stage career she was always known by her maiden name of Kathleen Russell.

Albert Chevalier, probably the greatest favourite the vaudeville world has ever had, and who eventually became a society entertainer to Royalty, has entered into the picture world. His first appearance was in the play “The Middleman,” in which Charles Cartwright and Olga Nethersole toured the world. Judging by what -the critics say of Chevalier, and the screen version, it would appear that the play ranks as one of the finest British productions. According to Mr John Mathews, a wellknown picture producer in America, at present to Sydney, there is a dearth of actors and actresses in Australia with the requisite training to fit them for photo-play work. He predicts a big future for the picture-taking industry in Australia. Mr Mathews has just co upleted a 6000 ft film of “The Rebel.” with Allen Doone and Edna Keeley in the leading parts, which, it is said, has been purchased by the Australian Films (Ltd.). As an indication of how much scenery is worth when there is no play to go with it, take (says the Boston Globe) the prices obtained at the auction sale of Ihe productions of the defunct Liebler Company. Four carloads of scenery for the Loti-Gautire spectacle, “The Daughter of Heaven,” brought £l2 10s; the “Pomander Walk” equipment sold for 17s 6d, a carload of scenery for “General John Regan” was knocked down for £2 12s, and the scenery for “Alias Jimmy Valentine” was bid up to £1 4s. Cyril Mackay, who is playing Carl Sanderson, the German spy in “The Man Who Stayed at Home,” now at Melbourne Theatre Royal, is a son of Wallis Mackay, the wellknown black-and-white artist, who was the •original “Captious Critic” in the London Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. Mr Mackay’s career on the Australian stage included an appearance in musical comedy years ago under the J. C. Williamson management. “It was interesting to me,” remarked Mr Mackay, “but I have no desire to repeat it.”