THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3398, 30 April 1919, Page 46

THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL NOTES.

By Pasqcih. Tuesday, April 29, 1919. Mdllo Antonia Dolores, who concluded her short Dunedin season on Saturday night, is visiting the South Otago smalls on her way to Invercargill. _ Miss Frances Ross, a one-time prominent member of the Bland Holt Company, has returned to Sydney after a year's holiday in New Zealand. Miss Ross will, return to the stage at an early date. The Christchnreh Returned Soldiers' Association intends to tread the thorny path of theatrical management. It is to stage a revue, "Our Reveille," in the Theatre Royal from June 18 to July. 3. The object is to assist to swell the building fund, and the revue, -which is the creation of Mr William Lints, the association's organiser in connection with the building campaign, will be produced and staged under the direction of that gentleman. "Our Reveille" has been produced elsewhere by Mr Lints, including a successful season in Oamaru. The talent for the production will be local. On his return from America recently Mr George Tullis said that one of the most remarkable circumstances in connection with the phenomenally successful production of "Three Faces East" was the bond of secrecy that was observed regarding the ending of the play. Playgoers tacitly agreed not to divulge the secret, and th«. newspaper writers, too, co-operated by not divulging the details of the plot. The mystery added to the attractiveness of the performance, and helped to maintain the interest of those who had not yet witnessed the drama. The J. C. Williamson management in Melbourne is asking patrons who visit the Theatre Royal to see Muriel Starr in "Three Faces Bast" not to "give the show away." The same request was made when "The Thirteenth Chair" was staged in the Dominion, and was faithfully observed by playgoers. In a short biography written by himself for Sydney Theatre Mr Frank M. Jones, well knewn in circus life as a somersault loaper, has this to say: "I have always been a pretty heavy smoker. It has never affected me in the least. But I did not taste drink till I was 40. My 'introduction to liquor was due to my striking the prohibition town of Balclutha, New Zealand, where the locker system is very popular—so much so that it was my lot to have whisky forced down my throat. A tribute this to temperance carried to its extreme limit."

Mr Georgo_ Marlow, who retired from active theatrical management some time ago, is tired of his life of inactivity, and proposes to visit England in search of theatrical novelties. He has raced a small string for some years past, but in view of his departure his horses will be submitted to auction at an early date. Mr Marlow, who will be accompanied to England by his wife (Miss Ethel Buckley), expects to Ret plenty of new plays in London. He has already received a cash offer from Italy of an operatic attraction. It is announced in a Londan theatrical paper that "Hamlet" is due to appear on the music hall stage. The tragedy will be cut down to six scenes, and will occupy only 45 minutes. Still more important, "Ophelia will bo drowned in a river of real water" I and somebody has written a prologue which he claims will simplify the plot. Mr Bernard Shaw's brilliant satire "The Doctor's Dilemma," with which Messrs J. and_ N. Tait inaugurated their season of matinee performances of literary plays at Melbourne King's Theatre, has only three woman characters, two of them of little importance. Mr Shaw once explained that he kept women out of his plays as much a/3 possible in order to give his own sex a chance to have something to say. Mr Frederic Shipman is still associated with the popular French-Canadian singer Paul Dufault, -• Mr Shipman is this year touring M. Dufault right through the East and Far East. Miss Paulino Bindley is with Mr Shipnian's Fanrastic3 Company. Mr Jeromo Patrick, who is a native of Dunedin,' has arrived in Sydney from New York, and at latest advices received by his relatives here was in hospital. Mr Patrick left Australia for New York some seven or eight years «n?o after winning some experience with Nellie Stewart's company, and with J. 0. Williamson's company in "Everyman" and "Passers By." In New York he won general rocotmition for his Calip in the spectacle "A Thousand Years Apro," and was then engaged by David Belasco to play leads opposite Frances

Starr, one of tho greatest of American actresses. With her he appeared as the German corporal Meisencr in the war play 'Mario Oclile," a story of love affairs of an innocent novice in a French convent with one of the invading- force. Subsequently ho supported this actress also in '"Little Lady in Blue," his last engagement before he crossed to Canada and joined the Expeditionary Force. In 1916 he was discharged, suffering from a rheumatic affection, and just before sailing for Australia he made his reappearance on the New York stage as the hero in "By Pigeon Post." Before entering the profession Mr Patrick practised as a dentist in Dunedin. Dechna and Eddie M'Lean, Australian whirlwind dancers, who were here some time ago on the Fuller circuit, have made good in "Yes, Uncle," a production at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London. The real names of some famous film actresses are: Theda Bara, Thcodosia Goodman ; June Caprice, Betty Lawson; Viola Dana, Viola Flugarth ; Bessie Love, Bessie Horton; Shirley Mason, Leonis Flugarth (sister of Viola Dana); Mary Miles Minter, Juliet Shelley; Mary Pickford, Gladys Smith; Blanche Sweet, Blanche Alexander. There never was a real "Old Bill." Captain Bruce Bairnsfather made this confession in a recent illustrated lecture on "Old Bill and Me" at the Queen's Hall, London. Bill represented in the opinion of the artist, a type of the Old Contemptible. Roughly, the British army in the first winter of the war could be divided into three types, and he had personified these in Bill, Alf, and Bert. With their aid he was able to portray the jokes of the trenches. Many of the pictures were based on real happenings. Wherever he went he tried to cheer the spirits of the men"by his work, and one of his first drawings was executed on a cottage wall with soot from tho chimney and oil from the butt trap of a rifle.. As to Captain Gairnsfather's own experiences in the front trenches, they were, he explained, merely the same as those of thousands of others —enlistment .in August, 1914; a hurried training in Eng land; France in the winter in good time for the second battle of Ypres; and then the recognition by the War Ojffice that in his case, at any rate, the officer's pen/ was mightier than the sword. Five "Better Ole " _ companies are _ touring leading American and Canadian cities, with wellknown actors, as "Old Bill." It is estimated that the receipts for the season from all these companies will be between £300,000 and £400,000. A substantial percentage will go to Captain Bruce Bairnsfather.