A PRIVATE FILM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3854, 24 January 1928, Page 59

A PRIVATE FILM.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 14

People from Hitchin and Hertfordshire generally formed the most exclusive kinema audience in Great Britain when they packed the Playhouse to see the film record of the Duke and Duchess of York’s visit to Australia and New Zealand.

The film is the private property of ths Duke of York. It has never been shown in public, and it may never be shown again. It represents the cream of various topical films—official and commercial—that were presented to the Duke, and could have commanded its own price had it been placed on the market within a week of the Duke’s return to England Part of the film was “ shot ” by the Duke himself, who is a keen film photographer, and frequently takes pictures of his wife and daughter with a baby camera.

The theatre was paqked, townspeople and prominent members of society sitting side by side in the balcony and stalls, while hundreds had to be refused admission. The proceeds were in aid of Earl Haig’s Fund for Disabled Soldiers. The Earl and Countess of Strathmore, parents of the Duchess, were present. Lord Hampden, Lord-lieutenant of the county, acted as chairman. General the Earl of Cavan, who, with Lady Cavan, accompanied the Duke and Duchess on the tour, briskly introduced each reel with intimate description and anecdote. Credit for the performance is due almost entirely to a Hitchin railway porter, Mr E. J. Anderson.

“ I have been able," he said in an interview, “ as a political organiser to come into contact with people in good societycircles. Last February I secured the first showing of the Prince of Wales’s tour film for Kitchen, so I got in touch with Lord Cavan, and, satisfying him that the proceeds would he in aid of charity, I was able to arrange this."