SANG ON 94TH BIRTHDAY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18758, 15 July 1935, Page 4

SANG ON 94TH BIRTHDAY

FINANCED “PINAFORE” MADE GILBERT & SULLIVAN LONDON, May 21. A man to whom England and the world owe a great debt gave a ninetyfourth birthday tea party at his Hampstead flat yesterday. Xfis name is Edward Hodsou Bayley. Ho is a J.P., and former M.P. for'North Camberwell. He founded an orphanage and invented fire escapes, water carts, dust cans and other utilities used in London. 'But the greatest day of his life was when he met his friend, the original D’Oylev Carte, who van an obscure music shop, walking disconsolately down Regent street. “T am on my way to a meeting with a young author and a composer named Gilbert and Sullivan,” said Carte. “1 want to produce a full-length operetta bv them, but I need capital.” £ICCO SUPPORT Bayley went with him and heard the songs (if Gilbert and Sullivan’s shortoperetta, “Trial By Jury.” lie liked tnem so much that lie walked home humming one of the tunes — “lie betrayed a maid confiding Vows etcetera dividing .. . A passing cockney caught the. GilbertSullivan infection. ‘“’Go did, guv’nor?” he said excitedly. “\V here is e—l’ll settle ’im.” Bayley was so tickled that he put up £IOOO for the production of “The Sorcerer,” music publishers Chappell and Metzler contributing £IOOO each. The show was only a moderate success. Then they financed “Pinafore,” which made them each a small fortune. The man who helped to give the world the most famous light operas of all time is proud of the fact that he was singing in the choir when tho Albert Hall was opened in 1871, and is still singing today.