CARRIED ON

Southland Times, Issue 21822, 27 September 1932, Page 5

CARRIED ON

SIR HARRY LAUDER.

RELATIVE’S DEATH BEHIND SCENES. When Sir Harry Lauder was cheered by a crowded holiday audience at the Palace Variety Theatre, Blackpool, recently, those who applauded him little knew that the famous Scottish comedian was suffering under the stress of great emotion, says the Sunday Despatch. While Sir Harry was on the stage at the first house his dresser and manager, Mr Tom Vallance, who was Lady Lauder’s brother, suddenly collapsed and died behind the stage. Mr Vallance had not been feeling very well all day. He had complained of the great Sir Harry was singing his second song when Mr Vallance collapsed in the arms of Mr Arthur Crumblehulme, the stage manager. Mr Vallance was carried to the dressing-room and laid on a couch, but he was then dead. Sir Harry was not told of what had happened, but the moment he came off the stage he said, “There is something wrong here. I believe Tom is dead.” Then, of course, he had to be told. Sir Harry was greatly affected, but he decided to keep faith with the secondhouse audience, and though . greatly distressed went through with his songs. It was only when he came to his final song, “Keep right on to the end of the road,” that he showed signs of breaking down, and in a pitiful little aside he said “I am nae sae guid tonight, boys and girls.” Shortly afterwards he made a hurried exit, and immediately broke down and sobbed. To a Sunday Despatch reporter he said: “Tom has been more than a brother-in-law to me. He has been a brother. I shall miss him to the day I die. He has stood by me through thick and thin for 36 years, and has been all over the world with me. He was with me in my struggling days. He stayed with me, slept with me, ate with me; and to think that to-night I had to go on and sing over his dead body. God help me. It is terrible.”