Isobel Wilford Writes Home

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 230, 17 December 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

Isobel Wilford Writes Home

J Chance Nearly Missed DINNER LIKE “CARPETS" In a long personal letter to Her parents, Isobel Wilford explains how she nearly missed the lucky chance which made her famous in a night in London. Her principal, Tullulah Bankhead, whom she was understudying, had gone to Paris for the week-end and unfortunately had sprained her ankle so that >t was impossible for her to return. Mr. Hammond, the stage manager of the Lyric Theatre, went personally to find Miss Wilford to aquaint her of the fact that she would have to take the lead that night, but he could not find her. Ho visited her fiat, which she shares with Miss Scott, another Wellington girl, but no one there knew where she was. Several friends were visited in turn without success, and finally Miss Nell Carter, leading lady at the Old Vic., suggested that Miss Wilford might be with the Italian professor under whom she is studying Italian. Here Mr. Hammond found the understudy at half-past four in the afternoon, and then ensued a rush to the theatre for a rehearsal, a hurried dinner at the fiat ("which tasted like eating carpets, I was so excited," says Miss Wilford). and a few minutes with an old French hairdresser, who pleaded in broken English with madamoiselle to take courage and win success. The theatre was reached again at seven o'clock, and Miss Bankhead’s dresser prepared Miss Wilford for what she thought was going to be a terrible ordeal. "I went on the stage as if in a dream,” says Miss Wilford, "but l was soon lost in the part.” The first words apprising her that she had carried the part well were from the manager who. as she came off tho stage at the end of the first act, simply said. "Well done,” two words which were more than gold to their recipient. Practically the whole of the first interval was given up to the excitement, and. it was stated in several London papers, the management was getting nervous as to whether the play could be got through in the allotted time. Dr. Herbert, of Wellington, and his wife, happened to be in the audience, and also Mrs. Hiley, wife of the late general manager of the New Zealand Railways. On the second night Miss Wilford was presented with a wonderful bouquet of orchids measuring six feet across and needing the services of two men to carry it—a gift which must have cost nearly £IOO and the card contained the words, "With Love from New Zealand."

Mamie Watson, who played through New Zealand in “The O’Brien Girl,” is in the London production of “Hit the Deck.” Molly Plimmer, the Wellington girl, has been engaged by Robert Lorraine to play in the revival of “Cyrano de Bergerac” at the Apollo Theatre. This is her first professional engagement. Under the title of Frank Neil’s Theatres Pty. Ltd., Frank Neil has formed a company with nominal capital of £25,000 in £1 shares. Subscribers are Frank Neil and Eddie McDonald. This is the latest theatrical enterprise in Australia.