England’s Speediest Earl Selects Second Bride

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 708, 6 July 1929, Page 2

England’s Speediest Earl Selects Second Bride

Romance of the Hunting Field . . . First Lady Northesk was Beauty from Ziegfeld Follies . . . Sportsman who Seldom Refuses a Wager . . .

Lord Sorthe.sk, the young lwelt: i re aristocrat of West End club life and a Speed King of Continental playgrounds, has quickly ■made a choice of a second bride, following the dissolution of his former marriage. Six years ago he startled his friends by marrying the beautiful cabaret dancer, Jessica Brown.

'A ROMANCE of the hunting field Is

behind the report that the Earl of Xorthe3k and Miss Betty Vlasto, a Berkshire girl, are to be married, says “The World's Pictorial News.” The Earl is one of the best-known figures in the West End, where he is popular among all classes by reason of his sportsmanship in all circumstances. He is just as well known and equally well liked in the hunting field and at the races, while on the Continent there is nobody more popular in the sporting world than this clean-limbed young man with the engaging manner and winning smile. Miss Vlasto, too. has a charming personality, and is one of the most popular girls in a wide circle of friends.

The Earl is 27 years of age, and thi3 will be his second marriage. The first was dissolved last year. In 1923 he created a sensation by announcing that he was to marry beautiful Jessica Brown, one time a dancer in the Zeigfeld Follies and at the time of the announcement the star at the Grafton Galleries cabaret—one of the first cabaret entertainments in London. She had been dancer, florist, and breeder of priceless blue Persian cats ere she attained the fame that made her one of the highest paid stars in America, and needless to say when it became known that she was about to marry into the British Peerage, the newspapers devoted whole columns of their space to the romance of the * Earl and the Girl,” as they described it.

Then came a bolt from the blue. It was revealed that the fair Jessica had been married to Cyril de Witt Reinhard, a dashing young navel contractor who, night after night of the tun of George M. Cohan's "Revue,” had watched Jessica Brown. He had managed to secure an introduction, and after a whirlwind wooing of six days, the pair were duly wed. That was in 1918, but the romance was short-lived, and after only a month or two in each other’s company there was a separation, and the wife filed her petition for divorce. It was upon this snag that the romance between the Earl of Northesk, and the pretty dancer, was held up for some time. The newspapers had given the fullest publicity to Miss Brown’s previous romance, for even before she landed from the boat on her return to the States, a pertinacious newspaper man wirelessed a message asking for particulars of her divorce from Reinhard.

"Divorced Reinhard Chicago last October” was the reply, and it seemed that all doubts would be set at rest. In fact they were, for not long afterwards the Earl himself set out to meet his fiancee. He had resigned his commission in the Guards.

Such was the first marriage of the Earl, and for some years he was extremely happy with his show-girl bride. They were seen about together on every occasion, and it was while with Miss Brown that he accomplished several of his best feats in connection with ski-ing and bob-sleigh championships in winter sports on the Continent. One of his most remarkable achievements was the winning of the "Grand National” on the famous Cresta run, which Is the blue riband of the St.

Moritz sports. This was in 1926, when the Earl had been riding for three seasons only, which made his feat the more meritorious. The Cresta run is the most famous in the world special ice runs being constructed, and on which the competitors, using toboggans with steel runners, attain terrific speeds. The “Grand National” is for the best aggregate time for three courses, and the Earl was an easy winner, beating the second placed by 4 seconds. The Cresta run is 1,320 yards in length, and the Earl completed each of his three runs in under the minute.

In addition to this achievement he won a number of other trophies, and on one occasion was accompanied by the King of the Belgians on the run when the bob skidded, and both were hurled out on to the ice, forunately without serious consequences. The Earl is recognised as one of the dare-devil skiers of St. Moritz, and on one occasion he was trailed behind a low-flying airplane over the frozen

lake, in company with the famous M. Scapel, the Norwegian skier. Two ropes were attached to the machine, and to these Lord Northesk and his companion clung, while the airplane skimmed at a terrific pace over the lake—a very exciting and dangerous exhibition. Just as he loves speed ou the ice, so he is noted for his speed on the road, and he has been the hero of a number of wagers in connection with longdistance records in his high-powered car. One evening, for example, a few of the young bloods about town were talking about how long it would take to get from Loudon to Edinburgh by road, when the Earl of Northesk strolled upon the scene. He listened for a moment to the various times mentioned, and then startled his hearers hv offering to wager that he would drive his own car from London to Edinburgh—a distance of something like 400 miles—in eight hours.

| The bet was taken up, and one : night, when he knew' that the roads j would be fairly Sear, the young Earl '■ set out to perform this feat. He reached Grantham—a distance of 105 I miles—in three minutes under the two I hours, and then suffered a broken ! valve, which prevented him continu- | ing the run on that occasion. But for that he declared he was certain he would have won.

Always ready for a sporting bet, he made a wager one night that he would drive his car to Canterbury quicker than any taxi-driver the other man liked to bring along. A taxi-driver was accordingly recruited, and the two cars set out. They were each allowed to go their own route, and each driver was accompanied by another member of the party. The Earl won by a few minutes.

The Earl was the prime mover in a hansom cab “Derby” which was organised as the result of an afterdinner discussion at the Devonshire Club

It came about in this way. Ten young men, members of the club, formed themselves into what was called the "Devonshire Coaching Club,” for the purpose of promoting the use of hansom cabs ou every occasion. They decided to hold a cabbies’ "point-to-point race,” four hansoms being chartered, one of them

being driven by an old-timer known i throughout the West End as “Teddy , Oysters,” seventy-six years of age, who ; for over fifty years had driven a ■ hansom in the streets of London. The “course” was from the club, through St. James’ Street, Piccadilly, Berkeley Street, Hay Hill, Bond * Street, Regent Street, and across Piccadilly circus to the Kit Cat Club. The ten members were duly “Weighed in,” and distributed among the four cabs according to weight. At 11 o’clock on the night of the : "Derby,” and just as the theatres were emptying, a wonderful scene was to beheld. Four hansome cabs, loaded with merry, shouting men, dashed along the streets of the West End at breakneck speed. Charlie Wolf, who drove one of the cabs, took a short cut, and arrived home first, but the short cut disqualified him, and “Teddy Oysters” was declared the winner, receiving a £5 prize. The Earl of Northesk was one of the occupants of the winning cab.