FIRE-WAR MEMORIES

Taranaki Daily News, 17 June 1933, Page 18 (Supplement)

FIRE-WAR MEMORIES

LONDON’S FOOTLIGHTS. MARIE LLOYD “PUTS IT ACROSS.” Nobody could “put across” a song like Marie Lloyd did. The words were simple enough as a rule, but her winks and nods and laughs would give them all kinds of unsuspected meanings. Mr. J. B. Booth quotes • a story of a deputation from the London City Council who insisted on hearing her sing some of her latest songs. She sang them as a Sunday school child would ' -’peak its piece” —without wink, laugh or glance—and they were supremely and utterly proper —and dull. The deputation rose to leave but she stopped them. • “Now,” she said, “you’ve had your show. I’ll have mine. I’m going to sing you a couple of the songs your wives sing.” And she sang them “Queen of My Heart” and “Come Into the’ Garden, Maud,” which quite suddenly acquired incredible improprieties. “There!” she said triumphantly, “if you can stand that sort of stuff in your homes I don’t think there’s anything much wrong with my little parcel!” IRVING’S SARCASM. Sir Henry Irving could be a .master of sarcasm. Once at his club he listened to a long discussion on the care a certain actor devoted to his interpretation of Hamlet “He admitted his difficulties to me,” a friend explained. “He knows that in. moments of excitement he’s liable to exaggeration in gesture,, and for weeks he made his wife tie his hands behind him, while he rehearsed before a full-length mirror for facial expression.” “H’m—ha—interesting, very,”, interjected Irving. “Did she —yes—did she tie his eyes—eh 2” Another crushing retort was made by an. old actor named Tom Nye. Laurence Cautley, a handsome “leading juvenile,” was complaining bitterly to other actors gathered round in a bar that the man-

agement had been guilty of sharp practice. “Merely to oblige,” he complained, stagily, “I have been playing in a first piece—which is not specified in my contract. Now, to get the critics down again, and fresh notices, they have put on a new curtain-raiser —in which I do not play. And they have had the cursed audacity to knock £3 off my salary !”. “Damnable, laddie, damnable!” cried old Nye. “Leaving you with only 3s! You’re right, laddie, it’s criminal and I hope to God you’ll expose them!” MR. HIND’S INITIAL. Beerbohm Tree used to tell a tale of a provincial player of minor parts whose name was Hind. . Looking at the bill outside the theatre one Monday morning he was distressed to see that his surname alone was given, and approached the local manager with his grievance. “There is a serious omission in your bill, sir,” he announced, and the manager expressed suitable surprise and regret. “I am most particular' about my initials, and they are not on the bill.” Without asking for the initials, the manager promised that the omission should be rectified on the next bill, and in due course the “rectification” appeared. “The character, So and So . . . Mr. B. Hind.” Stage laughs often come in the wrong place. In a play in which she acted with Sir Charles Wyndham, the beautiful Cynthia Brooke had to make a hurried entrance, and unfortunately the door opened too easily, for her impetuous rush; she fell full-length, and from the floor gasped the first line of her speech: “Kit! Kit! I’ve been dining!” Wyndham’s gulp of amazement and laughterstricken collapse held up the play. A few months before Edgar Wallace’s death Mr. Booth attended. a dinner at which Wallace was the chief guest. One of the speakers was a wholesale distributor of books, and in his speech he stated that though he had handled millions of Wallace’s books he had never read one of them. With his long cigar-ette-holder firmly clenched between his teeth, Edgar jumped to his feet. “Poor devilhe said. “I suppose you can’t read!” PAVLOVA’S CHICKENS. Pavlova, we are told, once wanted to keep some chickens, so bought a hen and a sitting of eggs. But when nothing happened she made inquiries from Blake, the famous Palace stage-door keeper, who was supposed to be an authority bn poultry. “Three weeks for chickens,” was his verdict. ■' “Four for ducks.” And when the report was delivered to her it ended the incubator proceedings. The old hen was handed over to the kitchen department, for, as Madame said, “She ’as sat free weeks an’ one day, an’ there are no cheeckens —an’ I ’ate ducks.” Mr. Booth tells us how a certain member of the National Sporting Club used to get practice free of charge. He would visit the coal wharves at Highbu: wearing a silk hat. Biff! would come a lump of fuel; off would go the topper. Tom would pick up his hat, gaze at it lugubriously (though the old thing knew coal well enough to distinguish between Kitchen Nuts and Derby Brights), then walk firmly back to a group of six or eight coalies, and ask in injured tones, “Which one of you handed me that coal ?” And then one was seen to stand forward. “I did! What abaht it?” “That! And that!” the seeker after practice would shout, passing the left and the right in, and in a general way it was all over, in one round. “We live in different tunes,” grumbled the club pessimist, recalling the glories of pre-war days. “We do,” agreed Jjis friend, “and my son can get a kick out of life I never could. Last night he was run in after a 21st birthday party for trying ta kiss a policewoman 1”

“Dinner at Eight” Succeeds. Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman have won a new distinction with their latest collaboration, the drama “Dinner at Eight,” which is in the repertoire of a new English company arriv’ng in Australia in June under Williamson engagement. It has already had four presentations in New York—first at; the Music Box Theatre in October last, and each time it has been interpreted by people of the all-star category. With the'possible exception of “Hamlet” and “School for Scandal,” it is perhaps the . only play that has had four big casts in less' than a year. Sam H. Harris was the courageous impr’essario who saw its possibilities, and now the piece is still running in New York, and is being 1 seen by crowds in London and elsewhere, Copway Tearle was the Harris chpice for. the part of the broken-down movie idoL Tearle is an Englishman, brother of Godfrey Tearle, a popular London actor, who is president of the British Equity, the Actors’ Association. Constance Collier, another London favourite, was also prominent. In the London production, the cast included such well-known names as Irene Vanbrugh, Martin Lewis, Laura Cowie, Tristan Rawson, Lyn Harding, Carol Goodner, Mabel Terry-Lew-* is, David Burns and others. The screen version now in course of preparation includes Marie Dressier, Lionel Barrymore, Billie Burke (widow of the late Florenz Ziegfeld, who has returned to the stage and films), Wallace Beery, John Barrymore, Edmund Lowe, Karen Morley, Jean Harlow, Philips Holmes and , a host of others. The Belasco-Cuyran stage production features Hedda Hopper, Louis Calhern, Huntley. Gordon, Alice White, Jobyna Howland, etc. , Paris, Berlin and other Continental cities are preparing productions of the play for their respective clienteles, .so that “Dh.aer at Eight” takes on something of the nature of an international event.. ' ' Unspoiled Philip Hargrave. Philip Hargrave, the phenomenal ten-year-old genius of the piano, who is to tour New Zealand shortly under the management of Messrs. J. and. N. Tait, has put up a record not achieved by world celebrities in Australia. At the Melbourne Auditorium, he gave eight recitals, each of which was attended by over 2000 people, the capacity of the.halL And hundreds were turned away. Philip,’ who hails from Adelaide —the home of many notable Australians who have their mark on stage or concert platform —did not find the season at all strenuous and thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being “lionised,” all of which ,he took in' good-natured part. ,He 1 cheerfully practises two hours voluntarily each day, and yet finds plenty of time for those boyish pursuits that help to keep him unspoiled and juvenile. Philip is a very remarkable young fellow, and great things are predicted for him when he goes abroad after his New Zealand season. -■ '•■ ;■ “Maiden Cruise.” . i As a result of his rapidly growing popularity through the success of his starring featurette, “So This is Harris, Phil Harris, popular • radio crooner and leader of the Cocoanut Grove Orchestra in Los Angeles, has been selected to play the leading romantic role in RKO Radio’s musical, “Maiden Cruise.” At the same time, after a prolonged search for just the proper screen star to do a “modern vampire” role, Greta Nissen, for many years prominent in this type of role, has signed. In addition to these, the cast of “Maiden Cruise” includes, such important names as Charlie Ruggles, Helen Mack, Chick Chandler, June Brewster, Shirley - Chambers, Florence Roberts and Marjory Gateson. Back-Stage.

Lupino Lane has. commenced production at Elstree on George Lacy’s first film which 8.1. P. are making under ;the working title of “The Mummers.” The combination of this versatile director, whose “Maid’ of the Mountains” met with such record-breaking success on its recent release, , and the clever young comedian who took London by storm during the pantomime season, should guarantee a treat in store for comedy players. The story is a back -stage one; and the principals have, as, members of ■ a third-rate stock company playing £ one-night stand, entered with gusto into the burlesque melodrama. Scenes, including “Squire’s ruin” have been staged in a full-sized theatre and accompanied by a typical quartet in the orchestra. Hefty Chorus. ’. “The association of C. B. Cochran with the London production of ‘Music in the Air’ came as a surprise to many people,” writes Harold Conway in the Daily Mail, “although I believe he had been interested in this New York success for some time.” The action of the play is set in Bavaria and calls for a set of heftylooking chorus men, as well as a beautiful singing heroine. The . piece is playing to enormous business in the States, being the biggest success on Broadway since “The Desert Song.” The libretto is by Oscar Kammerstein 11., who wrote “The Desert Song”; the music by Jerome Kem, of “Sally” fame. The Australian season of the same piece begins in June, not so very far behind the London opening, and it will later come to New Zealand, according to present , Williamson plans. Diet ; Lionel Barrymore lived on a unique diet for three days during the filming of “Rasputin and the Empress,” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s spectacular drama of the downfall of the Romanoffs. He had to consume a Russian dinner each day for a certain sequel, s of the picture, and what with revises and re-takes,, he came to know the art of Russian culinary procedure only too well. Among the delicacies prepared for the actor were “Borchst,” a Russian soup made of red beets and sour cream, “Shcahlik,” a dish consisting of bits of mutton and onion, alternately stuck on • a skewer and roasted, and an unnamed mixture,. the principal ingredients of which were sausages and tomato juice. “The Kiss Before the Mirror.”

Universal will be releasing shortly “The Kiss Before the Mirror,” which Jias been taken from a Continental, stage success and built into a screen drama. With Nancy Carroll in the feminine lead, and With Frank Morgan, Paul Luka?, and Gloria Stuart in important' roles, “The Kiss Before the Mirror” holds , a story that will touch both young and old. James Whale directed, and Karl Freund, Universal’s “aee” cameraman, photographed “The Kiss Before the Mirror.” ■ . . '' : The Future.

Because “Men Must Fight,” new Me-tro-Goldwyn-Mayer screen drama, is supposed to occur in the year 1940, the clothes worn by the feminine members of the cast have an unusual significance in this production. Upon the shoulders of Adrian, the celebrated style creator, fell the responsibility of looking ahead seven years to anticipate the styles which will prevail in the future. Television telephones are one of th? novel features of “Men Must Fight.” This resulted in what is said to be some of the trickiest camera work yu seen in the taikies. This unusual picture features Diana Wyn~ yard, Lewis Stone, Phillips Holmes and Ruth Selwyn. Music. ' Richard Whiting, whose tuneful songs helped to make Maurice Chevalier a favourite with American and overseas audiences, is doing a similar task for Henry Garat, the famous international favourite, who is making his Hollywood screen debut co-starred with Janet Gaynor in the Fox Film romantic comedy, “Adorable.”

“The Chasers.” Lee Tracy will next be seen in “The Chasers.” Charles Butterworth, who was seen in “Love Me To-night,” will be in the supporting cast. Jack Conway, whose last picture was "Hell Below,” will direct the new picture. Tracy’s first Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture was "Clear All Wires.” Police. “The Pride of the Force”, is the title of the latest 8.1. P. film in which Leslie Fuller will star. Though he has only just completed work in “Hawleys of High Street,” this popular and energetic star has already started on the opening scenes of the new production. Norman Lee is the director of “The Pride of the Force,” which is the story of Fuller’s adventures -as an enthusiastic P.C. The supporting cast includes Nan Bates, Faith Bennett, Hal Gordon, Alf Goddard and Frank Perfitt. "Ad. Man.” “Ad. Man,” a play painting the romance that lives in a world dedicated to “shouting from the house-tops,” will be Richard Dix’s next starring vehicle for RKO Radio. Sam Mintz has been signed to fashion the screen play, which will bring Dix to the screen in a role marking a radical departure from his usual portrayals. "Ad. Man”, centres its romantic interest around Dix and a girl who paints the lovely ladies that stare, out at you from the advertising pages of magazines. The dramatic fabric of the play is woven about the lives of the men and women whose businc. it is to sell the world on everything from toothpaste to trucks. J. Walter Ruben will direct.

Karloff. ‘ Although Universal has received two offers seeking to keep Karloff jn English - studios until the late summer, Carl Laemmle, jun., cabled the popular makeup star to return to Hollywood immediately following the completion of “The Ghoul,” now being filmed in Ixmdon by British-Gaumont. Upon his return_-to Universal City he.will be starred in “The Invisible Man,” Which R. C. 1 Sheriff is now adapting, in London, from the H. G. Wells, novel. Lion Man. Because of his work as the “lion map.” in “King of the Jungle,” Paramount has taken up its option on Buster Crabbe by signing the Olympic swimming champion to a long-term contract. Crabbe’s next role has not yet’ been assigned, but he - is being considered for a part in “College Humour,” the cast of which already’ in- ' eludes Bing Crosby, Jack Oakie, Frances Dee, Randolph Scott nd Burns and Allen. ■ The swimmer got s start in pictures when he was selected for the “lion man” role after a nation-wide search £«&■ an actor with perfect physique. Travel Many Miles. , A sound booth may be only IGft from a ?et, but the actors’ voices must travel over three miles of Wire before a “mixer” can hear what is going on, it was revealed by Harold Lewis, sound technician for Paramount’s “From Hell to Heaven.” From the microphones, which pick up the voices, the wires travel to the booth, then to the recording building, where the sound goes through a variety of condensers and other apparatus, ajjd then back to the booth where the mixer hears the dialogue through a loud speaker.