GEORGE GROSSMITH AS AN ENTERTAINER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 11026, 17 September 1897, Page 2

GEORGE GROSSMITH AS AN ENTERTAINER.

Mr George Grossjiith prefers the i6l« of independent entertainer to that of an actor. He says, in an interview in tho Windsor Magazine for August:— "lt© always done so. Between ourselves, too, it's more satisfactory iv certain important considerations. Some people imagine that I get about £10 a night perhaps for an entertainment. I have taken as much aa £370. And yet people will cry, ' Why did you leavo the stage ?' Not but that," ?optinnod Mr Grossmitb, "I enjoy pleasant memories of my long connection with Gilbert and Sullivan ooora, and the many parts Fate ordained that I should create. You are not to ask me about my favourite this or that, you say, but I'll tell you, since you're so pressing, that ruy kindliest feelings lie towards John Wellington Wells in th« ' Sorcerer.' Perhaps I like it best because it was the first — I don't know. Next to that I think I like Ko-Ko in the 'Mikado' As regards pure music, I consider ' Princess Ida, the prettiest. But raally thoy're all wonderful; and what other light musical composition, even the be<it, will como within miles of Gilbert aud Sullivan's least successful effort ? I ought to tell you what a pleasure my provincial tours are to me. The audience! are a continual delight, and tha provincial press outdoes itself in kindness. Perhapi the prettiest compliment I ever received was paid me by the Scotsman, which said that an Edinburgh seasos without a Tisik from Mr Grossmith was liko a summer without a rose." " You don't find tho Scotch people lacking in appreciation of humour, thea ?" " They are among my most sympathetic hearers," Mr Gronsmith admitted, and that testimony from him should go far to explode the ancinnt libsl about the surgical operation that is said to be necessary to lodge a joke in a Scotsman's head.