SIR JOSEPH BEECHAM.

Thames Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 10287, 8 January 1917, Page 4

SIR JOSEPH BEECHAM.

v-£J$) OF A '-■'.■■■ :" .. CAREER. 7' x ' ; "' : - V LONDON, November 2. The sudden .death;■'last -week of Sir Joseph Beiecham ended yttiev career .'of ; a remarkable man. All the world knows hisi name in its-connexstdon with the: pills which made his fortune. But riot ...all the world- knows 'how far that-result.-wa& achieved 'by the advertising genius of Beechain himself, or what r a capacity ' and a character he brought to the business life;-; Part ofvtsie "(jf his- life, one 'should say, for another and equally determined -side .of him was devoted to the wholly different aim of educating his fellow-country* men in music. He had a genuine pas&n i? fc J r '. musics 'anc|\>in recent 1 $eajs he spent vaUtf sum&of iriytne effort to exteiid;/.tfo iiftfc^oja"jof \sii§ art. Himself an excellent 'amateur organist 4 with a fine organ installed in his house at Hampstead, his chief de--1 light in the musical way seems to have been that of chances for -4he public atl larsiv With [his son, Sir Thomas Beecham, per- , haps the most gifted,of ductors, to_assist him, he financed many opera schemes, chief of which was the, ever 'memorable' seasonj-'of Russian opera arid Russian ballet at { Drury La no in 1914, when amidst the | most sumptuous surroundings and a great splendour of accomplishments, Russian .art, and Russisj.riv artists -Were for', week's the;. idol'.'of4,tlie - London musical world. That may., never be.; repeated, but it will never be fwgotAen by those who shared in it. TOe'great basso Chaliapim. alone, it is said;:.wa-,s-paid :£6OOO for fifteen performances. , But hia wonderful art deserved it, (and though opera ..after opera |apjd ■ ballet after Pallet .was'produced- with j almost!'•'• extravagant richness'; and j beauty, the •<■ rush' ot- -the public -Was such as to return, the promoters! of the season £52,0®Q. In,other opera ventures-;he lost much ■•'■'■ money* -• au<3 yras'-content, to. 'lose it^'^.Hefwaist cer ; tainly the greatest, benefactor music j has ever known in this country, ahe 1 without his assistance many a musica l enterprise would.never have come intc being. The extent ©|. his -wealth is nol I yet known, -but at-any' 1 rate he purchased, a. year or. two> ago from Mi Mallaby Deeley, most of theS Coveni Garden estate bought by that gentle man from the Duke of Bedford, and jit i<? understood that, the ■■ price >.','■ Jte paid was between two-and three mil- | lions sterling., '- .