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Observer, Volume XXXV, Issue 50, 21 August 1915, Page 20

Says Geo. Cohan in the "Green Book" :—"The success of certain plays and the failure of others, throws a light on the question of Avhether a popular play is a good play. I have always contended! that it is, and I shall continue so doing. I do not say that certain persons who represent themselves as being more or less capable critics do not know a good play, but I do say that persons from one stratum of society cannot hope to fix on the merits of a play for all strata of society. That is what a play is for —for everybody. I hold! that a play that has a longer and more successful run is a better play, as an all-round production, than one that pleases a certain part of the public and therefore has only a, short run. The final and vital criticism lies in a play's general popularity."

The death, is reported from England of Mr Barclay Gammon, the clever song-at-the-piano artist, who visited NeAv Zealand with Maskel'yne and Devant's show some ten years ago. He was a popular London performer.

From Riga, Russia, comes the news of the death of Karl Friedrich Gl'asenapp, the famous biographer of Richard Wagner. He was sixty-sev-en, years' old, and had been occupying' a post at the Riga Polyteohnikum as Professor of German and Literature. The Glasenapp Wagner biography, published in 1876, remains the most extensive work on the life of the great composer.

Mr Henry Bracy, the original Marco in "The Goldolers" in Australia and New Zealand, and an old servant of the Williamson, firm, is reported to be seriously ill in Sydney. Mr Bracy was the original Prince Hilarion in "Princess Ida at the Savoy Theatre, London.

Hugh D. M'lnitosh, the vaudeville entrepreneur refereed in the big fight for the championship of the world between Tommy Burns and Jack Johnson, but "he didn't want to do it." He Avanted Snowy Baker to undertake the responsibility, and got Burns to agree to him, but the ebony man could not hear a word when "Snowy" was mentioned. Finally, Hugh M'lntosh got Jack into a corner, and demanded to know the black man's objection to "Snowy." Jack said: "Well, Hugh, he's a'blonde, and I can't stand for blondes!"