"DOWN BUT NOT OUT"

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXIV, Issue 3210, 22 September 1934, Page 3

"DOWN BUT NOT OUT"

, t FAMOUS PLIGHT.. Once Tom Burke, the famous tenor, earned £27,000 in a single year. He has been paid £4OO for a single night's work. Lately he talked to a "Sunday Express" representative in a tiny, rented room in South Kensington. For Item Burke (has- now no home of his awn. He has not earned a penny for i year. "It is only in the last two or three vears that things have gone wrong," Mr Burke said. "I am 38. My voice is in it® prime.. I was famous at 17, and in the years which followed made Dver £250,000. I lost most of it in speculations. "Yet I have not made a halfpenny n the last year! I have not a farthing n the world, and must either live at ny father's house or enjoy the hospitality of friends. "You ask me why this is—listen: It s because I have refused to pander to he Stupid' ignorance of the British mhlic, who will not respect a singer mless he ■comes from some obscure European country, sings with 1 a foriign accent, and has a name which is iifficult to pronounce. In short, Ibeause I 'aim British. "Were I to call myself Tomaso Jurkski and isiing in had- English, I hould proibably 'be overwhelmed with rork. Walking through the West End he other night I passed four theatres 11 employing foreign artists in leadrag parts. Yet there are hundreds of ne British artists without a meal to at. "England has gone crazy over forign artists, forgetting that in the nave of nationalism which is sweep:<g Europe English artists Cannot get "ork abroad. Nearly all the prinLpal roles in the Convent Garden 'pera House this season are filled by sreigners. Germans' who sing in bad :aldan are .being paid fabulous sums > come to England. "Two out of every three artists who layed in a recent concert at the -oyal Albert Hall in aid of the Brith Artists' Benevolent " Fund were weigners! British artists of proved orth have had to change their names ) become successful. "Edward' Johnson, the famous Brith singer at the Metropolitan Opera ouse, New York, had to change to duardo di Giovanni before he was ■cognised. Another Britisher is lawn as Leopold Stokowski, and is nv conductor of the famous Philailphia Symphony Orchestra." But Tom Burke is not beaten. He as robust as ever, and he is defiant : intend to fight," he says. "I am >wn, but not out." t __<.,}. e ,«, „