AMUSEMENTS, MEETINGS, ETC.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18444, 30 March 1922, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS, MEETINGS, ETC.

THE GRAND. MATINEE TO-DAY. “Terror Trail,” a Universal serial in which Eileen Sedgwick will play the hazardous starring role under the direction of Edward Kull, starts at the matinee to-day at the Grand Theatre. In no serial production in which she has heretofore been featured has the radiant blonde been required to do the dangerous feats which have been outline for her in “Terror Trail.” The story of “Terror Trail” was written by John W. Gray and Edward Kull with the supervisory collaboration of William Lord Wright, chief of the serial and short-reel feature department at Universal City. In scope the narrative is cosmopolitan touching every country on the globe. In theme it concerns a girl who, single-handed, undertakes a patriotic service to her country by solving a great international" mystery and frustrating the plans of crooked diplomatic agents. The plot, which comes with smashing swiftness, cannot be told at this time, but it is said to have an international significance which will add to its force. George Larkin, widely known as a leading man, has been selected to play opposite the star, and will head an all-star supporting cast of unusual appeal. Al Smith, whose principal dramatic work has been in “villainous” roles, and Barney Furey are two popular players who have been selected for the opening episodes. Supporting the first chapter to-day will be Tom Mix in “After your own Heart” and full Fox programme. Seats for tonight should be secured early as the plan is rapidly filling. PARAMOUNT PICTURES. FRIDAY, SATURDAY AND MONDAY. The management of tha Paramount 'Pictures have secured a first-class programme for Friday, Saturday, and Monday, including some very flue pictures of the New Zealand Brass Band Contest, Swimming Championships, and the New Zealand Athletes against the South Africans. The picture shows the two local bands in the Quickstep and Contest Marches, and general views of the contest. The Swimming Championships also include views of the local swimmers. The picture is exclusive to the Opera House. The star picture is a Paramount Special Production featuring Betty Compson. The entire production is rich in Oriental atmosphere. The story opens in a Chinese cafe and gambling establishment in Shanghai, China, where Gherry the motherless daughter of an English proprietor reigns as queen. The story carries the spectator from Shanghai to a lonely lighthouse in the Southern Seas, where some of the most dramatic episodes ever seen on the screen are portrayed. With such a first-class programme to present to the Paramounts’ numerous patrons, a large audience is anticipated and patrons would be strongly advised to book early. The box plans are now open at H. I. Jones.

~. ANNETTE KELLERMAN. Waverley residents are fortunate in having Miss Annette Kellerman’s company included in their tour. Mr James R. Sullivan is presenting at the Town Hall, Waverley. on Monday, the 3rd of April, this wonderful film star artist—Miss Annette Kellerman—and her accomplished company of twenty Tivoli Follies.

thing, of course, depends upon the ease of getting servants. Perhaps we shall have no real fashions, no compelling social customs for a very long time. Everywhere there is a tendency to laxity. Fashion no longer compels where clothes are concerned She permits almost anything yet probably at no time was so much thought of appearance. Manners were never so informal or the choice of livelihood so wide. But suppose we—the poorer educated—do not get richer, but get poorer still. In that case, what we may call the drawingroom convention will have to be re-established in some form or other. We shall require to have some form of “ best room” iu which we emphasise the necessary artificiality of social civilisation. Somehow or other we shall keep up our standard of manners, and to keep it up without definite rules is too difficult. We shall have to return to formal dinners, however meagre; hospitality, however simple ■ and arranged-for meetings, however dull. Ihe fewer forms you insist on the more grace you require. Social informality makes too gieat a demand upon the wits of the shy. The Englishman tends to be shy, even if he lives in the exact milieu in which he was born, and one man in five is painfully shy if he enters any rank of Ijfe as a recruit. Suppose the ordinary person were suddenly called upon to sustain a long interview with a Royal personage, and told that, while he must at his peril show’ every possible deference. there were no rules whatever to help him out. Many a man would reply that, whatever his failure to appear might cost him, he simply could not go. It is perfectly easy to conform to a ritual with visible signs. It is nearly impossible to invent one in conformity to an invisible spirit. Absolute informality must always be the privilege of those who know the art of life through and through, and that belongs almost exclusively to those who were born where it was known. If the middle class flouts, the forms of social life it will have no distinctive social life at all, and that means it will be merged, or. in other words, will die out.— “Spectator.”