STAGE AND PICTURES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXX, Issue 146053, 2 September 1916, Page 3

STAGE AND PICTURES.

(By "Tho Critic") TOWN HALL BOOKINGS. September Bth.—Horace Goldin, Illusionist. September 19th and 20th.—The Dan dies. Town Hall Pictures. —Vacaut dates. FORESTERS' HALL. Thompson-Payne Pictures, permanent.

Melbourne is to see the first production' in Australia of "The Kinema Star," one ot ! tho most successful English musical plays of recent years. It will be staged by tho Royal Comic Opera Company at Her Majesty's, following the season of the New English Musical Comedy Company. Mrs Robert Brough lately appeared in a London revival of tho spy'play, 'Tho Man Who Stayed at Home."

Miss Maud Allan, whom Masterton theatregoers will remember with pleasure, is" in London, with a number of new and allegedly startling dunces packed up in her carryall. She was negotiating recently for a month's season at His Majesty's, but they have fallen through. It was anticipated when mails left London that tho saltatory star would scintillate at one of the West End varioty theatres.

Although strafing of everything British was tlio order of the day, tho annual of tho German Shakespeare Society records that 91 theatres produced 21 Shakespearean works xor a total of 675 performances during 1915. Berlin led with 128 performances, "The Merchant oj. Venice'" aud "Hamlet" heading the list. The total was considerably below the 1914 record, but it is asserted that war-time theatrical conditions, not "patriotic motives," wero responsible. Dorothy Brunton, who has added to her successes by her performance as June in "To-night's tho Night," at Her Majesty's Melbourne, was asked whether, if sho had her time over again, she would become mi actress. '' Of course I would," declared Miss Brunton unhesitatingly. "There'is nothing else at all that 1 could adapt myself to. All other professions to mo are drab and uninviting. 1 am never so happy as when I am on tho stage. It is my whole existence. I heartily sympathise with every girl who has to earn her living otherwise than as an actress."

A New York writer is dubious. Says he: "Sarah Bernhardt is coming to play an engagement here at the Knickerbocker Theatre next September —perhaps. William F. Connor, under whoso management tho divine Sarah always appears when she visits us, says she is coming, bu£ Mr Connor believed the same thing last year, and sho disappointed him. Since she lost her leg, tho great tragedienne has been giving dra-

matic, recitations in costume in England in the music halls, assisted by a company of French actors." Bernhardt iuus also appeared before the camera.

Tho other evening in Sydney, tho JJoyal Comic Opera Company revived "The Geisha" with the following cast: —Derek Hudson as Lieutenant Reginald Fairfax, Leslie Holland as Lieutenant Cunningham, .lack I'alston as Hieutenaut Cudy, Nellie Payne as Midshipman Stanley,;,, Claude Bantock as Marquis linari" Charles Albert as Police Sergeant Takemine, Eeginald Koberts as .Lieutenant Kataua, Phil Smith as Won Hi, Minnie Love as Molly Seamore, Millie Engler as Lady Constance Wynne, Ethel Cadman as O Mimosa San.

Horace Goldin, the magician, who will appear iv Masterton on Friday evening next, tells a story of how a mistake got him a good rise. When Goldin was new to the business he was doing a trick in which a duck was supposed to disappear. Tho duck didn't fade away, but walked across the stage in full view of tho audience. There was a roar of laughter, and several minutes elapsed before Goldin could go on. When the turn was concluded, Goldin was called into the manager's office and told that if ho liked his engagement it would bo

extended at an increased salary. Later Goldin learned that the manager heard the laughter, and concluded that the actor who could induce such amusement was worth considering.

Edna Lof'tus, former stage star and former wifo of a millionaire, recently died in the county hospital at San Francisco penniless and alone. Miss Loftus started her stage career in London. She went to America with the original Rain Dears. After her divorce from Winnie O'Connor, the American jockey, sho eloped with Harry A. Rheinstrom, a Cincinnati millionaire brewer. The pair left Broadway and went to California, where they were later confined in sauatoriums for the insane. Miss Loftus later figured in several sensational episodes after effecting her release. Of late, years she has been a tubercular victim.

During some amateur theatricals ono of the performers had to leap into the river in order to escape a wild beast. Tho stage was so arranged that the river was invisible. The actor was to leap and disappear, striking a soft mattress iv tho wings, and at tho same timo a rock was to be dropped into a tub of water to create a splash. But, though the leap worked all right in rehearsal, on the night of the actual performance it wont wrong. Thero was neither mattress nor tub there. Whon tho actor jumped ho foil Bft and landed on an oaken boor with a crash loud enough to wake the dead, and thero was no splashing water to drown tho crash, by Jove! The audience, expecting to hear a splash, and hearing instead tho thunderous impact of bones upon the oak, set up a titter. But the heroic actor, equal to the occasion, silenced . them. "Heavens!" he shouted from below, '' the water's frozen!'' Mine. Potrova, the Metro star, who will be seen in Masterton next week, is a talented literary woman. Besides contributing to the leading magazines of New York and Boston, sho recently completed editing a set of classical dramatic books. Mine. Fetrova is an authority on Ibsen, Suderman, Bjoruscu, Shaw and Tolstoy. She was a dramatic critic on the London Times before she went on tht stage.

A company has been organised to

present Margaret Anglin in motion pictures, to be known as The Margaret Anglin Picture Corporation. James J>. Barton is the president, and James Shesgrec, who has been Miss Anglin's manager for tho past four years, is vice-pre-sident. Tho studios will bo in New York and Detroit, Mich.

Mary Pickford has decided to remain with tho Famous Players. Sho was to begin work in her first Famous PlayersPickford Company rcleaso about August Ist, thus setting at rest all rumours to the contrary.

Rose Coghhui is the latest legitimate actress to "succumb to the lure of tho movies. Miss Coghhui recently signed a contract to appear On tho screen for the Ivan Film Company. Marguerite Snow also signed with the same com-

pany. •Margaret Turnbull, of tho photo-dra-ni'itic staff of the Jesse L. Lasky feature Play Company, is a prolific writer. In addition to tho dozen photo-plays which sho has written during tho year, including several original, sho has found time also to write a novel entitled "Handle With Care," which has just been published.

H.H.S.—-Robert Walker, formerly of .Kalem, is now with Edison at tho New York City studio. Walkor, who is 27 years of ago, played Iv "Tho Balkan Princess and "Tho Pink Lady," in. musical comedy, and later in "A Fool Thero Was." His moving picturo career began with the Sid Olcott company, followed by a Kalem engagement and now Edison. He was married early in 1915 to Mrs Cora J. Liuton.

X.D. —'Mary Pickf ord's Imp engagement at tho time sho married Owen Moore preceded her Famous Players' contract, and "Caprice" was a Famous Players' release. Earlo Williams is 35 and unmarried; Anita Stewart will bo 21 this month. Mr Williams and Miss Stewart aro no longer playing opposite; Richard Turner is her leading man, and Mr Williams is working on another serial for Yitagraph.

II.T. —That's a strange question you ask, but I am just tho chap who can answer it. You ask, what is the greatest of God's creations? Answer, Woman, bless her! Earth's fairest flower, without which homo is Paradiso Lost, and with which homo is Paradiso Regained. (Applause from tho ladies' gallery; sighs from the bachelors' corner; groans from the alimony section; and then, nine rousing cheers from all, music, by the band, and one strain of "Home, Sweet Home.'')