Two Good Theatrical Stories.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVIII, Issue II, 11 January 1902, Page 51

Two Good Theatrical Stories.

Mr G. Spencer Edwards writes in the “Free Lance” : —"Mr Walter Passmore, the popular comedian of the Savoy Theatre, told me recently the story of the actor who was fat and scant of breath. He was a bad actor, as well as a fat one, and the gallery guyed him a little while he went through his part in a military drama. He kept his temper fairly well until towards the close of the last act, when he had to be shot dead. His supposed corpse was stretched out on the stage, but did what no respectable corpse is expected to do—it panted. Said one irreverent galleryite to another on the opposite of the house. ‘I say. Bill, look how his bellows blows.’ Thereupon the wrathful corpse sat up. and. with angry looks, replied. Respect the dead!’ “And now. just by way of showing that I, too. was once guilty of a ruffianly rude remark, let me relate an experience at the Standard Theatre, which is Shoreditch way. I had endured three acts of a new but very extravagant melodrama, and had gone into the saloon for a little relief. Here I was encountered by sundry members of the critical fraternity. who were hobnobbing with little Johnnie Douglass, the manager. and an individual who to me was altogether a stranger. ” ’Well, what do you think of it?’ asked a well-known journalist. ” Tl-O-T. and that spells rot,’ was the reply. “’I am pleased to hear you say so. said Douglass, bringing forward the stranger. ‘Allow me to introduce you to the author!’ “Tableau!”