EDDIE GEACH HAS A FEW WORDS TO SAY.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 940, 12 March 1908, Page 17

EDDIE GEACH HAS A FEW WORDS TO SAY.

At a recent interview our old friend, Edwin A. Geach, held forth as follows :— “ Was I born in the business or did I come into it accidentally? I just drifted into it. Where do I hail from ? From Melbourne. What was lin the beginning? On a farm in Gippsland, Victoria? No; I was not impressed with farming—too long hours and too much like hard work. Then I went into journalism, and I expect that it was my journalistic surroundings which caused me to get into touch with people in the ‘ business, ’ and these, together with me Bohemian atmosphere of press work, were responsible for my gravitating to the theatre. My first and only billet was with George Coppin, the doyen of the theatrical profession. I joined him in 1895 as advertising expert. He was running a pantomime at the Melbourne Royal, with Maggie Moore as the star. I remained with George Coppin for the run of the pantomime. Since then I have been managing or directing. After the Coppin engagement I was with the Sapio-Urso combination. You recollect Mme. de Vere Sapio and Camilla Urso, the best concert party, in my opinion, though not the most successful, that ever came to Australia. I was for six or eight months with them, and I travelled Australasia. ”

“ You must have done a great deal of travelling, and, of course, you have been outside the Commonwealth?” “ Rather; I know every inch from Cairo to Tokio, have been through India—north, east, west, and south —landed at Rangoon, in

British Burmah, and travelled to Mandalay ; have toured Java. Sumatra, and have been to Bangkok, in Siam; have played scars in Saigon (French Cochin China—a wonderful country) ; nave been to Canton, Shanghai, and inland to Hankow; then I have been to Japan, which is a familiar spot. Indeed, I know as much about the East as any man in Australia.” Mr Geach then went on to talk about Japan—which he reckons is all right for tourists, but no good from a theatrical point of view. Their theatres are as good, and their managers, in his opinion, smarter than ours. To verify this he tells a story of a visit he paid to a theatre to see Donjero, the great female impersonator; “We entered the theatre, and were received with bows, smiles and salutes,” Mr Geach went on to say. “ The same cordiality was displayed in the processional triumph to the box, which, by the way, was the best in the house. I thanked the manager, but had barely time to get settled when along came a bill for 30 yen (about The bill-presenter smiled. We smiled a sickly kind of smile, but the whole house was sobbing— at the play. Donjero simply had the people at his feet. Extreme grief is the height of' the amusement among the Japanese playgoers. Would ‘ East Lynee ’ go ? I should think it would, if they understood it. The Japanese are in front, too, in staging plays. Their stages revolve, so that when one part is in view of the audience they are setting the others. I remember when I was in Shanghai with Carl Hertz, the magician,” Australia’s (practicably) youngest continued, “ I engaged a Chinese theatre which he’d from 3000 to 4000 persons. At an enormous cost, 40 Mexican dollars, about I bought off a troupe of a hundred Chinese actors, and I remember we were showing cinematograph pictures in conjunction with the conjuring. Now, to show you the objection of the Chinese to women, we were not permitted to show any pictures of women. The reason given was that it would bring bad ‘ joss ’ (luck) to the theatre for ever more.”

Mr Herbert Flemming’s Company, having finished up the Auckland season on Saturday, are now making a tour of the Waikato prior to leaving for Wellington.

Mr Dudley Clinton took the part of Colonel Sapt at the revival in Sydney of the “ Prisoner of Zenda.” * * * • “ The Thief,” Mr. U. Haddon Chambers’s adaptation of M. Henri Bernstein’s French play “Le Voleur,” is now running at the New York Lyceum, with Mr. Kyrle Bellew and Miss Illington in the chief parts. It is in this adaptation that Miss Margaret Anglin is to appear on her approaching visit to the colonies. * * ' * ft The Opera House, Wanganui was packed on February 27, many being accommodated on the stage. Montgomery’s pictures were in season, and the attendance on this night constituted a record for the town. During an interval the stakes in the sculling championship were paid over, many prominent citizens being present. * * « • A cable received during the week recorded the death of the famous English actress Miss Lily Hanbury. She made her first appearance at the Savoy Theatre just twenty years ago. and has been a favourite with English audiences ever since. Three years ago she was married to Mr Herbert Guedalla, and died in child-birth. * « » o Maud MacCarthy, the brilliant violiniste, is at present in India studying theosonhv. Miss MacCarthy has not entirely abandoned her musical career, but there is every probability of her re-entering upon it in the early future. Wirth’s circus is slowly working Northward, and will be seen later on in Auckland. It is said to be the finest collection that the Wirths have ever imported to New Zealand. This being so, lovers of a good circus have a treat in store for them.