A MUCH TRAVELLED THESPIAN.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 947, 30 April 1908, Page 17

A MUCH TRAVELLED THESPIAN.

A YARN WITH MR DUDLEY CLINTON. Of the thousands of Auck’anders who went to see ‘‘The Scarlet Pimpernel,” 1 wonder how many, without the aid of their programme, identified the malevolent innkeeper Brogard, with .the benevolent Dr Juttner in “Old Heidelberg,” or thought that the villainous hump-back could possibly be our old. friend, Mr Dudley Clinton, the one treacherous and repulsive to a degree, the other the very soul of cheery bonhomie. A chat with Mr Clinton fil s one with regret that space, or the want of it, precludes the giving of his many experiences in extenso. He should write a book. Here are a few :— “Born in 1868 and intended originally for a musical career, I received my preliminary instruction from my father (a bit of a task master I must admit, but I profited 'by his severity, although six to eight hours a day performing hand gymnastics on a .piano is not inductive to making an irritable boy a loving son during those hours) ! Then came his old friend, C. T. West, who crammed my head with “counter point and thorough bass,” and why D flat was not C sharp always, but only on special occasions. Then, a course of pianoforte (how to do it) by that wonderful executant De Nigris of Milan. Oh, those nightmares, those Litsz Rhapsodie Hongroise No. 2, those Movements Perpetual and the —ah well, mother has a certificate or two (framed I believe) with my name engraved upon them from the Royal Academy of Music, London, and although I have not altogether thrown away my early tuition (I play- now only to amuse myself) in my spare time I jot down odd notes, now and then, and am pleased, of course I’m pleased, to say that eight London houses tolerate my efforts in addition to one Sydney firm and one Melbourne firm, and it encourages me to jot down a few more odd notes now and then ! Acting? of course, I had almost forgotten ; up to date, 19 years and a few daysFirst engagement ? Pantomime! Sang in the chorus. Afterward I toured with a second rate, or it might have been a third rate opera company. Next I was with Arthur Bearne’s Company for over five years. The last part I played with him was David Garrick (an old man at the time of the p l; ay) in ‘Dick Sheridan ’ I appeared in only one act, but what an act! My engagements since have been with A. and S. Gatti, W. S. Penley, John Hare, Henry J. Leslie, Grace Hawthorne, Frank Mouil'ot, Mrs Fiske (in America), George Mouilett, Mrs Fiske (in America), George Musgrove, and now J. C. Williamson. My favourite parts ? The tramp in ‘A message from Mars, ’ which I played in England over 800 times. Brabazon Tudway in ‘Lord and Lady Algy,’ Leopold Kolditz in ‘Hearts are Trumps,’ and; above all, Dr Juttner in ‘Old Heidelberg.’ I must not dwell upon the reception given to that play in Melbourne and Sydney, or to the exceptional kindness showed by the public of Auckland to my humble ef-

forts as the Doctor, but if I live to p'ay a thousand parts, and make a thousand successes, which is impossible, I shall never forget in whatever country I may be, the appreciation of your theatregoing public, and I have come back, although I am Serving under another flag. I come in contact day after day with citizens, whom I have not met before, who greet me as ‘The Doctor. ’ These are the great moments of an actor’s life, these are the moments Which perhaps are dearer than the nightly applause, the moments when One realises that the book has not been closed, and put back into its place amongst the others, that it is still open and its pages are still being read and, re-read and the character remains and lives and is not forgotten ! If this is vanity then I am vain I Yes, I accompanied Nellie Stewart to America. We had a glorious season. I must say glorious because artistically it was. If it had not been for the terrible calamity, which at once affected the whole country, we should have been the great financial and phenomena 1 , success we had been in San Francisco, but we are but a side show in this world of competition, and graft and play-houses throughout the United States suffered considerably not only in the West, but in the four corners ! After my engagement with ‘Sweet Nell’ I joined Mrs Fiske’s Manhattan Theatre Company to play ‘The Rev. Matthew Phillimore’ in Langdon Mitchell’s comedy of divorce ‘The New York Idea.’ I have travelled considerably in the United States. The tour of Mrs Fiske, after the 14 weeks season at the Lyric Theatre, New York, covered 18,000 miles —sounds awful, doesn t it. I visited, professionally, 35 states in the Union, playing as far South as Florida and as far North as Edmonton in Canada. I missed the ’Frisco earthquake by four days—we left on April ith, 1906. I have been back, but do not want to see it again ! It is a great city. I have seen Niagara in winter and in summer, have picked cotton in Alabama, where the coons come from, have been up Pike’s Peak and down gold mines and coal mines returning each time with more of the latter than the former, have seen ‘The Darling of the Gods ’ in Colorado and journeyed through the Grand Canon, and the Great Cheyenne Canon, have lolled, on the banks of the Rio Grande and dreamed of ‘Laska,’ done heaps of things, but have never been ‘held up’ and have never ‘fought Injuns’ or killed buffalo but for all that, I had a good time in the land of Stars and Stripes. Then I met J. C. Williamson in New York, and he said, well, I forget exactly what he did say, but here I am in Auckland again.

Oh, yes, I still write music, and publish it too, when I can get the right side of a sympathetic publisher. Ido business with eight London houses, also with Glen, of Melbourne, and Paling, of Sydney. Oh, I have chatted about that letter before. People will either disbelieve it or want to see it, still I may venture to repeat the statement. I was the last musical composer who received a 'etter from our late Queen Victoria graciously accepting my march ‘ln Victoria’s Name,’ which I wrote during the early part of the Boer War.” We should all like to see Mr Clinton in a better part than that of the old villainous innkeeper “Brogard” who appears only in the last act of “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” but as Mr Clinton explained, it is not every play which contains characters to suit his personality, and therefore, sometimes he has to be content with a one-act part. In “The Prisoner of “Zenda” it is different, for old Col. Sapt is a very trying and difficult part to play. This week is reproduced a photograph of Mr Clinton as the Rev Mathew Phillimore, in “The New York Idea,” which, I must confess, has every appearance of “a gentleman in holy orders.” A New York paper, in speaking of his performance, said: “And then the Rev. Mathew Phillimore (Dudley C inton) walked in, with that self-possessed air, looking for all the world as if he had just stepped out of one of our leading episcopalian churches on to the stage of the Lyric Theatre. ”