Greenroom Gossip.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 1008, 1 July 1909, Page 17

Greenroom Gossip.

By

"Footlights.”

THE MAN OE MYSTEBY. An interesting sketch of and interview with Chung Ling Soo appears on page 9 of this week’s “ Review.” CHUNG LING SOO’S POWERS. By many of his Chinese compatriots Mr. Chung Ling Soo is regarded simply and solely as an exponent of what Europeans call “ the black art,” and is thought to be invested with occult powers, which enable him to magically create anything and everything he requires. On one occasion, when dining in a Chinese restaurant in Sydney, Mr. Soo was presented by the Chinese waiter with a bowl, with the remark, “ You make era Power plenty come.”

Not having his conjuring accessories at hand, Mr. Soo politely intimated that the thing was beyond his power. But the more he declined the more persistent the Chinese waiter grew, and it took a good deal of explanation to make him understand that there are limits, even to the capabilites of a Chinese juggler. * * * * EAST AND WEST. Were Mr. Chung Ling to remain in the colonies he • might do something towards promoting an entente cordiale between Australasians and the subjects of the Celestial Empire. Everywhere he goes,. Mr. Soo seeks to bring about a better understanding between Europeans and Chinamen. Taking them man for man, and class for class, Mr. Soo stoutly maintains that the Chinaman is every bit as good, and just as reliable as the Hungarian, the German, the Pole, tne Swede, the Russian, or the Britisher. He tells more than one interesting little story by way of rebutting the commonly accepted idea that Chinamen will live on anything, even to “ the smell of an oiled rag.” On a recent occasion, in company with a well-known Sydney journalist (the son of a late Privy Councillor —the first colonial statesman to be so honoured) and the Master of the Sydney M : nt, Mr. Soo visited a Chinese restaurant, the trio dining off precisely the same fare as is served to the Chinese market gardeners and labourers who frequent such houses. They had six courses, and

pronounced the food to be excellent, and subsequently visited the kitchen and inspected the house from the basement upwards, finding everything to be perfectly sweet and clean, and remarking of the kitchen arrangements that their cleanliness and order would be a valuable object-lesson to the European chefs of some of the better class hotels of the city. * * * * THE IRISHWOMAN KNEW. Mr. Chung Ling Soo spends a good deal of money every week over his flower tricks, flinging the blossoms, with little medallion portraits of himself attached to the stalks, amongst his audience. When in Dublin some time back, he made inquiries of a little old lady who kept a florist’s shop, close to the theatre where he was performing, if she could supply him with 200 roses a day. “ Two thousand if you want them,” was the reply. Mr. Soo consequently sent his manager along for the flowers, without disclosing his identity or the purpose for which he required them. The old lady, becoming curious, attended a matinee performance with her daughter, and was an interested spectator of “ the flowerpot trick,” with the seemingly magical growth of the beautiful roses. When it was finished, her daughter turned to her and said, “ Sure an’ isn’t it wonderful, mother, how he makes the roses grow?” “Wonderful!” snorted the old dame, contemptuously. “Do

you call that wxsnaerful? Why, sure and them’s my roses, the very ones I sells him mysel’.” * * * a A NEW PLAY. Mr. J. C. Williamson has secured the rights of “ Henri of Navarre,” -which is being played with great success by Julia Neilson and Fred Terry, and has now passed its 150th performance in London. * ♦ ♦ * A NEW ZEALANDER'S SUCCESS. One of the most popular Australian actors of the present day is Mr. Harry Plimmer, who was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and began his stage career at the old Opera House, Melbourne, with Miss Ada Ward in a piece called “ Bright Hopes.” His next engagement was with H. C- Sydney and Alice Norton in “ The Mystery of ‘a Hansom Cab.” This engagement was followed up by six months with Bland Holt at the Alexandra Theatre (now Her Majesty’s Theatre), Melbourne, and then he joined Miss Myra Kemble, who was playing in “The Profligate” and other pieces of a similar type. He next joined George Rignold’s forces at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Sydney, and stayed with him three years. Then he was engaged by the late Mr. Robert Brough to take the place of Mr. G. S. Titheradge during a tour of India and the East. On his

return from the East Mr. Plimmer’s services were secured by J. C. Williamson for an 18 months’ tour at the head of the Julius Knight company, while Mr. Knight himself was away on a holiday trip to England. At the conclusion of this engagement Mr. Plimmer was transferred to the Nance O’Neil company, and thereafter went to America, where he was engaged the very day he landed for the part of Cavaradossi in “La Tosca.” He was the first exponent of the part of Sherlock Holmes in Australia, and during his recent engagement with J. C. Williamson he has added to his already fine reputation a long list of successes, including Prince Yoland in “ An Englishman’s Home.” * * * * A VARIETY STAR’S FATE. Alice Leamar, once the darling of the London and Australian vaudeville stage, the boldest, raciest and riskiest of her day, is said to be absolutely down and out; a pitiable wreck on life’s shores, and a terrible instance of the fleeting nature of the triumphs of a variety star. Alice will be best remembered by Tivolians in her songs, “ Whacky, Whacky, Whack,” and “ Johnny Jones.” She was a gay and festive soul, rather pretty, very attractive, and a woman who believed fully in and obeyed Omar’s exhortation " Make the most of what we yet may spend Before we, too, into the Dust descend; Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie, Sans Wins, sans Song, sans Singer, and sans End.” * * ♦ ♦ . “ THE KING OF CADONIA, 1 “ The King of Cadonia,” at present the reigning attraction at Her .Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, is far above the ordinary type of musical comedy plays with which audiences have been entertained during the past few years. To begin with, it has a well-knit story which for romantic incident and sustained interest might very easily hold its own as a dramatic production without the addition of the delightful melodies which have been contributed by Mr. Sydney Jones. The humour also bubbles up naturally from the plot, and is not, so to speak, thrust in promiscuously. Then the mounting and costuming is acknowledged on every hand to be the most brilliant that has ever graced a production on the Australian stage—the great Coronation scene at the last being one gorgeous mass of colour, the costumes of the ladies of the Court in the most fashionable styles and hues mingling with the uniforms of the attaches and forming a scene of brilliance that has never been equ« n < a d out here. More-

over, it is interesting to reflect that this scene of brilliance is the handiwork of Australians —all the costumes having been made either by leading Melbourne firms or by Miss Emily Nathan, the head of the wardrobe staff under the J. C. Williamson management. The various members of the newly-organised company also have achieved great success in their various roles, and the whole production decidedly merits the popularity which it seems likely to achieve.

THE LATEST PIANIST. The latest pianist -to shake the music-loving world —and that’s all the world—is another Russian, and his name is Lhevinne. He was playing in San Francisco recently, and one paper, a clever, artistic, brilliantly and carefully-written weekly, began a perfect panegyric with the following paragraph:—“We have with us one of the world’s greatest pianists. It did not take long for the assembly of music-lovers to make this discovery last Sunday afternoon, when an audience, consisting principally of trained musicians, gathered to hear Josef Lhevinne, the Russian pianist.” * * * ♦ UNMUZZLING THE STAGE. After 172 years of agitation, a Bill has been introduced in Parliament for the abolishment of the office of play censor in England. The office was created to muzzle Henry Fielding, and it had the immediate and permanent effect of turning him from the medium of the play to that of the novel. Among plays prohibited in recent years were “ Three Weeks,” “ Ghosts,” “ Monna Vanna,” and “ Mrs. Warren’s Profession.” • * * * “ THE MERRY WIDOW” VOGUE. Some further interesting information regarding the phenomenal success of “ The Merry Widow” has come to hand from Mr. Henry W. Savage, the holder of the American copyright of the famous opera. According to the statistics supplied by him the piece has found favour with theatre-goers of all nationalities, and has been produced in thirty different countries, including China, Hindustan, and Siberia, having been translated into thirteen different languages. Mr. Savage states that the opera has been performed in 422 German towns, and in 154 and 135 American and English towns respectively- At the lowest computation its performances total quite 20,000 — 1500 in America, 1400 in England, and equally striking figures mark its reception in the other cities in which it has been produced. To hear the opera in New York alone no less than

1,000,000 dollars have been expended, while the waltz has been danced quite 4652 times, which allows for five- encores for each performance, and in the same city no fewer than 3,000,000 copies of the waltz have been sold. In Australasia, where the wonderful musical mascotte is still on tour and meeting with great success in New Zealand, it has already been performed close on 300 times, and quite half-a-million people have seen it. # * * * MISS AMY CASTLES. Two important engagements have been made by Messrs J. and N. Tait for the Australasian concert tour of Miss Amy Castles. Mr. Pete Dawson, the famous basso, and Mr. Anderson Niccol, one of the most popular tenors associated with ballad concerts in Great Britain and Ireland, will accompany the young Bendigonian on her return to her own country. Mr. Dawson, who went to Europe from Adelaide some years ago, ranks as one of the two greatest bassos now singing on the concert platform in Europe. He will not come unknown to Australians, as the gramaphone records have for some years past given us a pronounced impression of the depth and strength of his voice. ♦ ♦ • • “ IN A BAD WAY.” According to an actor just returned from England, the stage there is in a very bad way, especially in London. The legitimate has almost disappeared; in fact, there is only one theatre in London where the legitimate ’s being played, and then there it is not by any means consistent. Everything is musical comedy “ with plenty of leg.” Musical entertainments in which there is a great array of girls are in great demand. The music halls, too, are jumping ahead, but in these some fine entertainments are given.

A NEW PROCESS. The French cinematograph film manufacturers, who are now establishing branches in Australia, claim to have discovered a colour process, and recently they exhibited in Melbourne tropical scenes in the Sunda Islands, showing the rich green bamboo foliage. ♦ * * * POLLARD’S JUVENILES. Mr. and Mrs. Harry Quealy shortly leave Australia with the other members of Pollard’s Juuvenile Opera Company on a tour of China, Japan, India, and Aiflerica. Mrs. Quealy takes charge of the children of the company, and her husband is to be stage manager. * * • * OLD FRIENDS IN LONDON. Madame Clara Butt and Miss Marie Hall, both of whom were introduced to Australian and New Zealand audiences by Messrs. J. and N. Tait, recently appeared at the Mansion House, London. The occasion was a charity concert organised by the Lord Mayor of London in aid of the British National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Madame Patti also appeared, but the dominant features of the concert were the singing of Madame Clara Butt and the young violinist’s playing. Owing to Illness Madame Butt abandoned her English winter tour, and spent the time at Cannes and Biarritz. However, latest advices state that the famous contralto and Mr. Kennerley Rumford gave their usual Albert Hall concert towards the close of May. For these two singers a concert in London’s famous auditorium means anything between £l5OO and £2000.. * * * * NOW FAMOUS. Olive Lenton, the dainty daughter of poor dead and gone Lance Lenton, actor and journalist, the girl who was so long one of Rickards’ best drawing cards, she of the shapely limbs and tiny hands and feet (the latter inherited from pa), has become one of the very first rank vaudeville artists in London, and for three years has never been out of an engagement. By the mail last week (says Sydney “Fair Play’’) arrived a couple of gay bills, in orange, red and black, on which Olive’s name alone appears, setting forth that she is showing at the Palace, Shaftesbury Avenue, in a musical scena entitled “Harvest Time,” and she is entitled on the bill “Australia’s Own Artiste.” Pretty Olive always was keenly ambitious to rise in her chosen line, and she appears to have got right to the top when she has posters all to herself.