GREENROOM GOSSIP.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1325, 16 September 1915, Page 36

GREENROOM GOSSIP.

It has been revealed in Sydney that “Stop Your Nonsense,” in which Miss Ethel Dane, of “Glad Eye” fame, figures, was written by Mr. Beaumont Smi.h.

J. C. Williamson, Ltd., have already a strong hand in regard to their moving pictures of notable productions. Fred Niblo’s fine acting in ••Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford” and “Officer 666” has been put into permanent record on the film. “Within Our Gates,” now being shown all over Australia and New Zealand, has scored a wonderful success. The latest production, is ‘■Within the Law,” with Miss Munel S arr in her original role of Mary Turner.

“Australia is an ideal place for actors. Sunday performances are not allowed. In Melbourne, a city of over half a million, there are no Sunday newspapers. Even the trams do not run until 2 o’clock in the afternoon. And it is impossible to get a drink for love or money.”—Fred Niblo to an American interviewer.

A tribute to the popularity of Miss Maggie Moore was the tremendous round of applause the audience accorded her when she came on in “After the Girl,” which opened the repertoire season of comic opera at Her Majesty’s, Melbourne. “I certainly like appearing in musical comedy,” said Miss Moore. “The atmosphere is so bright and breezy; one is untrammelled in the rendering of a part; and the audience are not so exacting,” she added, naively.

Mr. Leslie Holland, now appearing in “Our Miss Gibbs” at Her Majesty’s, Melbourne, first came to Australia as “leading juvenile” in “The Brass Bottle,” a fantastic farce-comedy that failed to meet with popular appreciation. Since then Mr. Holland has been appearing in musical comedy, with which he was associated for years in England. Mr. Holland is another of the imported artists who finds this country entirely congenial. With the. exception of a visit to South Africa under the' J. C. Williamson management, he has remained in Australia since he first came there, and intends to remain. He has not only established his home there, but has acquired considerable business interests in Sydney —for Mr. Holland is a good business man as well as an actor.

“Something that will brighten life is wanted to-day,” said the Bishop of Birmingham at the annual conference of the Actors’ Church Union at the Savoy Thea re, London. The soldier on his return from the front urgently needed some relief from his memories in the field. Mankind was built that way. Theatres and music halls were as essential an element in life as churches, and he had always found that the men who could appreciate hymns most were those who best loved a good comic song.

J. C. Williamson, Ltd., have been fortunate in securing for their “Mother Goose” pantomime an unusually captivating principal boy in the person of Lliian De Venny, who has appeared in several London productions as well as in the provinces. Miss De Venny has a charming stage presence, and an unusually good voice for a principal boy. “The neatest figure in pantomime,” is how the London “Era” recently described her.

According to Mr. Hector Goldspink, who is appearing at the Tivoli Theatre, Sydney, all the best music halls in London are now incorporating good singing turns in their programmes. Some of the best-known concert singers in London have gone over to vaudeville, with the result that the tone of the halls has been much improved.

In its Melbourne and Sydney season the Elton Black Revue Company (which is fulfilling an engagement on the Fuller circuit) made big hits, and on each occasion the season originally arranged for it had to be extended to practically double the time. Mr. Elton Black himself is a tower of strength in the company. His fine burlesque capacity, an excellent voice and a droll way of gagging, make his appearances a great laugh. The two Quealeys, so- well known to the musical comedy world, are also prominent artists in the revue. The. clever “flapper” ballet is led by Mrs. Quealy. Both ;She and her husband are noted dancers, and in the revue their talent in this direction has full scope.

Miss Gladys Cooper, the actress (Mrs. Buckmaster), gave birth to a son last month. This is her first boy. Her little daughter Joan is five years old. Her husband is with his regiment in Buckinghamshire.

Sir Herbert Tree is making a tour in vaudeville in Britain with a condensed version of “Trilby” In theatres controlled by the Moss Empires, Ltd. Previously he. had not appeared in vaudeville outside the Palace, London.

Miss Estelle Rose, the quaint character comedienne, who is appearing at the Sydney Tivoli Theatre, makes a specialty of eccentric impersonations. One of her studies is that of Charles Chaplin, the famous moving picture actor, who probably has made more people in the world laugh than any other man that ever lived. Miss Rose, who is a friend of Chaplin, played with him on the same bill when he was only in receipt of 20 dollars a week. Chaplin happened to drift into the picture business, and within a few months his salary had leapt to 2000 dollars a week. This made a lot of his friends in vaudeville try the new life, but they soon found out that the picture actor is born to the business.

Mr. Lincoln Plumer, the genial, rotund American ac'.or, who generally appears as bullying police inspectors in the Muriel Starr productions, was once an “understander.” This announcement will probably not provide any information until it is explained that an “understander” is the man in a circus act who stands under and supports the weight of the others who rest upon him. Mr. Plumer certainly appears to be admirably suited, physically, to such a part, but he explains i hat it was years ago, when he was associated with a “two brothers’ act” in a circus. “They were both heavy weights,” said Mr. Plumer, “and I had the heaviest work but the lightest salary. One day, at practice, we were rehearsing a new trick fail. One of the brothers landed on me and my collar-bone gave way. I faded away to- the hospital, and when I came out again I retaliated. They broke my collar-bone; I broke my contract.”

The basis of “Under Cover,” the thrilling American detective drama being staged at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, is the attempted evasion of duty on articles brought into America by wealthy and prominent Americans returning from Europe. This has been one of the hardest and most intricate problems the American Customs Department has had to deal with. For this purpose a special Secret Service was created, and the story of “Under Cover” concerns the work of this Secret Service in unravelling the mystery of the smuggling of a diamond necklace worth £40,000. The thrill that characterises the play right through is augmented when one of the chief figures in the unravelling of the mystery finds that the man under suspicion, whom she is incriminating, is the man she loves, and that her own sister is in danger if she fails in her task. The man, too, learns

that the girl he loves is trying to send him to prison. The result is real, enthralling drama —drama with a “kick” in it.

Among the latest acts to arrive from over the seven seas to appear in Australia and New Zealand under the banner of Mr. Hugh D. Mclntosh, of the Tivoli Theatres, are Kajiyama, Japanese novelty act; Hector Goldspink, tenor; May Erne and He, English musical act; Dora Sawyer, English comedienne; Neckelssohn, French conjuror; Billy Kincaid, Scotch juggler; Mary Elizabeth, American star comedienne; Terry and Lambert, comedy duo; Annie Kent, American comedienne; Clemons and Dean, singing and dancing comedians; Edward Marshal, chalkologist; Desmond and Dalton, patter comedians; Lee Tiy Wars, Chinese magician; Mdlle. Rochez’s monkeys; Lou Stone, upside down dancer; Al Ripon, singing ventriloquist; Murfayne, xylonhonist; Jarvis and Dare, Canadian baritone and reciter and New York beauty; Wallace Galvin, talk trickster; Paul Stephens, the one-legged gymnast; Ida Barr, the English comedienne; the Tyrrels, whirlwind dancers; and General Pisano and Co., sharpshooters extraordinary.

Wallace Galvin, the great American Illusionist, is appearing in Australia under the management of Mr. H. D. Mclntosh, and the egg trick creates wonderment and shrieks of laughter nightly. The egg trick is more easily described than it is explained. Galvin comes forward with an ordinary hard hat, and asks the assistance of someone, preferably a boy, from the audience. The hat is shown quite empty, but from the inside Galvin proceeds to produce egg after egg, and hand them to the boy. Then there are so many that the boy cannot hold them in his two hands. Sill the eggs come, until the boy’s arms cannot hold any more, and falls become numerous. Then Galvin comes to his rescue and takes them all back, only to find that the hat is too small to hold them. Where they come from is a complete mystery, and is likely to remain so. Galvin claims that he has broken upwards of 80,000 eggs in performing this trick in all parts of the world.

Of all the cities where Phil Smith, the comedian, has appeared, whether in England, America, or Australia, the comedian considers Glasgow to be. the worst. Of course he takes it from the viewpoint of an actor towards the audience'. Mr. Smith appeared in Glasgow in vaudeville, in the. same bill as some of Engand’s most notable comedians. Yet the artists, with but one or two exceptions, were given a very rough time. “They look on this sort of thing as sport,” explained Mr. Smith to a Melbourne interviewer. “I heard George Robey howled down one night—and I don’t think you could get a finer comedian anywhere. When English artists who have gone through the provinces come out to Australia, they pretty soon come to the conclusion that the audiences in this country are the finest in the world. Never mind if the performance is not up to

the mark. The artist at any rate gets a fair hearing and no hostile treatment. Even at a musical comedy first night in one of the principal theatres in London I have heard the fall of the curtain accompanied by a storm of howls and hisses! Imagine that in an Australian theatre! In this country playgoers express their opinion of a production just as forcibly, but much more politely, by staying away!”

“After the Girl” is described as a chase in six episodes. Doris Pitt, the rebellious schoolgirl, who refuses to make herself amenable to parental restraint, decides to frisk around on her own responsibility, and so the chase begins. Her parents pursue her half over Europe. This gives opportunities for the placing of scenes in Paris, on Uic Belgian frontier, in the market place in Amsterdam, amid the palaces and canals of Venice, in the Summer Gardens Music Hall in Petrograd, and in the dining-room and palm court of the Carlton Hotel, London.

Mr. Hugh D. Mclntosh, the governing director of the Tivoli Theatres, has been elected president of the Sydney branch of the' British Empire League in succession to Sir Wm. McMillan.

“How did it happen that I was sent out as a war correspondent to Antwerp?” said Louise Mack (Mrs. Creed) at Sydney the other day. “Well, 1 made up my mind that I wanted to go, and I just worried my newspaper until I obtained the permission.” Her articles were starred, and nearly always found a place on the front page in whichever paper they appeared.. The difficulty was to get her copy through, and more often to obtains sufficient paper for the writing of' articles. The story of the war as she saw it will come out in book form,, under the title of “The Path to Glory.”' Her sister, Mrs. Harrison, better known as Amy Alack, will! do the proof-reading, for the book has already gone to press. Talking of atrocities, Mrs. Creed remarked! that those people who refused to believe. in the truth of the statements: made by commissions did so evidently through ignorance or because they did! not wish to believe. She. had actually come in contact with the inhabitants', who had suffered at the enemy’s: hands, and atrocities had undoubtedly been committed, though more often, than not the immediate cause of acts of lawlessness came from the intoxicated state of the soldiers.

After the All-Women matinee at the 1 ■tiaymaiket, reports “London Opinion.’’ Queen Alexandra sent for Elsie Janis—having seen Elsie that afternoon for the fii st time and, after saying - how mvehr she had enjoyed this young American' girl’s performance, asked her if shewould send along a photograph of herself, “in her little white dancing frock.’-*' The photograph was, dispatched that same night, “and” said, Elsie Janis,, “though I’ve got a whole heap of lovelymemories to take home with, me next month, i reckon that gracious Queen’s: kindness will beat them all.”