GREENROOM GOSSIP.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1361, 25 May 1916, Page 34

GREENROOM GOSSIP.

The latest and one of the greatest stars that have ever ueen imported by Mr. Hugh D. Mclntosh for the Tivoli circuit in .Australia is Horace Golden, the great illusionist, who is said to be even a finer performer than Chung Ling Soo or De Biere. His name is pre-eminent in England as a worker of .stage magic. He piles mystery on mystery. When one thinks he has reached the very apex of wonder-making he caps it with something that makes the whole business still more incompiehensible. Golden is now packing the Melbourne Tivoli.

After an American tour, the Allen Doone Company will open in New Zealand on June 124 h, when the new ply, “O’Leary, V.C.,” will be presented as the opening bill. The play is by Allen Doone and Theo. Burst Sayre, and patrons can look fciward to an enjoyable season of drama. Of course sweet Edna Keeley, the ever welcome, is to be with as again, and will take the part of the heroine. We look forward to some new songs from the actor-vocalist, Allen Doone, whose sweet singing has ever been a real feature of these simple, tender, yet dashing love plays.

Allie. Dolores, who, with Mlle. Vandour, is still living in Melbourne, is taking an active part in the campaign of the Victorian Vocalists’ Society to help professional artists who have been affected financially by the war. Sir John Madden, who is president of a strong committee, has issued a special appeal to all vocalists not to sing at any function without payment of a minimum fee of one guinea. A big concert is to be held in the Melbourne Town Hall to help establish a fund for the endowment of necessitous artists, and the French prana donna has promised tc sing at this.

“The Birth of a Nation,” soon to be presented by J. C. Williamson, Ltd., at Melbourne Theatre Royal, is the most expensive picture ever produced. This, and the enormous attraction it represents, has resulted in the presentation being restricted to first-class theatres only, and at regular theatre prices. In New York, eight shillings is the price of the best seats. In London, at Drury Lane, it is 10s. Gd., but at Sydney Theatre Royal, where the picture is booming at present, only six shillings is the highest price. Some time ago, states Air. George Bowles, who is in Australia representing D. W. Griffith, an offer of £20,000 was made for the Australian rights, but was not accepted, and arrangements were made with J. C. Williamson, Ltd., to present the Griffith production. The amount of expense and preparation involved in the production may be gauged from the fact that 138,000 feet of film were used, of which only 12,000 feet make up the complete production.

One of the sensational successes of “So Long, Letty,” at Her Majesty’s, Melbourne, is the Pink and Gold Ballet—a bunch of eight girls, whose beauty, grace and agility have won for them an extraordinary amount of popularity and appreciation. On the opening night at Her Majesty’s, Melbourne, the Pink and Gold Ballet shares in the honours of the evening, and when in backing Miss Connie Ediss’ song, “Here Come the Married Men,” the Pink and Gold Ballet executed a series of “legmania” evolutions that fairly took the audience’s breath away, the eight encores the number received clearly indicated that the eight pink and gold beauties were going to be popular in Melbourne! These are the exquisite eight: A'ladge Elliott, AVinnie Tate, Mona Ferguson, Beryl Ferguson, Ida Lacey, Lucy Greenhill, Dolly Nepean and Eileen Walls.