STRAND THEATRE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1403, 15 March 1917, Page 35

STRAND THEATRE.

This up-to-date theatre is building up a great popularity w2th picturegoers, who know that they will only be regaled with the very best. This week’s star attraction is a novelty story entitled “The Microscope Mystery,” which revolves round the efforts of a medical expert to overcome the evil influence of a quack doctor. During its unfolding, the audience see milions of microbes and special bac Hi cultures of the “Love germ.” In fact, it combines a mystery of crime, a love story and a fascinating science lesson all in one. Constance Talmadge and W.lfred Lucas take the leading parts. In add tion to this unusual drama, Billie Burke appears in the fifth episode of “Gloria’s Romance,” which wll be found of appealing interest to all her admirers. Next week’s headliner will be “The Matrimaniac,” with Douglas Fa ; rbanks in the outstanding role.

Zakaree E.makov, who is engaged on the Fu ler circu.t. gives a d.splay with ancient and modem war weapons of Russia. He comes from the Tartar portion of Russia and was accustomed to shooting from h’s youth He has been in the thick of quite a number of revolutions, and has had numerous exciting experiences About

two j-ears ago Ermakov wao anesteu in vteiTuaiiy as a spj. me uemituio V»eie muK.ll s pi’eparations xOf wax' even uen j.xav earns *n Turkey suoruy axcer Warns ne was s_iuc*v wan wnai me papeis oam auouu luUiU Au Deris s appem to me BriL.sii uauuu. ne wrote lo me iace r\eiu-Maroua-Seating tnat it was an Ouaot wn** the Tuiks that bcfoie lyj.s dieie would De War, ana tuai Turkey ana Germany wou.u aitac* B r -tain atm conquer her. Lora jxoberts replied himseii, saying that he bel.eved Laeie wou4 De war, and Ermakov retains the letter in ms possess.on. He w'as at Manchuria dming the Japanese war ana m Kronsiaut at the time ot the naval mutiny. »»• i.i The J. C. W.liiamson Ltd production of ‘ The P nk ’ has scored a great success at Her Majesty's Theatre, Sidney, where the Royal Comic Opera Company is appearing in what has been descr.bed as “the nearest approach to real comic opera we have had for years ’ The music is by Ivan Caryll, composer of ‘ Our Miss G.bbs.” ‘ The Toreador,” ‘The Orchid,” and other successes, the libretto is by C. H. S. McClellan, author of “The Belie of New York” and “Leah Kleschna.”

The George Willoughby Company, while in Gisborne, inaugurated a street collection in a’.d of the local patriotic funds, and raised £lBl on the day.

The military authorities in England are endeavouring to arrange for the licensing of “Damaged Goods ’ so that it may be played at Home

Miss Ethel Dane who in pr.vate life is Mrs. Cyril Keightly, has joined her husband m the Un ted States, and took part in George Arliss’s revival of Sir James Barrie’s ‘ The Professor’s Love Story.” Miss Dane wi l always be remembered in New Zealand for her delightful comedy work in “The Glad Eye,” “The Chaperone,” and “Who’s the Lady?”

The recent shocking tragedy due to a film at a free entertainment to children catching fire and stampeding the little spectators, draws attention to the necessity for licensing all operators of picture machines (says the Sydney “Sun”). In the public theatres not only are the operators experts who have been licensed, but the projection-room is hermetically sealed and fire-proof. A film could catch fire without a member of the spectators knowing it, end there would not be the sl’ghtest possibility of the fire spreading outside the room. It is

difficult to see why children who do not pay to be entertained should not be as well protected as those who do. It is probable that there will be an amendment of the Theatres and Public Halls Act early in the next Parliament, when there will be a more comprehensive definition of a public hall. • * * * New York papers are seething with paragraphs and stories of the triumphs of Leo, Jan and Mischel Cherniavsky. Whether it is an “At Home” at the Waldorf Astoria, where New York’s Four Hundred gather, or at the people’s popular concerts, the Cherniavskys are lionised. It was a picture to see the gaily dressed society men and women, serious artists and music lovers of New York filling up the great Carnegie Hall at the brothers’ series of matinees. There were famous composers and conductors, painters, sculptors, several renowned singers, violinists and pianists, including their great admirer, Harold Bauer. Nearly all the stars from the various theatres were present; in fact, the leading lights of the musical, art and £5O IN FRIZES and also gift awards to be distributed on 31st July among users of Desert Gold Tea. Ask for the 2/- grade of this splendid tea. Best quality and value in the world.

social circles were there in all their glory. The Cherniavskys are booked up to the end of March, when they sail for New Zealand to fulfil their engagements here in April and May. This is the fourth visit of these artists to New Zealand.

An importunate friend induced George Bernard Shaw to attend a feeble society concert. Bored and drowsy, the cynic found a quiet corner where he would be undisturbed. His hostess came up to him presently. “Now, Mr. Shaw, don’t you think this orchestra plays beautifully? These men have been playing together for eleven years.” “Eleven years!” yawned Shaw. “Have we been here so long as that?” —“The Theatre Magazine.”

W. F. Connor, Bernhardt’s American manager, is in Paris arranging her impending American tour. “I found Mme. Bernhardt looking 20 years younger,” he writes, “and more like the Bernhardt of 50 than when she was 60. No pain and perfect health are responsible for it. I found her rehearsing a picture at 9.30 the first morning I arrived. She is going to Rheims and to the trenches, and I am going there with her.”

There are several remarkable features of the great spectacle, “Intolerance,” which J. C. Williamson, Ltd., are presenting in Sydney and Melbourne. The architectural work shown in the film is colossal. One detail is the reproduction of the great gates of Imgur Bel that guarded the outer portals of Babylon. These gates are a veneered copper and bronze reproduction of the ancient gate which was in solid copper. It requires 24 slaves to open and close the gates on a gear and sprocket system. One scene in the spectacle, Belshazzar’s banquet hall, shows a width of a quarter of a mile, while Griffith, the producer, attains the so-called impossibility of a perspective going back to a depth of a mile. A temporary dam was built across a river in California, and trees from the Orient were transplanted upon its banks to reproduce the atmosphere of the Euphrates, where the Persian Army, under Cyrus, is mobilised for the attack upon Babylon.