IN PERSONAL TOUCH.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1459, 11 April 1918, Page 32

IN PERSONAL TOUCH.

The Allan Wilkie company will appear in Hamilton on Monday, April 15, thence playing Wanganui (17, 18), Palmerston North (19), Napier (20, 22), Hastings (23, 24), Dannevirke (25), Masterton (26). * * * * Mr. Scott Colville leaves this week for Christchurch to prepare the way for Mr. Sydney James and the Strollers, who open in the southern city on May 2. Mr. Colville says Mr. James has something in the nature of a surprise, but he is not able to divulge it yet. At any rate the public can look for something extra special. ❖ * * Mr. J. Holland, treasurer of the Allan Wilkie company, is making his first visit to New Zealand. If you don’t believe in the occult, go and see the Kid at the Opera House. An X-ray isn’t in it with him, while his figure work is astounding. It is said that he can answer in a few seconds any of the 250,000 computations in a ready reckoner.

Mr. Allan Wilkie only played two dramas in Melbourne during a seventeen weeks’ season. These were “Seven Days’ Leave” and “The Story of the Rosary,” which he is presenting to New Zealand playgoers. * * * ❖ Mr. Paul Stanhope and his slogan “Fine! Fine! Fine!” will be missed from the. Opera House after this week, a seven weeks’ run closing on Saturday night. It is certainly some record holding the audience so long with a revival, Mr. Stanhope’s previous stay also registering seven weeks, and it says much for his qualities as a comedian, producer and judge of the public that he knows how to hit their taste. Those who have laughted themselves into hysterics over the absurdities of Spike- Murphy, the burlesque Irishman whose character Mr. Stanhope assumes, get rather a shock when the actor reveals himself as a smart, good-looking young man, of serious mien. * ❖ * ❖ Miss Ada Reeve came over from Sydney in a boat that brought some 70 or 80 returned soldiers, and it goes without saying that she was a fast friend of theirs before the boat touched land. “I went down to them just in the most informal manner,” she told a representative of the Christchurch “Sun.” “Several of the company went with me, and we just talked with them, and I sang to them —without a piano. They showed us their photographs and relics, and told us about the homes to which they were going, and asked us if we knew what was going on there now. I told them about the Returned Soldiers’ Clubs that I had visited when I was in New Zealand last time, and I enjoyed our meeting as much as they did. You see,” Miss Reeve went on quaintly, “I always feel like the boys who get the Victoria Cross when I meet with so much gratitude and appreciation—l wonder what I get it for. For I love so much doing what I can for the boys—love to meet them and entertain them, and give them a good time. It is pure pleasure to me. And then I wonder what it’s all about when I get thanked so much. But all the same it’s great, it’s just splendid to feel that you are doing something for them —something that they like. These are the things I value,” and with that Miss Reeve produced her membership card from the Returned Soldiers’ Association, Napier, with the special endorsement, “Till you come back —may it be soon.” And she touched the brooch she was wearing—a patriotic device in gold and enamel from the Dunedin Returned Soldiers’ Association, bearing her initials surmounted by a crown, while on either side appeared New Zealand’s national emblem in gold—a fern leaf. There is an inscription on the back stating that it was presented to Miss Reeve in token of gratitude for all she had done on behalf of soldiers. “But I’m not begging this time,” she said. “I have sent £14,000 to the Anzac Buffet already, so I am asking for no money on this trip, but I go on entertaining the soldiers wherever I am.” * * * « It is the intention of the Fuller Proprietary to invade the smaller towns from time to time with vaudeville. Tentative visits have proved most successful, a two nights’ season in Wanganui recently being played to enormous business. “It is only a matter of time,” said Mr. George Stephenson, manager of the Opera House, “when the tentacles of Fuller vaudeville will be stretched out to every town. Of course, there is a difficulty just now in getting artists from England and America for the circuit, but arrangements have now been completed to keep the list going with top-notchers for the next six months.” * * * * J. and N. Tait’s production of “Peg o’ My Heart” is entering its third year in Australia. * * * « The Walter Johnson Revue Company re-open at the Opera House next Monday.