GREENROOM GOSSIP

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1522, 26 June 1919, Page 30

GREENROOM GOSSIP

Messrs. J. and N. Tait surrounded Mr. Harry Dearth in Melbourne with a brilliant little concert company, and if the personnel is the same in New Zealand we shall be fortunate. The soprano was Miss Elsy Treweek (who has toured New Zealand with John Amadio and others); Miss Ivy Phillips, a very fine contralto; Miss Leila Doubleday, a gifted violinist with a Continental training, and Mr. Harold Elvines, solo pianist and accompanist. As Mr. Dearth is announced to tour the Dominion shortly it is possible that the company will be practically the same.

Chairs so mounted that they can be raised and lowered two feet or more by the occupants, for use in motion-picture and other theatres, are shown in the March “Popular Magazine.” The advantage of these seats is that they lift the users high enough to give them a view of the stage unobstructed by persons passing to and fro in front of them —a frequent occurrence at the “movies.”

A -film entitled “The Victory Leaders” has been prepared by the Stoll Film Co. in aid of the St. Dunstan’s Fund for the permanent after-care of soldiers and sailors blinded in the war. The King and all the heads of Allied countries, together with the organisers of victory on land and sea, specially posed in private. “The Victory Leaders” will shortly be shown to the kinema trade. All the profits from its public presentation throughout the world will go to the fund.

News has been received in Sydney of the death at Falls City, Nebraska, (U;S.), of Miss Rose Dampier, the well-known actress, while on tour. (Her 'first appearance on the stage took place in Sydney as a child along with her sister Lily (now Mrs. Alfred Rolfe). She supported her father, Mr. Alfred Dampier, in his day one of the best interpreters of Hamlet on the colonial stage. At first she appeared as second to her sister, but in later years she essayed leading Shakespearean and other roles. Her Ophelia received unstinted praise from the critics of her day, including the famous “Aegles” of the “Australasian.” The only surviving son (Fred) of Mr. Dampier is now touring the United States. The deceased lady was unmarried.

The career of Mischa Levitzki has been unique in the annals of music. Two years ago he was unknown in the concert field. His first appearance was quite unheralded and made solely with faith in his merit as an artist. From the outset he has justified the confidence in his remarkable talent. The success of Levitzki has increased with every appearance and he has taken his place in the front rank of living pianists despite his youth. Levitzki has just completed a tour with the New York Symphony Orchestra, and his playing of the Saint-Saens G minor concerto in Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Rochester and Columbus was hailed as something extraordinary. “All hail to the new marvel!” wrote the critic of the Philadelphia “Press.” “Levitzki has no specific pianistic attribute —he excels in everything! He plays with the temperament of a Latin and the discretion and finish of a cosmopolitan. The Saint-Saens concerto went with the brilliance that I have heard but once before- —when Paderewski played it.” Levitzki opens an Australasian tour early next year.

One effect of the shipping embargo was to starve New Zealand of theatrical attractions. Now it is lifted we may expect to see a few. Among the first to come will be Mr. Harry Dearth, the famous English baritone, who -has made a deep impression on Melbourne audiences. This is what the “Age” said in is opening notice: “From the moment when Mr. Dearth stepped on to the platform until his final smiling bow of the evening he held the audience completely under the spell of his individuality. He has a beautiful baritone voice of great range, and uses it with perfect art. His tone is clear and vibrant, his rhythm, articulation and enunciation impeccable, whilst his personality is singularly and unconventionally engaging. Mr. Harry Dearth leans, almost nonchalantly, against the pianoforte as he sings, and delivers his songs with the unconscious ease of a man singing to a few chosen friends,

and so surely is he the master of his art that each individual member of the audience must have experienced this sense of intimate relationship.” Messrs. J. and N. Tait are sending Mr. Dearth to New Zealand next month.

An American paper referring to the New York production, describes The Better ’Ole, by Captain Bruce Bairnsfather and Captain Arthur Eliot —-as “a refreshingly entertaining dramatisation of Captain Bairnsfather’s cartoons. Old Bill, Bert, and Alf, are as merry a trio of bickering friends as ever graced page or stage. Before they stepped from the one to the other they had made thousands of friends, who saw that their creator possessed and knew how to impart, even from the bottom of an ’Ole that was more often worse than better, that saving grace, a sense of humour, it is called; or a sense of values. And the value of it quite evidently outweighs the burden of. the trenches. Old Bill has it in bur-* ly abundance. Call him ignorant, if you like; but what gracious quality other than innate wisdom could compel him to smile under any and all adversity? Not the do-or-die smile of empty-pated optimism, but the smile of one who frowns when that is necessary and always knows why he does either. Bill’s humour, which is largely Bairnsfather’s, is valuable for itself alone; and not particularly because sketched against the background of war. It is indelibly a part of the man himself; nq amount of hardship can erase it. It is the great good humour with which England went to war, the good humour of carrying on, no matter how heavy the burden or how long the way. “The ponderous swagger of this huge musketeer, and the manner he puffs out his walrus moustache is a characterisation rich in detail, mellow with sympathy. The delightful Bert is a gay Cockney swain, who is for-

ever bestowing his Identification tag upon the only girl in all the world, whoever she happens to be. The picturesque Alf is also a character to enjoy.” “The Better ’Ole is making a big hit in Sydney under the H. D. Mclntosh regime.