Greenroom Gossip

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1591, 21 October 1920, Page 36

Greenroom Gossip

CATERERS TO THE-PUBLIC.

THE WORLD EXPLOITED. BEN. J. FULLER’S ENTERPRISE. Mr.. Ben. J. Fuller passed through Auckland by the Niagara on his way to Sydney after a sixteen months’ visit to America and England with his wife and family. A few minutes’ chat with the firm’s chief and you feel that he hasn’t let the grass grow under his feet while z he was away. “Altogether I saw some 700 shows, never less than two a day, and in America sometimes- three. Was working all the time, but work’s a hobby with me, so that makes all the difference. I bought 99 dramas in America and England. Our patrons have proved that they like the melodramatic order of filay. So I kept my eyes open for the style they wanted, and there is variety for all. Stock drama was having a popular vogue in London when I left, and the Lyceum Theatre was housing it successfully. It has a seating capacity of 3000. I bought ‘The Female Hun’ from there.” “Should a Mother Tell” is a propaganda play Mr. Fuller brought back with him. “It is a human piece, and is cleaning up .a lot of money at Home,” said Mr. Fuller. Star vaudeville acts a-plenty he engaged while abroad. “Vaudeville in America is perfection,” he says. “The shows are clean and bright, and the acts on the whole I consider superior to the London music hall offerings. The English audiences are more conservative, and are tolerant and faithful to old favourites. The American looks for novelty. Vaudeville there is no easy task, as they play two shows a day and Sundays included.”

Mr. Fuller, by the way, has left his son, Mr. A. Ben. Fuller, in charge of the San Francisco office. “He is a very good judge of an artist,” his father says, “and he would insist on being a showman.” Young Ben. is the third generation of Fullers to be in that business, and he is being afforded every opportunity to extend his gift of observation and mature his views.

Twenty-five new revues are amongst the good things of the future which Mr. Fuller in his sagacity also secured. New Zealand will see them in due course.

“We have some big building schemes on hand right through New Zealand,” he remarked with enthusiasm. “The country is going ahead, and the population is growing, so we must cater for it on wide lines. At present our building 1 -projects are held up by the restrictions.” Mr. John Fuller, Senr., is at present in Brisbane, much improved in health, and expects to return to Auckland in January.