NOT THE KAISER'S FRIENDS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2720, 15 March 1916, Page 2

NOT THE KAISER'S FRIENDS

JIB. BEN. FULLER. IN AMERICA. "I wanted a winter ( and went to America. I got it, ( and do not want another for thirty years; in fact, I will never grumble about hot weather any more." Thus Mr. Ben. J. Fuller, governing director of , the big Fuller Vaudeville Circuit, interviewed by the Sydney "Evening News" on his return to Australia on February 29. ' 'He said he had no idea that tho weather could be so cold, and explained that for days at a time the thermometer was from Bto 12 degrees below zero. Mr. Fuller went to Anierica on a business and holiday tour. Ho had a good time, both ways, and by the end of June will have presented to Australians no fewer than 100 new vaudeville acts. "Those are all signed up, and- nine of thorn are on board the Sierra to-day," ho said. "I am ]iot going to sa;y what they arc—tho public will be able to judge for themselves." Mr. Fuller was surprised to find how tho news had travelled! in America about Australia as a theatrical field. "I was at home at once," he said, "and, of courso, it was a good tiling from my point of view. Returned art-1 ists to tho States wera loud in their i praise of our country." Tho Australian entrepreneur was struck by tho" wonderful activity in the vaudeville business. It was booming, ho said; in fast, so was every branch of the theatrical enterprises, while the pictures held groat sway. _ Actors were leading the'strenuous life, and as a componsating set-off men were receiving high salaries. He secured some of the latest comedies ond novel acts, in addition to other vaudeville turns. Speaking of "matters generally in America, Mr. Fuller remarked: "Everybody seems'to bo at work in the United States-. The country is prosperous all tho way through. It is, indeed, a wonderful place. One thing which pleased me more than another was to find how st|png was the pro-Ally sentiment. There are', of course, a. few isolated centres where tho Germans prevail—in Chicago, for instance, where the majority of the people are Teuton, or of Touton origin—but as a whole the nation is on our side. On the stage, for example, references to tho Allies—and particularly to the French —are enthusiastically cheered l . Whenever the monarch® or rulers were de- ' picted, the Allies came in for tho greatest cheering. The Kaiser finds no friends among the audiences at the American playhouses." ' „ Mr. Fuller has travelled 26,000 miles, and says that vhilo he benefited by reason of the knowledge .gained he has come home again more than 'ever impressed with the creatress of Australia.