WILKIE BARD AS I KNOW HIM

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 42, 12 November 1921, Page 3

WILKIE BARD AS I KNOW HIM

(By

Frank Morton.)

Occasionally still on the stage one meets a man who is singularly well worth knowing for his own sake. Such a man is Wilkie Bard, who is to make his first appearance here on Thursday nex- . Tie is honest, forthright, keenly intelligent, well abreast of his time, and probably the best natural comedian of the vaudeville stage. ' I met him first the forenoon after his ' arrival in Sydney. Ho was still a little tircid from the voyage, and still a little overwhelmed by (the first rush of Sydney's hospitality.' So he and I went and had a drink. . And Wilkie Bard said: "Australia is «11 1 had imagined it. lord, what people' Tn London we loved the Biggers but her, the Diggers seem to bo the population. 1 wonder if you people have any inkling of the true blessedness of your lot, out here so far away from the hurly-burly of old hates and prejudices. I am a Manchester man by birth and muring. and a Londoner by adoption. I have nothing but love of the Old Land And still there is something verv stirring to mo in tho wide freedom of these lands that are still new. The thing I regret is 'that 1 shall not be able to get' to New Zealand." At that time it seenied impossible that ho could break or vary his London contracts Since that time. Mr. Harry G. Musgrove, who has all the characteristic Musgrove drive, lias been able to arrange it, and prevail on tho famous comedian to go over the Tasman. "Over in London we'don t make muon distinction between Australians and Now Zealanders. Tn the Gref* War the lot of you put the world into your debt for ever. So I put it now that with my Australian friends in London and Trance. I made a lot. of Now Zealand friends too, and hate the idefi. of not seeing them again. They were a tonic to us, even when they took our breath away, f found that they were not only good Imperialists, but that they were also keyed up to a very exultant local patriotism. T met men who fold me that Auckland, or Napier, or Palmerston North, or Wanganui, or Taihapo, or Hamilton, or Onmaru, or Dunedin, or Krvrcirij. or Timaru. or Hastings, Wellington, or Christchurch. or Thames, was the host place in the world to live tn: and Avery one of those fel.ows meant The songs of Wilkie Bard could h* I sung anywhere without offence, by ie man who has the genius that inspires them He is the Empire’s one entirely mreri comedian. So I enjoyed myscli while we took our physic and talked o. men and things and the world ini general. And T am very glad that Wilkie comes to New Zealand after all.