She Studies Men

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 164, 1 October 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

She Studies Men

Hetty King is One of the Boys A RETURN TO AUSTRALIA T'JESjP/T.E the fact that she hecame a male impersonator at 6, Hetty King, now in Australia, says there are always more types of men to study, or characteristics icorth studying. Miss King learned how to become a navvy by joining a gang of men at work. She asked to be permitted to be with them so as to make a picture. That was her excuse. When she had changed into men’s clothes and become one of the boys, her associates lost their awkwardness. Then she had 1 natural characters to study. Miss King admits that on one occa-

sion she followed a workman for a mile. She had studied him closeiy, but she had not learned how he removed a clay pipe with a broken stem from his mouth. This was a necessary detail. “I thought he would never take the pipe from h:s mouth, but at last he did, and his way was just as I had hoped.” The male impersonator is now one of the Life Guards. She managed to get into the stables, for she did not want to be merely a showy soldier. •‘There was very strong opposition, but at last I wore it down, and then the boys did all they could to asisst me.” Miss King finds great interest in going to the docks, and getting into conversation with sailors. She will go anywhere for local colour. Sometimes it is hard to break the ice. Men show restraint. But she tells them stories, and soon they are great friends. “I try to get a character as near to life as possible, and I see that my suits are correct. “My first male impersonation was that of an old Irish comedian. I was then six. For a year before that I wore a red nose and used to black up. From ten to fifteen I was a mimic. Later I began to understand character, and it is the study of this that is so interesting.” He did not know that he could be funny, confesses Leo Franklyn, of “Tip Toes.” in Sydney, till he was singing in youth with a minstrel show% and was called upon suddenly to replace an end man. Desperate situations require desperate treatment, and the compulsory fun-making developed into humour of a more matured variety. Among comedy parts he has taken in England —all well known in New Zealand —Air. Franklyn recalls pleasantly those of “The Cabaret Girl,” “Whirled Into Happiness,” “Gipsy Love,” and revivals of “Florodora” and “The Geisha.” Working “double shifts” in London for a while, he was in pantomime in the afternoon, and contributed at night to the humour of “The Belle of New York.”