MERMAIDS ON STAGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 316, 29 March 1928, Page 18

MERMAIDS ON STAGE

REGENT’S POOL OPENED DIVING AT THE THEATRE There were mysterious “plonks!” and splashes behind the silver sheet at the Regent last night, and at the end of the pictures the curtain was raised to disclose a swimming pool complete with bathing beauties, divans, and coloured canopies. Then Miss Edna Champion mounted tho high board and made a graceful flight to the clear water. Barry Young, billed as Australia’s champion diver, and several mermaids followed, and gave a demonstration of neat-headers, running dives, swallows, and somersaults, the audience showing its appreciation of the entertainment. Before the curtain, Mr. E. R. Greenfield, manager of the Regent, explained that the pool, built at a cost of £SOO, was 20 feet long by nine feet wide and eight feet deep. An electric pump would give a continuous supply of fresh, water, and this would be kept tepid by electric heating. The diving competition would be run by the Auckland Centre of the New Zealand Swimming Association on strictly amateur lines, the prizes being a cup presented by J. C. Williamson, Ltd., and three gold medals. Mr. J. Enwright, chairman of the Auckland Centre, N.Z.S.A., then declared the pool open, and wished the competition every success. Entries for the diving competition will be acepted until Monday morning by secretaries of swimming clubs. The contest will be judged in heats by the audience of the Regent, and the final winner will be decided by three officials of the Swimming Association. Already about 40 girls have entered. This is probably the first experiment with a swimming pool in a theatre stage in tho Southern Hemisphere.