Policeman Faints

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 364, 26 May 1928, Page 24

Policeman Faints

Crowd Throng Church for Actor’s Wedding PASTOR APPEALS TO CROWD FOR QUIETNESS Bride and bridesmaids had to be carried into Wesley Church, Melbourne, recently, when the wellknown actor, Leon Gordon, was married to Nancy Atkins, o£ Adelaide, so great was the crowd. The scuffling among the huge crowd outside the church in Lonsdale Street led to many people being trampled on; and one constable who attempted to keep the crowd back was severely jostled, and tainted. The wedding took place at 1 o’clock, and there was a dense crowd outside long before that hour. Unfortunately, no arrangements had been made for getting the bridal party into the church when they arrived, and they had to try and force their way through the crowd. Bride Rushed Miss Atkins was literally rushed, and many women attempted to clutch the bridal bouquets which, for safety, had to be held high in the air. The bride was carried shoulder high into the church, but one of the bridesmaids became shut off from the party and was in a sorry plight when a young constable picked her up, and, alter a short, sharp struggle with the crowd, deposited her safely >rside the church, with her bouquet crushed and her veil crumpled. Appeal to Crowd The bride showed evidence of the jostling when she stood at the altar. The Rev. J. H. Cain, who solemnised the marriage, twice appealed to the crowd inside the church for quietness. The bride is second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Atkins, of St. Bede’s, Dutton Terrace, Medindie, Adelaide. She is not yet 21 years of age. After the ceremony a wedding luncheon was held at Hotel Windsor, and among the invited guests were Sir George and Lady Tallis, Mr. and Mrs. John Tail, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Tait, Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Tait, Miss Margaret Bannerman, the actress, and her husband, Mr. A. Prinsep, Andrew Charlton, and Miss Mary Flannagan, of Adelaide. Margaret Bannerman, whose season in “Our Betters’’ in Melbourne is a great success, intended to follow a musical career as a pianist, but she was told by friends that her personality would make her successful on the musical-comedy stage. After some time in London in that type of work she appeared with Matheson Lang, and had useful experience in drama. Comedy, in which she has appeared more recently, she regards as the most difficult form of acting.