Oldest Actor?

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 365, 28 May 1928, Page 14

Oldest Actor?

Tony the Waiter Recalls the Past CURTAIN CALLS OF YESTERDAY John Ford, who is the faithful servitor in “The Student Prince,” is one of the oldest actors on the Australian and New Zealand stage. Few artists have been on the payroll of J. C. Williamson’s longer than John Ford, who has trod the boards more years than the average actor cares to remember. Mr. Ford, who is Australian-born, did not make his debut as Little Willie in “East Lynne,” or as the Little Eva of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” He cantered on to the stage as the hind legs of a bullock in a Melbourne pantomime. Since those days John Ford has played every conceivable role. He has been associated with almost every prominent star in the theatrical firmament who has visited Australia and New Zealand, and contrary to the verdict of the average actor, John says he is thoroughly enjoying his twentieth tour of the Dominion. New Zealand, with the crossing - of the tempestuous Tasman, the “one-night stands,” and the continual travelling which is the constant routine that falls to the lot of a theatrical company in this country, does not always commend itself to the average artist. “It’s a hard game, but I like it. I suppose it gets in the blood,” he says. Briefly, in review, he recalled the stars of the past. Dear old Maggie Moore, of “Struck Oil” fame, the first wife of J. C. Williamson, the actor-founder of the firm. John Ford was associated with Maggie during almost the whole of her theatrical career in Australia and in New Zealand.

Emily Melville, Nellie Stewart, the Lingards—John, as he will proudly tell you, was the original Mikado in Australia. Robert Brough, Herbert Flemming, Beatrice Day—with this trio he appeared in the first Australian production of Barrie’s “Quality Street.” Dion Boucicault he knew when he first visited this part of the world, and again he played with him during the last tour.

John Ford has had the distinction of being sent from Sydn€;y to Perth, across a continent, to speak one word in Renee Kelly’s “Daddy Long Legs.” The word was “scandalous.” “I told The Firm that I wanted extra money for extra study,” the old man whimsically remarked, laughing the while and shaking the snowy curls that make him an object of interest to every small boy on the side-walk. Of all bis roles John Ford liked the old Gilbert and Sullivan characterisations the best. Yet he has a very soft spot for Luigi, the part he created in “Wildflower” with Marie Burke, and one of the greatest successes of recent years.

Tony, the waiter in “The Student Prince,” is the latest to date. On one occasion James Liddy, Prince KarlFranz of the production, asked John Ford if he did not take rather a long time to appear from, the wings. “Don’t you know that I am supposed to have walked from Heidelberg to Karlbad?” the old actor demanded. “Yes; that’s right.” “And you know how far that is?”— “No.”

“Fifteen miles I” triumphantly announced the old actor. “As a matter of fact I do not know how far it is, not having been in Germany,” says John, with a twinkle in his eye, when relating the incident, “but I knew that Liddy didn’t know,