STAGELAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 566, 19 January 1929, Page 22

STAGELAND

(By

COTBURNUS.)

FIXTURES

HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE Now Playing.—“On Approval,” Irene Vanbrugh and Dion Boucicault. Monday.—“ Miss Is ell o’ New Orleans,” Thursday.—“ Mr. Pim Passes By.” COMING “The Desert Song.” “The Patsy.” “Princess Charming.'* “Castles In the Air.” ST. JAMES THEATRE Noav Playing. George Wallace Revue Co. COMING “Baby Cyclone” and “Good News," Elsie Prince and Jimmy Godden. “Rio Rita,” Gladys Moncrieff. Olive Sloan, here In “Cradle Snatchers,” is playing in “The Lovelorn Lady” at Wynham’s Theatre, London. Leyland Hodgson, here last in “The Trial of Mary Dugan,” is playing the juvenile lead in “Hit the Deck” in Sydney. Lucile Lawrence, the picturesque little harpist here with Edna Thomas, was married recently to Carlos Salzedo at Marion, Massachusetts. It is stated that one of “The Firm’s” next big productions will be “This Year of Grace,” the successful Noel Coward revue, which is just as popular in New York as it was in London. Rowena Ronald, at present playing in the Vanbrugh-Boucicault Co., will play the part Jessie Matthews had in the original London production.

“No speeches, ladies and gentlemen,” said Dion Boucicault in Sydney on New Year's Eve at the end of “Mr. Pim Passes By.” “But from the depths of our hearts we wish you health and happiness, and the best of New Years.” “And the same to you,” megaphoned the less formal male voice from the gallery. For “Lido Lady,” to follow “Good News” at St. James Theatre. Sydney, the Fullers have made two London engagements—Billy Leonard, in the principal comedy role, and Yvette Anning as the feminine lead. They leave for Australia at the end of December. “Lido” is from the fashionable watering place of that name outside Venice. Lily Elsie took the lead in the London production of “Lido Lady.”

Good Old Days

Ellaline Terriss Writes of “Edwardian ” Days

Ellaline Terriss, the charming ■wife of Seymour Hicks, has just written a delightful book of memoirs which she calls “Ellaline Terriss —by herself and with others .” Miss Terriss toured Neio Zealand some years ago with her husband, when they played “Sleeping Partners ” and “The Man in Dress Clothes .”

The distant "alkl&nd Inlands gave us a forgotten , naval victory and that j actress of great charm, JEllaline Terriss. “Higher, higher,” she cried out as a little girl in the old Grange House at Hammersmith and Henry Irving dutifully obeyed and pushed the swing in the garden. At 15 Ellaline Terris played in "Cupid’s Messenger” at the Haymarket as understudy. She was given a cloak, tights and fairly high boots. Beerbohm Tree patted the quaint little creature when she came oft the stage, flushed with pride. Few perhaps will remember that the first version of “Charley’s Aunt” was as full of sentiment as of comedy, for its author, Brandon Thomas, was an emotional man of very fine sentiments. There was a quite beautiful scene between the young men and the old officer who had returned from India and was giving advice to the two undergraduates in the shadow of a college close to the accompaniment of a distant organ. But popular laughter swamped the author’s original intention. The happy marriage of Ellaline Terriss with the rising young actor, Seymour Hicks, romantically followed a three weeks' friendship, and was at first a wonderful secret. One evening during “The Other Fellow,” at the Court Theatre, Mrs. Hicks happened to exchange the brass property ring for her own wedding ring. The hero, who had proposed to her some days before, glared at the bright ring and whispered hoarsely on the stage: “That is not the wedding ring you wore last night. I’ll swear that you’ve married Seymour Hicks.” A little boy who had seen the “Cinderella” at the old Lyceum—beautifully produced, with an Autumn Leaf Ballet and a Louis Quinze Ballroom scene—was equally upset when, his mother brought him round to meet the Princess. “There, darling,” she said, “shake hands with Mrs. Hicks|” The little boy burst out crying and said: “Oh, mother! not HICKS!”

The autumn of 1904 at the Gaiety was memorable, for Ivan Caryll, whose real name was Tllkins, made his first appearance in its orchestral chair. He would have passed for a Russian nobleman of those days. He used to drive up to the stage door m a pair-horse Victoria with two men on the box. Beneath his sable coat his clothes were the last word in cut and quality. His jewellery, although in the best taste, was, however, quite noticeable, and many a jangling golden trinket had he attached to the various chains of the same precious metal which hung about him. It must not be inferred that lie was just a dandy. He was, as a matter of fact, a very powerful little man, and in the orchestra for musical comedy or light opera, a giant. He always had his chair placed close to the footlights and followed a singer or a dancer like a lynx.

George Edwardes had no ear for music and could not hum a tune correctly, yet he had an amazing flair for what the public wanted in melody.

Hooking back at those early days at the Gaiety, what a team Mr. Edwardes had to drive. All the comedians in the theatre were generally at loggerheads, and there were so many well-known people in the company that the struggle for the best scenes that fell from the author's table was fierce in the extreme, but Mr. Edwardes managed them like the diplomatic genius he was. They all went into his office to get something jnore, and generally came out with something less, but they never knew it Looking beautiful was the only function of the famous Beauty Brigades of Edwardian days. “The handsome ladies of the Gaiety burlesque, who were the idols of the crutch-and-toothprick brigade, as the stage jeunesse dore were called in those times, and who, from all accounts, seemed to have spent their entire leisure waiting with bouquets for the objects of their affection, were tall, beautiful creatures, generally in tights, with an odd diamond butterfly or two pinned on their shapely legs."

These marvellously-looking, tall women with well-developed figures have been replaced by an exactly opposite type, petite, pretty young people, who dance and sing. W. S. Gilbert could always cross swords. A well-known actor lost his temper at rehearsal and said: “Look here, Mr. Gilbert, I’m not the besttempered of men.” “No,” said Gilbert, "neither am I.” “I stand six-feet-three in my stockinged feet,” said the actor. “I stand six-feet-four ” said Gilbert. “And,” said the actor, “I am a very strong man.” “So am I,” said the author of the “Bab Ballads,” but, he continued, “if you want to know the difference between us, I’m an extremely clever man.”

Allan Wilkie, with Miss HunterWatts and the members of his Shakespearean company will arrive at Wellington on January 14 from Melbourne by the Manuka, and will spend a holiday prior to opening at the Grand Opera House, Wellington, on January 26. Hr. Wilkie will present the following plays during this tour: “Coriolanus,” “The Taming of the Shrew,” “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” “Henry V.,” “Othello," “King Lear,” "All’s Well That Ends Well.” “Much Ado About Nothing,” and several others which were staged on his last visit.

It was characteristic of Maurice Moscovitch —following the money put in his way by being provided by Wil-liamson-Tait, Ltd., with ~uch thrillers as “The Ringer,” “The Terror,” and “The Silent House”- —that he should, on the point of leaving Australia, seek to denounce “the emotional methods brought into plays in New York to advertise mystery and detective drama,” adding: “Charlatanism—that’s what it is. Trying to 'reeze your marrow and make your flesh creep. Working up blood-curdling sensations—bah!” Couldn’t “Bah!’' be very fittingly applied to Mr. Moscovitch himself?

Reginald Dandy, “here with “Rose Marie,” has completed his contract with J. C. Williamson, Ltd., and is leaving shortly for America. He was appearing in “The Desert Song” until last week.