STAGE GOSSIP.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 219, 10 September 1887, Page 4

STAGE GOSSIP.

MiN.virc Palmkij fixes a )) r ear as the time within which she will trip across to New Zealand. Mrs Wilson Barrett died in Louuon on July 27, after a long illness. Her stage name was Heath. The Plaisted-Harding Company ha\e been playing at the Academy of Mvmo, Ballarat. " A Woman's Truth," one of Mr Waltti Rcynolds's plays, hab been ninning at the Standard Theatre, London. Little Elsie Hall, the latest Victoiian musical prodigy, is to be taken in haivl by the artistic public and sent to foreign j>ai!> to pursue her pianoforte studies. Mews Williamson, Garner and Musgrovo's Royal Comic Opera Company aic said to have made a clear profit of -iX.GOO out of their recent New Zealand tour. The Sydney Seculaii&ts arc about to 1> uld a hall. At the iiivt call one enthu-iu'-t. planked down l'l,ooo,two others subscii- ed ,i'soO each, and not a few followed ->uih modest fifties. Brief as the Majeronis' .^tay will be in Auckland, it will be shorter still in I>medin. They open there on October sth fci a season of eight night 4 ;. The entire New Zealand tour is limited to nine weeks. Mr James A. Mead, "who made a tour ol this colony with Mr George Rignold. but who is now in London, ha^ written a drama called "The Oath,'' which is said to be identical with Darrell'.s " Soggarth." Mr John Solomon, lessee of the Alexandra Theatre, Melbourne, is one of the happic-t men in Australia at the piesent time. He was brought before the bench the other day and fined half a sovereign for ha\ ing hi? house overcrowded. It is related that when Monsieur Poussard, the violinist, was asked what he thought of a certain rather clever amateur violinist, he replied: — "Ah! vene QQt at 'o-om:, een "eez; o-own 'ouz, 'cc eez ve-ra nice, ve-ra nice ; but on ze pub-leek plat-form— a-ab, veil, 'cc eez not at 'o-omel" Society in Melbourne is agape with curiosity for the disclosures of a pending divorce case, wherein a well-known colonial actor will figure as plaintiff, and his wife, who is equally well k,nown on the colonial stage, as respondent. The co-respondent is a member of an operatic company. Mavtin, Simonsen's Royal Italian Company have finished their Adelaide sca c or:, and weie to re-open in Melbourne on Saturday last in " Belisario." This time they reappear at the Theatre Royal, and <he season is to extend over twelve weeks. We cannot hope to tee them, therefore, this year. " The Golden Band," a drama by Mr H Herman (author of " The Silver King") and the Rev. Freeman Wills, was recently produced in the London Olympic. It is described as a piece in contributing to which Mr Herman asserted his propiietorship of " The Silver King" by using most of its chief characters over again. Afc an exhibition of Sello Brothers' Circus, at t)avenport, lowa, on July 20th, and during the ''Wild West" act, the cowboys pursuing the Indians were drunk, and fired fixed ammunition from their pistols right and left. Four spectators were wounded, two mortally, and one of the circus Indians killed. Messrs Hayden, Dickson, and Roberts, a theatrical firm of New York, are launching out very boldly. Their latest move is a lease of the Madison Square Garden, where they intend producing " Pinafore " on a gigantic scale, with a full-rigged ship, a chorus of 120 people, and an orchestra of sixty. The people know what nobility means, perhaps better than the nobles themselves, and the people blush to hear titles gained on battle-fields tossed from one to another in the "ring" of a circus. Last year the men who are supposed to be the only support of the monarchy wero pi'actising on parallel bars -while their chief was exiled from France because conspiracy was feared from his followers. This year M. Molier will receive May 20th and 2tsth, and instead of entertaining his invites with music and dancing he amuses with fine gymnastic exercises, superior horsemanship, etc. The guests, who would be indifferent in an ordinary circus, here aro interested in the slightest movements of men and horses. It seems a glory for theso Parisians that some of their number are capable of winning laurels on the frapeze. Mr Bland Holt follows the Majeronis at Dunedin opening there on Oct. 15. The principal novelties to be presented are " A Run of Luck," a sporting drama which has had unprecedented success throughout the Old Country, and more recently in Melbourne and Sydney; and "Alone in London." The stage appliances and scenery weigh upwards of forty tons, and the Company number over thirty first-class artists of dramatic fame. They have some ultra - sanctimonious people in Hobart. Miss Amy Sherwin gave a farewell concert in the presence of a nura-

ber of high clerical dignitaries, including Bishop Sandford, The proceeds were to be devoted to charitable objects — one half going to Hcit Schott, and the other half to Miss Sly, of the Females' Refuge. This lady, however, was too pure to handle money earned by the talent of " a theatrical person," and, instead of writing a polite note and saying so, she published the following card in the papers: — "Miss Sly acknowledges with gratitude the kind and generous announcement of Miss Amy Sherwin in yesterday's paper, but wishes to intimate that she will not be at liberty to accept the donation raised in -the way proposed for the Lord's woilc." "Oh, yo tears !" The song which stands alone in the American market in point of issues sold is the "Scotch Lassie Jean," which reached 1,000,000 copie>, and is still in fair demand. Another gieat success was the ballad "i\lust We Then Meet as St.rangeis?" of which many editions have been printed. Still others are Tucker'.s pretty 1 Cong, "Sweet <jene\ieve," " The Spanish Cavalier," " Call .Me Back Again, ' " Sweefc ! Forget X r c-Not," "Pretty a.s a Picture,' and WestemlorfV "I'll take Thee Back Again, Kathleen.'' Oiit of the \ast number of songs that aie published, thcio in not one song in 500 that jCc'.c-Ijps a popular .-ale of 5,000 copies, and le^s than one-tenth as many that exceed an ifivu" of 300,000 copies. Here aie the tales of a few well-known .songs in America :—: — Copies sold. " Flo-n or From Mother's Grave ". . . . 300,CC0 '•Sucot Violets ' 250, GC0 "Only aPai>by33iossom" 200,CC0 " When 11)0 Lon\ cs Be^in to Turn " 150,CC0 "Only lo Sec Her Fauu" 150,000 Tlie following are the approximate pale? of ftOine later successes :—: — Copies sold. "Wait Till tlio Clouds HollUy ' •• 200,C00 "Peek-a-boo" 175.CC0 " When the Jiobins Nest .A gain ".. .. 140,CC0 "111 Await, my Lo\<>" 115.0C0 "Over Ihe Warden Wall" SO.COO "fliinbinj,' Up tbo (iolden Stair" 85,000 "liuvry, i.ittlc Children, Sunday p.lorn'" f5,0C0 "'l)on't Ijcavi 1 Your jMotlu-r, Tom" Sentimental hongT.seum to hit the popular taste in the State-. "Some Day," by Welling-, had the enormous - c ale of 500,000 copies,' and "In the (1 looming " and the " Diwmi Face-," both by Hutchinpon, reached 500,0C0 and 350,000 copies respectively.