THE SILVER SCREEN

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 316, 23 December 1936, Page 2

THE SILVER SCREEN

SHAW AS COWBOY

WITH G.K. CHESTERTON.

| Impromptu Play For > Unknown Reason.

> How Mr Bernard Shaw and Mr G. |K. Chesterton appeared, disguised as cowboys, in a film “directed” by Sir ‘James Barrie is revealed in “G.K,C.’s” posthumous life-story, “Autobiography.” Shortly before the war, “G. 8.5. went down to Chesterton’s house and proposed that they should both act in Wild Western disguise. “ I will not describe the purpose or character of the performance, because nobody ever discovered it, presumably with the exception of Sir James Barrie. . . . r "I asked, ‘But what is the joke?’ Shaw replied with hilarious vagueness that, nobody knew what the joke jwas.. That was the joke. . . . /•“The mysterious proceeding divided itself into two parts. One counted of an appointment in a sort of abandoned brickfield somewhere in the wilds of Essex, in which spot, lit was alleged, our cowpunching costumes were already’ concealed.

The Best Trousers. B' ■ ' i “The' other consisted of an invitation .to supper at the Savoy, to ‘talk things over’ with Barrie and Gran•ville Barker.” They went down to Essex and found their equipment. There they learned that-' Wtttiam 4 * •*“* ■* Archer had forestalled them antPlnit on the best pair of trousers. 1 For a whole’'afternoon they were ■‘rolled in' barrels, roped precipices and turned loose in a- field to lasso -wild ies, which were so tame that they” ran -after us instead of our running after pieces dr sugar. . . . "It is also ; a fact that we all got on the same motor-bicycle, ithe •wheels of which were spun round under us to produce the illusion of hurling like a thunderbolt down a mofftfta!ff''pass. -When the rest finally vanished over the cliffs, clinging to the rope, they' left me behind as a necessary weight to secure it. . . . The other half of this mystery filming was even more mysterious.

Wrong Impression. ...t •. ; ’ • “G.K.C.” went to the Savoy supper under the impression that Sir James would explain things to a small party. "Instead of that I. found the Stage of the Savoy Theatre thronged with nearly everybody in London. . . . "From the Prime Minister, Mr Asquith, to the yellowest and most cryptic Oriental attache, they were all there — except Sir James. . . . To wards the end of the meal, Sir Edward Elgar casually remarked to my wife, T suppose you know you’re being filmed all this time.” ■ Many of the guests were throwing bread absUt and “showing marked relaxation from the cares of State.” -Then.-the Wild Westerners were ap4f v tat,,l4 J*! hw A. .4 • - ■proached‘with private instructions. , Tty? stage was cleared and the Company adjourned to ’the audiharangued them speech with'- savage gesticulations denouncing Barker and Bartle •’and ‘ finally drawing an enormous’ “We rose at this signal, also bra.iiffislling 'vswords,' i and stormed the stage, going out through the back scenery. And 'there We (whoever We were) disappear for ever from the... record and < reasonable under-, standing of mankind.”.