A Gaiety Romance.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7737, 13 February 1905, Page 2

A Gaiety Romance.

i »-■ - _ e The man who lit "the sacred lamp of burlesttfie-'-his own phrase—at the , old Gaipty Tl*)utrc, who made a fori- \ u " e therc nnd lo *t 't. died peacefully yesterday morning, at the ago of sevcrty-soven, at his residence in Kulham-road, says the Daily Mail of Oct. 10. John Hollingwhcad-/'Honcst John' [ and "Practical John" he was famil- . iarly called—was a man of many 0 parts, many experiences, many upsL , and'downs, und many anecdotes. His „ life threaded its way through a host e of people famous in literature and in s the theatre. He was jack of all . trades and professions. He ranged . from book-keeping in a City woro- } house to book-writing, from dramatic critic to dramatic provider. But, above all, he was an excellent man of business, and ho founded the Gaiety. "I have received and paid away," he once wrote, "in and upon tho dramatic profession atyjut a million nnd a-quarter sterling. As a commercial j manager I went into the Gaiety , Theatre with £2OO, und have had at ' least £120,000 out of it. I atfolish- _ ed fees, I invented the miscellaneous „ matinee, and I brought tho electric light to England and London." . * ATMOSPHKHE OF LUNACY. * He was Irorn in 1872 at Hoxton, v "in what I may call," he said, "a _ wild atmosphere of lunacy. There was lunacy in the family, und there •. was hmucy in the neighbourhood. B One of my earliest recollections is looking out of a bedroom window on to the large private yard ut a prlt vute madhouse at Hoxton." This j strain of lunacy in his family he des scribed as the artistic touch of gnrt lie introduced by a clever chef into ( a leg of mutton. It was n bur siirister which did not taint him. He , wus eminently sane and practical. In his boyhood days he met his [ first "celebrity"—none other thun Cnlcruft, tho hangman. Young Hol- [ lingsheud sought his advice as to _ entering into a competition for a , "greasy pole" prize. Culcraft dls- , suaded him from making the attempt, remarking, "You're too 1 clean, that's what's the matter with t you. Sweeps always win the prize. c It's the soot as does it." The necessity of getting u living . wns forced upon the boy's notice by f a deficiency of pocket-money, and so j he took a nondescript situation in a Jsoft goods warehouse in Lawrence Lane, Chenpside. He was soon promoted to the "entering desk."whore he picked up practical book-keeping; [ sulmejuuemtly he became a commerL cial traveller., In due time he went, into business as a cloth merchant, j but his bent towards literature gras dually asserted itself until he blossomed out into a dramatic critic and ' an essayist. "My first step jn|a litoraturo"—to I quote from one of his books"—was made in "Household Words," under Hie editorship of Charles Dickens, and the office of this journal was I next to the stage door of the Gaiotv ' Theatre. If I were to take a few , bricks out of the back wall of the I room in which 1 was first introduced ', to Charles Dickens, and in which I j first In-gau my work as an author , and journalist, I could look on to ; the stage of the Gaiety Theatre, r London. 1.