AN EXCEPTIONAL ENTERTAIN MENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8075, 3 April 1906, Page 3

AN EXCEPTIONAL ENTERTAIN MENT.

" LIVING LONDON." Marvellously correct in detail, beautifully and steadily illuminated, splendidly selected, and enthusiastically received were'the auiinated pictures given at the Theatre Royal on Monday night by Messrs. Tait's combination. It is not too much to say that not one of the hundreds present expected anything so magnificent, or to predict that many a long day must ellipse ere New Plymouth people will have an opportunity of witnessing again such a wondrous collection of views, depicted on the screen with such magnificent clearness and effect. The illuniination was by electricity from the municipal wires, and gave a brilliant and steady light, though hardly up to the requirements of the management, who liave made arrangements for obtaining twice the ampiernge this evening. The pictures were shown on a screen 25ft. square, being projected from the dress circle. The series commenced with a remarkably fine picture of French steel works, with the coke ovens, reheating furnaces, forging and stamping in full swing. Then , came a picture of the French Grand ' Natioral Steeplechase that raised the audience to a high pitch of enthusiasm, as each successive hurdle was reached. Seventeen cameras were used in securing this picture. Some funny and exciting chases are depicted in "The Gun License," and " Ten Wives for a Husband," the latter showing how hard it is for a man to have too much of a i?ood thing. " The Doorkeeper's Curiosity" gave the audience a lifelike description of what an inquisitive old dame saw through the keyhole at a late hour at night, and "Two Littic Tramps was a marvel of detail and of fun, tempered with a most realistic representation of "honour among thieves." The new scries of pictures of the big reception to the Now Zealand footballers at Auckland gave "the gods" a chance to recognise several of the "All Blacks." The great portion of the entertainment, however, was " Living London," a series of 280 pictures that took the sightseers through the great metropolis. Among the children of the slums, vendors of old boots, buttons, old clo', and every imaginable class of street sellers crying their wares; then 011 to Whitechapel, on a jaunt with 'Arry and 'Arriet; the accident to the coster's donkey, scenes in Newgate and and in Charing Cross, past great buildings and famous monuments, the picture leads us. Those who knew London were struck by the wide scope of the views shown ; to those who had not yet seen the " hub of the universe," the scenes in the Strand, on the Waterloo Bridge, and ali the moving panorama photographed from the roof of a London omnibus, wore a rove, lation. London in all its various phases of life and society were depicted on the screen. With such a subject, so excellently treated, and with a humorous collection never equalled in Australasia. Messrs Tait may confidently -expect a crowded theatre to-night. Mr Sydney Monk, who has a fine tenor veice, contributed "The Flight of Ages" ana Tire 1 eoniau s Wedding," having to respond to encores.