TALES OF AN ENTERTAINER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 88, 10 May 1909, Page 4

TALES OF AN ENTERTAINER

A CHAT WITH MR. BARCLAY GAMMON. (Ilv Captain .Norman Eraser)., "How did 1 become an entertainer ? said Mr. Barclay Gammon, the inimit- ) able entertainer, who has won such "real and well-deserved popularity with audience at St. George's Hall, to say nothing of the Palace Theatre, and the drawing-room*, of Society. "Don't know; case of 'original sin.' Anyway, I was always fond of playing the piano and plaving the fool. Alt' first appearance in public was at the Drill Hall, Wimbledon, when, aged sixteen, I played the overture from 'Zuinpa.' Sort of thing a heartless wretch of a boy would do. °Vou iimv believe me or not, as you like, but 1 lived at Wimbledon for quite a number of years after this terrible tragedy. "Have I had any funny experiencest Crowds'. Only the other day I had one at the St. George's Hall. 1 always 'keep an eve' on my audience to see how my 'show' is going, and 011 this particular afternoon I noticed a lady right in the middle of the stalls yawning in a most distressing fashion. It was not an ordinary yawn,, discreetly smothered behind a hand; it was a prodigious, shameless' undisguised gape that expressed the very acme of weariness and desolation. And she kept on doing it until my nerves began to tie themselves into kiiots. • "So I introduced some 'patter' to the (.■licet that 1 feared the audience were getting bored, and this was really a, very serious matter for me, as if the | management saw anyone looking bored, or, above all. anyone yawning—this accompanied by fiery glances at my tormentor—they immediately rang down Hie curtain; and I didn't want to be cat oil' in th 0 vol ' y lower of my youth, to say nothing of having mv salary dock-, od'. The audience laughed, many of them perceiving my meaning, but the target of my s'hafts sat utterly unmoved, yawning worse than ever. I had noticed that the lady in question was sitting next to two friends of mine, and seeing them later, I said: "Did you notice that terrible woman next to you? She nearly drove me wild with her confounded yawning. ]

"'Oh, yes.' said my friends, 'she was in one of our seats at first, and when We asked her lo move we found she was French, and didn't understand a word of English.' NEVER MISLAID HIS PTAXO. "But most of my funny experiences relate to my amateur days. You have heard of the drummer who lost the big drum. Well. T haven't yet succeeded in mislaying my piano, but I remember taking my troupe of 'Dancing Minstrels' down to Salisbury Plain lo entertain a huge picnic parly, and when we arrived we 'found (hat no piano had been provided. And as grand pianos do not grow in every bush on Salisbury Plain, we had to dispense with music, Thon, all the weather prophets having predicted a fine day. it came on to rain as lif it never meant to stop. No doubt there was something funny in the spectacle of me trying to shelter under a bush about the size of a small geranium, but the humor of th e situation did not appeal to me. "When we returned to our omnibus we found (hat our driver, overcome ny hoaring my 'Songs without Music,' had been drowning bis sorrows. It was with considerable misgivings, therefore, that we started on the return journey, and before we bad proceeded more than a hundred yards our driver fell off tlin box - and positively refused to remount the coach in any capacity save that of inside passenger—full length on the floor, '■lt was at this thrilling juncture that 1 assumed the reins. In reply to those persons who have since been so ungrateful as lo asperse my driving that night, I would point out. firstly, that I did not see the hnvstaek until too late to pull up: secondly, that the falling was -oft; and, thirdly, that I did not take four hours to coyer the six miles to the station—it was only three hours and forty minutes. "'Bnl by far my most extraordinary experience I ever had in private entertaining was as follows: I was engaged to go to a bouse in the North ol London, and on arrival I found that my audience was to consist of a dip-o-maniac and bis keeper. My host, a man of Herculean build, was attired in pyjamas and a solar 'fopee. and as' 1 sat down lo"the piano he. remarked genially lo his keeper: 'lf he plays a wrono not,, I'm going to kill him!' However 1 diil 1101 play any false notes, though what lie thought of my entertainment 1 really don't know, as'hc sat with his back to me (he whole time, swallowing 'pegs' of champagne, brandy and whis ky, with ineoneV'ivahlo rapidity, and always smashing the glass lie had la-.l drunk from. Then, to do the poor fcl low justice, 'a right down regular royal s'uppcr was brought in for me, and foi a time .nothing unusual happened be yond my host's turning on a grama phone and steeplechasing round Hit room, over Hie chairs and (aides, to (h< tune of -Follow the man from Cook's, an exercise in which T respectfully but firmly declined his invitation to ioil him. "Hard work entertaining? I believi you, and sometimes when wearied will 'shows,' public and private, t think 1 little regretfully of the old more 01 less irresponsible days as' an amateni .'tctor, n-hi'ii it didn't' matter very imiel ; f the Min' ros,, in the west, Or if tltt hero came on with bis moustache dang line- from the tip of his chin. "Now. I must be oil'. Matty thanks I hope we shall have good luck, am alllionp-1, I expect to be away in Ans (raiia for two years. T trust that 01 my return T shall not find that I havt been entirely forgotten hv the pub'.i who have bec n so appreciative of 111' efforts.