ENTERTAINMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 304, 20 June 1912, Page 4

ENTERTAINMENTS

WHAT'S IX A NAME? * JOSEPH BLASCHEOK ON HIMSELF. Mr. Joseph Blascheck, the cultured English 'humorist and raconteur, who will give his farewell entertainment at the Theatre Royal to-night, is a personality as well as a man with a keenly humorous outlook on life. The conversation last evening, when a reporter called tp see him, turned upon his name. "'How do you pronounce it?" he was asked. "Just Blascheck—divide it in the midtdie, and its easy, though hard. But, really, and seriously, it is strange how people stumble over my name| I have been called Mr. Blue-jack, Black-check Blurs-chuck, and Blows-chiek." ' It sounds foreign, however you pronounce it," persisted the reporter, 'iou're nationality——" "Oh, I'm an Englishman. I say it with my hand on my heart. My father was English, niv mother Scotch, and having been born within the sound/ of the Low Bells in Loudon, my real nationality is that of a Cockney.' The name m really that of a Bohemian—l am still Bohemian in my social tendencies—and it came down on my father's side. That is why it is not M'Blascheck, d'ye ken. In the original Bohemian the name was, I believe, pronounced Blasch-ek, with the accent on the middle syllable." "As you say, it is an uncommon name. That is why I was not so long ago placed in a rather awkward situation. A woman named Blazek gave birth to a kind of Siamese twin in London, and the fact was duly recorded by the papers. Soon after this I was astonished to receive from the director of a big music hall syndicate an offer of a large salary if I would allow my child to be exhibited in certain centres. Owing to the similarity of the name I had! been mistaken for the father. Too bad, wasn't it?" "New Zealand? I like it. I like the entire absence of turmoil, that blissful calm associated wi th a country without politics It is a charming little country,though, and should have a big future when the Panama Canal blossoms into a »reat waterway."

EMPIRE THEATRE. Probably more interest is displayed throughout the Empire in the OxfordCambridge boat race than in any other British sporting event of annual occurrence, with the exception of the Derby. -Bearing this in mind, the proprietors of the Empire Picture Theatre hare secured a splendid film descriptive of this year's race, which was won by Oxford. The picture, which was included in last night s bi-weekly change of programme is generous in detail, following the race from start to finish, and containing photographs of each of the crews The Cambridge eight includes Collins, an old Wellington boy. Bathe's Australia Gazette is unusually interesting. It includes topical events of considerable note which have been prominently before the public of late. "The Prosecutmg Counsel" is a powerful drama, out of the ordinary run of cinematograph subjects, while in "Fantastic Illusions" the audience is provided with an exposition of the black art by the world's foremost artists. Some extra ordinary feats of acrobatic work are performed by the "Wonderful Equili J™ a /. the fine scenic film Upnstd m the Recreation Grounds. New Plymouth, speaks for itself. Several othCT good dramas and comics are also