STALLS GOSSIP.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 August 1915, Page 12

STALLS GOSSIP.

MIMES, MUSIC AND MOVIES. ■ Grace Palotta is taking a spell from stage work, and now runs a millinery shop in Sydney. J * * * * J Wellington amateurs put pa "Lea Cloches de Corneville" next month. Tom Poilard is seeing them through this old favorite, * * # * The Allen Doone Company Imd a remarkably successful season in Welling' ton. Christchurch is now the scene oi s operations. • t * * * * " \ Daisy Jerome, of the terra-cotta hair, ; and Josephine Oassman and Pies—l through not long ago with the "Babes. in the Wood" panto., are now on tha Fuller circuit at Melbourne. * # * * Barry Lupino and Minnie Love, of tne "Cinderella" company, join the J.C.W. new musical comedy combination. * # * * . Dick Stewart, with his wife and family, are en route to South Africa to J take up the residential managership for' J. C. Williamson, in place of Mr. Harold 1 Aahton, who returns at the end of the I year. j * * * # i "Bunty" is an evergreen, or will provo, to be so long as it is interpreted by artists like Mr. and Mrs. Moffat. The quaintly-pretty story will remain long I after certain "magnificent successes" !■ have been relegated to the limbo from which they should never have emerged, j * * # * <sßjnparisons, they say, are odious, but Miaa- Jean Clyde was a winning and, winsome Bunty, and made the character ■ far more lifelike than did her prede- j cesser in laat year's New Zealand tour, j ..•■■'. i ■"■ # * * * ]

Messrs J. and N. Tait have announced that the profits of the tour of the Bel- [ gian Band under their direction are to j be devoted to patriotic funds. Half j the .profits in Australia will go to the! Belgian Belief Fund and half to the | Australian Wounded Soldiers' Fund. ! <c * # ft | Among the members of "The Man Who Stayed at Home" Company are thiee of the leading members of the Buckier-Paget Company, whith last year gave a charming series of good plays. These are Miss Violet Paget (Mrs. Buckler), Mr. Artiiur Cornell and Mr. Keiluctli Brampton. The man himself is Mr Frank Harvey, wlio was last through Xew Zealand with Mr. Julius Knight, and Who, by the way, acted the hero in ti'.c most ••uccoAE.ful v.ar picture, ''The iiero of (b- which wilt be rvn Kc.c sho-dl;'.

A five-ait tragedy in Wank verse has been written by Mr. Lucius C. 0. Cary, of Auckland, who is submitting the script to Sir H. Beerbohm .Tree. The play is at present entitled "Harold." The title-role is that of the Earl of Wessex, afterwards King oi England. Beginning in the reign of hie predecessor, Edward the Confessor, the plot carries on to the death of Harold on the battlefield, and of Edith, daughter of the Danish prophetess. * * * * It is more than probable that Mr. Frank Hawthorne will be heading a strong ronxvly <:tnpan\ thai is booked to tour fhe iJ.j:-'inion, stai'Mi;- m September. Including iiawl l;ornc. tlife company will contain -on:c of the ritcm•bers of Jlr. George Edwards' OperJ Company, who are at present touring Africa. Of these the principal will be Mr. Arthur Henderson.' The company has a repertoire of well-known musical comedies.

* # * * The patronage accorded the Graham Moffat Company in New Plymouth was very poor, considering the merits of the plays and the players. Those playgoers who attended enjoyed two delightfully human and humorous tales of Scotch life, portrayed by people to whom their parts came naturally; those who stayed away should wear sackcloth and ashes. It is not often that New Plymouth has the opportunity of witnessing such refined entertainment; that it was so poorly appreciated shows a jacj- o f—whatJ " Good taste! A hustling vaudeville combination, with a plethora of noisy ragtime and a sparseness of frock, would doubtless have caused the Theatre Eoyal to be packed on Monday and Tuesday.

"The great thing in singing is relaxa' . tion/' said lilelba in a recent lecturette; and she impressed the necessity for relaxation—not only of the muscles of the throat, but of all the muscles of the tjiody—upon the students again and again. "Anyone who stands rigid can never hope to sing well, iou must relax the same way as a prize-tighter does before he enters the ring. It ic not sufficient to learn how to 1 attribute a great deal of my success to> the fact that I was always able to play the piano ""and the violin, and that 1 learned harmony and counterpoint. Every singing student must learn the piano, and should be able to read music at sight. No girl should attempt to sing before she is seventeen years of age. 'When sheibegins to study she should never sing except in tlie presence of her teacher. Later cm she can practice alone for about a uuarter of an hour at a time."

Who is there on earth that has missed '•Everybody's Doin' Jt," "Alexander's Ragtime Band," -Dixie" and "Snooky Ookums"! H there be any such they must have lived in the woods chewing Heaves and hark, because these tunes have haunted the jungles of civilisation like the flies do Cairo in the summer .time. In New ZeaJand one may hear the mills being deposited m tfce frosty

I doorstep to the tune of "I Want to be Down Home in Dixie," or the butcherboy will enter the side passage wMstling I "This is my Life," or "That Mysterious Rag," whilst the dogs in the street bark /Alexanders Rag-time Band," "Every[body's Doin' It," and "That Mysterious I Rag." These world's most popular songs J are all the emanations from that won'der man, Irveu Berlin, who says some remarkable tilings about his talent in an article in the New York Green Book. From this it would seem that Berlin (who is pure American) turns out good catches under pressure or by inspiration. He relates that he had written "When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam'," "At the Devil's Ball," and "When I Lost You," when an urgent demand from the Chicago branch of Ber- [ lin's business which needed two new , songs, so he made for his room at the j Hotel Sherman, and in two days had ! written "Snooky Ookums" and "In My i Harem," which was suggested by the ; Cfraeoo-Turkish war. "In my Harem" is one of the best of Berlin's songs, but, strange to say, is comparatively unknown in New Zealand. # * # *

It is somewhat interesting to note that Mr. Harry Lauder made his only appearance on the legitimate stage in "A Scrape o' the Pen," the occasion being a charity matinee at the Comedy Theatre, London, and Mr. Moffat and Mr. Lauder being great friends, Lauder consented to appear in the «omedy role of Geordie Pow, a character which was portrayed here by the inimitable Abie Barker, who lnade such a feature of Raib in "Bunty (Poills the Strings."

Charles Chaplin has appeared in so many farces under the Keystone banner, where he learnt the art of being picturesquely funny, that no one can say off-hand just what, was the first photofarce that the clever comedian appeared in. Mack Sennett, the Keystone producer, informed a pressman last month that the inimitable Charles Chaplin's first picture was "A Film Johnny." It was taken at the first cycle car races given in Southern California. Chaplin had a part of a picture enthusiast, who was always wandering out in front of the cameras that were trained on the race. The first picture Chaplin produced himself was called "Out in the Rain." There is a rumor going around that Charlie Chaplin will soon be at home with the Keystoners again.

I * * * * 1 Mr. Will Payne, the well-known Amejrican writer, had the cost of producing i photo-p'ays impressed upon him just I lately. While in Los Angeles, he took ; a drive along a road where the day 1 previously there was an open field. In the interim a score or more of headstones over raised mounds, with chain fences around them, and a newly-made grave heaped with flowers, had materialised. Inspection showed that the tombstones were made of painted pine. The graveyard had been constructed for a photo-play scene. Three days Afterwards lie saw on the 6ame place two solid-look-ing houses that had been built just to he burned down for another scene in the 1 picture-play.