STALLS GOSSIP.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 November 1915, Page 10 (Supplement)

STALLS GOSSIP.

MIMES, MUSIC, AND MOVIES. Margaret Anglin lias lately been presenting Greek plays on an elaborate scale at an open-air theatre at Berkeley, California. '

It is said that the finest thing Mary Pickford has (lone yet is the new film of her called "Rags," which shows her translation from poverty to affluence. * * * *

Miss Carrie Moore is to bo the principal boy in the "Dick Whittington" pantomime to be produced at the Sydney Adelphi at Christmas time. Dan Thomas will play the dame.

Reported that Miss Ethel Dane, the chic little English actress with Beaumont Smith's "(Had.Eye"' Company, will visit Australasia again neit year on a starring tour with her husband, Cyril Keightley, who is at present in America. * * * a

What is the hardest line for an actor to speak which ever a playwright set down in dialogue? Traditionally this cake is taken byßemard Shaw in "The Doctor's Dilemma:'' '"'lt will lay his wife's life waste." Every actor who has tackled that line has bogged. 0 s * «

Mr. Carl Hertz, the wizard, who was first brought to Australia and New Zealand by Sir. Edwin (leach, lias just informed the Era that he has secured a five years' lease of a London theatre, and will present his conjuring feats thereat, together with other entertainments.

Mr. Howard Vernon is producing a revue, "Are We Downhearted?" at the Little Theatre, Sydney. Among those engaged in the cast are: Miss Vinia de Loitte (Mrs Vernon), H. H. Wallace, Les Kelso, and Miss Kathleen Mack (Mrs. Frank Musgrove), who was principal boy in the Stephenson-Lanley pantomime of "80-peep." * * * *

The next big attraction in New Zealand will be the Royal Comic Opera. This company will open a New Zealand tour at Wellington or Auckland at Christmas, and will, in addition to staging one or two new operas, revive sereval of the old favourites, amongst others, "Paul Jones," "Ma Mie Rosette," "Our Miss Gibbs," and "The Quaker Girl." • « * •

Mr. Geo. Stephenson reports that the "Fun on the Bristol" Company, after the Hawke's Bay and Gisborne Show dates, disbands and returns to Sydney. Mr. Stephenson will then take the Stanley McKay pantomime through New Zealand, playing the carnival dates on the West Coast at Christmas. The pantomimes to be played will be "Mother Goose" and "Cinderella."

Mi'. Hugh J. Ward has written from America detailing the success of various plays held by J. C. Williamson, Ltd., for Australia. These include "Kick Iu" (soon to be staged in Sydney), "Twin Beds," "It Pays To Advertise," "Under Fire," "On Trial," and others, all of which are holding their own strongly in New York, and are touring with a number of companies throughout the States. Mr. Ward has secured some attractive novelties and effects for the "Mother Goose" pantomime, which is now in course of preparation at Her Majesty's, Melbourne. * • * «

It was inevitable that we should have Gaby Deslys on the screen. A story called "Her Triumph" has-been written for her, and she has been filmed in various exciting scenes in Paris. Among the happenings that befell Gaby on the film are: (1) A chorus girl, breadwinner of a Bmall family which includes an invalid mother and a blind sister; she incurs the displeasure of the "star," who is infatuated with her lover. (2) Gaby the chorus girl, becomes the "star," and her lover is shot at by her jealous rival. (3) Gaby is located in a beautiful villa, where she certainly seems more at home. (4) Apaches endeavour to abduct hor. Gaby all over! • * • •

Mr. Lewis Waller, whose death was reported on Wednesday, was born in Bilboa, Spain, in 1860. He made his first appearance on the stage with the late J. L. Toole in "Unele Dick's Darling," in London, in 1883, and was subsequently associated with most of the leading players and managements of England, and was the original of many notable roles in modern plays. He was a famous Hotspur in "Henry 1V.," and was considered the best Henry V. since Mr. George Rignold. He was the original of "Monsieur Beaucaire." Mr. Waller visited Australia last year, playing "A Butterfly on tho Wheel," "Henry V.," "A Marriage of Convenience," "Monsieur Beaucaire," and "A Fair Highwayman."

latest mails convey news of the death of William H, L. Denny, a noted British actor, who was once a member of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan company at the Savoy Theatre. Mr. Denny was the original Shadbolt in "The Yeoman of the Guard," when Mr. Wallace Brownlow was in the east. Ho was also the original Don Alhambra in "The Gondoliers," and was in "Utopia, Ltd." Mr. Denny went to the Savoy after scoring an immense hit as Noah Topping in l'inero's "Dandy Dick," in 1888, and after his comic opera experience he returned to the dramatic side again. He toured America, and later was in Australia with Musgrove's big Shakespeare company, playing Bottom in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," a production j which went on in Wellington, but nowhere else in the Dominion. He also played Touchstone in "As You Like it," and Malvolio in "Twelfth Night." He I was the Dog in the American production of "The Blue Bird."

Paderewski, in August, was in San Francisco. A correspondent writes: "Those who attended the lecture and recital by Paderewski last Saturday afternoon in Festival Hall at the Exposition will not soon forget the experience. Those thousands will always picture him a tragic figure standing against the blood-red background of his Polish flag, pleading for the starving people of his battle-ridden country. The hcart-aching story lie told in a voice vibrant with grief and resonant, that not one word was lost even to the last man who bought the last spuare foot of standing room." The Chopin recital which formed the second part of tlie programme called out the same intense interest. "It seemed as if Paderewski were telling the same tragic story in music. As the concert was over the Prussian band, then giving programmes at the Exposition, sat in the clearing outside Festival Hall and played Paderewski's Minuet and the Polish National Hymn. It was a pretty leompliment." Nearly £2OOO was added to the Polish Belief Fund by this effort,