STALLS GOSSIP.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 November 1915, Page 10 (Supplement)

STALLS GOSSIP.

MIMES, MUSIC AND MOVIES. ''Miss Levin, please do not cry on the light goods—they spot terrible."—"Potash and Perlmutter." * « * >. "Kick In," a striking American comedy, was staged in Sydney last Saturday by "The Man Who Stayed at Home" Company. « * » « "Abe, when I took you for a partner 1 took you for better or worse. That yon turned out a d sight worse than I took you for is my rotten luck." — From "Potash and Perlmutter."

Said the Melbourne Age about "Potash and Perlmutter": "ft lias achieved an instantaneous popular success. There isn't a minute that does not produce its own shrieking laughter. The audience is never done laughing." * * * *

Miss Kosina Buekman was at latest advices singing with the Beecham drawl Opera Company at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London. Miss Bncki>ian was playing the leading soprano roles in "La Boheme," ''Madame Butterfly," "Faust," and other operas. * * * *

Mr. Fred. Graham, the comedian, well known in New Zealand, is in New York, and recently won high praise from the critics In '•Search Me." "The play itself was not a success, and w:is withdrawn after a fortnight's run.

Victoria Cross novel, "Five Nights," i.; being screened in Sydney at present. Miss Eve Balfour, who takes the leading role in the film, is a young New Zealander. She went to England six years ago, and obtained an engagement straight away as understudy to Mrs, Patrick Campbell in "False Idols." • • * •

Miss Wynfried Carter, formerly of Auckland, a gifted young harpist,, who last toured New Zealand with "The Chocolate Soldier" Company, arrived at Wellington from Sydney last week. Miss Carter, in conjunction with Mr. Alfred O'Shea, an Irish tenor, appears in a musical vaudeville sketch under engagement with the Fuller circuit.

"Potash and Perlninttor," the. famous Hebrew comedy triumph, which ran for two consecutive years in New York, and which has been running for upwards of eighteen months in London, began its New Zealand season at Auckland on Tuesday, to a crowded and enthusiastic audience. It will be presented here next Thursday.

"Potash and Perlmutter' 1 is said to slip along so easily that some of the, line points go generally unnoticed. Among these is the speech in which Mawruss incidentally shows his business aptitude in buying cigars. It is after the book-agent has had two samples of his pet smoke. "Two fifty-cent. Coronas," lie laments, "vot cost me twenty dollars a hundred cash!"

"There's a lot in a name," is the conclusion Mr. John Farrell has come to, after stemming endless enquiries about "Potash and Perlmutter." "We knowj what potash is," they tell him, "but perlmutter has us beat!" And Mr. Farrell throws enlightenment on the matter by explaining that Abe Potash ard Maivruss Perlmutter are two Jewisii cloak and suit manufacturers, who make a specialty of linguistic sparring. * * * »

Charles McMahon. the well-known theatrical manager, is back in New Zealand, after an absence of six months in the Commonwealth. Mr. McMahon has secured the exclusive rights of a number of high-grade films which" he intends exhibiting at an early'datc throughout the Dominion. He has abandoned the idea for the time being of bringing a dramatic company across to tour New Zealand. He considers the venture too risky under the present state of affairs. » * * *

Madame Melba states that her concert engagements in the States and Canada will be completed by next January, and that she will make a leisurely return to Australia, via Honolulu and Auckland. On arrival in Auckland the famous singer will devote her gifts to the Red Cross pause, in pursuance of a promise made en route to America; already ten donors have each promised £10(1 each towards the flag for the concert. In due course Mr. Lemmone will arrive i» Auckland to organise the concert. • * * *

\Ve rightly regard pantomime as a purely British institution, for no other country puts fairy tales on the stage at Christmas time; but most of the stories were dramatise are the common property of all civilised nations, and In their most familiar forms have almost all been borrowed by us from other countries. "Bluebird," "Cinderella," and "Tom Thumb" we owe to France; "Puss in Boots" comes from Italy; ■'Jack the Giant Killer" hails from Norway; "Jack and the Beanstalk" is German; "Sinbad the Sailor" derives, of course, from the "Arabian Nights"; "Babes in the Wood" and "Little Red Riding Hood" are among the few purely English stories—lxiiidon Chronicle. * * * *

America is crowded with artists of the first rank at the present time, nud as a result the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which opened its season on October 16, headed by Madame Melba, Geraldine Farrar, Fritz Kreisler and Paderewski. This orchestra, which is often referred to 'by visiting artists as "the finest in the world," has got over the war scare, and is again strongly supported. The New York Philharmonic Society is also in a flourishing condition, and at its concert given in the 'Brooklyn Academy of Music in September last Madame do Cisneros sang superbly "Amour Viens Aider," from Saint-Saens' operatic masterpiece, and, as a leading New York paper remarks, "acquitted herself gloriously." » * • •

Local playgoers who saw the frivolous "High Jinks" will remember the annoyance of "the lumber king" Jeffries at the question, wherever he went, "Are you any relation of the Mr. Jeffries, the fighter? No? Perhaps the great Mr. Jeffries himself?" George Barnnm, the energetic J. C. Williamson producer from America, who has been staging new plays since he c:ime to Australia, has been in the same position as Mr. Jeffries in "High Jinks," for his friends at the Williamson theatres in Melbourne and Sydney have been playing off a little joke on him. From the time he arrived he was met with the questions. "Are you any relation of 'the' Mr. Barnuni, the great showman? Perhaps the great Mr. Barnum himself?" But the producer invariably replied; "Yes; I'm his grandfather!'' This coded off the joker*

Syd, Chaplin, brother oJ' the famous Charlie, will return to England at trie conclusion of his present engagement in California, and will appear in a revue under the direction of Messrs Taylor and Da we.

At Jacksonville (U.S.A.) hospital for the insane a complete moving /ifcture plant lias been installed. The medical superintendent, Dr. Edward Hill, holds the opinion that the recreative effect of moving pictures on patients recovering their reason justifies the innovation.

A new studio, 140 ft by 300 ft, is to he built by the Essanay Film Company. This will make three studios in Chicago. The Lubin Company has erected an immense glass studio at Philadelphia. Tlie building has four storeys, Toft wide by :Sooft in length. Other Lubin studios are at Los Angeles, Arizona, Florida, New Jor.sev, Rhode Island and New Vorlc.

''Charlie Chaplin Mad'' is the title of a revue which a London theatre was preparing foi presentation recently. The story concerns tile quest of the popular Charlie by an heiress who lias fallen in love with him on the film, and her eventful tracking of liim to earth in Western America. Chaplin was offered £SOO per week to appear in the revnue, but his cinema contracts would not permit him to accept. • • • •

The Muriel Starr Company at Melbourne Theatre Royal will be followed by the faree-comedy company at present playing "A Pair of Sixes" at the Criterion. Sydney. This includes John Webster, the player of "Xiblo'' parts; Tom McLarnie. Beatrice Nicholls, Tom Shelford anil Ethel Dane. "A Pair of Sixes' - is :i bright and breezy farcecomedy, with the sam,e motif as characterises "Potash and Perlmntter"—two partners who have been wrangling for years—but the story is developed on different lines. Each thinks himself the Napoleon of their pill-making business, and ultimately they agree to settle their dispute by playing a game of poker to decide who shall be the master and who shall be the servant. The winner appoints the lose;- his butler, and makes him grow a monkey pair of sidewhiskers. The loser has a sweetheart—and this is where the plot develops. The play is characterised by delightfully humorous situations, which are cleverly enacted by a strong company. * * # *

The reeei.l jubilee ,«" Messrs Maskelyue ami Divant in London is a reminder that .1. \. Maskelyne claims to have introduced the matinee in London Observing how few afternoon entertainmeiits there were at that time, he arranged a series of matinees, frequently being able to advertise- "The only entertainment, in London this afternoon." Sir Henry Irving, who went to some of these performances, remarked on the good attendance, and shortly afterwards tried matinees himself with such success that the practice was quickly copied by other managers.

In England lately a young photo-play actress was killed while acting for a motion picture drama. In a part of the plot the young lady was to have been scooped up from a railway track by the hero, who stood on the pilot of a swift-ly-approaching engine. At the crucial moment the hero failed to secure a firm hold on the heroine, and she was crushed between the wheels of the locomotive. As a prelude" to the rescue scene, the actor who was to play the hero put in several hours each day for a week clinging to the pilot of an engine, and picking up a dummy figure of the same weight and size from the rails as the engine swept along the track. A!i this for the craze of realism.

Writing for the movies may not lie highly profitable (says the New York Kvening Post), but there is no doubt as to the importance of film rights to dramatists and authors when utilised as a by-product. One London company announces film plays by these writers: (ieorge du Maurier, Heskctli Prichard, Agnes and Kgcrton Castle, Cecil Raleigh, R. C. Carton, Leo Trevor, Claude and Alice Askew, Fred Wright, George R. Situs, W. W. Jacobs, Charles Dickens, Mrs!. Percy Dearmer. John Strange Winter, Henry Arthur Jones, William Le Queux, Hall Caine, Tom Gallon, Tom Taylor, Sir A, Conan Doyle, Hugh Conwav, Anthony Hope, "Rita." Maekay ami Ord, Frank Danby, 11. A. Vaeheli, Mary Cholmondeley. Another company gives this list: J. M. Barrie, Hall Caine, Henry Arthur Jones, Thomas Hardy, Henry Esmond and Agnes and Egerton Castle.

iU'cnntly a series of frauds m connection witli the film trade was discovered in New York It was found that the strong rooms of several exchanges were ransacked and thousands of feet of films were stolen, shipped to various towns and exhibited. The Mutual Film Corporation were the first to tind out o! (heir losses. This company immediately began to wage war on the thieves and pirates. The outcome is reported by the last mail. Representatives of two small Xew York City exchanges voluntarily returned to the Mutual, through an attorney, COOO feet of film,, which was accepted without promise of immunity Shortly afterwards a manager of the Mutual Company's branch oflice in 23rd street was charged with the larceny of 149,00.1 feet of film, 75,000 feet of which as been recovered. It is estimated that half a million feet have been sent abroad with the titles altered.

"Some people must take u long time to get tired of a thing, for they look forward to Charlie Chaplin weekly as they do to a Sunday rest," writes a picture theatre patron to a London paper. "He has grown into a habit with his admirers, and it is questionable whether they have ever stopped to ask themselves if they really do like him. It is not improbable that they find Charlie Chaplin a. relief because previously they have had to endure such terrible so-called humour on the film. Personally X have grown to dread Charlie Chaplin on the pictures, for after seeing him once or twice he bores me to tears. I would like to find a picture palace daring enough to hang out a sign 'Charlie Chaplin is not shown here.' I am led to ask, ''Are we not having too much Charlie Chaplin?' Surely the film producers can give us alternative comics, if comic pictures are an essential feature of a picture palace programme. At least, if we cannot have a rest from Charlie Chaplin let us demand as a concession that we have him fortnightly instead of weekly. To people who do not appreciate this form of entertainment, who find Charlie Chaplin merely inane, the Charlie Chaplin tyranny is positively torture. I am tired of hearing his very name. I am afraid to look up at a picture palace as I pass for fear of seeing his image outside." The Cnarlie Chaplin cult is but ephemeral,