STALLS GOSSIP.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 March 1916, Page 11

STALLS GOSSIP.

.MUSIC, MIMES AND .MUSIC, il: It is stated that the Pickford family's collective earnings total ;£6OO a week. * • t It is reported that the firm of J. C. Williamson, Ltd., with a capital of £300,000, recently paid a dividend of 10 per cent. * • * Maurice Lynch, long with Allen Doone, and Gilbert Emery, formerly of the "Glad Eye" Company, are among a number of well-known players selected for the cast of "Fact'ry 'Ands," the Australian comedy-drama by Edward Dyson, soon to be produced in Sydney. * » * A remarkable piece of double exposure work was done recently by an operator at Balboa studios. Usually the characters played hy one actor cannot approach the' dividing line closer thai* about three inches, but in the instance under notice one of the actresses actually kisses herself on the lips without spoiling the picture. * * », . The Patho firm has acquired the picture rights to KipliHg's story, "The Light That Failed." This is the first Kipling book to be put into pictures, and is • filled with excellent dramatic material. The east will be headed' by Roberston Edeson, .lose Collins, Lillian Tucker and Claude Fleming. * * # The Williamson management decided not to purchase "Abe and Mamruss," the sequel to "Potash and Perlmutter." Although it is a hig New York success it is doubtful whether a continuation of the fortunes of the Hebrew clothing firm would attract in this part of the world. * * • Miss Carrie Moor.e will probably return to England at the close of the tour of George Marlow's pantomime, in which she is appearing, as she has received an offer from her former manager, Robert Courtneidge, to resume her position as leading' woman in his musical cpmedy company. » » « An ancient story, but bright enough to bear re-telling: A dramatic author, who was reading a new work before the companv'of.the Comedie Francaise, was disturbed at seeing that one of the members, Monsieur Got, had gone fast asleep. The author stopped and reproved the sleeper. He was reading his play to the committee in order, he said, to obtain their opinion? Monsieur Got rubbed his eyes and remarked, "Monsieur forgets that sleep is also an opinion." That ended the discussion. Glenn Gano, a female impersonator, was engaged by Kalem to take Helen Holmes' place in a particularly dangerous feat in one of the Hazards of Helen series. Gano, dressed as a girl, was supposed to leap in front of a moving train from a bridge. He was suspended on a rope which was to swing him to safety as the train rushed by, but unfortunately the rope caught iu the folds of his dress, and he was struck a glancing blow by the engine, sustaining terrible injuries. * * * One would probably be safe in saying that the four men who have made the most money in writing for the English stage are Sir W. S. Gilbert, Sir A. W. Pinero, Sir J. M. Barrie, and Mr. Henry .Jcnes. Sullivan's operas provided Gilbert with an income of £12,000 a year. "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray" alone brought Pinero something like £60,000. In addition, "Sweet Lavender" poured £40,000 into his pockets, and although the late Mr. Edward Terry paid this sum in fees to the author, he cleared £OO,OOO out of the play, and probably half as much again from provincial tours. "The Little Minister" earned Sir J. M. Barrie £-100 a week for a number of years', and long before the curtain fell on the last performance at the Haymarket the net profits had reached £IOO,OOO.

Miss Flora Finch, the well-known cainedienne, who will long be remembered as the quaint partner of the late John Bimny in many a good comedy, and who recently left the Vitagraph Company to take a much-needed rest, has announcd her iutention of dedicating her vacation to the furtherance of her plan to eitablnh a chain of moving picture theatres in the slums of v'nr large citiefc, wherein the price o«< Admission will be hut two cents. Mliss Pinch ha« already interested severa.' well-known charity workers and philalihrojists in her plan. Says Miss Fine! : ''m » m -»ii. dorsing two-cent movies, so that the woman with a shawl over her head, and the laborer earning one-fifty a day, and feeding a family of six, will have some place of amusement to which they can afford t'o go." * # * Says "S.f>." in the Bulletin:—He was met coming d«wn the gallery stairs. There was :\ man behind helping. He arrived on the general level of the city with two somersaults and a flop. Then the man behind dusted his lingers, and went upstairs again. The ptsstrate person had a new black eye and had mislaid a gilt-edged front teeth. He was most distressed. ''l-sok here," said he, 'straightening out a crumplsd programme. He read: "If the show pleases you, tell your friends; if not, tell us. We are here to please you!" He-grean-ed. ''What d'yeli chink of that?" he said. "And I eiry up and said one turn was rotten." Plainly it is not wise to take a theatrical programme too literally.

Setli "Three Weeks" and "Five Nights" lia/e given rise to litigation in Britain. With regard to "Three .Weeks," Mrs. Elinor Glynn -ought to restrain the Weston Fe.itm, Film Company frtm circulating- a burlc-H"* of her novel, under the title of "dimple's Three Weeks." For the defence it was urged that it was no infringement of copyright to caricature a serious work. Judge Younger, before whom the suit was heard, remarked: "The burlesque only exists swing to its inane vulgarity. I do not think Mrs. Glynn would admit that any person who read her book would derive any pleasure from the burlesque." In the case ef "Five Nights," it appears that the St. Helen's Magistrates prohibited .the local exhibition of the film. A film agency which had paid some thousands of pounds for territory rights, which included St. Helen's, asked for an order nullifying the decision of the Magistrate. Judge Avovy upheld the Magistrate, pointing out that it was a condition attached to the licensing of picture exhibitions In St. Helen's that no film should be 'exhibited which the Magistrates objected to. A magisterial decree at Bradford also turns down "Five Nights," and it was expected that Manchester would follow suit. All despite the fact tbat the film had already passed the Boatd of fflja CM*

Lady Tree is tbe latest famous actrcaa to become a ■lrincma star. She will .very soon be seen on tbe screen in a strong dramatic play. »* . * iA new moving picture, entitled "A Maori Maid's Love," taken »t Rotorua, has been screened in Sydney, and is said to be considerably above many of the imported pictures in quality. The Sydney Sun says: "'A Maori Maid's Love' is unquestionably the best moving picture produced up to date at this end of the world, and Air. Longford's next attempt ehould prove even more sucfo.-?-ful. But even if he should nuik.' m». improvement there will be little .. i for importing films while Australia v. make her own of such a standard." * * «■ Madame Melba, one of the world's great queens of song, was told recently that she was not, without references, good for £2o hy an earnest saleswoman in one of Chicago's big department stores. She looked at some gowns and asked that one be sent to her hotel on approval. "I am Melba—Madame Melba," the cantatrice explained to the careful girl who displayed the gowns. "I should like it sent to the Congress to my apartment on approval. It's all a question of fit. You see " "Have you a charge account?" a'sked the saleswoman. ''Dear me, no! I'm just back from Australia. I haven't been in Chicago for months and months and months. I am Melba—Madame Melba—and—-" "Sorry, madame," said the girl, "but we can't let the gown go out unless somebody who is responsible says it's all right." Madame Melba was in Chicago for a few hours only. * * * In the course of one of the final articles written by T. Booker Washington, the eminent negro scholar and educationist, he wrote of song and the negro as follows:—"Nothing tells more truly what tbe negro's life in slavery was than the songs in which he succeeded, sometimes, in expressing his deepest thoughts and feelings. What, for example, could express more eloquently the feeling* of despair which sometimes overtook the slave than these simple and expressive words: 'Oh Lord, 0 my Lord! Keep me from sinking down.' The songs which the negro sang in slavery, however, were by no means always sad. There were many joyous occasions upon which the natural happy and cheerful nature of the negro found expression in songs of a light and cheerful character. There is a difference, however, between the music pf Africa and that of her transplanted children. There is a new note in the music which had its origin on the southern plantations, and in this new note the sorrow and the suffering which came from serving in a strange land finds expression. There is something in this slave music that touches the common heart of man. Everywhere that it as been heard this music has awakened a responsive chord in the minds and hearts of those who heard it. There was a time, direct!* after the war, when the colored people, particularly those who had a little education, tried to get away from and forget these old slave songs. ]f they saiifj them (till it was abeut the home an* not in public. It was not unti, •"" years, when other peeple began te •.. and take an interest in these s ol) ,,'' that these people began to under.su"... the inspiration and the quality tW" was in them. It is an indication of change that has gone on amonj :,-,.'. negro people in recent years that n* •- and mere they are beginning U i pride iu these folksongs of the ra,v.-. -■•«"" are seeking to preserve tlicai vc«; ■'„-■»' memories that they evakc."