BEHIND THE FOOTLIGHTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8545, 28 September 1907, Page 3

BEHIND THE FOOTLIGHTS.

The Harcourt Beattv-Madge Mcintosh Company will commence the first season -of Messrs Meynell and Gunn's 10 years' lease of the Theatre Royal, Melbourne. The dain&est turn at the Adelaide Tivoli just now, says "Gadfly/' is that contributed by the Rosebuds, a quartet of Australian charmers, who gained most of their experience with George Stephenson's Musical Comedy Company, now defunct. Stephenson's girls have nearly all done well for themselves. The Rosebuds are Kitty Golmick, Eva Bedford, Rosie White, and Addie Williams. Miss White was Stephenson's top-notch dancer, and Miss Williams wau once with Pollard's Company, when it numbered Percy, Stephens, Ralston, Quealy, Crane, .Jessie Ramsay and Olive Lenton among its brightest performers. The Rosebuds played a nine-months' New Zealand season, and, joining Rickards' circuit, have appealed in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, putting up a three-months' record season in the last-named city. Besides possessing a ten years' lease of the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, Messrs Meynell and Gunn have secured a lengthy tenancy of the Criterion Theatre, Sydney, and will retain attractions in these theatres simultaneously. R. G. Knowles is leading London for America this month. Hymack is the stage name of a Scottish actor who has worked out an entertainment that is as mystifying as it is amusing. How he manages to change his gloves, ties, flowers, and sticks in full view of the audience is nothing less than marvellous. Mr Hymack is an actor with plenty of experience, for he has served many engagements with William Gillette and Mrs Patrick Campbell, and has toured the world over. It took him five years to pex-fect the fe3ts he now accomplishes. Mark Hambourg, the great pianist, says that whilst music from an; amateur point of view is flourishing, from a professional standpoint theoutlook is very bad. Many pianists of great ability are experiencing a difficulty in making £3 per week, and there are thousands who do not now make anything like that amount. Mark Hambourg declares that the profession has few prizes and f many blanks. I

Handel's score of "The Messiah" was sold at Sotheby's last month for JSIOO. The version is that belonging to tho-late Otto Goldschmidt, the husband of Jenny Lind, and is the third known in the handwriting of J. Christopher Smith, the composer's amanuensis.

A new theatre will shortly b3 completed in Vienna, which has been ■erected in memory of the "Walt/ King." It is to be called the Strauss," and it is expected that it will be dedicated mainly to the performance of light operas of the class of Strauss' "Fledermaus." Mr and Mrs Edmond Montgomery, •of Montgomery's Entertainers, contemplate shortly paying a holiday trip to England. Tha company will he conducted by the artists connected with the business during their absence which will extend over several months.

The present partnership of the George Willoughby-Hugh WardEdwin Geach Comedy Company, now in New Zealand, will be dissolved in January next, and after the disbanding of the company in Perth, Mr Ward may take a trip Home. It is highly probable, however, that he will again undertake managerial -duties in Australia, a country which .he has grown to appreciate. The latest recruit to join Pollard's- ■ Opera Company for a New Zealand tour is Miss L. Jeffs, formerly a member of the Dunedin Amateur Operatic Society. The suggestion that the Pollard Juvenile Opera Company should visit South Africa after the New Zealand tour is not received with any great favour by those who are anxious for the company's success in this colony. It is claimed that, provided suitable pieces are to be obtained, there is a ;good twelve-months' run in New .Zealand for ths Pollards. In connection with the foregoing, negotiations are now in progress for the procuring •of new plays of the musical comedy type.

It is reported that the Bland Holt ■Company is to disband in October for .at least, five months, during which Mr Bland Holt will take the opportunity of sailing for Colombo to meet Mrs Holt, who will be returning from-a visit to the Home Country. On their return to Australia, the company will be reorganised. The tardy recovery of Miss Jessie MacLachlan from the severe ilines ■"'hich prostrated her at Blenheim has necessitated the cancellation of the ualance of her New Zealand tour. Her medical acjviser has ordered her to take a complete rest before she» ventures upon her Melbourne season, which is fixed for October sth. No fewer than five Australians are in the caste of the newly-organised company which is to start a tour of the English provinces in "The Belle of New York." They are: Miss Winnie Brown, formerly of the Mus.grove Company; Miss Daisy Jennings, who toured America as a member of the "Nellie Stewart Company; Miss Olive Lenton, Mr Mozar, and Mr James Watts, who were all prominent members of Mr J. C. Williamson's companies in comic opera and musical comedy. On June 6th Miss Kitty Loftus, the popular English variety actress, was married to Mr W. P. WarrenSmith, of llelensburg. Alfred Dampier, now residing at Paddington (Sydney), is far from well, says The Newsletter. Old theatrical friends and admirers miss him from the boards.