PUNCH & JUDY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 December 1943, Page 4

PUNCH & JUDY

PLAY WITH A LONG RUN.

A correspondent. rebuking a little girl who thought herself “too old for Punch and Judy,” avers that it became common knowledge a few years ago, when Henry James Hayes, an eminent professor of the art, died at Folkestone, that he had given command performances with his Punch and Judy before Queen Victoria and Queen Mary. Several other members of the Royal Family, including King Edward VII. had also been entertained by Mr Hayes. Another Punch and Judy fancier was a visiting son of the Amir of Afghanistan, who was invited one night to dine at the Foreign Office, whither a royal carriage was to convey him. The appointed hour came, but not he. When he did arrive, fully half an hour late, it was explained that seeing a Punch and Judy show at a street corner on the route his Royal Highness had insisted on stopping the royal carriage and seeing out the show. We owe the survival in London of “this admirable entertainment,” as a Marlborough Street magistrate once called it, to the House of Lords. About a hundred years ago the Commons solemnly decided that such “nuisances” as street shows and muffin bells should cease. But when the measure came ■before the House of Lords a noble peer boldly claimed exemption for the Punch and Judy show. Other peers, with memories ,of young and innocent days, rallied to his support, and Punch is still with us in London today. As Beerbohm Tree remarked after watching a performance close to his own theatre, “That play has had a long run.” —“Manchester Guardian.”