BOOM IN VAUDEVILLE.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20272, 14 August 1937, Page 17 (Supplement)

BOOM IN VAUDEVILLE.

ENGLAND AND AUSTRALIA. COMPANIES FOR NEW ZEALAND. Australian audiences are the most i discerning - in the world, and refuse to be bluffed. I Consequently, many head-liners in j England, whose reputations have been j largely built up by radio engagements I and records, would be a failure on a j stage in Australia. | That is the opinion of Mr Frank j Neil, who returned to Sydney last week after booking nearly 100 new vaudeI ville acts in London and on the Cou- : tlnent for the Tivoli circuit, j Vaudeville had more than relurn- • ed, said Mr Neil. English theatres | could not get enough good arts. Many London picture theatres showed three acts with every talkie programme. A few were incorporating seven or eight. A Wonderful Comeback. “Talkies won the first few rounds of the struggle, but vaudeville has staged a wonderful comeback, and Is giving more punches than it is taking,’’ he said. j “English stage humour is getting i smuttier and smuttier. Audiences ! don't bat an eyelid at jokes that would j make Australians gasp. Several well- { known English comedians seem to rely j almost entirely on risque humour." While in London, which he left on July 21, Mr Neil signed up Nina May McKinney, the coloured star who played opposite Paul Robeson in “Sanders of the River." Original “Popeye" Coming. He also arranged for an Australian tour of the original "Pop-eye, the Sailor Man." Hilly Costello, in November, and a farewell appearance tour of Ella Shields. With the new acts engaged, Tivoli audiences In Sydney and IVleibourne will see an entirely new show every five weeks. The circuit will be extended to New Zealand, where five companies will tour every year. The first comes to Hamilton next week.