SONG AND DANCE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 404, 21 March 1947, Page 24

SONG AND DANCE

FIFTY YEARS OF VAUDEVILLE. By Ernest Short. Eyre and Spottiswoode. HIS book provokes the reflection that the present disappearance of artistic standards, the disintegration of our culture into an international eclecticism "without personality or traditions or beliefs,’" was not caused by the cinema but preceded it by many years. Perhaps it is rather portentous to deduce so much from so little, to make so essentially harmless a book the text for any such vision of eternal damnation. ss on then to the book itself, a history of the lighter stage, the British -entertainment industry consecrated to the task of amusing the tired business ‘man, (continued on next page)

re (continued from previous page) | Mr. Short uses the term "yaudeville’) in as wide a sense as possible: he makes it include everything popular from Gilbert and Sullivan to Annette Kellerman diving into a tank. The only thing left out is the circus. He is an indefatigible gleaner of phrase and anecdote. He is astoundingly industrious and comprehensive: his index fills 16 pages and includes thousands of entries. He sketches the rise and fall of famous theatres, the exploits of managers, the virtuosity of writers and composers, and the glittering | careers of stars. | Don’t look to this book for scandal. It doesn’t worry about the love life of the ladies of the chorus, Here, in one of Ernest Short’s brief glances at such matters, is the refreshing comment of a music-hall singer on her supposed amours, "Wonderful constitution they

must think I have!"

D.O.W.

H.