THOSE GOOD OLD DAYS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 757, 22 January 1954, Page 18

THOSE GOOD OLD DAYS

\/ HEN Hugh Barrymore is asked why he took up the stage as a profession he recalls the occasion in 1909 when, a boy with a good soprano voice, he was tutored by the organist of Kirg’s College, Cambridge, in a solo from one of the oratorios. "I was to sing it," he says, "at the opening of a new mission hall. On the day of the concert I did not feel at all sure of myself, so besides the oratorio music I put into my pocket the music of a sentimental song which had been popular during the South African War. On the platform I hesitated a moment and then put on the piano the music of the sentimental song. "It was not quite what the audience expected, and I can’t say it was an un-

| qualified success; but the unexpected happened. A man with a Staffordshire accent said the song would go down well at smoking concerts and asked me if I would sing it the following week at a hotel smoker at which he was to give ; a turn," | The song went over much better at | the smoke concert, and young Hugh Barrymore felt grateful to Ernie Garner, the Staffordshire comedian, for the introduction. | Hugh Barrymore, who now lives in Christchurch, is to be heard in Mainly for Women from 3YA at 2.0 p.m. on Tuesday, January 26, giving the first of a short series of theatrical reminiscences. "In talking about the theatre and people whom I’ve met I want to limit myself very largely to the ‘good old days’-the days of the portable theatre and the fitups," he says at the start. And in keeping with the spirit\of his talks he has called them An Old Stager Rernembers.