Compton Mackenzie Remembers

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 774, 21 May 1954, Page 9

Compton Mackenzie Remembers

MENTION the name of Ada Reeve and youll get a nostalgic smile from many New Zealanders. The famous musical comedy star was in this country as far back as the 1890s, in The French Maid. Thousands of New Zealand and Australian soldiers remember her in England and France in the First World War. And as recently as the mid-1920s she was here again, as principal boy in Aladdin, Although now more than 80, Ada Reeve has recently made a new career for herself as a film actress; but it is about the old days that she talks in Beaux and Belles, the first of two BBC programmes in which Sir Compton Mackenzie recalls songs, shows, dances and personalities of Edwardian days. Listeners will discover when this programme is broadcast that Ada Reeve has: not forgotten how to sing one of her favourite songs, "Men," from Three Little Maids. She will also be heard

talking about her roles in San Toy and Kitty Grey. The sound of a hansom cab. clip-clopping from Soho to the Strand introduces the first of these programmes, and Sir Compton tells how he drove by hansom to the Savoy Theatre in 1901 for the first performance of The Emerald Isle. Sullivan was unable to finish the score before he died, and D’Oyly Carte asked Edward German to complete the opera. Beaux and Belles includes one of his contributions, "Song of the Devonshire Men." Other shows represented are The Toreador, the last production at London’s Old Gaiety Theatre, and Lionel Monckton’s. A Country Girl. The Wash--ington Post, a ballroom | dance much in vogue at the beginning of the. century, the ballad "Chorus,, Gentlemen," and the old music-hall favourite "Has Anybody Seen Our Cat?" will also be heard.

In the second part of Beaux and Belles Sir Compton’s_ reminiscences are shared by Ellaline Terriss (Lady Hicks). Accompanying herself at the piano, this 83-year-old actress sings what is probably her most famous song, The Honeysuckle and the Bee, and she recalls memories of the old Gaiety and some of the stage successes she shared with her late husband, Sir Seymour Hicks. -_

tie: hi" ~ aaa = = UC hm le hlU eo 5 ot > a — Excerpts from The Orchid, with which. the new Gaiety Theatre opened in October, 1903, are also heard in the programme. And from the Edwardian ballroom comes one of the French waltzes then sweeping the country. | Now starting on the rounds of National stations, Beaux and Belles will be heard from 4YZ at 9.30 p.m. this | Sunday (May 22), and at the same time on Sunday, May 29. |