Passing Pageant

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 35, 10 February 1939, Page 10

Passing

Pageant

by

Trevor

Lane

* S OME years ago there walked into my office in Wellington amiddle-aged bearded man and a twelve-year-old boy in a Sailor suit. Would the ‘‘Record’’ give his son a little publicity? the man wanted to know. He’d played in amateur shows in Dunedin, been commended for his acting by Sybil Thorndike, had a part in a local film. Nothing very startling certainly, but-to be quite honest-news was scarce that week and we gave the boy a fair splash with a photograph. The article talked a little wildly about a budding Freddie Bartholomew and so on. * WEEK or two later the man and his son turned up in Wellington again. They’d sold their home in Dunedin and they were going to try their luck in Hollywood. My conscience pricked me a little. I hoped our somewhat extravagant story hadn’t prompted them to take this move? Oh no, the father ex- . plained. Hollywood had been in their minds for a long time. The encouragement the ‘‘Record’’ had given the

boy had merely added a little impetus. What about introductions? Lasked. Money? Influence? They knew Colin Tapley in Hollywood, they explained, and they had a, little money. K §° off to Hollywood went father, mother and son. Things were tough at first, but gradually the sun began to shine. Paramount became interested in the boy, United Artists borrowed him for a film and then Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave him Freddie Bartholomew’s part in a film. Yes, you’re right-it was Ra Hould, who was renamed Ronald Sinclair when he played a big part in ‘‘Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry.’’ So it wasn’t extravagant after all to have described him as a budding Freddie Bartholomew. * N. fact the ‘‘Record’’ has picked some winners among ‘the infant prodigies tt has introduced to the public. First, Ra Hould, then Bebe Witis-Burt, the litile Wellington girl who went Home to study ballet dancing and shows every promise of becoming @ great ballerina. Then there has been Richard Farrell, another twelve-year-old, who has caught the interest of Richard Tauber and -his wife, Diana Napier, and to whose musical career may now be added film-act-ing. From Palmerston North comes Alan Loveday, a small violinist whose technique has astounded many people. * ESS spectacular so far are the two young people whose pictures you see on this page today. But that doesn’t mean that they’re not going to do their share toward putting New Zealand’s manna a little higher in the musical and entertainment worlds. When the Marcus Show was here, Mrs. Mareus asked me to drop over to the theatre one day after a matinee to hear a little local girl who was going to sing. The child was Renats Gaye, she had a good voice and a remarkable stage presence. Mrs. Marcus was thrilled about the girl and she would quite willingly have taken her on tour but for the difficulty that is raised in such eases about education and the question of a British

child engaged by a foreign company. % FAND Number Two is Warwick Humphreys, a boy with a fine voice. And there’s something that almost savours of the hand of Fate in his discovery. A week or two ago several hundred Wellington orphans were entertained by Station 22B. Gladstone Hill-who spoke about the need for unearth

ing New Zealand talent in the ‘‘Record’’ the other week -airanged a community sing and invited the children $0 come up on the stage and perform. The invitation was accepted by a boy who fairly electrified the audience by his wonderful singing. Gladstone Hill made some inquiries and found that the boy, Warwick Humphreys, was the same lad he had taken on tour with Derry’s Military Band in 1934, But tragedy has played a part in his life since then. Sd E Humphreys family lived in Christchurch, but a year or two ago they eame to the

North Island for the benefit of the father’s health. This returned soldier, struggling against failing health and dwindling income, eventually got a job. But one day he became entangled in a eircular saw and suffered terrible injuries. He died the same night. One of Warwick’s brothers had toured the world with Edward Branscombe and_ the Westminster Glee Singers. He is now in the R.A.F. in Eng-

land. Another brother is at Flock House. But it was a sore struggle for Mrs. Humphreys to keep a roof over the heads of Warwick and a little girl, and eventually the boy was sent to St. Joseph’s Orphanage at Upper Hutt. And it was while this orphanage was being enter. tained that the boy was ‘‘diseovered.’’ T must have been Fate or something stronger than mere coincidence that brought Gladstone Hill and Warwick Humphreys together again. And now the load on the mother’s shoulders will ‘be considerably

AEE lightened for it is very prob-= able that something will be done to further the boy’s scholastic and musical careers. Financial help has been promised and already all the good people at 2Z2B have taken Warwick to their hearts. _ The other Saturday afternoon some of the station’s announcers went out to Upper Hutt and brought the boy to town-and the blessings of the Sisters went with him.

An appeal was broadcast for a temporary home for the boy-and the ‘*phone rang more than thirty times in the next few minutes. Let’s watch out for Renais Gage and Warwick Humphreys. HESITATE a little to print portions of the letter that arrived this morning from Mr. J. E. Hamill, the father of Elaine Hamilla hesitancy that is prompted mainly by the sincerity and kindness of his words.

There are some things that one would perhaps keep to oneself and yet, thinking about them again, decide that perhaps it would be better if we all shared in the delight of witnessing’a good and thoughtful father’s faith in his courageous daughter. Elaine Hamill is fortunate indeed in having behind her a mother and father possessed of all the virtues of good parentscourage, spirit and quiet strength. * R, HAMILL says in his letter: ‘‘Elaine has told us often of your kindness to her in London, and, of course, kindness to our dearly-loved daughter means even greater kindness to us.

‘"*Brave-hearted Elaineshe seems to have suffered from the bludgeonings of Chance since she has been in London. Not that she is a bit down-hearted. On the contrary, she seems to be as sanguinary and resilient as ever, *‘Admittedly she has had a great deal to learn about the subtleties of stagecraft, but she is an apt, keen and discerning pupil. It was unfortunate that she should have arrived in London when the film ‘studios were going slow.’’ we Sa matter of fact, Elaine Hamill arrived in London a week before I did and not for many years, I was told, had the British film studios been so slack. There were nearly 20,000 technicians, cameramen and actors out of work and their plight was such that a deputation had waited on the Prime Minister. But to return to Mr. Hamill’s letter: ‘‘When the studios are busy they attract numbers of ‘theatrical stars, with the result that newcomers get more opportunities. ‘*Dear me, how stout-hearted a New Zealand or an Austratian girl must be to attempt to storm her way into the inner and highly exclusive theatrical i

circles in London. No wonder that many fall by the wayside!?’ HEN Mr. Hemiil talks about his son Warren, who was, for some time, on the literary staff of the ‘‘ Record.’’ He sailed from New Zealand about a@ year ago to join the Royal Air Force in England: "Warren secured his wings and greaily to his pride and delight is flying «a Spitfire Fighter-400 miles an hour. He says that if @ pilot wants to feel that he 1s master of one of these amazingly fast machines he must first of all be master of himself. ‘Seemingly, the slightest aberration of judgment or of hesitancy in mental response may be fatal. Self-discipline in any case at his age is invaluable and indelible in tts wholesome effects on character. He loves the life and -will you believe it?-he is fourteen-stone-ten!’"

ND so, with the fs columns of PASS- # XING PAGEANT taken up to-day with the high hopes and the spirit of youth, it seems appropriate to refer again to Beckles Willson’s book, "Youth Be Damned,’’ parts of which I quoted last week. You’d be amazed if you knew the number of people who have written to me in the last few days about the excelient Mr. Willson... and they were all pretty mad at him, too! My secretary asked if she could read ‘"‘Youth Be Damned.’’ She returned it with the eryptic comment: "IT think the author’s a bit balmy."’ To-day I’m going: to print a few more of his ‘pearls’? ... again without comment: * "UN the early days of motoring I took pleasure in driving about in a car. It was open to the wind and sun and one bowled along the highway at twenty or even thirty miles an hour, with a sense of invigoration and well-being. But what enjoyment the

masses of the present generation get out of several hours imprisonment in a dark, uncomfortable box on wheels, I cannot imagine, ‘‘Whatever the speed be, fifty or a hundred miles an hour, cannot matter very much, except to increase the

discomiort of the occupanis. and as for the scenery through which their vehicle is passing, it might be Gardens or the Rochdale collieries as far as they are concerned. I have stood by the roadside on a Sunday . afternoon and seen thousands of such ‘saloons’ and ‘limousines’ pass, each packed to the roof with sadfaced humanity, including

children, the windows shut tight and their apathy or physical misery faintly, but unmistakably discernible through the steaming panes. * "AN American woman writer has recently made investigation by questionnaire of torty-six colleges and finds that ‘The girls’ standards are changing more rapidly than the boys."" But she also found that‘The present-day college man’s attitude toward sex is a strange melange of new and old codes and loyalties.’ She thinks the young man’s change of outlook is not due primarily to any psychological or moral evolution of the male species. It is due rather to the fact that to-day’s girl has come down off her mother’s and grandmother’s pedestal-and very willingly. She is not ashamed to let her men friends know that she is, like them, compounded of flesh and blood and passions. * "AM. Lingland, i needs no misogynist to discover

that girls of ‘sweet seventeen’ are rarely sweet, and look and act a good deal more than seventeen. Nor do they ‘mantle rosily’ when they are addressed; while as for ‘lift. ing their dewy orbs to heaven in virginal compassion’ in the manner of the eighteenthcentury heroine, they would scream derisively at the very idea of such ‘soppiness.’ Nor do they ‘dissolve in floods of maidenly tears’ over the death of a character in a novel, or, with streaming tresses trip like fauns over the greensward at the sound of a loved parent’s approach.’’ * RECELES WILLSON talks of the Boer War, where ‘ignorance and imprudence of youth led to disaster after disaster.’’ He goes on to say: ‘‘It was only when Lord Roberts, a trained warrior of over seventy, appeared on the scene that matters assumed a different complexion. Youth wants to be led, it needs to obey a master in whom it has confidence, The leaders of Youth, it may be noted, are rarely themselves in the budding prime of life. Youth is only their consigne, their battle-cry; it is Youth which is inscribed on their banners, and the fifty-four-year-old Mussolini, and the forty-nine-year-old Hitler and the eighty-year-old BadenPowell, though they ostentatiously exhibit themselves in juvenile undress and disport themselves magisterially in Youth’s happy arena, are youngsters but by courtesy."’