AMUSEMENTS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2556, 17 July 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

AMUSEMENTS.

HIS MAJESTY’S. LOCAL FIXTURES July 26, 27. —Geach-Marlow Dramatic Company. Mrs. Robert Brough is to be the leading lady in the production oi “The Flag Lieutenant” by Mr. J. C. William, son. In September, Mr. David Warfield, whom Mr. Edvvardes is reported to have agreed to pay £lo,uoo for a ten weeks' visit to London, will appear. It is said that Mr. ‘‘Dick” Stewart, now with the Julius ixnight company, will manage the* New Zealand tour ot his sister, Miss Nellie Stewart, ■ which is under the direction ot J. C. Williamson. “The Arcadians,” the new musical comedy which has maue a hit in London, is to be performed in Australia by the new company, now being organised in Loudon for the Clarke-Meyueil-Gunn firm. Mr. George Bancroft has resigned his appointment of administrator of the Aeadeiny of Dramatic Art (London) after holding the position since 1906. The institution is now free from debt and self-supporting. As an outcome of the training, given at the academy, as manv as 60 different characters of varied Tynes have been played by one student during a period of fifty week's instruction. Five hundred stage aspirants have passed through the Academy’ in five years. Among the many clever Australian artists who have clutched fame (and, let us hope, fortune) on the Loudon stage is that dainty performer Miss Olive Lenton, who inane her debut in New Zealand, and afterwards became a firm Australian favorite with the Rickard’s audiences in Australia. Miss Lenton is now a “star” in her own right, and was recently billed as “Australia’s own artiste” at the .PaTlsoc; ‘Theatre, where she was doing a musical song scena entitled “Harvest Time.” Miss Lenton has many friends in New Zealand who will be glad to learn of her success.

Mr. Hugh Ward’s Australian tour has begun auspiciously in Westralia in “A Bachelor’s Honeymoon.” Mr. "Ward plays a role very muclr like Fitzhugh in “The Man from Mexico,” a hero, one Benjamin Bachelor, who resoi'ts to persistent mendacity to save himself from being disinherited under the eccentric wiTi of his father. Miss Grace Palotta appears as the actress whom Bachelor marries in spite of his father’s wishes; Miss Rose Ivlusgrove pla3*s an uncouth domestic servant, Marianna; Miss Celia Ghiloni is Minerva, Bachelor’s guardian, another Katisha: Mr. H. H. "Wallace is a man-servant, Joe; and the cast laso includes Miss Florence Redfern and Miss Ruby Baxter as twin sisters, Mr. Reginald Wykeliani (Cook in “The Man from Mexica”), Mr. Arthur Eldred, and Mr. Robert Gregg.

Mr. Robert Darrell, of the J. C. "Williamson Pantomime Company, is the son of !Jr. George Darrell, the -well-known dramatic actor. Although Mr. Darrell has only been on tlTe stage two and a half year?, he has appeared before the New 'Zealand and Australian public in leading roles in the J. C. AYilliamson Pantomimes, and on all Occasions _has scored emphatic successes. With “Mother Goose” he was a chorister. In “Humpty Duinpty” he was appointed understudy to Air. Marry Shine. His first opportunity came in Melbourne when Air. Shine took ill, and Mr. Darrell played the role of Binson Bob with excellent results. He was also Air. Bert Gilbert’s understudy in “Humpty Dumpty,” and on the illness of Air. Gilbert in New Zealand Air. Darrell s second and greatest opportunity occurred, for he played the leading King Solium almost, throughout rhe New Zealand tour; in fact, when Air. Gilbert again appeared in Dunedin for a few nights Mr. Darrell was favorably compared witli lum. "W hen the last pantomime, “Jack and Jill,” had only been running in Alelbourne for three nights, Air. Gilbert again took ill, and Mr. Darrell stepped into his role of Baron Bounce, and played the part successfully for nearly three weeks. In Sydney, after Air. Ered Deslie had succeeded Air. Gilbert, owing to the latter’s transfer, the ‘ ‘second” Baron took ill, and Air. Darrell played the role on five occasions with complete success. SOAIE JUGGLING~STORIES. I had a rather amusing experience whilst performing at Breslau. Among the feats which I had recently added to my repertoire was that of throwing up an egg into the atr and catching, it on a plate without breaking the former. One night some fellow in the pit of the theatre shouted out that I wasn’t using a real egg“Oh,” I replied, stepping to the front of the stage. “It is a real egg right enough,” ancl I held it up between my fingers. “Well throw it to. me,” cried the doubter. I threw it to him at once; it landed on liis forehead and broke, amid the cheers and" Laughter of the audience.. I remember once a writer, who evidently did not understand the (liiV- rcnce described my juggling with knives as a clever trick; “it was cle-erly and cleanly done; but, of course, the knives are weighted.” I did not take any notice of this piece of criticism; it was untrue but if I bad started refuting every untrue criticism about my performances it would have taken up •ill my time. However, in this csms I had an opportunity of unconsciously refuting my critic most effectively I was at a dinner party one night, when tlm host asked me if I woul t do a little juggling for the hen J'A cl Ins guests. . ~ . ' “T know you can juggle with puttywell anything,” he said 1 wont be afraid if you use any of my break ab^ id a few “turns” with some desert plates; but I saw the host wince as I took them-up, but lie never said a woul; then I juggled five oranges a commonplace feat, and as I was ponding what I should do next, one o ft ho party asked me if 1 would do some thine: with knives.,.' .... , I fathered up live fruit knives at once and sent them careering through the air, but one wants more stap-room than I had at my disposal for this feat so I dropped them after a minute or two."As I did so the gentleman who had asked .me to jugglo with them got up, and, .to my surprise, said:“I must apologise to you, Air. Gmquevalli; I thought you used weighted knives in your performance, and that

is why I asked you to juggle them. 8 see now that you don’t and I hope you will pardon me/” He was the man who had written tin* criticism about me which I had mentioned above. I was once at afternoon tea with ft friend, who asked me if I could do any juggling tricks with tea things. “That isn’t a bad notion,” I replied, and a few weeks later I had added a new trick to my repertoire, which consisted of throwing up a cup and saucer, a l>:mp of sugar, and a teapot, half full, into the air, catching the saucer as it came down, into which the cup lightly drops, joined at once by the lump of sugar, whilst the teapot drops into my other hand. I then pour out the tea.

Before I performed this feat in public I called at the house of my friend who had suggested the notion to me. Whilst we were at tea. I casually remarked that' I had profited by his suggestion, and I had learnt to do a new feat with tea things, and then, to the horror of my host and his wife, I performed the little feat I have just mentioned.

“It’s a very neat trick,” said my friend, -when I had finished —“but,” he added, with a smile, “will you bring your own teapot the next time ydu come?” —From “Twenty Years a Juggler,” by Paul Cinquevaili, m the “Royal Magazine.”

AUCKLAND OPERA HOUSE. The Auckland Opera House has been bought by the Fuller Proprietory for £'22,000. The firm had a five years 7 lease of the property with the right of purchase, and the lease expiring the firm exercised its option, the settlenient taking place at Wellington, last week, Mrs. H. N. Abbott of Auckland, being the vendor. The first instalment of the purchase money is to be paid over on August 1. The Fuller Proprietary do not intend to effect any radical alterations to the theatre just yet, though later on they may “turn it round,” shifting the stage from the western to the eastern end. The Opera. House will be carried on as previously. The Fuller Proprietary now own seven theatres throughout tho Dominion, three in Dunedin, one in Christchurch, two in Wellington, and one in Auckland, besides leasing the Christchurch and Wellington skating rinks, which are both the home, of picture shows.

MADAME PATTI. Adelina Patti never suffered from the financial timidity of a Jenny Lind. Not only was she a supreme vocalist, but, as Colonel Mapleson remarked, “no one ever approached her in the art of obtaining from a manager the greatest possible sum he could by any possibility contrive to nay.” But the musical mir- , aele was the spoiled darling of her day, and she never failed to obtain exactly what she wanted. She was first engaged in London, in 1861, by Mapleson, to sing four nights “on approval," and, in case of success, to obtain £4O a week. This contract was not fulfilled, however, for being hard pressed financially. she had borrowed £SO from a rival manager, and her receipt proved practically a contract. This was th«beginning of a career so dazzling that its successive steps are simply a_series of increasing banknotes. In 1572 she obtained in London 200 guineas anight, since she insisted on having more than Christine Nilsson, who was receiving £2OO. She sang twice a week. Ten years later she w'as given £IOOO anight. Her famous contract to sing in America provided that the money should be paid her at 2 o’clock on the day she sang, also a drawing-room and ■sleeping car to be especially built for her with conservatory and fernery, etm Further, there was to be deposited to her credit £IO,OOO for payment of the last ten performances—Patti’s favorite device. She thus received about twenty times what Mario and G-risi got. Her private car, incidentally, cost £12,000 and contained a silver bath and gold kevs to the doors—to say nothing of a £4OO piano. Patti only gave her manager her voice and her costumes. Her drawing capacity justified this. “Lucia,” as an example, was. sung to an average of £2SOO. “Traviata” drew more, since she sang more notes:lt w'as a frequent occurrence among the. poorer music lovers to buy a club ticket and each take turns at hearing her for twenty minutes; if one overstayed Iris time he paid for we entire ticket. Some mathematicians computed, by dividing the number of notes hy the sum paid, that in “Semiramide” Patti received Is 9d for each note. This was found tq be just 31 d a note more than than Rossini got "or writing the whoI« opera.