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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1950-07-20, Page 3Harry Lau(le>r's Gone .But His Songs Live On 1 veu during his lifetime a num- ber of estimates were made of the fortune which Sir Harry Lauder was likely to leave. Though talking films did not arrive until lie was coo old to master the new technique, Ate amassed the baulk of his fortune hi the' clays when, income tax Was negligible, when gramophone re- tutds and sheet music sold in millions, and when a top -liner like himself was easily able to command ,five hundred pounds a week on the halls. Moreover, Harry never -splashed his money about. But let's begin at the beginning. Harry was born of poor parents in Portobello, outside Edinburgh, and at the age of eleven was sent to the flax mills, where he worked for two shillings a week, and was thrashed by his father for only handing over one-and-ninepence when he came home with his first week's wages. The missing threepence was ac- counted scounted for as follows: a penny bal- loon, a peony luck bag (contain- ing a wonderful assortment of mechanical toys, sweets, and paper devices) and a pennyworth (mixed) of strippit iballs and curly nutrlies.. A "Gentleman Amateur" His first public appearance was in the Oddfellows Hall at Arbroath at the age of thirteen. The occasion was a singing contest for young amateurs organised by a travelling concert party, The chorus of the song was: "Though poverty daily looks in at my door, - Though I'm hungry and footsore and ill, I can look the whole world in the face and can say Though poor I'm a gentleman still," Harry won the first prize, a watch, which he kept all his life. A second competition for "gentle- men amateurs" was held soon af- terwards. Once again Harry Wort it —with the same song. But this time he exchanged his prize, a six - bladed knife, for thick, black plug tobacco, A year later Harry and his fancily moved to Hanmilton, where an uncle had said that work was plentiful for boys of all ages and the money was better than in the flax stills. - So for the next eight years Harry worked in the nines as pit -boy, trapper, pony driver, and collier. On one occasion he was saved from certain death by his pit pony, which suddenly refused to pass an old working road which had fallen. A moment later there was a heavy roof fall. A long time passed before Harry sang, at an amateur show in Glasgow, his first comic song, It Was called "Tooraliaddie," But he returned to the coal -mines on the following Monday. Months went by before ice was offered his first professional engage- ment as a comic in a small touring concert party. Wages were thirty- five shillings a week, and his duties included those of baggage man, bill distributer, and ticket collector. The trip lasted fourteen weeks, and in spite of the fact that he was accom- panied by his wife and child he save twelve pounds. Then back he went to the coal -mines. Various minor temporary en- gagements came his way until he was booked at the Argyll at Birk- enhead, that famous music -hall which gave Charlie Chaplin, George Fornmby, sen., and Flanagan and Allen their first chance, Here he introduced "Tobermory" and "The Lass of Killiecrankie," had an im- mediate success, and promptly went to London. Yet he could get no bookings until an engagement at tratti's Hall in Westminster Bridge !toad came his way at the last nun - ate, Somebody had fallen sick, ;It was Harry's chance, and it "made" hips • overnight. In his ex- citement he signed a series of con- tracts with agents and music !malls Rusty is Bach; Karen is Happy Parents: Relieved Rusty, a collie belonging to the Ed Voegeles was lost for 12 days and during that tone, One year - old Karen Voegele pined for her doggie, scarcely ate and actually became ser- iously ill. Finally, after news- paper want -ads like the one at right, and an unending search that took the Voegeles 1200 utiles at a cost of $250, Rusty was loated in a suburb of Kan- sas City. \Viten the collie was brought home, thin and weary, Karen screamed happily, hug- ged the dog and romped with hint for an hour. Then she ate her •first good meal in 12 days and went to sleep soundly. Karen and -Rusty are enjoying each other's cotnpanv below. d: to tl1 collie, Sable nil White. Lleeneel e� 794. p aln,+:n t"vas for i . .. our littI ill 'use o 0 174, all oyer the country at salaries which looked fine at the time, but we're all out of proportion in the next few years; for the contracts were long -terns affairs, Quietly he waited his oppor- tunity. As the contracts ran out so his price went up, and the people who had made so much out of hint in the past had to pay through the nose. One good song followed an- other, "We• parted on the Shore," "I love a Lassie," "Roamin' in the Gloamin'," "The Softest o' the Fancily," "A Wee Deoch and Doris," "It's Nice to Get up in the Morning," and "Stop Yer 'Tickling Jock." His Own Melodies According to Harry, the original melodies all carne out of his own head, and so did the idea for some of the words. "Roamin' in the Gloamin'," for example was the re- sult of a moonlight walk with his wife from Dunoon to Innelan. Ger- ald Grafton and be wrote "I Love a Lassie." In "Tobermory," Tont Glenn of Dundee collaborated with him. "The Softest o' the Fancily" was the result of a combination of words and music drafted out and ar- ranged by Harry and J. D. Harper of Glasgow. As his success continued thou- sands of songs were sent to hits by lyric writers and composers all over the world. But few, if any, suited his very personal style. Really big money first carne his way when he visited the United States and the British Empire. In the United States, which he visited year after year, he became the per- sonal friend of a series of U.S. Presidents, beginning with Theo- dore Roosevelt, and this stocky, 9Y HAROLD ARNETT ,NAI9IFL MIXER o CUT Dowty REVOLVING VANES OF OLD EGG BEATER TO MAKE ENAMEL Min% KEEP CENTER P,OD LONGER TO KEEP Vf'HE5OPPE10TTCMQPCMt, pawky, puckish litle Scot did more for Scotland, and, incidentally, for the popularity of the kilt, than any- body in history. His refusal ever to sing a doubtful song and his life- long rule of sticking to simple, homely melodies, all of them easy to whistle, made hint unique. His friendly cheerfulness as soon as lie strutted on tine stage streamed across the footlights in warm waves. You could not possibly help liking hint and the inimitable rolls of his "R's" endeared him to audiences all over the world. Otte of his maxims was: "If ye ever go to entertain anyone, give your best, ivhether it is an audience of thirty or thirty thousand." And lie did, Evert on that very pathetic occasion in 1916 when he heard that his only son Joluc had been killed in France just before he went on time stage, he began well enough. Then came the verse: "When we all gather round the old fireside And the fond mother kisses her sotimn, All e lassies will be loving all the toddies— The toddies who fought and won," He broke down, and was never quite the same man again. The death of his wife in 1927 Was another severe blow, but when World War II broke out he went straight off his sick lied to cheer uta the survivors of time torpedoed Athenia, and almost throughout the roar sang four or five times a week to all the troops within reasonable range of his lonely Scottish home, Lauder Ha', at Strathavon. Twice Winston Churchill quoted front his songs, one being "The Laddies who Fought attd Won," and the other "Keep Right on to time End of the Road." The last tine the great public heard hint was on New Year's Eve, 1948, when the B.B.C. did a record- ing of many of his favourites, lasting nearly an hour. It has been well said of Sir Harry Lauder (ile was knighted in 1919) that his characters, like Private John M'Deed or Doughie Baker, were not just stage Scotsmen to be dismissed conten- tiously. His characters were drawn front the life of the lowland towns and mining villages, and his words, hie actions and his thoughts were miraculously near to real life. Do you remember: 'The wife went up tae her bed. Bu' Alt got even, At came' haeme and Ah spat till Alt pit the fire oot"? Harry Lauder interpreted the Scot to Scotsmen as time stern con- ditions of 1911t century Industrial- ism made him—child of the pits and time mills and the tenement stairs, with a slagheap for his playground and the fear of poverty making every joke a kind of snook cocked at time dark forces. Only Danny Kaye in more mod- ern times has approached Harry Lauder in his gift of turning a stage entertainment into a kind of family charade. But whether Danny Kaye is well advised—brilliant mimic and comic though he is—to attempt to portray Harry - Lauder on tate screen is a matterof grave conjecture. For one thing;, Danny Kaye is at least a foot taller than the "wee Scotch comic frac Hamilton," as, he was billed in his early days. VERY HEALTHFUL "Is this a healthful town?" in- quired the home -seeker of a native. "Yes, certainly," was the answer, "When 1 'carte here I hadn't the strength to utter a word; I had scarcely a hair on my head;, 1 couldn't walk across the ropin,'and I had to be lifted from my bed:' "You give nie hope!" cried the homesecker with enthusiasm. "How long has you lived here?" .. "I was born here," replied the native. . W rote About Deserted Maidens —Left One Jin The Lurch Himself (Greatest ut England's Lake Poets, William Wordsworth, died a hun- dred years ago last month, at Grasmere. "The 1,alte School"—'as the colony of writers which grew up around hint became known --was a name given contemptuously at first because its three best-known members, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, chose to spend nearly all their lives among its inspiring scenery. Scorning tate pseudo -romantic subjects then £gsttiouabte--assas- ins lurking in vaulted doorways, or thwarted lovers who preferred death to separation—Wordsworth vowed to make everyday happen- ings exciting. lie saw more poetic beauty in a dewdrop, a butterfly, or the quaint village characters he met, than in flamboyant legendary heroes. Gibes of the Critics At first Wordsworth's extreme simplicity of language and theme raised a storm of derisive laughter, Who on earth, asked his critics. wanted to hear about Johnny Foy, the idiot bop: Son of a prosperous solicitor, steward to Lord Donsdale, Words- worth was horn at Cockermouth, a Cumberland market town, in 1770. Both bis parents died while Ile was a schoolboy, leaving their children to the care of an uncle. At seven- teen. \\'ill,aut tv:•s sent to Cam- bridge, Although tate French Revolution was raging, he managed to get to France and Switzerland in 1790, and stayed a year in Orleans. Long walks among the Swiss Alps, and wanderings with his sister, Dorothy, in the \Vye Valley, produced a con- stant flow of beautiful verse. Wordsworth knew by now that be must become a serious poet. But even poets have to eat. Just then a consumptive friend and fervent admirer, Raisley Cal- vert, died and left biro £900. It was life a dream conte true. Doro- thy Wordsworth had always want- ed to live with Iter adored brother. Now they could set up house together. More good fortune arrived when a Bristol merchant named Pinney agreed to let them live at his coun- try house, Racedown Lodge, in re- turn for Wordsworth acting as holi- day tutor to his son. Two wonderful years followed. It was at Racedown that they first met the poet Coleridge and were instantly drawn together. After a tour in Germany, William settled with Dorothy in pictures- que Dove Cottage, at Grasmere. His marriage to quiet Mary Hut- chinson was trade possible by a 'further windfall. The payment of £8,500 by Lord Lonsdale, in settlement of a debt owed to his dead father, relieved William of financial worries. The marriage was strangely un- romantic. The ' Wordsworth& had known Mary since childhood. She was rather plain, and talked so little that somebody 'once remarked that all she could say was "God bless you," But perhaps tills waa due to the volubility of her hus- band and sinter -in-law. TO Dove Cuttage also came mime famous writers—Charles haries 1,501h, Robert Southey and Dc Quince,y. 1 t was an idyllic life. 'Coleridge: lived narby. In 1813 the Wordsworth, moved to Rydat Mount, at Grasmere., About this tittle the office of Dis- tributor',of Stamps for the county of Westmorland fell vacant, The salary, was £500 a year with no heavy duties atached; and Wards - worth was overjoyed when Lord Lonsdale got him appointed, for he now had three children and his poems still brought in little money, Secret 'Love Affair Soon the powerful pens of Car.. tyle, Swinburne and Mathew Arn- old busied themselves in his favour, attd the tide turned witlt the publi- cation of his iottg, tragic ballad, "The White Doe of Itylstone." On Southey's death. in 1843, Words- worth became Poet Laureate. And when he died seven years later, aged eighty, he was uncrowned icing of the Lake Country. But a strange sequel was to come. More than half a century later it was discovered that the only really romantic chapter in Words. worth's life had been carefu111y concealed by his fancily. As the result of a passionate love -affair with a girl named Ann- ette \Tallon, an illegitimate daugh- ter had been born to the poet in France during the year lie spent at Orleans after leaving Cain• bridge. Previous to William's mar- riage, this child. Caroline, had ac- companied her mother to Calais, where they spent a month with William and Dorothy before nart:- ing for ever. • Letters Discovered In the British Museum he found letters from Dorothy Wordsworth which mentioned a Frenchwoman. named Watton and a daughter, Caro- line, 'whom Dorothy : called lies. "niece." During the 191.3 war,, Harper, stationed in Pari. spent all his, spate,timue making inquiries.. Eventually he discovered the birth and marriage, certificates of. "Caro- line. \Vordsweetls" in: 'which,. bee father's• name was given. Harper got into tonelt with des- cendants 'df:.the'"\talions; '44q 'the whole story came out It p: s'at '(?flteans that; Words- worth, slip. twenty-otie, had met Annette. Attraction had +ripened into love over French :lessons .sive .. gave him. Why did they. not marry —for that he' loved her passionately there seeing iio doubt? Poverty is the tl oba131e' explanation. ' Whatever the truth.. 'he 'left France before Annette's baby was born, .his only confidante being the faithful Dorothy. But the fact remains that deserted Maidens, with babies born out of wedlock, 'provide the thence for many of his poeins. -John Doe's" Gall Bladder Is Big Hit On Television By Richard Kleiner ' New York—John Doe's gall bladder, complete with four stones, is famous. To test n system of tele- vising operations, two cameras took fn every detail of the removal of a diseased bladder from an unnamed patient. John Doe, under an anaethetic, slept peacefully through the whole tiring, as two surgeons neatly re- moved the organ at I3cilevtic Hos- pital. About 20 blocks away, in the United Nations building, a gather- ing of medical and radio experts watched the demonstration. For two hours and 15 minutes, asober-voiced commentator deliv- ered a slice -by -slice account of 1 what was going on. The witnesses who knew what they were watching said tliat everything came over clearly. Technically, the demonstra- tion was a success. m * a Don't look up your video pro- gram, expecting to choose between an appendectomy on channel three and a tonsillectomy on channel six. Not even as summer replacements - will operations be televised to time general public. They're purely educational in nature. They're designed to give medical students and interested surgeons an incision -side seat at the operating table. The sante equipment used to snoop on John Doe's gall bladder will be loaded into airplanes in a few weeks, on the first leg of a South American tour. About five tons -480,000 worth—of sound and picture gadgets, accompanied by nine experts, will visit Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and 'Mexico. - r +I is They'll televise operations in the five Latin and South American na- tions, with 20 TV receivers all tuned in. The receivers will be set up in hotels where medical conven- tions are going on. One, directly above the patient, is constantly fo- cussed on the incision, Viewers can watch the surgeon's hands at work, the forceps holding back the skin Occasionally, the second canners goes into action. It is set on a movable dolly, and is used to bring in the surgeon's face or the oxygen tanks as•they're turned on or nurses taking the patient's blood pressure. The second camera also focussed on the chief surgeon as he held up, one by one, marble -sized gall stones, W * W: The surgeon is also tquipped with a chest microphone, so he may add contntents from time to time. The regular comnmentator, in a roost "off stage," did most of the talking, but every once in a while the surgeon put in a few sentences. "These knots," ire said, as his colleague began tying up John Doe's wound, "are tied with square knots secured over a double hitch." Medical students in hospital gal. leries could only catch a flash of the actual operation. Mostly, they got a good view of the surgeon's back. But this new television method gives them a clear picture. They can see everything front the initial incision to the final stitches. John Doe, incidentally, was re. ported in "very satisfactory" con- dition after his surgery, lle'lI be imp and around, the doctor said, in a few days. Some of the will take longer to recover. Operation Video:•—•:liedical and radio experts watch x surgical operation being i,ci'1nrmcd Bellevue 'Urn—pit:! and televised to the screen t;lhpr're watching at. the Tt;�t building, '30 blit lr!s an aw y.