HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1961-04-13, Page 6Father, Daughter And
Gdacksteaaoe Secrets
Talking shop, actor Sir M1
ohael Redgrave and his slaughter
Vanessa ,let their' guests- into
some backstage secrets when
they gave a "saueepan cession"
at the Criterion Theater here re-
Gently. The young members of
the audience were guests of the
British Drama League.
Vanessa came onto the stage
with a shopping basket and 'a
saucepan. Sir Michael threw a-
- sheaf of questions into the sake -
pan, and they were drawn and
. answered one by one,
A question on improvision
drew" from Sir Michael a story
about Robert Bolt's "The Tiger
and the Horse," the production
in which father and daughter
both appeared:
He recalled that one day his
dresser had forgotten to put a
flower hnto his buttonhole — an
important item in the plot. Ca-
therine Lacey, his stage wife,
made him aware of the fact
when she suddenly said; °1So, I
see you are not wearing it," in-
stead of exclaiming that he was
wearing it, Sir Michael found
himself making up some sen-
tences explaining how he had
last the flower, and she improv-
ised: "I'11 go to the grrden and
pick you another,"
When a questioner suggested
that playing Shakespeare was
"playing safe," Sir Michael dis,
agreed entirely, Nothing was
further from "playing safe" than
apppearing in Shakespeare, he
said.
The actor is being compared
with all the best actors whom
the audience has seen play the
Shakespearean role before. lie
is also up against the audience's
awn image of how the part
should be played. New plays
were less dangerous to the repu-
tation, but so far Sir Michael
had not come across many with
suitable parts for him.
Vanessa told of early recol-
lections of seeing her father in
rehearsal of a Christmas play
when she was five. He was sup-
posed to be killed and thrown
over a parapet. She was taken
backstage to see the mattresses
and other objects to minimize
the fall. When she saw the per-
formance, she had a feeling of
being "in the secret, in on the
game." She has been "in on the
PROBLEMS — Ingemar Johans-
son isn't worrying about his
ring fights. He is discussing his
tax problems with newsmen in
Palm Beach, Fla. The U.S. gov-
ernment claims he owes obout
$1 million,
game" practically over since.
Asked about his views of
national theater, Sir Michael said
he felt such a theater should net
be confined to London • but
should have branehes up and
down the country. As or the
btrilding,' he would suggest ,two'
auditoriums, one for the smaller
intimate production and the
other for larger productions s>ach
as Ibsen's "Peer (ynt." Vanessa
would like three—an extra one
for a theater in the round.
Sir Michael's "ideal engage-
ment," he said, would be one
where he worked with the same
company for a long period.
"Even a year is notenough,"
he said, "because at the end of
the year the company breaks
up.,
At another holiday session,
Judi Dench and Jahn Stride, the
Old Via's lovers in "Romeo and
Juliet" conveyed to the young.
audience their enthusiasm at
working under the. Italian pro-
ducer Franco Zeffirelli. This was
the first straight play In Britain
produced by the famous opera
producer.
At first this fiery Latin found
the English actors "too mourn-
ful, too miserable," Miss Denali
recalled. "He denounced us for
having no fire," she said,
The two speakers acted the
first meeting of Romeo and Juliet,
as they had originally played it
to Zeffirelli in traditional Eng-
lish style.
This made Zeffirelli cry ..out in
agony: "No, no, what is it . ,
the end of the world?"
Mr. Stride and Miss Dench
then played it taking note of
Zeffirelli's coaching. By Melita
Knowles in the Christian Science
Monitor.
"My Fair Lady"
Breaks All Records
On March 14 the Alan Jay
Lerner -Frederick Loewe ver-
sion of Shaw's 'Pygmalion" en-
tered its sixth year at the Mark
Bellinger Theater in New York.
According to Variety, the show
business weekly, it is "the top
musical comedy hit of all time,
the most profitable, and the most
widely circulated,"
Since opening night (March
15, 1956) "My Fair Lady" has
been seen in New York alone by
3,000,000 patrons, who ,have paid
$17,000,000 into the box office of
the Bellinger, the entertain-
ment's first and only Broadway
home.
On its fifth New York anni-
versaoy "My Fair Lady" was also
playing in London, Stockholm,
Sydney, Amsterdam, and Auck-
land. It has been acted—in suit-
able translation—in Copenhagen,
Oslo, Helsinki, Mexico City, and
Melbourne (where it stayed for
90 weeks). The National Com-
pany recessed for 10 weeks last
• spring to play engagements in
Moscow, Leningrad, and Kiev.
Lars R. Schmidt, who owns for-
eign language rights, is planning
a Berlin production.
The total-weridwide audience
now exceeds 10,000,000; the total
box office gross, $48,000,000. The
original cast album has sold
3,200,000 copies, and there have
been 30 other recordings by va-
rious bands, singers, and or-
chestras.
The New York run of "My Fair
Lady" is exceeded only by that
of "Oklahoma!" which lasted
five years and nine weeks. On
June 13 the musical comedy
about a phonetics professor and
a London flower girl will over-
take the legendary Rogers -Ham-
merstein western. There seems
no doubt that "My Fair Lady"
will set a new Broadway record.
Optimists feel that it may even
run for another season.
CAPSULE PREVIEW — A model of the, Mercury capsule, com-
plete with dummy astronaut, gets the once-over by John Delia,
12. Designed by National Aeronautics and Space Administra-
tion to take the first American into space, the model is display -
r at the city Museum of Science and Industry.
S-- — •
SPACE
FCR
SPACE Everytime a missile nose cone races
hundreds of miles into space and thousands of miles down
the test rangein a few minutes, it leaves behind miles of
magnetic recording tape that takes months to decipher. The
taped information is 'valuable since it records every detail
of a flight. Photo shows a small part of the 2,000 pounds
(four million feet) of tape that has been amassed from 135
flights by GE -made nose cones. They represent 32,1 hours
of flight over 230,960 nauticalmiles by 162,000 pounds of
equipment. They include such firsts as the first ICMB flight.
of a nose cone and first object ever recovered from orbit.
ia, r t tt
TABLE TALKS
fy elatuc Andnews
CREAMED HAM
3 cups dripped cooked ham
3 cups chopped. cold, boiled
potatoes
1 green pepper, chopped
2 eups milk
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon butter.
Combine chopped ham, pota-
toes and green pepper. Place in
skillet and add milk.
Cook uncovered over very low
heat, stirring occasionally, until
quite thick, about 25 minutes.
Add salt and pepper -to taste.
Stir in 'butter and serve.
* * s .
HAM -BONE SOUP
1 ham bone
8 cups water
2 onions, sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 bay'leaf
'4. cup pot barley
2 carrots, sliced,thin
2. potatoes, pared and diced
1 green pepper, chopped
la' cup diced celery
1' 218 -ounce can. tomatoes•
-Salt. and pepper. '
plaee Han bone in large kettle.
Add water, onions, garlic, bay
leaf and pot barley. Cover, bring
to boil, reduce heat and simmer.
11 hours.' Or, cook in pressure
cooker for 30 minutes.
Remove bone, pick off any
meat, chop the meat and return
to stock. Discard bone, Skim off
excess fat,
Add carrots, potatoes, green
pepper, celery and canned toma-
toes. Reheat to. boiling. Reduce
heat and simmer for 1 hour long-
er, or until vegetables aretender.
Addsalt-arid pepper to taste and
serve. n „ „,
SPICED PRUNES
These may be served either hot
with a roast or cold, as a relish,
1 pound prunes, cooked
1 cup vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon each, cinnamon and.
ground cloves
Combine all ingredients except
prunes and boil 1 minute, add
prunes; bring to boil. Cool and -
leave in refrigerator for 24 hours;
o
* a
OATMEAL QUICK BREAD
This is a slightly' sweet bread,
and it stays moist. It's very sim-
ple to make and can be served
warm or cool, toasted, or in sand=. ,
wishes.
Combine 2 cups sifted all-pur-
pose flour, i/s cup sugar, 1 table- •
spoon salt, 1 teaspoon soda, 11/4
cups rolled oats (quick or regu-
lar), 1 cup whole bran cereal, '
cup raisins. In a separate bowl
combine 2 beaten eggs, lm/e cups
buttermilk or sour milk, ih cup
molasses. Add liquids to dry in-
gredients and stir just until dry
particles are moistened. Pour in-
to a greased loaf pan (9x5x3)
and bake at 350°E. about 1 hour,
or until well clone and browned.
I used a glass bread pan, and
found 1 had to cook the loaf
about 10 minutes over the hour.
F
GLAZED CARROTS
1 pound new carrots
Boiling salted water
in cup corn syrup
3 tablespoons butter
Cut off tops and scrub carrots
with a brush, Scrape, if desired,
Place in rapidly boiling salted
water. Cover and cook 15-20
minutes, until carrots are tender.
Drain well,
Heat corn syrup and butter in
a skillet, Add drained carrots,
simmer until well glazed, turn•
ing frequently, Serve immedi-
ately, ' o -
•
ASPARAGUS WI"TI•I
LEMON BUTTER
1 pound fresh or frozen
asparagus
Boiling salted water
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons lemon juice
i teaspoon grated lemon rind.
Cook asparagus in boiling salt-
ed water for 10-15 minutes, until
just tender.
Heat butter, lemon juice, lemon
rind until piping hot. Pour over
asparagus and serve.
5 n
CREAM JUBILEE
1 envelope gelatin
3 tablespoons cold water
14 cups milk
34 cup sugar •
Pinch salt
2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 egg whites, beaten stiff
Vs cup sugar
1 cup whipping cream
CHERRY SAUCE
1 20 -ounce can sweet black
cherries
2 -inch strip lemon peel
114 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold water
Soften gelatin in cold water.
Mix milk, sugar and salt together
and heat in double boiler. • •
Beat egg yolks slightly .and stir
hot milk -sugar mixture into egg
yolks. Cook over hot water until
slightly thickened, stirring con-
stantly. Add softened gelatin and
stir until dissolved.
Remove•from heat and add vas
nilla. Cool until slightly thick-
ened. -
Beat egg white's Until stiff.
Gradually beat in 1/4 cup sugar.
Whip cream until stiff. '
Fold beaten egg whites into
cooled mixture, then fold in
%vhipped cream. Turn into 11 -
quart ring mlod. Chill until firm,.;
Turn out on serving; latter.
Place ,small bow, ,,,t;1 •P e, fill
witlaaherry sauce.
To make sauce: Drain cherries,
reserve fruit ane `juice. Combine
juice, lemon peel, lemon juice,
• and bring to boil:.
Mix cornstarch with water, stir
into cherry syrup. Cook and stir
until clear and thickened.. Re-
move lemon rind. Add cherries.
Chill thoroughly. nl
Lizard For Dinner
Australian Treat
An Australian inland patrol
officer, Bill Harney, has just pro-
duced the first ever"Bush Cook
Book"—a collection of more -
than -original recipes used .bY
Australian aborigines. Bill knows
.asmuch about; aborigines as any
man alive. For • years, he has
watched their cerernnonies, trek
ked with them, eaten their foods
and shared their hazards.
Now in his Weirating book he
parades a rare Mast of aborigin-
al delicacies — including such
Lasty items , as baked crocodile
erg's and kangaroo steak. The
latter, 'Bill informs readers, is
extra nutritious if served with
bacon.
Aussle ovens are sizzling these
clays with many of Bill's fantas-
tic recipes,
"It's not; possible," he says, "to
acseribe the flavour of the meat
td the, native lizards—which the
aborigines have eaten for thou
sands of years and which I and
many others find delicious. They
have their Own special flavour
like beef, mutton or chicken:"
Wife Stuttered —
He Sought Divorce
When film actress Anita Ran -
same asked for a divorce from,
her second husband ' on the
ground that he refused to laugh
at her jokes or witty repartee,
the Californian judge, Wilbur
Powell, remarked:
"It is preposterous that you
should seek to thus discard a
man merely because he sees
nothing funny in your remarks.
I find them extremely unfunny
myself.
"We live in strange times, in-
deed. If suoh suits should suc-
ceed, judges wall be asked,
shortly, to grant divorce just be-
cause a partner snores, lisps,
stutters — or parts his hair on
the unfavoured side."
Probably the judge was un-
aware that a divorce suit was
brought on the ground that a
wife stuttered. It happened in
Chicago.
A Pole, Vladislaw Wracznski,
sought freedom from his pretty,
young American wife because
she stuttered when trying to pro-
nounce his name. The husband
complained that it made his
name • sound ridiculously long
when she stammered and stum-
bled through its combination of
consonants.
Equally optimistic was the ML
ami businessman who sued for
divorce because his wife had an
affliction of the left eye. The
ailment caused her to wink —
to her own embarrassment and
her 'husband's jealous rage.
The demented man- claimed
that he was involved in a brawl
at least' once a week — because
Of men mistaking the woman's
wink for an invitation to flirt.
In England, a Portsmouth
chandler'. told a divorce judge
that his wide insisted upon tak-
ing their pet budgerigar tb bed •
with them. Not only dud the bird
soil the bed linen, but the hus-
band awoke each morning with
bird seed in his hair, ears and
mouth.` . • - ' •
The judge ruledt h a t there
were not sufficient grounds for
grantinga divorce, but advised
the husband to seek revenge by
'taking the family Airedale into
bed with him.
In a recently -published report,
a London marriage counsellor
stated that some wives ask for
advice on how to get a divorce
for such trivial things as hubby
dropping his clothes around the
bedroom floor instead of plac-
ing them neatly on a chair, ar
slapping sauce on a clean table-
cloth — even because he leaves
the soap to get sticky and soft
in a wet soap dish.
With husbands, however, the
counsellor reports, divorce is
usually contemplated only where
infidelity is suspected.
"Men are, perhaps, more pre-
pared to forgive their partners'
little fads and fancies, as long
as they remain faithful,' he
states. '
this does not seem to apply
abroad, though. Recently a re-
port from, Calais announced that
a man had sought divorce from
his actress -wife because she in-
sisted upon wearing gowns with
plunging necklines.
One Tree They
Cannot Kill
When an international party •
of nature lovers louring Europe
to study the trees that flourish
in capital cities reached' London
recently they were amazed act
what they called "the majesty
and hardiness" of the fine eld
plane : trees 'which grow well
despite Lonclon's fog, dust and
soot.
One reason why these trees,
known as the Londoners' own
trees, are anaich more successful
in London than any other vari-
eties, they learned, is that they
ere constantly shedding theirs'
bark. And with the bark gees
the film of soot and dirt left by
the city air.
A London plane may reach a
height of more than 100 feet It
is long-lived and a hybrid pro-
duced by two trees brought to
London from the East more than
300 years ago,
Amend" the oldestplanes in
London are some in Berlceley
Square rvlich were planted in
1789 the year the French
stormed the Bastille..
Bat the most famous of the
London plane trees is a land-
mark in Cheapside and stands on
what is said to be one of the
most valuable patches of land
in the City - a disused buria'i
ground,
This centuries-old tree, in the
heartof a business aea, has long
been legally protected frons des-
truction by special clause, in
the leases of shops in the vicin-
ity. It is in the tiny churchyard
of the St. Peter le Cheap, burnt
down in the Great Fire and nev-
er rebuilt.
Wordsworth wrote about this
tree and a thrush he heard sing-
ing in it. '
"All love the old tree because
it. is a solitary thing surviving
`strangely out of place," wrote an
authority on London. "Lonely
stands the old- tree through the
years on landthat is worth,
maybe, a little forune."
Bombing in two world wars
failed to 'wipe out the London
plane trees. One famous news-
paper described them as "daunt-
less,"
The branches of one of the
trees were killed during a 1942
raid when incendiary bombs
rained on it, but soon afterwards
'vigorous shoots appeared from
dormant buds- up and down ;its.
old trunk. That tree continues to
flourish today.
ISSUE 14 — 1961
BITES DUST — Veteran film star
John Payne is recovering in a
New York hospital from a
broken leg received when he
was struck by a' cam. He is the
hero of TV western, "The Rest-
less Gun."
DIOGENES CAN QUIT LOOKING — Candidate for "Most Honest Man" title, Douglas Johnson,
right, receives a handshake from Brink's guard P. R. Young. Johnson found a sack of money
— $240,000 — on a Los Angeles street, and furnod tl over is Iia r,B,h The G-men gave it
back to Brink's men, who dropped it from an armored car, Clly F.B.I. head William Simon
looks on.