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THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, MARCH 12, 1951...
★✰✰✰★A CHAMPAGNE SERIAL OF THE HALF-CENTURY.. begins today · by- LEONARD MOSLEY
This writhing girl shocked a generation-and shook. the fortunes of a master showman. That's where the curtain goes up on-
10
N the stage of the London Pavilion that night the spotlights burned on a the, loose, shiny-limbed black figure which writhed and shim- micd-and shook the man- ners and modes of a geners- tion.
London Was seeing Florence Mills for the first time, and didn't quite know how to react.
Every shake and undu- lation of the body under the scant covering of feathers, every seductive sound from her mouth, pushed the excitement up to boiling-point.
Up in the dress circle, as the Mills bomb-shell ex-
Practically
• • .
The COCHRAN STORY
ai his plan to put coloured players on the same stage as white artists.
every Bhow he
Flo Mills was getting £700 a packed ploded into the finale of her had put on made headlines, often
the week from C.B, and he had to house,
given ride down convention to make the country her pay her way. He was a something new Hubborn man, and he was amusement determined to have his plans and still lost go through. So he bucked his money.
head, not for the first or last Tune. against prejudice and Cochran's
upposition. backers had
C.B. been burned too fur
gave a supper his coloured players,
frenetic, Negroid recital,
Charlie Blake Cochran listened to the cheers and
DE'D
handelaps and
heard, in-
termixed with them, infuria- ted cries of "Shame"
Peninsula Arcade, Kowloon. Tel: 58758 China Travel Service, 6 Queen's Road, C. Tel 36011. or any other travel agent.
HONGKONG SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN
(WOMEN'S AUXILIARY)
VICTORIA REVELS
AT THE
SEAMEN'S MISSION
THEATRE
(next door to China Fleet Club)
THURSDAY 15th MARCH
9 P.M.
Tickets from Hong Kong Hotel from 11 a.m...to 1 p.m. $10, $7 & $4
You MUST see this gay and colourful show in aid of
the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children,
(Women's Auxiliary).
PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS
Copies of photographs taken by the South China Morning Post, South China Sunday Post-Horald, China Mall and Hong Kong Telo- graph Staff Photographors
are on view in the Morning Post Building.
́ORDERS BOOKED
Frist on
Cerebos
SALT
See how it rund.
That week, in Eastbourne, za the visitor undressed on girl beach, climbed into her swim- into ming costume and went the scu.
EVELYN LAYE
in custody for port....
วถ
C. B, had to borrow so much at such high rates, that he couldn't possibly profit even from n success.
But it was a memorable show. While it lasted. If England had goggled gasped at Negroes, it' at the crew of whooping cow- boys and cowgirls who swärmed into London, As the Dally Express sald;~---
"The cowgirls, who arc ali beautiful, appear at luncheon in afternoon dresxca and pink boudoir.cap. All wear immense party diamond and piastnum rings, and and one girl shocked everyone by to, actually sauntering to the bath- room in black silk pyjamas,
Miracle." cherished them as if
FLORENCE MILLS- she sent the excitement up
to bolling-potist
In Britain itself the sun had come out at last, after a rainy summer, and the
excursion
often
in their
Her vite white celebrities bank balances,
ineet them. But even he didn't he WAS und
love enough courage to have the
"The greatest sensation today production of "The going to DOROTIFY
whites and blacks sit together. tras when Mr Buck Lucas Cochran moneylenders DICKSON
Guests from the for his Ananet. petrees like Boa Lliffe and trousers!
peerage appeared in a pair of men's blue they were his own children, and
The cowgirls are never missed a dully visit to trains to the sea were packed. rates Tallulah Bankhead sat at one forward and rouge to exces them backstage,
AL the resorts bowler-hatted rame high. On tabla and the Negroes at the while their menfolk are bronzed
Not long after the Rodeo paddlers mingled with daring one occasion he had borrowed parade to comb £175,000 at the rate of 43 per- her bale in the rent interest per annum. mirror of a
When
she mr out she went, still in.
bathing dress,
car.
men
་
10 The
Their
That summer of 1023 he hari to have something violently, Three police sensationally new, not in order had to to make anything for himself clear the crowd but to pay off the before
gould arrest her,
mounting
they heap of debis.
charged
I was the beginning public year in which
of a
he fought for
exposure.
with
She survival, and attempted to cash was remanded in on everything.
a medical re.
It was high summer,
it was the start-for
1023. Cochran
and for England-of a Year of
Change and Revelation,
THE DUNS
- at his heels
FOR
the name of 25 years
had C. B, Cochran
been growing bigger and bigger in the minds of the British public as a showman.
PROMISE
- of new wonders
TT was a moment people
I British
for something new, the scent
when the
were avid
There was
of a new kind of
postwar freedom in the air.
other,
kind of froterzisation, and it was Britain gusped at this new
another two years before they had digester the
change enough to welcome Flo Mills and her company back
• again and give them the rap- 。 turous success o they earned in "Blackbirds."
But in that stage of hi. career, the only way Cochran could draw the
and often unshaven,”
VILIFIED
ended the crash came,
of
Cochran walked into the bankruptcy court and for the first time in public revealed the - as torturer
sorry slate of his affairs. THEY went into
He had the ring at
lost thousands
after
show. Wembley to ride their buck- pounds on show
their Even the stormy and triumphant ing broncos and горс
into visit of" slag
Pavlova to steers and ran
London, trouble.
great
success though it was had failed to Day its way.
~The RS.P.C.A. had its eye on
that the Rodeo and decided
there was cruelty involved. A steer broke a leg and had to be
shot, and an RS.P.CA. Inspector tried to get hold of the leg. There was a fight.
The upshot was a case against Cochran as the organiserand though it was as near to a circus
trial
will England (with
EL
GKO
PAVEOPA
Mrs Cochran sold her
had
dowels, his be loved pictures
by Toulouse
Lautrec
допо
ha
women in bathing suits with the new shortened leg, and men two-piece Muita which with were white and transparent at the top.
CONFUSION
not only in France
was
No
THE most popular song
"It Ain't Gonna Rain More." You were old-fashioned if you still danced the one-step. Valentino was knocking them goo-eyed by his performance
Monsieur in his film, caire," A play
Beau- called "White
Cargo" was drawing red-faced
the protests from the bishops,
England puffed at élgarettes 20 for 111⁄2d, and drank beer at 6d, a pint
es
to doplers. haven't a £5 note In the world," he said.
And the main 'story on the owed front page of the Daily Express be- wag headlined: Franco In A tween £80,000 Maze Of Confusion,
It was nothing like the con-. The great showman was on fusion that reigned in the affairs
with nothing for of C. B. Cochran,
And he something
- пазней
needed to his
ever get in box office
A witness In the was to shock
box wearing two guns on his them and sur-
belt. and cowboys and cowgirls prise them. signing autographs outside the singers and dancers, court)-the publicity don't do
much good for Cochran, There was competition specta-
the case Though cular enough to douni the greatest showman, or, in 1924, missed, C.B. had been vilified his uppers,
his 25 years of work but his the Empire Exhibition opened as a torturer of animals,
It was, in actual fact, a sin of reputation-including bis re- at Wembley.
which the great showman, was putation for extravagance. The rain
not guilty. Many of his friends sometimes felt
The people would vote the After Negro Socialist Party into power for what next? the first time, because they wanted a taste of change.
Life was full and cheup
in promise and rich
of new wonders to come. Income tax 4s. 6d. in the £. You could
came down, in A By 1923 he had got himself buy sports cont for five bob, deluge, on the white pavilions.
for £3. You couli almost a supreme reputation as a pram
hear the B.B.C. on your crystal and the sideshows.
the great fun fair, the gadgets the nation's arbiler of enter-
set over a 100-mile range.day, more than 150,000 people tainment. He was acknow-
hoines,
women nice Into the Wembley grounda ledged as a muster of talent- were
beginning to unince their to see the prizes their Empire. stays, shorten "their" hair, and had to show. RO out for their first adventure What
Cochran give could Already, tucked under his with unrestricted, uninhibited,
them, to percunde those tight- impresario's wing, he had such emancipated fun, but with a waisted, thin-trousered, bowler-
(1.3 Beatrice certain timidity too. They were hatted men with Lillie, Alico Delysia, Jack not yet the bold hussles of the those flat-chested
Jater '20's.
| spotting and star-making."
money-makers
Buchanan, Dorothy
Dickson,
And in the
But every
umbrellus, women in their bulky, longer-than-mid- And Cochran was to find, all calf skirts, to pay some of their the Dolly Sisters, Evelyn Laye, through 1023-4, that sometimes money to him?
Sybil
the old prejudices upon which He finally decided on a Rodeo. he was stamping tufhed round It was
new, lavish and and stung him.
clting. It was plastered
Pavlova.
and
Anna Thorndike.
What the public did not know was that the duns were biting at his heels and he had few moneyed friends to head them off.
POLL TE
CX-
over
He found it first with Flor- with master chowmanship. Yet ence Mills and that company even before it began it of Negro singers and dancers. doomed not to malce
were indignant outcrles money.
There
COMMUNIS FARTY
WHAT ABOU
,
TORY
•
•
奮
*
was dis-
that he liked anironts
better!
than humans,
Ho
once
had
fono compunction)
iz
advertising'
and £100,000,
CHAPMAN
PINCHER
COLUMN men
for old, grey
bearded
to fill parts in
tne of his
by
DELYSIA
get the ma inum publicity
letting vast, doddering" line of
queue
GKO
a
them outside
his offee-and then send them'
WOS
•
any
oway empty-handed,
Whereas,
when
of dogs were
PARTY
ULAR FRO
pack
used in the
·
~~(London Express Service). (MORE TOMORROW)
Never before have so many people been
questioned on
why they enjoy keeping their pets
ONE CAT IN
THREE
WHY do most families As always happens with
WH
keep à dog or a cat? Which is the more popular pat?
How
These
public opinion polis, some people Anwered the question: "Why do you keep a pet?" with "Don't
know."
STRAYS
cats many dogs and earn. their living by doing use- ful work? What foods and Strangest finding of the pet- drinks do they like best?
pollsters Was the fort that questions have been children exert small Influence answered accurately for the first on the cat and dog populations. time by a of pet-owners' Only one out of every ten opinioni organised by Dr dogs or cats is given home for Henneth Cottamy
a child's sake." It Slough, a Q
Is ITOND- Bucks, statistician.
ups-particularly elderly, lonely
Poll
monu-
The poll, which has involved folk who feel they need the a door-to-door quiz of 50,000 companionship of animals most. pet-owners. in scoren of towns Cottam, who works for a go- and villages, proved that more ahead Arm of pet-food people prefer to see a cat about facturers, found that few com- fortably placed cats only, three Cats
been strays on Owc their percent-havo
The superior numbers mainly to the which people took plly. tact
bulk of Britain's alley-cats re- that more of them
main tramps "gainfully occupied,"
the house.
to seem
дле
One cat out of every three is lives.
kept
throughout their
for the prime purpose of Fish came an easy first timong
calching, mice. Only one dog the cats' favourite
foods, and
owner in Ave gives his animal most cat owners believe it is best house room for its value as a for keeping their pets in glossy watch-dog.
jøven when sporting dogs.
sheep dogs, and guide dogs for
condition
POOR SECOND
the blind are included, eats still Meat, which is top favourite have a substantial surplus in with dogs, rates a poor second. numbers' earning their keep. with cats-an odd
counts the
fact con- On other
the pro- aldering that.
ents' wild ferences of cat and dog owners ancestors must have fod mainly rin suprisingly parallel.
FAMILY PETS
on fleah, not fish.
Liver
menu
is strprisingly low on the list of feline fancies. Only ona in 100 cals can work up Half the dogs and cals in much enthusiasm for household Britain are kept purely as family scraps, which dogs enjoy. pola-something ́extra to care Only two cats in 1,000 would for and provide companionship. rather have mouse on the About. 20 percent say simply: than anything else, Cottam re- "We have pets because we love poris. A few misow loudest for them."
chece and eggs. Some sweet- Others gave reasons ranging toothed specimens yearn for from babil "We have always bisculis. At. Ieast one cat in had a dog in our family"to Britain is fed largely on pan- the conviction that a home with cakes. out a fireside
complate.
Cold milk is the favourite fallna tipple. But many cats. Only one in 1,000 men prefer water. Some enjoy a dish. admitted they keep a dog mainly of tea. A few Hck, their lips for the excuse to take it out at mars thoroughly after beer -night,
..