1951-03-12 — Page 4

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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,

..