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THE CHINA-MAIL, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1954.

with Douglas Fairbanka, Junior,

THE STORY 50 FAR: New York's theatro world had acclaimed Gertrude Lawrence.

Then, on tour, she collapsed, desperately ill. Philip Astley crossed the Atlantic, took her on a European holiday and she turned to America to further triumphs and, perhaps,

the American Taylor,

to

marry

G

Bort

ro-

★ FABULOUS LADY

She was seen with the most glamorous al men --Coward, Fairbanks, a marquis, an earl. And then the whisper began to go round that she owed... and owed

GERTIES GOES BANKRUPT

DENNÍ THIRD ARTICLE - BONEQUIN IN THIS SPECIAL SERIES

by NANCY SPAIN

1131311032)3(91) 13344LPITE££SORTA PRIJEČISIFI

tion, she agreed with Charlot to do a revue.

And then Nool Coward sud- Re- denly came to the rescue.

Influenza In an Shanghai, Noel had afr-mailed

filled her friends' laps with rich Gerüe's mother in presents. Clapham had a regular allow

could run t

for

account

ance. Her father, in Brighton, covering from

01 excellent tailor's, a well-known in the script of a new play. millionaire, grocer's, and Gertle settled all That play was "Private Lives,

him. bills his

Her

Gerile read it with increasing generosity was as fathomless as

joy. Amanda, the heroine, with all the "emotional, stability of a Shuttlecock," had been written for her. Of course it was hers, No one else should play

ERTIE knew. I think, Overnight Tinker Taylor her credit.

all her life how (and a lot of other people) her lost a great deal of money. precarious VRA

hold on fortune. Certainly Gertie knew she

The miracles that she work was

ed in the theatre, miracles She said

un

extravagant girl.

over and over Tinker

she (and not his money)

loved. But "No,

that

of personality, worked also again that it was in private life; when

walked into a shop the sun she Heemed to come out. And Peaches," he said, "I must nobody seemed to care whe- fight this thing alone." ther she settled her bills or not.

So the engagement with Bert -Taylor came to nothing. Then her play "Candlelight" came off. How much of this was And Gertie entered the depres Gertie's charm, how much sion years with one of the sad- her rumoured engagement dest flops of all time, "The In- to Bertram

L. Taylor, ternational Revue,"

Assets? Nil

ERTIE'S collection of jewellery had been valued at £ 16,250, But soon, Alan, che pawned it for £2,000 and then sold her pawn tickets to raise mm-

other £1,000. to press for payment. Gently as But now the big stores began

the first leaves of Rutumn. writs began to fall on her doormat,

Gertic had not pold one penny of American income- tax due since the days of her Arst hit in 1924, The Awful debts piled up. She owed £24.728. Her sets were pre- clacly nil.

junior, one of the richest The name Gertrude Lawrence men in America, nobody had been good for almost un- ilmited credit. She had been could estimate.

encouraged to run big accounts - But in 1929, the Ameri- at the stores, helped into her In como panic, but probably can Stock Market crashed. fantastle spending "Jag had hardly aware of her true posi-

Gerlic, extricated herself from her obligations to Chariot. Flat broke, she borrowed £000, re- turned to Europe; and rented La Cappocina, villa on Cap d'All in the South of France, built by Edward Molyneux, that now belongs to Lord Beaverbrook.

the

with Noll Coward.

"I went round the world you know...

‚after,

"How was it?"

"The world?" "Yes," "Very_big.""

Gertlo in

Ah, "Private Lives”. one amazing Molyneux Tention after another...anoking cigar- attes for a long, long holder that was provided by Edgar Wallace and stamped. E.W.

Nool in his dressing gown. Laurence Olivier. almost un- noticed in his

the part na

The Gertrudą Lawrence

story

to

‚1Rumour Naked

har opme Ronald Colman's.

PRIVATE LIV I began the familiar gown... Gartle making cigoreties scenes... Loeped in his dressing..

in a long, long holder provided by,

Edgar Welface..

nged husbart, so cestatically did Noel and Gertie occupy the centre of the stage.

Yes Indeed, they were a hit. heavenly It Gertle had been "sensible

she might even have paid off when they some debts. But toured it was a royal progreps, Erch star had his own car. And in Landon Gertle now lived in a served on Gertrude

at designed by the Marquis de Casa Maury, all sequined cur- tairs and locking-glass walls.

She walled there in the Mediterranean sun until Noel arrived to rehearse.

decade:

And so for the first time any-

But Noel Coward Insisted on where the crickets and fireflies playing only a thert season of and G. B. Stern and William three months. And "Gerile found (The Thin Man) Pawell heard that the play that was to have that amazing piece of dialogue saved her had actually left her which ted a fashion in clipped deeper in debt than ever. English clocution for the next Philip Anticy, her dear beau, Tomake matters. WORLD, whom she had refused to mar ry, announced his engagement to Alm-star Madeleine - Carroll, Gertie was shattered. But in the face of her frightening debts, her emotional wreckages,,' she could still make good joke.

"I'm on my honeymoony "Very Interesting. So am I."

"LESS ALCOHOL, MORE SUGAR"

-IN FRANCE, ANYWAY

T surprises people who have

I

spent holidays in France to

No, superficially, there is very

Httle drunkenness in France.

at

By Simon Maynard

Indo-

Leads The World

i

*

WOMEN

In demand

1933,' a 'receiving order was Lawrence

among her sequined curtains.

Her affairs were spread be- fore the vulgar gaze. She owed about: £24,000. She had about,

£2,000 to meet it.

Recital

THE seene in Carey, THE

Street was extra- ordinary. Gerle, her ereditors and

"Kobel-

fors sat while the re- cital of Gertie's ex- travagance rolled be fore

them like some- thing from tho Arabian Nights,

She made £8,000 a year and spent £10,000, She owed £14,402 In facome- tax and surtax... (The bulk of wity for tax on, her U.S. Twas at this time this

that she called at earnings before 1932). She said she had lout £13,000 on the Norman Hartnell'a

ned

her.

ότι

for a fitting. Hart sale of her jewellery. Part of the sugar surplus

She bad made' £1,288 from always loved made from the beet will be ex-

She made his her share of the play "Privato ported, part sold in France to

model girls look like Lives"; £643 from the royalties learn that this country is

repisco foreign sugar and the

twopence halipany. gramophone records, £882 She suffering from : "chronie so many

are How has Mendes-France on-

made all the on a sale of her clothing. working hours

rest used to divo ‘sugared milk

Do you also bet on horses?'t in London copy her, alcoholism"

ond dangered the life of his Govern. to all French schoolchildren, and that its lost through alcoholism

streak

was asked, and suddenly ment? dynamic Premior, M. Mondes Social Services is so great that the cost of treatment to the

Previously liquor interests whether the put a white To And a comparison it is

in her mouse-coloured hair, whe- her vitality was isa Franco have not only France, is risking the life of statistics prove that drink costs necessary to turn to late nine-

snapped, and persuaded successive govern-ther she went stockingless in the tainly not stored. "Cer-

And

the sordid scene immediately the glamorous took his Government to try

cost of a teenth century Britain when the ments to guarantee the price of summer. to France double the

on the colour of bish queen of fashion milled her took Liberais, backed by the Non-boet, but also to promise to buy heart-breaking stamp it out.

single year's fighting in

smile conformists, fought a prolonged at high prices all the alcohol Hartnell and said, "Marry me, her

at Mr Chinn.

comely: She was rebuked for

Insane

extravagance, (“10 But you

battle with the vested beer distilled from them. The system Norman." nover Dec any

extrava- you call generosity trado interests and the Con- has given the grower drunkenness in France," say the

complete "What on earth for?" said gance," said Gertie, her famous servative Party--a battle which

tnx-he, cimbarrassed.

11050 now ilted like a Wag tourists,

ended in the licensing laws in-curity, but the French

* phyer has had. to find troduced by the

"No one elso wants to," said horse in battle, "I must abide Asquith £20,000,000 a year FRANCE leads the world as a Government..

meet the Gertie.

by it."

And the law took its course. And burst out loughing. consumer of alcohol, with

In France, where the liquor loss to the national economy. This is why the social conscience 21 litres per heatl compared trade

appeared in play after Gertle was turned out of her has a powerful ' _'lobby

allowed £10. à the nation has been so with number two consumer. in Parlament. Mendes-Franco Hard Battle

play whole sums cannot be flat. She was

live on Spilt ("Can the Leopard," "Be work to Italy, with 14: And by alcohol in is confronted not merely with

Everything belatedly roused to the perils of meant not wine or beer, but big business, but with

hold. We Live This Incon else was taken away, Ironically bar the Demon Drink in its midst. bad, home-distilled spirits,

Owners and the opposition of LL. this is bound to moan a starity") to make her reputa her name still blazed in lights.

And magnificently, during this tion 29 soul- $,000,000

solross R There is no drunkenness be- brandy, gum and tho

m emotional Along and hard-fought political tion privalo distillers!

of despair she summoned substitutes for

adoring cause hundreds of thousands of destroying

and above all this is the battle. But Merkles France beure with an

couturier Norman Hartnell Absinthe anisotte and pernod.

WELT:

which the leves that, if he wins his point, public. She was one coutur stark fact, with Frenchmen have been topers

workmanship. ics and complain of his everywhere, opening fotes In 1993 more than 15,000 French Premier challanged the France will be both heather bazaars, speaking at functions. locking a fight like this, the

· “Do you expect me almost since their cradle days.

liquer Interests excessive pro-, and more prosperous in the long Sha Schoolchildren are given brandy people died from cirrhosis of duction of alcohol is one of the run, And this is one way in quen in public with shouted. And she tore his dress and rum in their coffee before the liver in France. Nearly 60

most glamorous men. Noel to pieces undar, his eyes. "Bat they go to school. They drink percent of those killed in road not obvious places of nonsense which taxation, can be reduced. Coward, the Marquis do In the French: economy."

is there

and trembled." gays be attributed 'to'

Douglas po much alcohol that they are seeldents can

Fairbanks, Hartnell, I loved that crapture the ordinary tourist these Maury Dougl For the as alcohol. immune from drunkenness

Douglas Fairbanks, tmjor, the Earl

80. and I hated hes for of Dudley, thu caring up my dress," we know it.

Unsalable Surplus difference. Few tourists want on. Ivar To tackle this social evil

Guest to drink raw spirits between Vizccunt. Wimborne), Ronald financial shortcomings spread afterwards And gloriously, with her But as they get older their Mendes-France has forced up minds get fuddled. The men the price of alcohol by making TTENCE his slogan "less alcohol, their wine will be the same, romantically linked with hers.

a. and 10 9.m. The price of Colman-their names were all before her eyes like a tattered 20 percent tax increase

more sugar." In his "new deal" and, with the emphasis now on

even as the legend of a the wired Bill O'Bryn, her manager, to buy her a spirits between 5 and 10 a.ro, far too much money, land and may be they will get a better

Lawrence, "grew and forbidden the advertising of labour has gone into wine pro- deal. aperitifs. He is also aiming to duction.. France has

go round that she owed, and

Mcpes in Buokinthe a surplus timit the number, of tars and of millions.

of wines to the "drinkless day it. Eventually two little laundries, COST OF INSTALLING of,

wired, KINDLY ASCERTAIN cafes, to

to bring to an end the that la imealable

abroad.

not proposed that all bars The Mayfair Laundry and the swIMMING POOL" distilling of spirits at home and So he has ordered that two- should be closed at once. They Cheyne Laundry (otherwise Mr ro-introduce the ino drink" thirds of the beet now turned will close by rots. So if the william George Cleghorn, days of the Vichy Government. into alcohol must in future bo little bistra on the comer is Acton, and Mrs. Katherine

medy Imto sygar Twelve closed, Monsieur, why there is Selina Jarre MacLean, Why, then, all the fuss about million gallons of beat alcohol still that nice little, har up the Church Street, Chelsen) whipped tacking an evil upon which all, are to be used for motor, fuel steps towards Montmartro, that in a writ for £50, Geitle could good men should be agreed?; instead of being stored as la.open

"[not" pay. And on · February: 10,.

tal homes of Franco 50 full

alcoholic of

Sensational Triumphs In Modern Photography

yours only

Leica

CAMERA

14 N

M3

Bro

M.

#

lawn-will make

senior,

cases, prohibited the sale of wine and programme he has, insisted that quality rather than quantity 22 the whisper began to try house and farm called

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN

<

Owed.

of

"REFERENCE

WORLD COPYRIGHT RESERVED,

NEXT SATURDAY?://

Mr Coward. To, The Rescue Aguin

By Lee Falk, and Phil Davis

FHALF A DOZEN

WHATS RAPPENED,

TALK

ON SALE AT S ALL LEADING PHOTO- NADEALERS AN