... THE EMBASSY SIR, I am collecting information about lite history of the Embassy Theatre with a view to its possible use in a book. I should be deeply grateful if any of your readers could supply memories of the early days of the theatre or lend me any record*, playbills, and programmes which they have kept over the ycarv Yours fakhfnllv John Bennett central ^cnool of Speech and Dramn, limbassy ...

... TRINDER SIR, I was interested to read the si age notice of Jack and the Beanstalk, the excellent panto mime now playing to full houses at the Wimbledon Theatre. I hope you will allow me to com ment on the suggestion implicit in this criticism that Mr. Trinder didn't know his lines (when your critic saw the show) and that he hadn't taken the trouble to learn them. I sat with a packed matinee ...

... EAGER WE would like to thank Mrs. F. Betts Televis ion Today, January 7 1960) for her kind remarks about the Western Theatre Ballet Com pany. We ourselves are eager for this Company to be seen in England as much as possible and have been in touch with Granada about their Chelsea Ai Nine programme. Unfortunately, at this stage, we have not been able to plan the Western Theatre Ballet pro gramme ...

... CAN ANY PAPER BEAT IT? ir I HAVE been reading my weekly copy of The Stage now ?I for over two years with unflagging interest and enjoy ment I think there can be no other paper or magazine which gives so detailed and accurate an account of the many separate facets of the Theatrical profession. Now that Television Today has become an integral part of the paper I look forward to Thursdav with ...

... Sir, After years of sacrifice in sending our daughter to a leading drama school she now ends up as an usherette in a London cinema. She was considered a very good actress. It seems to me that to get any where on the stage one has to be cither connected with a relative, or a friend of a friend. Is there no hope for these young people who seem to get no opportunity? Yours faithfully. R. Tompsett ...

... EXPLAIN Sir, Can you explain, if it is not beyond your comprehension as it is mine, why an arrangement exists, as I understand it does, between the B.B.C. and Tclev sion interests on one side and the Association of West End Theatre Managers and British Equity on the other, that for all performances of Radio and TV productions given before a live audience the latter two bodies insist that no ...

... DETAILS Sir. It s now late afternoon on Monday. January 25, and I have just spent an interesting ten minutes on the telephone trying to find out from the circuit head office of one Qi the two remaining varietv theatres in the London area details of the show booked there for next Monday. February 1. After a lot of internal banging, shouting and shuffling of papers, they eventually got through ...

... CONTINENTALS SIR. The Continental type of theatre is thought my many to be the answer to the closing of musk hath which are finding it difficuh to keep open when present ing ordinary variety bills. Time alone will tell, but my experiences at Huddersfield Conti nental over the Christmas and New Year period provided an excellent example of how artists and man agement can pull together to build ...

... SHIP OF STATE SIR. In his excellent survey Mr. Raymond Marriott counts One More River as the best new play of 1959. This despite a somewhat unsatisfactory ending Surely in this play the whole meaning is in its ending? The dirty lower classes, despite their lifelong experience of chipping old paint off the ship of state, botch up their term of authority, and in crisis call, to steer them, on a ...

... I SAY THE MUSICIANS DIDN'T 'IGNORE' FREED SIR.--The heading South's Big Let-Down may be apt enough but the sub-heading. Freed Ignored by Musicians, is not true in fact. Lome Freed. Southern Television's programme director, asked for British numbers. They were not forthcoming because there were so few being published. Musicians play whatever is published. Hence they can't play mi||e British ...

... AN APPEAL Sir, I would be most graiclul if members of the profession, produc tion managers and wardrobe de partments of various pantomimes and other productions would send to me at Hilbre, Abergele Road, Rhuddlan. Rhyl, Flintshire, any pairs of long white and pink stock ings, opera hose and tights, when they have become too shabby for further wear, as I could use them for making up into dolls ...

... ORSON WELLES Sir, I auditioned for Mr. Orson WeWe at the Wyndham's Theatre on January 5, and was unsuccessful. However. I should like to say that never before have I, an un known, been treated with such respect and sincerity. It is obvious that Mr Welles's greatness does not only lie in acting. Yours sincorHv. Actor. London, W. P.S.--Please do not disclose my name or address]. ...