... SIR Mr. Derek Parker's letter re mine concerning critics really helps to strengthen my argu ment. The management^ must decide whether they are going to invite a critic whose emotions etc. are going to tell us what he likes, irrespective of what the general public would like, or one who, while still well educated and cultivated, can con trol his emotions, and give a fair reportage of the play ...

... I SIR, What has your r- viewer against David Whit- field. (Reviews, March 9, issue). Presumably ATV didn't g make him top of the bill 5 because they rated him in- ferior to the rest of the 1 performers. Strangely enough, people g usually prefer the so-called hackneyed numbers to something new which, ex- H cept on rare occasions these days, is without r melodic merit or ear- appeal. David sang, ...

... IDEA FOR AFTER THE FIRST NIGHT CIR. Much has been written recently, for and against critics' first night notices. There appears to be a small minority, with whom 1 do not agree, who feel that a critic does not have enough time to realty digest what he has seen and heard, to be able to write a well-balanced review in the time available. Cer tain people have been quite spiteful in their attacks ...

... THE CIGARETTE CASE CIR, 1 feel almost certain that I I si w the cigarette case which was illustrated in last week's issue of THE STAGE. If I am right, the owner of it 20 to 25 years ago was Richard Percy Burton, well-known business and publicity manager in his day. He showed me the case, or a case very like it, when he was resident manager of the Wimbledon Theatre some time during the 'Forties ...

... ROBERT YOUNG. Dear Sir, I AM Equity's oldest living mem ber (No. 2). I remember Its birth pangs and Its early struggles, but during all these years I have never felt surer of the justice of its cose than am now. I.T.V. say that Equity's pro posals would ruin the industry, but give no reasons to support this absurd statement. Whenever in the past we have sought to improve conditions of work ...

... HOW TO GET A JOB SIR--For twenty years I have been a stage-hand---a pursuit which even I am not idiot enough to enjoy. Ihe assets which I have accumu lated during that time are strictly intangible. Financially. I would have been little worse off bud I been continually on the dole instead of periodically: this is offset, how ever, by the opportunities I have had to observe the industry with its ...

... NIGHT OF 100 STARS SIR, I am greatly disappointed to bear that there will be no Night of 100 Sears midnight chanty matinee at (he London Palladium this year, simply because the usual producers, Charies Rus sell and Lance Hamilton, are, for once, not available. For eight years or more now, both these splendid people have expended a colossal amount of time and energy on the organisation of dm ...

... The Lighting Man SIR.--What an excellent article in THE STAGE on Revolution in Sound, by David Collinson. How ashamed we theatre people should be. Long before cinema, long before television, the theatre was a going concern, yet what strides these new form of entertainment have taken forward, whilst we have stuck in the mud, and in many ways slipped back a step or two: Most provincial ...

... Old King Cole SIR.-- Mrs. W. Toms is correct in saying that Leslie Macdonell's Palladium pantomime this year is not the first time that Old King Coile has been given a full panto mime story and treatment. I have before me as I write a programme of His Majesty's, Aiberdeen. when Robert Arthur Theatres Co. present by arrange ment with Howard and Wyndham Ltd. the entirely new and original ...

... Whitworth Jones SIR, In connection with some research on which I am at present engaged I am trying to trace the career after 1922 of the actor Whit- worfh Jones. His last recorded performance would seem to be as Sir Peter EHingham in Love in a Cottage at the Globe in January, 1918, and his career to have been most varied. It even includes a period of four vears during which be served under ...

... Managements and Plays QIR.-- I sympathise with Mr. MHU O in his problem of trying to interest managements in his play, but cannot in any way agree with him. He is being grossly unfair to our managements when he states that plays often lie in offices unread or months on end'. Surely Mr. Mills, you are letting your imagina tion run away with you? Months? A fow weeks perhaps, hut that seems to ...

... IDEAS CIR. Theatrical managements, ever bold and adventurous, are continually seeking new subjects for presentation, and occasionally dig ging up the past for ideas, may welcome suggestions from any source. Oliver!, and Kiss Me, Kate plot supplied by Dickens, and Waggish Will of Avon Shake speare, we have. The Old Bailey has now come along as a Script, Service, for we are to be regaled ...