Sunday Herald (Sydney, NSW : 1949 - 1953), Sunday 7 December 1952, page 14


For Six People, The

Past Came Back

An old film last week turned back the years for a small group of

Sydney People.

The house lights

dimmed in a Sydney film company's private theatrette one afternoon last week and an audience of six settled into their

plush armchairs for a journey into the past.

A title flashed on the screen, and a face. "The Kid Stakes." The face, cartooned, was one you see every week in "The Sunday Herald" Playtime Section mischievous, appealing, with a defiant lock of hair falling across the brow.

Fatty Finn. The same ageless Fatty whose impish tricks will make you chuckle today. Yet 25 years older. For as the spool unwound behind the glass screen of the projection room the years unwound with it - and it was 1927 again.

Do you remember 1927, the year that Fatty Finn became a film star and "The Kid Stakes" brought his lovable gang to the screen?

It was the year that Federal Parliament moved into its impressive new home in Canberra, the year that the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and his Queen) came to visit us.

It was the year that the Sydney ferryboat Greycliffe and the steamer Tahiti collided in the harbour and many lives were lost. It was a time when our State Government trams were running special services to Randwick races and the fare by ordinary tram (includ-ing admittance to the course) was 2/2 return, and by FIRST CLASS tram 3/8.

Remember? Edmund Lowe and Victor McLaglen were marching through the mire of "What Price Glory?" And Rod Ia Rocque and Dolores del Rio held sway in the romantic pictures.

But the film of the year for Sydney - for Australia, indeed - was "The Kid Stakes," with Sydney child actors and actresses playing their parts against a background of familiar scenes. Remember?

Artist There

THREE in that time-

journeying audience remembered. Syd Nicholls, creator of-the comic-strip Fatty Finn, was there. And little Gwcnda Hemus, who played Betty Briggs, the powder-puff sweet-heart of Fatty's deadly rival, Bruiser.

And young Ray Salmon, who was the film Jimmy Kelly, with a tawny mop as unruly as Fatty's. Yes, they were there to relive those ex-citing days.

[Image] An incident from "The Kid Stakes." This is part of the original film.

But little Gwenda - Gwenda of the goat-drawn billycan and the check gingham frock - was 1952's Mrs. Wright, wife of a clothing firm supply manager and mother of a boy just about as old as Fatty in the strip - 81/2.

And young Ray Salmon, always a big lad for his age, was there as 35-year-old, 15 stone Mr. Ray F. Salmon, one of the bosses of an electrical and switchboard manufactur-ing company. His comb wrecking mop has long ago thinned to a memory.

As They Were

WHAT a moment it was

for them when they saw their childhood selves come

out of the past as if by magic! What memories of long-for-gotten things it stirred!

Why, that tangled paddock with a fleeting background of sheds - why, that was Mascot, wasn't it, where the airplane took off to fly Fatty's goat Hector to the race that Bruiser had tried to rig?

And the pond that Hector was supposed to fall into when the plane did a loop? Yes, we remember now! It was the pond in Centennial Park. And the goat didn't really fall into it, of course. He was thrown.

There they go, the adven-turous, excited childhood band of 25 years ago, living every moment of make-believe intensely, realistically. That check gingham frock that Gwenda wore was green, brown and orange. It had to be check, the director said, so it would photograph well.

And what a thrill it was, choosing the material. Mrs. Wright - 36, in her black town dress, a double string of pearls around her neck and pearl earrings matching remembered it all. The gingham frock is still in a drawer at her home in Cowper Street, Randwick.

"Mum kept it for sentimental reasons, ' she said when the lights were on again. Her eyes were shining in a way that told you she was happy

that mum had.

Husband George and son Gregory are all set to see

The Kid Stakes' when it a screened at three Sydney news theatres this week And Gwenda is rather fearful oí the leg pulling she is sure she will have to put up with at

home afterwards

"That hat! ' she said, dismayed. It was good, 1927

fashion. But fancy looking like that to-day! On second thoughts she is not sure she will lake Gregory to see the picture.

On an empty plush seat

near Mr. Salmon lay a letter. It was from director Tal Ordell, who directed "The Kid Stakes." It was not even typewritten. 'The Kid Stakes" was no million dollar, super-colossal epic, You could tell that. The let-

ter was Ray's contract for his part in the picture.

It told him (date, November 11, 1926):

"Your salary will be 7/5 per day on every day you perform before the camera, and fares to and from your home. If you will bring your fox-terrier along I will also pay you for his services.

You must be on time. Bring the following old clothes with you: 1 old coat, 1 pair pants, one coloured shirt, 1 pair of boots, 1 cap, 1 hat, 1 waistcoat, 1 towel and piece of soap. Also your lunch."

?When Fox films made "Kangaroo" in Australia not long ago they had 30 people doing nothing but prepare food for the location crew and it cost thousands. But that was in another day and age. The sub-titles of silent Fatty Finn were far behind. Where Are They?

THE fox terrier did not

appear So another Run Tin Tin was lost to the

screen.

And where are the rest of the 1927 childhood gang? Robin (Pop) Ordell, who played Fatty, gave his life as an airman in the war. Perhaps some of those other children did, too. The film company reviving the old picture tried to find them and

failed.

Sydney will remember them, though 'The Kid Stakes" has been cut from a full-length feature to a 19 minute short so that it can fit in with news theatre time-tables and 11 shows a day.

But they will be 19 minutes to relive a part of our lives that has gone for ever.

OUTSIDE in the 1952

street, 36 year old Gwenda turned to 35 year old Ray, and held out her hand. When they had met again an hour ago, after all those years, they

had been formal.

But now the unaffectedness of 11 and 10 was back, 'Good-bye, Ray' she said 'It has been Iovely seeing you again.' She turned towards Randwick and the cares ot housekeeping.

Ray steered his 15 stone through the Christmas shopping crowds towards 1952 responsibilities. But they'll be back in the cinema dark ness and 1927 again when "The Kid Stakes ' goes on this week.

Yes, they'll be back.