Nothing surprises the shopkeepers of Bond Street. This most exclusive of shopping centres has long been used to gratifying the whims of mil-bonaires and indulging the fancies of society's smart set. Requests that in Other parts of London would be regarded as startling are received in Bond Street without so much as the raising of an eyelid.
An optician has a customer who keeps 36 pairs of spectacles, a pair for every room in the house. A titled Woman has just bought four type writers, one for every house she possesses. Not long ago a wealthy Indian ordered a "gold" motor-car. It was to be the largest of saloons, and everything visible had to be encased in 22- carat gold. The shopkeepers of Bond Street are surprised almost when it is hinted to them that such transaction: are surprising, I commented recently on the revival of Variety in England. Music-Halls, converted a few years ago into cine-mías, were returning to their first love. Musicians, thrown out of work by the Coming of talkies, were finding employment. It seemed as if the strongly entrenched citadel of "canned" entertainment was being stormed successfully at some of its strongest points by the champions of flesh and blood.
At least fen such reversions from cinema to music-hall were recorded in 1937; another 50 are expected in 1938. Now a new London super-cinema, claiming to be the largest in Europe, has installed a stage which is one of the biggest in England, and vaudeville turns will figure prominently in the scheme of entertainment. Supporting Gracie Fields and many other stars of Variety on the opening night were no fewer than 130 musicians.
But the trend to the stage, or to a combination of stage and screen, has suffered a setback. The director of a chain of 500 cinemas has announced his decision to scrap all stage shows, orchestras and organs in the houses under his control. It is reported that hundreds of musicians and dozens of organists will receive notice. Their places will be taken by gramophone records. His opinion of public taste is diametrically opposed to that of many leaders in the entertainment world Who is right The bottle message—ostensibly from Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith—recently found on the beach at Porthcawl, Wales, is generally believed to be a fake, In resembled a previous bottle missive found on the Welsh coast, supposed to be from Captain Hinch-diffe who disappeared on his Atlantic flight. It was dismissed by the authorities as a hoax. In both cases the name of the alleged writer was misspelled.
The fact that it is two years since Kingsford-Smith was lost does not, by itself, constitute a reason for doubting the genuineness of the letter. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries lave experimented with "drift bot-ties" in their study of ocean currents and some astonishing journeys have been recorded.
The world's record is held by the bottle which spent 35 years in the water. Released in 1842 from a point west of Australia it drifted 2,500 miles to Wilson's promontory, Victoria, where it was found by the lighthouse keeper in 1877. The original message is preserved by a descendant of the sender at Oxford and is still in good condition.
Dozens of bottles containing letters
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.