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Speaking about the orchestra brings
in Herman Finck, who wielded the baton at the Palace for thirty years.
He was the incarnation of the place; his orchestra was one of the
best in the land and was not just part of the show, but an asset to
it. When it played in the interval, the interval seemed too short.
Finck made history at the Palace in many ways. His tune, 'In the Shadows,'
to which the delectable Palace Girls (always one of the turns, and
studiously copied to-day) did a skipping rope dance, was so much in
the vein of the period that it went all over the world, even to China.
For Finck was not only a fine conductor but a first-class composer.
Though today he is in the shadows himself that tune to which he gave
the name still lives in the sun of popularity. He gave us also 'Melodious
Memories' - a potpourri of popuar airs, ranging from classics and
grand opera to music hall songs,
and thereby started a fashion in musical 'switches.' The audience
of the Palace, even those of the Rovers, deserted the bars to listen
to it and try and name the melodies before he switched to the next.
It was a masterpiece. He was as much at home conducting for performing
animals as he was for Pavlova or Maud Allan, or a symphony orchestra.
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Right
and below - View of the fantastically complicated and highly unusual
understage design at the Palace Theatre. No longer used but still
in place, this system allowed flats to be raised through traps in
the stage floor for its whole depth instead of the usual method of
flying in from above the stage. How this process was managed, or indeed
looked, is hard to imagine. M.L. 2004.
Once
he caught the wheel which had come off a trick cyclist's machine as
it was dashing straight at him and the audience, and returned it to
the frightened man who had lost it, without missing a beat. For you
could not flurry Herman in that respect. In addition to all this,
Finck was one of the wittiest men in London. He was of middle height,
inclined to stoutness, dark, with luxuriant dark hair parted in the
middle, full in the face, and had a dark moustache and a beaky nose.
He was never at a loss for a joke. And his jokes always had point.
As when he received a wire from a well-known borrower which read,
'Send five pounds immediate.' Finck's reply was, 'Send ten pounds
urgent.' He was not troubled again. Herman Finck was a man-about-town,
a musician, a wit and a good friend. He himself liked being a man-about-town
best. But he was to play that `Melodious Memories' of his on a very
important occasion, no less than the first (and only) Royal Command
performance that has ever been given by the Variety profession.
