(Daily Mail [London] - 9th May, 1907)
THE MUSIC-HALL SONG - ITS ORDEAL TO THE SINGER

There is a great difference between singing, in musical comedy, with elaborate scenery, the help of a chorus, and some semblance of a plot, and appearing as an individual "turn" in a music-hall programme. Many instances have occurred in which this change of environment has not proved altogether a success, and probably the main reason is because of the inherent difference between an audience in a theatre and in a music-hall.

Not so in the case of Miss Kitty Gordon, who, on the withdrawal of "Nelly Neil" from the Aldwych Theatre, consented to try her luck on the variety stage at the London Pavilion.

"However," said Miss Gordon to a "Daily Mail" representative yesterday, "I accepted the offer with more than, a little diffidence, because I had heard of this big difference between singing in a theatre and in a music-hall. You see, in a theatre members of the audience, in ordinary circumstances, have come to see the whole play, and have their attention intent upon the stage throughout the evening. On the other hand, in a music-hall many people may have come to see two or three special 'turns,' and there is a certain amount of impatience noticeable among them when artistes in whom they have, so to speak, no personal interest, are on the stage. That is why it is so difficult to score a success in our modern music-halls."

"I am very proud of my frocks," said Miss Gordon. "I am, indeed, a firm believer in the assistance an effective gown lends to a vocalist under any circumstances, and particularly on the music-hall stage - the more so in an instance such as mine, where the whole attention of the audience is fixed on me during the time I am on the stage."

Apropos her last visit to New York, Miss Gordon tells the following story:-

"I was singing one day at a charity concert, and consented, at the earnest request of a suave stranger, to visit a poor cripple child, whose favourite song, he said, I had happened to be singing. But when I entered the residence of this alleged 'cripple' I found myself, much to my astonishment, in the presence of a convivial gathering of 'Broadway bounders,' who had chosen this subterfuge as a means of enticing me to a questionable supper party. It was with some difficulty that I extricated myself from what was a most unpleasant position. Luckily, I managed to escape without anymore serious harm than a nasty fright - and a certain loss of faith in the amateur philanthropist."

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