The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 52

by ber "VZh Lu "Z80? Th fhen InneVVprtn. and a COCKTAIL ciblSetT" era 52 THE SUN-HERALD. NOVEMBER 7. 1954 Tears And A ILast JLaugh JFoir TThe wm qq)c By a Staff Correspondent in London IN HAMBURG, Germany, last week a little Swiss, a man who has given the world more laughter than anyone else probably in history, clowned for the last time. 4 This picture of Grock the clown was taken last year.

Mercerized gaberdine, with deep waistband, button-up placket, fob pocket. Summer's and light, favourite Check-Cord, cool with clever placket pocket. comedy in a score of circuses which wandered around Europe. In his middle twenties he was already world famous as a natural genius in the delicate arts of mime and the more robust skills of knockabout. In his time Grock has made two fortunes, both approaching the million pound sterling mark, and he has played before more than 30 million people.

His first fortune he lost in the Wall Street crash of the 'twenties; most of the second he has preserved. Grock has always been a hard man with a shilling. His off-stage quarrels have almost always been about money. In 1924 he had a bitter disagreement with a British theatre owner. Sir Oswald Stoll, and an even harsher to-do with the British income-tax authorities.

Grock said he would never appear again in fashion's slim-hip look mohnrtQ Cashen9etsit I I I I beautifully and gives it right to you in summer's most Britain, and recently he said with bitter inaccuracy, "England is the only country in the world where I haven't a single friend." For thirty years Britain's loss has been the delightful gain of the Continent and-of North and South America. Some Laughter "Is Celestial" Grock has caused the former Queen of Spain to be led choking and ill from her box so that the Royal doctor had to be summoned from his dinner; he was told by Churchill. "1 was sure the best clowns were English until I saw you;" he has been acknowledged as the supreme master by such as Charlie Chaplin and Groucho Marx. Grock's art has always defied as such art must a proper analysis. It has always appealed to children as much as to intellectuals.

BRONCO I MOBO CHAIR fashionable fabrics 6 of the many exciting Mobo toys for children of two to eight years Among his most warming characteristics have been a refusal to go near the "blue" gag, and his love of children. He said recently, without affectation, "I have always played primarily to children. To me the music of their laughter is celestial. That 1 must always bear in mind, and it is that which goes very near the heart." His props have always been the same a piano, a suitcase and a tinv violin and a chair and with these he has wrung tears trora the world's audiences. Grock was married in London to Ines, an Italian girl, just before his quarrel with Stoll 30 years ago.

She and a nurse will go with him to retirement. But Grock himself will continue to look after all his interests his chocolate factory in Switzerland, his investments and his other houses in Paris and Laus- anne. DESK Irt-iiiAB nine SCOOTER All Steel with! tubular frame, foot-brake, kicK-stand and thick rubber tyres. 3116 ll PONY EXPRESS I 1 Mot TOYS I IMOBO dine, with trim tailored I pockets set forward of lJffA ide seams. iSSS Safe, cannol overswing Adjustable stirrups, II Blackboard If one side with numbers, letters, etc.

Turn Tt over for meal 1 tray. Strong, secure handlebar fitted with rubber grips. Beautifully realistic; all-steel safe, cannot jrip' 1 3166 construction 823 IT was, professionally speaking, the end ot trail which for 61 years has taken Grock around the world on missions of mirth. Under the gold and scarlet big top of his own circus he fiddled with a tiny violin, dropped his piano lid on his long, white fingers, took preposterous leaps into space and said goodbye to his audience. Three thousand Germans, many of them weeping, watched the professional passing of Crock.

They saw the rubbery little man in his bald wig. pudding-shaped hat, tent-sized trousers and red and white chalked face, amble back into the sawdust ring to be given a bouquet by Max Schmeling. the German former world heavyweight boxing champion. They heard the old clown's emotional counsel to a man who has been his junior partner for 20 years: "You are young and I am old, my hour is past, yours is to come. Be happy, my son." For, at 74.

Grock's eyes are dimming, his hands are becoming bent. He has been striking wrong notes unintentionally on his piano; the physical suppleness so necessary for his maniacal leaps and flings is fast deserting him. He Has Made Two Fortunes Grock, the extraordinary, now goes to his Italian villa at San Remo to read, fish and "cultivate his garden." Maybe he will have time to think of the beginnings of Charles Adrien Wettach. born in the Swiss village of Reconvilliers as the thirteenth child of a watchmaker. The young Wettach.

who was to. change his name to Grock, started clowning professionally at 11 in Swiss market places. He joined up with a travelling circus in Berne, and perfected his own brand of And this is Grock the shrewd businessman. Don't lrt ugly, disfiguring Pimples, Eczema, Acne, Ringworm, Psoriasis, Blackheads or Itching, Cracking, Peeling, Burning Bkin Troubles make life miserable and spoil your fun. Don't be embarrassed and feel Inferior because of a bad akin.

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