Harry Lauder's Twirly Stick On The Worldwide Web

By Gordon Irving

What happens to stage props when their owners fade into history? GORDON IRVING traces the fate of one of Sir Harry Lauder's legendary crooked sticks.

A twirly (curved) walking stick, used in person by the legendary Scottish entertainer Sir Harry Lauder on his record-breaking tours of North America early last century, has sold for a record £700 on the worldwide internet.

It has gone to Lauder's No 1 American fan, James Marturano, 48, of Brooklyn, New York, who works for the U.S. Defence Department. Marturano, an enthusiast for the Lauder music and legend, has wanted to own a Harry Lauder stick for over three decades.

He said : "The auction ran on the worldwide web for eight days. There have been many Lauder items for sale on eBay, a top Internet auction service, such as records, books and autographs, but never before an actual prop owned by Sir Harry.

"I've been seeking a Harry Lauder curly stick for over 30 years and I am thrilled that I have finally got a genuine one because there are a fair number of copies around."

Lauder kept his collection of several dozen sticks, featured in his song-and-comedy act, in the Curio Room at Lauder Ha', his mansion home at Strathaven, Lanarkshire, where they were displayed proudly for visitors. Bidding was brisk when they were auctioned at Lauder Ha' back in 1966. Some 46 of them fetched a total of almost £1,000, a sizeable sum for that era. Hundreds travelled to Lauder Ha' to bid for them as memorabilia.

Marturano's successful auction has also landed him two prints that hung in Sir Harry's bedroom. One is a portrait of the Queen as a child, the other an autographed photograph of the Dowager Countess of Airlie.

The Glasgow auction house of Morrison, McChlery & Co. handled the original Lauder Ha' sale in 1966, where the items were listed as part of Lot 615. Marturano added: " Although a steep price , I decided to go for the items. "The American statesman Benjamin Franklin once wanted a toy whistle so much that he spent all of his savings. When he finally got it, he realised that it wasn't as much fun to play with as he thought and he would rather have had the money.

"He used to say 'I paid too much for my whistle.' In his later years he would always judge the value of something by that whistle and if it gave him the pleasure and enjoyment he had expected to get from it, then it was worth it.

" I don't think that I paid too much for my 'whistle', and I have never bought a Sir Harry Lauder item that has caused me regret."

Three decades ago, when he was a boy of 15, James Marturano and his chum, admirers of Gilbert and Sullivan music, came on an LP in a little store on New York's 46th Street.

It featured a selection of songs with the voice of Sir Arthur Sullivan along with some music-hall stars.

One of those vaudevillians was Sir Harry Lauder, and from that day on James Marturano became a dedicated fan.

Young Marturano and his chum rushed home to play the records. "When I heard 'Roamin' in the Gloamin'" I fell immediately in love with Lauder," he said. "Every Saturday we went to the Meritz Music shop and bought more Harry Lauder records.. We couldn't get enough of them,"

CELEBRATES

Marturano celebrates Harry Lauder's birthday each August 4, "We never miss the anniversary, and always 'have a drappie, just tae make us happy'."

Now a member of the Scottish Music Hall and Harry Lauder Appreciation Society, he recalls how he scrimped and saved to buy Sir Harry's books 'Roamin' in the Gloamin' , 'Minstrel in France' and 'Between You and Me.' Even today he is still searching for Lauder records, and only recently heard from a young man in Virginia who had Lauder records to sell.

"I bought them over the Internet; they were the U.K. pressings that are not very common in the U.S.A."

"Sir Harry recorded many of his songs for the U.S. market in the Victor studios in New York and in Camden, New Jersey. So it was a real coup for me to get these few His Master's Voice 'foreign' records."

ROUND TRIP

James is now so much the Lauder aficionado that, on a recent Saturday, he drove the 550-miles' round trip from New York City to Virginia to pick up over 850 records and 45 pieces of sheet music in a precious Lauder collection.

He says: " This is the collection of a lifetime. Just think, a hundred years from now some kid will be playing MY Lauder collection and enjoying it as much as I am revelling in it right now."

Article contributed by GORDON IRVING, Sir Harry Lauder Fan extraordinaire!

Thanks to the Scottish Theatre Archives for permission to use their images of Sir Harry Lauder.

Links:

Sir Harry Lauder Famous Scot on GOTC

Where's Sir Harry's Statue? on GOTC

Portabello Town Council Forms Committee for Lauder Statue on GOTC

Logan does Lauder on GOTC

Theatre Royal on GOTC

www.sirharrylauder.com

Sir Harry Lauder on the Scottish Theatre Archives