Private Pinker on Leave

'Tomorrow evening at the Westminster Music Hall, Liverpool, Mr. Frederick H.-U. Bowman will produce his new burlesque sketch, “Private Pinker on Leave.” It will occupy the bill for the remainder of the week there, Monday, Tuesday, and tonight being devoted to a revival of Mr. Bowman’s other sketch, “A Cuddlesome Ghost” ... Mr. Bowman is supported by Mr. Andy Wilson, and he has engaged Miss Cecilia Crawford as his leading lady’ (The Era, 11 December 1918). ‘Frederick H. U. Bowman, who has been presenting his own sketch company in A Cuddlesome Ghost this week at the Westminster, Liverpool, will produce there his latest burlesque, Private Pinker on Leave, playing the lead himself, and supported by Andy Wilson and Cecilia Crawford' (The Stage, 12 December 1918). ‘On Thursday, December 12, 1918, at the Westminster Music Hall, Liverpool, was produced a sketch by Frederick H. U. Bowman, entitled Private Pinker On Leave’. The cast was George Rivington, F. H. U. Bowman; Pte. Charlie Pinker, Andy Wilson, Maisie Pinker, Cecilia Crawford. ‘Afraid that the neighbours will look down upon her because her husband, Charlie, is an ordinary private in the Army instead of an officer, Mrs. Maisie Pinker is advised by a designing blackguard named George Rivington to spread the report that Charlie holds a captaincy. This means that Carlie never dare come near his home while in training for fear of having his real rank discovered, and thus Rivington is able to call on Maisie in her loneliness as often as he likes. When Maisie realises his true intentions, however, she is virtuously indignant. At this point Charlie rushes in. He wears some feminine garments instead of his uniform, and Rivington denounces him for having been making love to some other woman. The truth is that Charlie’s commanding officer, once a corporation scavenger, whom he had befriended, lent him an officer’s spare uniform to come home in, so that the neighbours would still think him a captain, but on the way he was set upon by some drunken men. Instead of arresting the latter, the muddling policemen arrested Charlie, and to escape them he had to slip out of the officer’s tunic, leaving it behind. He had accordingly snatched up the female garments from a remnant stall as a substitute for his abandoned khaki. Further complications ensue through the identification of the tunic’s real owner, the commanding officer being now arrested in error. Charlie goes to make a full confession, and Maisie realises at last that in times like these a private’s uniform does not imply any social inferiority at all. The sketch is played on farcical lines, and the only serious figure is that of George Rivington, impersonated with forcible determination by Mr. Bowman, the producer, who depicts the villain in a very lurid light. The comical element is divertingly presented by Mr. Andy Wilson. The soldier’s wife has a smart interpretation from Miss Cecilia Crawford’ (The Stage, 19 December 1918). Also reviewed in The Era, 18 December 1918.