Hackney Empire, London

That charming artiste, Miss Gertie Gitana, has been secured for the premier position on the bill at the Hackney Empire next week. She is one of the accepted queens of the variety stage. It can be declared with truth that few artistes can command the overwhelming welcome that awaits Gertie Gitana. The jolly "Dutch" girl, May Moore Duprez, is another popular visitor. There is no jollier or more entertaining personality on our stage that "the girl in the sabots." "My sort of work," says Miss Duprez "you can only get over the footlights by really feeling the part you play." And following we are to get Lawrence Wright's company of talented musical artistes, Will Gardner, the new style comedian, Duncan and Godfrey in "A Soldier, a Girl and a Jolly Jack Tar;" Jackley and Le Sine, Halma, and the Three Wolkens. (Eastern Post Saturday 5 August 1916)

‘Pride of place at Hackney is given to “Parker’s Appeal,” which is played on robustly comical lines by Charles Austin and his company. The number of laughs secured by Charles Austin in his various farcical sketches must almost constitute a record and this, the latest of the “Parker” series, is quite as funny as any of its predecessors’. The Stage, 6 December 1917.

‘“Parker, P.C.” is an old friend – a character one may say, whose genial humour will always prevail whatever the nature of the adventure with which he meets. And Parker’s career is far from being uneventful. Next week at the Hackney Empire we are to meet him in some new adventures. The exact form of these is really of little importance, for as represented by Charles Austin we have in “Parker” a “character” who is bound to say something droll, whatever may be the situation on which he finds himself. It is, of course, largely a one-man show, and the fact that Charles Austin succeeds in keeping his audiences thoroughly amused scene after scene is a tribute to his innate abilities as a comedian ... It may be of interest to know that the original famous sketch “Parker, P.C.” was written in Hackney. Mr. Austin was living in Victoria Park-road at the time, and in passing the old police station one day he noticed a board advertising the property for sale. This immediately appealed to his sense of humour, he returned home at once and within a few hours had finished the famous sketch which has now become a classic’. East London Observer, 23 November 1929.