A queue of people waited all night and all day outside the doors of His Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne, Australia. At an auction sale, held from the stage, tickets were sold−some at 100 guineas each. It was Dame Nellie Melba's farewell appearance−Melba, for over 20 years the world's greatest singer, true successor to Patti. The vast audiences went wild with joy, cheered and cheered−and eight carloads of flowers were carried to the stage.
Helen Porter Mitchell (Melba) born in 1859, made her first public appearance at six years of age at a school-concert, when she sang Comin' Thro' the Rye to...
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