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Photo from WRVS Heritage Plus Archive
Photo from WRVS Heritage Plus Archive
Photo from WRVS Heritage Plus Archive
Photo from WRVS Heritage Plus Archive
Photo from WRVS Heritage Plus Archive
Photo from WRVS Heritage Plus Archive
Photo from WRVS Heritage Plus Archive
WRVS Music Hall activities session 4
27th February 2008
Notes from reminiscence sessions where the group remember the first time they went to see a variety performance:
Ken: It must have been the London Palladium... an awful long time ago. During the war. It was a Saturday night and we sat up at the top, in the gods, it was horrendous, looking down onto a bottomless pit. We saw George Raft, he stepped out of a gangster's car and did a hot shoe shuffle. He said "that's not bad for a 70 year old". Because we'd seen him on screen, he was the Humphrey Bogart of his time. Then there were the Tiller girls!
Ivy: Going back.... I remember King George before the war. He danced with Ginger Rogers and they were the first ones to do the Bolero... I used to go to the Palladium before the war and the Victoria Palace by Victoria Station, London and we used to go and see the crazy gang, Flanagan and Allen. That was the first time I went to a proper show. I went with my husband, boyfriend then.
Max Miller
Doreen: I was ten years old and my mum and dad used to take me to the New Cross Empire to see the famous Max Miller. He told jokes that you could take both ways (Had a double meaning). I think the tickets were one shilling and eight pence in 1935. We used to go to the Odeon in Lewisham and the accordionist used to come along to entertain you when you queued, sometimes for and hour and a half. There was a feature film and a stage show and an organ. Max Miller was one of the best comedians I've ever seen on the stage.
What an eyefull!
We were putting on a little show at one of the residential homes... George (Phillips) had got his (panto) horse with him. He said, "Can you help me dress Doreen". I wasn't sure what he meant. I'm standing there with his trousers and I turned round and he's standing there with his G string on!
Night at the flicks
Rosina: I can't really remember a lot before my mum used to meet me off the train from work when I was 16, with sandwiches. We used to go to the cinema. My dad wouldn't bother. He wasn't interested. I used to wear office clothes. I worked in a bank. I was a real pickle in a way, I used to walk home past Charing Cross and past the boutiques. I was supposed to be saving, but I used to buy clothes sometimes. My mum used to say, you'll never have any money! I kept my pocket money in an Oxo tin.
More Max
Margaret: I can't remember the first time I went. I went with my parents and sister to the Brixton Empire ever two weeks. I remember Henry Hall and his orchestra; a dance band and that we saw George Robey. We used to go and see Max Miller. We used to walk to Brixton; you could get a bus from South Lambeth, along Wandsworth Road. It was in the evening about 5 or 6pm, not in the afternoon.
Les: I saw Max Miller. I lived at Kennington Oval. I was born in East London. We went to the Victoria Palace; we used to go to the Speedway at Lewisham. I never went to the Palladium, even the gods. It was too dear. We used to walk everywhere, all the way from Kennington Oval. My favourite was Max Miller.
Twisting the night away
Selina: I used to go to Woolwich, on the stage and pretend to be a dancer. I wanted to be a dancer. I went to a show with my brother. My youngest brother was a fantastic dancer. Tap dancing. I got on the stage one day and my dad saw me and said "you take after me". He was a fantastic dancer. I was only about four. I was a daddy's girl!
Sing your troubles away
Joyce: When I was at the home in Pickering, there was a hell of a lot of us, about 50 kids. It used to be about 3p to go to the cinema and have a bag of sweets. We used to walk in a crocodile of two children. I liked the organ coming up and down, I used to try and sing by the organ. It wasn't a nice home. We used to wear any old thing, whatever was donated. Odd shoes, odd socks. I used to go outside and sing my head off to forget about it. When I was 14, I used to go dancing where the Joe Loss orchestra played.
Monkeying around
George: I went to the Lewisham Hippodrome. My mum and dad used to do the shopping on a Saturday, later in the day when they suctioned the meat. So then we used to go straight from that to the London Hippodrome with all the shopping. Another thing was where we used to have monkey nuts and the shells would get everywhere. There used to be two houses; 6.15pm and another one at 8.15pm. The artists used to dash from one to the other. They had taxis waiting to take them.
I can remember George Formby and Gracie Fields because they were famous. At the end of the show there was a band, Jack Shilton, Harry Hall, then there was dancing, in the afternoon.
The bug didn't bite me till years afterwards. I went to work, went to war. We were very poor in them days. We took in washing. My sister was a parlour maid, she was in domestic service. I used to come in and see if some of the posh outfits would fit. I remember when I was 16 or 17, out with my mates.