Inspired by a visit to the Theatre Royal in Brighton
By Domenico Trillo
Bill Richards: I remember the Grand Theatre very clearly. It was on North Road where the NCP is now. It closed about 60 years ago. I used to go there. It was cheaper and more working class than the Theatre Royal. You could get a seat and entertainment for about a shilling. There were about 300 seats, and there were some real characters playing there. Max Miller used to play there. The most expensive seat was one and six, but up in the gallery used to be ninepence. All the yobs used to go up there cos it was so cheap. They used to throw sweetwrappers and everything down on people.
The Theatre Royal was much more upper class. More money, not for the likes of myself. They used to have a panto every year. My gran took me once and I remember it cost her quite a lot. It was quite expensive.
Jennifer Patterson: When I was 15 and we went down to the Hippodrome and my friend and me went so see the Beatles. It was absolutely fantastic. We had ice cream. I couldn’t hear anything because of the screaming. We went backstage to try and see them, but they had gone.
Carol Mew: The Hippodrome was a lovely old theatre. My favourite pop star was Frankie Vaughan, he used to do a summer show there called ‘Happy go lucky’. I went so many times! I realised he used to sit round the back in a little office by the car park and I got to give him a peck on the cheek. Once, I sent a note to the stay door asking if Frankie Vaughan would get an older work colleague of mine, who was 78 up on stage on the day that we went to see him together. He did!
Frank Parks: I went to see two well known comedians onstage at the same show at the Hippodrome, Roy Castle and Des O Connor.
Melvyn Patterson: We went to see the show on the pier ‘No sex please, we’re British’. There was a glamour girl in it. It was like a play but a bit raunchy. There was a lot of protest about that in Brighton, but it was only cheeky, not really anything serious. The show was so good, I went to see it twice.
Bill Patterson: I was at the Pier Pavillion theatre one night, a Saturday, with the lads. Some girl of about 18 came up to me and asked for directions to Rock Gardens. I said I’d walk her up there. The lads went off, and I thought ‘I’m in here!’. When we got there, she said ‘ta for that love’ and went off. I realised it was Betty Turpin (the one who does the hotpots on Cornoation Street).
Rod Patterson: We went a couple of times to the Theatre Royal. We didn’t go to Brighton much from Portslade but we did sometimes go to the Hippodrome to see pantos. That was the working man’s theatre. I suppose I was about 6 or 7 when we used to go. My dad got the tickets once and then we had to queue to get in. He gave them to me to hold, and I was chewing on them while we waited, well, by the time we got to the door, I’d eaten them all! My dad had to explain what had happened to them to the doorman.
Ena Benge: I used to go to the Hippodrome on Middle Street every Saturday after work. We used to go and eat first, have a snack and then go. We had the same seats every week, booked them. I think it’s a block of flats now. It was all the old time music hall –comedians, jugglers,