Our latest blog comes from student volunteer Spike Perry. Spike has been cataloguing a fabulous set of programmes of stage shows featuring screen legends.
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It has been my great privilege, over this and the previous term, to assist the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum in archiving a treasure trove of classic theatre programmes from the Golden Age.
The items were very kindly donated to the museum by Peter Jewell, and were collected by him and Bill Douglas. Many of these programmes were from London’s West End and feature prominently on their front covers the names and images of America’s finest entertainers on special visits to England.
As someone who grew up in South-East London, with an interest in the city’s long and storied past, I found it fascinating not only to imagine the excitement of watching a big Hollywood or Broadway star performing in front of your very eyes not far from home, but to see advertisements hidden in the programmes for everything from Decca Records to the wonders of TCP Liquid. These are a real treat for anyone interested in British history during this period, I would highly recommend checking them out!
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In 1926, brother-and-sister team Fred and Adele Astaire brought their Gershwin musical sensation Lady, Be Good across the Atlantic in a string of appearances at London’s Empire Theatre in Leicester Square. The Bill Douglas Museum is now home to a programme from this iconic show. Warmly received by critics, there was high praise for Adele and rising admiration for her younger brother Fred.[1] Born in Nebraska, USA, the Astaires had starred in Lady, Be Good in a Broadway run beginning in 1924.
During their stay in London, the two found an especially welcoming reception from none other than the royal family. The Astaires were greeted by the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII), invited by the Duke and Duchess of York (the future George VI and Queen Mother) to meet their newly born daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth II, and were even honoured with a personal appearance by King George V and Queen Mary at the Empire Theatre.[2]
After a successful run, the show closed a year later. Fred Astaire went on to become an iconic Hollywood star fondly remembered for his incredible dancing talents and charm on screen, while his now lesser-known sister Adele took an early retirement from the stage in 1932, when she married Lord Charles Cavendish and settled in Ireland. The Empire Theatre was sadly demolished not long after the end of this production, but was rebuilt as a cinema. The image above the blog shows the cover of the programme (EXEBD 90577).
The Judy Garland Show Programme, Dominion Theatre, London, 1957.(EXEBD 90572)
Another find, hidden deep within the cardboard box, was this programme from ‘Miss Showbusiness’ Judy Garland’s music-focused appearance at the Dominion Theatre in October-November 1957. The production was overseen by her then-husband, Sidney Luft.
Famous for her legendary roles in some of Hollywood’s greatest films, including The Wizard of Oz and A Star is Born, at this time, Judy had been reviving her singing career with a series of studio albums on the popular Capitol label. Before 1955, she had not released an album for ten years. The first of these new albums was entitled Miss Show Business. Its nostalgic tone, embodied in the song While We’re Young, and album design featuring images of some of Judy’s greatest roles saw the LP rise to number 4 in the charts.[3] The programme contains an advertisement for her latest albums Miss Show Business, Judy, and Alone, along with her most recent single It’s Lovely to be Back in London.
Appearing with Judy was ‘Warner Bros. new Comedy Star’ Alan King, an American comic who later became well known for his regular appearances on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson and even co-hosted the Oscars ceremony in 1972.
Writing of the opening show on the 16th October 1957, David Shipman noted that ‘there was a crash of applause like a giant wave hitting a rock’ and as the star was revealed on stage, a man shouted ‘Welcome back Judy!’ to which a deeply moved Judy replied ‘Oh darling!’[4] In the audience that night were famous actors Donna Reed, Richard Attenborough, Stanley Baker, Rod Steiger and Lana Turner.[5]
Joan of Arc at the Stake Programme, Stoll Theatre, London, 1954.
EXEBD 90580
Perhaps the most intriguing item of all is this programme from the 1954 Stoll Theatre production of Joan of Arc at the Stake starring Ingrid Bergman, presented by a special arrangement with “The Ambassador of British Dance Music,” bandleader and theatrical producer Jack Hylton. Following a period of controversy which saw her forced to leave the USA and move to Italy, Ingrid was to return to Hollywood two years following this performance in 1956.
A scandalous affair with Italian film director Roberto Rosselini in 1949 caused Ingrid to be denounced on the floor of the United States Senate. The two married in 1950 and Ingrid left with him to make a series of neorealist films which went largely unappreciated at the time, but which have since been reevaluated by critics as being very influential to modern cinema. 1954 was around the tail-end of their professional and personal relationship. It was in this context that Ingrid Bergman appeared, with husband Rossellini directing, in this theatrical performance. The same year, an Italian film version was released, again with Bergman-Rossellini at the helm.
Ingrid was no stranger to the role of Joan of Arc, having already played her in the 1948 historical epic film Joan of Arc for RKO Radio Pictures. Her association with the role was in part what had made America so disgusted at the revelation of her affair with Rossellini, the idea that someone who had portrayed the pure and virtuous Joan of Arc so well should prove to be capable of cheating on her husband.[6] As Ingrid herself said, ‘a movie star is a ridiculous commercial product. People said that once I was the perfect model of a wife and mother. They saw me in Joan of Arc and thought I was a saint. I’m not. I’m just a human being. And the result was that I always felt guilty - my entire life.’[7] The whole business left a terrible toll on her and it is perhaps surprising, then, that she was willing to return to this role at all.
Just two years following this production, their marriage had fallen apart after personal difficulties emerging mostly from their many unsuccessful film collaborations.[8] Ingrid returned to Hollywood where she became once again an icon of American cinema.
London Alhambra Programme, Featuring the Marx Brothers (EXEBD 90539)
Last but not least, the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum now contains a programme from the London Alhambra, Leicester Square, from Monday 3rd July 1922. Fascinatingly the show starred four of the Marx Brothers, that is Julius H., Herbert, Leonard and Arthur, in an early stage performance of Home Again. It did not however feature Milton. Note the curious use of their real first names here, rather than their stage names for which they became famous, such as Groucho and Harpo. A year earlier they had made their first film together, Humor Risk, now sadly considered a lost film. They would not make another film as a group until 1929 with The Cocoanuts. However, it would not really be until the 1930s that the Marx Brothers’ cinematic career took off.[9] This programme is therefore especially of interest as it details a theatrical performance from this lesser known, early period in their career.
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While Judy Garland came to London in 1957 to promote the music side of her career with a concert at Dominion Theatre, in the case of the Astaires and the Marx Brothers, London was a place to extend their stage acting careers beyond Broadway before a new audience across the Atlantic. To Ingrid Bergman, however, London represented part of her wider European escape from the horrors of media and political attention in America following the Rossellini scandal. It is interesting to consider the role that London played in developing, and in some cases revitalising, the careers of these legendary stars of yesteryear.
Sadly, time and space constraints prevent me from writing any more of these fascinating programmes. I hope you enjoyed learning about them as much as I did. If you are interested, there were many more items in this collection including: Mae West in Diamond Lil at the Prince of Wales Theatre (1948), Marlene Dietrich at the Golders Green Hippodrome (1965) and Ginger Rogers in Mame at the Theatre Royal (1969) to name just a few!
Hopefully these items will be of great interest to future scholars looking into the experience and reception of American stars in Britain. Thank you to the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum for letting me work on this project, and I look forward to working on the next one.
[1] Riley, Kathleen. The Astaires: Fred & Adele. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 108.
[2] Ibid., p. 109.
[3] Shipman, David. Judy Garland. London: Fourth Estate, 1992, p.337.
[4] Ibid., 362.
[5] Ibid., 363.
[6] Spoto, Donald. Notorious: The Life of Ingrid Bergman. London: Harper Collins, 1997, p.278.
[7] Ibid., 278.
[8] Leamer, Laurence. As Time Goes By: The Life of Ingrid Bergman. New York: New American Library, 1987, p.309.
[9] Charney, Maurice. Comic World of the Marx Brother’s Movies: “Anything Further Father?” Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2007, p.9.