...and, in case you weren't able to get along in person, here is the unveiling of today's blue plaque, together with archive footage of some of the acts and a very chipper present day Bernie Clifton. Courtesy of ITV News:
Music hall and variety Page 16
Threatened to go there many a time in the 60s, but never got round to it sadly
Quote: Billy Bunter @ 28th April 2024, 10:19 PMA collection of photos, costumes and documents from Jeanne Mackinnon, Wilson and Keppel's last ever Betty, is to be auctioned in a single lot at Richard Winterton Auctioneers, Lichfield Auction Centre on Monday 20 May.
The auction catalogue can be viewed online via www.richardwinterton.co.uk/auction-dates a week before the sale.
Here is the relevant catalogue page for tomorrow's auction (9:30am): https://bid.richardwinterton.co.uk/auctions/8910/srric10410/lot-details/3bf69bee-7cd7-4d11-92fc-b16c00b29353
Here are the instructions on how to register & bid for these items and to watch the auction live:
Well, the item in question is lot # 779. The auction started at 9:30 and they've got through some 90 lots in 30 minutes. So...
Disappointingly didn't sell. Could've been a chance for the BCG to purchase for its archives. Guide price was £2,000-£3,000 but the reserve of £1,200 wasn't met.
Two days ago - 20 May - the date of birth of three Music Hall/Variety stalwarts:
1. Harry Clifton (1832), singer, songwriter and entertainer,
his most successful composition being Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green, sung here by Archie Harradine: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok0-BljRmJ8
2. Jimmy James (1892), Music hall, film, radio and television comedian/comedy actor,
seen here in the "lion in a box" sketch with his partners (known as Hutton Conyers & Bretton - later better known as Eli - Woods): www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANIA4IP245c
and the subject of a Comedy Chronicles article on the very site earlier this year; www.comedy.co.uk/features/comedy_chronicles/the-art-and-impact-of-jimmy-james/
3. Betty Driver (1920), singer, later better known for her hotpots in the Rovers Return,
-
seen here singing The Moon Remembered in 1939: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRr7KUY2ce8
Quote: Billy Bunter @ 22nd May 2024, 2:21 PM3. Betty Driver (1920), singer, later better known for her hotpots in the Rovers Return,
-
seen here singing The Moon Remembered in 1939: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRr7KUY2ce8
Remember seeing her a few years back on TPTV in "Penny Paradise" (1938) - 18 years old and barely recognisable - also noticed that she was called Betty in her first 3 films.................
Billy! I've said this before - why are your picture files so bloody huge!!
Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 22nd May 2024, 3:18 PMBilly! I've said this before - why are your picture files so bloody huge!!
You should worry - you should try typing it out. 😊
Cup Final Day:
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Heh Heh! Turned out nice again, ain't it. 🎵 Plunk, plunky, plunk, plunk.........🎶
It Ain't no Fault of Mine, written by Joe Davis (no, not that one) and Spencer Williams and performed here by Roy Fox and his Band with Nat Gonella on vocals and Al Bowlly on guitar:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XrTTVJ0DPo
Al Bowlly (7 January 1899 - 17 April 1941) was a South African born British jazz crooner during the British dance band era of the 1930s. He recorded more than 1,230 tracks between 1927 and 1941, his most popular songs including Midnight, the Stars and You, Goodnight, Sweetheart, The Very Thought of You, Guilty and Love Is the Sweetest Thing. Here is a link to his website containing biographical information, discography, details of the many musicians with whom he worked and much more:
Two more from Vesta Victoria (see also my post on page 12 of this thread):
Now I Have to Call Him Father (1911) www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1dNeXg08V4
and
Poor John (1907): www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_ZAczzyD_8
...and two more from Billy Bennett (further to my post on page 14 of this thread):
She was Poor but She was Honest:
She was poor but she was honest
though she came from humble stock
And her honest heart was beating
Underneath her tattered frock
But the rich man saw her beauty
She knew not his base design
And he took her to a hotel
And bought her a small port wine
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
In the rich man's arms she fluttered
Like a bird with a broken wing
But he loved her and he left her
Now she hasn't got no ring
Time has flown - outcast and homeless
In the street she stands and says
While the snowflakes fall around her
'Won't you buy my bootlaces'
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
Standing on the bridge at midnight
She says 'Farewell blighted love!'
There's a scream a splash good 'eavens!
What is she a doing of?
Soon they dragged her from the river
Water from her clothes they wrang
They all thought that she was drownded
But the corpse got up and sang:
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpGfH6gsxZ8
and
The League of Nations:
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears.
I have a story to tell.
Lend me your ears;
if you've not got them with you, your noses will do just as well.
What we want today is social reform, parish reform and more than likely chloroform.
What did Gladstone say after '99? Why, 100 of course. And he was right.
I represent the common people and nobody is more common than I am.
We have the Press behind us and if there is one thing I like to see in a newspaper
It's a good feed of fish and chips.
I've just arrived from the League of Nations and I'll tell you all about it:
The League of Nations met in Berwick Market,
To discuss on which side kippers ought to swim.
There were Hottentots and Prussians playing honeypots on cushions,
And a Greek with bubble and squeak upon his chin.
Some drove up in taxis that were empty,
Some arrived to say they couldn't come.
The Hindus had their quilts on, the Hebrews had their kilts on,
A Scandinavian rose and said 'By Gum,
Think of what we have done in the future,
Shall we do our duty in the past?'
The Japanese Prime Minister got up and said 'Tush, tush'.
Someone threw a shepherd's pie that hit his Shepherd's Bush.
A Scotsman from the north land got up and spoke in shorthand,
Like a vegetarian straight from Botany Bay.
He said, 'Where has the kidney bean? What made the woodbine wild?
Is red cabbage greengrocery? And tell me friends,' he smiled,
'Can a bandy-legged gherkin be a straight cucumber's child?
That's what Crosse and Blackwell want to know today.'
The League of Nations met at Marks and Woolworths,
And asked them if a discount they'd allow.
A farmer with his tanner said he wished to buy a spanner,
He could use when he was milking of the cow.
A Turk said 'We want work, and not much of it,
A job like giving gooseberries Marcel waves.'
A Zulu most courageous said, 'Brothers it's outrageous,
Black puddings should be treated as white slaves'.
Shall we ever do so if we can't do,
Would we, would we, if we, p'raps we won't.
Admiral McNestle of the Swiss Navy arose
Shouting 'Where would Turkey be without the parson's nose?'
The Rajah of Shlemozzle got up and blew his nozzle,
He had these few well-chosen words to say,
'Can a sausage keep its figure if its burberry is flat?
If a duck has had its tonsils out where does it keep its quack?
We know a hen can lay an egg but can it put it back?
That's what Levy and Franks are fighting for today!'
This weekend has seen the annual convention of the George Formby Society in Blackpool.
Born on last Sunday's date (26 May) in 1904, here are a couple of links to the George Formby Society website, which will tell us a lot more about about George Formby than I could have the time to research or the space to share:
There used to be joke quiz question that went something like this.
Which Jockey won The grand national but fell off twice during the race, slipped under the horses belly and came from last to first.
.
.
.
George Formby in Come On George.