The following are my recollections of events at the Palace Theatre during my lifetime.
My friend, the late Victor Bott, who worked on the lime lighting system at the Theatre when it first opened, recalled to me that in the very early days the Palace was run by a consortium of three men, who antics were the inspiration for the film The Card starring Alec Guinness many years later. They all had to leave town in a hurry when one of them got a local licensee’s daughter pregnant.
It says on the commemorative stained glass window that among those who had appeared at the theatre was strong man Martin Bredis, to the best of my knowledge he never did but instead was at the recently erected Select Kinema (correct spelling) which was built by the Treadgold family in direct opposition to the Palace after they had lost the lease on the old Public Hall, later the Gaumont Cinema. But that is an earlier story.
In the 1940s the seating capacity was 514 including the boxes. There were two extra raised rows at the rear of the circle and an exit stairway which lead into Grove Street. The entrance to the stalls is where the entrance to the Green room is now situated and on the left hand side of the proscenium was a clock and on the right hand side an illuminated numbers panel which was updated as each variety act appeared.
The large heavy safety curtain was lowered before, during the interval, and at the end of each performance, before the show started, it was wound up and down by backstage worker Bill Brough, slides advertising local businesses were displayed on the curtain and one I remember was my uncle, George Goodall, Family Butcher which displayed a photo of a large bull, his shop was directly over the road from the Alcester Street entrance.
For many years, a rumour passed around the town that Charlie Chaplin appeared here in the early days and stayed at a lodging house in St. Georges Road. There is no truth in this, for I have seen the original ships’s log which shows that Charlie sailed to America in the year 1912, he was described as an actor and his total assets were £60. The confusion might have arisen because for many years Charlie was part of Fred Karno’s acrobatic troup and they may well hve visited here after he left. I have, in fact, seen the place in Hollywood where Charlie made his early films including The Gold Rush, it was simply a very large wooden shed.
My first memory of visiting the theatre was in 1937 when as a very small child my dad took me to see the Great Levante, real name Leslie Cole, he was an Australian and was internationally famous magician and illusionist and had just returned to this country from a world tour. He had a spectacular supporting programme and I am attaching a playbill from Morcambe where he presented virtually the same supporting cast many years later.
I can remember some of the tricks he performed including the coin snatch, the sixpenny Woolworths tin kettle trick which involved pouring a wide selection of drinks from an empty kettle and giving the to the audience to drink afterwards, and throwing the kettle away for anyone to take home. I remember going home and trying to do the tricks exactly as shown, none worked. He concluded the show with a spectacular firing a girl from a cannon situated at the rear left hand corner of the stage into a net on the front right hand corner. A short time afterwards, he was doing this trick in a northern theatre and when the girl landed in the net she was struck on the temple by a supporting post , and she died. It was hushed up for obvious reasons , but a short time afterwards he has another girl performing the same thing.
My next visit was to see Samson Brown, the strong man, who performed amazing feats of strength. To publicize the show he pulled one of Regent Motorway’s coaches down Grove Street with his teeth and allowed Brown’s Coal Merchants lorry loaded with half a ton of coal to ride over his chest on Market Place. He bent a strip of iron between his teeth into an ornamental shape and passed it around the audience and the last one to examine it was allowed to keep it as a souvenir, on the night we were there this was kept by Ralph Manning who was the licensee of the Plumbers Arms in Walford Street and so it was put on permanent display in the bar. He allowed a member of the audience to break a slab of concrete on the chest with a sledgehammer, and also allowed members of the audience to come up on stage and play tug of war with the rope looped around his neck. Samson looped a towel around his fist and drove a 6 inch nail through a 2 inch plank of wood, for many years my late father never stopped relating how unbelievable it was that he was he was able to withdraw the nail , it wasn’t until many years later that I became more aware of the working of the entertainment business that I realized the plank may have been balsa wood. He then threw out a challenge to any man in the audience to come up an stage and from a standing position punch him in the chest and if he could be knocked to the floor he would pay £5 (two weeks wages at the time). Against all rules of the theatre, Bill Brough, who was employed as the fly man came down from above the stage and threw him a punch, although it didn’t floor him hit brought him down on one knee. Afterwards, Samson’s assistant came to Bill backstage, pressed a 10 shilling note in his hand and said “Samson said don’t come up again” I should mention that Samson Brown was an Hungarian who spoke no English and he had a very presentable young man who stood on the left hand corner of the stage and commentated and translated during his performance. One of the things he said and remains clearly in my mind is that Samson attributes his enormous strength to the fact that he never goes out with ladies, in my childish mind I thought what on earth has that got to do with it?
During the winter months circus acts would frequently appear in the theatres and once when I was present a lion was led onto the stage on a lead and he ate a joint of meat off a scantily dressed girl’s chest who was lying on the front of the stage. On another occasion, a tight wire was stretched from the stage to the lighting box and a trapeze artiste performed over the audience. A well documented event was when an elephant refused to walk on stage until the stage had been reinforced. Seals and performing dogs were a regular occurrence.
Over a period of many years the theatre had many managers but the Palace was actually owned by Teddy Wilkinson, a milkman, know for his frugal habits, he lived in St Georges Road and in his spare time manufactured lead fishing weights in his kitchen. I got to know Ted well over the years and he was a small unassuming figure who was always present somewhere in the background either ripping tickets or showing folks to their seats. ~These managers were either employees or lessees from Ted.
As most handbills and posters do not have dates it is impossible to recall events in the correct sequence but I recall an event during one period when the manager was having financial problems, to put it bluntly he was getting his money mixed up with the owners, I will not identify him for obvious reasons.
It was a Sunday night concert presented by a well known band leader Vernon Adcock, many Redditch folk will remember him because he was, for many years, the resident band at the Winter Gardens at Weston- Super-Mare during the summer season. They were playing to a packed house, but after the interval Vernon Adcock came on stage and said “Thank you for being a lovely audience but we are not going to play in the second half, we are going and we are never coming back to this theatre again”.
I was first involved as a performer at the age of 14 years in 1944 and appeared as a tap dancer with the Show of Shows Company, This was the Elsie Siddele Downing’s Redditch Stage School, during the 1940s she presented a week long show every August and an original pantomime, written by her, every January. The profits were given to charity and she probably put more bums on seats during that period than anyone else in the history of the theatre
For more years than I can remember, Charlie Whitehouse, who lived in nearby Wellington Street and was the town‘s billposter was the hardworking and highly efficient stage manager. He had a nightmares controlling the hundreds of kids backstage in Elsie’s shows. Outside he was never seen without his small mongrel Jack Russell dog, and on many occasions, after a successful professional show the cast would retire to the nearby Queen Head pub, the blinds would be drawn and the doors locked, and drinking would go on until the early hours, during which time the dog imbibed, and both Charlie and dog could be seen walking ungainly home.
You can gather from now that my main interest has been variety, comedy, music and band music, I have never followed, or been involved in the activities, of the legitimate theatre although I have in my possession a near complete record of the Plays etc.
Next came someone, who in my opinion was the most professional manager that the theatre has had during my lifetime, I refer of course to Jack Leuty, 1947 -1952, he, like Bertie Adams from the Birmingham Hippodrome was always present in the foyer, immaculately turned out in a dress suit with a welcoming smile and a friendly word to all newcomers, and always eager to listen to listen to patrons comments at the end of each performance.
He tried every type of entertainment, and I remember his twice nightly variety shows with great enjoyment. One that comes to mind is one headed by a virtually unknown cockney comic call Sam Kern whose gimic was that he could put his tongue out and touch his chin. His real claim to fame however is that in the Express Dairies, in the Edgeware Road in London, when he was unemployed and starving he composed, on the back of a Woodbine Packet the song Mary From the Dairy, which he sold the sole rights to the great Max Miller who paid him the sum of £4 and it became Maxie’s signature tune.
During Jack Luety’s tenure a café was introduced in a small room off the stairway to the circle. It was run by Bert Maries, who had a sweet shop directly across the road from where Rileys now stands.
It was during this period show presented by comedian Tubby Bennett came and was so successful that he stayed for six weeks and did a different show every week, I sat in the café and was witness to the business arrangements between Jack and himself, I can remember the smell of this pipe tobacco now it was lovely.
Several large scale shows which had toured the Number One’s ie the Moss empires Curcuit came to the Palace in a smaller scaled down version, two I remember were Randles Scandels, starring Frank Randle, and Benson Dulay and Company, you may recall his son Peter Dulay who together with Jonathan Rouse used to present that long running television programme Candid Camera, I had seen both these shows previously on the Birmingham Hippodrome and Dudley Hippodrome. After a very successful week with Randles Scandels, after executing as a result of a dare a brilliant tap dance on stage,Jack announced that the show would be returning in six weeks. Six weeks later, on the Monday night I was at home watching a popular television programme called What’s My Line when the mystery guest walked onto the screen and it was Frank Randle. All television was live in those days and so I thought Frank should have been at the Palace, however when the Monday night audience discovered hea wasn’t in the show word got around and no one turned up on the Tuesday and the cast walked
out on the Wednesday. As a result Jack sued in the courts and Franks defence was that he had had the publicity changed and it didn’t include his name as appearing. The Judge awarded Jack £106 damages.
When Benson Dulay came, he called the same “volunteers“, up from the audience that I had seen at the Hippodrome, they were obviously part of the Company.
In later years, Norman Vaughan topped a bill presented by Birmingham comedian Johnny Carroll, there were 24 of us in the stalls, I counted them, Norman came on stage and said “ I started my first professional engagement here in 1950, did a few steps of tap dance, and then said “I shan’t ever bloody come here again”. It was reported that the same show appeared at the Alvechurch Social Club a week later to a packed audience.
At another time Tommy Trinder came, this time there were 60 of us in the stalls, I again counted them, it was pathetic to see such a great comedian who had gone well past his best telling the same joke twice. I joined him afterwards in the circle bar, he surprised everyone by ordering a pot of tea, he was a well known teatotaller.
In recent years I was asked by Councillor Joan Tyers to compere a variety show, she said she was going to ask a star to head the bill. She phoned Frank Carson who at the time was living in Ireland, but when she mention it was in aid of the charity Rowan, he said he had retired and so was unable to help. The following year I saw him at the theatre in Babbacome and of course he has appears at the Palace since then.
Later came manager Edward Willis, an actor, a former product of RADA who had ideas of uplifting the tastes of Redditch audiences, with professional productions, unfortunately it did not result in putting bums on seats, although he did arrange a series of popular Sunday night shows along with a number of other successful events.
I have purposely left out my involvement with the theatre, except to say that I have intermittently appeared on its stage though out my life and have produced shows which many of the older residents will recall.
I hope these recollections will stir a few happy memories.
Colin Wheeler