Page 12 - Palace Memories Gerald Jervis

Redditch Heritage Palace Theatre Memories

The Mephisto was genial and (as the lady next to me complained) plump, but if Old
Nick can’t be well fed, who can? The Siebel was a genuine “deep” contralto named Ella
Milne, or Mayne, and went down very well.

The company discovered that Mavis Bennett was living locally, and she took over the
role of Violetta when they did “La Traviata” on the Wednesday afternoon.

A Change of Management

By the end of 1938, the original lessees had gone and another gentleman had taken
over. He seemed chiefly interested in running his own stage band, and did so for a
few months, during which the B.B.C. came in and did a relay. After this with the war
imminent, the Redditch Palace Theatre Ltd., let the theatre to J.& D. Russell, who ran
it as a second string to the Select Kinema, showing films, probably with the Children`s
Saturday Matinee as much of a money maker as anything.

During The War

Films continued throughout the war, with an occasional visit by a Forces Concert Party.
Mavis Bennett organised a series of Sunday Concerts , with famous guest artistes;
Webster Booth and Anne Ziegler, Flotsam and Jetsom…When Walter Widdop, the
tenor, came, I went to the theatre straight from a Home Guard manoeuvre during
which I had spent the previous night in the bowling-green shelter at the Queen`s Head
in Bromsgrove Road, awaiting an attack which came in good time for lunch down
“Holmwood Drive” and Muskett`s Way. When he sang “Onaway! Awake Beloved”, it
came as a much needed stimulant.

Stiles-Allen was another of Mavis Bennett`s guest artistes; a monumental soprano in
more ways than one. She is still teaching, I notice.

During the war, Horace Bull, the manager, died and was given a Home Guard funeral.
He was a quiet and very likeable man, who had played the piano in the pit orchestra
in silent- film days. He loved the theatre, and, I understand, had refused offers of
more attractive managerships elsewhere.

Before the war ended, Elsie Siddele Downing had founded her School of Dancing and
started a series of gay pantomimes and revues which have continued to the present
day, moving to Bridley Moor School Hall after the closure of the Palace as a theatre.
She must have raised thousands upon thousands of pounds for charity, besides giving
hundreds of children an experience they will never forget. Some of them became
professional dancers, including Mary Clarke, who was for a time captain of the
Television Toppers. Now, the children of some of the original dancers are taking part.

Eddie Crumpton, a born comedian, was the backbone of the early shows, in dame parts
and so on. This genial and much loved man was wretchedly treated by fate. He was
blinded in a works accident, but later returned to take part in the shows. Then, a few
years later, he died of a painful disease.

Page: 12 © Redditch Heritage 2019