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Having gone through some of my old football programmes in another thread I thought I'd now bore people with some memories and reproductions of my old theatre programmes, which perhaps may have a wider appeal. Mostly from Notts, but with a few others.

I can remember going twice to pantomimes at the Theatre Royal in the early 1960s but didn't get programmes. One starred Ronnie Hilton and may have been 'Dick Whittington'. Otherwise, all I can remember is that Peter Butterworth was in one of the two and the Welsh comedian Wyn Calvin, fairly well-known on radio at that time, was in the other.

I regret not buying a programme from a one-off charity performance I went to at the Theatre Royal one Sunday night in what was probably the late 1960s. Appearing in it were Brian Rix (who performed something of a stand-up comedy routine), Dickie Henderson, Arthur Askey, June Bronhill, a pianist whose name escapes me, and I think Mike Yarwood.

Probably in early 1961 we were taken on a school trip from Blue Bell Hill to the old Playhouse to see an adaptation of 'Oliver Twist'. This wasn't the musical, as I think that had only just opened in London at that time. Ive no idea who was in it, but I remember the actor who played Fagin later visited the school to give a talk to the class.

My earliest programme is from the old Playhouse and another school trip, this time from High Pavement, when we were taken to see the old-fashioned melodrama 'Maria Marten or The Murder in the Red Barn' in March 1962.

A couple of notable names from the cast are Anne Stallybrass who used to be in a lot of things on TV in the 1960s and 70s, and Eric Thompson - a few years before his 'Magic Roundabout' days. In the programme he was featured as 'A New Member of the Company', with notes including: 'He is married to actress Phyllida Law and they have two children, both daughters.' Quite.

Here's a page from the programme:

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I have posted in the past how greasepaint runs in the blood of my sister and me - we both donned brown-paper rat's-head masks and scuttled on to the stage at Crane school following the Pied Piper of H

Cor Chulla, seeing those Parkie packets just makes me fancy a puff. I can almost see myself sitting on the top deck of the "Red Bus" bouncing along Colwick Rd, 7.30am on my way to work. The air would

I hadn't intended to include this with it not being a Notts theatre, but as it's coincidental with the recent death of Brian Rix here it is. My next theatre trip happened to be to see one of his farce

I posted this in another thread a few years ago, but it works here as well. This was a Junior School outing at christmas 1965, and the star of the play - Scrooge - was Wilfred Brambell (old man Steptoe).

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Another school trip to the old Playhouse was in October 1962. Not sure if there was a particular reason why they took us to see 'Twelfth Night' then as it was another three years before we did it for O Level.

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I don't have any recollection of it at all, but there are several notable names in the cast:

Barbara Leigh-Hunt, to become maybe best-known for playing the murder victim in Hitchcock's 'Frenzy'.

Jean Marsh of later 'Upstairs Downstairs' fame

Terence Rigby, later in 'Softly, Softly'

Bryan Pringle, to become well-known on TV in anything from comedy ('The Dustbinmen') to drama ('The Pallisers')

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And a vintage advert on the back page:

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I have a vague memory of John Neville being locked in some sort of very public row about, or possibly with, the Playhouse. Don't recall what it was about though.

Also remember seeing him walking in Bulwell Park on occasion.

Finally, he did a reading at our morning assembly at High Pavement. Read from Faust, ending with a blood curdling scream that scared the **** out of me!

Don't recall ever being taken to the Playhouse by school, but I recall a very narrow theatre on a corner somewhere around the same area as the Royal and Empire, where we saw an excerpt from Great Expectations. Gaumont?

Edit. Not the Gaumont. It was on a corner plot but was smaller and 'pokier'. Could it have been the old Playhouse on Goldsmith St?

Col

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On the subject of Park Drive. I thought the plain were in a red and white pack, with the tipped being in pale blue and white.

Thus, the Ad above is a bit wrong as the pale blue would not look so dark in black and white. If you see what I mean. :blink:

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You are right about the colours, Col, but it does say TIPPED across the colour band. Incidentally, I have a packet of ten plain Park Drives, still with the undisturbed silver paper lining. So, carni, if you are ever in the mood for suicide then let me know. lol

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Don't recall ever being taken to the Playhouse by school, but I recall a very narrow theatre on a corner somewhere around the same area as the Royal and Empire, where we saw an excerpt from Great Expectations. Gaumont?

Not the Gaumont. It was on a corner plot but was smaller and 'pokier'. Could it have been the old Playhouse on Goldsmith St?

The building is still there, but now a bar called "Spanky van Dyke's".

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Thanks Cliff. That looks like the place.

Col

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I went to see " sunny afternoon " the play about the Kinks at Harold Pinter theatre in London .....

I believe it is going out on tour, including Nottingham ...

Well worth watching even if you were too young or not a kinks fan......amazing play with outstanding actors and musicians

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Only went in the old Playhouse once,i was delivering a parcel in 1960 when i was a Van-lad............remember the driver getting on to me because i'd took a long time.............i'd been watching Marty Wilde and the Wildcats rehearsing...........

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Not in Notts, but when we were on holiday in Great Yarmouth at the beginning of September in 1964 we went to see this summer show starring The Shadows at the ABC there:

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Arthur Worsley was possibly the best-known ventriloquist on TV in the days before Ray Alan, his gimmick being that he let the dummy do all the talking.

And who remembers the Morton Fraser Harmonica Gang who were well known on TV around 1960?

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Arthur Worsley was the best ever ventriloquist, and I saw the Morton Fraser Harmonica Gang . Must have been very late 50's or early 60's at the Empire I believe.

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I remember a school trip to the old Playhouse to see The Diary of Anne Frank. And many years before aged around ten went backstage at the Empire to meet a friend of my Mothers...she was dressed in full ballerina outfit and was the rider on the horse that trotted round a circus ring. Stood next to a small cage that contained a fully grown male lion...frightened the crap out of me. :ohmy:

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By the time of the next school trip the new Playhouse had been opened. I think this must have been in the autumn of 1964 or 1965 when we were taken to see 'The Merchant of Venice' which we were studying that year. It starred the great Alastair Sim as Shylock, and I was aware enough of who he was to appreciate seeing him, presumably having seen some of his films on TV.

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Also appearing was the young Gemma Jones, maybe best known later as 'The Duchess of Duke Street', as Portia but there's no-one else of note in the cast.

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I can remember very little about it other than the curtain call at the end.

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We were probably at the old Playhouse at the same time Pooh. Went to see the Diary of Anne Frank on a school trip one afternoon. Had to have been the late fifties, because I left in '59.

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Most probable Loppy....The first we had learned of the suffering of the Jews...all our history was the crap about Kings and Queens...Stuarts etc all facts and dates that meant bugger all to us kids...but hey! it was just a case of passing text books out and no teaching or learning involved. Same with geography,an easy number for the so called teachers.

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Pooh, it's most likely that in the 50's and early 60's, the events of the last war were still unfolding and very recent.

In fact, there were very few books on the subject..

I was pee'd off with having to learn about Romans, Wars of the Roses and the Tudors. I'd much rather have learned about the English Civil War, the American Civil War and WW1.

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I think that was common in the schools of our day. I don't recall being taught any later history than the Tudors. I would like to have been taught more of the history of empire and the events leading to more recent wars. All I remember from geography was that they grow grain in Saskatchewan and Russia hates our standards and would like to take over the world. Hey! We were only the secondary school kids. Best hope for us was to be a plumber. :-)

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I have posted in the past how greasepaint runs in the blood of my sister and me - we both donned brown-paper rat's-head masks and scuttled on to the stage at Crane school following the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Some of it runs through my daughter's veins, seen here dressed for her part in the Nora Morrison Dancing School annual production staged at the Co-operative Arts Theatre. Little could she know that 40 years later she would be working at Sadlers Wells in London, though not on the stage.

Barbara%20in%20costume%201976_zps1gpndkj

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