大象传媒

From the start of WW2 I spent most of the nights during the air raids on Brum in the city centre and it was damned exciting.I was 15 years old when the war started and worked in the city for most of the time until joining the army in 1941.
Fire watching was the game and at 7/6d. (37p) a night it was not to be sneezed at especially when your weekly wages were 15/- (75p)for a 40 hour week.
When the war started all of the entertainment places in the town were closed down but within a few weeks they were up and running again.
There were regulations which had to be abided by and one one these was that when the Air Raid Sirens sounded the show was stopped and the Manager addressed the audience, warning them of the impending air raid and pointing out that the show would go on, but, if anyone wished to leave would they do so in an orderly fashion. Most of the audiences stayed and got their moneys worth but I remember one manager used to make the announcement and then run like hell for the basement until the final curtain.
As to the fire watching someone had to go up onto the roof and watch out for incendiary bombs. One felt rather grand in a steel helmet and armed with a bucket of sand and a bucket of water with a stirrup pump, it was a case oflook out Hitler.
I remember one night I was fire watching at the News Theatre High Street and after the show closed was walking to the night safe with the takings, sort of riding shot gun. There was the manager Mr. Cowan and Ralph Bishop the Chief Operator, it was pretty noisy with the hell of a racket going on with Ack Ack guns and the like. As we rounded the corner into Corporation Street there was an almighty bang (found out after it was a land mine) and all hell broke loose, little Mr. Cowan had a cut on his nose and thought that he was going to die but insisted that we made it to the night safe at the Midland Bank on the corner of Worcester Street. I think that the shop window that exploded was a ladies shop called Marshall and Snellgrove.
Another night I was in Station Street covering The Tatler which was next door to Wheatleys (the undertakers).
I was standing outside with Bill Grogan from the wholesale booksellers WH Smiths and there was a lot of air activity so we were sheltering in the foyer of the Tatler when John Wheatley came up and invited us down for a cup of tea IN THE MORTUARY,that was one cup of tea I declined.

There is quite a lot more I could write about that period but I do not wish to be a bore.

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