大象传媒

WARTIME MEMORIES OF THE THEATRE
When war broke out I was about to embark on a career on the stage as a dancer. For the first two years or so I toured around England in several different revues with many well known artists such as Elsie Carlyle, Phyllis Dixey, Ronald Frankau and Max Wall to name but a few. Then in 1942 I joined a sister act with another dancer 鈥� we were known as the 鈥淭wo Maxettes鈥� named after Max Rivers our teacher and arranger and for another two years we worked at all the major theatres in the U.K. in twice nightly variety shows. Luckily we managed to escape any severe bombing but our most difficult times were Sundays when we travelled from town to town on overcrowded, often cold and always delayed trains, to our sometimes uninviting digs!!! Then in 1944 I decided to join E.N.S.A, and after all the formalities and rehearsals I was assigned to a 鈥渇ive-handed unit鈥� which consisted of a pianist, a comedian, a soprano, a magician and myself a soubrette. Being such a small unit we travelled in a van together with a portable stage, a piano and all our 鈥減rops鈥� to the smaller units of the forces, such as gun emplacements etc. often in
fields and under canvas with our performances interrupted by enemy action. We went to numerous places all over England and Scotland and I even experienced my first flight in a military Dakota to the Orkney and Shetland Isles even visiting 鈥淪capa Flow鈥�. I was recalled to Drury Lane ( E.N.S.A. headquarters) in November 1944 where I was kitted out with a uniform and after a medical check, inoculations etc. and rehearsals for a new show 鈥淩adcliffe Revels鈥� headed by the Scots comedian Jack Radcliffe we were eventually sent to France in January 1945. From there we followed the Army (of course a long way back from the front) through Belgium. Holland and Germany and, with several breaks in between, we reached Berlin at Christmass1945. Then when E.N.S.A. was replaced by C.S.E. I spent many more months entertaining the Army of occupation with various shows all across Europe. I do, of course, have so very many happy memories and some sad ones too of all those years but my proudest moment of all was when I learnt that my father had been awarded the George Medal for bravery during the great fire of London on December 29 1940 as an ambulance driver. I hope that all this has evoked some other pleasant memories for you all.

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