大象传媒

By Celia Nicholls

These are the words of Cecilia Austin Nicholson, married name, Caryl,
professional and theatrical name, Celia Nicholls.

My wartime memories begin with the blitz. To explain this I have to go back to the spring of 1940, when at the age of fourteen, I won a national singing competition at the La Carno ballroom in Suchehall Street in Glasgow. My prize was ten pounds and a return ticket to enter the final at the Royal ballroom in Tottenham in London.

I was thrilled to win the prize; I got the job of singing with the band at this lovely ballroom in London. Everything went terribly well until one night there was a series of loud bumps and bangs somewhere; we didn鈥檛 know what it was all about. Everyone made there way to the entrance of the ballroom to see what was happening and away to the east, the sky was red. The docks were ablaze, the docks had been bombed - the blitz had started.

After the blitz everything changed of course but the ballroom kept going, the band kept playing and I kept singing. But one night my friend Eve (who I shared a little flat with) and I had actually run home through the blitz into our Anderson shelter and when we came out in the morning when the all clear sounded it was a scene of devastation. The house we had lived in had gone! The streets we knew were gone! A 鈥渓andmark鈥� or 鈥渂readbasket鈥� as these bombs were called had been dropped on Tottenham. We hardly knew where we were, the dust was very thick in the air and we stumbled over those stones and made our way to the ballroom to see what had happened there. The ballroom had also been bombed. There was a great gaping hole in the roof, and the bandstand was all tilted to one side, the lovely grand piano smashed to smithereens. The ARP wardens were on duty and said where did we think we were going when we approached the entrance.
鈥淲e have some things in our dressing room, could we go for them?鈥� I said.
He said 鈥� Well you鈥檒l have to go in one at a time.鈥�
So I had to tiptoe in to the dressing room and I picked up my costume that I had worn with the band which was a lovely blue jacket and a white pleated skirt which I thought was lovely and my little white shoes and my makeup from the dressing table, all of which were covered with thick dust. I gathered them up and tip toed out again to let my friend Eve in who had to pick up her ballroom dancing shoes and lovely dresses up too.
I looked at the bandstand as I came out and I couldn鈥檛 help but think back to the wonderful night when it was packed with happy dancers and I was singing away in this wonderful new job.

There was nothing left for me to do but to return to Glasgow. My Mother was really frantic about me by then. So, on a blacked out train I travelled back through the night to arrive in Glasgow, only to find that there had been a huge raid on Clyde Bank. The centre of the City had also been bombed - the building opposite where we lived in John Street and Cathedral Street had been obliterated. All the windows in our building had been smashed, but thankfully my Mother, brothers and sisters had been safe in the deep basement of the building at the foot of John Street. My Father had been away working in the Naval dockyard in Rosyth & Fife.

I was fifteen and a half, nearly sixteen by then and luckily I was able to get a job singing with band at the Barclay ballroom, the bandleader of course being Alfie Johnson.

From sixteen and a half to eighteen and a half I worked in the theatres of Scotland and loved every minute of it, but of course at eighteen and a half I was called up. I had the choice of the land army, munitions, or as my producer/director at the time Mr. Hamish Turner said, 鈥渘o, you will go into ENSA. I will arrange for you to go to London, you will do an audition at the Drury Lane Theatre and its up to you from then on, which is what I did. It was a bit frightening to walk onto the stage at Drury Lane but I did very well and I went into a show right away.

My wartime memories continue with travelling all over Great Britain. We stayed in Lord Lovetts鈥檚 castle, travelled up to the Orkney鈥檚 and the Shetlands and were at one point based in Scapa Flow. The Orkney Islands of course are made up of many Islands, one of them named Flotta. On this Island was a wonderful Garrison Theatre where we were sent to work. The program was great for the people who were on ships or in the army based in that area. They could come the Garrison Theatre, and in the morning they could see a great film. Whilst myself and my great friend Anne were there, the film was 鈥淏athing Beauty鈥� with Esther Williams, a fantastic film, and 鈥淯p in Arms 鈥� with Danny Kay, a wonderful picture. Afterwards maybe we would go on as a small group. I sang popular songs, Anne would tap dance and the band played some very good little numbers and the crowd could sing along if they wanted to. To follow, a play called 鈥淭hunder Rock鈥� with the great film star Michael Redgrave appearing in it.

Continuing our tour by ship, after at terrible crossing of the Pentland Firth (if any one has ever done that from Lerwick to Aberdeen they鈥檒l know what I鈥檓 talking about), the weather was so bad we couldn鈥檛 get into Aberdeen Harbour and we had to stay outside, going up and down like corks in the Ocean until the weather calmed down. After playing in the Islands of Tobermoray and Tiree, we came to the island of Islay. There we saw for the first time the film of Henry V with Laurence Olivier which we thought was absolutely wonderful. When we had to come back to the mainland we were flown back in a Halifax bomber. I remember having to sit on the prop basket over the bomb bay opening doors. I used to say to my friend Anne as a bit of a laugh, well at least if they open the doors by mistake, I鈥檒l go down with the props. Then we went on to the Hebrides.

One of the things I remember very vividly about being in Scapa Flow was being carried out in these small 鈥渄rifters鈥� to the side of a great big ship - the two I remember being the Greenwich Castle and the Iron Duke, a supply ship. Some of the sailors on board couldn鈥檛 get ashore to this entertainment so our company of about six would go out to the ship, climb up the side and perform the show on board, and they were always a wonderful audience.
Then we flew up in an old Dakota with tin seats to the Shetland Islands. We met Norwegians there, and were invited to have a look at what a submarine was like which was really thrilling.

My war time memories continue with an account of my time in India.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.