大象传媒

It was 1942 and I was 16 years old, too young to join the armed forces or anything else, for that matter so I thought I would help the war effort in my own way.

Food was very short and we had, so often, to rely on the Merchant Navy bringing food from abroad and facing U-boats in the Atlantic so I decided to make some money for the Merchant Navy Comforts Fund.

I had quite a few friends, two, in particular, a local farmer鈥檚 son and my good friend Vera Gill, affectionately known as Gillie.

I gathered everyone together and the Merry Melody Makers Concert Party was born. We wrote sketches and monologues and sang songs to Gillies accompaniment -- she was a very gifted pianist. Some tap danced, some played musical instruments, and one little girl aged twelve, and the youngest in our group -- a real star, did a wonderful acrobatic act. After the war, I believe she toured abroad on a professional basis.

We were all amateurs aged between fifteen and seventeen and knew nothing about show business or entertaining so we practised as much as we could to produce a professional show. It was the middle of winter and we had to find places to rehearse, sometimes it was in unheated school rooms and halls -- in fact anywhere where we could find enough space.

I organised tickets, old currency 1/6d, 2/6d and 3/6d and booked the Band Hall in Marlow. A few aspiring artists designed posters and we put them up in strategic places in the town. I still have two kept in my memory box.

No one wore evening dress during the war but we wanted to look like showbiz people so we begged and borrowed long dresses and dinner jackets from various kind people, to look professional.

The great day dawned 24th February 1942 and I was a little apprehensive to say the least. We had sold all the tickets through various local tradespeople and friends and raised a lot of money.

The stage was set, we sang our opening chorus and the show began. The audience was very responsive and the laughter and applause gave us all confidence. During the interval we raffled food given to us by other peoples' rations. I remember, a dozen eggs, donated by the local farmer, raised an enormous amount of money.

During the second half of the show, the air raid sirens sounded and some members of the audience had to leave for duty, donning tin hats as they left but we carried on to the finale and were overwhelmed by the tumultuous applause. My mother, bless her heart, who had always given me great encouragement, arranged a small party for us after the show. She begged food from friends -- a little bit of this -- a little bit of that to make sandwiches and cakes and tea for us all and we had a lovely party.

The money was counted and banked the next day and the accounts were audited by a local accountant, free of charge, and a cheque was sent to the Merchant Navy Comforts Fund and gratefully acknowledged.

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