Twentieth Anniversary of Anne Ziegler’s Death. 22 June 1910 – 13 October 2003

Bonnie and me, Anne and Bonnie (October 1990 in Penrhyn Bay)

I had prepared this for the 20th anniversary of the death of Anne Ziegler but I was taken ill in September of 2023 and spent nearly three weeks in hospital. Dudley Holmes was kind enough to remember the day in the Webster Booth-Anne Ziegler Appreciation Group on Facebook for me. I am a little better now and can post this tribute to Anne now.

It is hard to believe that it is twenty years since Anne Ziegler died on 13 October 2003. I have included an extract from my book here to commemorate the day. It may be found at: https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/duettists

Second edition of my first book, published about 2019.

In 2002 Anne was saddened at the death of the Queen Mother and went into mourning for her with the rest of the nation. The photograph of the Queen Mother, which she had presented to Anne on their visit to the Royal Lodge, had a prominent place in her sitting room. Anne said that she would always remember the Queen Mother’s kindness to them on that visit. She wrote to me, “She was one of our genuine fans”. I recalled that the Queen Mother had told me this much herself when I was presented to her at Wheathampstead Secondary School in 1968.

Jean meets the Queen Mother at Wheathampstead Secondary School, 1968.

Anne was finding it increasingly difficult to take Toby, her little Yorky, for his daily walk, although the doctor assured her that the exercise was good for her. Her feet were water-logged and walking was increasingly painful. When things became too much for her she reluctantly gave him up to a new owner with a big garden. He was taken for two long walks on the beach each day. Although she missed him terribly she could not bring herself to phone the new owner to inquire about him, as she could not have borne it if anything had happened to him.

Anne and Toby.

After another bad fall Anne spent a month in hospital and convalescent home. In September she was back in hospital with further heart problems. She needed help with her shopping. She told me that it was all very well to look back on her singing career, but these memories did not help her with the struggle of day-to-day living. She added, “What can you expect at ninety-two?”

She was not alone at Christmas the following year, but spent the day with the late Sally Rayner, a reflexologist, who. although a fairly recent acquaintance, had taken over Jean Buckley’s role as executrix of her will. Anne looked forward to seeing Gwen, her home help, once a week and sometimes went shopping with her. She wore a panic button around her neck in case she had a bad turn and could not reach the telephone, and she arranged to have meals from Meals on Wheels delivered to her. She told me that after the age of ninety the body packs up even though the mind might remain alert.

Dudley Holmes was planning to go over to the UK in September 2003 to visit Anne with his friend, Reverend Owen Franklin, who was a priest at a parish in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Dudley Holmes, friend and student of Anne and Webster.

I received my last letter from Anne, dated 15 June 2003. She did not feel well, but was grateful that her carer came in each day for an hour and that Sally was kind enough to do her shopping for her. She still had her car, but was sad that there was nobody who had time to go out for coffee or shop with her.

She added:

Since my trip to visit her in the UK we had spoken on the phone at regular intervals. For the last few years Anne had not written as frequently as before, although I had continued to write to her, whether she wrote or not. Not all her other friends did the same.

She said:

“I seem to have stopped hearing from my other SA friends – I am wondering if they have ‘“popped off”’ – or it’s too much trouble to write!!”

I phoned Anne on 3 August 2003. By this time her carer was coming in three times a day. Anne could still joke, “Once in the morning to see I am still alive, next at lunch time, and then at 6pm to see I’m having supper and set for the night.”

We spoke of the days in Johannesburg when I was young – and she much younger – when everything had been happy and carefree. She could not believe that I was nearly sixty as she always thought of me as a young woman. It was forty years since I had first started playing for Webster when she went away on the trip with Leslie Green.

She had not seen her old friend Babs Wilson-Hill (who had bought the bungalow for them) for over a year and did not know if she was alive or dead. We decided that it was a pity that things had worked out so badly with Babs, as it could have been a very happy arrangement.

Five days after that phone call Anne had another dreadful fall. She was taken to the Llewellyn Ward at Llandudno Hospital, where Dudley and Owen found her in September. She was pleased to see Dudley, but he was deeply shocked at the change in her physical appearance. Dudley spoke to Sally, who told him that Anne could never return to the bungalow and that they were looking round to find a suitable frail care home for her. Although she would probably never be able to write to us again, we vowed that we would write to her regularly as long as she lived.

On 27 September I wrote a letter to Anne and enclosed a cutting about Kathleen Ferrier on the fiftieth anniversary of her death, and sent it care of Sally Rayner. On the morning of the 13 October there was a message from Sally to tell me that Anne was unlikely to last for more than a day or two.

I phoned Sally immediately and she told me that she was going in to sit with her that morning. Later that day Sally phoned again to let me know that Anne had died peacefully. She had sat with her, and later in the morning had been joined by Anne’s great-nephew, Michael, Jinnie’s son, from Liverpool. They remained with her, holding her hand until she passed away peacefully at 1.30 pm.

Sally had taken my letter in that morning to read out bits of interest to her – about Kathleen Ferrier, the records my actor friend, the late Bill Curry, had given me, and Love’s Philosophy, the song she had sung at her Wigmore Hall recital all those years ago. Sally said that some parts of the letter made her smile, although she had not opened her eyes for a long time.

Anne’s funeral took place on 21 October at 2.00 pm. The organist played We’ll Gather Lilacs at the beginning and their recording of Now is the Hour was played at the end of the service as the coffin disappeared behind the curtain. One of Sally’s friends, Stanley, a member of the Rhos on Sea Savoyards, sang their signature tune, Only a Rose, during the service.

Nick Booth and Princess Katherine taken circa 2012 when he was chief executive of the Royal Foundation.

About forty people, including Webster’s grandson, Nicholas Leslie Booth, and the Meals on Wheels ladies, attended the service on a rainy afternoon. Most of the people present had some firm connection with Anne, although there were a few curious “hangers-on” there too. Forty people did not seem a large number considering who she was and how many friends she had made over the years.

A week or so later I was surprised to hear from Anne’s solicitors in Rhos on Sea that she had left me a legacy in her Will.

My note appeared in The Times on 7 November 2003.

There were obituaries for Anne in papers all over the world, but I was saddened that little notice was paid to her death in South Africa, where she and Webster had lived and worked for twenty-two years. My husband, Errol, sent an e-mail to the Afrikaans newspaper Die Beeld to inform them of Anne’s death but the paper made no mention of it.

Clare Marshall, actress and broadcaster of ‘Morning Star’ on Radio Today.

I contacted the actress and broadcaster, Clare Marshall at Radio Today to let her know that Anne had died. She was the only broadcaster in South Africa to pay a fitting tribute to Anne on the radio. Later I sent her copies of a number of their CDs and she continued to play them frequently on her Sunday morning programme, Morning Star until Radio Today changed complete direction and Clare no longer broadcast her lovely programme after that. In 2013 she invited me to appear on her programme to talk about Anne and Webster and to discuss my book with her.

Ironically, Anne’s friend Babs, who was two years older than her, had died two weeks before Anne, leaving all her money – nearly £1,000,000 – to various charities.

Babs Wilson-Hill (aged 94) shortly before she died in her lovely garden in Old Colwyn.

I had known, admired and loved Anne and Webster, and had been deeply influenced by them for forty-three years, and Anne’s death was the end of an era for me. I am left with a few sad, but many happy memories of them, some of which I have shared in this personal memoir. If they had never been able to sing a note, I would have loved them for their warm, generous and kind hearts, and as long as I live they will never be forgotten.

Anne and Webster arriving in Australia (1948)

Jean Collen. 27 October, 2023.

One of my favourite songs sung by Anne: A Song in the Night (Loughborough)

Here is Dudley singing ‘In Cellar Cool accompanied by Anne in 1968 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pJ9-JDlD9vp1yeCdum93qNLUApKJiaV1/view?usp=drive_link

Anne and Webster sing ‘Liebestraum’ (Liszt)

ABOUT WEBSTER BOOTH and ANNE ZIEGLER.

The links to all posts may be found in the black space above the blog.

Anne Ziegler, the widow and singing partner of Webster Booth, died in Llandudno, North Wales, on 13 October 2003, at the age of ninety-three. Her death brought an end to an era of British entertainment before and after the Second World War. Her death brought an end to an era for me also.

I was seventeen when I first met Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth at the end of 1960. They were in the same age group as my parents, their top-flight stage career in Britain behind them. Anne and Webster made a great and lasting impression on me, first as teachers and mentors, and then as life-long friends.

During the five years I studied singing with them I kept detailed diaries, and although several of these diaries were destroyed, I immediately wrote a full account of the “lost years” in an attempt to replace these memories while they were still fresh in my mind. I have a complete collection of their letters to me, covering a forty year period.

I was too young to have seen them at the height of their fame, but even before I met them, I knew at once that they were a shining couple, their gifts and personalities setting them apart from humdrum lesser mortals. More than sixty years later I hold the same opinion of them.

One of the most memorable periods of my life was when Anne and Webster asked me to act as Webster’s studio accompanist when Anne (who usually accompanied their singing pupils) was away. I was all of 19 years old at the time. In 1990 I went to the United Kingdom for a holiday after my father’s death and spent a very happy few days with Anne at her home in Penrhyn Bay, North Wales. She was kind enough to leave me a bequest in her will which I received in 2003 shortly after her death.

When I was writing my book about my association with Anne and Webster, the late Mrs Freda Davies of Port Elizabeth passed on her correspondence with them to me. For several years Mrs Davies lived on the top floor of their home in Knysna with her father, Mr Fred Cropper, and they became close friends.

Although I have a great collection of photographs it was almost impossible to find out who the photographers were, or from whom copyright clearance could be obtained. Most of the photographers in the early photographs were dead; the press agencies and photographic studios no longer existed. The late Sally Rayner, the executrix of Anne’s estate, gave me permission to use suitable photographs in my book and elsewhere on the internet.  

The book, Sweethearts of Song: a Personal Memoir of Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth was published in 2006 and was recently revised and updated. Other books succeeded it, including a 4 volume work of A Scattered Garland: Gleanings from the lives of Webster Booth and Anne Ziegler, which covers their careers through the early days, top of the tree, time in South Africa and back home again. All these books are available at https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/duettists/

Jean Collen

1 April 2021

Webster Booth and Anne Ziegler: Gramophone and Discography.

discography3Download

Webster Booth and Anne Ziegler: Excerpts from ‘Gramophone’ & Discography” was first published in 2009. It was made up of articles and reviews about the recordings made by Webster Booth and Anne Ziegler (1929 to the present). In this new edition in 2020, the discography section has been updated and includes an almost complete discography of their solo and duet recordings. Webster Booth made a number of recordings with the HMV Light Opera Company, and some recordings with companies other than HMV.

Thanks to the Kellydatabase.org I have even discovered recordings made by HMV which were never released. I am grateful to John Rogers, a member of the Webster Booth-Anne Ziegler Appreciation Group on Facebook for giving me access to his list of B recordings on HMV which include recording dates, release dates, and dates of deletion.

I had intended to publish this updated discography on Lulu.com but the format for publishing there has changed and I have no idea how to “embed fonts” so I have chosen to place the file here and at: https://zenodo.org/record/4475433. If you should download the book I would be glad if you could let me know your opinion of it.

The final edition of the discography of Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth.

Jean Collen 18 December 2020.

WEBSTER BOOTH’S LAST RECORDING IN THE UK.

Webster Booth

In November 2019 I discovered a Webster Booth record on Ebay, one of the few records not in the possession of the Webster Booth-Anne Ziegler Appreciation Group on Facebook. It was a recording Webster had made for Decca in 1952 during his brief association with the company after his long-standing contract with HMV had not been renewed. In fact, it was the last recording he made in the UK before going to South Africa in 1956.

St Stephen’s, Dulwich

The record was: He bought my heart at Calvary (Hamblin) and Sanctuary of the Heart (Ketèlbey) with the choir of St Stephen’s Church, Dulwich, accompanied by Fela Sowande (organ) Decca F9921. Apparently Albert Ketèlbey was born Ketelbey but adopted the grave accent – as an affectation?? You might be interested to read about the organist at the following link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fela_Sowande?fbclid=IwAR1yD9Qtd8loTHQxywmS65bDoXTRDIILHbaA4xTKPDiEhJX2a_M-IoUl0bY

Fela Sowande – organist

The Sanctuary of the Heart (Ketelby)

He Bought My Soul at Calvary (Hamblen)

I asked John Marwood if he would be willing to bid on this rare record and he was lucky enought to win it. He and Mike Taylor, the other administrators of the group, both live in Portsmouth and as John’s home is a short walk away from Mike’s I hoped that Mike would be able to copy the record for us. Unfortunately Covid-19 put in an appearance and everyone was in lockdown for a number of months so the record remained with John for nearly a year.

In the meantime, Peter Wallace, another member of our group, was going to Scotland and had offered to take photos of my father’s birthplace as his own father had also been born in Dumbartonshire. I mentioned the record to Peter and he kindly offered to copy it for us. John parcelled it up carefully and sent it to him in North Yorkshire a week ago. Miraculously, the record reached Peter safely and he told me that the surface was in good condition. Last night I was delighted to receive the MP3s from Peter – he had not only copied the recordings but had restored them meticulously into the bargain. I am very grateful to him for doing this for me.

After the uncertainty and misery of the Covid-19 pandemic it was a thrill for me to have these recordings in my possession. I had often wondered why Webster’s contract with HMV had not been renewed in 1951, but this recording with Decca proved that it was certainly not because his voice was failing! I have since learnt that the two songs on the recording were sung by George Beverley Shea at the Revivalist meetings of Billy Graham in the 1950s.

The late Michael Goodman of St Francis’ congregation wrote a history of the Church and mentioned this about the Choir at that time:

“The 50s and Choir’s Heyday.

It was with the appointment of Chris Tanner as organist and director of music in 1950 that St Stephen’s Choir embarked on a period of Growth and adventure. The mixed choir consisted of about 12 ladies and 12 men and Tanner was a superb pianist and an excellent organist, not to mention an enthusiastic conductor of choirs. By day he worked for the well-known solicitors Rowe and Maw…

David Gedge, the recently retired organist and director of music of Brecon Cathedral, spent two years when a schoolboy in the 1950s in St Stephen’s choir and writes in his autobiography A Country Cathedral Organist looks back:

I am glad I was made part of this community at St Stephen’s, South Dulwich, for here was parochial worship with music playing just as important a part as it did at Southwark Cathedral – where he had previously been a chorister – although at St Stephen’s there was more congregational input. Life was good and I was content, happy in my music at Southwark Cathedral, happy in my life at St Stephen’s.

…In 1953 (it was actually 1952 when the recording was made) the choir provided backing for the well known baritone (tenor!) Webster Booth (of Webster Booth and Anne Ziegler fame) on a record produced by Decca of He bought my soul at Calvary and The Sanctuary of the Heart – light music outside their normal repertoire!”

The songs were outside of Webster’s normal repertoire too as he was one of the foremost oratorio tenors of his day and was more accustomed to singing works of Handel, Mendelssohn, Coleridge-Taylor, and Elgar.

When I first began studying with the Booths in 1961, Webster presented a programme on the South African Broadcasting Corporation called On Wings of Song and he once played this recording of Ketèlbey’s The Sanctuary of the Heart. I remember him saying that people tended to turn up their noses at Ketelbey’s music but he liked it very much indeed.

The recording is rare, and initially I was not planning to make it known generally but would share it only with the small number in our already small group who had supported me when I made numerous medleys for want of new recordings by Anne and Webster. I had noted that quite a number in the group passed these posts by – possibly with a shudder! In the end, I relented and the link to the recording is: clyp.it/w1h35cxh I hope you enjoy it.

As it is, we only need about 10 more of Webster’s recordings to make our collection complete.

Jean Collen: Updated: 28 November 2020

SWEETHEARTS OF SONG

Some years ago, I received a lovely letter about the book from a gentleman in Ireland. I shared it originally  on the fourteenth anniversary of Anne’s death. Colin Morrison had recently read my book, Sweethearts of Song: A Personal Memoir of Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth. 

  He was a producer with R.T.E. the national broadcasting service of Ireland, and had been pleased that I had mentioned Paddy O’ Byrne with whom he had worked over the years and remarked on Paddy’s fine broadcasting voice. 

He was planning a trip to North Wales and wanted to pass through Penrhyn Bay to pay tribute to Anne and Webster. He asked whether I would let him know Anne’s address so that he could look at the home in which they had lived in the last years of their lives.

I replied as follows, 

“Anne and Webster lived at 29 Penrhyn Beach East in Penrhyn Bay. After Webster’s death in 1984 Anne lived there on her own for another nineteen years. I am sure she and Webster would be very touched to know that you were honouring them in this way. They were a wonderful couple and were very kind to me over the years.”

He attached various photos of the house in Penrhyn Bay, North Wales, and also the Orotava Hotel where I had stayed during my visit to Anne in 1990.

Orotava Hotel, Penrhyn Beach.

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  Part of his note reads as follows:

• “All thanks to you, I spent a really moving day rambling the highways and byways of Penrhyn Bay. To be standing outside Anne and Webster’s house was an extraordinary feeling and for me a real privilege. Looking at the house, and then walking on the beach, all the time internally hearing their wonderful music, and feeling a real sense of gratitude to them both for all the joy they brought to countless millions over the years with their unique gifts, their unique talents. And yes, as I looked out on Penrhyn Bay, and then further East to Rhos on Sea, Colwyn Bay, Llanddulas and Abergele, I would see in my mind’s eye, the beautiful Anne in her youth, as well as her undoubted beauty in her later years. It is, as you well know, a spectacular landscape: Snowdonia to the South, the Ormes to the West, and to the North the Irish Sea stretching as far as the eye can see—–all quite something, and a beautiful and moving backdrop to remember both Anne and Webster. 

So once again, many thanks, not only for your wonderful book but also for a memorable windswept day in Penrhyn Bay.”

It was good to know that my book had given him pleasure and had motivated him to pay a visit to Webster and Anne’s final home.

 

 

• My book, Sweethearts of Song: A Personal Memoir of Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth  has been updated and enlarged and is available as a paperback and as an ebook.

https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/duettists

Jean Collen 22 September 2020.

Penrhyn Bay.

PAMELA DAVIES (née JAMES) (1926 – December 2019)

Pamela Davies (née James)

Pamela Davies was born Pamela James in London in 1926. She studied at London University and at Reading’s Graduate School of European Studies. After completing her degrees she taught French and German and visited the USA and Germany in connection with her teaching career. She met her future husband, Walter Davies, at a German evening class and they were married in 1969.

Pamela studied singing as a hobby and did some solo work as well as singing in various choirs. Coincidentally, her singing teacher was the mother of a young woman who appeared in And So to Bed with Anne and Webster in the early 1950s. Pamela and Walter retired to a 300-year old cottage in Worcestershire, the heart of Elgar Country. Walter died in the early 2000s.

Church House, Great Comberton.

Pamela was particularly interested in the music of Edward Elgar. Her other interests were antiques, historic houses, and reading French and German. She was a guide at a historic house in the Great Comberton area and visited China, Russia and New Zealand and Australia later this year. She was a cat lover and owned two rescued cats.

Pamela, as a teenage evacuee from London, first heard Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth singing on the radio in 1944. She took an immediate liking to their voices and became their firm fan, listening to their singing on the radio and attending many of their concerts, films, and the musical play in which they starred in 1945, entitled Sweet Yesterday. She obtained their autographs at one of these concerts and had a brief conversation with Webster.

She mentioned in her book Do You Remember Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth? that she and her fellow teaching students gathered round the radio to listen to the Victory Royal Command Performance in November 1945 to hear Anne and Webster singing. She made extensive notes of all their radio appearances and the concerts in which they had appeared and which she had managed to attend.

In 1956 Anne and Webster moved to South Africa for twenty-two years, but Pamela never forgot them. When she heard that they had returned to the UK in 1978 she wrote a letter of appreciation to them. This was the beginning of her correspondence with Anne. Pamela and Walter attended Webster Booth’s Memorial Service at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, which led to them taking Anne out to lunch whenever they were in the North Wales area, and the growth of their friendship with Anne.

I “met” Pam when she contacted me after Anne’s death in 2003 as she had read one of my articles on the internet. At the time I was writing my book, Sweethearts of Song: A Personal Memoir of Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth. She too had hoped to write a book about her association with them. We decided to collaborate and her book Do You Remember Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth? was published at the same time as mine in 2006.

Do You Remember Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth? by Pamela Davies

We kept in touch with each other after the books were published and corresponded with Jean Buckley at the same time. Unfortunately, the postal system in South Africa was failing and Pam was not computer-literate so our correspondence faltered slightly until she obtained a tablet and gradually learnt to use it. 

Pam became increasingly deaf which was very sad indeed as the music she loved was distorted by her deafness. Recently she left her beautiful cottage in Great Comberton and moved into a frail care home. She had a very bad fall and died a few days ago, at the age of 93. I will treasure all the beautiful letters she wrote to me when the postal system in South Africa was more reliable than it is today. I will always remember her with love.

Jean Collen – 13 December 2013.

MISSING RECORDS FROM WEBSTER BOOTH/ANNE ZIEGLER DISCOGRAPHY – UPDATED.

This final discography may be downloaded – free from: https://zenodo.org/record/4475433

Available at: lulu.com/spotlight/duettists

This is a copy of one of the missing records which I added to YouTube a few days ago. B9030 When You Wish Upon a Star/Pinocchio/ Harline; Rosita/Kennedy/Carr, WEBSTER BOOTH 1939.

30 NOVEMBER 2023.

We were lucky enough to discover this record by the Light Opera Company a few weeks ago.

C2878 Memories of Lehár, part 1 You are my heart’s delight, Love’s melody, Smokeland, Gipsy love. part 2: Foreign Legion, Count of Luxembourg, Love’s melody. LIGHT OPERA COMPANY, soloists ERIKA STORM, WEBSTER BOOTH (ten), [2] BBC Male Voice Quartet (o WALTER GOEHR) Studio 2. London 23-October 1936 .

Mike Taylor bought the record and shared it with the Webster Booth-Anne Ziegler Appreciation Group on Facebook. I am most grateful to Mike for doing this as most sellers do not ship to South Africa have joined the sides and copied it to my Google Drive as an MP3: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PnwHGNVHThb13jPMy3f-FokoEK5QOkG_/view?usp=sharing

.JEAN CAMPBELL COLLEN·FRIDAY, 27 NOVEMBER 2020· I read a post in The Golden Age of British Dance Bands on Facebook by Javier Soria Laso about a data base on the internet: (http://www.kellydatabase.org/Entry.aspx). I discovered a number of recordings by Webster Booth which I had not seen before – some of them had never been released.

Webster Booth featured in recordings by the HMV Light Opera Company and the Light Opera Male Chorus, sometimes in the chorus, sometimes as a soloist. I have now included these recordings in my list of missing recordings. I have included his name if he is the only solo performer. I wonder whether any of the unreleased recordings are still in circulation or whether they were discarded by HMV.

I have a recording of Beauty’s Eyes(Tosti) which is marked as unreleased, also Anne Ziegler’s test recording of the Waltz Song from Merrie England. They were obtained from the Booths’ private record collection on reel-to-reel tapes.

MISSING RECORDS

WEBSTER BOOTH: Test recordings Serenata, Macushla Webster Booth, Reginald Paul, C Studio, Small Queens Hall, London, 20 November 1929.

C1871 Here Comes the Bride Selection/Schwartz/ Light Opera Company with Alice Moxon, Stuart Robertson, Webster Booth, George Baker/Ray Noble/Studio C, Small Queens Hall, London/Cc18897-4, 25 March 1930

C1890 Three Musketeers: Vocal Gems (Friml, Grey & Woodhouse), Queen of my heart, Your eyes, March of the Musketeers parts 1 and 2, LIGHT OPERA COMPANY, ORCHESTRA: RAY NOBLE, ALICE MOXON soprano, BESSIE JONES soprano, NELLIE WALKER contralto, ESSIE ACKLAND contralto, WALTER GLYNNE tenor, WEBSTER BOOTH tenor, GEORGE BAKER baritone, STUART ROBERTSON bass-baritone. C Studio, Small Queen’s Hall, London, 7 April 1930.

C1920 C B Cochrane’s 1930 Revue: Vocal Gems, part 1: Piccadilly, With a song in my heart, Heaven, All the things you do, Part 2: Bakerloo, Just as we used to do, The wind in the willows, What became of Mary? LIGHT OPERA COMPANY, ORCHESTRA: RAY NOBLE, BESSIE JONES soprano, Alice MOXON soprano, NELLIE WALKER contralto, ESSIE ACKLAND contralto, WEBSTER BOOTH tenor, WALTER GLYNNE tenor, GEORGE BAKER baritone, STUART ROBERTSON bass-baritone. C Studio, Small Queen’s Hall London, 16 May 1930.

C2229 White Horse Inn: Vocal gems (Benatzky-Stolz), parts 1: White Horse Inn, My song of love, Your eyes; Part 2 Ho-Dri-Ho, Goodbye, Sigesmund, It would be wonderful, LIGHT OPERA COMPANY, Orchestra: RAY NOBLE, BESSIE JONES soprano, NELLIE WALKER soprano, ESSIE ACKLAND contalto, GEORGE BAKER baritone, STUART ROBERTSON bass-baritone, JOHN TURNER tenor,WEBSTER BOOTH tenor. Small Queen’s Hall London, 8 May 1931/14 May 1931.

I have this recording. Webster must feature in the chorus for his solo voice cannot be heard.

C2501 Musical Comedy Marches, LIGHT OPERA COMPANY Orchestra: RAY NOBLE, JOHN TURNER tenor, WEBSTER BOOTH tenor, WALTER GLYNNE tenor, LEONARD GOWINGS tenor, GEORGE BAKER baritone, STUART ROBERTSON bass-baritone, EDWARD HALLAND bass. No 2 Studio, Abbey Road London, 7 November 1932.

C2511 Robert Burns Medley, parts 1 and 2: My love is like a red red rose, Green grow the rashes-O, Afton Water, LIGHT OPERA COMPANY (orchestra: LAWRENCE COLLINGWOOD) ALICE MOXON soprano, BESSIE JONES soprano, NELLIE WALKER soprano, ESSIE ACKLAND contralto, WEBSTER BOOTH tenor, WALTER GLYNNE tenor, GEORGE BAKER baritone, DENNIS ARUNDEL baritone. No 2 Studio, Abbey Road London, 5 December 1932.

C2716 Ballad Memories, Light Opera Company, including Peter Dawson, Webster Booth, Walter Glynne, George Baker, Gladys Peel, Essie Ackland. Date unknown.

DeccaK630 HMS Pinafore Vocal Gems (Gilbert and Sullivan), Anne Welch, Victor Conway, Doris Owens, Webster Booth (1931)

B8078 A dream of paradise (Claude Littleton & Hamilton Gray)/The old rustic bridge by the mill (Joseph P Skelly) WALTER GLYNNE tenor, CHORUS, organ HERBERT DAWSON (orchestra L COLLINGWOOD) WEBSTER BOOTH tenor, JOHN TURNER tenor, EDWARD HALLAND baritone. PETER DAWSON bass-baritone, GEORGE BAKER baritone. Kingsway Hall, London, 23 October 1933.

B8081 The saucy Arethusa (trad.), solo STUART ROBERTSON; The Bay of Biscay (Davy) LIGHT OPERA MALE CHORUS (orchestra CLIFFORD GREENWOOD) WEBSTER BOOTH tenor, JOHN TURNER tenor, EDWARD HALLAND bass, LEONARD HUBBARD baritone. Studio No 1, Abbey Road, London, 7 November 1933.

B8105 The glory of the Motherland (McCall); England (Besly); PETER DAWSON bass-baritone (orchestra: CLIFFORD GREENWOOD), MALE QUARTET JOHN TURNER, tenor, WEBSTER BOOTH tenor, GEORGE BAKER baritone, STUART ROBERTSON, bass. No 2 Studio, Abbey Road, London ,11 January 1934.

*B8476 I’m all alone/May; I’ll wait for you/Feiner, WEBSTER BOOTH, September 1936 (MISSING)

September 1936 – Gramophone. Webster Booth is a little off colour this month in two songs by May and Feiner, I’m All Alone and I’ll Wait for You, both with orchestra on HMV B8476 (2S. 6d.), but this does not detract from the fact that Mr Booth is probably the finest light tenor before the public to-day.

C2827 Memories of Tosti/La Scala singers Part 1:Parted; Marechiare; Vorrei morire; Part 2: L’ultima canzone; Ideale; Mattinata; Goodbye. LIGHT OPERA COMPANY Orchestra: WALTER GOEHR, INA SOUEZ (sop), WEBSTER BOOTH (ten) Chorus 8 men (as La Scala Singers) Studio 1. London 11 February 1936.

C2834 Spanish Medley, part 1 – Perjura; Lolita; La paloma, part 2 – La partida, El relicario; Ay, ay, ay LIGHT OPERA COMPANY (o WALTER GOEHR) [2] INA SOUEZ (sop), WEBSTER BOOTH (ten) Chorus 8 men Studio 1, London,10 February, 1936.

DB 1877 THE BOHEMIANS MELODY OF THE WALTZ – Part 1 – Waltzes by Gung’l, MELODY OF THE WALTZ – Part 2 – Waltzes by Gung’l (light orchestra) with Al Bollington at the Abbey Road studio Compton organ and WEBSTER BOOTH, tenor. Both sides recorded 15 August 1939. Part 1 is matrix CA 17562-1 and Part 2 is matrix CA 17563-1. Released in October 1939 and deleted in February 1944.

*B9502 All Soul’s Day/ Richard Strauss; Memory Island/ Harrison/ WEBSTER BOOTH, Gerald Moore, September 1946. (MISSING)

Richard Strauss’s setting of All Soul’s Day calls for singing of considerable emotional stress, and when Webster Booth gets impassioned his voice loses the easy charm that is its chief characteristic. His words are a model of distinctness and the accompaniment of Gerald Moore is perfect, but the song is not a very happy choice. The singer is more at home in Memory Island, in which a sailor home from the sea for good, casts his memory back, Masefield-wise, to the blue lagoons, coral islands and what not of the rover. It is a nice song with, for its type, an unusually good accompaniment.

Gems from Glamorous Night (Novello) Webster Booth, Muriel Barron (number and date unknown)

I am also including recordings made by Webster Booth but never released. I don’t suppose they will be floating around somewhere:

UNRELEASED RECORDINGS

I’m alone because I love you (Joe Young)/ When it’s sunset on the Nile (Ray Ellison & Ted Renard) WEBSTER BOOTH tenor, W. BRUCE-JAMES organ, Kensington Cinema, London, 6 March 1931. Not released by HMV.

My star/Little Son (Bassett Silver), Studio 1 London 10 February 1937 WEBSTER BOOTH (ten) (orchestra: CLIFFORD GREENWOOD) Unissued.

I was sent these recordings by Bassett Silver’s son.

You’re mine (Sievier, de Rance) Studio 1, London, 10 February 1937 WEBSTER BOOTH (ten)(orchestra WALTER GOEHR) Unissued.

Lakmé: O fair vision (Delibes, trans Claude Aveling), Marta: Soft and pure fraught with love (Flotow, trans Claude Aveling) WEBSTER BOOTH (ten), [2] LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA (WARWICK BRAITHWAITE )3 March 1939 Unissued.

Ave Maria D839 (Percy Kahn) WEBSTER BOOTH (ten), JEAN POUGNET (violin), ERNEST LUSH (piano). Transfer Room & Studio 3 London, 12 August, 1939 Unissued.

Rose of England: Crest of the Wave (Novello), Beauty’s Eyes (F Paolo Tosti; F J Weatherley) WEBSTER BOOTH (ten)(piano GERALD MOORE) Studio 3 London 27 March 1941 Unissued.

I have a copy of Beauty’s Eyes, possibly copied from one of WB’s own reel-to-reel tapes!

Merrie England: Come to Arcadie (German) ANNE ZIEGLER (sop), WEBSTER BOOTH (ten) [2] (o DEBROY SOMERS) ?CLIFFORD GREENWOOD, Studio 3 London 19 – 21 October 1941. Unissued.

Oft in the stilly night (trad; Tom Moore), WEBSTER BOOTH (ten) (organ HERBERT DAWSON) St Mark’s Church, Hamilton Terrace, 11 January 1946. Unissued.

St Mark’s Church, Hamilton Terrace, St John’s Wood.

My song goes round the world (E Neubach; English version K J Kennedy, ?Hans May), Without a song (V Youmans; W Rose and E Eluscu) WEBSTER BOOTH (ten)(o ERIC ROBINSON) 8 January 1948 Unissued.

If my songs were only winged (Reynaldo Hahn), WEBSTER BOOTH (ten)(o MARK LUBBOCK) 11 July, 1950. Unissued.

Countess Maritza: Komm Zigeuner (Kalman; McConnell) WEBSTER BOOTH (ten) (o MARK LUBBOCK) London: 20 December 1950 Unissued

As you can see, there are a number of new recordings listed here which I only discovered recently thanks to the Kelly Data base. It is a pity that these recordings were not published by HMV.

Jean Campbell Collen, Updated 31 January 2021. © 2021

There are 4 volumes of “A Scattered Garland” available at: lul.com/spotlight/duettists

ANNE ZIEGLER née IRENE FRANCES EASTWOOD (1910 – 2003)

Irené Frances Eastwood (Anne Ziegler) was born on 22 June 1910, the youngest child of Ernest and Eliza Frances Eastwood (née Doyle) of 13 Marmion Road, Sefton Park, Liverpool.  Her father was a cotton broker, and her mother, born in Bootle, was the daughter of James and Elizabeth Doyle. James was an architect, who had designed the Grand Hotel, Llandudno and other well-known buildings. Her sister, Phyllis, and brother, Cyril, were some years older than her, so Irené was almost an only child. At the time of her birth, her father was in Houston, Texas, buying cotton, so he did not see her until she was three months old.

Marmion Road, Sefton Park

Her father did not want her to risk the might of the Zeppelins, so she had a Scottish nursery governess to teach her reading, writing and basic arithmetic. Later she attended Belvedere School. Her sister, Phyll, had done well there, but Anne was only interested in music and dancing, so the staff at Belvedere often compared her unfavourably to her studious elder sister, who had become a pharmacist when she left school.

 Anne left school at the age of sixteen and continued playing the piano up to Grade VIII of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and began to study singing with the eminent teacher, John Tobin. In the nineteen-twenties a girl of her class had no need to work for a living. She was beautiful: tall and slim with emerald green eyes, fair hair and a fine bone structure. She became engaged – several times – to suitable young men, including a curate!

Anne

She sang in John Tobin’s female choir of twenty-four voices and took the part of the May Queen in an amateur production of Merrie England. 

Anne (seated) surrounded by cast members.

She won the gold medal at the Liverpool eisteddfod and sang at concerts in and around Liverpool. At this stage singing was a pleasant way of passing the time rather than a means of earning her living for a girl of her class had no need to work and earn money. Her father financed a vocal recital in Liverpool and a further recital at the Wigmore Hall under John Tobin’s tutelage. At the Wigmore Hall she sang everything from Handel’s He’ll say that for my love from Xerses to Roger Quilter’s Love’s Philosophy and Scheherzade, but neither of these recitals brought forth any professional singing engagements.

30 April 1934 Wigmore Hall recital.

Her family’s fortune took a downturn in the early thirties with the depression and the collapse of the cotton shares. For the first time in her life, she had to think seriously about earning a living to relieve her family’s finances. She was not trained to do anything as mundane as serving in a shop or typing, but she was attractive and she could sing. She and her friend, the mezzo-soprano, Nancy Evans, went to London to audition. Nancy didn’t find any work on that occasion, but Anne got the part of top voice in the octet of a musical play, By Appointment, starring the famous singer, Maggie Teyte, changed her name to the more glamorous Anne Ziegler, was accepted on the books of the theatrical agent Robert Layton, and was determined to establish herself on the stage and not become a financial burden to her father. 

By Appointment was not a success and lasted only three weeks but she found another job singing for Mr Joe Lyon’s organisation amidst the clatter of the restaurants of the Regent Palace and Cumberland Hotels, and the Trocadero. She auditioned for the part of Marguerite in a colour film version of Gounod’s Faust Fantasy. She had seen the opera as a child and was so enchanted with it that she determined she would play the role of Marguerite when she grew up.

From over two hundred other hopefuls she was chosen for the part: no doubt her blonde good looks and charming personality counted for nearly as much as her attractive lyric soprano voice. It was in the making of this film, which commenced shooting in December 1934, that she met Webster Booth, playing opposite her as Faust.

Anne and Webster in the “Faust Fantasy”

They fell in love almost at first sight, although at the time he was married to his second wife, Paddy Prior and had a son, Keith, by his first marriage. Four years later, after his divorce from Paddy in times when divorce was not as common or acceptable as it is today, Anne and Webster were eventually married on Bonfire Night in 1938.

In the intervening four years from the time Anne and Webster met and when they were free to marry, Anne was principal boy in her first pantomime, was an overnight success on radio in The Chocolate Soldier, sang in the early days of British television in 1936, and starred, under the name of Anne Booth, in the musical Virginia in New York. 

Anne had made a test recording for HMV  in 1935 but she made very few solo recordings for the company. It was only when she began singing duets with Webster that her recording career as a duettist was established in 1939. Here is her test recording from 1935:
The Waltz Song from Merrie England

At  the end of 1935, she was principal boy in Mother Goose, her first pantomime, at the Empire Theatre, Liverpool with George Formby and George Lacey. The following year she was principal boy in Cinderella in Scotland with the popular Scottish comedian, Will Fyffe. 

Will Fyffe

Will Fyffe sings Twelve and a tanner a bottle

July 1937. Anne was invited to go to the States to appear in the musical Virginia by Schwartz.  She decided to take the name of Anne Booth for her appearance there and made up a fictional life story to go with her new name! The show was presented at the Center Theater, New York, but it was not a great success, and Anne did not receive very good notices. She returned to the UK after the show ended although a film company in Hollywood had been interested in employing her.

8 October 1937 Virginia

Anne and Webster were married on 5 November 1938 and from then on their lives and careers were intertwined and in the 1940s they were to reach the top of the entertainment tree as duettists.

Anne and Webster wedding

I am posting a picture of Anne Ziegler posing as Mrs Siddons in the famous Gainsborough painting. This photograph first appeared in The Star (Johannesburg) in 1962.

Hear Anne singing in Noel Coward Vocal Gems (1947)

 

Anne as principal boy in panto.

13 OCTOBER is the anniversary of the death of Anne Ziegler in Penrhyn Bay, Llandudno, North Wales. It seems no time since I received the sad phone call from her friend, Sally Rayner to let me know that Anne had passed away. Anne had a bad fall in her home in Penrhyn Bay, North Wales on 8 August 2003 and spent the last few months of her life in  hospital. She died on 13 October, 2003, at the age of 93. Sadly, Sally Rayner herself died a number of years ago.

I am posting this beautiful photograph of Anne dressed in a rose-trimmed crinoline. During Anne’s singing career in the UK in the days of fame and glory during the forties and early fifties, Anne was noted for the beautiful crinolines she wore in the Variety act with her husband, the renowned British tenor, Webster Booth, and in stage and film performances. The gown in this photograph is an excellent example and the roses allude to Anne and Webster’s signature tune, Only a Rose from The Vagabond King. The couple starred in a revival of this Rudolf Friml musical at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1943.

While the generation who remembers Anne and Webster from those far-off days is growing smaller with the passing years, I hope new generations will discover them by listening to their recordings, many of which are available on CD. I have uploaded a number of rare 78 rpm recordings by Anne and Webster on YOU TUBE, and you may listen to these by clicking on the links to the right, or go directly to my Duettist’s YouTube channel. Anne did not make many solo recordings, but Webster made recordings of oratorio, opera, ballads, musicals and art songs as well as medleys and duets with other singers as well as numerous duet recordings with Anne.

There is a group on Facebook dedicated to the lives, recordings, photos and careers of Anne and Webster. Many of their 78rpm recordings have been perfectly restored by Mike Taylor, the co-administrator of the group. 

Jean Collen/Webster Booth-Anne Ziegler

Jean Collen – 28th March 2021

ACCOMPANYING FOR WEBSTER BOOTH

The bulk of the material is from a chapter in my book:

Sweethearts of Song: A Personal Memoir of Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth 

I published the first edition of this book in 2006. I have now published the second edition and have, in some instances, included excerpts from my contemporary diaries, and have drawn on the many letters written to me by Anne and Webster over a forty year period. This edition contains more information about Anne and Webster than the first edition. It also includes many extra photographs.

ACCOMPANYING FOR WEBSTER

On April 22nd 2013  it will be 56 years since I first started accompanying for Webster Booth in the studio where he and Anne Ziegler taught singing and stagecraft. It sounds like a long time ago but I can remember a great deal of that remarkable period of my life as though it were yesterday. 1963 was certainly one of the happiest years of my life when I had few worries and every day was an exciting carefree adventure. In 1964 my life was touched with sadness and tragedy and was never as perfect as it had been in the shining year that was 1963.

At the beginning of that year, I was just nineteen, with the promise of a happy future ahead of me. I had been learning singing with Anne and Webster for two years and I was planning to do my teaching diplomas in singing, although I was hoping that if I worked hard enough I would not have to depend entirely on teaching to make my living in music.

Webster and Anne at the time I was studying with them.

 January 1962. Anne and Webster attend a gathering to meet the All Blacks Rugby team

Me at about the time I was accompanying for Webster.

Jean Campbell Collen (1965)

 

 

 

Not only did Anne teach singing with Webster, but she also acted as studio accompanist, so it was usually Webster who answered the door to new arrivals and made frequent cups of tea for everyone.

Webster, Leslie, or Boo as Anne called him, was always even-tempered, with his cheerful, “Hello dear. Would you like some tea?” when I arrived for my lesson at their eighth floor studio in Polliack’s Corner at the corner of Pritchard and Eloff Streets in the city of Johannesburg.

Polliack’s Corner. Studio was on eighth floor of building with balconies to the right of the photo.

Of course he was perfectly aware that he had an outstanding voice, but he was devoid of the conceit one might have expected from a legendary tenor. I still have a vision of him in his shirt sleeves, peering through his horn-rimmed bifocals at one score or another, perspiring in the Johannesburg summer heat to which he was unaccustomed. He sight-read songs better than most of us could ever dream of singing them.

Early in 1963 my father heard a recording I had made of myself singing Father of Heav’n from Judas Maccabeus on my recently-acquired reel-to-reel tape recorder. He had passed several disparaging remarks about the quality of my singing and I was feeling extremely despondent. Anne and Webster were kind and sympathetic when I told them what he had said about my voice.

“My family never praised me for my singing either,” Webster growled. “If it had been up to them I would never have become a singer. Bring the recording along next time and let’s see what it’s like.” 

They listened in silence the following week – perhaps my father had been right and my singing was awful – but afterwards Anne asked rather sharply as to who my accompanist had been. They were very surprised when I admitted to accompanying myself. Nothing more was said at the time. In the fullness of time I recovered from the hurt my father’s criticism had caused me and I plodded on regardless.

A few weeks later Webster phoned my mother to ask whether I’d like to play for him in the studio for a few weeks in April as Anne was going on a tour round the country with Leslie Green, the broadcaster, best known for his programme on Springbok Radio of Tea With Mr Green, who was a great friend of theirs.

Anne at the first night of The Amorous Prawn with Leslie Green (1961)

I was out when he phoned so I phoned back that evening and spoke to Anne. Naturally, I wanted to do it. What a chance!

“Don’t worry about a thing, Jean,” Anne told me. ’If you can manage into the studio each day, Leslie will give you a lift home in the evenings. He’ll look after you. It will do you good to play for him.”

I was thrilled but apprehensive about the prospect of accompanying for Webster. Playing for the man who had been accompanied by the great Gerald Moore on most of his recordings was rather daunting.

The great accompanist Gerald Moore

 

 

 

I realise now that they were probably sorry that I had been so hurt by my father’s comments about my singing and wanted to build up my self-confidence again by giving me this chance to help Webster in the studio. I was petrified that I would not live up to their expectations of me. On the other hand, accompanying for Webster for two weeks would be exciting and challenging. When I play Father of Heav’n for one of my young students today, I remember how significant this song was in changing the direction of my life in those heady days so long ago.

-O-

As it was only January and I didn’t have to play until April so I decided to improve my sight-reading as much as possible in the following two months. I was working for Grade 7 piano and Grade 8 singing exams and April seemed a lifetime away.

Webster made a list of the students’ current repertoire and lent me some of his own scores so that I could practise the more difficult songs and arias beforehand. On the front page of each score he had listed all his concert dates for the work in question, usually for this or that oratorio. Apart from his variety act with Anne, he had been one of Britain’s greatest oratorio tenors.

In his score of Haydn’s Creation was the following list:

Lawson Memorial Hall, Selkirk 31/3/1937

Drill Hall, Derby Choral Union 6/11/1937

Broadcast, Town Hall, B’ham 9/11/1938

BBC Home 3/12/1952

BBC Third 4/12/52

Albert Hall, Royal Choral 29/4/1953 (Sir Malcolm’s birthday)

When he gave me his oratorio scores for Acis and Galatea and Jephtha, Anne asked, “Won’t you be needing them soon, darling?”

“I’ll never sing them again in this life,” he replied dryly. “Maybe in the next!”

One Friday afternoon in February my mother and I went shopping in Anstey’s, one of the big department stores in the city. We had afternoon tea in the pleasant tearoom where we sat at a table covered with a starched white tablecloth and chose fancy fattening cream cakes from the tiered plate in front of us.

Anstey’s Building. A department store with apartments and a penthouse above the store.

Anstey’s Building, Johannesburg.

Shortly after arriving home from that agreeable outing, the phone rang. It was Webster.

“Hello, Jeannie. Anne isn’t feeling too well today,” he said. “Would you like to come into the studio tomorrow morning and play for me?”

I felt elated and terrified at the same time.

“You’ll be fine,” he assured me, but I continued to tremble, as though I were about to make my debut at the Festival Hall.

I arrived at the studio in time for the first pupil, Graham. After he had sung some scales to warm his voice, Webster turned his attention to Sylvia by Oley Speaks. Although I was still feeling exceedingly nervous I managed to sight-read the accompaniment without mishap. I even began to enjoy accompanying Graham and listening to what Webster had to say to him about his singing.

But when the lesson was over and Graham had gone, Webster said quite gently, “You were quite petrified, weren’t you?”

I nodded dumbly, blushing at the same time. I wondered whether he was going to tell me I was no good to him and should go home straight away.

“You were fine,” he said reassuringly, making me feel more confident as we started on the next lesson.

Ruth Ormond, my great friend, had her lesson after me that day and was very surprised to see me at the piano instead of Anne. We had fun during her lesson, although I don’t think we did much work.

The last pupil for the morning was a blonde Afrikaans girl called Lucille Ackerman. She was a year older than me and had an exceptional soprano voice. I felt absolutely jealous when he sang proper duets like Only A Rose with her and put his arm round her waist.

Apart from this dull thud, the morning had passed well. Far from writing me off as hopeless, Webster asked me to play for him again on Monday. I hoped that Lucille would not have another lesson that morning!

That afternoon I went with friends to see My Fair Lady at the Empire Theatre in town with the delightful Diane Todd as the eponymous heroine and a largely Australian cast.

I played for Webster again on Monday and enjoyed it, not feeling as uncertain as I had done the first time. Mary Harrison, a glamorous Australian redhead, who was appearing in My Fair Lady was amusing and made the aria from Samson and Delilah sound like a tongue-in-the-cheek comedy act. She told Webster solemnly that she was doing her best to make her voice sound like a ‘cello, as he had suggested to her the week before. She stayed on in South Africa after the run of My Fair Lady ended and had success as an actress here, eventually settling in Durban and marrying. Sadly, she died of cancer some years ago.

A large arrogant tenor, who shall remain nameless, bellowed forth uncompromisingly, taking no advice from Webster. I wondered why he was bothering to have lessons if he was so full of himself that he did not think it necessary to take any direction.

After we finished for the day, Webster assured me that I had no need to worry. The standard of my sight-reading would easily carry me through when I began playing for him officially on 22 April 1963. In hindsight, perhaps this had been a test to see whether I could really fulfil the role as his accompanist. I don’t know what I would have done if I had failed that test and they made an excuse for withdrawing their offer. It was actually quite a let down to go into the studio the following week as a mere pupil once again. Anne told me that my singing had greatly improved since last she had seen me.

“Perhaps I had better leave you alone with Webster more often,” she added jokingly.

-O-

I was impatient for April to arrive, and continued working through all Webster’s scores. I also spent much time in a ferment of last minute practice for my forthcoming singing and piano exams: Prepare Thyself Zion from the Christmas Oratorio (Bach), Father of Heav’n from Judas Maccabeus (Handel), Ein Schwan (Grieg) sung by Kirsten Flagstad. and other songs, studies and exercises for my singing exam, and countless scales and pieces for my piano exam. The week of our exam duly arrived and Ruth, Lucille and I sat in the waiting room of the studios of my piano teacher, Sylvia Sullivan, where the Trinity College exams were held at the time.

 My dear friend and fellow student Ruth Ormond. The photograph was taken at the end of 1963 before she left for the University of Cape Town. Sadly she died in Cape Town on 1 May 1964 of a cerebral haemorrhage. She had just celebrated her nineteenth birthday during the previous month.

Ruth Ormond.

 

 

 

Lucille looked about sixteen, although she was older than me. Anne was wearing a camel -coloured fly-away cape coat and was doing her best to calm us down. Only years later when I was accompanying my own students in exams did I learn that the accompanist has the most harrowing job of the lot, having to play for several nervous pupils at a time.

I was introduced to the examiner, Mr Guy McGrath, who looked too old and benign to have the fate of all the poor candidates in his hands. However, after a nervous start, all went fairly well and the ordeal was finally over, apart from having to worry whether or not I had passed. I had not done well in sight-singing in my first singing exam, but I had worked particularly hard to master the skill: at least I knew I had managed that properly. I thought Ruth sang well, and I’m sure Lucille did also – she always sounded great. The four of us walked up Von Brandis Street with Anne, feeling better and more relaxed now that our ordeal was over.

Ruth and I left Anne outside the studio in Pritchard Street and went off to enjoy a slap-up meal in Anstey’s and have a lengthy post mortem about the exam. We both had frightful complexes about our singing, so much so that others must have wondered why we took lessons in the first place.

“I’d like to put you and Ruth in a bag together,” Webster remarked exasperatedly one day when we were bemoaning our vocal shortcomings.

On Friday, the day before Anne left on her trip with Leslie Green, I went apprehensively up to the studio, wondering whether the results might have arrived. Webster answered the door and said heartily:

“I believe you sang very well on Tuesday, my gel!”

I looked at him intensely and said, “No, it was absolutely awful.”

“How do you think you did?”

“I’ve failed,” I replied with conviction.

He gave a little chuckle and marched back into the studio, leaving me to wait in the kitchen until Lucille finished her lesson. He called me in and handed me my card – 78 per cent (with merit) for Grade 8. I could hardly believe it. Lucille with her brilliant voice had managed only 72 per cent for Grade 5. Ruth had passed Grade 6 with 72 per cent also.

Anne and Webster seemed delighted with my result. For most of that lesson we drank tea and made firm plans for my forthcoming singing diploma. Anne was wearing a black Derby type hat and looked particularly striking. We all got on so well together that day as she wished me good luck with my accompanying and I wished her a happy holiday with Leslie Green. Webster informed me that he would take me home from the studio every day and my parents worked out a map for him to get to Buckingham Avenue in Craighall Park from Juno Street, Kensington.

I still had to do my piano exam. Mr McGrath was very complimentary and told me I would make an excellent teacher and that I had been silly to doubt for a moment that I wouldn’t pass my singing exam. I played well, due perhaps to an exuberance for life with everything to look forward to. I passed the piano exam with 85 percent (honours).

As usual, Webster had taken shilling wagers with me on the outcome of all my exams, so I had to pay several shillings to honour the pleasing outcome of the bets. I was glad that I had managed to complete these exams creditably. Now I could look forward unhindered to two weeks working with Webster.

-O-

When I arrived on Monday morning, Webster handed me the keys to the studio.

“These are for you, darling. Come in and practise whenever you like. I hang the keys for Chatsworth in the office.”

It took me some time to work out that Chatsworth was his name for the communal toilet on the eighth floor where the studio was situated.

The ancient electric kettle was soon steaming to boil water for tea. But at that time I was not exactly domesticated.

“You must use two tea bags, dear, otherwise the tea is awful,” he scolded. “Good heavens! Don’t you know that you have to wait until the water boils properly before you pour it into the teapot?”

I had played on a Monday before, so it was good to see Mary Harrison again. The unmentionable tenor told me condescendingly that my sight-reading had improved vastly since February. He had not improved however and continued to do his own thing, unwilling to take any criticism or try out any suggestion Webster made.

On the second day, I met Dudley Holmes for the first time, then aged about twenty-one. He was quite taken aback to see me at the piano instead of Anne. He told me later that he was petrified for he had never sung to another living soul apart from Anne and Webster. I enjoyed playing Without a Song, and various songs from the Bass album for him.  Come to the Fair by Easthope Martin sung by Dudley and David Hales. I got to know him quite well over the years, and often spoke to him on the phone in Kimberley, where he lived for many years. He returned to Johannesburg about 10 years ago.

Dudley Holmes (Bass)

 

If not in a dream, I certainly was in seventh heaven during those two weeks. I tried to lock the experience in my mind so that I could relive every moment of it at will. I played for a few singers, whom Webster warned I might find amusing, but there were also excellent singers like Doris Bolton, a soprano from the Staffordshire potteries district, whose husband was working in the potteries in Olifantsfontein near Irené, where they lived at the time. She had a beautiful lyrical voice and was singing Richard Strauss’s Serenade in an impossible key. The accompaniment is very fast and florid and my sight-reading of it certainly did not do it or her justice. I remember Mary Harrison and Norma Dennis, Australians in the production of My Fair Lady, Lucille Ackerman of course, Dudley Holmes, Colleen McMenamin, my dear friend Ruth, and many others whom I got to know during my first accompaniment stint.

-O-

There was a fairly long break  at lunchtime. My mother had told me to go out for lunch to give Webster a chance to put his feet up. For the first few days I trailed through the lunchtime crowds to the library, where I passed the time studying music books in the reference library. It was a long walk from the studio and the time between sessions dragged.

“What do you do at lunchtime?” Webster asked curiously on the third day.

He was horrified when I told him.

“You can’t possibly wander around town and sit in the library for all that time. Bring in some sandwiches and stay in the studio with me.”

I mumbled something about not wanting to disturb him.

“Of course you won’t disturb me.”

So after that I remained in the studio and we ate our packed lunches together. His lunch was always a good deal more exotic than my own, with delicacies purchased from Thrupps, the nearby upmarket grocery shop. After lunch he would put his feet up on the table opposite the studio couch and sleep for half an hour or so.

One lunchtime I went on to the studio veranda where the tame pigeons, always in search of breadcrumbs, were congregated. I viewed the buildings down Eloff Street. I could see the crowns on top of His Majesty’s Theatre in Commissioner Street, three blocks down the road, and the elegant old Carlton Hotel. Outside the OK Bazaars, just across from the studio, three youngsters were playing Kwela music with penny whistle, guitar and an improvised bass constructed from a tea chest. There were coins jangling in the tin at their feet. Business people and elegant ladies from the northern suburbs, on their way to lunch with friends in one of the big city department stores, enjoyed the cheerful music. My toes tapped to its catchy rhythms, but I feared it might be competition for the singers at their lessons.

 Looking down Eloff Street from the studio balcony.

Eloff Street, looking south.

I closed the door of the balcony quietly and surveyed the spacious studio with its elegant Chappell grand piano on the far side. On the wall above the couch was a glass panel behind which were dozens of fascinating pictures from the Booths’ days of fame and glory in the UK. My mother had recognised a number of their illustrious friends and colleagues in the photographs when she had taken me to the studio for the first time. I particularly remember one of Anne and Webster in a boat with Douglas Fairbanks Junior when they had starred in Merrie England at Luton Hoo in Coronation year, 1953.

-O-

.Merrie England (June 1953) at Luton Hoo with Douglas Fairbanks Junior.

Before the next session started, I would make tea. I had learnt how to make it properly by this time!

I invited Webster to dinner during those two weeks. As we sat in the car in front of my house after he had driven me home one evening, I asked him, rather diffidently, whether he would like to come to dinner one night the following week. To my great surprise, he was delighted at the idea and readily agreed to dine with us the following Tuesday as we finished fairly early at the studio.

The time fairly flew and it seemed as though I had always been playing for him, walking with him to the garage each night, and following him up the narrow steps to where the car was parked.

When he drove me home on Saturday morning he said, “Perhaps we could go out to lunch some time next week. Would you like that, dear?”

I was quite taken aback at the suggestion, but, as always, I was delighted, and said, “Yes, that would be lovely.”

He said he was thinking of taking me to Dawson’s Hotel, where they had lived when they first arrived in Johannesburg and were flat hunting.

“Perhaps we won’t have time to have a really good meal there in such a short time, but we’ll see.”

I spent Sunday without seeing him for the first time all week, but still with the following week ahead to look forward to, not to mention the planned lunch at Dawson’s and the dinner at home.

On Monday we spent a lovely lunchtime, chatting about Webster’s life in the theatre in Britain, the tours of Australia, fabulous ski-ing holidays in Switzerland, nights of triumph at the London Palladium. I got to know him better than ever. He epitomised security, good humour, kindness and complete lack of side, and I thought the world of him.

Tuesday was a red-letter day.

After Dudley’s lesson, Webster announced, “Jean and I are going to blow the family savings today. I’m taking her to Dawson’s.”

Dudley said, “I wish I was coming with you. I have to go back to the office on an apple.”

Webster and I walked round the corner to Dawson’s, which was still one of the top hotels in those days, with only the Carlton and the Langham ahead of it. He seemed oblivious of the curious glances from some of the lunchtime throng as they did double takes when they recognised his famous face. We were ushered into the dining room on the first floor as though we were royalty. The head waiter hovered around Webster and we were shown to the best table at the window.

Dawson’s in 1972. The Edwardian restaurant where we had lunch that day was on the first floor.

Webster was quite at home in this setting after the grand hotels of Europe, the Antipodes and the UK. I, on the other hand, in a bottle-green velvet dress I felt gauche and young in comparison, as indeed I was. He ordered grilled trout and I had a fish dish also. He had a gin beforehand and was disappointed when I refused anything alcoholic. The only time I ever had anything to drink in those days was if my father poured me a thimbleful of sherry for me on special occasions. I was very unsophisticated and innocent in comparison with teenagers today.

During our meal, he told me how he and Anne had lived at Dawson’s for three months on arriving in Johannesburg. Somehow, things had gone wrong and several people in the hotel management, who had theatrical connections, had turned against them. Over coffee, we had petits fours and he insisted I should eat as many as I wanted. I found out later that they were soaked in brandy, so inadvertently I did not go without alcohol that day.

We sauntered back to the studio. There was only one pupil due that afternoon, so Webster fell asleep on the couch, while I sat in a chair a fair distance away reading their autobiography Duet, which he had lent me the week before.

When he woke up, he put on one of the reel-to-reel tapes of his sacred and oratorio recordings: How Lovely are Thy Dwellings (Webster Booth),

Sullivan’s The Lost Chord  (Webster Booth)

Abide With Me (Liddle) (Webster Booth)

Why does the God of Israel Sleep? Sound an Alarm (Webster Booth) and others.

I listened entranced and sometimes near to tears. He told me that when Lost Chord was recorded in the Kingsway Hall during the war, the All Clear sounded just as he was singing the last phrase “The Grand Amen”. They had to record it again so that the sirens could not be heard on the recording.

After Winnie, the only pupil for the afternoon, he drove me home to Juno Street in Kensington and stayed to dinner with my parents.

Our house is Juno Street as it is today.

He took a fancy to our dog, Shandy, whom he christened “my girlfriend” and kept her on his knee for the rest of the evening.

My father offered him a whisky, and Webster informed us that it had never done him any harm so far. He teased me because I had refused a drink at lunchtime in Dawson’s. My father looked alarmed at the thought of his innocent teenage daughter drinking alcohol.

Webster talked to my parents about Britain, and all the artistes they had known during the war, like Max Miller and Tommy Handley. He looked so at home in our sitting room, smoking and drinking whisky, with Shandy on his lap.

Shandy – Webster christened her “my girlfriend”.

Shandy

 When he was about to go home and was standing on our balcony which was enclosed with a purple bougainvillaea creeper, my mother said, “Thank you for looking after Jean,” he replied, “I think it’s Jean who’s looking after me.”

Although I can remember that day as though it were yesterday it saddens me to think that Dawson’s is no longer the plush hotel it was then, while Shandy, my mother, father and dear Webster himself are all long dead and gone.

The next few days passed all too quickly and soon Anne was phoning to say she was back from her trip with Leslie Green. She had sent me a card and Webster had pretended to be cross because she had not yet written to him at that juncture.

On the last night, Webster drove me home, and said quite pensively, “I shall miss my Sylvia Pass next week,” referring to the route he took to his home in Craighall Park.

“I have enjoyed having you play for me, darling,” he added.

“So have I,” I replied fervently.

“We’ll see you on Tuesday, dear,” he said.

The following day Ruth phoned to tell me that Webster had raved about me at her lesson, and said how much he had enjoyed having dinner at my home. I phoned Anne to welcome her home and we chatted for an hour about her trip and how they had always dreamed of owning a smallholding in England, but would never be able to afford one now. And so ended the two wonderful weeks. I had enjoyed playing for the pupils, had acquitted myself creditably, and had got to know Webster very well. As time passed I would get to know him even better.

Jean Collen (first published in 2005)

Updated 24 July 2020.

Sylvia, Oley Speaks.

©

Sylvia by Oley Speaks.

NURSERY SCHOOL SING-A-LONG – Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth. Recording made in August, 1963.

Anne and Webster with Maltese, Lemon. and Spinach, the cat around the time when the recording was made.

smart

smart

There was so much going on for me in the remarkable year of 1963 that I had almost forgotten the record Anne and Webster made in August of that year. Not only did they sing on the record, but my piano teacher, Sylvia Sullivan conducted the Nazareth House Children’s Choir, where she taught music. Anne and Webster’s neighbour, Gwen Murray, who lived across the road from them in Buckingham Avenue, Craighall Park arranged for the recording to be made. Her son Michaael and his friend Peter Morrison took part in the recording and Heinz Alexander, the well-known organist and pianist played the piano accompaniment.

The reason why I suddenly remembered the recording today was that Google pointed it out to me! I hadn’t heard it for a while and was actually quite impressed to hear it today. Webster was sixty-one at the time and Anne was fifty-three. Anne does not sound nearly as at ease as Webster does. One might have imagined that doing something like this might have been beneath them but he certainly entered into the spirit of it and seemed to enjoy doing it just as the children enjoyed working with him.

He was impressed with Sylvia Sullivan’s conducting and she was flattered that he singled her out to keep the music flowing at a good pace. He also told her that he was delighted to have me as his studio accompanist when Anne wasn’t available.

Sylvia Sullivan with her great-niece.

The Nazareth House children were allowed to stay up later than usual one Saturday night so that they could listen to the programme he was presenting on the English Service of the SABC. I wonder whether any of them remember making this recording sixty-one years ago. Even they are probably in their seventies by now.

You can hear a sample of the recording here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-P1r8ZkrrVEUmf3lwVQtNhoKf1oD_uNY/view?usp=drive_link

Jean Collen 28 April 2024.

PLACES ASSOCIATED WITH WEBSTER BOOTH AND ANNE ZIEGLER IN SOUTH AFRICA (1956 – 1978) AND IN THE UK. 1978 – 2003).

Webster Booth and Anne Ziegler emigrated to South Africa in July 1956. While they were looking for a suitable home in Johannesburg they lived at Dawson’s Hotel for three months.  The above photograph shows the hotel at the corner of Von Brandis and President Street as it was in 1972. It was considered one of the best hotels in Johannesburg after the Carlton and the Langham hotels in 1956.

They found a flat at Waverley, Highlands North, just off Louis Botha Avenue, where they lived for several years. Here they are with the Hillman Convertible outside the flat in 1956.

They rented a studio in the centre of the city on the eighth floor of Polliacks Corner, at the corner of Eloff and Pritchard Street. It was advertised as the Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth School of Singing and Stagecraft. The building was opposite the OK Bazaars.

Little 12-year old boys gathered each morning to play melodious Kwela music, using a penny whistle, and a bass made of a tea-chest outside the OK Bazaars. The studio was beyond John Orr’s, the upmarket department store in Pritchard Street.

Polliack’s Corner, the building with balconies on the right. Anne and Webster had a studio on the eighth floor.

In 1958 Anne and Webster bought a house at 121 Buckingham Avenue, Craighall Park in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. Anne said they paid R4000 (£2000) for the house and thought they did very well when they sold it for R8000 (£4000) five years later.

On Wednesday afternoons Webster went to Zoo Lake Bowling Club where he played bowls in “the most beautiful setting in the world”. I was sorry to hear that this bowling club’s lease has not been renewed and was closed in February 2011. I had hoped that it could be saved as it has been on this site for over fifty years.

Their second home in Johannesburg was at 31a Second Avenue, Parktown North, where they lived until 1967 when they moved to Knysna in the Cape.

The first house in Knysna was at 4 Azalea Street, Paradise, Knysna.

4 Azalea Street, Knysna.

Webster with Lemon, the Maltese in the garden at Azalea Street.

Anne and Webster in the garden at Azalea Street. Photo: Dudley Holmes.

18 Graham Street, Knysna.

They advertised the house in Azalea Street not long after they moved in. Their second home in Knysna where they stayed until 1974 was a Settler Cottage at 18 Graham Street. At first they planned to let the upper storey as a holiday let but were put off by noisy holiday tenants. Eventually they let the upper storey on a permanent basis to Freda Boyce (later Davies) and her father, Fred Cropper. They became very good friends.

The Beacon Isle Hotel was built at Plettenberg Bay, the adjoining town to Knysna and attracted visitors from other parts of the country. Anne and Webster sang at its opening around 1970.

The new ‘Crowhurst’ was in Picardy Avenue, Somerset West. Anne is standing next to the cars. (1975) Photo: Dudley Holmes

In 1974 they had moved  to Somerset West near Cape Town where the cost of living was less than in Knysna, and where they hoped to obtain more work in broadcasting and teaching but there were few pupils and few broadcasting engagements. Webster conducted the Somerset and District Choral Society but he was not even offered a fee for doing this! 

After a time they moved into a maisonette and prepared to return to the United Kingdom in 1978 as Anne’s life-long friend, Babs Wilson-Hill (Marie Thompson) offered to purchase a small bungalow in Penrhyn Bay, Llandudno, North Wales and agreed that they could live there rent-free for the rest of their lives. 

Webster died on 21 June 1984 after a long illness at the age of 82. Anne lived on in the bungalow until her death on 13 October 2003 at the age of 93.                      

The bungalow in Penrhyn Bay.

Jean Collen.
July 2010 Revised 2024.

Miscellaneous correspondence and inscriptions to fans and others: 1934 – 1980

 Shanklin 1934

 Here is a copy of a letter sent from “Madeleine” who was on holiday on the Isle of Wight during the summer of 1934. She sent the letter and photograph below to her friends Lily and Phil, who must have been fans of Webster Booth.

  Dear Lily and Phil,

 Thought you would like a Photograph of Webster. We went to see Sunshine the night before last – they were great. The weather up to now has been very fine with a strong wind blowing. I must say I like the Island very much, and I am enjoying myself very much indeed.

 Best love to you both,

 Madeleine.

Webster’s note to a fan – 10 September 1936

27 December 1938 Webster from BBC Bristol.

28 February 1940 Anne to Mr Newman from Lauderdale Mansions.

 Anne to fan 13 November 1942 from Crowhurst, Torrington Park, Friern Barnet

Anne with fan, Gladys Reed outside the stage door of the Palladium.

August 1942 envelope to Gladys Reed.

13 November 1942 Note to unnamed fan.

Inscription in a book. What does it mean? 31 January 1943.

10 March 1943 from Grand Hotel, Manchester to a fan, Miss Wigglesworth.

18 November 1943 to Gladys from North British Station Hotel, Glasgow.

1948 To a New Zealand fan during their tour there.

1953 Coronation Dinner onboard ship returning from Canada.

1955 Anne’s inscription in Duet to Betty who had appeared with Anne in the panto 1954/1955

 

1 April 1955 letter to Gerald Iles, the Belle Vue Zoo, Manchester.

Reply to Anne’s letter: 4 April 1955

16 November 1955 – Anne and Webster on tour in the Cape.

July 1956 on board the Pretoria Castle on the way to South Africa

Letter to Mabel Fenney in East London, South Africa – 30 April 1959

 30 April 1959. Letter to Mabel Fenney in East London

                                           Letter to fan, Mr Shepherd, 11 September 1979

                                                               27 October 1980 to Mr Rollins.

Jean Collen, March 2024.

THOMAS ROUND.

Thomas Round

Thomas Round. 1915 – 2016.

I first heard of Thomas Round when he came out to Johannesburg in 1964 with a full English company of ‘Lilac Time’ although I probably had heard some of his recordings when Webster Booth presented his Gilbert and Sullivan series on the SABC in 1962. The company presented this work at the sumptuous His Majesty’s Theatre in Commissioner Street and the company stayed at the New Library Hotel across the road. In those days the New Library Hotel was a decent enough hotel and there were a number of theatres and cinemas in Commissioner Street, one of the main streets in Johannesburg running from East to West through the city.

New Library Hotel, Commissioner Street.

His Majesty’s Theatre, Commissioner Street.

Thomas Round had been a principal tenor with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company for a number of years. When Sir Malcolm Sargent was supervising a batch of new recordings of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas I believe that he and Thomas Round had an altercation and in the end, the young tenor at D’Oyly Carte, Philip Potter was chosen to sing those roles.

In 1964 I was still accompanying for Webster Booth when Anne Ziegler had other engagements and, having obtained my singing diplomas, I had started giving singing lessons in their studio in town on days when they were not teaching there. One day, shortly before my 21^st birthday, Thomas Round and Marion Studholme, the leading principals in ‘Lilac Time’ arrived at the door of the studio. They had come to collect a score of ‘The Yeomen of the Guard’ and were enquiring about studios to rent in Johannesburg. Presumably the Booths had promised that they could borrow the score when they had given a party to welcome the cast of ‘Lilac Time’ earlier. They were very pleasant indeed and I enjoyed seeing the show a few days later as a birthday treat. Webster had dinner with Tom Round one evening at the Library Hotel.

Early in 1966 I arrived in London and obtained a job at the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music which was then situated in Bedford Square. There I met Margaret W. She had not been there when I first arrived as she had been dressing for D’Oyly Carte for a week during their London season. Her mother had told the Board that Margaret had the ‘flu because she was so keen to work there. She was a few years younger than me and had all the G&S recordings at her home in St Albans. She was also a very great admirer of Thomas Round and when she heard that I had met him in South Africa she persuaded me to go to see ‘Lilac Time’ at the Golder’s Green Hippodrome! There I met Thomas Round again (and his wife this time). They invited me to have a drink with them after the show. Their son had graduated from university earlier that day and they were very proud of him.

Margaret lived in St Albans and eventually I found a music and drama teaching job at Wheathampstead near St Albans. My parents left South Africa and settled in St Albans and I went to live with them there. Thomas Round was living in Watford, close to St Albans and Margaret persuaded me to go with her one afternoon and sit at a bus station opposite his house! He did not put in an appearance much to her disappointment. She, and a number of fellow-fans followed him around to his various engagements. One of them even travelled the length and breadth of the country hoping to have a kind word from the great man when he emerged from the theatre! I went to one of his concerts with Margaret and the ‘gang’ and when he came out of the theatre, he said, ‘Not you lot again!’

I joined the St Albans Operatic Society and sang in several ‘Gilbert and Sullivans for All’ whilst I was there. As Anne mentioned in her comment, they were very pleasant shows with prominent G&S performers and a chorus made up from local operatic societies. Margaret and I were invited by one of her friends in the company to have a meal with the D’Oyly Carte company between shows in one of the towns south of London. I remember Donald Adams and Philip Potter being at the meal.

All so many years ago now but it came back to me when I read Suzanne’s comment in the group in the middle of last night! I would certainly like to read Tom Round’s autobiography some time but as the postal system in South Africa has all-but collapsed and the government plans to close over 200 more post offices, I doubt if I will ever be able to do that. I would like to know what he had to say about meeting Anne and Webster while he was in Johannesburg. He was 13 years younger than Webster, of a different generation.

Jean Collen.

WEBSTER BOOTH’S RELATIONSHIP WITH PETER DAWSON.

Webster Booth and Peter Dawson.

Soprano Anne Ziegler was born Irené Frances Eastwood, in Liverpool, England in June 1910. She chose her stage name by perusing the first and last letters of the alphabet.

Tenor Leslie Webster Booth was born in Birmingham, England, in January 1902. He was an established star in oratorio and Gilbert & Sullivan when the couple met in late 1934 while working on the British film Faust. In November 1938, Anne became Webster’s third wife.

Working mainly as a vocal duo they played concert halls, variety, pantomime and West End stage musicals such as Gangway (1941) and Sweet Yesterday (1945). When the first post-war Royal Variety Performance was held in November 1945 they were on the bill, helping entertain Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose on their first theatre outing.

The act which most impressed the young royals was the Australian Colleano family with their spectacular dancing acrobatics.

Both Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth made solo recordings, but it was as duettists they are best remembered. As a team they recorded about 70 titles for His Master’s Voice in London from late 1939 to late 1951 – mainly ballads, sacred songs and tunes from operettas.

As a soloist, Webster’s recording career commenced with HMV in 1929, helped by an introduction from Peter Dawson. Some of his work was in male choruses backing singers like Dawson, Stuart Robertson and George Baker. The Booths were regular guests on radio shows, including the BBC’s Music for Romance.

While the couple were inseparable both on and off stage, they had a personal relationship which has been described as both stormy and loving, suggesting they were highly strung and could be temperamental.

In an interview in 1988, Australian pianist Geoffrey Parsons, who toured with the two singers, remarked that ‘The intensentity of their shimmering love duets was equalled only by the bitterness of their backstage rows.’

Despite their volatility the Booths delighted audiences around the world with their superb performances of light operatic and show melodies, including a successful tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1948, undertaken at the suggestion of Peter Dawson.

The singers moved to South Africa in 1956 where they opened a singing studio and continued to perform.

Returning to the United Kingdom in 1977, they settled in North Wales, from where they travelled extensively giving talks and concerts. They gave their last concert together in 1983.

Webster Booth died on 21 June 1984, after a long illness during which *he was cared for at home by his wife.

• NB He was admitted to a nursing home and was only cared for at home in the last few weeks of his life! (JC)

Anne Ziegler continued to live at Penrhyn Bay in North Wales, giving talks on their careers to local clubs and societies. After a bad fall and spell in hospital, she died aged 93 in October 2003.

In preparing a biography of Peter Dawson (written with Dr Russell Smith of Hobart) Peter Dawson” The World’s Most Popular Baritone (Currency Press, Sydney, 2001) I came across contrasting views on the bond between these three singers as the following extracts illustrate:

Webster Booth in an undated letter (ie 1982) to archivist Ron Hughes: ‘I am only too pleased to give any information on my great friendship with Peter. My wife and I wrote our book Duet in 1951 and Peter was mentioned at least 7 times.

Without Peter’s great help our push for success would not have been easy if at all possible. Peter was possibly the greatest friend and adviser I had in my young days. If Mr Tony Martin (researcher) is up this way I would be delighted to meet him and talk of the wonderful times I had with Peter.’

Anne Ziegler, writing on behalf of her ill husband, in a letter dated October 1983, to researcher Tony Martin: Webster’s memory has completely gone- alas – and he would not be able to give more details of Peter Dawson, other than those in his letter to Mr Hughes. I didn’t see the contents of his letter to Mr Hughes, but I must tell you that they were not really great friends. My husband was naturally extremely grateful to Peter in getting him a recording audition. They hardly met from then on, until he, pianists Rawicz and Landauer, and we did an extended concert tour for Harold Fielding. The last time they met was in the ’50s when we worked with him in a concert somewhere in Lancashire when Geoffrey Parsons – newly arrived from Australia – played for him.

Peter Dawson, in a letter dated 1 December 1949 to Arch Kerr, recording manager of EMI, Sydney: Fielding had signed me on for 10 months exclusive for concerts and broadcasting – I wonder who Fielding will couple up with me. I hope neither the Booths or Rawicz and Landauer blokes – I’ve had them all!

So we end up with Webster Booth claiming he and Peter Dawson were life-long mates; Anne Ziegler reckoning that they hardly knew each other; Peter Dawson not keen to be in the same room as either of them.

I think it was Solomon who said that ‘reseach wasn’t mean to be easy’. Solomon the pianist, that is, not he of the Old Testament wisdom.

PETER BURGIS.

.JEAN COLLEN:

I am including this derogatory article. It makes fools of Anne and Webster as well as casting doubt on Webster’s friendship with Peter Dawson. I wonder whether Peter Dawson really expressed a dislike of them and of Rawicz and Landauer. The latter were very good friends of the Booths and visited them when they were on tour in South Africa with Kenneth McKellar in 1966. I have decided to make this article public and would be interested in your thoughts about it if you should read it. I don’t think it paints any of them in a good light!

Jean Collen.

PETER DAWSON: FIFTY YEARS OF SONG – WEBSTER BOOTH (136 – 137)

There is another popular vocalist who must thank the gramophone for establishing him in the music world. I can claim a share in his success as I was responsible for taking him to the Gramophone Company and arranging that he should be given an audition.

My old friend Ernest Butcher came to see me when I was singing in concert at Blackpool; he had a ‘Pierrot’ show in another hall. Ernest Butcher, in addition to being a very excellent comedian, has a very good voice, is a witty raconteur and can write songs.

When I asked him about his company he told me that he had a tenor of whom he thought a very great deal, so much so, in fact, that he begged me to come along and hear the fellow sing. Ernest was, and still is, a good judge of a voice. So I went along and heard the tenor sing ‘On with the Motley’. He certainly had a remarkably good voice. And he had a good presence. I congratulated him on his voice, and asked whether he had ever thought of making records. He had, but, like many other artistes at that time, found it was extremely difficult to get a trial. I therefore arranged that when he was next in London he should give me a ‘phone call. Later this was done, and I took him along to Fred Gaisberg, and asked for a trial. ‘This fellow has a good voice, and I think a good one for recording. You know I wouldn’t bring along anyone I wasn’t sure of, Fred.’ A trial was duly made, and Fred told me that ‘He is inclined to bleat a bit, but you are right, he has a voice. I’m going to try him on the Zonophone.’

The Zonophone was a subsidiary of the HMV. Bleating is a common fault, and it did not take Webster Booth – for that’s who it was – a few minutes to correct it, once he heard his own voice. After that he never looked back. From the Zonophone he was promoted to the HMV and from there he went on into more and better-paid engagements. I asked for him when I made the series of marching songs with chorus, and generally watched over his progress until he was fully established. Once again, in 1948, I was able to persuade him and his charming wife, Anne Ziegler, to make a tour of Australia. In letters to me from there he expressed his delight of the people, the country and the success they both made. ‘How right you were once again, Peter,’ the last letter ended.

Yes. A chance meeting; a successful gramophone début, and another reputation is launched to success.

Peter Dawson, Fifty Years of Song, Hutchinson & Co. 1951

This book was published in 1951 at the same time as Anne and Webster’s autobiography ‘Duet’. I would be surprised if Peter Dawson would have written in such an uncomplimentary manner about the Booths in 1949 while being quite proud of helping Webster start his recording career. JC.

I am including this derogatory article although it makes fools of Anne and Webster as well as casting doubt on Webster’s friendship with Peter Dawson. I wonder whether Peter Dawson really expressed a dislike of them and Rawicz and Landauer. The latter were very good friends of the Booths and visited them when they were on tour in South Africa with Kenneth McKellar in 1966. This article is password protected if anyone cares to read it. Ask me for the password. I would be interested in your thoughts about it if you should read it. I don’t think this article paints any of them in a good light! At this stage I will be surprised if anyone on earth would be interested in reading it.

Jean Collen.

Medley featuring Webster Booth and Peter Dawson singing a selection of the same songs.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18MiBZ5TckAg-sbjt0k9qpcXZdm96m1xH/view?usp=drive_link

BUYING A ROLLS ROYCE -1 November, 1954

British singers Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth are viewing a Rolls Royce with Patricia Swain -1950.

Over afternoon tea British singers, Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth listen to the advert. 1950.

British singer, Webster Booth is shown the interior of a Rolls Royce by Patricia Swain. 1950.

British singer Anne Ziegler (left, 1910 – 2003) is shown the interior of a Rolls Royce by Patricia Swain, director of her husband’s HR Owen luxury car showroom at Berkeley Street, Mayfair, London, November 1954. She is inspecting a make-up mirror which unfolds from behind the cocktail cabinet in the Rolls she and her husband Webster Booth have purchased. (Photo by John Drysdale/Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/british-singers-anne-ziegler-and-husband-webster-booth-with-news-photo/1937074873

British singers, Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth in Rolls Royce with Patricia Swain. 1 November 1954..

1 November 1954. Buying a Rolls Royce.

Less than two years later in July 1956 they left the United Kingdom on the Pretoria Castle bound for Cape Town. They settled in Johannesburg, South Africa and stayed there until 1978. When they were first in South Africa they drove a Ford Zephyr and a Hillman Minx convertible.

Hillman Minx, 1956, Highlands North.

On my page on Facebook Charles Regan pointed out in a comment:

Nice choice. A Standard Steel Silver Dawn, fitted out to your own requirements, or a Silver Wraith, built by your coachbuilder of choice, and made exclusively for you.

Jean Collen 22 January 2024.

Extract from Teenage Diaries 7/8 December 1961 – 62 years ago!

Me in 1961 with Shandy.

7 December 2023 Introduction. The year is nearly at an end. I am still recovering from endocarditis having spent nearly three weeks in hospital in September/October receiving multiple antibiotic intravenous drips into very small stubborn veins. Thankfully, I seem to have recovered from this infection without being left with a heart murmur but I don’t have much energy so I am leading a very quiet life indeed in my eightieth year. The nurses at the L… Hospital addressed me either as ‘Granny’ or ‘Gogo’!

My husband had to give up driving several years ago because of macro-degeneration of the eyes. We have our food delivered to the house once a week, and order other purchases online to be delivered by couriers. We depend on our children to take us to medical appointments. The political situation in South Africa is dire and we are often without water and regularly have ‘load-shedding’ – in other words – power outages – lasting for at least two and a half hours at a time.

Errol and me shortly before my illness. Photo: Pearl Harris.

In High Care at ‘L’… Hospital.

At home after checkup with the two doctors who treated me. October 2023.

Here follows what was happening in my life 62 years ago when I had just turned 18 and was keeping a regular diary after reading ‘The Provincial Lady’ diaries of E.M Delafield. At the time I was a year out of school and working in the Cable Department of Barclays Bank in Market Street, Johannesburg.

November 1961. Write-up by Garry Allighan.

7 December 1961 Work. Have lunch with mum in Anstey’s. Go to studio after work and Webster answers the door looking fit. I sit in the kitchen listening to Nellie, the middle-aged pupil who has her lesson before me.

When I go in I ask Webster how he enjoyed Durban and Port Elizabeth. He says he had a wonderful time but was furious that the SABC didn’t broadcast The Dream or Messiah but put on an Afrikaans Messiah on Sunday which was grim and very poorly done. Handel must have been turning in his grave, says he. “That damned Anton Hartman,” he adds.

I make tea for myself and pay Anne before starting on exercises and scales. In the middle of the vocalisation exercise the phone rings. It is Mum to tell me to meet Dad outside the studio to get a lift home. It is the first time I am in their little office and see all the playbills displayed there with their names 50” high and wide!

We go on with the songs and they cannot decide where the grace note in Polly Oliver should go so they take the book home to check up on it.

We do My Mother Bids Me Bind My Hair. and Webster sings it with me to get the accompaniment right. His singing is more wonderful than ever. Imagine singing with the best tenor in the world (which is what I know he is!)

I depart with Webster in the lift. He moans at me about the SABC not broadcasting the PE oratorios. He says Anton Hartman put his own wife into the Afrikaans Messiah and the bass was putrid with a limited range. At least the critic, Gary Allighan, stuck up for him.

He stands with me in Pritchard street for a little while and asks if I’ll be all right. I insist I shall so he says goodbye and walks purposefully off to fetch his car. While I’m waiting for Dad Anne comes down and we talk about how lackadaisical the choir is. She decides it’s going to rain so she dashes to the other side of the road. Dad arrives on the other side too so I wave at her and depart.

Go to SABC choir and we record the carol concert for Christmas day. There is a huge crowd there, including Annie Kossman, leader of the orchestra. I sit near Gill V and we sing for all our worth. A photographer takes a number of photographs and Johan van der Merwe conducts beautifully and all is glorious.

At our tea break I look around for Ruth O. See a likely-looking girl – small with deep blue eyes. However, when I go out, all I can do is stare at her and she stares at me. She is sitting all by herself in the foyer. I suffer Gill, Mrs Viljoen, and Rita Oosthuisen and then, when I go back into the studio, I decide to take the bull by the horns.

Ruth Ormond.

I go over to her and say, “Are you Ruth Ormond?” She says, yes, she is. I tell her that I’m a pupil of Webster and Anne and I believe she is too. She is quite delighted and tells me that Anne told her about me, saying I was tall and dark and she is very, very fond of me indeed. I tell Ruth what Anne said about her. Ruth says, “I’ll bet she said I was shy-looking.” I deny this, although Anne had said she was very intense. She tells me that she plays the piano but doesn’t play very well and we both agree that singing is wonderful and we love it more than anything but the piano is a means to an end. She’s been learning with the Booths for a year and a half. We agree too that they are both pets and good teachers, and we talk about him singing in Port Elizabeth.

She is a perfectly lovely girl and terrific fun but she seems a little lonely. She has the same enthusiasm as Roselle but she is quieter. I’m so glad I’ve met her and I’m sure we will be friends.

Return to my place and we manage to finish the recording. There’s a party on Monday. Says Johan, “Tea or coffee will be served in the canteen.” There is hollow laughter all round. I hope Ruth goes.

8 December – Work. Listen to the tape-recording Dad made of Webster’s programme last night – Kathleen Ferrier, Isobel Baillie, Laurence Tibbet, Webster and Anne singing Porgy and Bess, and something specially written for them by Harry Parr-Davies, and Webster singing Give and Forgive…

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dXcuUEX_9CwjpB2ZK1SdwVgMg_BTaOsM/view?usp=sharing

ONLY A ROSE – RADIO SERIES – 1980.

This series was sent to me by the late Pamela Davies in the early 2000s.

Only a Rose (Radio Series) – BBC Radio 2, 6 August 1980 21.15  Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth recall on-stage memories and back-stage glimpses of many of the great artists they have met in the theatre, concert hall and studio. Producer DAVID WELSBY BBC Birmingham.

Part One of Anne and Webster’s reminiscences in the Only a Rose series. More may be heard at Ziegler Booth Radio. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AO-KP6gI7JPkvVaAdeu4_gfOt7o8evSy/view?usp=sharing

Only a Rose (2) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xJn3ft44KQz1k1hBOJVqkq0-ZxZqUtDM/view?usp=drive_link

Only a Rose (3) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eNrhYFpVuEGWyarMteP-E2ZGQs7t6TY1/view?usp=drive_link

Only a Rose (4) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uh8fJxITHbB_lVzJFj9l9vzuPJjtx6lf/view?usp=drive_link

Only a Rose (5) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mFLAoPbtAq9kkSBsYm1Hkd2UC_oxu1ww/view?usp=drive_link

THE RECORD CONTRACT, a short story by FIONA COMPTON.

Gingerly Heather Craig nibbled on the thin slice of dry toast and drained her cup of weak black tea. The morning sickness was getting worse and she didn’t know if she could hide her pregnant state from Malcolm for much longer. She was relieved that she had an appointment with her gynaecologist that morning, and not a moment too soon.

Mrs Hubbard bustled into the dining room with the first post. Malcolm’s agent had forwarded the week’s fan mail, so she put the pile of letters at Malcolm’s place. The pile was not quite as high as it had been four or five years earlier, but it was still sizeable. In contrast, Heather received a few accounts and the weekly letter from her mother. Heather noticed that the month’s copy of Gramophone had arrived, probably containing the anticipated review of Malcolm’s first long-playing record.

Heather decided to read the review before Malcolm came down for breakfast. He was due at the recording studios later that morning for his regular recording session. She had difficulty in locating the review as it was much shorter than she had anticipated. As she read the brief review her nausea returned, this time brought on by shock and dismay. One sentence stood out above all the others.

“Only Malcolm Craig’s most ardent fans will enjoy this innocuous collection of highly forgettable songs.”

Heather heard Malcolm’s footsteps on the staircase and hurriedly hid the periodical under her chair. This spiteful piece was the last thing he needed to see before his recording session and the Watford concert that evening.

“You’re up early, darling,” he remarked as he planted a kiss on the top of her blonde head. “Have another cup of tea and keep me company while I eat.”

Malcolm poured some strong tea into her cup, but she knew she would not be able to take a sip of it.

Malcolm glanced perfunctorily through his post.

“No sign of the Gramophone?” he asked casually.

“Perhaps it’ll come by the second post.” Heather tried to sound light and cheerful, willing her warring stomach to settle down. She bent down and somehow managed to hide the offending periodical under her red dressing gown, before fleeing from the table. Just in time she managed to reach the privacy of the bathroom before nausea overwhelmed her completely. Malcolm would have to wait until tomorrow before he faced some unpleasant reading.

-0-

It was March 1951 and Malcolm Craig’s recording contract was due for renewal. The ritual was always the same. Each year, for the last twenty years, Frank Downey, the managing director of the famous BRG recording studio in Wigmore Street, would arrive before the session and invite Malcolm into his office to sign the new contract when he had finished his work. The business concluded, Downey would offer him a tot of his excellent single malt whisky.

“How are you, Malcolm?” Frank Downey greeted Malcolm Craig effusively. “Would you mind calling into my office after your recording session? I have some business to discuss with you.”

Malcolm Craig recorded the eight selected songs in less than three hours. He was an excellent sight-reader, so all he needed was a brief run through with the eminent accompanist, George Manning, before he was ready to lay the cake on the table.

He listened to the takes with his producer and George Manning, then, satisfied with the morning’s work, made his way up to Frank Downey’s sumptuous office to find the gentleman already hovering at the door ready to greet him.

Downey ushered Malcolm to the plush leather chair facing his large oak desk. Usually the contract was lying on the desk waiting for him, a gold Schaeffer pen near at hand, ready for him to sign on the dotted line. But today the desk was bare and Malcolm speculated about the empty desk and why Downey appeared so fidgety and uncomfortable.

“Is the contract late?” Malcolm asked, trying not to show concern.

“That’s what I wanted to discuss with you, Malcolm,” Frank began. “What with the advent of the LP and changes in people’s taste since the war, your records are just not selling the way they used to.”

Downey watched Malcolm’s rugged face slowly lose its colour. He really had not reckoned on the man passing out on him.

Despite his pallor, Malcolm spoke in measured tones.

“Frank, I’ve known you too long to listen to a lot of soft soap. Are you telling me you’re not renewing my contract?”

“I’m so sorry, Malcolm. I fought against it of course, but I was outvoted.”

As though to console Malcolm, he added brightly, “You’re not the only one to suffer – we’re not renewing the contracts of many of our gifted pre-war artistes. They’re all still in good voice, but there’s no demand for them these days. I’m really sorry.”

Malcolm’s legs were trembling. Despite being nearly fifty, and one of Britain’s’ greatest and most versatile tenors, he was close to tears. He was still in the prime of his vocal life, and here he was being discharged like an indolent office boy. He was due to sing at a concert in Watford that evening. After this blow he would need all his professional expertise to carry the engagement off successfully.

He rose to his feet, willing himself to leave with dignity before he broke down.

“There’s nothing more to be said then,” he said baldly. “No doubt you’ll send any money owing to my agent.”

“Please don’t leave like this, Malcolm! Have a whisky with me for old time’s sake,” pleaded Downey.

What was there left to discuss now that he had no contract binding him to the company? The whisky would choke him. He turned on his heel and walked out of the office, and left the building without a word of farewell to anyone. He gained the privacy of his Wolseley, lit a forbidden Capstan and drew on it deeply. Concert and radio dates had been falling off a bit lately, but he and Heather relied on the steady income from his recordings to keep them in comfort. What was he to tell her?

He made his way to his comfortable home in Hampstead, aware that he would probably never drive the same route again. He wondered whether his voice, the splendid gift he had taken for granted since childhood, could be failing him. But that couldn’t be right. He had just heard the recordings he had made that very day. His voice sounded better than ever. As he edged the big car slowly up the driveway, he glimpsed Heather, in tiny pink shorts and a bright seersucker top, sunbathing on a deck chair near the rose bower.

He had met Heather in a concert party in Margate, a few years after he had signed his first record contract, a gorgeous blonde of twenty, with sea green eyes and a complexion like a ripe peach. Her stunning looks and charm excused the fact that her voice, though pretty and sweet, was merely run of the mill. She had managed to make a stage career for herself because of her looks and charming personality.

They had fallen in love, and spent every free moment together, mingling with the holidaymakers licking cornets, while their children were having special treats seated on the staid donkeys on the beach. The light-hearted atmosphere on the seafront contrasted with their seaside lodgings where they were surrounded by elderly corseted widows in the dining room and the lounge.

They were married at the end of the season and Heather was only too happy to stop attending audition calls to take on her new role as Malcolm’s dutiful and loving wife. In those heady days he was in great demand for West End musicals, oratorios, Masonic Concerts, recording and broadcasting for the BBC, Radio Luxembourg and Radio Normandy.

Malcolm’s successful singing career gave them all the luxuries of life, but their mutual desire for children remained unfulfilled. Heather had twice fallen pregnant, but had miscarried both times. They eventually accepted that they would be childless and transferred their thwarted parental instincts to their two Scotties, Whisky and Soda.

Malcolm emerged from his reverie and watched Heather as she lounged, half-asleep in the sun without a care in the world. The two dogs had been cavorting around the garden, always with half an eye on their beloved mistress, but now they bounded in his direction to greet him with an effusion he found difficult to reciprocate that day.

-0-

Heather had kept her appointment with her gynaecologist. Dr Urquhart, an elderly Scot, did a thorough unhurried examination to which Heather submitted with stoicism. She had been through such inspections before to no avail. At the age of forty she had not held out very great optimism that she could have a child at such an advanced stage of life.

“I can safely say your pregnancy is going smoothly, Mrs Craig,” he said with a rare smile. “You’ll have to take things easy for you are not young as far as child-bearing is concerned and you have had two problem pregnancies before, but if you look after yourself I see no reason why you shouldn’t carry this infant to full term.”

-0-

“Darling!”

Heather had seen Malcolm’s car at last and hurried to him, eager to kiss him and tell him her glad news right away, but her elation evaporated at the sight of his haggard face.

“Did you sign your new contract?” she asked uncertainly, knowing before he spoke that all was far from well.

“There is no new contract,” Malcolm murmured under his breath. “I’m finished at BRG. I’m sorry, darling.”

Heather took his hand in hers, hurt to see her usually cheerful uncomplicated husband so downcast.

“It doesn’t make sense. You’ve never sounded better. Did Frank give you an explanation? There must be a mistake.”

“They’re getting rid of a lot of us pre-war singers because public tastes have changed. The British public prefers crooners these days. I fear my days as a singer are numbered.”

“Nonsense! As soon as other companies hear you’re free they’ll jump at you,” said Heather hopefully.

“I don’t think so,” replied Malcolm dejectedly. “I’m getting an old man.”

“Rubbish!” she said. “You’re not even fifty. You have years ahead of you as a singer.”

“I’m too upset to talk about it. I still have to get through that concert in Watford tonight, though I don’t know if I’ll have the strength to do so.”

Her heart went out to him in his misery. She decided to postpone her news until after the concert. The copy of the Gramophone was under her side of the mattress. It would be a while before she would produce it. He didn’t need another knock for a while.

Malcolm bathed and changed, then sat on his favourite chair in the drawing room, absentmindedly stroking one of the Scotties, idly regarding the Spanish cabinet, the Chappell grand piano, the Wilton carpets, and the fine antiques, all the beautiful possessions he and Heather had acquired from the money he had earned over the years. How could they afford to go on living like this now his career was on the wane?

He was surprised to see Heather emerge in her low-cut red evening gown – always his favourite – with the diamond necklace he had given her for her last birthday gleaming at her throat.

“‘You take my breath away Heather,” he remarked with a gentle smile. “I didn’t know you were going out this evening.”

“I’m going out with you to your concert,” she replied. “It’s a long time since I heard you singing in public. You‘re still the greatest tenor in Britain whether you have that contract or not.”

He knew she was being kind but he was comforted by her presence on the trip to Watford. The concert was sold out, and a group of ardent fans was waiting for him at the stage door of The Playhouse.

Thousands admired his voice, but this small coterie of fans bought all his records, collected his press cuttings, and travelled to all his concerts up and down the UK if they had money to spare. Over the years, he had developed a personal relationship with them and he and Heather sent them Christmas cards, and sometimes complimentary tickets for one or other of his appearances.

Singing had certainly given him an insight into vagaries of human nature he would never have experienced had he been voiceless and working in the family butchery alongside his two older brothers.

Heather watched him brace his shoulders to face his fans with good grace. Although it was the last thing she felt like doing, she smiled as she wafted quickly through the crowd, knowing it was Malcolm they really wanted to talk to.

“Hello, Geraldine. Don’t tell me you’ve come all the way from Manchester just for tonight. David and Veronica – lovely to see you again.”

Malcolm was always genuinely pleased to greet his loyal fans. Tonight especially it cheered him to see their friendly faces glowing with pleasure at his kind words.

“We couldn’t believe that review in the Gramophone,” said Veronica. “I’ve already written to the editor to say that it was a disgraceful criticism. The reviewer ought to offer you an apology.”

“The review? You mean the review of my LP record?”

For the second time that day, Malcolm’s face lost all its colour.

“Was it very bad?” he asked in a small voice.

“Quite uncalled for,” said David, as the others nodded their agreement. “But don’t you worry, Malcolm. We think you’re still the greatest tenor in the world – never mind just in Britain. We’ll all be buying your LP.”

Malcolm tried to smile.

“I hope you enjoy the concert. I’ll probably see you all afterwards. God bless you for being here tonight.”

He went to the Green Room to warm up with George Manning, who had played for him at BRG earlier that day, and had booked him for tonight’s concert.

“I’m so sorry about the contract, Malcolm,” George said. “Frank was distressed when you left so suddenly.”

“Not half as distressed as me!” replied Malcolm dryly.

He caught a glimpse of his beloved Heather sitting in the prompt corner and raised his hand to her. Even without the record contract and news of the bad notice in the Gramophone, he was still the luckiest man alive to have such a beautiful and loving wife. As he walked onto the stage, the audience rose to cheer him before he had even sung a note. He was engulfed in the warmth of their sincere affection.

He raised his hand and immediately they sat down, waiting in silence for the recital to begin. George began playing the opening bars of Schubert’s To Music. Malcolm’s earlier ordeal had put him on his mettle. He sang better than he had ever done before. They were stamping for him at the end and he sang several encores, finishing with I leave my heart in an English Garden from Dear Miss Phoebe by Harry Parr-Davies. The show had opened at the Phoenix Theatre the year before and was still running.

Although his mood had lifted, he dreaded the mayoral reception, but it was in his honour so it would be bad manners to disappoint the guests and go straight home as he longed to do.

When he and Heather entered the reception, the guests applauded, although most of them were not music lovers, but the well-heeled influential great and good of Watford. To Malcolm’s surprise, he saw George, already settled with his whisky and soda, chatting easily to Frank and Lucille Downey. He thought he had seen the last of Frank for a long time and he certainly didn’t want any more of him now, but Frank was bounding towards him relentlessly.

“I’ve never heard you sing better,” he told Malcolm effusively.

“So why is my contract not being renewed?” enquired Malcolm.

“We may still be able to offer you a bit of work on an ad hoc basis here and there, with all the music we’ll be putting on to the LP format. That’s what I had wanted to tell you before you rushed off this morning. After all, aren’t you one of the most versatile tenors in Britain today?”

Frank Downey was relieved to see that Malcolm was slightly mollified by his remark, although he said nothing.

Heather and Malcolm left the party early. He longed to shut out the world of fans, admirers, detractors, and record producers, without giving a thought to singing. He wanted to relax with Heather in his arms.

When they were in bed, Heather said, “I have some news, but it might not be as welcome as I thought it would be when I saw Dr Urquhart.”

“You’re not ill?”

Malcolm realised that the cancelled record contract was nothing in the scheme of things compared with his darling Heather being in poor health. Now that he looked at her properly, she did look rather pale and drawn.

“I’m pregnant, darling. I have been for a few months but I thought I was starting the menopause early so I didn’t say anything until I saw Dr Urquhart today. He seems to think I’m over the danger period, but I’ll have to take things very easy for the rest of my pregnancy.”

Malcolm took Heather gently in his arms and kissed her, all thoughts of the lost record contract and the bad review forgotten.

“I’ll make sure you take things easy, darling,” he said. “The contract pales into insignificance when I think of holding our baby in my arms at last.”

It had been a funny old day with highs and lows as wide as his extraordinary singing range. He was glad it had ended on a high, he thought, as he lay close to Heather.

Towards the end of 1951, he signed a lucrative record contract with Mellotone Records. A week later Heather gave birth to their adorable little boy.

Fiona Compton. Updated 8 September 2021.