LIGHT CONCERTS IN SOUTH AFRICA (1956 -1975)

CONCERTS AND VARIETY SHOWS IN SOUTH AFRICA

I have compiled the following information from newspapers, personal recollections and programmes. The list is far from complete. Please contact me if you can fill in the gaps.

November heading for Johannesburg.

6 November 1955 – Quick Work. Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth, with their accompanist, Arthur Tatler, fly to South Africa on November 6 to fulfill a concert tour in South Africa, Southern and Northern Rhodesia and Kenya. This will indeed be a flying visit for they will fly everywhere in order to fulfill so many engagements in so short a time, as they return to England on December 11, when Webster Booth is due to broadcast for the BBC on December 14, after which he leaves the following day for Huddersfield to sing in the Messiah.

Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth sang to fellow passengers while flying to South Africa. Their duet was We’ll Gather Lilacs, sung at 18,000 feet as they crossed the Zambezi.

ANNE ZIEGLER AND WEBSTER BOOTH, 8 November 1955

Webster and Anne arrived at Jan Smuts airport on 8 November. They had been booked to appear in concerts with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London, also in Durban and Salisbury, Rhodesia. Webster gave a rather bitter interview about the changing times in music with the growth of music that appealed more to teenagers and the rise of television.

ANNE ZIEGLER AND WEBSTER BOOTH, 23 November 1955, City Hall, East London. Recital presented by East London Association of the Arts.

After their concert tour they returned to the UK where Webster had several Messiah engagements to fulfil. Despite his bitter comments on his arrival in Johannesburg, 1955 had been a very busy year for the Booths.

ANNE ZIEGLER AND WEBSTER BOOTH, with Arthur Tatler (piano), City Hall, Johannesburg Tuesday, 31 January 16th and 21 February 1956

City Hall, Benoni, Saturday, (opening Benoni’s Golden Jubilee celebrations) 4^th February 1956

City Hall, Pretoria, Wednesday, 8 February 1956

B tour to Bethal, Bloemfontein, Parys (concert on an island on the Vaal River), Kimberley, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban and Pietermaritzburg.

Having tea during the interval of a concert in Bethal during their country tour – their accompanist, Arthur Tatler, Webster and Anne.

10 May 1957, Hobbies Exhibition, East London. The Round Table has engaged Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth to sing (Rand Daily Mail)

THE NIGHT OF A THOUSAND STARS 29 May 1957, Johannesburg. Anne and Webster sang at this concert produced by Cedric Messina and Monte Doyle in aid of the Jimmy Elliott Appeal.

STARLIGHT 13 to 16 November 1957, Prosperity Park, Zoo Lake. All funds in aid of the United Party, Anne, Webster, Maria Pavlou, Eva Tamassy, Gordon Mulholland, Jack Kruger, Charles Castle.

VARIETY UNDER THE STARS 7 March 1958, Joubert Park Open Air Theatre, Anne and Webster and a host of other performers.

1958 snippets

VARIETY PROGRAMME June 1958, Kangalani, home of Eva Harvey (by invitation only!) Anne and Webster, Sini van der Brom, Francois Bouguenon, Eva Harvey.

Variety in the Home – Eva Harvey

GRAND VARIETY SHOW, 27, 28 May 1960, Methodist Church Hall, Roberts Avenue, Kensington, Anne and Webster and other artistes. I (aged 16) attended this show and got their autographs at the interval.

CHRISTMAS CAPERS December 1, 2, 3 1960, Civic Theatre, Bloemfontein, Anne and Webster and local artistes presented by Rotary Club.

CONCERT 30 April 1961, Anne and Webster sang at the Wanderers Club, Johannesburg.

OVER 6OS OLD FOLKS VARIETY SHOW 2 May 1961, City Hall, Durban, Anne and Webster, with Cyril Sugden, Graham Rich.

City Hall, Durban

5 July 1961. Festival Concert, Allen Wilson Beit Hall, Salisbury. Anne and Webster appeared after Webster had adjudicated at Vocal Festival for the Rhodesia Institute of Allied Arts.

SATURDAY NIGHT VARIETY SHOW 1961, Amphitheatre, North Beach, Durban, Anne and Webster and top line variety stars.

GALA BENEFIT SHOW February 1962, Ciros Club, Johannesburg, Anne and Webster appeared in benefit show for the actor, David Beattie, who was suffering from cancer.

CONCERT Mid August 1963, Ficksburg, Anne and Webster, accompanied by Desmond Wright. Webster said that he would have taken me as the accompanist but he didn’t like two women on the stage as it would draw the audience’s attention away from Anne.

1964 Concert tour with SABC Orchestra. Anne and Webster were soloists on this tour.

1965 Concert tour with SABC Orchestra. Anne and Webster were soloists on this tour.

POPULAR CONCERT, 2 October 1966, Johannesburg’s eightieth birthday concert at the City Hall.

GRAND VARIETY CONCERT 15 September 1967, 8.15 pm

POPULAR CONCERTS, December 1967/1968

THE ANNE ZIEGLER AND WEBSTER BOOTH SHOW 26, 27, 28 August 1972, Durban Jewish Club, Anne and Webster accompanied by Jack Dowle, with top supporting artistes.

FAREWELL CONCERT, late 1975, Somerset West

Farewell performance, October 1975.

Anne and Webster had planned to retire from the stage at the end of 1975, but when they returned to England in early 1978 they were in great demand so came out of retirement until Webster’s health broke down in 1983.

Jean Collen 19 December 2019.

MY TEENAGE DIARIES

I have removed the posts about my teenage diaries from this website as I have published a PDF file entitled Extracts from my Teenage Diaries, available at http://www.lulu.com/shop/jean-collen/extracts-from-my-teenage-diaries/ebook/product-24359810.html

Extracts from my Teenage Diaries (1960 – August 1963) by Jean Collen.

Jean Collen 15 December 2019

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.

MY WEBSTER BOOTH-ANNE ZIEGLER COLLECTION

I have collected records, cuttings, photos and letters in connection with Webster Booth and Anne Ziegler since I first met them nearly sixty years ago. Originally, I hoped to be able to pass my collection on to a British theatrical museum but then I realised that it would be extremely expensive to ship it to the UK from South Africa. Later, I was told about the National English Literary Museum in Grahamstown, now known as  Makhanda, (NELMS). I wrote to Mr Malcolm Hacksley who was in charge of NELMS at that time, and received an enthusiastic reply to my letter:

From: Jean Collen 
Sent: 05 April 2009 10:06 PM
To: m.hacksley@ru.ac.za
Subject: Anne Ziegler-Webster Booth collection

Dear Mr Hacksley,

Johan Geldenhuys suggested that I should contact you in connection with my collection of letters, photographs, records (78s, LPs, CDs, tapes), press
cuttings and programmes connected with the British duettists, Anne Ziegler
and Webster Booth.

After I left school at the end of 1960 I studied singing with them at their
studio in Johannesburg, was Webster’s studio accompanist for several years
and remained friends with them until Webster’s death in 1984 and Anne’s in
2003. During that time I accumulated a considerable collection of
memorabilia related to them, including about 250 letters. I published a book
called “Sweethearts of Song: a Personal Memoir of Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth” on https://www.lulu.com/duettists in 2006. They had written their autobiography, “Duet” before they left the UK in 1951. My book concentrates mainly on the 22 years they spent in South Africa,
and after they returned to the UK in 1978. Since that time I have written other books about the couple. You can see more information about them at the links below. 

I contacted the Theatre Museum in London about donating this collection
there after my death, and the curator expressed interest in it, but it would
cost a great deal to have it sent to the UK, and since they spent 22 years
here, Johan suggested that HELMS might be interested in having it after my
death. While I know you are concerned with English literature in South
Africa, I have noticed in your magazine that you have accepted various other theatrical archives, so I wonder whether you would be interested in this one after my death?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards

Jean Collen (Mrs)

The London Theatre Museum, Covent Garden This museum closed down permanently and material was transferred to the Victoria and Albert Museum after the museum at Covent Garden closed in 2007

Mr Hacksley replied as follows:

  Dear Mrs Collen

Johan is absolutely right – we most definitely WOULD want your collection of the Ziegler-Booth memorabilia! I remember their radio broadcasts with great pleasure. (We must be of much the same vintage: I left school at the end of 1961.) We have an immense amount of SA theatre material – mainly unpublished playscripts, programmes, press-cuttings, etc stretching way, way back. Yours would be a very welcome addition.

I am rather glad you have had second thoughts about the theatre museum in London. It seems to have fallen on very hard times – I’m told they had to
vacate their Covent Garden premises because they had lost their national
grant. And this was before the world-wide economic crisis, so the chances of a realistic rescue package for them are remote in the extreme. One doesn’t wish to rejoice in another’s misfortune, but we would be very glad to be able to keep your collection in SA. We accepted Moira Lister’s whole
personal archive just weeks before she died.  

  If you should decide to part with it before the Grim Reaper comes calling,
please do let us know and we will fetch it from you. Whatever you do, please
do NOT consider entrusting it to the tender or other mercies of the postal
services OR to the courier companies. Bitter experience has taught us that
we have to retrieve precious materials in person. (An instance: a set of
documents sent to us from Cape Town last month by “overnight courier” took SEVENTEEN days to reach us – despite being perfectly correctly addressed…)

With warm regards

Malcolm Hacksley  

Mr Hacksley retired from his position not long after this correspondence took place. I heard recently that the museum had changed its name so I decided to contact them to see whether they were still interested in my collection.

I received the following email a few days ago. I will not mention the name of the writer but I would be interested to know what you think I should do with my collection now.

Received on 27 November 2019

Dear Mrs Collen

Thank you for contacting Amazwi about your collection. My apologies for the delay in responding. I took it to the selection committee meeting and then had to attend meetings in Pretoria before I could reply.

I was asked to request a bit more information about Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth. From your email it seems that they were primarily musicians. Is this correct?

Amazwi is a museum of literature. We do collect material relating to theatre and plays, but not really music or dance. The focus is on productions of plays with South African scripts, and material relating to the playwrights.

As you have noted, this year the museum’s name was changed from the National English Literary Museum to Amazwi South African Museum of Literature. This will enable us to collect material in other South African languages as well as English. The collection policies remain the same, just broadened in terms of language. Our concerns about your collection, important as it is, have to do with the museum’s focus on literature as opposed to music.

If your collection is more theatre based, then please do let me know.

Best wishes…

From the tone of the email, I do not think that this is a suitable place for my collection any more. I am far nearer to meeting the Grim Reaper today than I was when I first wrote to Mr Hacksley ten years ago. If anyone can suggest what I should do with my collection now I would be interested to hear from you. I do not think I could consider including the records any longer as they are far too heavy to be shipped anywhere. Most of them have been digitised by Mike Taylor of The Webster Booth-Anne Ziegler Appreciation Group on Facebook, but surely photos, letters from Anne and Webster, cuttings, my diaries and books I have written should be of interest to someone?

I received two or three comments to this post here and on other places – two had some good suggestions which I will follow up. I replied to the email as follows:

Dear Ms W,

Thank you for your email. It is just as well that I contacted you with regard to my Anne Ziegler-Webster Booth collection for I can see that your view of it is very different to the one so enthusiastically expressed to me ten years ago by Mr Hacksley. 
Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth were world famous British duettists, active in theatre, film, recording and radio. They came to South Africa in 1956 and remained here for 22 years before returning to the UK. I have consulted with various people and have decided to contact the Victoria and Albert Museum or the British Library in the UK as these might be more suitable places for my collection. 
Kind regards,
Jean Collen (Mrs)

I recently published the second edition of my first book: Sweethearts of Song: A Personal Memoir of Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth (Second Edition)

Jean Collen.

SWEETHEARTS OF SONG: A PERSONAL MEMOIR OF ANNE ZIEGLER AND WEBSTER BOOTH (Second Edition)

I published the first edition of this book in 2006 and have recently published the second edition 13 years later. I have 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 my relationship with Anne and Webster and also includes many extra photographs collected over the years. The book is available as a paperback and as a PDF e-book.

Sweethearts of Song: A Personal Memoir of Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth (Second Edition)

BACK HOME AGAIN (1980 – 1984)

The early 1980s were still busy years for the Booths. They appeared in several TV talk shows. The studio audiences were made up of many of their old fans who were delighted to see their favourites still looking very glamorous indeed. Anne turned 70 in 1980, while Webster was 78. It looked as though they were as much in love then as the day they married in 1938. In late 1981 Webster’s health began to fail. He had to wait until January before he could have surgery done at the Royal Liverpool Hospital on 15 January 1982. He was not looking forward to spending his eightieth birthday in hospital.

At home. 1980.

10 February 1980 – with Jess Yates and his girlfriend, Katie Brooks.

May 1980

3 to 10 May 1980. 35th anniversary of Victory in Europe.

30 June 1980. Report by Gordon Irving in South African newspapers.

This was a popular presentation which Anne and Webster presented around the country. Each took a turn to tell their individual life story and sang a few songs together to round the evening off.

19 September 1980 – Anne and Webster had coached Peter and Jackie while they were appearing in a summer show in Llandudno.

September 1980

29 January 1981 on the Russell Harty show. Webster had just had his 78th birthday a week earlier.

Some of the elderly fans in the studio audience.

6 February 1981 – Report from Gordon Irving in South African newspapers.

8 January 1982. In a letter to me, Webster referred to the article by Gordon Irving.

5 March 1981 – another appearance on Russell Harty’s TV show.

29 May 1981. Royal Variety Performance, Blackpool.

After the performance. Webster can be seen in the far left of the photo. When they were presented to Prince Charles he asked whether they were married!

13 August 1981. The Time of Your Life.

At the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary party for Jean and Maurice Buckley – 1981. I used this photo for the cover of my book, Sweethearts of Song.

Webster at the Buckley’s Silver Anniversary party, North Wales.

September 1981

1982 – review of a reissue of The Gondoliers from 1932.

1983 Border Television

Only a Rose TV interview 1983 Penrhyn Bay and Llandudno.

1983 Only a Rose TV interview

With the Firmanis – Only a Rose TV interview 1983.

Visiting the Buckleys. 1983.

Early on 22 June, Anne’s seventy-fourth birthday I received a call from Janet Swart, whom I had first encountered as Janet Goldsborough, singing in Mrs MacDonald-Rouse’s concert party. She was a regular listener to BBC World Service and knew of my association with Anne and Webster. She was thoughtful enough to let me know that it had been announced on News about Britain that morning that Webster had died in the early hours of the 21 June. I will always be grateful to Janet for making that call to me, as I would have been completely devastated to have heard such news in the media. I had been expecting him to die sooner or later, but it was still a great shock and deep sadness to me to hear the sad news of his death.

Webster had been at home for five or six weeks when he tripped on the doorstep as he was hurrying to get into the car with Anne to drive to the local park to take Bonnie for a walk. He suffered a severe blow to his head and was bleeding profusely. Anne struggled to get him into the car to take him to hospital, where he was treated in Casualty and sent home again, much to Anne’s consternation as she thought he should have been admitted to hospital after his fall.

During the night he developed pneumonia. She phoned the doctor who refused to make a night call to see him, so it was only in the morning that he was indeed admitted into hospital, as he should have been on the previous day. Anne stayed with him throughout the day. When she left in the evening she asked the staff to let her know at once if he was deteriorating so that she could return to the hospital right away. Sadly nobody phoned her when his condition deteriorated. She had spent a sleepless night, and phoned the hospital herself in the early hours of the morning, only to be told that his condition had worsened and he would probably not last until she reached the hospital.

Webster Booth, one of Britain’s finest tenors, died alone in his hospital bed in the early hours of 21 June 1984. Anne was devastated at his death, and furious at the poor medical treatment he had received during his last illness. The only thing that kept her going in the dark days after his death was Bonnie, the beloved Yorkshire terrier who had to be fed and walked each day.

22 June 1984.

25 June 1984. Obituary. Times

25 June 1984 – Rand Daily Mail.

28 June 1984 The Stage.

Write-up in the North Wales Weekly news – 28 June 1984, mentioning Jean Buckley who, at that time was a close friend and had done a great deal to help Anne during Webster’s final illness.

Babs Wilson-Hill was abroad at the time of Webster’s death so Anne delayed the cremation service until she arrived home. This placed an extra strain on Anne as she waited for the funeral to take place. Obituaries appeared in the national newspapers and once again there were mountains of post, this time with letters of condolence from friends and fans who remembered Webster with affection. There were far too many letters to answer personally so Anne had a letter of thanks printed to be sent to everyone who had written and it was Jean and Maurice who helped her to address all these letters

Peter Firmani, a tenor from Rotherham whom they had coached, sang I’ll Walk Beside You at the cremation service. Webster’s son Keith was heartbroken at his father’s death and found the service very harrowing. Jean and Maurice Buckley held a reception at their home for those who had attended the funeral.

The Star – 29 June 1984 – Gordon Irving, the UK correspondent for the Star Tonight wrote the obituary. He had it wrong about Webster being divorced by his first wife. In fact, he was divorced by his second wife with the stage name of Paddy Prior, whose name was indeed Dorothy Annie Alice Prior. He had divorced his first wife, mother of his son, Keith, Winifred Keey, in 1931 due to her adultery.

21 July 1984 – Only a Rose repeated.

Memorial Service. St Paul’s Covent Garden.

30 October 1984 – Memorial Service, St Paul’s -Anne and Evelyn Laye.

30 October 1984 – Memorial Service, St Paul’s -Anne and Evelyn Laye.

A memorial service was arranged for Webster at noon on 20 October 1984 at St Paul’s Church, the Actors’ Church in Covent Garden. Evelyn Laye read the lesson; David Welsby a BBC producer from Pebble Mill, Birmingham, with whom they had worked, did the Appreciation; Peter Firmani sang I’ll Walk Beside You once again. Despite Jean and Maurice’s kindness to Anne and Webster, they were not invited to this service.

The Reverend John Arrowsmith officiated at the service, assisted by the Precentor of Lincoln Cathedral, Canon David Rutter, who represented the choir school where Webster had spent his youth as a chorister. Webster’s ashes were buried in the ground of the Garden of Remembrance at St Paul’s. Keith, who had been so upset at the cremation service, decided not to attend the Memorial Service as he could not bear to go through another harrowing farewell to his father. Pictures of Anne and Evelyn Laye appeared in several national newspapers. Anne said that it was only when Webster’s ashes were buried in the grounds of the Churchyard that she finally realised that he was indeed dead and would never return.

Anne and Webster’s names had been linked for nearly fifty years. They had been married for forty-five years and, unlike most married couples who worked in different places, they had hardly spent any time apart. There were no children from the marriage. Anne was to live on her own in the bungalow in Penrhyn Bay for another nineteen years.

Jean Collen 27 May 2019.

All extracts in this post are taken from my book, Sweethearts of Song: A Personal Memoir of Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth.

Updated by Jean Collen on 26 July 2019.

BACK HOME AGAIN (1978 – 1979)

1978 and 1979 were good years for the Booths just after they returned to the UK. Many of their fans from the pinnacle of their careers were still alive and only too happy to attend concerts presented by the couple. After a number of quiet years in Knysna and Somerset West they were now in great demand once again.

1978

Portraits for the “third” career – as Anne termed their return to the UK.

15 August 1978 – In North Wales with Penny.

1978 North Wales.

15 August 1978 – with Penny.

Visiting Jean and Maurice Buckley at their home in Rhos on Sea.

Visiting the Buckleys.

1978 – On TV with Jess Yates.

On TV with Jess Yates 1978 It’s a Grand Night for Singing.

Anne and Webster, Pennrhyn Bay (1978)

In the dressing room preparing for a TV appearance 1978.

Afternoon 7 December 1978 – Interview on Thames TV

21 December 1978 Looks Familiar on Thames TV with Denis Norden and Arthur Askey.

1 March 1979 Musical Memories of the Theatre (Thursdays) Arcadia Theatre, Llandudno.

23 May 1979 Radio BBC Radio 4

June 1979

Llandudno June 1979

Llandudno Lunch.

29 August 1979 – Jess Yates with BBC Wales’ It’s a Grand Night for Singing.

16 August 1979 New Brighton’s Floral Pavilion

11 November 1979 Tameside Theatre, Ashton

Odeon Twickenham

December 1979 Lovers Come Back.

At the BBC for a broadcast of “Lovers Come Back” – December 1979.

21 December 1979