Early on the morning of 22 June 1984, the 74th birthday of Anne Ziegler, I received a phone call from Janet Swart, whom I had first encountered as Janet Goldsborough, singing in Mrs Dorothy McDonald-Rouse’s concert party in Johannesburg in 1957 when I was 13. Janet was a regular listener to BBC World Service and knew of my close association with Anne and Webster. She was thoughtful enough to let me know that it had been announced on News About Britain that Webster had died the day before. Janet herself died about six weeks ago but I will always be grateful to her for making that call, as I would have been completely devastated to have heard such news via the media.
A selection of obituaries printed at the time
The Star and Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg).The Star (Johannesburg) Obituary. (Gordon Irving)The Times (London) obituary.The Daily Telegraph Obituary.Die Beeld (Johannesburg) obituary in Afrikaans.
Thanks to John Marwood for the English translation as follows:
Booth dies after illness 22.6.84
From JACK G. VIVIERS • LONDON. — Webster Booth, who together with his wife, Anne Ziegler, won the hearts of millions of people with their singing and had a large following among South Africans, died in a hospital in Llandudno in Wales after a long illness. He was 82 and his wife is 74 today.
The couple married in 1938 and sang one winning song after another during World War II and soon after. One of their most popular songs in South Africa was Wunderbar.
The music and singing of Ziegler and Booth captured the hearts of people throughout the English-speaking world. They sang many songs from Maytime.
The partnership lost some of its popularity in Britain in 1952 and they moved to South Africa, where they lived for 22 years. They first lived in Johannesburg, but later moved to the Wilderness (Knysna).
They returned to Britain in 1978 and settled in Penrhyn Bay in Wales. Their last public performance was in Bridlington about a year ago.
North Wales Weekly News, 28 June 1984.
I suggested to the Webster Booth-Anne Ziegler Appreciation group that members might like to select one of their favourite recordings which I would play leading up to the 21 June. I am listing them here. I have also suggested that those who would like to do so post a tribute to Webster to be published on 21 June.
2 June, David Small chose the duet Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life:
3 June John Rogers chose Serenade in the Night featured below.
Song of Songs holds a special place in my heart and memory; it was one of a clutch of pieces of sheet music that lived in the piano stool, ready to be played (again) by my father for Mummy to sing. I therefore knew it well as a tot and, when it came on the wireless when I was about 3 (before I started school at 4, anyway), I recall joining in, much to the amusement of a visiting neighbour. My parents were very fond of Anne and Webster, and passed on their fond appreciation.
11 June: Glynis chose: Song of Songs by Moya.
12 June: The birthday of Webster’s late son, Keith Leslie Booth (1925 – 1997).
Jeff Woods chose: We’ll Gather Lilacs by Ivor Novello, one of their favourite duets.
13 June: Grietje de Vries chose A Perfect Day by Carrie Jacobs-Bond:
14 June: Bob Sanders chose I Leave My Heart in an English Garden by Welsh composer, Harry Parr-Davis. Harry Parr-Davis was Bob’s father’s cousin.
15 June: Grietje also chose the beautiful Irish ballad, Danny Boy.
Webster as Francois Villon in ‘The Vagabond King’ (Friml) in 1943.
This medley is a tribute to Webster on the fortieth anniversary of his death: Wayside Rose from Frederica and the Serenade from Frasquita by Lehar, The Way You Look Tonight from Swing Time by Kern, and Sweet Melody of Night from Give us this Night by Korngold.
Many thanks to those in the Webster Booth-Anne Ziegler Appreciation Group on Facebook who participated and chose their favourite songs for this tribute to Webster Booth.
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.
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 19803 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 19811982 – review of a reissue of The Gondoliers from 1932.1983 Border TelevisionOnly a Rose TV interview 1983 Penrhyn Bay and Llandudno.1983 Only a Rose TV interviewWith 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. Times25 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.
In 1926 Doctor Malcolm Sargent (as he was then) took over as conductor for the London season at the Prince’s Theatre and Leslie considered that period to be one of his happiest and most fulfilling times with the company. It was then when he asked Sargent to listen to his voice and tell him whether he thought he could make it as an opera singer. Sargent told him that if he did not have a private income he should forget about singing in opera as the pay was very poor.
As a young man, Webster Booth was serving articles as an accountant in Birmingham and taking singing lessons in his spare time at the Midland Institute with Dr Richard Wassell, the organist, and choirmaster at St Martin’s Church in the Bull Ring, Birmingham. He was a tenor soloist in the church and fulfilling engagements as tenor soloist in regional oratorio performances as far apart as Wales and Scotland.
Midland Institute, where Webster had lessons with Dr Richard Wassell.
Interior of St Martin’s Church, the Bullring, Birmingham
In 1923 the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company came to Birmingham and he managed to obtain an audition with New Zealander, Harry Norris, the D’Oyly Carte conductor. Harry Norris was impressed with Webster’s voice and on his recommendation, he was summoned to see Rupert D’Oyly Carte in London. He was meant to audit a firm’s books in South Wales. Instead, he decided to throw caution to the wind and went to London for the audition instead. He sang five or six songs to an unreceptive D’Oyly Carte and his general manager, Richard Collett.
‘I became increasingly anxious. It was like singing to two mummies… ”I think he’ll do,” Mr D’Oyly Carte said in a rather pained voice, thinking, no doubt, that here was yet another name one the pay-list. “I should think so, sir,” was the reply. ‘Thus unenthusiastically was I welcomed into the Profession of the Stage.’ (Duet, p. 34)
Although he had been doing well in accountancy, he abandoned his job with little regret to become a professional singer, making his debut with the company as one of the Yeomen in The Yeomen of the Guard at the Theatre Royal, Brighton on 9 September 1923. He was billed as Leslie Booth or Leslie W. Booth.
In 1924 he married Winifred Keey, the daughter of Edgar Keey, his former headmaster at Aston Commercial School. Winifred borrowed £100 from a relative, with no intention of repaying it, and used the money to follow Leslie to London against her parents’ wishes, or possibly, even without their knowledge. They might have approved of the match had Leslie remained a respectable accountant like his elder brother, Norman, but they were against her taking up with a chorus boy in the D’Oyly Carte. Her family had no more to do with her, partly because of her defiance of their wishes and partly because she had borrowed such a large sum of money under false pretences from a member of the family. Because they disowned her they never knew that she and Leslie had married or that she gave birth to a son, and, thinking the worst of her, imagined that she and Leslie were living together in sin.
Winifred and Leslie’s son, Keith was born the year after their marriage on 12 June 1925, and his birth was registered in Birmingham North.
6 August 1925 – Borough, Stratford. Interest remains unabated in the D’Oyly Carte company, now in the second of their two weeks’ engagement at this theatre. On Tuesday The Yeomen of the Guard was staged, and met with the usual enthusiastic reception from an audience who obviously enjoyed every number. Encores were frequent. The entrance of Mr Henry A Lytton as Jack Point was naturally the signal for an outburst of applause, which was fully justified by his consistently fine work in this well-written role. His apt mingling of humour and pathos is amongst the best things he has ever done. As the other strolling singer Miss Winifred Lawson made a distinct success, singing and acting with real talent. Happily cast also were Mr Leo Sheffield as the grim gaoler and Miss Aileen Davies as Phoebe. Miss Bertha Lewis made a capital Dame Carruthers, whose chief song was rendered artistically; and Miss Irene Hill scored as Kate. Mr Sydney Pointer’s agreeable voice helped him to make Colonel Fairfax a prominent figure, and Mr Darrell Fancourt was a strong Sergeant Meryll. Others who shared in the success were Mr Joseph Griffin as Sir Richard, Mr Herbert Aitken as Leonard, and Mr Leslie W. Booth as the First Yeoman. The stage director is still Mr J.M. Gordon and Mr Harry Norris is the touring musical director.
6 September 1925.
In 1926 Doctor Malcolm Sargent (as he was then) took over as conductor for the London season at the Prince’s Theatre and Leslie considered that period to be one of his happiest and most fulfilling times with the company. It was then when he asked Sargent to listen to his voice and tell him whether he thought he could make it as an opera singer. Sargent told him that if he did not have a private income he should forget about singing in opera as the pay was very poor.
Scarborough, 1926. Dr Sargent was conducting the D’Oyly Carte at this time.
Mikado 1926 Souvenier Programme.
18 November 1926 – D’Oyly Carte Canadian Visit. It has been arranged for the D’Oyly Carte principal company to visit Canada at the end of the season at the Princes on December 19. The company will embark for Canada in the steamship Metagama on the 24th. The tour will open in Montreal on January 4. Mr Richard Collett, the general manager of the company, will be in charge of the tour.
After a stay of two weeks in Montreal, the company will proceed to Toronto and thence to Winnipeg, staying in each of these cities for a fortnight. There will also be visits to Lethbridge, Calgary, Regina, Saskatoon, and Victoria, the capital of Vancouver Island. The tour will end at Montreal in the middle of May. The Mikado, The Gondoliers, The Yeomen of the Guard, and HMS Pinafore will form the repertory. The leading principals, with the exception of Miss Elsie Griffin, will take part in the tour. Miss Griffin’s place will be filled by Miss Irene Hill. Misses Bertha Lewis, Winifred Lawson, Aileen Davies, Messrs Henry A Lytton, Darrell Fancourt, Leo Sheffield, and Charles Goulding are included in the company. Webster Booth sang Your Tiny Hand is Frozen at the ship’s concert, so impressing principal soprano Winifred Lawson that she was not at all surprised when he soon rose to fame after he left the company. He was particularly impressed when the chorus sang Hail Poetry in the open air when the company visited Chief Big Crow and Chief Starlight in the Sarcee Reserve, Calgary.
Passenger list on return to Liverpool
SS Megantic (White Star) return to Liverpool from Canada, May 1927.
He stayed with the company for four and a half years but made no great advancement from singing in the chorus, small parts and understudying the tenor principal roles. In Duet, his joint autobiography, with Anne Ziegler, he complained that the only way he would advance in the company was to wait patiently to fill “dead men’s shoes”. Despite this observation, he was one of the few singers allowed to record individual songs from the Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire without prior approval of the D’Oyly Carte family. His recordings of Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes and A Wand’ring Minstrel under the baton of gifted conductor, a fellow native of Birmingham, Leslie Heward, who died tragically young, remain unsurpassed and are now available on CD.
Leslie was away on tour for fifty weeks of the year and Winifred, left alone with her small son, was estranged from her parents although living in the suburb of Moseley in the same city. Leslie had suspicions that all was not well at home when he arrived home from a tour with D’Oyly Carte to find Keith sitting by himself on the doorstep. Winifred had left her small son to his own devices while she went dancing. Several years later, she suddenly deserted Leslie and his son.
Leslie searched for Winifred in every town where he happened to be singing, but despite desperate attempts to trace her, he never found her, and eventually divorced her in 1931, citing Trevor Davey as co-respondent. Leslie was granted custody of Keith, who decided on his sixth birthday that he never wanted to see his mother again.
After the stability of a regular – if small – salary from D’Oyly Carte, he was now a freelance performer with a small son to support and no regular money to his name. In the D’Oyly Carte Company he was known as Leslie W. Booth, but now he adopted his middle name and became known as Webster Booth on stage, although his family and close friends continued to call him Leslie for the rest of his life. One of his boyhood nicknames was Jammy, and he once signed a photograph “Yours sincerely, Kingy”!
26 May 1939 – Gilbert and Sullivan The scheme of the London Music Festival is designed to embrace all the chief musical activities of the metropolis and it was proper that the popular concerts given by Mr Ernest Makower at the London Museum should have their place in it. The concert given on Wednesday evening was an unusual one, though Mr Makower never keeps to any beaten path in his selection of music for performance. It was felt that no English festival would be really complete if Gilbert and Sullivan was not represented in it. So, with the permission of Mr D’Oyly Carte, Dr Sargent arranged a programme of selections from the famous comic operas. In a preliminary talk, Dr Sargent apologised for going against Sullivan’s expressed wish that his operatic music should not be performed in concert form.
But no excuse was necessary to justify the admirable singing of the extracts by Miss Irene Eisinger, Mr Webster Booth, and Mr George Baker. We do not often hear Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes so well sung in a theatre. Miss Eisinger’s songs reminded us that Sullivan’s heroines descended at no great distance from Mozart’s soubrettes, whom we are accustomed to hearing her sing so delightfully. It was good too to hear the music played by the Boyd Neel orchestra, whose contributions included the delightful patchwork overture, Un Ballo and the Iolanthe overture. There was, as usual, a large and enthusiastic audience.
1953 – The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan (film). Robert Morley, Ian Wallace, Owen Brannigan, Harold Williams and voices of Webster Booth, Elsie Morrison, John Cameron. Webster was annoyed at the billing he was given in this film. He did not appear in it but his voice was dubbed for Colonel Fairfax in the scene from The Yeomen of the Guard and in the final section singing an echoing version of A Wand’ring Minstrel. The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan
January 1962 When the copyright on Gilbert’s words was lifted at the end of 1961 Webster was asked to present a Gilbert and Sullivan series of programmes on the English Service of the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
1963 Only a few weeks before The Johannesburg Operatic Society was due to open with The Yeomen of the Guard the committee decided that they needed a stronger Colonel Fairfax than the person originally cast in the role. Webster (aged 61) was asked to take over what is essentially the juvenile lead. He was a great success in the role.
14 June 1963 (from my 5-year diary)
4 to 14 April 1973 – The Mikado, Guild Theatre, East London, The East London Light Operatic Society, Pamela Emslie, Colin Carney, Bernie Lee, Leigh Evans, Irene McCarthy, Jim Hagerty and Jimmy Nicholas, produced by Webster Booth. The musical director was Jean Fowler.
I had moved to East London at the beginning of 1973 and joined the show at the last minute. I had a very happy reunion with Webster after seven years apart.
Me, June Evans and her son, Neil in Webster’s production of “Mikado”.
1978 – BBC Afternoon.Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth, interviewed by Mavis Nicholson.
These were the last broadcasts featuring Anne and Webster on their return to the UK in 1978.This is a photo of Anne and Webster shortly after their return with Penny, a dog to whom Webster was deeply devoted.
Woman’s Hour – BBC Radio 2, 6 May 1970 14.01 Introduced by: Marjorie Anderson. ANNE ZIEGLER and WEBSTER BOOTH talk to SUE MACGREGOR. JILL BALCON. They were living in Knysna, South Africa when this broadcast was recorded.
Woman’s Hour – BBC Radio 4 FM, 12 May 1978 13.45 Introduced from Wales by Sue MacGregor. In Harmony: ANNE ZIEGLER and WEBSTER BOOTH have recently set up home in Wales after 20 years in South Africa.
1978 – BBC Afternoon.Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth, interviewed by Mavis Nicholson.
1978 – BBC A Pierrots and Fol de Rols – BBC Radio 4 FM, 23 May 1979 19.45 Cyril Fletcher revives memories of Concert Party with the help of many stars and personalities who started their careers there, including ARTHUR ASKEY, JACK WARNER, STANLEY HOLLOWAY, LESLIE CROWTHER, BILL PERTWEE, WALTER MIDGLEY, ANNE ZIEGLER and WEBSTER BOOTH, ELSIE AND DORIS WATERS, and GREATREX NEWMAN. Research by GREATREX NEWMAN and BILL PERTWEE. Producer MICHAEL FORD BBC Birmingham.
29 August 1979. 6.20 pm Wyn Calvin, BBC Radio Wales, It’s a Grand Night for Singing. Jess Yates introduces half an hour of music with additional guests, Margaret Lacey, Webster Booth and Anne Ziegler. Producer: David Richards.Director: Islywyn Maelor Evans.
Lovers Come Back – BBC Radio 4 FM, 21 December 1979 16.10The lives and music of Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth, written and presented by Frank Dixon. You could be well into your 40s without knowing what Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth meant to those of us who were around during and after the war. Anne and Webster were – and still are – all about romance. Judi Goodwin met and interviewed Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth. Producer Herbert Smith. BBC Manchester.
1 April 1980. Granada Television. Liz Howell at Rhos-On-Sea, North Wales. Brief interview with Webster Booth and Anne Ziegler.
Only a Rose (Radio Series) – BBC Radio 2, 6 August 1980 21.15Anne 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. Published on a separate document.
2 October 1980 – Nationwide. BBC 1 Television. Laurie Mayer reports from Conwy where Jess Yates, former presenter of ITV’S Stars on Sunday, has lived in seclusion since his career was destroyed by the Press, especially News of World when they discovered he was living with KAY, a girl half his age, in 1974; & interviews YATES, his companion Anita Kay, Katie Brooks, Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth (former singing stars, & friends of YATES. ZIEGLER & BOOTH sing to his accompaniment on electric organ.
January 29 1981 – BBC Two. 8.30 Russell Chat show, with Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth as guests. Anne criticised the low standard of South Africans fledgling TV service. Russell Harty with his guests Dorothy Stevens & Saxon (dog who stars in films/TV), Paul Breeze & wife Lynn, Anne Ziegler & Webster Booth (old radio singing stars). Ziegler & Booth talk about their marriage, why they went to South Africa & type of life they led, now back & living in N.Wales.
5 March 1981 – Russell Harty Show, BBC 2 Television. Live show from the Palace Theatre Manchester to celebrate its imminent reopening. Harty gives a history of the theatre & there are performances by and interviews with old performers. Nat Mills, Arthur English, Eric Hawkesworth paper tearer, Gill Banks and Sid Green Stagehands, Nat Jackley, Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth.
Russell Harty – BBC Two England, 20 April 1981 20.30 presents some of the memorable people, performances and happenings from his recent venture into the unpredictable world of live television, including Rod Stewart, Hot Gossip, Hercules the Bear, Peter O’Toole, Lily Tomlin, Shakin’ Stevens, The Hallé Choir, Sooty, Diana Dors, Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth, Jan Leeming and, of course, Grace Jones. Producers TOM GUTTERIDGE, KEN STEPHINSON. Editor GORDON WATTS
30 July 1981 – Recording started at Grampian last week of a new six-part series in which well-known people who have left the limelight are interviewed about how they have made new lives for themselves. Jimmy Mack is the interviewer for the series, which is for half -hour slots. In the first programme two former singing duos are interviewed, Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson and Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth.Chris Kay is producer and director of the series, called The Time of Your Lives, and it will be shown in the Grampian area in the autumn.
13 August 1981 with Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson
—————————————————————————————————————————————–
Ah, Yes! I Remember it Well – BBC Radio 2, 11 April 1982 21.00Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth, in company with The William Hand Ensemble, Harold Rich at the piano and artists on record, look back at some of the music, people and events that hold special memories for them in more than 50 years of music making. Producer DAVID WELSBY BBC Birmingham.
19 November 1982 60 Years – Local Radio RemembersBBC.A programme from the Savoy Hotel to celebrate the BBC Diamond Jubilee. Contributions from Doris Hare, Elsie Waters, Charlie Chester, Dame Anna Neagle, Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth.Music by Midnite Follies Orchestra, with Ian Stewart (piano), Peter Duncan, Maurice Denham, Leslie Mitchell, Richard Murdoch, Percy Edwards, Henry Hall, Tony Wadsworth, Susan Briggs, Hugh Wontner, Joan Childs, Jean Melville, Basil Vernon, Reg Patrick, Judy Shirley, Charles Max-Muller, Margery Porter, Henry Hatch, Tommy Wadsworth, Anne Lenner, Al Baum, (speakers) John Parry, Evette Davis(vocalists)
—————————————————————————————————————————————–
The Golden Years – BBC Radio 2, 18 April 1984 22.00Recalling the ballads of yesterday, and the much-loved artists who sang them, including music by Webster Booth, Anne Ziegler and Peter Dawson. Compiled and presented by Alan Keith. Producer TIM MCDONALD
Only a Rose.- BBC Two England, 31 July 1984 18.15 – Webster Booth, one of the finest British tenors of this century, died on 21 June this year, aged 82. In this film, made exactly a year before his death, he and his wife and partner Anne Ziegler talk about their career to James Hogg of Nationwide. It was Webster’s last television appearance. Producer JULIA MCLAREN. ONLY A ROSE
—————————————————————————————————————————————–
The Golden Years – BBC Radio 2, 26 November 1986 22.30A sentimental look at the much-loved singers of the past, including Webster Booth, Anne Ziegler and Paul Robeson. Compiled and presented by Alan Keith. Producer MONICA COCKBURN.
—————————————————————————————————————————————–
Anne Ziegler (Series) – BBC Radio 2, 19 July 1987 18.30 presents some of her favourite records collected during more than 50 years of music making. Producer DAVID WELSBY BBC Pebble Mill.
It’s a Funny Business – BBC Radio 2, 14 October 1987 22.00says Anne Ziegler. For 45 years, Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth were the most popular man and wife partnership in show business. Mike Craig encourages Anne to reminisce about their long, successful career. BBC Manchester.. Presenter and Producer: Mike Craig.
—————————————————————————————————————————————–
22 September 1989 – BBC2. 7.30-8.00 pm, A Hundred Not Out: Centenary of the Blackpool Opera House. Programme Number RNWF933Y,Recorded on 26 July 1989. John Mundy narrates a programme about the Blackpool Opera House, celebrating its 100 year anniversary. Lord Delfont unveils roll of honour to commemorate the centenary. Among others, Anne Ziegler recalls the glamour of the shows. Featuring Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Mike Craig, Ken Dodd, Cilla Black, Frank Carson, Mike Yarwood, Marti Webb, Charlie Chester, Formby, Tommy, Bobby Ball, Stanley Holloway, Jimmy Jewell, Bernard Delfont, Bill Waddington, Brian Crompton, Anne Ziegler, Betty Driver, Harold Fielding, Ben Warris, Josef Locke, Ken Robinson, (theatre-goer), Alfred Black, (theatre producer), Lisa Waddington, George Black (theatre producer), Dickie Hurran, Elizabeth Buzzard,Jack Taylor (theatre producer), Peter Rigby Camera), Bernie Lowe (Camera), Mel Cross (Camera), John Mundy (Narrator), Terry Wheeler (Producer).
—————————————————————————————————————————————–
The Golden Years (Series) – BBC Radio 2, 30 January 1991 21.30Last in the series featuring the great ballad singers of yesterday on record. This week featuring Richard Crooks, Lily Morris, Heddle Nash , John McCormack ,Norman Allin , Peter Dawson , Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth. Presented by Alan Keith. Producer Bridget Apps.
The Seven Ages – BBC Radio 2, 16 October 1991 21.30In the last programme of the series, Anne Ziegler talks to Peter Haigh about one of the best-loved musical partnerships of the 40s and 50s – Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth – and introduces some of her favourite recordings.Producer: David Welsby.
—————————————————————————————————————————————–
The Webster Booth Story – BBC Radio 2, 28 June 1994 21.00 Robin Gregory recalls the life and career of the great English tenor Leslie Webster Booth, who died ten years ago this month. Booth’s widow and former singing partner Anne Ziegler shares her memories of an artist who was equally at home in oratorio or variety. Other comments come from impresario Harold Fielding, accompanist Gladys Midgley and presenter Brian Kay, and the programme includes examples of Booth’s solo and duet recordings. Contributors to programme: Wife/soprano: Anne Ziegler, son Keith Leslie Booth, brother Edwin Norman Booth, impresario: Harold Fielding, Accompanist: Gladys Midgley (née Vernon), Former Kings Singer: Brian Kay, and soprano Lorely Dyer, second wife of Stanford Robinson. Presenter: Robin Gregory. Writer: Stephen Pattinson. Producer Anthony Wills.
—————————————————————————————————————————————-The Robinsons at the BBC – BBC Radio 2, 14 May 1996 21.00 Ian Wallace examines the very different conducting careers of brothers Stanford and Eric Robinson. Gwen Catley, Larry Adler, Anne Ziegler and Ivor Emmanuel are among those who recall their association with popular long-running series such as Music for You and Tuesday Serenade, and there are archive extracts featuring Maggie Teyte, Gigli and Jack Benny. Researcher Stephen Pattinson, Producer Anthony Wills.
—————————————————————————————————————————————-
Radio’s Golden Greats – BBC Radio 2, 25 October 1997 19.30 As part of the BBC’s 75th anniversary, Roy Hudd presents a gala concert from Alexandra Palace, London. Robin Stapleton conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra, with guest artists paying tribute to, among others, Anne Ziegler , Bud Flanagan and Joyce Grenfell. During the interval, Bob Sinfield looks at major events at the BBC during the war years. Producer Alan Boyd.
Anne and Webster in 1983, the year before Webster’s death.
Christening of Leslie Webster Booth at St James’ Church, Handsworth. The date is 15 April 1912, but I wonder if this is a misprint and that it actually took place in April 1902.
Leslie Webster Booth was born on 21 January 1902 in a three storey home above his father’s ladies hairdressing business at 157 Soho Road, Handsworth, Birmingham. He was the youngest son of Edwin Booth and his wife Sarah (née Webster) in a family of three sons and three daughters. Edwin was a hairdresser, who had served in the Royal Staffordshire Regiment as a Barber Surgeon. Sarah was from Chilvers Coton, Nuneaton, where her parents and later she and her sister, Hannah, had been handloom silk weavers. Her brother, William Thomas Webster was a partner in Foster and Webster, a successful gentlemen’s outfitters with branches throughout the Midlands. Sarah’s brother eventually left the firm, but it continues to this day under the name of Foster Brothers.
Leslie was the youngest of six children and his eldest sister, Doris, (known as Nellie), played as big a part in his upbringing as his mother. All three sisters doted on their young brother, who, from an early age, possessed a singing voice of outstanding quality. The family held musical evenings at home and delighted in their father’s robust rendition of The Veteran’s Song, while his mother and sisters were moved to tears when young Leslie sang the mournful ballad, Valé in his beautiful treble voice.
Webster sang in the choir at St James, Handsworth as a young boy.
At nine years of age Leslie’s voice elevated him from St James’ Church choir in Edwardian Handsworth to the choir stalls of Lincoln Cathedral as a chorister under the direction of Dr George Bennett. Dr Bennett was a fine musician, but a stern taskmaster, who insisted that choristers sang with flat tongues: he was not averse to flattening an errant tongue with his ever-ready broken baton. Just as today’s Cathedral choristers are disciplined hard-working musicians of the highest order, so they were in the first decades of the twentieth century also. Christmas holidays for the choristers commenced only after they had completed the Christmas Eve services to Dr Bennett’s satisfaction.
Lincoln Cathedral. Webster was a chorister there from the age of 9 until his voice broke.
Lincoln was a good training ground for young Leslie Booth. Although he did not make great progress on the piano and thus did not advance to learning the organ, an instrument he longed to play. The Willis organ at Lincoln Cathedral had been opened in 1898, eleven years before Leslie went to Lincoln, and is still considered as one of the finest organs in England. Leslie did, however, learn to sight-read vocal lines with ease. This ability stood him in good stead as a professional singer, especially at recording sessions.
When he went to HMV studios for a recording session he would be given six to eight songs to record at a time. These he would sight-read and record in one or two takes. After the session the songs would soon be forgotten: a different approach to recording from today’s pop singers who seem to spend months recording their new “album”! Years later, people often appeared before him clutching one of his old records, assuring him of their great attachment to the particular song, but he often had no recollection of making it in the first place.
After his voice broke at the age of thirteen, he returned to the family home in Birmingham to study accountancy at Aston Commercial School. He was set for the steady job of accountant like Uncle Jim, his father’s brother, but at fifteen, when his voice had settled, he began his vocal studies as a tenor with Dr Richard Wassall, the musical director at the Midland Institute in Birmingham. Leslie was an avid supporter of West Bromwich Albion football team and was goalie in the Aston Commercial School team. He was a promising enough goalie to be offered a place with the Aston Villa Colts, but this idea did not meet with his headmaster’s approval. Despite his accountancy studies, he secretly dreamed of the more glamorous callings of football and singing. Luckily for the world, singing eventually won.
The headmaster was Edgar Keey, father of his first wife, Winifred.
With his great natural vocal gifts, his striking good looks and winning personality, performing came easily to him. He sang duets with Uncle Jim’s daughter, his cousin Lily Booth, a promising mezzo-soprano, and soon he was also singing at concerts and oratorio performances all over the Midlands and Wales. By this time he was a tall, imposing young man, who realised that appearance and stage presence were nearly as important to a professional singer as an exceptional voice. Although he had perfect diction in song, he felt it necessary to take elocution lessons with the Shakespearian actor Sir Robert Atkins, the founder of the Open Air Theatre at Regents Park, to smooth the Brummy intonation from his speech.
His adult voice was a distinctive lyric tenor, with an exceptionally wide range and a baritonal quality on the lower notes. His diction was clear and lacked the idiosyncratic pronunciation and bleating quality of many of his contemporaries, which marked them as refined English singers, not quite able to compete with their more virile Italian and German counterparts. In my opinion, Heddle Nash and David Lloyd were the only two British tenors of Webster Booth’s generation who had comparable voices.
At twenty-one, Leslie auditioned for the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and was immediately accepted after a London audition. Although he had been doing well in accountancy, he abandoned his job with little regret to become a professional singer, making his debut with the company in The Yeomen of the Guard at the Theatre Royal, Brighton on 9 September 1923. He stayed with the company for four years, but made no great advancement from the chorus and small parts. In Duet, his joint autobiography, with Anne Ziegler, he complained that the only way one could advance in the company was to wait to fill “dead men’s shoes”. Despite this observation, he was one of the few singers allowed to record individual songs from the Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire without the prior approval of the D’Oyly Carte family.
His recordings of Take a pair of sparkling eyes and A Wand’ring Minstrel under the baton of the gifted conductor Leslie Heward, who died tragically young, remain unsurpassed and are now available on CD. He went with the D’Oyly Carte Company on a memorable and successful tour of Canada. Winifred Lawson, the principal soprano, heard him singing Your Tiny Hand is Frozen from La Bohème at the ship’s concert and was deeply impressed with the beauty of his voice. She was not surprised when he left the company soon after its return to England, to eventually become a deserved success in his own right.
In 1924 he had married Winifred Keey, the daughter of Edgar Keey, his headmaster at Aston Commercial School. Winifred borrowed £100 from a relative, with no intention of repaying it, and used the money to follow Leslie to London against her parents’ wishes, or possibly without their knowledge. They might have approved of the match had Leslie remained a respectable accountant like his elder brother, Norman, but they were against her taking up with a chorus boy in the D’Oyly Carte. Her family would have no more to do with her, annoyed at her, partly because of her defiance of their wishes and partly because she had borrowed such a large sum of money under false pretences from a member of the family. Because they disowned her they never knew that she and Leslie had married or that she gave birth to a son and imagined that she and Leslie were living together in sin.
Winifred and Leslie’s son, Keith was born the year after their marriage on 12 June 1925, and his birth was registered in Birmingham North. Leslie was on tour for fifty weeks of the year and Winifred, left alone with her small son, was estranged from her parents although living in the suburb of Moseley in the same city. After several years she suddenly deserted Leslie and his son. He had suspicions that all was not well at home when he came home from a tour with D’Oyly Carte to find Keith sitting by himself on the doorstep. Winifred had left her small son to his own devices while she went dancing.
Leslie searched for Winifred in every town where he was singing, but despite his desperate attempts to trace her, he never found her, and eventually divorced her in 1931, citing Trevor Davey as co-respondent. Leslie was granted custody of Keith, who never saw his mother again after his sixth birthday.
After the stability of a regular – if small – salary from D’Oyly Carte, he was now a freelance performer with a small son to support and no regular money to his name. In the D’Oyly Carte Company he was known as Leslie W. Booth, but now he adopted his middle name, and became Webster Booth on stage, although his family and close friends continued to call him Leslie for the rest of his life. One of his boyhood nicknames was Jammy and he once signed a photograph “Yours sincerely, Kingy“!
During this precarious period of his life before he achieved fame and stability in the profession, Webster joined Tom Howell’s Opieros, a concert party with a difference, as some of its members sang operatic excerpts while others were comedians and light entertainers found in the usual concert party. Tom Howell was a baritone from Swansea and he and Webster often sang duets together in the shows. For several years Webster toured all over the country with the Opieros during the summer season, performing on piers and in municipal parks. H Baynton-Power was the Opieros’ excellent accompanist.
In winter Webster sang in cabaret at various large Lyons’ restaurants and cafés, at many Masonic concerts and staff dinners, often with the pianist Gladys Vernon as his accompanist. Gladys Vernon was to marry another well-known tenor, Walter Midgeley.
During the winter seasons of 1927 and 1928, he and Tom Howell appeared in Fred Melville pantomimes at Brixton. The first pantomime in 1927 was St George and the Dragon. St George was played by principal boy, Vera Wright, while Webster played King Arthur. 1928’s pantomime at the Brixton Theatre was a freely adapted version of Babes in the Wood. Once again Vera Wright played principal boy, this time in the role of Robin Hood.
Webster made his West End debut as the Duke of Buckingham in Rudolph Friml’s The Three Musketeers at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1930. The leading role of D’Artagnan was taken by Dennis King, an actor and singer Webster greatly admired for his great energy. Other distinguished cast members were Lilian Davies, Marie Ney, Adrienne Brune and Raymond Newell. Unfortunately, Webster could only appear in this show for three months as he had already signed a contract for a Blackpool summer show for Ernest Butcher. Despite Sir Alfred Butt’s best efforts to get him released from this contract, Ernest Butcher would not budge. Webster’s part was taken over by the well-known Yorkshire tenor, Robert Naylor. When Webster set off sadly and reluctantly to fulfill his engagement on the Central Pier, Blackpool, his one consolation was that he could continue singing Queen of My Heart, one of the hits from The Three Musketeers with which he had scored such a success on the West End.
With Lilian Davies in “The Three Musketeers”.
Webster met his second wife, Dorothy Annie Alice Prior (stage name Paddy Prior) in the early nineteen-thirties. He was singing One Alone at a Concert Artistes Association concert and happened to notice her sitting in the audience. Paddy Prior was born in Fulham in 1905, the daughter of Hubert Prior, an ironmonger, and his wife, Annie Jane (née Henderson). Paddy went on the professional stage while still in her teens. She was a light comedienne, dancer, and a soubrette with a charming mezzo-soprano voice and appeared on television in its early days in The Ridgeway Revue with Philip Ridgeway and Hermione Gingold. By the time she met Webster she was a veteran of many concert parties, musicals and pantomimes, and always received good reviews for her work. Despite her talent she had periods of unemployment and placed occasional advertisements in The Stage, such as this one in April 1926, which read as follows:
In 1931 Webster divorced Winifred, citing her affair with Trevor Davey and on 10 October 1932, he married Paddy at Fulham Registry Office, where he had married Winifred Keey in 1924. Around the same time, Winifred married James L. Haig at the Lambeth Registry Office. Webster and Paddy went to Newquay for their honeymoon.
Webster sang for several seasons in Papa Pinder’s Sunshine concert party at the Sunshine Theatre, Shanklin on the Isle of Wight.
In 1933 he and Paddy appeared together for the summer season in The Piccadilly Revels Concert Party at Scarborough. The following year, Webster managed to arrange for Paddy to obtain an engagement with him in the Sunshine show. Appearing on the same bill with them was Arthur Askey, and he and Webster became great friends. After hearing Webster sing To Anthea by J L Hatton at one of the shows, the Askeys decided to name their baby daughter Anthea…
18 November 1926 – D’Oyly Carte Canadian Visit. It has been arranged for the D’Oyly Carte principal company to visit Canada at the end of the season at the Princes on December 19. The company will embark for Canada in the steamship Metagama on the 24th. The tour will open in Montreal on January 4. Mr Richard Collett, the general manager of the company, will be in charge of the tour.
WEBSTER BOOTH-ANNE ZIEGLER 