FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF WEBSTER BOOTH.

Webster in the 1940s.

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.

4 June: Shiv K Purohit chose Anne and Webster singing: O Lovely Night by Landon Ronald:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sduBTwpOCBAZrroZsyGsh4fBJDuGfukF/view?usp=drive_link

5 June: Peter Wallace chose: One Alone:

6 June: John Marwood chose: The Lost Chord by Arthur Sullivan.

7 June. Robert Knight chose: The Holy City.

8 June: Anne Cook chose: Your Tiny Hand is Frozen.

9 June: Rick Wilmot chose Indian Love Call.

10 June: Marie Lamb chose Waft Her, Angels, Through the Skies from the oratorio, Jephtha by Handel.

Glynis Kester-Page

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.

https://youtu.be/AMaAOc3aO5s?si=WVuIbv17-ULdZxWm

16 June: Suzanne West chose Nirvana.

17 June: Dudley Holmes choice is Morning Glory from Sweet Yesterday by Kenneth Leslie-Smith.

18 June: Charles Jenkins has chosen The Bells of St Mary’s by Emmett Adams:

19 June: Charles Jenkins’ second choice is Bless This House by May H. Brae:

20 June: My choice is Sylvia by Oley Speaks, the first song I accompanied when I played for Webster in the studio all those years ago.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S5MFI4qX3xWVAcppGuEo9eMyvLhg3afY/view?usp=drive_link

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.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lR883lHcTF6GsTQ_Eyz7x-LBZw50GN_S/view?usp=drive_link

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.

Jean Collen, June 2024

THE WEBSTER BOOTH-ANNE ZIEGLER APPRECIATION GROUP

Shortly after Anne Ziegler’s death in October 2003, I started work on my first book, Sweethearts of Song: a Personal Memoir of Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth. I published this book in 2006 and resolved to try to keep their names and voices before the public. I started a Yahoo Group which did not attract many members so after a few years I closed it and started The Golden Age of Webster Booth-Anne Ziegler and Friends on Facebook in October of 2014. Some members from the original Yahoo group joined the present one and the group grew in size as Facebook users joined. I have since changed the name of the group to The Webster Booth-Anne Ziegler Appreciation Group.

We were very lucky indeed when Mike Taylor joined the group. He has a vast collection of 78rpms and had recently developed an interest in Webster’s voice and began to collect his recordings. Not only did he share these recordings with us but he also restored them to pristine condition. He has found many rare recordings which he was kind enough to share with us over the years the group has been running. Here is an example of one of the recordings:

For You Alone

He also introduced us to other singers of the same period. My favourite from that period is the versatile Maurice Elwin (née Norman Blair). He recorded under many different pseudonyms and under the pseudonym of Donald O’Keefe he  wrote some charming ballads – Webster recorded three of them.

Play to me Gypsy (Maurice Elwin)

At the End of the Day (Webster Booth)

Mike and I have managed to find all the duet recordings by Webster and Anne and are just short of 10 solo recordings by Webster out of the many hundreds he recorded. Whether these missing recordings, made in the thirties and forties of the twentieth century, will ever be found remains to be seen but Mike assures me that he is still on the look-out for them.

The late John Henderson often shared recordings and information with us, and a few other members have played an active role in the group even if it is just by ‘liking’ or commenting on the various posts. It certainly makes a difference to me to have some kind of reaction to what is posted to the group.  I am grateful that John Marwood  became our third administrator and recently Marie Lamb, a broadcaster on Classic FM in Syracuse has become the fourth administrator. I hope they will carry on the group if I anything should happen to me.

I have been looking through the Radio Times from the 1920s and1930s. The complete magazines from those decades are available online on the BBC Genome site. Webster started broadcasting in 1927 and after he introduced Anne to the powers-that-be at the BBC at the beginning of 1935 she was in great demand on the radio too. In these early editions of the Radio Times, I have seen names of many artistes I recognise, but there are also many more artistes who must have been equally popular in their day but whose names are completely unknown to me.

Webster and Anne were extremely popular in those far-off days but not many people remember them today. In comparison to other groups on Facebook, I have kept the membership small as I prefer to have a small group of interested people rather than a large group of people who have no idea who Anne and Webster were and never contribute to discussions.

Because we have found most of Anne and Webster’s recordings it is sometimes difficult to know what to post. I have created a number of medleys using their voices interspersed with light orchestral works. I’m not sure whether they are of great interest to anyone and sometimes I feel quite despondent about the lack of response from certain members who look at what I have posted and pass on without comment, but it would be a shame to close the group as there is a wealth of information there which might be of interest to someone one day.

Jean Collen –  Updated on 25 March 2024