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Dickie Valentine
Richard Bryce ( Maxwell; 4 November 1929 – 6 May 1971), known professionally as Dickie Valentine, was a British pop singer who enjoyed great popularity in Britain during the 1950s. In addition to several other Top Ten hit singles, Valentine had two chart-toppers on the UK Singles Chart with " Finger of Suspicion", featuring The Stargazers (1954) and the seasonal " Christmas Alphabet" (1955). Biography Early life Valentine was born Richard Maxwell in November 1929 (his birth father was Dickie Maxwell) in Marylebone, London. He was known as Richard Bryce after his mother married a Mr Bryce. Valentine's first acting job was at age only three when he appeared in the British comedy film '' Jack's the Boy'' starring Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge. Music career He developed a flexible vocal style and skills as an impersonator of famous singers. Actor-singer Bill O'Connor overheard him singing as a call boy at Her Majesty's Theatre in London and paid for his voice lesso ...
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Metropolitan Borough Of St Marylebone
The Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone was a metropolitan borough of the County of London from 1900 to 1965. It was based directly on the previously existing civil parish of St Marylebone, Middlesex, which was incorporated into the Metropolitan Board of Works area in 1855, retaining a parish vestry, and then became part of the County of London in 1889. Its area was that part of the current City of Westminster which is north of Oxford Street, and east of Maida Vale and Edgware Road. It included the areas Marylebone, Regent's Park, St John's Wood, and Lisson Grove, along with the western part of the district of Fitzrovia. In 1965 it was abolished and its former area was amalgamated with that of the Metropolitan Borough of Paddington and the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster to form the City of Westminster. Origins and arms The name is derived from a chapel, dedicated to St Mary, and founded by Barking Abbey, the holders of the Manor of Tyburn. The chapel was nam ...
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Jack's The Boy
''Jack's the Boy'' is a 1932 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge, Francis Lister and Peter Gawthorne. It became well known for its song " The Flies Crawled Up the Window", sung by Hulbert, which was released as a record and proved a major hit. The film was released in the U.S. as ''Night and Day''. Plot Policeman Jack (Jack Hulbert) attempts to track down a gang responsible for a smash and grab raid, thereby proving his worth to his disapproving father (Peter Gawthorne), a Scotland Yard detective. Cast * Jack Hulbert as Jack Brown * Cicely Courtneidge as Mrs Bobday * Winifred Shotter as Ivy * Francis Lister as Jules Martin * Peter Gawthorne as Mr Brown * Ben Field as Mr Bobday * Charles Farrell as Martin * O. B. Clarence as Tompkins * Hal Gordon as Man with scarf at accident * Arthur Rigby as Police Constable Reception The film was voted the fourth best British movie of 1932. ''British Pictures'' wrote, "As ente ...
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London Palladium
The London Palladium () is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in Soho. The theatre was designed by Frank Matcham and opened in 1910. The auditorium holds 2,286 people. Hundreds of stars have played there, many with televised performances. Between 1955 and 1969 '' Sunday Night at the London Palladium'' was staged at the venue, produced for the ITV network. The show included a performance by the Beatles on 13 October 1963; one newspaper's headlines in the following days coined the term " Beatlemania" to describe the hysterical interest in the band. While the theatre hosts resident shows, it is also able to host one-off performances, such as concerts, TV specials and Christmas pantomimes. It has hosted the Royal Variety Performance 43 times, most recently in 2019. Architecture Walter Gibbons, an early moving-pictures manager, intended for the Palladium, in 1910, to compete with Sir Edward Moss's London Hippodrome and Sir Oswald Stoll's London ...
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Royal Command Performance
A Royal Command Performance is any performance by actors or musicians that occurs at the direction or request of a reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. Although English monarchs have long sponsored their own theatrical companies and commissioned theatrical performances, the first Royal Command Performance to bear that name was staged at Windsor Castle in 1848 by order of Queen Victoria. From then on, command performances were frequently staged, often calling upon the leading actors from the London theatres, until the death of Albert, Prince Consort, Prince Albert in 1861. There were no further command performances until they recommenced in 1881. These included plays, revues, comic operas and other musical theatre. King Edward VII called for several performances each year. In 1911 a Great "Gala" performance was given by the theatrical profession at His Majesty's Theatre, London, His Majesty's Theatre in London in celebration of the Coronation of George V and Mary, coronation ...
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Big Band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and dominated jazz in the early 1940s when swing music, swing was most popular. The term "big band" is also used to describe a genre of music, although this was not the only style of music played by big bands. Big bands started as accompaniment for dancing the Lindy Hop. In contrast to the typical jazz emphasis on improvisation, big bands relied on written compositions and arrangements. They gave a greater role to bandleaders, arrangers, and sections of instruments rather than soloists. Instruments Big bands generally have four sections: trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and a rhythm section of guitar, piano, double bass, drums and sometimes vibraphone or other percussion. The division in early big bands, from the 1920s to 1930s, was typicall ...
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Ted Heath Orchestra
Ted may refer to: Names A shortened form of the following: * Edmund * Edward * Thaddeus * Theodore (given name) Art, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Ted, a character in the post-apocalyptic short story ''I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream'' * Ted, a living teddy bear in the films '' Ted'' and ''Ted 2'', and the television series '' Ted'' * Ted, a homeless war veteran in the comic book series '' Kingsman: The Red Diamond'' * Ted Bartelo, a character in the American sitcom television series '' Kate & Allie'' * Ted Bufman, a character in the 1971 American comedy-drama '' B.S. I Love You'' * Ted, the Generic Guy, in comic strip'' Dilbert'' * Ted and Ralph sketches from the UK TV series ''The Fast Show'' * Ted "Theodore" Logan, a character in the Bill & Ted film series * Ted Buckland, from the U.S. TV series ''Scrubs'' * Ted Bufman, a character in the 1971 American comedy-drama movie '' B.S. I Love You'' * Father Ted Crilly, from the Irish TV sitcom ''Father T ...
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Dennis Lotis
Dennis Lotis (8 March 1925 – 8 February 2023) was a South African-born British singer, actor, and entertainer, whose popularity was greatest in the 1950s. He was described as having "a sophisticated style that was particularly attractive to the young female population". Life and career Lotis was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 8 March 1925. He trained as a boy soprano, and made his first stage appearances and radio broadcasts as a child. After leaving school at the age of 15 he worked as a bus conductor and electrician, as well as singing in clubs and cinemas in Johannesburg. He married and left South Africa with his wife at the start of the 1950s, moving to UK, Britain, where he was introduced to bandleader Ted Heath (bandleader), Ted Heath. He joined the Ted Heath Orchestra, singing alongside Lita Roza and Dickie Valentine. His first record was a cover version of Al Martino's hit "Here in My Heart", released in September 1952 on the independent Polygon Records, Polyg ...
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Lita Roza
Lilian Patricia Lita Roza (14 March 1926 – 14 August 2008) was an English singer best known for her 1953 recording " (How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?", which reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart. She was the first British woman to have a No. 1 hit in the UK chart. Early life Lilian Patricia Lita Roza was born in Liverpool on 14 March 1926, the eldest of seven children. She began work at an early age to support the family. She owed her sultry looks and passion to her father, an amateur accordionist and pianist of Filipino descent who played in Liverpool nightclubs. Career At the age of 12, she saw an advert in the local newspaper for juvenile dancers and passed the audition. She took to the stage at that age in a pantomime, and by the time she was 15, was working with the comedian and fellow Merseysider Ted Ray. When she was 16, she answered an advertisement and got a job as a singer in the "New Yorker" club in Southport for £5 per week. Soon afterwards she sign ...
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Ted Heath (bandleader)
George Edward Heath (30 March 1902 – 18 November 1969) was a British musician and big band leader. Heath led what is widely considered Britain's greatest post-war big band, recording more than 100 albums, which sold over 20 million copies. The most successful band in Britain during the 1950s, it remained in existence as a ghost band long after Heath died, surviving in such a form until 2000."Ted Heath"
Jazz Professional, from the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine


Musical beginnings

After playing tenor horn at the age of six, encouraged by his father Bert, a trumpeter and the leader of the Wandsworth Town Brass Band, Heath later switched to trombone.Moira Heath, ''I Haven't Said Thanks: The Story of Ted and Moira Heath'' ...
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Stagecraft
Stagecraft is a technical aspect of theatrical, film, and video production. It includes constructing and rigging scenery; hanging and focusing of lighting; design and procurement of costumes; make-up; stage management; audio engineering; and procurement of props. Stagecraft is distinct from the wider umbrella term of scenography. Considered a technical rather than an artistic field, it is primarily the practical implementation of a scenic designer's artistic vision. In its most basic form, stagecraft may be executed by a single person (often the stage manager of a smaller production) who arranges all scenery, costumes, lighting, and sound, and organizes the cast. Regional theaters and larger community theaters will generally have a technical director and a complement of designers, each of whom has a direct hand in their respective designs. Within significantly larger productions, for example a modern Broadway show, effectively bringing a show to opening night require ...
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Her Majesty's Theatre
His Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated in the Haymarket, London, Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The building, designed by Charles J. Phipps, was constructed in 1897 for the actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) at the theatre. In the early decades of the 20th century Tree produced spectacular productions of William Shakespeare, Shakespeare and other classical works, and the theatre hosted premieres by such playwrights as George Bernard Shaw, Bernard Shaw, J. M. Synge and, later, Noël Coward and J. B. Priestley. Since the First World War the wide stage has made the theatre suitable for large-scale musical productions, and His Majesty's has accordingly specialised in hosting musical theatre, musicals. It has been home to record-setting musical theatre runs such as the First World War hit ''Chu Chin Chow'' and Andrew Lloyd Webber's ''The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical), The Phantom of the Oper ...
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Call Boy (theatre)
Call boy is the job title of a stagehand in the theatre. They are hired by either the director, producer, or stage crew chief. They report directly to the crew chief, are usually paid by the hour, and will sometimes rotate between several groups from one performance to the next. Primary roles The primary responsibility of the call boy or girl is to move from backstage to the dressing rooms and green rooms alerting actors and actresses of their entrances in time for them to appear on stage on cue. For example, they might call out, "You're on in five minutes, Miss Bernhardt." The call boy or girl also calls the "quarter hour" and "overture and beginners", the preparatory warning that signals for the orchestra to start the introductory music and the beginners, those performers who appear on stage at the beginning of the first act, to get into their opening positions. The call boy or girl also assists with scene changes. Etymology The term was already current at the end of the 1 ...
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