|
Mary Hayley Bell
Mary Hayley Bell, Lady Mills (22 January 1911 – 1 December 2005) was an English actress and writer, married for 64 years to actor Sir John Mills. Her novel '' Whistle Down the Wind'' was adapted as a film, starring her teenaged daughter, actress Hayley Mills. Background Mary Hayley Bell was born in Shanghai International Settlement, Shanghai, China, where her father, Colonel Francis Hayley Bell, served in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service with postings to various Treaty Ports. Her mother was Agnes (née McGowan). Her father, a Boer War veteran, served, from 1925 to 1928, as Customs Commissioner for Kowloon (within Hong Kong, although this position had no connection with the British colonial administration). During this period Mary attended school in Hong Kong and frequently spent weekends of leisure at the Commissioner's official country bungalow near Fan Ling Golf Club. The family later (1930) moved to Tianjin (then known as Tientsin). In the run-up to World War II, Fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shanghai
Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowing through it. The population of the city proper is the List of largest cities, second largest in the world after Chongqing, with around 24.87 million inhabitants in 2023, while the urban area is the List of cities in China by population, most populous in China, with 29.87 million residents. As of 2022, the Greater Shanghai metropolitan area was estimated to produce a gross metropolitan product (GDP (nominal), nominal) of nearly 13 trillion Renminbi, RMB ($1.9 trillion). Shanghai is one of the world's major centers for finance, #Economy, business and economics, research, science and technology, manufacturing, transportation, List of tourist attractions in Shanghai, tourism, and Culture of Shanghai, culture. The Port of Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes (4 May 1923 – 4 July 2012) was an English radio, stage, television and film writer, comedian, actor and director whose performing career spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Tommy Cooper, Peter Sellers, John Antrobus and Johnny Speight. Sykes first came to prominence through his many radio credits as a writer and actor in the 1950s, which include collaboration on some scripts for '' The Goon Show''. He became a TV star in his own right in the early 1960s when he appeared with Hattie Jacques in several popular BBC comedy television series. Early life Sykes was born on 4 May 1923 in Oldham, Lancashire; his mother died three weeks later, leaving him and his two-year-old brother Vernon motherless. Their father was a labourer in a cotton mill and a former army sergeant. When Sykes was two, his father remarried and he gained ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Of Mice And Men (play)
''Of Mice and Men'' is a play adapted from John Steinbeck's 1937 novel of the same name. The play, which predates the Tony Awards and the Drama Desk Awards, earned the 1938 New York Drama Critics' Circle Best Play. Background The 1937 production opened while the novel was still on best seller lists. At the time, George S. Kaufman was the top director in the country. While the play follows the novel closely, Steinbeck altered the character of Curley's Wife, perhaps in response to criticisms from friends. In the play, Curley's wife does not threaten to have Crooks lynched, and in her final scene she talks of her childhood and her father trying to run away with her. This has the effect of softening her character, portraying her as lonely and misunderstood. Plot George, an affable migrant farm worker, and Lennie, a towering simple-minded pleasantly humble young man, are the subjects. They are bound by George's devotion and Lennie's "pathetic helplessness". George's guardianship ke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Draws A Horse (play)
''Tony Draws a Horse'' is a comedy play by the British writer Lesley Storm. It was later adapted into a 1950 film of the same title. It premiered at the Liverpool Playhouse before transferring to the West End where it ran for 363 performances between 26 January 1939 and 6 January 1940, initially at the Criterion Theatre before moving to the Strand Theatre and then the Comedy Theatre. Actors who appeared in the London version included Nigel Patrick, Cyril Raymond, Stewart Granger, James Harcourt, John Turnbull, Anthony Holles and Diana Churchill. It also ran for 13 performances as ''Billy Draws a Horse'' at the Playhouse Theatre on Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (other) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ....Wearing p.730 References Bibliography * Wearing, J.P. ''The London Stage 1930-1939: A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Molly Blake
Molly Suzanne Blake ( McClenaghan; 14 August 1917 – 9 June 2011) "Molly Suzanne Blake", funeral notice copied from ''The Times'' at ''Legacy.com'' Retrieved 10 January 2021 was a British illustrator, BBC children's television presenter and children's author. Career Blake studied at the in London. Her parents were the actress, dancer and broadcaster |
Richmond Hill, London
Richmond Hill in Richmond and Petersham, London, is a hill that begins gently in the north and north-east side of Richmond town and through its former fields, orchards and vineyard to a point just within Richmond Park, the deer park emparked and enclosed by Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of .... Topography The straight southwest slope is steepest, falling away to Petersham meadows by the River Thames, Thames and is a backdrop to Kingston Bridge, London, Kingston and Richmond Bridge, London, Richmond Bridges. Other returns to the flood plain are more complex across and beyond the park due to semi-natural ponds and dry and wet running vales feeding an Beverley Brook, easterly draining brook. The park has further upland – Wimbledon Common and Pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wick
The Wick is a Grade I listed Georgian house in Richmond, Greater London, located at the corner of Nightingale Lane and Richmond Hill. The house, designed in 1775 by architect Robert Mylne for Lady St. Aubyn, was for many years the family home of actor Sir John Mills, who sold it to Ronnie Wood of the rock band Faces (and later of the Rolling Stones) in 1971. From 1996 it was owned by Pete Townshend of the Who, who sold it in 2021 for £15,000,000. Description The Georgian-style house, built of plum brick and stone on the site of the ''Bull's Head'' tavern, overlooks the River Thames and is near Richmond Park, the largest urban park in the United Kingdom. It was designed by architect Robert Mylne in 1775 for Lady St. Aubyn, and includes oval dining and drawing rooms, three storeys and a basement with modillion, cornice and balustrading above. The porch is built with entablature and Tower of the Winds piers with a fanlight above, and a line of medallions embellishes the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whistle Down The Wind (1996 Musical)
''Whistle Down the Wind'' is a musical with music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, who also co-wrote its book with Patricia Knop and Gale Edwards, and its lyrics were written by Jim Steinman. It is based on the 1961 film '' Whistle Down the Wind'', whose source novel was written by Mary Hayley Bell in 1958. The musical premiered in 1996 at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., and a concept album was released in 1998. It was produced in the West End in 1998 and has been revived several times since then and toured extensively. History US premiere The show premiered at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., on 12 December 1996, starring Davis Gaines as the Man and Irene Molloy as Swallow. It drew mostly negative reviews, and the Broadway opening that had been scheduled for 17 April 1997, was subsequently cancelled. Lloyd Rose, the ''Washington Post'' reviewer wrote that the musical "...is just dull...Steinman and Lloyd Webber's differing styles of gothic intensity mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948) is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End theatre, West End and on Broadway theatre, Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, a song cycle, a set of Variation (music), variations, two film scores, and Requiem (Lloyd Webber), a Latin Requiem Mass. Several of Lloyd Webber's songs have been widely recorded and widely successful outside their parent musicals, such as "Memory (Cats song), Memory" from ''Cats (musical), Cats'', "The Music of the Night" and "All I Ask of You" from ''The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical), The Phantom of the Opera'', "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from ''Jesus Christ Superstar'', "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from ''Evita (musical), Evita'', and "Any Dream Will Do (song), Any Dream Will Do" from ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat''. In 2001, ''The New York Times'' referred to him as "the most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scott Of The Antarctic (film)
''Scott of the Antarctic'' is a 1948 British adventure film starring John Mills as Robert Falcon Scott in his ill-fated attempt to reach the South Pole. The film more or less faithfully recreates the events that befell the ''Terra Nova'' Expedition in 1912. The film was directed by Charles Frend from screenplay by Ivor Montagu and Walter Meade with "additional dialogue" by the novelist Mary Hayley Bell (Mills' wife). The film score was by Ralph Vaughan Williams, who reworked elements of it into his 1952 '' Sinfonia antartica''. The supporting cast included James Robertson Justice, Derek Bond, Kenneth More, John Gregson, Barry Letts and Christopher Lee. Much of the film was shot in Technicolor at Ealing Studios in London. Landscape and glacier exteriors were shot in the Swiss Alps and in Norway. Background scenes were shot in the Antarctic islands. Plot Captain Scott is given the men, but not the funds, to go on a second expedition to the Antarctic. As his wife works on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sky West And Crooked
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, the sky is also called the celestial sphere. This is an abstract sphere, concentric to the Earth, on which the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars appear to be drifting. The celestial sphere is conventionally divided into designated areas called constellations. Usually, the term ''sky'' informally refers to a perspective from the Earth's surface; however, the meaning and usage can vary. An observer on the surface of the Earth can see a small part of the sky, which resembles a dome (sometimes called the ''sky bowl'') appearing flatter during the day than at night. In some cases, such as in discussing the weather, the sky refers to only the lower, denser layers of the atmosphere. The daytime sky appears blue because air molecules scatter sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Uninvited Guest (play)
''The Uninvited Guest'' is a 1953 play by the British writer Mary Hayley Bell. It premiered at the Kings Theatre, Southsea before transferring to St James's Theatre in the West End where it ran for 21 performances between 27 May and 13 June 1953. The West End cast included John Mills, Joan Greenwood, Cathleen Nesbitt, Clive Morton, and Lyndon Brook. Mills, who was married to the playwright, played a son returning home after some time spent in an insane asylum. A review in ''The Spectator'' described it as a "modern and much diminished version of Oedipus emerging out of a background suggestive of ''Lady Chatterley's Lover ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' is the final novel by English author D. H. Lawrence, which was first published privately in 1928, in Florence, Italy, and in 1929, in Paris, France. An unexpurgated edition was not published openly in the United Ki ...''".Wearing p.231 References Bibliography * Wearing, J.P. ''The London Stage 1950-1959: A Calendar of Product ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
