Ashcroft Theatre Club - Meetings and other activities

2012

Sunday Meetings start at 3pm

Note: We have now provided ampilification facilities in the venue.

Sunday
May 20th

Barrie Stacey promises "A Spicy Trip Through The Show Business Jungle". He became a producer & agent in the 1960's (after first having owned a coffee shop called 'As You Like It' in Soho, which also delivered sandwiches to the West End matinee casts). He is a regular visitor to the Ashcroft Theatre and was there on April 5th this year with West End Songbook. He has written several books including an autobiography, 'Life Upon The Very Wicked Stage'.

Sunday June 17th

Songs My Mother Taught Me - A Welsh Heritage. Enid Gura is a trained singer (Morley College) who will be doing a live performance with narration. She worked at Croydon Central Library, and was Head Librarian at Coulsdon. Enid was evacuated to Wales in World War II and both her parents speak Welsh. She has made this presentation to the Friends of the London Mozart Players.

Previous meetings and activities included:
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2012

Nigel Colman, a popular speaker who came to speak to the club about Jack Hawkins in June 2009, told us The Matt Monro Story. (13 Chart records) Portrait of My Love, Born Free, My Kind of Girl, Softly as I leave You, Walk Away, Yesterday, From Russia with Love etc. With sound extracts

The life & work of Cliff Richard, a presentation with sound excerpts by Charmaine Bourton. Sir Cliff Richard OBE, 71, has had 14 UK No. 1 hits and hit records in six consecutive decades. In addition films, stage musicals and other work in his long career.

Mary Greenslade previously came to us in March 2009 and gave a talk on Frank Matcham, the Theatre Architect. This time she returned with what she called a fun talk about "The History of Clowns". She took us from medieval times and Court Jesters right through to Grimaldi and the Circus Clown Coco. Also included was the story of the annual Clowns church service, held in Dalston each year. Fully illustrated with many slides.

The Australian actor Trader Faulkner told us about his long career. An actor since 1946, he has appeared in many films including "Mr. Denning Drives North" with John Mills, "A High Wind in Jamaica" with Anthony Quinn, also films with Laurence Harvey, Merle Oberon etc. He took over from Richard Burton on Broadway in "The Lady's Not For Burning", directed by John Gielgud. He appeared in many TV series most notably "Richard The Lionhart", and broadcast in over 400 radio plays. He was also in the famous 1955 Stratford season with Olivier, Vivian Leigh & John Gielgud. Peter Hall directed him in Lorca's "Blood Wedding" & "Waltz of the Toreadors".

2011

Doug Mackenzie came to us in April 2009. He returned with an entirely new presentation on a big screen. Doug has been a show business celebrety photograher over several decades, and is still shooting. He photographs openings of shows, Royal Galas, showbiz parties etc; and he told us more about the personalities he has met over the years.

Colin Draper gave a talk entitled "Halfway Up a Ladder" about his long life in the theatre, mainly as a stage manager on tour and based in London and also about his time in repertory at Richmond Theatre, under Frederick Piffard, when they built their own sets; if big ones, sometimes in the street! Colin is still a keen theatre-goer and has controversial views about some current productions!

The Bette Davis Story. Patricia Lawrence spoke about Bette's legendary career. Two film Oscars, ten nominations. Films such as Jezebel (made when she missed out on the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind), Dark Victory, Now Voyager, All About Eve, The Virgin Queen, Whatever Happened To Baby Jane and more than 100 others . A career that had many highs and lows with controversy for over 60 years.

David Holt returned to us after 5 years..... A favourite of this club, he is well known to Ashcroft audiences.
David updated us in his own personable way on his career, and presented to us the premiere of a short story he has written. And, being a brilliant voice-over artist, he took on all the characters' voices and mannerisms.
He also updated us as to what he has been doing lately which includes recording work for animation and radio as well as theatre work.

Visit to the CINEMA MUSEUM (SE11 4TH)
32 members and friends joined us to visit this museum which is a private museum in a quite large Grade 2 Listed building that was set up by lifetime cinema collector Ronald Grant in 1986. It is open to the public for tours (but only selected booked groups).
The museum houses all things cinema.... seats ,carpets, posters, display boards, statues, photographs and thousands of artefacts rescued from demolished cinemas for 60 years throughout Britain.
The afternoon started with a guided tour of 45mins, followed by coffee / tea & biscuits (incl.) & a free raffle and then a 40 minute film show in the private cinema on the premises; comprising of a film about the museum & varied short films from the 30's to the 50's.
During the break, used books, dvds, posters & photos of actors were for sale to raise money for the museum which does not receive any public subsidy.

Performing at the Fringe. Lisa Wright was trained as a drama teacher and taught in training & comprehensive schools. She was ordained deacon at Southwark Cathedral in 1987 and in 1994 became one of the first women priests in the diocese. As an actor she has been performing her one women shows at the Edinburgh Festival since 2004 and continues to do so.The first was called Spilling the Beans, and it was based on her Mother's letters to her when Lisa was working in the USA.They offered a frank and vivid picture of East End life of 50 years ago. We saw a snippet. She has also written a book.

20 members went on an Ashcroft Theatre Club group visit to 'Lord of the Flies' at Regents Park Open Air Theatre.

The TV years. Norman Hoskins came to us in 2007 to tell us of his career at Moss Empires in Publicity, working with the infamous Cissie Williams. This time he told us about the rest of his career, starting in publicity at the first night of ATV 1955 then moving four years later to the TV station Rediffusion as Press Officer; leaving when it finally merged into Thames Television. We heard of the many personalities he had to deal with including Liberace. He later worked as a Public Relations Officer at a company that owned such publications as Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping, finally ending his career at TV South.

Michael Pointon talked about his life as a broadcaster,TV & radio documentary maker, author and working for Rank as a film publicist (also a musician). He has a particular interest in Variety and helped revive the careers of Jimmy Edwards & Max Wall.

We welcomed members of the Croydon Stagers (which is now 102 years old) who presented 'Croydon Stagers - a potted history of Croydon's oldest surviving amateur musical group' for our entertainment. Dawn Lambert, Life President, was joined by their Chairman, Kevin Hayes and other members of the Croydon Stagers who came along to lead a sing-song, with piano accompaniment. This proved to be a fun afternoon.

We had not only one celebrity treat for you, we had two. The popular and prolific actor Brian Murphy was in conversation with his wife, actress and novelist, Linda Regan.

Brian Murphy has appeared in numerous films, TV and theatre productions for almost half a century. However, he is probably best remembered as the lazy, henpecked George Roper in the TV sitcoms 'Man About the House' and 'George and Mildred'. In these shows he appeared opposite the late Yootha Joyce, as his domineering, social-climbing on-screen wife; and in real life they had known each other since they were both members of Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop. Another popular TV role of Brian's was that of Alvin Smedley in 'The Last of the Summer Wine'.

As an actress Linda Regan has appeared in television and film, and is best known for her role as the 'Yellowcoat' April in the British holiday camp sitcom 'Hi-De-Hi'. She is now a successful, published author; and Linda had a selection of her books on sale at the meeting. Linda's books are thrillers with showbiz settings.

2010

Oliver Symons gave us a presentation "In and Around the Royal Ballet"
Oliver was a ballet dancer and became Artistic Co-ordinator in a career of 36 years at Covent Garden. He later became Ballet Master for 'Ballet for All' ,which came to the Ashcroft Theatre for 8 years. This was a most engrossing and interesting talk with humour.

Visit to Cinderella at the Ashcroft Theatre
Please click on the poster to enlarge it.

Brian Reynolds tells the story of "Music While You Work", the BBC radio music programme which ran from 1940s - 1980s.
He told us about the personalities, band leaders etc. Sound extracts were played. Brian was present at some studio recordings, and has hundreds of recordings of the series. His book was on sale (specially reduced for us to £12 from £17.99, hardback, 255 pages)

The Girl With The Glasses: Maggie Stredder of the Vernons Girls
"My Life in Showbusiness". The Vernons Girls were formed in 1959 and were still performing in the 2000's. The First of their many hits was "Lover Please" in 1962. Maggie also told us of her times with the Ladybirds, and of all the stars with whom she worked.

June Bronhill, OBE

A talk with many images and sound extracts was presented by Geoff Bowden (right) assisted by David Reed. June was a notable star of Opera,Operetta & Musicals as well as being a stage & TV actress.The Merry Widow, Glamourous Nights, The Dancing Years, Lucia di Lammermoor, The Sound of Music are some of the most popular shows with which she has been associated.

Coach Outing to The Chichester Festival Theatre: "42nd Street"
Once again, the Ashcroft Theatre Club joined forces with the Spring Park Residents Association to organise a coach outing. As Chichester was such a popular destination two years ago, we decided to pay a return visit, this time to see the 2pm matinee of the 'all singing, all dancing' "42nd Street". This wonderfully crafted musical was originally produced on Broadway by David Merrick, with original direction and dances by Gower Champion.

The show starred Tim Flavin, Kathryn Evans and Louise Plowright

Club Night to meet the cast of Stepping Out starring Anita Harris & Brian Capron immediately following the performance.

Theatres and Cinemas of Croydon
Richard Norman, a local theatre and cinema historian presented an illustrative talk telling the story of Croydon's theatre heritage. He plotted the history of the buildings and some celebrities and entertainers who appeared in them - from the earliest days of travelling theatres to the permanent buildings recalled in living memory including the Theatre Royal/Hippodrome, Empire/Eros, Grand, Greyhound, Pembroke, Fairfield Halls/Ashcroft culminating in the most spectacular of any place of entertainment, the Davis' Theatre. Richard is also an active member of the Cinema Theatre Association.

Tommie Connor (1904-1993)
During the 36 years since the Club was established, Patricia Lawrence has given a number of talks from Theatrical Superstitions to Marilyn Monroe; and trom pantomime to theatres she has visited on her travels in various parts ot the world. This time her talk was about the life of the late British songwriter, Tommie Connor. Tommie was a family friend and Patricia has a number of personal recollections to share as part of his life story, as well as some of his music.
Tommie's name may not be as familiar as many of his American counterparts, but he wrote many of the well-known songs of yester-year, among them, "It’s the Biggest Aspidistra in the World", "I Saw Mommie Kissing Santa Claus", "Lili Marlene", "Who’s Taking You Home Tonight?", and "Never Do a Tango with an Eskimo". Such was Tommie's impact on the music industry that he was the first British composer to have ever been awarded a gold disc, solely for composing, as opposed to composer performing his own music.

Actor Robert Holden presented a talk: "My Life in Showbusiness - So Far, From Herne Hill To Broadway (Tooting Broadway)"

(The picture (right) is of Robert in character)

Bella Emberg presented a talk. From 2007 to date she played Aunt Barbara in Bears Behaving Badly on TV. Amongst her other appearances were Russ Abbot's Madhouse, The Benny Hill Show, Doctor Who, the Basil Brush Show and Softly Softly. She was in rep. for seven years at Farnham, Weston-Super-Mare and other venues. In the past, she has appeared in a play at the Ashcroft and made several appearances with Russ Abbott at the Fairfield Hall.

Critic, show business journalist & author Edward Thomas came from Eastbourne to tell us the story of the Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne, which is 125 years old this year. His book "The Playhouse on the Park" has just gone into a second edition, and was recently launched by Anita Harris. Copies were on sale at £7.50.

Elizabeth Hurley gave a talk "100 years of Song -The Life and Music of Irving Berlin". It included some of the famous songs from shows such as "Annie Get Your Gun" , "Call Me Madam", Easter Parade" & "White Christmas" sung by some great singers.

2009

John Kennedy Melling presented "The life of Alfred Hitchcock". John interviewed Hitchcock for 'Movie Go Round' and was asked to be on his 'This Is Your Life'. John is a crime writer and broadcaster.
Included was a 16 minute private video (1961) of Hitchcock talking to the Westcliffe on Sea Film Society at Universal Studios.

Visit to the Ashcroft Pantomime.There was a buffet with wine/soft drinks afterwards to which the cast were invited.

Please click on the poster to enlarge it.

Ron Cox spoke about Croydon theatre in the 19th. Century: Murder, Mayhem but not much Money

David Hamilton, the well known TV and radio presenter and actor has hosted over 1000 TV shows, and over 12000 radio shows. His autobiography "The Music Game" was published in 1986 by W.H.Allen.

Jeanne Mitchell, from Croydon, talked about her time as one half of a duo called 'Touché' and spoke about her previous life as Head Buyer from W.H.Smith.

Excursion to "Spend, Spend, Spend" Watermill Theatre, Newbury