The Crazy Gang began their long and distinguished career during the 1930’s at the London Palladium. They dominated comedy at The Palladium throughout the '30s. During their nine-year reign there had never been another single attraction which had brought people to one theatre in such large numbers over such a long period.
Inspired by the free-wheeling plotless revues pioneered by Nervo and Knox with Eddie Gray in the early 1920s, George Black presented his first Crazy Week at the London Palladium in November 1931, starring Nervo and Knox, Naughton and Gold, and Caryll & Mundy. The first show was booked for two weeks and ran for eight months. Crazy Week became Crazy Month when Flanagan and Allen joined the team in June 1932. The 1933 show ran for fourteen weeks and from then until the Blitz of 1940 the Crazy Gang remained in residence.
The first production to boast a title was the 1934 edition Life Begins at Oxford Circus. Caryll and Mundy left shortly after Flanagan and Allen came on board, and prior contractual obligations kept the other regulars out of the shows from time to time. One celebrated temporary replacement for Bud Flanagan was Stanley Holloway. During the Second World War the Gang split into its component parts, performing for ENSA all over Europe, with Eddle Gray roaming as far as the Middle East.
The other London theatre with which they were long associated was The Victoria Palace Theatre (right, top). Their first show, Together Again, played for 1,566 performances and this was followed by an almost continuous run of Crazy Gang Shows. From 1951, the Gang consisted of Bud Flanagan (Chesney Allen had retired for health reasons), Nervo, Knox, Naughton and Gold, and now Eddie Gray rejoined the team. Nervo and Knox were always the highest paid, as their top billing indicated. By 1959, the Gang had been together for 27 years and were all aged between 60 and 72. They had been threatening to retire for years, but kept being persuaded to do one more show - until their last show together on 19 May 1962. Jimmy Gold's health had caused him to miss most of the final two productions, though he did put in an appearance on that emotional last night of the last show.
As one reviewer remarked about their last show at the Victoria Palace in 1962: "Two shows a night like this would kill anybody who had not been brought up as they were - hard-working boys in the business".
By 1934 the Palladium Shows began to have
proper titles such as Life Begins at Oxford
Circus, Round
About Regent Street and All Alight at Oxford Circus, titles which
reflected the Palladium's handy proximity to the the
Oxford Circus tube station and which, in one show,
featured an ambitious scene where everyone in the cast,
including the band, represented people coming up out of
the station.
London
Palladium - 3 October 1938
Musical Revue in two acts.
Original music and lyrics by Ross Parker; Comedy directed
by Charles Henry; Sketches by Con West, Talbot Rothwell
and Arthur Rose; Dances and Ensembles arranged by George
Carden; Production by Alec Shanks; Orchestra under the
direction of Freddie Bretherton;
Musical
Revue in two acts. Original music and lyrics by Ross
Parker; Comedy by Charles Henry; Dances and musical
ensembles by George Carden; Musical director Ronnie
Munro; Staged by Alan Shanks.
Revue devised by Jack Hylton.
Comedy Scenes by William Shakespeare and Bud Flanagan;
Comedy directed by Charles Henry; Music & Lyrics by
Ross Parker; Choreography by Lionel Blair and Colette
Brosset; Musical Director - Jack Ansell. Staged by Alec
Shanks. Orchestrations by Billy Ternent.
Musical Revue
in two acts. Comedy Scenes by Bud Flanagan and The Gang;
Comedy directed by Charles Henry; Original music and
lyrics by Ross Parker; Dances and Musical Numbers by Joan
Davis; Musical Director Jack Ansell; Staged by Alan
Shanks.
Revue
by Bud Flanagan and the Gang; Music and Lyrics Ross
Parker, Bryan Blackburn and Greatrex Newman; Dances and
musical numbers by Joan Davis; Musical Director Jack
Ansell; Staged by Alan Shanks.
