Blackpool Wonderful Blackpool
By Donald Auty
Jack and myself
would often sit on the little balcony at the back of the stalls in
the Queen's and wait for Jimmy to come in. He would arrive and take
a seat at the side of the theatre in the stalls from where he could
count the number of people in the house. When he had completed this
task, if the house was good, he would smoke a cigarette, if it was
bad he did not light up.
He hired Alec Shanks the West
End director and costume designer to produce the first summer
show. Alec was not good at keeping to budgets and was always looking
for an opportunity to put more of his costumes into the show and design
more scenery. The show was in rehearsal and we were all at lunch in
Hills. Jack asked him how things were going. Jimmy said the show was
too expensive all that tar was costing too much money. Jack, puzzled,
asked him what he meant. Jimmy replied that every morning Alec Shanks
came into the theatre and wanted something else and when he was told
it was too expensive, back would come the reply "Don't spoil
the ship for a half penny worth of tar". Thus the extra tar was
costing a fortune. That was a story that went around the theatres
for many years.
Jimmy put in his own manager Ted Foreshaw
when he took over the theatre. Many a night around 11.30 when Ted
was leaving the theatre Jimmy would say to him come and have a walk
with me Ted and they would walk all the way to St Annes to Jimmy's
house discussing business. Jimmy would then say good night and go
into his home to bed leaving poor old Ted to find his own way back
to Blackpool.
Jimmy
was a staunch catholic and took over the South Pier Theatre from Jack
Taylor when he had a stroke in the mid fifties. He booked Shirley
Bassey to top the bill for summer 1958 when she was at the height
of her early fame. She also featured in some very racy stories in
the tabloid papers of the time and Jimmy decided that he was not going
to have this woman in his theatre and canceled the contract. Which
cost him a lot of money. It was late in the day so he replaced her
with Norman Evans who was reaching the end of his career and business
was not good. Norman left by mutual agreement half way through the
season and was replaced by the comedian Ted Lune who was making his
name in the T.V. series 'The Army Game' but business did not improve
and the show staggered on to the end of the season and lost a great
deal of money. If he had not sacked Shirley Bassey Jimmy would have
packed the theatre all summer but that was Jimmy when he got a bee
in his bonnet. I stage managed that season for him and it was dogged
with bad luck. Dickie Hurran the great director was hired to stage
the show. He made a first visit to the theatre and was accompanied
by Jimmy and myself. The stage at the South pier Regal Theatre was
very restricted and you could not fly anything. Dickie left his coat
in number one dressing room whilst looking at the stage. His lip curled
in scorn when he saw it and he exclaimed "My God it's like Collins
Islington" which was a very tatty suburban London Music
Hall. "Alright then Mr Hurran if you think that get your
coat and bugger off" answered Jimmy and that was the last we
saw of Dickie Hurran. I worked with Dickie a great many times later
on in years but he never really forgave me for being present at this
episode because he was a very arrogant man.
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