| Main Performers | Jack Edge,
Tommy Handley - comedy,
Arthur Riscoe,
Jessie Matthews,
The Western Brothers (Kenneth and George),
Renee Houston and Donald Stewart,
Wylie Watson with Theodore Guitter and Earry Laurette,
Gold and Cordell,
Clarence Wright
Heddle Nash,
Richard Tauber,
Dennis Noble,
Anne Shelton,
Nancy Evans - vocals,
Pattman - organ,
Rawicz and Landauer - pianos |
| Secondary Performers | Percy Kahn,
Ivor Newton,
Stanley Black - pianos |
| Orchestra or Band | Harry Fryer and His Broadcasting Orchestra,
Massed Bands,
HM Grenadier Band,
HM Scots Band,
HM Welsh Guards Band,
HM Scots Guards Drums and Pipers,
HM Irish Guards Drums and Pipers,
London Fire Force Broadcasting Dance Orchestra,
Ivy Benson and Her Ladies Band |
| Conductors | Captain T S Chandler,
Eddie Franklin,
Ambrose Players |
| Performance Notes | Petula Clark states in her autobiography that she appeared at this show aged 11, performed a sketch and from this was offered her first film role.
"I remember sitting reading a comic backstage and they had to drag me away from it when it was my turn to go on,' she says. 'Then I ran up the ramp on to the stage, sang them "Ave Maria", acted out the sketch "Movie Mad" that Daddy had written for me in which I played the role of a star-struck kitchen maid called Daisy, took my bow and went straight back to reading my comic. On other occasions when I appeared there in later years, I had such stage-fright that they literally had to push me up that ramp. It got worse every time. But that first time, I wasn't really conscious of what I was doing except that it all seemed great fun.'
Ironically, among the sea of eight thousand faces who saw the 'Movie Mad' sketch was film director, Maurice Elvey. He was in the process of casting one of a number of low-budget, propaganda-type films being made at the time for the film company, Anglo-American. It was called Medal for the General with Godfrey Tearle in the title role of the retired general who tries to enlist and is turned down because of his age
Elvey came backstage after the Albert Hall triumph and offered Petula the part of Irma, a horn-rimmed know-it-all evacuee child."
('This Is My Song: A Biography of Petula Clark', Andrea Kon, 1983) |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1943/56) |