White Christmas at the Sunderland Empire

Winter has come early with over a foot of snow here on my hill at the mouth of the river Tyne, falling once overnight and the second time while watching the Irving Berlin musical White Christmas at the Sunderland Empire. According to the weather forecasters the snow which came to Northumbria as anticipated on Wednesday overnight is due to continue falling for the next two weeks with temperatures as low as minus 15 degrees already reported. It is treacherous on roads and pavements although the local council did make effort to keep the main roads gritted in South Tyneside but those in the City of Sunderland were in an appalling condition as I travelled from a roast turkey and gammon dinner at a Carvery in Cleadon Village to a car park close to the theatre on Saturday evening. It is one of the earliest recorded times that such snow fall has occurred as the last Autumn month ends and even back in the 1960’s it was not as heavy and prolonged as now.

I remember seeing the film White Christmas when it was first released in 1954, staring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye with Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen as the two sisters. The films was issued in the new wide screen process Vista Vision and marked the use of a mountain logo by Paramount which became their trade mark for the next three decades. The film has subsequently been shown regularly over the Christmas and New Year holidays on multi channel and I have viewed a few times during the last half century, but my memory of the story had become hazy. Not so several of the songs, particularly the title White Christmas, I’m dreaming of....and Blue Skies. Two other numbers gained a popularity beyond the film and subsequent stage musical, Sisters and Count your blessings Instead of Sheep. There is a number Its Cold Outside which can be confused with the well known Baby Its Cold Outside created by Frank Loesser in 1948.

I knew nothing of the history of the stage version of the musical which in fact was only created in 2004 for presentation in the USA and came first to the UK for the Christmas season in 2006. My impression is that stage production closely follows the film and certainly the song numbers are similar

Happy holiday
White Christmas White Christmas
Let Yourself go The Old man
Love and the Weather Heat Wave/ Let me Sing/
I’M Happy/Blue Skies
Sisters Sisters
The best things Happen The best things Happen While Your’re Dancing While Your’re Dancing
Snow Snow
What can we do with a Minstrel Number
General
Let me sing I’m Happy
Count Your Blessings Count Your Blessings
Blue Skies Choreography


I love Piano Best things happen when
Falling out of Love Abraham
Sisters
Love you Didn’t Do right By Me/ Love You didn’t do right
How deep is the Ocean
We follow the Old Man
Let Me Sing I’m Happy
How Deep is the Ocean What can you do
Well follow the Old Man Gee I wish I was back
In the army
White Christmas White Christmas
I’ve got my Love to keep me warm



The story of the film rendins fo the Christian basis of the season, the getting to gether of friends and families, the having a good time and the dangers of paying attention to heresay, not checking facts and to the harm well intentioned busy bodies can cause.

The story opens as the second World War draws to its close in Europe and two friends are part of an entertainment put on for their comrades in arms at Christmas. The commanding General speaks to the men of the task ahead and the hope that ten years later the men would have good and peaceful lives with families. The two friends in the Sunderland production are played by Tom Chambers, an actor in the TV series Holby City and Waterloo Road but who made his name by winning Strictly Come Dancing, and Adam Cooper, an established dancer cheorographer and theatre director, while the General is played by Ken Kercheval, now aged 75 and who made his name in the TV blockbuster series of Dallas as Cliff Barnes. Ken also played the role when the show first came to the UK in 2006 while Adam Cooper starred last season in Plymouth and Manchester.

Ten years later the two men have become successful in musical theatre, appearing on the Ed Sullivan show before going to Miami over the holiday season to prepare for their next production. Having received a letter from one of their war comrades one of the pair persuades the other to catch the man’s two younger sisters performing at a club and they are impressed as well as attracted to the women. They invited the girls to bring their act to Miami as part of the show, but they are already contacted to appear at a Winter ski holiday centre in Vermont. One of the men devises a plan which results in the other finding himself on the same train as the girls to Vermont and when they get to the resort, they find it being run at a loss by their former Commanding officer. Worse still there is a sudden heat wave instead of snow so bookings are cancelled and General faces ruin. The two men devise a plan to bring their company to rehearse their next show at the centre using the Barn as the theatre and then to invite all the members of the 151 battalion and their families to come to the resort over the holiday to show support and respect for the general. The General meanwhile had applied to rejoin the army but his application is treated by a former colleague as a joke.

All goes well with the plan until the resort receptionist asked to communicate a message from a product producer on the Ed Sullivan show who also produced the wartime show in which the two men first men. She interprets the message as revealing that the men plan to buy the resort at a knock down price and make millions. She passes this misinterpretation on to one of the sisters at the same time as giving her a telegram offering her a major booking at a New York nightclub. She takes the assignment broken hearted at what she feels is the betrayal by the man she had come to admire as well as love. Without understanding why she has broken off the relationship the man follows her to New York and when she still rejects his interest he leaves to return to Vermont for the special performance show. He also leaves her with the Ed Sullivan producer friend he has invited to catch her act and she quickly realises that the man is not a real estate agent and that she has accepted a false story, also returning to Vermont to appear in the show.

The General is persuade to wear his uniform for the occasion still unaware that the support reunion has been planned and gets a second surprise when a letter is sent from the White House giving him a job with the USA army in Europe. He decides to decline the offer and make the most of the opportunity given to him by the former comrades. At the end of the show within a show, the doors behind the stage are opened to reveal that snow has arrived at the resort. And in true Hollywood style everyone lives happy ever after.

The musical is a faithful production of the style of show and song fashionable in the 1950’s and makes no allowance for social changes in the intervening years although the appal from brothers in arms to stick together and support each other when they return to civilian life is as strong now in the post Korean, Vietnam and Middle East conflicts as it was post World War II.

I have visited the Sunderland Empire Theatre several times over my decades living on Tyne and Wearsides usually for the Pantomime at Christmas/New Year. It is an ancient theatre built in 1007 with 2000 seats in an auditorium which has remained substantial the same over the century. However in 2004/5 £4.5 million was spent to raise the height of the above stage tower, lengthen and widen the stage to enable full West End and International theatre productions to be produced including Miss Saigon, one of my favourites, South Pacific, My Fare Lady, and Starlight Express. Mickey Rooney appeared in the 2007 Christmas Pantomime with his wife while Helen Mirren first performed on this stage and the Comedian Sydney James had a heart attack and died on his way to hospital.

I enjoyed the evening despite the horrendous conditions on the untreated Sunderland roads one the way to and from the Theatre. Mist of the audience wisely kept on their coats as it was none to warm inside. The seats remain comfortable, and West End prices were charged about double one would expect for a show at this time of the year and here were no concessions. I would be surprised if the gross box office is less than half a million pounds a week and one hopes the rates paid to the performers reflects this as for many this will be their substantial earning period for the year. I shall now look out for a showing of the film over Christmas.

1901 Blood Brothers in Richmond, Lunch in Kingston

After an excellent journey to the capital, an unexpectedly treat of a day on Monday visiting the town where my first purchased home is located, seeing Shutter Island at Kingston and La Boheme at Wimbledon, taking the tram for almost length of its track, a family meal and lots of chat, deciding what to do with my third full day and something which would add to the experience posed a problem. My pre journey intention had been to visit the new Renaissance exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum and /or the Henry Moore retrospective at the Tate but if the weather as good then I fancied a trip to Richmond, taking the bus from Kingston, and passing Ham and Petersham, alighting at the Thames riverside and going on to the Green, one of the most picturesque in all the British Islands, lunching, having a walk around, taking a river bus trip, assuming their continuing operation, perhaps then continuing on the sixty five to Ealing where I had worked between 1967 and 1970, not that I remembered the number of the bus when considering the options.

All this seemed unlikely when I opened the curtains of the room Croydon and looked towards the Nestle building and the main road passed the Fairfield Halls, towards the Local authority buildings where I had worked for the Finance department in late 950’s and noticed the grey skies which looked full of rain. I decided that I would nevertheless take the bus to Kingston and if weather had not improved take the train from there to Waterloo.

I arrived at the bus stop in good time and was able to take a raised seat midway in the bus, able to pay greater attention to the other passengers and the places passed, remembering previous associations. A retired couple behind me provided a running commentary and at the Fairfield Halls reminisced at a past era. Passing between Beddington and Park and Wallington Green and I remembered the where a Liberal parliamentary Candidate lived whose children attended the same school and church and where we had gone Carol singing one Christmas as teenagers. In those days he lost his deposit gaining only a few votes whereas today the Sutton Council has a Liberal Democrat majority and a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament. After Carshalton pond we passed the former music store, now selling clocks where another former pupil lived above with his family.

At the station stop in Kingston I alighted in front of a Wetherspoons pub offering their three sausages and chips with beans for £3.99. This was irresistible. This is a giant of a Wetherspoons with two large seating areas and a horde of young staff who appeared to be enjoying their working day. The meal came surprisingly quickly given the number of people in the pub restaurant and someone came to check that I was satisfied with the food soon after it had been delivered. It was noon and I realised that Prime Minister’s Question Time was showing with sub titles. I was too lazy to move. However on going to the gents before making my way, I noticed that the House remained full and Chancellor of the Exchequer William Darling was on his feet. It was budget day.

After making myself comfortable I found a table close to a screen and watched the rest of his speech. In total he said nothing other than remind of the Government‘s performance and previously stated policies and decisions to do nothing to lessen the impact of the recession, to protect jobs as much a possible and to stimulate the economy in the best possible of ways. He explained the plans to reduce the national deficit with the forecast reduced by some 11 billions from 178 to 167 because improvements in employment, reductions in benefit payments and other measures. The only new announcement was to double the price of a property to a quarter of a million before stamp duty has to be paid and this will be offset by charging an additional 5% on properties worth more than £1 million. The speech will have placed the Conservatives in a difficult situation because their only accurate from of criticism would be to criticise the failure to cut public expenditure and not raising more taxes, both of which would have been electorally disastrous alienating the centre and their own core supporters. They therefore concentrated on criticising the government leadership and its personalities

I then went in search of the bus station and the bus to Richmond having remembered, so I thought, the way through the town centre having passed the bus station earlier. I was wrong and soon found myself close to the Kingston College and a one way system back into the centre of town where in a side street were not one but two 65 buses to Richmond and Ealing parked on their turnaround and with a small queue of people waiting at the bus stop for the first of these buses to recommence their journey. This had been a great stroke of luck because the bus then filled with standing room only accommodation at the next two stops through the town centre

After leaving the town centre where the traffic is always heavy because of the Thames and the one bridge crossing we moved quickly into the pleasant suburbs and then to a stretch of still magical England with the green at Ham surrounded by fine houses and cottages. Ham is across the way from Teddington Lock at the end of the long Teddington High Street which I had walked its length on the Monday.

It is possible to walk the whole stretch of the river thanes on this side of the River to Ham, Petersham and Richmond, whereas mention on the other side private housing and private roads restrict and discourage entry to the river bank. There is a pond to one side of the Common and a short walk on the other side of the road and one is in the vast acres of Richmond Park. Unless one is a good walker then a car is required for Richmond Park where there is an excellent refreshment facility at its centre in the former home of the first Earl Russell, Pembroke Lodge where I took my birth and care mothers and aunt to tea during their last years together having parked at the Richmond Green beforehand. I had also attended a Home Office Children’ s department arranged course at Strawberry Hill on the other side of the Park over three and half square miles and three times the size of New York’s Central Park. The Royal ballet school is within the park as is the Metropolitan police command centre for all the Royal parks.

A little further along this pleasant road of twists and turns is Petersham with its meadow land under Richmond Hill from which here are impressive view across this part of the Thames valley. There is a gatehouse road into the Park. The bus then continue on a road with the river to one side and the lower slopes of Richmond Hill on the other and this where I alighted rather than continue to the town centre. The sun was shining again and it was pleasantly warm. I unbuttoned my coat. I debated continue down a path to the river bank but thought I would do this later and enquire if there was a river bus back to Kingston. I have with the past five years taken the river boat from Hampton Court to Richmond. I was once interviewed for a senior post with the London Borough of Richmond but political background was not suited. I also recalled making a special journey to the Curzon Cinema and Water Lane to see a film about the Spanish Civil War.

Instead of going down to the river I walked up a steep bank into the Richmond Hill road of art galleries, antique shops and restaurants before retracing steps down to one of the two Odeon Cinema across from the Richmond Bridge which goes to Twickenham and Teddington. Someone has written that in 200 years the only things that have changed is the emergence of the International Rugby Union stadium at Twickenham and the constant flying of planes landing or taking off at Heathrow, although there was not much evidence of this on the day. I needed another visit to the loo and headed for John Lewis and had great difficulty in locating the toilets which are unmarked in the far corner of the second floor, obviously aimed at preventing steady stream of visitors like me. I was able to assist two middle aged women who were on a similar search.

Comfortable once more it was time to make for the wonderful Richmond Green and I thought I would look out the mansion which I had noted for sale in Saville’s. Later on line I learned that the asking price is £6.5 million for this four story property with its own pleasant gardens but overlooking the Green and with very spacious drawing rooms, many bedrooms rooms, and a guest flat or one for staff as garden flat, similar in fact to the situation at my former home in Teddington, There is a double garage and off street parking for five vehicles including access to Old Palace Yard. Located within walking of the Riverside and Parkland it is a dream location in a small town full of antique and art shops and good food restaurants. Oh to win the European Lottery for a win of £20million would be needed to look after the extended family, to purchase and adapted property for my project and arrange and endowment to secure its future from the tax man. I entered the Green by the famous Cricketers Pub and it is on this Green that the first Cricket match between Middlesex and Surrey was played in 1730 although here is reference to cricket being played here in 1666. Croydon also played Chertsey in 1736 thus combining links however loose ones which have drawn me to the town. Most of the benches around the Green were occupied but saw one on the far side and making my way I then stopped having noticed a lot of people outside the Richmond Theatre which is one side of an extension to the Green. Wednesday, Matinee time and it was 2.15.
Then the Gods looked down on me, beaming. There was a performance of the Willie Russell masterpiece Blood Brothers, undertaking its 25th anniversary tour. I could have a seat in the second row at the. I was able to sit with vacant seats on either side and a clear view between the pair of seats in front. I was in wonderland. The rest of the large theatre was full. I has a double chocolate ice cream at the Interval.

The Richmond Theatre on Little Green was built in 1899 and is the outstanding example of a Frank Matchem Theatre with a tradition interior of stalls, dress and upper circle full of gilt and plush red fabric. The Theatre has been used many film and TV productions such as Evita, Neverland and Jonathan Creek and remains capable of productions prior to the West end as well as professional Touring companies. It echoes back to the great era of the musical hall and pantomime

Blood Brothers is one of the longest running West end production in musical history with a tragic moving story, great music and a clever concept imaginatively presented. It features a Catholic Merseyside woman with five children whose husband runs off with a younger Marilyn Munroe lookalike, leaving her to fend on the dole, ordering more goods than she can ever afford from the catalogues. She gets a job cleaning for a middle class housewife with no children and finding herself having twins reluctantly agrees to give one of the two to the childless employer. The woman cannot cope with the situation and having agreed that the mother would be able to see her other so grow up through he continuing work, she persuades her husband to agree to their moving away after the two boys become close friend and make themselves into blood brothers.

When the mother and her six children are rehoused to a new estate on the outskirts of Liverpool they two boys, now young men encounter and re-establish their friendship together with a young girl who adores the working class half who is unable to express his affection while the middle class lad also adores the girl but recognises the prior claim of the other as well as the girl’s preference. When the middle class lad goes away to university, the couple are required to get wed and no sooner does the lad settle down living with their mother he is made redundant and then persuaded to participate in an armed robbery by his elder brother. in which someone is shot and the younger man is sent to prison for seven years, destroyed emotionally by the experience he returns to his family dependent on pills. In desperation his wife turns to his still unknown to them twin brother, now a councillor, for help to get a job and their own council home. The working class lad misinterprets the relationships and enter the Council premises with a gun. He is warmed by an armed police response team.

As a prologue we witness this last scene in which the brothers have been killed and we are told it was part of a curse a warning that should the two ever find out their relationship they would die. In order to prevent the middle class son killing the other, their mother reveals the truth and one shoots the other, with the police shooting the remaining twin.

The musical play demonstrates the strength of my dictum that what we do and say remains with us throughout our lives and with those involved. The main message of the play is one of class and when the two lads get into trouble with the police, one is given a final warning and other advice to keep away from the working class district. There are six principles in the cast. The Mother - Mrs Johnston and her twin son Mickey, Mrs Lyon and the other twin son Edward, the girl Linda and the narrator/chorus /conscience/prophet. Among those who have features as Mrs Johnston are Stephanie Lawrence, Clodagh Rogers, Kiki Dee and four of the Nolan Sisters, with Spice girl Mel among the latest. Russell Crow appeared as Mickey in the Australian production. Petula Clark made her Broadway debut in the work with the Cassidy brothers playing the twins. There has been a Japanese production and boot leg productions in many languages as well as official tours around the world.

Adults play the children and then the adolescents with considerable insight and naturalness and it is this aspect which has made the musical an essential introduction to the theatre for many young people, often brought to schools by the groups of actors. On Wednesday there was a party of fifth or sixth formers who enjoyed the show immensely , some moved to tears at the end. especially the girls who reacted to the jokes and aside about adolescent sexual and emotional fumblings of the boys. Despite knowing from the outset what the end will be there was still a strong emotional outburst from the audience followed by prolonged applause and a standing ovation, something which the show has experienced over the past 25 years everywhere everytime.

I made my way, joyously, back by bus to Kingston, then by train to Wimbledon and Tram to Croydon getting in after seven. I made by way from the Theatre and to where I thought there might be a bus stop in the one way system discovering a mini bus station down a side street and where a 65 bus arrived within seconds.

There was just time for the lady waiting on the seat next tome to hand me a tract from the Bible. She must have been clairvoyant for I was having a brief erotic memory Over forty years ago I was without my car and I had taken the 65 at Ealing to Kingston and then got a bus to my home in Teddington. This was in the late 1960‘s when girls were wearing the shortest of skirts for the first time. Unable to get a seat I had to go upstairs and look up had been startled by the rear of an attractive girl who had turned round and look back at me smiling. She went further inside the bus and I took a seat at the front for the different form of view.

I then made a mess of using the Oyster card for the first time. Again I arrived at Kingston station to find a train being announced so I rushed hoping that I had correct used the Oyster Card to gain entry, but I think I had the card in the holder the wrong way round. At Wimbledon I went straight to the Platform for the tram but the card did not register and I was told to seek help. Being rush hour the attendant was very busy but he eventually helped taking the correct amount from the card for the journey from Kingston. However I was not sure the card registered for tram trip. I thought the card had an initial deposit of £3 showing plus the £5, When I checked the following day there was only £1.10 in credit so a great mystery. However it had been another great day.

1404 Riot at the Customs House South Shields

With a need to purchase fruit and to post the income tax return for the financial year 2007 2008 I went out mid morning and decided to purchase a ticket for the performance of Riot at the Customs House. On arrival I discovered a matinee and opted for that. I bought some cherries, strawberries and grapes on the way.

Over 100 tear ago the thriving port of South Shields invited seamen from Somalia, India, Malaysia and Africa and especially from the Yemen to undertake jobs on ships such as stokers and firemen. The ship owners could pay them inferior wages must as a whole range of employers today are delighted to employ labour from the poorer countries of Europe because of their willingness to reliably work long hours without complaint, During the first world war the seamen became invaluable as British born men were drafted into the Royal Navy. It is estimated that approximately 2000 were living around the docks at Mill Dam at this time, forming the fist significant Muslin community to settle in Britain.

South Shields was a coal mining town as well as dockyards and where ships were built a little further up the river at Jarrow., at Hebburn and across the river where a pedestrian tunnel connected the banks as well a passenger ferries. South Shields was hard working class town where the middle class lived in small areas, where I live was one, and in the neighbouring countryside. The nature of the life and the rigid class distinctions have been accurate portrayed in the novels of Catherine Cookson and The TV films and serials which followed publication and the international success of the writer. It was inevitable that British born seamen were demobilised and the economic depression developed there was resentment against those from other lands, skin colours, cultures and religion. As with what happened to the Town of Jarrow with the decline in shipping, the Labour Party, some Trade Unions, the established Churches, and town's administrators did not cover themselves with glory, with some individuals being more concerned about the protection and advancement of their personal position than the welfare of the people in general.
The local newspaper, one of the oldest in the land published letters and editorials which if they did so to-day would lead to the prosecution and imprisonment of the owners and editorial staff for the blatant fuelling of racial tensions.

My understanding that there is evidence for the impression given in the play by Peter Mortimer the principal culprits was the local leader of the seaman's union who caved in too readily to the positions taken up by the shop owners especially then a rota system was slanted against the migrant workers. The Communists Party and other socialist interests stepped in to create the Minority Movement, left wing challenge to the National Union of Seamen and the Shipping Federation and which comprised migrant workers and white Seamen. This was not a sort lived situation as it lasted throughout the 1920's coming to ahead first in April 1930 when 13 Somalis were taken to North Tyneside from South Shields to work on ships leaving from there. The situation exploded into rioting on August 2nd 1930 when fuelled by baseless rumour a large mob of white seamen roamed the waterfront hunting for Arabs and foreigners, There was a counter demonstration arranged by the Minority Movement and eventually the two sides clashed. The police then attempted to keep the peace drawing truncheons and charging and several Arabs drew knives and four policemen were stabbed. 26 men were arrested 20 Arabs and six white. The Arabs were subsequently convicted and given sentences from three to sixteen months with hard labour after which they were deported. The white organisers were given eight months. However the real scandal was the behaviour of the civic authorities towards the rest of the Muslim seamen when over 100 who had nothing to do with the riots were also deported as a consequence of seeking assistance through the workhouse.

In this respect one has to place the situation in the wider perspective of local authority control over Workhouses, Asylums and the activities of the police. I have studied some of the local poor law records and right up until the 1948 National Assistance Act one could find decisions which would rightly be condemned to day including local up single parents mothers and taking away their children. I have seen orders signed by leading trade unionists and labour Councillors.

During the Second World War a significant number of non white seamen were among the 3000 who died but little recognition was given to them When there was the development of local business often opening cafes and restaurants in the 1950's the police were used in various ways to inhibit trade with false accusations of drugs and prostitution. In the sixties South Shields did become a centre for Heroin after addicts were driven out of London and settled in the town. At one stage half those in the regional rehabilitation until came from the town. There were all British born white, as were the prostitutes who frequented the pubs and clubs close to the docklands.

The Play was first produced at the Custom's House in 2005 and this new production has been created with the help of the Trade Union Unison with performance in Liverpool as part of the Arabic Arts Festival and the European Capital of Culture Celebrations. The performance company comes from Tyneside and the Director of the work lives in South Shields.

I was therefore very interested to see what kind of audience there was for a June Matinee afternoon when the town is thronged with shoppers for the greater part of the day and then going home to tea and in preparation for the evening entertainment. At least three quarters of the auditorium was filled with a wide range of ages although many young people created a responsive atmosphere to the humour as well as seriousness of the work. As far as I could see there was only one person present who was not evidently white.

Later at home I watched a remarkable "extra" on the Bobby DVD where five people who were present at the Ambassador Hotel spoke at some length about their experience, including one who suffered superficial wounds in the head, one who was a civil right worker with the campaign who had been on voter registration in the deep South and who had then become involved in monitoring White Supremacist organisations, and one remarkable lady who been the key figure in organising the Latino struggle of basic rights in the sixties which Bobby had also taken up and had been responsible for the voter registration of some 140000 into the campaign. I saw the best hearts of that generation broken that night to misquote and misuse the opening words of Howl