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Charing Cross Music Hall
The Charing Cross Music Hall was established beneath the arches of Charing Cross railway station in London in 1866 by brothers Giovanni and Carlo Gatti, to replace the former Hungerford Hall. The site had been acquired, together with Hungerford Market, by the South Eastern Railway in 1862, and incorporated into the railway station, which opened on 11 January 1864, resulting in the demolition of the hall.''Advertisement for the Grand Star Company for Xmas at the Charing Cross Music Hall'' (Collect Britain), British Library accessed 15 Oct 2007 History The music hall was built in the substantial two-level space formed by two of the arches of the |
Villiers Street
Villiers Street is a street in London connecting the Strand with the Embankment. It is partly pedestrianised; traffic runs northbound only up to John Adam Street, where vehicles must turn right. It was built by Nicholas Barbon in the 1670s on the site of York House, the property of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, whom the street commemorates. A watergate in nearby Embankment Gardens is the only remnant of the mansion and shows the original position of the north bank of the River Thames. John Evelyn lived here in the 17th century and the Irish writer Richard Steele, who founded ''The Spectator'' and ''The Tatler'' magazines, lodged here from 1712. The Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, now a part of the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine, was founded here in 1834. Prior to 1865, Villiers Street ran down the hill directly to a wharf by the river, known as Villiers Wharf. This was swept away in 1865 by the construction of the Victoria Embankment, with its sewers, and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baroness Orczy
Baroness Emma Orczy (full name: Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orci) (; 23 September 1865 – 12 November 1947), usually known as Baroness Orczy (the name under which she was published) or to her family and friends as Emmuska Orczy, was a Hungarian-born British novelist and playwright. She is best known for her series of novels featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel, the alter ego of Sir Percy Blakeney, a wealthy English fop who turns into a quick-thinking escape artist in order to save French aristocrats from "Madame Guillotine" during the French Revolution, establishing the "hero with a secret identity" in popular culture. Opening in London's West End on 5 January 1905, ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' became a favourite of British audiences. Some of Orczy's paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. During World War I, she formed the Women of England's Active Service League, an unofficial organisation aimed at encouraging women to persuade men to v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maggie Smith
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (born 28 December 1934) is an English actress. With an extensive career on screen and stage beginning in the mid-1950s, Smith has appeared in more than sixty films and seventy plays. She is one of the few performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, having received highest achievement for film, television and theatre, winning two Academy Awards, a Tony Award and four Primetime Emmy Awards. Hailed as one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actresses, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990 for contributions to the Arts, and a Companion of Honour in 2014 for services to Drama. Smith began her career on stage as a student, performing at the Oxford Playhouse in 1952, and made her professional debut on Broadway in ''New Faces of '56''. Over the following decades, Smith established herself alongside Judi Dench as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patsy Rowlands
Patricia Amy Rowlands (19 January 1931 – 22 January 2005) was an English actress who is best remembered for her roles in the ''Carry On'' films series, as Betty Lewis in the ITV Thames sitcom '' Bless This House'', and as Alice Meredith in the Yorkshire Television sitcom '' Hallelujah!''. Early years She was born in Palmers Green, London and attended the Sacred Heart convent school at Whetstone. While attending, an elocution teacher spotted her potential and encouraged her to pursue a career in acting. She applied for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and won a scholarship aged fifteen. Early career Rowlands began her career in the chorus of '' Annie Get Your Gun'', followed by a summer season in Torquay. She then spent several years with the Players' Theatre in London, before making her West End debut in Sandy Wilson's musical '' Valmouth''. It was at this time she met her future husband, the composer Malcolm Sircom. They divorced in 1967. Other West End the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daphne Anderson
Daphne Anderson (née Scrutton; 27 April 1922 – 15 January 2013) was an English stage, film, and television actress, as well as a dancer and singer. She made her London theatre debut in 1938 at the Windmill Theatre. Anderson appeared in such films as ''The Beggar's Opera'', '' Hobson's Choice'' and ''The Scarlet Pimpernel''. Biography Anderson was born on 27 April 1922, in London, to parents Alan Edward Scrutton and Gladys Amy Scrutton (''née'' Juler). Her surname was originally "Scrutton", but she later changed it to "Anderson". Anderson attended Kensington High School. She married Lionel William Carter. Her aunt was the composer Mary Anderson Lucas. Theatrical career Daphne Anderson studied dancing under Zelia Raye. She made her first stage performance in 1937 at the Richmond Theatre as a chorus member in a production of ''Cinderella''. The following year, Anderson made her London theatre debut in the chorus of the ''Revudeville'' at the Windmill Theatre. She played seve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hewer
John Hewer (13 January 1922 – 16 March 2008) was an English actor and business manager who became familiar with audiences for playing Captain Birdseye in ads for Birds Eye. Biography Hewer was born in Leyton, Essex, the son of an engine driver. He attended Leyton High School following which he worked for the Social Services Department for London County Council (LCC) dealing with people who had problems paying their rent. During World War II when he served as a navigator in the Fleet Air Arm, with which he travelled to Vancouver and the Caribbean and witnessed the result of the Hiroshima bombing. During the war Hewer performed with a group that entertained other service personnel.John Hewer: Icon of TV advertisements - '' |
Ian Wallace (singer)
Ian Bryce Wallace OBE (10 July 191912 October 2009) was an English bass-baritone opera and concert singer, actor and broadcaster of Scottish extraction. His family intended him for a career in the law, but he was attracted to the stage. Originally an actor in non-musical plays, he was persuaded to try opera and made an immediate success. He played a range of buffo parts in operas, at Glyndebourne and internationally. Wallace maintained a simultaneous career in revue, straight theatre, and broadcasting. He appeared in pantomime and at the Royal Variety Performance. As a broadcaster, he was a long-time panellist on the BBC radio panel game '' My Music'', and he presented a television series of introductions to operas in the 1960s, as well as appearing in light entertainment shows singing a range of songs from ballads to comedy numbers. He performed his one-man show for many years. Flanders and Swann wrote several songs for him, and their best-known novelty song, "The Hippopotamu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clive Dunn
Clive Robert Benjamin Dunn (9 January 19206 November 2012) was an English actor. Although he was only 48 and one of the youngest cast members, he was cast in a role many years his senior, as the elderly Lance Corporal Jones in the BBC sitcom ''Dad's Army,'' which ran for nine series and 80 episodes between 1968 and 1977.Clive Dunn Telegraph (7 November 2012). Retrieved on 4 February 2013. Dunn started his acting career in 1935, but this was interrupted by the Second World War, in which he served as a trooper in the 4th Queen's Own Hussars. In 1941 the regiment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian Carmichael
Ian Gillett Carmichael, OBE (18 June 1920 – 5 February 2010) was an English actor who worked prolifically on stage, screen and radio in a career spanning 70 years. He found prominence in the films of the Boulting brothers, including ''Private's Progress'' (1956) and ''I'm All Right Jack'' (1959). In the 1960s, he played Bertie Wooster opposite Dennis Price's Jeeves in ''The World of Wooster'' (1965-67). Beginning in the 1970s, he portrayed Dorothy L. Sayers's gentleman detective, Lord Peter Wimsey, on television and radio. In his later career, he starred in the ITV medical drama ''The Royal'' as TJ Middleditch, a role he originally played in parent show '' Heartbeat''. Early life Carmichael was born in Kingston upon Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The son of an optician, he was educated at Scarborough College in North Yorkshire and Bromsgrove School in Worcestershire, before training as an actor at RADA. He made his stage debut as a robot at the People's Pala ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Owen (actor)
William John Owen Rowbotham, (14 March 1914 – 12 July 1999) was an English actor and songwriter. He was the father of actor Tom Owen. He is best known for portraying Compo Simmonite in the Yorkshire-based BBC comedy series ''Last of the Summer Wine'' for over a quarter of a century. He died on 12 July 1999, his last appearance on-screen being shown in April 2000. Early life and career Born at Acton Green, London to a working-class family (his father a staunchly left-wing tram-driver), Owen made his first film appearance in 1945, but did not achieve lasting fame until 1973, when he took the co-starring role of William "Compo" Simmonite in the long-running British sitcom ''Last of the Summer Wine''. Compo is a scruffy working-class pensioner, often exploited by the bossy characters played by Michael Bates, Brian Wilde, Michael Aldridge and Frank Thornton for dirty jobs, stunts and escapades, while their indomitably docile friend Norman Clegg, played by Peter Sallis, follow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hattie Jacques
Hattie Jacques (; born Josephine Edwina Jaques; 7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980) was an English comedy actress of stage, radio and screen. She is best known as a regular of the ''Carry On'' films, where she typically played strict, no-nonsense characters, but was also a prolific television and radio performer. Jacques started her career in 1944 with an appearance at the Players' Theatre in London, but came to national prominence through her appearances on three highly popular radio series on the BBC: with Tommy Handley on ''It's That Man Again''; with ventriloquist Peter Brough on ''Educating Archie''; and then with Tony Hancock on ''Hancock's Half Hour''. After the Second World War Jacques made her cinematic debut in ''Green for Danger'' (1946), in which she had a brief, uncredited role. From 1958 to 1974 she appeared in 14 ''Carry On'' films, playing various roles including the formidable hospital matron. On television she had a long professional partnership with Eric S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonard Sachs
Leonard Meyer Sachs (26 September 1909 – 15 June 1990) was a South African-born British actor. Life and career Sachs was born in the town of Roodepoort, in the then Transvaal Colony, present day South Africa. He was Jewish. He emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1929 and had many television and film roles from the 1930s to the 1980s, including Mowbray in the 1950 BBC Television version of '' Richard II'', John Wesley in the 1954 film of the same name and Lord Mount Severn in ''East Lynne'' from 1976. He founded an Old Time Music Hall, named the Players' Theatre, in Villiers Street, Charing Cross, London. He appeared as the Chairman of the Leeds City Varieties in the long-running BBC television series '' The Good Old Days'', which ran from 1953 to 1983, and became known for his elaborate, sesquipedalian introductions of the performers. Sachs was honoured in a 1977 episode of '' This Is Your Life''. Sachs appeared in ''Danger Man'' with Patrick McGoohan. He had two appea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
