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Birmingham Hippodrome

Phil said:
I've always wondered why the owners of the Hippodrome found it necessary to demolish the minaret type tower. If it was structural problems then all well and good, but if it was just aesthetics then in my opinion it looked far better with the tower than it does now...
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Hi Phil, it was a Moorish Tower and was removed in 1963 due to safety reasons as it became unstable.

There is a brief history of the Hippodrome on their website here...

https://www.birminghamhippodrome.com/hidden-hippodrome-access-ages/#close


I go to the Hippodrome fairly regularly, the last time being Christmas just gone to see The Nutcracker.
 
Can only remember going to the Hip once with my parents and that was post WWII and pre 1950. The only artist I can recall is Susette
Tari, her signature tune being Red Sails in the Sunset. No one that I have met can remember her and cannot confirm my memory.
Anyone out there who might help?
Archie7
 
archie7 said:
Can only remember going to the Hip once with my parents and that was post WWII and pre 1950. The only artist I can recall is Susette
Tari, her signature tune being Red Sails in the Sunset. No one that I have met can remember her and cannot confirm my memory.
Anyone out there who might help?
Archie7
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Hi Archie, further to my post above, I did a bit more digging and found this list of appearances by Suzette Tarri at the Birmingham Hippodrome...

https://birminghamhippodromeheritage.com/?s=Suzette+tarri

It shows the dates for each run and the acts appearing on the bill with her for each show. If you click on each show title it gives a bit more detailed information and for some of them even the number of shows per day and the times of each show.

Based on your parameters above, the show you attended must have been one of the following from that list:

Tom Arnold presents "Hoop-La" (Opening night 5/11/45 - Closing night 17/11/45)

Variety Show (Opening night 4/8/47 - Closing night 9/8/47)

Variety Show (Opening night 5/7/48 - Closing night 10/7/48)

Variety show (Opening night 29/8/49 - Closing night 3/9/49)

I hope this jogs your memory some more and validates that you haven't been imagining it all these years :D
 
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Hello my Babby.
What a super response to my enquiry. It must have been one of those shows that I saw but I'm afraid that I can't remember which. At least I'll be able to show my doubters that I am not losing my marbles.
Thanks very much.
Archie7
 
Bob Davis said:
The Frank Sinatra visit was June 1953 and a poster like this sold at auction for $1200.00. I suspect that Alma Cogan (the girl with a chuckle in her voice) was 1958 when Terry Scott is also mentioned. Perhaps Eddie or Maurice will know why, but Billy Ternent did not do the big band tours like Heath, Parnell, Dankworth and Lewis, he appeared I am sure more than once as an accompanying band for the American crooners when they came to the UK on their theatre circuits , although I see that when the Platters came they were accompanied by either Jack Parnell, Vic Lewis or Ken Mackintosh. All of these and more made appearances at the Town Hall and of course the first half of the fifties was the era of the big bands and to impress and catch up with the perfectionists like Heath and Parnell, the new bands had to have a gimmick, Delaney with his Kettle Drums, Lewis with his tributes to my friend Stan and there were two bands whose names I have forgotten who were basically mainly radio bands who also went out on the road....and then came rock and roll and the bands withered and died as did good music. Back to the Hippodrome and we used to go eery Thursday night from 1959 to 1962 and catch all the variety shows and the rock and roll tours Vince Eager, Billy Fury and a lad called Cliff Richards who bumped into me as I came out of the gents, my shoulder was popular for hours afterwards. The best show ever (and I say this as a lover of big bands and modern jazz) was the Billy Cotton Band Show, what an entertainer, does anyone else remember the cotton wall snowballs? or is no else that old? But on the Sinatra bill who were the accompanying acts ...Augustus Peabody?
Bob D
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Bobbie Kimber was a ventriloquist so it may be that 'Augustus Peabody' was his dummy.
 
norfolk brummie said:
Some of the Sinatra twice nightly shows, were, would you believe, half empty houses.

At that time Sinatra was a little in decline. He had personal problems, and the newer stars i.e: Frankie Laine, Johnny Ray, Guy Mitchell, had taken over the popularity singing stakes.

Bill Miller was Franks Musical Director for many years, still with him in the 1980's after Sinatra's career took on a huge second 'coming'.

Billy Ternent was the Musical Director at the London Palladium for many years in the 50/60's, and would have toured with Sinatra as his backing band, although Bill Miller would have fronted the orchestra for the Sinatra part of the show.

Bob D: Yu are correct to say that the Vic Lewis Band paid homage to Stan Kenton, as did the Frank Weir Band pay homage to Billy May, but Eric Delaney's drums were not 'kettle' drums.

As a percussionist I have to tell you that they are actually timpani tuned drums. Eric used to cringe at the term 'kettle' !!

In 1961, during a summer season in Bournemouth, at the Pavilion Ballroom, Alma Cogan was appearing in the show, at the Pavilion Theatre, part of the same complex. The ballroom musicians would meet up with the theatre musicians after the shows, and a couple of times we attended 'all night parties', and Alma would be there. A lovely lady, full of fun, and died far too early.

Eddie
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Do you know what the ticket prices were for the Frank Sinatra shows in 1953?
 
archie7 said:
Can only remember going to the Hip once with my parents and that was post WWII and pre 1950. The only artist I can recall is Susette
Tari, her signature tune being Red Sails in the Sunset. No one that I have met can remember her and cannot confirm my memory.
Anyone out there who might help?
Archie7
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try this link
 
Weoley said:
My dad was the Stage Manager of the Hippodrome in the 70s (He worked there from the 50s to about 1980).

I inherited all his memorabillia (30 years worth!) when he died a few years ago.
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Ernie Clapham, was a great friend of our family. He was stage manager in the 50's up until he retired in the late 60's. Was your dad Harry Brown?
 
i went with mom to see david whitfield,and mom lost her purse. we had no money to pay for the bus home. mom gave her name and address. the cleaner found the purse and gave it mom back the next day.
 
Some views of the Birmingham Hippodrome from Hurst Street. They face an uncertain future due to the pandemic / lockdown / loss of earnings etc. Social distancing in the theatre would be hard.



 
Harry Flashman said:
Ernie Clapham, was a great friend of our family. He was stage manager in the 50's up until he retired in the late 60's. Was your dad Harry Brown?
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Okay, I know this reply is nearly a year late, but I haven't been logged in here for a while, but, Yes, he was my Dad. He died in 2008. He used to talk about Ernie Clapham, as did/does my Mom, who met my Dad while she was working in the box office in the early 60s. She used to fill in as relief stage door keeper from time to time, as well. I used to sit in the little old fashioned stage door kiosk with her.
 
Time flies doesn't it? I remember working a Pantones season back stage when your dad was stage manager. Maybe 1970/71. Arthur Askey and Dickie Henderson were the stars. I have some fond memories of the laughs we 'stage hands' used to have.The 'get out' and get in' of all the scenery after Pantones finished was a tough 24 hours of work with no rest. I even managed to get one of the chorus girls to go out with me for a time, although she eventually dumped me for a guitarist. Happy days.
 
Do you know for the length of time I've lived in Birmingham , I cannot remember if I have ever been in here , there is something nagging me about in my youth . To be honest I can't say yes or no I have .
 
I went to the Hippodrome two or three times back in the 60's to pop concerts, the Rolling Stones being one of them.

In the 90's someone I knew was working in the office of the Birmingham Royal Ballet and he took me on a tour of their studios at the back of the theatre - very nice!
 
My Grandfather worked there in around 1935 ish, he started in Tonys Ballroom, then the majestic before he worked the spotlight at the Hippodrome, he wrote a memoir before he passed and im currently typing it up, ther a section all about him wokirng there, seeing gracie Fields, Formby and a great story about Vera Lynn getting the bus into town after a show.
 
Ventured long distance this weekend, Thursday overnight Taunton, Friday to Monday overnight Gĺoucester, Christmas day with my daughter and son ìn law in Ģĺoucester, today our 62nd wedding anniversary, picked up,breakfast at Beefeater and then driven up the M5 to Birmingham for the pantomime at the Hip. Firstly roadworks defeat the Satnav and we spend 20 minutes driving around Digbeth, eventually park and walk to the theatre. Cancelled due to Covid,email the box office to get your money back £2 ,50 for 20 minutes parking upset daughter, get lost again .leaving, stopped for a meal at Droitwich and back to Gloucester home tomorrow, good news is the leg has stood up to the driving.
Bob
 
Weoley said:
My dad was the Stage Manager of the Hippodrome in the 70s (He worked there from the 50s to about 1980).

I inherited all his memorabillia (30 years worth!) when he died a few years ago.
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Hi Weoley , my Mum regularly acted in and directed plays at the Hippodrome during the 60's and very early 70's - they probably knew each other!!
 
I remember coming 2nd in a pantomime painting competition in the Mercury, and winning Birmingham Hippodrome theatre family tickets and I was presented on stage with a Mobo Scooter, the first prize was a Mobo horse I so desperately wanted a Horse, but was more
Than lucky to win 2nd prize. It was Cinderella if I remember, it was in the late 40s or early 50s. At 84 the grey matter let’s you down occasionally.
 
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