Amazing story about Ruby.
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 8:15 am
Hello Friends
An amazing story has come to light recently which I think will fascinate readers. It started to evolve when a song/piano copy came to light carrying Ruby's photograph on the cover. Questions were being asked as to who could come up with the answer to this mystery concerning a copy of 'Never, Never Land'. The general feeling was that it was possibly a song that Ruby could have sung on the BBC2 TV series of 'Quite Contrary' in the early 50s. During the debate David Frankish, the ex fan club secretary, remembering that he had tape recorded most of Ruby's T.V. and radio performances by holding a microphone to the T.V. or Radio speakers, decided to search his memorabilia AND a stored a box of audio tapes in his home. Some years ago, he was burgled and the 'offenders' caused a fire in his home and consequently a sudstantial amount of damage was done. Fortunately, although smoke damaged, the box of audio tapes were not too badly damaged. He decided to send the box of audio tapes to Gerald to see what was on them and whether they could be salvaged.
I need now to join another story to this one to complete the mystery.
As long ago as 1954, the group that I was with - The Jones Boys, were doing a tour of variety theatres, one of the venues was in Doncaster, where all three of the other members of the group lived. It was the Gaumont Cinema, a venue that ocasionally stage variety bills. Apart from ourselves, the bill included,- The Ray Ellington Quartet, Marion Ryan, and Spike Milligan.(yes, he did a few variety dates in those days but it was not his medium).
After a fantastic Monday night opening, I called at the theatre the following morning to see what mail there was and took the mail to the little cafe next door to read over a cup of coffee. Juke boxes were all the rage at that time and I discovered a record by The McGuire Sisters singing 'Do You Remember When?' The song struck me as being and ideal song and dance number, i.e, straw hat and cane. However we didn't ever use the number in our act, so I shelved the song.
Years later I met and married Ruby in Blackpool in 1957. We frequently discussed songs that suited Ruby and I assisted her with choosing new songs and helping her to stage them. It took a great deal of persuasion to get Ruby to change her songs and to include new ones, simply because she was terrified to do so. Quite often a new song was chosen and ideas were rehearsed regarding how to stage it. When the moment came to include the song Ruby's nerves prevented it from being included. At the very last moment she would pass a message to the musical director to take the song out of the programme. Out of the blue, Ruby suggested that we rehearsed a duet together and with me on stage with her she would find it easier to include the new song. I was reluctant to do a duet because I didn't want the fans to think that I was muscling in on her act. It would have also been extremely difficult for Ruby's family to accept my inclusion in Ruby's performance and it would have fanned the already existing flames. Ruby persisted with her idea and eventualy I decided that it might be helpful to her and agreed to do a duet.
The shelved song - 'Do You Remember When?' came to mind and I played the song to Ruby and she too thought that it would make a great straw hat and cane routine. Ruby purchased a very beautiful parasol (which to this day stands proudly on my hallstand, inside a tube for protection) and I worked out a routine for us to perform. Including the song in her act proved to be a simple matter and the audiences loved it. I made a cocktail bar, which extended to twice it's size by means of foldable flaps, and it would be positioned upstage behind curtains. During Ruby's rendition of 'Mr. Wonderful' the curtains opened to reveal me sitting at the bar with my back to the audience. Using a trailing microphone, Ruby made he way upstage and around the bar to face me for the end of the song. She would then introduce me as "My Mr. Wonderful' and we made our way downstage to go into the routine - 'Do You Remember When?' - it was always received very well.
In around 1960, Ruby was asked to deputize for Shirley Bassey, (who had fallen sick), on the hugely successful T.V. series of 'Sunday Night at the London Palladium' which was ocasionally staged at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Ruby agreed to stand in but she wanted us to perform the duet together on the show. I was delighted that she thought so much of the routine that she wanted to include it on television. Paul Burnett, who was originally the Jones Boys musical director, was Ruby's M.D, at that time. He was the proud owner of a new 8mm cine camera and, despite the fact that photography was forbidden in the theatre, he sneaked into the auditorium and took a small snippet of movie film of the routine, which is amongst my memorabilia to this day. The routine stayed in Ruby's act for quite some time afterwards.
Returning now to the earlier story regarding Gerald receiving the audio tapes from David Frankish. Gerald's brother had an old reel to reel tape recorder which needed repairing, Gerald obliged. He duly opened the first box of audio tapes and started playing them back on the repaired tape machine. I then received an email from Gerald telling me that he was sending me an 'attachment' of a 'Surprise Song'. I was all agog in anticipation of what he had sent to me. At first I had great difficulting in finding ways to play back the - 'Surprise Song,' but when I managed to achieve playback - WOW! what a teriffic surprise, - it was the duet that Ruby and I did on television 47 years earlier - in 1960.
I am hopeful that when you have read this story Gerald will have arranged for me.. or himself. to upload this unique duet, the one and only, so that everyone can listen to it. On reflection, I know that Gerald is currently away from home for a while but perhaps when he returns he will be able to make the song available to listen to and for it to link up with this story - Fingers crossed.
Adios Amigos. Bernie.
An amazing story has come to light recently which I think will fascinate readers. It started to evolve when a song/piano copy came to light carrying Ruby's photograph on the cover. Questions were being asked as to who could come up with the answer to this mystery concerning a copy of 'Never, Never Land'. The general feeling was that it was possibly a song that Ruby could have sung on the BBC2 TV series of 'Quite Contrary' in the early 50s. During the debate David Frankish, the ex fan club secretary, remembering that he had tape recorded most of Ruby's T.V. and radio performances by holding a microphone to the T.V. or Radio speakers, decided to search his memorabilia AND a stored a box of audio tapes in his home. Some years ago, he was burgled and the 'offenders' caused a fire in his home and consequently a sudstantial amount of damage was done. Fortunately, although smoke damaged, the box of audio tapes were not too badly damaged. He decided to send the box of audio tapes to Gerald to see what was on them and whether they could be salvaged.
I need now to join another story to this one to complete the mystery.
As long ago as 1954, the group that I was with - The Jones Boys, were doing a tour of variety theatres, one of the venues was in Doncaster, where all three of the other members of the group lived. It was the Gaumont Cinema, a venue that ocasionally stage variety bills. Apart from ourselves, the bill included,- The Ray Ellington Quartet, Marion Ryan, and Spike Milligan.(yes, he did a few variety dates in those days but it was not his medium).
After a fantastic Monday night opening, I called at the theatre the following morning to see what mail there was and took the mail to the little cafe next door to read over a cup of coffee. Juke boxes were all the rage at that time and I discovered a record by The McGuire Sisters singing 'Do You Remember When?' The song struck me as being and ideal song and dance number, i.e, straw hat and cane. However we didn't ever use the number in our act, so I shelved the song.
Years later I met and married Ruby in Blackpool in 1957. We frequently discussed songs that suited Ruby and I assisted her with choosing new songs and helping her to stage them. It took a great deal of persuasion to get Ruby to change her songs and to include new ones, simply because she was terrified to do so. Quite often a new song was chosen and ideas were rehearsed regarding how to stage it. When the moment came to include the song Ruby's nerves prevented it from being included. At the very last moment she would pass a message to the musical director to take the song out of the programme. Out of the blue, Ruby suggested that we rehearsed a duet together and with me on stage with her she would find it easier to include the new song. I was reluctant to do a duet because I didn't want the fans to think that I was muscling in on her act. It would have also been extremely difficult for Ruby's family to accept my inclusion in Ruby's performance and it would have fanned the already existing flames. Ruby persisted with her idea and eventualy I decided that it might be helpful to her and agreed to do a duet.
The shelved song - 'Do You Remember When?' came to mind and I played the song to Ruby and she too thought that it would make a great straw hat and cane routine. Ruby purchased a very beautiful parasol (which to this day stands proudly on my hallstand, inside a tube for protection) and I worked out a routine for us to perform. Including the song in her act proved to be a simple matter and the audiences loved it. I made a cocktail bar, which extended to twice it's size by means of foldable flaps, and it would be positioned upstage behind curtains. During Ruby's rendition of 'Mr. Wonderful' the curtains opened to reveal me sitting at the bar with my back to the audience. Using a trailing microphone, Ruby made he way upstage and around the bar to face me for the end of the song. She would then introduce me as "My Mr. Wonderful' and we made our way downstage to go into the routine - 'Do You Remember When?' - it was always received very well.
In around 1960, Ruby was asked to deputize for Shirley Bassey, (who had fallen sick), on the hugely successful T.V. series of 'Sunday Night at the London Palladium' which was ocasionally staged at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Ruby agreed to stand in but she wanted us to perform the duet together on the show. I was delighted that she thought so much of the routine that she wanted to include it on television. Paul Burnett, who was originally the Jones Boys musical director, was Ruby's M.D, at that time. He was the proud owner of a new 8mm cine camera and, despite the fact that photography was forbidden in the theatre, he sneaked into the auditorium and took a small snippet of movie film of the routine, which is amongst my memorabilia to this day. The routine stayed in Ruby's act for quite some time afterwards.
Returning now to the earlier story regarding Gerald receiving the audio tapes from David Frankish. Gerald's brother had an old reel to reel tape recorder which needed repairing, Gerald obliged. He duly opened the first box of audio tapes and started playing them back on the repaired tape machine. I then received an email from Gerald telling me that he was sending me an 'attachment' of a 'Surprise Song'. I was all agog in anticipation of what he had sent to me. At first I had great difficulting in finding ways to play back the - 'Surprise Song,' but when I managed to achieve playback - WOW! what a teriffic surprise, - it was the duet that Ruby and I did on television 47 years earlier - in 1960.
I am hopeful that when you have read this story Gerald will have arranged for me.. or himself. to upload this unique duet, the one and only, so that everyone can listen to it. On reflection, I know that Gerald is currently away from home for a while but perhaps when he returns he will be able to make the song available to listen to and for it to link up with this story - Fingers crossed.
Adios Amigos. Bernie.
