It’s the pantomime season once more. Oh no, it isn’t! Oh yes, it is! Pantomimes, growing out of commedia dell’arte, have been around in Britain since the 18th century. The pantomime dame, always played by a man in outrageous costumes, first appeared in around 1806 in the show Harlequin and Mother Goose, also known as The Golden Egg. Jack Tripp (1922-2005), an English comic actor, singer and dancer, performed as a pantomime dame in more than 35 shows. Described in The Stage newspaper as ‘the John Gielgud of pantomime dames’, he was born 100 years ago, on 4th February 1922, in Plymouth, Devon, the son of a baker. A natural dancer, he was soon billed as ‘Plymouth’s Fred Astaire’. He went on to become half of a popular double act with his on- and off-stage partner,
Australia-born singer Allen Christie. A celebrated sketch saw Jack as Rosy Bottom, a refined, sex-starved pianist. During war service with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Jack honed his skills with the Stars in Battledress show in Europe and the Middle East. After the war, he made his West End debut in 1946 and stole the show in pantomimes until his retirement in 2000. After his death in 2005, his name lived on, gracing the front of the number 713 bus in Brighton. You all know what pedestrians were told when they were nearly knocked over by the bus – ‘It’s behind you!’
The Oldie has lost one of its most dedicated readers in Maureen Cleave, who has just died aged 87. She became famous by writing wittily and sharply about the 1960s pop scene, notably about the Beatles. It was to Maureen that John Lennon said the Beatles would soon be ‘bigger than Jesus’, causing outrage in the American Bible Belt. At her funeral in Essex, her granddaughter Molly played, on the flute, Bach’s G minor Sonata and Let It Be. She later said she’d never again interview anyone young – only older, wiser people. So she took up the cause of The
Among this month’s contributors Eleanor Doughty (p12) began her career at the Daily Telegraph. She specialises in writing about country houses. When she isn’t writing, she can be found either on or near a horse. Kenneth Cranham (p16) was in Shine On Harvey Moon and Hatton Garden and has been in many Harold Pinter and Joe Orton productions. He writes in this issue about playing Noah Claypole in Oliver! (1968).
A. B. DUFFY / STRINGER
Sara Wheeler (p24) is author of The Magnetic North: Travels in the Arctic, Cherry: A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard and Too Close to the Sun: The Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton.
She’s behind you! Jack Tripp and Beryl Reid, 1969
Anthony Haden-Guest (p28) inspired Peter Fallow, the British hack in New York, in Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities. He is author of The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco and the Culture of the Night.
CENTRAL PRESS / STRINGER
The Old Un’s Notes
Mo’s moment: the Beatles and Maureen Cleave, 1964
Oldie with enthusiasm, when Richard Ingrams invited her, among others, to make suggestions. Her ‘terribly excited’ letter enclosing her subscription was printed in Ingrams’s January 1992 pamphlet heralding his new mag 30 years ago. Miss Cleave suggested having a memorial service correspondent: ‘These are of great interest to oldies, partly because of the whitewash and partly because they are free. They are also competitive, more so than parties – who has the best trumpets etc.’ Another suggestion was ‘Re-reviewing of books. Oldies like to re-read books. I should like to know what Bron [Waugh] thinks of Anna Karenina. (Verdict of my husband: “A very tiresome woman in my view.”)’ The Memorial Service column, written first by Ned Sherrin and now by James Hughes-Onslow, has been a resounding success. And The Oldie Review of Books, which reviews recent books and looks back at classics, has also been a hit. Thank you so much, dear Maureen. The Oldie January 2022 5
