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Picture
the scene outside London’s Winter Garden theatre in 1931.
On one side of the stage door is a 17-year-old shy youth who
has just bought a day-return rail ticket from Neath in South
Wales, clutching a song he has specially written for the star
of the show. Barring his way is a burly door-keeper who is
determined to keep him out. A voice from within enquires what
all the commotion is about.
"It’s only another song-writer wanting
to see you."
"Well, he’s only a boy so let him
in."
The youth
was Harry Parr-Davies and the voice belonged to Gracie Fields
who was starring in the musical review Walk This Way. It was
a fortuitous meeting because inside her dressing room he discovered
a piano being temporarily stored offstage. Gracie invited
him to show off his wares and his new song called, inappropriately,
"I Hate You", was gratefully received. After that
he became Gracie’s full-time accompanist and travelling
companion around the world.
Harry was
a self-taught prodigy from the age of 4. Born at Briton Ferry
and educated at nearby Neath in Glamorgan, as soon as he started
infant school he serenaded all his school chums and teachers
by playing the piano and leading a hearty chorus of "I’m
Forever Blowing Bubbles" — aged all of 5 years!
He was later
discovered and tutored by Sir Walford Davies and by his teens
was already assistant organist at a local church. It was not
long before his world famous mentor recommended a full-time
classical music career but things did not quite turn out as
expected.
While still
only 14 he took an organ exam in London where he was heard
by show business impresario Julian Wylie, who invited him
to write a song for a new London show he had in mind. It started
Harry off on in a new direction.
Throughout
the Thirties, in addition to several other hit tunes, he wrote
a string of songs for Gracie, including those for all her
films, the most famous being "Sing as We Go" from
the 1934 movie of the same name. It depicted an economic triumph
for a group of redundant mill workers in Lancashire with the
music cheering up the population in the face of economic adversity.
Her other
films of the period: Looking on the Bright Side; This Week
of Grace; Love, Life and Laughter; Look Up and Laugh; The
Show Goes On; Keep Smiling; Queen of Hearts; We’re Going
to be Rich; and Shipyard Sally were all box-office successes
and owed much to Harry’s music and lyrics.
By the time
war arrived in 1939 Harry had branched out into writing musicals,
and his songs appeared in no fewer than 13 different wartime
shows, four of which were entirely his own work.
Black Velvet
opened in November 1939, shortly after the war began and included
the famous blackout song "Crash, Bang, I Want to Go Home".
It was staged at Harry’s favourite theatre, the London
Hippodrome and the stars were Roma Beaumont, Pat Kirkwood,
Carol Lynne (later Lady Delfont), Vic Oliver, and the South
Africans, Max and Harry Nesbitt. Also on board was 5’
2", 26-stone virtuoso xylophone player, Teddy Brown.
The show ran for 620 performances and established Harry Parr
Davies among the popular musical elite.
Haw-Haw
was a revue featuring the the "Cheeky Chappie",
Max Miller, and the adopted American husband-and-wife team
of Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon. Come Out To Play featured Sonnie
Hale and Jessie Matthews, while Top of the World included
the antics of the Crazy Gang and Tommy Trinder, a sure recipe
for success. Like the latter, Gangway; and Best Bib and Tucker
were staged at the 2,500 seat London Palladium, the biggest
theatre in the Metropolis.
The war
was still in its early stages and it is not surprising the
shows were so popular. Tommy Trinder and the Crazy Gang were
almost synonymous with this premier West End venue while Bebe
Daniels, Ben Lyon and Vic Oliver became firm radio favourites
with their topical weekly comedy Hi Gang.
Harry Parr
Davies also contributed lyrics to the stage version of the
radio comedy show Happidrome which was staged at the Prince
of Wales Theatre. It starred Harry Korris as the theatre proprietor,
Mr. Lovejoy; Cecil Frederick as his stage manager, Ramsbottom;
and Robbie Vincent as the gormlesss call-boy, Enoch. Other
stars of the show included Leslie Hutchinson (Hutch) and "Two
Ton" Tessie O’Shea.
Big Top
opened shortly afterwards at His Majesty’s Theatre with
a young Patricia Burke performing with established favourites,
Beatrice Lillie and Fred Emney. "Bea" was the widow
of band leader, Sir Robert Peel, who had died young in 1934
but she liked being called Lady Peel. Sadly, the title disappeared
with the death of their son Robert who was killed during the
war.
By now it
was 1942 and hostilities were at their height. Like so many
others, Harry was determined to do his bit for the Home Front
and, with the help of George Posford, put together a show
called Full Swing which opened in April at the imposing Palace
Theatre. The stars were husband-and-wife team Jack Hulbert
and Cicely Courtneidge, involved in a clandestine mission
to track down state secrets on behalf of the War Office. The
public loved them and their show, which ran for 12 months.
In 1943
although The Knight was Bold had Sonnie Hale as the titled
aristocrat dreaming he was back in the Middle Ages, after
successfully touring the provinces under the title Kiss the
Girls, it became a West End flop and left the Piccadilly Theatre
after only 10 performances. But few people noticed, because
unfolding at the Hippodrome was a smash hit which everyone
wanted to see.
Set amidst
Second World War intrigue The Lisbon Story proved to be a
huge success and played from June 1943 until July 1944 when
heavy bombing forced the temporary closure of more than half
of London’s theatres. During this time it notched up
492 performances with Patricia Burke (later to become Jimmy
Clitheroe’s mother in the radio comedy series "The
Clitheroe Kid"), in the star role of Gabrielle, a theatrical
star who escapes from the Nazis in Paris, only to be executed
by them during the final scene in Portugal. Press reactions
to this ground-breaking musical were mixed, however, "The
heroine is shot at the end!" gasped the Manchester Evening
News while the Daily Mail described it as "The Gestapo
set to Music!"
The public
had no such qualms. They were at war and here was a musical
bringing Nazi realities right home to the London theatre.
With Vincent Tildsley and his Mastersingers colourfully dressed
as Portuguese sailors merrily whistling their way through
the hit song "Pedro the Fishermen", the show would
have run longer had the Luftwaffe allowed it.
Nevertheless,
after only three months on tour it returned to the Stoll Theatre
for a further 54 performances. It was also turned into a film
with Patricia Burke fresh from duty with ENSA, joined by the
redoubtable Richard Tauber (now a British citizen), singing
"Pedro".
Jenny Jones
was about a Welsh miner with 18 children who wanted to make
it 21! Another Hippodrome musical, it opened in October 1944
and ran for 153 performances. The stars were comedian Jimmy
James and Carol Lynne but it was cherub-faced Welsh choirboy
soprano, Malcolm Thomas, who captivated the audience each
evening.
Harry’s
end-of-war offering was the revue Fine Feathers (1945), starring
Jack Buchanan and staged at the Prince of Wales. It was followed
a year later by The Shephard Show at the Prince’s Theatre.
Produced by the impresario Firth Shephard, it starred Douglas
Byng, Marie Burke, Richard Hearne (Mr. Pastry), Eddie Gray
and Arthur Riscoe.
Amazingly,
while still writing music, Harry enlisted in the Irish Guards
but when Gracie Fields was asked to join ENSA she said it
would be impossible without her accompanist. He was therefore
extradited specially for the job but then, even more surprisingly,
joined the Lifeguards based in Knightsbridge. At least he
was close to the West End!
In addition
to all his other work, Harry wrote several screen songs for
George Formby, the banjulele-playing goof from Lancashire
who was actually far from being the gormless person he made
out. Many of George’s Thirties and wartime hits came
straight from Harry’s crafted musical manuscripts.
In 1949
he teamed up with Manning Sherwin to compose Her Excellency.
Produced by Jack Hulbert it starred his wife Cicely Courtneidge
playing the role of an upper crust British ambassador in South
America. Another Hippodrome success, it ran for 252 performances.
Dear Miss
Phoebe followed at the Phoenix Theatre in October 1950 with
lyrics by Christopher Hassall who had served Ivor Novello
so well. It was an adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s "Quality
Street" which told the tragic story of a Napoleonic war
hero returning to a sweetheart he does not recognise. Peter
Graves and Carol Raye took the leads in a show which had 283
curtain calls.
Penultimately
— but nobody could have guessed it because the composer
was arguably at his peak — came Blue For a Boy, with
lyrics again by Harold Purcell. It opened at His Majesty’s
Theatre only a month after Dear Miss Phoebe got under way
with the large rotund figure of cigar-smoking Fred Emney dressed
in a blue romper suit and making life a misery for his stepfather
and new bride. The arch-clown Richard Hearne added to the
fun of a show which ran for more than 650 performances.
In 1953
came Harry’s swansong. The Glorious Days starred Anna
Neagle dreaming she was the reincarnation of several famous
women in history, including Nell Gwynn and Queen Victoria,
a role she had played before. The setting was not really in
keeping with the new Elizabethan times, however, and it only
managed eight months at the Palace.
Although
not a stage production, the 1949 film Maytime in Mayfair was
a musical related to London’s West End. Michael Wilding,
Anna Neagle, Peter Graves and a young Thora Hird did the honours
in a plot which saw the manageress of a dress shop thwarting
all her rivals and ultimately winning the day.
According
to Harry’s sister, Billie David, her brother had little
social life and lived alone in digs. His shyness and phobia
of doctors proved to be his undoing. On 14th October, 1955,
instead of seeking medical help he took to his room and died
from an internal haemorrhage caused by a perforated ulcer.
It was an
unnecessary death and one which robbed the musical theatre
of a man in his prime. Only 41 years old, he had many more
active years of service ahead of him and, probably because
he never acted or sang in his own shows, became something
of a forgotten figure.
Only now
— thanks to a small dedicated band of enthusiasts —
is the work of Harry Parr Davies being properly recognised.
SHOWS AND REVUES INVOLVING
THE MUSIC OF HARRY PARR DAVIES
Black Velvet 1939
Haw-Haw 1939
Come Out To Play 1940
Top of the World 1940
Gangway 1941
Big Top 1942
Best Bib & Tucker 1942
Happidrome 1942
Full Swing 1942
The Knight Was Bold 1943
The Lisbon Story 1943
Jenny Jones 1944
Fine Feathers 1945
The Shephard Show 1946
Her Excellency 1949
Dear Miss Phoebe 1950
Blue for a Boy 1950
The Glorious Days 1953
Reproduced
by kind permission of This England magazine.
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