Windmill Will Close

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30562, 3 October 1964, Page 13

Windmill Will Close

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) LONDON, October 2. The Windmill theatre, the only London playhouse to remain open during the German bombing of the city in 1940, announced yesterday it will close at the end of the month. It is a victim of the nudity it pioneered. > Strip-tease clubs, operating wide open in the neighbouring streets and alleys of Soho, have succeeded where the power of Adolf Hitler's Luftwaffe failed.

With the closing of the Windmill, the neon sign pro-

claiming the proudest boast in theatrical history will be extinguished. It reads: “We never closed.” Backstage, leggy chorus girls wept as they admitted the “artistic” nudity for which they were renowned could not compete at the box office with the uninhibited stripping permitted in socalled “clubs.” “Some of them are positively obscene,” said Mandy Mayer, a 26-year-old blonde dancer. “Why, my mother and father come to see me perform here —it’s family entertainment.” The 32-year-old Windmill was the cradle of dozens of stars, including Peter Sellers and Jimmy Edwards.

Its star attractions have always been the nude models who confirm to the official rules by remaining motionless when completely unclad. During the war and thereafter. this display was enough to pack the 320-seat theatre for its six shows a day. But in recent years clubs, which do not have to adhere to any regulations because they are for members only, have offered nudes very much in motion. Rita Hayworth starred in a film, "Tonight and Every Night” about the Windmill. Two plays were produced around its defiance to the German Luftwaffe. Now it will become • cinema club for "adults only” films.