2,000,000 People Saw This Show, Which Began As A Flop

Northern Advocate, 30 April 1940, Page 8

2,000,000 People Saw This Show, Which Began As A Flop

“Oi!”—the password of exuberance, the jerk of the thumb, and the Cockney strut which, with the “Lambeth Walk” —the dance and the tune —have gone round the world for more than two years to make “Me and My Girl” the musical comedy hit of the century, will be seen and heard for the last time at the Victoria Palace at the end of next week, wrote Norman Clark in a recent “News Chronicle.” The show finished a run of more than 1300 performances to rank as the seventh in the “long-runs” list. The record-breaker of this recordmaking entertainment is rubbernecked, double-jointed Lupino Lane, who, since the show opened unpretentiously at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, in October, 1937, has not missed a performance. Twice nightly—there are two shows of 2i hours each six nights a week—he has been Bill Snibson, irrepressible Cockney bookies’ tout, pot-boy, and barrow-vendor, brought to the splendours of Hareford Hall, where lie is the rightful heir. For 21 hours of each performance he is on the stage. “That means,” he reflected when I saw him at his home at Hove last night, . . twice 1300 is 2600 and 1300 divided by four . . . 325 . . . that means I have been on the stage for 2925 hours ... (a longer pause) . . . for 120 odd days. Oi! Performances in France. “If that isn’t a record I should like to hear what is.” He pointed out one or two other facts about the show. It has been seen by more than 2,000,000 people. The King and Queen, and the Duke and Duchess of Kent have seen it. Lupino Lane shouts “Oi!” very nearly 50 times at each performance—which will be something like 65,000 times in all. If performances to the troops in France—the show was played 10 times there to some 40,000 men—and to the R.A.F. “Somewhere in England.” performances at Nottingham and in the provinces are included, then “Me and My Girl” has been played more than 1500 times. But only the legitimate run at a single theatre can be counted for a place in the “long-run” list. Lupino Lane has drunk four glasses of cold tea each night—that is, two pints a night, or 1300 pints since the show began. “I think I can attribute my stamina in staying the course to cold tea,” he says. Ruined 400 Bowler Hats. He has ruined more than 400 bowler hats . . . has fallen into the orchestra pit 1300 times . . . has changed his clothes eight times in each performance—that is 10,400 changes since the first night. His only rest in each performance is when he sits down to change his trousers on the stage. “After that,” he said, “I think the public interest in the show must have reached saturation point. I’m fed up with it, anyway.” No other member of the cast can equal Lupino Lane’s record, although Bill Sawford, the pianist, has not missed a show. One night there were three understudies for principals. “I thought of calling the show ‘Me and Myself’,” he has said.

Every night he has flung a bowler hat on to the stage. He has had to send, again and again for new consignments to Manchester where the bowlers were made specially for him to perch perkily on his head. Forgot the Words. On. Saturday night he actually forgot the words of the “Lambeth Walk” and he had to “gag” a few lines before picking up the thread again. That was the third time he had forgotten his lines. He banned any mention of the show in his own house. “I should go crazy,” he said. “As it is I wake up in the middle of the night and find myself going through the part. “It is a strain playing the same part not only night after night, but twice every night. Somehow —how, I don’t know —I have managed to get through it.” “Me and My Girl” has been what Mr Lane describes as an “obstinate” success. It was nearly a “flop.” For two weeks after it opened at the Victoria Palace on December 16, 1937, the show did very badly. Then the 8.8. C. were pei-suaded to take a relay from the theatre. The company’s fooling was particularly crazy on the night of the broadcast. The house rocked with laughter. Clamour for Seats. The millions who were listening pricked up their ears. They were impressed by the roars of laughter that came to them over the air. They liked the tuneful melodies of Noel Gay and enjoyed the “gags” of Lupino Lane and George Graves., From that day the public clamoured for seats, and the “Lambeth Walk”— the dance that is a walk—became the rage on every dance-floor in the country. The six shows with longer runs than “Me and My Girl” are: “Chu Chin Chow” (2238 performances); “Charley’s Aunt” (1466); “The Beggar’s Opera” (1463); “Our Boys” (1362); “The Maid of the Mountains” (1352); and “The Farmer’s Wife” (1329).