Audrey Maxwell and friends reminisce about their first exposure to the world of Pantomime 76 years ago!
76 years ago, in April 1949 a group of children sat listening to a gentleman by the name of Joe Copeland. He was announcing to the children that he would like all of them to take part in a pantomime. The children, at least 40 of them, sat quietly, sniggering, “What’s a pantomime?” they whispered.
It was 1949, the war was past, and life was a bit bleak. Of course, the children did not realise that it was bleak as they had known nothing else. None of them knew what a pantomime was. One daring boy asked, “What’s a Pantomime Mr Copeland?” “It’s a kind of concert” was the reply. Ahh, they all knew about concerts as during the war money was raised for the troops almost every week by various concert parties. Tommy Dickson and Sidney Cooper ran an excellent one which included children and, as children, we were taken along to see these shows.
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