Programme for Dick and Harry's Concert Party"

Gymnasium, Hawarden

18 February 1938

see also 7.107 for full programme

PROGRAMME COVER TEXT

A performance by

Dick and Harry's Renowned Concert Party

Compere: Mervyn Ellis

Pianist: Miss J. Wallace

AT HAWARDEN GYMNASIUM

February 15th 1938

Proceeds in aid of Hawarden Football Club

Programme: One Penny

........................................................................

This programme, which has some of the Band members' autographs on the cover, is typical of what we used to do. We didn't usually have a programme like this. It was prepared by the beneficiary of the concert. We asked them to pay our travelling expenses but our services were free. We were usually given refreshments at the end of the show.

The ladies named were all pantomine girls. Doris Howell and Peggy Griffith were junior leads. Neville Catherall (tenor), Tom Hughes (bass), and Stanley Lewis (boy treble) were singers. Ken Williams was an exceptional accordian player. I can't remember what Glyn Catherall did as an "item" but he was in the Band and Schoolboy Howlers. The Schoolboys were the Band with their trouser-legs rolled up, looking gormless! Dick Catherall was the teacher asking daft questions and getting dafter answers ...

"What is a bison?" What mother cooks a pudding in................!

"What is a viper?" A Jewish handkerchief.................................!

"Shut the door, there's a draft!"

"The door's shut."

"Then lock it!"

The sketch and all the dialogue were scripted - or ad-libbed - by Dick and Harry, the "Morecombe and Wise" of the Buckley Pantomime Company. Dick had a naturally falsetto voice and made good use of it!

We gave concerts in several places. The furthest I can remember were Bangor-on-Dee and Llangwyfan Hospital (it was a TB hospital). Other places nearer home were in Caergwrle Institute (now a dental practice) and Hawarden Gymnasium. We rehearsed at the Boys' Hut at Saint Matthew's School, which housed Standards 4 and 5, 30 boys each, in the day time.

Author: Hayes, John Eric, 1918

Programme for Dick and Harry's Concert Party"

Gymnasium, Hawarden

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