Stanley Holloway

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BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

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Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. For rights reasons, the music is shorter than on the original broadcast. The presenter is Roy Plomley. I hope you enjoy listening.

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One of those weeks is that very popular actor and advocator

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Stanley Holloway. Standard, you play record below.

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Well, yes, I do.

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I have a little record player and I do use it quite a bit. How did you go about selecting dog eight to take your desert?

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Well, looking back on one's life

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fairly long time. There are very not so much record of people connected with them that guided my choice.

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Of this island

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Could you endure loneliness? Could you adjust yourself to it?

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Oh yes, I think I could.

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Probably wouldn't like a lot of it, but I quite enjoy my own company. I'm not bored.

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But I would like someone to call in occasionally maybe that couldn't happen.

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Is there any one thing you can think of that you'd be particularly happy to have got away from?

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Yes, I think so. Rules and regulations, law, acts of parliament and so forth. You're not a lawless ma'am, Stan, surely. No, no, on the contrary, I I have to obs have to observe them, but um

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They become tired of time.

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What's the first disc you chat?

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Bach goes to town.

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It was written by a dear friend of mine, Alec Templeton, the sightless pianist here, whom I got to know so well when I was over in America in the 50s and 60s.

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Uh a street man

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So gentle, yet so clever, never having seen a note written on favour of all the big orchestras in America, Chicago Symphony, etc.

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Wonderful thing for a man who'd never seen a note written down.

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Now we haven't been able to trace a record of Alex Sempleton himself playing Rock Just the Time, but there is one here of Arthur Young playing it on the limb. Oh Arthur Young, yes indeed. I knew him very well too. I'll settle for him.

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Arthur Young playing Alec Templeton by Gerzmatown. What's your second book, Ben?

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My second disc.

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Oh yes, it's Curtis Taylor's Hire Whopper.

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Now, I think I'm right in saying it's the centenary just now of Samuel Conrad Taylor, a composer I've often admired greatly.

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This is the part of his hawaker and it's sung by the choir.

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The most wonderful, I think, part of Harawa is where the choirs sing farewell mini harp.

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An excerpt from Hire Walker.

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The Royal Porter Society conducted by Malcolm Seichard.

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That's fairly because of Sam pick up the moroscape and so on, we're inclined to think of you as a normal countryman, but this isn't so. No, no, no, it isn't. I only absorbed it.

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From being in the army and I was seconded to the Yorkshire Regiment in the First World War and I suppose I

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Quarters, it is all rubbed off of me. And I found that a tail or a vegetation dumb with that sort of

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Northern dialect was much cozier.

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more intimate than an ordinary

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Dollar

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You are in fact in London.

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Oh yes, I am born within the sound of bow bells.

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And you began your career as a boy soprano. Yes, in the choir at all Saint Forest Gate.

Speaker 25:15

Yeah.

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Was there any theatrical talent in the family apart from you?

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No, not theatrical. My grandfather Holloway was a singer.

Speaker 25:20

No?

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I think even a male out here.

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As a boy, had you made up your mind you wanted to go to the theater?

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No. No, I hadn't. What was your first job?

Stanley Holloway5:34

Yeah.

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Oh, I was in an office.

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And it was at Everett.

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Nutter and Jetta boot policies in King's Court. I wouldn't go as an office boy. They called it the junior clerk.

Speaker 25:50

Yeah.

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Yeah, but it still meant I would took the governor's head out to be ironed.

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When did you give up Thomas?

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In the early spring of 1910, because I found I got a job with Will T Pepper's white coon.

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And could go and get my living by the seaside all the summer. I couldn't refuse it. From Buen Soprano, you would now become a young baddico. Young baddico, yeah.

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You played in concert party, but you had ideas of an operatic career, didn't you, Sandy? Yes, because when I'd saved enough money, I went to Italy.

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Uh who um

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Sorry, a bit.

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in Milano and I've stayed there for about three months and then the First World War broke out.

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And I had to come back into England. I couldn't stay away with the war going on. What happened when you came out of the army at the end of the war? Well, then, of course, I was.

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In the wilderness, didn't know what to do. And then one of my greatest friends in the profession, Leslie Henson, said, come into our show. We were open in the Wintergarden Theatre in Drury Lane, and there was a show called Kitchen Time. And he said, I'll get you into the chorus. Well, that was good enough for me to start with.

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And I've been in the chorus rehearsing about two or three days when they wanted someone to play a little part.

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And the lady who played the piano for a rehearsal, I purposely sang into her earhold so she would hear me.

Speaker 27:12

Yeah, man.

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Um she said, I think this is the one for you and pointed to me and I got the power. Well done. And you were a founder member of that celebrated West End concert party, the Co-optimist. Was it in the Co-optimate that you started your monologue? No. Sam and Albert and the line.

Stanley Holloway7:26

No. Yeah.

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Well, I didn't know. I used to have parties. I liked to have a party piece, so I didn't depend on the pianist. And I learned a monologue called On Yet I Don't Know, which was done by Ernest Hastings, and that started me off on the recitation.

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Mm-hmm.

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Well, the co-optimists, a ten-year run or thereabout, they're successful for the start. Yeah, let's break at this point for your third record, what you're.

Stanley Holloway7:49

Yeah, yeah.

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My third record

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was a dear friend of mine, Peter Dole.

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I remember hearing him when I was quite a teenager. I went to a Sunday League concert at Stratford, Stratford Empire, I think it was, and this wonderful young man came on and sang and he claimed your attention. You were riveted on him, I was.

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And he's singing one of Charles Villiers Stanford's chief songs, which are so British, The Old Superb.

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The wind was rising easterly, the morning sky was blue, The straits before us opened, wide and free. We looked towards the Admiral behind the beach of flu, And all our hearts were dancing like the sea. The French are gone to Martinique with four and twenty sail, The old superb is old and foul and smoke. But the French are gone to Martinique, and Nelson's on the trail, And where he goes, the old superb must go.

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Peter Dawson singing, The Old Super. What happened to you after the co-optimists?

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After the crop to mid

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Oh, I went straight into hit the deck. Oh, yeah. Nothing hiper. That's right. Yeah. And um.

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We played from the

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September 1927 until about the May 1928.

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And a few years later, I remember you with a Jerome Turn music from the Dirty Lane. Dirty Lane, yet three sisters.

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I said to Oscar Hammerson once, I was in the only blog you ever wrote, Oscar. He said, oh, no, no, no. He said, I've I've written.

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Unsuccessful things before.

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But uh uh if it's a species that

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I got into. I liked it. But some of the public didn't. Now, what a pantomime, most Christmases and those days. Yeah, with I played for Emil, five years running, yeah, Emma Vitla.

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During World War II, you and Benny Halen and Leslie Henson were in a wonderfully good group. Yes. Well, often doing at the travel theater.

Stanley Holloway9:53

Happened. Several fifths.

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That's right, Philip Shepherd put it on. And although I say it...

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One of the gifts of this show was The Puck of Sods, where I recited the green eye of the little yellow god and Leslie Hanson, still reach out in the box, guide the whole thing, sent it up. Yeah. One of the funniest sketches. Well, it would be right down next to closing and it sent the people out of the theatre with that flavour in their mouths, you know.

Stanley Holloway10:14

What?

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And then it really helped to sell the show quite a bit. And then after all those musicals, there was your Shakespeare period. Yes.

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Yes, I uh

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I played in Alec Guinness's Hamlet as a gravedigger at the new theatre.

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And then I went to play bottom in the

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Midsummer Night's Dream in America. I remember American named Presario who took us over, a solid girl called Darling Man, he always referred to it as a midnight summer's dream.

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Maybe laugh, but it was a wonderful experience going all over America with that. And that United States tour was very important to you, wasn't it? It was indeed, because I finished the matinee on the Saturday, because we played matinees Saturday and Sunday, nothing on Monday. And after the Saturday matinee, I was in my hotel having a cup of tea, and the phone went, it was four English messages from the Lambs Club saying that he wanted to bring somebody over to see me about an engagement. And I said, why, bring him over. And he brought me over, Lerner and Lowe's representative.

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Who said, Mr. Holloway, I wanted to ask whether you'd be interested in playing as a musical version of Shaw's Pygmalion. Oh, I said, I couldn't wait.

Speaker 211:34

Mm-hmm.

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I said, but I couldn't do it now. Why not? He said. I said, well, I'm under contract to the old victim. Oh, I don't mean now.

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Oh, I went. He said, well, maybe eight, nine months, maybe a year's time. Oh, I said, of course, you know, I'd love to do that.

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How long did you play at New York?

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I'd say two years. Then who came the the London production? Yeah, but they have the two years there. And then you made the film.

Stanley Holloway11:59

Yeah, but I know.

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That's right up with what I call

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The natural evolvement, you know.

Stanley Holloway12:07

Yeah.

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I think it's time to have another record. What's number four? Number four. Now one, two, three, four, and we come to my fair lady. Right. What about then? What would you like to hear from her? I want to include Andre Prebin, because he conducted the orchestra of the film.

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Uh

Speaker 312:20

Hey,

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Andrei Preven at the piano. Right. At which number? Well.

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I should think

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Wouldn't it be lovely? Yeah.

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Andre Previn and Ed Quartet. Wouldn't it be lovely?

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Now, you've had a very long and distinguished film career, haven't you, Stanley? You were in a lot of the ealing comedies. Yes, I was. I'm glad to say some of the important ones like The Lavender Hill Mom, Passport to Pivotico. Yeah. Now, in the great days of the British cinema, the late 40s, you need to be in all the films. In Bethlehem Service, once like Way to the Stars. Yeah, way ahead. Yeah.

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And happy breed. Yeah, happy breed.

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And television, of course. Once again, you were a pioneer. Yes, I was Ali Paddy in the very early days when it was just before the war, of course. And they liked static things. So me standing up blurting out a monologue is just not their larger. They liked it, you know. And before that, hadn't you done some experimental things? Yes, at broadcasting house. That's why when we said.

Stanley Holloway13:54

Yeah, that

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White in the face, I'm black down the nose and the lip.

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I take further back from that. What about those experimental... Oh, these are self-rides.

Stanley Holloway14:04

Oh, he's a suffragist.

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On self-ages, 21st birthday, that's right. Went to self-ages, and we had to...

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Speaks out a large trumpet with at the far end of this trumpet with a light blinking, blinking, blinking, blinking.

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And your head too.

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Say your bit down there. That was your 21st birthday. And in recent years, you've done a great deal of television in the States. Yes, I have. I have. I enjoyed television in America because these boys that are constantly doing it, they don't overtax their brains because at the very first rehearsal, you have the boys on either side of the camera holding the idiot cards up. You never have to overtax your brain. And you've made some more records recently?

Stanley Holloway14:40

They're definitely

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Yes, I've just finished an LP called It's Life of the Old Dog Yet.

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Yeah, you've done nearly everything in the business. I'm afraid so. Well, your son, Julian.

Speaker 214:51

Yeah.

Speaker 214:54

I'm here.

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Thank you. Yes, he's following in father's footsteps. He's following the dear old dad. Yes. Record number five. What's that?

Speaker 214:57

Yeah, yeah.

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Record number five. It's uh oh, it's a thing I adore. It's Algaz.

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Conson du Vatin.

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Elgar's Transform de Matter, the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the Apian Panel. Let's go straight into number six. What's that?

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The next record is a song from Kismet.

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For this is my beloved.

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Sung by Dorissa Morrow. I shall never forget when I first went over to rehearse for my fair lady in New York.

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Big Crossy's manager Bill Morrow took me to see

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this performance at the Dickfield Theatre in New York.

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And I can see that

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Dorothy Morrow walking back and forth on the stage, her long hair down her back, singing bangles and beads, and then she sang this song, This Is My Beloved. I've never forgotten it. I've never heard a lady's voice that I like more.

Speaker 216:44

Those promising skies, metals of the gold ripple, imagine this in one parabol.

Speaker 217:04

And this is my beloved.

Stanley Holloway17:05

And this is quite enough.

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Dared Hamoro singing, and this is my beloved from Kiffnet.

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Stanley, are you a practical man? You put with your hands. Could you look after yourself?

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I suppose I thought I'd have to learn something. I'm not a handy with my hand at all. I couldn't even mend the lock or put a window in or anything. Well, don't be too ambitious. Could you run up some kind of shelter? Oh, I probably would have to, wouldn't they? The shelter from the tempest. Yes, I would. Oh, I would be. I think we have to do something like that with some branches or something else. What would you eat?

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Got in the fishing?

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Uh

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No, the fish never liked me with a rod in the water. They never take any notice of me. But I'd have to.

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Find out what I would do in the way of eating. What do you try to escape?

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No, I don't think so, no. At my age, what's the use?

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I'd have to accept it and say, well.

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This is my exit line for you, but a long time to play yet.

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Let's have record number seven.

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Number seven.

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Rabel's music I adore, and this is one, it's a sad tune, but...

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When I get nostalgic, I enjoy sad tune and it is a profound.

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To a dead infanta.

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The opening of Ravel's Pavan for a Dead Enfanter, the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George Dell.

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What's your last record, piecemeal? My last record is, I think, a wonderful piece of piano playing, done by my friend Beno Mazevi.

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I understand he did it.

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Off the cap one morning. I wonder if we've got time to do something and tried it and it came off.

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The Scottsro from Mendelson's Midsummer Life Stream played by Benoit Bazeri.

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The schedule from Mendelssohn's Incidental Music for Myth Number Night Stream, played by Beto Moisevi.

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Sandy, if you could take only one of the eight disc cucilators, which would it be?

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Well

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Because it made an impression, still makes an impression on me having the record, I would have to take Doreta Morrow singing and This is my beloved.

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And we're going to let you take one lunch with your desert island.

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A luxury.

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Well

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It would be a luxury as well as a necessity. I would have to attend to my manicure and my pediture, so I would like a nice...

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manicure and pedicures

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Yeah. Yeah, in a handsome cave field of the lime. Yeah, right.

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And one book apart from that select little list of the Bible, Shakespeare, and Big Encyclopedia.

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I'm so interested in musical players of the class and their original cast.

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People say, I wonder who played so-and-so. If you can say so-and-so, I love it. And I would like a book with all the musical players of the past century with the original card. Yeah. Well, there must be such a book somewhere and we'll find it for you.

Presenter22:03

And thank you, Stanley Holloway, for letting us hear your desert islands. Thank you, my friend, my oldest esteemed. Well, esteemed, anyway.

Presenter22:12

Goodbye everyone.