Tuning in…
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Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
Pantomime animal performer, best known for playing Dick Whittington's cat and other animals, specializing in feline roles.
Eight records
The eight records for this collection haven’t been catalogued yet.
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
To play a cat convincingly must need a great deal of study?
Well, yes, it does, and you've got to take an interest in it. You see, I realized after a time that I couldn't sing any more, so I'd got to do something.
Presenter asks
Are the skins very uncomfortable, very hot, very prickly?
Well, they're not prickly. Of course, they're made of wool. They're more like a a set of comms, you know, and the wool of course is threaded in between like you would make a carpet. But they are very, very hot indeed.
Presenter asks
Where do you get a good catskin?
Well, you can have the made. In fact, years ago if you had the maid, they were very dear. They were about fifty pounds. But uh most of us make our own. In fact I can make my own now.
Presenter asks
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Presenter
This download is the only extract the B B C has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley. To play a cat convincingly must need a great deal of study.
Gerry Lee
Well, yes, it does, and you've got to take an interest in it. You see, I realized after a time that I couldn't sing any more, so I'd got to do something.
Gerry Lee
Well, years ago in the business there used to be a very famous cat called Johnny Fuller. He was a master of his art. But he was the slow, you know, very, very slow cat, beautiful movements.
Gerry Lee
Very slow. Now I decided to be exactly opposite to him and be a kitten among cats. In fact, that was my billing. They knew me by that.
Gerry Lee
And I was a bundle of fun. I used to come on, brush here, there, play with a ball of wool, go between the comedian's legs, upset the dame, you know.
Presenter
Yeah.
Gerry Lee
Yeah.
Presenter
Uh
Presenter
Are the skins very uncomfortable, very hot, very prickly?
Gerry Lee
Well, they're not prickly. Of course, they're made of wool. They're more like a a set of comms, you know, and the wool of course is threaded in between like you would make a carpet. But they are very, very hot indeed.
Presenter
Where do you get a good catskin?
Gerry Lee
Well, you can have the made. In fact, years ago if you had the maid, they were very dear. They were about fifty pounds. But uh most of us make our own. In fact I can make my own now.
Presenter
What about all the gadgets, the eye blinking, and so on, and the mask?
Gerry Lee
Yeah, well actually I wore what they call a half mask. Y if you wear a full mask it's all right but there's no animation. The art of a cat is the animation. And if you use just a half mask you can use your own jaw, your face, you know your eyes. In fact they tell me I don't even need a mask to be a cat. You played Dick Whittington's cat of course in Panda. Oh yes that and pussy and boots. They're the main, you know, main subjects.
Presenter
My heart always bleeds for the actor playing the the cat in in Dick Whittington, when he makes his traditional tour of the theatre and the children mop him and push ice cream inside the mask and all those other little attentions.
Gerry Lee
Yeah, actually it can be very dangerous, you know, because the traditional Pantomime chemicals, it always walks round the circle.
Presenter
Along the balustrade in front.
Gerry Lee
Well, uh on one occasion I remember the kiddies mobbing me and they pushed me right over the edge. This was the Grand Theatre Bromley a few years ago. Did you fall onto people? I was very lucky. I fell on a plump lady, but did she mind? Well, not really, but it was a bit of a shock, you know.
Presenter
Yeah.
Presenter
W w with the mask, surely you have limited vision, which mu must make it very tricky if you're acrobatic.
Gerry Lee
Uh
Gerry Lee
That is the whole point. Yes, with a mask you can only see straight ahead. If you want to see below or round or up, you've got to move the head with it. Now, I had a very bad accident once at the Grand Head of Leeds because of this. You see, it it's all set on timing because you can't see very well. You have to time everything to the very fraction. I used to do what they call a ten-foot leap. It used to come through, you know, bars, actually. Through a window. A window, barred window. Used to push the bars aside, of course.
Presenter
Straw win.
Gerry Lee
jump through the window and land on a table and do a twist leap to go for the king rat who of course was going to attack my beloved master he's in well on this particular occasion the stage manager who was responsible for setting the table he'd been taken ill with flu it was nobody's fault but the table was not set in the correct place instead of landing on the table and doing my famous twist leap i hit it on the corner and went straight into the orchestra
Gerry Lee
Drop my collarbone.
Presenter
We've been talking about your career as a cat. How many other animals do you portray?
Gerry Lee
Well of course as you know Roy times change and I've had to change with the times. In fact in television and everything else now the scope is not only for cat it's for dog, monkey, bear, goose, even the crocodile. Which is the most difficult?
Gerry Lee
Oh goose. Oh definitely. Goose is the hardest. It's it's a it's a shocking thing. Well you're strapped down there. It the frame of goose is made of iron, you know. It weighs fifty, sixty pounds. A real feathered skin. And you're strapped in it.
Presenter
Exactly.
Gerry Lee
Y your your armpits are strapped in for the wings. You can't sit down, you can't stand up.
Gerry Lee
If you're waiting to go on, somebody has to push a stool gently under you, just taking your rest from your leg muscles.
Presenter
Uh
Gerry Lee
Uh A daring
Presenter
A long pantomime performance, you can't get out of this conference.
Gerry Lee
Oh no, no, you'd have to have at least a twenty minutes to a half hour break to get out and in of a a a goose skin. It's a very hard work. I don't specialize in it. I only do it if I have to.
Presenter
Have you doubled up to play the Carmedy Horse and the Cow?
Gerry Lee
Yes, oh yes, oh I do double animals, you know. Of course there are tricks in every trade. They're what we call routines. There's the dance, there's the sit down, there's the cross leg routine, and with a cow of course there's the milk routine, but th that's better on television.
What about all the gadgets, the eye blinking, and so on, and the mask?
Yeah, well actually I wore what they call a half mask. Y if you wear a full mask it's all right but there's no animation. The art of a cat is the animation. And if you use just a half mask you can use your own jaw, your face, you know your eyes. In fact they tell me I don't even need a mask to be a cat.
Presenter asks
With the mask, surely you have limited vision, which must make it very tricky if you're acrobatic?
That is the whole point. Yes, with a mask you can only see straight ahead. If you want to see below or round or up, you've got to move the head with it. Now, I had a very bad accident once at the Grand Head of Leeds because of this. You see, it it's all set on timing because you can't see very well. You have to time everything to the very fraction. I used to do what they call a ten-foot leap. It used to come through, you know, bars, actually. Through a window. A window, barred window. Used to push the bars aside, of course. … jump through the window and land on a table and do a twist leap to go for the king rat who of course was going to attack my beloved master he's in well on this particular occasion the stage manager who was responsible for setting the table he'd been taken ill with flu it was nobody's fault but the table was not set in the correct place instead of landing on the table and doing my famous twist leap i hit it on the corner and went straight into the orchestra … Drop my collarbone.
Presenter asks
How many other animals do you portray?
Well of course as you know Roy times change and I've had to change with the times. In fact in television and everything else now the scope is not only for cat it's for dog, monkey, bear, goose, even the crocodile.
“Well, yes, it does, and you've got to take an interest in it. You see, I realized after a time that I couldn't sing any more, so I'd got to do something.”
“I used to come on, brush here, there, play with a ball of wool, go between the comedian's legs, upset the dame, you know.”
“In fact they tell me I don't even need a mask to be a cat.”
“Well, uh on one occasion I remember the kiddies mobbing me and they pushed me right over the edge. This was the Grand Theatre Bromley a few years ago. I was very lucky. I fell on a plump lady.”
“Oh goose. Oh definitely. Goose is the hardest. It's it's a it's a shocking thing. Well you're strapped down there. It the frame of goose is made of iron, you know. It weighs fifty, sixty pounds. A real feathered skin. And you're strapped in it.”