Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An impresario who produced hit musicals like Half a Sixpence and Barnum, and got Frank Sinatra to perform at Blackpool.
On the island
Eight records
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 (opening)Favourite
Solomon (piano), Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert Menges (conductor)
The opening of Schumann's piano concerto in A minor, op. fifty four, played by Solomon, with the Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert Menges.
Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006: Gavotte en Rondeau
The Gavotte enrondo from Bach's Patita No. Three in E major, played by Joseph Shigetti, Harold Fielding's violin teacher.
"Il mio tesoro" from Don Giovanni
Richard Tauber, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Walter Goehr (conductor)
Richard Tauber singing Il Mio Tesoro from Mozart's Don Giovanni with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Walter Goer.
If My Friends Could See Me Now
Cy Coleman (music), Dorothy Fields (lyrics)
Juliet Prowse singing If My Friends Could See Me Now from Bernard Delphonte and Harold Fielding's production of Sweet Charity.
Tommy Steele singing She's Too Far Above Me from Half a Sixpence, one of Harold Fielding's great successes.
There's a Sucker Born Every Minute
Cy Coleman (music), Michael Stewart (lyrics)
Michael Crawford singing There's a Sucker Born Every Minute from Barnum.
Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61 (first movement excerpt)
Albert Sammons, New Queen's Orchestra, Sir Henry J. Wood (conductor)
Albert Sammonds playing part of Elgar's Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. sixty one, with the new Queen's Orchestra conducted by Sir Henry J. Wood, and that was recorded in nineteen twenty nine.
Cherie Barabash, Diane Todd, and the Ensemble of the Great Waltz Company
Cherie Barabash, Diane Todd, and the Ensemble of the Great Waltz Company, singing The Blue Danube.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:13How did you persuade Sinatra to come to Blackpool?
Well, with difficulty, but he was marvellous, and he gave me something, apart from the marvellous performance I'd never done before, the pleasure of dashing down the whole promenade at Blackpool in a police car with all the sirens blaring. ... A demand. A demand. A little demand. On the contract.
Presenter asks
6:01Tell me about you and this violin as a boy. How did it all happen?
When I was six, seven, and was shut in the room to practise the piano, I hated it... They said we'll give you a violin later. I said no, now please, please. And it wasn't till I was ten that Daddy said one morning, Take you to London and go to buy you a violin... He took it out on the scrubbed kitchen table... and I could play. Now that convinced me absolutely that there is reincarnation.
Presenter asks
8:03Something happened when you were about seventeen or eighteen that signalled the end of your playing career. Can you tell me about that? You lost your memory?
I had a memory breakdown, and I slipped up in the middle of the slow movement of the Mendelssohn Concerto... For four or five bars I was out. I got back, but when I came off the stage I said that is it. That I can't afford to go through again. And that was when I made the decision to go into concert promotion.
The keepsakes
The book
Sir David Napley
one of the most fascinating of all is Murder at the Villa Madeira
Presenter asks
16:30Who else have you nagged into submission in your professional lifetime? Sam Goldwyn?
Sam Goldwin held those stage rights for himself, always intended to do it. We worked for some years on him, and eventually just before he died he said, Okay, I will grant those rights to you.
Presenter asks
19:31You've managed to appeal to your audience over the head of the critics. Do you want to come in and see it?
If you've got enough money in the kitty, enough guts to do it? ... In my view, you can beat the critics, even if they've reviewed very badly. ... I was very successful in rescuing one or two, particularly Charlie Girl, which had the worst press ever known in history.
Presenter asks
30:30Many people think showbiz is superficial and just for money. Patently that hasn't been your experience.
I've never been in it for the money. ... I love doing shows. I get a tremendous kick from doing them. ... Would you please remember the theatre is my factory? And in a factory you work, and you work properly and you work hard. It isn't a game.
“the pleasure of dashing down the whole promenade at Blackpool in a police car with all the sirens blaring. And I I thought that was that made my day.”
“I could play. Now that convinced me absolutely that there is reincarnation. I did not have to be shown how to hold a bow.”
“I had a memory breakdown, and I slipped up in the middle of the slow movement of the Mendelssohn Concerto... For four or five bars I was out. I got back, but when I came off the stage I said that is it. That I can't afford to go through again.”
“I was very successful in rescuing one or two, particularly Charlie Girl, which had the worst press ever known in history. In fact, we issued so many writs the next morning it wasn't true. We did it to to get space in the you know, do anything.”
“Would you please remember the theatre is my factory? And in a factory you work, and you work properly and you work hard. It isn't a game.”
“Had a wonderful time. It's a huge reward.”