Cardiff remembered: There’s a book to be written on the New Theatre

The New Theatre.Image; Richard Swingler/ Media Wales.

Written by Brian Lee

It’s a wonder to me why someone hasn’t written a book about Cardiff’s New Theatre.

Opened on December 10 1906, the New Theatre’s stage has been trod by many stars of stage ,screen, radio and television.

To list them all would one would have to write that book but some that come to mind are Hughie Green, of Opportunity Knocks, the ‘Cheeky Chappie’ himself Max Miller, Lucan & McShane of Old Mother Riley films, Donald Peers, Gracie Fields, Tom  Jones, Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Askey, Tommy Handley and, of course, Cardiff’s own Wynn Calvin, Tessie O’Shea and Shirley Bassey.

In my book Cardiff Remembered  (Published by The History Press) I write: “Music Hall, opera, drama, and, of course, pantomime the ‘New’ has staged it all.

“Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis and Peter Lorre have all trod its boards.

“Other famous names who have appeared there include Anna Pavlova, Max Miller, Tommy Handley, Vera Lynn, Gracie Fields, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Laurel and Hardy, Billy Cotton, Lucan & McShane stars of Old Mother Riley films and Donald Peers – Welsh star of the late 1940s who was billed as ‘Radio’s Cavalier of Song.’

“In the late 1940s my mother and father would take me there to see shows such as Hollywood Doubles and Peter Collins’ Would You Believe It?

“The latter show featured Belgium’s Gernand Bachelard who was billed as ‘the tallest man in the world.’

“I remember on one occasion – I can’t recall the name of the show – when all the acts took place in a huge glass tank filled with water. In one of the acts two frogmen dived into the tank and placed a mock limpet mine on what was supposed to be the side of a German ship.

“Noele Gordon (later of Crossroads) was given brilliant reviews when she starred in Call Me Madam in 1953.

“Our own Shirley Bassey was described as ‘fantastic’ when she paid a return visit by public demand in 1957.

“Another Cardiff performer who went on to great things in America was ‘Two Ton’ Tessie O’ Shea who topped the billed back in 1944.

“Big hearted Arthur Askey and Monsewer Eddie Grey delighted audiences in 1947 and way back in 1939 Hughie Green, then a popular  young radio, stage and screen star, brought to Cardiff his ‘Stars of Tomorrow’ show – the forerunner of his famed Opportunity Knocks television programme.

“In 1957 a performance of Dylan Thomas’s world famous radio play Under Milk Wood was given.

“Taking the lead as narrator was Donald Houston.”

• Please send your pictures and stories to Brian Lee, Cardiff Remember, South Wales Echo, Six Park Street, Cardiff, CF10 1XR
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