Webster Booth
Encyclopedia
Leslie Webster Booth better known by his stage name, Webster Booth, was a British tenor
. He is largely remembered today as the duettist partner of Anne Ziegler
, but he was also one of the finest British tenors of his generation and was a distinguished oratorio
soloist.
He was a chorister at Lincoln Cathedral
(1911–1915) and made his professional stage debut with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
, where he performed from 1923 to 1927. He made his West End Debut in The Three Musketeers
in 1930. He began recording for HMV
in 1929 and made over 500 solo recordings and many duet recordings with Anne Ziegler. He and Ziegler embarked on their famous duettist variety act in 1940. They starred in three musical plays, "The Vagabond King" (1943), "Sweet Yesterday" (1945) and toured in "And so to Bed" (1953–1954) and appeared in several musical films in the 1940s. They made frequent broadcasts together. In 1948 they went on a successful concert tour of New Zealand and Australia.
When musical tastes changed in the 1950s they decided to emigrate to South Africa in 1956 where they continued their stage work as well as teaching singing in their Johannesburg studio. They returned to the United Kingdom in 1978 where they broadcast on BBC radio, appeared on television in the Russell Harty
Show and made personal appearances throughout the United Kingdom in "An Evening with Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth". Booth died on 21 June 1984 at the age of 82.
Booth was born at 157 Soho Road, Handsworth
, which prior to 1911 was part of Staffordshire
, on 21 January 1902, the youngest of the six children of hairdresser, Edwin Booth and his wife, Sarah (née Webster). He joined his two older brothers in the choir of St. Mary's
, the local parish church, and at the suggestion of the choir master, Arthur Guest-Smith, did a voice test at Lincoln Cathedral
and joined the choir there at the age of nine, receiving a fine musical training under organist and choirmaster G. J. Bennett, and a free education at the choir school. His voice broke at the age of thirteen, so he returned home to do a commercial course at Aston Commercial, now known as Holte Grammar Commercial School, to fulfil his parents’ wish that he should become an accountant.
Booth had been advised by Bennett not to sing for three years after his voice broke, so during that time he played goalie in the school football team and was considered good enough to be offered a place with Aston Villa Colts
. He was tempted by this offer but eventually decided to pursue his dream of becoming a professional singer rather than a footballer. His headmaster at Aston Commercial School was Edgar Charles Keey, who would later become his father-in-law when he married Keey's daughter, Winifred, in 1924.
In his late teens he took singing lessons with Richard Wassall, choir master at St Martin in the Bull Ring
, at the Birmingham and Midland Institute
. He joined an accountancy firm and was often torn between auditing duties and singing tenor solos in local oratorio
performances. At the age of 21 he auditioned for D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
, when the company was appearing in Birmingham, and after a second audition in London on the day he was meant to be doing an audit in Wales, he was accepted as a chorister in the company and gave up his desk job.
on 9 September 1923 at the Theatre Royal, Brighton
, under the name Leslie W. Booth. During four seasons with the company, he played chorus roles and a few very small parts. Malcolm Sargent
became musical director for the 1926 season, and in later years, Booth was to become one of Sargent's favourite tenors, and made frequent appearances with the Royal Choral Society
under Sargent's baton. After a D'Oyly Carte tour of Canada in 1927, Booth felt that he was making little progress in the company and left to pursue his singing career. He returned in 1931, as Webster Booth, to participate in D'Oyly Carte's abridged recording of The Gondoliers
as Luiz.
He had married Winifred Keey in London in 1924 and their son, Keith Leslie Booth was born the following year on 12 June 1925. Winifred deserted him and their son in 1927, leaving Booth to bring up his young son with the help of his parents and a faithful housekeeper. The couple divorced in 1931. After Booth left the D'Oyly Carte, he took the stage name of Webster Booth and did freelance singing work. He became a member of Tom Howell's Opieros Concert Party for several seasons, sang in cabaret
at various Lyons Restaurants, sang at after-dinner entertainments at numerous Masonic and Guild dinners, and appeared for two seasons in pantomime
with Tom Howells at the Brixton Theatre in 1927 and 1928.
In 1927 he became a member of the Concert Artistes Association and sang at many concerts there. Years later, in 1953 and 1954, he and Anne Ziegler
became joint presidents of the association. He was also a member of the Savage Club
. He appeared on TV in the fledgling Baird system TV service broadcasting from Daventry. His work was largely of a light nature but he did not abandon oratorio. On 3 November 1928, aged 26, he was tenor soloist in a performance of Messiah
at Birmingham Town Hall
with the Choral and Orchestral Union. He sang in many oratorio performances for the rest of his career and at the age of 71 said that singing in oratorio had meant more to him than anything else he had done in his long and varied singing career.
In 1929 he was signed by HMV
and made many recordings during the next 22 years. In 1930 he made his West End
debut in a principal role as the Duke of Buckingham in Rudolf Friml
's The Three Musketeers
, starring Dennis King
at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
. By the early thirties he was an established singer. He met his second wife, Dorothy Annie Alice Prior (stage name, Paddy Prior) when she heard him sing in a concert at the Concert Artistes Association. She was a soubrette
, mezzo-soprano
and comedienne who had worked in the theatre since her late teens. A year after his divorce from Winifred Keey, the couple married at the Fulham Registry Office on 10 October 1932.
Booth was engaged in Powis Pinder's Sunshine concert party at the Summer Theatre, Shanklin
on the Isle of Wight
for the 1931 and 1932 seasons. There he met and became friends with comedian Arthur Askey
, a fellow member of the party. In 1933 Booth and Paddy appeared together in the Piccadilly Revels concert party
at Scarborough and the following year both were engaged with Sunshine at Shanklin. At the end of 1934 Booth was selected to sing Faust
in a colour film entitled The Faust Fantasy. Irene Frances Eastwood (stage name Anne Ziegler) was chosen to play Marguerite. He also sang in the 1935 film The Invader
.
By 1935 he was recording and broadcasting frequently and fulfilling many joint engagements with Paddy Prior. In April 1935 he played Juan opposite French actress Jacqueline Francell in Kurt Weill
's A Kingdom for a Cow
at the Savoy Theatre
, but this musical play did not appeal to London audiences and closed after three weeks. He made several films, including The Robber Symphony in 1935, with music composed and conducted by Friedrich Feher, who also directed the film. Booth sang several Feher songs in the film, including one in Italian.
Despite this lighter work, he did not neglect his oratorio singing and was chosen for the Good Friday
performance of Messiah on 10 April 1936 at the Royal Albert Hall
with the Royal Choral Society
, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Malcolm Sargent, and a month later he again sang at the Royal Albert Hall in Hiawatha's Wedding Feastby Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
, with the whole cast in full traditional costume.
He sang in Der Rosenkavalier
and was a guard in The Magic Flute
in the International Opera Season at Covent Garden
in 1938. The fee was paltry in comparison to what he had been earning, and he vowed to avoid opera in the future, although he made many operatic recordings and broadcasts.
on 5 November 1938. The two had been singing duets together from the beginning of 1938 and were well received by the public. They made their first duet recordings for HMV in 1939 and in 1940 were asked to take their act on the Variety Circuit by theatrical agent, Julius Darewski. They were an immediate success and achieved international fame as "sweethearts of song" during the war.
In 1941 they appeared in George Black
's London Palladium
production of Gangway with Bebe Daniels
, Ben Lyon
and Tommy Trinder
, and in 1943 they starred in a revival of Friml's Vagabond King on a country-wide tour which culminated in a season at the Winter Garden Theatre, London. In 1945 they starred in Kenneth Leslie-Smith's musical play Sweet Yesterday. first on tour and then at the Adelphi Theatre
, London. They were guest singing stars in two films, Demobbed and Waltz Time, and in 1945 they starred in a British National
film entitled The Laughing Lady. In the same year they were invited to sing at the Victory Royal Command Performance
on 5 November, their seventh wedding anniversary. From 1943 they sang at innumerable concerts all over the country for Harold Fielding
with fellow artistes such as Peter Dawson and Rawicz and Landauer
. In 1948 they toured Australia and New Zealand and managed to do several broadcasts in South Africa while their ship was sailing around South African ports. During these years, they also toured in their own production of A Night in Venice.
In 1951 Booth's contract with HMV was suddenly cancelled. By this time variety theatres were in their twilight years. The post-war generation preferred to see American entertainers at the London Palladium or new British acts fresh from the tough training ground of forces entertainment. Calypso
, skiffle
and rock ‘n roll
became the favoured musical entertainment. While Anne and Booth still had a lot of work, their refined act was not as popular as it had been during the war.
, South Africa. They were invited back for a more extensive tour of southern Africa the following year and, after some heart searching, decided to leave the UK and settle in South Africa in July 1956. They did many shows, concerts and broadcasts and ventured into producing musicals for amateur operatic societies. They established a school of singing and stagecraft in Johannesburg
, made an LP recording of their popular duets translated into Afrikaans
and trained many promising singers. For the first time in their careers they appeared in non-singing roles in various plays. Booth was the Prawn in The Amorous Prawn in 1961, and he and Ziegler played Mr and Mrs Fordyce in Goodnight Mrs Puffin in 1963. Booth turned the clock back in 1963 when he played Colonel Fairfax in The Yeomen of the Guard for the Johannesburg Operatic and Dramatic Society at very short notice. He also played the non-singing part of the circus barker in Smetana
's The Bartered Bride
for the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal in November/December 1966 shortly before he and Anne left Johannesburg for Knysna
in the Cape Province
.
Booth was tenor soloist at the Port Elizabeth Oratorio Festival under the direction of Robert Selley from 1958 to 1962, and under the direction of organist, Keith Jewell he sang in the first performance in South Africa of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius in Cape Town, a work in which he had often sung in the United Kingdom. He had always wanted to sing the bass solos in oratorio and when he and Anne moved to the coastal town of Knysna in 1967 and he became conductor of the Knysna and District Choral Society, he sang the bass arias in excerpts from Mendelssohn
's Elijah
. Ziegler and Booth gave their farewell concert in Somerset West in 1975, believing that their singing days were at an end.
in North Wales
. They were surprised to find that they were still remembered by their old fans and for several years they did broadcasts on radio and television, gave talks and concerts all over the country, and appeared in a Royal Variety Performance
before Prince Charles, Prince of Wales at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool in 1981. But by the early eighties Booth's health was failing. He died on 21 June 1984 at the age of 82. Ziegler lived on alone in Penrhyn Bay and died on 13 October 2003 at the age of 93.
In 1985 Jean Buckley, their life-long fan and friend began raising funds to establish the Webster Booth Scholarship at the Royal Northern College of Music
, Manchester
. The first award was made to tenor Geraint Dodd in 1986. In 1990 Esso
and an anonymous sponsor jointly sponsored the Scholarship until the late nineties, and in 1991 a further award was created at the College in Anne Ziegler's name. When Esso withdrew its sponsorship there was not enough money left to continue the Webster Booth award in its present form. The last award was presented to Scottish soprano Lee Bisset in 2002. The Anne Ziegler prize is still awarded by the college to a promising singer each year. Until 2005 the prize was awarded by competition, but since then the award has been made by the head of the department of Vocal and Opera studies in consultation with members of staff. The 2009 winner was tenor, Sipho Fubesi from Centane in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
. He is largely remembered today as the duettist partner of Anne Ziegler
Anne Ziegler
Anne Ziegler was an English singer, known for her light operatic duets with her husband Webster Booth. The pair were known as the "Sweethearts in Song" and were among the most famous and popular British musical acts of the 1940s.-Life and career:She was born Irené Frances Eastwood in the Sefton...
, but he was also one of the finest British tenors of his generation and was a distinguished oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
soloist.
He was a chorister at Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral is a historic Anglican cathedral in Lincoln in England and seat of the Bishop of Lincoln in the Church of England. It was reputedly the tallest building in the world for 249 years . The central spire collapsed in 1549 and was not rebuilt...
(1911–1915) and made his professional stage debut with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
, where he performed from 1923 to 1927. He made his West End Debut in The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers (musical)
The Three Musketeers is a musical with a book by William Anthony McGuire, lyrics by Clifford Grey and P. G. Wodehouse, and music by Rudolf Friml. It is based on the classic 1844 novel by Alexandre Dumas, père....
in 1930. He began recording for HMV
Gramophone Company
The Gramophone Company, based in the United Kingdom, was one of the early recording companies, and was the parent organization for the famous "His Master's Voice" label...
in 1929 and made over 500 solo recordings and many duet recordings with Anne Ziegler. He and Ziegler embarked on their famous duettist variety act in 1940. They starred in three musical plays, "The Vagabond King" (1943), "Sweet Yesterday" (1945) and toured in "And so to Bed" (1953–1954) and appeared in several musical films in the 1940s. They made frequent broadcasts together. In 1948 they went on a successful concert tour of New Zealand and Australia.
When musical tastes changed in the 1950s they decided to emigrate to South Africa in 1956 where they continued their stage work as well as teaching singing in their Johannesburg studio. They returned to the United Kingdom in 1978 where they broadcast on BBC radio, appeared on television in the Russell Harty
Russell Harty
Russell Harty was an English television presenter of arts programmes and chat shows.-Early life:Born Frederick Russell Harty in Blackburn, Lancashire, he was the son of a fruit and vegetable stallholder on the local market...
Show and made personal appearances throughout the United Kingdom in "An Evening with Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth". Booth died on 21 June 1984 at the age of 82.
Early Life
Handsworth, West Midlands
Handsworth is an inner city area of Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. The Local Government Act 1894 divided the ancient Staffordshire parish of Handsworth into two urban districts: Handsworth and Perry Barr. Handsworth was annexed to the county borough of Birmingham in Warwickshire in 1911...
, which prior to 1911 was part of Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, on 21 January 1902, the youngest of the six children of hairdresser, Edwin Booth and his wife, Sarah (née Webster). He joined his two older brothers in the choir of St. Mary's
St. Mary's Church, Handsworth
St. Mary's Church, Handsworth, also known as Handsworth Old Church, is an Anglican church in Handsworth, Birmingham, England. Its ten-acre grounds are contiguous with Handsworth Park and it is just off the Birmingham Outer Circle and south of a cutting housing the site of the former Handsworth...
, the local parish church, and at the suggestion of the choir master, Arthur Guest-Smith, did a voice test at Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral is a historic Anglican cathedral in Lincoln in England and seat of the Bishop of Lincoln in the Church of England. It was reputedly the tallest building in the world for 249 years . The central spire collapsed in 1549 and was not rebuilt...
and joined the choir there at the age of nine, receiving a fine musical training under organist and choirmaster G. J. Bennett, and a free education at the choir school. His voice broke at the age of thirteen, so he returned home to do a commercial course at Aston Commercial, now known as Holte Grammar Commercial School, to fulfil his parents’ wish that he should become an accountant.
Booth had been advised by Bennett not to sing for three years after his voice broke, so during that time he played goalie in the school football team and was considered good enough to be offered a place with Aston Villa Colts
Aston Villa F.C.
Aston Villa Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Witton, Birmingham. The club was founded in 1874 and have played at their current home ground, Villa Park, since 1897. Aston Villa were founder members of The Football League in 1888. They were also founder...
. He was tempted by this offer but eventually decided to pursue his dream of becoming a professional singer rather than a footballer. His headmaster at Aston Commercial School was Edgar Charles Keey, who would later become his father-in-law when he married Keey's daughter, Winifred, in 1924.
In his late teens he took singing lessons with Richard Wassall, choir master at St Martin in the Bull Ring
St Martin in the Bull Ring
The church of St Martin in the Bull Ring in Birmingham 5, England is a parish church in the Church of England.-Background:It is the original parish church of Birmingham. It stands between the Bull Ring shopping centre and the markets. The church is a Grade II* listed building. The current Rector...
, at the Birmingham and Midland Institute
Birmingham and Midland Institute
The Birmingham and Midland Institute , now on Margaret Street in the city centre of Birmingham, England was a pioneer of adult scientific and technical education and today offers Arts and Science lectures, exhibitions and concerts. It is a registered charity...
. He joined an accountancy firm and was often torn between auditing duties and singing tenor solos in local oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
performances. At the age of 21 he auditioned for D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
, when the company was appearing in Birmingham, and after a second audition in London on the day he was meant to be doing an audit in Wales, he was accepted as a chorister in the company and gave up his desk job.
Early career
Booth made his first professional stage appearance with D'Oyly Carte as a chorister in The Yeomen of the GuardThe Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances...
on 9 September 1923 at the Theatre Royal, Brighton
Theatre Royal, Brighton
The Theatre Royal, Brighton is a theatre in Brighton, England, United Kingdom presenting a range of West End and touring musicals and plays, along with performances of opera and ballet and a Christmas pantomime.-History:...
, under the name Leslie W. Booth. During four seasons with the company, he played chorus roles and a few very small parts. Malcolm Sargent
Malcolm Sargent
Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works...
became musical director for the 1926 season, and in later years, Booth was to become one of Sargent's favourite tenors, and made frequent appearances with the Royal Choral Society
Royal Choral Society
The Royal Choral Society is an amateur choir, based in London. Formed soon after the opening of the Royal Albert Hall in 1871, the choir gave its first performance as the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society on 8 May 1872 – the choir's first conductor Charles Gounod included the Hallelujah Chorus from...
under Sargent's baton. After a D'Oyly Carte tour of Canada in 1927, Booth felt that he was making little progress in the company and left to pursue his singing career. He returned in 1931, as Webster Booth, to participate in D'Oyly Carte's abridged recording of The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances , closing on 30 June 1891...
as Luiz.
He had married Winifred Keey in London in 1924 and their son, Keith Leslie Booth was born the following year on 12 June 1925. Winifred deserted him and their son in 1927, leaving Booth to bring up his young son with the help of his parents and a faithful housekeeper. The couple divorced in 1931. After Booth left the D'Oyly Carte, he took the stage name of Webster Booth and did freelance singing work. He became a member of Tom Howell's Opieros Concert Party for several seasons, sang in cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
at various Lyons Restaurants, sang at after-dinner entertainments at numerous Masonic and Guild dinners, and appeared for two seasons in pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
with Tom Howells at the Brixton Theatre in 1927 and 1928.
In 1927 he became a member of the Concert Artistes Association and sang at many concerts there. Years later, in 1953 and 1954, he and Anne Ziegler
Anne Ziegler
Anne Ziegler was an English singer, known for her light operatic duets with her husband Webster Booth. The pair were known as the "Sweethearts in Song" and were among the most famous and popular British musical acts of the 1940s.-Life and career:She was born Irené Frances Eastwood in the Sefton...
became joint presidents of the association. He was also a member of the Savage Club
Savage Club
The Savage Club, founded in 1857 is a gentlemen's club in London.-History:Many and varied are the stories that have been told about the first meeting of the Savage Club, of the precise purposes for which it was formed, and of its christening...
. He appeared on TV in the fledgling Baird system TV service broadcasting from Daventry. His work was largely of a light nature but he did not abandon oratorio. On 3 November 1928, aged 26, he was tenor soloist in a performance of Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
at Birmingham Town Hall
Birmingham Town Hall
Birmingham Town Hall is a Grade I listed concert and meeting venue in Victoria Square, Birmingham, England. It was created as a home for the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival established in 1784, the purpose of which was to raise funds for the General Hospital, after St Philip's Church became...
with the Choral and Orchestral Union. He sang in many oratorio performances for the rest of his career and at the age of 71 said that singing in oratorio had meant more to him than anything else he had done in his long and varied singing career.
In 1929 he was signed by HMV
Gramophone Company
The Gramophone Company, based in the United Kingdom, was one of the early recording companies, and was the parent organization for the famous "His Master's Voice" label...
and made many recordings during the next 22 years. In 1930 he made his West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
debut in a principal role as the Duke of Buckingham in Rudolf Friml
Rudolf Friml
Rudolf Friml was a composer of operettas, musicals, songs and piano pieces, as well as a pianist. After musical training and a brief performing career in his native Prague, Friml moved to the United States, where he became a composer...
's The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers (musical)
The Three Musketeers is a musical with a book by William Anthony McGuire, lyrics by Clifford Grey and P. G. Wodehouse, and music by Rudolf Friml. It is based on the classic 1844 novel by Alexandre Dumas, père....
, starring Dennis King
Dennis King
Dennis King was an English actor and singer.Born in Coventry as Dennis Pratt, King had a stage career in both drama and musicals. He emigrated to the USA in 1921 and went on to a successful career on the Broadway stage. He appeared in two musical films and played non-singing roles in two other...
at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
. By the early thirties he was an established singer. He met his second wife, Dorothy Annie Alice Prior (stage name, Paddy Prior) when she heard him sing in a concert at the Concert Artistes Association. She was a soubrette
Soubrette
A soubrette is a female stock character in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means "conceited" or "coy".-Theater:...
, mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
and comedienne who had worked in the theatre since her late teens. A year after his divorce from Winifred Keey, the couple married at the Fulham Registry Office on 10 October 1932.
Booth was engaged in Powis Pinder's Sunshine concert party at the Summer Theatre, Shanklin
Shanklin
Shanklin is a popular seaside resort and civil parish on the Isle of Wight, England, located on the east coast's Sandown Bay. The sandy beach, its Old Village and a wooded ravine, Shanklin Chine, are its main attractions. The esplanade along the beach is occupied by hotels and restaurants for the...
on the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
for the 1931 and 1932 seasons. There he met and became friends with comedian Arthur Askey
Arthur Askey
Arthur Bowden Askey CBE was a prominent English comedian.- Life and career :Askey was born at 29 Moses Street, Liverpool, the eldest child and only son of Samuel Askey , secretary of the firm Sugar Products of Liverpool, and his wife, Betsy Bowden , of Knutsford, Cheshire...
, a fellow member of the party. In 1933 Booth and Paddy appeared together in the Piccadilly Revels concert party
Concert Party (entertainment)
A concert party, also called a Pierrot troupe, is the collective name for a group of entertainers, or Pierrots, popular in Britain during the first half of the 20th century. The variety show given by a Pierrot troupe was called a Pierrot show...
at Scarborough and the following year both were engaged with Sunshine at Shanklin. At the end of 1934 Booth was selected to sing Faust
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...
in a colour film entitled The Faust Fantasy. Irene Frances Eastwood (stage name Anne Ziegler) was chosen to play Marguerite. He also sang in the 1935 film The Invader
The Invader
The Invader is a comedy film, starring Buster Keaton, released in the United Kingdom. The film, also known as An Old Spanish Custom, co-stars Lupita Tovar. The film follows the same plot as its remake Pest from the West , with a millionaire setting out to win a local girl in Mexico...
.
By 1935 he was recording and broadcasting frequently and fulfilling many joint engagements with Paddy Prior. In April 1935 he played Juan opposite French actress Jacqueline Francell in Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
's A Kingdom for a Cow
Der Kuhhandel
Der Kuhhandel is an operetta by Kurt Weill. The German libretto was written by Robert Vambery.-Genesis:...
at the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
, but this musical play did not appeal to London audiences and closed after three weeks. He made several films, including The Robber Symphony in 1935, with music composed and conducted by Friedrich Feher, who also directed the film. Booth sang several Feher songs in the film, including one in Italian.
Despite this lighter work, he did not neglect his oratorio singing and was chosen for the Good Friday
Good Friday
Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...
performance of Messiah on 10 April 1936 at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
with the Royal Choral Society
Royal Choral Society
The Royal Choral Society is an amateur choir, based in London. Formed soon after the opening of the Royal Albert Hall in 1871, the choir gave its first performance as the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society on 8 May 1872 – the choir's first conductor Charles Gounod included the Hallelujah Chorus from...
, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra , based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera...
conducted by Malcolm Sargent, and a month later he again sang at the Royal Albert Hall in Hiawatha's Wedding Feastby Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was an English composer who achieved such success that he was once called the "African Mahler".-Early life and education:...
, with the whole cast in full traditional costume.
He sang in Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
and was a guard in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
in the International Opera Season at Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
in 1938. The fee was paltry in comparison to what he had been earning, and he vowed to avoid opera in the future, although he made many operatic recordings and broadcasts.
Later career
Later that year, his marriage to Paddy Prior ended in divorce, and he married Anne ZieglerAnne Ziegler
Anne Ziegler was an English singer, known for her light operatic duets with her husband Webster Booth. The pair were known as the "Sweethearts in Song" and were among the most famous and popular British musical acts of the 1940s.-Life and career:She was born Irené Frances Eastwood in the Sefton...
on 5 November 1938. The two had been singing duets together from the beginning of 1938 and were well received by the public. They made their first duet recordings for HMV in 1939 and in 1940 were asked to take their act on the Variety Circuit by theatrical agent, Julius Darewski. They were an immediate success and achieved international fame as "sweethearts of song" during the war.
In 1941 they appeared in George Black
George Black (Producer)
George Black was a British theatrical impresario who controlled many entertainment venues during the 1930s.Black was born in Birmingham. When young he helped his father set up some of the first permanent cinemas in Britain. In 1928 he took over the management of GTC which was a chain of...
's London Palladium
London Palladium
The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...
production of Gangway with Bebe Daniels
Bebe Daniels
Bebe Daniels was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer. She began her career in Hollywood during the silent movie era as a child actress, became a star in musicals like 42nd Street, and later gained further fame on radio and television in Britain...
, Ben Lyon
Ben Lyon
Ben Lyon was an American film actor and a 20th Century Fox studio executive.-Life:Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Lyon entered films in 1918 after a successful appearance on Broadway opposite Jeanne Eagels. He attracted attention in the highly successful film Flaming Youth , and steadily developed into...
and Tommy Trinder
Tommy Trinder
Thomas Edward Trinder CBE known as Tommy Trinder, was an English stage, screen and radio comedian of the pre and post war years whose catchphrase was 'You lucky people'.-Life:...
, and in 1943 they starred in a revival of Friml's Vagabond King on a country-wide tour which culminated in a season at the Winter Garden Theatre, London. In 1945 they starred in Kenneth Leslie-Smith's musical play Sweet Yesterday. first on tour and then at the Adelphi Theatre
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
, London. They were guest singing stars in two films, Demobbed and Waltz Time, and in 1945 they starred in a British National
British National Films Company
In 1934 the British National Films Company was formed in England by J. Arthur Rank, Lady Annie Henrietta Yule of Bricket Wood and producer John Corefield.-Origin of the company:...
film entitled The Laughing Lady. In the same year they were invited to sing at the Victory Royal Command Performance
Royal Variety Performance
The Royal Variety Performance is a gala evening held annually in the United Kingdom, which is attended by senior members of the British Royal Family, usually the reigning monarch. In more recent years Queen Elizabeth II and The Prince of Wales have alternately attended the performance...
on 5 November, their seventh wedding anniversary. From 1943 they sang at innumerable concerts all over the country for Harold Fielding
Harold Fielding
Harold Lewis Fielding was an English theatre producer.Fielding was one of Britain's foremost theatrical producers who produced several musicals, including Mame, Charlie Girl, Half a Sixpence, Show Boat, Scarlett, Barnum, Sweet Charity, The Biograph Girl, and Ziegfeld.The son of a stockbroker,...
with fellow artistes such as Peter Dawson and Rawicz and Landauer
Rawicz and Landauer
Rawicz and Landauer were an immensely popular piano duo team that performed from 1932 to 1970. They were initially based in Vienna, Austria, but moved to the United Kingdom in the early part of their career. They were known for their arrangements of popular classics.Marjan Rawicz was Polish...
. In 1948 they toured Australia and New Zealand and managed to do several broadcasts in South Africa while their ship was sailing around South African ports. During these years, they also toured in their own production of A Night in Venice.
In 1951 Booth's contract with HMV was suddenly cancelled. By this time variety theatres were in their twilight years. The post-war generation preferred to see American entertainers at the London Palladium or new British acts fresh from the tough training ground of forces entertainment. Calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
, skiffle
Skiffle
Skiffle is a type of popular music with jazz, blues, folk, roots and country influences, usually using homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a term in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, it became popular again in the UK in the 1950s, where it was mainly...
and rock ‘n roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
became the favoured musical entertainment. While Anne and Booth still had a lot of work, their refined act was not as popular as it had been during the war.
Emigration to South Africa
In 1955 Booth and Ziegler did a concert tour of the Cape ProvinceCape Province
The Province of the Cape of Good Hope was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa...
, South Africa. They were invited back for a more extensive tour of southern Africa the following year and, after some heart searching, decided to leave the UK and settle in South Africa in July 1956. They did many shows, concerts and broadcasts and ventured into producing musicals for amateur operatic societies. They established a school of singing and stagecraft in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, made an LP recording of their popular duets translated into Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
and trained many promising singers. For the first time in their careers they appeared in non-singing roles in various plays. Booth was the Prawn in The Amorous Prawn in 1961, and he and Ziegler played Mr and Mrs Fordyce in Goodnight Mrs Puffin in 1963. Booth turned the clock back in 1963 when he played Colonel Fairfax in The Yeomen of the Guard for the Johannesburg Operatic and Dramatic Society at very short notice. He also played the non-singing part of the circus barker in Smetana
Smetana
Smetana is a Slavic loanword in English for a dairy product that is produced by souring heavy cream. Smetana is from Central and Eastern Europe, sometimes perceived to be specifically of Russian origin. It is a soured cream product like crème fraîche , but nowadays mainly sold with 15% to 30%...
's The Bartered Bride
The Bartered Bride
The Bartered Bride is a comic opera in three acts by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, to a libretto by Karel Sabina. The opera is considered to have made a major contribution towards the development of Czech music. It was composed during the period 1863–66, and first performed at the...
for the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal in November/December 1966 shortly before he and Anne left Johannesburg for Knysna
Knysna
Knysna is a town with 76,431 inhabitants in the Western Cape Province of South Africa and is part of the Garden Route. It lies 34 degrees south of the equator, and is 72 kilometres east from the town of George on the N2 highway, and 25 kilometres west of Plettenberg Bay on the same road.-History:A...
in the Cape Province
Cape Province
The Province of the Cape of Good Hope was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa...
.
Booth was tenor soloist at the Port Elizabeth Oratorio Festival under the direction of Robert Selley from 1958 to 1962, and under the direction of organist, Keith Jewell he sang in the first performance in South Africa of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius in Cape Town, a work in which he had often sung in the United Kingdom. He had always wanted to sing the bass solos in oratorio and when he and Anne moved to the coastal town of Knysna in 1967 and he became conductor of the Knysna and District Choral Society, he sang the bass arias in excerpts from Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
's Elijah
Elijah (oratorio)
Elijah, in German: Elias, is an oratorio written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1846 for the Birmingham Festival. It depicts various events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from the books 1 Kings and 2 Kings in the Old Testament....
. Ziegler and Booth gave their farewell concert in Somerset West in 1975, believing that their singing days were at an end.
Return to the United Kingdom
In 1978 Ziegler and Booth returned to the United Kingdom. Booth was 76 and Ziegler was 68. The plan was that they would retire quietly to Penrhyn BayPenrhyn Bay
Penrhyn Bay is a small town on the north Wales coast, in Conwy county borough, within the parish or community of Llandudno, and part of the ecclesiastical parish of Llanrhos. It is a prosperous village with a cluster of local shops, a pub, a parish church and a modern medical centre with doctors'...
in North Wales
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...
. They were surprised to find that they were still remembered by their old fans and for several years they did broadcasts on radio and television, gave talks and concerts all over the country, and appeared in a Royal Variety Performance
Royal Variety Performance
The Royal Variety Performance is a gala evening held annually in the United Kingdom, which is attended by senior members of the British Royal Family, usually the reigning monarch. In more recent years Queen Elizabeth II and The Prince of Wales have alternately attended the performance...
before Prince Charles, Prince of Wales at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool in 1981. But by the early eighties Booth's health was failing. He died on 21 June 1984 at the age of 82. Ziegler lived on alone in Penrhyn Bay and died on 13 October 2003 at the age of 93.
In 1985 Jean Buckley, their life-long fan and friend began raising funds to establish the Webster Booth Scholarship at the Royal Northern College of Music
Royal Northern College of Music
The Royal Northern College of Music is a music school in Manchester, England. It is located on Oxford Road in Chorlton on Medlock, at the western edge of the campus of the University of Manchester and is one of four conservatories associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. The first award was made to tenor Geraint Dodd in 1986. In 1990 Esso
Esso
Esso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Pronounced , it is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by...
and an anonymous sponsor jointly sponsored the Scholarship until the late nineties, and in 1991 a further award was created at the College in Anne Ziegler's name. When Esso withdrew its sponsorship there was not enough money left to continue the Webster Booth award in its present form. The last award was presented to Scottish soprano Lee Bisset in 2002. The Anne Ziegler prize is still awarded by the college to a promising singer each year. Until 2005 the prize was awarded by competition, but since then the award has been made by the head of the department of Vocal and Opera studies in consultation with members of staff. The 2009 winner was tenor, Sipho Fubesi from Centane in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.
External links
- http://ziegler-booth.blogspot.com Anne Ziegler-Webster Booth
- http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/whowaswho/B/BoothWebster.htm Who was who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company?/Webster Booth
- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0095845 Webster Booth - Film performances at IMDB
- http://www.leebisset.com Lee Bisset
- http://www.capetownopera.co.za/htm/sipho.htm Sipho Fubesi
- https://archive.thestage.co.uk/Default/Skins/TheStage/Client.asp?Skin=TheStage&enter=true&AppName=2&AW=1259687776854>