Jean Collen's Blog, page 15

MY STAR/LITTLE SON BASSETT SILVER

[image error]

Several days ago I had an email from Peter Silver, the son of the composer, the late Bassett Silver in connection with these recordings by Webster Booth. I had come across a photo of the cover of My Star several years ago but could not find any information about the song in the HMV catalogues. The recordings of My Star and Little Son originated in 1937 although I can find no evidence that they were issued commercially by HMV.

[image error]Little Son https://clyp.it/nmpdxwit



[image error]My Starhttps://clyp.it/rub0mrp5

Webster made many BBC broadcasts with
Charles Ernesco and his Quintet in 1937 and 1938 and sang My Star
and Little Son on several occasions on these programmes.
Anne Ziegler made one broadcast with Charles Ernesco and sang My
Star during her own broadcast.

[image error]Charles Ernesco and his Salon Orchestra



[image error]25 February 1937 My Star



[image error]26 December 1937 Anne Ziegler – My Star



[image error]15 February 1938 Little Son



[image error]24 April 1938 Little Son





[image error]September 1938



[image error]14 October 1938 With a Smile and a Song. Charles Ernesco is the violinist (left). Sydney Jerome is playing the piano.(Right)
Radio Luxembourg.

Peter also sent me part of a Music Hall BBC broadcast on the Home Service on 26 April 1949. This recording is also in good condition and features Webster singing My Star during that broadcast. The applause by the studio audience was warm and it is obvious that My Star was one of Webster’s favourite songs as he was still singing it over ten years after he first recorded it.

[image error]25 April 1949 My Star BBC Home – part of Music Hall Broadcast https://clyp.it/a5esqa5h

Peter has given me permission to share
these recordings. I am very sorry that I was not able to improve the
sound quality of Little Son.

I am very glad that my love for Webster and Anne and admiration for many of the related artists of their generation has led me to take an interest in a fine composer like Bassett Silver rather than the contemporary performers who were popular when I was young.

Jean Collen 21 February 2019.

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EXTRACTS FROM MY TEENAGE DIARIES: AUGUST 1963

1 August –Heather arrives and then Webster who is in a lovely mood. We have Yvonne but Margriet doesn’t come so we have a chat about Leslie Green and Desmond Wright.I tell him I’ll soon be 20 and what have I done with my life? He says I’ll have done a great deal if I get the ATCL. Thea, Graham and Freddie come and he teases me through all of them and grins at me amiably We come home in Hillman and he asks me to phone Anne as he has forgotten to do so. I’m going in again on Tuesday.

2 August – Go to studio and work. I get the result for my harmony exam – honours! I leave for an hour while Lucille has her lesson. When I come back we go through Father of Heav’n and decide to make more use of the “or” vowel. She says she still doesn’t feel too wonderful. At half-past she goes to ABC for shoes and I make tea for us. When Anne comes back to the studio we do Love’s Sickness and she tells me that Webster said today that my sight reading is phenomenal now! I have an hour today and really enjoy myself with her.

3 August – Go into Mrs S. I get 88% for my harmony which is not bad, considering how ill I was that day. Webster has an excellent programme tonight – Marian Anderson, Robert Merrill and themselves singing the lovely Nocturne duet.

5 August – Go to SABC at night. I feel dizzy and have to go and sit in the foyer. Hester comes with me and we have a pleasant chat. All the boys from the choir ask me how I am keeping.

6 August – Lunch in Ansteys with Mum. Go up to studio and Webster arrives with a, “Hello, darling.” I tell him over tea about the dizzy turn and the theory exam. He’s pleased about the latter. I say that I didn’t think I would pass. He says, “I’ll smack your bottom if you talk like that again!” We have Linda Walters for a lesson and then I have my own lesson in which I manage to sing fairly well. He does slap my bottom after that and tells me I’m improving! Thea, Winnie and a girl called Lou-Anne come and the last-mentioned gives us a lift to the garage. In the car we talk about films and Mary Harrison. I phone Anne to let her know that he is on the way home as he forgot to do so before he left and she is as sweet as always.

8 August – Go to studio and work. Robert Lang phones to say he’ll send up a costume for Anne for tomorrow night. Heather arrives so we have a chat. Anne comes and I give her Bobby’s message and she is grateful. She congratulates me on my exam result and says Webster was full of it when he came home on Tuesday.

9 August – Go into the studio and accompany for the last time. Lucille arrives first so she sings a bit. He wishes her a happy birthday when he arrives. She sings well with her boyfriend and I have my lesson after she leaves and we do Dream of Gerontius which is very interesting. Gertie and Charlotte come next and then we are finished. He tells me in the car that they want to get a studio with a house attached and give up the present one which is rather disconcerting news.

[image error]Webster, Anne and Bill Brewer

10 August – Hilda returns from St Helena. Have a reactionary day. I do ear tests at Mrs S and see Hitchcock’s The Birds in the afternoon.

11 August – Phone Ruth in the afternoon. Hilda is definitely back for she saw her when she called at their house to get a record. They also told her of their horrible Northern Suburbs studio idea. It’ll break my heart if it comes off as I would never be able to go all that way for lessons.

12 August – I go and play at Afrikaans Eisteddfod for Connie (Mrs S’s pupil). She sings better than I expected her to sing and calls me “Tannie”!

[image error]Learner’s licence!

13 August – Go and get learner’s licence today and then lunch in Capeniro with Mum. I meet Flom (Frances de Vries Robbé) in the library. Go to singing. This time it’s Linda who has a dizzy turn so Webster walks with her to the station so that she can catch the train to Vereeniging. Anne and I discuss her attack and then I sing – not too badly for a change. When he comes back he says, “Where’s that voice coming from?” He makes me tea after my lesson when Thea is having her lesson. He says, “I haven’t asked how you are yet?” I feel rather miserable – perhaps I’m just jealous because they’re both back again in partnership and don’t need me any more.

14 August – I go into the studio and Linda’s mother phones to thank Webster for walking her to the station. I go to Mrs S for an hour’s lesson and get my accompaniment fee. We go to Afrikaans eisteddfod at night to hear Lucille singing the duet with her boyfriend. The Booths haven’t arrived and Lucille is in a frightful state. She says I will be able to play if they don’t come. They do – the car broke down off Jan Smuts Avenue so Dad takes Webster out to collect it. Anne sits behind me and we have a chat. Lucille and boyfriend sing well but they don’t win anything. Anne argues with Webster. We were going to take them home but their car starts.

15 August – Go to studio and work. Joy Anderson phones. When Anne comes in we discuss events of last night and have a laugh. They spoke to the adjudicator afterwards – she had seen them on TV. Heather is there for her lesson. I meet Webster on the way down and he says he’s still trying to recover from the drama of last night. He didn’t get to sleep until 2 in the morning.

16 August – Selwyn’s mother phones to say that he can’t come so I phone Anne to let her know. Anne arrives and tells me that the Anglia broke down. Lucille arrives with a sore throat. Julie, the girl before me is going to be in Sound of Music and auditioned for a Jamie Uys film today. Anne is furious that she wasn’t asked to audition. We do the Cycle of Life which isn’t too bad. He sings it with me and tells me to use my whole body when I sing it. I am there for a long time and wish them luck for their concert tomorrow.

17 August – Skip going to Mrs S and go to studio instead. What a terrible state of affairs when I’m happier in a place with no one there than to be with other people who are less amenable than the place. I love it! We have lunch in Galaxy and see How the West Was Won at the Cinerama. Listen to Webster at night and he plays Great South African Voices.

20 August – Go skating with Gill in the morning and enjoy being the best skater there for a change! Go to singing and Webster remarks on my skates and concludes that I went with my (non-existent) boyfriend. Anne tells me the Ficksburg concert was a great success and Desmond Wright played well. Webster and Anne argue all the time which is embarrassing! She goes to John Orrs and he tells me that they haven’t yet decided about giving up the studio.

21 August – Go to Mrs S and do ear tests with Edith. I work in the Booth studio. I listen to Webster’s ballad programme. Their duet, Love’s Garden of Roses is lovely.

22 August – Go to studio early. Anne arrives and tells me she wishes the other pupils would work as hard as I do. She calls me sweetie. Ruth phones and suggests I meet her after her lesson on my birthday and we can go for coffee together afterwards. She says they’ll be able to wish me a happy birthday too.

23 August – Lucille arrives early and we “goo” over the beautiful photographs. I meet Webster in the street and he is sweet to me. He gives me tea when I get back. We go over the things for the exam and they are absolutely delighted with it all. He tells me that my voice is getting much bigger and better.

24 August –Go into studio to collect glasses. The men working there greet me like an old friend – I suppose they think I’m their daughter or niece!

27 August – I go skating with Gill again and we have lunch in town. I have super singing lesson. Webster makes me tea and calls me darling and Anne admires my new hairstyle. Into the bargain I manage to sing very well. He teases me and throws a paper pellet at me!

28 August – Go to studio and have doleful conversation with estate agent! Obviously they are still thinking about having a studio attached to the house they intend to buy.

29 August –Work in studio and lunch with Mum. Anne comes and tells me that the Estate Agent should phone but doesn’t say why!

30 August – Leslie Green phones and is most affable. Lucille and Anne come and I tell them to help themselves to Danish pastries which I have brought in to celebrate my birthday. When I return Webster come into the kitchen and potters over me. When I go into the studio there is a birthday gift on the piano for me. I am simply delighted and thank them very much indeed. I sing my exam songs and discuss who the examiner will be. Webster says he’s sure it’ll be Guy McG for the diploma. They wish me a very happy day tomorrow.

31 August – I go to studio to fetch Ruth. Webster answers door and wishes me a happy birthday once again. Anne comes in and sings, “Happy birthday” to me and kisses me all over the place and Ruth does too! Ruth and I go for coffee and Webster says, “Not too much whisky!” In the afternoon we see The King and I with a Durban cast. At night Webster plays In Native Worth and Love Calling Me Home. A lovely birthday – but a teenager no longer!

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EXTRACTS FROM MY TEENAGE DIARIES: JULY 1963

I have made omissions and toned down some entries in this episode before publishing it!

1 July – Go to music library and see Leo Quayle there. Coming home I see Graham Burns waiting for a bus.

2 July – Go to singing. Anne is wearing her mink coat. We have tea and biscuits and she tells me she hates Britain at the moment – with the shock of the John Profumo/Christine Keeler affair. She says they used to belong to the Conservative Party in Hampstead but fell out with them over something or other.

I sing Open Thy Blue Eyes, the Landon Ronald song Cycle, and Love’s sickness. She is pleased. She tells me I can use the studio at any time and don’t owe them anything for this month. I see Dennis and his mum and have more tea with them. I meet Betty on the way home and Ruth phones in the evening.

3 July – Go to studio and work hard in the peaceful atmosphere. I have lunch in Ansteys with Mum then go to Mrs S for lesson. I’m going to listen to our broadcast now.

4 July – Go to the studio and the lunch hour concert. Webster comes in a bit late – Anne phones to let me know that he’ll be late. We have Heather and Yvonne Marais and then he puts his hands on my shoulder and says, “Put on your coat, love, and put some money in my meter!” I do so. He is a honey. We have Graham and Reeka and then come home in the Anglia. He tells me about the near accident he had coming down the Great Orme in his Talbot in Llandudno, and the Springs Operatic Society. He says, “Imagine that I’ll not be seeing you until next Friday!” I say, “How can I bear it?” half in fun, but whole in earnest!

5 July – I work in the studio in the morning and lunch with Mum. In the afternoon Anne comes in and I have an hour lesson and I enjoy it enormously. We have tea and biscuits and she says I must eat them up when I’m in the studio by myself. She says Webster told her all about my account of Jossie B’s singing lesson and she enjoyed it. She lends me Doris Bolton’s Joan Sutherland biography to read over the weekend and says that of course I can come in on Monday although it’s a public holiday. She’s a sweety.

8 July – Family day. Go to studio to return the Joan S autobiography.

9 July – Go to singing in afternoon. Anne is there teaching Jimmy Elkin, the son of the optician! She tells me that I’ll be in on Monday to play for Webster for he really can’t manage without me. Last Monday was too much for him! We do Love’s Sickness and when we are having tea Anne shows me the Ravel song cycle she sang at the Wigmore Hall as Irené Eastwood – Scheherezade. We do the unaccompanied folk song and she imitates my serious face during my singing of it. We both end up in the giggles. Webster phones and she gives me a whole hour. We finish with Love, From thy Power and then Winnie arrives. I wash the dishes before I leave.

10 July – Go into the studio and read the script for Mrs Puffin. Lunch in Ansteys with Mum then go to Mrs S for lesson. Listen to Webster’s super new programme Ballads Old and New. He plays the Evening Song by Blumenthal – beautiful.

[image error]Ballads Old and New – July – not October!

12 July Go to studio and Webster arrives at 3.00 but Lucille doesn’t arrive!! He tells me of the difficulty they are having to find an accompanist for their concert in Ficksburg. He says he would ask me to play for them but they have always preferred a male accompanist as a woman takes the audience’s attention away from Anne. Mayor of Brakpan’s son comes and sings pleasantly. I have a lesson and we go over all the Messiah arias. Gertie and “Clara Butt” come later. Come home in the car from the garage and we have a discussion about Gert P and Jossie B!

13 July – Webster’s programme is excellent. He plays one of his own records. Go to Mrs S and work with Margaret and company. We see Sammy Going South.

15 July – Go to the studio to play. Webster makes me tea the moment I arrive. Myrtle is our first pupil. We talk about his programme on Saturday and have a number of pupils. He talks about making the Afrikaans record on the way home.

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16 July – Go to Mrs S and work with Margaret. Lunch with Mummy and go to studio where Anne makes me tea. Tells me the lights fused completely last night and they didn’t eat until 10.00! I sing well and she is pleased. Jimmy doesn’t come so she gives me an hour because she says she enjoys working with me. There is a lovely picture of them in the paper at night. I listen to the recording of the SABC choir and think it is very good indeed.

18 July -Anne phones to say Webster will be a bit late. Yvonne, her Mum and little sister arrive early. Yvonne wants him to hear her sister sing. He tells them that she can’t start having lessons as she is far too young – wait until she is in her teens. We have Heather, Yvonne and Colleen. He tells me that Anne has caught a cold from Leslie Green – she went to a film with him last night. On the way home we go up to Wallie Petersen’s theatrical agency where he is offered a directorship of a film company. He introduces me as, “This is Miss Campbell – she plays for me.” We are pleased about the offer. I hope something comes of it. He says he’ll phone tomorrow if he wants me to go in and work for him at the studio.

19 July -Anne is too sick to come to studio and my father has ‘flu too so Webster and I “do” again. Lucille comes first and tells us about a funeral she attended. She sings well for an hour and I play well. I have my lesson – oratorio as before. Selwyn arrives in a weepy mood. Gertie comes next and he says to me, “Jean, darling, make me a cup of tea.” Gertie and Brian Morris come afterwards. Webster brings me home and I tell him to give Anne my love and I hope she will feel better.

20 July – Go into the studio and Webster is there, in a good mood, and making coffee. Anne is evidently worse this morning. We have the morning pupils and the last two don’t come so we go home in the Hillman with the roof down. As we pass the Kensington Sanitorium he says that it’s such a lovely day that he wishes we could carry on driving all the way to the coast! Unfortunately, we can’t do that!

21 July – I wash my clothes and hair in the morning. I phone Ruth in the afternoon and she is full of her recent holiday to Victoria Falls. We decide to go out together sometime next week. She’ll phone me on Tuesday. I phone to see how Anne is keeping. Webster answers and is pleased to hear from me. He tells me she is improving and crawling around the house. When we part, he says, “Goodbye, darling.”

22 July – Lunch in Ansteys with Mum. Go to studio and Webster tells me that Anne is a lot worse today. Myrtle comes for her lesson and he tells us about the loss of vision he experienced last night. When he went to lie down the room spun around him and he felt awful. He makes a tape of the pupils today for his cousin in England, Jean Webster. Janet and Lucille come. Webster is always far too nice to the latter for my liking! Reeka is the last pupil and then we come home and discuss the possible reasons for his bad turn yesterday. I hope there is nothing seriously wrong with him.

23 July – Work. Lunch in the Capeniro with Mum. I feel in rather a remote frame of mind after the obsequious way he behaved with Lucille yesterday. I must be jealous! When I get back to the studio Anne is there looking terribly ill. We spend a long time discussing Webster but I don’t say anything to her about Lucille. She says he used to be such a good husband but these days he’s always in a bad mood and drinks and smokes too much. She wants him to see the doctor but he refuses to go. We do some Elijah and have tea. She says he hates teaching in the studio (apart from a few pets), and he is too indulgent with Lemon so he is too spoilt for words. I wish her well and depart feeling somewhat restored but sorry for Anne.

24 July – Go to the studio. After lunch I go to Mrs S and work with Elaine and Edith and have my piano lesson. Ruth phones. She’s coming to fetch me tomorrow at the studio for lunch. She tells me about all her activities, including Yoga lessons which she is enjoying. Listen to Webster’s Ballads Old and New and it is terrific as usual. Why is he always so good?

25 July – Leslie Green phones the studio wanting to speak to Anne and Webster. He talks to me for quite a while – he is just as pleasant as he is to his listeners on the radio. Ruth comes up and we have lunch in the Chesa – she tells me all about her holiday while I spend time imitating my two current bones of contention – “Ag, Uncle Boooo!”

26 July – Lucille arrives early so we go out for an hour and return together. He calls out a casual greeting to me, then when he sees that Lucille is there he makes a great fuss of her. I am upset and spend a dismal hour playing for her during her lesson. He tells me that Anne is just as ill as ever and has been physically sick today too. In the car we discuss Leslie Green, Brian M and Show Boat. He promises to phone me tomorrow if he needs me.

27 July – Anne is still sick so I go into the studio to play for him. Webster makes me coffee and this time it is he who tells me he’s had a disagreement with Anne over Leslie Green and the doctor! Anne insisted on them going to dinner in Leslie Green’s draughty house despite the fact that she is not at all well. Ruth has a lesson and she is full of the joys of spring over the results of her aptitude test. Coming home in the car he talks about Gary A. I listen to him on the radio at night.

29 July – Go to town with Mum and lunch in Ansteys. Go to studio a little early and have tea with Webster. He is tired but in a lovely mood. Ruth phones. She has passed her driving licence and asks me to dinner. Webster says he will drop me off at her house which means a much shorter trip home for him. We pass Zoo Lake on the way to the Ormonds and he says the bowling club is in one of the loveliest settings in the world. I have a pleasant dinner with the Ormonds and they drive us in their huge Rover to the SABC where we have a meeting and then refreshments a la Anton H. Mr O drives me home – lovely day.

30 July Go to singing in the afternoon. Anne tells me she is going to see the doctor on Thursday about her laryngitis. She would have preferred to go on Wednesday but Webster is going to play bowls then come hell or high water! We have tea together and discuss Ruth and the effects of the lottery on her life – all favourable. We work at Father of Heav’n and concentrate on breathing. I see Lucille’s invitation to her twenty-first birthday – they can’t go. Good!

EXTRACTS FROM MY TEENAGE DIARIES: JUNE 1963

1 June – Go into Mrs S and work with Margaret and Elaine. I have a look at the picture of the juvenile lead (Colonel Fairfax) in the OK.

[image error]Webster as Colonel Fairfax

3 June – Go to SABC at night and Chris Lamprecht takes us. Ruth and I meet at interval and have a good chat. She says that they were charming to her on Saturday – lucky her! We’ll see each other at the theory exam on Saturday.

4 June – Work. Go to singing and Anne is there by herself. Webster is exhausted with rehearsing The Yeomen. The musical director, Desmond Wright picked him out for singing flat in the quartet! I don’t believe it! He hardly even retaliated! We work very hard and I send my love to him and wish him luck for the opening night. She wishes me luck for my theory exam on Saturday.

5 June – Go to studio and work hard. I lunch in Ansteys with Mum. A Mr Haagen comes to the studio in the afternoon to give Jossie Boshoff a lesson. I have a lesson with Mrs S and work with Elaine. Gill, Corrie and everyone think that JB is the limit!

6 June – Webster was obviously the hit of the evening for both critics say that although his singing is not all it once was, his great sense of timing, his experience of G&S in D’Oyly Carte, and his perfect diction carried the show through admirably.

[image error]Lewis Sowden – Rand Daily Mail.

7 June – Work. Go to singing and meet Roselle’s sister on the bus. Anne is in the studio by herself again. She has her hair in curls on top of her head (set for the first night). She tells me over tea that he stole the show. We work hard and she is very pleased. Selwyn comes after me and I wash the dishes before I leave. I meet Brian McDade on the bus coming home.

[image error]Oliver Walker – the Yeomen of the Guard crit.

8 June – Go to write theory exam and Ruth is there writing one too. Afterwards we have a cup of coffee in De Beers and she tells me that Anne raved about my concentration yesterday. I go up to Mrs S and deteriorate from then on. I faint 3 times while singing in the choir and my father has to come in to town to fetch me. I am ill for the rest of the day and Mrs S phones to see how I’m keeping.

9 June – Dora Sowden gives Webster a super crit in the Sunday Times.

10 June – Work. Go to SABC at night and Ruth tells me that she might be going to Cape Town music school next year. We work hard with Chris Lamprecht.

11 June – Work. Go to singing in the afternoon and tell Anne about the fainting attack on Saturday morning. She is very sympathetic and tells me that she had much the same trouble herself, especially when she was on tour. She also tells me that Hilda is going to visit her family in St Helena soon and will be away for six and a half weeks so I shall probably be accompanying for Webster again on alternate days. Apparently, he is threatening a cold today but will have to persevere with the Yeomen. She says he’d be very hurt if I didn’t go and say hello backstage on Friday night. I sing exceptionally well today and she is thrilled. I wash our teacups after my lesson and this pleases her.

12 June – Go to SS studios and work at ear tests with Edith Sanders. Lunch in Ansteys with Mum and have my piano lesson in the afternoon. I meet Colleen McM on the bus – she is back working in an office and feeling miserable.

13 June – Go to SS studios and work with Edith Sanders again. I have lunch in the restaurant opposite Show Service and see Leon Gluckman there.

14 June – Anne phones in the morning with a king-size attack of the ‘flu. Evidently Webster is almost as bad. I promise to phone Ruth for her and do so in the afternoon to put her off. We go to Yeomen of the Guard at night and it is really gorgeous. Webster sings beautifully and (as I tell him afterwards) makes a charming young man. I go back to see Webster in his dressing room and say how much I enjoyed it. He is terribly pleased. He has a large glass of whisky sitting on the table. He says his temperature is down and Anne is feeling much better tonight. He is a real honey and as unassuming as always. I say, “Ta, ta,” and leave him to dress and get home to bed to nurse his ‘flu.

[image error]The Yeomen of the Guard

15 June – Go into the SS studio and rave about the Yeomen. Mrs S is very derisive about it. I work with Margaret and Elaine, sing in the choir and chat to Binky. Come home with Margaret. See Fast Lady (Stanley Black). Listen to Great Voices and he plays a woman of 69 singing. He says, “I wonder if I’ll sound as good as that when I’m 69!”

17 June – Anne phones me in the morning and says she is still sick. We talk for an hour and I think it cheers her up. She runs down Julietta Stanners-B for the peppermint green costume she produced for Webster in the last act. He’s still sick but managing to crawl on stage every night. She says she’ll let me know on Friday about the arrangements for the next six weeks, and certainly, I may have the studio key once more. I go to SABC at night and chat to Ruth. We have rehearsal for Friday and Anton Hartman comes into the studio to talk to us.

18 June – Go to SS studio and work with Edith. Have lunch in Ansteys and then see Sparrows Can’t Sing – an excellent and unusual film. Clive Parnell sits in front of me. Ruth phones to ask me to go to the SABC. Chris L is a pig to everyone in general and Ruth in particular -ugh!

19 June – Go to SS studio and practise. I lunch in Ansteys, have piano lesson and work with Elaine. I phone Anne at night and she still feels revolting even though she’s up. She’s not even sure if she’ll come in on Friday. She says that if she does, she wants Webster to come in with her to offset things as it is too much for her to cope with everyone on her own.

20 June – I go to final rehearsal for SABC in the evening. For a change, Chris L is very affable. Ruth is going for her singing lesson at home on Wednesday but they are not making up the two lessons she missed. She’s cross.

21 June – I go to singing in the afternoon and Anne is back in the studio once more. Lucille, Anne and I have tea together and then I have my lesson. Father of Heav’n goes fairly well. Anne asks me to go in on Wednesday to work for Webster and also next Friday. I’m going to fetch the keys tomorrow. We sing in the Light music concert at the City Hall conducted by Jos Kleiber and it goes well. Ruth remarks that Jos Kleiber is very energetic! Anton H and Edgar Cree congratulate us on our performance.

22 June – Phone early in the morning and speak to Webster to remind Anne about the key. He is sweet to me. I go to Mrs S and work with Margaret and Elaine and then go up to Anne’s to get the keys. I say hello to Robin Gordon and “Clara Butt”! I return to sing in Mrs S’s choir and come home with Margaret. I listen to Webster at night and he plays a super duet by him and Dennis Noble.

24 June – Go into town and buy some clothes. Practise with Margaret. Lunch with Mum in Capeniro. I go home on the bus with Colleen McM who tells me about Norma D’s husband and other theatrical gossip. Anne phones in the afternoon and asks me to go in for an hour tomorrow. Go to SABC at night. Ruth saw the Yeomen but didn’t go backstage to see Webster. She saw Anne in the audience but didn’t talk to her. She says she thought his voice was rather awful yet I thought he sang well. Work at Creation.

25 June – Go to singing for an hour and Webster is back in slightly disgruntled frame of mind. Work fearfully hard at Father of Heav’n but he is sparing with his praise. I sing the Landon Ronald song cycle and Anne raves about my singing and moans at him for being so grim. I have to play for him tomorrow at 3 o’clock. I hope he is in a better mood tomorrow!

26 June – Go into Booth’s studio and practise. Webster arrives in the afternoon and we have Heather Coxon first. I make tea for us and then we have Colleen, and after her our two demons. When Graham has his lesson Webster shines singing all his bass arias. Webster brings me home and talks about the Yeomen and how tiring it was to change into three different sets of tights at every performance!

27 June – Go to studio and work in the lovely calm atmosphere. Yvonne Marais’s mother phones to say she’s sick so I phone Anne to let her know so that she can come in later. She is grateful. Go to ghastly lunch hour concert featuring Jossie B, then come home and wash hair.

28 June – Go to studio and get a lift into town with Mr McKenzie. Webster comes in the afternoon moaning about the rain. Lucille arrives with her boyfriend and they sing a duet together. She’s there for an hour and then we have tea. I have my lesson and sing unusually well and he is pleased for a change. Selwyn comes and then we have an hour’s break before Betsy Oosthuizen and Graham. Webster brings me home in the Hillman, cursing the rain and the cold engine.

29 June – Go to town with Dad and we see Raising the Wind again – I love that film. Webster’s programme is super.

30 June – Have fairly quiet Sunday. Webster phones unexpectedly at night for no apparent reason except to chat with me. He tells me that he doesn’t think I owe them anything for July because of all the work I’m doing with him. We talk about various pupils, Brian Morris and Drummond Bell. He says he’ll go in tomorrow on his own as he can probably manage by himself as everyone is so awful and don’t need a proper accompanist!

EXTRACTS FROM MY TEENAGE DIARIES: MAY 1963

1 May – I wallow in “advanced depression” today. How will I manage after these two halcyon weeks are over? Have lunch with mum and then go to the studio and sing in that hallowed atmosphere. Go to Mrs S, chat to Elaine and teach Corrie Bakker.

2 May – Go to the studio, have lunch there and go to the lunch hour concert. I meet Webster in town and he asks me to put money in the meter for him which I do while he panics and goes to the AA to renew his subscription. He tells me he really enjoyed himself on Tuesday night. I’m so pleased. Colleen sings well but the next two are not so good. He sings duets with the last pupil. He is going to Lord Lurgan’s for dinner tonight and tells me all about him. He makes a right carry on about getting himself “tarted up” for the occasion. Tomorrow is probably my last accompanying day. I am sad.

3 May – Webster phones in the morning to tell me that Lucille isn’t coming this afternoon – I am glad! I go into the studio and entertain Mr Knowles-Lewis (who won the hymn competition last year) until Webster arrives. We have Norma and Selwyn. Anne phones to say that she is home safely and quite exhausted. . The others come and go and then all the heaven of two lovely weeks is finished. Webster thanks me and says he loved having me play for him and if Anne doesn’t feel up to coming in tomorrow he’ll phone me. He takes me home in his car for the very last time. He says quite pensively that, “I’ll miss my Sylvia Pass next week.” We part until Tuesday when I will return to being an ordinary pupil once again.

4 May – I feel sad that my two wonderful weeks are over. I go into Mrs S and have a theory lesson. The choir arrives and we are stooges for two people endeavouring to pass the class teachers’ exam. I have a chat with the TCL secretary and see dear old Uncle Mac for the last time.

I phone Ruth in the afternoon and she says Webster raved and raved about me during her lesson this morning, saying how good I was at accompanying and how the experience has boosted my ego and how he loved having dinner with me and my parents. She says Anne regarded him very coldly when he spoke so fulsomely about me! I phone Anne in the afternoon and we talk for a whole hour about everything under the sun. She tells me that they would have loved to retire to a smallholding in Devon but there wasn’t enough money to do so. I don’t have the impression that she is annoyed with me in any way. I listen to Webster at night.

7 May – Webster phones to remind me to fill in my form for the Trinity diploma exam which I have already done. Go to singing and Anne is looking a little tired. She says she didn’t like all the self-centred South African people she met on her trip around the country with Leslie Green. She says she will be a step-grandmother soon as Webster’s son’s wife is going to have a baby in December. We work at the unaccompanied folk song. Webster tells me that Uncle Mac is going to be doing the exams in September. They had him to dinner on Sunday.

8 May – Work at harmony and go to town and lunch in Ansteys with Mum. Go to SS studios and have a harmony lesson. Mummy phones in the middle of it to say that Webster phoned and wants me to audition at the Brooke on Saturday morning. There is a picture of them in the paper. Phone Anne at night and she says that BB is interested in hearing me but as this is a private audition I mustn’t breathe a word about it to anybody. She says she felt she had to do something for me after our chat on Saturday.

10 May – Go to dentist and have lunch with Mum and then a gruelling harmony lesson. Go to singing and Webster gives me tea. Anne and I go over Gypsy Moon for the audition. Anne says, “You’re a beautiful girl and if you were my daughter I’d be very proud of you.” Go over Father of Heav’n and Webster says he’s playing Kath’s record of it tomorrow night. Anne wishes me a lot of luck and is pleased to hear that I enjoyed their autobiography. She tells me to phone tomorrow night.

11 May – Go for audition at the Brooke Theatre and give Colleen a lift there. We go in and feel nervous. Colleen sings well and should get a part. I sing fairly well and Brian Brooke says I could have a small part which will give me some experience. I go to Mrs S afterwards and sing in ensemble. We see A Touch of Mink. I phone Anne at night and she is pleased and thinks I should take up his offer. I listen to Webster’s Great Voices – he plays Kath and Harry Lauder and talks about Bel Canto.

13 May – Work hard and go to SABC at night. See John Steenkamp and Mrs S. Ruth is there and we work hard with Chris Lamprecht.

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[image error]Great Voices 13 May 1963

14 May – Work hard. Go to singing in the afternoon. Little boy is having a lesson before me. Anne comes into the kitchen on the verge of tears to moan to me about the child. Webster is more tolerant. She tells me to watch out for Brian Brooke as he’s a wolf – the younger, the better! Sing Massenet and go through the unaccompanied song with Webster which goes well. Norma comes after me looking heavenly and theatrical.

15 May – Have lunch in Ansteys with Mum and we meet Mrs McDonald-Rouse and Mrs Moody. Former tells me to give her love to Webster and Anne. Go to Mrs S and have a long lesson. I chat to Elaine (newly recovered from mumps).

16 May – Lunch with Mum and then go to hear Adelaide Newman and Hans Mommer. Anne arrives rather late and first gives an audition to girl, Heather. I go through all my songs and when Webster arrives he records Father of Heav’n. I feel miserable about it. He makes tea and I wash up afterwards.

18 May – Go to Brooke theatre in the morning and he and Bill Walker audition a few more people. In the end there are 8 of us trying for 4 parts as nuns. Bill Walker’s wife is my rival so I can only hope for the best. BB is quite sweet and calls me darling. Go back to Mrs S afterwards and chat to Suzanne Bilski. I get Betty home on the bus. We see Days of Wine and Roses in the afternoon. I meet Ila Silanski there.

21 May – Work. Go to singing in the afternoon. We go through Love’s Sickness and Webster makes tea. Evidently Colleen didn’t get any part at all for BB was disappointed with her speaking voice and advised her to take speech lessons. They are not pleased about it. I tell them of my experience with Bill Walker’s wife! More or less at the last minute, Webster is going to take the part of Colonel Fairfax in The Yeomen of the Guard for JODS as they do not think the man currently doing the role is up to it. Should be fun. I do the French song well and am there for ages.

22 May – Work and lunch in Ansteys with Mum. I go to Mrs S for harmony lesson and chat with Gill. I do ear tests with Edith Sanders and we decide to go to the studio regularly in the mornings to do ear tests in preparation for the forthcoming diploma exams. Edith has perfect pitch!

24 May – Go to singing. Anne is there by herself as Webster is rehearsing madly for The Yeomen so I make tea for us all – Lucille is there too, having had a lesson before me. Anne tells me that she and Webster had indigestion after eating a sheep’s heart casserole! We decide to do some Landon Ronald songs for a change – she sings them for me in her heavenly voice. They are too gorgeous for words.

25 May – Go to Mrs S and then to Brooke theatre where some of the people don’t turn up. BB tells me to come back again next week but I’m not sure if I shall. We see Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Webster plays duets by Dennis Noble and himself and a song by Bennie Veenemans, the boy soprano. He played that record to me in the studio when I was playing for him.

26 May – Go to church and copy and transpose Anne’s Landon Ronald songs.

27 May – Work. Go to SABC and we have Mr Tyler once more. We work at English folk and traditional songs.

28 May – Go to dentist, lunch hour concert and library. I see Michael Newell. Go to singing and Webster is back again. Norma arrives too early and upsets things. We do the Landon Ronald songs and he is delighted with the transposition. They are disgusted about Brian Brooke.

29 May – Go into SS studio early and Elaine and I do some theory together. Mrs S comes in and tells us that Stan’s mother has died. I lunch with Mum in Ansteys.

30 May – Go to SS studios again and work hard. Lunch with Mum and come home on the bus with Margaret. She tells me that Peter Lynsky (Jack Point in the Yeomen) is a lecturer at Teachers’ Training College.

31 May – Republic Day. We see To Kill a Mocking Bird with Gregory Peck. It is very good indeed.

EXTRACTS FROM MY TEENAGE DIARIES – APRIL 1963

1 April – Work. Go to SABC at night. Ruth is there and we have a chat. She is coming to visit me next Monday. Mr Tyler takes us through the Creation.

2 April – Work. Go to singing with a touch of laryngitis. When I arrive I hear Webster and Anne practising the duets for the SABC concert and their voices blend gloriously. They are most sympathetic about my laryngitis. I sing a little, but not much. Webster gives me a lecture on all my inhibitions. He tells me that I am most musicianly and will do well in the exam for I have improved so much.

3 April  – Work and lunch in Ansteys with Mum. Go to SS studios for my piano lesson and talk to Elaine and Gill. Ruth phones and tells me she’ll be here at about 11.45am on Monday.

4 April – Have yet another ghastly day feeling ill. Listen to Leslie Green. Only a few weeks to go before he and Anne tour the country and I work with Webster – Hurrah!

5 April – Go to singing. Webster is trying to teach Lucille the bass clef. My throat is still a bit odd. Webster tells me it’s my imagination and microphone nerves! I manage to sing everything softly. He says that Ruth and I imagine a lot. I phone Betty to arrange to go to the Cinerama.

6 April – Go with Dad and book at Piccadilly as Cinerama is crowded out. We take Betty to see Cloak and Dagger with Gary Cooper and Lili Palmer. Webster plays all South Africans in his Great Voices and includes a record by himself, saying, “Seeing I’m South African too!” which is by far the greatest voice of the evening!

7 April – Go to Sunday school and play the piano. Dad fetches me and we go to town to look at the Presbyterian church. Phone Ruth and she says she had a lovely birthday. Webster kissed her and they gave her a card and a scarf. They managed to get into the Cinerama and saw How the West was Won. She says Anne was most concerned about my throat.

8 April – Ruth comes to the house and has lunch and we work at all our exam pieces together. Evidently Webster got sloshed on Saturday night but sang the Resurrection at the Presbyterian Church beautifully. After supper Dad takes Ruth and me to choir where we hear a recording of The Creation (in German). Webster and Anne sing with Edgar Cree and orchestra on the radio.

9 April – Go to singing and Ruth is there before me. When I go in Webster says he likes my hair. Ruth mentions how much she enjoyed their recording so I say that it was lovely. He says, “Not too bad for a couple of old fogies!” Ruth goes and I sing very well indeed for a change and they both like it. Anne tries on my glasses and I try on hers and Webster’s. He has a new pair with black frames – looks most distinguished!

10 April – Go to town and buy some clothes. I meet Mary Harrison in John Orrs. Have lunch in Ansteys with Mum and then go up to Mrs S. She tells me to tell the Booths how much she enjoyed their performance on Monday evening. She says they are very great people and she remembers how excited she was at seeing them at Broadcast House in 1948. Such a good looking young couple. I go to the library with Dad at night and meet Liz Moir there.

11 April 1963 – Work and go to singing in the afternoon. Ruth has her lesson before me. I sing everything very well and tell Anne and Webster what Mrs S said about their broadcast. Webster says that I should write to the SABC and tell them how much I enjoyed their performance and perhaps they’ll ask them to do another broadcast. I promise to do so. He gives me a list of music for accompanying and says he’ll run me home after we finish at the studio each evening.

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13 April 1963 – Easter Friday. Have restful morning and we go for a run in the afternoon. I sing and play exam pieces to parents and they are impressed, contrary to the last time they listened to me. I hope all goes well.

14 April 1963 – Go into Mrs and work with Margaret and Mrs du P. Sing in the SS choir and then come home with Margaret. We see Elvis in Kid Galahad. In Great Voices Webster plays the voice of actor, John Barrymore. They went to the same tailor, and George Formby.

15 April 1963 – I work hard but am so strung up about the exam the following day that I don’t sleep all night!

16 April – Singing Exam. I meet Anne on the lift in Edinburgh Court and we go into the SS studio together. Lucille is quite nervous and makes a few mistakes. Guy Magrath is terribly sweet and apart from shaky studies my singing isn’t too bad. The questions and ear tests are a cake walk as Webster would say! Ruth sings nicely and Anne is very pleased with us. Let’s hope we do well. Afterwards Ruth and I go and have lunch together and see a silly film to relax after our ordeal.

17 April – I work at the piano and go into Mrs Sullivan’s studio where I see Svea, Margaret and Gill. We do musicianship and ear tests.

18 April – Work. Have lunch with Mum and then go to SS studio and practise hard. We see Guy McGrath leaving the studio wearing a navy bowler!

19 April – Go to Mrs S and work with Margaret. Afterwards I go to singing and Webster makes tea while Lucille sings gorgeously. I get my results after much teasing on part of Anne – 78% for Higher Local singing (with merit) which is jolly good, considering that I skipped a grade. I sing Father of Heav’n beautifully due to the elation of doing quite well and make arrangements for Monday. Ruth phones at night – she got 72% for Senior exam and Lucille got 72% for Grade 5.

[image error]Grade 8 singing report.

20 April – Piano exam. Mr Magrath remembers me from the singing exam and is a honeybunch. He tries his best to put me at my ease. I think I will pass. He says I sang well in my singing exam and he is sure I will make a good teacher. Mum phones Anne to congratulate her on my result. Anne is thrilled and says that while she’s away, “Webster will look after her.” (ie ME!) See We Joined the Navy.

21 April – Have a fairly quiet day to recover from yesterday’s excitement. We go for a run in the afternoon to find Webster’s best route home from our house via Sylvia Pass.

22 April – Go into the studio to work for Webster at last. He gives me the key to the studio and tells me I can come in at any time to practise. He also shows me where the key to Chatsworth – his name for the outside toilet – is kept! and makes me coffee. Mary H, John S, Piet van Zyl and others come and I have a glorious time playing for them and listening to Webster’s advice to them.

My mother had told me to go out at lunchtime to give Webster a chance to have a rest, so I do so and return in time for the afternoon session. He takes me home in his car and before he leaves Juno Street I ask if he would like to come to dinner with us one night and he is touched.

23 April – Go into the studio early and practise on the lovely Chappell piano before Webster arrives. During the course of the day he tells me that they wrote an autobiography called Duet and he will lend it to me to read. Doris Bolton (a fabulous singer), Lucille, and Dudley Holmes come for lessons during the morning. When I return from lunch, Webster asks what I was doing when I was out and says that I mustn’t dream of going out for lunch again but must have lunch with him in the studio. We have a long talk in the afternoon and he tells me all about holidays in Switzerland and Monte Carlo. Norma Dennis (Diane Todd’s understudy) has a lesson in the afternoon. Webster takes me home and tells me all about Lincoln and promises to bring their autobiography in on Thursday. Heavenly day!

24 April – Have lunch in Ansteys with mum. Phone Webster to ask if I may practise in the studio when he’s not there and he says, “But of course, darling. That’s what I meant when I gave you the keys. Take some tea and biscuits if you want some.” He says he got home easily last night and then, “Goodbye, darling.” I practise singing and it goes well. I go to Mrs S for a lesson. Elaine is back from her holiday and Gill is in a grumpy mood.

25 April – Work in studio. Webster arrives, complete with his autobiography, Duet. I am delighted. Colleen McMennamin is the first pupil and she sings well. The other three are pretty hopeless and Webster says it should be a boost to my ego to see how frightful they are! Takes me home in the Hillman and tells me all about how they continued writing their autobiography after the ghostwriter began putting in his own pacifist views and they had to get rid of him. He also gives me a lecture on Bel Canto singing, which merely means beautiful song. I start reading their book when I get home – sheer heaven!

26 April – I get honours for all three piano exams! I read the autobiography at the studio and am quite fascinated with it. What an eventful time they had. Webster arrives with Lucille and we have tea. Other pupils prove rather uneventful. He warns me not to laugh at one particular one. He brings me home in the car and we talk about Ruth and her depressions. He is coming to dinner on Tuesday evening – what fun. Life is heaven at the moment.

[image error]Grade 8 piano report

27 April – Webster is there when I arrive and makes coffee for us. Ruth phones to say she is sick and can’t manage in today. Quite a few people don’t come so we finish early. “The devil looks after his own,” says he! He takes me home and says that he might take me out to dinner on Monday. We have a jolly, inconsequential conversation – fun. I listen to his Great Voices at night.

28 April – Quiet Sunday. Go for a drive and listen to the villain of the piece – Leslie Green! I miss seeing my darling Webster today.

29 April – Go to studio and Webster is there and makes us coffee. We get through the morning and have lunch together. He puts his feet up after lunch and goes to sleep and snores gently. His cheeks grow pink and looks very dear, sweet and vulnerable.

Anne sends me a postcard but hasn’t written to him so he is cross. One of the pupils asks what Anne is doing while she’s away and he says, “That’s what I’d like to know!” We have pupils in the afternoon and he tells me on the way home that he intends taking me out to lunch tomorrow. He had been thinking of going to the café opposite Show Service in Jeppe Street, but if there is enough time maybe we could go to Dawson’s Hotel instead. All is heaven.

[image error]Anne’s postcard to me from Kalk Bay.

30 April – Go to the studio. Webster is there already and then Lucille, Mrs Smith and Dudley. Dudley is the last pupil before lunch. Webster tells Dudley that he is blowing the family savings and taking me out to lunch. Dudley says wistfully, “And I have to go back to the office on an apple!”

Webster takes me to lunch at Dawson’s Hotel and we have a heavenly sophisticated time there. He and Anne stayed at Dawson’s for several months when they first arrived in Johannesburg. He is rather disappointed that I refuse a drink!

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In the afternoon he goes to sleep for a while and then plays a tape of his religious songs for me and makes me cry – they are so beautiful. We have one last pupil and then he comes home to dinner with us. He has two drinks and is so sweet to me and my parents. He keeps Shandy on his knee and calls her, “my girlfriend.” He tells us lots of theatrical stories and is absolutely charming.

[image error]Shandy – “my girlfriend”!

My mother says, as he is leaving, “Thank you for looking after Jean,” and he gives me a fond glance and replies, “I think it’s Jean who’s looking after me.” He gives a short hoot of farewell as he drives over the Juno Street hill on his way home. What a heavenly day.

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EXTRACTS FROM MY TEENAGE DIARIES – MARCH 1963

1 March –  Leslie Green says on the radio that he is going on a little jaunt next month – presumably he’s referring to the little jaunt with Anne! Roselle D sings Wouldn’t It be Loverly on Stars of Tomorrow.

2 March – I go to SS studio and work with Margaret and Elaine at dictation and ear tests and sing in the choir. Webster is great at night with his Great Voices and talks about his singing pupils saying that his young friends consider him a square – sweet!

3 March – Another very grim day today. I manage to listen to Leslie G in the afternoon and phone Ruth who enjoyed Breaking Point and is still depressed over her singing.

4 March – Work. Go to SABC at night and see numerous personalities. Nameless Afrikaans woman tells me that Anne walked out on the cast of the Merry Widow in Springs a week before it was due to open but came back for the opening night! Well, she did complain about their behaviour and told me she would never produce another thing in Springs again. Ruth and I sit together and she tells me she is going to see a throat specialist on 21st of this month and if it isn’t right she’ll have to give up singing.

5 March – Work. Go to singing and I’m there early so Webster asks me straight in. Anne is sitting sewing a rug. I admire all the decorations to the studio –it looks really lovely. We have tea and I sing well and they are pleased. She says that my breathing is a bit faulty so we work at it. He puts his hands around my waist so that I can push them away with my ribs – very romantic! She says that my voice has improved beyond all bounds. He says I must get rid of the “balloon” or else he won’t come to see me when I sing – honey!

6 March – Work hard and have lunch with Mum in Ansteys. I go to Mrs S’s but she’s attending a funeral and when she returns she is too upset to give me a lesson. I talk to Gill and Elaine but we don’t do much work.

8 March – Work. Go to studio where Lucille is having a lesson and singing the Maids of Cadiz. He goes with her to put 6d in the meter. I can imagine what is going on while he’s away! I sing scales and studies well and they are pleased. He makes tea and then we do Ein Schwan which goes really well and Open thy Blue Eyes. He says my breathing is very good indeed and he can’t see a balloon today!

9 March – I go to Mrs S today and work hard. When Elaine leaves I go out with her for a breather and meet Mary Harrison – she is terribly sweet and charming. I go back and sing in the ensemble and then we see Billy Budd which is very good. Listen to Webster at night.

10 March – Go to church and Mr R preaches well. See Doreen, Shorty etc. I listen to Leslie G and the Springbok’s G&S. Ruth doesn’t phone which is a bit hurtful.

11 March – Work very hard and go to the SABC at night. Ruth tells me that the Booths simply raved about my singing and say that my voice is settling down nicely. She says that she doesn’t hate Anne any more!

12 March – Work. Go to singing and meet Roselle. Webster answers door and dashes off to buy tea in Thrupps. Anne is sweet and I sing my scales well. Webster makes tea and I sing Zion and Open Thy Blue Eyes. Webster and I decide I must do it in French. They have their certificate from their Royal Command performance appearance in 1945 on the wall. Anne says that someone was being rather derisive about them as teachers so she felt it was time to bring the certificate into the studio. It is fabulous and a real honour for them to have it.

13 March – Work and go to the library and meet Frances de Vries Robbe there. She tells me of her plans to study singing in the UK and make it her career. I have lunch in Ansteys with Mum and then go to the SS studio and have a long gruelling lesson! Evidently we are doing the piano exam on 20th of April which will work in with my accompanying for Webster very well indeed.

15 March – Work and go to singing. Webster says he’s sure Lucille won’t pass her exam. It just shows that one needs something extra apart from an excellent voice! Anne records the French pronunciation on tape and I sing scales and I Attempt from Love’s Sickness to Fly. Webster sings this for me on my tape- I’m proud to have it. Anne discusses the unfairness of the SABC in auditioning Doris Bolton, a soprano originally from Staffordshire. Webster comes down on the lift with me and discusses his teeth which he hopes to get removed soon. I go to guild at night and we have an interesting talk on blood transfusions. See Ann and Brian Stratton.

16 March – I go to SS studio and work hard with Margaret and Elaine. In the afternoon we see Madame which is rather ghastly. I listen to Webster and he is great as usual. Plays recordings by John McCormack, Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, and Anne, who is lovely.

17 March – Go to church and sit with Ann and Joan. Mr Taylor Cape (who christened me in Scotland) preaches well. The Diamonds come in the afternoon. Ruth phones and says she’s thinking of leaving the Booths after the exam. I think this is rather a pity. Evidently she cracked her head on the swimming pool last week and couldn’t go to the gala. Imagine – a year since the announcement of Drawing Room.

18 March – Work very hard. Go to SABC and Simon Swindell is very much in evidence. He says, “Night, night!” to everyone as he leaves. We have John Tyler as choirmaster tonight. He is excellent and amusing. I talk to Hester, Gill and Marie and remember to apologise for Ruth. We work hard at Creation.

19 March – Work. Go to singing in afternoon and meet Roselle on the bus. She tells me that she may be going back to the Booths next month. Webster answers the door and Anne goes out for a bit so I work with him. We go through exercises and studies. The first study drags a bit but the second is good. Anne comes back and we have tea together. She tells me how the SABC audition went for Doris. They lend me some scores to practise my sightreading for next month. He gives me Acis and Galatea and Anne says, “Won’t you be needing it soon, darling?” He replies, “I won’t be singing it again in this life – maybe in the next!”

20 March – Go to the library and lunch in Ansteys with Mum. Go up to SS studio and practise and then have long lesson with Mrs S – she says I’ve improved very much. I do ear tests with Elaine.

21 March – Go into town early and have my hair set in Ansteys by Mr Paul. I meet Doreen and Betty, have lunch with Mum and then come home and work hard at singing. It certainly doesn’t seem like a year since that heavenly Drawing Room evening.

22 March – Work. Go to studio and Webster discusses the aural tests with me and worries about how well Lucille will do in the forthcoming exams! Anne and he say that they like my hair very much. Anne tells me that Mabel Fenney is getting divorced as she now has a boyfriend in London called Maurice Perkin. Webster is mocking about this and says that it wouldn’t be so bad if his name was Perkins, but Perkin is beyond the pale! We work hard at exam pieces and they say I have nothing to worry about. Webster comes down with me on the lift and tells me that he likes a little break from the studio periodically to put money in the meter!

23 March – Go to Mrs S and work with Margaret and Elaine. Webster says on Great Voices that he was the first person to hear the test record of Jussi Bjoerling before the war – his favourite tenor.

24 March – Phone Ruth and she tells me she has to have her tonsils out at the end of the year. Anne is most upset about this as she herself had to have her tonsils out when she was in her forties. Ruth says she thinks Webster played Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair for me last night on Great Voices! Sweet, but most unlikely. We shall see each other tomorrow night at the SABC. We visit the Bullocks in the afternoon and see their new twins who are very sweet. Mr Bullock is my father’s work colleague.

25 March – Work hard and then go to the SABC at night and work hard again with Chris Lamprecht. Ruth tells me about the birthday celebrations for Caroline, and that she herself has failed 3 tests during this last week!

26 March – Work. Go into town and meet Roselle. Webster is in the studio by himself so he gives me a cuppa! Anne arrives and tells me she might have to go into hospital to have part of a diseased tonsil removed. She is very upset. Go through all exam work. Zion is the best thing I sing today. They give me two different scores for sight-reading practice. One has her old name on it – Irené Frances Eastwood.

27 March – Go to the library and lunch with Mum. Go to the SS studio where Frances runs down Anne and Webster. I give Corrie Bakker a lesson as Gill is at a funeral today. I have a gruelling lesson with Mrs S and work with Elaine.

28 March – Work hard. Leslie G mentions that he’s going to Cape Town on his jaunt with Anne soon, although he doesn’t mention her by name!

29 March – Work. Go to singing and I arrive first. We do scales to loosen my jaw. Webster arrives and they inform me that he is a “film star” at the moment in the Jim Reeves film Kimberley Jim as the innkeeper. He informs me that he has strained his shoulder on the set. We do Ein Schwan and studies and they go fairly well. Webster says I must be more abandoned! Selwyn (child following me) sings on Stars of Tomorrow.

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As the innkeeper in Kimberley Jim.

30 March – Go to town with Mum and we see the Jim Reeves crowd there. We see a film with Stanley Baker as the star – Good. Webster’s Great Voices is very good. He and Anne are doing a recital a week on Monday with the SABC concert orchestra and Edgar Cree conducting.

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EXTRACTS FROM MY TEENAGE DIARIES – FEBRUARY 1963

1 February – Work very hard at recording exam songs and pieces. Parents listen to them at night and my father is rude and hurtful about my singing – particularly Father of Heaven. I feel awful about it and cry for hours.

2 February – I go to Mrs S and do ear tests and then go to singing. I return Webster’s record and he gets the story of my father’s unkindness out of me. He tells me that his own parents were always horrible about his singing and he would never have become a singer had he listened to them. It is kind of him to compare himself to me and my poor efforts. Anne is furious about Dad’s unpleasantness and I nearly cry all over again, but don’t. She says that we’ll make a tape in the studio for him to hear. I sing, not too badly. He says I must bring the offending tape next week and let them hear it. He also says that he used to have a strong Birmingham accent but it never came over in his singing. I’m the opposite as far as Scots is concerned. I see Ruth afterwards and we see The Phantom of the Opera in the afternoon – very good.

3 February – I go to church in the morning and make arrangements with Betty for the Old Girls Reunion and My Fair Lady. Peter Marsden is most affable.

Ruth phones at night and tells me that Anne and Webster were terribly upset yesterday because my confidence had been so severely shaken and that I was so hurt. They kept saying, “Poor Jean,” and Webster said, “These damned relatives.” She says they felt awful about it and were very sorry for me, which was sweet of them and I appreciate their kindness.

4 February – I go into Mrs S’s studio to teach a child, Gail who doesn’t turn up! I come home on the bus with Gill McDade who has been doing her teaching prac. We talk theatre, which is fun.

5 February – Go to singing. Webster tells me he loved the shortbread. He has eaten some of it and still has some left. Says, “Bless you,” again and is sweet. They listen to my recording of Father of Heav’n and Anne asks me rather sharply who was playing my accompaniment. I tell her it was me. We record Father of Heav’n on my tape again and he sings it for me as it should be sung. It is so heavenly when he sings it that I want to cry. He says I must forget vowels and just think on singing the aria. Lunch in Ansteys with Mum. Dad has ‘flu when we return home – it has probably come on because of his unkindness!

6 February – I go into SS studio and work hard in the morning. I “get” Father of Heav’n! I phone Mum at lunchtime and she tells me that Webster phoned and wants me to help him in the studio for two weeks while Anne is away with Leslie Green in April. He wants me to play the piano for him! I am simply amazed and delighted at this unexpected surprise. Imagine seeing him every day for two weeks! I manage to survive ear tests with Elaine and Elsa and a lesson with Mrs Sullivan.

I come home and phone Anne who tells me that she’s got an offer to go away either on 20th or 27th April and Webster would like me to help him in the studio. I say I’d love to do it. She says we can talk about it all nearer the time, and thank you. I am thrilled to pieces. I wonder what Ruth will say.

7 February – Work hard, thinking intermittently of yesterday’s surprise with alternating delight and horror! Mum and I go to the lunch hour concert. Alfred Schenker plays the violin well.

8 February I work. Mum, Dad and I go to see Mrs P and I enjoy it just as much as I did the first time. Anne is charmingly bitchy; Webster is a honey, and Jane Fenn is sweet and amusing. I think Anne sees me in the audience but I don’t think he does – I shall know tomorrow. We have supper in the Galaxy.

9 February – Go to singing in the morning. I work with Webster and he tells me that the reason he can’t play the piano properly is his bifocals! He tells me about the music I’ll need to be able to play for the little time I’m going to help him. We do exercises and studies and when Anne appears I say how much my parents enjoyed the show. Webster says that he soaked George Moore in the second show last night. We work hard and all goes well. I see Ruth before I leave.

I go with Betty to the Old Girls Reunion at Quondam – Helena Tomes is there and Miss Mclarty talks about her trip to America. Webster’s Great Voices are good tonight – Owen Brannigan, Richard Tauber etc.

10 February – I go to church in the morning – Harvest Festival. Doreen asks me to take a class next Sunday.

I
phone Ruth in afternoon after listening to Leslie Green. She says
that Webster told her that Anne is going away with Leslie Green for
two weeks and that I’m going to help him with accompanying! She says
I must go and swim again soon – we talk for over an hour!

11 February – Work hard in the morning and go to the music library in afternoon to procure reams of music for sight reading purposes.

12 February – I go to singing. We do Ein Schwan and after the final attempt at it Webster says that it is good and I am a musician. Lucille has left a present, “To dear Uncle Boo and Aunt Anne.” – I ask you! I am made to sing in front of the mirror and halfway through I stop for some reason or other. He says, “God bless you, dear – you and Ruth should be put in a box together!” Have lunch and see Cape Fear with Mum.

13 February Work at SS studio in morning and then lunch in Rand Central. Have a lesson with Mrs S in the afternoon and work with Elaine. Talk to Gill V who is as morose as ever.

14 February – Work and lunch in Ansteys with Mum. Lunch hour concert with Bryden Thompson conducting, and Lionel Bowman as soloist is great. Edgar C, Anton H and Adelaide N are there to hear the concert. Come home and listen to Leslie Green.

15 February – Go to town with Mum and buy a lot of new clothes. Betty phones about My Fair Lady and Dad phones from Warmbaths. Webster phones later to say that Anne is sick so would I like to help him in the studio tomorrow. I say yes, for better or worse, and he says, “Don’t worry, dear. There’s nothing too difficult!” I only hope there isn’t and I can do it properly!

16 February – I go into studio to play for Webster who is very charming. My sight reading isn’t too bad. The first pupil sings Sylvia by Oley Speaks. I’m sure I’ll never forget that first song I played in the studio! One of Ruth’s songs has a difficult accompaniment but otherwise I manage fairly well. He makes me sing with Kath (on record) and we really work hard at it. Lottie (one of the pupils) says she heard me singing a few weeks ago and thought it was lovely! Lucille has an hour lesson and he makes a great fuss of her. He sings Only a Rose with her and puts his arm around her waist! This makes me feel quite jealous! He thanks me very much and says that my playing is well up to standard and I’ll do fine in April. His show of affection for Lucille dampens my good mood somewhat.

I go to the Empire to see My Fair Lady with Doreen and Betty in the afternoon and it is very good. Great Voices is very good too.

17 February I go to Sunday School and take the class. David D begs me to come again next week! Webster phones to ask me whether I will come tomorrow for three hours as Anne is still ill. I agree and he is very pleased.

Ruth phones and we discuss the happenings of yesterday. She says she adored her lesson yesterday and wishes I’d play for her all the time. She doesn’t quite know what to make of the Lucille episode. We don’t like it!

18 February – I go to the studio to play for Webster again and I get through everything fairly well. Margaret Linklater, a girl from the Orkneys is sweet. Her family run a bakery in Benoni. She tells me she’s scared of Webster. Mary Harrison from My Fair Lady has a lesson. She is an absolute scream and also sings a duet with him but there is no canoodling in that one! A tenor, John Steenkamp with a fabulous voice sings operatic arias and he thanks me very much for playing and says – rather condescendingly – that I did well.

19 February – Anne phones to ask me to come at 12.00. I do so. Lucille has a lesson before me and, despite her excellent voice is most unsuccessful! Anne says she’s not very bright musically. I sing Father of Heav’n and she says she thinks it might be a good idea for her to stay away from the studio for I have improved a lot with Webster! Webster makes me do Zion and Open thy Blue Eyes and they both go well. Anne thanks me very much for “holding the fort” while she was ill!

20 February – I work at SS studio all morning – I have to admit that it is rather a dull thud after the excitement of the past week. Have lunch in Ansteys. Mrs S saw Mrs P on Saturday and is non-committal about Anne and Webster! Unfortunately, Jane F has a broken arm and is playing Mrs Puffin wearing a plaster. Webster was trying to tell me this the other day but I didn’t quite follow what he was saying. I have an interesting piano lesson and then do more ear tests with Elaine.

21 February – There is a story in the paper about Diane Todd (who plays Eliza Doolittle) going off to the North Coast for a break. At least I know the inside story on that count. I go to town for the lunch hour concert only to find that it isn’t on this week. I feel rather disgruntled after the heaven of the past week.

23 February – I go to a ghastly performance day at Mrs Sullivan’s and to singing afterwards. They decide that I should sing Softly Awakes My Heart as a change from the exam setworks. I do this fairly well and they are pleased. I tell them about having my eyes tested and Webster says he’s not surprised because he thought I was straining them. I try on his glasses and he says that as he’s about 50 years older than me we can hardly compare our eyes with each other. Anne and he say they are simply sweating on the stage – especially him. I have a fabulous lesson and sing well. I see Ruth, sing in the SS choir and see Gypsy – a bit raucous. Listen to Webster’s Great Voices – it’s like having an old pal in the lounge – the pet!

24 February – Anne phones to ask if I should like to come at 12.00 on Tuesday and I say, “Yes, thank you.” Go to church and Gail asks me to act in another play. Mr R’s sermon is fairly good. Phone Ruth in the afternoon and she says she feels very depressed with singing and Anne and Webster. She says my singing sounded so good yesterday that she didn’t think it was me! I tell her that I’m going to sing soprano at the SABC tomorrow and she is pleased.

25 February – Work. I have my eyes tested and I am to have glasses! Go to SABC and sing soprano and have a lovely time with Ruth. Chris Lamprecht works us on the Creation and we get paid. Bryden Thompson looks in on us. At interval Ruth, Hester and I chat to one another!

26 February – I go to singing and Webster shows me all the decorations for the studio and he says that he worked yesterday wearing only underpants and overall! I sing fairly well apart from “er” vowels but Anne is in a bad mood today (Mrs Fordycey). She goes to the phone so Webster and I talk about the ear tests and Lincoln Cathedral. He is a darling and so sweet.

Ruth phones at night and we talk for an hour and cheer ourselves up!

28 February – I get my glasses today and look like a regular bluestocking. I have lunch with Mum in Ansteys and go to the concert. Bryden Thomson is simply fabulous and Philip Levy is good. I go to the library with Dad and listen to a play on the radio in which Michael Newell (who is in Mrs Puffin) acts.

EXTRACTS FROM MY TEENAGE DIARIES – JANUARY 1963

PLEASE NOTE: My full-length diaries of 1963, 1964 and 1965 were destroyed but I still have summaries of the days in 1963 and 1964 in a five-year diary. Sadly, 1965 is lost forever and could only be recalled by memory after I realised that the diaries had been destroyed. Why the diaries were destroyed is the subject of another story which I will not be sharing here!

As this series of posts only concern diaries written while I was a teenager I shall finish them on my twentieth birthday at the end of August 1963.

1 January – Have a quiet meditative morning considering New Year resolutions I probably won’t be able to keep! We see Jumbo in the afternoon. Jimmy Durante is best but it’s not a great picture. I work at night and listen to the radio.

2 January – Work in the morning and then have lunch in the Capinero with Mum. Go to music with Mrs Sullivan. Gill is leaving for Durban on Friday. We are all shocked about the sudden death of Anderson Tyrer, pictured below as conductor of the Centennial Orchestra in New Zealand in 1940.

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3 January – Work fairly hard today and listen to Leslie Green. I miss G and S at night after hearing it regularly for a whole year!

4 January – I get a lift into town from Mr McKenzie in his jag. He tells me that Penny Sage, his son, Alistair’s girlfriend, is in Europe with Holiday on Ice at the moment.

I go to singing and Webster answers the door looking rather tired. I even have to pour my own tea today. Singing goes fairly well and I learn a lot. Anne is preoccupied with their play and is very theatrical. He says, “Goodbye, dear!”

5 January – I go into Mrs S’s studio, work with Elaine and then sing in the SS ensemble. In the afternoon we see Doctor No – very good.

Webster’s new programme Great voices is lovely and he tells of Peter Dawson discovering his voice and taking him to the HMV studios for a recording audition thirty-four years ago.

6 January – Ruth phones to ask me to go and swim in her new pool tomorrow. She tells me all about Christmas and says that Webster is a honey in all circumstances but Anne is behaving in a very theatrical fashion about appearing in the play. She has put off a lot of pupils because of it but has kept us on because we are special!

7 January – Unfortunately, It is too overcast to swim today so we postpone my visit.

I go to singing and Webster tells me how tired he feels doing the play and says he likes my dress. Anne tells me all about the rehearsals. I work hard and Webster sings with me most of the time – really beautifully. I tell him how much I liked his new programme – he seems pleased about it. A really gorgeous lesson today.

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[image error]Great Voices



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8 January – Work very hard indeed today. There is a matinee of Goodnight Mrs Puffin on Saturday 26 January. I must see if I can arrange to go to it. I hope Ruth won’t be away for it.

9 January – Work hard in the morning and lunch in Ansteys with Mum. I see Gideon Fagan in the city and meet a woman from the SABC choir. I go up to Mrs S’s and work hard – she corrects my harmony.

Ruth phones in the evening about going to the swimming pool and tells me that when Webster took her into town for her lesson last Thursday morning and swore atrociously at the other drivers and drove very badly!

10 January – Go into town on the bus with Gill McD and go to Show Service with her. Ruth is waiting for me at the bus stop and we go back to her house for lunch and swim in her gorgeous kidney-shaped pool in the afternoon. Ruth is coming to visit me on Monday and I’ll meet her at 12.45. On the bus back I see Webster driving home in the opposite direction down Jan Smuts Avenue.

He phones at night, saying, “Hello, dear. This is Webster.” He tells me that Anne is terribly sick with jaundice and can I come next Saturday (a week on Saturday) instead. He says the play is hanging on the balance and he doesn’t know his lines properly.

11 January I go to the shops and then to Rhodes Park Library where I try to swot. I work in the afternoon and listen to Leslie Green. There is a picture of Anne and Webster as they hope to appear in Mrs Puffin.

[image error]Anne and Webster with their stage children.

We
go to the Carmichaels for drinks in the evening.

12 January – Go to Mrs S and work with Elaine and then sing in the ensemble. We go to see Girls with Elvis in it – childish and dull to my way of thinking!

I listen to Webster and Great Voices at night. It is lovely but how I wish he’d play some of his own records. I suppose he is too modest to do so!

13 January – I listen to the little interview with the Booths conducted by Paddy O’Byrne. They talk about their house, garden, pets and pictures. Webster sounds most sincere but Anne is a little flighty. We go for a run in the afternoon.

At night I phone to see how Anne is keeping. They are both rehearsing at the Alex so Anne must have recovered by now. Hilda tells me that she is still rather tired and weak, but better.

14 January – I go into town to fetch Ruth and meet Gill McD on the bus. I go with her to the bank. Ruth comes home and we have a lovely lunch and a most hilarious time. We play with the tape recorder and I record her singing, whistling and speaking and she is thrilled. She says quite seriously that she loves Webster! We have a wonderful time and she promises to send me a card from Rustenburg.

15 January – There is a picture of Webster and Jane Fenn (Mrs Puffin) in the paper. It is simply gorgeous.

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I
go into town and see Brian McDade. There is a picture of Anne and
Webster in the paper at night and an article (most pretentious)
called Booths at Home.

16 January – Work and lunch in Ansteys with Mum. I go up to Mrs S and do ear tests with Elsa. I have a nice lesson. Ruth phones to say that she went to the dress rehearsal of Mrs Puffin this morning. Webster wanted me to go as well but Ruth said I wouldn’t be able to come because I was working – I could slaughter her! She must have known that I would have made every effort to go to the dress rehearsal. She says it was good – light and funny. She phoned Anne tonight but Anne was nervous and offhand with her prior to the opening night of the play.

[image error]Crit from Rand Daily Mail.

17
January Lewis Sowden’s crit is good as far as the play goes but
non-committal about them. I work and phone Ruth to ask her to swop
times with me and she agrees. I’m going at 10.30 then. Oliver Walker
gives a good crit apart from criticising Webster.

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18 January – Webster phones me in the morning to thank me for my telegram and to say that the play is going well and to remind me about tomorrow. He is very sweet and charming and cheers me no end. Work fairly hard for the rest of the day.

I
listen to his Great Voices at night – very good, but he’s
the greatest voice I know so I miss hearing his own recordings.

19 January – I go to singing. Ruth has a simply ghastly lesson before me. Anne thanks me very much for the telegram. It was so sweet etc! Webster says he’s so sorry he didn’t phone me about the dress rehearsal but Ruth was very firm about telling them that I was working. We moan about her! I would have loved to go. I sing very well and they are pleased. I talk about getting old and he says, “You’re just a little girl to me, dear.” Sweet.

We
see Jigsaw with Jack Warner – very good.

20 January – I go to church and make arrangements with Betty for Saturday. I phone Ruth to thank her for changing her lesson with me yesterday. She didn’t enjoy her lesson and I’m not at all surprised!

My mother makes some shortbread for Webster’s 61st birthday tomorrow – I hope he likes it.

21 January – I go to singing and give Webster some of my mother’s shortbread to sample. He says, “Bless you,” a couple of times and Anne says, “Did you know it was his birthday?” and I say I had an inkling about it and wish him a very happy birthday. I sing well and work hard and they are pleased. I ask if I can come backstage on Saturday and they say, of course, I must come. I tell him that I’ll be cross if he doesn’t have some shortbread! I have a lovely time. He is 61 today.

22 January – Work very hard today. Leslie Green has Ivor Dennis to tea this afternoon and he talks of his experiences working with the Jack Hylton show in England – such a sweet old man.

23 January – I have lunch in Ansteys with Mummy – lovely. I meet Roselle Deavall after almost a year. Last time I saw her was on that eventful 11 April, Drawing Room. I go to Mrs S and work at ear tests with Elsa. I have a nice lesson and say I won’t be coming on Saturday due to Mrs Puffin.

24 January – I go to lunch hour concert. Anton H conducts Vincent Fritelli, the brilliant violinist – a lovely programme of Grieg, Sibelius and Saint-Saens.

[image error]Mr and Mrs Fordyce in programme of Goodnight Mrs Puffin

25 January – I have my hair set in honour of Mrs Puffin tomorrow. I listen to Dewar McCormack’s Friday at Eight – Bryden Thompson (Scottish conductor) and our Gracie.

26 January – I go to see Mrs Puffin with Betty at the Alexander Theatre in Braamfontein. We arrive quite early, and after we have coffee we look at all the gorgeous pictures of Anne and Webster in the foyer. The play is simply fabulous. They are all good – particularly Anne and Webster. It is a really good laugh and we enjoy it enormously. We go to see the Booths afterwards in their dressing room. They are very sweet. He puts his socks on as we talk of the play, his lines, his illness (the same as Gaitskell’s) and hers. They come out with us and say hello to boy in the play. He catches the same bus as us and is charming. I listen to Great Voices at night.

28 January I go to singing – Webster is wearing his ancient well-cut pinstripe suit. I sing well but without much expression. Anne says Ruth was very depressed about her sisters treatment of her today. They are cross because I didn’t want to audition for My Fair Lady. Webster sees me to door and says, “Goodbye, deeer!”

I go to the SABC at night. Our new choirmaster is called Chris Lamprecht and we start work on The Creation. Ruth tells me of her depression with her sisters and her seeming inability to sing. She wants to give it up for a while after her exam. Her eyes are red and swollen from crying.

29 January – I am not too well today but recover later. Elsa phones at night to see if I’ll go and do ear tests with her tomorrow. I say I will and will be there at two and will collect the keys from the optician.

30 January – I work and lunch in Ansteys with Mum. I go to the SS studio and see Stan who looks very ill. Elsa and I do ear tests together and Mrs S asks me to teach a child called Gail on Monday. I come home on the bus with Margaret. We are going to work together on Saturday morning.

31 January – I make a dental appoint and go to the SABC concert. Two old women are raving about Mrs Puffin and this makes me smile. Jossie B and Nohline Mitchell are the soloists. They sing excerpts from Hansel and Gretel but they hardly get any applause at all.

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EXTRACTS FROM MY TEENAGE DIARIES – DECEMBER 1962

1 December – Go to town and singing. Anne tells me that their house was struck by lightning during last night’s storm so she didn’t get to sleep till 2.00. I pay her for the music she kindly bought for me and tell her of similar lightning experience at home a few weeks ago.

We start on Zion. She says I have a tendency to drag it. She tells me they listened to the Ninth and rather enjoyed it but thought the orchestra had no verve. She says, “I’m not trying to be big and know more but the UK orchestras have more life in them.” I tell her about Leo Quayle and she says that he was doing very well in Britain and he was mad to come back here when he had so much work over there.

We do Father of Heav’n. She says it’s a most difficult aria. We alter the words of a certain part and she says that if the examiner says anything about the alteration I can always say that Sargent did it that way.

Ruth
is late and I tell Anne about Caroline’s engagement and the cocktail
party of last night. She says, “Isn’t she having a lovely time
now?” I agree.

Ruth
eventually arrives and tells us that the party was simply fabulous.
The tiles of their swimming pool are being laid today and everything
in the garden is generally very rosy.

Ruth says that I mustn’t forget to come tomorrow afternoon to the City Hall. I go back to Mrs S’s. Miss Cameron comes. I practise sight-reading with Elaine.

[image error]Caroline Ormond

We have lunch and then see The Jolson Story. Caroline O’s engagement photo is in paper. She is very attractive.

2 December – Go to City Hall for dress rehearsal. In the paper there is an article by Gary A about the two Messiahs – he thinks PE has an edge on Johanesburg because of Webster.

At interval I take Ruth and Hester to the – café and we have cold drinks. Ruth says it might be fun to see The Merry Widow in Springs and we might arrange something. I tell her about the Lord Oom Piet film and she says she’d love to see it.

We take Ruth home. While we are in that direction we pass the Booths’ little house in Craighall Park. The Anglia is in the drive so I expect he must have gone to PE with Graham B or by plane.

3 December – Go to singing. The girl before me doesn’t arrive. Anne tells me she has three mosquito bites and has to take pills for them which make her drowsy. She makes tea and then we start on Father of Heav’n once more.

She says Bill Perry was accepted by PACT. She thinks Gary A was sweet about Webster. She says the orchestra in PE is very bad so apart from the soloists our Messiah will probably be far better than the PE one. He had a terrible cold when he left on Friday and he had to sing on Saturday in Uitenhage with a male voice choir so she doesn’t know how he’ll get on.

We continue with the aria. She says that I have such a pure voice I should make a fine oratorio singer. I mention the film and she looks embarrassed and says that it’s not at all dignified and I mustn’t expect it to be. She says that people who have seen it say they look nice but that’s about all. She’s worried about the show in Springs which opens of Friday night and she vows that she will never do another one even though they pay her a fortune.

At night I go to City Hall for final dress rehearsal. We have the soloists tonight. Nohline Mitchell has a lovely (but cold) contralto. Rudi Neitz is good but (as Webster mentioned) has to go down instead of up on the high notes. Gert Potgieter has a pleasant enough tenor, but, oh goodness, the soprano, Nan Mayer is simply hopeless. She sings out of tune and everyone has to grit their teeth to bear it. When Gert P finishes his Comfort ye and Ev’ry Valley, Gill says cattily, “And how does he compare with Webster Booth?”

I say that Webster’s record is far superior to Gert P and she says, “And how many years ago did he make it? He can’t sing now. He should give up.”

I
say, “Admittedly he’s past his prime but when he was Gert P’s age
he had a voice 500 times as good.”

She
says, “I know that, but he can’t sing now.”

Iris
rudely interposes and says, “I’ve always hated his voice and I
shall record from PE to compare the two.”

Ruth,
her mother and I go over to the café and have a drink. Mrs O says
that it sounds really lovely and she’s looking forward to tomorrow
night.

Ruth and I go back and I tell her of the unpleasant remarks of Gill and company. She says we must see each other over the Christmas holidays and she will phone.

Leo
keeps us a little late but he is an absolute darling. Anton H comes
and we present Johan with a present and sing For He’s a Jolly Good
Fellow – quite the most beautiful rendering of that ditty, I
think. We all get complimentary tickets for tomorrow.

At
the car we meet Ruth and her mother so I introduce Mrs O to Dad.

4 December – Go to see Lord Oom Piet in the afternoon. They are the guest stars. The picture itself is quite amusing but I do feel sorry for them.

They are supposed to be singing at a garden party (Ah, Leave Me Not to Pine) thrown by the newly created Lord (Jamie Uys). Anne wears huge dangly earrings and Webster is wearing an evening suit with a cravat in the afternoon. They did this not long after he came out of the hospital and his chin is sunken and he doesn’t look well. Others in the cinema audience have a laugh but I see nothing amusing in it.

[image error]Ah, Leave Me Not to Pine, with Jamie Uys squirming in front of them. Disgraceful!

We
go to the City Hall at night for Messiah. Ruth is there when I
arrive and she tells me that they sent her an account because she
didn’t pay her fees on Saturday. She is angry and is going to ask
“the meaning of it!” She says they’re very hard up – doing a
film like that and taking any engagement for money. She says they
should be retired by now. “And living in a cottage in Devon,” I
add.

Our singing goes very well. Leo Quayle is fine. The hall is packed and I see the soprano Rita Roberts in the audience. Soprano stays more in tune in the first half. We get a grand reception.

At interval we see the presentation to Johan. He is leaving tomorrow. I am very sorry he is going. Ruth says her chair was collapsing during the first half and she is exhausted from holding it up She is red and nervous. We say we’ll see each other on Saturday and phone each other.

The
second half (apart from soprano soloist’s flatness) is excellent.
There is wild applause. The Hallelujah chorus is terrific.
Johan is brought on stage. Leo kisses his hands at us to signify
delight. And so ends our choir for another year.

I have certainly enjoyed my choral work in the SABC and as I look back to each event I remember happy musical occasions – the Passion and Norma bring memories of the Drawing Room and Webster kissing us; Ruth making a fool of herself by mistaking the men’s cloakroom for an exit – that certainly was a night! Stravinsky, Robert Craft and the Symphony of Psalms, the Ninth and now Messiah. Of all the conductors, I think Leo Quayle was the sweetest and best. Father sat in the front row at Messiah and adored it.

5 December – Work and lunch in Ansteys. We get rave notices from RDM and Star – the Star especially says the choir was brilliant and the best of the lot!

Go to SS studio. Don’t do too much work but have illuminating chat with Gill who finally practically discloses the story about Webster she told me partially in April – about the whisky and the ladies’ cloakroom. According to her he was making up to some woman in the ladies’ dressing room at a concert and drinking whisky – or brandy!

I
say, “Well, he’s never behaved badly with me.”

She
says, “No. You’re his bread and butter.”

I go on, “All he’s ever done is to kiss me,” and she says, “I’m not saying he did anything more than that but it’s immoral.”

I
laugh. She adds, “I don’t want to be old fashioned but I like a man
to be a gentleman all the time He’s a typical showman and I feel
sorry for his wife!”

I
must be getting cynical but the story didn’t shock me in the least.
As a matter of fact, I’d like him to kiss me again some time – I
enjoyed it!

We
part on friendly terms but Gill obviously thinks the worst of him.

Mrs
S says she thought our performance awful but the critics begged to
differ. Despite her opinion, I have a good lesson.

6 December – Go to hear the best lunch hour concert of the season – Leo Q conducts, and Adelaide Newman plays the piano most beautifully.

In the Eastern Province Newspaper, the critic says of Webster’s Elijah – that he sang with his regular superb artistry. I listen to his G and S at night. Continues with HMS Pinafore.

7 December – Go to guild and when I come home the Carmichaels from across the road are visiting. She was a singer and pianist and taught music and tells me that Webster was very involved with Kathleen Ferrier. She tells me that he has had several kidney operations, is a flirt and has led a wild life but is a wonderful singer. I like him none the less after all the damning revelations which might not even be true.

8 December – Go to singing. Hilda from St Helena answers the door. She is very well spoken and charming. Lemon is there too. Anne says The Merry Widow in Springs went very well last night but she was up till 2 every morning and on Tuesday she stayed overnight on a mine and her host had to give her a tranquilliser.

We start on Father of Heav’n and after the story about KF I feel rather embarrassed about it. To crown it all, he comes in and is charming. I ask about the oratorios and he says he had a terrible cold for Elijah but Messiah was much better. They say they knew our soprano, Nan Mayer in Britain – her father was the editor of a London Newspaper. She never got much work in Britain and must be at least 48.

I
say that I had another late night last night so that’s why I can’t
sing. She says that his coming back has upset everyone.

Do Zion and this isn’t much better. He says that it’s one of my ‘gargling’ days! She tells me that Mabel Fenney isn’t coming back to her husband and intends to stay in London and study. She says she’s probably got a boyfriend over there and after living in Europe nobody can really be expected to come back here.

Ruth
is there to hear my bad effort and promises to phone me. I don’t know
what they think I do on Friday nights.

Go
to see Friends and Neighbours at night at the Intimate Theatre
and it is a great laugh. Charles Vernon is unbelievably amusing and I
roar. Frank Douglass, Helen Braithwaite are in it too. It cheers me
up no end.

9 December – We go to Vanderbijlpark to see our old friends. We see the Alexanders – Inge is home for the weekend. They have two lovely dachshunds.

We see the Hills in passing. Mr H used to teach me music in days long ago. We pop into the Innes’s next door to them. Kathleen is now a picture of health after her terrible car accident. Sadly, she will never dance again.

We
finish up at the Watts. Mr W has been very ill with lung problems and
has been away from work.

10 December – Work hard. Anne phones in the afternoon. “Hello, Jean?” “Yes?” “Darling, this is Anne.” “Hello.” She wants me to change the time from 4.30 to 3.30. I agree – it will suit me much better.

I phone Ruth at night and we talk for 40 minutes about nothing. I tell her about Gill and she tells me about a wrapping party at her house for the Press Ball. Her father is a director in an advertising agency. She is going to the Drakensberg for the long weekend.

11 December – Go to singing and meet a little boy, Eddie who used to be in my Sunday School class with a lovely little puppy. He blushes when I stop to pat it.

When
I arrive no one answers the door and then lift opens and Webster
emerges very quietly and I get a terrible fright. He laughs at me and
says, “Really, Jean. Your nerves are bad – jumping like that!”
He imitates me. “I expect she must be phoning someone.”

We
go in and he complains to me about the heat and tells me that he’s
had a terrible thirst all day and has been drinking a lot of tea.
While he makes more tea he feeds the pigeons in a concerned fashion
and I say, “Your pets,” and he smiles at me.

Anne
is busy phoning the doctor about her ears and when she comes out of
the office she tells him to let me hear the records. He produces
Kathleen’s record first and I prepare myself for an effort in
self-control. Her singing of Father of Heav’n is quite
glorious. He remarks that she takes it rather slowly and he doesn’t
think this necessary. She says that her broad Lancashire accent comes
over very much in the way she broadens her consonants. Obviously she
wasn’t very fond of her.

I
then endeavour to sing the same aria. He makes me hold the music up
so that I don’t have to look down and swallow. I fill in a breath
mark and she says that she sees I’m left-handed. I say, “Yes,
another of my faults!” She says, “Nonsense! I’m very left-handed
and left-handed people are all infinitely more intelligent.”
“Anyway, what’s all this about faults? If we didn’t all have faults
we’d be dull!” “Yes, but I have more faults than most,” I
answer.

We
listen to Prepare Thyself and I am pleased to see that the
singer takes a breath in the middle of the long run. When it is
finished Webster sings, “And thank God that’s over!” I then sing
it and he beats time along with me. It goes quite well.

They
say they’re feeling the heat. “It used to be a dry heat that was
pleasant but now it’s very humid,” says he. “A damp, horrible
heat.”

I come home with Kathleen’s record and a huge picture of her on the cover. During the lesson, Anne mimics her accent and he says, “She was so terribly ill when she made it.”

12 December – Work in the morning and then lunch in Ansteys with Mum – very nice.

Go to SS studio. Gill is there and tells me that she is planning to go on holiday soon. We steer clear of the pet subject – I’ve had enough revelations to last me a lifetime! I have a good theory lesson with Mrs S.

13 December – Go into the library to work and meet the German cellist from the orchestra there. He tells me he is going to Cape Town for his holiday. Lunch with Mum and meet Dawn Snyman from the rink. She hasn’t been there for ages.

Lunch
hour concert – Anton H and Gé K. Not bad but latter takes a lot
out of himself.

Listen to G and S at night. He goes on with HMS Pinafore and plays He is an Englishman. He tells of broken bottles in “Dear old Dublin in those hectic revolutionary days when we sang this song.” He says that the programme finishes on the twenty-seventh. Next week he’s playing Pineapple Poll. “You can write down all the tunes you recognise,” says he.

14 December – Work and lunch in Capinero with Mum. Go to singing and Webster arrives first wearing his white sports jacket and feeling warm. He says he can’t imagine what has happened to Anne. He dropped her off at a quarter to three at the ABC shoe shop.

We
go in together and the phone rings – someone enquiring about the
musical activities at the SABC. He suggests the caller joins the
choir and says it’s run by someone called van der Merwe. He stops and
calls through to me to ask about it and I tell him that Johan has
gone overseas and I think Pieter de V is managing it now. He says to
the person on the phone, “Better phone Anton Hartman – he’s the
head boy of the SABC!” After this conversation, he says he can’t
imagine why the person phoned him when he could have phoned the SABC
directly.

He says he had to collect a package and pay 5/- for it which he thought rather a cheek. He says that since his illness he hasn’t been able to stand the heat – sweat pours off him. I make some sympathetic noises.

We
do exercises and they go so well that he says I should forget them
until nearer the time or I’ll get sick of them.

We start on the first study which he plays rather hideously. Luckily the phone rings again and Anne arrives. He returns and says to me, “Did you or I make a mistake or was it the bell?” He sits down at the piano and insists on playing for me again. We get halfway through and she intervenes by giving him a huge poke in the waist. I stop singing and he teases me, “Any excuse for you to stop when I’m playing for you. Don’t you like my accompaniment?” I have a good laugh at him.

The
studies go very well too and they are pleased. Anne says her hands
are getting stiff – probably from old age.

We start on Open Thy Blue Eyes by Massenet and she says I must sing it twice as fast. Being a love song I must put guts into it!

We
also go through I Attempt from Love’s Sickness to Fly. I say I
think it’s a bit high for me but they say it doesn’t sound strained
at all. Webster tells me it sounds very fresh.

We complain about the heat and I say I should prefer a nice fog. She says the fog was all right when she was young but not now. He tells me he felt very cold in bed last night and Lemon was shivering after his recent haircut, and now today is a killer. He told me this before Anne arrives. He doesn’t look very well with his sunken jaw, rotten teeth and the suggestion of a nervous tic at his eye.

I come home on bus with Rita Marsden and she tells me she has finished matric and is going to work in the library.

15 December – Go skating after a long absence. M skating is just the same apart from some muscular stiffness. Arthur Apfel is back teaching at the rink and Armand Perren has left. There are few there that I know. When I think of the fabulous crowd we had in Erica Batchelor’s day. Still, I enjoy it once more.

We
have lunch and then see No Man is an Island with Jeffrey
Hunter who has gorgeous blue eyes.

I hear the choir’s recording of Oranje Blanje Blou on the radio.

16 December (Day of the Covenant) Go to family service at church and then to Betty’s to listen to the two records. Kath is wonderful despite her rolling consonants. At night I listen for the long-awaited broadcast of excerpts from Messiah and Elijah from PE. The announcer states that the soloists are Monica Hunter, Joyce Scotcher and Graham Burns but he doesn’t mention Webster at all. I imagine that he has made a mistake so I listen for one of the tenor arias.

The
other soloists sing at least three solos each but not one of his
arias are played – no explanation or apology. It makes me furious.
What could have happened that they did not play one of his arias?

Imagine how he must be feeling tonight. Yet imagine what he was! Imagine him as a young man – tall, well built with dark hair and a handsome face; Britain’s wonder tenor. How awful he must feel now being spurned in this corny one-eyed country. I know what Gill and Iris will be saying.

18 December – Go to singing in the afternoon. Webster answers the door and appears quite cheerful. He tells me to help myself to a cup of tea and I clatter around with the cups.

The girl before me (Mary Harrison) is singing light songs. She’s an Australian in the cast of My Fair Lady. She sounds rather fun and being theatrical they get on well with her.

When
I go in I see that they have started to redecorate the studio –
white paper with silver motifs. I tell him that it looks lovely and
he is very pleased.

Anne
comes out and asks if I could come in the mornings while they are
rehearsing for the next play at the Alex – Goodnight Mrs Puffin.
It opens on the 16 January and goes into rehearsal on Friday.

He
says, “We haven’t done The Swan for a hell of a long time.
We had better do it.” I sing it too softly. “You are singing a
Drawing room pianissimo – sing a City Hall one,” says he.

We
do Blue Eyes and he comes and stands next to me and stares at
the music, informing me that I’ve made a mistake with one of the
notes. She says she doesn’t believe him. We do it again and he
springs on me in delight when I make the mistake. He says he knew it
was most unusual for me to make a mistake in my notation. He crows
over me in delight.

I
say I’ll fill in form for exam. She says that she’s glad she can
depend on me to do things like that. Lucille, who has also to do an
exam is quite helpless and has to have everything done for her.
Webster says that if she passes this exam he has a good mind to do it
himself! He does not appear to be particularly cast down about
omission on the oratorio programme.

19 December – Go to SS studio. Gill informs me that she had a fight with Svea and proceeds to tell me all about it in a fuming fashion. She also tells me that Iris phoned her on the evening of the PE Messiah to tell her she’d got through to it. I say, “I suppose you were both able to sit down and run Webster down together?” She says, “Oh no. He hadn’t come on yet.” She herself couldn’t get through but listened on Sunday, saying that he probably wasn’t good enough to be broadcast. I say that he got a good crit and she says, “But so did Nan Mayer.” I say, “Damn it all, He wouldn’t have sung out of tune anyway.” She says acidly, “I’ve seen them having to turn their duets into a comedy act.” I make no further comment.

After that unpleasantness, I have a good and restorative lesson with Mrs S.

I get a Christmas card from Ruth and one from Gill. Ruth’s has their address printed on it.

She
phones me in the evening. They had a lovely time in the Drakensberg
and she met a man there who did the lighting for the Merry Widow.
He didn’t like Anne but liked Webster. There were lots of fights
during the show and everyone was temperamental. He said that they are
very hard up now and can’t make much appearing in shows but producing
brings in a lot of money.

He also told her that at a party someone insulted Webster and he was so furious that he didn’t wish to stay on. Anne refused to leave and this man danced with her for the rest of the evening. If anyone had insulted my husband I would have left with him.

She tells me that Caroline has failed her B Com exams but can write supps. She says she hopes she’ll pass her own exams. She is going to her school dance tonight and isn’t looking forward to it because of all the restrictions. We make lengthy arrangements to see Lord Oom Piet on Monday seeing they’re in it and we’re going to have lunch first. I’m to meet her outside the Carlton at 1.00. It should be interesting to see what she thinks of it.

20 December – Listen to Webster at night and he plays the ballet suite Pineapple Poll. Next week is his last G and S programme.

21 December – Go into town and meet Ruth in Ansteys. We talk for a little while and then I go to the studio. Webster answers the door and complains bitterly about the heat and makes me help myself to tea. Mary departs after wishing them a happy Christmas.

We start on Father of Heav’n and this goes much better today except for my diphthongs which he imitates. We do Zion. He says I do it much more easily than the other. He wonders why.

Their
scripts are left on the piano for all in sundry to see. She asks if
she thanked me for my card. She says, “It was so sweet of you,”
to which I give a watery grin.

I wish them a happy Christmas and they wish me one too. She tells me she expects they’ll be working over Christmas with rehearsals and so on. I say hello to Ruth once more and depart in grim frame of mind.

Mr Stabler comes with a present at night and then I go carol singing with the guild. Archie and David have supps at varsity too. We have fun in my usual dull boring uninteresting way and I act gaily with pain gnawing at my heart.

22 December – I phone Ruth early in the morning. She went to a party last night and hated every moment of it and didn’t dance once. The school dance, however, was nice and she enjoyed it.

We
discuss our parents’ ages and she tells me that her mother and father
are both 50. We agree that our parents are all wonderful for their
ages. She says that Webster isn’t bad for his age but Anne is very
worried about the way he drinks. He’s not quite an alcoholic, mind
you, but he loves drinking!

The
swimming pool is finished and she says that I must go one afternoon
to swim there. It’s very quiet, for her sisters are at work and we’ll
have fun. She is so sweet. At the beginning of this year I made a
resolution to make her my friend and pass my music exams. I’ve
managed to do both, thank heaven.

We arrange to meet at a quarter to ten on Monday outside the Carlton. Unfortunately, I decline into a state of dire illness and am indisposed in a most excruciating fashion for the best part of the day.

23 December – Am ill today as well – no church, no nothing!

24 December – Go into town and buy Ruth a present. I meet her outside the Carlton. She’s a bit late but terribly apologetic so I don’t mind having to wait for her. We go to Capri and she tells me that she has not been made a prefect next year and hasn’t had her report yet. She tells me about a new boyfriend called Peter.

We
enjoy the film and have a good giggle at them. His head trembles –
I didn’t notice before – shame. His bad teeth are also very much in
evidence. She gives me a present and I give her one.

We
go to Greatermans so that she can get the tip of her shoe mended.
Caroline is going to work in the Standard Bank and continue with her
commerce degree part-time.

I take her to lunch in Ansteys. She says she prefers Webster to Anne because he’s always the same and never has moods. Her father is a partner in an advertising agency and had to work his way up from the bottom. When he came out to SA he didn’t like it but he couldn’t afford to go back to Scotland so he stuck it out. She says her parents had George Moore and his wife to lunch one day and GM drank a lot.

We have great fun and she promises to phone me after the New Year and I will be able to go out to swim at her house. We wish each other a happy Christmas and part cheerfully.

I
meet Elna H on bus. She’s still studying ballet and doing commercial
art.

Webster’s new programme Great Voices starts at 7.30 on the first Saturday of the year.

Ruth’s
present is a pair of blue slipperettes which are very sweet.

25 December – We spend a quiet Christmas day at home and enjoy a lovely Christmas dinner. In the afternoon I listen to the programme of carols of our choir which we did last year. It takes me back to the night we made that recording.

26 December -We go to His Majesty’s to see The Music Man with Robert Preston, Shirley Jones and Hermione Gingold. It is very pleasant and Robert Preston is full of energy.

27 December – Story about Goodnight Mrs Puffin and big picture of Anne and Webster who play Ma and Pa in the play.

Listen to last G and S. He plays all his favourite Sullivan music: Invocation from Iolanthe, selection from Gondoliers, the Wine song from The Rose of Persia and the Long Day Closes by the Tommy Handley Memorial Choir, “which was formed from Tommy Handley’s famous singing friends so that we could pay tribute to this great comedian.” One way of saying you’re famous! He wishes everyone a fabulous new year and invites them to join him a week on Saturday to hear his new programme, Great Voices.

28 December Go to singing in the afternoon determined to be bright and have a fabulous time. Webster answers the door and I give him a fright with my cheerful greeting, so much so that he tells me not to bother with the cold tea – he’ll make me a fresh cup later on. I chat gaily to Anne who tells me how run off their feet they are with the play but they still managed to have a lovely Christmas. I tell her that Ruth and I saw their picture and enjoyed it very much but thought Jamie Uys should have let them finish their song before he jumped in the river. They both have a great laugh at this.

Anne tells me that they went this morning to have their passports stamped as aliens and he says indignantly that they had to wait one and a half hours to have it done. I tell her we went a few months ago. We agree it would be madness to lose one’s British citizenship. Hilda, however, was not allowed to have permanent residence in this country. They’re very cross about it.

We start on Zion and I sing it very well. He brings me some tea. They tell me that they had a Christmas card from Uncle Mac who told them that poor Anderson Tyrer died on the boat home – possibly from a heart attack. Webster says rather callously, “Uncle Mac must be about 100 – I only hope he lasts long enough for you to get your diploma!”

Also, poor Bill Perry lost all his brothers and sisters in a head-on collision. He had to go to identify the bodies on Christmas eve.

She says I may either come at 10 next Thursday or 4.30 next Friday – the two times are between Ruth and me. I say that I’m sure she would like to go on Thursday and he says they might give her a lift in seeing they virtually pass her door – lucky Ruth.

I wish them a happy new year most effusively and shake Anne’s hand – she gets a surprise. I wonder what to do about him but his hand is already out ready to shake mine with a strong, firm, dependable grip – he holds it for ages. He says something about celebrating Hogmanay in joking tones and she says, presumably trying to imitate Scots accent. “Are you not having a party?” They’re going to one. “But we should really be at home learning our lines.”

I
feel quite elated when I leave today. My hand tingles with their
handshakes – ridiculous, I know!

Webster
says that he was very cold yesterday and they nearly lit the fire. He
says that last Boxing day they did light the fire and sat huddled in
front of it. She says she went out last night to do a Springbok
programme Password and had to wear winter clothes.

29 December – Death of Anderson T reported in paper. He was a famous composer and conductor. In SABC Bulletin there is another article about Great Voices, remarking on the fact that he doesn’t intend to put in his own recordings. He started off at a salary of £4 a week as a singer – and now look at him! They are to appear as Entertainers at Home in Paddy O’Byrne’s Sunday morning programme on 13 January.

30 December – Gary A says that G and S was one of the Top Ten radio programmes of the year.

Go
to church and Cecil Oberholzer takes the service. There are very few
there.

31 December –
Here
we are at the end of another year. My only real achievements were
passing the exams. Next year I have to pass my finals and earn some
money with music.

As far as personal relations go – I’ve made real friends with Ruth and I’m very happy about it. I was sorry to see the last of Peter C and Peter S. As for the Booths – they’ve caused me heartache but they’re the only ones who can make me feel elated. I am as fond of them now as I was when I first met them. I’m glad Webster got over his illness and is now prospering theatrically – I got to know Anne well during his illness and I’m grateful for that.

The SABC has helped me developing musicianship and I have enjoyed my experiences there. It is a pity that we shan’t have Johan with us next year.

It’s
been a varied and interesting year if not always a happy one. I hope
that next year, despite the hard work in store for me, will be
interesting and happy at the same time.

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