LEEDS PLAY BILLS

I was delighted to come across the website of Leeds Play Bills, where I found copies of old posters advertised for sale.  Amongst them, was this posters of Jack Parnell’s presentation from Monday, 13th December 1954.  The show was presented by Stanley Dale and included Leslie, playing piano for Tony Brent at The Empire Theatre, Leeds.   

Title:             Tony Brent, Columbia’s Sensational Singing Star

ID:                 2003911_63860721

Theatre:       The Empire

Year:             1954

Description:  Monday, 13th December, 1954.

This Week at the Empire Theatre, Stanley Dale Presents a variety of performances including: Tony Brent, Columbia’s Sensational Singing Star, with Leslie Baguley at the Piano; Gladys Morgan, ‘…Britain’s famous comedienne with her laugh & company’; Billie Anthony, ‘…the new singing star, glamorous recorder of the big sale record ‘This ‘Ole House’; Eddie Arnold, ‘…impersonating the stars’; Duo Russmar, ‘…beauty in the balance’; Syd & Paul Kaye, ‘…young laughter raisers’; Kay & Katrina, ‘…steps in rhythym’ and finally, Brian Andro, ‘…on the wire’. There will be two performances every evening, at 6.00pm and at 8.15pm. Actors include: Tony Brent, Gladys Morgan, Billie Anthony, Eddie Arnold, Kay and Katrina, Brian Andro, Syd and Paul Kaye, Duo Russmar

 “© Leeds Library and Information Service”

It has given me much pleasure to obtain this poster for our website, for all Leslie’s relatives and friends to see.  I am sure you will also love their website and to discover all the various posters they have thought to retain and have copies on sale.   Well done Leeds Library and Leondis.

Their site is making available all the playbills in the Local Studies Library collection from a wide range of Leeds Theatres, such as The City Varieties, The Grand, The Princess and the Theatre Royal.  The site also contains some circus bills, such as those from Pablo Franque’s Circus.   They also have an image by Louis Le Prince. It is claimed Le Prince filmed the first ever moving images on Leeds Bridge in 1888.

The Leeds Playbills site is part of the Leodis digitisation project funded by the New Opportunities Fund.  Leodis is a photographic archive of Leeds. It is a project delivered by Leeds Library & Information Service. All images are © Leeds Library & Information Service unless otherwise specified.

All very fascinating and well worth a look.  Go to www.leodis.net/playbills

 (LtoR) Girl unknow, Diane (just behind Leslie), Keith Grant, Elaine Dunnell (landlady of Bull Hotel, Wrotham, Kent) and Ann-Marie (her young daughter, sporting a fun hat). circa 1985, (Leslie played every Sunday lunchtime – sometime with Keith on drums).