Elton Hayes Interview

John Nelson has recently sent me a link to a fascinating interview with Elton Hayes. I have posted about this video clip before, but its worth mentioning again.

Elton Hayes in 1984

Back in 2012, Neil also made me aware of this, but unfortunately, due to the strict copyright laws by the owners, East Anglian Film Archive, I can not post the interview on here. But, for fans and admirers of the talented Elton Hayes, this is a must-see. Not only does he describe his work for Walt Disney on Treasure Island and Robin Hood, but Elton also sings a verse from the song ‘Wanderin' Star’, from the movie Paint Your Wagon.


Here is the link:  Elton Hayes Interview


The video clip is referenced as ‘Spectrun-Out of Town-Squeezbox: Elton Hayes’ and was filmed at Elton's farm in Suffolk in 1984.

Elton Hayes as Allan-a-Dale

In my opinion, Elton Hayes’s portrayal of Alan-a-Dale in Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood (1952), has never been surpassed. He was ‘made for the part’ and as the wandering minstrel, he carried the story uniquely from scene to scene, imitating the link the legend has with the balladeers that first spread the legend in medieval England.


There are over 34 pages on this blog, dedicated to Elton Hayes.  Much of the information has come to us via Geoff Waite, who has not only researched the life of Elton, but recently written a short bio in a CD compilation of his work. This is now available on the Retrospective label, from Amazon UK. 

The 64 recordings display a unique mix of various traditional English ballads performed by Elton. But, unfortunately his songs from Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952) are not featured. 

Whistle My Love by Elton Hayes

But a CD  produced on the Windyridge label as part of their ‘Variety’  series (WINDYVAR90) does include ‘ Whistle My Love ' and ‘ Riddle Dee Diddle Dee Day,’ and is available here.

An Interview with Avalon

Avalon has visited my blog several times and has recently allowed me to use some of her research on the American place-names that are linked with the legend of Robin Hood. I know that some of my regular readers were keen to know a little more about Avalon and her fascinating culture, so she has kindly let me reproduce part of an interview she had on the ‘Fly High’ blog run by Maria Grazia. This was posted on the 7th June and the full interview can be found at: http://flyhigh-by-learnonline.blogspot.com/

Avalon says:

“My family is from the Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina, which is sovereign nation. I have a shop there but I live in North Georgia which is about 3 hours from our Cherokee home.

I am the mother of two little boys who are pow wow dancers and historical re-enactors, which means we get to travel frequently. We are enrolled members of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation. I have a degree in American History and work in Native American Preservation. I am also a volunteer genealogist and the owner of a quaint antique shop located in The Great Smoky Mountains. I have a very large close-knit family. My mother is an anthropologist, my father is a large animal veterinary, and I have five siblings, seven nieces and nephews, two great nieces, and over thirty cousins. I like to hike, river raft, and hang-glide. I also love reading and history. I am interested in the Medieval Era, America's Civil War, and Native American History. And I like Ben Barnes and Richard Armitage.

My parents are history fanatics and named each of us after an historical person or place. I was named for Avalon and Michelle for Michele De Nostredame. My brothers are Tsali (Cherokee Warrior) Lancelot (Arthurian), Aramis (Musketeer) Victorio (Apache Chief), Ottawa (Native Tribe) Capulet (Shakespeare's Juliet's last name). My sisters are Nazareth (biblical) Isis (Egyptian Goddess), and Scarlett (Gone with the Wind) Josephine (for Napoleon's Josephine). And yes everyone teases us.

I am in no way an expert of the legend of Robin Hood. I think I like it because I am a dreamer, silly-hearted as some has so amply put it. I love heroes; Robin Hood, King Arthur, Jesse James, Crazy Horse; small people who sacrificed themselves to stand up against powerful tyranny.

I think I studied the legend for so long because I want proof that he existed. Native people use oral stories to tell history and I would like to think that Europeans are not that much different than us and that the legends of King Arthur and the ballads of Robin Hood originated from truth. It is sad when I hear people say they are fables used to entertain children and it is even sadder when those same people exploit Native Lore.

I have seen probably seen every version of Hood and I did not approve of the 1992 version of Robin Hood (with Kevin Costner). I am excited about Robin Hood 2010 and hope to see it soon.”

Avalon’s blog is at: http://avalon-medieval.blogspot.com/


Thank you very much Avalon, for allowing me to share this. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

An Interview with Elton Hayes

Over the last few weeks we have had a great response to information on the late Elton Hayes. This week Neil has kindly sent me a link to a fascinating television interview with the folk-singer,which includes him describing working on Treasure Island and Robin Hood for Walt Disney. He also explains how he first learnt to play his legendary small guitar.

I am sure you will be impressed by the warmth and modesty of this sadly forgotten entertainer-and look out for the moment he listens to Whistle My Love on his cassette player.

Click here to see the interview... http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/5155

An Interview With Richard Todd

In October 2006 the BBC broadcast a new series of Robin Hood. Filmed in Budapest, with a Hungarian crew, these 13 part episodes were yet another evolution of the legend. With a fairly young, mostly unknown cast, it was aimed at the early Saturday evening, family viewing slot, left vacant by the hugely successful Dr Who series. It was written by Dominic Minghella and starred Jonas Armstrong as Robin Hood, Lucy Griffiths as Maid Marian and Keith Allen as the Sheriff of Nottingham. It received mixed reviews but was successful enough to be granted a second series, which is currently in production (although filming has been held up due to Jonas Armstrong having fractured a metatarsal in his foot during a fight scene).

One of the special guests invited along by the BBC in Lincolnshire to see the pilot episode of their new series, was the man who had played Robin Hood for Walt Disney 54 years earlier, the veteran British actor Richard Todd.

This is the interview Richard Todd gave with Rod Whiting of BBC Radio Lincolnshire about making Walt Disney’s ‘The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men.’

Richard Todd: This went much against my instincts because I was an actor and you see I thought, Robin Hood, No! No! No! I don’t want to do that, hanging by my tail from trees and all that sought of thing. And Walt Disney came over to England and we had lunch together and he told me that he wanted a quick witted, quick thinking, quick moving, welter-weight. I really had a ball on that film. It was nothing like what you are able to do today. It doesn’t hold a candle to this in many ways.

Rod Whiting: What do you think about the new programme?

Richard Todd: From what I have seen it’s excellent. I told you. We couldn’t hold a candle to it. In the days when I made Robin Hood. Yeah! I think it’s extremely good. It’s very intelligent, its bright, its beautifully photographed, it has tremendous production values. Whether it will be intriguing for audiences, I wouldn’t know. As I said just now, I’m a bit old fashioned and I think I’m still a child at heart. I want to see Robin Hood! You know the Robin Hood that I have been nurturing in my mind for the odd ninety years. Or whatever it is I’ve been alive.

Rod Whiting: Not some chap with a beard then?

Richard Todd: (laughs) No! No! No! What happened to Friar Tuck? Does he come in sometime?

Rod Whiting: I think he will. I think he will at some stage.

Richard Todd: And Little John?

Rod Whiting: Yes. I think he’s about to make his appearance.

Richard Todd: Oh Good! Good!

Rod Whiting: Joan Rice was Maid Marian in your film.

Richard Todd: Yes.

Rod Whiting: And you know I was horrified to read that the biography of Joan Rice is nothing more than ‘A pert English actress....’

Richard Todd: She wasn't an actress.

Rod Whiting: Right.

Richard Todd: Poor little girl. I mean goodness knows why Walt and the others chose her. She was a waitress in a Lyons Corner House in London. She had never acted. She was a pretty little thing. She was a nice little thing. She tried her best. She did her best. It wasn’t there.

Rod Whiting: But you did have a chap called Bill Owen in the film.

Richard Todd: Oh a lot of other people that would be remembered today.

Rod Whiting: Peter Finch?

Richard Todd: Peter Finch, James Robertson Justice, James Hayter.

Rusell Crowe on making Robin Hood

The internet is buzzing lately with interviews and snapshots of the filming in England of the latest Russell Crowe movie, Robin Hood. We all have to wait until May for its release, but here is another interview with the man himself on his decision to make the film and his opinions on earlier productions. The interview is split into two parts.




I would be interested to read your opinions.

Film of the Month

These two YouTube clips from the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco were kindly sent in by Neil.   The first one advertises the fact that the Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952) was going to be the film of the month for May. I would have loved to have been there and would be interested to know if the museum had an exhibition dedicated to the movie!

The second clip is part of a fascinating interview with the late Ken Annakin (1914-2009), describing his work for Walt Disney. In this small section we hear him explain about Disney’s choice of CarmanDillon as Art Director on Robin Hood and the technique of sketching out each and every scene.


To read a longer interview with Ken Annakin on the making of Robin Hood, please click here.

Andrew de Wyntoun

St. Andrews, Fife in Scotland

Robin Hood’s activities were never recorded by a contemporary chronicler. There is no surviving evidence that suggests that anybody knew him, his family or why he was outlawed. But some chroniclers seem to have believed he existed and the earliest of these was Andrew de Wyntoun (c.1350-c.1423). Andrew was an Augustinian prior of St. Serf’s (Kinross, Scotland), a religious house set on an island in Loch Leven on Serf's Inch, and later a canon-regular of St. Andrews Augustinian priory in Fife Scotland.

Very little is known of de Wyntoun’s education or early career, but he wrote ‘The Orgynale Cronykil of Scotland' at the request of his patron Sir John of Wemyss. The subject of the 'Chronicle,' is the history of Scotland from the mythical period (including the history of angels) to the accession of James I in 1406. In his manuscript he also tells the most famous of all his stories—Macbeth and the weird sisters, and the interview between Malcolm and Macduff.

Although very few critics, down the centuries have found any poetic merit in Wyntoun’s work, it does shed very important light on material about Scotland’s history that is not found anywhere else.

Written at the age of seventy, his chronicle is a long (preserved in nine manuscripts) and prosaic vernacular compendium in octosyllabic couplets, that traces the history from a very pro-Scottish viewpoint. He is especially severe on the malpractices and war crimes of Edward I who is described as a ‘tyrand’ and the ‘curseyd’ one, in his war against the Scots. Wyntoun particularly points to the massacre at Berwick and his treatment of the national hero William Wallace.

 

                                   St. Serf's Inch, Loch Leven

 
Wyntoun’s chronicle was probably completed before 1420. He puts briefly between the years 1283 and 1285:

Litil Iohun and Robert Hude
Waythmen war commendit gud;
In Ingilwode and Bernnysdaile
Thai oyssit al this tyme thar trawale

This translates from the medieval Scots as ‘little John and Robert Hood were well praised (as) forest outlaws (waythmen, i.e., men who lie in wait/ ambushers); in this period they did their deeds in Ingilwood and Barnsdale”

The ‘tyme’ in which Wyntoun places Robin’s activities in the ‘Chronicle’ was 1283. There are two striking points in this entry. The mention of Little John at the beginning of the first line might indicate that Robin may not have been the automatic choice as leader. Or it could be that his name placed first in the line simply provided a convenient rhyme of ‘Hude’ and ‘gude.’

Also surprising is the fact that there is no mention of Nottingham or Sherwood. This may show the Scottish viewpoint, with Inglewood (English wood) a forest just south of the Scottish border in Cumberland and Barnsdale in Yorkshire on the old Roman road between London and Edinburgh. The famous hunting ground of Inglewood, stretching from Penrith to Carlisle was the location of another medieval ballad hero and outlaw, Adam Bell. It was also used as the scene for several of King Arthur’s legendary adventures, which may have influenced Wyntoun.

But Wyntoun does not seem to question that Robin Hood and Little John existed, he indicates that they were real historical outlaws, living in the decade before Wallace’s rebellion, who were widely praised. Unfortunately he supplies no indication as to what evidence he based his date on.

To read more about historical evidence behind the legend of Robin Hood, please click on the label 'Robin Hood History.'

Elton Hayes-The Forgotten Minstrel

Elton Hayes (1915-2001)

As the minstrel Allan-a-Dale, Elton Hayes led us magically through Walt Disney's live-action  movie The Story of Robin Hood in 1952. His role in the film gave him global popularity, but today he is sadly forgotten. With the help of Geoff Waite I have tried to keep Elton's memory alive and on this blog there are now many posts about his life and recording career. Below is a snippet from a magazine article I recently found from 1954 which gives us another rare snapshot of his life:

Elton Hayes has been singing to a small guitar ever since he bought a sixpenny ukulele as a school boy. The smooth easy manner in which he sings those old English ballads and folk songs has come with many years of training in the theatre.

Elton was born in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, but spent most of his school days in Leicester. His parents were both in the entertainment business - his father was in the circus and his mother was a singer.

It was natural that Elton should want to follow in his parents footsteps. He toured the country with them, and while they performed on stage, he would sit in the wings watching, and learning how show business worked.

He soon mastered the sixpenny ukulele which he bought with his pocket money, and by the time he was ten years old he could play nearly every stringed instrument.

But Elton wanted to be a straight actor. However fate turned his career in other directions. He became interested in old English folk songs and ballads.

When the war started in 1939 Elton joined the army and became a gunner in the Royal Artillery. He was posted overseas in India and decided to take his guitar with him. He was also given a commission.

While in India he became seriously ill with rheumatic fever. This was a tragedy for Elton. for his fingers began to stiffen.

One day he remembered his guitar. He took it from its case and began strumming it. And soon, after  many hours of painful effort his fingers grew more supple. He could play again. His courage had brought him through.

In 1946 Elton returned to Britain and appeared on In Town Tonight. This was a beginning. For, like thousands of other ex-serviceman, he found that he had to begin building a career again.

Just how successful he has been can be judged from the number of programmes he has appeared in on radio and television.

He has had a record spot on nearly every major radio station on the Continent and the BBC. He has appeared in his own show on television and was a permanent member of Eric Barker's Just Fancy. And of course he makes gramophone records.

When the film Robin Hood  was made in this country, the producers did not have to search far for the man to play the strolling minstrel - Elton Hayes was a  natural choice.

Elton fishing during a break from filming Robin Hood

Elton's collection of folk songs and ballads is one of the largest in Britain. How does he collect them? By listening, wherever he goes. If he hears someone humming, singing, or whistling a tune which he cannot place, he records it.

One day his agent was talking to him on the phone about a contract. Elton said:  'just a minute, I'll call you back in half-an-hour.'

When he called back he explained: 'I heard someone in the street, calling- a vendor selling fruit. I'd never heard the call he used before, so I asked him to come in, and we recorded it on my tape recorder.

Elton will play back the recording, and adapt it to his style, with words and music. The finished work will be a catchy little song with which he will charm us when he next appears on radio or television.

Because his work is connected with history, and the past, it is probably natural that his hobbies should follow a similar path. They are horse mastership, and the old English sport of fishing.

Elton is married, and lives in a luxury flat in London. But at the weekends he goes to his 350-year-old cottage in Essex, which he restored from a ruin. It is there he works on the songs he sings to a small guitar.

 

Elton Hayes

Elton was a  fascinating person and one of many people involved in The Story of Robin Hood that I would have loved to have met. One person that did meet him was Sallie Walrond and in her book, Trot on: Sixty Years of Horses she says:

When Elton Hayes came to live at Thorne Lodge I was delighted to meet him. He was a gentleman in every sense of the word, incredibly wise and with a kind but quick sense of humour and bright as a button right up until his death. I remember as a child listening to him on the radio singing The Owl and the Pussycat and seeing him as the minstrel Allan-a-Dale in a favourite Robin Hood starring Richard Todd. p.323

Trot On: Sixty Years of Horses by Sallie Walrond and Anne Grimshaw, Kenilworth Press, 2004 

There is a great deal more on this site about Elton Hayes. Please click here to see an interview with him, his discography, various articles about his life and his obituary.

Elspeth Gill (1936-2012)

Elspeth Gill with Richard Todd in 1951

I was saddened this week to learn that Elspeth Gill passed away two years ago. Her father Alex Bryce (1905-1961) was the celebrated director, producer and writer who had worked on Walt Disney's live-action movies The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952), Sword and the Rose (1953) and Rob Roy (1953).  

In July 2012 I had the great pleasure of talking to Elspeth about her visit to the set of Robin Hood with her father and was struck by her warmth and kindness (I have re-posted the interview). Since then, I have learnt a great deal more about her incredible life.

Elspeth Gill

Below is her obituary sent to me by Neil Vessey:

Elspeth Gill

(1936-2012) 

Dare To Be Different

These are the words used by Elspeth Gill who used them to describe why she should be considered for the Hackney Performance Horse of the Year Award, She was right, she was different and yes she won that award! Elspeth was a remarkable woman who led an extraordinary life, this is her story..

Elspeth Mary Macgregor Gill was born in North London in 1936 where she spent much of her childhood growing up in Scotland. Her father was a celebrated film director who worked for Walt Disney. The youngest of 4 children, Elspeth spent many of her formative years on set with her father where her love of acting was born. She adored the glamour and showmanship of acting, developing a talent that would furnish her with essential skills for her future. In contrast to the glamorous lifestyle, another one was brewing, a keen interest in the harness horse inspired by the horsedrawn delivery tradesmen such as milkmen, bakers and coalmen around the suburbs of Rickmansworth.

In 1954 she won a scholarship to RADA, THE Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where her natural gift for acting was honed. She studied alongside contemporaries such as the Oscar winning Glenda Jackson and Leonard Rossiter. On graduation, she went on to spend many years in repertory theatre performing in theatres around the country. The ability to travel around independently and adapt to the ever changing face of theatre demands set the scene for a remarkably strong woman who faced adversity and extraordinary challenges in her personal life

After meeting her first husband whilst starring as GiGi in the Wolverhampton Grand, she settled into in the rural idyll of Shropshire, They went on to have three girls, Lesley, Emily and Abbie. Elspeth married a second time and their son Daniel was born. With the children fast outgrowing their Welsh Ponies, Elspeth decided to be resourceful and break the ponies to harness, drawing on her skills learnt as a girl with the milkround! The rest they say is history!

Elspeth’s original driving pony was Tilliepronie Emperor Tilly a versatile children’s riding. With the fuel crisis in 1973 she drove her ponies to town with the kids in a governess cart to do the shopping, a feature broadcast on local television. She was then approached by the Bromsgrove driving group, joined up and opened up a whole new world of showing.

Elspeth’s passion for drama was now being put to good use in carriage driving, Her illustrious career in competitive Private Driving had just begun. With the combined smell of greaspaint…and horses, her achievements in the show ring culminated with her attaining a third place at the Horse of the year show in 1976. Third place was not good enough for Elspeth and realized that to be better, and to win, she would need to be different; to be outstanding and to be noticed, and so she turned to the aristocrat of the showring, the Hackney.

Her lifelong association with the hackneys had started. She became impassioned about of the breed and became a respected lifelong advocate of the Hackney Horse Society. Her first horse was Blue Cap John, a stunning Hackney which she had many a success with. With her constant quest for craving perfection and success in the show ring, she acquired the indomitable hackney stallion Finesse from Holland, Nessie was the love of her life, the greatest hackney of them all. To achieve her supreme goal, she called on the services of master coach-builder Philip Holder of the Wellington Carriage Company to design and build a new type of vehicle, her famous Cane Whiskey which is now on show the Redhouse Museum in Darbydale. The combination of a stunning lightweight carriage, outstanding hackney and impeccable turnout provided the desired effect, they were virtually unbeatable in the show ring and went on to win the supreme accolade, the Concours d'Elegance at HOYS in 1982. This single solitary rosette will adorn her wicker coffin to her funeral.

With a move to Cheshire, Elspeth worked her horses as commercial weddings and tourist rides. Her proximity to Manchester and the Granada television studios opened up new opportunities and returned to acting, this time with the horses and carriages in tow. She supplied carriage turnouts and horses for film, she appeared once again on screen in ITV productions such as Handel and Sherlock Homes. She commissioned John Willets from West Wales to build a hansom cab for film work for the Sherlock Homes and held a Hackney Cab license for rides around Chester. She famously performed a display for the Liverpool Taxi Cab association in a hansom cab, reversing a serpentine down a street to the astonishment of watching taxi drivers!

Elspeth’s attention to detail was revered across the country and became a well loved doyenne of the showring. The previous successful working relationship with Phillip Holder on the Cane Whisky was rekindled when she commissioned another stunning carriage, a pony Spider Phaeton to her exacting designs, which she excelled in many shows, and was often seen with her children perched precariously on the back dicky seat, usually it was her son Danny looking resplendent as the tiger boy Their glory came when they won at the British Driving Society National show and were presented to the Queen. So confident that their turnout was a show winner, Elspeth had already prepared a posy for a young Danny to present to her Majesty.

Whilst living in Dorset, Elspeth added Sunbeam Fantasia (Billy) to her yard, a stunning black Hackney Stallion who proved to be her soul mate seeing her through many a triumph and tradgedy. On return to Shropshire where she ‘retired from the show ring’, Elspeth moved to Bromdon Stables where she was able to look out from her window to see Billy staring back at her from his stable. The lure of the show ring was compelling. She made a call to Gary Docking to find a vehicle, and off to Reading she went and bought the vehicle of her dreams, the iconic Studebaker Princess Basket Phaeton. Great successes followed up and down the country. 

Undeterred by the onset of old age, Elspeth decided to travel to France and take part in the Concours d’Elegance d’Attelage de tradition at Cuts. For a 70 year old woman, a 21 year old horse a 100 year old carriage and a 30 year old battered old transit box, the team set off on an epic journey of a lifetime and yes she won again. Later that year she went on to win the Concours class at the National Carriage Driving Championships at Windsor too! 

Elspeth enjoyed all aspects of carriage driving, both Billy and her would travel all over the country taking part in various events. They even starred together in a couple of theatre productions with Equilibre with their magical performances. At the end of the 2006, their combined carriage driving exploits accrued them enough points to win the highly prestigious Hackney Performance Horse of the Year award. 

In recent years, the stresses of travel, failing health and Billy’s prolonged lameness took it’s toll, so Elspeth drew her competitive driving days to a close. Her final swansong came in 2010 when she fulfilled a lifelong dream to retrace the steps of the Reverend Henry Philpott from his journal of 1835 called "From Worcestershire to North Wales in a gig" chronicling his 11 day 260 mile adventure driving his little black mare. Her youngest daughter Abbie took time out with Elspeth to explore the route by car and when possible would bring Billy along to recreate the journey with a pony and trap. 

Elspeth was very close to her family and hugely proud of their achievements, She was especially thrilled to travel to see the Equestrian Olympics at Hong Kong in 2008 with her daughters Lesley and Emily and grandchildren. 

It was ironic that the hackney horse should offer one last page to the story of her life , sadly on the 5th June, whilst tending to her beloved Billy, she took an unfortunate fall and was taken to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital where she passed away peacefully in her sleep. Elspeth Gill was an exceptional woman, a formidable character and wonderful person, so as a fitting epilogue to one of life’s great actresses…as they say in the theatre land “Stage…Exit…Left”

Elspeth Gill on the set of Robin Hood

A few years ago both Neil and myself contacted Elspeth and she graciously shared with us some of  her memories of those days with her father while he was filming Robin Hood.

Elspeth’s father was in charge of the Second Unit, which specialised in all the action shots and fight scenes of this wonderful Disney movie. These included the ambush of the royal coach, the rescue of Scathelok in the market square and Robin’s various battles with the Sheriff. She was about sixteen years old at the time and remembers the filming very well. Below is a copy of the blog post I did after our conversation:

"At the age of sixteen, Elspeth had the enviable experience of watching the filming of Robin Hood at not only Burnham Beeches but also the huge sound stages at Denham Studios. During that period she was living in a house approximately four miles from the legendary studios. When Elspeth entered a fancy dress costume at that time, she was lucky enough to be allowed to borrow one of Richard Todd’s Robin Hood costumes. She won the contest-of course! And afterwards rode her horse all the way to the Denham Studios. The security men on the gate were apparently pre-warned of her arrival!

Although it was over sixty years ago, she could vaguely remember meeting Walt Disney and described the Art Director, Carmen Dillon, as a formidable woman. Richard Todd she said “was such a lovely, lovely, man.” He became a friend of the family and Elspeth had fond memories of Scottish dancing with him during the making of the later movie, Rob Roy. Her father, she explained, loved making those live-action Disney movies."

Alex Bryce with Richard Todd (Robin Hood)

"During the filming of the scene in which Robin Hood meets Friar Tuck (James Hayter), Richard Todd asked Elspeth to keep hold of Barron, his Great Dane. Unfortunately Baron was a great deal stronger than Elspeth and she was dragged by the huge dog downwards towards the river!"

Peter Finch as the Sheriff

"Elspeth could also remember being somewhere high up during the filming of a scene in Nottingham Town Square. But she kept feeling something hitting her body and when she looked around, she realised it was Peter Finch (Sheriff of Nottingham) throwing pebbles at her!"

It was a memorable experience for me to be able to talk to Elspeth about her fond memories of those golden days. She was a charming and remarkable woman.

Russell Crowe's Robin Hood 2010

They say that each generation gets its own particular Robin Hood, and now the 21st Century prepares to see yet another interpretation of the medieval legend about an outlaw with a bow and arrow. The Internet is red hot with video clips and interviews about 72 year old Sir Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood which gets released today! Australia is already releasing stamps showing scenes from the new film. My regular readers will be aware that during this movies long build-up, I have posted quite a few times about various stages of its production. From what I have seen from the teaser trailers, it does looks very good and I am looking forward to it.

The newspapers have been full of articles about the making of this epic, including its possible release in 3D-a sequel (if the film is successful) and on Russell Crowe’s voice training, while he was preparing for his starring role.

Crowe, 45, was born in New Zealand and brought up in Australia but will play the new role with an ‘English’ accent. Ridley Scott hired three voice coaches: Judy Dickerson, Sara Poyzer and Andrew Jack, who worked with other cast members, including Cate Blanchett, who plays Maid Marian. Veteran film director, Scott, wanted to make sure the movie sounds as well as looks ‘accurate’, so Crowe’s Robin will be pronouncing Nottingham as 'Noddinham.’

But this ridiculous fuss over ‘Robin Hood’s accent' continued today (Friday) after some papers have reported that Russell Crowe stormed out of a BBC 4 interview recorded at London’s Dorchester Hotel in Park Lane, with Mark Lawson. He apparently flipped when Lawson suggested that Crowe had ‘hints’ of Irish in his portrayal of the outlaw from ‘Nottingham.’ The New Zealander raged: “You’ve got dead ears, mate – seriously dead ears if you think that’s an Irish accent.”

Voice Coach, Sara Poyzer later insisted that she taught him the Nottinghamshire accent, and that he did a pretty good job. But according to the press, Judy Dickerson contradicted this and said she coached him to speak like someone from the Rutland area!

            Leon Unczur, Sheriff of Nottingham

Councilor Leon Unczur, the current Sheriff of Nottingham, said that Crowe’s accent was “not bad,” although, some jester, interviewed after seeing the movie thought he turned out sounding more like an Aussie doing an impression of Jim Bowen from ‘Bullseye!’

VisitBritain has teamed up with Universal Pictures and other tourism agencies to promote the film and some of its locations, which include the East Midlands, Pembrokeshire and the Ashridge Estate in Hertfordshire. VisitBritain chief executive Sandie Dawe added: "We know that 40 per cent of our potential visitors would be ‘very likely’ to visit places from films and thoroughly enjoy visiting film locations they see on the big screen."

People staying in holiday lodges in the Midlands can head to Nottingham Castle and the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre to see the exhibition ‘Robin Hood – The Movie’. They will be able to see props, costumes and also some film memorabilia. The existing forest center exhibition about the history of Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest has also been given a complete makeover.

All the exhibitions are free and throughout the month, known of course as ‘Robin Hood Month,’ medieval and Robin Hood themed events will take place all over Sherwood Forest and the surrounding communities. Nottingham County Council, together with Rufford Abbey Country Park and Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve, have thrown themselves into the celebrations with gusto!

Director Sir Ridley Scott said: "It was fundamental to the project that this motion picture was filmed in Britain – it was extremely important to catch the real essence and feeling only British locations in particular could achieve. The only way we could achieve such a successful production was with the authenticity of the locations Britain and the East Midlands had to offer.’

Russell Crowe says he has loved the story since he was a boy, “I watched the Richard Greene TV series, but when you see the episodes now, they’re a bit creaky, and it’s basically the same story every week. I saw the Errol Flynn version and the Douglas Fairbanks one when I was really young. But I really disliked ‘Prince of Thieves’ with Kevin Costner. I thought it was like a Jon Bon Jovi video clip-all the mullet hairdos.”

This was the 1991 version which is chiefly remembered for Costner’s broad American accent, the most hilariously camp Sheriff of Nottingham ever, in the form of Alan Rickman, and Morgan Freeman’s use of a telescope about 400 years before it was invented.

“I still think there has never been a cinema Robin Hood who could have really existed,” Crowe says. “When you do the research you discover that the Robin Hood story is based on 24 to 30 different real people who were born in lots of different places. So you can take the time period, use the core message and put a different take on it.”

“Part of the recalibration of Robin Hood,” Crowe continues, “is to put him into a place where he’s a real man with a real job. I wanted to take out the fairytale, superhero aspect. He’s got at least ten years of military experience behind him. Our attitude was that all the politics, the philosophical aspects, the romance, all grow out of the story of a real person.”

For the first time, Crowe is credited as a producer, he has been involved in every aspect of the production-from the script, to the costume he wears, in this case a battered tunic and a chain mail over worn leather trousers. As I reported in an earlier post, he got himself in to peak condition for the part. His daily routine included bike riding, gym time and hours learning archery on his farm near Coff’s Harbor in New South Wales.

“Archery is a beautiful thing when you get it right, Crowe explains. “I love it and I’ve continued with it. I have a collection of bows from the film and I go out back and drag out the target and shoot off 50 arrows or more for relaxation.

Crowe did most of the action scenes himself. This is movie making on a grand scale, there’s one spectacular sequence where Robin Hood leads his band to repel an invasion by the French. This scene (see my earlier post), was filmed on a beach in Pembrokeshire (which is meant to be Dover), was a nightmare to film. The tides are fast and potentially treacherous. Scott had to marshal 130 horsemen on the beach-including Crowe - and a landing craft disgorging French fighters on to the shore under a cloud of arrows. Crowe described it as ‘all anarchy, violence and adrenaline. It was intense.’

“You’re in a cavalry charge with a 130 horses going as fast as they can,” he says, “and you smash in to 500 men on the ground and have seven or eight fights. And it has to take place at exactly the right time.” According to Crowe there was about 15 people taken from the field. Some of them went to hospital but were OK.

The script is written by Brian Helgeland (LA Confidential) and it places Robin Hood in the familiar reign of Richard the Lionheart (Danny Huston) as a battle-hardened, middle-aged archer. Robin has three ‘merrie men,’ Little John (Kevin Durand), Will Scarlet (Scot Grimes) and Alan A’Dayle (Alan Doyle) along with Mark Addy as the bee-keeping, mead swilling Friar Tuck. The rather spiky widow, Marian, is played by Cate Blanchett who has to resist the amorous attentions of the Sheriff of Nottingham (Matthew Macfadyen). Richard’s newly crowned brother; King John (Oscar Isaac) defies the advice of his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine (Eileen Atkins). The design team was led by Arthur Max.

Mike (one of our Whistling Arrows), has already been to see it, and described it as: “.........gritty muddy, good action and good characters. I was not disappointed and they have left themselves wide open for a sequel because this film ends where the others begin. The sets, the thousands of props, were fantastic, dialogue gets a little hard to hear, and eventually, when the Blue Ray version is out it will be a joy to see it again.”

If you see this new version of Sir Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, please get in touch at disneysrobin@googlemail.com or comment below and let me know your opinions of it. I will be very interested to read them.

My new visitors might like to know that I regularly post; not only on the films, television series, places, ballads and images associated with Robin Hood, but also about the research into his real historical existence. I have been studying the legend for over thirty years. Please click on the Labels in the right-hand column to see the relevant posts so far. And please stick around to see plenty more!

An Interview with Ken Annakin

"I was interviewed by Perce Pearce, who was the producer and we got on very well. I hadn’t met Walt till he came over and visited the set while we were shooting.

In the planning of our picture, they were very determined that ours should be very, very true. We went up to Sherwood Forest, to Nottingham and the script was written as actually as it could be from the records. I thought we were probably making a truer picture than had been made before.

Now we didn’t have Errol Flynn, but all the things we had in the picture, were very British and very true. I mean, he [Walt] was making his picture, his version and I think we came up –with Walt’s help and insistence on truth and realism-as near as makes any matter.

He [Walt] didn’t stay very long on Robin Hood. He had a great trust in Carmen Dillon, who was responsible for the historical correctness. Everything, from costumes to sets to props and he- I’m not so sure why he was so certain- but he was dead right at having chosen her. And she did that picture and Sword and The Rose too. And his reliance was 100%. A director can’t go into every historical detail and so I would check with her also, pretty well on most things. And she would quietly be on the set and if we used a prop wrongly, she would have her say. Mine was the final say, as director, but one couldn’t have done without her.

Now Walt really-I remember him on that picture- having set the overall key of what he wanted- and seeing it was going the way he wanted- he trusted Perce Pearce as the producer, he came to trust me as the director. And I must say, I have never had Walt looking over my shoulder at anything.

I had never experienced the sketch artists and sketching a whole picture out. Now, that picture was sketched out by and approved by him. My memories of Robin Hood are basically that he visited the sets, maybe half a dozen times. He stayed probably 2 or 3 hours, maybe, while we were shooting. Not often 2 or 3 hours (laughs). And I remember that he used to go off to a place very near Denham where we were shooting. He used to go off to Beaconsfield and spend hours with the guy that had the best model railway, I think, in the world. And this was the beginning of his thoughts on Disneyland. Beaconsfield was just a place where, this guy had built up his model railway. Beaconsfield also has a studio, but the studio hasn’t any connection with that.

Then the film went back to here [America] and the whole of the post-sync work and the post production work was done. And the director was never called in to have anything you do with that. It wasn’t until I had made my fourth picture with Walt, which was Swiss Family that I was ever really allowed to do anything with the editing (laughs) or to say about the music or anything. But once you had, shot it, that was your job as the director."

Robin Hood Airport

Sean Bean and Brian Blessed

As regular readers of this blog will know, Robin Hood not only has links with Nottinghamshire but also Yorkshire - both counties continuing to claim him as their own.

In April 2005, when the Peel Group opened their £80 million airport on the former site of RAF Finningley in the borough of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, they provocatively re-named it 'Robin Hood Airport.'

This former long range nuclear bomber base is situated less than 18 miles from the legendary haunts described in one of the oldest tales about the outlaw, A Gest of Robyn Hode printed between 1492-1534.

   Robyn stode in Bernesdale,
  And lenyd hym to a tre;
  And bi hym stode Litell Johnn,
  A gode yeman was he.

The 'Barnsdale' referred to in the early ballad - the base for the outlaw's activities - is often identified with a relatively small area in South Yorkshire near The Great North Road, just north of Doncaster. Wentbridge and Saylis also appear in the stories of Robin Hood and the Potter and the Gest respectively. Legend states that his remains are buried at Kirklees Priory near Brighouse, West Yorkshire.

So two years after the airport's official opening a10-foot bronze statue of Robin Hood, sculpted by Neale Andrew was unveiled by actors Sean Bean and Brian Blessed on the first floor of the airport. Both actors are Yorkshire born and bred and proud of their roots.

During a press interview after the ceremony Sean Bean confessed that he would, "love to play Robin Hood on the big screen," he said. "It's 16 years [2007] since Kevin Costner did it - now it's my turn." 

Sean Bean with the statue of Robin Hood

Sean Bean continued:

"And we all know Robin Hood was definitely a Yorkshireman who was chased into Nottingham. They say he could be from Loxley in Sheffield - thats near where I come from. In fact Robin Hood is possibly my great, great, great, great, great, grandfather." 

Brian Blessed, who played Robin Hood's father in the Costner movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, joked that the reason they were both invited was because, " Sean is very talented, but I have the sex appeal."

Sean Bean and Brian Blessed

Blessed said:

"I was born just eight miles away in Mexborough and I lived in Goldthorpe, my dad died about a year ago - he was the oldest surviving coal miner, he was 99 - and he was thrilled to bits with this airport. It's marvellous the way it's revitalised the area. I'm very proud to be part of this."

After the airport was re-named in 2005, Nottingham  council accused Doncaster of 'jumping on the band-wagon'!

To read about Robin Hood's death at Kirklees please click here. Information about the medieval ballads Robin Hood and the Potter and the Gest of Robyn Hode can be seen here and there are many more links and in the sidebars.

Joan Rice

Information on Joan Rice is very scarce. But over the last few years, I have managed to piece together some fragmentary facts about her life, from a wide range of sources. In particular I am indebted to Maria Steyn on The Adventures of Robin Hood Message Board, who met Joan in Maidenhead in 1978 and became a friend. Maria has very kindly passed on some details of Joan’s later life. So if you are aware of any more information on this beautiful actress, or see any errors, please contact me on this site.

Dorothy Joan Rice was born in Derby, in England on the 3rd February 1930. The early years of her life were apparently spent in Abbey Street, Derby and at a school/convent in Nottingham, where according to Life magazine, she might have been training for her role as Maid Marian, playing in Sherwood Forest.
After finishing her education, the beautiful green-eyed brunette, took various jobs in London and eventually began working as a waitress in the smart uniform of a ‘corner house girl’ or Nippie, in a Lyon’s Corner House in London (possibly Marble Arch). It was while working there, that she entered a Beach Beauty competition and won the title Miss Lyons in 1949. This led to her being introduced, by a film extra, to actor and director, Harold Huth, and eventually a seven year film contract with J. Arthur Rank.

Joan’s first film role was as the character Alma, in Huth’s own production, Blackmailed (1951) alongside Dirk Bogarde, James Robertson Justice and Mai Zetterling. She then went on to play a maid called Annie, in the clever farce, One Wild Oat (1951) which also included the first screen appearance of Audrey Hepburn, another future Maid Marian.

According to Ken Annakin, Walt Disney’s only Achilles heel, during the making of Robin Hood was the casting of Joan Rice as Maid Marian. Annakin described her as an attractive brunette with a determined face and good figure, but no acting experience. Her acting ability was also criticised by the star of the film, Richard Todd in a recent radio interview. But although six other young actresses had also been screen tested, Walt Disney, would not change his mind, he said that he saw Joan as a great little ‘emoter’.

The other girls may be easier to work with, Disney said, but Joan has a quality. The camera loves her. She gets my vote. With your documentary experience it shouldn’t be beyond your skill to get a performance out of her. Treat her like a child. Spend time with her. So for Ken Annakin, the choice was made and Joan Rice was a cross, he said, he had to bear.

In April 1951 shooting began on Disney’s Story of Robin Hood (1952) and soon things became fraught between Joan Rice and Ken Annakin. In his book, So You Wanna Be A Director, Annakin describes how accident prone she was. During filming she used to ride to and from the local hotel at Denham on a bicycle and fall off nearly every single day. One evening, Annakin saw her standing forlornly by the studio door. He stopped and asked her what was wrong. Joan had smashed up her bike yet again. He offered her a lift, so she climbed in his MG Midget but during the journey she accidently dropped some ash from her cigarette and burnt a hole in one of the red leather rumble seats. The car was Annakin’s pride of his life and this incident reduced poor Joan to tears!

If there was a batten lying on the floor, she’d trip over it, and the funny thing is that nobody on the crew fancied her! Annakin said.

I had to go over dialogue with her word by word and guide her with chalk numbers on the floor, for her moves. The crew would often, shake their head and sigh audibly. One day an electrician sidled past while, while Joan was struggling with her lines and said to Ken Annakin, she’s nowt but a big, soft milk tart, Governor! Big tits and no drawers! This sent Joan off crying again and informing Annakin’s assistant, that that if he didn’t want her, she could always go back to being a waitress! But Disney had chosen her, so Ken Annakin and Joan Rice were chained irrevocably together for the rest of the show!
Despite this cruel criticism, the film, and Joan’s role as a spirited Maid Marian was a success. In fact for many, including myself, she was certainly one of the best, if not the best Maid Marian that ever graced the silver screen. So perhaps Uncle Walt was right!

Her film career took-off, and from story-book history, Joan Rice moved on to a WWII Navy drama, in her next movie, Gift Horse (1952) with Trevor Howard and Richard Attenborough, as June Mallory a Wren cipher clerk. Christmas 1952 saw Joan’s first television appearance as a guest on the BBC’s Current Release: Party Edition, transmitted on the 17th December with a whole host of top celebrities of the time, including Richard Todd, Dirk Bogarde, Trevor Howard, Jack Hawkins, Joan Collins and Petula Clark.

Joan then teamed up again with James Hayter and Bill Owen, from those Disney days, in the rather poor B movie, A Day To Remember released on 29th March 1953. Her next role was as Avis in the typical British farce Curtain Up (1953) alongside such great British talents as Margaret Rutherford and Robert Morley. The movie about a megalomaniac producer, who has to have a new play, ‘Tarnished Gold,’ ready in one week, was directed by Ralph Smart, who later worked on 18 episodes of TV’s hugely successful The Adventures of Robin Hood between 1955-1956.

It was in 1953 that Joan married film producer David Green, son of Harry Green who owned a top London club, frequented by film celebrities in the 1950’s, called Kiss Corner. Joan and Harry later had a son, Michael, but their marriage only lasted up until 1964.

Her last film of 1953 was The Steel Key, a melodrama which has Joan as the love interest, Doreen Wilson, alongside Terence Morgan as attractive rogue, Johnny O’Flynn. Between them they investigate the theft of a secret formula for hardened steel and get involved in international espionage. The movie is often described as a prototype for The Saint and was directed by Robert Baker, who later worked on that successful television series.

It was in the first movie to be filmed in Fiji, His Majesty O’Keefe, released in America on the 16th January 1954, that Joan Rice reached the pinnacle of her brief movie career. This lavish Technicolor adventure in the South Seas, featured Joan as a beautiful island girl who eventually marries Irish American, Captain David O’Keefe, a fortune hunter, played by Burt Lancaster.

After being washed up on the tiny island of Yap in the Solomon Islands, O’Keefe teaches the local islanders modern agriculture and eventually manages to establish a group of trading posts selling Copra, an oil yielding coconut pulp, across the South Seas. But not before he takes as his bride, a dusky Polynesian maiden, Dalabo aki Dali, played by Joan Rice and has a series of battles, not only with local superstitions, but with the native farmers, pirates and white Europeans.

In October 1954 Joan’s ninth movie was released, a comedy drama, The Crowded Day. In this she played Peggy Woman alongside John Gregson, Freda Jackson, and Rachael Roberts, in the five individual stories of a group of salesgirls and their boyfriends at a department store during Christmas week. A colleague from Disney’s Robin Hood, Hal Osmond, also appeared.

Sadly, Joan’s movie career was starting to fade, when she appeared as Iris, alongside much loved funny man Norman Wisdom’s second film appearance, One Good Turn(1955). Following this, Joan worked once again with Harold Huth in his ‘B Film’ as Pat Lewis in Police Dog. In 1956 she appeared in her first Hammer production, Women Without Men also known as Blonde Bait. A prison drama about three women who for various reasons decide to arrange an escape to settle things on the outside, then give themselves back up to the authorities. Joan played Cleo Thompson.

After a couple of years, Joan moved into the world of television with appearances in The New Adventures of Charlie Chan as Sybil Adams. Meanwhile in August 1958 The Long Knife was released. A melodrama about a nurse, Jill Holden, played by Joan, working in a convalescent home wrongly accused of killing several of her patients. As the story unravels, she begins her own investigation to prove her innocence and discovers that the victims were all being blackmailed. But the movie failed to have much of an impact and by November 1958 Joan moved back to the small screen, appearing alongside debonair Roger Moore in an episode of the series Ivanhoe.
June 1959 saw Joan’s appearance in the comedy film Operation Bullshine as Private Finch, with Donald Sinden and Barbara Murray. Set along the English coast at an anti aircraft station, the movie follows the mayhem caused at the base by a group of new female recruits.

After a role in an episode of the TV series The Pursuers in 1961 Joan made her last major screen appearance before her retirement from the film industry. This was in the highly rated heist movie, Payroll released in 1961. With a particularly good performances from Billie Whitelaw and Kenneth Griffith, the gritty story involves a gang of working class criminals in Newcastle, whose payroll robbery ends up with an unplanned fatality. The deceased's wife then decides to set off and track down the villains.

Joan appeared in one more television series, Zero One, aired on British television on the 9th January 1963. Then she retired from acting for nine years. She came out of retirement for a brief character role, as a grave robbers wife, in her second Hammer film, The Horror of Frankenstein in 1970.

She then set up The Joan Rice Bureau in Maidenhead, Berkshire, during the 1970’s and it was here that her office dealt with real estate and property. Joan was being cared for financially at this time by David Green and she lived in a local apartment with her much loved golden retriever called ‘Jessy’. It was in Maidenhead during 1978 that Maria Steyn met Joan Rice and Maria and has kindly informed me of Joan’s later years. They became close friends after Maria had arranged to rent an apartment through Joan’s bureau and they later met several times at Joan’s apartment. Sadly both Joan’s mother and her golden retriever passed away in 1979.

In 1984 Joan married Ken McKenzie a Salesman from Stornaway on the Isle of Lewis and they both moved to Cookham near Maidenhead. But by the start of the 1980’s Joan had been suffering with depression, which led to her drinking and smoking heavily. During this period, Maria describes Joan as looking very pale and unhealthy, with regular severe coughing fits. As time went on, Maria began to find it hard to communicate with her. Soon they lost touch.

Joan died aged 67on January 1st 1997 in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

We all have our favourite characters in the world of television and film. For me Joan Rice will always be Maid Marian.

© Clement of the Glen 2006-2007
(To read more about Joan Rice please click on the label 'Joan Rice' in the panel opposite or below).