Evelyn Millard as Lady Marian

The postcards above are of the English stage actress Evelyn Millard. She, according to A.E Wilson in his book ‘Edwardian Theatre,’ consumed plays with her grace and decorative beauty.’

We can see Evelyn as Lady Marian in a production with Lewis Waller of ‘Robin Hood’ that was later performed in front of King Edward VII at Windsor Castle in 1906. Below is the excellent full biography of this legendary stage star, reproduced in full and unaltered, courtesy of Don Gillan (Copyright), www.stagebeauty.net.

"Evelyn Millard was born in Kensington, London on 18th September 1869. She was the daughter of John Millard, a teacher of elocution at the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music. She was educated in London, and studied at the Female School of Art, 43 Queen Square, Bloomsbury. However it would be acting, not art that she would make her eventual vocation.

She made her stage debut at the Haymarket Theatre on 25th January, 1891, in a walk-on role in the third act of Henry Jones play "The Dancing Girl". She then moved on to the Theatre Royal, Margate where she came under the tutelage of Sarah Thorne. She appeared on stage there in a number of roles, including most notably 'Julia' in "The Hunchback", 'Hero' in "Much Ado About Nothing", and 'Juliet' in "Romeo and Juliet", later going on tour with Thomas Thorne.

She returned to London in December that year when she was taken on by the Gattis at the Adelphi. Leading man there at the time was William Terris, the father of Ellaline Terris, who would be sensationally murdered by a madman outside the theatre some years later. Her first role at the Adelphi was as 'Constance Cuthbertson' in the drama "The Trumpet Call". She remained at the Adelphi for almost two years appearing in numerous roles and perfecting her acting talents under the Adelphi's leading lady, Mrs Patrick Campbell.

In 1894, her reputation growing rapidly, Evelyn went on tour with George Alexander - appearing as 'Rosamund' in "Sowing the Wind", 'Dulcie' in "The Masqueraders" and 'Paula' in "The Second Mrs Tanqueray". Returning to London she continued in the latter role at the St James's theatre, and stayed on at that theatre in a succession of other roles - including creating the role of 'Cecily Cardew' in the first ever performance of Oscar Wilde's wonderfully witty comedy "The Importance of Being Earnest" which premiered on February 14th, 1895. In September that year she appeared before Queen Victoria playing the role of 'Blanche Ferriby' in a command performance of "Liberty Hall" at Balmoral, after which she continued in this role opening at the St James's.

From January 1896, she made a great success as 'The Princess Flavia' in the premiere production of "The Prisoner of Zenda", and thereby firmly established herself, if she was not already, as a recognised box-office star. In 1897 she left the St James's to join Beerbohm Tree's company, playing at Her Majesty's Theatre and on tour in several roles. Her greatest success in Tree's company being as 'Portia' in a revival of "Julius Caesar" opening in January 1898.

She had by now come to the attention of Charles Frohman, the great American theatrical manager, who then secured her services as leading lady at the Duke of York's Theatre where he had just taken over the lease. For the next three years she would be his main attraction. Among the roles she played there were 'Lady Ursula Barrington' in the comedy "The Adventure of Lady Ursula", and the title role in Jerome K. Jerome's "Miss Hobbs", both of which ran for over 200 performances, and 'Cho-Cho-San' in the British premiere of the original David Belasco "Madame Butterfly". The latter production was seen by Giacomo Puccini, who used the play as the basis for his famous opera of the same name.

In 1900 she was married to Robert Porter Coulter, and shortly thereafter took a little over a years absence from the stage during which time she gave birth to a daughter. Ursula, who would herself become an actress, was born on 20th September, 1901. Evelyn returned to the stage and the St James's in March 1902 to play 'Francesca' in the tragedy "Paolo and Francesca", and over the next few years was rarely absent from the West End stage as her career continued to blossom. She played opposite many of the best male actors of that era, particularly Lewis Waller with whom she gave many of her best performances, and appeared in many of the best classical and modern parts. There were also further command performances in November 1904, and November 1906, both times at Windsor Castle before King Edward. On the first occasion she appeared as 'Lady Mary Carlyle' in "Monsieur Beaucaire" opposite Lewis Waller, and on the second 'Lady Marian' in "Robin Hood".

In 1908 she created her own highly successful company playing at various London venues as well as on tour. Her repertory in this period included the title role in "The Adventure of Lady Ursula" in which she had made an early success, Ophelia in "Hamlet", "Madame Butterfly", 'Edith Dombey' in "Dombey and Son", 'Olivia' in "Twelfth Night", 'Queen Elizabeth' in "Drake", 'Agnes' in "David Copperfield", and others.

Then, like so many other stars of her era, her career was effectively ended by the outbreak of the Great War. Her last major role was as 'Agnes Wickfield' in "David Copperfield" at His Majesty's Theatre in December 1914, although she did make a breif reappearance to play 'Calpurnia' in the Sheakespearean Tercentenary performance of "Julius Caesar" in May 1916.

In a professional career lasting some twenty-three years she was constantly in work, only rarely appearing outside of London and unlike most other top performers never undertaking a foreign tour. A woman of great beauty and considerable acting talent she was much loved by the theatre going public and always a sure box-office attraction. Following her retirement she continued to live in London at Abingdon Court. She passed away on 9th March, 1941, aged 70.”

Don Gillan

Don Gillan’s web site is well worth a visit and can be found at http://www.stagebeauty.net/

Tales Of The Riverbank

Neil has recently sent me another fascinating picture from the making of Walt Disney’s live-action film The Story of Robin Hood. This time an official still, showing the filming of the scene in which Robin Hood (Richard Todd) climbes up the riverbank to escape from the Sheriff and his men. Two arrows then thud dangerously into the ground around him (above).

As we can see (below) the arrows were actualy fired by two expert archers (James Hemmings and George Brown) brought in by the Second Unit Director, Alex Bryce; who can be seen sitting just below the camera.

For those few seconds of film, a ‘riverbank,’ was constructed out of wood and covered in artificial greenery, alongside the River Colne in the grounds of Denham Studios. Sitting in the chair, wearing the hat, overseeing it all, can be seen the producer of the movie, Perce Pearce.

Thanks Neil!

Patrick Barr

Patrick Barr (1908-1985) is shown above in a still from the 30 minute film Murder At The Grange. Patrick played the part of Inspector John Morley in this British B Movie thriller, which was also known in the UK as Murder At The Festival.

The film was released in December 1952 - the same year he played the part of King Richard I in Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood. Later, Patrick re-created his role as Richard the Lionheart, in the much loved classic TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Disneyland High Fidelity Record

This is the original Disneyland High Fidelity LP soundtrack from the motion picture The Story of Robin Hood DQ-1249. The dramatic sleeve was printed in the U.S.A and is © 1963. On the back of the LP are five stills from the film.

The first shows Richard Todd as Robin sending a signal arrow to his men. Next we see Friar Tuck, Robin Hood and Little John, three companions in defence of righteousness and good King Richards name. The third picture shows Friar Tuck as he, becomes the unhappy beast of burden for the fun loving Robin Hood. A dramatic still from the fight scene on the bridge, between Little John and Robin is described as a rousing jousting match with the giant stranger (Little John) who will not let him pass. And lastly a publicity still, showing Robin and the lovely Maid Marian, described as being well rewarded for their services to the king.

Included below is the impressive detailed description of the album given by the seller.

"Long before Walt Disney Productions released its 1973 animated all-animal re-telling of the English classic Robin Hood, Walt Disney had already personally told the tale as a live-action feature film.

The Story Of Robin Hood was filmed on location in England, and released theatrically in 1952. A stellar cast was assembled: dashing Richard Todd was Robin Hood, lovely Joan Rice portrayed Maid Marion, James Robertson Justice appeared as Little John, and, in an early screen role, Peter Finch played the evil Sheriff of Nottingham. This British record, released in 1963, features all of these stars and more in dramatic and musical excerpts from the soundtrack of the motion picture. The adventurous tale is narrated by voice veteran Dal McKennon (narrator of the 1967 Disneyland Storyteller Record of The Jungle Book and well-known to guests of Disneyland in California as the voice telling you to "hang onto your hats and glasses" on the "wildest ride in the wilderness," Big Thunder Mountain Railroad).

Balladeer Elton Hayes, the film's Alan-a-Dale, sings the Eddie Pola - George Wyle song Riddle De Diddle De Day as well as Come Sing Low, Come Sing High and The Ballad of Robin Hood, which he co-wrote with screenplay author Lawrence Edward Watkin (the writer behind Darby O'Gill and the Little People and the Mickey Mouse Club serial Spin and Marty)."

Classic Comics Robin Hood #7

This image of a short-haired, clean-shaven 'Richard Todd' type Robin Hood, comes from what is commonly known as the 'Golden Age' of comics.

Robin Hood was published in December 1942 as the 7th edition of Albert Lewis Kanter's Classic Comics, later to be known as Classics Illustrated. It was drawn and inked by Lewis Zansky.

This long series, created in October 1941, featured adaptions of thirty-four literary novels including Robinson Crusoe, The Three Musketeers, Moby Dick and Ivanhoe. They were originally printed by Elliot Publishing Co but after the fourth issue in 1942 Kanter formed the Gilberton Company, Inc. Publication of the series finished in 1971.

Friar Tuck's Feast

Have you ever fancied trying a dish from the Middle Ages? Or tucking into food that Robin’s jolly fat Friar might have tasted? If so, here is a recipe from the time of the Norman Conquest that would have been served at the end of the Lenten Fast:

Stuffed Roast Chicken

1.5-2 kg (3-4lb) chicken
STUFFING
225g (8oz) belly pork
Yolks of 3 hard-boiled eggs
1 egg yolk
50g (2oz) currants
½ tsp ground ginger
Pinch each cinnamon and saffron

Remove skin from belly pork. Put in a pan and cover with water. Simmer for five minutes. Drain pork and allow to cool. Cut into chunks and mince finely. Mix hard-boiled egg yolks, currants and spices until blended. Stuff chicken with this mixture and roast in a medium hot oven for 1-1 ½ hours. Mix egg yolk with a little water and baste chicken from time to time to give a crisp golden skin.

We tried this about a year ago and enjoyed it. Please let me know what you think of it.

Richard Todd

This article on Richard Todd’s ‘haunting double tragedy’ appeared in ‘The Daily Mail’ on Tuesday, April 25th 2006. For me this was an incredibly revealing account by Wendy Leigh, of a man who I have greatly admired. But after reading this piece, I am sure you will, like me, be left totally in awe, of this true gentleman’s courage in the face of extreme adversity.

"Veteran actor Richard Todd is 86, [2006] but looks at least ten years younger. Handsome, blue-eyed and with the erect posture of a former military man, his manners are impeccable and his charm reminiscent of his days as a Fifties matinee idol.

The star of the Dam Busters and The Longest Day, who after two marriages ended in divorce, lives alone in a small Lincolnshire village, seems to have the quintessential elderly Englishman’s existence; living out one’s golden years in peace and happiness.

But this tranquility masks a deep sorrow that surfaces when Todd reflects on the two great tragedies of his life: the suicides of two of his four children. Suddenly the actor’s sonorous voice falters and his eyes fill with tears.

For a parent to lose one child is a tragedy. To lose two is devastating beyond words. And for both to die by their own hand must be unbearable. Yet Todd has faced both calamities with characteristic stoicism, staying true to his family motto: ‘It is necessary to live.’


As he puts it in his first interview since the second suicide: ‘It is rather like something that happens to men in war. You don’t consciously set out to do something gallant. You just do it because that is what you are there for. It is your country. And you just get on with it.’


Seven months ago Peter, Todd’s eldest son from his first marriage, shot himself in the head. He killed himself in the same way as his half-brother, Seumas, had done eight years earlier.

Peter’s mother, the actress Catherine Grant-Bogle, died nine years ago, so it fell to Todd’s second wife Virginia Mailer-Seumas’s mother-to tell Todd that a second son had taken his life.

‘I came home to find Virginia’s car outside my house.’ Todd says. ‘I saw her coming towards me and said: “What a nice surprise.” Then I saw look on her face and …’ Todd stops in mid-sentence. ‘I’m sorry,’ he says, ‘I can’t go on.’

Then regaining his composure, he continues: ‘Obviously, I knew Peter all his life and he knew more about my way of life than anybody else in existence. He was a devoted son. We shared so much together. I miss him. The word ‘terribly’ hangs in the air but Todd, with typical understatement, leaves it unsaid. Nor does he discuss the circumstances of Peter’s suicide.

But the facts are that his son’s body was found slumped in his car at 7.35 am on September 21, last year [2005], in a car park by the village hall in East Malling, Kent, where he lived with his wife, Jill.

According to reports, she had planned to leave her 53-year old husband, a racing car company executive. Peter, who used his father’s full surname of Palethorpe-Todd, left her a suicide note: ‘I’m so sorry but I cannot face life alone without you.’

His wife accepted there were problems in the marriage, but said that her husband had been badly affected by Seumas’s death: ‘He was extremely angry that Seumas did what he did,’ she told an inquest. ‘But because Peter wasn’t a chap to talk about things that inwardly affected him, it took its toll.’

She also said Peter’s drink problem had worsened since Seumas’s death.

Peter took a gun from a cupboard in their home. Jill, a director in an events management company, described her husband as ‘controlling’ and ‘obsessive.’ She said that on the night he shot himself, Peter knew that ‘time was running out’ for their marriage.

‘The following morning, I saw his bed had not been slept in and his car had gone. I phoned a family friend and she was the one who mentioned about the gun in the cupboard. When I saw it was gone, I phoned the police.’

A verdict of suicide was recorded.

Todd, who has another son, Andrew, and a daughter, Fiona, did not attend his son’s inquest. ‘Peter lived in Kent. Seumas and Andrew lived in Lincolnshire and they weren’t particularly close to Peter. But Peter had apparently said before he died that if anything happened to him he wanted to be buried with his brother.

So now Peter and Seumas are buried in the same churchyard just a few miles from Todd’s home. ‘There’s a space there for me, too. It’s my retirement home,’ says Todd. ‘I go down once or twice every week and have a chat to my boys.

‘The fact that Seumas committed suicide made it easier for me to cope with Peter’s suicide because I was more prepared. I leapt into action straight away. Funeral arrangements and all that sort of thing. Which I didn’t have the heart to do when Seumas died.’

I ask if the tragedies have challenged his faith in God. He insists not and says: ‘I am not going around saying: “Why me? Why me?” Saying “Why me?” doesn’t help.’

Has he ever been close to committing suicide himself? He looks at me uncomprehending. I pose the question again. ‘No. Not once.’ He says.

‘What helps me is accepting it, getting on with things. I try to think of the good times. If I get stuck in a morass of mourning, I switch off and think of something else. You have to. You can’t let yourself go on wallowing. You can’t let yourself do that.’

Eight years before Peter’s untimely death-on December 7 1997- Todd walked into his home, near Grantham in Lincolnshire, and saw Virginia, sitting with her back to him, shaking and moaning.

His son Andrew, ashen-faced, was speaking into the phone. ‘No, I’m afraid it’s definitely suicide,’ Todd heard him say. The actor ran to Seumas’s bedroom and found the 20-year-old lying on his bed, the butt of his 12-bore shotgun between his feet. ‘My heart stopped. He was lying on his back across his bed. This could not be my boy, my lovely Seumas, he could not really be dead.’ Todd said.

Seumas left a suicide note saying that he ‘could not cope.’

At first, Todd thought Seumas, a first-year student of politics at Nothumbria University, was suffering from financial worries. But he had only a small overdraft and was supported by loving, well-off parents.

Then an inquest into another student’s suicide suggested a link between depression and an anti-acne drug that Seumas had also taken.
‘I am convinced of it,’ Todd says. ‘There have been too many other cases for it to have been a one-off accident.

‘In 1996, my son came back from travelling for two years and he was tremendously depressed. In Australia he’d had chicken pox. He was panic-stricken because of the risk of facial scarring. And the illness probably also contributed to his melancholy.

‘He was very good looking and didn’t like having spots. The acne was very disheartening. The poor little chap didn’t stand a chance. It was an illness and it did not arise out of any unhappiness with us.

‘It reached crisis point because he was in his first year at university and the stress was too much. Young chaps don’t talk to each other about their depression, do they?

I first met Todd three-and-a-half years after Seumas’s suicide in Brighton, where he was appearing in ‘An Ideal Husband.’


At first, he avoided talking about his son but when he finally did, although his voice trembled slightly, he remained composed. He confided that he had been tempted to try to contact Seumas through a medium, but was afraid that if he did, Seumas would say: ‘Look, I am sorry I killed myself. I wish I could come back.’


Tears welling in his eyes, Todd recalled Seumas’s memorial and Andrew’s poignant words: ‘Thank you Seumas for being such a brave and great brother and friend to me. I know I didn’t deserve your love, and I will always miss you terribly.’

Todd said that he had changed since Seumas’s death: ‘I am more caring. I certainly make sure that my children know that I care about them, that I am around and know how they are getting on. I see Andrew every other weekend and am always on the phone with Peter and Fiona.’

He was putting on a brave face and trying to be optimistic, but I remember thinking that day in Brighton that it would be surprising if he lived to see his 80th birthday. Little did we know then that Peter’s suicide lay ahead.

Now, months after Peter’s death, Todd and I are having tea at his Victorian cottage. One wall is covered with photographs of his children, including Peter and Seumas; youthful, handsome, glittering with promise.

‘I changed my will today,’ Todd says flatly. ‘I had to because Peter was my executor but now he is dead.’

Later, at a nearby restaurant, we talk again about his sons. I suggest that being an actor may have helped him survive his double tragedy.

‘I’m sure it has. Because no matter what I feel at any one time, good or bad, I’m used to being other personalities. I switch from being unhappy to being reasonably happy. By switching identities, I just became somebody else.’

Todd became an actor against all odds. His mother wanted him to become a diplomat. Todd was born in Dublin into an aristocratic Anglo-Irish family that included a judge and an Army officer; his father who served in India.

His mother, a beauty with violet blue eyes and an accomplished horsewoman, committed suicide when Todd was only 19, and already at drama school in London.

‘Her death didn’t affect me terribly badly at all.’ He says. ‘I wasn’t devastated. We had been close but just before she died, we disagreed. She didn’t want me to go on the stage. There were various differences and I lost affection for her. I began to find her a bit tiresome. I felt no guilt at all.’

When war came, Todd trained at Sandhurst and served in the Parachute Regiment. He became one of the first British officers to land in France in advance of the main D-Day landings, and later fought bravely in the Battle of the Bulge.

‘It was probably the best time in my life,’ he said. ‘I had no worries, no responsibilities. My parents were dead, I wasn’t married, I had no children. I didn’t have to worry about where we were going to live. We were all prepared to die for our country.

After the war, Todd became a film actor, winning an Oscar nomination for his second film, ‘The Hasty Heart,’ co-starring Ronald Reagan, and was Britain’s highest-paid film star during the Fifties.

In 1949, he married Catherine and they had Peter and Fiona. He starred in Hitchcock’s ‘Stage Fright’ in 1950 with Marlene Dietrich.

‘She was awfully nice and taken with me,’ he says, a trifle immodestly. He met Marilyn Monroe in Hollywood while he was making ‘A Man Called Peter,’ about a Scottish pastor.

‘She wasn’t in the film, but I found her in the corner (on set) by herself, listening and crying because she was so moved by the sermons in the script.’

In a career spanning 40 films, he also met Elizabeth (‘nice thighs’) Taylor and Brigitte Bardot. He blushes and says nothing when asked if he was romantically involved with either star, and is the last acor in the universe who would ever kiss and tell.

The great love of his life is Virginia, a glamorous former model, whom he married in 1970, the year his marriage to Catherine was dissolved.

They had Andrew and Seumas but their marriage, too, ended in 1992 when Virginia divorced him, partly because she was tired of him being away working so much. Today [2006] , Virginia, 64, lives 20 miles from Todd’s village, Little Humby.

‘Virginia and I are perfectly happy,’ he says, ‘we are the best of friends. We see each other a lot, spend a lot of time together but we each have space.’

Asked if he would marry again, he says that, if he did, it would be to Virginia, adding: ‘She probably feels the same.’ Then jokingly, he says: ’I’ll wait till I’m a bit older to ask her, though. I’m a bit young.’

Even now-five years since [2006] his last appearance, in ‘An Ideal Husband,’ and two years since his last television appearance, in ‘Holby City’-Todd still receives more than 40 fan letters a week.


He works for Age Concern, supports the Royal British Legion and speaks at charity functions and military commemorations all over the country, raising huge sums for charity.

On those occasions, his appearance is invariably heralded by the rousing sounds of ‘The Dam Busters March’, the theme music of the film in which he played heroic Wing Commander Guy Gibson.

Vigorous, with a full diary and countless interests including the English countryside where, for many years, he farmed 320 acres in Oxfordshire, Todd drives himself everywhere, shops at Marks & Spencer and is catered to by an adoring personal assistant and a multitude of friends.

He clearly enjoys giving advice to the elderly he meets at Age Concern. ‘I tell them to make the most of it. I’d be nobody without some form of interest to keep me going.'

Todd needs two knee transplants but has been told he is too old to have them. He has had open-heart surgery three times, including a quadruple bypass, and, as a result, is a great fan of the NHS.

‘I’m lucky that with all the disabilities I’ve got, I’m still able to look after myself,’ he says.

Since Peter’s suicide, countless newspapers have requested an interview. He has rejected them all. He did not want payment for this interview, asking only that a donation be made to the British Legion.

As we prepare to leave the restaurant, an elderly man comes over to Todd and-almost reverentially- asks: 'May I shake your hand?’ Todd acquiesces, neither proud nor pleased, just accepting.
Just before we part, I ask him for his definition of Britain and Britishness. ‘To me, it means fairness, good sense, decency, kindness, politeness.’

Todd, at 86 [2006], the father of two sons who killed themselves, exemplifies all those virtues and more: self-discipline, dignity, and courage in the face of unthinkable tragedy.”


Wendy Leigh ‘Daily Mail’ Tuesday April 25th 2006

Colliers Magazine Advert

This advertisement for Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood comes from my own collection of memorabilia from the film. It appeared in the fifteen cent American magazine ‘Colliers’ (originally known as Colliers Weekly (1888-1957) on July 5th 1952, alongside an article on traffic jams and how ‘too many secrets spoil the atom!’

With the heading, ‘the romantic adventure of the year,’ this extremely lively and colourful page describes the movie as: ‘an all live action picture….starring Richard Todd and introducing the exciting new screen personality, Joan Rice. You’ll feel it’s excitement-live its high hearted romance as adventure’s favorite outlaw strikes at tyranny! Only Walt Disney could capture in one great picture such tumultuous fury of exciting action. Whatever your age, Walt Disney’s matchless Robin Hood will rob you of your cares-reward you with a king’s ransom in adventure!'

The Famous Battle Between Robin Hood And The Curtal Fryer

Shown above is the Broadside version of The Famous Battle between Robin Hood and the Curtal Fryer. To a new Northern Tune. This copy is held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and was printed for F. Coles, T. Vere and W. Gilbertson in about 1660.