The Annual 'Robin Hood Festival' in Sherwood Forest

The week long Robin Hood Festival, held at the Sherwood Forest Visitors Centre near Edwinstowe is a wonderful experience for young and old alike and attracts more than 50,000 visitors every year. This year was its 25th Anniversary and it ran from the 3rd to the 9th August; the 2010 festival is provisionally expected to take place from August 2nd until August 8th.

In 1997 I took my family to this annual event and we had a fantastic day out. With the legendary Sherwood Forest as a backdrop we witnessed, the archery, juggling, jousting, falconry, puppetry and the story-telling by Allan-a Dale. The open air theatre is not to be missed neither is the medieval craft stalls; seeing those craftsmen is just like stepping back in time.

During our day-out, my young son was quite excited to see an ice cream van near the Visitor Centre, so he took to his heels to join the queue. Unfortunately he slipped on the gravel and cut his knee. A young girl in medieval costume, waiting there, picked him up and comforted him. Seeing his cut knee she asked our permission to take him to Robin Hood’s camp, clean his knee and apply some medieval ointment. We said that was fine, so we followed her through the forest to Robin’s camp where she sat him in Robin’s chair and applied some first-aid from the Middle-Ages. His tears very quickly dried up and his little face was a picture. This was a day he would never forget!

At the festival, children are always keen to collect the autographs of all the characters, especially Robin and the Sheriff, but for my son, pride-of-place went to the signature of the maiden who had come to his rescue-even though as it turned out, she was the daughter of the Sheriff of Nottingham!!!

So a very special thank you to that particular young lady, whom I believe was from the re-enactment group Legends.

If you would like to see more pictures from the annual Robin Hood Festival, I thoroughly recommend Charlotte White’s website at http://www.robinhood.org.uk/rhfa.htm. Not only are there some superb pictures from all the recent festivals, also the yearly Robin Hood Pageant held at Nottingham Castle. While on her site at http://www.robinhood.org.uk/ be sure to also check out her pages on the Robin Hood films and television programmes and have a go at her excellent Silver Arrow Competition.

If you click on the label Sherwood Forest below, there is a lot more information on the history of this legendary woodland.

Burnham Beeches - Disney's 'Sherwood Forest'

Above is a map of the beautiful Burnham Beeches. I have marked in red the areas that were used by Walt Disney’s film crew during the making of the Story of Robin Hood in 1951. Outlined is Mendelssohn’s Slope, where many scenes were filmed, including the death of Robin’s father. Also Middle Pond, where Robin (Richard Todd) and Marian (Joan Rice) took their romantic evening stroll, accompanied by Friar Tuck (James Hayter) and Allan a Dale (Elton Hayes) singing ‘Whistle My Love.’
Burnham Beeches was the location chosen to be ‘Sherwood Forest,’ not only because of its close proximity to Denham Studios (12 miles approx.), where two of the huge sound stages were used, but also because of its amazing ancient woodland that was ideal as a backdrop to this classic tale. I have noticed a number of film web sites state that Disney’s live-action movie was the only Robin Hood tale to be filmed in Sherwood Forest. This in incorrect, but shows what a good choice Burnham Beeches was.
My wife and I visited Burnham in April and were stunned by the breathtaking scenery, it is no wonder film and television crews have been queuing up to shoot scenes in various areas of the forest since 1946. I thoroughly recommend a visit, particularly to our band of Whistling Arrows. So if you do make the trip, please send in some photos from your visit and I will be pleased to post them on this site.

Denham and Pinewood Letter Heading

Neil has posted to me, yet another fascinating item from his collection. Above is an original letter heading from the legendary Denham Studios in Uxbridge, Middlesex. It was at that massive film complex in 1951 that Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood was filmed-the last major feature to be produced there.

It was originally built by the Hungarian impresario, Alexander Korda (1893-1956) and some of Britain’s most memorable films were produced there. But sadly its size was its eventual downfall and after the infamous film companies crash of 1937 Prudential stepped in and offered Denham Studios as a going concern to Charles Boot and J. Arthur Rank. Korda’s control of his ‘dream factory’ was effectively taken off his hands as Denham merged with Pinewood.

I am not sure of the approximate date of Neil’s letter heading, but as you can see Denham Studios was by then already linked with Pinewood.

In 1977 the site of Denham Studios was sold to a developer and demolished by British Land for construction of an industrial park.

If you click on the label Denham Studios you can read much more about the making of Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood at Denham and the glorious history of Korda’s ‘dream factory.’

Joan Rice and Richard Todd

Joan Rice: From Lyons 'Nippy' to Film Star

Over the last few years, I have been researching the life of the British actress Joan Rice (1930-1997). Derby born Joan was brought up in a Nottingham convent and worked for a while as a ‘Nippy’ waitress at the Lyons Corner House in the Strand, London. After winning a ‘Miss Lyons’ beauty contest in 1949 she was plucked from obscurity and eventually became Walt Disney’s personal choice for the role of Maid Marian in his English Technicolor masterpiece, The Story of Robin Hood (1952). Joan went on to prove Walt Disney correct in his choice and portrayed, what is agreed by many critics, the best Maid Marian of all time.

The information and pictures from her life that I have pieced together and posted on here, have gradually found their way on various websites around the world, which is quite gratifying. Perhaps now she will get some of the credit she deserves. But, there still remain some details about her life that I would like to uncover. So recently I contacted the Lyons website at http://kzwp.com/lyons/index.htm to see if they had any records of Joan’s employment as a Nippy waitress. This was the informative email I received:

“Hello Clement,
I regret to say that we do not have any records of employment of former employees. The website you have viewed is privately funded and receives no sponsorship whatsoever.

However, I can confirm that Joan Rice was a former waitress (Nippy) employed at the Strand Corner House. She was Miss Lyons in 1949 the selection judges being John McCallum and Ann Crawford as well as Isidore Gluckstein (President of the Company) and W.I. Brown (Company Director). The judging was view by the Norwegian Beauty Queen, Lillemor Helver the 'Princess of Oslo'.

The 24 finalists wore different coloured swimsuits and then changed to identical white Jantsen costumes for the final judging at the Company's outdoor swimming pool at their sports ground at Sudbury. The two runners up were Terry Beare from the Richmond Teashop and Beatrice Morgan of the Catering Office.

Joan Rice learned to act in a convent school, where the nuns produced half-a-dozen plays each year.

Joan was put under contract in 1950 and her agents secured a role for her in Blackmailed followed by the screen version of the farce, One Wild Oat. She also starred in, Robin Hood, Gift Horse, His Majesty's O'Keefe, The Steel Key, A Day to Remember, The Crowded Day, One Good Turn, Police Dog, Women Without Men, The Long Knife, Operation Bullshine, Payroll and The Horror of Frankenstein. I hope this is of some help."

Peter Bird

I would like to thank Peter for sending me this fascinating information and recommend a visit to his Lyons website at http://kzwp.com/lyons/index.htm.

To read more about Joan, please click on the label marked Joan Rice.

Jessie Marsh's Story of Robin Hood

The Story of Robin Hood was the first Walt Disney live-action movie to be adapted to a comic strip. This was yet another way in which Disney was able to advertise his new releases and keep the film fresh in the audiences mind. Above is the original Sunday Strip ink drawing, before colorization, by the comic book artist and animator Jesse Mace Marsh.

Jesse was born in Florence, Alabama on July 27th 1907 his father was a small business contractor. From a very young age, Jessie had an interest in art and studied artists he admired in the local library and the museums. He was a self-taught and aspired to be a fine arts painter.

When Jessie was twelve years old his father moved the family to California, where in 1939 his son’s talents were first noticed and used by the Walt Disney Studio. He was involved in creating the studio’s animated classics, such as Pinocchio and Fantasia, but by 1945 he had also joined some fellow Disney artists in freelancing at Western Publishing.

1n 1947 he began drawing his main claim to fame - the Tarzan Comic for Dell (later Gold Key Comics), from the comfort of his new studio at his home. Other strips were created there, including Gene Autry, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett and many more.

But he also remained intermittently working for Disney, which included drawing their Sunday newspaper strip that usually featured the current Disney movie as a tie-in. His first was The Story of Robin Hood which had been released in America a few weeks earlier. He began Robin Hood on July 13th 1952 through until December 28th 1952 and worked alongside the strip writer Frank Reilly.

Jessie remained as a staff artist for Western Publishing, often producing over a 100 pages a month, until 1965 when diabetes was seriously affecting his eye sight. Jessie sadly passed away on April 28, 1966.

I expect many of you will be keen to see more of this comic strip and Mace’s fine quality art work. So stay tuned!

Jonas Armstrong's Last Arrow

The Guardian announced-“Fewer than 2 million viewers tuned in to BBC2 recently to watch Robin Hood meet a violent end, murdered by a sword tipped with poison, after disposing of his old enemy the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Now BBC executives have announced that the show itself has also been killed. BBC executives will not re-commission Robin Hood, which starred Jonas Armstrong as the legendary outlaw and Keith Allen as the Sheriff of Nottingham, after three series and 39 episodes.”

As I have said quite often on this blog, I think it was an opportunity that was missed by the BBC. In the past they have produced such sumptuous classic productions, but this sorry tale was a lesson in how NOT to treat our literary heritage. The talent was available, but the story-lines ranged from weak to downright poor and in the end the show disintegrated before our very eyes.

Below is a rather harsh but amusing article taken from The Sun newspaper on Friday November
10th 2006. It is written by Ally Ross during the start of the first series:

Robin Steals Poor Viewers’ Will To Live.

Stick a bunch of monkeys in a room with a typewriter and they’ll eventually come up with something Shakespeare could’ve written. Stick a bunch of BBC employees in a room with a typewriter and they’ll immediately come up with something a monkey could’ve written. Robin Hood. Or Ro-Bin Laden as I’ve come to think of the little twerp. A fantastic story that’s thrilled generations and, even in the school playground, is almost impossible to screw up. You’d imagine.
Though, by crikey, Auntie’s tested that theory to the absolute limit with this one. THE best reason for watching The X Factor on Saturday.

A series that always looked and felt wrong. Robin was a weedy student. The Sheriff of Nottingham appeared to be Billy Joel and Marian was wearing full make-up.

But then just to cut off all escape routes, Auntie sealed its fate by saddling a pacifist Robin Hood with an agenda and script that was horribly, unforgivably, comically Left-wing. And absolutely bloody awful.

An unfolding embarrassment it’s been. From episode one and two, when the Sheriff launched his “war on terror” (you get their drift?). Through episodes three and four, when Robin suddenly started spouting chunks of the Koran. To complete meltdown last Saturday.

Robin Hood And The Silver Arrow. A simple heroic tale. Until the Beeb get hold of it and we learn it’s all been sparked by a medieval miners’ strike and the Sheroff’s (get this) had to “introduce new security measures,” because of the arrival of Turkish slave labourers, led by a cross-dressing feminist Muslim healer. As they so often were in those “human trafficking” days of yore.
Upshot?
The silver arrow story was utterly screwed.
However, just about every right-on box was successfully ticked and we had clanky-as-hell Guardian dialogue to match thank you very much. With clankiest of the night award surely going to this corker from Maid Marian.

“I couldn’t go to war. But I decided I could go to war against poverty.”

And you mark my words, the smug bint’ll be handing out “MAKE PEASANTRY HISTORY” bracelets by the end of the series. Unless, that is, Sir Guy of Gisbourne introduces legislation to enforce ID scrolls.

‘Cos seriously, Robin Hood could actually get that nutty. As the shock of this series hasn’t been discovering the BBC is institutionally Left-wing. We knew that. It’s been discovering that the Beeb’s also institutionally arrogant and stupid enough to think it can clamp every little bit of its PC agenda on to a prime-time, family show without some of the audience noticing and getting mightily hacked off.

Still, the facts must speak for themselves. And although over two million people have for whatever reason, already turned Robin Hood off, six million remain. Meaning, there will probably be a second series. So, guess all I can do is hope Auntie tones down the political guff, topical references and trendy haircuts (which will date the show more brutally than Errol Flynn’s version). Or else just suggest a more honest, PC title than the merry men thing. Something like this would do.
Robin Hood And His Non Gender Specific Ethnically Diverse Collective Of Crisis Management Officers. “Working for a fairer Nottingham."

(Ally Ross On TV, The Sun, Friday November 10 2006)

James Hayter as Friar Tuck

This colourful publicity still of James Hayter as Friar Tuck in Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood (1952) was sent to me by Neil.

He said:

“The picture I have, is scanned from an Australian book called the Little Golden Book with a copyright of 1973 - twenty one years after the film release.
As someone in business myself over many years where marketing plays a very important role, I am so impressed and surprised by the marketing ability of Walt Disney on a world scale, long before the internet days which have made things easier in that regard.”

He continues:

“I have been away in Dorset for a week or more and in one shop browsing through the 'Films on Video' books I looked up one of the comments on this film. It stated among other things that this film must lay claim to being the finest Technicolor film ever made in England. I would agree with that.”

And I would second that Neil!

At the beginning of Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood, a book opens to reveal an illustration of Huntingdon Manor; from that moment on, we are treated to a film that is beautifully painted with a sparkling array of Technicolor hues. Every scene has a sumptuous picture-book quality that is perfectly demonstrated in the scene above.

To read more about the actor James Hayter or the legend of Friar Tuck, please click on the labels below.

The King's Great Way

I just had to post this wonderfully evocative picture of part of the ‘The Kings Great Way” in Thieve's Wood, Sherwood Forest. Permission to reproduce it was given to me by Robert Henshaw, nephew of Nottinghamshire’s famous author and researcher into Robin Hood, Jim Lees. Robert has continued his uncle’s work and hopes to publish his findings in the future.

Facts about ‘The King’s Great Way’ are rather sketchy, but it was a major medieval highway which ran from London via Nottingham and Mansfield to York. It was an ideal place for outlaws and thieves to ambush wealthy travelers on their way through Sherwood Forest. Robin Hood Hills, a range of sandstone hills stand close to Annesley. At the most easterly point of these, standing high up is a flat rock known as Robin Hood’s Seat. From here one is able to obtain a fine vista of the surrounding countryside, and Robin would have had an excellent view as people travelled along The King’s Great Way. He would be able to plan his attack before they went into the Thieve’s Wood area.Tradition also states that Robin had a cave close by.

By using the map drawn by John Ogilby in about 1670 we can see that after Bridford, it ran through Nottingham, past the gallows and on to Bestwood Park. From Papplewick (close to the church) the ancient road continued through Blidworth and on to Mansfield. The stretch of the King's Great Way that ran from Nottingham to Papplewick was also known as Walton Gate.