James Hayter at the Piano

Richard Todd in his autobiography ‘Caught in the Act’ described Disney’s live-action film the Story of Robin Hood (1952) as a ‘happy’ movie, and the image above is a good example of that. This great picture of James Hayter in 1951, sat at a piano and in costume as Friar Tuck was sent to me by Neil. Hayter appears to be accompanied by some of the production crew at Denham Studios and they all seem to be having a good time. If you can identify those two other faces, please get in contact with me at disneysrobin@googlemail.com. I would be very thrilled to hear from you.

Sadly the making of Disney’s Robin Hood in 1951 was tinged with sadness, as it was the last major feature film to be made at Denham Studios. The Rank Organisation who owned it decided to close operations there. The massive film making complex, covering 165 acres and seven sound stages was built in Buckinghamshire by the Hungarian impresario Sir Alexander Korda. The site was finally demolished in 1977.


To read more about Denham Studios, please click on the label below.

Bill Walsh and 'The Riddle of Robin Hood'

It is always exciting and very rewarding to get feed-back on a post, and this one I found very interesting.

Whilst browsing the ‘Chronology of the Walt Disney Company’ three years ago I discovered, under the year 1952, a mention of ‘The Riddle of Robin Hood.’ It simply said-under, month unknown, “Disney releases the film 'The Riddle of Robin Hood' for promotional use [501.470].” I immediately emailed the owner of the web site, but he later confessed that he knew very little else. So I put an appeal on this blog in September 2007 for anyone that might have seen this mysterious film.

Eventually Neil contacted me and revealed that he had acquired a copy of this very rare film. This was fantastic news! It was produced by the Disney organisation to promote their second live-action production ‘The Story of Robin Hood' (1952). It is not only an amazing piece of cinematic history - but also of Disney history. So with Neil’s kind help I began to post sections of the script of ‘The Riddle’ on this blog.

What makes this 12 minute black and white film so special is that it not only deals with the legend of Robin Hood, but it takes you behind the scenes, right from the early research, the planning stages, set construction and on to the filming at Denham Film Studios in 1951. So you can imagine my surprise when I received this message from Bill Cotter recently:

“I just saw your post on this film and wanted to share what I wrote about it for my book The Wonderful World of Disney Television:

'Another project during this time also helped to confirm Walt's feelings about using television to promote his theatrical releases. After World War II, the Studio made several films in England to use funds being held there. Walt took Bill Walsh with him to England during the filming of The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men, a 1952 release starring Richard Todd. Walsh's assignment was to produce a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film, and he took the unusual approach of questioning Robin Hood's actual existence. The resultant 12-minute film, The Riddle of Robin Hood, was Walsh's first live action film. The Studio wasn't quite sure what to do with it, and as Walsh later retold it, they decided to give it away for free to anyone who was interested in it:

"In those days, naive was the word for the TV people. They didn't know what to do - they had to fill up a lot of time all day long, but they didn't have the stuff. We planted this film with a lot of TV stations all over the country, planted it with schools, because it had kind of a documentary feel about it. So pretty soon we were getting a lot of mileage out of this goofy little film. Walt was sort of enchanted by that, all that free space promoting the film, so the next year the networks came in and wanted Walt to do a TV show, and he was sort of spooky about it. I think he had had a bad experience on radio using the voices like the Duck and the Mouse. Nobody could understand it and the show wasn't successful, so he was a little leery about doing a TV show."

While it wasn't originally planned as a television program, The Riddle of Robin Hood certainly served the purpose of proving once again that television and films could happily co-exist.'

(Bill Cotter)

I would like to thank Neil and Bill for their help in solving our very own ‘Riddle of Robin Hood!’

Bill Cotter’s web site is at: http://www.billcotter.com/index.htm

Remember Disney’s TV series Zorro? Bill also runs a great web site dedicated to the Disney series of the 1950’s about the story of a masked rider who battles the unjust rulers of the pueblo of Los Angeles during the days of Spanish rule. Bill’s site, ‘Walt Disney’s Zorro,’ can be found at http://www.billcotter.com/zorro/index.htm

Erroll Flynn and Richard Todd

A traditional moment in the story of Robin Hood as interpreted by Warner Brothers and Walt Disney and cleverly edited together by CinemaMusic55. Enjoy!

Blossoms On Every Bough

After one of the longest and hardest winters I can remember, spring has finally arrived here in Merrie England. It was lovely to be able to get out in the garden yesterday, feel the sun on my back and begin planting again ready for the summer. The smell of the blossom, the blue sky and the birds singing cheerfully in the trees makes everyone feel so much better.

How it must have felt for our poor medieval ancestors, emerging from their wooden hovels after managing to survive starvation and disease through a British winter is hard for modern man to comprehend. Everyone, from kings to lowly commoners in those days took part in a variety of celebrations of the dawning spring, when the earth threw off the shackles of winter and new life appeared amidst the May blossom. This was joyously reflected in the village summer games up and down the country and influenced many of our surviving Robin Hood ballads. So, along with some pictures I took last spring, I thought I would take another look at those beautiful opening stanzas and try to recapture some of that spirit.

In somer, when the shawes be sheyne,

And leves be large and long,

Hit is full mery in feyre foreste

To here the foulys song.

To se the dere draw to the dale,

And leve the hillies hee,

And shadow hem in the leves grene,

Under the grene wode tre.

Hit befell on Whitsontide,

Erly in a May mornyng,

The sun up feyre can shyne,

And the briddis mery can syng.

(Robin Hood and the Monk)

In schomer, when the leves spryng,

The bloscems on every bowe,

So merey doyt the berdys syng

Yn wodys merey now.

(Robin Hood and the Potter)

When shawes beene sheene and shradds full fayre,

And leeves both large and long,

Itt is merry, walking in the fayre forrest,

To heare the small birds songe.

The woodweele* sang, and wold not cease,

Sitting upon the spraye,

Soe lowed, he wakeneth Robin Hood,

In the greenwood where he lay.

(Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne)

 *Possibly the Golden Oriole noted for its singing voice.

 

A Box of Gems

I am so pleased that this week is nearly over! I won’t bore you all with the details but, everything that could go wrong seems to have gone wrong with, my car, my computer, work UGH!

So I would like to say sorry to those of you who have tried to contact me this week. My computer was infested with nasties and I was almost completely out of action. Luckily my daughter's boyfriend has got me back up and running.

Anyway, every cloud has a silver lining and this week Maria has really cheered me up. She has sent me a collection of stills that are owned by her friend Thys in the Netherlands.

Maria described Thys’s collection as a box of gems-and she is right. The picture of Richard Todd as Robin Hood (above) is my particular favorite and I will be posting more of them very soon.

So a special thanks to Thys for allowing us to see some of his gems!

Greenwood Gone by Wren Song

Tired of the rat race, the hustle and bustle of living in the modern world? Then take a gentle stroll through the mists of time into the mystical world of Wren Song and open your ears to the beautiful sound of Celtic Folk Music. Their stunning new album ‘Greenwood Gone’ has just been released and is available for download at: http://www.wrensong.org/Greenwood_Gone/Album.htm

Regular readers of this blog will know Adele Treskillard. She has many ‘strings to her bow’ and is a member of our merrie band of Whistling Arrows. Not only is Adele a talented author, a traditional harpist and a vocalist in many Celtic languages, she is also currently researching the legend of Robin Hood through the ancient traditions of the ballads and performing them with Wren Song.

Adele formed Wren Song together with her sister Ness, her brother Leighton and her father Robert. They regularly perform traditional Scottish, Irish and Manx music, combined with Gaelic stories and legends accompanied by harp, tin whistle, fiddle, bagpipe and mandolin.

You might recognise the cover of their newly released album ‘Greenwood Gone,’ it was one of the many pictures I took of Burnham Beeches during my visit last year. Adele thought the picture would be perfect for the concept of the album.

Adele said, “It almost looks like a doorway! So the concept would be that Robin & Little John are to the 'greenwood gone' to hunt the wren, or that there is a path that leads to the greenwood, through which others can go. Or that we speak of the "Greenwood Gone" by, in terms of, the ancient legend of Robin Hood ... or that the Greenwood has gone. So there would be multiple interpretations.”

Their new album is described as a unique collection of songs, some of them based on the almost unknown Celtic tradition of Robin Hood. This is where Adele’s extensive research and reconstruction comes in. So for the first time in many centuries the listener can experience the hauntingly beautiful tracks, King Robin (Robin Y Righ) , We'll Go to the Wood (Imigh Gys Y Coille), I Hunt the Wren (Shelg Mi An Dreathan), and Shaunnie o' Braidalaw.

On her blog, Adele translated the 5th track on the album, the beautiful Scottish song ‘Iain Ghlinn Cuaich’ from Gaelic into English:

"Oh! Iain of Glen Cuaich, it is not often that one encounters you’re like,
That ringletted head of hair tight curled to the roots.
It was your beautiful handsome appearance that left me love-sick,
And there is no fault to be noted about you from head to toe.

I can’t begin to express a third of your worth,
Better to catch a glimpse of your face,
Than the new grown dew laden forest in sun.
The desire of my eyes is to catch close sight of you,
My love deserves a crowned heiress under him.

Iain, Iain, my love, why did you turn your back on me?
Without a thought for the love we once had?
I never gave my respect to any other man under the sun but you,
And neither will I, until my body is under the ground…."

The wonderfully evocative tracks on Wren Song's new album Greenwood Gone are:

1. Mountain Dew
2. Be Thou My Vision
3. Mo Thruaigh Léir
4. Coisich A Rùin
5. Iain Ghlinn Cuaich
6. Sí Do Mhaimeó í
7. I Hunt The Wren
8. Casadh an tSúgáin
9. Stitches and Britches
10. Shaunnie o’ Braidalaw
11. Robin Y Righ
12. Scotland The Brave

More details of Wren Song’s new album ‘Greenwood Gone' can be found at http://www.wrensong.org/Greenwood_Gone/Album.htm

I am sure we will be hearing a lot more from Adele and Wren Song in the future!

Joan Rice's First Orchids

Above is a great picture of Richard Todd and Joan Rice taken in London (possibly at the Dorchester Hotel) on the 28th February 1951 in London. It had just been announced that they would star together in Walt Disney’s second live-action movie the ‘Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952).’

The back of the picture explains that Richard is giving Joan her ‘first orchids’.

Was it an old theatrical tradition for the leading man to give his leading lady orchids when they sign their contracts? Perhaps my readers could let me know.

Tales of Robin Hood (1951)

The year before Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood opened in London; Hal Roach Jnr’s Tales of Robin Hood was released in the USA through Lippert Pictures Inc. Film production began on 17th August 1951 at the Hal Roach studios and it was released in the USA on 21st December of that same year. (IMDb dates differ).

I must confess I have never seen this version (so if you know where I can get a copy, please let me know!) but it has been described by some as low-budget and more like a television episode! This could be due to the fact that it was rumoured to have been considered originally as a pilot for a TV series, but the series never materialized, so it was released to theatres.

This 60 minute black and white version of the legend did get good reviews for its cinematography by Hollywood veteran George Robinson, although Robert Clarke and Broadway musical star Mary Hatcher make a lacklustre Robin and Marian. Leroy H Zehren’s original story and screenplay has Robert Clarke as the young Saxon Earl of Locksley, losing his property to his new Norman overlords and fleeing to Sherwood Forest where he eventually meets Little John and Will Scarlet played by Wade Crosby and Robert Bice respectively. The film has the familiar themes; Robin robs the wealthy to give to the poor, attends an archery contest, has a climatic duel and eventually is reinstated with his noble title. The movie concludes with Friar Tuck announcing the engagement of Robin and Marian.

Some scenes were shot on the set that had been created for the 1950 Sierra Pictures film Joan of Arc, directed by Victor Fleming and starring Ingrid Bergman.

Cast

Robert Clarke - Robin Hood

Mary Hatcher - Maid Marian

Paul Cavanagh - Sir Guy [de Clermont]

Wade Crosby - Little John

Whit Bissell - Will Stutely

Ben Welden - Friar Tuck

Robert Bice - Will Scarlet

Keith Richards - Sir Alan

Bruce Lester - Alan A. Dale

Tiny Stowe - Sheriff of Nottingham

Lester Matthews - Sir [Hugh] Fitzwalter

John Vosper - Earl of Chester

Norman Bishop - Much

Margia Dean - Betty

Lorin Raker - Landlord

George Slocum - Captain of the guards

John Doucette - Wilfred

John Harmon - Robber

Matt McHugh - Guard

David Stollery - Robin as a boy
____________________

CREW

• James Tinling - Director

• Hal Roach, Jr. - Producer

• George Robinson - Cinematographer

• Leon Klatzkin - Composer (Music Score)

• McClure Capps - Art Director

• Richard C. Currier - Editor

• Author: LeRoy H. Zehren

Richard the Lionheart

Few kings are remembered by their epithet and not their number. Since I was young, Richard the Lionheart has always fascinated me. He was played by Patrick Barr (1908-1985) in Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood and TV’s Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-1960), but before Barr there is a whole host of actors that have played Coeur de Lion stretching right back to the days of the Tudor stage, the golden days of cinema and up to modern television. These include: Arthur Hollingworth, Wallace Beery, Ian Hunter, George Sanders, Norman Wooland, Patrick Holt, Dermot Walsh, Peter Ustinov (Voice), Robert Hardy, Sean Connery, John Rhys Davies, and Steve Waddington.

Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199) remains a king of colourful legend and mythology like King Arthur, and continues to be ensconced with the stories of Robin Hood. He has been described by some historians as the greatest king of England in the Middle Ages, his brother John-the worst. No other English or British monarch comes close to him in terms of his impact on the wider world. The Muslims (Saracens) knew him as him Melek-Ric or Malek al-Inkitar-King of the English.Winston Churchill described him as:

“Worthy, by the consent of all men, to sit with King Arthur and Roland and other heroes of martial romance at some Eternal Round Table, which we trust, The Creator of the Universe in His comprehension will not have forgotten to provide."

But what was this powerful king’s character really like? Richard was born on 8th September 1157 at Oxford, but the next twelve years of Richard’s life is shrouded in mystery. Ralph of Diceto implies that this son was special to his mother Eleanor from birth, recalling one of the ancient prophecies of Merlin, which in the twelfth century were widely believed to apply to Henry II and his feuding family: ‘The eagle of the broken covenant shall rejoice in her third nesting.’ Eleanor was the eagle, the broken covenant - the dissolution of her marriage to Louis and the third nesting was the birth of her third son, Richard. Richard was certainly Eleanor’s favourite and he shared his mother’s love of show and sophistication. Her documents always describe him as her ‘very dear son, while her younger son, John-his father’s favourite-only managed a ‘dear son’ at best.


Richard was the third son of King Henry II (1133-1189) and his glamorous, strong-minded consort, Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204) without doubt one of the most extraordinary women of her age and the mother in the archetypal dysfunctional family-the so-called ‘Devil’s Brood.’ The new prince would be known in his own lifetime as Richard the Lionhearted. Gerald of Wales commented that his father ‘Henry was a shield but Richard was a hammer.’ Like his father he understood the world of devastated castles and of sore legs from being constantly in the saddle. Also like Henry, Richard was never interested in tournaments, only the screams and excitement of real warfare. He soon proved his generalship while still a teenager in the bitter struggles to bring the uncontrollable vassals of Aquitaine to heel. He was second in line to inherit his parents’ joint empire, including not just England and Normandy but duchies and other ancient fiefdoms stretching right down to the Spanish peninsula.

Coeur de Lion was capable of writing verse in French and the language of southern France-Provencal. He could speak Latin well enough to crack a Latin joke at the expense of the less learned Archbishop of Canterbury. Like Eleanor, Richard enjoyed music and could while away the hours in his German prison writing songs. He is often described as a Renaissance man before the Renaissance. When the clerks of the royal chapel were singing in choir, he would often walk among them urging them, with voice and hand, to sing with great gusto.

But Richard seems to have inherited his sense of humour from his father, who was known to chuckle a great deal. William of Newburgh rather critically said that the Lionheart ‘turned everything into a joke and made his listeners laugh uncontrollably’. Although the full quota of the infamous Plantagenet temper also flowed through his veins.

John Gillingham, emeritus professor of medieval history at the London School of Economics explains,’ Richard of course, enjoyed war, and no war could bring greater prestige to the warrior than the war against the Saracens, the war in the Holy Land, the centre of the Christian world. On this battle ground no act of bravery, no chivalrous deed, would go unnoticed. But it would be a mistake to think that Richard was indifferent to religion and to the attractions of a plenary indulgence..........on two occasions were recorded by Roger of Howden when Richard went through a religious and emotional crisis.’

Arab historian Baha ad-Din wrote that Richard was, 'a man of great courage and spirit. He had fought great battles and showed a burning passion for war. His kingdom and standing were inferior to those of the French king, but his wealth, reputation and valour were greater.’ He was undoubtedly a leader men could follow, just as his severity made him a king to be feared. When Prince John’s castellan of Mont St Michel heard that King Richard had returned to England after his captivity, he dropped dead from fright.

19th century image of Richard I leaving for the Holy Land

There is unanimity about certain key features of his character and personality. His appearance was often commented on. He was over 6ft tall and had his father’s penetrating blue eyes. The chronicler Richard de Templo described him during his coronation:

‘He was tall, of elegant build; the colour of his hair was between red and gold; his limbs were supple and straight. He had quite long arms which were particularly suited to drawing a sword and wielding it to great effect. His long legs matched the rest of his body.’

Richard was slightly overweight in his later years, frequently sick and suffered from a continual shaking in his hands from some kind of malarial fever that nothing seemed to control. Gerald of Wales wrote: ‘While thus almost continually trembling, he remained intrepid in his determination to make the whole world tremble before him.’

He had a lifelong habit of chivalric gestures. His favourite weapon on the battlefield was the long reaching mace and is stated to have said, "I am born of a rank which recognizes no superior but God". But the Lionheart was also said to be fond of quoting the Angevin family legend "From the Devil we sprang and to the Devil we shall go."

In modern times Richard’s personality has received a complete mix of opinions from historians and scholars. Recent media interpretations of the Lionheart have not been all that flattering to him either, compared to the glorious king in shining armour that returns to rescue downtrodden England from the clutches of his evil brother and reward Robin Hood in the golden days of cinema.

Today Richard I is portrayed as the absent King who was willing to sell London, couldn’t speakEnglish, taxed the country to its knees to pay for his ransom and crusade and was probably...........homosexual.

I had a small discussion with someone on a forum a while ago about this modern view of Richard:

STEVE: “Richard was a great warrior and he captured the imagination for this reason, but he was a poor king for England. His ransom of 150,000 marks was a ruinous amount, especially following so closely on the money that the country had been obliged to pay for his Crusade.

To me he is no hero because while he was capable of isolated noble gestures he also committed many ignoble acts. His massacre of Turkish prisoners, being just one example of his worst. He also committed atrocities against his subjects in Europe and his European enemies. The misfortune of his capture and ransom was brought on by his own actions. He alienated himself from Leopold of Austria by casting his standard from the walls of Acre because Leopold was not a King.

He was also believed to have played a part in arranging the assassination of Leopold's cousin. In many ways he was like a talented sportsman of modern times, idolised because of the success he has achieved in his sport, but who has set a bad example in his private life. Having said that, Richard's success was all for nothing. The Crusade failed and his continental gains were soon lost.

Clement: I guess we will have to agree to disagree. Firstly, surely we should judge Richard through the eyes of someone in the twelfth century, not a modern sportsman, but a medieval monarch. By the standards of the time Richard was right to spend his reign fighting for the Angevin Empire and for Jerusalem. The Holy Cross, a most sacred relic had been captured, and the flourishing Holy Christian City was invaded. For a Christian Prince it was right and expected that he should attempt to appease the wrath of God and re-capture the Holy City from the infidel.

Within months, the campaign to raise an army to recapture it was in full swing right across Europe, not just in England. It was his father who has set up the 'Saladin Tithe' to help pay for the Crusade. Yes the beheading of the Muslim garrison of Acre was, barbarous and horrific. But once again we have to look through the eyes of a Christina King of the twelfth century. The lives of the unbelievers were of no account. They were, in any case doomed to hell. In the words of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, 'the Christian glories in the death of a pagan, because thereby Christ himself is glorified.'

Yes the ransom was a phenomenal amount. But one reason why England was better able to afford the ransom was for the first time in history it was beginning to suffer the first signs of serious inflation. Although they didn't realise it at the time, removing a quarter of the nation's money from circulation provided just the deflationary shock that needed to calm the inflation that was beginning to eat its way into everyday life. Also taxation for Richard's ransom had a profound effect on English government. It marked the beginning of a shift from feudal payments to the very start of taxing income.”

Steve: ‘I suppose we have to put aside the truth about Richard in the context of Robin Hood and see him as the Richard of legend. My own knowledge of King Richard originally came from Robin Hood and other fictions and consequently I saw him as a great hero. When I learned about the historical facts of his life and the nature of the man I was disappointed with him. He fell far short of the mythic hero we had been presented with.”

How do we judge a medieval king? Looking through the eyes of our ancestors is something very difficult to do, particularly from our own centrally heated, double glazed, hi-tech world. For example, what about this question regarding Richard’s sexuality? Historians have debated this since the eighteenth century, fuelled by the accounts of his stay in Paris when he used to share a bed with Philip Augustus himself.

But this in itself is evidence of nothing very much-people regularly shared beds in the twelfth century. If you were to stay in a medieval hall at this time it was not unusual to find several beds accommodating two or three or even more men. Women were also expected to share the same quarters.

Effigie of Richard I in Fontevrault Abbey

The historian John Gillingham, one of the best authorities on the life of Richard I, described the act of Richard and Philip sleeping together as "an accepted political act, nothing sexual about it; ... a bit like a modern-day photo opportunity." Henry II and William Marshall also did likewise and the heterosexual credentials of Henry are unimpeachable.

In the aftermath of the terror attacks on the United States, President George W Bush described the ‘War on Terror’ as a ‘Crusade.’ This was regarded as an unfortunate choice of words by political commentators and did very little to reduce tensions with the countries in the Middle East, who regard Westerners as aggressive invaders. Bush was quickly condemned. And it is in these highly sensitive times that Richard I of England has become low profile and regarded little more than a particularly violent king who spent nearly all his reign abroad, leaving Robin Hood to rescue his kingdom from his evil brother.

But, historical evidence shows us that Richard was without doubt one of the greatest statesmen and warriors of the medieval age, hence his status in myth and legend. Yes, he was absent from England for most of his reign, but England was only a small part of his domains. Most modern scholars now have to agree that in the short period he was in England he performed wonders of diplomacy and statesmanship. His relations with the Celtic fringes; Ireland, Scotland and Wales remained largely trouble free and the efficiency of the English administration was remarkable. It is also sometimes forgotten that Richard ‘the absent king’ also managed to place a financial and administrative genius and at the head of his Exchequer and government, when he delegated Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury as his right arm. Walter became one of the most outstanding government ministers in English history.