Elton Hayes

Over the last few years Geoff Waite has very kindly shared details of his research into the life and music of  Elton Hayes.  As regular readers of the blog will know Elton was a huge success as Allan-a-Dale in Walt Disney's live action movie the Story of Robin Hood (1952). Sadly today, Elton Hayes is almost completely forgotten.

A few weeks ago I uploaded a poster advertising Elton at the Liverpool Empire in the early 1950's and Geoff has added some more fascinating details about 'the man with the small guitar.'


Geoff says:

"With reference to the poster of Elton Hayes at the Liverpool Empire, Neil was wondering about his stage act. I am attaching a copy of one of Elton’s programmes that provides details of some of the songs he featured in his regular act. As he was sharing billing with other artists at the Liverpool Empire, presumably Elton’s act was reduced to a much smaller number of songs on that occasion, so this programme would have been produced for his solo appearances around the country.

Neil is not far wrong when he says that the film left Elton as image goes in medieval mode, but I don’t think he would have minded too much. His live performances had always relied heavily on songs from the 18^th and 19^thcenturies even before he starting making records and Disney beckoned. He specialised in old English folk songs and ballads, arranging them himself to suit his distinctive singing style. Some of these he used to good effect when he appeared in the restoration play ‘The Beaux Stratagem’ during its 18 month run from 1949 at the Phoenix and Lyric Theatres in London.

  

Some of the folk songs featured in the programme have been around for so long that they have acquired more than one title.  For example, ‘A Mock Song’ was recorded by Elton as the beautiful ’tis true I never was in love’ and ‘The Phoenix’ became ‘I Pass All My Hours’. ‘The Unquiet Grave’ is also known as ‘Cold Blows the Wind’ and rather more obviously ‘My Lady Greensleeves’ is just known as ‘Greensleeves’.

There is a small printing error. ‘Adelphi Archer’s’ should read ‘Adelphi Arches’. Perhaps Elton was thinking of his Robin Hood days!

Whilst the listing is mostly old folk songs I see that he was intending to include some….'Modern, Traditional and Folk Songs of the British Isles’ so I would like to think that Elton sang ‘Whistle my Love’ somewhere in his act. I am pretty certain the programme was printed long after the release of the Disney film. As he was also intending to sing some of the Edward Lear nonsense songs he recorded, such as ‘The Owl and the Pussy Cat’ it must have been quite a show, I wish I had been there!

Elton’s farewell concert was in Woolwich in November 1967 and then he retired from show business to farm and latterly he took up new interests in carriage driving and playing and composing music for the post horn. 

You mention Elton’s nineteen-city tour of the USA and Canada, and I am also sending you a couple of extracts from Parlophone Record Bulletins for May and December 1952. In the May edition, Parlophone mention Elton’s impending visit to America to promote Disney’s Robin Hood film. It confirms that he was due to sail in the Queen Mary on 8 May 1952. The ‘new’ Elton release the bulletin is promoting was ‘The Miller’s Daughter’ which is a folk song penned by Elton himself  In the December edition is a nice little comment by Elton about his recipe for success. The bulletins show just how popular Elton was back in the 1950’s."

A special thank you to Geoff for all his help in supplying information on the life and career of Elton Hayes. We now have 18 pages about 'the man with the small guitar' and of course he will always be our favorite Allan-a-Dale from that wonderful film. To see the many pictures, discography and life story of Elton Hayes please click here.

Robin Hood's Larder

This rare postcard shows the ancient oak tree known as Robin Hood's Larder in 1913. It originally stood on land owned by the Duke of Portland where the ways of Sherwood Forest divided a mile and a half west of the Major Oak, in Birklands, near the village of Edwinstowe.

Local tradition states that Robin Hood and his men hid venison and game birds in the outer shell of the tree's hollow trunk. Sadly in the year that this photograph was taken, the tree was partly burnt by picnicking schoolgirls trying to boil a kettle inside it. Eventually it was supported with iron braces, but during the gales of 1962  the whole tree was completely blown down.

Italian Lobby Card

I think the Italian lobby cards for Disney’s Story of Robin Hood are the best I have seen. I particularly like the detail around the movie still as seen in the example above. They seem to be of a far better quality than the English and American lobby cards of the time. What do you think?

Elton Hayes at the Liverpool Empire

Above is a very rare poster from the early 1950’s promoting Elton Hayes at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool.


Elton Hayes (1915-2001) played the part of the minstrel Allan-a-Dale in Walt Disney’s live action movie The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952).


Today he is sadly almost forgotten, but Hayes was very well-known to radio and television audiences of the 1950’s as ‘the man with the small guitar.'


When Walt Disney's Treasure Island (1950) was made, Elton had the task of arranging the old sea shanties sung on board the Hispaniola. This was followed by the job of researching ancient ballads for their forthcoming production of 'Robin Hood.' The producer, Perce Pearce asked him to assist in another actor's screen test, and then sprang the surprise that it had been Elton on test and the part of Alan-a-Dale was his! So good was he in that role that, although it started as a few lines, it developed into one of the main parts in the film.


The success of the film led to a nineteen-city tour of the USA and Canada, making 113 radio and TV appearances in 8 hectic weeks!


To read more about Elton Hayes click here.

Playing Robin Hood

I saw this wonderful old picture recently; unfortunately I have no idea where or when it was taken, but I would guess it was sometime in the 1950’s or early 1960’s. It rekindled many happy memories of my own. As many of you know, during my youth I was lucky enough to live near woodland - and like the boy in the picture - I would often let my imagination take me to Sherwood Forest.

With the wonderful RobinHood TV series starring Richard Greene regularly shown, along with the Hollywood adventure movies such as Ivanhoe and The Knights of the Round Table, I was easily inspired. Later in the 1970’s I saw Disney’s live-action version of the Robin Hood story for the first time and this sparked my interest into researching the fascinating legend of the outlaw.

But sadly times have changed - and these days’ children very rarely get the opportunity to climb trees, build camps in the woods, or have pretend quarter staff fights. They now of course have their electronic 3D games that can do all that for them. But in my opinion nothing can replace the experience of being embraced by natural sunlit woodland and hearing the bird song under a canopy of green leaves. It is only then that I have found your imagination will lead you to Robin Hood.

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.

Huntingdon Manor

Above is a rare image of Huntingdon Manor showing the wonderful attention to detail by art director Carman Dillon (1908 -2000) on Walt Disney’s live action movie the Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men(1952). Information about the research and attention to detail by this remarkable woman can be seen here.

Huntingdon Manor appears at the opening of the film and the courtyard is full of hustle and bustle as Marian’s father prepares to go on Crusade with the king. It is here we see some of Carmen Dillon’s artistry and the product of her immense research.

Twenty five interior sets were designed by her, including ‘Nottingham Square’ which was constructed both on Denham lot and on one of the huge sound stages.

An Italian Poster

This Italian poster promoting Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood (1952) appeared on Ebay recently. In my opinion it has inferior artwork compared to the many that we have collected on here, but it is interesting none the less. It seems to date from the original release of the movie; although it’s heading ‘Ottobre’ (October) does not fit with IMDb’s date for its release in Italy (6^th November 1952).

There is no mention of Peter Finch - and Joan Rice appears with Richard Todd as the headline stars, which does suggest that the poster was produced for the film’s early release in 1952. Also Friar Tuck (James Hayter) appears as the prominent character in the artwork, which is unusual. 


What do you think?

Robin Hood In Sherwood Stood

On this blog over the past few years we have looked at some of the earliest ballads of Robin Hood. These survive from the early fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. But apart from the ballads, there are also place-names, proverbs, dramatic records and tantalizing references to ‘rymes’ about the allusive outlaw. The most famous reference is in William Langland’s Piers Plowman (1377), where Sloth, the lazy priest confesses that:

‘I can nouЗte perfitly my paternoster as the prest it syngeth,

But I can rymes of Robyn Hood and Randolf erle of Chestre.’

A page from Langland's Piers Plowman

Sadly none of these ‘rymes’ survive before the fifteenth century. The earliest existing poem comes from Andrew of Wyntoun’s Orygynale Cronykil, which was compiled about 1420. In short rhymed couplets it has:

Litil Iohun and Robert Hude

Waythmen war commendir gud;

In Ingilwode and Bernnysdaile

Thai oyssit al this time that trawale.

Little John and Robert Hood

Were well praised as forest outlaws

In Inglewood and Barnsdale

They practised their labour all the time.

One of the most interesting ‘rhymes’ for me is the fragment discovered in Lincoln Cathedral Library in the 1940’s by George E Morris. I am indebted to Adele Treskillard and Trish Bazallgette for their invaluable help. Adele managed to locate an image of the scribbled two rhymed couplets from the manuscript and Trish has helped me obtain information on how and when it was discovered.

The fragment was found amongst a miscellany of grammatical texts, dating from the thirteenth and fourteen centuries. It appears that a student from the early fifteenth century hastily wrote or scribbled two rhymed couplets from a Robin Hood poem as an exercise in translating English into Latin:

Robyn hod in scherewod stod

Hodud and hathud hosut and schold

Ffour and thuynti arowes he bar in hit hondus.

Robin Hood in Sherwood stood

Hooded and hatted, hosed and shod

Four and twenty arrows

He bore in his hands.

Robyn hod in scherewod stod

Evidence from the dialect locates the poem to the North Midlands of England and the use of the ‘weak preterite verbs’ (hodud, hathud, hosut) give it a date of c.1425.

In the past scholars have assumed that Langland’s ‘rymes of Robyn Hood’ were the long narrative ballads such as Robin Hood and the Monk, but scholars are now having a re-think. The evidence from Wyntoun and the Lincoln manuscript suggests that they were originally easily remembered short lyrics, passed on orally in rhymed couplets. In time, some would then eventually be expanded into what we describe as the Robin Hood ballads.