The Outlaws 'Christen' Little John

In this picture, kindly sent in by Mike, we see the moment that Little John  (James Robertson Justice) is thrown into the stream by Robin Hood (Richard Todd) and his outlaws as they 'Christen' him.

This rare still is taken from Walt Disney's  live-action movie, the Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952).

Last year, thanks to some input from my readers, we managed to put names to some of the actors faces, in another scene from this movie. Although we can see Richard Todd, Antony Forwood and Ewen Solon in this picture, can any one put a name to the actor on the far right? If so, please get in touch.

From Robin Hood to The Beatles

Robin Hood, Robin Hood riding through the glen.......

Nearly everyone has heard that song, even though perhaps these days, they might not realise it was a theme tune to a hugely successful television series. For me, like many of a certain age, it was my first introduction-and left a lifelong fascination with the legendary outlaw Robin Hood. But little did I realise, as I listened to the theme song and watched the adventures on our rented television set way back in the early 1960's, that there was a strong link to the biggest pop band on the planet.

In the early 1950's EMI's Parlophone label was looked upon with derision. George Martin had joined the record company in 1955 as an assistant to Oscar Preuss the head of A&R. Between them they were left the 'light music' catalogue that sold a mixed bag of novelty and comedy discs. It wasn't until 1956 that they had their first spectacular success with the theme song to ATV's iconic television series The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Robin Hood! Robin Hood! Riding through the glen!
Robin Hood! Robin Hood! With his band of men!
Feared by the bad! Loved by the good!
Robin Hood! Robin Hood! Robin Hood!

He called the greatest archers to a tavern on the green!
They vowed to help the people of the king!
They handled all the trouble on the English country scene!
And still found plenty of time to sing!

[Chorus (1st paragraph) repeat]

 The black and white ATV television series starring Richard Greene - still fondly remembered today, ran to 143 episodes and was sold to CBC in Canada and CBS in the United States. It was an immediate success drawing on 32,000,000 viewers on both sides of the Atlantic.

The original theme song, written by Carl Sigman, was sung by Dick James (1920-1986). Born Reginald Leon Issac Vapnic in London's East End, originally he became a vocalist at the Cricklewood Palais, then during the 1940's  'crooned' with Henry Hall's and Cyril Stapleton's orchestras and later Geraldo's band. He went on to have two hit records in America with Garden of Eden and of course Robin Hood, produced by  Parlaphone's George Martin and the Ron Goodwin Orchestra with backing vocals by James's son Stephen and 'chums.' The record reached number 14 in the UK chart.

As time went by Dick James's singing career waned, so he turned his attentions to song-plugging and joined Sydney Bron Music. But in 1961 his career took another turn when he started in music publishing, with Dick James Music.

George Martin meanwhile had been struggling to find a second song from a music publisher for a group from Liverpool that he instinctively thought might be successful. So he called on his old friend  Dick James in his 'shabby' office on the corner of Denmark and Old Compton Street in London. But after Martin's first approach, the old crooner laughed, "Liverpool! So what's from Liverpool!"

George Martin, Dick James and Beatles manager Brian Epstein

After hearing Love Me Do, Dick James was not impressed, but confessed he liked the overall sound of the group. He told George Martin that he would get in contact with some of his songwriters and within a few days he came up with a tune by Mitch Murray. The song was How Do You Do It  and George Martin was thrilled! This, he was sure would make The Beatles a household name. But John Lennon and Paul McCartney were not impressed, which annoyed him. They told Martin that they would rather write their own songs. "When you can write as good as this," he declared,"I'll record it!"

So The Beatles went back to a song written by Paul called Please Please Me. George Martin had previously not been impressed with it. But this time they quickened the tempo with their acoustic Gibson guitars and extended the length with an intro by John on harmonica. This time Martin decided to go with it and re-visited his old friend Dick James in Old Compton Street. After explaining the groups decision to compose their own material he played him Please Please Me. After just one hearing James said he would publish it.

The Beatles

With incredible foresight, Dick James went on to propose a special company be set up to exclusively publish Lennon and McCartney songs (later also Harrison and Starr). It would be called Northern Songs and be administered by Dick James Music.

Unbeknown to them, those four young lads from Liverpool were  now on the threshold of becoming legendary figures of English culture. Not too far away from another dearly loved folk-hero, sung about by their music publisher a few years earlier.




As a footnote to this, Paul McCartney later admitted that the Beatles song Little Child was inspired by the tune Whistle My Love, sung by Elton Hayes as Alan-a-Dale in the Walt Disney live action movie the Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952).

  

Rare German Promotional Leaflet

This leaflet from my collection, was used as a promotional piece for the release of Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men in West Germany in 1952. As we have seen before in these early advertisements Joan Rice (Maid Marian) gets a high billing.

Robin Hood's Tree in 1961

This lovely photograph of the 'Major Oak' in Sherwood Forest, before it was surrounded by a protective fence to protect its roots, was taken in 1961. The image was later used to promote tourism to  Britain.

Joan Rice and Richard Todd

This romantic image showing Joan Rice as Maid Marian and Richard Todd as Robin Hood, was kindly sent in by Mike. 

A colour version of this picture appeared on the cover of the French magazine Cinemonde on the 26th September 1952 and was promoting the release of Disney's  live-action movie, the Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men.

The wonderful scene where he carries Marian across the stream in Sherwood Forest, is one of my favourite moments of the film. 

Joan Rice in America

My posts on Joan Rice (1930-1997) are always very popular and I would like to thank you all for your kind messages. It makes it all worthwhile to read comments from my readers.

Christian is a regular visitor to this web site and recently sent me some lovely pictures of our Joan, including these from her last big movie, His Majesty O’Keefe (1954). I have also included some of my own.

Sadly, this film, with Burt Lancaster, would be the pinnacle of Joan’s very short rise to stardom. Why she faded from popularity with Hollywood remains a mystery. But her memory lives on in the pages of this web site and one fascinating article that I posted a few years ago, gives us an insight into how she felt, flying out to America for the first time.

The Picturegoer Magazine dated September 13^th 1952, printed a ‘letter’ from Joan Rice about her experiences flying to the States to film ‘His Majesty O’Keefe’. In this remarkably candid letter we read of her experiences of home-sickness, stage nerves, height problems, engagement, her plans for marriage and preparations for film production. 

Below is a short snippet:

“His Majesty O’Keefe’ is a period picture, and as well as sarongs I am going to wear two lovely gowns. One is lavender lace and velvet wedding dress with a bustle. I hadn’t seen the script then, but I knew there’s an amusing scene where I try on the dress and then refuse to wear it, because I have got it on the wrong way round and I don’t like that “hump” (that is the bustle) in front.

The studio hairdressing department is like a Bond Street salon. Even in the waiting rooms the appointments are magnificent. Hollywood really tries to make its stars feel good. And the clips they used for waving hair are better than ours. They give a softer wave without risk of breaking or making a “line” in the hair.

They had to build me up on the chair because I am rather short in the body. I didn’t quite reach the dryer. They piled cinema magazines under me, so I really sat on the stars. I noticed the picture on top was of Ava Gardner. Some of the Warners stars very kindly came to say “hallo” to me as I spent those long hours in the make-up and hairdressing chairs. I couldn’t talk to them (ever tried to talk with your head in a dryer, or while a man’s painting your lips?), but it was all very friendly. Steve Cochran was particularly charming.

Friendliness is one of the things about Hollywood. Leroy Prinz, the director, said I was to come back to Hollywood and he’d put me in musicals. I don’t know about that. I only know I’m booked for four months on this film, in Fijii with Burt Lancaster, whom I’ve met only once – at a Royal Film Performance. (I was very nervous-it was my first stage appearance. Afterwards he grinned and said: “Well, it wasn’t so bad, was it?”) I think the really surprising thing about Hollywood is that it’s just what you would expect. If you’ve seen it in the pictures-you’ve seen it. People do just the same things, in the same way, as on the screen. Of course, the sunshine is indescribable-there just aren’t the words. It’s sun, sun, sun. You almost expect it to blaze all night.”

To read the complete article, please click here

Joan Rice in Scotland

Recently I was contacted by Alan King, who told me that he had some pictures of Joan Rice (1930-1997) taken in the early 1970’s and would I like to see them? Of course I was thrilled to see pictures of Joan during a period of her life which has remained somewhat of a mystery. This blog is dedicated to her memory and contains over 60 seperate pages of letters, magazine articles, glamour pictures and film stills.

This is what Alan says:

“My wife met Joan in 1970’ish (at work I think, but can't remember where). We were friends for a few years and Joan managed the letting of our flat when we moved away from Maidenhead in 1976. We sold our place a couple of years later and lost touch. I have fond memories of a lovely lady. The photos were taken in 1971 on holiday in Scotland - the Isle of Islay. In the one with all four of us, I'm on the left with my wife, Helen. Joan's boyfriend was . . . ? may have been Tony. He was Italian and worked at the Marlow restaurant she frequented.”

A very special thank you to Alan, for sharing his personal

photographs of Joan Rice with us.

Her last movie ‘The Horror of Frankenstein’ was released in

December 1970 and shortly after she set up the ‘Joan Rice Bureau’

in Maidenhead, Berkshire. It was here that her office dealt with

real estate and property. But two years later, Joan returned to

acting, this time on stage at the Theatre Royal in Windsor and also in Norwich.

To read more about the life of Joan Rice please click here.

If you met Joan, or have any information about her life, I would be very pleased to hear from you.

Elton Hayes with the Second Unit

This wonderful picture of Elton Hayes as Alan-a-Dale with the second unit on location at Burnham Beeches appeared in The Cinema Studio magazine in July 1951. Images from the magazine have already appeared on various posts throughout this blog and give a fascinating insight into how Disney’s live-action movie the Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952) was filmed.

Below the picture the caption reads: "Deep in Burnham Beeches the second unit forsake the Technicolor camera for a while to listen to Elton Hayes who plays Alan-a-Dale in “Robin Hood” as he sings to his guitar. Elton provides many airs and ditties suitable to the period of the time."

To read more about the work behind the camera on Robin Hood and the fascinating life of Elton Hayes please click on the links.

Walt Visits Norton Disney

The world loves Walt Disney's animated movie about those adopted 101 Dalmatians, his version of the classic tale of the forsaken stepchild  Snow White and Dumbo the baby elephant who was separated from his mother. 

But not so well known is the tale of an American boy, Walter Disney, with no birth certificate. What birth record there was for a child of his name was dated 10 years before he could have been born. This niggling ambiguity about his origins and the possibility that he had been adopted were to trouble him throughout his adult life.

So in the late Forties he arrived in Lincolnshire, England, to find his purported Disney ancestors; in a small village known as Norton Disney. Although few local guide books acknowledge that "the world's favourite uncle" has roots to a Lincolnshire family.

St.Peter's Church, Norton Disney

It is possible to trace the family lineage right back to Walt’s Norman forbears who came over to Britain with the invading Norman army of William the Conqueror in 1066.
Amongst William’s soldiers were several members of the d’Isigne family, who took their name from their town of origin situated near Bayeux. One of the d’Isignes is known to have received property at Norton on the Nottinghamshire / Lincolnshire border, and established himself as a farmer and Lord of the Manor.

Disney is an anglicisation of d'Isigny. In 1834 some members of the family emigrated, first to the United States and then to Canada. Elias Disney (Walt’s Father) was born in Huron County in 1859. Elias married Flora in 1888, eventually moving to Chicago. In1901 their fourth and final child, Walter Elias Disney, was born.

This was sent in by Neil:

"[Norton Disney] is a place you'd expect to have outgrown its rather quaint guidebook description, given there are at least three separate signs diverting traffic to the village off the A46; yet the place is indeed small, with just a string of plain houses, a church and a pub.

In my view, the pub is always a good place to start, and although I was greeted in the St Vincent Arms with customary village suspicion, I found what I was looking for. Pinned above the fireplace were the cuttings I had failed to locate in Lincoln Central Library. Dated 30 July 1949, they reported the events of Walt's brief visit.

"Private and personal. Norton Disney, Lincolnshire, England. Arrived just after lunch." 

Walt Disney

Walt had scratched in his diary before strolling off to point his cine-camera around the village. The fading photographs show Walt absorbed in the search for facts about his family name. He is pictured studying the tombs and gravestones and with the vicar, leafing through reams of ancient church registers signed by past generations of Disneys. But he didn't stop for long. 

"Afraid I must pop off now - learnt that expression over here. You English are always popping places."'