Charles B Cochran

Charles B. Cochran was last in a great line of showmen (he never called himself a producer or impresario) guided by their instincts rather than their wallets. Cochran shows brought together the most talented performers, designers, composers and writers. He promoted wild west shows, wrestling and boxing with as much enthusiasm as theatre. His shows could be opulent, extravagant and expensive or he could just promote a solo dancer. Not surprisingly, Cochran was bankrupted on more than one occasion.

  • Front cover of programme for C.B.Cochran's production The Miracle



    Front cover of programme for C.B.Cochran's production The Miracle
    1911
    Olympia, London
    Printed and published by Gale and Polden Limited
    © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

    In 1911, C.B.Cochran transformed the exhibition halls at Olympia, in west London, into a massive Gothic cathedral and mounted a huge medieval pageant called The Miracle. He brought the great Max Reinhardt from Germany to direct the show, with its huge crowd scenes, commissioned a script from Karl Volmöller and music from Engelbert Humperdinck, composer of the opera Hansel and Gretel. Volmöller's story told of a nun who forsakes her vows to experience life in the world. After many adventures, she returns penitent, to find that she has not been missed as the statue of the Virgin Mary has come to life and taken her place. It called for over 2,000 costumes, 1,000 assorted actors and extras, a chorus of 500, 25 horses, an orchestra of 2,000 and sets costing up to £8,500 each (about £170,000 today). This 'complete descriptive programme' tells you all you need to know of the story, the show and its creators as well as pictures of many of the characters and costumes. Unnamed among the massive crowds was a child actress called Gertrude Lawrence.

  • Programme for Charles Cochran's musical Ever Green



    Programme for Charles Cochran's musical Ever Green
    1930
    Royal Adelphi Theatre, London
    © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

    American born Buddy Bradley was an important teacher and choreographer in British dance from the 1930s, when C.B.Cochran brought him in to work on the Rodgers and Hart musical Ever Green. He was the first black choreographer to work on an all white theatre production. He set up a studio in London, and until 1967 worked with the greatest names in British musical theatre, including Jessie Matthews, Jack Buchanan and Anna Neagle. Bruce Forsyth went to him as a boy to learn American-style tap dancing.

  • Advertising flyer for Charles Cochran's musical Ever Green



    Advertising flyer for Charles Cochran's musical Ever Green
    1930
    Royal Adelphi Theatre, London
    Printed flyer on silver card
    © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

    In 1930, Evergreen was the most spectacular musical yet mounted by the celebrated showman C.B.Cochran. Written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, and starring Jessie Matthews, it had a cast of two hundred, a revolving stage and elaborate scenic effects. The dances were by Billy Pierce and Buddy Bradley, the first black dancers to work on an all-white show. The revolving stage was a nightmare for them, as the dancers had never performed on a revolve before. As the floor moved one way, they had to dance in the opposite direction and kept smashing into each other. The hit song was 'Dancing on the Ceiling', in which Jessie Matthews and Sonnie Hale danced around a huge chandelier pointing upwards from the floor. Unusually for Rodgers and Hart, the music was written first. Hart sensed a weightlessness in the melody and wrote the lyrics around a girl dreaming that her lover is dancing above her on the ceiling. The BBC banned the song for a while because the word 'bed' occurred three times.

  • Newspaper cuttings and photo of The Tiller Girls in the musical Ever Green



    Newspaper cuttings of cartoon and photo of The Tiller Girls in the musical Ever Green
    October, 1930
    Glasgow Evening Times
    © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

    This cartoon published in the Glasgow Evening Times in 1930 features the highspots of the new Rodgers and Hart musical Ever Green. The Tiller Girls appeared as ‘Vanities’ in the revue ‘Eternal Youth’, which closed the first act of the musical. By the 1930s, John Tiller's girls were appearing throughout the world. They appeared in Hollywood films and at the Folies Bergère in Paris. In Britain they danced in variety shows, pantomimes and summer shows. Each group was composed of girls who were perfectly matched for height and weight. Individuality was not encouraged. The important thing was for a girl to sink her personality into that of the group. This was difficult for the dancers, many of whom longed to express their own personalities. At one time, a girl could not be married and stay a Tiller Girl. As some girls were as young as 16, they were usually closely chaperoned, especially when they were working abroad.

  • Programme cover for Night Lights



    Programme cover for Charles Cochran's show Night Lights
    1930s
    Trocadero Grillroom, London
    © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

    The Trocadero Grillroom was one of the major restaurants in Piccadilly Circus. The link through the first half is the Trocadero itself. The Argyll Rooms, as it was called in the 19th century, inspired a sketch with an enticing mix of well-to-do gentlemen and ladies of the night, who frequented the masquerade balls there. The Trocadero Music Hall was an excuse to string together familiar music hall songs. It then came up to date with 'the Grillroom today', which flattered the audience by presenting them as fashionable flappers, in a number choreographed by the great Buddy Bradley. In the second half A Fragonard Picture, a ballet, was shown, choreographed by Antony Tudor, one of many young artists Cochran employed before they became famous. At first, Cochran used his famous Young Ladies at the Trocadero. They were delighted as it meant they drew two wages – one for appearances in the current revue at the London Pavilion and one from the Trocadero cabaret. Later, Cochran auditioned 300 girls to find a separate chorus for the Trocadero. Not one was suitable. So the Young Ladies at the Trocadero went on drawing two wages.

  • Jessie Matthews in the film Ever Green



    Jessie Matthews in the film Ever Green
    1920-1935
    Black and white photographic postcard
    © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

    This publicity postcard shows Jessie Matthews in the film Ever Green, based on the successful Rodgers and Hart musical in which she had starred in 1930. It was her greatest stage success and featured ‘Dancing on the Ceiling’, which was to become one of her trademark dance sequences. Originally Fred Astaire, then playing in London in The Gay Divorce was approached to play opposite her in the film, but he was already under contract in Hollywood and his studio did not want him appear in a British film. When the filming of Ever Green began, Jessie literally broke out in a nervous rash and collapsed, one of several nervous breakdowns that were to dog her career. But each time she recovered and in the 1930s became the queen of the British musical film in such productions as The Good Companions, It’s Love Again and First a Girl, which was re-made years later as Victor/Victoria.

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