Leap Year at the London Hippodrome, 1924
George Robey was the star of Julian Wylie’s third Hippodrome revue Leap Year described as ‘one of the best revues that London has ever seen’. Launched at the London Hippodrome on 20th March 1924 it ran for 471 performances. The show had no cohesive plot but was designed to showcase the talent of Robey as a comedian and he appeared in at least 11 of the scenes, which means that in fact Leap Year was constructed around him.
Leap Year was first produced at Liverpool Olympia on 6th March 1924 and ran for two weeks with 19 scenes. When it arrived at the London Hippodrome on 20th March 1924 it had been reduced to 15 scenes. Of these, the main ‘spectacular’ scenes were Everything the Same, Natives with the Emblems of the Dominions, Pearlies, the All-Night Club (Banjulele Night) and Plantation Time.
Apart from the ‘star’ of the show George Robey, the other principals were Betty Chester, Laddie Cliff, Ettie Landau, Maud Fane, Vera Pearce with the additional casting of the Hippodrome Eight, Ratoucheff’s Russian Lilliputians and the 18 Gertrude Hoffman dancers.
The first big tableaux was at the end of Act 1 and was called the Natives and was designed to appeal to all the overseas visitors expected to arrive in London that year for the Empire Exhibition at Wembley. As a result, many of the scenes were set in different countries. It began with three scenes including a Maori village in New Zealand, an ostrich farm in South Africa and a scene with a Canadian theme.
The fourth scene was called The Emblems of the Dominions and featured a parade of showgirls representing the national flower of each country: the English rose, the Australian wattle, the Canadian maple leaf, the New Zealand fern, the Indian lotus, the South African chickerachee, the Welsh leak, the Irish shamrock and the Scottish thistle. It was described as ‘one of the loveliest stage spectacles …ever seen.’
At the end of the parade, the Hippodrome Eight appeared as a frieze of figures in front of a bowl which contained the chorus who were arranged and dressed to look like a massed bunch of roses who came to life and bloomed.
For the opening of Act 2 there was the scene called Pearlies featuring good old coster songs (which was apparently taken from one of the Wylie/Tate touring revues). The scenic background suggested the paintings of Thomas Rowlandson set on Hampstead Heath and afterwards changed to a country fair of the present day with ‘all the fun’ in full blaze. It was described as an idealised Hampstead Heath on an August bank holiday. The cast dressed in coster (Pearlie) costume sang old Cockney numbers by Albert Chevalier and Gus Allen.
During Everything the Same a couple discuss their wedding plans behind a veil or gauze of lace, upon which appeared replicas of numerous Nottingham lace patterns. There was then was a display of old-world costumes, which included a black and white taffeta dress with rose decorations and a series of lace costumes.
These costumes were originally designed for the Folies Bergere in 1923 and were executed by Max Weldy. The scene was later to appear on Broadway. The Nottingham lace industry had been in decline for some time and in 1923 became a topical issue with publicity to promote its use. Many of the leading London modistes began using more lace in their collections and Dolly Tree, the designer, was adding her support.
In the All-Night club scene, there was seen a special banjulele night. Three songs were performed: Dreamy Melody, Say it with a Ukelele and Crazy over me. The scene featured Banjulele’s supplied by Keith Prowse and the number was supervised under the instruction of Alvin Keech the inventor of the banjulele with the additional support of J. Kekuku playing a Hawaiian quitar. It was symptomatic of a big Hawaiian craze that had swept through Europe from America in the early 1920s and also the fad for the Banjulele that had been instigated by Alvin Keech (who had originated from Hawaii).
The finale was Plantation Time with scenery, costumes and lighting effects by Adrian Samoiloff. The whole company represented a concert party and orchestra in evening dress and via Samoiloff’s ingenious lighting system the cast were all turned black and plantation jazz music was then played. It was a scene that had already been seen in Samoiloff’s touring Music and Magic show.
Ratoucheff’s Russian Lilliputians were also featured in two scenes. Led by Nicholas Ratoucheff and featuring his adopted son Andre, the troupe had originated in Russia but had fled to France after the Revolution. In late 1922 they were performing in Paris and Biarittz and thereafter in British variety halls. In late 1923 they appeared in the revue On Dit Ca at the Casino de Paris before being billed at the Hippodrome.
These tiny people provided a big novelty with their excellent miming and dancing in the penny-in-the-slot machine scene and the parade of the wooden soldiers giving an imitation of the Nikita Balief’s famous toy soldiers in his famous Chauve Souris show. The Russian Lilliputlians were described as marvellous little people who were clever and quaint.
The eighteen American Gertrude Hoffman acrobatic dancers were also seen in four scenes including one called ‘Fencing’ and another called ‘webbing.’ Gertrude Hoffman had emerged in America as a choreographer and dancer at the turn of the century and then in the early 1920s developed her troupe of dancing girls. She selected, trained and supervised all the girls. It would appear the troupe emerged in early 1923 appearing as the ‘wonderful Hoffman Dancing Girls’ in the Shubert touring show Hello Everybody. Along with 16 girls, Gertrude Hoffman then had a season in cabaret at the Marigold Gardens in Chicago in April-May 1923 and this was followed by an engagement in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1923 from October 1923.
See the post about Miss Florence, who was a member of the Gertrude Hoffman troupe here
The dancing of the Hoffman Girls was viewed as clever, novel, eccentric, graceful and surprisingly agile with astounding gymnastic evolutions. However, it was also observed that their dancing was divorced from the usual grace of movement and was instead a bustling exhibition of lithe evolutions and athletics. In the Fencing scene they were dressed in tight fitting grey costumes against a rich scarlet background and their fencing was precise and well managed. But one reviewer thought that their costuming could have been more attractively expressed.
George Robey as the star of the show had various guises including Guy Fawkes and Neptune at the bottom of the sea. He was also seen as the clown in the harlequinade that was introduced for two weeks during Christmas time.
One of the other scenes of note was one on the deck of a trawler by night with the singing of Bernard Dudley as a stoker. He sang James Tate’s song ‘Shuvvel on a few more Coals’ and was assisted by the splendid quality of the male choruses that included the Welsh Gleeman which preceded and followed him in his rendition.
Although somewhat eclipsed by George Robey, Laddie Cliff was thought to have excelled in his Cockney scenes and his other dancing appearances including as a boy in the ingenious playlet Two in One skit. Here the first two acts were performed separately and then together.
Later in September 1923, a burlesque of the play White Cargo called Black and White was also introduced.
All the costumes and gowns were designed by Dolly Tree. The costumes were executed by Betty S. Roberts, Max Weldy, Alias and Granier. The modern gowns and headdresses were executed by Josephine Earle. It is interesting that the gowns were not executed by Peron, since Dolly Tree had become chief designer for Peron in the Autumn of 1923. Josephine Earle was primarily a stage, film and cabaret actress but had opened her own couture establishment in October 1923. Interestingly, her first mannequin display was accompanied by a Hawaiian musician hung with garlands playing the ukele. Dolly Tree had dressed Earle in the British silent film Woman to Woman in late 1923 and also used her services to create all her modern gowns in The Punch Bowl also in 1924. She clearly just wanted to help Earle establish her business.
See the post about Josephine Earle here
Dolly Tree’s costumes were greatly admired ‘they are of just the kind which make for a gorgeous spectacular effect on such a large stage’ and “her modern frocks were all very good indeed and most of them emphatically wearable.’
Leap Year was thought to be ‘topical in the fullest sense, while it is spectacular on a grandiose scale, is full of novelty, has plenty of alluring music, some fascinating songs and above all there is more than a little to laugh at.’
All images (unless specified in the caption) and text © copyright Gary Chapman / Jazz Age Club and must not be re-used without prior consent
Sources
Programmes
The Brooklyn Daily Times 7/1/1923
New Britain Herald 10/2/1923
The Oregonian 31/5/1923
Evening Express 7/3/1924
Liverpool Daily Express 7/3/1924
The Stage 13/3/1924
Daily Mirror 21/3/1924
Daily Telegraph 21/3/1924
The Era 26/3/1924
The Stage 27/3/1924
The Tatler 16/4/1924
The Era 10/9/1924
The Era 31/12/1924
The Ratoucheff’s – see https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/101976884
