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All the stars have a story to tell. . . good film, go round the corner to the Empire they're showing one of mine.' To which one retorted: No thanks. If rm going to see you die, rd rather it was here at the Palladium!' The war years also saw the shortest run of any show. Top of the W orld lasted just four nights, but that was in 1940. The Palladium achieved its biggest audiences with
Sunday Night at the Palladium, which ran for 12 years from 1955 and was shown on ITV. At its peak, the show was watched by nearly half of the country's population. The first show starred Gracie Fields and Guy Mitchell and was compered by Trinder. During a later show, a power failure blacked out the television network and Trinder stayed on stage for nearly two hours, ad libbing for the theatre audience, before greeting viewers with: Welcome to Monday at the Palladium.' Later comperes included Dickie Henderson, Bob
Monkhouse, Hughie Green, Robert Morley, Bruce Forsyth and Norman Vaughan. Jimmy Tarbuck first swaggered on stage in 1963. An unknown 23-yearold, he was an instant hit. 'I was meant to go on for six minutes and carried on for nine, but I was just a boy and had no idea,' he says. Xavier Cugat and his band, who were topping the bill with singer Abbe Lane, had to cut their act to make time for him. Just two years later, Tarbuck took over as compere. The biggest stars were booked for the Sunday shows: Ella Fitzgerald, Jane Russell, Howard Keel, Nat King Cole, Connie Francis, Jo Stafford, Rosemary Clooney, Eartha Kitt and Pat Boone among them. When The Beatles appeared in 1963, fans beseiged the theatre and the word Beatlemania was coined. During one show, Judy Garland sat in her dressing room, apparently deciding whether or not to go on. Meanwhile, the band
Which
iThe best theatre in the world is the Palladium,
played her introductory music, Over the Rainbow, again and again. It was Tarbuck who eventually coaxed her on. On another occasion, however, Tarbuck forgot Petula Clark's name and introduced her as 'someone who needs no introduction'. When Shirley MacLaine played the Palladium in 1976, London was plagued by bomb threats. She was heading for the stage when she overheard one stagehand say to another: 'There's been a bomb scare, but we've been told not to say anything to Miss MacLaine.' A suspicious brief case had been found under an empty seat. But the decision to carry on with the show turned out to be the right one - the case was later claimed by a couple who had stayed too long in the bar. All the stars have stories about the Palladium. Harry Secombe plummeted through a prematurely opened trap door; scenery fell on Hughie Green's head; Norman Vaughan
dropped a rifle and nearly broke his toe; Betty Hutton was so dynamic she knocked over a row of microphones; Jimmy Durante, tossing a stool to his drummer, smashed a 20ft mirror. There's been drama offstage, too. Mario Lanza, in an outburst of temper, knocked his manager halfunconscious, and a mentally disturbed fan of Val Doonican stabbed a props manager when he refused to let her backstage to see her idol. Recently, the Palladium has been home to a number of other successful shows. Barnum with Michael Crawford ran from 1981 to 1983; Singin' in the Rain with Tommy Steele from 1983 to 1985; La Cage aux Folles from 1986 to 1987. Dean Martin and Rudolf Nureyev were among others who performed there last year. Now, after the recent departure of the musical Zeigfeld, the theatre is preparing for the 'Allo ',4110 cast's imminent arrival. The Palladium lives on... wr
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