Poster advertising the Variety programme at the Lewisham Hippodrome, for the week beginning Monday 8th February 1937, featuring Gala Nights on Tuesdays and Fridays, and Feature Films every Sunday. Starring Al Devito & Russ Denny; Jenny Howard; Satsuma & Ona; Harold Collins; Fred Lake with Billy Taylor; Walter Niblo; Johnson Clark; Wright and Marion; The Armour Boys; The Jovers.

Typographic poster, printed in black and red on cream paper with the name of the venue LEWISHAM HIPPODROME in largest upper case letters at the top of the poster, with the names of the acts in red and black in variously sized rectangles in the main body of the poster.

Given by the Royal Academy of Music

The performers on the bill noted on the poster are Al Devito and Russ Denny with Dorothy Stevens (A Lesson in Lunacy); Jenny Howard (The Popular Radio Revue Star Assisted by Percy King); Satsuma and Ona (The World's Most Sensational Thrill); Harold Collins and his Band; Fred Lake (The Radio Comedian) with Billy Taylor at the piano; Walter Niblo (Yorkshire's Gift to Variety); Johnson Clark (The Sportsman Ventriloquist); Wright and Marion (America's Destroyers of Gloom); The Armour Boys (The Comedians with the Laughs); The Jovers (The Famous International Comedy Duo).

This poster is part of a collection amassed by Norman McCann (1920-1999). McCann studied at the Royal Academy of Music in the late 1940s and went on to become an impresario and the President of the British Association of Concert Agents. He collected dance material with the intention of establishing the International Dance Museum and compiling a comprehensive Who's Who of Ballet, but his collection included items relating to theatre and variety as well. On his death the collection was bequeathed to the Royal Academy of Music, but it contained material outside the remit of the Royal Academy and was given by the Academy to the V&A Theatre and Performance collection.

This Variety programme features a typical range of performers of the time, including stars who were popular on the radio such as the singer Jenny Howard (1902-1996), known as 'the poor man's Gracie Fields' since she often performed her songs, and the comedian Fred Lake. The evening's bill includes singing and comedy acts, and also a ladder-balancing act from Satsuma & Ona and ventriloquism from Johnson Clark (1886-1956) known as 'the sportsman ventriloquist' who performed with his vent doll, the naughty boy Hodge. In 1938 Johnson and Hodge recorded their 'Orchard Apple' routine for British Pathé showing Johnson as the orchard owner arguing with Hodge about stolen apples.

Since this was a 'twice-nightly' programme there were two separate performances each evening, at 6.40pm and 8.55pm, and on Sundays there were feature films.

S.881-2012