Susan Spencer Interview: Joke Sweets & Stink Bombs
Title
Susan Spencer Interview: Joke Sweets & Stink Bombs
Date
2 September 2017
Description
Oral history interview with Sue Spencer, who, aged 12, performed as a dancer in 'The Pied Piper', the Theatre Royal Pantomime in 1968.
What's the story?
Susan Spencer was one of the young locally recruited dancers for 'The Pied Piper', the 1968 Theatre Royal pantomime, starring Freddie Davies and Mark Wynter.
She was a member of the Tozer School of Dance and this was her first professional job on the stage.
Still residing in Nottingham, Susan was one of the first people to come forward with her Theatre Royal memories and has shared with us her scrapbook of photos and letters from that time, which can be found elsewhere on this site.
This clearly was a very special moment for Susan and her memories reveal some fun backstage antics and stories.
In this extract Susan talks about The Sign of Four shop, located at the side of the Empire, the Theatre Royal's sister venue, which at this point had closed its doors, but had yet to be demolished.
At The Sign of Four you could buy ballet shoes and other paraphernalia, but Sue was more interested in other things you could purchase there.
Well, I was a bit naughty with the stagehands. There used to be a joke shop, “The Sign of Four” on the side of the Empire building, the old Empire, it was like a little shelter people stood under to go up to the Gods and there used to be the “Sign of Four”, which was a joke shop, ballet shoes, costumes, you could get all your tights there. And I used to go in there with my wages and buy sweets, which were joke sweets and I would take them to the stage – I used to buy stick-on boils as well and pretend I’d come out in boils all over my face. Miss Towser wasn’t impressed with that one, you know, extra large glasses, a massive comb, that was about two foot long, you know, silly things, but it was just fun, but the sweets, they looked perfectly normal and so I used to give the stagehands some as I went back, waiting to go on and when they bit into them they were like mustardy inside and of course they were trying to change scenery, so I was in stitches, absolute stitches and they did take it all in good heart, you know what I mean, but if I’d ever got found out, I would’ve been in serious trouble, but it was funny at the time.
We used to have to come up from underneath the stage on the trapdoor. Freddie Davies’s cloak was all laid out on the stage and so many children went up the trapdoor every so often and then you could be … supposed to look like rats under his cloak because he was trying to rid the town of rats and we were all coming up and I had a stink bomb, you know how naughty is that? Really naughty, and obviously I let it off down in the basement, you know, and of course once the trapdoor was open this pungent smell, it was awful, how bad is that? But I thought it was funny. I never owned up to it.
She was a member of the Tozer School of Dance and this was her first professional job on the stage.
Still residing in Nottingham, Susan was one of the first people to come forward with her Theatre Royal memories and has shared with us her scrapbook of photos and letters from that time, which can be found elsewhere on this site.
This clearly was a very special moment for Susan and her memories reveal some fun backstage antics and stories.
In this extract Susan talks about The Sign of Four shop, located at the side of the Empire, the Theatre Royal's sister venue, which at this point had closed its doors, but had yet to be demolished.
At The Sign of Four you could buy ballet shoes and other paraphernalia, but Sue was more interested in other things you could purchase there.
Well, I was a bit naughty with the stagehands. There used to be a joke shop, “The Sign of Four” on the side of the Empire building, the old Empire, it was like a little shelter people stood under to go up to the Gods and there used to be the “Sign of Four”, which was a joke shop, ballet shoes, costumes, you could get all your tights there. And I used to go in there with my wages and buy sweets, which were joke sweets and I would take them to the stage – I used to buy stick-on boils as well and pretend I’d come out in boils all over my face. Miss Towser wasn’t impressed with that one, you know, extra large glasses, a massive comb, that was about two foot long, you know, silly things, but it was just fun, but the sweets, they looked perfectly normal and so I used to give the stagehands some as I went back, waiting to go on and when they bit into them they were like mustardy inside and of course they were trying to change scenery, so I was in stitches, absolute stitches and they did take it all in good heart, you know what I mean, but if I’d ever got found out, I would’ve been in serious trouble, but it was funny at the time.
We used to have to come up from underneath the stage on the trapdoor. Freddie Davies’s cloak was all laid out on the stage and so many children went up the trapdoor every so often and then you could be … supposed to look like rats under his cloak because he was trying to rid the town of rats and we were all coming up and I had a stink bomb, you know how naughty is that? Really naughty, and obviously I let it off down in the basement, you know, and of course once the trapdoor was open this pungent smell, it was awful, how bad is that? But I thought it was funny. I never owned up to it.
Type
Oral interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Contributor
Interviewers: Julia Holmes & Sue Threakall
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
