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Waltham Forest Scout Gang Show
(ex Walthamstow)
We’re
back and with a new name and a new venue!
Not long after our 2006 show, Walthamstow & Leyton Scout Districts
merged to become Waltham Forest South. After 36 productions at Waltham
Forest Theatre (Lloyd Park) the theatre closed down in 2008 and we have
now moved to our new home at Chingford Assembly Hall, Chingford E4
where our fellow Scouters in this district now join the gang.
As this means there is now a wider catchment area for our Scout cast, we
decided to open further the invitation to Guide groups within a wider
area in the borough resulting in the new title - ‘Waltham Forest Gang
Show’
We produce a show bi-annually which take place at the end of
April/May. Our gang work from the beginning of January and rehearse every
Sunday afternoon for four months leading up to the show. In addition to
the main Scout and Guide cast, we include a special item in the first act
for our beaver/cub scouts and brownie guides which gives them about 15
minutes to themselves. Our main cast size averages 60 to 80 members with
scout and guide age ranging upwards to adults all being current members
of the scout and guide association.
The production
team and section heads of department includes Directors, Choreographer,
Show Co-ordinators, Wardrobe, Stage Director, Stage Manager, Lighting,
Sound, Music Director together with the Business side, Advertising, Front
of House, Refreshments etc.
The show is managed by Waltham Forest South District Scouts
For further information email :Michael.hayward9@btopenworld.com or
ian.handley1@ntlworld.com
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Ralph
Reader, C.B.E., M.B.E.
1903 - 1982
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The History of the
Gang Show
An edited extract from "The Scout's
Pathfinder Annual" originally publish in 1969 by the Scout Association
Somewhere in the world a Scout "Gang
Show" is being produced every day of the year. Since the first
"Gang" took a bow in 1932, this unique entertainment has
throughout the world raised more than five million pounds for the Movement.
The creator, writer and producer of the "Gang Show" is Ralph
Reader, C.B.E., who was born in Crewkerne, Somerset, England, and who for
many years was a leading actor and theatrical producer in New York and
London. He sacrificed a brilliant career in the theatre for an ideal and is
known throughout the world as a champion of youth. Through Gale Pedrick he
tells you here the story of the "Gang Show", how it began, how it
grew, and how it spread all over the world.
Let me start with a story about the Red
Scarf, the scarlet neckerchief with gold lettering on the back, which
reads, simply, "G.S." It may be worn only by those who have taken
part in a "Gang Show".
One night in West Africa about twenty-five years ago, when I was in the
Royal Air Force, I was sitting in my tent. A burly young pilot walked in.
He stood there, in his light-blue R.A.F. uniform, grinning from ear to ear.
Around his neck was his Red Scarf. All he said was, "What time does
rehearsal start, Skip?"
In Alexandria I was attached to the Royal Navy when they brought in the
Italian Fleet. While I was standing on deck one evening a young sailor
walked over to me and handed me his " Gang Show" scarf.
"Sign this for me, Ralph; it's my mascot," he said.
I signed it. He still has it today when the show is on; but the signature
has been washed out by seawater. He was twice torpedoed. The signature
didn't remain, but the colour did. It's nice to know these
"symbols" mean so much - perhaps because they stand for so much.
So, you see, even in those days the Scout "Gang Show" was
spreading its wings. It wasn't any longer a London experiment, which was
"taking on" in other cities in Britain. It was building up the
worldwide status I'm proud to think it now has.
Never a day goes by without someone somewhere saying to me, "How did
the 'Gang Show' start? What's the secret? How did it all begin?" Well,
there was a beginning. There is a secret; and these two things together
make up the story of the "Gang Show".
My tale really begins on the day I met the Holborn Rovers, and -almost
before I knew it- became one of them. It was for these boys that I wrote
all the sketches and songs for a single concert. It was the first time I'd
ever attempted such a thing. Not that I was ever very happy about that word
"concert". You see, my life had been spent in the professional
theatre, first as an actor and producer on New York's famous Broadway, and
then in London. Indeed, when the plans for the first "Gang Show"
were being laid, I was rehearsing a new show at the Palace Theatre. No, I
was determined, once we were committed, that any entertainment we would put
on with the Holborn Rovers and their friends would be a real production: no
trek-cart displays or drilling or any of the routine items which seemed
always to be included in my Scout "concert".
Well, after that show, Admiral Philpotts, who was then the County
Commissioner for London, stopped me outside the lift at Scout Headquarters
and told me how much he'd enjoyed the Holborn Rovers show. Then he said,
"Reader, we've a wonderful camp-site at Downe, and we're very anxious
to build a swimming-pool there. Can you help us raise the money?"
I'd missed that lift two or three times, and as I badly wanted my lunch in
the restaurant four floors up I said, "Yes, sir, sure I'll do
it." I made a dive for the lift, but before I got out of it again 1
wondered what I'd let myself in for.
I lunched with Fred Hurll and another pal "Tinny" Fellowes, and
before that meal was over we'd planned the programme for a big-scale revue,
and, what's more, had decided that the best place to put it on was the
Scala Theatre, which lies between Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road,
London. I knew that 1 wanted a hundred-and-fifty boys and men in the
company and that, to satisfy my pride in the Movement -and my own
self-respect- it would have to be well up to West End standards!
Our first rehearsal was held on May 25th, 1932, my birthday. And I may say
that one of the happiest thoughts I still have about this period of my life
is that a number of my friends of those days - the true pioneers- are still
actively concerned with the show, among them Fred Hurll, now Chief
Executive Commissioner of the Scout Association, Jimmy Cregeen, who, with
his two sons, Ken and David, is still a tower of strength, and Jack Beet,
whose middle name is "Rover" and whose life has been spent in the
4th Harrow.
One night during rehearsals word was brought to me that the title of the
show had to be decided that evening so that posters could be got ready for
the initial announcements to the public. We had just broken for cofFee.
Then 1 told one of the boys to call the cast back to continue rehearsals.
As they all crowded back into the room I said to the youngster, "Are
they all back?" He looked at me and in a Cockney voice said,
"Aye, aye, Skip; the gang's all here."
I stood rooted to the spot. "The gang's all here!" "THE
GANG'S ALL HERE!' That's it! That was the title we had been looking for. We
were a Gang and the Gang was all here. Yes sir, I thought, that's IT.
Well, after all kinds of alarms and emergencies. the show went on. At the
first night we took curtain-call after curtain-call. Within a fortnight we
knew that we'd raised enough money to buy that swimming-pool.
"Can you write another show for next year?" I was asked.
"Yes," I said, "and let's get cracking right away."
Within the next month I started on the next production. Each year the
"house full" boards have gone up, and sometimes the demand for
seats has been SO terrific that as much as a hundred thousand pounds has
had to be returned.
The rest is history, so far as the "Gang" is concerned. Since
those early days I've written countless songs and , sketches. The torch was
taken up enthusiastically in cities and towns throughout our own country.
Then the word spread overseas, and those songs (notably our signature-
tune, "Riding Along on the Crest of a Wave") and the sketches and
production numbers were being seen and heard in a dozen different
countries.
The "Gang Show" became a truly Commonwealth possession -more than
that, even, for we have our American friends, and I've been proud that the
great city of Chicago- once the home, indeed, of a very different gang'-
regularly gives its own productions of our British shows. There are
"Gang Show" enthusiasts the other side of the world, and not so
long ago I "opened" the first-night of a production in New
Zealand by telephone from my home in Hendon.
The continuity of the "Gang" has been one of the most remarkable
experiences of my life. Our youngsters have grown up, have married, and
then brought their own boys into the show. Each year sees a new intake, but
as I look round at rehearsals it seems to me that I'm surrounded by the
same eager faces which smiled back at me in the first pioneering days and
nights.
I have to admit it, I am a sentimentalist. When, for some reason or other,
I have to take a boy out of a number and replace him by one of his pals, I have
to screw up my courage before I can get the words out. There have been one
or two instances when I refused point-blank to withdraw a boy form a number
because I thought it would hurt him too much. With the older members of the
cast this situation doesn't exist. Phil Davis, one of our original members,
was once taken out of one of the chief sketches because I believed another
man would give a better performance. Not only did Phil come straight up to
me and toll me I was right, but Don Werts, who went into his part,
immediately went up to Phil to apologise. Phil broke into a roar of
laughter and said to Don, "Don't worry about that, Don. The 'old man'
feels worse than either of us." He did, too!
This is why I am so proud of the Gang; this is why I can take the worry and
accept the problems; because of this spirit I can somehow keep awake at
night and still find time during the day to turn out the material for the
next programme. There is no finer example in the world of Scouting than the
example of the boys and the spirit that flows through every member of our
red-scarf Gang. That is why I can sing so happily, "I wouldn't change
for a man with a million, for I've got a million blessings more." And every
blessing stands for a boy who is in or has been in the "Gang
Show".
Friends still ask me to tell them how it came about that "Riding Along
on the Crest of a Wave" became the "Gang Show" anthem. About
the third or fourth rehearsal of the 1936 show we arrived at the First Act
Finale. The boys were seated round the piano, and I told them we would be
doing another Sea Scout number to bring the curtain down. "Is it going
to be as good as 'Steer for the Open Sea?' Dinky Rew asked. "I don't
know, son," I replied. "Learn it first and then tell me what you
think."
The lads soon picked up the song, but without any special enthusiasm. They
sang it again and again, and although I waited patiently for someone to
express an opinion none was forthcoming. So we turned to the other songs
and soon were busy on the floor with the production. Then Dinky Rew came
over to me. "Skip, I like that song best of the lot," he said.
"Do you, Dink?" I answered. "I don't know what the others
thought of it, but we'll try it again later on before we go."
Towards the end of the rehearsal I got them round the piano and we went
over the song again. This time there seemed to be quite a changed
atmosphere among the boys. They sang it with all the gusto they were
capable of and at the end of the second refrain they actually applauded
themselves. Then a voice boomed out from the rear of the Drill Hall.
"Let's have it again, Ralph, and we'll all sing it."
A group of young Territorials was standing at the back. They had been
listening and watching the rehearsal. So again we let it rip, with the
Terriers joining in. They were the first "outsiders" who ever
sang "We're Riding Along on the Crest of a Wave."
That song more than any other sealed the success of the Gang Shows, and
later I used it as my own personal signature tune. It has been sung in
every country of the world where Scouting exists and was the theme song in
one of the prisoner-of-war camps during the 1939 war. It was sung at the
beginning and end of every R.A.F. Gang Show on every battle front through
the war days. It was used as the finale of one of the major episodes of the
Aldershot Tattoo, and played by the massed bands of the Brigade of Guards.
I was present at one of these performances with four of my young Scouts,
and when the strains of it came over the night air one of my boys turned to
me and said, 'Lumme, Skip, they got a nerve pinching our song."
Yes, I'm a lucky man, for I've got the biggest family in the world, even
though all my "sons" have different fathers.
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