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THE
PERFORMERS
Many performers that
afternoon may well have been amateurs but
some of the participants were very much
professionals. Amongst them was
Thelma White
of Harborne
who trod the boards of Midlands theatres
in the 1930s and 1940s with "Volunteer
Howell and Lilley". Howell and
Lilley were a well-known comedy act and
the men were members of the Home Guard as
their title suggests. Harry Howell lived
at that time in Ollerton Road, Yardley. The
accompanist, Billy Lewis, was also a
professional musician. (More information on Howell and Lilley is
available within this
Birmingham History forum thread).
AND
AFTER THE SHOW........
Eventually, after
a rousing finale, all the members, friends
and supporters of the 39th Battalion, no
doubt still clutching their copy of this
Programme, streamed out of the theatre
into the pitch blackness of a battered
John Bright
Street.
As they exchanged opinions as to
whether Sgt. X had been "a bit weak" or
whether the performance of Volunteer Y
should be regarded as the triumph of the
afternoon, far away and still wholly
unknown to them, some 360 heavily armed
aircraft were by now in the air. And long
before many of these worthy Birmingham
citizens had reached their homes in
Stechford
and elsewhere in the city, via bus and
tram, the first torpedoes and
armour-piercing bombs were raining down
upon the U.S. Pacific Fleet at its
moorings in Pearl Harbor.
It would probably be the following
day before anyone heard or read the news;
but there can be little doubt that it, and
not the previous afternoon's
entertainment, would be the main topic of
discussion in factory and office that
Monday morning.
Sunday, December 7th, 1941 - a
momentous day indeed.........
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