Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth in South Africa from DO YOU REMEMBER ANNE ZIEGLER AND WEBSTER BOOTH?
Early days in Johannesburg
Extract from: DO YOU REMEMBER ANNE ZIEGLER & WEBSTER BOOTH?
This book tells Pamela Davies' story of her keen admiration of Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth in the forties and early fifties. Shortly after Anne and Webster returned to the UK from South Africa in 1978, Pamela began corresponding with Anne and became good friends with her. The book includes THE BODY OF WORK OF ANNE ZIEGLER AND WEBSTER BOOTH, compiled and edited by Jean Collen. Jean has listed many of their engagements on stage, screen, radio and television from 1924 to 1994. She has also written the section about the Booth's time in South Africa.
Early days in Johannesburg
Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth settled in South Africa in the middle of 1956. In November 1955 they had toured the Cape with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra, and then returned to the UK to fulfil engagements over Christmas. Towards the end of January 1956 they were back in South Africa to appear in the major cities in the Transvaal, Kimberley, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban and Pietermaritzburg, before doing a tour of the country districts of the Transvaal. They also went to various countries north of South Africa. In this second tour they were accompanied by Arthur Tatler on the piano.
Johannesburg 1962
A great fuss was made of them when they came to Johannesburg in 1956. There was even a notice in The Rand Daily Mail advising people of the time of their plane’s arrival at 5.50 pm on Saturday afternoon 28 January. They were entertained by the Mayor, Leslie Hurd, in the mayoral parlour. The Mayor spoke to the assembled gathering of local celebrities about the fact that he shared a Christian name with Webster as Webster’s first name was also Leslie.
The critics were rather severe in their judgement of their Johannesburg recital, viewing them as ballad singers rather than operatic singers, although both Dora Sowden from The Rand Daily Mail and Oliver Walker from The Star agreed that Anne and Webster knew how to charm their audiences. The writers of the “women’s pages” were much more enthusiastic. Amelia from the Women’s Journal in The Star gave a fulsome report of one of their concerts on 20 February 1956:
“When the two appeared in the City Hall on Thursday night the crowd was screaming to stamping stage with enthusiasm even though the artistes had been most generous in their encores.
Miss Ziegler wore one of the lovely crinolines which she always chooses for stage appearances. This one had a black velvet bodice and a skirt of gold and black tissue brocade. With her diamond jewellery she was a scintillating figure under the lights.”
They had made up their minds to settle in the country and returned to the UK merely to sort out their affairs and make arrangements to have their belongings shipped to South Africa.
On their return by the Union Castle ship, The Pretoria Castle, they stayed for several months at Dawson’s Hotel in Johannesburg while they looked for a suitable place to live. They eventually found a pleasant flat at Waverley, just off Louis Botha Avenue in Highlands North, where they lived until they bought their first house in Craighall Park. They were lucky to obtain the services of Hilda, who hailed from the island of St Helena, to be their housekeeper. Hilda remained with them during their eleven years in Johannesburg.
A Night in Venice (1956)
They had an engagement to star in A Night in Venice with the Johannesburg Operatic Society in November, and Webster was asked to sing the tenor solo in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at a Symphony concert. The work was presented as part of the Johannesburg Festival to celebrate Johannesburg’s seventieth birthday. Sir Malcolm Sargent, who had conducted Webster at several London concerts the previous year, was the conductor at the Johannesburg concert, while other soloists were Webster’s old friend, Betsy de la Porte (contralto), whom he remembered from his early days at Masonic dinners, Frederick Dalberg (bass) and the young coloratura soprano, Mimi Coertse, who was beginning to make her name in Vienna.
Rather incongruously Webster took the Tommy Handley part in a series of ITMA scripts acquired by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (the SABC). This thirteen-week series was entitled Light up and Laugh, sponsored by Gold Flake Cigarettes, and produced by the Herrick-Merrill production house.
Although Anne had driven a car in her youth she had allowed her British driving licence to lapse after she married Webster. They realised that it would be necessary for them to run two cars in South Africa, so Anne had to do a South African driving test. The Booths had brought two cars from the UK: a sea-green Zephyr Zodiac and a pale blue Hillman convertible.
She was taught to drive by an Afrikaans ex-traffic policeman. At her first lesson he made her drive along Louis Botha Avenue, in those days the main road from Pretoria through the suburbs into Johannesburg. There was a bus boycott on at the time. Thousands of people were walking along Louis Botha Avenue from the townships of Alexandra and Sophiatown to their work places in the city centre. Anne was very nervous, fearing that she might knock somebody down. Despite the adverse circumstances of her first driving lessons she soon passed her test and proved to be an excellent driver. She went on driving until shortly before her death in 2003.
In the first year or two after their arrival in South Africa they were fêted by everyone, invited to all the society parties, and offered all kinds of engagements. Anne took her first non-singing part in Angels in Love, the story of Little Lord Fauntleroy and his mother, Dearest, the role played by Anne. They appeared in Spring Quartet in Cape Town under the direction of Leonard Schach, and replayed their parts in A Night in Venice to Durban audiences. They even went to East London in the Border coastal region to sing at the city’s Hobby Exhibition, and they were heard often on the radio. Not only did they do frequent broadcasts but their records were played constantly by other presenters, who marvelled that such a famous couple had chosen to settle in South Africa.
In 1957 they opened their school of Singing and Stagecraft at their studio on the eighth floor of Polliack’s Building at the corner of Eloff and Pritchard Streets in the city centre. They held a party to celebrate the opening of the studio and invited musical and society glitterati, who eagerly crammed into the studio for the occasion and were suitably impressed by the array of pictures of Anne and Webster, taken with internationally famous friends and colleagues, adorning one of the studio walls.
The original plan was that Webster would teach singing, while Anne would teach stagecraft, but in the end they both taught singing, and Anne acted as accompanist to the students. At first they did not attract many students as their fees were much higher than those of local singing teachers. Eventually they reduced the fees and managed to attract more students.
In 1963 Anne said that all the local Johannesburg celebrities and socialites who had tried to cultivate them when they first arrived in South Africa, soon left them alone once they realised that they were not as wealthy as imagined, that they actually had to work for a living and were not free to attend the races and other such activities.
Later years in Johannesburg
Anne and Webster had never taught singing before. They had been far too busy performing in the UK to have had the time or the inclination to teach, although in 1955 Webster had placed an ad in The Musical Times in the UK, which intimated that he would consider taking a few singing pupils. Neither had formal music teaching qualifications but Anne was a competent pianist, and they adopted common sense methods of teaching singing, which had stood them in good stead during their own careers.
Anne always said that singing was merely an advanced form of speech. They concentrated on good breathing habits and on using correct vowel sounds. The basis of “straight” singing was that one sang through the vowels and attached consonants at the beginning and end of the vowels to create good diction. There were five vowels: ah, êh, ee, oo and oh, and from these vowels all words could be sung. Diphthongs in words such as “I”, were created by a combination of two basic vowels – in this case - ah and ee.
They were very particular about dropping the jaw on higher notes. One of their exercises to master this technique was based on the sounds “rah, fah, lah, fah”. It was also essential to keep the tongue flat in the floor of the mouth just behind the teeth, and an exercise on a repeated “cah” sound was good for training the tongue to remain flat and not rise in the mouth to bottle up the sound. The “mee” sound was produced as one would sing “moo”, so that the vowel was covered and focused, rather than spread. The jaw had to be dropped on all the vowels in the upper register, including the “ee” and “oo” vowels, which one is inclined to sing with a closed mouth. They also emphasized that words like “near” and “dear” should be sung on a pure “ee” vowel, rather than rounding off the word so that it sounded like “nee-ahr” or “dee-ahr”.
The voice should be placed in a forward position, “in the mask” as Anne always said, so that it resonated in the sinus cavities. They did not dwell on the different vocal registers unless they detected a distinctive “change of gear” from one register to the other.
Webster continued his oratorio singing in South Africa. Drummond Bell, who had conducted the JODS’ production of A Night in Venice the year before, was the organist and choir master at St George’s Presbyterian Church in Noord Street. He asked Webster to sing in The Crucifixion at Easter 1957. He also sang the part of the Soul in The Dream of Gerontius in Cape Town later that year. The conductor was the young organist Keith Jewell (then aged 27). It was the first time that the work was performed in South Africa. Webster always held Keith Jewell in very high regard, and he appeared as guest artiste in Anne and Webster’s “farewell” concert in 1975.
He and Anne also sang in performances of Messiah at several Presbyterian churches towards the end of 1957, and Webster adjudicated at the Scottish eisteddfod in November. Astutely he awarded the young soprano, Anne Hamblin 95 per cent for her singing. She was to do well in her singing career in Johannesburg and is still remembered for her part in Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris in the nineteen-seventies. Webster sang regularly in various oratorios at the annual Port Elizabeth Oratorio Festival, conducted by Robert Selley, and, in Pietermaritzburg did and Elijah for Barry Smith (1963) and The Creation (1964) at Pietermaritzburg for Ronald Charles, successive directors of music for Michaelhouse School in the early sixties.
Anne and Webster appeared frequently in various advertisements on screen and in the press. Early in Anne’s career she had modelled for an advertisement for Craven A cigarettes. She had learnt a valuable lesson at this assignment when the photographer told her that the photograph would mean nothing unless she smiled at the camera with complete sincerity, despite the fact that she had never smoked a cigarette in her life. They had also endorsed Ronson cigarette lighters in the late nineteen-forties and made an advert to promote Parker pens.
Merrie England 1958
Advert for Lourenco Marques Radio (1960)
Advert for Skol Beer (1961) 
In late 1957 they were featured in an advert for Lloyd’s Adrenaline cream. According to the advertisement, this cream had given Webster relief from the excruciating sciatic pain he had suffered on their fleeting visit to Calgary to appear in Merrie England. Apparently Anne used the cream whenever she had an attack of fibrositis. Anne also endorsed Stork margarine (although the last thing she enjoyed was cooking and baking), a hair preparation and a polish. Webster appeared on film as a French boulevard roué in an ad for a product I have now forgotten, and they were featured in an advertisement listening avidly to Lourenco Marques radio, and celebrating a special occasion with a glass of Skol beer. For this last ad Webster was obliged to grow a beard!
1957 and 1958 were very busy years for the Booths in South Africa. In 1958, for example, they went from one production to another in as many months: Waltz Time in Springs; Merrie England in East London; Vagabond King in Durban; and Merrie England again in Johannesburg. Anne was also principal boy in pantomime in East London at the end of that year.
Waltz Time East London (1959)
But 1959 was not quite as busy. They were asked to appear in East London again, this time in Waltz Time, and Anne was the Fairy Godmother in The Glass Slipper for Children’s Theatre in Johannesburg towards the end of the year.
From then on they built up their teaching practice and began directing musicals for amateur societies in various parts of the country. In 1959 they did an interesting Sunday afternoon programme on Springbok Radio entitled Do You Remember? in which they told the story of their lives, based on their autobiography, Duet. They also recorded their popular duets in Afrikaans that year.
By the nineteen-sixties they were no longer appearing regularly in musicals although Anne took the unsuitable part of Mrs Squeezum in Lock Up Your Daughters, a restoration musical by Lionel Bart at the end of 1960. Her big song in the show was entitled When Does the Ravishing Begin? A very far cry from We’ll Gather Lilacs! In 1963, aged 61, Webster took over the role of Colonel Fairfax – the juvenile lead - in The Yeomen of the Guard for the Johannesburg Operatic Society. He had not been JODS’ original choice, but was asked to take over the part at very short notice. In 1964 Webster and Anne appeared in a Cape Performing Art’s Board (CAPAB) production of Noel Coward’s Family Album, a one act play in Tonight at 8.30. It could hardly be called a musical although there was some singing in it.
They appeared in a number of straight plays in the nineteen-sixties. Webster was the Prawn in The Amorous Prawn and took the small part of the Doctor in a very long and serious play called The Andersonville Trial. They played Mr and Mrs Fordyce in the comedy, Goodnight Mrs Puffin at the beginning of 1963 and, just before they left Johannesburg for Knysna, Webster was the non-singing Circus Barker in the Performing Art’s Company of the Transvaal’s (PACT’s) production of The Bartered Bride, while Anne played the wife of a circus performer in The Love Potion for the same company at the same time.
They remained in Johannesburg until the middle of 1967. Anne was suffering from hay fever, which was becoming worse the longer she remained in Johannesburg. There were times, especially at night, when she could hardly breathe. Anne had a number of allergy tests done, but these did not pinpoint the exact cause of her hay fever. They decided to move to the coast in the hope that Anne’s hay fever would ease, and in the hope of a more peaceful life as they grew older.
At the beginning of 1967 they went on a coastal holiday. They thought Port St Johns in the (then) Transkei was very attractive but slightly too remote for them. The village of Knysna on the Garden Route was more to their taste. They bought a house in Paradise, Knysna and returned to Johannesburg to put their affairs in order and plan their move to the coast.
It must have given them a sense of déjá vu to receive such a warm great welcome in Knysna. Anne’s hay fever vanished within a few weeks and she concluded that dust from the mine dumps in Johannesburg had been the cause of the hay fever.
They were soon as busy as ever, with concerts, ranging from oratorio with the Knysna and District Choral Society, to variety concerts with local artistes, and pantomimes, in which Anne not only played principal boy once again, but wrote the scripts into the bargain. They started teaching and trained several talented singers, in particular soprano, Ena van der Vyver, who sang in many performances with them.
Ena van der Vyver and Anne Ziegler in Knysna pantomime (late 1960s)
Anne was also asked to produce several shows for the Port Elizabeth Musical and Dramatic Society, and Webster produced The Mikado in East London in 1973.
Anne’s friend Babs Wilson-Hill (Marie Thompson) visited them in Knysna from the UK, and, in 1973, Anne went to Portugal and the UK to spend a holiday with her and to appear in a British TV show at the same time. Anne and Webster were getting older and Anne longed to return home to the UK.
Babs Wilson-Hill (Marie Thompson) in her lovely garden in Old Colwyn, North Wales (aged 94)
In 1975 they moved to Somerset West, believing that the cost of living there would be lower than in upmarket Knysna. They bought a cottage in Picardy Avenue with a beautiful view of the mountain, but despite being nearer to Cape Town they were not offered much radio work and did not find many singing students. Webster ran the Somerset West and District Choral Society and presented several oratorios, but was not paid a fee for his work with this society. Towards the end of that year they gave what was to be their "farewell" concert in Somerset West.
Babs realised that although Anne and Webster were keen to return to the UK, they could not afford to buy or rent accommodation there. She kindly offered to buy a property for them where they would be able to live rent-free for the rest of their lives. The offer was too good to refuse. At the beginning of 1978 they left South Africa to return to the UK. Having given their farewell concert a few years earlier they did not expect to perform again, but they were soon in demand by fans who had not forgotten them from over twenty years earlier. Thus they embarked, on what Anne termed, their "third" career.
Jean Collen © 22 July 2011
REVIEW
Pamela Davies first heard Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth singing on the radio when she was a teenage evacuee in Devon in the early nineteen-forties. She became a staunch fan of the couple, attended as many of their performances as possible, collected press cuttings and made her own notes about the shows and concerts she saw.
When Anne and Webster returned from South Africa in 1978 she wrote to them to welcome them home. Much to her surprise, not only did Anne reply to her letter, but began a regular correspondence with her. After Webster's death in 1984, Pam and her late husband, Walter took Anne out for lunch whenever they were in North Wales, and they became good friends.
This is an interesting account of Pam's association with them over the years, first as a fan, and later as a friend. By no means is this an uncritical account by a starry-eyed fan, but tells of the couple's loss of popularity after the war, leading to their decision to settle in South Africa from 1956 to 1978.
I can thoroughly recommend this fascinating and thoughtfully written book to those who are interested in the lives and careers of Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth.
Jeannie C 10 July 2011 ©
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