The British obsession with ribaldry and double-entendres has few outlets, but once a year, men dress up in drag and women slap their thighs in panto. This tradition dates back to medieval times and was an important part of Christmas for the troops serving overseas in 1944. For non-British readers, pantomime is a slightly baffling concept (my wife is American, so I know this only too well!). Panto is a bawdy, slapstick, comic form of live entertainment that relies on archetypal characters, often with gender-reversal, and well-known stories. They are usually billed as “fun for all the family”, but contain thinly disguised jokes that work on several levels.
For instance, the venerable Sir Ian McKellen dressed as the dame in Mother Goose famously declared, ‘I’ve long been partial to a cockatoo.’ It’s all good, clean - you’re making up your own jokes, missus - fun. Christmas 1944 saw a bevvy of pantos staged across overseas theatres of operation by British servicemen looking for a laugh. In this two-part blog post, I compare two performances: Babes in the Wood by the Army Welfare Service and Cinderella by the Erks of RAF Staging Post 63.
Figure: Amateur dramatics in Italy, January, 1945. A theatrical performance probably by members of 78th Infantry Division. The scene involves soldiers in a bar with an ‘Evening News’ newspaper stand announcing ‘U.K. Leave for C.M.F!’. CMF stands for Central Mediterranean Forces. (Source: National Army Museum, Image number: 158673)
It is a truth universally acknowledged that any group of blokes left to their own devices for long enough will eventually result in at least one of them either removing their clothes and/or dressing up as a woman. Eric Taylor fondly remembers the appeal of gender reversal whilst serving in the 78th Division:
“I knew from other concert parties which had visited the unit in the UK, that what went down best with troops, apart from community singing and dolly birds from ENSA, were the lads who came on as women, either as panto-type dames with saucepan lids as a bra, or as exaggerated versions of glamour girls.”[1]
He used this insight to dress as Carmen Miranda during a rehearsal for a concert party in North Africa, a move he attributes to saving his life. The ability to turn the world on its head, however briefly and laugh at its absurdity, will have provided a brief respite to the war-weary troops. At a time when thoughts turned to their families back in Blighty, it was also important for the troops serving overseas to hear that traditions like pantos continued at home. Tommy Trinder spoke about this on the General Forces radio programme after his tour of Italy in early 1944:
“And when I used to tell the boys that pantomimes were running - ‘Humpty-Dumpty, Cinderella - and that the kiddies were going to see these shows - you could really see their faces light up - it meant an awful lot to them…”
Despite having their world turned upside down and fighting a determined enemy, the troops took solace in the fact that some traditions continued, reminding them of why they were fighting.
There were few chances for pantos in Italy during Christmas 1943 as the Allies fought to establish a front line and deal with the chaos left behind in urban centres like Naples. By December 1944, however, the front line was more static, the progress on the second front on the borders of Germany promised an early end to the war, and more cities like Rome and Florence were liberated, providing static theatres for more ambitious productions. For Major Gordon Chistian Plaistowe, commanding officer of the Army Welfare Service for Area 59, the conditions were perfect for a performance. Based just outside Florence, the unit looked after men coming out of the front line for some rest. By early 1945, he was responsible for the welfare of men staying at a permanent rest camp in Area 59 which catered for 4000 British officers and other ranks and 1750 US officers and enlisted personnel. Plaistowe was proactive in his management of welfare and in September 1944 complained that:
“The shortage of parties (ENSA) has been felt very strongly. Some very pertinent letters have been written by ‘high level’ officers in reply to the undue publicity of ENSA in Normandy.”[2]
By December 1944, it was time to take things into his own hands, and so the Major, formerly of the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry, penned and produced The Babes in the Wood pantomime:
Figure: Design for The Babes in the Wood pantomime. (Source: WO 170/732: 59 Area Welfare, 1944 Oct.-Dec’, TNA [The National Archives])
Unusually for British Army concert parties, the Major and several of his subalterns took to the stage to perform for the other ranks. This was discouraged earlier in the war, fearing it might undermine military authority, but by Christmas 1944, it had obviously been overlooked in the effort to maintain morale.
Figure: Cast and Crew for The Babes in the Wood pantomime. (Source: WO 170/732: 59 Area Welfare, 1944 Oct.-Dec’, TNA [The National Archives])
Playing the dastardly villain and Squire, Sir Jaspar Murgatroyd (A Nasty Piece of Work – boo hiss), Plaistowe, took the starring role. Whilst the chorus of country yokels cheer news of the benefits delivered by the Beveridge Report, the Squire declares that he must double his tenants’ rent to claw back some money. He’s down on his uppers, having lost his Army paybook (AB64) and trying to fiddle the PRI fund, which paid for the welfare funds. Major Powell plays the Dame (hooray!), and as you’d expect, gets all the best lines and, not so subtle, gestures. Referencing the price of prostitutes in Florence, the Dame says, “to hook a man spare no expense (lifts skirt), five hundred lire in Firenze! (drops skirt).”
Following the traditional story of The Babes in the Wood, the Squire is plotting to do away with Jack and Jill, the wards of the Dame. He hires the services of two American GIs, who must have drawn a lot of laughs with their over-the-top caricatures straight out of a gangster movie. After some difficulty communicating, the GIs eventually get the Squire’s plan and agree to help, saying, “swell guy, tink he’d hire a couple of moiderers.” From the number of digs at their American cousins in the script (for example, the GIs are immediately blamed for missing tents and other objects), it’s likely the panto was intended for a British-only audience.
Ending on an optimistic note reflecting the hope that they would soon be going home, the Dame declares, “It won’t take long to finish this job and then what ho to our demob.” The panto was performed at the Rex Theatre in Siena on Christmas Day and the in-jokes obviously went down well as it was repeated on three further nights. The talented script-writer and producer, Major Plaistowe, can be seen in the following photograph from early 1945 (in the second row, wearing the lighter uniform).
Figure: Opening of the Kingfisher Club. Major General E.P. Nares, Brigadier H.A.E. Matthews, Commander 59 Area Major G.C. Plaistowe, DADAWS, and Lieut. Colonel Hershenson (US Army) watching the water polo at the all ranks swimming club in Milan. (source: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205539477).
After the war, Gordon Plaistowe experienced his own fairy-tale ending. Far from Siena by 1948, he was digging a trench in his garden in Hillside Walk, Brentwood, Essex when he struck gold. He found two unique examples of Romano-British Christian gold rings. These fetched a princely sum when he sold them to the British Museum, and the jewellery can still be seen in the collection. Interviewed on his find, he displayed the same humour he showed in The Babes in the Wood when he told the reporter:
“I can assure you that future deep-trenching will be attended by a little judicious sifting of the soil.”[3]
And Major Plaistowe lived happily ever after.
Thanks to individuals like the Major, servicemen and women far from home fighting in Italy had an hour or two of escapism and nonsense over Christmas 1944. In Part Two, I will look at a very different panto put on by the RAF based at an airfield located at Elmas on Sardinia.
[1] Eric Taylor, Showbiz Goes to War (Hale, 1992), pp. 68–69.
[2] ‘WO 170/732: 59 Area Welfare, 1944 Oct.-Dec’, TNA [The National Archives], n.d.