Sunday, September 02, 2012

I wanna tell you a story

My earliest experience of being in the presence of celebrity occurred when I was only about 5 years old.

The New Cross Empire was just a short walk from my chlidhood home.


It was built as a music hall in the early years ot the 20th century.

One day, as I was being wheeled towards the theatre, a figure came out which, even at my very young age, I recognised as Max Bygraves.


Max was a popular entertainer. He had many hit songs and TV shows. Everybody knew who Max was. The Empire was a local venue for him, as he was born in neighbouring Bermondsey, SE London. His catchphrase was "I wanna tell you a story." His most famous songs include "Tulips from Amsterdam" and the naive (children's?) song (these days I wonder...) "You're a pink toothbrush, I'm a blue toothbrush".

A few years ago I idly googled Max and was surprised to find he was alive and well and living in Australia. No more. On Friday he died, a last link with my childhood.

The theatre itself was demolished many years ago. This is what they did with the site:


That's right, folks. For more than 50 years it has been a used car lot. Every time I went to secondary school the view slapped me in the face, as the site is bang opposite my school building.

What a waste.
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5 comments:

  1. Sandy7:15 pm

    What a shame to tear down such a grand looking building.

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  2. JoJo8:37 pm

    Sad that he passed away and that the city tore down the old theatre. Like the Joni Mitchell song says, 'They paved paradise and put up a parking lot'. Did you get his autograph? If so, do you still have it?

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  3. Eliza10:10 pm

    I was sad to hear Max died...my grandad liked him so I grew up listening to his songs....,toothbrush was my favourite

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  4. val10:13 pm

    JoJo, I was five at most.I didn't even know what an autograph was.

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  5. Anonymous8:43 am

    I used to love the 'toothbrush' song when I was a kid :0)

    ReplyDelete