MUSIC HALL WOES
THERE was once a popular television programme, ‘The Good Old Days’ in which the old music halls were re-enacted at the City Variety Theatre, Leeds, and Macclesfield once had its fair share of music halls.
Most famous of these was the Theatre Royal, where Dukes Court now stands. There are countless tales to be told about the old music halls.
A number of years ago I was with my friend, the late John Heywood, whose professional name as an entertainer and character actor was, for a great number of years, Johnny Maxfield.
John was perhaps best known for his longrunning Heinz soup commercials, in which he played the Grandad, but he made many appearances in series such as All Creatures Great and Small and The Onedin Line. He’d been a brilliant comic in his time too
He told me a number of things about Macc’s old music hall days and, in particular, about the time he was appearing in the soap opera Emmerdale and got talking to Al Dixon, who played the character Walter some years ago.
Al has now sadly passed on, but told John he was a member of a travelling stock company in 1926 which came to either the Theatre Royal or the Opera House, which stood in Catherine Street until it burned down during the 1930s.
Little was left of the Opera House, such was the fire’s extent, but the wonderful front entrance doors were retrieved and used on the frontage of the Picturedrome Cinema in Chestergate, just around the corner.
Anyway, after the actors had done their week’s stint in Macclesfield, the female impresario did a runner with her boyfriend and the wages, leaving the entire company on Hibel Road Station with no money and nowhere to go
Apparently the impresario was very famous indeed and had better remain nameless as her descendants are still well known in showbiz circles.
Another victim of a person who ‘did a runner’ was Macclesfield’s legendary fat man, Leo Witton, a travelling sideshow entertainer who came to Hibel Road Station with his manager.
After leaving his staff in lodgings, the manager did a runner, forcing the 52-stone Canadian colossus to stay in the town.
He then remained in Macclesfield, at the Orange Tree Inn, until his untimely death from a heart attack.