Clacton Pier (The history)

[Stagehand]

Stella's sister
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/steel ... -s-shields

Well I never!! It looks to be the exact design of the Clacton ride.

[kevin]

Yes, if I remember there was two identical rides built, Clacton and South Shields. A third larger coaster went to New Zealand, called the Cyclone. This is shown in the pictures below and ran with a train of three cars rather the the single car on the others. They were built by The Double Grip Tubular Steel Amusement Devices Company, who were given the concession to run the Playland amusement park during the Centennial Exhibition in 1940.

Double grip were a subsidary of the London and Midland Steel Scaffolding Company, which explains why Steel Stella looks as though it is essentially built from scaffolding.

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/centennial/playland

p.s. The pictures are larger than the space available and can be scrolled up and down and left to right. Sorry, couldn't manage to get it to fit!

[Gary]

^
Brilliant Pics! Thank you all for contributing to this fantastic ongoing and forever growing Mega-Thread!!

Gary

[johng]

Amazingly detailed information and photos providing a wonderful recollection of the pier at Clacton!

Our family used to own and run the Clifton Cafe (before Wenns the butcher) at 22/24 Station Road next to Spurgeons toy shop. Spent many, many days on the pier and at the pool until family left when I was about 9 years old in 1958.

I remember sunbathing alongside comedian Norman Vaughan on what I recall a small elevated patio area at one corner of the pool near the fountain. Family knew comedian and panto dame Wyn Calvin who played at the Ocean Theatre regularly.

Aunt Peggie Randall ran tea rooms near the entrance to the Pier.

Uncle Tony and Aunt Barbara Roberts were St Osyth farmers and Clacton butcher and I met the then Susan Kingsman through daughter Sarah.

Vivid recollection of (was it the Co-op?) the hypnotic Lamson Rapid Wire cash carrying system!

Thank you so much!

[johng]

Me at my Aunt Peggie's tea rooms near entrance to Clacton Pier on Kings Parade around 1954:

Clacton.jpg (194.5 KiB) Viewed 22039 times

Photo of tea rooms from Pier:

http://tinyurl.com/om7xmun

[Bob]

Video about 10 minutes long about Clacton in 1961


http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/209

[Frank Adey]

Hi I am the grandson of Frank Adey producer of many shows at Clacton. My Father Frank Adey was also a stage manager at Clacton. My Father met my mother Rene Day who was a tiller girl at the London Palladium.
I think there was some trouble with Father and grandfather (probably about girls)...and my father split from Grandfather, never to talk again. My Father went onto to stage manage with my mother at various shows around...the windmill and palladium. Before they both left show bus. Frank (Dad) always intersted in sport, joined the new american Baseball sport, and played for England against Holland, and played for and with many of the American bases teams. He then started and founded Little League Football in England...My Mother dies some 13 years ago, my Father now lives in a care home in Hastings, near my Sister June Harris. I always been connected with art, and now am a Portrait theme artist living North Devon. My only theatre was the local panto! ha (oh yes it was)
Hope this info is of interest...because of the break up, I never met my Grandfather
Frank Adey Jnr. Portrait artist
http://www.littleleaguefootball.com/cms ... -07-28.pdf

[Pier of the realm]

Hi people I haven't posted on here much in the past but thought the attached photo might get a bit of conversation going, or better still get the thread off on a roll again.

The photo shows the old jets and the sprinter roller coaster which replaced the whirlwind in the mid to late eighties and disappeared from service at the pier only a few seasons later.

[Pier of the realm]

Another great shot of the pier from the
Michael Goss era, which was from 1971-1981

[Chief Engineer]

Hi Frank Adey Jnr.

Welcome to the History of Clacton Pier of which both your Grandfather and Father played a huge part in the Pier’s colourful history, hopefully you have loads more memories to share with us all, of the goings on, both on and back stage.

Here are two famous artistes from 1965 that your Grandfather would have had to keep under control, Fred Van Buren, world famous magician and illusionist and the great all-round entertainer Roy Hudd.




For those lucky enough to live in the local area, Roy and his wife Debbie will be at the West Cliff Theatre this October 2013, it looks like a few more interesting facts and stories of goings on behind the stage curtain are going to be revealed. In Roy’s foreword to the show, Frank Adey during Roy’s career was ‘a very special bloke’ guide and mentor and I am sure we will hear a lot more about Frank.



CE

[Chief Engineer]

An expensive yet valuable lesson was learnt back in 1956 when the lighthouse slip ended up blown onto the Queen Mary sundeck.

The Lighthose slip in the picture did survive with some repairs, but it is not the one presently on the Pier, which of course is well secured from suffering the same fate.

CE

[Stagehand]

Hi I am the grandson of Frank Adey producer of many shows at Clacton. My Father Frank Adey was also a stage manager at Clacton. My Father met my mother Rene Day who was a tiller girl at the London Palladium.
I think there was some trouble with Father and grandfather (probably about girls)...and my father split from Grandfather, never to talk again. My Father went onto to stage manage with my mother at various shows around...the windmill and palladium. Before they both left show bus. Frank (Dad) always intersted in sport, joined the new american Baseball sport, and played for England against Holland, and played for and with many of the American bases teams. He then started and founded Little League Football in England...My Mother dies some 13 years ago, my Father now lives in a care home in Hastings, near my Sister June Harris. I always been connected with art, and now am a Portrait theme artist living North Devon. My only theatre was the local panto! ha (oh yes it was)
Hope this info is of interest...because of the break up, I never met my Grandfather
Frank Adey Jnr. Portrait artist
http://www.littleleaguefootball.com/cms ... -07-28.pdf

Hi Frank having looked at the little league football I am sorry to say that the Frank Adey in the pictures is not recognised as the Frank Adey producer and Director of the Ocean Reviews I knew for some 40 years. Also the Frank Adey I knew never had any children, he was married for many happy years to Betty Martin who also performed in the shows at the Ocean theatre to become the resident stage manager. Just one other pointer the man I knew and grew up alongside had been a hoofer and had been in many west end shows before venturing into the realms of Producing small shows in the mid 30's. I was fortunate to have such a fine teacher who taught me the many tricks of the trade for me to become also a stage manager.

[Stagehand]

Dear Frank a genius in the theatre world. He gave both my father and in later years me the opportunity of the world of entertainment.
Back in 1950 a scenic artist Ted Woodley, my father, was working on a large Bernard Delfont production of Carrousel in the paint rooms of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. One morning while Frank was visiting the theatre on business he was taken back stage to the paint rooms to have a look round. On entering he was met by my father who showed him round. They apparently had quite a long chat, and out of this came the association of my father becoming the sole scenic artist for both the Ocean Review, until the early 70's, plus the Showtime productions at the Jolly Roger which ended in the early 60's. Through this association our families became very good friends which lasted until Frank passed away in the late 70’s.[/quote]

[Gary]

Thanks again to all for this wonderful ongoing megathread and the stories that it has uncovered.

Superb reading!

Gary

[Stagehand]

WEST-END SHOWS

"SOMETHING FOR THE BOYS" - an American musical produced by Frank P. Adey with Cole Porter tunes opened at the Coliseum, London on the 30th March 1944, running through till 20th May. The plot concerned three fantastic cousins, Blossom (Evelyn Dall), Chiquita (Daphne Barker), and Harry (Bobby Wright), who inherit a ranch in Texas right beside an airfield. Blossom's boy friend Rocky was played by Leigh Stafford and his friend Laddie was played by Jack Billings who also arranged all the dances. There was also Army Air Corps boys, an assembly line, a senator's daughter, and a human radio receiving set - but paraphrasing a review at the time "with Evelyn Dall starring, who cares about the plot!" Songs included "Something For the Boys", "Hey! Good Lookin'", "See You're Born In Texas" and "By the Miss-iss-iss-iss-iss-iss-inewa".

THE STUDENT PRINCE,
producer : Frank P Adey
Date: 26.6.1944
Brief description: Programme advertising a play called THE STUDENT PRINCE, by Dorethy Donnely and Sigmund Romberg, for the week commencing Monday, June 26th, 1944 at the Royal Hippodrome, Chatham.