Clacton Pier (The history)

[Stagehand]

Well heres some information to your photo of some of the crew
Top Row
Ernie Cobb, Clary Marshall, unknown
Bottom row
Billy Dale, Charlie Bollingbrook, Arther Bollingbrook

[FATBOY]

glad to hear the speedboat rides are going to be making a comeback! im sure there is also a niche for boat trips to run to and from the windfarm, that would be brilliant if they done that. i do remember having a speedboat ride from the west beach years ago... i doubt that would ever be possible now due to health and safety concerns, but pleasureboat rides from the groyne could be possible????

[Stagehand]

Hi fat boy, yes there were speedboats that ran off the west beach, they were infact jet boats and could run in very shallow water. The ones that ran from the pier were large 20ft 12 cylinder diesel powerd boats with a top speed of around 20knots.

As for pleasure boats running from the groyns, due to the way the beach has built up close to the pier on either side since the sea defences at Jaywick and now the wind windfarms you would have a very short time slot to get any trips in with a vessel of appropriate size as there is very little depth of water even at high tide. that was one reason why the lifeboat was moved to Martello Bay from the end of the pier as they could not launch at certain times the tide.

Running of pleasure craft these days is very costly with passenger liabilty, insurance. The Maritime and Coastguard very high saftey standards plus the cost of fuel make it a very expensive operation. I wish the pier good luck with their intentions for the speedboat trips they intend to operate.

[Chief Engineer]

When Ernest Kingsman brought his Rochet-Schneider 20HP 3971cc saloon car from the 1924 Paris Motor Show, I am sure he would never have realised almost 90 years later his car would once again drive onto the Pier forecourt for today’s rather wet Classic Car Show.

The car survived WWII over in France at Mr. Kingsman’s Villa. The precaution of having the car stripped of all its fixtures and fittings with the parts buried by the family’s gardener allowed the car to survive apart from the loss of its wheels. The present owner kindly showed me the interior fittings, a few of the decorative details contained the ‘Star of David’, had those remained in the car he is sure the car would not have been so lucky.

The car is in remarkable good condition considering it spent a lot of its life over the North Sea and still retains some of the original spares. Beneath the rear carry box is a compartment that still holds an original spare head gasket as supplied with the car.

The car is pictured on the Pier with Barney Kingsman along with its original Log Book.

CE

[Pier of the realm]

.......hi I'm new to posting on the forum, but have been a side line observer of this great thread for a few years now........I have a keen interest in the pier and would love to see some more posts so, please Mr Engineer, can we ave some more updates??????

[Chief Engineer]

Hi Pier of the Realm,

I am glad you enjoying the history of the Pier and apologies to every one for the lack of recent posts, other various Pier projects have been eating into free PC time.

Let me try to bring a little sunshine back to Sunny Clacton after the last few months of wet weather. Teddy Dobbs and his Blue Lagoons had a go back in 1934 with this sing-a-long song sheet. I have tried to find a copy of the song performed by them but with no success. Probably not produced as a record but more as an extra revenue earner to sell the song sheet after the show.

CE

[Chief Engineer]

When a Mr. Harvey first asked Earnest Kingsman for a job, I doubt anyone knew what a success he would become in his roll as Clown Bertram. His success I am sure influenced others to follow in his footsteps as speciality children entertainers.

Although the year is now 1974, one such act that entertained young and old alike on the Pier was the 'Rolo and Shandy Childrens Show'. I have them as staring in the Ocean theatre in 1974 and for the following season.

It may be that some of the readers here might have been lucky enough to have been to one of their Pier shows, or you might even have seen them at your junior school. After having toured all over Southern England for over ten years performing their 'Road Safety Show' to school children, they were eventually awarded a plaque by the Road Safety Committee for teaching road safety to over one million children, were you one?



CE

[Chief Engineer]

As a foreword to the following postings that will be featuring some of the performers and acts that entertained the audiences in the Ocean Revue summer shows, I do not think you could not begin with out mentioning the man who for over forty years brought the shows together, Frank Adey.

His retirement from the Piers theatres was covered in the local press and details how it all began. In my search for a little more background to Frank, I came across this quote from an interview with Austin Cole by Dominic Shellard on 06/11/07 on the ‘Theatre Archive Project’


AC Oh yes, just after the war there was a… still ongoing, a wonderful [little] theatre, I used to stay at a little place I had at Holland-on-sea, about three miles up the road from Clacton-on-sea. And no amusements were allowed up at Holland-on-sea, but you just went along the front, two or three miles, you came to Clacton pier. And it had allsorts of things on it including a lovely ballroom, and a scenic railway, two theatres – one was banned for use because it was unsafe – but the Ocean Theatre was still going. And in the season there, Frank Adie - the producer who I knew, because he lived [near] where I’d got an apartment there… and it [also was] our childhood coast, being born at Cambridge, and I was now practicing at Cambridge. And this is all in the time period ’45 to ’68. This would be about 1960 I should think. And Frank Adie, I’d ring him up and say, ‘Frank I’m bringing a party down and they’re staying with me, could I have six good seats?’. And along there we would go and find that Dick Emery was on for the week.

DS Oh, Dick Emery.

AC Yes, because he could get back to London quickly if he had to do some TV work. And also I think he was probably glad to get away from London a bit where his life was crowded out with TV work and theatre and everything, and radio and allsorts of things. And it gave him a bit of a breather. And that was a wonderful show.
But one or two people that started there was Billy Dainty. Now I understand that Roy Hudd appeared there for a week… for the season I should say, the season, not a week. This was a season show. When he was a young man, Roy Hudd. Frank Adie used to come up to London – the producer – and sort out… pick someone that was up and coming. And then he’d give them the season, and they’d often finish up as stars. Those names, dead, that I’ve just listed off. And they were very good shows.
But here’s the most interesting thing, Dominic, about that theatre, the Kingsman family owned it, and it was finally sold to the people that owned Walton pier, and they turned it into a pinball place. But that’s another story. But Mr Kingsman allowed Frank a lot of leeway – Frank Adie, the producer. And the orchestra, 36 in that orchestra, in a seaside pier pavilion theatre. And I said to Frank, ‘Where did you put them?’ He said, ‘Well…’ I said, ‘You’ve only got a small orchestra pit.’ He said, ‘They went under the stage.’ I said, ‘Well they couldn’t breathe under there.’ He said, ‘That’s right.’ He said, ‘You see how I can do that is, on the money allowed for producing a show, is that a lot of the people that work locally would do anything to get in that show. And if they can play an instrument they would come for a £1 a week’,

Those were the days
CE

[DolphinBoy]

Great stuff Mr Engineer, I remember seeing Rolo & Shandy many times on the pier, cant remember if I was one of the million they taught to cross the road??
I think if memory serves me correct, Rolo & Shandy were my late Nans nextdoor neighbours in Little Clacton.......I will have to check that!
They always put on a great show!
If I remember The Magic Merlin Show was also there then, although it might have been after Rolo & Shandy.
Merlin was the late great Len Blease.
Such good memories!!

[Chief Engineer]

Here are a few early ‘Ocean Revue’ programs from 1936 to 1938, the shows all of course produced by Frank.





CE

[Graeme]

It may be that some of the readers here might have been lucky enough to have been to one of their Pier shows, or you might even have seen them at your junior school. After having toured all over Southern England for over ten years performing their 'Road Safety Show' to school children, they were eventually awarded a plaque by the Road Safety Committee for teaching road safety to over one million children, were you one?

Yes indeed! They came to my school.

Thanks for posting.

[Chief Engineer]

I doubt there are many readers of this forum who would not know that Mr Roy Hudd's early career in entertainment started in Clacton as a red coat, during the summer seasons at Butlins, 1958/9.

A few years later, one of Frank Adey's 'picks' of an up and coming entertainer for the 1964 summer season had Roy back in Clacton and heading the program at the Ocean Theatre.

Here he is pictured from the program along with some of the supporting acts.
The last picture is from Peter Kingsman, taken with Roy on stage.

CE

[Chief Engineer]

Unfortunately I do not have any Pier programs or posters for 1932 when Frank made his first appearance in the 'Ocean Revue' , I did come across a small advert and a two line write up of what his performance may have consisted of. Luckily it was his ability as a producer that his career in entertainment turned to. Fifty years later and it was a slightly more lavish retirement tribute and write up that applauded Frank's successful career in show business.





Here is a view of the Ocean Theatre stage c1934 that Frank would have given his first performance from


CE

[FATBOY]

nice to see the landing walkway has been erected. any pictures of it being built? and how was it built? was there much left of the old walkway under the waves?

[Chief Engineer]

Hi FB,

I never managed to get any pictures of the new steps going in, like the set before and the set before them, steps on the Pier do not have a very long life span due to the power of the North Sea.

Here from Peter Kingsman’s collection is a shot of the original steps in use, date unknown and at what looks like a rescue operation of some swimmers going on.

CE