An evening at Leeds Grand Theatre
Warren Smith joined the Rotary Club of Leeds in 1977 and is their longest serving member. This week he regaled us with a feast of name dropping, culled from a long and distinguished career as a theatre manager.
The career, and name dropping, begins with a school holiday job age 15 as a scene shifter and props boy at the New Theatre Hull in 1961. There he met the star of the panto, another 15 year old, Helen Shapiro, who had just been awarded a gold disc for Walking Back To Happiness. Also in the panto was Ronnie Hilton, who later moved to Roundhay and is remembered for The Windmill Of Old Amsterdam. Amazingly, many of us were able to join Warren in singing the chorus.
Warren’s name dropping moved seamlessly and in unexpected directions. By 1963 Warren had a job in rep as acting assistant stage manager at the Lincoln Theatre Royal . where he delivered stage props to a naked Anna Carteret in her dressing room.
His own acting career was short lived but full of incident. At Rotherham Civic Theatre Warren appeared alongside John Savident, later famous as the butcher Fred Elliott in Coronation Street. John Savident, playing a judge, managed to collapse the scenery on Warren, playing the court usher. Warren also unexpectedly played Pinocchio at a Boxing Day panto in Rotherham, when the train carrying many of the cast failed to arrive. He dressed in the leading lady’s leotard.
After studying Theatre Administration, and undertaking various stage management jobs around the country, Warren went on to help establish what became the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, with Tom Courtenay and Vanessa Redgrave leading the actors. Warren’s late wife’s father, a doctor, came to watch Daniel Deronda, presciently telling Warren that Ms Redgrave was pregnant.
Warren then settled down to spend the rest of his 36 year career as general manager at the Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House. This 1,500 seat, five tier performance venue was built in 1878, and is widely regarded as a major milestone in Victorian theatre.
It was during Warren’s stewardship of the Grand Theatre that he helped to establish the permanent home of Opera North there, and later invited the Northern Ballet Theatre company to make its home in Leeds. In 2006 Warren was able to oversee the theatre undergo an ambitious £33m transformation and restoration project, which he was proud to leave as his legacy on retirement.
Over the years Warren has managed touring musicals, plays, concerts and ballets. He told us of encounters with such thespians as Sir Laurence Olivier [up a ladder fixing the stage lights, then terrified of forgetting his lines], Sir Ralph Richardson [perching on his motorbike while eating his sandwiches], Deborah Kerr, generously reimbursing Warren when she heard that he had overspent his pocket money gorging on cakes after watching her in The King and I at the age of 8.
Moving from thespians to comedians, Warren told us of encounters with Paul Daniels, Phil Cool, Tommy Cooper [who tipped a taxi driver with a tea bag], Ken Dodd [a big admirer of devoted fan Fanny Waterman], Les Dawson [constantly writing more gags], Billy Connolly [surprisingly shy], Bruce Forsyth [living on his nerves], Victoria Wood [surprisingly diva-ish about a sofa Warren had
purchased for her dressing room], Spike Milligan, [having the audience in stitches while remaining silent for five minutes] and Barry Humphreys, for whom Warren arranged to bring press questioning to an end by having him collected in a white Rolls Royce and saying Dame Edna had to rush back to London to see her gynaecologist.
He also dropped the names of Barry McQuigan, David Essex, the Bay City Rollers, and spoke of a memorable visit of the Chippendales.
Warren gave us his rules of name-dropping. You should never drop your own name – get someone else to do it for you. He then told us of a notable exception when reminded of a story from Graham Saunders, Rotarian from the Harrogate Club, who when Chief executive of Harrogate Hospital arranged an official lunch for the opening of some new facilities. At one table there was silence, until one lady broke the ice by suggesting they all introduce themselves. She began by saying, ‘I’m the Queen… Who are you?’ The ultimate in the art of name dropping.
On retirement 18 years ago, Warren was nominated for a people’s honorary degree from Leeds University . The citation said he had made a major contribution to the life of Leeds and its people.
Well said, and thank you Warren.