Tracing Sonnie Hale

[igenlode]

Note (03 Aug 2010): while, for the sake of completeness, I'm importing this blog entry verbatim in its original form, any new readers should note that its content is now somewhat out of date. For one thing, Sonnie Hale's IMDb record is now considerably more exhaustive than at the time of writing, since I've contributed a good deal of research there!

A more up to date version, including the probable solution to the "Lilac Time" mystery, can be found on my website -- although to be frank, that one could currently do with some updating too...

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I've been chasing through reference books, databases, theatre programmes, playbills, etc. trying to track down Sonnie Hale's stage career: while his film record at the Internet Movie Database isn't quite as exhaustive as it might be (additional writer's credits are probably due on "Gangway" and "Climbing High" in addition to the one on "Sailing Along"; apparently he made an Hitchcock-style cameo appearance in "Gangway"; and I discovered that the final play he wrote had actually been filmed in 1960 as a screen comedy by the Boulting brothers... and then the original script credit assigned by error to someone else) I find the IMDb an admirably comprehensive resource compared to the challenge of chasing down thirty years of ephemeral theatrical history..!
Ironically, one of the performances I've failed to locate is the one illustrated above, supposedly Sonnie Hale and Maisie Gay circa 1935 in the burlesque "Lilac Time" which was a great success in the Broadway production of "This Year of Grace" (see below). It was performed there by Noël Coward and Beatrice Lillie, who had taken over the roles created by Sonnie Hale and Maisie Gay respectively, but so far as I'm aware was never actually played in the London production. So how and why the stars of the original London cast would have been reunited to perform it seven years later I really do not know...

Stage roles

Compiling all that I've discovered up to now -- I don't expect to find much more, but I'm constantly being surprised -- I can establish the following dates and roles:

• The Fun of the Fayre (revue) (1921) -- London Pavilion -- in chorus line
  With Clifton Webb, Evelyn Laye
• Little Nelly Kelly (1923) by George M. Cohan -- New Oxford Theatre -- as Sidney Potter
• The Punch Bowl (revue) (1924)
  With Hermione Baddeley
  Songs: "I Love My Chili Bom Bom" (?)
• Mercenary Mary (1925) by Con Conrad & William B. Friedlander -- London Hippodrome -- as Jerry Warner
  Songs: "Honey I'm In Love with You" (Peggy O'Neill(?) and Sonnie Hale)
• Queen High (1926) -- as Richard Johns
  Songs:
  • "It Pays to Advertise"
  • "Don't Forget"
  • "Cross Your Heart"
  • "Who'll Mend a Broken Heart?"
• One Damn Thing After Another (revue) (1927) by Rodgers & Hart -- London Pavilion
  With Jessie Matthews, Max Wall
  Songs: "My Lucky Star" (Mimi Crawford and Sonnie Hale)
• This Year of Grace (revue) (1928) by Noel Coward -- London Pavilion
  With Jessie Matthews
  Songs:
  • "Waiting in a Queue" (Sonnie Hale & Chorus)
  • "A Room With a View" (Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale)
  • "Dance, Little Lady" (Sonnie Hale, Laurie Devine)
  • "Mexico" (pre-London only) (Sonnie Hale)
  • "Lorelei" (Adrienne Brune & Sonnie Hale)
  • "Try to Learn to Love" (Jessie Matthews & Sonnie Hale)
• Wake Up and Dream! (revue) (1929) by Cole Porter -- London Pavilion
  With Jessie Matthews
  Songs: "Looking at You" (Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale and Ensemble)
• Ever Green (1930) -- Adelphi Theatre, London -- as Tommy Thompson
  With Jessie Matthews
  Songs:
  • "Doing a Little Clog Dance" (Albert Burdon & Sonnie Hale)
  • "Dear, Dear" (Jessie Matthews & Sonnie Hale)
  • "Nobody Looks at the Man" (Sonnie Hale)
  • "No Place but Home" (Jessie Matthews & Sonnie Hale)
  • "The Lion King" (Sonnie Hale)
  • "Dancing on the Ceiling" (Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale, Mr Cochran's Young Ladies & the John Tiller Girls)
  • 'Impromptu Song' during cabaret (Sonnie Hale)
• Hold My Hand (1931) by Noel Gay -- Gaiety Theatre, London -- as Pop Curry
  With Jessie Matthews, Stanley Lupino, Harry Milton
  Songs:
  • "Where is our Wandering Boy" (Sonnie Hale, Harry Milton, Connie Emerald & Ensemble)
  • "Pied Piper" (Sonnie Hale & Chorus)
  • "Spring" (Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale, Marjery Wyn &Stanley Lupino)
  • "Turn On the Music" (Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale & Ensemble)
  • "To Please the Man She Loves" (Cyril Wells, Harry Milton & Sonnie Hale)
  • Finale (full company)
  • "Hold My Hand" (Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale) (recorded on disc as duet but not performed together in show)
• Sally Who? (1933 by Dion Titheradge) -- Strand Theatre, London
  With Jessie Matthews
• I Can Take It (1939) by Harry Woods -- Sheffield Empire and tour (also directed)
• Come Out to Play (revue) (1940) -- Phoenix Theatre, London / Grand Theatre, Blackpool -- as compere (also co-wrote and directed)
  With Jessie Matthews
  (Apparently a re-vamped version of I Can Take It)
  • "Caught Napping" (full company)
  • "She was a Dear Little Dicky Bird" (Sonnie Hale)
  • "Monotonous Rhythm" (full company)
• Pantomime Aladdin (1940) -- Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham
  With Jessie Matthews, Sid Field
• The Maid of the Mountains (1942) -- Hippodrome, Bristol
• Kiss the Girls (1943) -- Grand Theatre, Blackpool /
  The Knight Was Bold -- Piccadilly Theatre, London -- as Sir Guy de Vere
  With Francis L. Sullivan
  Songs:
  • "I Go on My Way Whistling" (Sonnie Hale)
  • "Kiss the Girls" (Sonnie Hale)
  • "You and the Moonlight" (Enid Stamp Taylor & Sonnie Hale)
  • "Whoopsy Diddly Dum de Dee" (Sonnie Hale & Ensemble)
  • "Where the Rainbow Ends" (Adèle Dixon & Sonnie Hale)
  • "I'm Telling Thee" (Adèle Dixon & Sonnie Hale)
  • Finale (full company)
• One, Two Three (revue) (1947) -- Duke of York's Theatre, London (also co-produced and directed)
  With Binnie Hale
  Songs:
  • "One, Two, Three, Go!" by Charles Zwar (full company)
  • "Fine New English Gentlemen" by Charles Zwar (Sonnie Hale, Charles Heslop, Anthony Hayes)
  • "Still Dancing"(?) (full company)
  • "Encores (When We Were Very Young)"(?) (Binnie Hale and Sonnie Hale)
• Four, Five, Six (revue) (1948) -- Duke of York's Theatre, London (directed only)
  With Binnie Hale
• The Perfect Woman (1948) -- Playhouse, London
• The Ex Mrs Y (1949) -- Grand Theatre, Blackpool
• Pantomime Babes in the Wood (1950)-- London Palladium
  
• Rainbow Square by Robert Stolz (1951) -- Stoll Theatre, London
• Pantomime Dick Whittington (1952) -- London Palladium -- as Cook
  With Frankie Howerd, Richard Hearne
  Live TV broadcast from this production 28th December 1952
• Not a Clue-! (1953) -- Theatre Royal, Bath (also directed)
  With Claude Hulbert
• Night of a Hundred Stars (benefit night for Actors' Orphanage) (1955) -- London Palladium
  With Jessie Matthews
  Songs: "A Room with a View" (Sonnie Hale & Jessie Matthews)
• Pantomime Dick Whittington (circa 1955?) -- Liverpool Empire
• A Nest of Robins (1955) -- tour (also wrote and directed)
  With Jessie Matthews
• Pantomime Dick Whittington (1955) -- Palace Theatre, Manchester -- as Daphne Dumpling
• Lady Be Good by George Gershwin (1956) -- Hippodrome, Bristol -- as Jeff(?)
  With Bobby Drage
• Pantomime Aladdin (1956) -- London Palladium
  With Norman Wisdom, Valentine Dyall
• A Nest of Robins (1957) -- Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool and tour (also wrote but did not direct this time!)
  With Jessie Matthews, Valerie Singleton
• The French Mistress (1959) -- Adelphi Theatre, London (also wrote)
  (Sonnie Hale died on tour before London opening night)

Notes

• In the case of revues, even where a full programme is available it is often hard to tell whether a particular number is a song or a sketch; I have tried to err on the 'safe side' and have therefore not listed anything credited to Sonnie Hale which appears more likely to be a comedy routine.
• In the case of some musicals, although I may have located a full list of songs I have no way to tell which numbers were sung by which character; again I have not listed songs unless I am reasonably certain that they were in fact performed by Sonnie in that production.
• Those co-stars actively mentioned are simply those whom I happened previously to have heard of; there is no other significance to the choice of names included or omitted.