Flying Colours

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

This revue consists of a number of entirely irrelevant scenes - as was the case with 'Half past Eight' - little plays or sketches complete in themselves the only connection being the personality of the players; in this case Little Tich has the chief role. The 1st scene, in an hotel, outlines a sort of plot - a racing man planning to win at 100 to 1, the condition on which a woman insists before marrying him - which is abandoned at once, however. The 2nd scene satirizes economy by order of the Government, two people being plundered of their purchases by a sham inspector. The 3rd is a dressing scene at a milliner's. The 4th is more ambitious. It is a trench scene, written by Capt. Bairnsfather showing the humours of soldiers and ending with the commencement of an attack. The authorship is a guarantee of lifelikeness and also, I think, takes away any possible offence there could be in treating trench life lightly. It will be, no doubt, the hit of the piece. The 5th is a burlesque of a cinema murder play. In the 6th Little Tich fools about with a piano, in the 7th he is a matador malgre lui, and in the 8th he flirts with a young lady in the park. I have marked the scenes for convenience. The script is innocuous enough. I have marked in scene 11, p.2, a joke about a soldier being hit, 'not anywhere that really matters' - reminiscent of my uncle toby - which is perhaps too suggestive, and the same may apply to a joke, scene VIII, p.10 (Spanish scene) about the difference of a girl from a man. Scene 111, 'milliner's shop', deserves attention: information might be asked for about the 'dressing business' and a caution given. The songs sent in are inoffensive: I think there must be more to come. Recommended for license. G. S. Street.

Researcher's Summary:

Bruce Bairnsfather, with B. Macdonald Hastings, wrote the sketch 'Bairnsfatherland, or the Johnson 'Ole' for the revue 'Flying Colours' which played at the Hippodrome, London for over 200 performances from 16 September 1916 to 13 January 1917. (A 'Johnson 'Ole' was the crater left by the impact of a particular German artillery shell which British soldiers called a 'Johnson' after the black American world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson.) The sketch put on stage characters which Bairnsfather - a Captain in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment - had created in humorous cartoons which were published in The Bystander magazine about life at the front - notably Old Bill who was likened to a sea lion or walrus because of his drooping moustache. The setting was 'Plug Street' wood or trench, adopting the soldiers' rendering of Ploegsteert, the name of a village in the Ypres salient in Flanders. Newspapers reported in advance of the opening night that Bairnsfather had designed the scenery and costumes for the sketch and was to superintend rehearsals while in England on sick leave (Pall Mall Gazette, 5 August 1916; Sunday Mirror and The People, 6 August 1916; The Era, 9 August 1916). Over twenty years later Bairnsfather recalled in The Bystander, 11 October 1939, how he came to write the sketch: 'Albert de Courville was the great producer of large and popular revues at the London Hippodrome during those war years, and it somehow or other came into his head that he would like me to appear personally in one of his shows ... he offered me a three-figure salary if I would appear in his new revue Flying Colours ... I refused his generous offer for two reasons. Firstly, I was nervous at the thought of appearing on the stage and, secondly, I had a sneaking idea that my local General, out in France, would much prefer me to go to a battle or two, in preference to appearing twice daily in London, at the Hippodrome ... but as a substitute I suggested writing a trench sketch, which could be introduced into the revue. To cut a very long and complicated story short, this was done, and with very great success. The writing of this sketch was my first stage effort, and it was nothing to shout about, but Old Bill, supported by his two pals Bert and Alf, easily succeeded in diverting the public’s attention from the dramatic weaknesses. The main point was that Old Bill had triumphantly appeared in living form on the stage'. The contents of the sketch - perhaps as it was originally written? - have been described as follows: 'The characters in the Flying Colours revue … were Bill, Bert and ‘Arry. The scene was called “Bairnsfatherland or the Johnson ‘Ole” and lasted about five minutes. Three soldiers are chatting in a trench to the background of gunfire. They are visited by an officer, “a bleeding good feller,” says Bill. They pretend not to be “A” Company when sandbags arrive to be filled but change their minds raucously and rapidly when the Company’s rum ration turns up. The item is simply a series of interpreted cartoons, beginning with *“When the ‘ell is it going to be strawberry”, and short sketches of song' (Tonie and Valmai Holt, 'In Search of the Better ‘Ole. The Life, The Works and The Collectables of Bruce Bairnsfather', Milestone Publications, 1985, pp. 49, 51). (* Bairnsfather’s cartoon in The Bystander, ‘The Eternal Question … “When the ‘ell is it going to be strawberry”‘, showed Old Bill looking wistfully at yet another tin of plum and apple jam.) An early account in the Pall Mall Gazette, 18 September 1916, mentions the jam song but is otherwise less detailed: 'In this little sketch ... three Tommies and an officer ... go through the various Bairnsfather jokes - sing of jam and sergeants, “swear horribly” (by inference on the stage), grumble with breesy frankness over discomfort, and laugh at death ... [Old Bill] and his mates sing and “chip” each other for a time in the dug-outs, and then an attack comes on and they “stand-to.” That is all'. Photographs of actors in character during the original London production were published in the Daily Mirror, 29 September 1916, and The Bystander, 4 October 1916. After the run at the London Hippodrome 'The Johnson 'Ole' (now the preferred title) and the rest of the revue went their separate ways. 'Flying Colours' was taken on a provincial tour. An early review noted that 'numerous alterations have been made in the general construction of the piece' and described several of the sketches, some retained from the London production and some newly added, but not 'The Johnson 'Ole' (The Stage, Thursday 22 March 1917). This would certainly have been mentioned if it was included since it was the most celebrated part of the original version of the revue. The performance history of 'Flying Colours' has not been researched further. 'The Johnson 'Ole' became detached from 'Flying Colours' when the actor Harry Thurston, who had succeeded John Humphries in the part of Old Bill in November 1916, separately acquired exclusive rights to perform it (Sporting Times, 3 March 1917). He performed the sketch as part of a more extensive variety bill. Was the sketch now expanded? Already during the London run the producer Albert de Courville had offered ten guineas for 'the best trench joke, to be introduced into Capt. Bairnsfather’s sketch in “Flying Colours.” Capt. Bairnsfather himself will act as judge' (The People, 29 October 1916). When Thurston took the sketch to Eastbourne in February 1917, the Eastbourne Gazette of 21 February noted, 'The sketch is kept thoroughly up-to-date and all the latest “gags” by Captain Bairnsfather are contributed'. And whereas reviews of the original sketch mention only four characters (Old Bill, his two chums and an officer - Tonie and Valmai Holt above, p. 50), a review of the show at Eastbourne identifies also Sniper, Rum Man, Sandbags and Juggler (Eastbourne Gazette, 28 February 1917). Later reviews of 'The Johnson 'Ole' mention scenes in it which would stretch its length beyond the five minutes estimated by Tonie and Valmai Holt above (Burnley News, 19 September 1917; Derby Daily Telegraph, 19 February 1918; Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal, 22 and 23 February 1918; Leicester Journal, 31 May 1918; Hull Daily Mail, 15 October 1918). In fact, the Sheffield Daily Telegraph and the Sheffield Evening Telegraph, both 26 July 1918, said the sketch promised thirty minutes of laughter. It is noticeable that advertisements for the show routinely began with the words 'Captain Bruce Bairnsfather presents ...', to play on the popularity of his cartoons and perhaps also for contractual reasons. Macdonald Hastings was often credited in reviews as co-author. At times in June and August 1917, and again in January and March 1918, Harry Thurston was playing Old Bill in 'The Johnson 'Ole' at two houses in the evening in each of two different theatres in London. Like Music Hall performers of old, he had to travel from one theatre to another and back again, but with scenery, props and supporting cast members, unless he had duplicate sets of each. Great stress was laid on the sketch's realism. It was frequently described as an episode of 'real trench humour'. Towards the end of the war West London newspapers repeated the line, no doubt fed to them by Thurston, that the sketch was absolutely true to life, for every incident in it had happened on the Western Front (Acton Gazette, 30 August 1918; Harrow Observer and West London Observer, 30 August 1918; Middlesex County Times and Ealing Gazette and West Middlesex Observer, 31 August 1918; West London Observer, 27 September 1918). Reviews occasionally commented on the characters' less than polite language (Aberdeen Press and Journal, 18 September 1916; Burnley News, 19 September 1917; Bournemouth Graphic, 12 April 1918; Harrow Observer, 30 August 1918; Evening Despatch and Birmingham Daily Post, both 31 December 1918). The end of the war inevitably made the sketch less topical. Although the Birmingham Daily Gazette, 31 December 1918, felt that ‘The irresistible humour of Old Bill (Harry Thurston) and his fellow warriors in “The Johnson ‘Ole” got right at the audience last night [at the Birmingham Grand], this funny episode of the trenches being all the more appreciated, perhaps, because the scene has now been robbed of its terrors’, a few weeks later the Newcastle Daily Chronicle, 11 February 1919, thought that 'the audience did not seem to respond to the humour of it as they did to the earlier production in war time by Capt. Bruce Bairnsfather [of his play "The Better 'Ole"]. Most people wish to forget the war, and so they are not easily interested now by trench episodes on the stage'. By the beginning of June 1919 'The Johnson 'Ole' was dropped and Harry Thurston assumed the part of Old Bill after demobilisation in 'Lucky Old Bill' (Newcastle Daily Chronicle, 3 June 1919).