Repertory company The Penguin Players’ production of ‘Madam Tic-Tac’, by Falkland L. Cary and Philip Weathers, opened at the Hippodrome and Queen’s Theatre in Keighley on Monday 11th August 1952.
The play is set in the modern day in Madam Tic-Tac’s coffee bar off the Edgeware Road in London. Madam Tic-Tac (played by Louise Ralston) is blind and deaf, and operates a den of thieves from her premises. The play was not the original choice for the company in this slot (publicity material has ‘Madam Tic-Tac’ pasted over the original choice). Perhaps its status as a “thrilling success from the Winter Garden Theatre” (in London, where it played in 1950) made it seem a more bankable choice.
Players in the company included Michael Beint, Robert Bruce, Ronald Elms, Jeanette Finlay, Mona Glynne, Sheila Hope-Johnstone, Louise Ralston, Joan Raven, Lynne Reid-Banks, Anthony Shirvell, and Monty Vane-Tempest. The play was produced by Peter Davey and the manager of the players was Kathleen Willis. Linda Dale accompanied proceedings on the piano.
The programme also included adverts for the Regal Milk Bar (proprietor J. W. Dutton) on North Street; H. Wilkinson (television dealer) in The Arcade on North Street; Shackleton and Sagar’s Minerals from Spring Bank in Ingrow; the cocktail bar of the Victoria Hotel on Cavendish Street; J. Scheerer & Sons (sound firm) of Leeds; C. Holmes (plumber and sanitary engineer) of Sandywood Street; A. Lord & Co. (modern furnishers) with showrooms on High Street; Jack Hey (joiner and undertaker) of Albert Yard off Bridge Street; Katheena (prize-winning ladies’ hair stylist) on Fell Lane; John W. Laycock Ltd. (fireplace specialists) of North Street; Timothy Taylor’s Prize Ales (“for men of the North”); Rightway School of Motoring on Lawkholme Crescent; Harry Stowell (plumber and sanitary engineer) of Bradford Road, Riddlesden; Renee Coats, Gowns and Knitwear of Church Street; and Windser Pottery (H. Brearley and Sons) of North Street.
The 1950s was a turbulent decade in the history of the Hippodrome and Queen’s Theatre in Keighley. Long-time Managing Director Francis Laidler (who also owned the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford) died in 1955 and was succeeded by his widow Gwladys. Television was providing a significant challenge to theatre-going by the middle of the decade, and the Hippodrome had to try more extreme forms of entertainment to draw in the crowds. But to no avail, and the theatre finally closed its doors in 1956, before being demolished in 1961 to make way for the new town centre’s multi-storey car park.
The items were donated to Keighley and District Local History Society by Tim Neal in 2022. They are held in the History Society’s physical archive. The Local Studies Library in Keighley also has a rich archive of material relating to the Hippodrome.
