The Penguin Players’ production of ‘Hay Fever’, by Noel Coward, opened at the Hippodrome and Queen’s Theatre in Keighley for one week from Monday 22nd September 1952.
Players in the company included Michael Beint, Robert Bruce, Jeanette Finlay, Mona Glynne, Louise Ralston, Joan Raven, Lynne Reid-Banks, Ivor Salter, and Anthony Shirvell. 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.
