The 1966 Crew Variety Show
On the 1966 Great World Cruise, for two nights during the “hate-week” crossing from Yokohama to Honolulu, the crew put on a variety show for the passengers, with a 3rd show put on for the crew on the 2nd night. This was held in Caronia's theatre where we had rehearsed for several nights at sea from around 11.30pm sometimes until 2am the following morning. The clock in the background on two photos is showing 12.45am!
Dress Rehearsal Night
The pictures on this page were taken on dress rehearsal night, just after leaving Yokohama. Of the 20 or so pictures that I took, I have managed to get 12 reasonable scans, however, I do apologise for their poor quality.
With the slides being all these years old, a couple of pictures I've had to convert to grey-scale just to get any image at all. However, those pictures I have used show recognisable faces which was the main objective.
Audience Reaction & Enjoyment
My small involvement in this show was a 4 minute re-enactment of a sketch from the very popular “Round the Horne” radio show. Before you ask, where's the picture of me in it - regrettably there wasn't one taken.
As seen below, the gay guys are fully in their element with putting on such a show. However, despite the obvious cross-dressing, it wasn't all bawdy and raucous stuff as might be imagined.
This because the show's performances were staged as much for the passengers as for the crew. Audience reactions might have been different, but there was no doubting the very high level of enjoyment by both.
Hand-Made, by Queens!
The costumes reflect that the ship has just left Yokohama, Japan. However, a lot of work would have been done in that port to search for suitable fabrics. Being an almost annual visitor, there was probably an established purchase chain for any visiting ship's crew.
What is probably not recognised is that a group of very talented, creative and imaginative guys would have had just a few days to hand-make every tailored costume. Remember too that this work was done in their spare time, such as it was!
My Search Continues…
I'm still holding out that someone out there has a copy of the 1966 Crew Show programme . That would certainly help me to put names to faces!
If you can identify anyone here, do please let me know. I hope that I'll be able to place names beside the people depicted.
