No 8 — November 1977 Edited by Michael Walters
FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE
Santa. Fe, New Mexico. 20 Sept. 1977. Dear Michael, I think it interesting that several of your readers had noticed the comment about Martyn Green's "doodlebug" story in issue no 6, and had taken the trouble to write and question you about it. Frankly, I had glossed right over it, but your spelling out the story in issue no. 7 set me to thinking about it. I knew I had heard the story before – but where – and WAS it Martyn Green – or was it somebody else? So I had to start digging for the facts. It IS a great story, but it was NOT Martyn Green who was involved. I wonder if any other reader has informed you of that. [No. However, the mistake has been corrected in the computerised edition of No. 6. Ed.] Martyn was out of the Company from September 1939 (when it all started) until September 1946 (after it was all over)! I do not recall just when the doodlebugs started buzzing over your heads, but suspect it was about 1944. Martyn Green was most likely here in the United States during the period when they were dropping ("Here's a How–de–do" page 150 et seq.). The story was related, not by Martyn but by Richard Walker, and can be found an page 287, Volume VIII of The Gilbert & Sullivan Journal (May 1965.) Although Richard does not give the name of the person who was playing Ko–Ko at the time, I suspect that it was Graham Clifford. I am really upset to learn that your excellent letter to the Editor of the G & S Journal had not been printed, for it pertains to another one of "those things" where I've been trying to "get to the bottom of it". ... I was especially interested to learn that you have heard the Beatrice Elburn and Nellie Walker recordings (which I do NOT have) and confirm that they both sang, "high–ho", as does Ann Drummond–Grant on the 1950 recording under Isidore Godfrey. Most of us here in the U.S. grew up listening to the 1929 recording with Nellie Briercliffe as Phoebe. Then in 1934 when the company paid its first visit to MOST of the U.S. since the original productions, Marjorie Eyre was the Phoebe who captivated us, as she did again in '37 and '39. After the war in '47–48 we heard Denise Findlay and Joan Gillingham in the role; the latter again in '50–51 and finally, in 1955 Joyce Wright charmed us with her interpretation. But the point is that every single one of them – from the 1920 acoustic recording (which you mentioned) right through to 1955, which is the last time D'Oyly Carte has brought Yeomen to America, – every one of the Phoebes we EVER heard sang "high–ho" ........ When did the change occur, and WHY? I think that the fact that "hay–ho" may be a preferred pronunciation in some dictionaries is strictly beside the point. ... How did you determine that J. M. Gordon had supervised the [acoustic] recording? He definitely learned his stuff at the foot of the master, directly under Gilbert during the first Repertory Season in 1907, after which he was a stern Stage Director through 1939 [this is the American way of saying "until the end of 1939". Ed.] Vivian Denison has pointed out in her letter in the latest Journal that SHE learned the role of Phoebe from F.J.Halton, whose father had worked directly with Gilbert, and he taught her "high–ho". Isidore Godfrey never heard it any other way while he was with the Company. I've been told "J. M. Gordon would not have allowed a pronunciation not sanctioned by Gilbert to be kept on." It is true that there a D'Oyly Carte recording made in 1964 with this "new" pronunciation, but I think that some of us who had heard it "looked the other way" for Phoebe was sung by Ann Hood. It was not her regular role; she was accustomed to singing Elsie, and changed parts only for the recording. Secondly, it was conducted, not by a regular D'Oyly Carte conductor) but by Sir Malcolm Sargent, who, I've been told, "always had to be different". So the burning question is, who started singing "hey–ho" in actual performances – and when and why? And shouldn't the Co revert to "high–ho"?
(follow up letter, dated 21 Sept.) Even in Australia, when Minnie Everett produced the operas in Australia during the 20's and 30's, Phoebe always sang "hi–ho", the very same way that Rudy Vallee sang it in his popular song of several years ago "Heigh–Ho, Everybody, Heigh–Ho". He even had his own "Heigh–Ho" Club in New York, pronounced "Hi–ho", the same way Walt Disney's 7 dwarfs sang it in SNOW WHITE. The Journal correspondent from Africa who claims "hay–ho" is authentic and traditional (and with whom I cannot agree) mentions, among other things "A Frog he would a wooing Go, Heigh–ho says Rowley". Well, in teaching that nursery rhyme to our daughter a number of years ago, my wife and 1 both pronounced THAT one as "High–ho" but I must confess we were never too certain of Rowley (as in WOW) or Rowley (as in Roly–Poly). Cordially, GEORGE APPLEGATE.
Web page created 6 June 1999