Last Sunday I posted the above and said: Here is a Rhyl scene photographed in March 2015 by Yours Truly.
The question: What is the name of the turning in which I was standing?
The answer: Lon Hafren.
(The o has a roof over it but you can’t type that. Lon Hafren is off Ffordd Elan, not far from a little group of businesses including dentists at Oasis Dental Care where I was delighted to find a notice on the door saying Open Wide.)
That’s a win for Jane Shuttle, The Great Gareth, Sue Handley and for Richard & Ceri Swinney.
In addition there were a couple of wrong answers. Doesn’t matter, it’s only a bit of fun. Keep trying!---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUBREY PHILLIPS / PHILIP BERNARD PRODUCTIONS
Sorry to read that Aubrey Phillips passed away on March 11th
at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd. I first met him in the very early 1960s when he was my school bus driver. Aubrey ran a
fleet of rickety coaches from the car park next to his Riverside Café in
Rhuddlan.
Aubrey was an impresario who loved to put on shows. His
pantomimes were funny and often produced on a shoestring; they had to be seen
to be believed. I was in one of them up in Gateshead with veteran comedian
Sandy Powell. My life in showbiz is a story waiting to be told.
Aubrey was a good on-stage performer with a clear, booming
voice, and he was a great audience. If Aubrey heard something that amused him,
he would let out a sudden, single hoot of a laugh, loud enough to echo round any
auditorium.
I remember visiting him in the late 1990s when he was
running Rhyl's Coliseum Theatre on the prom. It was a warm day and there were drunks sitting outside with their backs against the theatre wall.
Aubrey didn’t shout and curse at them, he took a hosepipe
and started washing everything down in a choreographed way like a piece of
on-stage business, inching ever nearer to them until they got up and walked away.
‘Never fails,’ he chuckled.
Goodbye Aubrey old chap, we never really had a stage big
enough for you.
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MON 10th DEC 2018 UPDATE: Memorabilia from Aubrey Phillips' days as lessee of the Gaiety Theatre, Rhyl (formerly Pier Amphitheatre where Billie Manders' Quaintesques held forth for decades):
Among names on the posters:
Philip Bernard, Dave Peters comedian, Vivien Day, Paul Sheppard, The Gaiety Girls, Bill Williams, Colin Beach, Michael Swann and his Music, John Yates, Jim(my) Darbyshire, Joe Holroyd, Aubrey Phillips.
Johnny Dallas.
Syd Jackson and Dick Collins, Michael Fraser, Alex Ward, Debbie Young,Stewart Suthurst, Mark Smee musical director.
Shep's Banjo Boys, Foo Foo Lammar, Steve King as Al Jolson, Jim Bowen of TV's Bullseye.
Some other refs:
The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe one day pantomime, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs pantomime, Wrestling.
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6720. Two additional images from Aubrey's time at the Gaiety added here in June 2020:
Above: An amateur snapshot. Among the shows advertised are Ronnie Hilton's Variety Show, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs pantomime and Lorde Payne hypnotist.
Below: Lorde Payne was a regular towards the end of the theatre's life. His poster below is dated 1990; the Gaiety was demolished in 1991.
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MON 10th DEC 2018 UPDATE: Memorabilia from Aubrey Phillips' days as lessee of the Gaiety Theatre, Rhyl (formerly Pier Amphitheatre where Billie Manders' Quaintesques held forth for decades):
 | ||
|
Dates of posters (top to bottom): 1975; 1976; 1981; 1984.
Among names on the posters:
Philip Bernard, Dave Peters comedian, Vivien Day, Paul Sheppard, The Gaiety Girls, Bill Williams, Colin Beach, Michael Swann and his Music, John Yates, Jim(my) Darbyshire, Joe Holroyd, Aubrey Phillips.
Johnny Dallas.
Syd Jackson and Dick Collins, Michael Fraser, Alex Ward, Debbie Young,Stewart Suthurst, Mark Smee musical director.
Shep's Banjo Boys, Foo Foo Lammar, Steve King as Al Jolson, Jim Bowen of TV's Bullseye.
Some other refs:
The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe one day pantomime, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs pantomime, Wrestling.
--
6720. Two additional images from Aubrey's time at the Gaiety added here in June 2020:
Above: An amateur snapshot. Among the shows advertised are Ronnie Hilton's Variety Show, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs pantomime and Lorde Payne hypnotist.
Below: Lorde Payne was a regular towards the end of the theatre's life. His poster below is dated 1990; the Gaiety was demolished in 1991.
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