Patrick Bade
Jazz Age Britain: Art Deco and Dance Bands

Patrick Bade - Jazz Age: Britain Art Deco and Dance Bands

- That was Percy Grainger’s very charming piece, “Handel in the Strand,” which was composed in 1910 and published the following year. So, I could have included it last week, but I’m playing it actually in response to a comment at the end gentleman who was convinced that Strand should never have the definite article before it. As you can see, it definitely does here. A “Handel in the Strand,” and I’ve also put in a current notice from Westminster City Council, which is in charge of the Strand and the old butch. And as you can see in that, they also use the definite article. I think it might be correct on a map. If you look at a map, you might see Strand in Norwood, but I’ve lived in London for 50 years and I’ve never heard anybody say, “I’m going to Strand.” They say, “I’m going to the Strand.” So, having dealt with that, This is a victory parade in 1918, celebrating the end of the First World War. So, Britain came out of that war, nominally victorious, and with its vast empire intact, actually, enlarged ‘cause Britain took over the African colonies of Germany. But it had all been at a simply appalling cost of millions of dead. This is a memorial to the Battle of the Somme by Edwin Lutyens. Unbelievable carnage, over 57,000 casualties on the first day. I’m sure Williams talked to you about all of this. And many South Africans, of course, 'cause there was a strong commonwealth component, particularly South African component in the Battle of the Somme. So, the result of this was, I think, that Britain came out of the First World War with, to a certain extent, you could say the confidence, the stuffing was knocked out of it, it didn’t have that arrogant swagger and confidence that it has had in the Victorian and Edwardian periods. And there’s a certain turning in on itself and there’s something timid and fearful about British culture, I would say into war period.

And somebody at the end last week commented, or asked the question, or put the idea that the First World War had really extinguished that brief moment of rather exciting avant-garde experimentalism. Really, and I think that’s true, I think there’s a lot of truth in that. Here is the, of course, the Lutyens memorial, it was put up for the First World War, but now, of course, it covers both World Wars in White Hall. And on the right-hand side is a book self-published by my mother of her memories of the Second World War. And as you can see, the title is, “Everyone Cried on My Birthday” because my mother happened to be born on the 11th of November, 1921. So, she was born on Armistice Day and everybody had lost members of their family. It was a whole generation of women who lost their fiances, lost their husbands. And so, throughout the interwar period, I think there was a lot of weeping on November the 11th, the social unrest as well. There was the fear engendered by the Russian Revolution. The middle and upper-classes in Britain lived in fear of a similar revolution happening in this country. And there was a near revolution in 1926 with the General Strike. And the middle-class very much helped to suppress that strike. They volunteered to take over work driving buses and things like that for the strikers. And there were further social unrest, of course, as a result of the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression culminating in the Jarrow Crusade when out of work men marched from the north of England to London.

But there was also, I would say a mood or a similar to the mood in Paris and New York at this time of frantic hedonism, really wanting to have a good time, wanting to put the past behind us. And this is certainly expressed in the novels of Evelyn Waugh, like “Vild Bodies, "Decline.” A whole generation who were just very determined to have a good time. And so there’s, again, I would say a period of loosening of morals. And it’s a very interesting period from the point of view of gender politics, 'cause they’re once again, very much in the headlines everywhere at the moment. But it was probably the first period in Western history since the dawn of Christianity when, at least, for a small cultural elite, it was okay to love somebody of the same sex. And there was a lot of gender-bending going on in artistic and upper-class circles. And of course, all over the Western world, not just in Britain. And there was songs at the time celebrating this, or well, commenting on, I don’t know if they’re celebrating it like the song “Masculine Women and Feminine Men,” this blurring of gender roles in this period. On the right, we have Bea Lillie, I’m going to be talking about her I think in September. I think I’m going to do a talk on great monologist, Ruth Draper, Bea Lillie, and Joyce Grenfell. But in the '30s, she was dubbed the funniest woman in the world. She herself was bisexual and you can see that her hairstyle, her appearance is somewhat gender-bending. But I’m going to play you a part of a monologue that was written for her by Noel Coward, who was himself gay as well. And she’s talking about this partying culture of the 1920s and all the naughty things that people got up to, upper-class people of course, on their holidays on the French Revera.

♪ Quite for no reason ♪ ♪ I’m here for the Season ♪ ♪ And high as a kite ♪ ♪ Living in error ♪ ♪ With Maud at Cap Ferrat ♪ ♪ Which couldn’t be right ♪ ♪ Everyone’s here and frightfully gay ♪ ♪ Nobody cares what people say ♪ ♪ Though the Riviera ♪ ♪ Seems really much queerer ♪ ♪ Than Rome at it’s height ♪ ♪ Yesterday night ♪ ♪ I went to a marvellous party ♪ ♪ With Nounou, and Nada, and Nell ♪ ♪ It was in the fresh air ♪ ♪ And we went as we were ♪ ♪ And we stayed as we were ♪ ♪ Which was Hell ♪ ♪ Poor Grace started singing at midnight ♪ ♪ And she didn’t stop singing till four ♪ ♪ We knew the excitement was bound to begin ♪ ♪ When Laura got blind on Dubonnet and gin ♪ ♪ And scratched her veneer with a Cartier pin ♪ ♪ I couldn’t have liked it more ♪ ♪ I’ve been to. ♪

• Another, perhaps slightly, no, I can’t say it’s serious, 'cause it’s completely unserious, but maybe a slightly more ambitious work of art that expresses that mood of frivolity throwing off any kind of responsibility is William Walton’s setting of Edith Sitwell’s poem’s “Facade.” And this was first performed in 1922. It’s remarkable actually, because it has a very surreal quality to it. Although, officially, the surrealist movement had not yet been born. It wouldn’t be launched till 1924. So, here is an excerpt or well, you’ll see pictures of Edith Sitwell at the time who cultivated of course a very eccentric appearance. And here is an excerpt from Walton and Sitwell’s “Facade”.

♪ Old Sir Faulk ♪ ♪ Tall as a stork ♪ ♪ Before the honeyed fruits of dawn were ripe, would walk ♪ ♪ And stalk with a gun ♪ ♪ The reynard-colored sun ♪ ♪ Among the pheasant-feathered corn ♪ ♪ The unicorn has torn forlorn the smock-faced sheep ♪ ♪ Sit and sleep ♪ ♪ Periwigged as William and Mary, weep ♪ ♪ 'Sally, Mary, Mattie, what’s the matter, why cry ♪ ♪ The huntsman and the reynard-colored sun and I sigh ♪ ♪ 'Oh, the nursery-maid Meg ♪ ♪ With a leg like a peg ♪ ♪ Chased the feathered dreams like hens ♪ ♪ And when they laid an egg in the sheepskin meadows where ♪ ♪ The serene King James would steer ♪

• It’s the great period of the cocktail. Cocktail was an American invention that had been exported to Europe actually before the First World War. But the '20s is the heyday of the cocktail. And smart houses in Britain would all have a cocktail cabinet like the one you see on the left-hand side, the “Savoy Cocktail Book.” I’m the proud owner of two copies of this actually. Now, a very valuable collector’s item. 'Cause, the irony is that Americans had to come to Europe to get their cocktails as it there was prohibition at the time, or of course, they could go to illegal speakeasies in America. But there was always something half-hearted and slightly tentative and nervous I would say about the British embrace of new things in this period. And on the left is a cup and a saucer that I bought in a flea market in England many years ago. And I bought it really as an example of bad taste or bad design in the sense that the actual cup with its handle is a traditional 18th century, you know, it’s that handle is a Rococo handle. And whoever decorated it, and its hand decorated, thought, “Well, let’s go modern.” But it’s a very uncomfortable, and I’d say a very unsatisfactory compromise between the traditional and the modern. And the same could be said of this cocktail cabinet. What a weird idea to have a cocktail cabinet in the style of a queen and cabinet. You’d think, no, cocktail cabinet should be modern, it should be Art Deco. This is my grandparents’ house in the Aldwick Bay Estate in Bognor Regis. And my sister and I, we have very happy memories of going there for us, it was the absolute epitome of luxury and elegance. It’s in a crescent of, I think, there are six houses.

They’re all exactly the same. They’re quite substantial houses as you can see. The Aldwick Bay Estate was launched in 1929. So, this is a building of the early ‘30s, but as you can see, it’s in a kind of mock Tudor style with oak beams and so on. And the interior of the house was mostly like that as well, except it had most wonderful Art Deco, sleek streamlined Art Deco bathroom with shiny chrome and duck egg blue tiles and so on. I still dream about that bathroom. And here is you can see more houses on the Aldwick Bay Estate, some even with a thatched roof. So, it was prosperous and comfortable and elegant, but definitely backward-looking. This is very typical of the kind of housing that you find in the outer suburbs of London that were being developed in the 1920s. You have rib houses like these. I mean, if you were reasonably prosperous, middle-class family, you had a garage and you had a car. And these houses were built in ribbon developments along roads out of London. And it was a real boom period actually in 1920s, certainly, up till the Depression. There was an awful lot of building of this type in England. And this is in a lower-middle-class house. This is what an interior might look like in around 1930. And you could buy very nice Art Deco furniture, quite stylish furniture from catalogues, you can buy them from department stores or you could order them from catalogues, reasonable quality but actually industrially made and mass-produced. You’ve got this, this is a very typical example, also found in a junk shop in Islington, I think it was about 30 years ago I bought that for a very small sum of money.

And this, which is now installed in my house in London was in fact in front of a junk store. And I was walking past it and I saw it, and asked the owner, “How much is that fireplace?” And he said, “ Oh, take it away, guv.” So, I just put it on my shoulder and I carried it home. And as I said it’s now installed in this house. Now, in my memory, this is what my granny’s bathroom looked like 'cause it goes back to my early childhood. I can remember her actually bathing me in that bathroom. So, this is actually in Claridge’s, so it’s probably more luxurious really than my granny’s bathroom. But as I said in my memory, it’s very like this. And people often say to me, “Oh, I want to start collecting. I have a very modest budget. What shall I go for?” Well, I always warn them off Art Nouveau, which is a kind of luxury style. And if it’s not handcrafted and exquisite, it’s usually, you know, an industrial Art Nouveau is pretty horrid. But industrial Art Deco is, I think, very collectible. I think I paid 20 quid for this little lot a few years ago in a flea market. And there is one identical on display in the Victorian Albert Museum. So, it’s very good example of modern design, of Art Deco design. Probably the most famous Art Deco product in Britain between the wars were the Clarice Cliff Bizarre pottery. She was a girl from a very humble working-class background, obviously gifted. I mean, you know, she was from the North of England, very provincial background. I mean, she did eventually go to Paris, and of course, through art magazines, it was possible to pick up the latest trends in design.

And so, these were, well, they weren’t exactly cheap at the time, but they were cheap enough for every middle-class house to have them. My grandparents had lots of this kind of stuff, these sugar shakers that now go for really quite a large sum of money. They’re very collectible. And this is from a series that she produced in 1929. This is Clarice Cliff again, which she named in honour of the French composer Maurice Ravel. There is good modern design around in England in this time, and a particularly important patron of good modern design was London Transport. And these are, well, I know that quite a few of my listeners live in North London, so, they’ll be very, very familiar with Arnos Grove and other underground stations on the Piccadilly line. These are by an architect called Charles Holden. This is the interior of, I’m not sure which one of these stations it is. And these wonderful lamps, rather classical lamps on the escalators. And also very good modern graphic design was commissioned by the London Transport. It was a man called Frank Pick who was in charge of it. And so, this is Heath Robinson on the left-hand side. These are by a designer called Edward McKnight Kauffer who was actually American but lived in Britain throughout this period. Very attractive Art Deco designs. Very delightful, very collectible, not rather expensively collectible in original, but you can easily find reproductions of them. So, in all of these designs, you can see, I suppose, a water down influence of continental avant-garde art, whether it’s orphism, cubism, later surrealism.

And this is a linocut, There was a movement at the time that favoured the linocut, very often taking subjects or that involve dynamic movement. And you could say it’s a provincial English, slightly watered-down version of futurism which were used. The methods of cubism to suggest energy and dynamic movement. This is by an artist called Cyril Power. So, is this very delightful of often as sometimes they’ll show sport, sometimes they’ll show motorcars, but a lot of images inspired by public transport. And architecture, well, the Art Deco style as it has its origins in Paris and it has some of its most brilliant manifestations in the United States. And it is a truly, truly international style in the way that Barack or Rococo were international style. In fact, it’s probably even more than Art Nouveau I’d say, it is a style that, you know, spreads around the entire Western world. And very often if you see an image of an Art Deco building, you wouldn’t really know that this is London. This could easily be New York, or Chicago, or Miami, or whatever. It’s a Palladium House. It was built as National Radiator House 1928 to '9 by an architect called Raymond Hood. There are a number of Art Deco factories along those motorways that lead out of London. And there were two in particular that were really outstanding by Wallis, Gilbert, and Partners, it was the Hoover Building, which I’m happy to say still exist.

It’s no longer of course a factory. I think it’s a shopping centre. Wonderful Art Deco Moderne style. The other one, scandalously, the Firestone Building was demolished. Some corrupt person in the government warned Trafalgar House, the owners that they were going to receive a preservation notice for this building. That it was going to be, you know, that it could not be altered or demolished. And so they actually sent bulldozers in overnight to rack it. So, that whole preservation order would be pointless. Here we are inside the Hoover Building, a very lovely, very jazzy rather American Art Deco. Another building which really stands out is the express building could easily be an American building. Of course, the striking feature of this, but everything is shiny, the Art Deco style loves shiny surfaces, which seem to be hygienic and healthy. But the really striking feature of this building on, I will say, the Strand, is that it’s because it’s supported by its inner steel structure. You can have these bands of windows, these ribbon windows round the corners of the building because the walls of the building are not load-bearing. And this absolutely dazzling foyer of that building, you could see on the right-hand side, they used to be able to appear in the windows, but now rather meanly, I think they’ve curtain in the windows so that you can’t.

But it does look like a set for a Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire’s movie. Here’s the windows wrapped around the corners of the building, and here’s a detail of this very jazzy foyer. Another building of the late '20s that’s in its striking Art Deco style is Broadcasting House in the news sadly, because the beautiful sculpture of Eric Gill of Prospero and Ariel was mutilated recently. Just think, what good is that going to do anybody? But it’s a building, you can see, again, it’s curved, it’s streamlined, and it looks like a great ocean liner. I always have the impression when I walk past it that it’s about to set sail down Regent Street. And you can’t see it here because this is not a high enough quality image. But next time any of you are walking pass it, have a look on the sides and you’ll see ripples are incised into the side of the building as though it has already set off down a river. This is the Midland Hotel in Morecambe in the North of England. Again, you could say it’s the ocean liner style, the same kind of curves and sleek streamlining. Here is the interior with murals by a very fine artist Eric Ravilious killed in the Second World War. And these, of course, like every style, there came a point when Art Deco had fallen out of fashion. And so there was a lot of destruction. A lot of things were ripped out and thrown away, including these murals. But the murals were recreated, I think they’ve got them there again because there was a “Poirot” movie that was shot in it and they were recreated for the “Poirot” movie. This, oh, I mourn this, this is the Voyage of the Strand Palace Hotel.

And when my sister and I used to come up to London as children from Bogner, Regis, we’d take the bus from Waterloo and it would drive up the North Strand. And pass this amazing complex entrance of frosted glass electrically lit from behind. Again, looking very much like the set for a Hollywood musical. Here’s another view of it. And sadly, just as Art Deco was coming back into fashion in the 1970s, the hotel took it into their heads to modernise. And they ripped this out, but it wasn’t destroyed, it was packed away. And it’s large parts of it anyway are now investment for another museum. So, I do hope that one day it can be reconstructed somewhere rather. This is very close to where I am now. This is the Essex Road in Islington and the old cinema there was built in the '20s in the Egyptian Art Deco style that was inspired of course by the sensational discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. And into the, so this is very, very '20s, I would say '20s Art Deco. When you move into the '30s, you get a more streamlined, sleek version of the star. And probably the best example of that is the, well, it used to be the Odium, it’s now the Everyman in Muswell Hill. Here’s the interior of that. And I’ve already mentioned the influence of ocean liners. You know, wealthy people were travelling backwards and forwards across the Atlantic on these fabulous floating Art Deco palaces.

The most lavish ones, of course, were the French ones, Dieu de France and the Normandy. But Britain competed with the Queen Mary, which you see here in the Queen Elizabeth. Here again, is the Queen Mary, which happily still exists. It’s a kind of museum ship in America. And here are the gloriously elegant and lavish interiors of the Queen Mary, which was launched in 1935. This is all Queen Mary. And this, actually, I have this in my flat in Paris. I presume that somebody who travelled on the Queen Mary nicked this ashtray from the ship when they were, 'cause I bought it in flea market. But it’s made out of Bakelite. And it was specifically designed for the Queen Mary, of course, no problem in those days for smokers, they could smoke anywhere. The Bakelite are very popular material. It’s a plastic, a very flexible one that can be transparent or opaque, and it can be all sorts of different colours. And it could be used for everything from telephones and radio sets to costume jewellery. And this is Nancy Cunard who’s sort of fashion, but she was a sort of style icon of the time. A very brave woman actually who was also, I would say, today, we would call her an activist because she was very much, for instance, an activist in favour of the rights of Black people. The influence of the real hardcore Bauhaus-type modernism was slow to take root in Britain. And really only did so, eventually, thanks to Adolph Hitler. This is Eric Mandelson, the Delaware Pavilion at Becks Hill. So, a number of avant-garde or modernist designers, Bernard Lubetkin and so on. This is still Delaware Pavilion. And of course, there was a joke at the time that the first people to really enjoy modernist accommodation were the penguins in London Zoo with this very stylish penguin pool by Lubetkin. Radios. Now, radio, well, 'cause, we’ve been celebrating.

Last year we were celebrating 100 years of radio. 1922, the the first commercial radio stations were set up and broadcasting the BBC dates from 1922, the Vatican radio dates from 1922. And so radio was enormously influential in the interwar period, and particularly, I would say in the Second World War. It was a really important weapon actually in the Second World War, disseminating propaganda and real news and false news. And so, these look like on the left-hand side, you can see mass-produced radios, they look to me as though they’re made in Bakelite. The one on the right-hand side is a bit smarter. And it dates from 1937 and it’s one that was specifically made for the Coronation of George VI. And it’s got sort of crowns and things on it. So, of course, everybody wanted to tune in to the radio to actually listen in live to the Coronation of George VI. And you can see it’s in a Art Deco classical style, the large shape in the foreground, very classical shape. So, everybody, right down even to the working classes, could afford a radio and could listen to the radio. This is a very rather smart family. This is early on, listening to an early version of the radio. And so more images of the birth of broadcasting telephones. Telephones go back to the late 19th century. And here you can see this is, you can see the introduction in the '20s of automatic dialling. So, you didn’t have to go through, you know, a room full of young ladies plugging and unplugging your connections. On the right-hand side mass production of telephone. So, although, as I said, the telephone goes back to the 1880s even, but it’s only in this period that it becomes common in most people’s houses. Now, the radio, we’ve got this also revolution in popular culture and it’s in the '20s and '30s that American popular culture really conquers the world. And it does so through new technical means, radio is one of them, the gramophone record is another.

And well, again, gramophone records have been around since the turn of the century, but there’s a huge improvement in 1925 with the introduction of electrical recordings. And so American popular music, particularly dance music, which is, I’ve been talking about it quite a lot in various lectures recently, I think to you and to other people, it fascinates me that American popular music is a fusion of, as I keep telling people who are panicking about people who arrive in boats in this country, that American popular music was created by two groups of people who arrived in America in boats, Black slaves and Russian Jewish refugees from persecution. And it was a wonderful melding actually of those two cultures that led to jazz and American popular music. And so the British certainly took to this very, very happily. And there were very popular dance bands, everybody wanted to dance at this time. And often, they were based in luxury hotels in London, the Savoy Hotel, the Mayfair Hotel, and so on. They would employ these dance bands, of course, a wealthy elite could go to the hotel and actually dance there. But also these bands from the hotels would be broadcast and people could dance to the radio broadcast. One of the most popular was Bert Ambrose, who you see here. He was, I suppose, the most successful band leader in Britain between the wars. Born in Poland just before the turn of the century to a very poor Jewish family. His father was actually a rag-and-bone man, but he must have been one of the top earners in the entertainment industry between the wars. And I’m going to play you a record that he made round about 1930 when he was working for the Mayfair Hotel. So, that’s very glossy and sophisticated. If you wanted something a bit funky, a bit closer to the real American jazz, there was a group called the Georgians, founded by Nat Gonella, who’s also from a working-class Jewish background.

But this time he was born in Islington rather than Warsaw. So, here is a taste of Nat Gonella and the Georgians. American influence was all pervasive in this period. So, you could say that in the First World War, all the nations who started off the war, Russia, Germany, Austria, France, Britain, even the ones who were officially victorious, like the French and the British, it was in the end, of course, a terrible defeat. The only nation that really came out well from the First World War was United States. 'Cause, they joined the war very late right at the end. So, they didn’t have to pay the terrible price that the other nations had to. But it was very clear at the Versai Peace Conference that from now on it was America that was calling the shots. And this is very much true culturally as well, particularly, with the huge do dominance of Hollywood’s after the creation of the great studios, MGM, Warner Brothers, and so on. There were still very fine films made in Germany and France, in particular, in this period. And there was quite a thriving British film industry between the wars, studios like L Street and so on. But I think you have to say that British films in this period were mostly very provincial and mostly just provincial imitations of what was going on in Hollywood. The most successful musical star was Jessie Matthews, who you see here, very delightful performer. Probably her best film is “Evergreen.” And I suggest you could, again, on YouTube, look at this particular scene, she’s singing the song “Over My Shoulder.” And I’ve chosen this still 'cause I find it’s very, again, instructive and revealing. You can see that it’s set, that could be from a Ginger Rogers or Fred Astaire movie, that apartment that she’s living in the film is very sleek Art Deco. But then look at the furniture, oh, my God! You know, cabriole leg, Queen Anne, all that stuff. So, as I said, the British were always a little bit tentative or uncomfortable about embracing the modern.

And we’re going to be sung out, so to speak by Al Bowlly who was the most successful British crooner of the 1930s. Crooning was a new thing. Crooning became about as a result of the invention of the microphone in the mid-1920s. In up to that point, popular singers singing live in music halls which could often be vast, needed to project their voices just as opera singers have to project their voices. But once you’ve got the microphone you didn’t need to do that anymore, and you could have a much more relaxed and intimate way of singing. And of course, in America, the top crooner was Bing Crosby. And Al Bowlly was the nearest that we got to that. He’s actually South African of Lebanese Greek origin, very charming, and tragically, sadly killed during the Blitz during the Second World War. And the song I’ve chosen is “Linda,” I know we have several Linda’s listening in 'cause their names come up in the comments. So, I thought you might enjoy this.

♪ Linda, I’m in love with you Linda ♪ ♪ Linda, Linda, do you love me too ♪ ♪ Linda, made up my mind to win ya ♪ ♪ Linda, Linda here’s what we’ll do ♪ ♪ You know that we’ll go riding in the moonlight ♪ ♪ Riding on a broken-down hack ♪ ♪ Ride till we see the lamplight ♪ ♪ From the Parson’s shack ♪ ♪ Linda be the sweetness that’s in ya ♪ ♪ Linda, Linda, you’re going to be mine ♪

Q&A and Comments:

• Righto, Judith, Do you agree with me about the Strand?

Q: “Are there any differences about anything goes sexuality of Britain, France, Germany, and other European?”

A: Yes, there are differences. There are big, big differences. I mean, that could be a whole lecture in itself, but of course, Berlin was a very extreme case because there was really, I think, as a result of the defeat, a sort of almost sort of total breakdown of traditional morality. French, of course, traditionally, also have a very, very different attitude to sex from the British. And that continues to this day. So, there’s a lot to be said about that, more than I can say at the moment.

Heath Robinson. Yes, Heath Robinson was an illustrator of books. I mean, he illustrated all sorts of things, not just the things that he’s famous for. I know there is an American equivalent, and two, I can’t think of the name, but during the First World War, actually, he was active in both World Wars. But he came up with these wonderfully funny, clever drawings of very over complicated ingenious devices that were going to be ways of defeating the German. And they were so popular, of course, his name has entered the English language. You talk about the Heath Robinson Contraption or Heath Robinson Invention. Fleet Street. Yeah, yes, yeah. Well, of course, Fleet Street is a continuation of the Strand. Yes, you’re right.

“A building in Toronto was demolished before the Historical Board had an opportunity.” These things happen all over the world. You know, big business can be very, very corrupt and government can be very corrupt. And a lot of historical buildings have been lost in that way. Well, of course, Francine, I completely agree with you that. Well, and actually, strangely in the First World War, the Germans were much more inclined to exempt people than the British were. But what I think of all is, within the First World War, the terrible, terrible loss. Well, there are the people, of course, we don’t know about who would’ve gone on to create great things. But also, you know, the wonderful composer George Butterworth. I mean, there is a long list, of course, of wonderful artists who died in both world wars, but particularly the First World War.

New York City, Radio City Music Hall, I had the great privilege, my dear friend Robin she invited me to go there to see Ella Fitzgerald. That was something I’ll never, never forget. My favourite one, I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned it, is not the Empire State Building, the one, the really distinctive Art Deco building. Now, everybody’s going to type in the answer to that.

Yes, people used to talk about the wireless. That’s right, they did. I can remember that from my childhood. “In Israel where you arrived to live in 1989, very few people had telephones.” That’s interesting, as late as 1989. All right, that’s interesting. I wonder why that is.

Not a question, but a comment. “Your father was born to a poor Jewish family, studied dentistry at Leeds in the '30s. There were no scholarships or grants to finance his studies. He had a ragtime jazz band.” That’s very interesting, very interesting. And that’s something will be interesting to explore: the connection with that kind of Jewish background and jazz.

And this is Estelle, “My uncle Sid Phillips started his career arranging compositions for Ambrose.” How wonderful. “And then went on to.” That’s so interesting.

Q: “Do I know if the bombings in World War II of the hotels were deliberate?”

A: No, I think it’s random. I don’t think it would’ve been possible actually 'cause the most notorious it was what was the Cafe de Paris, wasn’t it? The Piccadilly, which received a direct hit. It was one of the really great tragedies of the Blitz.

Yes, Alfred Hitchcock did make his first films in Britain. And so, of course, he’s the great success story of the British cinema. And he made some good ones in Britain before he went to America. But of course, America was where it gave him his greatest opportunities.

Thank you, Abigail. And no, I wouldn’t say there’s a Russian, well, of course, there is that famous story, isn’t there? Or the guy who received an Oscar for best film music and thanked Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. So, there’s certainly a Russian influence there. Now, the influence is from, I mean, almost with one exception of Cole Porter, every major figure for Broadway musicals and popular songs in America between the wars was of Russian Jewish origin. It’s a fascinating thing. And again, one would like to explore that rather more. Janice has no sound, I don’t know why that is.

“The Georgians’ recording had more instruments than was shown in the photograph.” Yes, that’s very possible.

And thank you, Judy. Ivor Novello was very much part of this period. Absolutely. And I’m vaguely thinking of, you know, what lectures to follow. It depends how long we go on with this British theme. But one of the things I was thinking of looking at English musical comedy from up to and including Ivor Novello So, I might do a talk about that later this year.

Yes, good for “Poirot” for saving that. I just saw the headline that Jane Birkin died today. Well, of course, she had a terribly sad end her life, anyway.

Thank you, Barry. Oh, thank you, that’s nice. There’s a museum to Heath Robinson in Pinner. Yes, yes. I’ve never been to it actually.

Thank you, Rita. “The American counterpart Heath Robinson is Rube Goldberg.” Thank you for that. Chrysler was of course so terrible at these lectures. Suddenly, and you know, a name is gone. It’s the Chrysler Building I was searching for. Thank you so much. Chrysler Building, lots of people telling me that. That’s great. Ooh, lots and lots of people telling me that. I think the Chrysler Building is one of the most stunning buildings anywhere in the world. It’s a really great building and it looks so amazing on the skyline of New York. The Flatiron Building actually is quite a bit earlier. You know, Flatiron Building is right from the turn of the century.

Vera Brittain. Yes, Vera Brittain, of course, writing about the First World War. Gracie Fields was another one I thought of. No, she was the most popular woman in England in this period. And Vera Britain’s husband was a Jewish musician. I didn’t know that. Thank you. Erica.

And the Rockefeller Centre, of course, very, very, could have mentioned that, that’s very important. Tin Pan Alley. Lyons’ Cornerhouse, I remember going to that on my trip to London as a child. And yes, I mean, well, ‘cause I have talked about Art Deco in which, and I talked about Chrysler Building in that context.

This is Andy whose father manufactured ladies’ handbags in the ‘30s and '40s. Bakelite handbags. Ooh, I bet they’re really, really collectible these days. You know, Bakelite goes for a lot of money. Yeah, well, thank you. You know, 'cause I really lost my confidence when I couldn’t think bringing up the name of Mary Seacole the other day. But that got me into hot water. So, it makes you very nervous and anxious when you can’t remember names in the middle of a lecture. So, thank you for your understanding.

And I’m having little time off because I’m going to Munich with a group this week. I’m going to the opera festival there. So, I’ll be back with you the week after. And see you then.