History of the Royal Variety

Perhaps it was just as well that 1955 had two Royal Variety Performances, for the 1956 one has gone down in history as the Royal Variety Performance that never was. All the performers and theatre staff were busy in rehearsals, when Val Parnell called a halt to make an announcement, 4 hours before curtain-up. He informed them that he had just heard from the Palace that the evening's Royal Variety Performance had been cancelled due to the mounting  Suez Canal crisis and that at that very moment British troops were landing in Port Said, Egypt. The Soviet Union was threatening to retaliate with rockets unless British and French forces accepted a ceasefire.  Her Majesty quite rightly felt it in-appropriate to attend. There was widespread disappointment amongst the cast. The Crazy Gang had specially put together a burlesque of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh  and John Mills were on the bill. Liberace broke down on the stage in tears, whilst Gracie Fields did what she could to comfort others in the cast as deeply affected, but it was the Cockney comedian Jimmy Wheeler who restored flagging spirits when he took out his violin and announced "I've rehearsed this bloody act for a fortnight so somebody's gonna hear it" and promptly went into his full routine, adding several gags that would never have found their way into the show proper!

1958 marked the first of the long-running series of Delfont/Nesbit productions and began the partnership that year at the Coliseum with a large and impressive cast including Roy Castle, Max Bygraves, Tony Hancock, Julie Andrews, Rex Harrison, Norman Wisdom and Eartha Kitt.

The 1960 Royal Variety Performance was the first to be televised and will probably always be remembered as the Sammy Davis Junior's show. "In eight electrifying minutes", wrote the Daily Sketch, "this entertainer made the word 'star' seem inadequate".

1963 was when Beatlemania hit the Royal Variety Performance. The Beatles attracted ecstatic fans outside the Prince of Wales theatre and through the Sunday rehearsals the noise of the throng could be heard by the artistes on stage. It was necessary to construct a screened passageway between the theatre and the hotel next door, where the Beatles were staying, in order to get them in and out of the theatre without being seen. The effect of the crowds obviously affected the other artistes on the bill and Marlene Dietrich made a point of always being in evidence when the photographers were around! During rehearsal Paul McCartney managed to get his guitar caught in the curtains, but on the night itself the Beatles took the show by storm and John Lennon passed into Royal Variety history when he made his celebrated suggestion that those in the cheap seats should clap their hands; the rest could just rattle their jewellery. You can watch their full performance by visiting 1963 in the Archive section of this website.

1966 saw the entire English football team take to the stage after their World Cup triumph, and in 1967 Sandie Shaw will be remembered for changing from her stage outfit to meet the Queen, "A mini is fine on stage, but I am told it would be more elegant to be presented to the Queen in something a little more special!".  

1968 was hailed by Her Majesty the Queen Mother, a seasoned connoisseur of music hall and variety, as being one of the best ever. Diana Ross used the opportunity to make a moving tribute to black civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, who had been assassinated earlier in the year, during her performance with the Supremes.

1974 marked an important year for the show's beneficiary, when the Variety Artistes' Benevolent Fund (the VABF), changed its name to the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund, marking its help for a wider spectrum of show business. The year also marked another 'first' in the show's history, by having a female compere for the first time, Noele Gordon.

In 1976, after sixteen years of recorded television broadcasts, the Royal Variety Performance was broadcast live on television for the first time, and in 1977 a Royal Gala Performance was arranged to celebrate Her Majesty The Queen's Silver Jubilee. Lord Delfont and Lew Grade joined forces to present a truly spectacular trans-Atlantic bill with Bob Hope as compere.

In 1979, Lord Delfont handed over the organising and presentation of the Royal Variety Performance to Louis Benjamin, and the show was held at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, for the first time in its history.

1980 had particular significance, as it marked Her Majesty the Queen Mother's 80th birthday, and was devised as a salute to Her Majesty, by presenting a programme that spanned and reflected the very best in the field of light entertainment, from a nostalgic look back to the 1930's to the exciting tempo of the 1980's.

1981 saw another innovation, stimulated by the need to counter the mounting costs of staging the Royal Variety Performance. For the first time, sponsorship was introduced to pare down, in the words of EABF General Secretary, Reg Swinson, "unavoidable ever-increasing production costs, as a prudent and acceptable alternative to increasing seat prices". Louis Benjamin call also be acknowledged as the initiator of increasing television fees, for the UK and abroad, brochure advertising and the introduction in 1981 of sponsorship.

1986 marked the first year that the BBC produced and presented the show, taking over from the helm of the EABF's, Louis Benjamin. From then on, broadcasting and production of the annual Royal Variety Performance has alternated each year between the BBC and ITV.