Hi Neal, First of all, welcome to our friendly little list and for introducing yourself. You have just set me thinking about your statement 'it was like coming home really' Most of our subscribers feel the same way. There are times when very little is said, but we are safe in the knowledge that our 'family' is there if we need them. Your offer to share information is greatly appreciated. If you happen to have any photos, etc. you would be willing to have placed on the Theatre-UK website then please contact me. Good luck with your research. Best wishes, Dave Jassie - dave.jassie@ntlworld.com (List Administrator) For information regarding mailing lists, web sites and look-up resources I have, Visit Gen-Links at - http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.com/~jassie/index.html ----- Original Message ----- From: "Neal Dench" <ndench@tinyworld.co.uk> To: <THEATRE-UK-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2003 6:11 AM Subject: [THEATRE-UK] Introductions: son of Bertram DENCH > Hi there, > > I've just subscribed to the Theatre-UK list, so I thought I'd better send a message to introduce myself and explain why I'm interested in it. > > I discovered the Theatre-UK list quite by accident (while searching the web for information about Clarice Mayne, actually, which brought me to the archives). I then spent a couple of lunch hours browsing through the list archives, and, well, it was like coming home really. Let me explain. > > I'm the son of Bertram Dench (b 1892), who had a 50+ year career as a comedian, mainly in the UK, mainly in musical comedy and panto and who, I guess, was best known in the 20s and 30s when he headlined in many West End shows (how do you sum up 50 years in one sentence?). For those who like to have some kind of a face behind a name, I'm coming up to 37, so yes, my Dad was an old man when I was born. All my life I've been brought up with these fantastic stories of my parents' life in the theatre (my Mum was in the theatre as well, under the stage name Stella DIXON). > > Lately, I've begun to get even more interested in my Dad's life, and the theatre life that surrounded him, and so have been doing some reasonably light research of my own. I'm lucky in that my Dad left a wealth of material for me to search through, in just about every form you care to mention -- programmes, daybills, newspaper clippings, photos, written memoirs -- so I've had a lot to go through. The picture that I'm building up of his life is really quite awe-inspiring. > > So anyway, that brings me to the list. I looked through the archives, and saw mention of names that I've been hearing all my life (Leslie Henson, Harry Tauber ...), and names that I've discovered in my own reading (Clarice Mayne, Billie Barlow ...), and people swapping the sort of stories and the sort of photos that I've spent a lifetime with, and as I say it felt like I was coming home. > > So there you go, I'm more than happy to share information, and I'm only just beginning to realise that what I have access to (mostly still at my Mum's house, so not all immediately obtainable) might be of interest to someone other than myself. I'll continue to go through the archives, and if I find anything of interest, I'll post, but now you know who I am. Please feel free to get in touch, and if I haven't done a very good job of introducing myself, then just ask some questions :-) > > All the best > -- > Neal Dench // ndench@tinyworld.co.uk > >

Wow, what a friendly list! Thanks for your reply, and thanks too to the people that have replied off-list. I do have some photos already scanned into my computer which I'm happy to let you have for the website. I have the following people, just let me know how best to get them to you in terms of size and file format: Alfred Lester Clarice Mayne Bertram Dench (of course!) Sidney Dench (my uncle, who's name I've seen mentioned in the list archives) George Robey Jay Laurier These are the ones I currently have scanned, and all come from "real" photos (as opposed to photos in programmes, newspapers, or whatever). Sorry for the brevity of this reply -- rushing to leave for work. Best wishes -- Neal Dench // ndench@tinyworld.co.uk ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Jassie" <dave.jassie@ntlworld.com> To: <THEATRE-UK-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2003 9:19 AM Subject: Re: [THEATRE-UK] Introductions: son of Bertram DENCH > Hi Neal, > First of all, welcome to our friendly little list and for introducing > yourself. You have just set me thinking about your statement 'it was > like coming home really' > Most of our subscribers feel the same way. There are times when very > little is said, but we are safe in the knowledge that our 'family' is > there if we need them. > Your offer to share information is greatly appreciated. If you happen to > have any photos, etc. you would be willing to have placed on the > Theatre-UK website then please contact me. > Good luck with your research. > Best wishes, > Dave Jassie - dave.jassie@ntlworld.com (List Administrator) > For information regarding mailing lists, web sites and look-up resources > I have, > Visit Gen-Links at - > http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.com/~jassie/index.html