ABC Stockton-on-Tees

I have read with great interest your piece on the Globe Theatre at the end of Stockton High Street. My interest comes, I suppose from the fact that my father was manager there from just before ww2 until about 1950. His name was Maurice Richard Westaway, sadly now deceased and he was greatly influential in bringing ballet and musical comedy to the theatre as it was then.

I do agree that it would be a good idea to renovate the globe into a working theatre once more, because Middlesbrough and Stockton are in dire need of a theatre of this ilk, the nearest one being, as you say, the Sunderland Empire, or the Billingham Forum, which is, I believe, to be demolished in the near future, so surely the Globe would make a splendid replacement for the Forum. Also car parking facilities near the Globe are, I believe already in place.

On a final note, why wasn't the Globe used an Arts Centre, instead of wasting all that money on removing the old Hippodrome and replacing it with Arc.

I wrote a piece about the Globe. I am attaching it hereto.


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Gillian's Globe Piece
May 16 2001 at 9:24 AM Gillians Globe Piece


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THE GLOBE THEATER - STOCKTON ON TEES
by Gillian W. Samples

I now live in Glendale, California, a City a few miles outside Los Angeles, but have many fond memories of my childhood/teenage years visiting the Globe at Stockton-on-Tees.

First time I ever visited the Globe was with my Grandma, my aunt and cousin. As our treat, we all went to the Christmas Pantomime that year, I think it must have been around 1958 or 59. The great Lonnie Donnegan was playing at the Globe in the Pantomime in "Aladdin." I had not been to that many shows at the tender age of about nine. In those days a lot of the "stars and musicians of the day" did not really get "up North." One must remember that these were the days before the onset of the "Great Northern Nightclubs," which was a British answer to a "Las Vegas Showroom" that were all over the North of England from around 1965 to the mid 1970's. Anyway, Lonnie Donnegan was at the height of his career, and, as I recall, he influenced a lot of the musicians of today and yesteryear. Namely, John Lennon, all the other Beatles, Joe Cocker, Van Morrison, Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple, just to name a few. However, Lonnie did have his famous skiffle band with him at the Panto, and at the end he came out with them and literally "brought the house down" as I recall -- and played for about an hour. People were just dancing and jiving in the aisles, including myself and my cousin. That folks, was my first "rock show" even though only 9. I was hooked. I wanted to be up there on the Globe stage with Lonnie. How could I accomplish this feat, to bang the boards of the glittering Globe stage, complete with a fancy sparkling costume and make-up?

In those days, pantos always had "Dance Troupes." As I do recall they were all called "so and so's ___ Babes" or along those lines. A dance troupe would open up the show, and they would actually be part of the whole show at timely intervals. All little girls resembling the child star "Shirley Temple" - all fully made up with suntanned orange Max factor pancake makeup and bright green or blue eye shadow, all wearing frilly white and silver costumes, complete with gleaming white buckskin tap shoes with huge pink bows on them that flopped up and down when they all "tapped together." Miniature Ziegfield Follies, all executing their timesteps in a regimental line. My god, I had to do it!! However, luck was on my side as I was friendly with a girl who lived in the same neighborhood as myself, in Acklam, Middlesbrough, who, of course, just so happened to belong to this 'dance troupe' and was an accomplished dancer and fantastic tapper! And, lo and behold, she had even met and danced with the famous Lonnie, and was up there on the Globe stage. I had to befriend her more! I was so envious of her glamorous stage life, even though everybody in our family in Middlesbrough said I was the 'double of Shirley Temple.." I had to be up there on the stage if it was the last thing I ever did.

I inquired to my friend about joining this dance school. However, on turning up at the place for practice one night I was awfully disillusioned. The school was in a freezing cold, damp, dark, seedy part of an old warehouse in an old Victorian run down part of Stockton. One bare light bulb hung from the stripped paint peeled ceiling with an old rusty faucet dripping away there in the background. This was not the Globe stage. Where was the glamour? Where was my illusion? This is like the "Black Hole of Calcutta" I thought to myself. The first night I found to be a terribly hard grueling rigmarole, coupled with the hard-faced brassy peroxide "bus conductress" looking blonde who ran the place. She was in charge? Oh my god? What a tart? Plus, the so-called "fabulous babes" turned out to be a "right rough lot." Horrible lot - oh how could Lonnie even speak to them?? A toothless old bloke in a holey cardigan and fingerless gloves crouching in the background put on a record -- shouting out "practice girls -- c'm on now -- work hard - yer bloody lazy lot" My "friend" told me to persevere as she had certainly not gotten there overnight. I felt like crying. This was awful. It was not meant to be like this was it? The paces the "peroxide" put me through rivaled that of an Olympic gymnast, which I was not. I could not even stand up straight in school the next day. I was literally on my knees. Persevere I could not. No Globe stage for me. Mind you, I had been warned. I had not realized that tap and ballet was so athletic - to which I was and still am not.

However, childhood years shifted into early teenage years. I visited the Globe many times. My mother and I had now moved out to Redcar, and I remember my school taking us all to the Globe one evening. They decided we should have a "bit of culture" in our lives, instead of listening to the junk rock n' roll we all craved for. So, we saw the Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta of The Mikado. Still, the colorful costumes, the lights, the greasepaint were all something wonderful for me. How could I have ever given up on the "Glittering Globe."

Perhaps I could be a comedienne instead? I mentioned this to a family member. I reckoned that I could still get up there on the Globe stage as comedians were becoming very big at the time? "Girls don't tell jokes" a relative of mine sniggered. Women you see at that time were not liberated at all - indeed horrors!! -- growing up in the days of post-war Britain. They were to be seen and not heard. Female comediennes were never heard of ever!!! As my musical and singing abilities appeared to be nil, I decided I would have to be a spectator and not a performer. Oh - where was Lonnie?

Over the next few years in the mid to late sixties I saw a few shows, before I left the area to go to live in London. We nicked off school one day to catch the bus from Redcar to Stockton to purchase our beloved Beatles tickets for the oncoming show at the Globe. I believed they played two shows there. Hoards of fans had queued up overnight in Stockton High Street, on the freezing cold pavements, to which did not take my fancy. However though, my mate said that if we could get there really early, we would still mange to get a ticket for the show which we did. They day they were performing - well we were stood across the High Street to wait and see them before they came in. A glimpse - anything would do. Something that resembled a Rolls Royce came screeching down Stockton High Street. The doors of it were flung open and the Fab Four all ran out straight into the foyer of the Globe. They appeared to have hellhounds on their trails. As everyone knows, the sound inside the auditorium was deafening and at the end of the show it looked like World War III had just broken out. I loved the Beatles at the time, but really wanted to hear a bit of the music. For me, it was not "cool" to scream. I thought everybody looked ":daft" screaming anyway. Stars who performed at the Globe, well they did not scream and carry on now did they?

Other stars I saw at the Globe included Cliff Richard and the Shadows. (Cliff rocked back in those days); Billy Fury and the Tornadoes. The Tornadoes actually were the first British band to have a Number l hit in the USA with "Tellstar," and that was before the Beatles.

My mates and I at the time -- well we did chase one member of Billy Fury's band down Stockton High Street. I think I was about 12 or 13 at the time. We backed him up into an alleyway. He looked terrified. He probably was. We decided to let him go. I also remember seeing a famous drummer - a Mr. Clem Cattini almost being shoved through a plate glass window that night down the High Street after a show at the Globe. He was at one time the drummer for the Tornadoes, who still performs today and has a lot of music interests in the industry.

My Dad worked for a prominent firm of building contractors in Stockton in the early sixties. As he recalled, one day after work he pulled up in his car at the traffic lights in Stockton High Street. In the car next to him were Cliff and the Shadows. They were all on their way to the Globe.

I recall an old vinyl album of the Shadows. On it was a track entitled "Stars Fell on Stockton" composed by Mr. Hank Marvin.

They most certainly did.


Gillian W. Samples© 1999
Late801522@aol.com



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I was the photographer at the Northern Echo from 1960-72 and have my original photographs of the artists who appeared at the Globe during the 60s, from the Beatles, Stones, Dave Clark, Marianne Faithful, Ike And Tina Turner, Tom Jones, Cliff Richard, Gene Pitney, Roy Orbison, etc. So this is an SOS to Barry Jones who produced the 1999 Exhibition or past employess of the Globe,anyone who can provide, anecdotes, specific dates of performances, identify people in the photos, the name of the manager in the 60s, anything to put words to the pictures. Thank to everyone in advance Ian Wright at lauren_ian_wright@yahoo.co.uk

The Beatles played at the ABC on 22nd November 1963, the date President Kennedy was assassinated.

The last film to play at the ABC was Robert Redford and Paul Newman in "The Sting" on 15th June 1974.

It then became a Mecca Bingo Club until they moved to new premises at Chandler's Wharf in 1993. Since then the ABC has remained shuttered and unused.

A recent article in the local press has announced that Stockton on Tees Council and the buildings current owners, Jomast Properties are carrying out feasability studies on proposed uses for the building.

As a teenager in the 1950s I lived on a farm in Little Stainton, about seven miles from Stockton, and was dependent on my mother Diana Lamb being prepared to buy tickets and drive us into town to see the package shows at the Globe. I've been tyring to fix exact dates for the people I saw there - Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Guy Mitchell, Lonnie Donegan (not the panto referred to above, but a package tour which had Miki & Griff on the same bill), Bill Haley, the Platters, Tommy Steele, and most memorable of all, the Crickets featuring Buddy Holly (I think I have that date, March 1958).

Can anybody help?

It would be greast to have a calendar of who played there during that era - it seemed that every major artist included Stockton on their itinerary in those days.

ive never been in this building myself with me not been born when it was the globe or abc but my mother worked there i found some pictures and here they are

here it is outside when it was the ABC back in 1973
http://www.flickr.com/photos/63109169@N00/357600455/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63109169@N00/357600476/

this is when it was mecca bingo back in 1993
http://www.flickr.com/photos/63109169@N00/357601198/

its a shame this building as gone to waste it has never been used since 1993 and the building is still up and now it looks terrible really it looks like its falling to piece's. i hope they use the building for something soon i dont want to see a building like that go to waste. i will post up what it currently looks like as soon as i can

An exterior picture from 1991 below. I will scan and post some interiors taken after closure in the next week or so.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12494104@N00/2243730863/

A set of photographs, mainly interior, of the Globe / ABC Theatre can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12494104@N00/sets/72157603915628017/