“If you ask me to play myself, I will not know what to do. I do not know who or what I am.”
Does Your Dog Bite?
Picture Legend
1. Peter Sellers
2. Southsea Beach
3. Row of wind-pruned Huntingdon Elms, Southsea Common
4. Peter’s birthplace on Castle Road, Southsea
5. Kings Theatre in Southsea, where Peter made his first stage appearance
6. Young Peter
7. Alexandra Palace
8. Artist portrayal of Shub-Niggurath
9. St. Aloysius College
10. Drummer
11. Waldini
12. Geoffrey Rush and Charlize Theron in 2004‘s “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers”
13. Peter (top), Spike Milligan (left) and Harry Secombe (right), three of the cast of the “The Goon Show”
This morning it is my great pleasure and honor to give a Joyce’s Take birthday shout out to one of the greatest comedic actors who ever lived, Peter Sellers!
Mr. Sellers would have been 91 years old today. Unfortunately he passed away in London just after midnight (12:26am - British Summer Time), after being in a coma for more than 30 hours, on July 24th, 1980, at the age of 54.
Peter was born as Richard Henry Sellers at a very early age in 1925, in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth, at the southern end of Portsea Island, Hampshire, England (50° 47′ 6″ N, 1° 4′ 12″ W).
Southsea is located to the south of Portsmouth city center and to the east of Old Portsmouth. It originally developed as a Victorian seaside resort in the 19th century and grew into a dense residential suburb and large distinct commercial and entertainment area, separate from Portsmouth city center itself.
Southsea Common is a large expanse of mown grassland parallel to the shore from Clarence Pier to Southsea Castle.
The Common is home to a remarkable collection of mature elm trees, believed to be the oldest and largest surviving in Hampshire, which have escaped Dutch elm disease owing to their isolation. The majority of the larger trees are Huntingdon Elms planted in the 1920s, but nearer the entrance to the Skate Park there is a fine example of a hybrid of the Siberian Elm Ulmus pumila. Huntingdon Elms once lined the Ladies' Mile—an avenue through the center of the Common—but many were lost in the Great Storm of 1987 and replaced by the Dutch hybrid elm cultivar 'Lobel'.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, best known for his Sherlock Holmes stories, once lived in Southsea, and played soccer there, what the English humorously call football, as a goalkeeper for the Portsmouth Association Football Club, an amateur, under the pseudonym A. C. Smith.
Rudyard Kipling, the author of “The Jungle Book,” and “Kim,” lived in Southsea when he was six to twelve years old.
The writer H.G. Wells, best known for his works in science fiction, like “The Time Machine,” “The Island of Doctor Moreau,” and “The War of the Worlds,” also lived in Southsea.
So a lot of good writers lived in Southsea. Many others who were or are not writers have lived there as well.
Although born Richard Henry Sellers, his parents, Yorkshire-born William "Bill" Sellers (1900–62) and Agnes Doreen "Peg" (née Marks, 1892–1967), called him Peter, in remembrance of his older brother who was stillborn. Peter remained an only child.
He grew up in an entertainment family. He made his first appearance on stage when he was two weeks old at the Kings Theatre in Southsea. The audience sang "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," to him, which made him cry, then he was shot out of a cannon.
Ha, ha, ha. Just joking. It was actually a catapult.
The family was always on the move, touring as entertainment people often do, which affected Peter in a negative manner.
He was much closer to Peg, than his dad, who rarely encouraged his son in his efforts to carry on the family business, just the opposite of his mom.
Some of his friends observed that he may have been a little too close to his mother, allowing her to dominate his life.
Well what can you do? Moms are moms.
When he was ten the family moved to North London and settled in Muswell Hill (a suburb of north London, in the London Borough of Haringey and the London Borough of Barnet. It is one of the more expensive suburbs in London situated near to Highgate, Hampstead, East Finchley and Crouch End, (where the divide between our world and an alien, demonic world is somehow lesser. Crouch End is the home of Shub-Niggurath, who is often associated with the phrase “The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young.” There are still strange occurrences in Crouch End, and that, very occasionally, people are known to "...lose their way. Some lose their way forever."). Muswell Hill is the home of the Alexandra Palace (designed to serve as a public center of recreation, education and entertainment).
Although Bill Sellers was Protestant and Peg was Jewish, Peter attended the North London Roman Catholic School St. Aloysius College in Highgate, two miles south of Muswell Hill. The college was and is run by the Brothers of Mercy of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (The institute was founded in 1839 by Canon J. B. Cornelius Scheppers (1802 - 1877) for the instruction and care of prisoners and of the sick. Cardinal Manning invited them to London in 1855, where they have undertaken the care of the prisoners in Catholic reformatories and the education of the children of the poor).
“I was never a good scholar, Perhaps I never settled down to it,” Peter recalled in 1962. “Perhaps that’s what was wrong with my education. But I didn’t dislike it at St. Aloysius. I’ve sometimes been back to see the people there...”
While at school Peter began to develop his improvisational skills. He and his closest friend at the time, Bryan Connon (April 5 1927 to September 4 2007. Bryan became a successful writer and biographer), both enjoyed listening to early radio comedy shows. Connon remembers that "Peter got endless pleasure imitating the people in “Monday Night at Eight.” He had a gift for improvising dialogue. Sketches, too. I'd be the 'straight man', the 'feed', ... I'd cue Peter and he'd do all the radio personalities and chuck in a few voices of his own invention as well."
When World War II began in 1939, the students at St. Aloysius were evacuated to Cambridgeshire, 61.5 miles from Highgate, and famous for it’s bomb shelters.
Peg would not allow Peter to go, so his formal education ended when he was fourteen.
The next year the family moved to the seaside resort town of Ilfracombe, 229.9 miles west of Highgate, where Peg’s brother lived, and who managed a local theatre.
That’s where Peter got his first job when he was fifteen. He started as a caretaker (janitor) for ten shillings a week (maybe about £70.78 in 2016, which is about $93.45 U.S), and was steadily promoted, becoming a box office clerk, usher, assistant stage manager and lighting operator.
Working backstage gave him a chance to study actors such as Paul Scofield and Mary Clare.
He became close friends with another boy his age, Derek Altman, and together they launched Peter’s first stage act under the name "Altman and Sellers," which pretty much consisted of playing ukuleles, singing, and telling jokes (they also began their own detective agency (Selman Investigations Inc. as they were fans of the novelist Dashiell Hammett, creator of the fictional detectives Sam Spade and the Thin Man).
“We’re Altman and Sellers
The younger generationWe always sing in the best syncopation
And we hope we make a big sensation
With you - ooh - ooh!”
It was during this time that Peter learned to play the drums (he had no patience for the piano) and was so enthusiastic about them he thought he might do it professionally.
“It was the drums I was really keen on in the early days. I suddenly went mad about the drums. I spent months learning from a professional drummer. And I was pretty good.”
Good enough to appear twice in Waldini’s (Waldini, Wally Bishop, was the founder of Waldini‘s Gypsy band, and many others) “Symphony in Colour,” in August of 1941.
Peter joined the Royal Air Force in September of 1943. He was probably drafted as Peg tried unsuccessfully to get him deferred on medical grounds.
He wanted to become a pilot but was rejected for poor eyesight.
He got bored with ground duties and auditioned for Squadron Leader Ralph Reader's RAF Gang Show entertainment troupe. Reader accepted him and Peter toured the UK before the troupe was transferred to India. He also served in Germany and France after the war.
Back home Peter continued his career in entertainment, with limited success. In 1948 he wrote to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and was given an audition. As a result, he made his television debut on March 18th, 1948 in “New To You.”
His act was well received and he was invited back the next week.
However, Peter’s personality was such that he was determined to make it in the entertainment business and he felt his career was advancing too slowly.
Accordingly he called BBC radio producer Roy Speer, pretending to be Kenneth Horne, star of the radio show “Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh.”
When Speers discovered it was Peter who telephoned him Speer called Peter a "cheeky young sod" for his efforts, which is pretty strong language in Britain, but that prank got him an audition (which is depicted by the wonderful Australian actor, Geoffrey Rush, in 2004's “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers,” with the lovely and talented Charlize Theron). This led to a brief appearance on “ShowTime," on July 1st, 1948, which led to more work on “Ray's a Laugh,” with comedian Ted Ray.
In October of 1948, Peter was a regular radio performer, appearing on the “Starlight Hour,” “The Gang Show,” “Henry Hall's Guest Night,” and “It's Fine To Be Young.”
By the end of the year the BBC Third Programme (a national radio service produced and broadcast by the BBC between 1946 and 1970) began to broadcast the comedy series “Third Division,” which starred, among others, Harry Secombe, Michael Bentine and Peter. One evening, Peter and Michael visited the Hackney Empire (a theatre on Mare Street, in the London Borough of Hackney, built in 1901 as a music hall), where Harry was performing, and Michael introduced Peter to Spike Milligan.
And thus these four founded and constituted the cast of “Crazy People,” which appeared on British airwaves for the first time on May 28th, 1951.
Subsequent seasons had the title changed to “The Goon Show.”
To be continued
Part 2
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