Across the Atlantic

George Carden and chorus in Act I, Lichtenburg Fair scene, London, 1952. Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Typically, Gutsy, iron-lunged Ethel Merman never missed a show, much to the frustration of her understudy, Elaine Stritch. Eventually Miss Stritch got her chance when she was chosen to head a road company that set out in May 1952 for an eleven-month tour. Before this, though, Jack Hylton presented the show at the vast London Coliseum, where it opened on 15 March 1952. Featured as Sally Adams was Billie Worth, a veteran American with a suitably sassy style. She’d toured Australia in 1937, working here with her husband, Donald Burr, in the musicals Swing Along and Over She Goes. In Call Me Madam, Burr played Pemberton Maxwell. Film star Anton Walbrook brought Continental suavity to the role of Cosmo and Shani Wallis was disarmingty charming as Princess Maria. Jeff Warren, a handsome young American, was Kenneth Gibson. Warren had played the role on Broadway after Russell Nype left the cast. Ten years later Jeff Warren came to Australia to star unforgettably as the King in Garnet H. Carroll’s production of The King and I. He made this country his home, contributed much to Australian theatre, and died in 2003, aged 82.

It’s worth recording that when Anton Walbrook left the cast, Donald Burr ascended to the role of Cosmo, thereby allowing a young Australian called Frank Wilson to take over as Pemberton Maxwell. Mr. Wilson’s later career on Australian stage and television is too well known to need detailing here.

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There were other notable names in Call Me Madam’s London cast. Arthur Lowe, later of Dad’s Army fame, was Senator Brockbank; Australian George Garden was a brilliant principal male dancer; and the dual roles of the United States Secretary of State and the Lichtenburg Court Chamberlain were played by Mayne Lynton—he was the husband of Australian actress Nancye Stewart and, therefore, son-in-law of the legendary Nellie Stewart, perhaps this country’s most beloved theatrical personality.

Because Jack Hylton was concerned that the contemporary American politics portrayed in Call Me Madam might bewilder or alienate British audiences, Irving Berlin wrote ‘A Letter From Uncle Sam’ which was slipped into the Coliseum programs. It read, in part, ‘You should not forget that the appointment of a wealthy Washington hostess to the post of American ambassador would be quite possible in our diplomatic set-up. Over in the States we have less rigid censorship than you folks; we can present actors made up as living public figures, so when “Mr. Secretary” comes to Madam’s party, you may be sure that he is meant to be none other than Dean Acheson, and when Mrs. Adams calls up “Harry” and inquires about “Betsie’s bridge” and “Margaret’s concerts”, don’t be in any doubt—she is talking about the Trumans! At one time there was talk of attempting to simplify, or even to remove entirely, the political references in the show. Personally I think the decision not to do so was right. All the same, we hope that you will laugh at us as we laugh at ourselves!’

‘Uncle Sam’ need not have worried. The audience was ecstatic, and so was the press. In the Daily Express John Barber confessed ‘I thought the cheering gallery would fall into the applauding stalls. It’s a big, joyous show.’ The Dailly Mail’s Cecil Wilson welcomed ‘The gayest show since Oklahoma! and certainly the wittiest. It’s a show that sends us away with a rare glow of satisfaction’. That ‘rare glow’ warmed the London Coliseum for 485 performances.

Sally (Billie Worth) is sworn in as the US ambassador to Lichtenburg in the Office of the Secretary of State in Washington

Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Donald Burr (as Pemberton Maxwell), Billie Worth (as Sally), Anton Walbrook (as Cosmo) and Mayne Lynton (as the Court Chamberlain)

Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

The film rights to Call Me Madam were acquired by Darryl F. Zanuck for 20th Century-Fox. Irving Berlin’s share was $75,000. At the same time he negotiated a further $600,000 for another movie, There’s No Business Like Show Business, the score of which would recycle dozens of Berlin’s early hits. Although she was hardly a guaranteed screen attraction, Ethel Merman somehow persuaded Zanuck to let her star in both films. With her in the Call Me Madam movie were George Sanders as Cosmo, Donald O’Connor as Kenneth and Vera-Ellen as the Princess. Walter Lang directed. The film was released in March 1953.