Jump to content

Jewel & Warriss


Guest Old Canny Street Kid

Recommended Posts

Guest Old Canny Street Kid

When I was a lad (aye, ages long ago!) Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warriss, cousins who were both born in Andover Street, Pitsmoor, were all the rage --their radio programme Up The Pole was immensely popular, and they were national stars on the variety theatre circuit. Top comedians, and both very proud of their Sheffield links.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Old Canny Street Kid

When I was a lad (aye, ages long ago!) Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warriss, cousins who were both born in Andover Street, Pitsmoor, were all the rage --their radio programme Up The Pole was immensely popular, and they were national stars on the variety theatre circuit. Top comedians, and both very proud of their Sheffield links.
.

Obits for Jimmy Jewel (1995) and Ben Warriss (1993)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Old Canny Street Kid

They were both born, I understand, in Cobden View Rd, Crookes.

Sorry, it was definitely Andover Street. In fact, the story (as told to me by Ben Warriss) was they were born in the same bed --Ben in May 1909, Jimmy on Dec 4 1912. I think their mothers were sisters, and the Andover Street house was the girls' parents house.

Certainly they lived at Cobden View Road later, and, indeed, when I met Ben in 1976 we visited that road, and a photograph was taken of him playing football in the street with some kids.

Somewhere I have a pix taken at the time I met him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is my brother Joseph born 1912 [ Broomhill school, same class as Jimmy,unfortunately a victim of 4ys as a guest of the **** in later life. skeets.

Sorry, it was definitely Andover Street. In fact, the story (as told to me by Ben Warriss) was they were born in the same bed --Ben in May 1909, Jimmy on Dec 4 1912. I think their mothers were sisters, and the Andover Street house was the girls' parents house.

Certainly they lived at Cobden View Road later, and, indeed, when I met Ben in 1976 we visited that road, and a photograph was taken of him playing football in the street with some kids.

Somewhere I have a pix taken at the time I met him.

[/quote

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is my brother Joseph born 1912 [ Broomhill school, same class as Jimmy,unfortunately a victim of 4ys as a guest of the Japs in later life. skeets.

Great Stuff Keith & Skeets

Did anyone see them perform live?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Years ago,my parents worked for Darnall Medical Aid Society,which put on an annual pantomime.

One year,they wanted to use the Flanagan and Allen song 'Strolling' and it turned out Jewel and Warriss owned the performing rights.The society wrote to them for permission to use the song,which they granted,and they also sent the charity a generous donation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Old Canny Street Kid

This is my brother Joseph born 1912 [ Broomhill school, same class as Jimmy,unfortunately a victim of 4ys as a guest of the **** in later life. skeets.

Hi Skeets,

When Ben Warriss agreed to a series in the old Morning Telegraph, and he came up to Sheffield, we went around various places, and he posed for pictures outside the school at Bromhill. He did say that he and Jimmy were such a problem to the teachers that they had to be sent to different schools at one stage!

I can say, in response to the story about Jimmy and Ben sending a donation to the Darnall Medical Aid fund, that Ben was a generous chap. Of course, he was a leading figure in the Grand Order of Water Rats for many years, and that was all based on charity and helping people in need.

It was certainly a great experienced to spend half a day or more with Ben. After a tour around, we completed our talking at my home, and the thing was he was as interested in me as I was in him, which was flattering. I had to keep saying "it's your story I am wanting to know about!" After the job was done, we lost contact, but a couple of years or so later one day out of the blue I got a phone call from a pal who had just been to see Ben. "I'm ringing," he said, "because the first thing Ben asked me when we got talking about Sheffield was, did I know how YOU were getting on. He remembers your meeting, and has asked me to say he hopes you are well." I felt honoured. He ws a great guy!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great Stuff Keith & Skeets

Did anyone see them perform live?

Well my mum did apparently she reckons she was only 9 or 10 (early 1950s) at the time!

'I remember that my dad took me to see Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warriss at the Palace Theatre in Attercliffe. I was quite young and thought that a pageant of naked ladies swathed in chiffon was quite risqué. The ladies did not move they just stood like statues whilst the orchestra played music.'

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great Stuff Keith & Skeets

Did anyone see them perform live?

I saw them at the Empire, probably late 40s/early 50s and once in Christmas Panto but I'm not sure if that was at the Empire or the Lyceum. As kids of course we knew them from the radio and the comic Radio Fun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw them at the Empire, probably late 40s/early 50s and once in Christmas Panto but I'm not sure if that was at the Empire or the Lyceum. As kids of course we knew them from the radio and the comic Radio Fun.

Thanks Gramps - I knew you'd have seen them. ;-) So was their act made up of serious or comic songs( or both) with comedy skectches in between?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Heck ! - it was sixty years ago he he I'd say a similar act to the early Morecambe and Wise - jokes, sketches, a bit of a dance routine and possibly a couple of musical numbers, much of the comedy over my head probably. My Dad took us to see Old Mother Riley at the Empire and it was a while before I was convinced she was a bloke.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Old Canny Street Kid

Heck ! - it was sixty years ago he he I'd say a similar act to the early Morecambe and Wise - jokes, sketches, a bit of a dance routine and possibly a couple of musical numbers, much of the comedy over my head probably. My Dad took us to see Old Mother Riley at the Empire and it was a while before I was convinced she was a bloke.

If I can find it, I have a sketch by Heap of Old Mother Riley (no, not the referee!).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Old Canny Street Kid

I never got to see them perform, but didn't they appear in a comic strip in one of the kids' comics as well?

I think the comic strip was in Radio Fun. There were loads of comics in the 1940s and early 1950s --Beano, Dandy, Knockout, Chips, etc, plus Film Fun (which had Laurel & Hardy on the front) and Radio Fun, which, naturally, featured British stars. And, at the time, Jewel and Warriss were really big --their radio programme Up The Pole was immensely popular.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest warrier

I saw Jimmy Jewell and Ben Warriss at the Lyceum in a panto. Also remember "Up the Pole" on the radio on a Friday night.

I also remember meeting them in "Berts Cafe" in Charles Street.

They premiered a show "Red Shoes" in Sheffield but it was a flop when it went to London.

Morcambe and Wise acknowledged that they modled their show on that of Jewell and Warriss.

Ben Warris's mother used to borrow the rent of my grandmother on a Monday and then pay it back on Friday !!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw Jimmy Jewell and Ben Warriss at the Lyceum in a panto. Also remember "Up the Pole" on the radio on a Friday night.

I also remember meeting them in "Berts Cafe" in Charles Street.

They premiered a show "Red Shoes" in Sheffield but it was a flop when it went to London.

Morcambe and Wise acknowledged that they modled their show on that of Jewell and Warriss.

Ben Warris's mother used to borrow the rent of my grandmother on a Monday and then pay it back on Friday !!

Excellent stuff thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 04/02/2009 at 16:32, tsavo said:

They were both born, I understand, in Cobden View Rd, Crookes.

That was my understanding too, when I made a one hour programme for BBC Radio Sheffield in 1980 called "Up The Pole, Down Memory Lane," in which I revisited Jimmy Jewel's childhood haunts with him, knocking on the door of his old home, going to see his name in the school register at Western Road Juniors and walking with him on The Bolehills where he showed me where he smoked his first cigarette, and then going on to the stage of the then-derelict Lyceum Theatre where he recalled his upbringing in a "showbiz" family on the Music Hall circuit. I don't recall him talking about Andover St.  My interest in the pair was sparked by recalling the people of Crookes talking about them when I was visiting Western Road with my mate John whose grandparents lived there....and, of course, listening to them on The Light Programme at Sunday dinner time when they were as much a part of Sunday as Yorkshire Pudding. In his later years, when he was doing quite well as a straight actor, Jimmy had a very serious side to him which I would have liked to have seen developed by the BBC as a living history of a part of the nation's fabric that was called Music Hall. It would have sat well along Suzy Klein's recent programmes recalling people like George Formby. Sadly my career  took me away from the City before it could be developed and then, suddenly, it was too late, Jimmy Jewel was no more.   Sheffield should celebrate two of its sons who were as famous in their time as Morecambe and Wise...and in my view actually funnier, especially since they wrote all their own material.  A statue on The Bolehills would be appropriate! Or slap in the Middle of the Lyceum/Crucible complex.  But somebody's bound to find a political incorrectness about them. My favourite recollection of Jimmy is of him tenderly looking after his long-suffering wife in their luxury apartment in Kensington, surrounded by the memorabilia of a lifetime of comedy. He was a lovely man.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...