Talking Feet

Talking  Feet ?

It’s the name of a 1937 B  Movie starring Hazel Ascot (9 year old Tap Dancer said to be Britain’s answer to  the USA’s Shirley Temple). It also featured (low down in the cast list) 14 Juvenile Pianists of which I was one. We played an arrangement by Kennedy Russell of the Overture to William Tell (Rossini). Then followed a solo performance of Chopin’s Polonaise in A Major by a celebrity pianist Mark Hambourg. Finally we played a 1937pop tune, “When day is done and shadows fall …..”
I had been invited to an audition in March 1937, following a recommendation from the Metropolitan Academy of Music. Selection and rehearsals in London quickly followed. Final recordings and filming took place over three days at the Shepperton studios (Sound City), for which I received three guineas. I was 16 and envied by fellow pupils at Wanstead High School. On the 1st July I saw the initial showing at the Phoenix Theatre in the West End of London.
At my birthday in December 2013, my eldest son Thomas gave me a small  package, which I thought might be a book or a CD,  I did not get to open it until later. What I found ….well you have probably guessed from the above - a remastered digital copy of ‘Talking Feet‘ by Renown Pictures Ltd.  I was astounded, flabbergasted, could  just not believe it. Then I calmed down and wondered whether the Juvenile Pianists would actually be included. This was because I had been told some years ago by the London Film Museum that the Pianists’ part was missing from their one original copy.. Would I really see myself again on the screen after seventy-seven years ?  So when I rushed with some of my family to watch  ‘Talking Feet’ on my Television screen, I marvelled again  at the skill and charm of Hazel’s dancing and some of the clever juvenile acts that followed. But tension developed as the film progressed. Would the Fourteen Juveniles be included? Suddenly we were on and I was reliving my film experience. The William Tell music sounded good despite my excited family’s chatter. The opening girl pianist (Was it Josephine Levy, June Hitchcock or Sylvia Faust ?) started with a steady arpeggio run followed by mysterious staccato notes that we were all playing.

 The film scene shifted to a big ‘Hollywood style’ set showing all fourteen of us plying Mini-pianos in three  banks, ranging from ground level to a central high point from where Mark Hambourg would later play his Chopin on a grand piano..
Then the domestic fun started. ‘WHERE WERE YOU ?’ they demanded. ‘I think I   was low down on the right,’ I said. But would I be able to identify my sixteen year old self.?
How well I remember the tension as we sweated in our full face paint and lipstick under the blazing arc lamps. The sound recording had been done previously after at least three rehearsals. Now we were being filmed for real, while we dummied the keys to synchronise with the recorded sound. In addition to various fixed cameras, there was a huge travelling crane camera mounted on rails. It could be doing close-ups  of any  of us any time, but we had to concentrate playing by memory. We were now junior professional pianists earning a guinea a day.
The film scanned down the right hand bank of boys. I recognised most of the faces. One boy with curly hair was probably Laurence Clark, a fellow pupil of my teacher, Miss Doris Hill..
‘That’s him.’ ‘Surely, that’s Dad.’ Similar expressions abounded,  drowning the music as the progression of the film descended into laughter and farce in our lounge.. How could I recognise myself in this black and white film? We boys were all dressed in black suits with wide white collars and the girls in frilly white party frocks..
Following the William Tell overture, we stood up and bowed.  Then we gazed up to Mark Hambourg as he appeared to play Chopin’s well known Polonaise in A Major. I could play it then (as could most of the other ‘Juveniles’). He played it at great speed (a common fault with virtuosi), loudly and quite a deal of pedal.
As we dutifully clapped at the end, I wonder how many people  knew our appraisal was critical.
We Juveniles then had to perform “When day is done….” and our  lounge resounded again with earnest attempts and laughter to pick me out. I didn’t mind this time. I thought we played reasonably, but it was poor music compared to Rossini’s William Tell overture.
When I saw the original showing in London with my mother, I remember saying to her, “Look - Is that really me filling the screen?” “Yes,” she whispered.. So where was it? Had that scene been cut out? I resolved to find it. I rewound the film and eventually found the right spot where the piano ensemble began.. This time I had the pause button firmly in my had and actually found the place .where  the roving camera fixed on me. For a second or two there was an individual close-up of my playing.   Pandemonium ensued, with happy laughter and clapping.

At 93, am I the sole survivor of the Fourteen Juveniles ? We used to meet one another back in the Thirties in the annual competitions held in Stratford  and East London or our Academy. Along with autographs of Mark Hamburg , Kennedy Russell (musical Director), Bob Jones (Assistant Manager), Wallace Orton (Deputy Director), I also managed to get the following autographs of my fellow Juveniles :-
Eric C….  ?                   Joyce L Kenny ?
Sylvia A Faust Laurence Clark
Edward R Gallagher ? Dolly Wolff
June Hitchcock Ellen Rydell ?
Joan    Johnston ? Josephine Levy
Eric Luck Alvin F Lipsy ? 

Is anyone still surviving? If so I would love to hear from you.. I am rather deaf and partially sighted - but I can still play the Chopin Polonaise.
John G Acton, 26 Holmwood Ave, Shenfield,, Essex CM15 8QS Tel. 01277 222934  
Email johngacton@googlemail.com
Children's Novels can be found on
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