Soho Bites Podcast

Windmill part 1

This is the first of three episodes dedicated to films about the Windmill Theatre. For this first one, Dom met up with actor and Sohoite, Mike Warburton to discuss Mrs Henderson Presents. The film is directed by Stephen Frears and stars Dame Judi Dench in the title role along side Bob Hoskins as Vivian van Damm – the legendary producer at this legendary venue. An important piece of historical story-telling or nostalgic flim-flam? Or both?

Mrs Henderson Presents trailer

The Windmill’s most famous asset was its Windmill Girls, who danced, sang and occasionally posed motionless in the nude. To start the programme, we have the first part of a three-part interview with Jill Millard Shapiro, who was a Windmill Girl for four years.

Former Windmill girl, Jill Millard Shapiro at the end of a very long, socially distancing microphone cable (it was at the height of the pandemic!)

Pictures of Jill then and now.

Jill talks about the early days of the Windmill and how it ran from day-to-day, mounting six shows a day, six days a week, 52 weeks a year. And no, it was not striptease.

Fascinating short pathe film featuring some Windmill girls. Jill is the one wearing pink on the left.

Jill’s book, Remembering Revudeville will set you back a few quid, but it’s fantastic record of the Windmill Theatre.

Follow Mike Warburton on Twitter.

The founder of Soho Bites, Dr Jingan Young, has launched a new research project. Find out all about it on the Cities in Cinema website and follow the project on Twitter.

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We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

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Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

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Ein Soho-Film auf Deutsch?

The lockdown continues, so our first interview for this episode – our German themed episode – took place over Skype. We met up (virtually) with Tony Shrimplin from the Museum of Soho. We discussed Soho’s most famous German resident and the only one (as far as I know) to have had an “ism” named after him.

Karl Marx’s blue plaque at 28 Dean St, Soho

The film chat took place before anybody had ever even heard of Covid-19 and we met up with Daniel Reifferscheid of the Talking Pictures TV Podcast in a pub! Do you remember those? We discussed the German Krimi film from 1964, Das Phanton von Soho which is a corker. Even if you don’t speak German you can probably guess what that title means! It’s set in Soho but we’re pretty sure not a single frame was shot outside of Germany….

Das Phantom Von Soho trailer - can you identify whereabouts in Soho this was filmed?

As well as making the Talking Picture TV Podcast, Daniel Reifferscheid produces (at least) two more film related podcasts – Prestes a Ver and You Know The Score. At least one of them is Portuguese. See if you can figure out which one.

Das Phantom von Soho is from a genre known as Krimifilms. There’s a list of other examples of the genre on IMDB.

And if you can’t get enough of that groovy, sleazy kriminalfilm-musik, check out this playlist.

And the genre of Krimi films is built around the work of Edgar Wallace who led a very colourful life. You can read about him in this interesting article from the Guardian.

The founder of Soho Bites, Dr Jingan Young, has launched a new research project. Find out all about it on the Cities in Cinema website and follow the project on Twitter.

Thank you for listening.

Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)

We're now on YouTube

Email us at [email protected]

We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.

Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

In fact, see all relevant links HERE

The lockdown begins...

March 16th 2020 was just one of many extremely weird days in recent times. For us at Soho Bites, it was supposed to be the date of a long arranged interview with jazz singer, David Tughan before a gig he was playing at Ronnie Scotts. Earlier that afternoon, Boris Johnson advised clubs, bars and other public places to close. Although the interview and the gig did take place (sort of ), it wasn’t quite the evening we expected…

David Tughan performing at Ronnie Scotts…. on a different occasion.

The virus has affected all of us – some more than others – and it has caused havoc with our recording / release schedule. The second half of the show was originally planned for a later episode but, in the end, it worked out just fine. Dr Adrian Smith, lecturer in film at Sussex University, made a socially distanced return visit to the pod, down the line from his home, to talk about the almost forgotten, Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? from 1964 and, in a first for Soho Bites, we were also joined by one of the stars of the film.

*UPDATE* Since recording the episode, John Challis has passed away. He was fantastic in Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? and was a lovely guest to have on the show. RIP Boycie.

Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? starts with Ottilie Patterson singing the theme tune. To my shame, I’d never heard of her before but now I’m her biggest fan. Discover her yourself on Spotify.

David Tughan’s website is here and his YouTube Channel is here. You can also find him on Twitter and Facebook.

The other musicians performing with David were Renato D’Aiello, Nigel Price, Mirko Scarcia and Alfonso Al Vitale.

Ronnie Scott’s has published an interesting document about the history of the club which you can find here.

You can follow Dr Adrian Smith on Twitter here, read his blog here and check out his film reviews on Letterboxd here.

Watch Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? on the BFI Player here or buy the DVD from UK Rarities here.

We do love old Lobby Cards at Soho Bites.

You can follow John Challis’s Twitter account, which is now managed by his widow, here.

The founder of Soho Bites, Dr Jingan Young, has launched a new research project. Find out all about it on the Cities in Cinema website and follow the project on Twitter.

Thank you for listening.

Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)

We're now on YouTube

Email us at [email protected]

We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.

Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

In fact, see all relevant links HERE

Women & drugs in 1922

It turns out the quietest place in Soho – and the perfect spot for an interview – is half way up the Clock Tower of St Anne’s church on Dean St (visible from Wardour St). After winding the clock(!) with the help of Amy, one of a small team of volunteer clock winders, Dom sat down in a funny little room half-way up the tower to speak to historian, author and blogger, Rob Baker about Brilliant Chang and the moral panic about women and drugs that gripped the nation after the First World War.

On this link: Brilliant Chang after his deportation to Hong Kong, Freda Kempton shortly before her death in 1922 and some interesting graffiti from inside the clock tower – a 19th Century “tag”

We then welcomed Michelle Facey to the pod to talk about the 1922 silent film, Cocaine. Michelle is one of the programmers for Kennington Bioscope and as well as talking about the controversy surrounding the film, she was very enlightening on the subject of Mormonsploitation films of the silent era. Who knew there was such a thing?

Extract from Cocaine (1922)

Divert money away from Jeff Bezos by purchasing Rob Baker’s books directly from the publisher.

Visit Rob’s websites: Another Nickel in the Machine & FlashBak, check out his fascinating Pinterest site and follow him on Blue Sky.

For more information about the Kennington Bioscope and their upcoming events, visit their website and/or follow them on Twitter.

HELP SAVE THE CINEMA MUSEUM BY SIGNING THEIR PETITION and have a look at their main website here.

Michelle brought in some 1922 adverts from Kinematograph Weekly relating to cocaine. You can see them here.

Watch Cocaine for a mere £1 on the BFI Player

Thank you for listening.

Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)

We're now on YouTube

Email us at [email protected]

We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.

Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

In fact, see all relevant links HERE

Pugilism special.

For episode nine, the theme is.... blokes fighting each other for money. We meet up with author, broadcaster and cultural theorist, Ken Hollings to discuss Jules Dassin‘s 1950 British Noir, Night and the City. It stars Richard Widmark as street hustler, Harry Fabien and Gene Tierney as his long suffering girlfriend. With stunning performances from Googie Withers, Francis L Sullivan & Herbert Lom, the film is a deep, dark dive into Soho’s seedier side in the austere post-war years and the weird world of professional wrestling!

Pictures of Francis L Sullivan & Googie Withers as Philip & Helen Nosseross on the cover of Picturegoer, July 1950

Excellent short video about locations used in Night and the City WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS!

Buy Night and the City on Blu-ray (including some spectacularly good extras) here

Stream the version released in the UK here

And just for comparison’s sake, have a look at the version released in the US here

***UPDATE*** an article by the BFI's Josephine Botting about Gene Tierney's time spent in the UK.

Sticking with the blokes fighting theme, Dom was dragged down a dark Soho alleyway by writer, researcher, London tour-guide and host of the Murder Mile Podcast, Michael J-Buchanan-Dunne . Mike had death on his mind but thankfully it was one that took place back in 1965 – the mysterious & tragic demise of the boxer, Freddie Mills. Officially recorded as suicide, rumours have swirled around ever since that it was actually murder. But what does Mike think?

Freddie in his 1940s boxing heyday and his night club, behind which his body was found.

***UPDATE*** Mike’s Murder Mile guided tours of Soho have now been discontinued but you can still listen to his podcast here and follow him on Twitter here

Ken Hollings’s recently launched book, Inferno, can be bought here. You can follow him on Twitter here or follow his blog here.

The originator of Soho Bites, Dr Jingan Young, has launched a new research project. Find out all about it on the Cities in Cinema website and follow the project on Twitter.

Thank you for listening.

Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)

We're now on YouTube

Email us at [email protected]

We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.

Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

In fact, see all relevant links HERE

For episode eight we met up with Julian Rodriguez, to talk about the exhibition he co-curated at the Photographers Gallery, Shot in Soho.

Julian is a photographer and, among several academic posts, is Head of Film and Photography at Kingston University.

We have been given permission to show two pictures from the exhibition. You can find them HERE

You can buy the book of the exhibition here

The Regent Street Cinema decided to screen a Soho film to accompany the show. Of the several that Julian and his co-curator, Karen McQuaid, suggested, the one the cinema chose was the brilliant Piccadilly from 1929.

The screening took place on January 30th and had live musical accompaniment by Ben Comeau who has recently joined Lucky Dog Picturehouse.

Clip of Piccadilly produced by the BFI

Many thanks to Michael Schaub, Deputy Director of the Regent Street Cinema, for enabling us to record the intro to the film.

Afterwards, we sat down to talk about the film with members of the London Silent Film Group, including Peter Bromley, a documentary film maker and founder of the 1968 Film Group, and Michelle Facey, who programmes silent films for Kennington Bioscope at the Cinema Museum.

Buy Piccadilly on DVD here

Stream it online here

If you’d like to join the London Silent Film Group you can do that here

And you can find out about all of the Kennington Bioscope silent film screenings here

The originator of Soho Bites, Dr Jingan Young, has launched a new research project. Find out all about it on the Cities in Cinema website and follow the project on Twitter.

Thank you for listening.

Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)

We're now on YouTube

Email us at [email protected]

We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.

Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

In fact, see all relevant links HERE

'tis the season of coughs & sneezes which has led to our December episode being postponed due to both our contributors being sick! Normal service will be resumed in the New Year. 

Thank you for listening.

Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)

We're now on YouTube

Email us at [email protected]

We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.

Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

In fact, see all relevant links HERE

Episode seven is our God and religion special and we were joined by two fantastic guests. Firstly, Alex Hester sat down with us at St Anne’s Church on Dean St, to talk about his late father, the former rector of St Anne’s, Canon John Hester.

John was in post from 1963-75, so to be the vicar of Soho at this time and chaplain to over fifty strip-clubs must have been an unusual calling.

John Hester published his memoir in 1970. Here’s the suitably groovy cover plus some pictures of the Rev John Hester out and about on his rounds.

There’s currently one copy available online here. Snap it up!

The architects’ model of John Hester’s proposed glass-sided church

We also spoke to Rev Liz Clutterbuck of Emmanuel Church, Holloway about the Emeric Pressburger penned 1957 romantic tale, Miracle in Soho. Liz makes regular contributions to the Kermode & Mayo show, late of BBC Radio 5 Live and now a Sony podcast and she is a proud member of the Wittertainment Clergy Corner.

Promo produced by Talking Pictures TV for a recent screening of Miracle in Soho.

Buy Miracle in Soho on DVD here.

The originator of Soho Bites, Dr Jingan Young, has launched a new research project. Find out all about it on the Cities in Cinema website and follow the project on Twitter.

Thank you for listening.

Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)

We're now on YouTube

Email us at [email protected]

We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.

Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

In fact, see all relevant links HERE