AULDGUBBINS.CO.UK – Retro, theatre and Assorted auld gubbins

Do you remember the good old days when you didn’t actually have to be a Siamese King in order to play a Siamese King on stage? Well don’t tell anyone but Herbert Lom wasn’t a Siamese King. Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchačevič ze Schluderpacheru to give him his full name was actually born in Prague when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

For shame. Although, to be fair, I’m not convinced the lassies playing the Amazons were actually Amazons either. At least Valerie Hobson had the decency to be British. Although she wasn’t English having been born in Ulster. The cheek of these bloody actors doing some actual acting.

Anyway, 1953 saw a Czech Siamese King and an Irish English governess combining at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s The King & I. And you can enjoy the programme over here – where it is a flipbook thing.

PS – Ms Hobson had an interesting life what with all the acting (including Bride of Frankenstein with Boris Karloff) and being married to John Profumo at the time of the sex scandal.