Society's rich history was, at times, as dramatic as its stage performances and owed much to the dedication of key figures

THE front page headlines of May 4, 1945, screamed that the Second World War was nearly over. “Surrender at any hour”, shouted the main one. “VE Day expected early next week”, said another. “Russians search for Hitler’s body”, said a third.

On the inside pages, the Evening Despatch – The Northern Echo’s now defunct sister paper – carried local news, which included a headline: “Darlington Operatic Society formed”.

The paper said that 80 people at a meeting in Bondgate Methodist Hall had unanimously agreed to start a society and, to reflect the joyous news on the front page, the first production was to be Merrie England. This popular comic opera, about the loves and rivalries in the court of Queen Elizabeth I, “would best meet the sentiments of the times”, it was said – as long as no one mentioned the writer’s name: Edward German.

The Northern Echo:
The Civic Theatre - formerly the New Hippodrome - in 1964

The show’s week-long run at the New Hippodrome theatre in Parkgate began on October 29 – five months after VE Day victoriously ended the war in Europe and nearly two months after hostilities had been fully wound up with VJ Day. The exhilaration of the victory was wearing off and the country was realising that the peace might be an austere slog. In that atmosphere, the Operatic Society’s production was hailed by the local critics.

“The Darlington production has brought a much-needed sparkle into the somewhat sombre atmosphere created by the war, and signalled, let us hope, the end of the winter of our discontent at wartime restrictions,” said the Darlington & Stockton Times.

Seventy years later, Darlington Operatic Society is still thrilling its supporters – “their standard is so high that I really think they could take on anything and astound their audience with their talent and professionalism”, said The Northern Echo’s review of this week’s South Pacific, which ends its run at the Civic Theatre tonight.

Although 70 is the big number on everyone’s lips, really DOS’ story dates back much further – a Darlington Dramatic and Operatic Society was formed in 1912 and gave its first performance in Feethams Hall on October 24. The Northern Echo critic of the day admitted approaching the hall prepared to forgive the amateurish slip-ups he was about to see, but he concluded: “Without resorting in the least to fulsome flattery, it can conscientiously be said that seldom was this tolerant frame of mind necessary.”

But after a charity matinee at the New Hippodrome, the Dramatic and Operatic Society faded out, and it was re-formed in June 1913 as the Darlington Operatic Society by George Williams, whose music shop in Blackwellgate still bears his name.

In February 1914, the society put on its first production in the Theatre Royal, in Northgate, where the cinema is today. It was Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore, and it was an “unqualified success”, according to the D&S Times.

In the early 1920s, Lord Barnard became the society’s first president, JF Latimer its honorary solicitor and Sir Charles Starmer, the twice mayor of Darlington and Cleveland MP, and his wife, Cecilia were also involved. In fact, even Boots were on board, the chemist offering free greasepaint for the actors.

Yet times were tough (it didn’t help that the society gave away most of its proceeds to local charities) and DOS stuttered through the 1930s. It amalgamated with a rival group, the Darlington Light Operatic Company, and then went into abeyance only to be reborn with a triumphant production of The Maid of the Mountains in November 1937 at the New Hippodrome.

The D&S Times watched the show and declared “that amateur operatics are not dead in Darlington”.

But they were dying. The war loomed and the society disbanded.

In 1945, though, even before victory had been declared, Darlington Operatic Society was brought back to life, and Lady Starmer, now a widow, was back as president.

The Northern Echo:
Fred Thompson and his wife in 1969

Among the new faces in the 1945 production of Merrie England was Fred Thompson, who’d arrived in town from his native West Bromwich in 1934 to work as a leather merchant. He took his first role as stage manager but within ten years he would play a crucial role in Darlington history.

Post-war, DOS fell into a comfortable rhythm of a couple of well-received shows a year at the Hippodrome – some a financial success; others making a loss, with any proceeds going to charity. But the privately-owned theatre, opened in 1907, was crumbling around DOS’ ears. In 1956, the lease expired of the colourful theatre manager Teddy Hinge – he would turn the heating on full blast about ten minutes before the interval of a show in the hope that he would sell more ice creams – and so the theatre shut.

This forced DOS to put on its spring 1957 show, No, No, Nanette, in the Girls’ High School (now Hummersknott). It was not ideal.

The society looked at other venues – the Little Theatre, in Kendrew Street, the Royal Astoria cinema, in Northgate, the Baths Hall, in Kendrew Street – but none matched the perfect potential of the derelict Hippodrome.

Mr Thompson – by now an alderman – rallied the troops, organised cleaning and painting parties, and agreed that DOS should take on the running of the theatre for four years with a grant of £1,150-a-year from the council. It was an enormous gamble and commitment for the volunteers – they probably only wanted to sing but suddenly found themselves in charge of a dangerously large theatre.

Having shooed out the pigeons, DOS put on The White Horse in April 1958. The Northern Despatch critic said: “As the curtain fell, the capacity audience erupted into spontaneous, resounding applause. They had witnessed two treats – a first class musical and the rebirth of a theatre.”

Yet it was controversial. The council grant was the equivalent of adding a farthing to the rates – non- theatre-going townspeople wondered where their money was going.

The controversy grew. In 1961, as DOS’ lease neared its end, the theatre’s owners wanted to sell the hulk for £8,000 or demolish it and build something more profitable. The only potential purchaser of the ruinous Edwardian building was Darlington council – but it had plans to build an ugly concrete-and-glass civic centre, including civic hall, in the Market Place.

The D&S Times said: “Many people support the councillors who think it would be wrong to spend £8,000 on something which might become a white elephant. We are all anxious to foster the arts and live theatre – but not at the expense of a venture which may become a financial drain on the town.”

In the end, the reluctant council would go no higher than £5,500, and the theatre’s owners wouldn’t budge. DOS was caught in the middle.

Then Fred Thompson split the society down the middle. He suggested that the society should use all of its reserves and fund the £2,500 shortfall. After acrimonious meetings, DOS agreed, and on November 4, 1961, the deal was done: DOS bought the theatre for £8,000 and sold it within minutes to the council for £5,500, leaving the society with nothing in the bank.

The Northern Echo:
Fred Thompson pushes a pram carrying the newly-born Civic Theatre to the White Horse Inn - but the ratepayers were crying at the prospect of a farthing going on the rates to pay for the theatre

Rarely can a non-profit making organisation have lost so much of its hard-earned cash in such a short period of time. Never can a theatre have been saved so cheaply.

But it was still controversial, especially when it was revealed that the council had to fund at least £6,000 of theatre repairs, which put a further penny on the rates.

The controversy deepened when the first DOS show in the newly- subsidised and newly-named Civic Theatre turned out not to suit all tastes. Carousel “dragged slowly”, said the Northern Despatch’s critic. “When the curtain finally fell at ten o’clock, it gave a sense of relief rather than fulfilment after three hours.”

Stoically, the society began preparing for its next venture, Kismet, and so it fell back into its natural rhythm of a show every six months, April and late October. Seventy years on from the society’s founding, that rhythm beats as strongly as ever – tonight South Pacific will close but elsewhere in this supplement you’ll already find an advert for next April’s Legally Blonde.

In 70 years, a voluntary organisation like DOS depends on many stalwarts, both those who appear in the spotlights and those who scurry around in the dark backstage, hunting for props and selling tickets. For many of them, their lives also beat to the bi-annual rhythm.

The Northern Echo:
REDOUBTABLE LADY: Lady Starmer, third from right, receives a DOS long-service medal at the Masonic Hall in Darlington in 1964. Left to right: Joy Beadell, Marjorie, Countess of Brecknock, FC Murray, TW Jones (chairman), JH Willans, G Todd and L Farrage

There are so many of them it seems iniquitous to name only a handful, but space there is for only a handful. Perhaps we’ll restrict it to those who have passed on: Fred Thompson, the man who saved a theatre; Lady Starmer, the eccentric pre-war president who remained in post until her death in 1981 and the most redoubtable of Darlington women; Joy Beadell, the dance teacher who became Dancing Mistress in 1947 and remained deeply involved until her emigration to New Zealand in 1988; and Greta Sanderson, from the Murray baking family, who also first took to the stage in 1947 and who followed Lady Starmer and Ms Beadell as president until she died only last year.

Between them, they are a link right back to those heady days of 1945, before peace had even been officially declared, when those interested in operatic manoeuvres in Darlo gathered in the Bondgate Methodist Hall. The Despatch’s report of the meeting concluded by noting that the nascent society had already received a letter from the mayor, Councillor Jimmy Blumer, asking if proceeds from its first production could go to King George’s Fund for Sailors.

The society agreed – Merrie England made £188 0s 7d for the charity. Nowadays, a DOS production makes several thousand pounds which, very quietly, goes to local charities.

It is a fitting place to end a history of an operatic society – on a very high note.

For more information, visit the DarlingtonOS website at darlingtonos.org.uk