Web Page No 2376
3rd June 2017
Top Picture:
Show Biz Eleven
Second Picture: The TV All Stars Football Club. Back Row: Bernie Winters, Jess Conrad, Pete Murray, Larry Taylor, Ray Merrill and Peter Thompson. Front Row: Unknown, Leslie Wise, Unknown, Mike Winters, Unknown, Tommy Steele.
Third
Picture: The Modern Team
The Showbiz XI
For half a century, celebrities have risked making fools of themselves
with no need for reality TV, by playing football all in a good cause
The lure of the football pitch for theatre folk has always been strong.
Ever since football became a mass attraction, variety artists have been
attached to the game. Before the First World War, George Robey, “The Prime
Minister of Mirth”, organised charity fund-raising matches involving top
football stars and music-hall favourites, which drew large crowds. After the
war, the tradition continued with teams representing actors, the cinema,
pantomime artists, dance bands and the pioneering women’s team, Dick Kerr’s
Ladies.
By the 1950s, with variety dying, the only regular such fixture was
a Boxers v Jockeys match raising funds for sportsmen’s charities. But
entertainment was being transformed
by television and rock’n’roll and in 1957this produced a charity
football phenomenon – the Showbiz XI.
Started in a coffee bar in Soho by disc jockey and song plugger Jimmy
Henney and Cliff Richard’s manager, Franklyn Boyd, it was primarily an outlet
for young musicians and actors to indulge themselves in a game that many of
them might well have taken up professionally in different circumstances. Early
line-ups included Sean Connery, Tommy Steele, Jimmy Tarbuck, Tony Newley,
Lonnie Donegan, Des O’Connor and Patrick McGoohan, who was a rugged
centre-half, plus various theatrical agents, managers and hangers-on. Although
the team often trained at Highbury, ex-professional players featured rarely:
only Billy Wright and Wally Barnes, a former Arsenal wing-half then working as
a commentator, were ever-present.
Current pros were banned, of course. Stanley Matthews was reprimanded by the FA for appearing in a fund-raiser between the Tennis Stars and a Showbiz XI in December 1960 because the Showbiz team was “unaffiliated”. He was forced to give a written undertaking not to do it again.
One among the pioneers was Jess Conrad, unlike Tommy Steele, Sean Connery and many of the others, he boasted no athletic ability whatsoever. But he had a dream. “I went in goal because, when I was younger, a Russian goalkeeper, Lev Yashin, caught my imagination. The pictures of him were so reminiscent of Batman sweeping through the air, and he was dressed all in black.” The fact that he couldn’t kick a ball mattered little. For the next 40 years, Jess would earn quite a reputation as a shot-stopper, diving and risking his heavily insured teeth at the same time. He would ultimately captain, manage and organise the Showbiz XI. He also designed the logos, sourced the sponsors, negotiated with the FA, and packed the hampers as the various teams travelled to the four corners of the UK and beyond. When he was making movies, it was written into his contract that, every Saturday, wherever he was, he would be flown back to London to play.
He kept a record of every match and every score because they were deadly serious when it came to the result. He explained: “They wouldn’t have played if they hadn’t thought they were any good, they just wouldn’t have exposed themselves. We tried comedy football, which was a disaster, throwing buckets of water over people, silly hats, but people never ever came to see that, what they came to see was a football match at reasonable standard.”
They turned up in their thousands. In May 1957, Alma Cogan kicked off a Showbiz XI game at West Ham in front of 23,000, while crowds often reached 30,000. Games were so popular that a “lighter” rival, the TV All-Stars, appeared. Mike and Bernie Winters picked teams featuring stars created by ITV shows such as The Army Game, Emergency Ward 10 and Sunday Night At The London Palladium. Their matches would often feature slapstick silliness, which turned off some of the more traditionalist players.
Current pros were banned, of course. Stanley Matthews was reprimanded by the FA for appearing in a fund-raiser between the Tennis Stars and a Showbiz XI in December 1960 because the Showbiz team was “unaffiliated”. He was forced to give a written undertaking not to do it again.
One among the pioneers was Jess Conrad, unlike Tommy Steele, Sean Connery and many of the others, he boasted no athletic ability whatsoever. But he had a dream. “I went in goal because, when I was younger, a Russian goalkeeper, Lev Yashin, caught my imagination. The pictures of him were so reminiscent of Batman sweeping through the air, and he was dressed all in black.” The fact that he couldn’t kick a ball mattered little. For the next 40 years, Jess would earn quite a reputation as a shot-stopper, diving and risking his heavily insured teeth at the same time. He would ultimately captain, manage and organise the Showbiz XI. He also designed the logos, sourced the sponsors, negotiated with the FA, and packed the hampers as the various teams travelled to the four corners of the UK and beyond. When he was making movies, it was written into his contract that, every Saturday, wherever he was, he would be flown back to London to play.
He kept a record of every match and every score because they were deadly serious when it came to the result. He explained: “They wouldn’t have played if they hadn’t thought they were any good, they just wouldn’t have exposed themselves. We tried comedy football, which was a disaster, throwing buckets of water over people, silly hats, but people never ever came to see that, what they came to see was a football match at reasonable standard.”
They turned up in their thousands. In May 1957, Alma Cogan kicked off a Showbiz XI game at West Ham in front of 23,000, while crowds often reached 30,000. Games were so popular that a “lighter” rival, the TV All-Stars, appeared. Mike and Bernie Winters picked teams featuring stars created by ITV shows such as The Army Game, Emergency Ward 10 and Sunday Night At The London Palladium. Their matches would often feature slapstick silliness, which turned off some of the more traditionalist players.
When professional players led by Jimmy Hill were threatening to strike
in 1961, the players’ union planned strike fund-raising matches. The Showbiz XI
felt the cause was too political and declined to help, but the All-Stars
obliged. George Eastham played alongside Mike and Bernie Winters, incurring the
wrath of the FA.
The list of causes supported years is endless, from the Aberfan disaster
to the Bradford Fire, Hillsborough to Dunblane, local hospices and special
schools, Save The Valley, the Wishing Well Appeal, community centres. The
roll-call of players includes Ray and Dave Davies of the Kinks, David Frost,
Nicky Campbell, Rod Stewart, Roy Castle, Freddie Starr, Dennis Waterman, Ray
Winstone and Robbie Williams, and ex-players such as Vinnie Jones and Paul
Gascoigne.
Injury forced Jess Conrad to quit in the 1980s. He bemoans the changes that have occurred saying “We came into the business as young, ordinary guys, and felt we had to give something back. Younger performers today want money and proper expenses. It’s more of a business, but there are bigger sponsors and it’s better publicised so we make more money.”
Cliff Richard apparently sacked Franklyn Boyd because he was always somewhere else with the Showbiz team. And Larry Parnes, Tommy Steele’s manager back in 1961, told him in no uncertain terms that, having just landed a starring role in a West End pantomime, he wasn’t to play football. Tommy goes off, plays – and breaks his leg. No way can he tell Parnes, so he gets smuggled into the theatre, makes his first entrance down the stairs from his dressing room – and pretends to fall down and break his leg. The understudy had to go on and Larry Parnes never learned the truth.”
Today, Jess Conrad is the Showbiz XI president and confines his role to introducing the team before the game.
Injury forced Jess Conrad to quit in the 1980s. He bemoans the changes that have occurred saying “We came into the business as young, ordinary guys, and felt we had to give something back. Younger performers today want money and proper expenses. It’s more of a business, but there are bigger sponsors and it’s better publicised so we make more money.”
Cliff Richard apparently sacked Franklyn Boyd because he was always somewhere else with the Showbiz team. And Larry Parnes, Tommy Steele’s manager back in 1961, told him in no uncertain terms that, having just landed a starring role in a West End pantomime, he wasn’t to play football. Tommy goes off, plays – and breaks his leg. No way can he tell Parnes, so he gets smuggled into the theatre, makes his first entrance down the stairs from his dressing room – and pretends to fall down and break his leg. The understudy had to go on and Larry Parnes never learned the truth.”
Today, Jess Conrad is the Showbiz XI president and confines his role to introducing the team before the game.
Keep in touch
Peter
On this day 3rd June 1960-1965
On 03/06/1960 the number one single was Cathy's Clown - Everly
Brothers and the number one album
was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Wagon Train (ITV) and the box office
smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the
way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.
On 03/06/1961 the number one single was Surrender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top
rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One
Dalmations. A pound of today's
money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the
Season's Division 1 champions.
On 03/06/1962 the number one single was Good Luck Charm - Elvis
Presley and the number one album
was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street
(Granada) and the box office smash
was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were
on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.
On 03/06/1963 the number one single was From Me To You - The
Beatles and the number one album
was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street
(Granada) and the box office smash
was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton
were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.
On 03/06/1963 the number one single was From Me To You - The
Beatles and the number one album
was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street
(Granada) and the box office smash
was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton
were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.
On 03/06/1965 the number one single was Long Live Love - Sandie
Shaw and the number one album
was Bringing It All Back Home - Bob Dylan. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street
(Granada) and the box office smash
was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester
United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.
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