Eunice Crowther

Eunice Crowther (21 July 1916 – 13 October 1986) was a British singer, dancer, and choreographer, who in the early part of her career worked on stage, before moving on to television work for the BBC in the late 1940s. In the 1950s she became a dance director.

Eunice Crowther
Born
Eunice Beryl Cock

(1916-07-21)21 July 1916
Shanghai International Settlement, China
Died13 October 1986(1986-10-13) (aged 70)
France
OccupationMusical theatre performer and choreographer
Years active1935—1954
Spouse(s)
John A. Norman
​
(m. after 1966)​

Life

Born in the Shanghai International Settlement, China, as Eunice Beryl Cock, she came to England as a child after the Great War of 1914–1918 and was educated at Bournemouth High School.[1] From the age of eighteen, between 1935 and 1936, Crowther originated the part of Dora in the first stage production of This'll Make You Whistle, a musical comedy by Guy Bolton, Al Goodhart, and Maurice Sigler. This was staged at Southsea in December 1935,[2][3] before a long run in London, arriving at the Streatham Hill Theatre in January 1936,[4] then moving on to the Palace Theatre and finally to Daly's in London's West End.[3] In June 1936 she sailed from London to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.[5] In October 1936, she was back in England and joined a show called Folks d'Apache,[1] and in May 1939 was working at Finchley in a production of Under Your Hat.[6]

During the Second World War, Crowther was in the chorus line of Jack Hulbert's revue Hulbert Follies, with Mary Barton, Vivien Tandy, Betty Martin, and Beryl Mason, and in July 1940 they were pictured in The Bystander "gallivanting in a film studio garden".[7] In January 1941 a newspaper reported that Crowther was both singer and dancer and led the chorus.[8]

In November 1943, Eunice Crowther was pictured in The Sketch with Sabrina Gordon and Peggy Watson as one of three chorus girls at the Palace Theatre who also played the xylophone.[9] In December 1945, she was in the cast of a show called Here Come the Boys by Manning Sherwin and Harold Purcell at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh.[10] This arrived at the Saville Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, in May 1946, with the Tatler noting that "Miss Eunice Crowther and Miss Natasha Sokolova have some graceful dancing numbers",[11] and The Stage commenting approvingly on Crowther's opening number in the show, "The Backless Rabbit", with the Rhythm Brothers.[12]

Crowther first came to national attention in Britain as a singer and dancer in Jack Hulbert's Hulbert Follies of 1948, a BBC Television show in six episodes.[13] In a two-hour BBC Christmas production of Cinderella in 1950, she played Dandini and was also the show's choreographer.[14] She went on to appear in films and other television work, including The Golden Year (1951), in which she was also choreographer, jointly with Irving Davies,[15] and launched a new career as a dance director. She worked with Hulbert again in 1953 to arrange the dances for Over the Moon, a revue starring Cicely Courtneidge at the Casino.[16]

In 1966, under her real name of Eunice B. Cock, Crowther married John A. Norman at Kensington.[17] She died in France in 1986.[18]

Notes and references
  1. "Boscombe" in Bournemouth Graphic dated 16 October 1936, p. 6
  2. "Provincial Production" in The Stage dated 19 December 1935, p. 11: "...Dora Eunice Crowther"
  3. J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1930–1939: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (The Scarecrow Press, 1990), p. 545
  4. "London Theatres: Streatham Hill", in The Stage dated 2 January 1936, p. 9: "... Dora: Eunice Crowther"
  5. UK, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960, Index for year 1936: "Record information: Miss E B Cock (birth abt 1916) and E A Comley, Departure 19/06/1936 London England, Destination Las Palmas Spain"
  6. "Finchley" in Hendon & Finchley Times dated Friday 19 May 1939, p. 5: "...four young ladies from "Under Your Hat" — Rosalie Corneille, Betty Martin, Beryl Mason and Eunice Crowther".
  7. "Mr. Hulbert and His Young Ladies: Gallivanting in the Summer Setting of a Film Studio Garden" in The Bystander dated 10 July 1940, pp. 20–21: The five chorus beauties are now lined up in this order, Mary Barton, Vivien Tandy, Betty Martin, Eunice Crowther, Beryl Mason. The Worton Hall swimming-bath has been one of heaven's gifts to everyone..."
  8. "Hulbert Follies at Their Best" in Aberdeen Press and Journal dated 28 January 1941, p. 3
  9. "SOMETHING IN THE AIR AT THE PALACE THEATRE: HILARIOUS SPY-CHASING" in The Sketch dated 17 November 1943, pp. 18, 19: "SABINA GORDON, EUNICE CROWTHER and PEGGY WATSON, three girls from the chorus give a demonstration of their virtuosity on the xylophone."
  10. Wearing (1990), p. 230
  11. "The Theatre: Here Come The Boys (Saville)" in The Tatler dated 1 May 1946, p. 8
  12. "The Saville" in The Stage dated 18 April 1946, p. 1
  13. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Volume 97 (1949), p. 210
  14. Chris Perry, The Kaleidoscope British Christmas Television Guide 1937-2013 (2016), p. 141
  15. The Golden Year at BBC.co.uk, accessed 17 March 2019
  16. Dancing Times 1953 (Dancing Times, 1953), p. 16
  17. "NORMAN, John A, & COCK, Eunice B.", in Register of Marriages for Kensington Registration District, vol. 5c (1966), p. 1630
  18. Eunice Crowther at osobnosti.cz, accessed 16 March 2019
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