Lind Joyce ITMA

[dahlingheart]

Hello Everyone,

Can anyone help please? I'm trying to find out more about Lind Joyce who joined the cast of Tommy Handley's wildly popular radio show just after the war. These clips of her show she was a talented singer and comedienne:
LIND JOYCE - British Pathé
LIND JOYCE FROM ITMA - British Pathé
All I have found so far is that she was born 1921 (assuming Lind Joyce was a stage name, her original name not known) and died 1971. Unusually for a woman, she was also an enthusiastic snooker player

A shame she did not make a bigger name for herself.

Thanks.

[wearysloth]

HOLD IT!
"All those who think it
rather jolly.
To castigate the age's folly.
To prick balloons, to question
fame.
Such is our purpose—such
our aim"


SO sang HERMIONE
GINGOLD in " Hold Everything" (Wednesday, Light, 9.15 p.m.), and introduced
as threatening a pot-pourri
of revue humour as one could
wish to hear in a month of Wednesdays.

The two Hermiones (BADDELEY makes two) led the
fast-moving team. There were
CHRISTOPHER HEWETT and
GORDON HUMPHRIS, with
good singing from NEVILLE
WILLIAMS and LIND JOYCE,
pleasing music from CLARRY
ASHTON and FRANK CORDELL,
bitter-sweet dialogue and
even better lyrics.

Some or the shafts were
"outers "—family talking in •
advertising cliches never has been
funny—but among the " inners"
were Miss Gingold proving that
Lord Alfred Tennyson was the
originator of the National Health
Insurance scheme . . . the Balcony
Scene from "Romeo and
Juliet"- as written by NOEL
COWARD and the Balcony Scene
from " Private Lives " as written
by Shakespeare.

The cry is for new shows. Let's
hold on to " Hold Everything."
~Daily Express May 3rd 1950

PS

Lind Joyce was a lady water rat apparently

[dahlingheart]

Thank you for that review and the additional info about LJ being a lady water rat. I did notice that in a couple of other British Pathe clips she is shown with Rex North, a 'newspaper columnist'. I wonder if they were just good friends or maybe more.... Don't know anything about him.

[Dean Williams]

Here's some research I'd been able to assemble on Lind Joyce for an ITMA section on a vintage British comedy website I'm putting together. It's not much but information is scant on the Lady!

Prior to ITMA, Lind Joyce started out as a singer and dancer in revue shows. Aged 18, she appeared in August 1939 in the revue "Nice People" at the Tivoli Theatre, Hull, dancing with Frank Lees and the Millie Jackson Young Ladies.

In August 1943 she was singing with Henry Hall and His Orchestra at the Palace Theatre, Plymouth in a variety show and in August 1944 she was in the cast of a variety show produced by Prince Littler called "It's Foolish But It's Fun" at The Empire Theatre, Nottingham.

Lind Joyce found public fame when she joined ITMA for Series 9 in September 1945, playing Banjeleo, daughter of tribal leader Bigga Banga (Fred Yule) who translated all of her Fathers' gibberings. She aso played other characters as required until the Tom-topia plotline was finished at the end of Series 10 in 1947. She returned for guest appearances in 6 of the 16 episodes of the final run, Series 12 in various roles along with several other former cast.

Her joining the cast of ITMA led to a fortnightly 15-minute radio series from April to July 1946 on teh BBC Home Service;

10/04/1946 BBC Home Service - Lind Joyce (18:30-18:45)
17/04/1946 BBC Home Service - Lind Joyce (18:30-18:45)
15/05/1946 BBC Home Service - Lind Joyce (18:30-18:45)
22/05/1946 BBC Home Service - Lind Joyce (18:30-18:45)
19/06/1946 BBC Home Service - Lind Joyce with Stanley Black and the Dance Orchestra (22:30-22:45)
26/06/1946 BBC Home Service - Lind Joyce with Stanley Black and the Dance Orchestra (22:30-22:45)
03/07/1946 BBC Home Service - Lind Joyce with Stanley Black and the Dance Orchestra (19:15-19:30)
10/07/1946 BBC Home Service - Lind Joyce with Stanley Black and the Dance Orchestra (22:30-22:45)
31/07/1946 BBC Home Service - Lind Joyce with Stanley Black and the Dance Orchestra (22:30-22:45)

Lind also had a few appearances on early BBC Television during this period of ITMA fame in 1947;

22/10/1946 (20:30-21:00) Nat Allen & His Orchestra, with singers (Lind Joyce had a 10-min spot at start, 20:30-20:40)
11/08/1947 (20:30-20:45) Lind Joyce - singing songs.


She had a minor role in the film Meet Me At Dawn in 1947 and with her higher profile from ITMA starred in the film The Clouded Crystal with Patrick Waddington in 1949.

In October 1949 she did a theatre show preview in a restaurant as the producer was trying a novel way of getting theatre managers interested in staging the show;

"Young man with a bright idea - 32-year-old ex-ENSA producer John Mather.

For a year past he has been preparing a spectacular new revue called Out of This World. Instead of hawking the compelted script around Lndon, he has hired a room in a West End restaurant and invited theatre managers to a kind of a pre-view.

They will see all the scenery and costume designs and hear all the music.

Film star Chrsitine Nordern will be there to sing some of the principal numbers; she hopes to be in the show if a West End theatre is available within a specified time.

So will some other well-knwon artists including former ITMA singer Lind Joyce.

The Revue wll cost £40,000 to stage properly," Mr Mather said"

I've no idea if the production made it to a West End theatre but I can find no record of a show by that name!

When ITMA finished for good in 1949 she was one of the many minor cast that went a bit quiet although she joined the ITMA gang for a Radio Awards ceremony in 1950 and made a couple of television appearances in the early 50s (singing songs in an episode of Kaleidoscope in 1951 and an episode of Garrison Theatre in 1953). Her final appearance seems to be the minor uncredited part in the 1969 film Oh What A Lovely War.

She died 3rd May, 1971. Where and of what I know not!

[Bernardo]

I see ITMA has a spot on R4ex this week.