The Postcard
A postcard that was printed by Harvey Barton & Son Ltd. of Bristol. The image is a glossy real photograph.
The card was posted in Clevedon, Somerset on Monday the 27th. April 1914, exactly one hundred days before Great Britain declared war on Germany on the 4th. August 1914.
The card was posted to:
Miss Noon,
St. Peter's Vicarage,
Bournemouth.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"'Lytchfield,'
Clevedon.
Dear B,
I wonder how it is that
I have not heard from
you yet. I hope you are
well.
Lucy and I have just
returned from Bristol.
We had quite a nice
day, and what lovely
weather we are having.
How is Nanny?
I shall hope to hear from
you soon.
Much love to you dear
from us both.
Your loving friend
Clara."
Harvey Barton & Son (1885-1960)
Harvey Barton & Son Ltd. of St. Michael’s Hill, Bristol, were photographers who published real photo postcards of their landscape work in southwest England.
Many of these view-cards were hand coloured.
They also produced printed art reproductions, and a set of picture postcards under the Vistasound name that could be played as 45 rpm records. They were manufactured by the Hardy Record Mfg. Co. of London.
Thomas Chatterton - The Boy Poet
Thomas Chatterton (20th. November 1752 – 24th. August 1770) was an English poet whose precocious talents ended in suicide at the age of 17. He was an influence on Romantic artists of the period such as Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth and Coleridge.
St. Mary Redcliffe
The church of St. Mary Redcliffe provided the primary inspiration for Thomas Chatterton, from its magnificent Gothic architecture to its memorials to Bristol’s dignitaries.
He wrote about the church in his quasi-medieval poems and prose, and he also composed modern poems, satires and social sketches.
The Birth of Thomas Chatterton
Chatterton was born in the writing-master’s house of Pile Street School just a stone’s throw from St. Mary Redcliffe Church.
His father, the writing-master, sadly died before Chatterton himself was born, but among his belongings were various medieval documents (considered worthless) he had rescued from a chest in the muniment room above the north porch of the church.
A muniment room is a storage or display room in a castle, church, university, or the like, where pertinent historical documents and records are kept.
Chatterton's Literary Work
Although fatherless and raised in poverty, Thomas was an exceptionally studious child, publishing mature work by the age of 11.
It is thought that the ancient documents from the church encouraged Chatterton to imitate medieval language and literature which he attributed to a fifteenth century monk, Thomas Rowley.
Chatterton’s fictional Thomas Rowley was portrayed as a friend of William Canynges (1399-1474), benefactor of Saint Mary Redcliffe and five times Mayor of Bristol.
Chatterton presented his poems, some inscribed onto genuine ancient parchment, as if they were actual antiquities.
Controversy
Chatterton was able to pass off his work as that of Thomas Rowley because few people at the time were familiar with medieval poetry, though he was denounced by Horace Walpole.
Also. although close scrutiny of the poems by antiquarians of the time pronounced them to be modern, few people believed that they could be the work of a mere fifteen-year-old boy.
After Thomas's untimely early death, there was continued controversy over the authorship of the work.
Years later, the Rowley poems were accepted as the work of Thomas Chatterton, and it is upon this work, as well as his satirical verse and anti-slavery poems, that Chatterton’s literary legacy now rests.
Death of Thomas Chatterton
At 17, Thomas sought outlets for his political writings in London, having impressed the Lord Mayor, William Beckford, and the radical leader John Wilkes.
However his earnings were not enough to keep him, and he poisoned himself in despair by drinking arsenic.
Thomas's body was found with his most recent work torn into small scraps which were scattered around the floor.
Chatterton's Cultural Legacy
Thomas's unusual life and death attracted much interest among the romantic poets, and Alfred de Vigny wrote a play about him that is still performed today.
The oil painting 'The Death of Chatterton' by Pre-Raphaelite artist Henry Wallis has enjoyed lasting fame. The image in the bottom right corner of the postcard is a very crude representation of the Wallis masterpiece.
Lines on St. Mary Redcliffe Church
Here is one of Thomas's poems:
'Stay, curyous traveller, and pass not bye,
Until this fetive pile astounde thine eye.
Whole rocks on rocks with yron joynd surveie,
And okes with okes entremed disponed lie.
This mightie pile, that keeps the wyndes at baie,
Fyre-levyn and the mokie storme defie,
That shootes aloofe into the reaulmes of daie,
Shall be the record of the Buylders fame for aie.
Thou seest this maystrie of a human hand,
The pride of Brystowe and the Westerne lande,
Yet is the Buylders vertues much moe greete,
Greeter than can bie Rowlies pen be scande.
Thou seest the saynctes and kynges in stonen state,
That seemd with breath and human soule dispande,
As payrde to us enseem these men of slate,
Such is greete Canynge's mynde when payrd to God elate.
Well maiest thou be astound, but view it well;
Go not from hence before thou see thy fill,
And learn the Builder's vertues and his name;
Of this tall spyre in every countye telle,
And with thy tale the lazing rych men shame;
Showe howe the glorious Canynge did excelle;
How hee good man a friend for kynges became,
And gloryous paved at once the way to heaven and fame'.
Winifred Atwell
So what else happened on the day that Clara posted the card?
Well, the 27th. April 1914 marked the birth of Winifred Atwell.
Una Winifred Atwell was a Trinidadian pianist who enjoyed great popularity in Britain and Australia from the 1950's with a series of boogie-woogie and ragtime hits, selling over 20 million records.
She was the first black person to have a number-one hit in the UK Singles Chart, and is still the only female instrumentalist to do so.
Winifred Atwell - The Early Years
Winifred Atwell was born in Tunapuna in Trinidad and Tobago. She and her parents lived in Jubilee Street. Her family owned a pharmacy and she trained as a pharmacist herself and was expected to join the family business.
Winifred played the piano from a young age and achieved considerable popularity locally. She played for American servicemen at the Air Force base (which is now the main airport).
It was while playing at the Servicemen's Club at Piarco that someone bet her that she could not play something in the boogie-woogie style that was popular back home in the United States. She went away and wrote "Piarco Boogie", which was later renamed "Five Finger Boogie".
Leaving Trinidad
Atwell left Trinidad in the early 1940's and travelled to the United States to study with Alexander Borovsky and, in 1946, moved to London, where she had gained a place at the Royal Academy of Music. She became the first female pianist to be awarded the academy's highest grading for musicianship.
To support her studies, she played rags at London clubs and theatres. These modest beginnings in variety would one day see her topping the bill at the London Palladium. She said later:
"I starved in a garret to
get onto concert stages."
Life in the UK
Winifred Atwell attracted attention with an unscheduled appearance at the Casino Theatre, where she substituted for an ill star. She caught the eye of entrepreneur Bernard Delfont, who put her on a long-term contract.
She released three discs that were well received. The third, "Jezebel", went to the top of the bestseller lists. It was her fourth disc that catapulted her to huge popularity in the UK. A complex arrangement called "Cross Hands Boogie" was released to show her virtuoso rhythmic technique, but it was the B-side, a 1900's tune written by George Botsford called "Black and White Rag", that was to become a radio standard.
Atwell was championed by popular disc jockey Jack Jackson, who introduced her to Decca promotions manager Hugh Mendl. Mendl launched his career as a staff producer at Decca producing Atwell's recordings.
"Black And White Rag" started a craze for her honky-tonk style of playing. The rag was originally performed on a concert grand for the occasion, but Atwell felt it did not sound right, and so got her husband to buy a honky tonk piano which would then be used for the released version of the song.
Atwell's husband, former stage comedian Lew Levisohn, was vital in shaping her career as a variety star. The two had met in 1946, and married soon after. They were inseparable up to Levisohn's death in Hong Kong in December 1977; they had no children.
He had cannily made the choice, for stage purposes, of her playing first a concert grand, then a beaten-up old upright piano. The latter was purchased from a Battersea junk shop for 50 shillings. This became famous as "my other piano". It would later feature all over the world, from Las Vegas to the Sydney Opera House, travelling over half a million miles by air throughout Atwell's concert career.
While contributing to a posthumous BBC radio appreciation of Atwell's career, Richard Stilgoe revealed that he was now the owner of the famous "other piano".
When Atwell first came to Britain, she initially earned only a few pounds a week. By the mid-1950's, this had shot up to over $10,000. By 1952, her popularity had spread internationally. Her hands were insured with Lloyd's of London for £40,000 (the policy stipulating that she was never to wash dishes).
She signed a record contract with Decca, and her sales were soon 30,000 discs a week. She was by far the biggest selling pianist of her time. Winifred's 1954 hit "Let's Have Another Party" was the first piano instrumental to reach number one in the UK Singles Chart.
She is the only holder of two gold and two silver discs for piano music in Britain, and was the first black artist in the UK to sell a million records. Millions of copies of her sheet music were sold, and she went on to record her best-known hits, including "Let's Have a Party", "Flirtation Waltz", "The Poor People of Paris" (which reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in 1956), "Britannia Rag" and "Jubilee Rag".
Her signature "Black and White Rag" became famous again in the 1970's as the theme of the BBC snooker programme Pot Black, which also enjoyed great popularity in Australia when screened on the ABC network. It was during this period that she discovered Matt Monro and persuaded Decca to sign him.
Atwell's peak was the second half of the 1950's, during which her concerts drew standing room-only crowds in Europe and Australasia. She played three Royal Variety Performances, appeared in every capital city in Europe, and played for over twenty million people.
At a private party for Queen Elizabeth II, she was called back for an encore by the monarch herself, who requested "Roll Out the Barrel". She became a firm television favourite.
Winifred had her own series in Britain. The first of these was Bernard Delfont Presents The Winifred Atwell Show. It ran for ten episodes on the new ITV network from the 21st. April to the 23rd. June 1956, and the BBC picked up the series the following year.
On a third triumphal tour of Australia, she recorded her own Australian television series, screened in 1960–1961. Her career earned her a fortune, and would have extended further to the US but for issues of race.
Her breakthrough appearance was to have been on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, but on arrival in America she was confronted with problems of selling the show in the south with a British-sounding black woman. The appearance was never recorded.
In 1955, Atwell arrived in Australia and was greeted as an international celebrity. Her tour broke box-office records on the Tivoli circuit, bringing in £600,000 in box-office receipts. She was paid AUS$5,000 a week (the equivalent of around $50,000 today), making her the highest paid star from a Commonwealth country to visit Australia up to that time.
She toured Australia many times, and took on Australian guitarist Jimmy Doyle as her musical director in the 1960's. In 1962 she made a nationwide tour of Great Britain, with "The Winifred Atwell Show".
She was accompanied by the Cy Bevan Group, who were with her then-current radio series "Pianorama". From Monday the 17th. September 1962, for one week only, she gave twice nightly performances at the Brighton Hippodrome.
Also appearing with her on the same bill was Ronnie Carroll, a radio and television recording star. Her popularity in Australia led to her settling in Sydney in the 1970's. She became an Australian citizen two years before her death.
Keith Emerson noted her influence on his playing in an interview:
"I've always been into ragtime. In England -
and I'm sure Rick Wakeman would concur -
we loved Winifred Atwell, a fantastic honky-
tonk and ragtime player."
Atwell was also a skilled interpreter of classical music. On the 1st. and 2nd. December 1954, at London's Kingsway Hall, she made one of the first stereo classical recordings in the UK, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Stanford Robinson, of a major repertoire work, the "Piano Concerto in A-minor, Op. 16", by Grieg.
The two-channel version (engineered by Decca's Roy Wallace) appears not to have been released, but a transfer of the Decca LP (mono) LF1206 has been produced and issued by Pristine Audio as an available download.
Another Decca recording by Atwell is George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with Ted Heath's band, which contained an arrangement in the slow section in the Glenn Miller style.
Winifred Atwell's Later Life
Winifred bought an apartment on the beach front in Flight Deck, an apartment complex in Collaroy in Sydney, as jumping-off bases for her worldwide performance commitments. She was a member of the Moby Dick Surf Club at Whale Beach where she performed regularly in support of the surf club.
Enjoying the affection of the public, she was nevertheless keenly aware of prejudice and injustice, and was outspoken about racism in Australia. She always donated her services in a charity concert on Sundays, the proceeds going to orphanages and needy children.
She spoke out against the third world conditions endured by Australian Aborigines, which made headlines during an outback tour of the country in 1962. Dismissing racism as a factor in her own life, she said she felt she was "spoiled very much by the public."
She left her estate to the Australian Guide Dogs for the Blind and a small amount to her goddaughter. However, a cousin of Lew Levisohn contested Atwell's will and is reported to have been granted $30,000 from her estate.
Atwell also created headlines in the 1960's with her dieting (slimming from sixteen to twelve stone on what would today be called a protein diet).
In 1978, she appeared on Australian TV's This Is Your Life. She played her "other" piano at the end of the show with a few bars from "Black and White Rag" after the piano being in retirement for many years.
Though a dynamic stage personality, Atwell was, in person, a shy, retiring and soft-spoken woman of modesty. Eloquent and intellectual, she was well-read and keenly interested in and informed about issues and current events.
Voracious in her reading habits and a devotee of crosswords, she confessed to an inordinate love of mangoes, a dislike of new shoes, and a keen interest in televised cricket (she backed England). She was also a devout Catholic, who unpretentiously played the organ for her parish church.
Atwell often returned to her native Trinidad, and on one occasion she bought a house in Saint Augustine, a home she adored and later renamed Winvilla and which was later turned into the Pan Pipers Music School by one of her students, Louise McIntosh.
In 1968 Atwell had recorded Ivory and Steel, an album of standards and classics, with the Pan Am Jet North Stars Steel Orchestra, and supported musical scholarships in the West Indies. In the early 1980's, her sense of loss following her husband's death made her consider returning to Trinidad to live, but she found the weather too hot.
Atwell suffered a stroke in 1980. She officially retired on The Mike Walsh Show, then Australia's highest rating television variety programme, in 1981. She categorically stated that she would retire and not return as a public performer, and that she had had an excellent career.
Her last TV performance was "Choo Choo Samba" followed with a medley of "Black and White Rag" and "Twelfth Street Rag". Her only non-private performances from this point were as an organist in her parish church at Narrabeen.
In 1983, following an electrical fire that destroyed her Narrabeen home, she suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 69 while staying with friends in Seaforth. She was laid to rest beside her husband Lew Levisohn in South Gundurimba Private Cemetery in northern New South Wales, just outside Lismore.