Post 265. THIS IS ROBERT WHITE.

TELEVISION.

The Good Old Days.

American Irish tenor Robert White (above) was one of the many talented performers who graced the stage of Leeds City Varieties during the thirty years (1953 - 83) that The Good Old Days, produced by Barney Colehan, was televised.

Recent repeat showings - currently from the seventies - of the show, will have reminded those who cared to revisit them that popular entertainment will never die.

I particularly mention Mr. White because, not only was he then (and is still now) a very fine tenor, in our house he possessed a dual persona.

How come?

Well, in our house, whenever I sat at my computer with the music centre gently relaying Den's musical choices of the day, if those choices happened to include the voice of Peter Dawson, my Leader, as she passed by en route to wherever, would pause in the doorway to say with a smile: "Ah, Robert White."

So that's how come.

In our house, Peter Dawson (Australian bass-baritone and songwriter born in Adelaide in 1882) regularly metamorphosed into Robert White (American tenor and voice teacher born in the Bronx in 1936).

Don't ask me how it happened.

I have absolutely no idea.

He just did.

For some years I shook my head and said: "No, love, it's Peter Dawson, but you're close."

Then I gave up.

(Well at least she didn't confuse Peter Dawson (in the wing collar) with Peter White, a visually impaired English radio broadcaster and thoroughly nice bloke, who probably couldn't sing for toffee.)

Time went by and elderly memories became slightly foggy (well, mine did, anyway).

Then, a few weeks ago, BBC Four re-ran a Good Old Days episode first broadcast on New Year's Eve 1978/9 and there, along with Roy Castle, Dolores Gray and Eira Heath, was the handsome, forty-two-year-old, note-perfect tenor Robert White who, for his set, sang Sylvia and Danny Boy and, to round off the show, When You Come To The End Of A Perfect Day.

I duly recorded it and at breakfast the following day played it back for Maureen.

"Remember Peter Dawson?"I said. "Well, my love, this is Robert White."

"What a nice surprise and what a lovely voice," she said. "Is he still alive?"

"Dunno," I said. "Look him up on your ipad."

She did.

"Says he was born on the 27th October 1936. That makes him exactly six years and a month younger than you."

"No whatsit watson," I said. "I'll have a look on my computer later on."

I did.

Not only is he still going strong at eighty years old but, according to his Wiki entry, he still teaches at Juilliard in New York, one of the most prestigious music schools in the world.

So can he still sing?

If you would like to know, Google: Bird Songs At Eventide - Robert White - YouTube and hear him, two days after his seventy ninth birthday, enchant a gathering of well-wishers with an impeccable rendering of Eric Coates's composition.

 And that's it for now.

Footnote:

We had our local elections.

The results were not surprising.

More, perhaps, at the end of the month.