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End of an era as Homburgs calls it a day Call for societies to help out
There is a huge void in amateur theatre with the closure, after more
than 60 years, of Homburgs, the
I AM writing this
because I have been contacted by several amateur theatre groups, who are
at a loss as to know how they may continue without now being able to
hire costumes from Homburgs, the supplier in Leeds.
The company has been
sold off piecemeal, with sets of jackets going to one buyer and the
trousers and/or hats to others. Carl Rosa owns its own professional
wardrobes for all the G and S Operas, and as we do not hire these out
this situation has nothing to do with what we do. However, as someone
who cares about this, I think a strategy could be drawn up to exchange
information.
My
first memory of Homburgs was as a six-year-old boy in the local operatic
society waiting for the wicker baskets to arrive on Thursday evening at
rehearsals, and being given a small bundle with a label on it. One side
was your own name, hand-written and making you feel very special; on the
other a W A Homburgs stamp, from a far away and mythical kingdom called
I
do remember that some sets of costumes might be new and stunning, made
for your society, but sometimes the costumes were often not in the
greatest of order. If it was a period show for the gentlemen's chorus,
you would often find an old used hankie, or a good-luck card from a
completely different show, or boiled sweets or a cough drop in any, or
all, of the pockets of your freshly-dispatched costume. The ladies from
the society would have their work cut out to add trimmings, spray starch
and try to freshen up and breathe some new life into these relics of
shows from decades gone by.
So
why would I bemoan its loss! Well, there is now nowhere left to get all
the costumes for a big society show for the same price. I remember years
ago when I was only 15 years old, I was buying whole set of G & S
costumes for £5 each and hiring these out to societies for £5.50 –
result, happiness! At that time – the last recession! – fantastic
costumiers like
William Mutrie and Sons in
So
I hastily looked through the catalogue for Homburgs online for something
to bid for. I was horrified to see some of the same sets of costumes I
had seen as a child, still there and being offered for shows like
The Mikado – though perhaps
it just proved that they were well made to last, which is no bad thing
in this modern throwaway world.
I
remember the local G & S group in Middlesbrough doing
Patience, so Homburgs
dispatched a set of Grecian-styled ladies' costumes, and the next show
was Orpheus and then
La Belle Helene – with nobody
seeming to mind that these were the same costumes, as they were cheap as
chips to hire, and sort of did the job of covering bodies. And let's
face it, with ladies' dress sizes from 8 to 32, they sure did have to
cover some bodies, as we would well know if the costumes could talk, let
alone hum. Oops! Sorry!
All
that said, I still feel a terrible, sad and nostalgic loss about a whole
side of the amateur theatre that is now no more, where have all the
costumes gone? Have some societies bought them up? Can they make them
available to other societies? Let's face it, without good costumes you
cannot do a period show. For my part, I placed blind bids, so when a
truck-load of boxes arrived, I honestly had no idea what there would be
within each lot. I find myself with some real treasures, and things I
have no use for.
Within
these were two boxes of ladies' chorus original period
Princess's Ida breast armour,
and three sets of principal men's armour, all made by Robert White for
the original London 1880s production! These had been languishing in
boxes for decades as they were too small for most societies' ladies to
be able to wear, and are in many ways priceless.
As
an avid collector of all things G & S and D'Oyly Carte-related, I have
found a box set of two D'Oyly Carte period mandolins from
The Gondoliers. There are a
box of period Yeomen hats and
many other great things saved from being split up, but spookily all
bought by accident.
Within
these lots there are other really fine costumes that sadly I have no use
for, so I would like to pass these on to another hire firm or for a
society to own and use. We hire only to film companies – sadly never to
amateur companies, so I think that selling them off cheaply is the best
route.
There
is a new and very good set of men's uniforms and hats from Titanic.
Within 21 shelves of assorted boots and shoes, there are 50 pairs of
beautiful period brown leather boots, possibly from the French Foreign
Legion or First World War, a set of matching military hats that must be
from Desert Song, a set of black show
FOLLOWING the closure of Homburgs, Bromileys of Crewe has
now taken over all Homburgs wigs and parasols, in addition to a
large selection of Japanese fans for hire for
The Mikado
and
Hot
or
Mikado. More
information is available by telephone at
01270 255726.
top
hats and a set of deep red satin show top hats with matching lamé
waistcoats.
There
is a set of silver metal Dragoon Guards helmets with white leather
gauntlets and black leather period men's boots, all from Patience.
There are Iolanthe coronets, a set of men's Mikado hats,
assorted bits of costumes, waistcoats and hats, all needing new homes.
I hope the National Operatic & Dramatic Association (NODA) can offer societies the opportunity to seek out the good sets of costumes that Homburgs had, and I suggest that if someone with some spare time and an interest in costume is out there, it might help all the societies up and down the land to continue to perform and dress all their forthcoming period shows and musicals, if this information in collated and made available. |
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Recipe for
fun – but proceed with caution
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