Poole-based producer Paul Sarony has a lifetime of entertainment in him. The son of pre-WW2 variety star Leslie Sarony, in the 1970s he made theatre and variety shows for international tours before moving into films such as Mrs Brown, Shine, Welcome To Sarajevo, Hideous Kinky and Bhaji on the Beach. More recently, he counts hit TV series such as The Great, Showdogs and Master of None to his name.
When a programme for a touring show called An Evening of Ballet with Margot Fonteyn was sent to Lighthouse recently, we noted Paul’s name and address and reunited him with the souvenir.
“We produced a show with Margot Fonteyn and played it all around the world over three years. She was a wonderful performer and lovely to work with,” he told us. “But we never played Poole.”
Around the same time, Paul revealed, he helped open Poole Arts Centre in 1978, providing marketing back up and booking shows for the Towngate Theatre.
“The director, Tony Covell asked me to help out as he’d been let down by the person who was going to do marketing and publicity. We couldn’t have done any of it without the volunteers though, it seemed to me that it was nearly all volunteers who made it work in those early days.
“Tony was a terrifically hard worker and did really well to establish Poole Arts Centre because not everyone was in favour of it. He was smart enough to bring in some of the local amateur productions because they brought lots of people into the building who might not have come otherwise and from that the audiences started to grow.”
One of the shows Paul booked for a week-long run, Golden Years of Music Hall, featured his father, by then appearing in TV shows such as Z-Cars, The Good Old Days and The Sweeney. He starred alongside the famous Irish singer Ruby Murray, comedian Sandy Powell (“Can you hear me, mother?”), coal miner turned actor/singer Ivor Emmanuel and close harmony double act Bob & Alf Pearson.
He was also instrumental in bringing Leslie Crowther to Poole for the Arts Centre’s first summer season show, Crowther’s in Town.
“It didn’t do very well, but we worked hard at it,” he recalled. “It was a good show, but the thing was, Poole had no history of summer season shows and at the time there were four to choose from in Bournemouth.
“I made the move into films soon after that, but I still come to shows at Lighthouse to this day. Such fond memories.”
(NC)
