Arthur Marshall (broadcaster)

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Arthur Marshall, MBE (10 May 1910 – 27 January 1989) was a British writer, raconteur and broadcaster,[1] born in Barnes, London[2] in the UK. He was best known as a team captain on the BBC's Call My Bluff.

Early life

Charles Arthur Bertram Marshall was the son of Charles Marshall, an electrical engineer from

Noel Annan, 'acted off the stage by Arthur Marshall as Lady Cicely'.[6]

Marshall arrived as a pupil at Oundle School in north-eastern Northamptonshire in the summer term of 1924 and left in May 1928. He returned 'in a magisterial capacity' – though he had wanted to pursue a theatrical career – in 1931. Later he decided that teaching was a kind of acting.

Early career

As Marshall could not find enough acting work, or convince his parents that they should support his desire to pursue a career in the theatre, in 1931 he became a teacher of modern languages, again at Oundle School. His first work in entertainment was writing scripts for three-minute radio sketches. In 1934 a BBC producer asked him to appear on Charlot's Hour, a late-night radio revue. He signed a contract in 1935 with Columbia and made five gramophone records featuring sketches involving headmistresses and schoolgirls – he was an avid reader of books for girls from childhood and had been performing skits from the early thirties for his friends.[7] He began reviewing for the New Statesman in 1935 too at the invitation of the literary editor Raymond Mortimer who admired his skits. He was asked to contribute an article each Christmas on the best books for girls published during the year – Angela Brazil was nearing the end of her career but Winifred Darch, May Wynne and Dorita Fairlie Bruce were still very productive. World War II interrupted this reviewing of books for girls.

World War II

During

MBE, he returned to Oundle School as a Housemaster
.

Later career

During and immediately after World War II, Marshall had some success on radio and the stage. His wartime radio programme A Date with Nurse Dugdale was popular, and he wrote numerous revue sketches for performers such as Hermione Gingold. He appeared on radio and TV occasionally and published books of humorous pieces among other writings. The most widely known of these were his skits on the life and antics of girls at private schools. From a relatively early age he had been an ardent admirer of the girls' school stories of Angela Brazil. He found them hilarious, although he noted "Miss Brazil had, of course, no comic intention when she started, in 1906, to write her books."[8]

In 1954 he left Oundle and, after being private secretary to Victor, Lord Rothschild, worked for the London theatrical firm H. M. Tennent. In the 1950s, he began work in the theatre in London as a scriptwriter and also began having his humorous books published. He adapted the novel Every Third Thought by American writer Dorothea Malm into the play Season of Goodwill.[9] This starred Sybil Thorndike and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, but was not a success. He also wrote the British version of the French play Fleur de Cactus which had been adapted for the American stage by Abe Burrows as Cactus Flower. This starred Margaret Leighton and Tony Britton and was a hit on the West End stage, until Leighton left to go to Broadway.

As he became better known he appeared on radio and television (although his first radio broadcast had been in 1934), and then in 1979 began his time as a regular team captain on

Call My Bluff, which continued until shortly before his death. Marshall took over from Patrick Campbell. They had been friends for many years, ever since they both used to write, from around 1948 onwards, for Lilliput.[10]

Marshall was also a newspaper and magazine columnist, writing for The Sunday Telegraph in the 1970s and 1980s. His association with the New Statesman ended in 1981 when he was sacked from its "First Person" column by editor Bruce Page, allegedly for being overtly sympathetic to Margaret Thatcher.[11] He had been writing the column since January 1976, when then-editor Anthony Howard asked him to replace Auberon Waugh, who had gone to The Spectator.[12] During that time Marshall also compiled several collections of the best entries from the weekly New Statesman literary competition, embracing parodies and pastiches.

Having retired to Devon in 1970, he lived in Christow for the last fifteen years of his life, where he shared a cottage with Peter Kelland, a former schoolmaster. Their home, Pound Cottage, was the 'Myrtlebank' from which he sent dispatches to the New Statesman and Sunday Telegraph. He suffered a minor heart attack in 1988; he began writing the second part of his autobiography, but died shortly after a more serious illness.

He made a cameo appearance in "Crossroads" (circa 1985) the British television serial based in the Midlands as himself. As a guest at the Crossroads Motel, he was instantly recognised by one of the main characters, Jill Chance (played by Jane Rossington).

Personal life

In his autobiography, Life's Rich Pageant, Marshall was quoted as saying, "I cannot help being happy. I've struggled against it but to no good. Apart from an odd five minutes here and there, I have been happy all my life. There is, I am well aware, no virtue whatsoever in this. It results from a combination of heredity, health, good fortune and shallow intellect."[13]

Marshall is believed to have been homosexual[14][failed verification] but never publicly commented on the subject.[15]

List of writings

  • Nineteen to the Dozen
  • Girls will be Girls (1974)
  • I Say! (1977)
  • I'll Let You Know (Musing from 'Myrtlebank') (1981)
  • Smile Please (Further musings from 'Myrtlebank') (1982)
  • Life's Rich Pageant (autobiography) (1984)
  • Sunny Side Up (1988)
  • Follow The Sun (1990)

He also edited Salome, Dear, not in the Fridge; Never Rub Bottoms with a Porcupine; Whimpering in the Rhododendrons; and Giggling in the Shrubbery.

References

  1. ^ Stevens (2010), p. 351
  2. ^ Marshall (1984), p. 4
  3. ^ 1911 Census
  4. ^ Marshall (1984), p. 86
  5. ^ Bailey (2001), p. 192
  6. ^ Bailey (2001), p. 206
  7. ^ Bailey (2001), p. 188
  8. ^ Marshall (1984), p. 29
  9. ^ Some authorities attribute this play to the British novelist Arthur Calder-Marshall [1] Also see Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2003.
  10. ^ Marshall (1984), p. 205
  11. ^ Taylor, D.J. (23 October 2011). "Social mobility's a dance that goes round in circles. Best not go compare..." The Independent on Sunday. London.
  12. ^ Marshall (1990), p. 31
  13. ^ Dictionary of Quotations in Communications, ed Shilling
  14. ^ Bailey (2001), p. 230
  15. ^ Bedell, Geraldine (30 December 2001). "When queers took comfort in the closet". The Observer. London.

Bibliography

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