Frederic Franklin CBE

Saturday 22nd April 2006
Crown Court Church of Scotland Hall, London WC2

We were delighted to welcome our Hon. Member Mr. Frederic Franklin CBE , who very kindly agreed to meet us at short notice during his brief visit from New York for the opening of the film "Ballets Russes", in which he is one of the stars. We were joined by our President, Sir Peter Wright CBE, accompanied by Lady Wright, and our distinguished guests were welcomed by Michael Ludgate, who thanked them both for finding the time to speak to our members in what must be a very crowded schedule.

Michael Ludgate drew attention to the strong theatrical roots of both our guests, who have a vast range of stage experience between them; including the Ballets Jooss for Sir Peter and music hall and cabaret for Mr. Franklin, and to the world of ballet from contemporary to the classics. Sir Peter and Mr. Franklin first met when he came to London recently to stage a pas de deux from a lost Ashton ballet, "Devil's Holiday", for the Royal Ballet.

Sir Peter then asked Mr. Franklin about his earliest connection with the Royal Ballet, which began in 1933 in "Coppelia" with Lydia Lopokova and Stanley Judson, Wendy Toye and Hedley Briggs. In these early days of British ballet, Freddie Franklin performed all types of theatrical dance and appeared in music hall where met Louise Browne, a big star and an accomplished ballet dancer who went on to found a distinguished ballet school in York. Following a cabaret audition with Wendy Toye at Grosvenor House, where they danced together regularly, she introduced him to Anton Dolin, who was appearing with Alicia Markova in a variety show. Dolin engaged him for his small touring company, so through Wendy Toye he began his ballet career. He then reminisced about his early days with Miss de Valois, as she then was, who contacted Mrs Toye and engaged Wendy and himself for the first productions of Vic- Wells Ballet. Mr Franklin was one of the original dancers in the Markova Dolin company and partnered Alicia Markova many times, sometimes at very short notice when he later became Dolin's understudy and had to go on with very little advance warning and sometimes no rehearsal in parts such as the Bluebird. He enjoyed this life of hard work and touring and the experience he gained in classical ballet.

Mr. Franklin had studied tap and musical comedy dancing and at the age of 17 auditioned successfully as a dancer for the legendary Josephine Baker, great star of the Paris music hall and cabaret. He also danced for Mistinguett and not only played the piano for her but partnered her in a number. Later in his career, he was in France again just before the outbreak of World War II with Ballets Russes. Frederick Ashton was working with them on his new ballet "Devil's Holiday", planned to open at Covent Garden, but due to the situation in France, Ashton returned to London and never saw the completed staged ballet, though it was later put on by Rosella Hightower and Massine but never seen in London. The Ballets Russes returned to the USA and Mr. Franklin went with him, as did Alicia Markova who also had a contract with them. He entertained us with many stories of the adventurous coast-to-coast tours by the company, who had to appear in some most unsuitable venues to a wide variety of audiences, most of whom were new to ballet and were not sure how to react to the performances. He described this strenuous life as "ballet by covered wagon" by the pioneers of the ballet.

Mr. Franklin told us about some of the great Russian teachers whose classes he attended, including Nicolas Legat's class attended by Markova and Dolin, as well as many fine English dancers who had no where to dance because of the lack of opportunity at that time.

He then went on to outline the complications in the founding of the different Ballets Russes companies of Massine, De Basil and Sol Hurok By this time he was a principal and appeared in many of Massine's ballets, including the symphonic ballets which caused some controversy at the time with music critics. The company toured extensively in the USA and in spite of the privations, he enjoyed it all immensely. During this time he danced with Alexandra Danilova and they became one of the great partnerships in ballet. He danced a vast range of roles from "Prince Igor", the Golden Slave in "Scheherezade" to classical princes and in his career he produced and danced in these ballets for other companies around the world, and today is still appearing on stage in parts such as the Showman in "Petrushka".