Vera Hall Archive

Photograph albums, photographs, diaries, theatre programmes, documents and cuttings primarily relating to Vera's career as a stage dancer, both as a child in the 1930s and professionally in the 1940s-50s, including Entertainment National Service Association tours.

Vera Joan Hall (11 Jan 1920 - 5 Feb 2014) trained and performed as a child in the 1930s with the Vera Garbutt School of Dance in Brighton. By the age of 20 she was touring professionally as a dancer in the 1940/1941 UK tour of Soir de Paris. From August until December 1941 she toured in the revue Flying Colours, before performing with ENSA between 1942 and 1946. After a brief stint on the ENSA show Sweet and Low in 1942, she joined the ENSA production of Stringing Along. Much of the archive relates to this production which performed in the UK, the Orkneys, Italy, and a more documented 1945-46 Middle East tour, through Egypt, Iraq and Israel. In 1946 she appeared at the London Coliseum with Bud Flanagan in the revue The Night and the Laughter, and in 1947 at the London Palladium with Tommy Trinder in the revue Here, There and Everywhere which led her to perform in the 1947 Royal Variety Performance at The London Palladium. She appeared with Bud Flanagan and The Crazy Gang at the Victoria Palace Theatre in 1949 in Together Again, and again the following year in their show The Knights of Madness. On 19 Nov 1950 she appeared in The Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium, dancing in The Knights of Madness ensemble with Bud Flanagan singing ‘Hey Neighbour’. She also performed as one of the Victoria Palace girls in the 1951 Royal Variety Performance at the Victoria Palace Theatre. She retired from the stage after marrying the violinist Joseph De Roode in 1955, but had no children.

This archive collection is available for consultation in the V&A Blythe House Archive and Library Study Room by appointment only. Full details of access arrangements may be found here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/archives/

Access to some of the material may be restricted. These are noted in the catalogue where relevant.

Given by David de Caux, 2016.

Information on copying and commercial reproduction may be found here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/archives/

This collection was appraised in line with collection management policy.

No further accruals are expected.

See also the core collections of the V&A Department of Theatre and Performance. Material relating to ENSA performers may be found in several collections, including the biographical, productions, company and photographs files.

Please ask for details.