M&W Smash Hit In Canada

1968 Article

Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, the comics who have taken Britain`s first variety show as an export bid to Canada, have notched a smash hit after a two weeks season at the O`Keefe Centre, Toronto. When the show closes this weekend (25th) it will have played to more than 50,000 people from all over Canada and from the States.

There to see its triumphant closure is Palladium boss Leslie A. Macdonnell, who goes on to Chicago and is returning via New York, talent hunting all the way.

The show - a stage presentation of `The London Palladium Show` was organised by 24 year-old Michael Grade of the Delfont Grade Organisation, who said: This is the biggest gamble of its kind we have ever staged - but it has paid off remarkably well and earned lots of dollars for Britain as well as giving Morecambe and Wise the kind of boost on the international show scene they have been working for over the past two years.

This is the first time ever that a British stage show has been `exported` in its entirety. Besides Morecambe and Wise, it starred Millicent Martin and Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson.

It cost £40.000 to mount this two-week season - a total cast of 40 and 15 production staff were flown to Canada but success at the 3,200 seater O`Keefe Centre now means that the Palladium Show can go into business as an international touring company and the North American market has been opened up to British stage shows.


© The Stage 1968