Royal Variety Performance
From Freepedia
The Royal Variety Performance is a gala evening held in London once each year, usually in a theatre in the West End. Comics and other entertainers perform before royalty and a television audience. The show is designed to raise money for the Entertainment Artistes Benevolent Fund. The first show, on July 1, 1912, was called the Royal Command Performance, this name has persisted informally for the event.
First show
The first Royal Show on was at The Palace Theatre, Shaftsbury Avenue, London, in the presence of Their Majesties King George V and Queen Mary. The King said he would attend a once-yearly variety show provided the profits went to the Variety Artistes Benevolent Fund, as the EABF was then known. This first staging was a lavish occasion, the theatre was decorated with 3 million roses which were draped around the auditorium and over the boxes.
The organisers did not invite Marie Lloyd, one of the most famous Music Hall artistes of the time, because of a professional dispute. She held a rival performance in a nearby theatre, which she advertised was by command of the British Public. The event's name was changed to prevent possible Royal embarrassment.
Further performances
It was frequently staged in the London Palladium theatre, and in the 50s and 60s a Television show based on the same idea, called 'Sunday Night at the London Palladium' and hosted by Bruce Forsyth ran for over 20 years. Television coverage of the show itself traditionally alternates each year between the BBC and ITV.
Almost every sort of act concievable has at one time or another been presented to the Monarch at the Royal Command Performance, including The Beatles in 1963.
The Royal Variety Performance provides most of the funding for Brinsworth House, a home for retired members of the entertainment profession and their dependants. The December 2004 show will be the 76th annual Royal Variety Performance, 16 Performances have been cancelled because world conflict or the Royal Family's official mourning.
