Ralph Reader

Reader was born in Crewkerne, Somerset, England,{{cite web|title=Ralph Reader blue plaque in Crewkerne|url=http://www.blueplaqueplaces.co.uk/ralph-reader-blue-plaque-in-crewkerne-10512#.VlCB83bhCUk|publisher=Blue Plaque Places|accessdate=21 November 2015}} the son of a Salvation Army bandmaster. He was orphaned by the age of eight, and brought up by aunts and uncles. Joining the Scout movement at 11, he put on Scout shows as a patrol leader in the 2nd Denton and South Heighton Troop in Newhaven, Sussex.{{cite web|title=Leader of the gang|date=7 April 2012|publisher=Sussex Life|accessdate=21 November 2015|url=http://www.sussexlife.co.uk/people/leader_of_the_gang_1_1569388}}

His first job was as delivery boy for a relative's greengrocer's shop in Seaford. His employer took Reader to Brighton to buy supplies and then visit the Hippodrome theatre, where he saw many music hall stars of the day. At the age of 14, he became a telegram messenger and, at 15, an office boy at a cement works.{{Cite web |url=https://www.sussexlife.co.uk/people/leader-of-the-gang-1-1569388|title=Leader of the gang|website=Sussex Life |date=7 April 2012 |access-date=15 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200717023307/https://www.sussexlife.co.uk/people/leader-of-the-gang-1-1569388 |archive-date=17 July 2020 }} From Magheramorne, County Antrim, Ireland, he moved after what he described as "seven gloriously happy months", to New York, where he began his stage career.{{cite news |title=The firemen have alarming idea |agency=Belfast Telegraph |date=1 August 1953 |location=Antrim, Northern Ireland |page=3 |quote=From autobiography 'It's Been Terrific'}}

In 1920, Reader moved to America, working in various menial jobs, while acting in and directing off-Broadway shows. Aged 21, he choreographed his first Broadway show,{{cite web|title=Ralph Reader Choreographer, Performer|url=http://www.playbillvault.com/Person/Detail/4980/Ralph-Reader|publisher=Playbill Vault|accessdate=21 November 2015}} and The New York Times wrote: "Watch Ralph Reader". Returning to England, he produced and choreographed West End productions, notably variety performances at Drury Lane and at the Hippodrome.{{cite web|title=London Musicals 1930-1934|url=http://www.overthefootlights.co.uk/london%20musicals%201930-1934.pub.pdf|publisher=Over the Footlights|accessdate=21 November 2015}}

In 1932, still in Scouting, he anonymously staged his first all-Scout variety show at the Scala Theatre, London.{{cite web|title=Gang Shows|url=https://scouts.org.uk/media/52846/gang_shows.pdf|publisher=Scouts|accessdate=21 November 2015}} The Gang's All Here featured 150 Boy Scouts, largely from London's East End, performing sketches, songs and dance numbers. The three performances were well received by public and critics. The following year, The Gang Comes Back at the Scala played to capacity houses. The public and press began referring to "The Gang Show".

In 1934, that became its title, and Reader acknowledged he was their producer. Besides the Gang Shows, in 1936, Reader wrote and directed a dramatic pageant called The Boy Scout, with a cast of 1,500 Scouts at the Royal Albert Hall.{{Cite web|url=http://www.thedump.scoutscan.com/yourmovement.pdf|title=Rex Hazelwood, Your Movement, The Boy Scouts Association, London 1956 (p.12)|accessdate=15 July 2020}} In the same year, he wrote and played the lead in a feature film called The Gang Show which premiered at the Lyceum Theatre, London in April 1937.{{Cite web|url=http://www.jabw.demon.co.uk/bentgh.htm|title=jabw.demon.co.uk|website=Jabw.demon.co.uk|accessdate=15 July 2020}}

In November 1937, "a bunch of Boy Scouts", as one writer described them, became the first amateurs to appear at a Royal Variety Performance, sharing billing with Gracie Fields, George Formby and Max Miller.[http://www.eabf.org.uk/royal-variety-performance/archive/1930s/1937 The Royal Variety Performance - Archive » 1930's » 1937, London Palladium] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130303014610/http://www.eabf.org.uk/royal-variety-performance/archive/1930s/1937 |date=3 March 2013 }}

Through the prewar Gang Shows, Reader became friends with Air Commodore Archibald Boyle, the deputy director of RAF Intelligence. The German Ambassador, Joachim von Ribbentrop, attended the 1938 London Gang Show and invited Reader to visit the Hitler Youth Movement in Germany. Boyle persuaded Reader to become an Intelligence Officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve with the rank of Flight Lieutenant, although the diplomatic situation had deteriorated before he could take up von Ribbentrop's invitation.

On the outbreak of war, Boyle sent Reader to France for undercover work, in the guise of running a concert party, for which some former Gang Show members were recruited into the RAF.{{cite web|title=Ralph Reader Legacy|url=http://www.biggleswadegangshow.org.uk/show/ralph.html|publisher=Biggleswade Gang Show|accessdate=21 November 2015}} The show was entitled Ralph Reader and Ten Blokes from the Gang Show. Besides allowing Reader to complete intelligence tasks, it had a positive effect on morale.

On returning to England, Reader was ordered to expand the Gang Shows, while his visits to RAF stations allowed Reader to monitor subversive propaganda, which was a concern of the RAF high command. Reader eventually raised twenty-four RAF Gang Show units and two female WAAF units, with a total establishment of nearly four hundred serving personnel. The RAF Gang Shows toured nearly every theatre of war, from Iceland to Burma.{{cite web|title=The History Of Gang Show|url=http://www.warringtongangshow.co.uk/history.htm|publisher=Warrington Gang Show|accessdate=21 November 2015}}

By 1944, Gang Show units were estimated to have travelled 100,000 miles and entertained 3,500,000 servicemen.{{Cite web|url=http://www.raf.mod.uk/stclementdanes/rafcms/mediafiles/CFCD2A81_1143_EC82_2E7486D59F41E160.pdf|title=The Friends of St Clement Danes Bulletin: Spring 2009 - No.26 (pp.38-41)|accessdate=15 July 2020}} Some of those who served in the RAF Gang Shows would later become well known entertainers, such as Peter Sellers,[https://books.google.com/books?id=qAhtNiAl3YsC&dq=%22Ralph+Reader%22+peter+sellers&pg=PA626 Paul Donnelly, Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries, Omnibus Press 200], {{ISBN|0-7119-9512-5}} (p.626) Tony Hancock, Harry Worth, Dick Emery{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qAhtNiAl3YsC&q=%22Ralph+Reader%22+dick+emery&pg=PA231|title=Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries|first=Paul|last=Donnelley|date=15 July 2003|publisher=Omnibus|isbn=9780711995123|accessdate=15 July 2020|via=Google Books}} and Cardew Robinson.{{Cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-cardew-robinson-1565861.html|title=Obituary: Cardew Robinson|date=29 December 1992|website=The Independent|accessdate=15 July 2020}} For his services to the Royal Air Force, Reader was awarded an MBE (Military Division) in 1943.

After the war Reader set up his own production company, Ralph Reader Limited, which revived many shows he had produced before the war. The first postwar Gang Show ran for three weeks at the Blackpool Opera House, and broke the theatre's records. He also began producing the London Gang Show in 1950, usually at the Golders Green Hippodrome in north London, and wrote more songs and musical plays for the Scout Association. He produced the Gang Show annually until 1974, and his association with it continued until his death.

He published an autobiography, It's Been Terrific, in 1953, with a second volume, Ralph Reader Remembers, in 1974. He was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1957 "for services to the Boy Scouts Association".{{Cite web|url=http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/41089/supplements/3378/page.pdf|title=SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 13 JUNE, 1957|accessdate=15 July 2020}} In the 1970s, he was appointed to the post of Chief Scout's Commissioner, and in 1975 was awarded the Bronze Wolf, the only distinction of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, awarded by the World Scout Committee for exceptional services to world Scouting. He died in 1982, one week short of his 79th birthday.

Reader was interviewed twice for the BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs (in 1944 and in 1961); only extracts from the later episode have survived.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009y6ns Ralph Reader, Desert Island Discs, 8 May 1961] He was the subject of This Is Your Life in November 1963, when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

File:12 Court Barton - Blue Plaque.png

File:Gravestone at St Clement Danes church, London 5.jpg

Following his death, the Ralph Reader Memorial Fund was established with contributions from friends, colleagues and members of various Gang Shows. It continues to "assist deserving individual members of the Scout and Guide Movements under the age of 20 years. Grants may be given towards the costs of camp fees, Scout and Guide uniform, travel to Scout or Guide events, career training, convalescence after an illness, or any other purpose.”[http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/hqdocs/facts/pdfs/fs103964.pdf The Scout Association - Fact Sheet FS 103964 July 2011 - HQ Grants and Funds to support local Scouting]

In May 1984, a stone bench was unveiled in his memory outside the Church of St Clement Danes in the Strand, London, by the Royal Air Force Gang Show Association, in commemoration of his wartime entertainment work.{{Cite web|url=https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/ralph-reader/|title=Ralph Reader|website=London Remembers|accessdate=15 July 2020}} In 2000, a blue plaque was placed on his birthplace at 12 Court Barton, Crewkerne,{{Cite web|url=http://openplaques.org/plaques/10512|title=Ralph Reader blue plaque|first=Open|last=Plaques|website=openplaques.org|accessdate=15 July 2020}} and on 8 October 2011, a further blue plaque was unveiled on his childhood home in Heighton Road, Denton, Newhaven.{{Cite web|url=http://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/local/blue-plaque-unveiled-to-ralph-reader-in-denton-1-3177583|title=Sussex Express - Tuesday 25 October 2011 - Blue plaque unveiled to Ralph Reader in Denton|accessdate=15 July 2020}}

The 2nd Denton Scouts are known as Ralph Reader's Own.{{cite web|title=The Scout Group|url=http://2nddenton.org.uk/|publisher=2nd Denton & South Heighton Scouts|accessdate=30 November 2016}}

Since April 2015, Ralph ReaderRalph Reader’s name is added to a new Bus: {{cite web |url=http://www.buses.co.uk/news/story.aspx?articleid=2963 |title=Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company |accessdate=2015-05-06 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151028043551/http://www.buses.co.uk/news/story.aspx?articleid=2963 |archivedate=28 October 2015 |df=dmy-all }} was added as one of the names on the buses that operate on the new Coaster 12 route of the Brighton & Hove Bus Company between Brighton and Eastbourne going through Denton Corner.{{Cite web|url=http://history.buses.co.uk/history/fleethist/942rr.htm|title=Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company Limited|website=History.buses.co.uk|accessdate=15 July 2020}}

• "On the Crest of a Wave"[https://cms.scouts.org.uk/media/12309/fs120160-ralph-reader-material.pdf The Scout Association - Fact Sheet FS 120160 February 2008 - Material written by Ralph Reader Esq. CBE], scouts.org.uk
• "In My Dreams I'm Going Back to Gilwell"
• "Scout Hymn"
• "Strollin'"
• "No Show Like A Gang Show"
• "We'll Go On And On"
• "Where Do We Go From Here?"
• "Nobody Wants To Know"
• "It's A Wonderful Life"
• "Together"
• "A Touch of Silver"
• "These Are the Times"
• "Freedom"
• "It's Gonna Be Warm"
• "Making Memories"
• "Stepping Out"
• "Make Friends With People"
• "Everybody Must Have Someone"
• "Troubles Rolling Down The River"
• "You Can't Go Wrong If You're Right"
• "Birds of a Feather"
• "I Got the Call"
• "Homeward Bound"
• "Lady Macbeth"
• "Till the Cows Come Home"
• "Thanksgiving Day"
• "Fall in Love"
• "Happy Ending"
• "I Don't Want My Mother to Know"
• "Don't Do It, Nellie"
• "I Want to be a Pin-Up Girl"
• "Sail Your Dreamboat"

{{cite web|url=https://members.scouts.org.uk/factsheets/FS120160.pdf|title=Reader, Ralph This is The Gang Show, C. Arthur Pearson Ltd [London], 1957|website=Members.scouts.org.uk|accessdate=15 July 2020}}

• Good Turns for Scout Shows (1933)
• Oh, Scouting is a Boy (1950)
• It's Been Terrific (1953), an autobiography, originally priced as 10 shillings 6 pence, published by Werner Laurie
• This is the Gang Show (1957), a history and guide to producing Gang Shows, 247 pages, published by C. Arthur Pearson Limited, London
• Ralph Reader Remembers (1974), an autobiography

• The Blue Squadron (1934)
• Limelight (1936)
• The Gang Show (1937)
• Splinters in the Air (1937)
• Derby Day (1952)
• These Dangerous Years (1957)

{{Reflist}}

• Reader, Ralph This is The Gang Show, C. Arthur Pearson Ltd [London], 1957
• Reader, Ralph Ralph Reader Remembers, Bailey Brothers and Swinfen [London], 1975

{{Portal|Biography|Scouting}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20151030070121/http://www.londongangshow.org/ Londongangshow.org]
• [http://www.hollycroft.moonfruit.com/#/on-the-crest-of-a-wave-2010/4537660663 Audio - Gang show anthem of On the crest of a wave]
• [https://cms.scouts.org.uk/media/12309/fs120160-ralph-reader-material.pdf Material Written By Ralph Reader, Esq. CBE. (PDF)]
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009y6ns Ralph Reader, Desert Island Disks, 8 May 1961]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Reader, Ralph}}

Category:1903 births

Category:1982 deaths

Category:Military personnel from Somerset

Category:People from Crewkerne

Category:People from Sussex

Category:Scouting pioneers

Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Recipients of the Bronze Wolf Award

Category:Royal Air Force officers

Category:Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II

Category:English theatre managers and producers

Category:English male songwriters

Category:English male stage actors

Category:English male film actors

Category:20th-century English male actors

Category:20th-century English musicians

Category:20th-century English businesspeople