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Victor Spinetti with John Lennon |
From Welsh fish ’n’ chip shop to starring on Broadway
Victor Spinetti...Up Front.
Robson Books £16.99
VICTOR Spinetti defines himself as a Welsh-Italian and seems to have used his split ethnic inheritance well, through talk, poetry, films – more than 40 of them – and above all, the stage. He won a coveted Tony in 1964 when Joan Littlewood’s Oh What a Lovely War! hit Broadway.
His father Giuseppe and many others from Ronchi in north Italy came to South Wales to work, often providing an essential place of warmth, arguments, even intense intellectual discussion – the café.
Giuseppe opened his fish and chip shop in Cwm in Ebbw Vale. At the end of the street was the marine works colliery. Amateur theatrical groups flourished in this harsh industrial environment, and he laid the foundations of his professional success within them. Shirley Bassey and his lifelong companion Graham Curnow were in Cardiff where he attended the Cardiff College of Music and Dance.
He took the high road to London, stumbling into the shady and illegal gay world of 1950s West End. Seldom discouraged, he performed in seedy strip joints around Soho. He was always an engaging private and public person. Diana Dors, sex goddess of the day, was a fulsome friend. Doing his stuff in the grotty Irving Theatre club he was spotted by the doyenne of critics Harold Hobson, who wrote “Laurence Olivier as the Entertainer at the Palace, Victor Spinetti as the Entertainer in the Irving.” High praise indeed.
He joined the cast of South Pacific where he shared a dressing room with chorus boy Sean Connery. Meanwhile, the genius of Littlewood and the energy and excitement from the Theatre Royal Stratford beckoned. Barbara Windsor, also learning her craft in that theatre workshop, forged a strong mutual dependency.
Then came the Beatles, the Fab Four, who broke all the boundaries. John Lennon and Victor formed a bond in and out of the limelight and the three others trusted him.
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, the cinematic royalty of the day, also placed great reliance in him, as did the everlasting Marlene Deitrich. Deitrich, one of the most elegant women in the world, listened intently while his mother, Lily Spinetti, fish shop owner from Cwm, passed on her own beauty secrets and advised on how to make a cheap dress.
Lily’s strength of character is her gift to Spinetti. He hated South African apartheid and threatened a fellow actor in South Pacific for jeering at “blecks”.
His tolerance and bubbly humour make this an enjoyable read. |
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