Ernest Longstaffe (5 April 1884 – 23 November 1958) was an English composer, conductor, and radio producer.
He was born in Newport, Essex, the son of the landscape painter Edgar Longstaffe.[1] He started his career in concert parties and summer variety shows.[2] He wrote many tunes for the big band, including "When the Sergeant-Major's on Parade", first published in 1925, for which he wrote both words and music. He also wrote a musical comedy, His Girl, and the revue Up With the Lark.[3]
Ernest Longstaffe made his first radio broadcasts in 1926, as composer and presenter of a variety programme, The Bee Bee Cabaret. He became a leading producer of music and variety programmes in the early days of the BBC, and also operated as the programmes' composer and conductor, often of the BBC Dance Orchestra.[4] The BBC radio programmes that he produced included Palace of Varieties – reportedly the favourite radio programme of King George VI – and The Happidrome. Although none of his programmes were televised, Longstaffe insisted that all his radio performers wore stage costume when performing.[2]
He retired from the BBC in 1949, but continued to appear on Palace of Varieties until shortly before his death,[4] in hospital in London in 1958 at the age of 74.[2][5]
References
edit- ^ Gerald Norris, A Musical Gazetteer of Great Britain & Ireland, 1981, p.16
- ^ a b c Max Tyler, "Palace of Varieties: The Story of a BBC Radio Programme", Music Hall Studies, No.5, 2010, pp.207-211
- ^ Philip Scowcroft, "A Ninth Garland of British Light Music Composers", Music Web. Retrieved 16 April 2024
- ^ a b Ernest Longstaffe, BBC Genome. Retrieved 16 April 2024
- ^ Obituary, Taunton Courier, 29 November 1958, p.7
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