PomPoms Up!

by Carol Cleveland

  My mother remarried a third time to an old sweetheart, Tony Pelly, but tragically he died while they were on holiday together. In later years she lived alone, but was still socially active and always made the best of things. It was Mummy’s sometimes outrageous sense of humour that got her through the tough times and I do hope that I have inherited that. It was only in the last year of her life that diabetes and arthritis slowed her down. She died a few days after my birthday in 1998, aged eighty-three. I miss her dreadfully and I so wish she were here to be the first person to read this book.

  I have two of my own solo shows that I perform occasionally in between other jobs and one of them, called War Baby, is a dramatised reading of my Baby’s Diary, which I mentioned at the beginning of Chapter One. Amongst the photographs and clippings in the diary are pages on which my mother and father write about what’s happening to the three of us and the world around us during the London Blitz. I created a show from it; including slides, video, live music and song. Sadly, Mummy didn’t get to see it, but David did and I think he was very proud of me that evening, even though some of it would have been difficult to listen to. He heard for the first time what Mummy had written after she learned of his affair.

  In 2013, War Baby was transmitted as a radio play on Resonance FM. I played my mother and the actor Bruce Montague played my father. Unfortunately, my own father died before he could hear it. I now plan on developing the show into a full scale theatre production.

  My other solo show, which I also put together myself, is PomPoms Up! Whereas War Baby is quite moving, this one is rather frivolous! It’s a semi-autobiographical, humorous, melodic, slightly outrageous look at the glamour business. I even wrote a song for it, entitled The WW Song…. it’s a sweet little ditty about my hysterectomy – WW meaning ‘wombless woman!’

  My brother Chris also remarried again and lives in the London district of Ewell with his wife, Christine. He has three sons, who in my mind’s eye are still little boys, but are in fact all grown men now that tower above their Auntie Didi. It’s only when I see them that I feel old!

  I now miss not having a family of my own. I’d love to have a daughter who I could go out and have fun with, just as Mummy and I did, but it obviously wasn’t meant to be. I do still have a career however and I’m very grateful for that…. especially now that I’m finally playing roles of my own age!

  In 2012, I had a wonderful comedy character role as ‘Edna’ in an American TV film, Sweeter Side of Life, starring Kathryn Morris and James Best. I had big hair, big make-up, big jewellery and an acceptable New Jersey accent.

  In 2013, I had a nice role in the television series called Toast of London. I played an over-the-top caricature of a Hollywood casting agent who’s had too many face-lifts and can’t now open her mouth! I looked terrifying, but it was such fun to do!

  Then, I was delighted when the film maker Martin Gooch offered me the role of ‘Irene’ in his new film Search for Simon. This was my first serious film role. She’s an alcoholic depressive who hardly ever leaves the house, which meant no make-up and untidy appearance. Some of my friends thought I was very brave to make this departure from my usual glamorous persona, but for me…. it means I can go on working in this crazy thing called ‘show-business’ until I drop!

  PETER JARRETTE INTERVIEWS

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  “BIRTHDAYS AND BEAUTY”

  INTERVIEW with

  CAROL CLEVELAND

  In researching Carol’s career, pre, during and post Python, you quickly learn how her looks augmented her talents. There are hundreds of fashion, press, advert and beauty photos of her. She’s wearing every trend through the times, her hair colours changing as do her hair styles. She’s sultry in wet T-shirts, sizzling in hot pants and cool in cool boots. There she is in her pale yellow wedding dress and floppy white hat in the arms of five famous men who are not one of them her husband. In 1972, Splendour Magazine named her 3rd in the Top 10 Most Beautiful Entertainers. She had no idea when I brought this up to her. I’m quite sure she didn’t even recall a magazine by that name.

  More recently, in May 2012, the Friday 18th issue of the UK’s Daily Express Newspaper featured Carol alongside Jane Fonda, Sophia Loren, Joan Collins and other star ladies in a ‘Heavenly In Their 70’s’ two-page colour spread. The looks she grew up with have stayed with her, as has her well packaged figure. In the book The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons, when talking about the Pythons playing female roles in the TV or stage shows John Cleese says, “John Howard Davies cast Carol Cleveland and we thought that she was very good, so from then on whenever we wanted someone who was a real woman, in the sense that sexually she was female and attractive, we almost always asked Carol to do it.”

  January 13th 2014 saw Carol Cleveland turn 72. As is customary a selection of UK national newsgroups wish her a happy birthday with a picture of the actress and a little catch-up on her career and activities surrounding that year. 2014 is a bit different. It is now global news that Carol will be back in front of Python audiences in the much heralded shows. Sitting in make-up, her hair in large, heated Carmen rollers, we chat over tea as she readies for a special photo shoot.

  CC: “Being 72 years of age is different today than it was years ago. Women can expect to still look good if they look after themselves, take exercise and eat well. Yes, luckily I have good genes. My mother was very beautiful and my father was very handsome but you still have to maintain a certain level of fitness as you grow older. Staying active I think is the key and I always have been. I was a member of the Kensington Health Club in my London days, on Kensington High Street. I used it regularly when I lived in Maida Vale with my husband, Peter Brett. He and I would cycle everywhere. That in itself was a good way of keeping fit. We didn’t have a car, so we’d cycle to the Health Club, do the whole nine yards; the weight training and everything, then hop on our bikes and cycle back. I can’t imagine doing all that now! I remember tackling the mayhem of the Hyde Park roundabout on my bike. I couldn’t handle the madness of that now either.… even in a car! Cars coming at you from all directions! In fact, every time I go round it now in a taxi or bus, I have a flashback. In those days, I’d be wearing hot pants and as I cycled in between all the cars a cab driver or someone else would put their arm out of their car window and tap my bum!

  “I was a dancer too, both on and off the stage. I used to train at the Pineapple Dance Studios in Covent Garden. I’ve always loved dancing and that’s an enjoyable way of keeping fit. There wasn’t a dance studio in Brighton when I moved there, so for a while I started up my own exercise/movement class with a friend. I’ve always been a keen swimmer as well and I swim as often as I can. Living in California of course I’d spend lots and lots of time on the beach and in the water. Walking is the best exercise of all and my dog, Tallulah makes sure I do plenty of that! I’m not a member of a gym anymore – I got bored with doing weights. But, I’ll never stop walking and swimming!

  When I asked about her younger years in Southern California…

  CC: “In Junior High school I was a ‘PomPom Girl.’ Hence, the title of my book! I then went on to Pasadena High School, where I dated a fraternity college boy. I was part of the Dramatics Club which is where I first set foot on stage. I had a tight knit group of friends who were also interested in theatre, some of whom were gay. Of course, things were very different then. The gay boys weren’t shunned exactly, but it was harder for them to make friends, as not many of them had ‘come out’! And of course, all the girls were after the big macho football players. If you wanted to be top girl, you had to date the Captain of the football team and wear his pin.”

  I ask Carol if she settled easily into her good looks as a teen, about her early days as a model in southern California and being on stage…

  CC: “Well, being told that you were ‘pretty’ was nice. Getting attention from the handsome boys in school was certainly enjoyable too. I guess it made everything easier really, but I never thought of mysel
f as being anything special. There were lots and lots of pretty girls in California! There were the occasional displays of jealousy from other girls but that didn’t bother me. The modelling was sort of a natural progression. What girl doesn’t want to be a model? I certainly enjoyed it, but mainly I loved my time dancing and acting on stage in school productions.”

  Carol is discussing make-up with her make-up artist. She is having a pair of Katy Perry false eyelashes applied….

  CC: “Egg white! It’s the perfect thing for bags under the eyes. Separate the yolk and whip up the white stiffly. Dab it under your eyes with your fingertips. Let it dry and you can feel the skin tighten. Leave it on as long as possible and then gently rinse it away with cool water and you’re good to go. It’s superb and better than any expensive eye cream. I remember I was filming in France or somewhere and I ordered up breakfast from room service. I asked for an uncooked egg as well, but they sent me a boiled one. I called down and said I wanted a raw egg. “A raw egg?!” they asked. They didn’t know what to think. If I have an early call on set and my eyes are a bit puffy, I’ll apply the egg white under my eyes first thing and leave it on. Sometimes I’ll use it as a whole face mask. I’ve had a car come to drive me to location and I’ve got in with my egg white on. I see the driver, looking with horror at my shrivelled, flaky white face in the rear view mirror! You see, you don’t have to buy the expensive lotions and potions. I’m not about to waste money on a name and fancy packaging. I use good old Nivea face moisturiser and it’s just as good, if not better than the expensive stuff.

  “I learned a great deal about make-up through my stage work, starting when I was at RADA. We’d use heavy duty Pan-Stick then – greasy, thick stuff that brought me out in pimples! Then Leichner took over. Usually, when on stage, an actor does his own make-up. Even on a big musical production, one has to do one’s own make-up eventually. You’ll have a make-up artist to do it all in the beginning of the run, but not for all of it. When I was a model I’d usually do my own make-up before a shoot, but not always. I’d been modelling for some time as a second string to my bow. Most actors have something else to fall back on and I had no secretarial skills. Joanna Lumley started as a model as well and, like her, I had to be careful what jobs I got booked on. The acting work always came first.”

  What does Carol feel about her time as a young actress in the 1960’s and about her work now?

  CC: “I’ve been very fortunate to have made a successful career out of my childhood dream. I’ve achieved far more than I ever imagined I would and I never expected to still be in show-business at 72! It’s been a great ride so far and I’m looking forward to the rest of the journey and where it might take me. Undoubtedly, I owe a great debt of gratitude to the Python boys. Thanks to them, I’ve made a name for myself in the business and thanks to them, my name’s still out there! I hadn’t planned on becoming a comedienne though, and that has restricted me somewhat. Even the fact that I’m still thought of as being a glamour girl has its down side. It means I haven’t been allowed to grow into my age and play more, meaty character roles. In that respect only, Monty Python has been a bit of a ball and chain.

  “All the casting directors of the old days are gone and the new, young ones only know me as the comic actress from Python. They don’t know about my range and the serious roles I can and have played. I wondered if I was ever going to be accepted for my age when eighteen months ago it suddenly turned round. I was offered my first serious, character role in a feature film called Search for Simon. Then three more character roles followed on stage, film and TV. So it looks like I’ve finally made the transition from glamour to grump! Or, have I?? Not at the 02 Arena, I haven’t!”

  During the actual shoot, which lasts a gruelling four hours with six full costume changes and shoot sequences, Carol doesn’t break a sweat or show any signs of fatigue. In fact her only concern, as the hours go by, is for Tallulah back at home. Carol models a range of high fashion gowns and glittering jewellery, striking poses to reflect the mood of each gown; regal, classy, demure, brash and Latin. In one red showgirl ensemble Carol goes all Annie Get Your Gun and for that shoot she becomes a woman of the wild, wild, west! She combs through the accessories for a red floral fascinator that finishes off the look and she’s jumped from modelling to acting for the photographer, just as she did in her early days as a London ‘IT girl’ mannequin-turned-thespian. But at no stage in the involved shoot does she try to ape her modelling youth, or even embody a woman half her age. She is making shapes that are natural to her frame; long and languid, punchy and perky and everything that she is at 72 years of age.

  INTERVIEW with

  LYNDA LA PLANTE

  Lynda La Plante is one of Great Britain’s bestselling crime novelists whose first title The Legacy skyrocketed her to literary success. Her accomplished and divergent careers of acting to novelist to screenwriter lead her to create the critically acclaimed TV series Prime Suspect. A lifelong and close friend to Carol Cleveland, Lynda La Plante shares with us some of her warmest memories of her time together with Carol.

  Recalling your very first meeting with Carol at RADA and what qualities did she possess both as a young ingénue, model and aspiring actress and what did she do to make you two hit it off?

  LLP: “I recall very clearly my first meeting with Carol, she was not only the first American I had ever met, but the most glamorous as she was Miss Pasadena and I was from Liverpool. She was always wearing terrific stylish clothes and I coveted a big wide circular felt skirt, she was also very into exercise and work outs which was again something I had never even contemplated, added to that she had a fake tan lotion that was so ahead of the time.

  “Carol and I became friends and I moved into her mother’s house to share a room. I was very much in awe of her, not only because she was so gorgeous but she was generous and had a lovely sense of humour. Her mother became like a second one to me and Carol even allowed me to wear her skirt. The fact she was almost a foot taller than me and with a very curvaceous figure and I looked faintly ridiculous never occurred to me. I loved being with her and she found it very funny when I tried out the fake tan and had a handprint on my cheek as I couldn’t fathom out how it worked as it was colourless!”

  What can you share with us about the dynamic of Carol’s relationship with Ian McShane and what amusing episodes can you recall from their time together?

  LLP: “I was often called ‘Virgin Couch’ as I was always leaving parties early! But Carol was very much in demand, and she and the most handsome student Ian McShane became a romantic duo. He was once caught by her mother trying to get into our bedroom, balanced on the ledge outside our window, with the basement drop below it was very dangerous, even more so when Carol rammed the window up and his head was stuck and he audaciously said, “Hi Mrs Cleveland… I wasn’t trying to get in, just saying goodnight.””

  Did you ever act in any exercises or audience prepared scenes with Carol? Are there any mischievous episodes that you recall from RADA days of Carol involving you and or any other persons on or off stage?

  LLP: “I don’t think I ever actually acted alongside Carol in any of the RADA productions as I was not in the same group, but we did have an hysterical time when during a break we went off to work as chalet maids in Bognor Regis. We rented out our room to Ian McShane and John Hurt – eager to spend time on the beach and certain we were going to have a ball. It lasted twenty four hours when we discovered we had to clean out thirty chalets every day. We returned to London to the disappointment of Ian and John as they had to find alternative accommodation!

  “Carol and I also worked in a fast food change restaurant, and I discovered that she would, after falling asleep, repeat very loudly the entire menu of the day. She would also occasionally sleep walk, getting out of her bed from across the room and turning on my bedside light, then tapping me on the shoulder to tell me I had forgotten to turn it off!! We did not last very long as waitresses!!”

  What was life l
ike moving on from your shared times at RADA, do you remember any Playboy Bunny Didi secrets shared with you? How did you feel about Carol’s relationship with Valentino?

  LLP: “The future for two young aspiring actresses was a sort of dividing time for me as I left Carol’s home and moved into a flat of my own. She was always so far ahead of me socially and when she told me that she was going to become a ‘Playboy bunny’ I was shocked but she would practice serving drinks without bending over just doing a sort of bob at the knees, I did get a few glasses over me before she accomplished the ‘Bunny Dip’.

  “The time seemed to roll by fast, and I remember seeing Carol whizzing past me in an E-Type Jaguar with her new boyfriend. I think there was a tinge of envy as she was so glamorous and the new boyfriend was a racing driver. Valentino was like a movie star and complimented the E-Type with suave slicked back hair and boy… could those two argue, but their volatile relationship was always tempered with champagne and flowers, they made a terrific couple.

  “Carol was working with the Python team as I toured in repertory, but whenever I returned to London we would meet up and her success was such that she wore even more terrific clothes. She remained generous and encouraging and always upbeat, and our friendship was a solid good reassuring closeness but reality was we were drifting apart due to our careers.”

  How has Carol’s private nature tempered through time? What was her general outlook on life and career like at the start and throughout her career and private life?

  LLP: “Carol asked me to be her bridesmaid when she married Peter Brett. I wore a big wide white straw hat; she was in a long flowing yellow gown. I was so happy that she had found someone – he didn’t have McShane’s wicked humour or a flashy E-Type – he was very quiet and studious. Carol was by now so successful that being married to a writer was a very calm period, as Peter encouraged her literary side. It was as if she had suddenly grown up. I think at times she tired of acting out the sex pot and would have liked more demanding roles, but the Python shows were so financially rewarding and showed off her brilliant comedy timing, that they dominated her career.”