273:, and featured "Can You Beat the Band?", a slot in which listeners sent in joke questions, the answers to which were the titles of popular songs. If the band failed to guess the correct answer, there was a call of "Pennies on the drum!", and participants donated money to the "Spitfire Fund", a military charity. The show continued on the radio until 1947.
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46:(born Frank Mendoza Jr.; 14 December 1888 – 19 January 1962). Both also had separate careers – Keyes with his wife Gladys, and as a solo comedian and broadcaster, and Tully as a dancer with his sister Vesta.
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Keyes was born in
Liverpool, also into a family of performers who travelled internationally. His father and grandfather, both named Henry Newbold, both worked as music hall comedians, dancers, and as
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skills. Most of the troupe, including Tully's parents, were members of the
Mendoza family; Tully was his mother's maiden name. In about 1912, he formed a
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From 1940, they played the roles of
Duckweed and Eggblow, two useless handymen in a hotel, in the anarchic radio comedy series
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Keyes and Tully both came from theatrical families, and met and decided to work together as children.
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Keyes and Tully formed the comedy double act Haver and Lee in the mid-1920s. Haver (Keyes) was the
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Tully made his first BBC radio broadcasts in 1924. Keyes also appeared in his own right as a comic
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walkers, and both used the name Henri
Balleni. The elder Balleni, Keyes' grandfather, crossed
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broadcasts from 1931, billed as "The Fun
Racketeers", and later made regular appearances on
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act with his much younger sister Vesta, as "eccentric" or "American" dancers, performing to
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Theatre flyer: Alhambra Music Hall, w/c 8 Sept 1924, "Clay Keyes - the Ace of Clubs".
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in 1873, and jumped into the river below with his fall broken by a
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who were active between the late 1920s and early 1940s. Haver was
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In 1941, Gladys and Clay Keyes devised and scripted the radio
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395:"Daredevils of Niagara Falls: The Tightrope Walkers",
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Massey; 1890–1974). They wrote the radio show
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Chris Beddoe, "Frank and Vesta, Eccentric dancers",
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Tully retired after the end of the war, and died in
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304:in 1962, aged 73. Clay Keyes died in
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515:, Virgin Publishing, 1996, pp.24-27
457:, B.T. Batsford Ltd, London, 1985,
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198:(1936), and made short films for
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348:"The Royal Variety Programme",
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417:. Retrieved 21 March 2021
401:. Retrieved 21 March 2021
367:. Retrieved 21 March 2021
339:. Retrieved 21 March 2021
333:Search, "Haver and Lee",
103:Royal Command Performance
23:Signed publicity photo,
455:The Golden Age of Radio
411:Search, "Frank Tully",
259:, broadcast in 1936.
604:English male comedians
530:, 31 January 1936, p.8
513:Radio Comedy 1938-1968
432:Search, "Clay Keyes",
312:, in 1970, aged 77.
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282:Danger - Men at Work!
276:After the end of the
225:Clay and Gladys Keyes
208:Danger - Men at Work!
185:Mother, Don't Rush Me
179:The Student's Romance
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483:Gifford, 1985, p.110
382:Radio Who's Who 1947
173:Radio Parade of 1935
599:English comedy duos
564:second film short,
540:Gifford, 1985, p.44
350:London Evening News
526:"New Keyes Play",
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237:Charing Cross Road
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434:Radio Times
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190:Robb Wilton
168:catchphrase
122:rubber cord
44:Frank Tully
593:Categories
571:Clay Keyes
316:References
253:June Clyde
249:John Mills
245:was filmed
218:Happidrome
213:Max Kester
188:(starring
162:Henry Hall
153:wisecracks
91:Queen Mary
71:music hall
50:Background
40:Clay Keyes
36:comedy duo
157:BBC radio
118:tightrope
110:slackwire
83:Liverpool
67:pantomime
306:Saltdean
182:(1935),
176:(1934),
142:Alhambra
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