Grand Theatre manager calls time

His grandfather was a music hall comedian and, although Tony Pugh never met his colourful relative, there was something in the family DNA that drew him to the stage.

Retiring general manager Tony says he was far too shy to be a performer but he was nevertheless attracted to the entertainment industry.

He started off working for a small film studio, making commercials, before moving to the ABC cinema in Bristol Street, Birmingham, as a trainee projectionist, but was quickly picked out as management material.

He said: "But they didn't tell me. Instead they wrote to my parents who were actually interviewed twice - first by a circuit controller from London and then by the district manager - before I ever got wind of what was going on.

"But it was an interesting job. I was sent round to other ABC cinemas all over the Midlands, including Wolverhampton and Walsall, to pick up experience.

"Those were the days when films like Ben Hur and Mutiny On The Bounty and 2001 Space Odyssey would run for 12 months.

"We were seeing 26,000 admissions a week."

Tony moved on to manage a couple of independent cinemas, in Weymouth and Crewe, which were finding life rather more difficult and they both closed.

The father-of-two moved into theatre by chance, after a friend casually remarked that the Alexandra in Birmingham was looking for a new manager.

He was at the helm there for 10 years, working with the renowned owner-director Derek Salberg.

There was a very social side to this new environment, he found.

He said: "At the Alex, there was a tradition started by Derek's father Leon. Artists were invited to 'the office' for drinks.

"Some nights you didn't get out of the theatre until the early hours, and if Ken Dodd was in town that meant a 14-hour stretch, twice daily. He was a remarkable man but he never left the theatre before 2am and then drove home to Liverpool.

"I once asked him why he didn't stay in a hotel but he said he had things to see to at home."

Tony moved to the Grand Theatre in 1990 at a time of a general slump in audience figures, a situation he was able to turn around with extraordinary success.

Admissions increased from 170,000 a year to 350,000, a rise of 67 per cent, the highest percentage rise in attendance of any theatre in the country.

This, in turn, brought its own problems.

He explained: "The theatre was creaking because we were packed every night. It led to a big refurbishment in 1998 when a lot of structural changes were made and up-to-date equipment and seating brought in. We moved out to a local school for 10 months while it was all going on.

"But even though it cost £10 million and was two years in the planning, it took a long time to get the atmosphere back.

"Our first panto was Robin Hood but the place still looked more like a hospital than a theatre - getting it right took a long time."

Tony, who lives in Coseley, near Wolverhampton, says: "It was one of two main refurbs. There has always been something happening here.

"The Grand has been a way of life for me, it's not a job, you live it. It's only in recent times that laws in working hours have come in — before that I regularly worked 60 hours a week.

"The upside was getting to know the stars in the bar after the show - you couldn't leave until they did.

"The downside was missing a lot of my children's growing up. When the panto season was on I wouldn't see them for three months.

"You'd be at work six days a week and on Sunday you were too tired to do anything."

Now a 65-year-old grandfather of seven, he adds: "But the whole thing has been tremendous fun. I made real friends like Jeffrey Holland and Anita Harris and met great artists like Les Dawson before they were famous.

"Les was in panto with John Nettles, who was a rather serious actor then, and they had such chemistry together.

"My job really has been to make sure that the theatre is a fit and proper place for people to perform their acts. I always like to stand at the back of the auditorium as the curtain goes up to see the audience's reaction. Some theatres leave the set on display all the time.

"I hate that, there's no 'aah' moment."

And as for the future?

He said: "The Grand is a survivor. It's been closed a couple of times and it's always come back.

"The last time, in 1979, there was a campaign to get it reopened and it's gone from strength to strength.

"It's held up very well during the current recession - dramas don't do so well but musicals are definitely flavour of the month - it seems audiences want a bit of escapism in these dark times."

He said: "I never intended to stay for 20 years. I'm a strong believer in moving on and I always did, but at the Grand there was always something to plan and then I wanted to see it through.

"I shall miss the place."

By Marion Brennan