From Motor Cars to Pantomime: Sam Newsome and Coventry's Pantomime Heritage
/When we think about the history of British pantomime, the story is often dominated by London, famous performers and the great theatrical impresarios.
But Coventry has its own fascinating place in that history.
Long before Imagine Theatre was creating pantomimes and family theatre from its home in Coventry, another Coventry entrepreneur was helping to make the city an important centre for popular entertainment.
His name was Samuel Herbert "Sammy" Newsome.
From Coventry businessman to showbusiness entrepreneur
Sam Newsome was born in Coventry in 1901, the son of a watch manufacturer. After being educated at Oundle School, he entered the motor trade and established S. H. Newsome & Co. in Coventry in 1923.
His early career could hardly have been further removed from pantomime.
Newsome became closely associated with Coventry’s booming motor industry. His business sold Standard and SS cars, the company that would subsequently become Jaguar, and he was also involved in motor racing.
But Newsome’s entrepreneurial interests eventually took him in a very different direction.
Into showbusiness.
The Coventry Hippodrome
Sam Newsome became associated with one of the city’s great entertainment venues, the Coventry Hippodrome.
There had been earlier Coventry theatres carrying the Hippodrome name, but the third and grandest Coventry Hippodrome opened in 1937.
With more than 2,000 seats, it became an important entertainment venue for the city and survived the devastating bombing of Coventry during the Second World War.
In 1955 the venue became the Coventry Theatre, with Sam Newsome at its helm. Under Newsome, it developed a reputation as one of the Midlands’ important venues for popular entertainment and pantomime.
Coventry Theatre in the 1950’s
A serious pantomime producer
Newsome wasn’t simply a theatre owner who booked a pantomime each Christmas.
He became part of Britain’s professional pantomime industry.
Historical accounts of pantomime in this period place Sam Newsome alongside major theatrical impresarios such as Emile Littler and Tom Arnold, producers associated with the large resident pantomimes being staged in Britain’s major cities.
That tells us something important about the scale and standing of Newsome’s pantomime activity.
And his interest in pantomime was not confined simply to Coventry.
To understand where Newsome fits into the bigger picture, read our History of Pantomime.
Taking pantomime beyond Coventry
Evidence survives of S. H. Newsome’s Pantomime Parade, showing that Newsome’s involvement in pantomime extended beyond simply presenting a resident Christmas production at his Coventry theatre.
Newsome's pantomime operation extended beyond Coventry. Historical records include a Derby edition of S. H. Newsome's Pantomime Parade for the 1952/53 season, while a surviving 1953/54 pantomime annual records his Jack and the Beanstalk at the Hippodrome, Dudley, starring Harry Secombe. Theatre histories also record that Newsome's Coventry pantomimes were subsequently presented in other cities.
Find out more about Puss in Boots 1957 at the Coventry Theatre
The precise history of those touring productions is something we would love to discover more about. But it provides another fascinating dimension to his story.
Newsome was creating popular entertainment in Coventry and taking that entertainment to audiences elsewhere.
For those of us working at Imagine Theatre today, there is something rather familiar about that idea.
The scale, technology and business of modern pantomime production are obviously very different, but the principle of having a Coventry base from which pantomime reaches audiences elsewhere has an intriguing historical precedent.
Famous names on a Coventry stage
The Coventry Theatre became an important venue for some of the best-known performers of the period.
Ken Dodd, for example, later recalled appearing at the theatre early in his career, when Sam Newsome was in charge.
He was still an emerging comedian, further down the bill, but returned only a few years later as a major star.
Stories such as this remind us how important Britain's regional theatres were, not simply as places of entertainment, but as places where performers developed their craft and audiences encountered future stars.
A new chapter: the Belgrade Theatre
Newsome’s story sits within a much broader Coventry theatrical history.
In 1958, the Belgrade Theatre officially opened its doors and established its own resident company.
It quickly developed an extraordinary reputation as a producing theatre.
The Belgrade Theatre staged the premieres of Arnold Wesker’s famous trilogy, while performers and creatives associated with the theatre during its early decades included Trevor Nunn, Joan Plowright, Michael Crawford, Frank Finlay and Leonard Rossiter.
In 1965, the Belgrade Theatre also established its Theatre-in-Education company, work which the theatre describes as the founding of the Theatre in Education movement.
Later, productions originating at the Belgrade Theatre would travel far beyond Coventry. Return to the Forbidden Planet, for example, went on to win the Olivier Award for Best Musical in 1990, run in London and tour nationally.
Coventry was continuing to make theatre, not simply receive it.
Pantomime at the Belgrade
Pantomime would also become part of the Belgrade Theatre’s identity and an important Christmas tradition for generations of Coventry families.
That tradition continues today.
Recent productions have included Dick Whittington and Sleeping Beauty, presented by the Belgrade Theatre in association with Imagine Theatre.
For us at Imagine Theatre, there is something particularly special about that relationship.
We are a Coventry-based company producing pantomime and family theatre with venue partners around the UK.
Yet here in our home city, we also have the privilege of helping to create Coventry’s annual pantomime at the Belgrade Theatre.
Different generations, but a shared city
There isn't a direct organisational line running from Sam Newsome to the Belgrade Theatre and then to Imagine Theatre, and we wouldn't pretend that there is.
But there is a wonderful connection through place.
Across different generations, Coventry has repeatedly been a city where theatre and popular entertainment have been created, rather than simply presented.
Sam Newsome was a Coventry entrepreneur who entered showbusiness, became a significant pantomime producer and took his entertainment beyond the city.
The Belgrade Theatre subsequently established a remarkable tradition as a producing theatre whose influence and productions reached well beyond Coventry.
And today, Imagine Theatre creates pantomime and family entertainment from its Coventry home for audiences across the UK.
Different organisations.
Different eras.
Different ways of making theatre.
But the same city.
Discover the story of Imagine Theatre, from our beginnings to producing pantomime and family entertainment across the UK
Made in Coventry
The history of pantomime is much more than the history of individual shows.
It is the history of producers, performers, writers, musicians, dancers, designers, costume makers, scenic artists, technicians and theatre managers.
It is also the history of the places where those people came together.
Coventry has played its part in that story for generations.
Discovering Sam Newsome gives us a fascinating glimpse into an earlier chapter, when a Coventry motor-industry entrepreneur became a theatre impresario and pantomime producer.
The opening of the Belgrade Theatre created another chapter.
Today, Imagine Theatre is incredibly proud to be writing part of the next one.
Because pantomime isn't simply something Coventry audiences have enjoyed for generations.
It's something Coventry has helped to create.
And it still does.
Find out why Imagine Theatre is one of the UK's leading pantomime producers
Discover how a modern pantomime is made, from the first ideas through to opening night.
Sources and further reading
Our research for this article included archive material and histories from the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry Society, Cinema Treasures, Standard Triumph Works Directory and the pantomime archive It's Behind You, together with surviving S. H. Newsome pantomime programmes and annuals.
Standard Triumph Works Directory: S. H. Newsome
Useful for Sam Newsome's motor-industry background, ownership/management of the Coventry Hippodrome, the theatre's history and its reputation for pantomime.
[Read the source]Cinema Treasures: Coventry Hippodrome / Coventry Theatre
This is particularly useful because it explicitly states that Sam Newsome's pantomimes were presented at theatres in other cities in following pantomime seasons, supporting the touring element of our article. It also records the 1937 opening and later renaming as the Coventry Theatre.
Read the source [cinematreasures.org]It's Behind You: Pantomime Annuals and Comic Books
This gives us some really useful specific pantomime evidence. It records S. H. Newsome's Jack and the Beanstalk at the Hippodrome, Dudley in 1953/54 and Newsome pantomime annuals for Coventry, including Puss in Boots in 1957/58 and Babes in the Wood in 1958.
Read the source [its-behind-you.com]Newsome's Pantomime Parade 1952-53, Derby edition
Interestingly, further searching has now produced evidence of a Derby edition of S. H. Newsome's Pantomime Parade for 1952/53. This gives us another concrete piece of evidence that Newsome's pantomime operation extended outside Coventry.
View the surviving programme listing [ebay.co.uk], [ebay.com]Belgrade Theatre: History
This should be our main source for the later Belgrade Theatre section. It confirms that the theatre opened on 27 March 1958, established a resident company, pioneered Theatre in Education and later developed productions that toured nationally.
Read the Belgrade's official history [belgrade.co.uk]Coventry Society: 90th Anniversary of the Third Coventry Hippodrome
A particularly valuable local historical source on Coventry's successive Hippodromes and the Newsome family's connection to them.
Read the Coventry Society article
