"YOU can search the length of Yorkshire, London, anywhere, but if you want a tip-top party, book the Debonair".
Between 1936 and 1939 this jingle introduced the Debonair Concert Party, forming part of a busy pre-war social scene. Although based in Keighley, they travelled further afield in both Yorkshire and Lancashire, entertaining at grand concerts, homes, sales of work, Christmas fairs and a medley of functions.
From left to right they were Winston Helliwell, tenor; Edith Brown, soprano and elocutionist; Dorothy Todd, soprano; Fred Houghton, light comedian; Annis Halton, contralto, and Herbert Hornby, bass-baritone. Edith Brown and Dorothy Todd doubled at the piano.
On one occasion – the centenary of the Loyal Circumstance Lodge at Bingley in 1938 – the audience was so big that it filled two buildings. The Debonairs performed simultaneously with another concert party, both changing buildings at the interval.
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