"We're Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line" is a popular song by Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy , written whilst he was a Captain in the British Expeditionary Force during the early stages of the Second World War , with music by Michael Carr . It was first published in 1939.
16-421: Corona Theatre School (formerly Corona Academy ) was founded in 1950 as a performing arts academy in west London. After the retirement of its owner, Rona Knight, it reopened as Ravenscourt Theatre School in 1989. Rona Knight was born on 22 June 1911, the daughter of Leonard and Ellen Edith Speck Knight. She made her first stage appearance at age 11, at a Sunday School benefit. At the age of fourteen, Knight opened
32-752: A BBC and recording soprano. After World War II, Knight attended the Paris school of mime, dance and drama, and in 1950, opened the Corona Academy of Stage Training, in Sutton Lane, Chiswick. In 1955, the Corona Academy moved to larger facilities at 16 Ravenscourt Avenue, Hammersmith , whilst retaining its former premises in Chiswick. The school supplied the young cast for Lionel Bart's Oliver . The Corona Academy of Stage Training closed in 1989, following Miss Knight's retirement. Ravenscourt Theatre School
48-529: A civilian aged 19, was the only ENSA member killed in the war. On 23 January 1945 in Normandy , she was being driven between shows as a passenger aboard a truck carrying stage scenery which strayed into a minefield. She was buried with full military honours in Sittard War Cemetery. Despite many extremely talented entertainers working for ENSA, the organisation was necessarily spread thin over
64-774: The Afrika Korps . The only known ENSA theatre to have survived in its original condition is the Garrison Theatre at Hurst Castle in the New Forest National Park . Created by servicemen in 1939, the proscenium arch still bears the badge and grenades of the Royal Artillery , and the curtains still hang from an original galvanised gas pipe. Shows are presented from time to time by the Friends of Hurst Castle. We%27re Going to Hang out
80-770: The Services Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC), until 2 March 2020, when the SSVC re-branded to the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS), with the CSE likewise re-branding as BFBS Live Events . The first big wartime variety concert organised by ENSA was broadcast by the BBC to the Empire and local networks from RAF Hendon in north London on 17 October 1939. Among the entertainers appearing on
96-558: The Corona Dancing School, which proved successful. The dancing and singing group became known as the "Corona Babes" (later known as the "Corona Kids"), and in the early 1930s, began to perform professionally, all around the country. During the Second World War, Knight joined the hospital section of ENSA ( Entertainments National Service Association ). She chose the stage name Rona Brandon, and became well known as
112-697: The Washing on the Siegfried Line The Siegfried Line was a chain of fortifications along Germany's Western border, analogous to the Maginot Line in France. At the first big wartime variety concert organized by ENSA , which was broadcast by the BBC from RAF Hendon in north London on 17 October 1939, Adelaide Hall performed the song accompanied by Mantovani and his orchestra. A rare newsreel of this concert exists, and
128-524: The bill were Adelaide Hall , The Western Brothers and Mantovani . A newsreel of this concert showing Hall singing " We're Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line " accompanied by Mantovani and His Orchestra exists. Many members of ENSA later had careers in the entertainment industry after the war, including actors Terry-Thomas , Peter Sellers and Kenneth Connor . Tap and acrobatic dancer Vivienne Hole, stage name Vivienne Fayre,
144-479: The footage is thought to be the earliest surviving film of a performer singing the song. It began: We're going to hang out the washing on the Siegfried Line. Have you any dirty washing, mother dear? We're gonna hang out the washing on the Siegfried Line. 'Cause the washing day is here. Leslie Sarony (1897–1985) and Leslie Holmes added some possibly unofficial lines. The Sarony and Holmes version put "Mother dear, I'm writing you from somewhere in France" at
160-666: The morning, and vocational training in the afternoon. For much of its life, the school was situated near to Ravenscourt Park Underground station , in what is now the Ravenscourt Park Preparatory School. A similar school opened in Kew in 2009, and in 2010, became the Corona Theatre School, partially taking the name of the former school. In April 2010, the theatre school, opened as Ravenscourt, became known as Corona Theatre School. The school
176-512: The opportunity to study six GCSEs , and advanced training in all aspects of performing arts (Acting, Dance and Singing), and the opportunity to study towards a BTEC National Diploma in Performing Arts, at the age of 16. Students were admitted to the school by audition, personal interview, and a written examination. Corona Theatre School ran a school agency, for full-time students, past students, and some actors and actresses from outside
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#1732802386104192-487: The school. Entertainments National Service Association The Entertainments National Service Association ( ENSA ) was an organisation established in 1939 by Basil Dean and Leslie Henson to provide entertainment for British armed forces personnel during World War II . ENSA operated as part of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes . In 1946 it was re-named to Combined Services Entertainment (CSE) operating under
208-495: The start and then, after the main section, added four lines starting "Everybody's mucking in and doing their job". The song was recorded by many British musicians during the Second World War, including Arthur Askey , Flanagan and Allen , and Vera Lynn . A mocking parody was written shortly after the Battle of France by a German songwriter, with translated lines that include: Yeah, my boy, you thought it would be so easy At
224-517: The vast area it had to cover. Thus many entertainments were substandard, and the popular translation of the acronym ENSA was "Every Night Something Awful" . ENSA plays a modest role in the film Love Story (1944) in which Margaret Lockwood stars as a concert pianist who makes an ENSA tour to North Africa and the Mediterranean region. The film Desert Mice (1959) follows the fictional escapades of an ENSA troop with Sid James assigned to
240-751: Was a stage school in London, for children aged 7 to 19 years old. The school was founded in 1989 by Robin Phillips, following the closure of the Corona Stage Academy, and the retirement of its principal, Rona Knight. Robin ran the Corona agency for many years, and most of the traditions of Corona were incorporated into the Ravenscourt Theatre School, including the uniform and the teaching format, which had full academic studies in
256-473: Was a totally independent venture, and had no link with the former Corona Academy, although it did use a similar uniform. The school announced, in February 2013, that it would close. Students either attended the school on a full-time, part-time or holiday school basis. The full-time school admitted both boys and girls, from the age of 11, and had a curriculum that pivoted around the performing arts. Students had
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