Obituary Sadie Corre
Cosmo's Factory
Despite her height of only 4 foot 1 inch this performer achieved much
and overcome prejudice to become one of this countries greatest ever
pantomime cats, and had cult status with her performance in Rocky
Horror Show movie.
Sadie Corré was born in 1918 in Bognor, Sussex.Her first appearance
was at the age of 7 on the Palace Pier, Brighton and her first
professional appearance, age 12,was ‘Trouble’ in Madam Butterfly at
Streatham Hill Theatre, and she use to say with a smile that her
friends said she has been trouble ever since. Audiences remarked on
her acting ability when crying but did not know it was Joan Cross
trying to make her laugh. In return Sadie got her own back on Joan
whilst she was singing ‘One Fine Day’, when she did her best to make
the great soprano laugh. Despite that she was in demand for the same
part by the leading opera companies of the day. That sense of fun was
to be her hallmark for the next eight decades. The next appearance was
‘Where the Rainbow Ends’, at the Holborn Empire. Films at the time
included child roles with Marlene Deitrich and Richard Tauber.By this
time she was 14, and had been at Italia Conti stage school for two
years, where a classmate was Dinah Sheridan. After Holborn she worked
in Cavalcade in 1931 for 11 months at Drury Lane. Sadie spoke very
fondly of Noel Coward, who was a good friend to the entire cast during
the run, and was the perfect boss and remembered with affection for
his personal kindness. Other parts during the Conti period included
cabaret work where her tap-dancing and comedy was recognised even at
that age. The next stage work was for Cochrane during 1935/36 at the
Adelphi Theatre in ‘Follow the Sun’ with Vic Oliver and Winston
Churchill’s daughter Sarah was in the chorus.
Then came her big break in 1937 when a young big star by the name of
Hughie Green asked her to join ‘His Gang’, where again her comedy and
tap came to the fore. That act of three started at Stratford Empire on
7th August 1937 and disbanded at the outbreak of war. That act with
Sadie and Hughie was top of the bill at all the No 1 theatres. It gave
her the opportunity to work the same bill, as all the legendary acts
of the time and her stories should have been written up, as there was
more fun backstage and some stories from this great raconteur could
never have been published. Such acts included Max Miller, Robb
Wilton,Georgie Wood(who after seeing her impersonation of him said ‘am
I that good’),and Jimmy James.
Then in 1939-40 she toured as Michael in ‘Peter Pan’. After that she
spent the wartime touring the length of the country with ENSA
entertaining the troops. In 1947,whilst at the Gateshead Empire there
was a call from Hughie Green to find out if she was interested in
touring with him in a new show called ‘Opportunity Knocks’, which
opened in Leicester and continued as top of the bill at major
theatres. When Sadie asked Hughie about rehearsal he said just do what
you did 10 years ago and that is what happened as if the years had not
separated these two professionals. After a year with Green and a huge
bust up which never healed, she was always very direct, it was time to
part company and move on with more tours and summer seasons, ‘Melody
Inn’, with Jackson Earle when such seasons ran for a year. Sadie was
asked by both Harry Tate and Hilda Baker to join there acts but
declined. Other shows included Frank Randles Scandals (he locked her
in a dressing room in the nude and chased her with a loaded gun but
she sorted him out), Gulliver’s Travels, Folly to be Wise and Godiver
Rides Again, which toured the last of the number 5’s variety theatre
in 1956/58 in the last throws of old fashion variety tours with nudes
but says she managed to keep her clothes on. The venues were being
demolished or going over to bingo as they finished the weekly dates.
In 1948 a chance meeting with Clarkson Rose saw her take the first of
many animal roles in Pantomime when engaged for ‘Goody Two Shoes’ at
Kings Theatre, Hammersmith.From that day on she started a new career
which was to make her one of the greatest ever panto animals who ever
worked in that field.Panto experts rated her the greatest ever cat and
she enjoyed that praise. Her legendary cat was child friendly never to
frighten and had its own personality. Such work culminated in a four
month season in 1960/61 at the London Palladium. That was with Norman
Wisdom in ‘Turn Again Whitington’.Much in demand for Panto she worked
with all the leading performers over four decades and helped many of
those first timers from the world of pop get through such shows. Many
would have been grateful for the advice coming from under the skin
helping them if a problem in the show. But for those who were trouble
they got suitable treatment. Some of her favourite co-stars in panto
included Arthur Askey, Eddie Gray, Dana, Spike Milligan, Joe Brown,
Jimmy Wheeler, Tommy Cooper, Norman Vaughan and Jess Conrad. All the
biggest and best Xmas productions plus endless tours for Emile Littler
of ‘Snow White’ kept her busy. Her last skin work was with Keith
Harris when she played Cuddles at the 1984 Command Performance. There
was other TV work as Cuddles. Only arthritis forced her to give up
this work and the famous cat costume was proudly given to the Theatre
Museum along with recorded memories that had the staff in stitches
with laughter.
Films and TV included Funnybones, Star Wars, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,
Wombling Free, Dark Crystal, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Willow, Return
to Oz, Brazil, Dummy Revenge of the Jedi, Carravaggio, Video Stars
(BBC drama), Spike Milligan series (BBC) Mr Majieka (TVS). Two award
winning documentaries(1960’s) about her were Lord Snowdon’s ‘Born to
be Small’ and ‘Aquarius’(LWT) brought out the serious side of being
small but also vehicles for her dynamic personality. Her role as a
dancer in the film of ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ (1974) gave her cult
status in many countries, and she was the favourite ‘Tranni’, and was
in demand for at conventions for this cult film. In her 80’s she
continued to be a star of the Internet on the Rocky Horror website.It
gave this totally professional artist satisfaction and encouraged her
to be available for work ‘as long as not too much running about and
not in the sticks( outside of London)’. Sadie appeared at all major
Variety Theatre with the exception of Finsbury Park. International
tours included USA, Germany, France and Australia where her tap, panto
work were in demand. She recalled that the only time she went off to
the sound of her own feet was at Chorley, and even survived a number
of appearances, and was a noted success, at the legendary early
evening audiences on Friday nights at the Glasgow Empire.
Sadie Corré worked in all aspects of show business except circus and
worked on behalf of fellow artists with her work as an active
supporter of the Grand Order of Lady Ratlings, where she was a past
officer of that order. She had also sat on the Board of the Variety
Artists Federation.
AZRocky
Matteo
Melissa Yowhan
Aw, I met Sadie at the last NYC convention in 2004. She was a very
sweet lady. I'm glad I got to meet her and just the fact that she's
worked with so many wonderful people I admire outside of Rocky Horror
related was very impressive to me.