#weybridge

Spring Maple Tree Shadow, Weybridge, Vermont, US.

Photograph: Caleb Kenna

“Ding Dong the Bells are Gonna Chime...!”

This Day in Julie-history: Julie Andrews weds first husband, Tony Walton sixty years ago on 10 May 1959.

When Julie Andrews and longtime beau, Tony Walton finally decided to marry in the English spring of 1959, they had hoped to keep the wedding relatively low-key. Rather than plump for a big city venue, the couple chose to hold the ceremony at the small parish church of St. Mary’s Oatlands in Weybridge, close to their collective family home of Walton-on-Thames in Surrey. In her memoirs, Julie recalls that, even though she and Tony had both grown up in the very next village, she “had to prove residency in the parish of Oatlands” in order to get married at the picturesque mid-Victorian church (Andrews: 258). So for six weeks prior to the wedding, the star moved into the nearby Oatlands Park Hotel, making the daily commute into London for ongoing performances of My Fair Lady.

However, as profiled in our last post, the couple’s courtship had been a focus of such intense media attention that there was little serious hope they’d be able to keep the wedding out of the public eye.  And, lo, come the big day, a sunny and unusually warm spring Sunday, a phalanx of over sixty reporters, press photographers and newsreel cameramen was on hand to cover the event. What’s more, a huge crowd of fans and public well-wishers –– ranging in estimates from two to three thousand––congregated around the church and surrounding lanes to get a glimpse of the star bride. It was a carnival-like atmosphere complete with “ice cream men and even a winkle stall” (Rolls: 2). “The pretty tree-shaded churchyard looked like Hampstead Heath on a Bank Holiday Monday,” noted one press report, “as fathers, mothers and children struggled on the lawns littered with ice lolly-sticks and sweet papers” (Marlborough and Court: 5). 

More than two miles of cars clogged the roads leading up to the church, so not surprisingly the bridal party was a little late in arriving, pulling up to the front of the church ten minutes behind schedule. As Julie emerged from the bridal car, led by father Ted Wells, the crowds surged forward and news crews rushed to get shots. Some women reportedly fainted in the crush and “[t]eams of police had their hands full making way for Julie” (Rolls: 2). “This crowd makes me more nervous than playing Eliza on the first night,” exclaimed the star (ibid.). Ever the consummate professional, Julie took it in stride with reporters marvelling that “throughout the Hollywood-style hysteria, Miss Andrews remained calm, cool and apparently unperturbed” (Marlborough and Court: 5). 

She also looked every inch the resplendent star bride in a stunning seventy-yard rose-budded white organza gown that had been designed specially for her by husband-to-be Tony Walton. Made from the designs by Julie’s longtime friend, theatrical costumier Madame de Rachelle, who had provided several earlier bespoke dresses for the star, the bridal gown had an estimated cost of £350, a substantial amount for the time. Rachelle also helped dress Julie the morning of the wedding, painstakingly fastening all 72 buttons at the rear of the gown with a small buttonhook (Hickey: 5).

Once inside the church, the wedding party was able to relax a little during the 35 minute service. As the officiating vicar quipped, “Forget your friends inside the church and the crowds outside. There’s nothing high-falutin’ about a marriage service” (Hickey: 1).* The 300-strong guest list was weighted heavily with local friends and family but there were a few famous faces dotted among the pews, mostly theatre folk who had been important to Julie during her career. Stanley Holloway, Robert Coote, and Noel Harrison, son of Rex, were on hand to represent the My Fair Lady crew. Rex was unable to attend as he was abroad visiting his ailing wife Kay Kendall in Paris. Sandy Wilson and Vida Hope flew The Boy Friend flag and others were there from Julie’s early radio and pantomime years such as Hattie Jacques and Vic Oliver. Further celebrity friends included Maggie Smith, Svetlana Beriosova, Anne Rogers and the official wedding photographer was none other than Tony Armstrong-Jones (Cottrell: 118). 

Following the ceremony, the bridal party and guests made their way to the reception at the Mitre Hotel in Kingston-on-Thames directly opposite historic Hampton Court. Thousands more lined the roads to cheer them on and some even hired rowboats in an effort to get a closer peek at proceedings from the riverfront (Rolls: 2). Inside, the three hundred invited guests were treated to a lavish champagne supper with dance music provided by Johnnie Howard and his Orchestra who played inevitable selections from My Fair Lady but also from Sandy Wilson’s Valmouth with which Tony had been successfully associated (“Denmark Street”: 7). Maintaining the dual theatrical theme, the three tiered wedding cake was topped with two miniature figures, one in Eliza Dolittle flower girl costume and the other in an artist’s smock (Cottrell: 121).

After it was all over, the newlyweds were driven straight to London airport to catch a late night flight to Los Angeles. It was billed as a two-week “honeymoon”, though it was in fact more of a working holiday with Julie taping a TV special with Jack Benny and Tony working on designs for a new musical (Cottrell: 122). Julie recalls that she and Tony slept most of the long flight to California, both exhausted from their big day. As the flight prepared to land, Julie writes that as she slowly roused, she saw Tony smiling at her in the next seat:

“’Help!’ I said to him in a very small voice. He nodded, knowing what I meant. The festivities were over; we were married and heading into the unknown” (Andrews: 262)

Notes:

* In her memoirs, Julie gives the name of the officiating vicar at the wedding as Rev. Keeping, “a charming man, kind and gentle in our meetings with him” (Andrews: 259). Press reports from the time, however, list him as Rev. John McKitterick (Hickey: 1; “Marriages”: 12; Rolls: 2). Far be it from us to suggest that she-who-is-practically-perfect-in-every-way got it wrong, which is why, in one of the photos accompanying our previous post, we followed Dame Julie’s lead and identified the kindly vicar as Rev. Keeping.

Sources:

“2000 at Julie Andrews’s Wedding.” Belfast Telegraph. 11 May 1959: 8.

Andrews, Julie. Home: A Memoir of My Early Years. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008.

Cottrell, John. Julie Andrews: The Story of a Star. London: Arthur Barker, 1968.

“Denmark Street Doodles.” The Stage. 21 May 1959: 7.

Hickey, William. “Phew! What a Scramble for the Bride and the Motorist: My Fair Lady Marries Boy Next Door.” Daily Express. 11 May 1959: 1, 5.

Marlborough, Douglas and Court, Monty. “PictureMail Goes to the Stage Wedding of the Year: Shouting Women Delay Julie.” Daily Mail. 11 May 1959: 5.

“Marriages: Mr. T. Walton and Miss J. Andrews.” The Times. 11 May 1959: 12.

Nathan, David. “C-r-a-w-l-i-n-g Home But What a Loverly Day it was for a Wedding.” Daily Herald. 11 May 1959: 1, 3.

Rolls, John. “Cor! Wot a turn ant for Eliza...” Daily Mirror. 11 May 1959: 2.

Photographs by Tony Armstrong-Jones, Ron Burton, Kenneth Denyer, and Terry Fincher.

Carole Millea [then, Carole Vines] grew up in Byfleet and was a regular visitor to Kenwood as a teenager in the mid-1960s. A huge Lennon fan, Mrs Millea and friends would cycle through the woods and golf course on long summer days in a bid to meet the superstar songwriter. At the time, the large wooden double gates to Kenwood were generally left open, meaning easy access for this particular eager young fan group. 

 “John was just a really nice guy and very laid back about us being there,” said Mrs Millea, now 64, a grandmother living in Emsworth in Hampshire. “They were lovely times, John was my favourite person in the world - he had a depth to him, a real man of the people.” 

 Mrs Millea would play on a large model boot from the Help! movie that Lennon had in the garden, and feed his dog - a golden retriever. One occasion stands out for Mrs Millea - the day of the film premiere of A Hard Day’s Night in July 1964. 

 “My biggest day; I was at the house and went up to the kitchen window, casually sitting there eating a late morning fry up were all The Beatles,” she recalled. “So I asked John: ‘Can I have your autograph’, and offered him my Mandy comic. "John wiped his mouth, got a fountain pen and passed the magazine around, they all signed it. John had no big ideas about himself. 

 “I went on to think Mandy was childish and unbelievably threw my signed copy away, although I managed to go on and get more autographs from John and Ringo." 

 Lennon’s housekeeper was the main security at Kenwood, and while largely accommodating to the young fans, on occasion, she would take issue. “One day we saw Paul McCartney go into Kenwood with [then girlfriend] Jane Asher - at the time we all thought she wasn’t right for him,” Mrs Millea said. “The housekeeper chased us out, Paul wasn’t half as approachable as John.” 

 Mrs Millea would often see Lennon, his former wife Cynthia and their son Julian in Weybridge, usually in the corner shop that was once by the railway station. When Lennon split from Cynthia in 1968, he decided to sell Kenwood, receiving £40,000 for the 12,000sq/ft house and 1.5-acre plot, double his 1964 £20,000 purchase price. 

 "It was the worst thing when he went, really sad from my point of view,” Mrs Millea said. “I’ll aways remember Kenwood, John’s Union Jack Mini, the swimming pool in the garden, lovely old-fashioned kitchen and big sitting room with the white piano. [...] It was a lovely area and back then you were able to peacefully walk around St George’s Hill, with the huge detached houses,” she said. “It was great, a good time to grow up.” 

 Story: Tom Smurthwaite, Get Surry (http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/) 10th August 2016.