Ivor Beddoes

A few months after beginning his art study, Beddoes was invited by Horace (Hodge) Bryant to join his concert party, working at least two nights a week during the summer season and eventually performing on every bandstand in London.

In 1930 he was hired for a summer seaside concert party and at the end of the season was taken by his agent to the Cone School of Dance who were looking for a male dancer to partner one of their students.

He went back to the commercial, musical side of theatre appearing in several shows including The Hour Glass, Helen,[6] Bow Bells and [7]The Golden Toy.

Beddoes stayed at the Windmill for six years as a ballet dancer, character actor in the comedy sketches and singer/dancer in the musical ensemble scenes.

Finally, through his brother-in-law John Cox who, from the [10] Army Film Unit had taken over the sound department of Shepperton Studios, he gained a series of introductions to Art Directors.

He started working on [11]Black Narcissus immediately, learning on the job, which also included painting the Indian murals and designing the titles.

At one point Heckroth brought Michael Powell over to Technicolor to see the [17] mattes that they were working on and from this meeting Beddoes was invited to become a permanent member of The Archers.

In 1952, when the slump in film making caused widespread unemployment, Technicolor invited him to join them as art director, matte painter and [18] colour consultant.

He designed sets and all of the costumes for the ballets, El Amor Brujo and Los Amantes de Teruel, as well as painting the matte shots.

He was a superb raconteur and continued his tumbling exploits, such as numerous comedy falls, to amuse (or shock)[28] onlookers well into his late sixties, always the performer.