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THE DAVID WEBB VIRTUAL ARCHIVE & FAN SITE

David Webb (1931-2012) was a time-serving actor who trod the boards the length and breadth of Britain, made over seven hundred television appearances, and also appeared in a fair number of films. On his death, I was one of a number of people invited by his executor to turn up at his Flood Street, Chelsea flat and help myself to whatever I wanted prior to its clearance. I went along out of curiosity, and was astounded by what I found. In addition to the things one might expect to find, there was a veritable library which included a massive collection of ephemera related to the theatre, Luton (David Webb’s hometown), the Royal Family, politics with a heavy emphasis on sexual censorship, and his travels in the UK, Europe and North America. I offered many of these publications to the British Library, some of which at the time of writing have already found their way into its massive catalogue, but the vast majority are still here at Venner Road, and I will scan them as time and resources permit for this on-line archive.

The scans are overwhelmingly in Portable Document Format. If some of the publications are not scanned to the highest possible standard, that is due primarily to my own limitations but in addition to this I have scanned two pages at a time as far as possible, and this often exaggerates any non-alignment in the scanning. I am also using equipment that is far from state of the art, but as the scanner cost me precisely nothing, I have no grounds for complaint. Those with sufficient sophistication and the right equipment will be able to edit the scans to fit, but this small archive is offered to the world as an historical document rather than a work of art. There are publications here which you will find nowhere else on the web, and undoubtedly a few that are unique, no other copies being extant. I have calibrated a few of the publications here and there to show their actual sizes. The ones so dealt with have been suffixed * C – where I have remembered! Most programmes appear to be of standard sizes, but apart from A5 and A4 – the latter being the size of photocopy paper – I am stumped, so any help with this will be readily appreciated.

The dates given herein are for guidance only. Usually I have given or tried to give the opening night of the show concerned given in the programme. I was though informed by a fellow webmaster who knows about these things that this date is not necessarily written in stone, because of previews, try-outs and the like. The date given by me is certainly not to be taken as an indication that David Webb attended the show on that night, or at all.

All the publications scanned here are for sale, alternatively I will consider donating to a bona fide archive; please contact me for details. Also, anyone wants to contribute any information re the publications scanned here, dates, errors, etc, again, please contact me. Before upload, each file has been checked meticulously for missing pages, etc, likewise the text has been thoroughly perused, but this is the effort of one individual, so there will almost certainly be a mistake here and there. I have annotated the scans in detail where I consider it desirable, and for the sake of clarity I have assumed the reader is nearly as stupid as me. They are proffered here in if not alphabetical or chronological order then an order of a sorts. They are grouped for the most part in cities and towns, then after that, chronologically. There are exceptions to this, there are for example a number of theatres all over the world called the Lyric Theatre; I have made no distinction here between any of them. Likewise, the entries for Richmond could equally have been filed under London.

Although most of the publications herein are indexed on the main Site Index, there are separate pages for publications relating to Luton, the Royal Family, etc. There is some overlap regarding these – for example the 1953 Luton Coronation Pageant Book can be found on the Luton index page, although it could arguably be indexed under the Royal Family.

It remains only for me to say a few thank you’s, in particular to Ted Goodman, my colleague Mark Taha (as ever), the site sponsors (two individuals who wish to remain anonymous), and Pearl from Bellingham.

December 16, 2012

In view of the large number of personal photographs I have accrued over the past few months, this site has now been renamed from THE DAVID WEBB VIRTUAL ARCHIVE to THE DAVID WEBB VIRTUAL ARCHIVE & FAN SITE.

August 10, 2013

Recently I began adding a few programmes but for the most part assorted flyers and leaflets that I myself have picked up. As nowadays all printed matter is produced on computer there will almost certainly be a scan of most if not everything published from now until the end of days. I am therefore concentrating on things that are likely to be found on-line only with difficulty, in particular flyers and slightly off-beat material like fringe and community theatre. These additions to this archive will be few and far between. I have neither the time nor the desire to take up where David Webb left off.

I am also grateful to Nick from the Belight Software Forum for the following information: Re “The height of the above is the width of an A4 sheet”, this and related documents are Letter Size.

September 30, 2013

To A Note On Compressed JPG And PDF Files In This Archive

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This site was last updated on October 23, 2024