Jane Freeman

So am I; I've been following them for years and have only seen her age as being one month younger than Peter Sallis (b 1921). Suddenly a week ago when I discovered her obituary I thought I had the wrong Jane Freeman, with a 14 year age difference. Could all previous references have been incorrect? Not only the birth year, but even the month and day!
 
I'd still like to see something from the mainstream media on this, though I'm not doubting its true. Sad to hear she's gone.

The age thing is definitely strange. On the one hand I always thought she aged very well, based on the idea she was born in the early 1920s. On the other hand, if she was born in 1935 that means she wasn't even 40 when the show started. While I can see that, it still seems like she was a bit young given the age of the other actors involved.
 
Age 81 seems to be correct. There's a dated photo of her in the cast of a play at her secondary school, The Importance of Being Earnest. The 1935 birth date would have made her 15 years old that year, which is reasonable for secondary school.
 
Marianna said:
Age 81 seems to be correct. There's a dated photo of her in the cast of a play at her secondary school, The Importance of Being Earnest. The 1935 birth date would have made her 15 years old that year, which is reasonable for secondary school.
Click to expand...


Yeah, saw that...definitely looks more like 15 there than 29. So we've been wrong all these years...?

Used to think it was an amazing coincidence that Truly, Clegg and Ivy were born January, February and March of '21, respectively. Guess not anymore....
 
Just seen this . Devestated. I think she was very underrated in the series. Is now at peace with Sid in the café in the sky. Maybe Compo and Foggy will drop in for a cuppa and a bun .
 
Did they ever say what Ivy and Sid's last name was? Such as, it was almost never mentioned, and thus unknown to most, that Howard and Pearl were the Sibshaws.
 
Marianna said:
Age 81 seems to be correct. There's a dated photo of her in the cast of a play at her secondary school, The Importance Being Earnest. The 1935 birth date would have made her 15 years old that year, which is reasonable for secondary school.
Click to expand...

Risking wrath of Marian Shattock[ I am hoping she is happy for me to post here ] to me most of the cast do not look like school children . I wondered if the Siddons Society is somehow related to the actress Sarah Siddons a Welsh born actress in the 18th Century and this was an amateur company , including Jane, who were simply putting a play on for the school . The society continues today in the US. If any of this holds water then Jane could be as old as 96 . Whilst some of the cast do look young none appear, through my Specsaver provided glasses, to be 15 , especially the gentleman top row far left[looking at the photo] and the lady bottom row two to the right of Jane [looking at the photo] . In my eyes Jane does not look 15 either.

janef.jpg
 
captain clutterbuck said:
Risking wrath of Marian Shattock[ I am hoping she is happy for me to post here ] to me most of the cast do not look like school children . I wondered if the Siddons Society is somehow related to the actress Sarah Siddons a Welsh born actress in the 18th Century and this was an amateur company , including Jane, who were simply putting a play on for the school . The society continues today in the US. If any of this holds water then Jane could be as old as 96 . Whilst some of the cast do look young none appear, through my Specsaver provided glasses, to be 15 , especially the gentleman top row far left[looking at the photo] and the lady bottom row two to the right of Jane [looking at the photo] . In my eyes Jane does not look 15 either.
Click to expand...

What is the context of the Siddons Society (http://sarahsiddonssociety.org/) relative to the photo?

I wish I could remember where I originally saw that photo. It was accompanied by an image of the program, with quite a lot of detail included. I saw it in just the last few days, but now can't track it down.
 
Hello Marianna,

The link to the schools page is in the thread on page 1 it is http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/vaynorandpenderyn_1950s.htm . When you view the program it states the Siddons' Society presents The Importance of Being Earnest . I looked up Siddons society and it came back with the Sarah Siddons Society on which it identifies the actress as being Welsh born so I made an assumption that there may be some relationship there as its a Welsh School , perhaps it is just a coincidence.
 
captain clutterbuck said:
Hello Marianna,
The link to the schools page is in the thread on page 1 it is http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/vaynorandpenderyn_1950s.htm . When you view the program it states the Siddons' Society presents The Importance of Being Earnest . I looked up Siddons society and it came back with the Sarah Siddons Society on which it identifies the actress as being Welsh born so I made an assumption that there may be some relationship there as its a Welsh School , perhaps it is just a coincidence.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the pointer. I was almost sure I had seen the photo and program here, but wouldn't have known to search on any of the terms in the URL. Everyone in the photo looks to me to be secondary school age except for the man at the left end of the back row wearing street clothes rather than a costume. He may have been the teacher who directed the play. The boys, in particular, look aged 14-17. It's less obvious with the girls because the period-appropriate hair styles and hats were very aging, even when they were the height of fashion.

Perhaps the school's drama/theater club was named "Siddons' Society". BTW, I wonder what the significance of the apostrophe in Siddons' is. What did Siddons possess in the context of an organization name? Or might it have been a misprint on the program?

The Sarah Siddons Society is an American organization that was founded a couple of years after the performance under discussion. http://sarahsiddonssociety.org/about/.
 
Last edited:
Pearl said:
No Andrew, it was never mentioned.
Click to expand...
Wonder why we never found it out. In a episode of FOTSW whilst dancing with Dilys you hear her maiden name mentioned if you listen closely. It sounds like Bolton. Heres fun. Any ideas what a suitable surname for sid would have been
 
amos hames said:
Wonder why we never found it out. In a episode of FOTSW whilst dancing with Dilys you hear her maiden name mentioned if you listen closely. It sounds like Bolton. Heres fun. Any ideas what a suitable surname for sid would have been
Click to expand...

Yes, her maiden name was Bolton, if the closed captioning got it right. Perhaps we were meant to believe that Sid's last name was Beall, the name that was on the cafe mail flap at the start of filming, and that had to be duplicated on the stage set door for the sake of continuity. A while ago I did some digging in on-line historical documents and found that a man named Beall and described as a "fish fryer" occupied that property. I was a chippy right up until the ironmonger next door took it over for use as a paint warehouse. Leaving Sid's surname unstated would have been a lot simpler than trying to reconcile the discrepancy between a stated name and the name on the door.
 
captain clutterbuck said:
Hello Marianna,

The link to the schools page is in the thread on page 1 it is http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/vaynorandpenderyn_1950s.htm . When you view the program it states the Siddons' Society presents The Importance of Being Earnest . I looked up Siddons society and it came back with the Sarah Siddons Society on which it identifies the actress as being Welsh born so I made an assumption that there may be some relationship there as its a Welsh School , perhaps it is just a coincidence.
Click to expand...


After doing a little Google searching, I found Sarah Siddon was born in the same county [Brecknockshire (Breconshire)] where the school is located. The Sarah Siddons Society (No apostrophe) was founded in 1952 in Chicago. It appears to be about presenting awards, not on doing performances.

I thought the school may have named their drama department Siddon's Society in honor of Sarah as being a "home town girl." The play was presented in 1951 and the official Sarah Siddons Society in Chicago was not founded until 1952, so doesn't seem it could be a part of that.

Just a guess. The program does indicate that it was student's giving the performance.

Marianna, it was posted on Facebook, either the LOTSW Forever page or the LOTSW Will Never Die page, but I can't find it there anymore. Either I didn't look carefully enough or someone deleted it.
 
Whilst it states that the school orchestra played during the acts what raised my suspicion that it may be a company is the fact that the Production credit is given to people's actual names which made me think it was an external company . With the number of plays/production I saw whilst at school the credits on the program were always the teachers names Mr Foster, Miss Grant , Mrs Glendale for example never full names .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top