'The Bombing of the Cafe de Paris, 1941'

                                Poem by  Vernon Scannell 

                           

                              

 

                    On 8th March 1941 bandleader  Kenrick 'Snakehips' Johnson and his orchestra were due to perform at the Cafe de Paris, Coventry Street, quite an exclusive club it seems BAIRD. Strangely enough its interior was modelled on the ballroom of 'The Titanic'.COLLINS, BURCHETT & DANIEL  Snakehips Johnson was born in British Giuiana - now Guyana- in 1914, and his parents sent him to Britain in 1929 to study medicine.Though Snakehips Johnson spent time at school in Buckinghamshire, and attended the University of Edinburgh, it's not clear whether he formally graduated. He became a renowned dancer, spending time in the USA including a stay in Harlem during 1934 VENTRE. On returning to Britain, he  can be seen dancing in the film 'Oh Daddy' (1935) , and in 1936 Snakehips Johnson helped form an all black  swing orchestra which eventually became the West Indian Dance Orchestra. Performing in London and broadcasting on the BBC, they took up regular residency at the prestigious Cafe de Paris, which also had recording facilities. BAIRD When war broke out, members of the Orchestra were exempt from conscription.

The Cafe de Paris was exempt from many war time restrictions,as considered to be underground and therefore not admitting any light during the blackout.The trouble is that the venue was located under the Rialto cinema with its glass domed roof. The previous two months were relatively free of air raids but  on 8th March 1941 a major air attack began on the West End. 'Snakehips'  Johnson went for a drink in the Embassy Club before his own show was due to start. It is not clear if an air raid had begun, or expected when he hurried over to the Cafe de Paris, but he reached the club in time for 10 pm, and the West Indian Dance Orchestra began the show with 'Oh Johnny Oh' BAIRD. The Rialto cinema incurred a direct hit by a 50kg  bomb NATIONAL ARCHIVES and the impact was enough to bring down the ceiling of the Cafe de Paris. Some sources state that there were two bombs, most likely one bomb fell but did not explode GARDINER A musician who survived-guitarist Joe Deniz- recounted that shrapnel had hit his guitar case DENIZ Kendrick 'Snakehips' Johnson,aged 26, was amongst the 34 people who died, with at least eighty wounded. The club was about half full, and casualties could well have been a great deal higher if the bomb had struck later. The Club did not re-open until 1948. 

 

Vernon Scannell (John Vernon Bain 1922-2007) ,was  arguably one of the most important post war British poets of the 20th century. Also a novelist, boxer, radio broadcaster,author of children's books. Scannell's poetry covered military during World War 2, love affairs, family relationships, observations of provincial life. His own army record during World War 2 included spells of going AWOL, deserting whilst the enemy was retreating during the North African campaign at Wadi-Akarit in 1943, which led to a spell in a military prison. Released in time serve in Normandy in 1944, where Scanell was wounded and sent to a military hospital in England, where he went AWOL yet again and returned. When VE Day was announced Scannell left the army without waiting to be demobbed, and went on the run for two years.TAYLOR If there really is such a being as a 'War Poet', Scannell must rate as one of the most interesting. 

Vernon Scannell's poem 'The Bombing of the Cafe de Paris, 1941' first appeared in an educational work titled 'Mastering the Craft' in 1970. To the best of my knowledge, the first time that this poem appeared in a collection was 'Winterlude-Poems by Vernon Scannell' from 1982, and appeared in subsequent collections. The poem introduces 'Snakehips, the bandleader, and the boys' in stanza (i) . 

                                "Tapped natty polished toes to keep the time
                                Of tango, quickstep, foxtrot, blues and swing;
                                The basement of the place was deep and safe,
                                No other-ranks or bombs would be let in. "

The impact of the bomb is depicted in stanza (iv) as a:

                             "Huge knuckle-dustered fist that struck and crushed" 

Then stanza (v) hits home with some almost grotesque imagery of the effects of war. And the emphasis moves away from 'Snakehips' Johnson to unknown victims. 

                             "                   and from the ceiling came

                                 Floating down a fine cosmetic dust

                                 That settled softly on the hair and skin

                                 Of the sailor's girl, who, wholly without shame,

                                 Sprawled in ripped clothes, one precious stocking gone

                                 and with it half her leg....."

The combination of 'cosmetic dust', a stocking being 'precious' ( presumably due to rationing ), how the bomb blast has destroyed both the dignity and a limb of the 'sailor's girl' is a chaotic mixture of images.After an awkward start, the poem starts to progress well. And stanza (viii) is certainly controversial.

                              "While, down below, a woman lay and saw

                               A man approaching through the powdery gloom;

                              She could not move trapped limbs.'Rescue! she thought

                              As by her side he knelt upon the floor,

                              Reached out to finger at her neck and take

                              Her string of pearls in one triumphant paw."                       

                              

The lines just speak for themselves in running contrary to the whole popular view of the spirit of The Blitz.

Possessions from bodies of those who died at the Cafe de Paris were indeed looted GARDINER. Most likely by thieves known as 'bombchasers' looking for pickings in bombed properties, or items that were simply blasted out into the streets. Sometimes emergency workers themselves committed thefts CALDER.  So far, I have not come across any record of possessions being stolen from the living bomb survivors unless Scannell is trying to suggest that the thief thought that the woman in question was dead. 

AFTERWORD

'Snakehips' was gay and lived with his partner, the music critic Gerald Hamilton in Bray, Berkshire. In the 21st century interest in the life and tragic death of Snakehips is growing: The music of the West Indian Dance Orchestra has been made available on line via Youtube, whilst research into the lives of both Black and LGBT individuals during World  War 2 has led to a greater focus on the contribution made by 'Snakehips' Johnson to the rise of British Jazz-Swing. VENTRE

Books 

'The People's War Britain 1939-45', Angus CALDER, Jonathan Cape, 1969

'The Blitz-The British Under Attack' Juliet GARDINER, Harper Press 2010

'Winterlude- Poems by Vernon Scannell', Robson Books, 1982

'Walking Wounded- The Life & Poetry of Vernon Scannell', James Andrew TAYLOR, Oxford University Press, 2013 

Stephen Bourne's 'Fighting Proud,The Untold Story of the Gay Men who fought in Two World Wars', Bloomsbury, 2017 is often cited by researchers looking at the life  of 'Snakehips' Johnson. 

Image 

'Bomb Damage in London during the Second World War' . (HU36157) Imperial War Museum, in the public domain courtesy of IWM and 'Wikipedia'. 

Online

National Archives webpage on the Cafe de Paris bombing of 8th March 1941. 

Black History is our History Web article 'The Story of Buckinghamshire swing king Ken Johnson  who died in the Blitz by Liam RYDER.

Uncovered  University of Edinburgh webpage about 'Snakehips' Johnson by Lea VENTRE

The West End at War (1)  web article by Grace BAIRD about 'Snakehips' Johnson and the Cafe de Paris Bombing

The West End at War (2) web article by Patrick COLLINS, Raquel BURCHETT & Peter DANIEL '8 March 1941 Cafe de Paris' 

Poetry Foundation webpage about Vernon Scannell

Youtube

Oh Daddy Snakehips scene 'Snakehips' Johnson dancing in 1935 film 'Oh Daddy'.

Guitarist Joe Deniz interview 1980  Survivor Joe DENIZ's recollections with surviving footage of Snakehips. 

David Berglas tribute to 'Snakehips'  Famous stage magician David Berglas (1926- 2023) discuss the Cafe de Paris bombing. Berglas was due to attend the concert that night, aged 15 but his parents grounded him. 

Thames News 11 August 1988    Discussing reunion of some sixty survivors of the bombing. 

Other Blogs by this writer. 

Bleak Chesney Wold    19th century history & literature

A Burnt Ship  17th century war & literature

World War 2 Poetry blog supports the Second World War Experience Centre  Please consider looking at their website and the SWWEC Youtube Channel 

Henry Treece - 'Air Raid'

                                   Henry Treece -'Air Raid' 

                                                      

   Graham Sutherland : The City A Fallen Lift Shaft (1941)  : In the Public Domain, courtesy of Wikipedia 
 

Was recently reading an anthology 'More Poems from the Forces By Serving Members Of the Navy, Army, and Air Force' edited by Keidrich Rhys from 1943 ' This Volume is dedicated to the U.S.S.R. 
Said anthology has some intriguing work such as Peter Hellings ( Aircraftman 2, R.A.F. ) 

FROM DISTANT LANDS
(For the writers and artists of Europe who have been forced to leave their own countries )

" From distant lands
They have come, 
Across centuries held in the grip of murderous hands,
Leaving the bitter mirth
And the mock heroics of the drum
In the clear air
Of this town
A painter of men and women is caught in the flare
Of the great grief of the earth
Like workers breaking stone
For the blood and the bone 
Have returned
Life African fetishes or the burial of a nation's sun,
And under the threat of death
Pictures and books have been burned ......."


One aspect of World War 1 poetry that is not always very endearing is the indifference the acclaimed War Poets seem to demonstrate  towards the plight of  civilians- even refugees are rarely included in the 'pity of war' . The above poem-from World War 2- at least recognises displacement of artists .

Henry Treece, 22nd December 1911- 10th June 1966 , another RAF serving officer, depicted the unbearable tension of being caught in an air raid in a poem that also found its way into the above volume. So far have not established whether Treece himself flew on any bombing missions. His entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography isn't clear on this point - stating that he '"joined the volunteer reserve of the RAF in 1941, attaining the rank of flight lieutenant but serving mainly as an intelligence officer". Already an accomplished and published poet before the War,  and co-founder of the New Apocalypse movement,  Treece jointly edited a collection with John Pudney titled 'Air Force Poetry' , published in 1944.


AIR -RAID

" Here then a testament, drawn from my heart's black well
Like a bucket of blood;
It is still night and the steel birds hover
Over my paltry house on the hill,
Hover and hover. O will they fly over,
Away to the sea and let me lie still?
It is no food
This carrion hunts for; the hand on the lever
Knows no flesh's hunger; the pitiable kill
Is child at the body, or lover to lover
Counting the hours to a kindly future
In a house that can be over or under the hill
If this hell will but pass, and death cover his feature.

Have they gone then, away, and left body still breathing,
The clock on the wall?
The fire crackles gently, the door swings ajar,
The stairs with the ghost of a footstep are creaking.
Away at the coast the waiting guns fire,
At the shadow of death and his terrible speaking,
They turn again,
Re-seeking a prey, or retreating in fear,
Their heartless black hears a black litany croaking..
But there's only one hymn that we wait to hear,
And that is the Raider Past siren wailing....
It's morning again and the baby is teething,
There's a crack an inch wide in the drawing room ceiling. " 

One of the most surprising poems about air raids must be Dylan Thomas'  'Failure To Mourn the Death by Fire, of a Child ' , suggesting that the death of a child is a subject that is simply beyond words. Dylan Thomas was in London from 1940- 1944, taking the second from last verse. 

" The majesty and burning of the child's death.
I shall not murder
The mankind of her going with a grave truth
Nor blaspheme down the stations of the breath
With any further
Elegy of innocence and youth." 


Other major poems dealing with Air Raids include ' Air Raid Across The Bay At Plymouth'  by Stephen Spender and 'Elegy on a City'  by Julian Symons.

Overall the 'War in the Air 'poetry has not considered to be of great significance : Perhaps the most famous example of this genre would be W.B. Yeats'  'An Irish Airman Foresees His Death' from 1919 with its staggering opening lines;

"I know that I shall meet my fate
 Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love ".....

I use the term 'perhaps' quite deliberately. W.B.Yeats generally opposed the writing of war poetry , and was famously dismissive of Wilfred Owen's work, but its hard to avoid detaching 'An Irish Airman....' from the category of 'War Poetry' even though the poem embodies individual detachment from colossal events.

There will be more on Henry Treece on this blog in the future, particularly his involvement in the Transformation anthologies, that appeared annually between 1943-1947, combining poetry, prose, drama and art.



World War 2 Poetry blog supports the Second World War Experience Centre  Please consider looking at their website and the SWWEC Youtube Channel