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Thursday 26th February 2026 – Club Meeting – Speaker, Eric Lupton with a musical presentation entitled ‘Lives and Music of Rodgers & Hart’.
Eric gave us a short résumé about Rodgers’ accomplished talents as a young pianist and that he’d devised many melodies in his teen years too! Lorenz Hart was a talented poet and moved into musical lyrics as an extension of his poetic talents.
The two teamed up together around 1920 in that great era between the wars when musical theatre was in its infancy. In the first 4 years they created 11 shows for amateur theatres. Then, in 1925, they launched the first production of 3 on Broadway, under the umbrella of The Theatre Guild, called the ‘Garrick Gaieties’. To illustrate some great melodies which emerged from these shows, Eric sat at his keyboard and played some key musical riffs and at the same time showed the corresponding Lorenz lyrics on the overhead projector.
Later in the twenties, the pair met various impresarios in the musical theatre and grew an enviable reputation in the genre. In 1927 they met up with Noel Coward who persuaded them to visit London and co-ordinated their production of ‘One damn thing after another’. ‘My heart stood still’ sung by Jessie Matthews was an outstanding hit from the show and it received much royal praise from Edward, Duke of Windsor. In 1931 Rodgers & Hart moved to Hollywood to concentrate on Film Musicals. They were both rather under employed during this time but did manage one great hit under the title of ‘Blue Moon’. An anthem nowadays used by some football club fans.
Their excess of spare time wasn’t necessarily a good thing as, while Rodgers took to the tennis courts of Beverley Hills, lonely Lorenz Hart took to the bottle. This sadly hastened his decline into alcoholism.
After 3 years they both decided to return to New York and concentrate once again on creating works for Broadway and Musical Theatre. Between 1935 and 1942 they had some outstanding successes with such shows as ‘The Boys from Syracuse’ and Pal Joey’. Unfortunately the compounding depression from loneliness and alcoholism took its toll on Lorenz Hart and he became unable to compliment Rodgers’ zest for continuing their teamwork. Hart died of Pneumonia in late 1943 and Richard Rodgers moved on under a very successful partnership with Oscar Hammerstein.
Eric finished off by telling us that he did these presentations as a means of supporting his charity ‘Young Lives v/s Cancer’ and he thanked the Club for our support in providing a donation.
Thursday 23rd February 2026 – Annual General Meeting
The documents, reports and minutes are found elsewhere on our website either under each club section or the Members restricted area.
Monday 23rd February 2026 – Social – Visit to Lymm “Safety Central”
The club members enjoyed a trip to the ‘Safety Central’ Headquarters at Lymm Fire Station. Split into 2 groups, visitors were shown around various room sets which highlighted ever present lurking dangers. In another area, visitors were shown hazards in outdoor areas including Roads, Canals and Railway lines. To finish, the visitors were warned about the dangers one can stumble across using online features.
Thursday 19th February 2026 – Walk – Delamere Forest
The Group started at the Gresty’s Waste car park and rising to the Pale Hill Monument where there were name plates all around showing the various places visible on a clear day. The group then descended past the Forest Visitor Centre to Blakemere and a forest stop at the Gruffalo clearing for a brief coffee break. Afterwards encountering some rather muddy patches , Alan Ferrier lamenting that he’d forgotten his walking boots and was victim to the wet conditions with just his sandals as protection. The group then returned to the starting point along a very gradual hill through farm land passing a home with peacocks strutting around their garden. A well earned lunch was had at The Fishpool Inn where they were joined by other members of Probus.
Thursday 12th February 2026 – Club Meeting – Speaker Peter Graham who gave a talk entitled Rock and Roll in America.
Members were treated to a comprehensive history of the development of the phenomenon of Rock and Roll in America by our guest speaker Peter Graham. His talk covered the theories on the origins of the genre from Folk, Gospel, which were brought to the country by Irish immigrants and West African slaves, amongst others. The momentum for Rock and Roll built up during the 50s as the young generation of the time was looking for a different experience in music that expressed their need for freedom following the constraints of the Second World War.
Peter’s presentation covered a huge number of musicians, including Bill Haley, Elvis, Fats Domino, and The Platters. Rock and Roll was dominated by American artists throughout the 50s, and it wasn’t until the early 60s that British artists became predominant in the genre, largely thanks to the Beatles.
The talk was a nostalgic journey back to our youth and was greatly enjoyed by all.
Thursday 5th February 2026 – Walk – Tatton Park
In a harsh wind-chill factor, the hardy members of Knutsford Rex Probus Walking Group did a 4 mile circuit around Tatton Park and returned via Dog Wood and the Moor to fulfil last week’s invitation by The Men’s Shed to call in for a coffee but sadly we found they don’t meet up on a Thursday.