ABSTRACT
Anne Cutmore was an aspiring actress of 24. In 1933 she was training at evening classes at RADA, and at night, when not training, she queued outside West End theatres for seats in “the gods” – the galleries, where a place on a hard wooden bench could be purchased for a few pennies. During the day she did secretarial work – she had learned shorthand and typing so that she could live while nurturing an acting career. Decades later she gave her daughter a solemn warning: a woman should never learn shorthand She lived with her mother and her two sisters near the Portobello Road in London. Her mother Florence’s brother Ernest Holford ran a pub in the East End and died young, in 1931, at least partly from failing to keep away from his stock. His son was too young at 17 to take over the running of his pub, so Florence looked after it until it was sold, and then took her nephew to live with her and her three daughters: Hilda, the oldest, just five feet tall, musical, with quick movements, and Jo, the youngest, languid and athletic. Anne was registered with Pitmans, which farmed out secretarial staff. One day in about 1932 they sent her to an address in Chelsea and told her to ask for a Dr Forgan.
