Days Like This

Mrs Gloria M Sutcliffe

It was the result of an accident one evening in 1947 which made the day extraordinary. Never shy, from early childhood I dreamed of becoming an actress and on leaving school the previous autumn I managed to persuade my parents to allow me, what today is termed a Gap Year, in order to apply for an audition at the local professional Repertory Company.

Following a successful audition, I was accepted on three months trial, and at the end of that period I was accepted as a junior member of the cast.

As a weekly repertory company we performed once nightly, whilst rehearsing the following weeks play each morning. My special day began on arrival for the morning rehearsal to discover my photograph hung alongside the rest of the cast in the foyer! Due to the juvenile lead being in hospital following an appendix operation, I had taken the part of Amanda in Noel Coward's Private Lives, my first leading role since joining the company and I was enjoying every performance.

Making my entrance that evening as Amanda, I walked towards centre stage, tripped and crashed heavily face down, momentarily knocking myself out! I came round to hear the dramatic plea, "Is there a Doctor in the House"?! A plea which was to set the seal on my future. The call from the front of House was made by the producer and answered by a young Gentleman who introduced himself as Doctor J. I was laid on the stage floor with my head cushioned on the lap of a colleague called Diana, conscious but unable to move due to considerable pain. Gently but expertly Dr. J examined me and diagnosed both shoulders were dislocated and I would require an ambulance to take me to hospital. He then left me to phone from the office, no mobiles in those days! In the meantime the audience were directed to collect complementary tickets from the Box Office as they left the Theatre.

Eventually the ambulance arrived and I was stretchered into it. Dr J assured me he would follow in his car and wait with me at the hospital until my parent's arrived. Following a painful x-ray, the hospital confirmed the doctor's diagnoses and, shortly afterwards, under a light anaesthetic, both shoulders were successfully corrected and I was taken to the Recovery to await my parent's arrival. A couple of press reporters who hang around city Hospital Accident Departments, had made no copy up to that point in the evening, decided my arrival was better than nothing and snapped away. They say every picture tells a story and the wan, rather woozy face which gazed soulfully from the following morning papers under the heading, GLORIA TAKES A FALL! conveyed nothing of the star billing I may have hoped for! Little did I know I would fall yet again, the effects of which would remain with me for the rest of my life!

Eventually my parents arrived and I was discharged, with an out patients appointment for two weeks later. Dr J phoned each day and when he called, bearing flowers for both Mum and me, I was allowed to accept his invitation out to dinner the following evening. Recovering well, I was bored and eager to return to the theatre and was glad of the opportunity to relieve the boredom. Whilst enjoying coffee after our dinner that evening, Dr. J introduced me to a close friend of his, an RAF pilot on leave. Despite the pilot's good looks I was not immediately interested, until I learned his home was close to my own; then I became more interested in Flight Lieutenant Clyde Sutcliffe!

I enjoyed the dinner with Doctor Jack; he was a good host and had a great sense of humour. No, I did not marry Doctor Jack, but within the year I 'fell' in love and married his friend, the handsome RAF pilot and we lived happily ever after!

Doctor Jack remained our best friend; without his response that never-to-be forgotten evening for a 'Doctor in the House' I would never have met my husband!