The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there LP Hartley, The Go-Between   Entertainment in Johannesburg in the 1960's was: theatre, clubs, cinema, concerts, and the radio.  Of course, there was the usual sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, but you get them in every era. The first page in the newspaper we turned to was the entertainment page.  Here's one from May 1967 (click). But beneath the glitz of the palatial theatres in Commissioner Street (His Majesty's, Empire and Colosseum), and crush of theatres in Braamfontein (Brooke, Academy, Alexander, Civic and Intimate), and behind the voices on all the radio stations, there was a murky world that no one talked about. South Africa in the 1960s was a very weird place. At the height of Apartheid, there was what seemed to be the squeaky clean separation of black and white (and Indian and Coloured). But there was a place where they overlapped. It was among theatre-folks.  If you're in show business, you've no time for politics.  In fact, as anyone in show business will tell, you've got no time for the law. And there were plenty of laws, job reservation, group areas, immorality - but somehow they didn't seem to apply to performers. We didn't bother with job reservation, because the cops didn't.  Cops didn't go to the theatre - it's almost as if they didn't know we existed. The theatre that emanated from Dorkay House, and a load of private houses was a different world.  There was a system, we just wanted to make people laugh, and so we got on with it. In our way. I worked in stage management in the theatre between the years 1965 and 1972.  WE did small shows at the Mofolo Hall in Soweto, and gigantic ones at The Empire in Commissioner Street (where the guys behind the scenes were black and white, it sort of didn't matter.  And no one can see in the dark anyway) In the past forty years I have built on the experiences and the wisdom I gleaned from wonderful people. These are just some of them. And the shows we did.   List of Productions   Go to this link for the Thomas/van Rooyen family tree Go to this link for Howard Thomas ancestors           This is a personal site attached my business site: www.busvannah.co.za