Born in Smethwick my late fathers aunt,Julia Howell, met and married, George Callaghan.Both Julie and husband George were in the film business but prior to this they both worked on stage moreso in music halls. Smuggled into America from Canada, they took the stage name Boon and lived and worked in the film industry in Hollywood, but I have no details of this other than what Aunt Julie told us as kids. It was back in England in their middle age they had more work, mainly out of Elstree studios.Julie was in a film called,The Woman in a Dressing Gown. Her appearance was a fleeting glimpse stood in a shop doorway in a downpour, as one of the main characters stands next to her (This was the only film I actually glimpsed Julie in).George was more prolific especially in his later years as a character actor.Before the war, he had a music hall dance troop called The Boon Boys and it was this role that led him into being enlisted with ENSA during the Second Woirld War.Following a shrapnel wound which ended his dancing days, he progressed into character acting,along with a brief stint as agent manager for some young talent. (He managed a well known performer Sandy Powell!) He appeared in the very first scenes of a film called Spring In Park Lane as an Irish postman emptying a postbox as the main star Anna Neagle approached and exchanged greetings. Other appearances include a film with James Mason (The title of which eludes me...) and numerous TV appearances in The Goodies as Lord Longford in a rugby match, the Archbishop of Canterbury in a series called Edward ViII, a passing part in Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines, and numerous adverts. Even to this day I still occasionally catch a glimpse of him on TV but precious little of Julie. Julie was dads aunt, born in Smethwick as far as Im aware, part of a larger Howell family of which Im a proud decendant. As a footnote , in England they lived in London until their twilight years, having just one son, Kenneth Callaghan. He married and was sadly killed in the Normandy invasion of WW2.(Death: Jun. 8, 1944 Note: Serjeant, 62 Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery. Son of George and Julia Callaghan; husband of Florrie Callaghan, of Brixton, London. Age 24. Burial: Ryes War Cemetery, Bazenville Bazenville Departement du Calvados Basse-Normandie, France Plot: IV. D. 5.)
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 09:29:55 +0000
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