A royal adjustment

I was the London Area Supervisor for Rank Leisure Services from 1974 to 1980. I had overall responsibility in my position for ten London West End Odeon theatres for many of their activities.

On one occasion, we had a royal premier with the attendance of HM the Queen Elizabeth II, at the Leicester Square Theatre one evening. As always with royal visits, we had a run-through prior to the visit in order to check everything was working as intended – print, sound and atmosphere. As I was sitting in the Queen’s designated seat, on a cushion which she would be using, I realised that I was stretching to see deep over the balustrade in front of me. I couldn’t see the bottom of the screen. Oh no!

I telephoned Buckingham Palace to ascertain the Queen’s height, and realised she would be too small to see the bottom of the screen. Disaster!

No choice therefore, I got in touch with the guys to raise the row a little. The whole of the circle front row needed raising, however, this affected the rake of the seats behind and they ended up having to raise other rows as well!

We got there with the skin of our teeth! Phew!