caravan…home?

Dear T.S.T

This is very interesting and may be worth pursuing further. I believe that your cousin if I am not mistaken also has a sister who still lives in Ilkeston, Derbyshire. Several years ago I paid a visit to Jenny Hildegard to interview her about Cyril. I believe the sister you refer to had emigrated to America in 1972 (to live close to her son, he played for the ‘San Jose Earthquakes’ in the American Soccer League.) Jenny lived in a caravan park called ‘River Glen’ in the Los Gatos area. We know Seaton had been living on this park for the last fifteen years of his life. Cyril died in his home on 4^th December 1976. We are confident that Cyril’s home was on a fixed site and we know the home still exists. Surrounded by the ultra hi-tech developments we know as ‘Silicon Valley’. We do have some interior images of his home taken shortly after Cyril had died. As you may well know Cyril died under suspicious circumstances and the images I have in my possession came from the San Jose Police department. The only answer I can offer at the moment is that the Airstream could have once belonged to Cyril’s close friend Stephen Kendry. We would need to find evidence somehow as to the authenticity and the provenance of the Airstream. I am continuing to piece together Seaton’s American life and I know Kendry was an important figure in this. I am aware that the two men parted company during the early1960’s and never saw each other again. Kendrey did show up at Seaton’s funeral, (one of the few people present) Kendry died in 1982. The basic information we have to date is as follows (If any one can help fill in the gaps or point me in the right direction, please let me know)…

Seaton moved to Los Gatos, which is located in the South Bay part of the San

Francisco Bay Area, near San Jose. The town can be found just off Highway 17 (known as “the hill” to locals) as the highway begins to climb into the Santa Cruz Mountains. Seaton rented a flat above Wendy’s Discount Carpet Store on Brigham Park Street between 1947-48. Seaton was by this time of substantial bulk. This was due to the life style and job. Seaton completely adopted the drive in eateries culture by regularly eating and living on the road as he drove all over the Sunshine State for Hershey’s drumming up sales. Seaton had been for a while adrift of companionship but in Los Gatos he found a kindred spirit and friend in Stephen Kendry, the owner of a local hardware store. Kendry was also of some considerable bulk; it was not body mass however that truly united these two stately heavyweights but an interest in ‘the theatre of the absurd.’ Kendry had previously been an in-house scriptwriter for Warner Brothers Studios (writing television situation comedy shows including, ‘For the love of Lindy’ and ‘Camp Beerbrook’) before being ‘dumped’ by WB’s in 1946. Kendry had continued to write short plays, children’s stories, poetry, essays and speculative journalism on American Life. We know from Kendry’s son Massy that Seaton and Kendry performed several two man plays previously written by Kendry, ‘Joined at the Hip’ and ‘ Duel.’ Kendry also had written what he termed a ‘Sex Play’ meaning that the two characters on the stage must be played by a man and a woman. The play ‘One for Lunch’ was performed by Seaton and Kendry’s friend and aspiring actress Dorothy Moore. The play had a limited run of three performances at the Alexandria Theatre in San Francisco In 1952. It was however a touring adaptation of Alfred Jarry’s 3 Ubu plays, Ubu Roi, Ubu Enchaine and Ubu Cocu (published posthumously in 1944) that the two men brought this new work to an American audience. We have actual documentary evidence of their time working together and performing in public. The two men with the support of resident car mechanic and welder Richard Devlin purchased and renovated an ex – rental bright orange U-HAL utility trailer, fitting this out with its own collapsible sides to create the Ubu stage. Using a fusion of live performance and puppetry, Kendry and Seaton each performed the roll of King Ubu on alternate days. Ubu took to the road in June 1947 for a three week Californian tour. Costume was kept to a minimum and Seaton was particularly keen to show off his generous flesh by performing the Ubu roll with a bared belly; adding upon his tummy the recognisable painted Ubu swirl (as depicted in Jarry‘s original illustration). Massy recalls his mother Alice telling him that the Ubu plays were often performed at unarranged and at ‘off the tuff’ locations, this was to attract as little attention from police as possible. 1947 was a time of great hardship for ex-servicemen particularly in adjusting back into American life; many who attended the plays had been draft dodgers or service personnel who had recently been demobbed in the fall of 1946. Quite often these men were homeless and disillusioned Ubu resonated within them. Had they not fought a just war…to rid the world of tyranny only to see the dawn and the rise of new ones? (I am in literary mode here…forgive me…) Seaton had previously played the roll of King Ubu in a performance as far back as 1921. This original Seaton performance took place in Zurich with Alla Nazimova in one of the famous travelling ‘Spiegeltents’.

The locations often would mean that the play had frequently been performed to very meagre audiences and on occasions to no audiences at all. It was Alice’s Mission once they had arrived at their chosen location to drum up the audiences. Publicity consisted of a printed flyer (I have some in my care) and Alice would take the delivery truck and head into the local town to distribute them. On no occasion it appears, that during the three week tour the two men were never deterred from performing the play and they went on to undertake at least 30 performances. The Accounts of these 30 performances is recorded in Alice Kendy’s Diary, Massy believes that more than the thirty performances were probably undertaken as it was not uncommon for the two men to perform Ubu twice a day. The references to the Ubu tour in Alice’s diary are in the main vague, however the performance given in a car park that looked out across San Francisco Bay towards the Golden Gate Bridge was clearly memorable for Alice who provides us in her own words, a vivid account. (stuff for the book I think.) Note the cat in the image…It belonged to next door!

Rex