Reginald Leopold was born at 531 Holloway Road, Priory Gardens, North London on 20th May 1907 into a family of seven children, all musicians - Bert, Will, Gus, Dudley, Millicent, Winifred, Percy - Reg was number eight and he made his first appearance on Empire Day at a school concert. He attended the school at Tenterton Gardens and from there he gained a scholarship to Trinity College at the age of 14 entering the junior school.
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Albert Leopold - Father of Eight Head of an all musical family |
Reg, sister Winnie and brother Percy. Winnie took them all under her wing |
Jeanne Leopold - Reg's Beloved and devoted wife. |
Reg at 7 years of age with violin and bow almost as big as him. |
Brother Dudley Harold Edwin - also a musician on the Queen Mary. |
Reg Leopold's Story as told by Margaret Campbell
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1977, just before Reg's 70th birthday, 'The Strad' magazine produced
an excellent article by Margaret Campbell in which she told the
story of his life and work so far. The content is very extensive and
tells his story in a nutshell. We are grateful to Orpheus
Publications who are the parent company for 'The Strad', for
granting permission to reproduce the content of this article
from the February 1977 article.
'CLICK' on the magazine cover to view the magazine article. |
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PHOTO-CALL - The One's That Got Away! During rehearsals of the Palm Court Trio consisting of Robert Docker (Piano), Edward Holmes (Cello) and Reginald Leopold (Violin), there were numerous photo calls. Reg held on to the contact strips and these were passed down to his family. The photographs are a rare insight into the working life of these musicians. Most of them were never used so this is an opportunity to see them for the first time. 'CLICK' on the photograph of Reg to see the full collection |
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Background To Reg's Working Life
As
a start in the world of work he played
violin to silent movies.
A
little later Reg applied successfully for the position of orchestra leader
in the Grill Room Orchestra at the 'Trocadero'. From here he went
on to the Savoy Hotel where he played with the Savoy Orpheans
under the direction of Carrroll Gibbons. Other famous names in the
same string section were, George Melachrino, Hugo Rignold
and Eugene Pini. Hugo Rignold was appointed the first leader of the
'Fred Hartley Sextet' and he introduced Reg to this group.
Just
before the second world war Reg became leader of the Queen's Hall Light
Orchestra under Charles Williams, later Sydney Torch. At
the outbreak of war, the London Studio Players were formed with the
intention of sending programmes worldwide after midnight. Reg was
appointed leader.
Post
war, the 'Grand Hotel' series resumed on BBC radio and Reg soon had
the chance to take up the leadership of
this small orchestra. It was a hectic schedule but Reg stayed with
it for 18 years. Reg would lead from the violin section and on occasions a
member of the invited audience would take up the conductor's place and
conduct the whole orchestra. Reg made sure he could not see these
enthusiastic volunteers and a number of funny instances occurred when the
orchestra suddenly changed tempo and left the poor volunteer waving his
hands in the wrong time.
As
leader of the London Studio Strings and active in three regular BBC radio
programmes, one would think that this would be enough, but he also took
part in 'session' music including jazz and pop.
Reg
loved his violin and if people commented how well he played he would
retort that it was not him but his beautiful 'Maggini' violin
that
made the music. Manufactured around 1600AD by
Maggini, a forerunner
of the great master Stradivirus, by 100 years, this instrument had a beautiful tone and
was the instrument with which Reg finished his illustrious career. He had
owned many excellent 'fiddles' in his day but none to match the Maggini.
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Click Here to listen to "If My Songs Were Only Winged" played by Reg on the Maggini. |
In
spite of having broadcast for many years with the BBC, Reg has made
remarkably few recordings. Although his session work meant that he played
or conducted on many recordings for famous artists.
His own recordings included, 'Evenings in the Palm Court'
and 'Palm Court Trio' on the HMV Music for Pleasure series and 'Among
Your Souvenirs'.
Reg
loved to walk his dogs for exercise and his other love was cars, he once
owned a 'Bugatti', though comfort not speed was the main criteria in
latter years.
Reg put his success down to 'perfect pitch' and 'timing'. A modest, softly spoken man with a dry sense of humour, he hid his immense talent but encouraged youngsters to learn as much about every branch of their profession as possible then, somewhere along the line, they would become aware of what they could do really well, then as they developed, they would know when to play their strong suit. Good advice for any profession, not just for violinists!
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Reg is pictured in serious concentration in this publicity picture which he presented to Edward Beckerleg on 27th June 2002, when he was ninety five years of age. Edward had given Reg some of his recordings which he had not heard for many years, much to his delight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Reg often recalled the hectic travel schedules enjoyed by musicians and the following photograph shows him (2nd Left) after a journey in a very modern 1935 German aeroplane. Several famous faces are in the line-up including Elisabeth Welch.
Photo Credit: Stephen Bourne, Elisabeth Welch: Soft Lights and Sweet Music (Scarecrow Press, 2005) [Sincere Apologies to Stephen Bourne - the above photo was selected from hundreds of cuttings passed to us by the family - it was not taken directly from the book]
On one of his travels there was a lucky escape for Reg and his friends when a bomb went off at the Cafe de Paris just after they left!
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