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Pubs and Parrots

For many years Daisy Witherick was the landlady of The Volunteer pub at the end of Baker Street, near the present Sherlock Holmes museum. The pub became famous for her cockatoo parrot which held court in the lounge and swore loudly at all the customers. 

The actor-producer duo of Robert Atkins and Sydney Carroll, who founded the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in 1932, held their auditions at the pub. They liked to see how the actors delivered their lines when bombarded with constant abuse from the parrot.


In August 1933 the famous parrot was taken to the HMV Columbia Studio (now the Abbey Road Studios), to make a record. The microphone was carefully positioned close to the parrot. For a moment Cockie surveyed the studio in general and the mike in particular, and then apparently having arrived at a conclusion about the recording process, poured out a string of ripe language. It is not a surprise that Columbia decided not to issue the record.

At the end of October 1938, Cockie went for another recording session at the BBC studios in Broadcasting House with nine other parrots who had been chosen from 70 applicants. They were auditioning for a naval comedy radio show called ‘Eight Bells’. When the microphone was set up, Cockie repeatedly called for a drink and then screamed abuse at the recording technicians. 

Next up was Polly, a 12 year old green Amazonian parrot, (not the non-existent species of ‘Norwegian Blue’ from the famous Monty Python dead parrot sketch). This Polly belonged to Sidney Salter, the young publican at the Bird in Hand pub in West End Lane, West Hampstead. He asked her to laugh, and she gave a deep and powerful ‘Ha!, Ha!, Ha!’. Then Sidney said, ‘Talk Posh’ and Polly produced ‘Haw, Haw, Haw’ sounding like a BBC announcer. She also cried and sobbed, told people to shut the door, asked where the cat was and meowed. Then she sang ‘Why did I kiss that girl?’, and finally wished everyone Goodnight. 

Much as he was amused by Cockie, Henry Pepper, the Director of BBC Variety, thought the language was too rude to use, and he chose Polly Salter as the winner.

On 10 November 1938, Polly took part in a live recording of the ‘Eight Bells’ in front of an audience. Polly shrieked with laughter at the jokes of comedian Dennis O’Neil. When Frank Cantell played ‘Lover, Come Back to Me’ on the violin, she said, ‘Polly crying, Polly crying’ and sobbed. The producer was very happy with Polly’s performance, but we don’t know if she appeared in other episodes of the show.

Sadly, the Bird in Hand closed in 2003 and here it is today. 

 

We have written a previous blog story about the history of the pub here:

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