High Buildings, Low Morals

Another Sideways Look at Twentieth Century London

Rob Baker

• Publisher: Amberley Publishing
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781445666266
• Edition: 0
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

'I don't know what London's coming to – the higher the buildings, the lower the morals.' NOËL COWARD In the same vein as his best-selling Beautiful Idiots and Brilliant Lunatics, Rob Baker's High Buildings, Low Morals is a captivating and enticing insight into the strange and fabulous characters who inhabited an intoxicating, glamorous and sometimes dangerous London now lost forever. Coward himself appears now and then amongst the tales of West End showgirls, gangsters, dubious politicians, Soho porn-barons and beautiful Mayfair actresses and debutantes addicted to excess. Baker unearths the connection between the sexually voracious Duchess of Argyll, her headless polaroids and Mussolini; the sad death of Billie Carleton amongst the opium orgies and cocaine parties during the aftermath of the First World War; the hidden truth of the charming bisexual Lord Boothby and his friend Ronnie Kray; the scandal of the electrifying Tallulah Bankhead and the Eton schoolboys; the hilarious OZ trial, John Lennon and the downfall of the 'Dirty Squad'; the link between U-boat 35, James Bond and the IRA Balcombe Street Gang; Soho, Italian fascists and the rise and fall of Jessie Matthews; and Graham Greene's wartime search for food and love amongst shattered shards of glass during one extraordinary night of the Blitz.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Author’s Note
• 1 - The Headless Polaroids, Mrs Sweeny, Mussolini and P. G. Wodehouse
• 2 - Scott’s Restaurant, the Balcombe Street Gang and the Second Blitz of London
• 3 - The Trial of Schoolkids OZ, the Downfall of the ‘Dirty Squad’
• 4 - Captain Sears, the Nazi Wreath at the Cenotaph and the Hitler Paint-throwing Incident at Madame Tussaud’s
• 5 - The Charming Lord Boothby, His Friend Ronnie Kray and the Humble Woolton Pie
• 6 - The Prince of Wales Theatre and the De-Mob Suit – Starring Sid Field and Featuring Dickie Henderson, Kay Kendall, Terry-Thomas and the Ross Sisters
• 7 - A Hungry Graham Greene on the Night of ‘The Wednesday’, and the Death of Al Bowlly
• 8 - When Tallulah Bankhead Met Gerald du Maurier, and the Eton Schoolboys Scandal
• 9 - The House of ‘Cyn’, Jimmy Graves and the Rise and Fall of the Luncheon Voucher
• 10 - Cocaine, the ‘Yellow Peril’ and the Death of Billie Carleton
• 11 - Judy Garland, Johnnie Ray and the Talk of the Town at the Hippodrome
• 12 - An Absolute Sirocco, Old Boy! Quo Vadis, Evelyn Laye, and the Story of Soho Girl Jessie Matthews
• Selected Bibliography
• Notes