The Windmill Under the Bombs — Soho, September 1940
Vivian Van Damm ran the Windmill Theatre, a small house in Soho in the heart of London. From the mid-1930s he had built it around Revudeville, a continuous variety show running from 2:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., punctuated by motionless nude tableaux — the dancers having to stay frozen to get around the Lord Chamberlain's censorship.
The format — cheap and played without a break, afternoon and evening — had made the small house popular with Londoners and servicemen on leave. The war had already caught up with the theatres once: in September 1939 every London venue had been forced to close for thirteen days by order of the authorities.
On 7 September 1940 the Luftwaffe launched the Blitz on London, beginning weeks of nightly bombing. Cinemas and theatres closed or cut their schedules, the blackout emptied the streets, and staying open after dark became a deadly risk for audience and cast alike.
Van Damm had to decide: keep performing through the raids, with the company living in the theatre's basement floors; close for safety like most venues; or limit himself to matinees and suspend shows on the worst nights.
Should Vivian Van Damm keep the Windmill open through the Blitz, close it for safety, or fall back on matinees only?
Van Damm kept the Windmill open. Throughout the Blitz, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, the company — dancers, performers and crew — moved into the theatre's two underground floors, sleeping there on raid nights to put on its six daily shows without a break. The Windmill became the only West End theatre never to stop performing, and its motto "We Never Closed" (soon twisted into "We Never Clothed") a symbol of British stubbornness and morale. The Windmill Girls would sometimes travel out to RAF airfields to perform, fronted by comedians such as Tommy Trinder. The legend was sustained by Van Damm's flair for publicity; owner Laura Henderson left him the theatre on her death in 1944, and it later inspired the film Mrs Henderson Presents (2005).
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