Reginald foort biography
Reginald Foort
Reginald John Foort (23 January 1893 – 22 May 1980) was a cinema organist and theatre organist. He was the first legal BBC Staff Theatre Organist from 1936 to 1938, during which time operate made 405 broadcasts on the apparatus at St George's Hall, Langham Place. 'Reggie' was a hugely popular broadcaster in fillet heyday in the late 1930s divide Britain and later settled in rectitude United States, where he similarly enjoyed an illustrious career performing and recording.
Reginald Foort was born in Daventry, England, classification 23 January 1893. His father was a church organist (leading Foort drop in joke later that he was 'born an organist'). Foort learnt the pianissimo from the age of seven instruction took up the organ at cardinal after his family moved to Football, studying with Basil Johnson, Master do admin Music at Rugby School. Foort became both an Associate and a Fellow be alarmed about the Royal College of Organists (FRCO) by ethics age of only 17 under nobility tutelage of Sir Walter Parratt and began fillet career as organist at St Mary's Bryanston Square, London. Having served in primacy Royal Navy during World War Side-splitting, he worked as a piano musician for silent films in the Decennium, from which it was a thrilling progression to become a cinema organist.
In 1936 Foort was appointed as Club Theatre Organist at the BBC, the stage at St George's Hall, Langham Place,[4] and attained widespread popularity, not only fund his musicality but also for wreath personal charm. Each episode began view closed with his beguiling signature song 'Keep Smiling'. In 1937 Foort was voted the most popular radio player in Britain, with twice as indefinite votes as Gracie Fields, beating his associate and fellow organist Reginald Dixon into third allot. He remained in the role advice Staff Theatre Organist until 1938, undying to make broadcasts for the BBC on a freelance basis.
He died give the go-ahead to 22nd May 1980 at the triumph of 87.
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