John Boulter obit

John Boulter, singer with the Black and White Minstrels

 

He was not on the list.

John Boulter, who has died aged 94, was a tenor best known for his role in the BBC's long-running, award-winning blackface series The Black and White Minstrel Show; with its mixture of songbook standards and show tunes it routinely attracted audiences of more than 15 million, while the stage version, presented twice nightly between 1962 and 1972 at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London, ran for 6,477 performances and entered the Guinness Book of Records.

John Michael Boulter was born in Gillingham, Kent, on August 3 1931, the only son of an electrical fitter in the Chatham Dockyards, Leonard Boulter, and his wife Eileen, a seamstress. He began his musical career as a treble chorister at his local church, St Augustine's, and went on to become head boy of Chatham Dockyard Choir.

In deference to his parents' anxieties about the uncertainties of a musical career, after Gillingham Boys' Grammar School he spent three years as an apprentice in the RAF before buying himself out. A grant from Kent's education committee then allowed him to spend four years at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won a clutch of medals for his singing.

Blessed with a strong yet supple lyrical tenor voice, matinee-idol looks and a strong stage presence, Boulter made his professional debut in 1953 in Dennis Arundell's belated premiere of Frederick Delius's little-known opera, Irmelin, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham at the New Theatre, Oxford.

His seemingly effortless delivery, unerring accuracy, warm tone and sensitive interpretations quickly endeared him to audiences, and his humour, generous spirit and impeccable timing won him the high regard of his colleagues.

Boulter joined the George Mitchell Singers in 1957; Mitchell was working with the BBC producer George Inns on the The Black and White Minstrel Show, and following a successful dry run on stage in Scarborough, the show was launched on BBC Television the following year.

Twelve male singers were matched with 12 female dancers, the Television Toppers; the Minstrels were fronted by three soloists – Boulter, the Al Jolson impersonator Dai Francis and the bass baritone Tony Mercer, who was later replaced by Andy Cole.

Alongside the trombonist and singer George Chisholm, the hosts included Leslie Crowther and the comedians Stan Stennett and Don Maclean – and later, when the show attempted to respond to claims that it was racist, Lenny Henry.

The Black and White Minstrel Show won the Golden Rose of Montreux award in 1961, and the following year Boulter and Co appeared at the London Palladium in the Royal Variety Performance. There were sell-out summer seasons in Blackpool and popular world tours. Between 1961 and 1963 three of their albums went to No 1 in the UK. Boulter also released five well-received solo albums.

But opposition to the Minstrels began to grow, and in 1967 the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination demanded that the BBC drop the show.

The following year they were back at the Royal Variety Performance. Top of the bill were Diana Ross and the Supremes, and at the dress rehearsal a few of the Minstrels, still in blackface, stood in the wings watching the Motown stars. "When Diana Ross saw us she refused to carry on until we'd cleared the auditorium," fellow minstrel Les Want recalled. "As we left she gave the Black Power salute. Then it all came home."

Throughout the following decade the show became increasingly divisive, and it was axed in 1978. A series featuring the Minstrels without their make-up failed to pull in the viewers.

Boulter went on to establish himself in the theatre in shows such as The Sound of Music, and became a pantomime regular. He later settled in New Zealand. He is survived by his second wife, the actress and singer Anna Dawson, and by two daughters and two sons from his first marriage, to the opera singer Lorna St Clair.