Baby Jumbo : Playout Music from The Clitheroe Kid
Baby Jumbo is a piece of library music recorded in 1958 by the Crawford Light Orchestra. The BBC used the piece as the playout music which followed each broadcast of the radio comedy The Clitheroe Kid , starring comedian Jimmy Clitheroe, on the old BBC Light Programme. In the 1950s and 1960s, if a half-hour radio show ran slightly short (say, only lasted 28 or 29 minutes) the BBC would fill the remaining airtime, until the time-check on the half hour, with what was known as 'playout' music. This piece really has no association with comedian Jimmy Clitheroe. Its title, Baby Jumbo , derives from the fact that it was originally part of a suite of Circus themed music. The Controller of the BBC Light Programme might have chosen it for The Clitheroe Kid because it was associated with another famous comedy act, Laurel and Hardy . It features on one of their short subject films, The Finishing Touch (1928), scenes from which are included in the 1965 compilation movie Laurel and Hardy's Laughing Twenties produced by Robert Youngson.
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.