A West End star goes to the dogs

Catford dogs Stadium built in 1932 on Southern Railway land between two commuter lines in 1932 and opened at the end of July. The newspaper article describes the return to Katherine Ford – now a major West End star- to Catford to inaugurate a race in honor of her friend. The stadium closed in 2003.

The story from the paper though runs...

West End glamour returned to Catford this week as a local girl made good, the star of stage and screen, Katherine Ford returned to her old haunts. Kat had arrived to launch a new race in honor of her old friend Raven Bourne who sadly died in a car crash earlier this year. Some people say that Catford has gone to the dogs since the glamourous pair left but the dogs on display were anything but the second rate.

Katherine, escorted by her doctor husband, wore the very latest of west End fashion but was certainly matched by the glamourous young ladies present from South London.

For no good reason here is a song about another closed dog racing track in West London.

There are some nice articles on the history from local blogspot Running Past and a history project and the stadium redevelopment

Raven in Hollywood and Catwomen

One of the strangest stories to emerge from the Raven's time in Hollywood is the time she met a young and impressionable Bob Kane.
The story goes that the two bonded over a fondness for old horror stories and folk tales. He had seen Raven in Varney the Vampire and Raven told him about Spring Heeled Jack, how in the early stories Jack was the bad guy emerging from the shadows but later on he became the hero of the ordinary people. How he stood up against criminals and corruption and oppressors, how he stepped up out of the dark for the poor.
Kane thought this was a great idea how a creature of the night becomes a creature for good. The conversation continues with Kane suggesting that he'd need a side kick or foil or love interest and (according to Unlikely stories on how films get made by Published Redwood Press 1973) Raven says.

"I've got just the thing for you there. From my old neighbourhood in London, Cat Ford. In fact, if she was a bit younger I'd even suggest my old friend Katherine Ford for the role."

"Cat woman from the Cat Ford. I like it!"

And so a comic character and film franchise was born.

Varney the Vampyre

According to the story in Varney the Vampyre was the breakthrough film for both Kat and Raven,

Raven Bjorn played the wicked sidekick of the film’s leading man, Varney the Vampire, and Katherine Ford was the plucky heroine. The film gained them a particular following among the young women of London, the notorious “gut girls” of Deptford, who by day slaughtered animals at Convoy Wharf, but at night adopted the style and sophisticated manners of the woman they referred to as The Raven.

All copies of the film were lost after the prints were destroyed when the Walthamstow Studios were bombed in the 1940s. Like the better-known London After Midnight Varney is one of the great missing films of the silent era. Unlike the others there are no surviving frames.

Varney the Vampyre is an early Vampire tale that first appeared in the Penny Dreadfuls of the 19th century and eventually as a book in 1847. Many of today's standard vampire tropes originated in Varney from his fangs, hypnotic powers and strength though as noted in Hellman, Roxanne (2011). Vampire Legends and Myths. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 217. "Unlike later fictional vampires, he is able to go about in daylight and has no particular fear of either crosses or garlic. He can eat and drink in human fashion as a form of disguise, but he points out that human food and drink do not agree with him."

As such one can only speculate the impact such a film might have had on the shaping of the vampire trope had it survived.

Raven and the Gut Girls

Raven as well as Kat (Katherine Ford) had a following as well. The Gut Girls travelled up west to see Kat and many brought their children to the health clinic in Bermondsey run by Kat’s husband. They were, generally, more comfortable with Kat who they felt as one of their own, albeit one who had made it but Raven was seen almost as a goddess. Certainly there are no recorded incidents of violence* or the obsessional behaviour that sometimes dogged Raven. In the most famous incident a number of them cut their hair off after Raven had for a particular role at Deptford Albany and at the end of the play threw their shorn locks onstage in tribute.

California Grave for the Raven

All the leaves are brown. I’m indebted to a friend of a friend for tracking down “Raven’s” Grave. I’m using inverted commas because it’s not 100% certain that Raven is actually in there.

It’s a remarkably plain grave in a row though the foaf said that there were fresh flowers on the grave the day he went. Of course, it may have been for an adjacent one as, close to 80 years after her death, it’s unlikely anyone who knew her is still about.

The paper coverage at the time was quite extensive and certainly, in the headlines, she was upgraded to “STAR” from “STARLET”.

Star murdered by Reds? Certainly made for a good headline though it had repercussions back in London.

Apparently, there are theories for the anonymity of the grave. The first is her relative poverty and the second a fear amongst some of her West Coast friends not to be drawn into any kind of a vendetta. It’s sad that not even her birthday is recorded as even if the one she gave the first of January 1898 is likely false on both year and date grounds. January 1st is almost a classic birthday trope for refugees.