Grange Over Sands Grand and the Stuntman

One intriguing article in the Lancaster Guardian of 3rd August 1956 reports on a stillroom man working at the Grand Hotel called William Simmonds. William is interesting because the article goes on to tell us about his career as a stunt man. This seemed to be someone worth looking into.

William Simmonds was born on 9thMay 1900 in Lancashire. He joined a travelling circus when he left school (in those days at about 14 years of age). It was in the circus that he learned the skills of an acrobat and the nerves of steel that would serve him later on when he became a stunt man. The Lancaster Guardian article explains that although he is 55, William is keen to get back to his stuntman work and believes he could perform well. In the past he worked in theatres as well on film and was known to be able to go into a trance. He also worked at the Manchester Theatre Royal, before it became a cinema in 1921, where he performed the stunts for “The Easter Parade”. His biggest break was possibly working on the film “Splinters in the Navy” which was shot in Twickenham , London in 1931 and was a comedy in the trio of films, which also included “Splinters” (1929) and “ Splinters in the Air” (1937). He reminisces about some of his stunts, particularly swinging from the cinema roof and being locked in a cage with a gorilla. In real life he heroically saved a hot air balloon, which had broken free of its moorings, injuring his arm in the process. Unfortunately, being a stuntman means that he doesn’t have his name on film credits and so without being able to ask him, we can’t find out what else he was in. This was the very early days of stunt work. The very first film in which a stuntman performed is debatable, but was probably around 1903. William would likely be called on to perform gymnastic work, but stuntmen could also be asked to step in to do the dangerous scenes for more valuable actors. It was only 20 years later in the 1923 film “Safety Last” starring Harold Lloyd, that stunts were thought through and planned before being performed. Here a series of safety features were employed to minimize the harm actors would come to if their stunt went wrong.