Windmill Theatre - Postwar Years

Postwar Years

When Henderson died on 29 November 1944, aged 82, she left the Windmill to Van Damm. During his tenure, the Windmill was home to many famous variety artists including Freddie Eldrett; numerous famous comedians and actors had their first real success there, including Jimmy Edwards, Tony Hancock, Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers, Michael Bentine, George Martin, Bruce Forsyth, Tommy Cooper and Barry Cryer. Cryer was 'a bottom of the bill' comic at the Windmill, while Forsyth performed as a juvenile performer—a superior post. A number of the most celebrated photographic pin-up models of the 1950s and early 1960s also did a stint as "Windmill Girls", including Lyn Shaw, June Wilkinson and Lorraine Burnett.

Van Damm ran the theatre until his death on 14 December 1960, aged 71. He left the theatre to his daughter, rally driver Sheila van Damm. She struggled to keep it going, but by this time, London's Soho neighbourhood had become a seedier place. The Soho neighbourhood of the 1930s and 1940s had been a respectable place filled with shops and family restaurants. The Windmill officially closed on 31 October 1964, as it was unable to compete with the private members' strip clubs. The Revudeville shows ran from 1932 to 1964.

The theatre then changed hands and became the Windmill Cinema with a casino incorporated in the building. On 2 November 1964 the Windmill Cinema opened with the film Nude Las Vegas. The cinema was owned by Tigon Pictures and then became part of the Classic Cinema chain in May 1966 before reverting back to Tigon Pictures ownership. On 9 June 1974 the Windmill Cinema closed. The cinema's lease was bought in February 1974 by nightclub and erotica entrepreneur Paul Raymond. Raymond made it a home for nude shows "à la Revuedeville but without the comic element". The first production at the now renamed Windmill Theatre was a play called Let's Get Laid which opened on 2 September 1974. This play starred Fiona Richmond and John Inman. A nude dance show called "Rip-Off" was the next production at the theatre. This show commenced on 10 May 1976. Paul Raymond re-introduced burlesque when he renamed the Windmill La Vie en Rose Show Bar and opened the venue as a supper club with a laser disco on 16 November 1982. The venue became Paramount City in May 1986, a cabaret club which was managed for a short duration by Debbie Raymond, the daughter of Paul Raymond. A period as a television studio followed—the Sky television programme Jameson Tonight was produced in the studio. In 1994 the former theatre part of the building was leased to Oscar Owide as a Wild West venue which became after a short time an erotic table-dancing club called The Windmill International Table Dance Club. Until 2009 the Paul Raymond Organisation occupied the Piccadilly Buildings section of the building as their offices.