It has been said recently about Bernard Jay that he has led a very colourful life. On reflection, Bernard would agree with the observation.
Since the age of sixteen, English-born Bernard has steered the course of his career within the many business aspects of showbusiness.
As a young theatre associate producer – based in London during the glamorous decades of the ‘swinging sixties’ and ‘sexy seventies’ – Bernard enjoyed working closely with such stars as Richard Gere and Elaine Paige (Grease), Douglas Fairbanks Jr (The Pleasure of His Company), Rock Hudson and Juliet Prowse (I Do! I Do!), Glenda Jackson (Hedda Gabler), Lee Remick (Bus Stop), Sir Michael Redgrave (The Hollow Crown and Shakespeare’s People) and Roy Dotrice (Brief Lives).
In 1978, Bernard was credited by the UK media as being single-handedly responsible for reviving the art of cabaret in London through his presenting American cabaret stars at the trendy Country Cousin Supper Club in London’s Chelsea. These performers included Wayland Flowers and Madame, Charles Pierce, Holly Woodlawn, Dolores Gray, Peter Allen, Lorna Luft and Barbara Cook.
Towards the end of the ‘70s, the lure of relocating to the United States seduced Bernard to first living in Los Angeles, then San Francisco and finally, from 1979 to 1989, in Manhattan, New York. It was at this time that he first met the US cult movie celebrity Divine, leading to Bernard producing Tom Eyen’s outrageous comedy The Neon Woman as a star vehicle for the larger-than-life Divine in San Francisco, Provincetown and Toronto.
Bernard signed a contract to become Divine’s personal manager in 1979, and this close association continued until the actor’s sudden death from sleep apnoea in 1988. During their eleven-year business association, Bernard oversaw Divine’s filming of the movies Polyester, Lust in The Dust and Hairspray and the star’s rise as a major disco music recording artist and performer throughout the world. Bernard Jay’s personalised memoir of Divine, entitled Not Simply Divine!, was published by Virgin Books in the UK in 1993 and subsequently by Simon & Schuster in the USA. Bernard is amazed to see that Not Simply Divine! is still available for purchase through Amazon.com to this day.
Bernard relocated to South Africa in 1993 and from 2000 until 2014 held the position of Chief Executive Officer and Executive Producer at Johannesburg’s Civic Theatre, later to become known as Joburg Theatre. He now looks back fondly to his original productions of such musicals as The Boys in the Photograph, Starlight Express, Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be, Monty Python’s Spamalot, Sister Act and The Color Purple that he produced during his tenure at the theatre.
