.. with Two Pounds and Ten Shillings in my purse that Mum and Dad scrapped together. No leads, no contacts; no benefactors. Zilch……. Leaving Stoke-on-Trent railway station in April 1955 was the biggest challenge in my life: exciting and frightening, all at the same time. What a challenge for a 15 year old? But I felt I just had to move on and chase my dream. I was hungry: starved for success, and felt myself moving at 100 miles an hour; it was that urgent! I believed then, as I do now that yes, you have to be hungry and talented and, with luck, you might then just succeed.
missing meals and sometimes sleeping in the Ladies Waiting room over-night at Liverpool Street station in London to save money for stage gowns. Mum once hand-stitched me a stage gown from old wartime parachute silk! Which used on stage in the Persian Gulf…. memories! The X-Factor Shows bring so many people to audition who believe they ‘have it’. Friends and family tell them they’re great, and they really believe it! Unfortunately, the chosen few who make the final have left thousands of hopefuls behind them. And that’s just the start……….. the rest is up to Lady Luck and a lot of hard work. I was lucky: the face fit in most places and my budding career took this 16 year old all over the world in a short space of time, singing for the British Forces and US Servicemen, but not travelling like Dame Vera Lynn, I can assure you! (Although I can do a fair impersonation of Dame Vera!)
nothing glamorous in trolling around 1950’s Spain in a cramped VW bus or flying around the world in a troop aircraft: freezing cold or searing heat for hours, then having to make myself glamorous for the Show – big head scarf hiding a head of rollers for the transformation!! And no running water in the middle of the Persian Gulf…… that paint’s its own picture. And all girls know that talcum powder and a spray of perfume work miracles! Even back- stage in UK theatres is far less than glamorous: believe me! You do ask yourself, at times, ‘Do I really want to do this?’ (What! And leave Show Business??) So, of course, you take it as it comes: the good and the bad.
Where a woman is never normally invited? Sat in place of honour, I was served a delicacy: a sheep’s eye, staring me straight in the face!! Impossible to offend our host so…so…. so I plucked up courage, popped it in my mouth and swallowed it, (duck egg size); in one. Did my eye’s water!! For quite a while after that the other performers continually referred to ‘the eye looking out of my backside!’ Nice, Eh!? And no-one else was offered that delicacy! Just me!
And: who had to go first with the inoculation treatment before we all set off for the Gulf tour? Me!! 5 injections in one sitting! Some of the male performers fainted. My smallpox inoculation did go wrong. I developed septicaemia and was in hospital for three weeks, tended by the great Dr Roger Bannister, on National Service – the 6ft 4” giant who broke the 4-minute mile? Not there, he didn’t; not in that heat! I think the Home Office thought I might die, because they sent someone around to speak with my parents in the UK! So: thank you, Roger!
Noel ‘held forth’ famously, as only Noel could, commanding the attention of the whole room and quite obviously the centre of attention…...Again, I was the only female present and was ‘summoned forth accordingly’, to speak with the great man! Noel Coward was more Royal than any Royal I ever met and graciously listened as 17 year old me told him that I included some of his work in my performances; and in his style! ‘What a delight you are’, said he.’ What a naive sweet thing! And knowing my work at your age!’ I was duly invited to afternoon tea with the Great Man. Everything anyone ever said of Noel Coward’s outrageous dry wit is absolutely true; and more! What a privilege for me and a very memorable afternoon……….
I was on the road, working hard and meeting people, for a long, long time in many countries.