大象传媒

鈥淔ive members of our concert party went to London to the Drury Lane Theatre for an audition to join ENSA in 1943. At that time Basil Dean, very well known, was the Head of ENSA. We did our audition and passed. We went to wardrobe for dresses, etc. Then it was off to tour England and entertain the troops. When the manager of the show collected me, my mother said, 鈥榊ou will take care of my daughter won鈥檛 you?鈥� He jolly well did too! I wanted to go to a dance held at an American Air Base. He said, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e not going鈥�, 鈥榳hy not?鈥� said this 17 year old. 鈥楤ecause I promised your mother I would look after you.鈥� That was that!

There were several classes of ENSA shows, from the large shows to the very small shows. It was compulsory for West End Stars to entertain the troops during a six week tour a year. Then there were the B shows which were the lesser known stars. There were also ballet companies. I was in a D show. There were five of us, the Pianist, a Comedian, Conjuror, Soprano and myself, a dancer, we were known as the 鈥榁ariety Follies.鈥�

We played Gun sites and Balloon sites, all over the country. Sometimes the camps were so remote we had to arrange to meet an army motor cycle rider and he would then guide us to the camp and bring us out again. Occasionally we would go to Munitions factories to entertain. We stayed either in private digs or ENSA hostels. It was at one of these hostels that I met Kay Kendall, she married Rex Harrison the film actor. She was then 17 and I was 17. She was a dancing act with her sister Kim and was doing a six weeks tour, straight from the West End. In those days we all shared the large bathroom so there was a lot of 鈥榞irlie chat鈥�.

VE Day
According to the news it was all happening in Trafalgar Square! I was at a little place called Littlestone in Kent, absolutely nothing there. We were supposed to be doing a show there that night but of course being the end of the war it was cancelled and we all ended up at the pub. We ended up singing and dancing!

I was with ENSA for two years. When the war ended - we decided to stay together as a show with a few added artistes. We started doing sea-side shows for the summer season. We were very lucky. We had passes to go to any picture houses when we weren鈥檛 working in the afternoon. We had free access to tennis courts and we could go ballroom dancing when we were doing a summer season free. There were plenty of dancing partners usually men serving in the Army and the Navy. Then we did a tour of all the theatres up North for the winter, with an all ladies band and a set of chorus girls. It was a wonderful life, it wasn鈥檛 lucrative that鈥檚 for sure. When we left ENSA we had to find our own digs. There were plenty of theatrical digs. If you couldn鈥檛 get fixed up at one place, they would send you somewhere else. Sometimes you self catered, others it was full board. It was a wonderful life, constantly on the move. We often didn鈥檛 get paid if business was bad. The manager always paid our dig money. Not getting paid didn鈥檛 really bother me. I was just happy doing what 鈥業 Loved!鈥�

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