大象传媒

My parents were American and came to England where my father ran his own show business act. I was born in Weston Super Mare in 1906 and went on the stage at 17 in the family business. I spent 5 years in various shows with my parents. We played all the big towns but my first debut was in Broadstairs followed by Brighton where my brother was born. My parents were very popular during the First World War, they performed sketches that my father had written. They met many famous people including Heads of State and Royalty. During our tours we went to Ireland but, alas, we only had the clothes in which we travelled including my Russian boots as it was winter-time. Unfortunately the play we were putting on took place in summer, but the audience loved it - boots and all. We mostly acted in seaside towns because we could go on the beach but if we were perfroming in big cities like Birmingham or Manchester my parents always took us out into the countryside with a picnic.

Money became scarce and sold my parents sold their cottage and we went to live with a couple who owned a sweet shop in London. I never had an education, except in the theatre. I used to go to the Palladium and see all the old stars.

We moved to Cambridge and stayed with friends who had worked with us in the theatre, they had a dry cleaners. We eventually bought an old rickety place which we turned into a tea room and called the Blue Barn. We cooked all our own food. My sister married a farmer but the marriage didn't last, she was really a city girl. She came back to us and we stayed in Cambridge all through the war.

We then moved to Norwich and took over the top half of a restaurant, the downstairs served Chinese food. Sadly this was hit by a bomb and destroyed but we were all ok. Our home was near the Bishop's Palace and close to the river. We had plenty of rats running around which tried to get into the house but we stopped them with wire netting.

We then had a little tea room in Norfolk but during this time my father became ill. He wanted to see us settled but although we loved the Norfolk Broads, we realised we couldn't get on there so we moved to Broadstairs and bought a small place. Sadly my mother died shortly afterwards. It was strange how I began my acting career in Broadstairs and finally returned

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