Leslie Hutchinson -
singer
He was a coloured singer who came to
Wolverhampton and Dudley a number of times. He was a brilliant
pianist, one of his number ones was “When you begin the begine”.
He always wore a proper dress suit and had a red carnation. He
would carry a silk handkerchief and in-between songs would mop
his brow as part of the act. He was a stiff guy, known as
“Hutch”. |
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The Ink Spots -
singing group
They came
in the 40s, very popular they were. I saw them at Dudley but
they would have been at Wolverhampton as well. There were four
of them and they sang “Bless You For Being An Angel”. Quite a
lot of other coloured singers copied them, but they were the
originals.
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Nat Jackly - comedian
He was a north countryman, very
comical but mainly with your eyesight. He had a big snooker
table on and he came on and had a very long neck, they called
him ‘rubber neck’. He had a silly little hat and was trying to
show you how to play snooker. The last part always brought the
house down. He had a red ball and the cue, and the cue went all
the way through the table. He was very good to watch.
Jimmy James -
comedian
One of the best that I saw was a drunken comedy.
There was Jimmy James and a tall “gorky” guy called Eli, who
always wore a grey mack and a cap. One famous comedian who
played Eli when he was 16 was Roy Castle, that’s how he started.
Eli was the straight man, the stooge and Jimmy James would make
fun of him. Jimmy always came on the stage pretending to be
drunk with a broken cigarette hanging from between his lips. His
signature tune was “Moonlight and Roses”. |
Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warriss
- comedy act
I saw them, they were very popular. |
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Alan Jones
- singer
He was a singer whose famous song was “Donkey
Serenade”. He was in a film with Paul Robeson called “Showboat”
and was the tenor in the film.
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Return to the
list of stars |
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